Hi There!!

I was just chatting with RJ, when it suddenly occured to me that half of his recent posts started as chat-conversation between him and me… Then I thought, I might as well blog myself..

The dutch fratello readers might know me from www.dezinvanluxe.nl or some of the international forums. For the rest, please allow me to introduce myself:

My name is Dale Vito. I’m a 21yo student from the Netherlands, and completely nuts about watches since about a year or 4. I just posted a history of my watches over @ a DZVL.. Non-chronological.

Robert-Jan has been a close chat-friend over the past years. We’ve met quite a few times and I can garantee you, he’s quite a nice person IRL .

I will be posting my horological thoughts here every once in a while.

Thanks for reading,

Dale Vito

Most of you will know the IWC Mark series, however, Jaeger-LeCoultre has produced a similar watch in the past. The British Military of Defense (MoD) issued watches to navigators in the RAF and later on, also in the Australian RAAF. These watches have been produced by both Jaeger-LeCoultra and IWC. And as you can see below, they appear to be very similar.

With some help of Dale, I stumbled across a site called MarkEleven.com, that give a lot of background on the Jaeger-LeCoultre Mark 11 and tries to track them. A very interesting site, and project!

As the name predicts, this watch is waterresistant till 1000 meters below the surface. It is the chronograph version of the U-series by Sinn. Made out of u-boat (submariner) steel. The S version, has a black coating added to the u-boat steel.

This watch has a mechanical automatic chronograph movement, Sinn caliber SZ 02 (basis caliber 7750 by ETA/Valjoux). The watch has a diameter of 44mm and has a 18mm thick case. It weighs 135 grams. A large and heavy watch for the professionl diver! The watch comes with either a rubber strap or a stainless steel bracelet. The full list with specifications is available at the Sinn website, click here.

At WatchUseek a ‘wrist test’ has been posted by ‘Dimitris’, click here.

The Sinn U1000 prices are:

U1000 with rubber strap: 2950 Euro
U1000 with steel bracelet: 3155 Euro
U1000S with rubber strap: 3050 Euro
U1000S with steel bracelet: 3315 Euro

In a nice castle in The Netherlands, where currently the famous art forger Geert Jan Jansen resides, the second Dutch Rolex Sun Day took place on the 3rd of February 2008.

I think we were there with around 25 persons, and tons of watches. Rolex, Panerai, Omega, Patek Philippe, IWC and numereous other brands. This DRSD was again organized by Rob, Stanley, Misha and Isabel and they did a superb job. The food, the Bollinger champagne and guest (host) speaker Geert Jan Jansen were fabulous. There was also a representative of one of the Rolex dealers in The Netherlands, who gave us all the latest Rolex catalogue. Geert Jan Jansen handed out his book with his story of being an art forger. Manbodh Watches (Jerrel and Bas) were also present and had great stories about (their) vintage watches and nice anecdotes with respect to their experiences of collecting watches.

Below you’ll find some pictures to get an impression of this DRSD Winter Passion afternoon and evening.

When the official photos are available (a professional photographer was also present), I will give notice.

Thanks to Dale Vito for some of the pictures.

Today, I returned from my snow holiday in Obertauern (Austria). Below you see a picture of the Gamsleiten in Obertauern, made by Johan. His Explorer II with the 24-hour came in handy ! I took my steel/platinum Yacht-Master with me, since I am a very very recreational ski person, I wasn’t worried about scratches or dings

Tomorrow I am attending the Dutch Rolex Sun Day meeting in a castle somewhere in The Netherlands. I will report about it on monday!

Have a nice weekend!

NOTE: I am encountering some problems with my photohoster. Problem seems to be there for a short period. If it is up & running again, I will post about the fabulously organized Dutch Rolex Sun Day that was held on February the 3rd.