Rare and unusual watches continue to pop up at auction this spring, and here I’d like to highlight a few that caught my eye coming up in the June 21, 2017 “Fine Watches and Wristwatches” London sale at Bonham’s.
Sotheby’s June 2017 Important Watches sale in New York City took in $7.4 million. That’s not a sum to be sneezing at for 310 lots sold, with a sell-through rate of 84.2 percent. I was pleased to see that the top ten list of performers at this auction included Richard Mille and Greubel Forsey in addition to Patek Philippe.
Why is it that watch brands celebrate watch anniversaries so enthusiastically? The answer isn’t as complicated as you might think . . . and it’s also good to know that major brands like Rolex, Patek Philippe, Cartier, Chanel, and Omega are celebrating major anniversaries in 2017.
Watch advertisements have always fascinated me. If an ad is clever, funny, or invokes a special feeling within me, I am much more likely to make a purchase. Here I demonstrate a few adverts that work for me and hopefully for you too.
In recent years, the word “skeletonization” as it is used in the world of watches has shifted slightly in meaning to include movements designed from the outset as skeletonized. Let’s take a look at a few different types of skeletonization, both modern and traditional, as seen on five different timepieces at Baselworld 2017.
Chronographs are very difficult movements to master in a reliable, interesting, and original way, even if these wrist timers constitute what is most likely the most popular complication in wearable horology. And this makes the variety of in-house chronographs introduced at Baselworld 2017 a real treat. Here are five of the most interesting specimens we found at the world’s largest watch fair.
Please join our traditional Quill & Pad round table discussion on Baselworld 2017, where we discuss what we did and didn’t like at at the world’s largest annual watch exhibition.
While there are no lack of lights, colors, and sparkles during the day at Baselworld, it’s when the lights go down that you get to learn which watches come out and party after the sun goes down.
Here are a few of the watches that I saw donning their colorful glow-in-the-dark party clothes at Baselworld 2017!
The year 2017 wasn’t just good for both interesting and exciting new wristwatches at Baselworld: I’d go so far to rate it as a vintage year. This article started as a pure Top 5 rundown, but the sheer number of superb watches soon had us reaching for our “Special Mention” over spill. And that’s all without the really big surprises. So without further ado, welcome to our team’s top picks of Baselworld 2017.
To my longtime friends in the watch hobby, and perhaps to regular readers here as well, the mention of my name may conjure up a number of connotations: patron of the independents, fan of A. Lange & Söhne, admirer of Patek Philippe grand complications, and longtime customer of Jaeger-LeCoultre, among other characterizations more or less favorable.
But these likely never included vintage maven! So how did I get here?