One of the most interesting timepieces was the IWC Portuguese Grande Complication, as pictured above (and below). This flagship of the Portuguese collection (with reference number 3774) is a stunning time piece limited to only 50 pieces per year. This 45mm diameter automatic winding watch has a number of very cool features, like a chronograph, perpetual calendar with with displays for the day, date, month, year (in 4 digits) and perpetual moon phase. And last not but certainly not least, a minute re-peater (see below).

I am testing the minute re-peater here. Conclusion: Works as designed. Price tag on this Grande Complication, +/- 170.000 Euro. The other perpetual calendars in the Portuguese family are pictured below, one in a stunning blue dial. However, I really am into the gold Portuguese perpetual calendar

Other watches of interest were the new Portuguese Yacht-Club and the Ingenieur Zidane edition (500 pieces). At first, I didn’t get the Yacht-Club (ref.3902). The weird plastic looking red hand and the fragile chronograph pushers seemed a bit odd on a rough watch for sailers. However, the pushers are derived from the thingies on a boat which they use to wrap the rope around. That makes a bit more sense but doesn’t explain the red second hand. The rubber strap is also nice, but an alligator strap might do the trick for this watch as well.

Below, you see a picture of the IWC display with – amongst others – the Zidane Ingenieur, with a brown dial. The dial is – irl – chocolate brown, the ‘10′ hour marker is red and the rotor also has the number 10 engraved. This was – of course – the number of Zinedine Zidane when he was in the national league of France. Both the Yacht-Club with in-house chronograph movement and the Zidane Ingenieur with in-house 7-days movement are priced around 10K Euro.

The IWC Portuguese 7-Days in stainless steel with the dial from the red gold model Portuguese wasn’t my cup of tea after all. The applied hour markers and hands were too yellow-ish for my taste and the dial color doesn’t match stainless steel. I prefer the stainless steel model with either silver/white dial or black dial.

All in all a superb event organized by Ace & Dik in Amsterdam. A big thank you to Alon and his crew (a.o. Dimer) for being perfect hosts during the evening. Photos above both taken by Dimer of Ace and Gerard, who accompanied me to Ace & Dik.

Related posts:

1. IWC Show at Ace Jewelers in Amsterdam
2. IWC Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar by Bucherer
3. As promised.

I can have more luck with a Rolex from my year of birth, however, the prices of these vintage beauties are becoming annoying. Just a few days ago, I noticed that ‘friend of the show’ Henrik over at SubGMT has a Rolex Submariner ref.1680 for sale, produced ‘around’ 1977. The ‘around’ bothers me of course, but I assume this can be sorted out.

According to the website SubGMT, everything about this watch is original except for the bezel inlay. The pearl of the inlay looks indeed more white than the hour markers or hands. I couldn’t care less to be honest.

More important to me are the polished edges on the lugs and their sharpness. The folded ref.9315 is original as well, and looks fine as far as I can see on these pictures. These old folded bracelets will make people hear you coming from 200 meters distance (instead of the 50 meters with new bracelets ; – ) ). All part of the charms of owning a superb vintage Rolex.

Although its price of 4650 Euro seems to be fair, in my opinion it is still a lot of money for a watch of which its successors are more interesting quality wise. The movement is a Rolex caliber 1570 and can also be found in other Rolex model from that era. It wasn’t until the ref.16800 Submariner until it was upgraded with a caliber 3035 movement. Although both these calibers are excellent time keepers, I prefer the newer caliber 3135 as it can be found in the later sapphire crystal Submariners (16610) and Sea-Dwellers (16600). This movement has a nicely finished double bridge and a higher beats per hour rate.

The folded bracelet I mentioned before, the caliber 1570 movement, the lack of box and papers.. perhaps all reasons that would justify a new sports Rolex for the same kind of money. However, one can’t deny the sophisticated look and feel of a vintage Rolex Submariner, it just breathes history and ‘cult watch’. And in comparison to the Double Red Sea-Dwellers, Great White, Red Submariners, Cream Dial Explorer, Freccione Explorers (and so on), the price of this nice and (almost) original ref.1680 Submariner is very reasonable. If it is still for sale around my birthday (13th of April), I might pull the trigger… because in the end, money back guaranteed with these vintage Rolexes.

Photos courtesy of SubGMT

Related posts:

1. Cult Watches Over At MotoringExposure: The Rolex Submariner
2. A temporarily swap: Rolex Submariner 16613
3. Rolex Submariner 116613 versus 16613

“Our fashion objects are exclusively made. Sartorial tradition and real craftsmanship, as well as the best fabrics and handmade details epitomize what real luxury should be all about: sophisticated, stylish and ready to wear. Everyday. Every time. Everywhere. “We want to be the Audemars Piguet of the fashion industry”, says Christian Adriaanse. “Tradition, excellence and daring. Designing iconic objects. Just like them. Their first Royal Oak watch was unveiled in 1972 – my year of birth – it looks as if it was designed yesterday. Fabulous”.

Designer Christian Adriaanse only uses the very best materials to create these Stripes of Pride shirts, including mother of pearl for its buttons. The Stripes of Pride collection is there to celebrate your successes, achievements and – in short -  life. No holding back because the economy/business goes slow. Just like Audemars Piguet and Gérald Genta did in 1972, introducing a stainless steel luxury sports watch, costing as much as a 18ct gold Patek Philippe Calatrava watch. Because they could do so, by showing their tradition and excellence in everything they do, including in their stainless steel sports watch.

The designer of Wallstreet Kingdom shirts is also an admirerer of haute horlogerie and particularly of Audemars Piguet. As he discussed with me, the red-white Stripes of Pride shirt will perfectly match a Royal Oak ref.15202ST and the blue-white shirt will go well with an Offshore Navy. Just so you know.

Related posts:

1. Audemars Piguet Royal Oak: Nick Faldo
2. Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Montauk: Honoring a highway
3. Audemars Piguet Rubber Clad

The watch case of the Desert Wolf has a 45 diameter and a hard PVD finish. The buckle of the strap also has this PVD finish. As you can see, the dial of the Blancier Desert Wolf is marked with the coordinates of the Dutch Uruzgan camp. The orange markers and hands refer to the Dutch heritage.

The crown and chronograph pushers are located on the 12 o’clock position of the watch, which makes it a ‘bullhead’ watch. Something we’ve seen in the past on Omega and Seiko watches (and a few more).  Other specifications of this watch are:

• water resistant to 100 meters (10ATM)
• sapphire crystal (double side anti-reflective coating)
• 1 year (limited) warranty
• price tag of 345 Euro, of which 10 Euro will go to the Anjerkinderen fund (kids of veterans)

More information and photographs can be found at www.blancier.eu

Related posts:

1. Blancier: Watchmaker for a Weekend
2. BlumLux Louie Quattro
3. Hysek X-Ray Perpertual Calendar

Either if you did or are planning to, make sure to visit the book signing sessions in BaselWorld!

When: Saturday, March 20 and Sunday, March 21 at 14 h / 2:00 pm

Where: Messeplatz, directly in front of Hall 1.0, in the book hut run by Watchprint

Who: Elizabeth Doerr (author), Ralf Baumgarten (photographer), 11 of the watchmakers portrayed in the book: Philippe Dufour, Vianney Halter, Felix Baumgartner, Thomas Prescher, Volker Vyskocil, Paul Gerber, Beat Haldimann, Dr. Ludwig Oechslin, Kari Voutilainen, Roger Smith, and François-Paul Journe.

Related posts:

1. 12 Faces of Time: Horological Virtuosos
2. Book Review: 12 Faces of Time by Elizabeth Doerr & Ralf Baumgarten
3. Thomas Prescher: Handcrafted Time

Friday evening, I attended a Rolex get-together, arranged by authorized Rolex dealer Schaap ~ Citroen. On Saturday I attended the SAHH (Salon Amsterdam de la Haute Horlogerie) to look at all the novelties from Audemars Piguet, Baume et Mercier, Cartier, IWC, Jeager-LeCoultre, Panerai, Piaget, Richard Mille and Roger Dubuis. The SAHH event was hosted by Gassan Diamonds in Amsterdam. And on Sunday, we had our Horloges & Espresso meeting with a bunch of watch nuts in The Hague, organized every first Sunday of the month.

To start with the first, the Schaap ~ Citroen @Home programme, organized a get-together for a few Rolex enthusiasts from The Netherlands. Together with Ronny Wooter (former auctioneer at Sotheby’s) and a team of Schaap ~ Citroen, we received a nice presentation on their stores, vision on selling and of course, Rolex watches. Some great insights on sales, customers and Rolex were shared with us during the evening. A few of these insights on Rolex watches are:

• Rolex does not use laser engraved sapphire green crystals for the Milgauss;
• The laser engraved ‘S’ will disappear from the replacement sapphire crystals that are being used when a watch is being serviced;
• The laser engraved Rolex logo is ALWAYS on 6 o’clock, it is done after the crystal has been put on the timepiece.

Besides the presentation of current Rolex models, there was enough time to discuss vintage timepieces as well. Valuation, service and availability aspects were discussed through-out all the evening. Below you’ll find a few shots that Remco and sBmRnR made during the evening, just to give you an impression of this wonderful event:

I would like to thank Schaap ~ Citroen and forum members Harald and MarkD for initiating and hosting this great event!

On Saturday the 6^th of March, the SAHH was presented in Amsterdam, hosted by Gassan. The two watches that impressed me most were the Cartier Calibre (4900 Euro) with in-house movement and the AP Royal Oak Equation of Time (40-50K Euro). The Cartier has a useable size, perfect finish on dial and case and a movement developed by Cartier. The dial of this watch has all the nice details you are used from Cartier. The only downside is the shape of the lugs in my opinion. The pointy and bended lugs will stick in your wrist, especially when you have large wrists/arms.

The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Equation of Time simply rocks the bomb. The size of the watch was slightly bigger than my Jumbo (15202) or the ref.15300, but still within proportions and less present than the Offshore models. The subtle leap-year indicator, sun-rise, sun-set and equation of time indicators in addition to its moon phase disc are in no-way misplaced or creating a dial that could be considered too busy. I tried on the gold version, but there will be a stainless steel version as well.

A brand that surprised me in a more negative way was Richard Mille. I was very interested in Richard Mille’s timepieces but I simply can’t give them a place. Technically very interesting, innovative techniques and materials, but design wise not very interesting in my opinion. The tourbillon was nice to look at, but I must say that I have seen enough tourbillons last year.

The weekend ended with our monthly Horloges & Espresso meeting in The Hague, the 15th edition if I am not mistaken Just to be in time to visit the IWC Show at Ace & Dik in Amsterdam the next day. A report will follow soon!

Related posts:

1. Rolex of H.R.H. Prince Bernhard for auction
2. Watch Shopping in The Hague
3. Watch 2008 Report

Photo courtesy of SubGMT.com

Click here for my weekly Wednesday Watch article at MotoringExposure.

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1. MotoringExposure: Introducing the Speedmaster
2. A Birthday Rolex Submariner 1680
3. Cars and Watches

The coating on this timepiece is a mixture of polished and brushed parts, which is a bit different from the regular ref.16700 and ref.16710 models. The center links have been polished, as well as the lugs of the watch case. The anthracite colour on the brushed parts is a bit darker than the coating colour on the polished parts, giving it a bit of room to play with the light.

The cool thing about the GMT-Master in DLC edition is that the red GMT-hand stands out. I have seen the newer GMT-Master version (ref.116710LN) in a DLC edition somewhere else, but the green hand didn’t do as much magic as this red hand does in my humble opinion.

Time and Gems did a nice job on creating a militarized version of the well respected GMT watch by Rolex. What you can’t see on the pictures is the case back, which has been kept in stainless steel. The price tag of 6500 USD (or approx. 4800 Euro) is quite a bit away from the original price of a similar GMT-Master in stainless steel, but the DLC process is still a costly operation.

They have more DLC’ed Rolex models for sale on-line, like a Milgauss GV ref.116400 and a Sea-Dweller ref.16600 and more. I am thinking out loud how a Rolex Date-Just 116200 or a Rolex Yacht-Master 16622 would look like with a DLC coating.

Thanks to Jeff from Time and Gems for the use of their pictures.

Related posts:

1. Some Rolex Yacht-Master History
2. Ceramic Bezel close-up of the Rolex GMT-Master II ref. 116710LN
3. Rolex Milgauss DLC

Picture by Stefan /  Molle Watch

My long time blog friend (a.k.a The Seiko Champion) Harry Bishop also wondered why I didn’t include a Seiko timepiece in my 1000 – 2000 USD buying guide article in his most recent blog post. What he actually writes, is the following:

“I would challenge those who exclude Asian (and other) high-end well known brands of watch makers from their lists. The perception of European dominance in luxury watches is actually just an example of successful marketing … it’s not true, and it’s a relatively recent perspective. Other countries including the US used to be considered the premier manufacturers of luxury watches, but that changed last century. Some of this changed for real, other parts of it just changed in belief.

I’m not talking about new Chinese firms with little heritage. I’m talking about something like a Grand Seiko, which has the heritage, quality, accuracy, and aesthetics to more than hold it’s head up high in this company. I guess this post earns me my “Seiko Champion” moniker.”

Why not turn it around? I believe this is the result of unsuccessful marketing by Seiko (and other Asian companies) that made me not include a Grand Seiko in one of my articles. I do not recall seeing a Seiko Spring Drive or (other) Grand Seiko model in a jeweller shop in The Netherlands, other than at Van Koningsbruggen in Zoetermeer (a city near The Hague). This is the only shop I actually saw one and held one in my hands. I’ve never seen them anywhere else in The Netherlands or in another European country. This, and this only, is the reason that I do not include Grand Seiko (Spring Drive) watches in my buyer’s guide articles or cover them at all here at Fratellowatches. I believe I would include them if they were widely available and when I had some hands-on experience with these watches. Because honestly, some of them just look marvellous!

Now, I have been looking around for Grand Seikos on the web, looked into dedicated Seiko forums at WatchUseek and TimeZone but one thing has become clear.. I am not the only one wondering where to get these Grand Seiko timepieces. Vintages models are the easiest to get here in The Netherlands. I have seen several on eBay listing for a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars but old-fashioned as I am, before spending over a 1000 USD on a timepiece, I would love to hold one in my hands and try one first.

One of the few nice ones I noticed is this one:

I guess I will keep following these eBay items for a while, just to get an idea about value and availability. As for the new models, where do I need to go? Tell me.

Related posts:

1. Ofcourse, the Grand Seiko…
2. Seiko GMT
3. Seiko reference page

Probably nothing much inside you didn’t already know about the Moonwatch, but you never know of course Click here for my article at MotoringExposure.

Related posts:

1. Cult Watches Over At MotoringExposure: The Rolex Submariner
2. Omega Speedmaster 125: The first automatic winding chronometer chronograph
3. Omega Speedmaster Professional Moonphase