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Although I don’t wear it often, I still like my Chronoswiss Régulateur Automatique a lot. Great dress watch and first ‘real’ Chronoswiss watch (introduced in 1987 as a hand wound wrist watch).
Christopher Meisenzahl mentioned the review on the Chronoswiss Digiteur at The Purists forum last week, and I thought that you might be interested!
Enjoy the review by William Riepl on the Chronoswiss Digiteur! Click here to read it…
A while ago, I posted about the Girard-Perregaux Richeville chronograph with caliber 8381. This movement is not inhouse as I wrote, but it is based on the Lemania 1872. David Alstott emailed me this correction and included a nice scan of a Lemania 1872 trio.
You can read more about Girard-Perregaux at WatchRap (by ThePurists), they have a special section for Girard-Perregaux.
Last sunday, I went to the Rikketik watch fair in Houten/The Netherlands. This fair is being held a few times a year, and is also held in Antwerp/Belgium. Besides wrist watches, there are a lot of clocks and pocket watches for sale on the fair. So far so good.
My last visit to the watch fair was at least 1 - 1.5 years earlier and as soon as I entered the large hall with all the sellers, I knew why it was 1 - 1.5 years earlier. What a mess. They should seperate the (wooden cuckcoo) clocks from the watches to start with. But this is not the worst part. The worst part is the quality of the offered goods. Omega watches seems to be the most popular brand on the watch fair. Logically, because the vintage Omega watches are still affordable and easy to maintain. However, I have not seen a single decent vintage Omega for sale. If the prices would justify this and leave room for a complete overhaul at Omega in Bienne (add a few hundred euros for a complete overhaul, depending on the model) you could really buy a nice time piece. However, the prices are skyhigh and watches are being sold (or trying to be) as ‘Near Mint’ or ‘In pristine condition’. Give me a break.
Additionally, a lot of fake watches are being offered there. Fake Panerais, Rolexes and other ‘popular’ models. I really don’t understand why the organisation of such a large fair doesn’t take appropriate action.
A few international sellers (most of them were German) seem to have the good stuff. New or slightly used Rolexes and Omegas for sale for decent prices. But ofcourse, the average Rikketik attendee doesn’t have 3K on him to get himself a nice new or near mint Rolex, Omega or whatever brand.
I don’t know if I grew out of it or if the fair got worse and worse in the last couple of years. But I do know that the watch fair in Duesseldorf (in the Radison SAS hotel) is far nicer to visit. Better quality of offered goods and a more decent and attractive set-up. But then again, they probably pay more than 25 euro to rent a table.
At least it got me thinking that the watches I have in my collection which are about to move out, are in a way (WAY) better condition and could have been on sale at the Rikketik ‘as new’. Really.
Pffff…
The best brand of them all, Patek Philippe, introduces a new automatic chronograph in a large platinum case (40.5mm, at least for PP this is large :-)), Ref. 5960P.
“The movement is the new automatic caliber CH28-520 IRMQA24H with 40 jewels, a 55 hour power reserve and a flyback column-wheel, a power reserve indicator, an annual calendar, and day/night display. The rotor is 21kt gold. And, like all Patek Philippe mechanical movements, this new caliber has been awarded the prestigious Geneva Seal.
The patented Patek Philippe Annual Calendar is a full calendar that automatically recognizes months with 30 and 31 days and, assuming that the watch is always running, only needs to be manually corrected once a year on March 1. It displays the day of the week, the date, and the month in three apertures, and it also controls the day/night indicator at 6 o’clock. Its modular design expands the scope of applications of the new chronograph caliber, providing future latitude for extra functions. “
I have no illusions of ever owning this time piece, but if I only could win the lottery once. Just once.
I’ve never been a big fan of TAG Heuer, but I do like their classics. Like this one below, the Monaco (also known as the Steve McQueen model):
Photo by -Andrew
In this thread at TimeZone they are showing off their Heuer Monaco watches. If you are interested, take a look.
For the real Steve McQueen (and/or Heuer) fans, there is a clothing line by this brand called ‘Vintage 55′ dedicated to Steve McQueen. In a local shop (Oger) here in The Netherlands they sell Vintage 55 ‘Steve McQueen’ clothing (including the Heuer badge :-)).
I think my first Watching magazine dates from 1997, so I missed just a few… Anyway, Watching Magazine (Dutch) is here now for 10 years! They celebrate it with this extra ‘thick’ edition:
Their website got an update as well, and every edition they place an article from the magazine on-line.
Congratulations Watching!!
…according to the prestigious Watch of the Year 2005 Award in Japan that is. Not too long ago, the watch received the award of “Best Design 2005” at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de la Ville de Genève.
Europastar.Com writes:
“The Watch of the Year Award is hosted by the World Photo Press (WPP), publisher for many magazines including watch magazine “World Wrist Watch Time Spec”. The Watch of the Year celebrates its 10th year anniversary this year.
The Sports Professional Watch category is awarded to a highly operative watch that excels in its function. Hublot recently re-launched its “fusion” concept. Big Bang, the winner at the “Watch of The Year Award 2005” in Japan, is the biggest model among the watch line available at Hublot, 44.5mm, and is immediately recognizable through the multi-layered construction of its case that allows a play on materials, red gold and tantalum, steel and ceramic, carbon and rubber, and thanks to its lateral Kevlar® insert that makes the rubber strap seems to be passing directly through the body of the watch.”
This rather anonymous watch collector, has a nice overview of all his Rolex watches and the watches he used to own. Visit his site at http://www.mywatchdepot.com/
Have fun!
..and Chopard is ready for it with their Happy Valentine special edition for 2006.
“Happy Valentine” watch in white gold, based on the “Happy Diamonds” concept , composed with a heart entirely set with rubies and a mobile diamond. Pink mother-of-pearl dial and red crocodile leather strap fitted with a white gold buckle, quartz movement, water-resistant to 30 metres. (Ref : 20/7060/1)
I never bought a watch because someone famous wore it. Although I have emailed and spoken to a lot of people who have a Omega Seamaster Professional or Rolex Submariner because James Bond had one, this kind of behaviour never appealed to me. However, more and more brands seem to attach famous or ‘important’ names to their watches. I would like to make a small distinction between buying a watch because someone famous has one or buying a watch because you got introduced to the brand or type of watch because someone famous has one. For example, in my opinion there is a difference in putting someone like Ed Viesturs (see below) on an advert for your watch brand or that you advertise with a photo of Brad Pitt (Tag Heuer). Rolex seems to be the first brand that uses famous people for advertising purposes. Old National Geographic magazines had (and still have) ads like the ones below.
Some of the current watch adverts with famous people are really funny. The Baume et Mercier advert with Kiefer Sutherland for example. In one of the series of ‘24′ (first season) he was wearing a fake Rolex Submariner.. the B&M advertisement lost its credibility in a split second.
Anyway, if you are interested in adverts like the ones below, pay a visit to http://www.oysterworld.de. This site, by Hannes, has a large collection of them.
As seen on the Watchrap.com forum, Brad (a.k.a WatchCarefully) has a new watch. Custom made by RGM (Roland Murphy). This watch, the Lancastrian, has a Hamilton Grade 932 movement which was used in vintage pocket watches.
You can read more about it in this thread at Watchrap.
Congrats Brad!!! Great watch!
Bart Thans, a Paneristi (amongst other watches) from Belgium, finished Level 1 from the famous TimeZone Watch School and created the ‘project’ watch below with his new skills:
Incredible eh?
The watch has a handwound Unitas 6498 movement inside. Read the complete story on TimeZone here.
If you don’t care about reading and just want to see pictures, click here.
Earlier this week I had a short but interesting mail exchange with Nick, owner of http://www.clockmaker.com.au/. He pointed this article out on his website, regarding the Dent 1508 Ship Chronometer.
For collectors with a passion for accuracy, ship chronometers might interest you!
Nick writes:
Dent No. 1508 Ships Chronometer, signed “Dent, 82 strand LONDON”. Purchased by Admiralty in March 1841. Used as navigation instrument on HMS ‘Virago’ - 1847, HMS ‘Plover’ - 1869, HMS ‘ Sattelite’ - 1886, HMS ‘Carysfort’. Serviced in 1879 Cape Observatory, 1895 Cape of Good Hope, 1895 by Mercer (famous Marine chronometer himself) , 1902 in Sydney, 1919 in Liverpool. Sold by auction in 1920. In private collection since 1983, first time offered for sale.
The maker of this Ship chronometer, Edward John Dent (1790-1853), also was the maker of the great clock of the House of Parliament, known as the Big Ben.
For the visitors of this blog who are not into Ship Chronometers, check out the restoration projects done by Nick on wrist watches. Here is an example of the restoration of a vintage Rolex Explorer:.
From this:
To this:
The original dial (with gold print) and hands are kept and restored as good as possible. The bracelet has been repaired and refurbished as well. The case also has been refurbished as you can see. The caliber 1030 movement got a complete overhaul and is running within COSC specifications again. This project took about 12 hours in total. Amazing.
Give him a visit at http://www.clockmaker.com.au.
Yesterday evening, I received an email from Daniel of the LondonWatchCompany.com, a specialist in selling Rolexes (vintage & new). Since I am on the look-out for a 1977 (my year of birth) Submariner ref.1680, I found this site to be quite interesting. In the links section, I found a website called ‘DoubleRedSeadweller.com’. This site also sounded very interesting, since I only knew about www.redwatches.com formerly known as www.redsubmariner.com. This site has been renamed after a dispute between Rolex claiming the name ‘Submariner’ and the owner of the website.
Anyway, the website describes the Double Red Sea-Dweller (here) and has a lot of information about COMEX models as well. For those who don’t know, COMEX has a team of professional divers which are (or were?) supplied with Rolex Submariners and (later on) Sea-Dwellers. These watches have the name ‘COMEX’ printed on the dial and engraved in the caseback. The prices of these Double Red Sea-Dwellers can go up to 17.000 Euro (and probably more).
Maybe I was a bit behind on catching up with all these websites, but for those who didn’t know about them as well, go ahead and click!
Advertisement found at DoubleRedSeaDweller.com.
A collegue of mine recently bought an Omega Speedmaster Mark III. Little is written on this watch, except for this document by Chuck Maddox. Today, we opened his watch to check the condition of the movement. As far as we are able to ofcourse 
It looked all good, but when I started to look for the serial number, I experienced some difficulties. The serial number is normally somewhere on the movement, but all I could find was the caliber number (1040) of the movement. I looked into Time Capsule, one of the books by Imai written on Speedmasters and on page 144 I noticed that normally, the serial number is engraved in the rotor. The rotor of my collegue’s watch had a number engraved below Omega and ‘Swiss’, but this was not the number I expected. It started with an R followed by a a few numbers. Now, I suspect that the R stands for ‘Replacement’ and the number is some sort of serial number for replacement parts, but I am not sure. It isn’t the part number of the rotor, because I looked at the parts list of caliber 1040 on http://www.old-omegas.com and it had a different number than the one on the rotor.
Is there anyone out there that can help us out here? The watch is definately original and so is the movement, but the rotor probably got replaced and that left the owner with a serial number-less watch.
The following pictures are taken from Eric Katoso’s website and are NOT the picture of the actual watch I am talking about.
As you can see on the last picture, the serial number (quite vague here) is engraved on the rotor.
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