This Week (in Watches) Today, 4 December 2022: 7 things you should know

And just like that, we are in the final month of the year. Its been a real interesting week too, with Rolex dropping the mic with its new pre-owned certification program, as well as Once Upon a Time Watch Project Auction raising a respectbale sum for its scholarship program. Then we have really cool releases from Baltic, MB&F, Angelus, H Moser & Cie and Bvlgari. These are the top 7 things in the world of watches; let’s get into it.

Rolex’s Certified Pre-Owned Program

Photo Credit: Rolex

Rolex has been the one of if not the main driver behind the movement of the prices on the pre-owned watch market but the brand has never shown much of an interest in having any hand in it besides benefitting from the spike in demand for its new pieces at retailers, until now that is. The brand has just announced the launch of a pre-owned certification program. The certification will be for watches that are at least 3 years old and will come with an authenticity guarantee (seen via an off-white tag) and have a 2 year international warranty. The certified watch will also be presented with a special Rolex pouch. This program is set to kick off in 25 Bucherer retailers to begin with, before it expands to other around the world. This suggests that only watches sold to authorised retailers with a pre-owned watch arm would benefit from the program (directly anyway). It remains to be seen how Rolex will address issues like condition especially when comes to older vintage pieces. While there is no information stated on potential servicing, it is unlikely Rolex would be willing to back a 2-year warranty without any servicing done. It will also be interesting to see how this introduction especially with the segregation between authorised retailers and out & out grey market companies like WatchBox will impact prices. Time will tell.

Once Upon a Time Watch Project Auction

“Yesterday the Once Upon a Time Watch Project auction raised a grand total of $144,418 for the benefit of the Brian LaViolette Scholarship. Brian LaViolette was a young watch collector, with a 7-strong collection by the time he passed, at 15, due to a tragic swimming accident. His first watch was a Green Bay Packers watch from the Lafayette Watch Co, gifted to him by his father Doug who went on to establish the scholarship that’s awarded every year to high school students heading to college in memory of Brian.

A watch auction seems to be a very fitting way to raise funds and yesterday there were watches donated by members of the industry like an Oyster Perpetual Mosaic Shantung’ Ref. 1002 from Eric Wind, and an Eterna from John Pietrasz. Celerity watches were also among the lots including a Vulcain Cricket from Charlie Dune that belonged to José Ferrer, a Ref. 404 Heuer Chronograph from Randall Park, Kenny Rogers’s Zodiac Marine Life, and Pope Francis’s Swatch that sold for $56,250 which set a world record.

Martins of Glasgow Watch Servicing and Repair

I would recommend you go to the Wright or Rago auction websites to read the stories behind these pieces, especially about the Wittnauer belonging to Sgt. Donald Jakeway, who wore it during D-day.” – Misael Alves

Baltic Tri-Compax Chronograph

“It would be fair to say that Baltic has nailed the formula on retro-inspired watches that sell out in the amount of time it takes a chronograph to reset. The Baltic x Peter Auto Tricompax Chronograph limited edition released earlier in the year was such a watch and it’s making somewhat of a comeback with alterations to become a regular production model.

The two new 60s and 70s-inspired pieces come with a Panda and Reverse Panda set up with a peripheral chapter ring for the minutes, polished baton markers and an arabic 12 for the hours, and subdials finished with circular guilloche for the seconds and 30-minute & 12-hour counters. All the hands are dauphine shaped and powered by Sellita SW510-M that’s operated with mushroom pushers and a signed crown. The outward-angled bezel has a black aluminum bezel with a beige tachymeter scale.

They are a pair of quite inoffensive classical timepieces that will surely please many, including myself, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I miss the pops of color. The 39mm x 13mm case (50m WR) that’s topped with a double domed sapphire crystal and paired with a flat link bracelet or leather strap finalizes this offering.” – Misael Alves

MB&F x Emmanuel Tarpin Legacy Machine Flying T: Blizzard and Ice

“MB&F has made a new friend in French jewelry designer Emmanuel Tarpin, who has quickly become renowned for combining his love of nature, sculpture, innovative materials, and gemstones. For his collaboration with MB&F, he has used his skills in jewelry design to create two limited editions of 8 pieces of the Legacy Machine Flying T: Blizard and Ice.

Both watches use the three-dimensional space already established by the highly domed crystal, 50° rotating dial, and protruding 60 seconds flying tourbillon, set with a light blue Paraiba tourmalines. The Blizard replicates the chaotic nature of the phenomena by setting a flurry of brilliant-cut diamonds against the crystal and lower platform. The Ice sees a build-up of diamonds from the base of the dial towards the top of the crystal, inspired by stalagmites.

The backdrop for both is a beautiful matte blue lapis lazuli dial plate that sells the winter tone. The stone is also due for the rotating dial that tells the time with the signature serpentine hands. The white gold cases are furnished with 120 brilliant-cut diamonds and the crowns also have the same gem as the tourbillon. Strapping these to the wrist are white alligator straps with light blue lining.

Can blue watch Monday ask for anything more? Both watches retail for upwards of 160,000 euros so it’s good that they are extremely nice to look at.” – Misael Alves

Angelus x Revolution Watch Chrono-Date

If you haven’t heard of Angelus before, its roots trace back to 1891, though it, like many other Swiss brands fell victim to the Quartz Crisis/Revolution in the late 1970s. Its current iteration exists as a subsidiary of La-Joux Perret. One of Angelus’s most well-known models was the Chrono-Date (1942), which made history as the first chronograph to feature a date. Well, if you know your math, that means this is the 80th Anniversary, and though the brand has already released 2 tribute models earlier this year, this latest with Revolution might just be the best looking yet.

Cased in the same 42.5mm size as the earlier two, this model is forged in titanium & has a salmon dial with contrasting navy blue rings for the chronograph seconds, time sub-seconds & 60-minute sub-seconds. It is a shame that the Arabic hour markers are so large since that means the sub-dial rings cut them off in an awkward manner, but this is true to the original design so I can understand why this was opted for. On the other hand, the pointer date blends in pretty well with the rest of the watch & works better than a date window especially given the numeral size.

One thing I don’t quite get is the fact that the watch has only 30m of water resistance especially given how sporty the design, case size & Cordura strap combination is. It also doesn’t seem to help with the thickness which is still 14.25mm though that thickness allows the beautifully skeletonized side profile to stand out. As with all La-Joux Perret movements the watch is beautifully finished. There are only 25 pieces for sale & priced at SGD34,668.

H Moser & Cie Endeavour Vantablack

“Previously you’d have to pull out the extremely big bucks to get a Vantablack dial from Moser since it appeared in watches that were made with additional complications, in precious metals, or was a limited edition. The new H. Moser & Cie Endeavour Centre Seconds Vantablack is none of those and that simplicity allows it to retail for CHF 25 000.

The slick Endeavour case is made of stainless steel that’s been polished almost completely, with some brushed accents on the laterals. It has a compact 40mm diameter, perfect for a dress piece. The dial comes to form with the painstaking application of millions of carbon nanotubes, that trap 99.965% of photons, on top of a metal plate. Small areas have been left without this coating to reveal the hour markers. Polished leaf-shaped hands indicate the hour and minute while the only element of the dial to have color is a purple seconds hand. A pop of color.

On the back side, Moser substitutes minimalism for going all out in the beautiful finish of their HMC 200 in-house caliber. The movement has 3days of power reserve that’s acquired through a bidirectional rosegold rotor. The blue balance bridge holds two identical balance springs that beat in opposite directions to counter any external effect on the escapement.” – Misael Alves

Bvlgari x Pisa Orologeria Octo Finissimo

“Oh hello, you bronzed beauty! Bulgari has released a limited edition of 15 Octo Finissimo watches with the Italian retailer Pisa Orologeria. The watch uses the standard Octo Finissimo 40mm sandblasted case which is only 5.15mm thick thanks to the super slim micro-rotor movement.

What sets this watch apart from the standard model is the stunning diagonally brushed bronze dial which doesn’t include the Bulgari logo and has round indices on the seconds sub-dial. Subtle changes to what is already a clean design. It really is remarkable how a watch can look so pure and simple when it has so many angles and two complimentary metal tones. It’s just a shame that the watch is so limited that most of us will never see one in person let alone have the opportunity to purchase one. I can only imagine what they’ll be worth in the future.” – Chris Morgan Jones (@Mr.C.Mojo)

This watch certainly isn’t taking the Pisa, it’s a lesson in design and exclusivity! We’ve seen a good few integrated bracelet watches with similar dial tones recently, how does this stack up for you?

So that is it for this week. As always, get in on all the action on the Scottish Watches website, Instagram, Facebook and of course, the podcast on your podcaster of choice. Till next time, take care everyone.

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