Authentic tool watches and military watches are getting more and more attention these days. Not only old military Rolexes and vintage Benrus watches for example,  but also the more modern pieces by brands like Marathon and CWC are popular. Many of these watches have a matte black finish to the steel. This color is created not by paint but by physical powder deposition (PVD). Part of this demand for rugged (looking) tool watches is the interest in the old stories and adventurous values behind them. It is the story of a watch being “issued” to the military, complying with certain “specs”, being used in combat or the choice of a certain commando unit for the watch. Many of these stories are genuine and interesting developments that stem from a “form follows function” design. Great examples are the watches Panerai developed for marine frogmen in the 1930’s with the protective lever or the Rolex Submariner in the 1950’s that soon qualified as the no. 1 choice for diving.

The demand for tool watches happens to be a very profitable business. And demand creates is own supply. The watch industry responds with a wide range of matte steel or PVD products from the oversized U-boats, over to square-headed Bell and Rosses, to limited edition blackened Rolex Sea-Dwellers: no matter what, anything seems to sell and get applause these days. There is nothing wrong with these products, but in my view only the watches that had or have a real functional purpose and a clear cut design will survive the test of time. They are recognized by a real history, a refreshing simplicity and a design that pleases the eye without being invented to please. The rest of the pack won’t survive in terms of lasting appreciation or a economic value. The merits of a watch are a matter of personal taste, but my advise would be: Don’t believe the PVD hype.

I just finalized a write-up for Watch Freaks, a blog hosted by Alon Ben-Joseph. It is about web 2.0 and horology and how this combines. Or should combine in my opinion

Click here to read the article ‘what did web 2.0 did for horology?’

An example of what it didn’t do for Ebel.

Hi, my name is Evert, I’m a WIS friend of mr. Fratello aka Robert-Jan. He kindly lends me his blog space to share my thoughts when and if worthwhile. Thanks to him and I hope you enjoy.

Since the beginning of my watch passion, I’m interested in Rolex. The internet turned out to be the place to be to fuel my passion, and it was through the internet, that I bought my first serious watch. It was an Omega Seamaster coming from a guy who was saving for a Rolex Sea-Dweller. Back then the prices of Rolex watches seemed to come from another planet in my view. Although I could already see the magic of the “SD”, I thought this guy was nuts to spent thousands of dollars on it. Later I did - of course - take the plunge myself and acquired a Submariner No Date, but still the idea of the price tag horrified me.

Years later, me and many WIS with me, have gotten used to ever increasing Rolex prices. The transparency in de the market is bigger than ever with sites like chrono24.com, and the sales corner of the German forum even showing charts with sales prices under the button “investor”. But all this information has done nothing in terms of creating heavy price competition. The public is simply too hungry for Sports Rolex.

Even more than the modern models, the prices of vintage Rolex are hitting the roof. They are praised for their uniqueness, character and their hour markers that turn from white to yellowish brown over time. No sapphire crystals that are so common nowadays on this pieces, but the characteristic plexi glass. A highly scratchable material, but still loved by many with the slogan “Plexi is Sexy”. The posts on the watch forums, countless watch-auctions and many unofficial Rolex information sites seem to put more oil to the fire every day. It supports the upward spiral of the Rolex Sports price tags.

In this madness, some opt out and don’t buy any vintage. I decided to participate just a little in the craze by buying a Submariner Date reference 1680 from the late ’70’s. Having done that, it is time for me to take a break from studying the hectic and complicated vintage market and take all the time necessary to contemplate the purchase of a modern Sports model again. Well, not really too much time: With the price increase adopted by Rolex just this March 2008 on almost all current models, also these are bound to go up again. If you love the Rolex brand, the spiral of price and praise is hard to escape!

Time for something completely different. I have been tagged by Alon Ben Joseph who renamed the original game ‘8 things you don’t know about me” to “The Blog Game: Tag! Your it!”. I’ll play of course.

The rules are:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules;
2. List EIGHT random facts about yourself;
3. Tag EIGHT people at the end of your post and list their names;
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged; and,
5. E-mail your tagger, the link to your post.

So, here are EIGHT random facts about myself:

1. I was born in Enschede (east part of The Netherlands) and I have lived there the first few months of my life, before moving to some other village in the area. Anyway, we lived above one of the band members of Teach In. Teach In won the Eurovision Song Festival in 1975 with the song ‘Ding a Dong’.

2. My middle name is Hendrik. Robert Jan Hendrik Broer. The first three of my names are all separate, however, I use Robert-Jan (with a dash) as my calling name. My father’s name is Hendrik, my grandfather’s name is Hendrik, my greatgrandfather’s name was.. you get it. However, biggest difference is that I am the first where Hendrik is my Christian name and not part of my ‘first name’. One of my forfathers, also a Hendrik Broer, was a painter in Giethoorn. In the Wikipedia page of Giethoorn, he is marked as a famous citizen of Giethoorn.

3. I love chesterfield chairs. I really do. However, our home is like a copy of the Riviera Maison stores, so it wouldn’t fit. And if it would fit our current interior, my girlfriend wouldn’t let me own one anyway.

4. Probably not a total surprise, but I would love to turn this watch thing into a profession. One can’t live from blogging about watches, so being a watch trader or doing work for auction houses comes to mind. It would be great to do something that you are really passionate about. Although I like my current job as an IT auditor, that can’t be someone’s passion

5. I love schnitzels. Especially those made by restaurant Bulten or those made by myself. Use good meat, enough flower, eggs and breadcrumbs. You can find a good receipe here.

6. Aah, finally. Watches. I am very happy with the ones I own right now and couldn’t imagine I would have this collection when I started about 10 years ago with this hobby/passion. My current dreamwatch is either a Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Jumbo 15202 or a Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711/1. Still in doubt. I changed through the years from liking complicated and/or vintage watches to very ’simple’ wrist watches. I still like a good moonphase or annual calendar, but nothing beats just three hands and a date window :). However, it will take a few years before I can buy one I’m afraid. Or actually not, because what would be next? Perhaps it will be the crown on my collection one day. One should slowly work to that. Another ‘complication’ I do like about watches, is a chronograph. I have my dreamwatch chronograph already, a vintage Speedmaster Professional with the old caliber 321. I don’t think there is a chronograph which has better readability and has a nicer history. Although certainly not the most expensive watch of my collection, I cherish my Speedmaster Pro!

7. Instead of Hendrik, my middlename should be ‘headache’. I have ‘normal’ headaches, but I also have the more seldomly form of headaches called a cluster headache. It’s very painful and comes in periods. My cluster headache periods vary from a year to a year and a half and then it stays with me for several weeks. There is medication, but unfortunately no cure.

8. I currently own a ‘neo-vintage’ BMW 525i (E34) in good condition. I love to drive this car, despite its age. It is packed with features and everything still works fine. Actually, not a single squeek when I drive it. Let’s see how a 2 year old Renault of Alfa is handling :). Anyway, despite the fact that my heart goes out to BMW and that my next car probably will be a newer 5-series (E39) with an automatic gearbox and leather interior, my ultimate car would be a Mercedes Benz Gullwing SL300.

And that’s the end of my 8 randomly picked facts. The next eight people I would like to tag are:

1. Chuck Maddox - long time watch friend and the uncrowned King of chronographs!

2. Gerard Nijenbrinks - owner of Horloge Platform Nederland and - in the mean time - friend from The Hague! I wonder if this English game fits his Dutch blog.

3. Frank Geelen - Frank is a passionate watch adept and also has his blog Monochrome! He is a contributor on many forums and blogs.

4. Elmar - Elmar is owner of the Oyster Info website, which also includes a blog.

5. John Biggs - This list shouldn’t exist without his name on it. Also a watch blogger of the first hour with his WristwatchReview.com website.

6. ‘Explorer Johan’ - Long time friend and since almost a year, finally owner of a nice time piece. He used to have a blog, but it died. Perhaps a reason to bring it back to life?

7. Velociphile - Velociphile has one of the best blogs on watches. Period.

8. Roger Ruegger - He has a great website on diver’s watches and runs a blog as well! Excellent place to start your diving watch experience.

Watch collector and seller Manbodh Watches in Den Haag reported the following watches as stolen:

Manbodh offers a high reward for returning these watches. If these watches are offered (see the serial numbers), please contact Manbodh Watches asap.

I really like the Audemars Piguet stainless steel bracelet on the Royal Oak models, although it tapers a bit too much to my taste. However, I can hardly imagine someone would want to replace this incredibly genius piece of art with a leather strap. VikenB over at the Audemars Piguet forum did. This customized strap makes it a ‘different’ watch, although I clearly prefer the classic all-stainless steel look of the Royal Oak.

Photograph by VikenB.

What can we expect? Will Rolex introduce a new Sea-Dweller or Submariner with ceramic bezel? Will Zenith produce more dreadful watches? Will more brands introduce their inhouse movements? What are the new brands? Is horology dead as Velociohile says or did the watch industry suddenly gained enough insight to make watch collecting fun & cool again?

Who knows..

Jorge Merino over at TimeZone keeps us posted with novelties and sneak previews of new watches and watch brands.

Bvlgari Assioma Limited Edition

Giuliano Mazzuoli Manometro S

Xemex Picadilly Chronograph

Aquanautic Super King Chronograph

Click here to be up-to-date till Basel starts!

The Dive (into) Watches blog did a nice write-up for a number of brands with novelties to present at Basel 2008. Click here.

To set the time correctly on your mechanical wrist watch, you definately need at least one quartz controlled wrist watch. Even better, you need a watch that keeps perfect track of time. You need a radio controlled wrist watch! In 1990, Junghans introduced the first radio controlled wrist watch, the Mega 1. An integrated antenna in the strap receives a long-wave radio signal every morning broadcasted on 77.5 KHz from Frankfurt. This broadcast carries time information from Germany’s national atomic clocks at Braunschweig. These radio transmissions automatically set the watch correctly.

Currently, Junghans still carries one radio controlled watch in their ‘Avantgarde’ collection. The Mega 1000 watch! Successor of the Mega 1 wrist watch. These watches are widely available for approximately 300 euros.

However, the original Mega 1 watch, as pictured above, is for sale on the German eBay for prices between 100 and 150 euro.

However, you can find radio controlled wall clocks and radio controlled Casio watches starting at 20 euro as well on the bay. I even found a cool looking Braun wall clock for 20 euro. Who is going to wear this Mega 1(000) anyways? To keep your watch collection ‘complete’, you might want to do an investment for an original Mega 1 though!

“To Manufacture or Not To Manufacture, That Is The Question!”, writes Alon Ben-Joseph on the WatchFreaksBlog today.

Read this interesting blog posting over at WatchFreaks, click:
Should watchmakers become a true Manufacture?

The Montblanc Collection Villeret 1858 is made by what was once the Minerva company.
Photographs by watchinghorology.com.

U-Boat seems to be taken seriously in the watch business these days, at least amongst certain people and magazines. At least since U-Boat is asking over 2000 euro for a mechanical watch. Next, there is TW Steel, making shameless copies of U-Boat watches. Yesterday, I received an e-mail from Kiber announcing their latest < 200 Euro wrist watch. Another copycat...

Sigh… I am getting tired of these fashion watches that ride along the +44mm wave initiated by Panerai. Nothing wrong with these watches as long as they are placed in perspective. The U-Boat costing 2700 euro is ridicilous.

Anyways, here are the specs of these watches:

Article 7100/1066 Fortezza chrono rose €. 169,00
Article 7100/1064 Fortezza chrono black €. 169,00

Movement : Quartz Japanese Miyota OS20

Case diameter: 45mm
Strap attachment : 22mm
Water resistance : 3ATM / 30 meters
Glass: mineral

I promised to get back on my new watch At first, I was looking at Rolex watches again, but couldn’t make up my mind. Although I like the new GMT-Master IIc and the Milgauss, it wouldn’t add much variation to my current collection. Then I was looking at the Royal Oak Jumbo, but I am not ready yet to spend over 8K Euro on one wrist watch.

However, as I have written before, I am a huge fan of the 1970s design of Gerald Genta. He designed the Nautilus, Overseas, Royak Oak and… the Ingenieur. The original ref.1832 Ingenieur SL is highly sought-after I believe, and the prices paid for those are unbelievable. So I decided to settle for a brand new one! To be honest, IWC isn’t my brand. Omega and Rolex are my brand, I like what they are doing and like most of their watches. However, there are some other brands that make one or two types of watches that I really like, and that’s it. I don’t care much for IWC in general. Not my cup of tea. I do like the Ingenieur and the Portugieser line of watches though.

Anyway, I’ve read some articles on the new ref.3227-01 Ingenieur, tried one on for a day (thanks G) and decided to order one. Last saturday, I bought my IWC Ingenieur at Ace & Dik in Amsterdam, official IWC dealer. It was a pleasure to meet Alon Ben-Joseph, owner of the store, in person and we had a nice chat about watches, watch blogging etc. He ordered a fresh model, so I could remove the plastic stickers myself What a treat!

Here are the first pictures of the Ingenieur:

The watch is quite heavy (heavier than my Yacht-Master or Panerai), 216 grams to be exact. The diameter of the case is 42.5mm and 14.5mm in height. The bracelet is wonderfully crafted and it is child’s play to add or remove links. The watch/movement is protected by a soft iron inner case up to 80,000 A/m (magnetic fields), so now I can cook in our induction kitchen again :). The movement itself is a self-winding IWC inhouse caliber 80110.

@Justin, your guess was spot-on!

Since a few days, I also joined the WatchFreaks blog, hosted by Alon Ben-Jospeh. Today, I added an article on vintage Rolex watches and why I do not collect them ;). Please give the WatchFreaks blog a visit and read my latest post!

Photo by Oysterinfo.de

Feel free to come back though

Yesterday, I received the book ‘Vintage Panerai’, written by Ralf Ehlers and Volker Wiegmann. Vintage Panerai describes the history of some historic Panerais, including information on their original German and Italian owners. The book contains a lot of detailed information on the swimmers equipment, assignments and background of the owners. Including lots of pictures. Ralf Ehlers and Volger Wiegmann did a pretty good job on this original concept! If you are into Panerai watches and interested in more than ‘just’ the watches… you probably are going to like this!

You can order your copy via http://www.vintage-panerai.de/.

It is a small sized book (21×21cm), written in three languages and over 220 pages with over 200 photographs and illustrations.

Last saturday I got myself a brand new watch! Due to the time consuming work on my thesis, I didn’t have time to keep you guys (and gals) posted about buying this beatiful timepiece. I have blogged about this particular watch in the past, but didn’t know it would be in my collection so soon (No, it is not the Nautilus or Royal Oak).

I am awfully tired of working on my thesis today, but I promise that I will share my joy with you very soon!

In the meanwhile, you can guess…

As RJ wrote earlier we had quite a nice meeting a few weeks ago. Finally the pictures made by professional photographer Igor made it to the ‘net ! Please click the link below to see all the nices people and watches that were present.

DRSD2

Here’s yours truly trying to capture the beauty of the new GMT-master, one of which is two-tone and DLC’d… Can you spot Fratello?

Enjoy!