Horolonomics

While listening to a recent episode of the A Blog to Watch Weekly podcast, a debate over strategy and pricing at the watch brand Oris caught my attention. An Oris watch. The brand has used Sellita movements. The issue at hand was this: do Oris Diver watches, featuring the in-house calibre 400 movement and priced just over $4,000, make any sense? This question is relevant because other, similar, Oris Divers with a Sellita-derived movement are available for under $3,000. At first blush, I understand and, to some extent, agree with those who question whether it makes sense for Oris to move "upmarket" and still offer lower-priced models. But I think some recent events in Switzerland suggest that buyers should strongly consider, or perhaps prefer, the newer references with in-house movements even though they may carry a premium. When any brand sources materials from other companies, they face something the field of finance refers to as "counterparty risk." Your p...

Let's get some preliminaries out of the way: I don't particularly admire or respect how Patek CEO Thierry Stern responded to criticism of Cubitus, the brand's newest release. Three pocket watches on display during the 2017 Patek Philippe Grand Exhibition in NYC. Here's what he said : “The haters are mostly people who have never had a Patek and never will, so that doesn’t bother me.” Does this remark seem filled with hubris and disrespect for potential buyers? Yes. Will it matter for Patek financially? I don't think so. Let me explain. In order to understand the financial side of watch brands, we should never forget that retail buyers are not their customers (with some rare exceptions). I know that sounds crazy, but it is 5,000% true. For a brand like Patek, the primary watch market is financially mediated. There is a third party standing between brands in Switzerland and collectors. Namely, Patek sells to authorized dealers, they don't sell to collectors....

Screenshot from a video of the Apollo 14 crew during their luner transit in space. Astronaut Mitchell smiles at the camera, his Rolex GMT Master "Pepsi" on his right wrist. The crew was "hamming it up" over shaving their beards. Question: if you're a) really into watches and you b) learn about a watch that is older than you that has travelled more than 400,000 miles through the vastness of space to the surface of the moon and back and c) discover the watch is within easy driving distance, what do you do? Answer: you get in the car, drive to the watch, and you check it out. So that's what I did. The watch in question is a Rolex GMT Master reference 1675 "Pepsi." This particular GMT Master has out-of-this world provenance. Literally. And I thank the team at RR Auctions for granting me some time to check it out, they were gracious and generous hosts. Here's the deal: on January 31, 1971, NASA astronaut CAPT Ed Mitchell, PhD USN launched...

A few weeks ago I posted a piece on a Rolex Datejust gifted to pianist Vladimir Horowitz by the New York Philharmonic (you can find that post here ). The Rolex is held in Yale University's archives. In my prior post, I hinted that I went hands on a second watch owned by Horowitz. Here, I will provide details about that timepiece. The second of Horowitz's watches in the Yale collection is a Swatch dating from 1989. The box of Horowitz' oigol ORO in Yale's archives. This isn't any 'ole Swatch, though. It is a full set oigol ORO. This reference was designed by Italian artist Mimmo Paladino and it was produced in a limited run of 140 pieces. Paladino was part of the Transavantgarde movement which, according to artnet , "sought to bring emotion, figuration, and mysticism back into avant-garde art." Paladino's design went into production because he placed first in a "Draw Your Swatch" competition. The dial of Horowitz' oigol ORO....

An email from a Yale librarian arrived earlier this summer. A modernist building on Yale's campus. She wrote that she didn't know where one of the watches was, but she was working on finding it. I simultaneously felt disappointment and concern. I was disappointed because I hoped to arrange a visit with the truant timepiece. I was concerned because I couldn't help but wonder if someone had made off with it. My concern faded after a second email a number of days later. The watch had been located. It was stored in a more secure location than other archival materials. And, my contact at Yale said I was welcome to see it. Let's back up a bit. I periodically look for Rolex archival materials in libraries. My interest stems from the materials I previously found in a UK archive, materials which served as the basis for my book on Rolex's marketing history. It was a good while ago that my archival searches surfaced the Rolex watch in question. I just hadn't taken ...

Late last year, I had a chance to visit a truly special space in the United States: the workshop of an independent American watchmaker. Lovell Hunter showing components on a bench in his workshop. Photo Credit: Lovell Hunter's YouTube channel. I've written about Lovell Hunter before, I posted my first story about Lovell right here on Horolonomics. There, I described his career as a watchmaker for Breitling and his decisions to strike out on his own and launch an independent brand called Love Hunter Watches. Lovell and I have kept in touch since then and he periodically reaches out to share updates on the progress of his watch design as well as other updates regarding his brand. At one point, Lovell invited me to visit his workshop, which is located in Connecticut's Naugatuck River Valley. The location couldn't be more appropriate given that "Brass City," aka Waterbury, is located on the northern portion of the valley. Brass has historically, and presen...