Although Chuck Maddox wrote that the only true Mark V is a Speedmaster Mark V with caliber 1045 movement, I hereby add the German Special from 1982 with caliber 861 movement to ‘Mark V’ as well.

Yesterday (and today) a fellow from a large ICT company configured a server for one of the companies I work for, I noticed at lunch that he was wearing a Speedmaster ‘Mark V’. It slipped my mind that it probably would seem a bit ’sick’ to start about his watch, but on the other hand, this watch probably cost him quite some money, and since it is quite scarce, I decided to go ahead.

He bought this watch in 1982 (which is the only year Omega produced it, for the German market. Productionnumber unknown) and he still has the booklets and bills of the watch. He lost the box somewhere in time.

The watch looks great for its age, and it should, it is getting serviced every 3 years and had a major overhaul 2 years ago. He told me he wants an automatic version, because he forgets winding it quite often.

I told him when he considers selling it, he should contact me again. However, I really meant it when I told him he should keep it because it is quite special. At least I would regret selling such a watch I think. Especially when I bought it new that long ago.

Anyway… I see quite some Speedmasters in the flesh here in my town and in The Hague, but never these kind of ’specials’. Below you see a picture of the exact same watch, photo taken by Chuck Maddox.

Related links:
http://home.xnet.com/~cmaddox/teutonics.html
http://speedmaster.omega-addict.com/forum/

Only 2 days left before the new year! Horologicalwise, not a very stunning year to be honest. Nothing much new from Basel 2004, so let us hope Basel 2005 brings us more joy!

Personally, I shifted not much in my collection. My collection is getting quite stable. Except for one missing model, I don’t see what else I should add to it at this moment. If I can get my current collection ‘complete’ for my idea, the next steps will be saving up for really high-end stuff, but that also requires me to earn a bit more cash

Anyway, for now, I only ‘need’ to add this one watch. A moonphase watch, and what else than a Speedmaster Professional with Moonphase complication.

If I only made some extra cash with a website like this

What are your horoligical wishes for 2005? Care to share? Click Comments right below.

For now, I hope you enjoy new years eve and I hope to welcome you with new watchposts in 2005!!

In the statistics of this website, I can see how people came to this weblog. I can even see the words they used in Yahoo Search, Google or other searchengines. Most of the time, the search string is quite clear and logical. ‘Rolex prices’ or ‘Panerai straps’ for example. However, today I saw this one:

“rolex explorer opinion girl”

Now I am curious about the ‘question’ of the Googler. Was it a girl who was looking for Rolex Explorer opinions (for girls), or was it a guy who was curious about the opinions girls have on this watch?

In either case, I will try to answer this one for the unknown visitor on this site who searched on this string.

Scenario 1. You are a girl and want to know how people think about this Rolex Explorer on your wrist. Well, first, you shouldn’t care what other people’s opinions are about your watch. Your watch represents you, and only you. And personally, I think a stainless steel Rolex looks great on a girl/lady. It is 36mm, so it will fit about any girl (also the ones with slim wrists) and it is solid, accurate and when you scratch or dent it. Just send it to Rolex and they will service it until it looks like new again.

Scenario 2. Girls don’t care about your watch. At least, most girls don’t. And if you do buy this watch to impress girls, you better buy a larger watch I guess otherwise they won’t notice it anyway.

P.s. Before I get more e-mails asking me to back things up (especially on the Adee Kayee and Louise Bolle scams :-)), take this post with a grain of salt (or two).

Christmas is over, recovered from the overload of food, and on to the next event. New year 2005!

A dedicated Panerai collector by the name Mario Paci made a calendar for 2005. You have to print it (I know you guys use the color laserprinter at work for these kinds of things anyway, having seen enough DVD and CD inlay’s at the printer at my work :-)) and attach them together (you can use the ‘ring’-system and ofcourse just two little pieces of rope at the upperleft and upperright side of the paper).

You can find the calendar here

Oh, you do need Acrobat Reader to open the calendar. However, since you are at work anyway, I assume a good network/system-administrator made sure every workstation is supplied with a copy

Before I shutdown my PC and start with celebrating the x-mas weekend, a very nice picture report by Jean-Michel, owner of http://www.speedmaster-mission.net, http://www.navitimer.net and Lemania5100.net is definately worth checking out. Jean-Michel is a Speedmaster and Navitimer enthusiast and it shows!! Go to the http://www.speedmaster-mission.net site and click ‘Museum’!

The first Speedmaster model, dating 1957.

Timezone visitor ‘whichwatch’ surely does his name justice, because he is showing off is marvelous collection!

See for yourself

I would definately have a hard time choosing a watch to wear everyday…

If you really want something special on your wrist, you should surf to the BRM website.

BRM (not to confuse with the famous cartuning company) has the most modern machinery to produce their watches. This means a low productionnumber, but almost everything is made inhouse. Even inhouse movements are planned. They now use ETA movements, but mainly because BRM used to produce small parts for ETA. BRM, for example, makes their own ’screws’.

Another great example of originality is their fabrication of the watchcase itself. It isn’t made out of one piece of stainless steel, but built up from multiple parts and layers so there are no ‘forces’ that need to be used to get a case in the right shape (remember the one piece of steel commercial/advert by Rolex?).

Pricewise, starting around 1400 Euro, this is very interesting for beginner collectors and ofcourse for advanced collectors who can appreciate the used productiontechniques.

I hope I got everything straight, since their website is in French. Dutch watchmagazine 00/24 has an interesting article in it about this brand, so for the Dutch: Go out and get it!

Guess what Rolex did… The last price list from Rolex dates back allready to 2001. Three years without a price increase (in Europe at least).

So now I heard that I could pick up the new 2005 price list, I was of course somewhat reluctant. How much are they gonna increase over 4 years time…

Rolex didn’t. They even lowered most of the prices from their regular models like Airking, Date, DateJust and even some sports models with a few to tens of Euro’s.

Am I dreaming? What is happening?

Gerard

Kobold watches, a result of some sort of former collaboration between Helmut Sinn and Mike Kobold. It seems that these watches are getting more and more populair. They even support an official forum hosted at WatchUseek.com

Even James Gandolfini (Tony from the Sopranos TV-series) wears one according to their advert. Can’t imagine a maffia-boss actor without a 18kt gold Day-Date from Rolex, but alas

A while ago, I mentioned that The (Dutch) Speedmaster Club is being revived. The first step is here.. a dedicated forum for Omega Speedmaster watches.

I installed a PHPBB forum system on my omega-addict.com site and since today it is up and running. For other non-Speedmaster watches, I suggest you (still) go to WatchUseek’s Omega Forum ofcourse.

Click the banner below or click here to go to the Speedmaster Forum! It is a bit sparse ofcourse, but it’s new

To prevent confusion, you don’t have to be Dutch to join!!

Except for Rob L, which watch will you be wearing on christmas?

Bruce Redding asked the same question in the Public Forum at Timezone, you can find it here.

A nice coincidende (or not, I am a watchoholic ofcourse), because I started thinking about this since yesterday evening and this morning it started again….

I have three families to visit, my girlfriend’s parents, my mother and her husband and my father and his girlfriend. The good thing about this, is that it makes me able to wear three different watches in one weekend.

When visitting my mother and her husband, I probably will wear my Chronoswiss Régulateur Automatique watch (click the names to see a picture of it). It is great for a bit more ‘formal’ occasions, and suits me well under a sleeve. When visitting my father and his girlfriend, I will probably put on my Panerai Luminor Marina on my new python strap. And last but not least, when visitting my girlfriend’s parents, I will probably wear my vintage Speedmaster Professional on a nice leather strap.

However, this can still change till saturday ofcourse. On christmas eve I have a nice diner for 2 with my girlfriend, and probably will wear my Rolex Sea-Dweller because she likes it so much. And I do too ofcourse.

Anyway, I decided I need more money, so I can buy a nice rosé gold watch which is the most suitable casematerial for christmas, don’t you think? I can also opt for a vintage IWC Caliber 89 (I once had one, very nice) in rosé gold. I sold it because I never wore it, it was a stainless steel version. I could find some use (at least once a year) for a rosé gold version. I should be able to get one for around 1000 Euro.

How about you?

Another one submitted by Jean-Marie this evening, he sent me an URL of Montres Passion, Mechanical Magic in 3 Dimensions. This is a great website for everyone who wants to learn a bit more about mechanical watches!

Things like waterresistancy, rotors of automatic watches, tourbillons, minute-repeaters, escapement, chronograph functionality, alarm clocks and more are explained through animations on their website. Animations were offered by Patek Philippe, Panerai, G-P, Eterna, Harry Winston, AP, FP Journe, Vulcain and Breguet.

Click here to go to the website

Jean-Marie just sent me this link, it is all about the Speedmaster ‘Racing’! A great source of information, if you can read French. You could try an online translator to get it in your own language.

Click here for the Speedmaster article

Yesterday I was at Gerard’s watchshop in The Hague and he was showing me the new watches he had for sale. One of them was presented in a large cigar-shaped box, including a large cigar band.

Inside the box sat a Franck Muller Havana chronograph, with an impressive size and weight. I don’t think I handled a Franck Muller before, so this was new to me. Inside ticks a modified Piguet 1185 chronograph movement, used in many other high-end watches. Although I would bring my 25.000 Euro (listprice I think) somewhere else, the watch remains impressive. Let’s say I can imagine the fuzz about Franck Muller watches, but this is really for the rich ones amongst us. The strap and clasp were done very niceley as well.

And maybe the thing I liked best of this watch (call me silly), and about most gold watches in general, was the brushed solid caseback. I love displaybacks on mechanical watches if the movement is worth showing, but if a watch is made out of 18kt gold, nothing beats a solid caseback. It gives the watch this massive look and feel which no stainless steel watch can give you.

Oh well, I left Gerard’s shop with a smile on my face without even having bought a watch. I was wearing my Rolex Sea-Dweller and I wouldn’t trade it for a Franck Muller if they would be equally priced. So I am a happy camper.

So you have 2500 Euro (about 3400 USD) for a watch, and you can have only one…. which one would you choose?

My friend Rob L. asked this on the Public Forum at TimeZone, which didn’t provide him with much new insights. Most people advised him watches he already had (and sold). Among them a Seamaster Professional by Omega, a Panerai 40mm (because Rob thinks the 44mm is not really his style), a Submariner etc.

Anyway, he went for a Rolex Date-Just ref.16234 (which stands for a stainless steel model, jubilé bracelet and white gold lunette) which is an excellent choice I think. A simple and classic watch which suits about every clothingstyle and which is, most of all, rugged and reliable due to the oystercasing and the fantastic caliber 3135 movement.

Personally, I would probably go ’sports’ Rolex, like a Sea-Dweller, Submariner or GMT-Master II. Used ofcourse. A Date-Just is very nice, and I do have one in my current collection, but I got used to larger watches, so 38mm/40mm is some sort of requirement for me. My ‘only watch’ should at least meet these ‘features’:

- at least 38mm in diameter;
- stainless steel;
- date feature;
- mechanical (with a good finish);
- a waterresistancy of ATM10;
- stainless steel bracelet;
- of a brand with history or at least ‘a story’;
- saphire crystal;
- not vintage;

As an alternative to the Rolex models mentioned, I could settle for a Speedmaster BroadArrow if I could be sure that the movement would be functioning correctly (caliber 330x problems here). An IWC Mark XV would be an option, if these are available on stainless steel bracelet for this kind of money which I really doubt. Breitling is no option, not my kind of watch.

What would you buy as ‘only watch’ for 2500 Euro?

A lot of Rolex posts today, and I don’t even wear one today.

Anyway, this one is so nice, couldn’t let this one pass..

Jocke did a slight modification on his Rolex Yachtmaster. He swapped clasps and I really think Rolex should consider doing this on all their sportsmodels using the oyster bracelet.

You can find the pictorial here.

It even shows up at The Watchrap forum over at The Purists.

The question remains the same at every forum though, why buy a Rolex while you can get ‘a more interesting watch’ for the same kind of money.

Gerard Nijenbrinks nailed this one perfectly in my opinion, which is:

“If a watch is more interesting or not, is a very personal question of course. As you see by yourself, it’s difficult not to look through your own eyes when determining if a watch is interesting or not (to you).

To me Rolex watches are interesting because of their (construction of) movement and ruggedness of their watch cases.

I feel a lot of respect for a company which proved to be able to produce so many watches with this constant level of quality.

With these points in view, I can’t find another watch(brand) which has acomplished the same for this kind of money.

Every watch has it own story, and is attractive to someone for it’s own reasons. No one has to convince anybody to choose for a certain watch; you should be aware of your own reasons why to want a certain watch.

Respect…”

However, I am sure the question will pop-up next week again at another forum.

Are you an avid blog reader? You can use a small application to make it easier, called RSS Reader. It gets all new posts from your favorite blogs. However, Chuck Maddox pointed out that you can also decide to update your webbrowser to Mozilla Firefox. This browser has some standard functionality for blogs and RSS feeds. Check Chuck’s article on how this works.

My professional job is system engineer, and I am mainly focussed on the Microsoft Windows 2000/2003 platform. I am very fond about these Microsoft operating systems and one could qualify me as pro-Microsoft.

However, now that I tried Mozilla Firefox as a webbrowser (and believe me, I was very sceptic before I tried), I don’t want to go back to Internet Explorer by Microsoft. At least not before they implement a few Firefox features Besides this, and this is mainly based on hand-on experience, Firefox is quite fast.

In 32 days after the release, over 10 million copies were downloaded! The internetbrowser marketshare of Firefox is being estimated at 7,35% at the moment.

Get it here.

Once in a while I try to post something about or of a watchcollector. Known or unknown to the large online watchcommunity.

Number 6 in this series is Larry Seiden, I used a picture of his Jaquet Droz watch yesterday and mailed him to see if he was allright with this. He replied that he was, and in the signature of his e-mail I noticed he has his own watch website as well. Some of you probably knew about it already (I remembered seeing it before anyway), but it is really worth checking out.

His collection is marvelous, even as the articles he published on his website. The watches seem to be carefully picked to join the collection, Larry knows his stuff. Especially on the Ingenieurs. Together with Marco and David he wrote this article on IWC Ingenieur watches.

Click here for his website

The “European Aviation Watch of the Year” this time that is.

In the bar of the Aero Club de France in Paris, aeronautic representatives gathered last week for the first European Aviation Watch of the Year Trophy.

In addition ot the host country, France and its pilot magazine Volez, the editors from the German Flieger magazine and British Aerospace International, defined the criteria for the pilot watches and an international jury, analysed, scored and voted.

The clear winner was the Fortis Flieger Chronograph.

Find the full article at Europastar