Today we’re proud to offer a new Oris timepiece that honors a man who is nothing short of an American hero, the late Carl Brashear. Carl Brashear’s life, which was immortalized in the 2000 feature film Men of Honor, was one of triumph over discrimination, and perseverance in the face of what could have been a career-ending injury. Carl Brashear broke the color barrier and became the first African American graduate of the U.S. Navy Diving & Salvage School. And after losing a leg in the line of duty, he became the Navy’s first amputee Master Diver.
The Oris Carl Brashear Chronograph Limited Edition is a 2,000-piece limited series of 100m dive watches produced in bronze. While the timepiece you see here might shine bright today, a major part of this material's charm is its tendency to grow an individualized patina over time. Whether you plan to take it on diving trips, just wear it around the pool, or only break it out from time to time in a dry environment, this watch’s hue will change in a way unique to your environment and lifestyle. An antique style dive helmet is engraved on the watch’s stainless-steel back, along with a quote from Brashear that succinctly conveys his inspiring philosophy of life: “It’s not a sin to get knocked down. It’s a sin to stay down.” Amen to that.
Another appealing aspect of this watch’s design is its vintage inspired two-register chronograph dial, which is presented in a muted blue tone that wonderfully complements the bronze case. The hour markers, as well as the hour and minute hands, feature tasteful fauxtina lume that not only makes for a wonderful vintage look, but also offers great legibility in the dark. The functions for this chronograph come via a Sellita movement that is modified by Oris.
Each watch in this limited edition series comes with a special wooden presentation box. Priced at just $4,950, the Oris Carl Brashear Chronograph Limited Edition is one of the best values among watches being offered with an exotic case metal, to say nothing of the fantastic story that inspired the piece.
The HODINKEE Shop will have a limited number of the Carl Brashear Limited Edition, and they won’t last long. Like every new watch sold in the HODINKEE Shop, this piece is backed by an extra year of warranty in addition to the warranty provided by the manufacturer.
To find out more and purchase the Oris Carl Brashear Chronograph Limited Edition, click here.
There have been some major announcements regarding changes in leadership at the Richemont Group's watchmaking companies in recent days. On April 25, the South China Morning Postfirst reported that Catherine Alix-Renier, who currently runs Van Cleef & Arpels in the Asia Pacific Region, will be taking the reins at Jaeger-LeCoultre as its global CEO. The CEO position has been vacant since the departure of former CEO Daniel Riedo early last year, with Geoffroy Lefebvre acting as Deputy CEO in the interim. Alix-Renier is the second woman in recent times to become a global head of a Richemont-owned watchmaker, the other being Chabi Nouri, the global head of Piaget, who took her current position in 2017. Nouri took over from Philippe-Léoplold Metzger, who had run Piaget since 1999.
Catherine Alix-Renier is in at Jaeger-LeCoultre.
And, just yesterday, on April 26, Baume & Mercier announced the upcoming June 1 appointment of its own new global CEO, none other than Mr. Geoffroy Lefebvre, who will be moving over from his post at Jaeger-LeCoultre. Lefebvre joined Richemont in 2011 as Organization Director, after spending 10 years as a consultant at McKinsey & Company.
Geoffrey Lefebvre is the new boss at Baume & Mercier.
The current Baume & Mercier CEO, Alain Zimmermann, who has been with the company since 2009, is moving to a new role within Richemont as Specialist Watchmakers E-distribution Strategic Project Director. We reached out to a Richemont representative to get some insight into exactly what this role entails, and it includes some of the responsibilities previously held by Georges Kern before he departed for Breitling, specifically handling digital activities and e-commerce for the watch-centric brands.
Traditional watchmaking has seen astonishing growth in the last 20 years, but at the same time the industry is facing many external and internal challenges. At the May 2018 meeting of the Horological Society of New York, William Massena will address these challenges and more. In addition, Massena will discuss the role of independent watchmakers alongside large luxury groups in shaping the future of horology, and novelties from specific brands presented at the SIHH in Geneva and BaselWorld which give us clues about where the industry is headed.
About William Massena
William Massena
William Massena is the Managing Director of TimeZone.com, the world’s largest online watch discussion forum, to which he has been a key contributor since its founding in 1995. He is also a partner at Digital Luxury Group, a Geneva-based marketing and communication research company for luxury brands, and a Trustee of the Horological Society of New York. He is a member of the jury of the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève since 2013.
Each week our editors gather their favorite finds from around the internet and recommend them to you right here. These are not articles about watches, but rather outstanding examples of journalism and storytelling covering topics from fashion and art to technology and travel. So go ahead, pour yourself a cup of coffee, put your feet up, and settle in.
Nearly three decades in space and Hubble is still out there putting in a solid day’s work. For the telescope’s 28th anniversary, NASA released a set of images of the Lagoon Nebula, which is some 4,000 light years away. Shooting in both infrared and visible spectrums, Hubble can captures tons of data that is compiled to create otherwise impossible images of beautiful stellar scenes.
Bryan Davis is a man with a mission: figuring out how to make a rum that's indistinguishable from one with 20 years in an oak barrel under its belt, but which takes only six days to make. In a high-tech "reactor" built inside a distillery that's half mad scientist's lab and half theme park, Davis is doing work that challenges many assumptions about terroir, authenticity, and value.
This ode to the New York City diner is a romantic look at the regulars, lovers, tourists, and drunks that visit these iconic establishments over the course of 24 hours – and 21 cups of stale, yet perfect, diner coffee. These personal stories paint a vivid picture of a place that seems stuck in time.
It's easy to forget, behind the marketing of the things we buy and consume, that they come from a place, and are made at the hands of people. In the case of some of the best known whisky brands, that place is the small Scottish island of Islay. Think Lagavulin, Laphroaig, and Ardbeg. The New York Times takes us on a tour – and the photos alone are worth the click.
This one is a listen, not a read, but it's well worth your attention (and won't take much time either). The seven episodes of this limited series podcast are a strange mix of reporting and audio diary that document the "crew" of a year-long faux mission to Mars taking place in a remote part of Hawaii. It's the perfect reminder that no matter how advanced our technology becomes, space travel is still very much a human endeavor.
While a lot of Baselworld is spent focusing on the new and the novel, occasionally something else appears in the warren of booths big and small. What I didn't expect to find, however, at this year's fair was a little piece of contemporary watchmaking history quietly sitting on a nearly forgotten tray in a back meeting room. But then again, sometimes you get lucky. What I discovered was an original platinum Prestige HM, the very first watch from Romain Gauthier – and you've gotta see this thing.
On the wrist, the Prestige HM wears extremely well (the lack of a traditional crown really helps).
The Prestige HM was the result of years of after-hours work from Romain Gauthier, finally launching in 2007 as the foundation for his fledging independent watch brand. The watch was produced in four limited editions of 38 pieces each, with a white gold version, two red gold versions (black dial and champagne dial), and the platinum version you see here, as well as four limited editions of eight pieces each that are identical to the four main editions, only with baguette diamond bezels. The entire watch is an exercise in balancing classicism and modernity, and it does so to great effect.
The 41mm platinum case has great presence and you notice the heft as soon as you pick it up. At just 12.1mm thick, it wears low to the wrist and actually feels a little smaller than the dimensions would suggest. The dial has an off-center time display that shows just the hours and minutes with leaf-shaped hands against a brushed track accented with Roman numerals. Outside that track is a dark grey section with a detailed guilloché pattern that contrasts nicely with the sunburst section inside. The entire thing is made of solid gold, as are the hands.
The caliber 2206 HM is truly superlative.
By now, you've probably noticed that something's missing here: a crown. In order to make the case perfectly symmetrical, Gauthier has removed the typical winding and setting mechanism, instead opting for a wheel set into the back of the watch. It serves the same functions and is pretty easy to operate after you get used to it. On the wrist, you don't notice the little bump at all, and I think the end result is a more comfortable and more visually harmonious watch.
I mean, just look at that finishing.
The movement in the Prestige HM is really something special. If you've never seen one of Gauthier's movements up close, you need to rectify that ASAP. These calibers are incredible. Like, really, really incredible. The engineering is top-notch, but it's the combination of next-level finishing and the unique styling that sets them apart.
The bridges of the Prestige HM's caliber 2206 HM have these dramatic swooping forms, but the curves are offset by precise edges and sharp points. The highly polished bevels and exacting internal angles frame the frosting found on the tops of the bridges and plates, and the bright red jewels and mirror polished screws add little punctuation marks throughout. By the way, those screws have S-shaped slots that allow for more torque when setting them in place and the wheels have circular internal supports that both improve their structural strength and offer more places for hand-finishing. If you've ever wondered what true high-end modern watchmaking looks like, this is it.
You can see the signature Romain Gauthier style present and mature in this first model.
There are certainly Romain Gauthier watches that are more advanced and more extravagant than this Prestige HM. There's the brilliant Insight Micro-Rotor (which offers a real challenge to the Laurent Ferrier Gallet Micro-Rotor for the title of Most Beautiful Modern Automatic Movement) and the superlative Logical One, with its ruby fusée-and-chain and button-operated winding mechanism. However, this is the OG RG, and it's a very wearable watch made to an extremely high level that set the path down which Mr. Gauthier would venture to leave his mark on modern watchmaking. Seeing one up close was a genuine horological treat.
Despite being more than a decade old as a model, the Prestige HM is still available for sale and the retail price is CHF 68,000 in platinum and CHF 58,000 in white gold and red gold. A handful of retailers should still have select pieces and Romain Gauthier themselves have some as well (including this platinum example).
When the franc/euro peg was ended in 2015 (just a week before the SIHH, no less), there was more than a little bit of panic about what a surging currency would do to Switzerland's export-heavy economy. It was no small surge either – the franc increased in value approximately 30% over the euro in a single day. Would the relative expensiveness of Swiss goods now cause others to shy away? Would the country have to find a third way to prevent financial catastrophe? It turns out, the hand-wringing was probably for nothing, as the very dynamics that were cause for concern have turned out to be the economy's greatest strength.
There are a number of factors at play here, and a recent article from the Wall Street Journal seeks to unpack them. Not least amongst the reasons for the country's continued success, is that Switzerland tends to export premium goods and services, which are less price sensitive (with watches probably being the best example), dampening the impact of these fluctuations. Additionally, the country's reputation as stable, and its consistently strong currency, make it attractive to outside investors, even if their foreign money doesn't go quite as far as it once did.
In early 1990s, IWC released a watch that's now considered a classic from the company's post-Quartz Crisis period: the Pilot's Watch Double Chronograph, which was a rattrapante chronograph built on a Valjoux 7750 movement, heavily modified by IWC's Richard Habring (who has since gone on to found a brand of his own). The Double Chronograph was the essence of unadorned, functional watchmaking – in a substantial, 42mm x 17mm steel case, with a soft iron antimagnetic inner case and a dial strictly oriented towards legibility, it epitomized the no-frills, form-follows-function philosophy that had characterized IWC's approach to instrument watches for many years.
The non-rattrapante model that followed – the reference 3706 Fliegerchronograph, which was 39mm in diameter – was an identical design, and, with its clean look (and hand design, which goes all the way back to the original Mark XI) it was an instant classic. Walt Odets once slyly haracterized the Mark XII as "every non-pilot's favorite pilot's watch," and you could probably say the same about the original Fliegerchronograph – but the key to the success of the originals was that, irrespective of their adoption by professionals, they seemed to really be pilot's watches, rather than to be illustrations of pilot's watches. Over the years, as with many of the classic IWC models from this period in the company's history, though the basic design has undergone a plethora of changes and variations on the essential theme, the spare design of the original still stands out as the ur-pilot's chronograph from IWC.
For instrument watch enthusiasts, the Pilot's Watch Double Chronograph and Pilot's Chronograph/Fliegerchronograph were a very big deal indeed, and they represented, along with the Mark XII, a kind of high water mark for functionally driven watch design – not just from IWC, but for the 1990s in general. (The Mark XI style hands recently made a reappearance in the "Tribute To Mark XI" limited edition). Then, last week, IWC announced that an online-only re-issue of the original design – in a larger case, and with ecru lume – was out.
The watch looked very promising (albeit the 43mm case diameter seemed a little daunting) and indeed, in the metal, it's an impressive watch, as well as being, for those of us who remember the debut of the originals in the '90s, a pretty powerful reminder of a time when so many milestones in watchmaking were yet to come and when the hobby was still very small scale (if you wanted to argue about watches on the internet you were largely stuck with Usenet newsgroups, and the watch magazines – such as they were – were buried at the bottom of the newsstands along with the model railroading, stamp collecting, and doll enthusiast magazines).
In many respects, it certainly feels very much like the original as well. There's the same take-it-or-leave-it chunky steel case, a virtually identical dial, the same date display as in the original, and the same distribution of lume. The basic design remains as strong as ever – time and elapsed time information are delivered with all the unambiguous bluntness and lack of ceremony of a process server handing you a court summons, which for an instrument watch is exactly as it should be.
The similarities between the two watches are so strong that the differences are all the more noticeable. Obviously IWC could have done a straight re-issue of the original Fliegerchronograph and I suspect that would have found a ready audience, but the Tribute To Mark XI seemed an early signal that an exact copy-paste of past classics, for all that many long-time IWC enthusiasts (among which I count myself) would have welcomed such a thing enthusiastically, is not in the cards. Thus, we have a larger case, the use of lume with the hue of aged tritium, and the presence of circular snailing in the chronograph subdials. Interestingly enough the new Pilot's Watch Chronograph (the name is as pared back as the design) is actually thinner than the original Double Chronograph, at 15.3mm. It does, however, wear similarly in terms of thickness, thanks to the NATO style strap. The latter's quite well made, of sturdy-feeling heavy gauge nylon, with a strip of leather reinforcing the holes – that detail should give the strap noticeably better longevity than the average NATO.
In a lot of respects the wearing experience for the new model's more similar to the original than different – the thickness of each is close enough to somewhat cancel out the (significant) difference in diameter. The lume may look aged but of course it works just fine and in the dark, as you'd expect, the dial glows like Marie Curie's teeth.
As happy as I was to see this design return, there is an unexpected element of sadness to seeing it and having it on the wrist, and that's because it is a powerful exercise in nostalgia (as Don Draper famously explained in an episode of Mad Men, nostalgia is a word with Greek roots, and means, more or less, the pain of being away from home). The original version appeared at a time when not just the world of watches, but the world in general, was a very different place; being part of a watch enthusiast community meant being part of something much smaller and altogether more intimate, and watch brands in general still made changes in products in careful, incremental ways, rather than attempting to produce significantly new designs in relatively short periods of time. There was, overall, a sense of durability of design, and stability in identity, that seems to have been a bit lost nowadays. While I welcome this watch in the specific, I feel blue in general about what it reminds me of, which is a world with a smaller scale and more personal level of discourse.
Left, the original Double Chronograph; right, the new Pilot's Chronograph
There have been significant benefits to the global explosion of interest in both vintage and modern watches as well – Golden Ages after all tend to look less and less golden the longer you look at them, and there's an awful lot about the last 20 years of developments in watches, communication about them, and research into them that I wouldn't roll back for all the spuds in Idaho. (If nothing else, we're having a second Golden Age in terms of technology; watch movements in general are functionally, at least in some respects, the best they've ever been.)
The original Doppelchrono wears relatively large and high on the wrist, thanks to its thickness.
Although visually the new Pilot's Chronograph is larger, on the wrist the two watches feel relatively similar.
I actually don't have a very clear sense of what it would be like to have a straight re-issue of the original back (and of course if that's what you want, you can always hunt for an original). The identity of a watch is very context dependent and who knows if how I felt about the watch in 1995 would necessarily be what I'd feel in 2018; both horologically and otherwise, it's been a great deal of water under the bridge. And being a little too backwards-looking has, historically, been occasionally problematic and sometimes nearly fatal for the European watch industry. Maybe it's better to see this watch for what it is: a sign of the times that has appeared at a moment when the mechanical watch is once again straddling the divide between what it once was and can never be again, and what it's going to become.
Today we're proud to announce a new addition to the Oris Big Crown collection is now available in the HODINKEE Shop. The Big Crown D.26 286 HB-RAG Limited Edition is inspired by and named after the Dewoitine D.26, a Swiss-made propeller plane used to train Swiss Air Force pilots in the 1930s. This new limited edition was able to come into existence thanks to an enthusiast group called Hanger 31; the group restores and flies one of two known D.26 planes. The group's plane was manufactured in 1931 and remained in service through 1948.
Oris's first Big Crown watch was introduced in 1938, and it was also the first Oris to feature the manufacturer's pointer date complication. The Big Crown D.26 286 HB-RAG Limited Edition is a modern interpretation of this original aviation watch. The 40mm stainless-steel case features a coin-edge bezel as well as of course the oversized crown that gives the model its name. The dial is a deep almost hunter green, which is complemented by vintage-style lumed aviator hands and large Arabic numerals. The pointer date hand has a red tip to further enhance legibility at a glance.
Powering the Big Crown D.26 286 HB-RAG is the Oris automatic caliber 754 (based on the Sellita SW 200-1). The caseback features a special engraving of the D.26 plane, as well as the watch's limited edition series number out of 1,931.
The Oris Big Crown D.26 286 HB-RAG Limited Edition is priced at $2,000. In homage to the year that the Hanger 31's D.26 was built, this watch is limited to 1,931 pieces. To learn more and to purchase yours, click here.
It has been fashionable to deplore the youth of today ever since "today" meant – oh, let's say the 4th century BC at least, when Aristotle wrote, "[Young people] are high-minded because they have not yet been humbled by life, nor have they experienced the force of circumstances." Millennials and the kids hot on their heels probably aren't actually ruining everything – at least, no more than any other up-and-coming generation – but it does seem to be as popular a sport as ever for older folks (like me) to see signs of an impending apocalypse in the characteristics of youth.
Still, it is a little sad in a general sense, as well as potentially worrisome for our corner of the Universe Of Unnecessary Objects, to read, thanks to the Telegraph, that there is a trend in UK schools to replace analog clocks with digital ones, as the current crop of scholars apparently struggle to tell the time the old fashioned way. As a special bonus, the article also observes that increasingly the fine motor skills of today's youth are deteriorating owing to, you guessed it, iPads and lax parenting. Says a physical therapist interviewed for the story, "It’s easier to give a child an iPad than encouraging them to do muscle-building play such as building blocks, cutting and sticking, or pulling toys and ropes. Because of this, they’re not developing the underlying foundation skills they need to grip and hold a pencil."
Today we got the first bit of news about the 2018 edition of the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG), the biggest awards in watchmaking, with the announcement of this year's jury. Last year we told you about the addition of our very own editor-in-chief, Jack Forster, who isn't going anywhere and will again be a part of this year's deliberations and voting. But along with our esteemed and fearless leader, there are 30 other jury members that represent various facets of the global watch community. Some are longtime veterans of the Grand Prix, while others are new to the panel. Let's take a look at who's who and why this matters.
Let's start with who's out. This year we will not be seeing Rene Beyer (famed Zürich retailer and museum co-owner), David Chang (journalist and collector), Zhixiang Ding (journalist), Emmanuel Gueit (designer), Nazanin Lankarani (jouranlist), and Tina Zegg (retailer) on the panel. Both Gueit and Lankarani were new last year and thus only served the one time, while Beyer, Ding, and Zegg each served multiple years.
Clockwise from top left: Sébastien Chaulmontet, Rebecca Struthers, Carson Chan, and Marine Lemonnier.
The jury has gotten a bit bigger this year, going from 28 to 31 people, meaning we have eight people replacing the six that are leaving. The seven newcomers are Carla Chalouhi (President of Arije International), Carson Chan (collector, trainer, and head of mission for the FHH in Asia), Sébastien Chaulmontet (collector, watch creator, and historian; formerly of La Joux-Perret), Gary Getz (collector, writer, and photographer), F.P. Journe (watchmaker), Marine Lemonnier (former head of communications with Hublot and TAG Heuer), Vincent Perez (Swiss actor and director), Rebecca Struthers (watchmaker), and Michael Tay (co-group Managing Director of The Hour Glass). It's worth nothing that in Michael Tay's case, he's coming back to the jury, after taking last year off.
The President and Vice-President of the jury are both returning members: Aurel Bacs (of auction fame) and Gianfranco Ritschel (consultant and watchmaking trainer) though the non-voting commissioner role now belongs to Régis Hugenin-Dumittan, curator-director of the Musée International d'Horlogerie (MIH), with legendary watchmaker Ludwig Oechslin stepping aside.
The Chopard L.U.C Full Strike was last year's Aiguille d'Or winner.
In one of the stranger turns in recent GPHG memory, Karl-Friedrich Scheufele will be returning as the special juror, having won the Aiguille d'Or (the top prize) two years in a row. How is this possible, you might ask? Isn't the special juror's brand supposed to be ineligible? Well, Mr. Scheufele won in 2016 for Ferdinand Berthoud and then in 2017 for Chopard, hence his return. It's weird, but just a natural result of the voting.
When it was first announced in December 2017 that Phillips would be hosting a Daytona-themed sale called Daytona Ultimatum, I expressed my fair share of skepticism. Some would say I outright scoffed at the very idea of another Daytona-centric auction. I mean, sure, the market has been going crazy for these chronographs lately and only a few weeks before that Mr. Newman's very own watch had fetched $17.5 million, becoming the most expensive wristwatch on the planet. But still. More hype for the Daytona? Do we really need that?
I'm definitely not ready to give an emphatic "yes," but I have talked to a ton of people over the last few months trying to understand exactly why we're at the point we're at in the world of Daytona collecting, and I am feeling a little better about things. There's plenty to be worried about when mass-produced stainless steel chronographs are fetching hundreds of thousands of dollars and more at auction with the sort of regularity that would make a laxative salesman blush. But then again, getting too worked up over the prices of vintage watches is a futile exercise. There's no reason for any of these things to intrinsically cost what they do – it's our love for them and our collective desire to own them (combined, of course, with things like rarity) that drive the market.
The Daytona is a pretty unique watch. Placed in the context of 20th-century watchmaking, it sort of stands alone as a watch that is genuinely mechanically interesting, part of the collection of a top-tier brand, embedded in pop culture in countless ways, and, importantly, exists in too many variations for any one collector to amass. You can genuinely collect just Rolex Daytona watches and never run out of new things to find, new variations to enjoy, and new scholarship to uncover.
While this is true at all price points, it's the high-end of the spectrum that gets the most attention. For Daytona Ultimatum, Phillips has kept the edit on the watches tight, including only 32 pieces when they definitely could have made this a 100-watch sale and enjoyed quite the extra bit of financial benefit as a result. I still might think the name of the sale is silly, but the actual contents are well worth paying attention to, whether you're a buyer or not.
Looking through the catalog, what stood out to me immediately was that there are six (yes, 6!) Daytonas projected to beat the $1 million mark – and four of those are stainless steel. It wasn't that long ago that there were exactly zero Daytonas that had sold for $1 million or more. That all changed at the Christie's Rolex Daytona "Lesson One" auction in November 2013, when an RCO or Oyster Sotto Paul Newman barely cleared the mark. The floodgates were opened. Since then, we've become numb to the crazy prices that Daytonas regularly fetch, and it seems like almost every major auction now features one that at least approaches nine figures, if not more.
So let's make one thing clear: This isn't normal. The fact that we're looking at six Rolex Daytonas that could very well total over $10 million in the same auction is flat out madness. But, it's where the market's at and the watches themselves are pretty damn cool. So let's buckle up, embrace the craziness, and take a closer look.
White Gold Reference 6265 (Lot 8)
Rarity is king. If there's only one known example of anything – or, even better, if there's proof that only one of a certain watch was ever made – you know you've got sky-high prices on the horizon. This watch has been nicknamed "The Unicorn" because of its possibly unique status. The first time this watch was ever seen publicly was actually right here on Talking Watches With John Goldberger, and since then it's been something of a white whale for Daytona collectors (if you'll allow me to mix my animal-based metaphors). This is the only known Daytona to exist in white gold and it's been fitted with a non-original but super chic white gold bracelet by the current owner. It's being sold 100% for charity too, so don't even think about trying to argue.
This watch is lot 8 and it is estimated to sell for CHF 3,000,000 - 5,000,000.
Reference 6263 Paul Newman 'Oyster Sotto' (Lot 14)
Now we're getting into the real nickname watches. This version of the Paul Newman is called an "Oyster Sotto" because the word "Oyster" appears below "Rolex" and "Cosmograph" at 12 o'clock (with sotto meaning below or under in Italian). This is not a variation on the black 6263 Paul Newman, but rather the correct configuration. If you see a 6263 with a non-sotto black dial, the dial and the watch were not born together. White dials are a whole other thing though. As I mentioned, a Sotto was the first million-dollar Daytona and a tropical version sold as part of the Start-Stop-Reset auction in 2016, fetching CHF 1,985,000, but this one is all about the condition. It's absolutely tip top, with the Spillman case as crisp as can be (still showing its maker's mark) and the original pushers, with their finer knurling looking almost brand new.
Reference 6263 With Arabic-Indic Numerals (Lot 21)
Keep the nicknames coming. This watch has been dubbed "The Arabian Knight" by ... someone. Back in the days when custom orders could be placed with Rolex, someone of sufficiently high stature in the Middle East requested this otherwise standard 6263 with a dial bearing Arabic-Indic numerals instead of the usual stick markers. What's key here is that this is an original Singer dial made this way from the beginning (no markers were ever removed and this is an actual production dial, not a prototype), with the numerals printed in non-luminous paint. One fun side note mentioned in the catalog is how similar this font is to the font used for the Arabic-Indic numerals on modern Rolex watches. While the inside of the caseback has engravings similar to those found on other custom order Rolex watches, nobody seems to have ever seen another watch like this and there are definitely collectors who still have unanswered questions.
This is the only one of the watches you see here that we did not have the opportunity to see in the metal during the Phillips preview in New York City, but obviously I couldn't just leave it out. The so-called "John Player Special" has become one of the better-known mega Daytonas over the last few years. This watch is defined by its 18k yellow gold case, black acrylic bezel, and black dial with gold sub-registers and accents. It's a pretty mean looking watch, if you ask me, and the market would seem to agree, since prices have jumped substantially in recent years. It might even be the hottest Paul Newman overall right now, and with this example in super sharp condition, its price could easily creep toward the $1 million mark (or over).
As mentioned above, there was a time when you could order custom watches from Rolex (though today it sounds like a mere fantasy). This is an example of a watch ordered at Asprey in London by Qaboos bin Said Al Said, the Sultan of Oman, as one of a number of pieces intended as gifts. As with the Arabic-Indic dial above, this dial was designed to be this way from the beginning rather than being retrofitted or stamped later. There are certainly other Rolex watches out there bearing these kinds of insignias, including Daytonas, Submariners, and more, but this particular configuration is rare and unusual.
Rounding things out, we have my personal favorite of the bunch. This watch is listed with the unfortunate nickname "The Neanderthal" because of its place in Daytona history. This is a pre-Paul Newman model that might be unique. The dial shows larger white sub-registers on a black ground with just "Rolex" and the coronet at 12 o'clock – it's essentially a Paul Newman version of the Solo Daytona. The look is super clean and graphic, and the sturdiness of the case with the screw-down brash pushers really works for me. The only rub is that there's no real documentation to support this one and it's a "possibly unique" example, giving some collectors pause when it comes to shelling out million of dollars.
When Ben first discovered that Heritage Auctions would be selling a fresh-to-market, platinum, Tiffany-signed Patek Philippe ref. 2526 in incredible condition with a matching platinum bracelet, he called it "one of the true fresh-to-market finds of the past few years." It turns out the guy knows what he's talking about. The hammer just fell and the watch has sold for a whopping $642,500 after premiums, making it the most expensive ref. 2526 ever.
One of the most interesting things with this watch is that it sold through Heritage Auctions, which is a combination online/live auction house that had the watch listed and open for bidding for over a month. This result wasn't due to some Geneva auction room hype train that just wouldn't stop. In fact, when the live bidding opened at $300,000, it got all the way to hammer-up before the next bid came in at $350,000. Then things started to ramp up, with bids trading back and forth between the web and someone on the phone. It seemed to be a two-bidder competition. After just a few minutes it hammered at $525,000, reaching the final price of $642,500 after the premiums were calculated.
The watch itself is truly insane and worthy of a crazy price to match. The combination of the metal, the bracelet, and that rich, creamy enamel dial with the extra little stamp up top is tantalizing. Few watches produce the kind of HODINKEE office buzz that this one did. I'm just disappointed that one of my co-workers wasn't the winning bidder; I'd have killed for a wristshot.
In case you were wondering, the next most expensive 2526 sold publicly is this one, which is another probably unique example, with a white gold case and bracelet, a black lacquer dial, and diamond hour markers. It commanded a price of CHF 339,750 at Christie's back in May 2013. Not far behind that one was a similar watch that sold at Sotheby's in December 2017 for $325,000, this one featuring a white gold case and bracelet, a silvered dial with a Serpico y Laino signature, and a mix of baton and diamond hour markers. Now the only question is this: What will the next mega 2526 look like?
We are back this week with a robust selection of vintage watches for you to shop, ranging from sporty chronographs to wood dial dress watches to your standard time-only daily wearer. Summer is just around the corner, and we know you are all itching to dust off your hot-weather gear and spruce up your look with a new watch. Here are some of this week's highlights.
1940s Harman Chronograph Ref. 734
Here's one you don't see every day. This chronograph was produced by the Harman Watch Company, which was established by Harry Friedman in 1933. Friedman, a Romanian immigrant settled in New York City, started his Swiss watch distribution business along side his brother and then later created his own production company. Using only the best parts from Swiss watch manufacturers, he created timepieces like the one you see here, which is very similar to a Breitling watch made around the same time. It's powered by the caliber Venus 178 too, which is an old favorite of vintage chronograph lovers. You can read more about this watch here.
1965 Breitling Chronomat Ref. 818
Who doesn't love the Breitling Chronomat? This watch, made in 1965, hits all the highlights with its oversized 47.5mm case, bi-directional bezel, and bright orange hands to off-set the otherwise black and white color scheme. Additionally, the watch was designed by Ervin Piquerez S.A. and has the Brevet patent number stamped on the caseback. You can read more about this watch here.
1976 Rolex Cellini Wood Dial Ref. 4127
This Rolex Cellini might not be for everyone – it's certainly unusual – but it's a great little bit of Rolex history. Straight out of the 1970s, this reference 4127 has a burl wood dial with a rectangular yellow gold case. This watch was tied in with the Oysterquartz and King Midas era of opulence, so if gold is your game, then this might be your watch. We suggest pairing it with a t-shirt and jeans. You can read more about this watch here.
The Full Set
In addition to the watches highlighted above, we have the following watches too: 1950s Vacheron & Constantin-LeCoultre Diamond Galaxy Mystery Dial, a 1960s Universal Genève with wood dial, a 1970s Bulova Chronograph "D," a 1970s Zenith Automatic Date, and a 1988 Rolex Datejust ref. 68278 in 18k yellow gold. You can shop the entire collection here.
The very first watch bash I ever attended was a memorable one – it was the launch dinner, in New York, in 2001, for the Ulysse Nardin Freak, and the watch was introduced to us all by the late Rolf Schnyder, the man who created, along with Dr. Ludwig Oechslin, the new Ulysse Nardin from the ashes of the old. By the time the first Freak was introduced, the revitalized Ulysse Nardin had already become famous thanks to its Trilogy Of Time astronomical complications, but the Freak was something decidedly different: a massive, gold, carrousel-tourbillon wristwatch in which the minute hand was also the entire movement (minus mainspring and gearing for the hour hand) and which, on top of everything else, was also the very first wristwatch anywhere, from anyone, to use silicon components.
To say the original Freak made a strong impression on watch enthusiasts of nearly two decades ago, is to say nothing at all – nothing like it had ever been seen before, and it was much more than a nine day's wonder. Single-handedly, the Freak inaugurated the era of the superwatch – mechanically sophisticated, visually arresting, unapologetically exotic – and helped along by the launch of the Opus series at Harry Winston, under the direction of then-CEO Max Büsser, a very wild ride indeed began in modern watchmaking.
The original Ulysse Nardin Freak, 2001
The origin of the Freak was a concept created by Cartier's Carole Forestier, who in 1998 received the Prix de la Fondation Abraham-Louis Breguet for her central carousel tourbillon design. She consulted at UN for a time, but left before the design was finalized and went on to work at Renaud et Papi and Van Cleef & Arpels, before joining Cartier in 2005. (However, her fascination with such tourbillons is still clearly visible in some of her work for Cartier.) Her original design was the conceptual basis for what eventually became the Freak, and the evolution of the design involved an eventual complete reconfiguration of the original concept under the direction of Dr. Ludwig Oechslin, which, among other things, took the power reserve from 30 hours to over a week in the final watch.
The Freak went on to go through a truly bewildering number of variations, and in addition to cosmetic design changes, it has been over the years a launch platform for everything from exotic new materials, to new escapements. The basic design, however – a central carousel tourbillon, powered by an enormous mainspring that takes up the entire diameter of the case, which rotates once an hour – has proven amazingly durable over nearly two decades.
The new Ulysse Nardin 'Freak Out' in titanium and black PVD. Case, 45mm, water resistant to 30 meters.
This latest version of the Freak has the same basic architecture as the very first, and which all Freaks have shared for nearly twenty years. The heart of the Freak is the minute hand, which is also the movement, and which sits on a carriage which is driven by the gigantic mainspring that sits directly under it. As the carriage turns, the movement/minute hand mounted on it turns as well. A gear at its tip rotates against fixed teeth under the bezel, transmitting energy down the gear train to the escape wheels. The last wheel before the escape wheel gears to the pinions of both, and as the balance locks and unlocks them (via a small lever, which like a traditional lever escapement both acts to lock the escape wheels, and transmit energy to the balance) the minute hand/movement gradually advances around the dial.
The "Dual Ulysse" escapement, with double escape wheels.
The whole system is quite interesting to watch and has few parallels in modern watchmaking even conceptually (aside from Carole Forestier's later work with Cartier). The idea of a watch where the movement rotates inside the case is not a new one and ironically, it seems to have originated in a watch designed for economy: the Waterbury Long Wind, which was designed for the lowest possible parts count, had a nine foot mainspring, and which would sell for less than half of the cheapest watches of its time (the late 1880s; one example is in the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum Of American History). Though the principle is similar, in the Long Wind pure economy of manufacture was the goal, while in the Freak, the same idea has been developed to produce a particular aesthetic.
Except for the hour hand driving gears, the entire movement is mounted on a rotating tourbillon carriage.
The main going train bridge is skeletonized, and in the shape of a stylized anchor. The movement is caliber UN-205, with a one week power reserve; flying carousel tourbillon with Dual Ulysse silicon escapement.
From an historical perspective alone, the Freak is a significant watch, but part of the reason it has become so, and a modern classic, is that its aesthetic is, while no longer completely unique, still immediately identifiable and unmistakeable. Several versions of the Freak have been produced which use exotic materials to push the limits of what's possible in watchmaking from both a design and engineering standpoint (the Freak Innovision is one; the FreakLab is another) but the Freak Out is something of a counterpoint to such watches – there is little to distract you from the purity of the design and engineering, which seem particularly unified in this watch.
The two counter-rotating silicon escape wheels of the Dual Ulysse escapement.
Silicon has largely been used for its technical advantages, rather than its aesthetic potential, in modern watchmaking, but it does have some interesting visual properties as well – depending on the light it can be quite flat and very nearly disappear, especially against a dark background but at the right angle, its surfaces flicker to life, in most eye-catching blues and violets. This is somewhat reminiscent of blued or heat-purpled steel, and it gives the depths of the Freak a fugitive light, like the body of a carp appearing and disappearing in a garden pond. It's a very striking effect and, for the technically minded enthusiast, it also means you can clearly make out the very unusual shape of the escape wheel teeth, with their stylized ocean-wave profiles – an example of engineering constraints leading necessarily to beauty. Watchmaking at its best connects the two in a way very rare in modern manufactured objects.
Operating the Freak is very straightforward. There's no crown; to set the watch, you lift up the small locking tab at the base of the bezel at 6:00. This allows you to rotate the bezel forwards or backwards, setting the hour hand and minute hand/movement. Winding the watch is done by turning the knurled bezel on the underside of the watch; you can see the extremely large mainspring (which would be comfortable doing duty in a table clock) through a small aperture in the caseback. The idiosyncratic visuals of the Freak extend to its nocturnal appearance as well, with the rather sci-fi chevrons of luminous material on the hands glowing like the wings of alien nocturnal insects.
There are some watches that are considered, more or less, must-haves, and for various reasons – if not must-haves, then at least watches you should experience on some level if you're interested in watches at all. Some members of this group are fairly self-evident: the Rolex Submariner, the Omega Speedmaster, any simple Patek Philippe, the Lange Datograph, and so on. Obviously, the basis of such a list is not ownership per se, but rather, the accumulation of the direct, personal experiences so essential to a contextually grounded enjoyment of watches and watchmaking (personally, I'd put the JLC Atmos in there as well, to say nothing of the Reverso).
For many watch enthusiasts, the Freak doesn't necessarily immediately suggest itself as a must-see classic but I think it should. In pioneering the use of silicon, the exploitation of its potential for novel mechanical and aesthetic purposes, and also for its establishment virtually single-handed of an entirely new genre of watch designs, it's worth seeking out. It's a watch that plays a serious game in just about every aspect of modern mechanical horology, and as the years and decades continue to pass, it's a watch that will, I think, continue to reward study with a kind of fascination hard to find elsewhere in watchmaking.
For a look at another historically pioneering design from Ulysse Nardin, check out our story on the Ulysse Nardin Tellurium Johannes Kepler, a groundbreaking astronomical complication from the 1990s, still in production at Ulysse Nardin. The Freak Out Full Black is $48,000 in black PVD titanium; for full specs and more info, see it at Ulysse-Nardin.com.
Much of the excitement surrounding this spring's auction season is centered on Phillips's thematic auction, Daytona Ultimatum and its potentially record-setting top lots. And justifiably so. Following the electric, record-breaking sale of Paul Newman's own Rolex Daytona in New York last fall, the market for Rolex's flagship chronograph has heated up even more. But don't overlook another big sale taking place this spring, the main event as it were, Geneva Watch Auction: Seven. The 185-lot Phillips sale will take place over two days (May 12-13) at the La Réserve hotel in Geneva.
As you'll see here, it comes with quite an eclectic selection of interesting Breguets. I reached out to Paul Boutros, Head of the Americas and International Strategy Advisor for Phillips Watches, for comment as to how so many strange and interesting Breguet watches found themselves in a single auction. I also asked if these watches had come from a single collection. Boutros told me that Geneva Watch Auction: Seven has the largest number of rare and interesting Breguets he's seen in a single sale, but that this circumstance occurred more or less by coincidence. He told me that these watches came from a number of collections. When I asked him what the standout lot amongst the Breguets was, he immediately pointed to lot 119, the Pre-Type XX, whose design helped to set the stage for what would later become one of military aviation's most famous chronographs.
Pre-Type XX Made In 1952 And Sold To Louis Breguet's Société d'Aviation Louis Breguet
First up, a Breguet Pre-Type XX pilot's wristwatch dating to 1952. This stainless steel flyback chronograph measures a large-for-its-time 38mm in diameter and features short, faceted lugs. The case, the bezel, and the lugs all appear to be in great shape, too. As documented in accompanying papers, this watch was sold in 1953 to aircraft manufacturer (and Breguet descendent) Louis Breguet and his Société d'Aviation Louis Breguet, two years prior to the sale of the first Type XX watches to the French military. But as you can see, many of the most important design codes of the Type XX are already present in this early example. The style of the hands, the luminous numerals, the onion crown, the case size, and the faceted lugs are all elements that would go on to be seen in early examples of a watch procured by the French military that would be called the Type XX.
This watch is lot 119 and it is estimated to sell for $26,500 - $52,900. Read more about it here.
Early, Military-Issued Type XX With Unsigned Dial
Photo: Courtesy Phillips
The Breguet Type XX was made in both military and civilian versions. This one with an unsigned dial is the former, produced in 1955 and omitting extraneous text in order to place at-at-glance readability above other considerations such as branding. In fact, the Type 20 wasn't a product name per se, but rather a project code devised by the French government when they were soliciting suppliers of military aviation watches. There were other other Type 20s supplied to the French military, from the likes of Dodane and Mathey-Tissot, but Breguet's were the most famous, and the only ones to use Roman numerals to denote the number 20 (ie, all Type XXs are Type 20s, but not the other way around). This piece's dial may be be unsigned, but the case is signed, and the back is engraved with multiple markings.
This watch is lot 120 and it is estimated to sell for $12,700 - $19,100. Read more about this watch here.
Rare Civilian Type XX With Tachymeter Dial
There were both civilian and military-issued versions of the Type XX, the former of which lacked the special markings on the caseback that were to be found on the military versions. As you can see, this particular civilian version features a tachymeter scale, one of the rarer features to be found on a Type XX dial. Dials with this tachymeter are seldom seen, and it seems that this is a feature that clients typically had to ask for as a special order. This watch looks to be in great shape too.
This is lot 121 and it is estimated to sell for $26,500 - $52,900. Read more about it here.
Very Rare Yellow Gold, Civilian Type XX
As confirmed by an accompanying certificate from Breguet, this is one of only three known gold Type XXs, all made in 1955. One of the others currently resides in the Breguet Museum in Paris. The version being offered here, a civilian model, was originally sold on June 8, 1966, to a certain Mr. Sambon for the price of 115,000 French francs. The use of these watches remains unknown, according to Phillips, but given the extraordinarily high price charged for this piece, there is reason to believe that it was a special edition made for select clientele.
This watch is lot 122 and is estimated to sell for $42,300 - $63,500. Read more about it here.
Rare Steel Triple Calendar Chronograph With Moonphase
Moving away from the Type XX but staying in realm of chronographs, we have this stainless steel triple calendar chronograph dating from 1972. What's unusual about this piece is that it comes from a time in Breguet's history when much of the watchmaker's output was focussed on the Type XX. Furthermore, most of the Breguet calendar chronograph watches come cased in gold, making this stainless steel example a rare bird indeed. The manually wound Valjoux caliber 88 is a modified (through the addition of a moonphase) version of the Valjoux caliber 72C that was used in the collectible Jean-Claude Killy Rolex Dato Compax. Its 36mm diameter seems like an excellent – and elegant – size for contemporary wear, too.
This watch is lot 231 and it is estimated to sell for $63,500 - $127,000. Read more about it here.
Rare Mid-1960s Dive Watch With Bakelite Bezel
While Breguet in the 1960s is mostly associated with its military-issued pilot's watch, the company also made a handful of divers during this time period. Lot 230 is just such a watch. The 37mm stainless steel case of this watch has been wonderfully preserved and comes with a seemingly pristine Bakelite bezel. The lume plots and hands appear to be in great shape as well, and the dial still glows bright in the dark (which you can see if you head over to the Phillips site and check out the listing).
This watch is lot 230 and is estimated to sell for $42,300 - $84,700. Read more about it here.
Diver's Flyback Chronograph With Inner Rotating Bezel
This cushion-shaped diver from 1978 measures 43mm wide by 44mm long, large even by modern standards. At first glance, a cushion-shaped watch seems strange coming from a brand like Breguet, whose image is so steeped in horological classicism. According to Phillips, this diver had never been seen before, so it's also naturally the first time that it's come up for auction. It's interesting that Breguet, a company that never got into diver's watches in a major way, would have produced this flyback chronograph diver. But then again, flyback chronographs were Breguet's stock-in-trade for many years with the Type XX. And indeed, the movement inside is the caliber 725, which also saw life in the Type XX.
This unusual watch is lot 272 and it is estimated to sell for $21,200 - $42,300. Read more about it here.
First Known Breguet Alarm Wristwatch
Photo: Courtesy Phillips
This early 1970s wristwatch with alarm function comes as a bit of a surprise. For many years, it was thought that the first Breguet wristwatches equipped with an alarm function dated from the 1990s and featured the classical design cues one more commonly associates with Breguet, such as guilloché dials and Breguet hands. It now looks as though this function came a bit earlier. As you can see, the stainless steel watch looks nothing like the pocket-watch-inspired Breguet Classique models. Instead, it's very much a 1970s period piece. This is now the earliest known Breguet wristwatch to feature an alarm.
This watch is lot 270 and it is estimated to sell for $5,300 - $7,400. Read more about it here.
Pocket Watch With Jumping Hours And Wandering Minutes
Photo: Courtesy Phillips
This excellent example of Art Deco style also happens to pack an interesting mechanism inside. The jumping hours are depicted in a window that circles the dial while also pointing to the minutes, which are printed on a static chapter ring. Breguet was known for making jumping-hour pocket watches and wristwatches in the first half of the 20th century. This 45.5mm model is cased in 18k gold and was made in 1928. The movement inside was made by Robert Cart, who supplied jumping-hour movements not just to Breguet, but also to the likes of Vacheron Constantin and Gübelin.
This watch is lot 227 and it is estimated to sell for $3,200 - $5,300. Read more about it here.
Other Breguets In This Sale
In addition to the lots highlighted here, there is a Breguet pocket watch chronograph (lot 228), a Breguet pocket watch minute repeater (lot 229), a late '70s square Breguet wristwatch with day and date (lot 269), and another late '70s wristwatch in steel with central seconds and date (lot 271).
The Phillips Geneva Watch Auction: Seven will take place May 12 -13 at Geneva's Hotel La Réserve. For more information, visit Phillips online.
Last week we had the pleasure of hosting events with Panerai in Los Angeles on two consecutive nights – this is the first time we've ever hosted back-to-back evenings. The first celebration was at Panerai's new boutique in South Coast Plaza (our first event in Orange County), which is a beautiful and intimate space tucked into an area with a ton of other watch boutiques. Less than 24 hours later, we were back at it on Rodeo Drive at Panerai's West Coast flagship. Over the two evenings, we welcomed more than 150 guests to see the latest Luminor Due watches (including the new 38mm!), drink some Negronis, and nerd out about all things Panerai.
Thank you to Giovanni Carestia, President of Panerai North America, the teams at both boutiques, and everyone who came to show their support. We hope to see you all again soon!
Jaeger-LeCoultre's Polaris collection was the big news at this year's SIHH, and the most complicated member of the new family is the Chronograph WT (world timer) which combines a world time complication with a chronograph. This latest introduction separates out the world time functionality, in a slightly smaller case, and with a new dial treatment. This model is going to be available only at JLC boutiques, and in a limited edition of 250 watches.
Initial Thoughts
Jaeger-LeCoultre currently has two other world time models in its collections – one of them is the Geophysic Tourbillon Universal Time, and the other is the Geophysic Universal Time. Both of these watches, despite the disparity in cost (in steel, the Geophysic Universal Time is $15,700 and the Tourbillon Universal Time in platinum is "price on demand") share a similar aesthetic and a very traditional one at that, for this complication: the presence of a representation of the Earth, as seen from above, which corresponds with the 24 time zones of the world time complication. It's a beautiful way to visualize the complication and it has not only a certain philosophical charm, but also the weight of history behind it, but it has the potential to seem a bit old-fashioned and if you want a world time watch with a more modern character, we now have the Polaris Geographic WT.
Despite the absence of the baroque intricacy of a view of the Earth from the North Pole, there is still a lot going on visually with the Polaris Geographic WT – in addition to the world time complication itself, you get a power reserve indicator, a sub-dial showing the time in a second time zone, and another subdial showing the date. Of course, there are any number of two time zone wristwatches available from JLC as well (including a number of Reversos, and several options in the Master collection) but this is a true world time complication, flying solo, in a more technical design.
Diameter: 42mm Thickness: 11.54mm Case Material: stainless steel Dial Color: smoky blue Lume: yes; numerals, indexes and hour and minute hands Water Resistance: 100 meters Strap/Bracelet: black alligator
The Movement
Caliber: 936A/1 Functions: time; second time zone; world time Power Reserve: 43 hours Winding: automatic Frequency: 4hz Additional Details: 1000 hour control
Pricing & Availability
Price: US pricing TBD Availability: summer 2018 Limited Edition: yes; 250 pieces world wide, JLC boutiques only
I don't remember the first time that I saw a Patek Philippe reference 3970, but I do remember one of the first, and it left quite an impression. It was 2014, and I had just been promoted from Cataloger to Associate Specialist at Sotheby's. There was a client that I had worked with in the past who had consigned some smaller pieces. He was always friendly and warm, and he reached out to me one day to say he was ready to consign his 3970E in yellow gold. I nervously searched for comps and came up with an estimate: $60,000-$80,000 with the reserve at the low estimate. The auction soon approached and, much to my dismay, there was little interest in the watch. I frantically called the consignor the night before the auction and lowered the reserve to ensure more bidding activity – needless to say he wasn't happy, and I got an earful (such is life at an auction house, mind you). The watch ended up selling for $68,000 all-in, and to say that the consignor – and myself – were disappointed would be an understatement. To this day, I think about this story whenever I hear of a 3970. It hasn't curbed my love of the watch, but I have always wondered: What's up with the 3970, and why does nobody seem to care about it?
The Patek Philippe reference 3970.
For me, the attraction has always been there. It's considered one of the last great designs from Patek Philippe and is a fairly complicated piece. The aesthetics are there, the size is there, the movement is there – it has all the makings of a collector's watch, but for some reason the results are always a little soft, a little lackluster. So I set out to really break down this watch and to see what it's all about. Let's dig in.
What Is The Reference 3970?
The reference 3970 was born in 1986 (a good birth year, if I may say so myself). One must remember the 1980s were a weird time for mechanical watches. Quartz movements were shaking things up and people just didn't care about complicated watches. In fact, even chronographs weren't popular. Like, at all. So when the 3970 perpetual calendar chronograph dropped in 1986, it was not easy for retailers to move. According to John Reardon, Head of Watches at Christie's and an authority on all things Patek Philippe (he literally wrote the books, plural), retailers didn't even want to take them from Patek because they were too hard to sell. But before we get into the popularity and cost of these watches, you need to know what the 3970 actually is, in all its various incarnations.
The Patek Philippe Reference 1518 in Steel
The grail-est of grail watches might just be the stainless steel Patek Philippe 1518, a predecessor of the 3970. Only four examples are known and the most recent one sold for over CHF 11 million. Read more about this epic watch in Ben's deep-dive here.
The 3970 is a perpetual calendar chronograph, and the successor to the iconic 2499, which was in production from 1951 until 1986. Prior that that, the reference 1518 occupied the heralded "perpetual calendar chrono" title for Patek. In fact, the 1518 was the first serially produced perpetual calendar chronograph overall (you can read more about it here) and it's a true icon of 20th-century watchmaking.
The 3970 was produced in white, yellow, and rose gold, as well as platinum. The case itself measures 36mm, which is 1.5mm smaller than that of the 2499. Downsizing was an interesting move on Patek's part. It features a traditional dial display with three subsidiary dials: leap year indication and chronograph 30 minute totalizer (at three o'clock), moonphase and date (six o'clock), and chronograph 12 hour totalizer and running seconds (nine o'clock). There are twin apertures for the day of the week and the month at 12 o'clock, and traditional round chronograph pushers flanking the crown. Overall, it's very Patek Philippe, and represents a transitional time for the brand as a modern piece released after post-vintage era greats such as the 1518 and the 2499, both of which have reached grail status. It's worth noting that the 2499/100 was still in production well into the 1980s, so the 3970 was a nice, close follow up to that reference.
The first Patek Philippe perpetual calendar chronograph in rose gold, steel, and yellow gold – the reference 1518.
At the center of the 3970 is its movement – the caliber CH 27-70 Q. This caliber was the first non-Valjoux-based movement Patek ever used in a chronograph. Instead, it was based on the Lemania 2310, which was also the base of the beloved caliber 321 movement used in early Omega Speedmasters. This manual-winding movement has a 60-hour power reserve, and was also used in the later 5970 and 5004 (with added rattrapante function). It's a beautiful and reliable movement that remained in use for the entire lineage of the 3970 and is still used today in some very special pieces like Vacheron's Cornes de Vache. The finishing on this caliber is excellent – all hand-done, of course. The CH 27-70 Q was among the finest movements in the world at the time of production, and represents a very Genevan way of doing things.
The caliber CH 27-70 Q
One, Two, Three, Four Series
As I mentioned earlier, the 3970 was born in 1986 and was in production all the way up to 2004, which is not an insignificant amount of time for any Patek reference in the modern age. The reference is broken down into four series and each varies slightly, some rarer than others. The details that change are all aesthetic and can be found in the hands, indexes, and casebacks.
First Series (1986)
The first-ever Patek Philippe reference 3970 auctioned at Antiquorum in 2015. (Photo: courtesy of Antiquorum)
Only 100 first series pieces were made, so it is the rarest of the series (with the exception of the 3971). The first series was defined by the silvered dial, feuille (or leaf) hands, stick indexes, and slightly off-color sub-dials. In addition, it has a solid snap-on caseback and all were produced exclusively in yellow gold – and all in 1986. Additionally, there are a couple that can be found with a bracelet (#swoon), and for those the reference number is followed with a -1. This applies to both the 3970 and the 3971.
The Reference 3971 (1986)
The Patek Philippe 3971 that belonged to Reginald "Pete" Fullerton.
The snap-on display caseback that differentiated the 3971 from the 3970.
There was another reference born alongside the 3970 in 1986 – the 3971. This reference was exactly the same as the first series 3970 with feuille hands, stick indexes, and differently colored sub-dials, however this reference features a snap-on sapphire crystal back. This watch was produced alongside the first and second series, but was discontinued after. There are less than 300 reference 3971s ever made, making this a super-rare reference to find. And with that snap-on sapphire crystal caseback, can you really blame anyone for wanting this one?
A brochure for the 3971.
Second Series (1987-1990)
The second series 3970ER with uniform dial and sub dials, stick indexes (my fave), and feuille hands. Not pictured: the solid screw-down caseback.
The second series was produced from 1986 to 1991 and was produced in yellow, rose, and white gold, with a few made in platinum too. Technically, it's known as the 3970E (E = étanche, aka waterproof) due to the solid screw-down caseback. Approximately 650 (3970 and 3971) were made in total, with white gold being the rarest (there only six examples known today). The watch itself is differentiated from the first series by two things: the sub-dials are the same color as the dial, and the caseback is a solid screw-down version. There was the option for clients to order an additional sapphire screw-down caseback, but this is rare. The feuille hands and the stick indexes remain the same, and it should be noted that the cases were hand-finished up until 1990, making the first and second series more desirable to collect, and by a lot.
A second series 3970EP with the solid screw-down caseback.
Third Series (1990-1995)
A third series 3970 with pointed indexes and pointed baton hands.
The third series 3970 is when things started to transition to slightly more numerous production. It was made from 1989 to around 1995 in all four metals, with about 1,350 total pieces produced. The major differences here are that the watch came with both solid and sapphire crystal screw-back cases, pointed baton indexes, and baton hands instead of the leaf hands. Additionally, the dial is bright silver and the printing is heavier, making it a more vibrant piece. Since this is the most common 3970, it is often the least expensive, with the fourth series running alongside it.
Fourth Series (1995-2004)
The fourth and final series was produced from around 1994 to 2004 and was exactly the same as the third series but with a new serial number range, and came with a deployant clasp. About 2,000 pieces were made and in all four metals. It was the last run and is the least collectible.
This is a fourth series 3970EP from 2002 and is basically the same as the third series with pointed baton indexes and hands with sapphire screw-down caseback.
The screw down sapphire caseback showing off the caliber CH 27-70 Q.
The 3970 was in production for over 20 years and remained one of the more sought after complicated references by the end of its life cycle. The reference was interrupted by the 5020, which introduced the QP chronograph complication in a cushion-form case (not my fave, nor was it anyone else's). The 3970 was ultimately followed up by the 5970 in 2004 and then the 5270 in 2011. The 5970, of course, uses the exact same caliber as the 3970, but its updated case size and clean dial, coupled with limited production, make it a far more desirable watch for most collectors.
But Is The 3970 Collectible?
Okay, so when I set out to write this article, I was convinced that I would stumble across some insane finding that this watch is the next watch to collect. However, after spending a lot of time with it, I realized the beauty of this watch is not that it has any kind of superstar status. Quite the opposite, actually. While the prices for the your average 3970 range from around $70,000-$200,000 depending on metal and series, the unique pieces are still the most collectible. Here are some of the highlights.
Special 3970s
The thing to remember about vintage watches is that any time you have a special dial or configuration, it's going to be more valuable (yes, obvious statement, but it needed to be said). This is no different for the 3970, which can be found in many different variations. One of the more recent ones to come up at auction is this platinum 3970 with black dial and Breguet numerals (say what?). This watch is "possibly unique" (aren't they all) and also boasts a tachymeter scale <insert Eric Wind scream emoji here>. This watch is estimated to sell for CHF 200,000-400,000 and is coming up for auction at Phillips later this month, so stay tuned for an update on that.
A possibly unique Patek Philippe 3970P.
Similar to the above watch is Eric Clapton's 3970 in white gold with a salmon dial, Breguet numerals, and a tachymeter scale. Obviously, this watch is significant for a few reasons: it's Clapton's; and it has a unique salmon dial with Breguet numerals. The most interesting thing about this watch is that it out-performed Clapton's 5004 that sold in the same exact sale by $50,000, with the 3970 selling for $459,000 and the 5004 selling for $405,000. You can read more about this watch here.
Eric Clapton's 3970. (Image: courtesy of Phillips)
Also sold publicly was the very first Patek Philippe 3970 ever produced, which brought in over CHF 200,000 at Antiquorum in 2015. Obviously, this was a fairly good price for such a novelty, but since it is a yellow gold first series, the price is weaker than, say, the special dial 3970 in platinum coming up at Phillips. It's clear that unusual dials trump something like the first serial number, but it's still not that strong. I will say that while special dials are always the most desirable, there is a certain inherent coolness and desirability in rare production 3970s. Special dials were commissioned by big shots for the sake of being special. An early 3970 with snap back is an incredibly rare and special watch, and only 100 were made. It also feels truly vintage and is not that expensive for what it is, relatively speaking. Then you have a white metal second series watch – try to find one. Seriously.
A special second series 3970EP.
This watch above is a second series platinum 3970 – one of the fewer than 10 known. And it was made in 1990, with a white moon, white hands, and the calendar in Italian. That's a cool watch, and it's about as close to a platinum 2499 as you're going to find south of many millions of dollars. There are several other variations of the 3970 that are more collectible than others: Those with Arabic numeral dials, a la the 5004, and those pairing white metal cases with black, stick dials (instead of diamond markers, which was the norm for black dial watches), will always draw demand. As for your run-of-the-mill, silver dial 3970 from a later series? I'm not sure how bright that future is, financially speaking.
So is the 3970 collectible? For me, I think it is, but in a different way than how you might expect. It's not a 1518, where you spend over $350,000 for yellow gold example (the least rare), and it's not a 5004 that goes for over $325,00 that you can put away for special occasions. Rather, it's an elegant complicated Patek Philippe perpetual calendar chronograph that still gives you the feeling that you are wearing something really special (because you are) without having to spend well over six figures (still a very rare thing for the 1% to do, let alone the rest of humanity). The 3970 is a good watch, maybe even a great one. And if Patek had limited its production a bit more, it might even be a grail. But that's not what happened, and prices for most yellow or rose gold watches still sit below $100,000.
And that's okay! The 3970 still manages to hit all the right notes: It's an old school Swiss-made watch with an ébauche movement at half the price of its modern counterpart, the 5270. It has also held its value over the years. According to Wempe New York, they sold a 3970R in 2002 for $76,200 and a 3970P for $87,900 – to put things in perspective, a 3970P now sells for just over $110,000, so they have gone up slightly in price. The 3970R still sells for about what it did at retail. And this is a fourth series; the first and second series go for slightly more, a 3970P from 1991 sold for just over $125,000 at Phillips during the Paul Newman Daytona sale.
The latest Patek Philippe 5270P with salmon dial retails for $187,110.
All in all, the 3970 is a fantastic piece of machinery that both looks good on the wrist and wears well at 36mm. It represents a transitional period in which the Patek Philippe of the 1980s became the Patek Philippe we know today. The value has remained about the same, which is really quite rare for any watch, though people love to tell stories of how much they've made in watch collecting. I think one thing to note is that watches produced in the '90s are now 30 years old (terrifying, I know), and if you examine what is happening with other '90s watches, and other collectibles from this period (automobiles, art, furniture), one wouldn't be crazy to expect an upswing.
I'm not saying you should run out and buy all the watches from the 1990s, but it is something to think about in regards to the 3970. If a complicated Patek is your quest, and you're looking for a smaller size than what's found in the 5970 or 5270, it might be time to take a closer look. No matter what, the 3970 will always have its fans and its detractors, and that's okay. But I wouldn't be so quick to overlook a great 3970 if you're in the market for your first (or last) big watch. Put on a 3970P next to a 6239 Paul Newman and see which hits you harder. My guess is you'll be surprised by the answer.
The RM 67-02 originally launched last summer, and now Richard Mille has created three new production examples that offer somewhat more subtle expressions of the same incredibly light and thin automatic sports watch. Just as with the original pair of 67-02s, Richard Mille has connected each of these new versions with an athlete that can test (and likely prove) just how tough and sporty these wild watches really are. Coming in at 38.7mm wide and an astounding 32 grams, including the strap, the RM 67-02 should not be taken as lightly as it wears.
Along with a titanium movement and a special seamless elastic strap, the secret to the RM 67-02's lightweight construction comes from the use of two advanced materials for the case construction. The case is essentially two outer plates and a center case structure, and these pieces are made from either Carbon TPT and/or Quartz TPT (Thin Ply Technology) both of which you can learn more about in Cara's original coverage of the RM 67-02. The colors were selected to match those of the home countries of each of the star athletes connected with these new models – the black, red, and yellow version is for Germany's tennis star Alexander Zverev; the Quartz TPT-cased white model is for the French skier Alexis Pinturault; and the full Carbon TPT version, on a blue strap, is for Sébastien Ogier, an extremely talented World Rally Champion who also hails from France. While far wilder than your average watch, these new RM 67-02 versions are much less colorful than the original two models, which featured dual case coloring in alternating bands of white and magenta, or green and yellow.
French World Rally Champion Sébastien Ogier inspired this Carbon TPT cased RM 67-02.
Initial Thoughts
As a guy who loves a simple, beat-up dive watch, every opportunity I've had to experience a Richard Mille in person remains firmly stamped in my memory. They are amazing things to behold and they seem to break the laws of physics when held in your hand. They don't seem to weigh ... enough? The RM 67-02 is one I'd love to try for myself, and I really rather like the more reserved and uniform look (relative to an RM) of the Ogier version.
While I'm sure RM 67-02 production won't challenge that of any mass-market brand, the continued pursuit of sporting arenas in which to prove their technology remains a compelling backstory – remember the RM 27-01? Progressing from the high jump and sprinting into the death zone of alpine ski racing, the World Rally Championship, and tennis (again) seems like a great fit for Richard Mille, and it's an uncommon proving ground for a watch born under the umbrella of haute horology.
While its $120,500 price point will ensure the RM 67-02 remains more of an idea than a reality for most watch enthusiasts, even if I can't have one, I do like that such watches exist. Richard Mille is an unapologetically modern endeavor in a world of vintage-inspired design and old-school thinking. Bold, tech-forward, and always delightfully high-end, these three new versions are strong additions to the RM 67-02 line up and offer a more subdued take on the lightest of automatic offerings from Richard Mille.
Red, yellow, and black for German tennis star Alexander Zverev, who will wear a super lightweight RM 67-02 during matches.
The Basics
Brand: Richard Mille Model: RM 67-02
Diameter: 38.7mm Thickness: 7.8mm Weight: 32 grams (with strap) Case Material: Quartz TPT (front and back) and Carbon TPT (case bands) Dial Color: Black/grey (skeletonized titanium) with colored accents to match athletes' home countries Lume: Yes Water Resistance: 30 meters Strap/Bracelet: Textile "comfort strap," seamless and elastic.
A bright white quartz TPT case for the French skier Alexis Pinturault.
The Movement
Caliber: Richard Mille CRMA7 Functions: Hours and minutes Thickness: 3.6mm Power Reserve: 50 hours Winding: Automatic Frequency: 4 Hz (28,800 vph) Jewels: 25 Additional Details: Freesprung variable inertia balance
Pricing & Availability
Price: $120,500 Availability: Authorized brand retailers and boutiques
The Swiss watch industry is on a roll. Watch exports rose for the 11th consecutive month in March, up 4.8% versus March 2017 to CHF1.7 billion ($1.79 billion), according to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH). For the first quarter of 2018, exports jumped 10.1% in value, "the highest quarterly growth since June 2012," the FH said in a statement.
Hong Kong and China led the way. Watch exports to Hong Kong, Switzerland's top market, jumped 21.7% in the first quarter. "Hong Kong has been reporting sustained and uninterrupted growth for nearly one year," the FH noted.
Patek Philippe factory, Geneva (clock by Jean Kazés).
Exports to China were up 19.2% over the year's first three months. That's despite a 6.9% drop in exports in March that ended China's 18-month growth streak. The drop was caused by a high comparison with March 2017, the FH said, and is nothing to worry about: "This had no significant impact on [China's] general trend."
Japan, Switzerland's fourth largest market, was up 11.1% for the quarter and is in recovery mode, the FH said. Even the long-suffering United States, Switzerland's second largest market, is off to a strong start, with exports up 8.9% for the quarter. But the FH doesn't see a recovery here yet: "The country is still affected by an overall downward trend," it says.
Of Switzerland's top 30 markets, which account for 93% of total watch exports, 24 reported increases in the first quarter. Of those, 17 had double-digit increases, some of them eye-popping: Qatar +88%; Turkey +87%; Australia +59%; India +58%; Bahrain +49%.
The global recovery is being led by low to mid-priced luxury watches, with export prices between CHF500 and CFH3,000, according to FH data. That's equivalent to roughly $1,500 to $9,000 at retail. That category is outpacing high luxury pieces, with export prices above CHF3,000. In the first three months of this year, watches in the CHF500 to CHF3,000 export price range were up 20.8% (Jan.), 19.3% (Feb.) and 13% (March) versus those months in 2017. Watches in the CFH3,000-plus range were up 10.2%, 12.9% and 1.7% respectively.
Mechanical watches, which account for more than 80% of Swiss watch sales in value, were up 11.3% in units and 9.8% in value for the first quarter. Swiss quartz-watch exports dropped 4.4% in units but jumped 8.6% in value.
The Swiss watch export surge is part of a general boost in sales of luxury goods, especially in Asia, that started last year. For example, LVMH, the world's largest luxury goods company, reported a 10% increase in total revenues for the first quarter to €10.9 billion ($13.5 billion). Its watches and jewelry division, which includes Bulgari, TAG Heuer, Hublot and Zenith, reported a 20% increase at constant exchange rates, to €959 million ($1.18 billion). Hermès reported an 11% increase in total sales for the quarter to €1.39 billion ($1.72 billion). Its watch sales also grew at 11% to €34.2 million ($42.3 million). "The watches business reported a good sales performance in the group's stores, especially in Asia," the company said.
The Richemont Group will release its sales for the fiscal year ended in March on May 18. (The Swatch Group issues financial results semi-annually, not quarterly.)
