The date: January 13, 2012. The place: Glashütte, Germany, where one of my best friends had arranged for the two of us to visit A. Lange & Söhne. The vision: my friend extended his arm from the sleeve of his shirt, and what I saw left me reeling – my first view of the Lange Datograph Perpetual in white gold. I was confident from that very moment that this was a watch for me, but pursuit of the piece took four long years.
How many years before we even start to recognize what the most popular timekeeping devices over the last 70 years were? Another 20 years? Forty? Who will use timekeepers? And for what purposes? What will they look like? I posed these questions to a few top watch industry professionals; their replies were perhaps surprising.
Like many collectors, I’ve bought and sold a number of watches at auction over the years. So with the autumn watch auctions nearly here, and me being a systematic type of guy, I’ve taken the time to analyze my philosophy of auction bidding. Here I share some of the tactics I use with the hope that some may be useful to you in your own bidding.
Wouldn’t it be splendid to have everything your heart desired? Well, it’s a nice fantasy but it’s not going to happen for me. And besides, I’m not so sure that the experience of “selling to buy” isn’t actually a significant part, albeit a bittersweet one, of the collecting experience.
Quill & Pad’s resident retail expert John Keil has just launched WatchGauge, an interesting new online retail venture that is worth bringing to your attention. The aim of WatchGauge is to help the consumer wade through the crowded and sometimes murky waters of the emerging micro brand scene.
While my friends’ paths into serious collecting have been fairly diverse, I started with Jaeger-LeCoultre, which opened my eyes to the world of fine watchmaking and served as the foundation for my ongoing fascination with horology. Take a look at hishistory collecting fascinating timepieces by this Swiss brand.
Sotheby’s will auction four watches by George Daniels, three from his personal collection that were originally auctioned in 2012 and a very rare 1999 Millennium wristwatch. Get the full story on these pieces right here.
Why watches? Ask what makes a watch enthusiast tick and the idea of the “soul” of a watch might well feature in the response – the idea that something elevates the watch from a cold object of engineering to something of greater import. Here Ryan tracks “soul” down and gets contemplative on its nature along with some very special imagery.
Post-war United States boasted unique market conditions that allowed for diamond-set men’s watches from a variety of brands to thrive. Martin Green takes us on a journey to discover how and why diamond-set watches became part of the American Dream.
Quill & Pad contributor Simon Cudd has seldom worn a standard original strap on any watch he has ever owned. He has now teamed up with Giles Ellis, founder of Schofield Watch Company, to create original, bespoke straps under the name Schofield + Cudd.