I’m at the Basel fair at the moment, and just wanted to share some thoughts. What I started to feel already last year, seems to be even stronger this year. It looks like I’m a bit tired of the next commercially issued model of the same big watch brand. Again a new Speedmaaster Limited edition, again a new Rolex commemorative edition, again another variation on well known theme. Patek, Breguet, Glashuette - they all bring slightly modified models, and got their inspiration by carefully listening to the market.

One press conference even bigger than the next one, and attendet with even more celibrities and ‘important’ people.

Where are the real watches? Where are the real watch makers? It looks like ‘image’ is all that counts. You don’t buy a product anymore, you buy a feeling. This of course not being anything new, however it seems to dominate the watch scene too much at the moment.

I did the first halls (hall of dreams and hall of desire) now in a glance (that’s where I always use the first day for; to get the feeling), and now I’m off to the hall of emotions and hall of inspirations. This is were the smaller companies are showing there products - I hope to get a better feeling there and find the real product, not the image. I’ll keep you updated.

Cheers,

Gerard

Jorge Merino, MrRolex (James Dowling) and probably a few upcoming others publish all the latest news on TimeZone Basel Forum. Click here to visit the forum.

Justin posted this on one of the ViaPaneristi forums.

Edit: To the people who post anonymous comments, please don’t. To the people who have problems with my English (it is not my native language), just email me. No need to get rude in (anonymous) comments.

The PuristS had a watch dinner, looks like they had great fun!

Picture by TJN.

The posting at WatchRap tells us that these three ladies were responsible for all of the tough organisation and logistic work. So all credits go to them, and therefor well worth posting a picture on this blog.

These two seem to mix very well. It is Scan Day at TimeZone and visitor Adlibera posted this picture in the thread about watches and pens.

Photo by Adlibera.

Sophos (a company who develops anti-virus/spam products) reveals a list of the most common spamwords. You are probably getting spam too, and you might have seen the irritating Rolex replica mails in your inbox the last few months. Rolex is no. 14 on the list (which can be found here, and is the ‘clean’ version)

Oh well, it is not going to end anyway (soon). This is what got in my inbox this morning :

“If you are after a Genuine RoIex RepIica then LOOK NO FURTHER. I would like to recommend to you this website. All of the repIica watches you will find here are second to none and nobody will ever know it is not the genuine article. Every little detail has been covered, right down to the little green RoIex sticker and serial numbers.”

Why not illustrate my exact thoughts on replicas using a nice animation made by Jocke

Oh, and if you DO buy one, you are funding terrorism. Read here on WatchRaport.

The watch review contest at WatchUseek has ended, click here to see the winning contributions.

I have a weak spot for Omega watches. I ran into this Omega Marine Megaquartz 2400 website, which is one of the few quartz watches that should be allowed even by mechanical watch freaks

The fansite contains a lot of background information, the official pressrelease (dates 1974), a brochure and instructions.

Click here to visit the Omega Marine Megaquartz 2400 site

Even if you aren’t a Panerai fan, this is kinda special:

Rol, at the Paneristi forum wrote:

Believe me, it was quite difficult finding anybody to identify this watch, but
thanks to the superb Paneristi’s Vintage reference section, I was able to
discover this watch which my father gave me about 4 years ago, He got
the watch in 1945 and wore it as a pocket watch all his working life.
Can’t be many that’s been in the same family for 60 years.
Just back from service and working wonderfully.
My collection of one, and I will wear it often.
Many thanks Volker, for your help in authenticating the watch, and pointing
me in the right directions.

Click here for the entire posting at Paneristi.com

Patrick C, moderator of the Lifestyle forum at WatchUseek wrote this little IWC vs Tag Heuer diver review on Watchrap.com.

You can find it by click here.

A few months ago, Bas van Dorp wrote a small review on his Sinn EZM1 , which you can read here. Just a few minutes ago, I noticed that Hans Mennink wrote a Sinn EZM1 review as well, which can be found here. Hans has written some truely great articles on Christiaan van der Klaauw watches as well, but I am afraid these are only in Dutch.

Have fun!

Today I had a small email conversation with a friend of mine about watches. He is on the look-out for a serious watch, but is not in a hurry, not in the last place because it is a lot of money to spend on something like a watch (did I really wrote that?).

So this friend, let’s call him Jorg :-), got a Rolex GMT-Master (I) on his wrist for one week, borrowed from someone else. I am not sure and I could be wrong, but some years ago he mentioned that he could find nicer watches than a Rolex for those prices. And I nodded His enthusiasm towards Rolex grew as he handled a few and discovered that wearing a Rolex won’t make you a drugsdealer or give you a bad image per definition.

Anyway, he emailed me today that he really likes the GMT-Master and it seems that his quest for a watch really got easy over the last few days. To make it a bit worse for him, I decided to put some GREAT reviews online on Rolex GMT-Master watches.

So here you go…

Rolex GMT-Master Past & Present by Hung Doan (I know you got a bit mad on the reveal of the new IWC Ingenieur, but what’s a blogger go to do? At least we revealed the source!)
Rolex GMT-Master II review by John B. Holbrook, owner of the Rolex Reference Page
Rolex GMT-Master info at Rolexsamler.dk, a great reference site for other models as well.

Ron DeCorte at Timezone.com wrote a great essay/review on the Jaeger-LeCoultre Gyrotourbillon. If you are interested in reading about watchmaking and watchtechnique, you should definately click here.

The article contains video as well, so you might want to get the latest Quicktime Player as well. Get it here.

It is not my cup of tea, but John wrote a nice short review on a Sandoz ‘Submariner’ with the looks of a GMT-Master. Anyway, I thought that some of the visitors here might like it, so here you go.

Click here to check-out the review

A double Paneristi post in one weekend.. but this one is really really worth checking out:

Click here to see how it should be done!

Even on Paneristi they have this “scanday” phenomenon. Although I don’t like the daily “What are you wearing today?” posts on most boards, an eventual scanday is great to see what other people buy and in what flavor they wear it.

And even on the Paneristi forum they have other brands than Panerai, like this beauty (although the stainless steel bracelet on AP is one of the things I adore about that watch). The white dial looks outstanding on this one, and I like the carbon on the bezel and pushers.

Oh well, I own a Panerai (113, currently on a tan beaver strap by TC Straps) but I am not wearing it either today. Just as good though:

I should have it serviced/overhauled though, there are scratches in the saphire (thanks mom, for borrowing it and wearing it next to your bracelet with diamonds) and the case and bracelet can use a nice new finish as well. It runs great though, +1 sec a day currently.

Have a nice weekend!

Some of you probably don’t know this guy, but he is the founder of Antiquorum and author on of the best Rolex and Patek books available. AlexG of The Purists interviewed him and discussed vintage watches, collectors and ofcourse the auctions at Antiquorum.

Click here to read the interview

Ok, so hear this. A guy at a Dutch watchforum buys an Omega Speedmaster Pro and complains it stopped running. In other words, his brand new Speedmaster Pro is broke. Sad enough ofcourse, but a typical case of ‘warranty’. However, he bought the watch in a small town in the east part of the Netherlands and he lives about 150 kilometers from there. So he calls the dealer where he bought it and asks what to do and if he can bring his watch to other dealers as well. Well, since the dealer where he bought it is authorized and filled in the card, he can do this. So he went to the authorized Omega dealer in his city and asks them to help him out. The dealer says that’s ok, but he has to pay for the shippingcosts to Omega’s servicecenter. The buyer feels bad about this and shares his feelings on the Dutch watch forum. He blames the Omega dealer in his city for not taking in his watch for free.

I could feel sorry for this guy, but I don’t. I really don’t. What’s the rest of the story.. when he was still in the queste for this Speedmaster Pro, he went to this local dealer before and tried to bargain the price. The dealer said ‘No’ and off he went to a dealer 150 kilometer to the east, where they do bargain because they have to compete with German dealers (just across the border, about 20km) which have lower listprices. This local dealer now refuses to help him for free, because he didn’t buy the watch at their place. And I can imagine.. this dealer can just as well close his business if he has to pay for shipping/service for watches people didn’t buy at his place because they wanted too much discount.

So where there first was winning (on the price), now there is wining… Sorry pal, just drive 150 kilometers to the east and ask for free service or to have them swap your watch. I would have felt sorry for you if you would be a man and just paid a couple of extra bucks for shipping at your local dealer, now I don’t (I know, no one asks me too, but I am a sensitive guy :-)), especially not when you are blaming this ‘Triade Juweliers’ shop in Almere for coming up for their policies.

Boohoo.

Watch photography can be left to Ming Thein, this Audemars Piguet Grande Sonnerie has been captured by his lens very nicely!

Click this link to see the whole shooting.

On the look-out for a lowcost watch? Try a ‘google’ on “Hamilton Khaki” watches.
For less than 745 USD (the actual lowest price has to be requested by email), you can have this chronograph (Valjoux 7753 driven) at Princetonwatches.com:

They also have a re-edition of a military watch on an olive colored strap, very nice and for less than 250 USD. Mechanical movement ofcourse.

Hamilton used to be famous for their electronic watches called ‘Ventura’. I think Elvis Presley was the most famous ‘ambassador’ of the brand. These electronic versions can be found on fairs and auctions, but I wouldn’t dare to buy one. Even those f300Hz Bulova/Omega electronics give me the shivers.. very nice, but if they are broke, it will be very hard to get it fixed for a reasonable price. If it can be fixed at all.