Thursday, March 3, 2016

Watch Spotting: HODINKEE Checks Out The Oscars – And Finds Some Surprisingly On-Point Watches

They say people watch the Academy Awards…for the awards. Here at HODINKEE, it's not just a chance for us to see what the Academy did and didn't think were there top performances, performers, technical talent, and movies of the year – it's a chance to see what watches some of the world's most famous people decided to wear at the single most public event of the year. Now, some of these folks wore watches provided by a brand (because obviously it's a great place to get your products in the public eye) but some of the stars on the red carpet wore their own watches as well. Either way, there were some so-so fits, eyebrow-raising choices – and some that were surprisingly apt.  

Best Time-Only Watch

Michael Fassbender: Chopard L.U.C. XPS

Michael Fassbender: Chopard L.U.C. XPS Michael Fassbender: Chopard L.U.C. XPS

Michael Fassbender was nominated for Best Actor for his leading role in the film Steve Jobs. Jobs was arguably the most influential technologist of his generation, but his own taste in watches (other than the Apple Watch) seems to have been pretty austere (see our coverage of a Seiko he actually wore for one of the most iconic images ever made of the Apple founder). Fassbender’s timepiece at the Oscars was decidedly more traditional: a Chopard L.U.C. XPS. Chopard’s LUC watches are among the finest in the world but they’ve struggled to find the same kind of visibility enjoyed by Lange, Patek, or other makers traditionally thought of as at the top of the horological food chain, and we wonder if this isn’t a sign that Chopard, in 2016, is ready to ensure that situation changes.

Best Date Complication

Liev Schreiber: Tiffany CT60 Calendar 40 MM

Liev Schreiber Tiffany CT60 Calendar 40 MM Liev Schreiber Tiffany CT60 Calendar 40 MM

For the most important night of the year, a date complication seems like a great pick from Mr. Liev Schreiber. While Schreiber was not directly nominated, he attended the Awards ceremony as one of the supporting actors of Spotlight, alongside co-starts Michael Keaton and Mark Ruffalo (who also wore an impressive watch – see below). Spotlight got great reviews (the New York Times' A. O. Scott called it "a gripping detective story and superlative newsroom drama,") and this slightly old-school timepiece from Tiffany has just enough of a fedora-with-a-press-pass vibe to seem like a great fit for the film and the character. Relaunched this time last year, Tiffany is currently enjoying a renaissance, thanks largely to the vintage-inspired CT60 collection. Mr. Schreiber's pick, the CT60 Calendar 40 MM, is inspired by this Tiffany watch made for and worn by former U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Best Chronograph

Dev Patel: IWC Portugieser Automatic (Stainless Steel With White Dial)

Dev Patel: IWC Portugieser Automatic (Stainless Steel With White Dial) Dev Patel: IWC Portugieser Automatic (Stainless Steel With White Dial)

The chronograph is a young man's complication, and a good look on Dev Patel. The British actor, 25, was alongside compatriot Daisy Ridley to present the award for best documentary. A very close friend of IWC, Patel has been spotted with his IWC Portugieser Automatic on several occasions – most recently at the IWC gala, which takes place every year at SIHH. Not a matchup with any particular film or character this year, but a solid and very visible choice from a brand that prides itself on its connection with cinema (and a very practical choice too, as this 42.3 mm watch is instantly recognizable).

Best Ultra-Thin Watch

Steve Carrell: Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Perpetual

Steve Carrell: Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Perpetual Steve Carrell: Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Perpetual - $20,400

A perpetual calendar on February 28, 2016 (a leap year)? Well played, Mr. Carrell! The trick with this complication is to find one that fits under the cuff – (although Mr. Carell – a co-presenter for the Oscar for best production design – is clearly doing his best to keep the focus on his – a move that will have delighted JLC I'm sure). A superb example of the brand's commitment towards more affordable complications, the stainless-steel Master Ultra Thin Perpetual looks like a watch for hedge fund managers – Carrell plays one in The Big Short – minus the price tag. Here's what Ben thought about the watch when he went hands-on with it.

Best Complication

Mark Ruffalo: Montblanc Heritage Spirit Perpetual Calendar Sapphire

Mark Ruffalo: Montblanc Heritage Spirit Perpetual Calendar Sapphire Mark Ruffalo: Montblanc Heritage Spirit Perpetual Calendar Sapphire

Another leap year? Is Hollywood #watchnerd central? While Mark Ruffalo does not have an official relationship with Montblanc – the brand has always been clear about that – he's been seen wearing their timepieces during film festivals and on other occasions. Positioned at a higher price point on the QP spectrum, the Heritage Spirit Perpetual Calendar Sapphire is a more expensive proposition compared to Mr. Carrell's JLC. At $22,900 this is a Montblanc that no journalist from the Boston Globe, however influential in his reporting, could probably buy. Introduced last year at Watches & Wonders, this elegant in-house perpetual calendar is exactly the type of watch you’d want to be caught wearing on the red carpet.

Best Diamond Watch

Jared Leto: Bulgari Octo Finissimo With Diamond Bezel

Jared Leto: Bulgari Octo Finissimo With Diamond Bezel Jared Leto: Bulgari Octo Finissimo With Diamond Bezel

What does a carnation-wearing man have on the wrist? A diamond bezel watch! That's, right, Mr. Leto makes the Bulgari Octo Finissimo look really good – although not quite enough to distract us from Margot Robbie (his co-star in the upcoming Suicide Squad film). Another ultra-thin watch, the Bulgari Octo Finissimo features a glossy black lacquer dial that matches the actor's somber look. It's definitely not a Joker watch, at least not a Joker post-whatever-turned-him-into-the-Joker watch. Recent incarnations of the Clown Prince of Crime have definitely been more grunge than glam, but in the comic books, at least, the Joker was actually a bit of a dandy, at least back in his early days. So maybe the watch is on point for a pre-sociopath Joker. In that case, though, one has to ask, was there no Octo Finissimo Tourbillon available?

Best Vintage Watch

Ryan Seacrest: Rolex Paul Newman Daytona Reference 6239

Ryan Seacrest: Rolex Paul Newman Daytona Reference 6239 Ryan Seacrest: Rolex Paul Newman Daytona Reference 6239

Now this is a special watch – because it's a vintage watch (which we're absolutely sure no one asked Mr. Seacrest to wear) and because it's a Paul Newman Daytona Reference 6239. When you have one of those, there is no reason to wear a new-to-the-market watch that needs a little bit of added exposure. Mr. Seacrest, we salute you! We love this one for the obvious reason: it's indisputably an example of a watch that couldn't possibly be worn at the behest of a brand, and because Ryan Seacrest obviously knew what he was wearing. Here are some more pictures of the 6239.

Best Watch On An Oscar Nominee

Michael B. Jordan: Piaget Altiplano 40 MM Chronograph In White Gold

Michael B. Jordan: Piaget Altiplano 40mm Chronograph in white gold Michael B. Jordan: Piaget Altiplano 40mm Chronograph in white gold

The Altiplano Chronograph is the thinnest chronograph currently in production – and brother of the thinnest watch on the market. In its pursuit of all things extra-thin, Piaget have been able to squeeze its chronograph movement – a complication that traditionally requires quite a bit of space – into a 8.24 mm case; which is extremely flat for this complication (it's a GMT watch as well). It's supremely elegant choice from Michael B. Jordan, who graciously presented a golden statuette despite his controversial snubbing at this year's Academy Awards despite his lead role in the Rocky sequel, Creed.

Best Watch On An Oscar Winner

Tom McCarthy: Jaeger-LeCoultre Geophysic True Second

Tom McCarthy: Jaeger-LeCoultre Geophysic True Second Tom McCarthy: Jaeger-LeCoultre Geophysic True Second

We're all rooting for our favorites on the big night, and perhaps nowhere else are eyes fixed closer to the watches on the TV screen than in Switzerland. With so many watches on the wrists of Oscar-nominated talent, there's a good chance one of them will be seen by the 34 million fellow viewers tuned in. But for that to happen, the watch needs to be up on stage. Lucky for JLC, that's exactly what happened to the Geophysic True Second, a relatively new entry and a companion of Tom McCarthy on the biggest night of this career. McCarthy and fellow screenwriter Josh Singer both won for their creation of the script for Spotlight. It's a watch the foregrounds both great design and great precision – a terrific choice to pair with the craft of writing, where exactness and creativity go hand in hand.

Best Watch On A Past Oscar Winner

Eddie Redmayne: Omega Globemaster

Eddie Redmayne: Omega Globemaster Eddie Redmayne: Omega Globemaster

Two known quantities. One is a supremely talent actor (and a winner at the Academy Awards in 2015, where he took Best Actor for his role as Professor Stephen Hawking, in The Theory of Everything). The other, a watch containing the most rigorously tested mechanical movement – a chronometer certified by COSC and by a new eight-stage testing program developed by OMEGA specifically for this watch. The vintage-inspired Omega Globemaster – more on this quite remarkable watch here.

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Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Watch Stuff You Loved To Fight Over In 2015

“A detailed diary from John Arnold would have settled many of the continuing arguments about the originator of the lever escapement, albeit many keen horologists would have been denied the pleasure of getting angry with each other.” – Kenneth Ullyett, "Watch Collecting," 1970

Watches, it must be said, are not a rational preoccupation; we tend to love them, or hate them, and because we don't all love or hate the same thing, a lot of the time we argue over things that must seem unlikely, or even outlandish, to people who don't share our fascination for mechanical timepieces. Here are five things that produced divided opinions among HODINKEE readers in 2015 (and "divided opinions" is putting it mildly).

Quartz, Oh Boy, Quartz

GP quartz caliber 350

Quartz is something that is probably always going to be divisive to mechanical watch enthusiasts in particular, and watch enthusiasts in general. Our foray into putting some of our favorite, most historically interesting or technically advanced quartz watches out there met with decidedly mixed reviews, and with good reason: for many mechanical watch lovers, the fact that quartz wristwatches exist at all is a bit of an affront. Still, they're indisputably a technology that certainly can be interesting, and that offers surprising and unexpected variations in quality, and despite the despair with which some folks greeted an uptick in our quartz coverage ("I miss the old HODINKEE," lamented one commenter) they're not only obviously here to stay, but something even the most diehard mechanical fan can learn to appreciate, if never love. Check out our look at an historic Girard Perregaux quartz watch right here, and for a look at quartz at the high end both technically and aesthetically, have a look at this Grand Seiko.

In-House, Naturally

"In-house" – it remains, for watch enthusiasts, probably the single biggest red flag there is. Much to our amazement, brands – and some of them, very good brands – persist in using the term when it's not really apt. The problem with calling a watch or watch movement in-house is that on the brand side, you really don't get to define the term, unless you want a tremendous amount of grief. It's important, instead, if you don't want to get into oodles of hot water, to understand what the term has come to mean to customers, not to try and retcon a definition that fits marketing needs into it. That said, the more persistent and perhaps more relevant question long term is, does it really make a difference if a watch is in-house? Here at HODINKEE, we actually do have a position on that, which is that taken alone, it hardly matters at all. In watchmaking, we've always believed that how you do what you is what really counts. And based on what we heard from you, the HODINKEE reader, you pretty much feel the same way: honesty and transparency pay off big time; obfuscation doesn't.

Read a little more about our position on the subject right here.

Rolex, Because Rolex

If love of watches and watchmaking is by definition irrational (and by and large I think if we're honest with ourselves, we have to agree that like most things human, we react viscerally and find so-called reasons after the fact) then the object of some of the most irrational passion in the watch universe is Rolex – ironically, perhaps, because on a certain level, this is one of the most rational (read: pragmatic) brands. The most vivid demonstrations of this come in two flavors; the first is when Rolex does something that Rolex fans feel is inconsistent with brand identity (gem-setting, no matter how well The Crown does it, never seems to get a pass from the faithful) and of course, whenever someone sees a Rolex you love differently from you. We'd like to say there's a unified front on at least one Rolex, but there isn't – the only common thread is that when it comes to Rolex, watch lovers love to disagree almost as much as they love Rolex.

As a result, and as we observed last year, wearing Rolexes can come with a certain amount of philosophical baggage – especially, perhaps, this one.

Date Windows

Googling "Hodinkee Date Window" produces about 45,000+ returns, and the second return has this line of text as the text snippet: "The afterthought of a date window on this one is an example of what not . . . "  Needless to say, the remainder of the comment was not a paean of praise for the sense and intelligence of the designers of the watch in question. Team Date Window and Team No Date Window – ne'er the twain shall meet, it seems, with the former deriding the latter as absurdly prescriptive and doctrinaire, and the latter deriding the former as absurdly tasteless and lax. You either couldn't care less about, or resented the hell out of, the date window in 2015; to see the absence of a happy medium in all its glory, have a look right here.

And no, there is apparently not going to be a modus vivendi reached between the two sides any time soon.

Cruelty To Animals

This one, folks, was our April Fool's Day post from last year and it was, I thought at the time (I wasn't with HODINKEE yet) both pretty damned funny and also a good litmus test for who did and did not know it was April Fool's Day. Many of you got the joke; but a surprising number actually thought it was an actual watch, with actual ants, that you could actually buy (and then presumably watch them slowly expire in their little prison). Just in case anyone is wondering I just walked across the office and confirmed with none other than Benjamin Clymer himself that the watch in fact never existed. A surprisingly large number of people apparently didn't think it was funny, even as a joke in which no actual ants were harmed.  

And apparently, you still think being mean to the beasts of the field (and, we presume, the fish of the sea and the birds of the air) is in very poor taste, and in at least one very conspicuous recent case, we have to say, we're with you on this one.

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Hands-On: The Jaquet Droz Grande Seconde Tourbillon Ivory Enamel (And What Is And Isn't A Tourbillon)

Since tourbillons have become much more common since the end of the 20th century – largely due to modern manufacturing and assembly techniques that make it easier to achieve the precision necessary for them to work properly – now more than ever, it's not so much a question of whether you can do it, but how well it's done. With that in mind, let's take a look at an unusual, and unusually designed, example of the tourbillon as a piece of wearable, high-craft, design: an objet d'art for the wrist from Jaquet Droz.

Jaquet Droz Grande Seconde Tourbillon Ivory Enamel flat

As always, with tourbillons it's good to have some context for what you're looking at. In this case, we've got a tourbillon that's a little different from the usual run-of-the-mill tourbillon (to the extent that there is such a thing in the first place).  

This is not the first self-winding tourbillon ever made, of course – that honor goes to Audemars Piguet, who created the still record-holding self-winding tourbillon, caliber 2870, which we wrote about not long ago in a fair amount of detail. They're still not very common, though, which makes this a little off the beaten tourbillon path already.

Jaquet Droz Grande Seconde Tourbillon Ivory Enamel tourbillon closeup

Up above, you're looking at what's probably the most unusual feature of this particular automatic tourbillon wristwatch, at least from a technical standpoint: the tourbillon carriage. In most tourbillons, the balance staff (the central pivot for the balance) is on the same axis as the center of the cage, or carriage. In this configuration of the tourbillon, however, the balance is set off the center axis of the cage. This type of tourbillon first appeared in Blancpain's watches, all the way back in 1989, and it was developed for that brand, and for the Swatch Group, by independent watchmaker Vincent Calabrese.

That movement was (and is) the Blancpain caliber 25; the movement used in this JD tourbillon is designated caliber 25JD. They're not identical – there are different jewel counts and a different bridge layout – but they are both seven-day, self-winding tourbillons and it seems reasonable to speculate that the 25JD was probably developed from the BP caliber 25.

Jaquet Droz Grande Seconde Tourbillon Ivory Enamel dial side

Calabrese's brand and patents were acquired by Blancpain in 2008 and "joined the Blancpain team full time" as the Swatch Group's press release said on the occasion.

This type of tourbillon is sometimes called a carrousel (not to be confused with the Bonniksen karrusel, which has a revolving platform holding the escapement, fourth wheel, and balance but is technically distinct from a tourbillon or carrousel tourbillon). It has a couple of potential advantages over a conventional tourbillon, including the ability to make a flatter watch, and the ability to use a straight line lever instead of the side-lever ordinarily used in tourbillons (which, from a power delivery standpoint, has a slightly less optimal geometry than a straight line lever). This is not, however, an especially flat watch – this is simply due to the very long power reserve. The longest power reserve we're aware of in any tourbillon wristwatch is probably the Hublot MP-05 LaFerrari, which has a 50-day power reserve (but is not self-winding, of course). The watch, therefore, wears a bit big on the wrist, and as is often the case with Jaquet Droz there's a distinct pocket watch vibe (the case, in red gold, is 43 mm x 13.10 mm). A matching red-gold folding clasp holds it on; the clasp is very secure and obviously very well and carefully made and finished, as you'd expect from this brand at this price.

Jaquet Droz Grande Seconde Tourbillon Ivory Enamel buckle Jaquet Droz Grande Seconde Tourbillon Ivory Enamel wristshot

When the Calabrese/Blancpain tourbillon came out, there was immediately some question as to whether or not it was a "real" tourbillon. I think the answer is that it is. Cartier's Carole Forestier pointed out to me last year that there is nothing in Breguet's patent that specifically requires the tourbillon balance to be on the same axis as the carriage (and also that the patent doesn't specify that the cage must be driven by the third wheel around a fixed fourth wheel either, for that matter) so my feeling is that here we have to say that yes, this is certainly a tourbillon, and also acknowledge Calabrese's ingenuity in coming up with it.

Jaquet Droz Grande Seconde Tourbillon Ivory Enamel back Jaquet Droz Grande Seconde Tourbillon Ivory Enamel rotor and winding bridge

Spending time taking a close look at this watch really leaves you with an impression of something very finely made; in general, finish is very good to excellent throughout (I miss just a bit the presence of hand-finished sharp inner angles in the anglage, however). Overall the visual effect of the movement's really impressive, which I suspect is helped not a little by the contrast of perlage, polished steel, and Geneva stripes with the red gold oscillating weight, and its enamel insert, with the twin signature Jaquet Droz stars (also in red gold).

Jaquet Droz Grande Seconde Tourbillon Ivory Enamel dial closeup

The impression of fineness is really admirably consistent throughout the Grande Seconde Ivory Enamel, in fact – you always expect superlative dial work and flawless (and tasteful) execution of the hands and dial furniture from Jaquet Droz and there is absolutely nothing disappointing here at all. The bulk of the watch is noticeable, and somewhat at odds with the sophistication of the rest of the execution, but overall, this is a really harmonious, carefully done example of an artfully crafted self-winding tourbillon wristwatch, with an unusual tourbillon configuration, and an interesting history in its own right.

Jaquet Droz Grande Seconde Tourbillon Ivory Enamel hand in pocket

A reasonable question nowadays is to what extent we can, or should, continue to care about the tourbillon as a complication at all. I think the answer to that one is, if we're interested in watches, we can and should continue to care about the tourbillon to the extent that it's done really well – there has to be obvious pride in craft in a luxury tourbillon, and there has to be something at least sort of irresistible about them from a design standpoint as well.  Here I think we've got a tourbillon worth enjoying on both counts. This is a very expensive watch, at $91,700, but it does bring to the table its own distinctive identity and value proposition – and a history that, even for those of us who aren't clients for high five figure watches, is worth knowing about, as it's so woven into the fabric of the history of modern watchmaking.

The Jaquet Droz Grande Seconde Tourbillon Ivory Enamel, $91,700 as shown, in red gold. Movement, caliber JD25, seven-day power reserve, 21,600 vph, automatic carrousel tourbillon. Grand Feu enamel dial. Case, red gold, 43 mm x 13.10 mm. More info at Blancpain.com.

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Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Watch Spotting: The HODINKEE #LeapDay Celebration In NYC

As you heard yesterday, the 29th of February is a big day for us watch nerds. It's the one day out of every for years where the calendar on your watch actually belongs on the 29th. And at midnight, those lucky enough to own a perpetual calendar get to see that awesome little jump to March 1st. In honor of such a dramatically important day in our lives, we decided to throw a party. And by that, I mean we basically put up a blog post and had a bunch of people meet at the bar across the street. But it was awesome! And we saw some great friends with some absolutely killer watches. Have a look at what walked into a bar on a Monday night in February – the 29th of February – below.

Watch Photographer Atom Moore to Lecture at the Horological Society of New York This Coming Monday

Next Monday evening at the Horological Society of New York, acclaimed watch photographer Atom Moore will lecture on Watch Portraiture: Taking a Closer Look With Macro Photography. No doubt you have seen his work before; perhaps on Instagram, and even on HODINKEE from time to time. The lecture is free, open to the public and will be held at HSNY's new meeting venue, the General Society Library in Midtown Manhattan.

Photography is a very important part of keeping people engaged with horology. Since gaining access to a wide variety of watches through the community at RedBar Crew, Atom Moore has focused his lens ever closer into the intricate details of these fascinating timepieces. Taking portraits of watches has become his passion. The tiny mechanical details are often hard to see or understand for those who are not watchmakers or experts in the field. To help shine a light on the complex details in mechanical watches, Atom will share some insight into his passion and methods for creating watch portraits. In presenting watches as portraits, he hopes to engage not just existing watch enthusiasts, but the general public as well.

Details can be found here:

Monday, March 7, 2016 - 6:00pm - 9:00pm
HSNY at the General Society Library
20 West 44th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues, NYC

Six Missing Explorer's Watches Whose Fate We'd Love To Know

Watches, like people, are born with certain traits, but are also, and often, the most interesting when they have led interesting lives.  The 20th century was one in which technology innovations made it possible to explore the world around us in ways impossible in previous centuries and of course, watches were an essential part of any explorer's kit.  Here are five that helped their owners make history, and which have disappeared from view – and whose fate we'd love to know.

Lindbergh's Longines Lindbergh Hour Angle

longines lindbergh hour angle

It seems odd, but a Longines Lindbergh Hour Angle watch actually owned and used by Charles Lindbergh seems elusive.  The watch was developed by Lindbergh to aid in calculating the hour angle – the angular distance of a celestial body from Greenwich, an essential part of aerial navigation – from the Weems Second-Setting watch.  The use of more sophisticated navigation methods, as well as highly specialized charts for celestial objects, eventually made them obsolete.  The Smithsonian Institute does have a vintage Hour Angle watch in its collection but it doesn't look like it was Lindbergh's – the watch was donated by the Stanley King family, and Stanley King was a collector of Lindbergh memorabilia – souvenir objects like commemorative plates – not Lindbergh's personal effects.  It would seem to be a foregone conclusion that Lindbergh must have owned an Hour Angle watch – after all, he designed the darned thing – but where it might be, we've been unable to determine.

Buzz Aldrin's Speedmaster

Buzz Aldrin Speedmaster

This is probably the most famous missing explorer's watch – the Buzz Aldrin Speedmaster.  The story is well known: Aldrin's Speedmaster was actually worn on the lunar surface (Neil Armstrong's was left in the LEM/Lunar Excursion Module) as a replacement mission timer when the LEM's cockpit mission timer failed.  It was supposed to have ended up at the Smithsonian Institute, but vanished somewhere in transit and to this day has eluded all attempts at detection and recovery (and people have tried).  

Jacques Cousteau's Blancpain Fifty Fathoms

blancpain fifty fathoms tribute

This is another odd one.  The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms was a pioneering watch: one of the first true modern watches designed for SCUBA diving, with a rotating timing bezel and the general look and feel we now instinctively associate with dive watches.  Originally designed for the French "combat swimmers" by Captain Robert Maloubier and Lt. Claude Riffaud, it was famously worn by Jacques-Yves Cousteau in the Louis Malle film, The Silent World, in 1957.  Blancpain has a number of vintage Fifty Fathoms watches in its museum collection, but the one actually worn by Cousteau doesn't seem to be there, and we can't help but wonder where it ended up.

Scott Carpenter's Breitling Navitimer

breitling cosmonaute

This is another famous one.  Scott Carpenter was one of the "Mercury 7" astronauts and famously wore a Breitling Navitimer for his flight aboard the Aurora 7 Mercury spacecraft in 1962.  It was the first wristwatch ever used by an American astronaut in space and it would probably be not only historically interesting, but pretty valuable, were its location known.  At some point during splashdown and recovery, the watch got wet, and Carpenter sent it in to Breitling for service.  Breitling gave Carpenter a replacement watch: the Cosmonaute, which was inspired by Carpenter's suggestion that for space flight, a watch with a 24 hour scale would be more useful.  However, his original Navitimer went missing, and whether it was accidentally discarded, or is still sitting somewhere in a forgotten cabinet, box, or closet at Breitling, no one seems to know.

Santos-Dumont's Cartier Santos-Dumont

cartier santos dumont

Another great story to which we'd love to be able to attach a watch.  The Cartier Santos-Dumont watch supposedly came about as a result of pioneering aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont's complaint to his friend Louis Cartier that a pocket watch was impractical when piloting an aircraft. That seems indisputably true, and it also is indisputably true that there would have been very little reason to name the watch after Santos-Dumont if Santos-Dumont had not had some pretty close relationship to the genesis of the watch.  The Santos-Dumont was originally retailed by Cartier in 1911, and according to Cartier the first prototype was made for Santos-Dumont in 1904 but no one knows what happened to it.  Santos-Dumont's later life was difficult due to ill health; eventually he left Paris and returned to his native Brazil.  It seems likely that if the watch survives, it's somewhere in São Paulo, where, suffering from illness and severe depression, he committed suicide in 1932.

Thor Hyderdahl's Eterna

thor heyerdahl

This one should be marked "provisional" because although it's widely been repeated that the famous ethnographer Thor Heyerdahl wore an Eterna watch on his 1947 journey across the Pacific, on a balsa-wood raft, it's never been proven conclusively that that was in fact the case.  The journey was undertaken as an attempt to demonstrate the plausibility of Heyerdahl's theory that Polynesia had been colonized by travelers from South America. He would later go on to attempt to prove a similar theory about the colonization of South America by Africans, by sailing a papyrus reed boat – the Ra – across the Atlantic.  While both voyages were successful, his theories remain controversial (modern DNA studies, however, suggest that he may have been onto something).  The Eterna Kontiki watch came out in 1958, and again, it seems unlikely that Eterna would have given the watch that name, and used Heyerdahl's expeditions in its marketing, were the connection not legitimate.  However, we've been unable to find any direct evidence that Heyerdahl's watch was an Eterna – or any record of its fate.

Any readers with any info on any of these, don't hesitate to let us know in the comments!

Check out our (very) in-depth coverage of the Lindbergh Hour Angle here. Our coverage of the 2013 50 Fathoms Tribute is here. And if you'd like to see some more lost treasures, check out our coverage of 12 Of The Greatest Missing Watches Of All Time.

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top 10 luxury watches of 2015-2016 , top 10 watches of 2015 and...




top 10 luxury watches of 2015-2016 , top 10 watches of 2015 and the top 10 luxury watches of 2016 right Here!!
This video shows all the stunning, stylish, royal, complex watches of this year and the upcoming!
This video was made as second part of my old video :Top 10 Watches of 2015 and 2014 [ LUXURY MENS WATCHES ]
As i had many selection problems with the old video, THIS LIST IS COMPLETELY OFFICIAL!

THANKS FOR WATCHING, AND DONT FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE FELLAS!

Top 10 Luxury Watches of 2015-2016 [OFFICIAL] Find more on: http://menswatchzone.com/



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