The Vintage Watcher

Hahaha, there’s a Patek Phillippe over on propertyroom.com! Yes, the auction site that specializes in seizures and “recovered” property from law enforcement departments across the country is auctioning one of the most expensive and prestigious watch brands on the planet. This Patek Phillippe 3970 in Rose Gold has all the features that watch fanatics lust after: chronograph, perpetual calendar, day and month, date register, and even a leap year indicator. The manual wind movement is quite beautiful through the caseback. Retail on this watch is $125,000 and has been authenticated by some jeweler. Right now there has been 23 bids and is holding at $70,300.  I’d like to think this watch was seized from some drug dealer or druggie musician with good taste, which is what I’d tell people if I had the scratch to buy this thing. 

(Source: propertyroom.com)

I’m not a big fan of Breitling, in general, but I find this Chrono Cockpit watch exceedingly ugly. I realize that the “Tiffany blue” has been the rage for the past couple of years, but it must have been a marketing exec rather than a designer who thought it would make a nice watch dial.  It looks like a watch that is trying too hard, trendy dial color, applied gold markers, gold subdials and hands, and two-tone gold and steel case.  Just enough gold hits to make the watch tacky, typical Breitling mirror polish to the case, and the baby blue dial to seal the coffin on this eyesore.  The movement is the reliable Valjoux 7750 and is a chronometer, so it I’m sure it’s accurate but not worth wearing, I think.  The only thing saving this watch is the 39mm case size, maybe a woman who likes larger watches might like it.  I don’t know though.  Still pretty ugly and I give credit to Bernard Watch Co for selling something so ugly for $2985.

If you’d like to follow Ron Burgandy’s bromide and “Stay Classy,” you might think about getting this Girard-Perragaux Vintage 1945 XL.  A re-issue of a 1945 design, it has all the hallmarks of the retro classic.  The Art Deco rectangular case, the distinctive hour markers and “train track” minute markers, the running seconds subdial at nine, all very satisfying.  I also like the date window between 1 and 2 o’clock, rather than obscuring the “3”.  Well lumed in the hour markers and hands, this should be no problem seeing on those late nights when imbibing “Scotchy Scotch Scotch.” I like the highly decorated movement that can be glimpsed in through the caseback. They make this watch in a number of dial variations, including a chronograph, and more pricey (18K Gold) case materials.  But this Stainless Steel version is priced just right at WatchUWant at $2,995.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen this watch for lower than $3,800.  The only thing I can I can figure is that while this watch comes with the box, it doesn’t have the manual and papers, which would put the hardest core collectors off. I guess for some, it might make them nervous as the watch might be fake, but I seriously doubt it. If I weren’t saving for another watch at the moment, I’d buy this one.

Wow, think this watch is about racing? In case you couldn’t figure it out, the dial has “F1” printed on it. This Doxa Cobart F1 is quite the striking 1960’s era watch. I actually like the symmetrical dial with the overdone checkered flag motif. The monochrome dial also works well with the orange sweep seconds hand.  If you look closely, you’ll see that each checkered square is actually a seconds marker; there are five between each hour indicator. A nice touch that shows that Doxa was actually sort of serious about being accurate down to the second with this watch. The case is stainless steel, a nice change from the base metal/chromed cases which were ubiquitous in this era. Originally, this model came in two different versions:  an automatic winding version with a date window, and this manual wind 17 jewel version with no date.  Both versions are striking, as a wearer, though, I would prefer a date.  Not sure I would wear this particular watch because of the find NOS (New Old Stock) condition. Other examples that I’ve seen of this watch come with a lot of wear to the case as well as spotting and blemishes on the dial. That might explain the price at WatchestoBuy of $495, which seems to me to be on the high side (maybe $200 overpriced). But, this watch has been supposedly cleaned by the dealer, which is at least $100 these days at the local watch repair.  A pretty good value, I’d say, so purchase it now before someone (like me) gets it!

Discovered at “The Suit Company” store in Shibuya (Tokyo, Japan). My first watch nerd thought: “Those are clearly subdials for chronograph on that watch, but where are the pushers?”  (Credit to:  Honolulu Time)

Here’s a watch I’ve never seen before, the Longines Comet. I love the 70’s styling of this watch: with the square case and rounded corners, and the big earnest dial in red.  Usually called a mystery dial because instead of centrally mounted hands, the indicators are mounted on clear disks which move “mysteriously.”  Usually there is a dot for the hours and another dot for minutes, but this Longines has a very large arrow which acts as the hour hand.  The minutes “hand” is the smaller dot moving on the outer track. There is something in-your-face about this dial that makes me smile.  The hands and hour indicators look well lumed, and like any vintage watch of this era, you need to make sure that it is not radioactive radium. However, the small “T“‘s by “SWISS MADE” at the 6:00 o’clock position, tells us that the lume is tritium, non-radioactive. It is a manual wind movement, with a nicely marked Longines crown (always a plus).  The thing I really like about this watch is the bracelet, called a “coffin” bracelet for all the little links that look like coffins, basically. The handsome bracelet and smartly makred clasp go well with the his 35mm watch.  Something I would wear and like to have in the collection.  Price is a little high at $1995 but still decent for this model in this condition WATCHESTOBUY.COM.

This Universal Geneve Unisonic-Sub (whew, what a name) is a macho looking watch in fantastic condition. Interestingly, this is not a mechanical automatic watch, but an Accutron Tuning Fork movement, pre-cursor to the ubiquitous quartz watch.  The Tuning Fork was once touted as the most accurate watch in the world and produces a very distinctive hummmmmm, which is like catnip to the fans of this movement. In reality, this movement tends to consume batteries. Anyway, this is a rarely seen watch in this condition, defintely collector’s quality.  At a case size of 43mm, it is also a good wearer and with it’s masculine styling, will look almost contemporary on the wrist. The dappled brown dial is a hint to it’s vintage origins, and I particularly love the hour markers—especially the slight difference at the hour marker at 12:00.  Even the white bezel and orange minute hand appeal to me.  I really like this watch and am thinking about getting it, for a pretty reasonable (not too much of a markup over ebay, say) $995 at WatchesToBuy.

Why do people throw good money at fake watches? This Zenith is clearly a fake, yet the “winning” bidder paid over $407 for it.  Just looking at the dial, you can see that it is fake.  Let’s just list the offenses:  Zenith never used numerals like that on their dials, why would Zenith put a 24 hour markers in small yellow paint on a non-GMT watch, look at how imprecise the round minute markers are, and I won’t even talk about the garish roulette wheel, dice, and poker chips.  If that didn’t give it away, the inside of the case with it’s shiny, blemish-free back should have.  Even if the hallmarks are correct, look how that number is stamped onto the back.  Lastly, the movement is supposed top be nearly 100 years old.  Look how new that movement looks.  The screws totally give it away, they should be tarnished.  The movement should show signs of age.  I won’t even go into how wrong the regulator is, how Zenith movements of this period have more refined regulators and adjustors.  *sigh*  Even if this watch wasn’t from a seller in the Ukraine, all of the above should be obvious to someone trying to buy a vintage watch.  Just another example of how ebay can bring out the worst in people.

(Source: ebay.com)