I hope I am able to post something here this week, since I will be leaving within a few minutes to Paris in France. For work ofcourse. If I have the time, I will try to visit some watchstores or at least have a few glances at the windows at the Place de la Vendome ofcourse.

Anyway, I hope I can post about watches from Paris. I will be sporting my Panerai this week and with a bit of luck I can visit the ABP store in Paris to get a custom made leather strap!

I just received this email:

Hello,
I take the liberty to ask you an advice on what I should prefer as my next buy : a Gemini 40th anniversary Special edition (my AD received one and reserved it for me) or a standard black Speedy Pro.
The watch I’ll choose will be my only Speedmaster (or so I think today …)
My other watches are : Rolex SS black Daytona, Breitling black Navitimer, Panerai Luminor 104, Omega Seamaster Cosmic 2000 silver, Breitling Superocean blue, etc.
Thanking you in advance,
Best regards,
xxxx xxxxxxx

And my answer was:

“Hello Christian,

Problem with Speedmaster limited editions is, is that they [Omega] bring out limited editions for every astronaut’s fart They will probably even bring out a limited edition Speedmaster because of some limited edition. So I would go for a standard Speedy Pro (like I did), or if you really like the limited edition’s looks, go for one, but I would certainly not buy one just because it is limited.

Great collection by the way. ”

You probably all know the classic ‘Moonwatch’, below you’ll see the 40th anniversary edition:

And here you’ll find a nice article on the watch

Yesterday I received this hairy picture from Rob, his latest arrival…

Spreading some White Dial Love, uh Rob?

By the number of German watchmagazines and stores you probably already could tell that German is a watchminded country, but last week, during my business trip to Hamburg, I can really confirm this

Besides the fact that the people from GlobeGround tried to break my suitcase and made it unusable for me, the trip was fine. Hamburg is a great city and definately worth a visit by lovers of good food, watches and great cities. I didn’t have much time to visit the cities finest locations, but I had a quick look at some shops in the Neuer Wall and Jungfernstieg. Wempe was closed when I walked by, but I had a peek in the window and it looked all fantastic. Their collection of watches is very fine and probably cover all different tastes from watchlovers.

On the other side of the street, you’ll find the Omega Boutique. Their window was just as impressive, but too bad they were already closed. Another jeweler that was probably worth visitting is Rene Kern. Also located on the Jungfernstieg. Anyway, chances are big I have to return in December and definately will try to visit some watchshops then.

Anyway, at least I got the 2006 (annual) catalog of Armband Uhren, so I could entertain myself in the hotel a bit Try to get your own copy, soon available (for pick-up) at Horloge Platform Nederland.

After moderating (and later on co-moderating) the Omega Forum at WatchUseek for years, I decided to jump in to moderate the Rolex Forum as well. The Omega Forum was a piece of cake, most of the time I just participated in threads and did some digging up for people. After Jean-Michel and Jon joined me to moderate the forum, I did a step back and just watch all threads and posters and post once in a while. While on the Rolex Forum, it seems that I am more busy with keeping it under control and friendly, then being involved on the true content of messages. Discussions are heated within a few lines in a thread and namecalling and brand bashing is often the result. Closing the thread or even deleting it (when it gets really bad) is the solution most of the time.

Rolex is a brand that gives a lot of conversation amongst collectors. Is it worth the money? How do they compare to Omega, IWC or Patek (yep, I have seen this comparison, I really did)? And the friendlyness-killer of them all, “Is this a fake?”. Ofcourse it is, because you paid only 300 USD for it on eBay. Then, besides all the pain of this question, there seem to be people who defend fakes like that (on a Rolex Forum!!!) by saying it is a nice watch with an ETA movement, and for only 300 USD.

I have to admit, it is very attractive to start writing down some words like ‘moron’ or ‘idiot’, but practice what you preach.. keep it friendly.

This evening I flipped open my laptop and checked the Rolex Forum to see if everything was still under control. My girlfriend asked me what I was doing and I told her I was monitoring the Rolex Forum a bit more these days because some guys almost kill eachother over fake watches. Her answer was “That’s a way of spending your time” (not my time, to clarify.. well.. in the end it is too ofcourse). I guess she is right. Forums on watches (or pens, or cars) shouldn’t be the place for fighting and bullying. Ofcourse, softwaredevelopers should come up with a plug in or tool to automatically ban users with questions on fakes…

Good thing on the Rolex Forum this week was the load of very impressive photos on Rolex watches. Good wallpaper material!

I just received this email from Rambler, about a new forum on watches. Visit www.wristwatchforums.com and check their Omega, Rolex and Panerai forum!

A quick look on the website of Kwekkeboom Juweliers (in Netherlands) learned me that jewelers and watchsellers who don’t do business on the web are better informed than some of us would think. This jeweler will text you (Short Message Service) on your mobile when your watch is ready to be picked up from service or repair. Ofcourse, they will first try to call you, but as busy as we are, we are not always able to answer every call.

Oh btw, hurry up, they are having sale in both their shops (IWC, Ebel, B&M, Zenith etc).

Finally added to the links section of this blog: velociphilewatch, dreamwatches and grayandsons blog.

All three great watch blogs and definately worth adding to your bookmarks.

Have a nice sunday!

Ruud Kuiper of Clockwise is in the on-line (and offline :-)) watch business for quite some years now and recently introduced his brand new website.

If I had a spare 1100 euros, I would buy one like these.

About a year ago (at the 16th of november 2004), I wrote here about a brand called Louis Bolle and how much of a scam this all was. I still get e-mails to this posting (on a weekly basis) and over 20 comments were added to this post. Today, a friend of mine sent me the link of Vendoux. At first glance, there seems to be nothing wrong with this (online) jeweler. They even have quite some famous Dutch artists on their site to represent their products. A second glance shows that most pictures of the Dutch VIPs are screendumps from TV and most artists seem to be B-class anyway. Or C-class (I would add the Dutch transexual Kelly to this class, famous for her appearance in Big Brother). Click here to check the VIP Gallery.

The best part of it all is that Vendoux is in my opinion nothing but a scam. Not only they have taken the famous designs like the one of a Rolex Daytona, but also less known brands like Eberhard.

When does the hurt stop and when do these kind of vague businesses will learn? They write on their site about being an international brand (Netherlands and Belgium probably) and even use words like ‘credible’ and ‘quality’ & ’style’. The people who can read Dutch should really click here.

Anyway, again.. if you want to be taken seriously as a watch brand, please.. please.. please.. don’t copy classic designs and maybe even more important, don’t copy designs that are quite unique (Eberhard).

Picture from Chrono24.com, a watch for sale by www.uhren-lady.de.

Through another forum I found out this pbase.com gallery by Kelvin Tan. He made a few very nice shots of his Chronoswiss Delphis. Besides that, his gallery at pbase is worth checking out for all other photos he has made.

A reason for me to start wearing my Chronoswiss Régulateur again

Maastricht is (just like The Hague) one of the nicer cities in The Netherlands My girlfriend and I went there this weekend to relax a bit and do some shopping. I took the opportunity to check out some watchshops in Maastricht!

The first shop I paid a visit was Scorpione. The shop is located near the central station of Maastricht and besides watches, they also sell jewellery in gold and silver. The watches they sell are all vintage and displayed in the shop and on their website. The owner of the shop showed me two Movados, a gold chronograph and a steel chronograph. Both with inhouse Movado calibers. The stainless steel model featured an hour totalizer and the gold model didn’t. The owner of the shop does his own restorations and reparations, but seems to outsource the work on dials. He clearly tells you wether a watch has a re-dial or is all original. Check his website for a list of watches he sells. Scorpione is located at the Scharnerweg 169 in Maastricht.

John @ Scorpione. Picture taken from the Scorpione website.

The next shop we (only) passed is Leon Martens. Their window is impressive and filled with Omega, Rolex, Patek Philippe, Blancpain, Breguet, Officine Panerai and more… We didn’t enter the shop, but it seems that he only sells new watches. In his window was a vintage Panerai compass though, probably for display only. Leon Martens is located at Stationsstraat 39-41 in Maastricht.

Leon Martens, picture taken from their website.

The next shop was found after walking around the center a bit, called Steiner. After looking in the window for some while (lots of brands, vintage to new), I decided to enter the shop to check if they had some more, but it was just too crowded. I told one of the salespeople I would come back later. And I did ofcourse The salesman saw my watch and told me that they had an interesting box with vintage Rolexes. I looked at three watches, a Rolex Sea-Dweller (double red printing), a 16660 Rolex Sea-Dweller (probably from the late 70s) and a Rolex Submariner with gilt dial and very neat shoulders (ref.5512, 1960s model). I think the owner of the shop helped me out a bit, I told him I was interested in a 1977 Submariner or Sea-Dweller (that’s my year of birth). This isn’t a short term project ofcourse, as it probably will cost me quite some money, but it is always nice to get a bit orientated on the subject :-). The seller showed me his 1961 Daytona with ‘Tiffany’ dial, which I immediately recognized because Gerard from Horloge Platform Nederland had one in his shop not too long ago and showed me it as well. I couldn’t confirm it was the same watch though, however, there probably aren’t too many of these around Anyway, the shop owner gave me a card and some kind of little brochure of their own ‘Steiner’ watch and told me to call or e-mail him as soon as I wanted a 1977 Submariner. Steiner is located at Stokstraat 2 in Maastricht.

Steiner, picture taken from their website.

Another shop I entered was Brocantique watches, also located in the center of Maastricht. The window displayed all kinds of vintage (and some ‘newer’ used) watches.. from a tuningfork Bulova SpaceView to a Rolex Submariner. There were some customers in the shop looking at watches and discussing with the shop owner, so I just had a peek in the displays and noticed a few very nice Omega watches. He also had some very nice vintage Longines (if my memory serves me right) with their original box and paper(s). Brocantique watches is located at Heggenstraat 14 in Maastricht.

Brocantique’s shop owner. Picture taken from their website.

Besides these four, Maastricht has few more interesting watch&jewellery stores. I also noticed another shop that carries vintage / used watches, but can’t remember the name. It is located near Onze Lieve Vrouwe plein. For fountainpens (an interest that goes almost hand in hand with watches as it seems) you should visit Mevri, located at Grote Staat 6 in Maastricht. This weekend I bought a StarWalker fountainpen from Montblanc to join the ballpoint from the same series I bought there last year.

Comments or other recommendations on the subject are more than welcome!