Jaeger-LeCoultre is one of my favorite haute horlogerie brands. I don’t own one yet, because the ones I really like are way out of my budget. Jaeger-LeCoultre recently opened its Heritage Gallery, located on the very spot where founder Antoine LeCoultre set-up his first workshop back in 1833. This Heritage Gallery has 500 highlights of horological objects, all developed and produced by Jaeger-LeCoultre ofcourse.

Their re-designed company website shows the new Heritage Gallery, click http://www.jaeger-lecoultre.com. Through the e-Boutique on their website, you can order the JLC ‘The Story of the Grande Maison’ for 123,50 (Euro). You can browse through the book on the website, but for the devote Jaeger-LeCoultre collector, it’s probably ‘Click Now’. The Japanese version is out of stock as I write this. The English, German, Italian and French versions are still available.

Source: The Jeager-LeCoultre Heritage Gallery @ EuropaStar

I am not planning to spam this blog with watch videos, but I was never able to post one, because my Wordpress system was (most likely) messed up after too much upgrading. Today I cleaned the whole webserver from files that shouldn’t be there and upgraded to a new version of Wordpress. This should also keep the spammers in the comment-fields away.

Anyway, just to try out, my first link to a watch video on YouTube.

Since a few days, the new Rolex Milgauss has been hitting stores (authorised dealers as well as they grey market dealers) and visitor ‘page’ on TimeZone is probably one of the first to show his!

This ref.116400 Rolex features an inhouse automatic movement (caliber 3131) and measures 40mm in diameter. As big as the current sportsmodels (Submariner, Sea-Dweller, GMT, Explorer II etc). ‘Page’ also photographed his Milgauss next to the Daytona (ref.116520 or 16520).

Click here for the post on the Modern Rolex forum over at TimeZone, it includes some larger pictures with more detail of the watch.

Both photos taken by Page and published on TimeZone.

A quick search on the new Milgauss on Chrono24.com shows two models of which one is sold already..

Today I found out about the Breitling Watch Blog. I only had a Navitimer’92 once, in stainless/steel gold combination, and that was it for my Breitling adventure. However, Breitling does have a number of nice watches imho. I also like the quartz/digital models like the Aerospace, especially on a brown croco strap.

Anyway, check this Breitling Blog! This blog is part of The Breitling Source website.

 
I feel lucky that I live very close to The Hague. The city where Christiaan Huygens lived in the 17th century. He was a Dutch mathematician, astronomer and physicist; born in The Hague on April the 14th 1629. Besides his other impressive (mostly astronomical work), he also worked on the construction of accurate clocks, suitable for naval navigation. In 1658 he published a book on this topic called Horologium. In fact his invention on Christmas 1656, the pendulum clock (patented 1657), was a breakthrough in timekeeping. Devices known as escapements regulate the rate of a watch or clock, and the anchor escapement represented a major step in the development of accurate watches. You can read more about him by clicking here.

However, that’s a nice additional feature of living near The Hague and being a watch addict. The best part is that The Hague is the place to be when it comes to watches in The Netherlands. I will tell you why.

Besides the regular jewelers and watch stores with the common lower-end watches, there are a few streets that have a number of stores with interesting watches. Let’s start with Van Willegen in the ‘Hoogstraat’, one of the nicer shopping areas of The Hague. Van Willegen is authorized dealer for Meistersinger, Frederique Constant, Tag Heuer, Ebel, Breitling and Omega.

If you walk towards Noordeinde (away from the shopping center), you will find the Schaap~Citroen jeweler. They have a number (8 or 9 I believe) of shops in The Netherlands. Not all stores have the same collection (Patek Philippe is only available in Rotterdam and Amsterdam for example), but in it is still worth looking at their windows in The Hague. Schaap~Citroen The Hague is authorized dealer for (amongst others) Rolex, Cartier, IWC, Omega, Breitling and Baume et Mercier.

Before we walk into the Noordeinde street, you can go left to visit the Potma store. Potma sells vintage, used and new watches and jewelry. The good thing about Potma is that they have a very nice and monumental building. Really worth a look. Their window is filled with watches, rings, bracelets etc. Rolex, Breitling, Cartier, Omega are always represented. The other brands may vary. You might find a nice Audemars Piguet there tomorrow, and next week you’ll find a hip Grimoldi watches with rocks all over.

Then walk back to the Noordeinde street and turn left. After about 100 meters, you will find Steltman Watches on your right hand. They have have an impressive collection of Patek Philippe, Blancpain, Breguet, Cartier, Chopard, IWC, Jaeger-Lecoultre, Lange & Soehne, Panerai and Zenith. They some times have a small collection of used/vintage watches as well. 

If you continue your walk, after passing the royal working palace on your left hand (picture above), you will eventually find two watch shops on your right hand. These are Horloge Platform Nederland and Manbodh Watches.

Manbodh Watches has a large collection of vintage, used and new Rolex watches. Most of the time, they also have a variety of Patek Philippe, Jaeger Lecoultre, IWC, Panerai (vintage!) and Omega watches.

Horloge Platform Nederland is authorized dealer for Sinn, Christiaan van der Klaauw, Nomos, Roamer, Ole Mathiesen and Officina Italia Bros straps. Besides those, Horloge Platform Nederland has a large selection of used watches. This is also the place to buy your Armband Uhren annual catalogue, Wenger watch knife or leather case to keep your watches safe when travelling.

There are thousands of posts on watch forums and sometimes the forums are so crowded, that it is nearly impossible to even read and remember the most interesting ones. But once in a while, almost anonymously, someone posts a message that will remain in your thoughts for a long time. Click.

When Rolex first introduced the Yacht-Master II during the Basel fair, earler this year, it wasn’t exactly received well by the crowd. Including myself. However, Yacht-Master II related messages are currently popping-up on Rolex forums quite frequently. People who have seen the watch in the flesh seem to be less negative than when the news arrived via pictures in magazines and on the internet.

Frequent visitor of the German Rolex Forum (www.r-l-x.de) Hannes posted a few impressive pictures of this king size white gold wrist watch.

Picture taken by Hannes / JBK.

On the TimeZone forum, visitor ‘Otto’ tried on the white gold Yacht-Master II as well and was at least impressed by the watch. However, the price tag on this watch (about 28.000 Euro) is also opening doors to a complicated Patek Philippe for example. You can read about Otto’s experiences by clicking here.

Most negative comments seem to be about the Yacht-Master II wording on the bezel. One said it is ‘too loud’. However, according to a few reactions in forums, in real life it seems to be less annoying/present. I have yet to see my first Yacht-Master II, but I am keeping an eye on the dealer’s window in The Hague :) 

p.s. A watch instruction booklet on how the count down feature works, can be found here. It is in German though, but contains a number of illustrations.

Su JiaXian interviewed Philippe Merk (CEO Maurice Lacroix) for WatchRap.com. The new movement ‘Memoire 1′ was also topic of discussion. The Memoire 1 movement ‘remembers’ time that has been recorded with the chronograph. This means you can switch back and forward to the real and the elapsed time in chronograph modus. This novelty movement has no less than 537 parts!

Click here for the interview

The first DRSD (Dutch Rolex Sun Day) 2007 was a great success! It was held on the 30th of September at a superb location for a number of (about 25) people of the Dutch Rolex Forum. The organization of the DRSD welcomed all visitors (I was there as well) with Bollinger champagne and incredible good food!

The DRSD showed that the Dutch have a lot of great Rolex watches in their collections. The vintage Double Red’s, Rail Dials, Red Subs, 1675s were in good condition. My personal favorite was the very rare ref.6262 Daytona Cosmograph from 1970 and the all-white 1665 Sea-Dweller. As for new Rolex models, almost ever model was present!  Aside from the sports models, also a great share of (vintage&new) Date-Justs, Day-Dates and Oyster-Quartz models rocked DRSD.

A link to more photos is located below, but I already will reveil the final table shot!

Rob, Stanley, Misha and ofcourse Isabel.. thanks for a great and exciting day for Rolex aficionados.

For the +400 pictures taken by a professional photographer, click here: http://www.rolexforum.nl/drsd