Horolonomics

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 Cubitis, 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

An AI generated image of a trendline overlaying the image of a watchshot. Back in April, I posted a summary of preowned watch price discounts from a major online retailer. The discounts were larger than I expected, averaging roughly 25%. This week, I received an email from the same retailer about another discount event, so I thought I would update the April exercise. Bottom line up front: the discounting continues but it may have slowed slightly. Let's get into the details. Chrono24's Chronopulse price index (disclosure: I participated in development of this index) shows that prices did increase by 6/10 of one percent heading into the beginning of May. Screenshot of some of the most recent market data from Chrono24's ChronoPulse. Aside from the traditional end-of-year holidays, graduation season in May / June is a high point for watch purchases as friends and relatives gift timepieces to new graduates. For this reason, the May uptick in prices may have been part

This month, Horolonomics celebrates its fifth birthday. It's gone by quickly. I'm proud of what I've achieved with this blog and it has been rewarding enough, in multiple ways, that I foresee continuing it for a good while. I will likely post a retrospective and prospective in the near future. But this post isn't about that. Instead, it is about another forthcoming post which will be ready soon(ish). AI generated image of a stack of books. I've decided to write a review of Pierre-Yves Donzé's book on Rolex entitled La Fabrique De L'Excellence (translation: The Manufacture of Excellence ). I want to explain why I've decided to do this and give some sense for what the review is likely to conclude, at least partly. In my mind, Donzé's book has three strikes against it, even before I've read it (it is in French, but thanks to technology I can handle the translation without difficulty). The first strike is a claim made on the back cover of t

Word is quickly spreading across mass media that a detectorist recently recovered a Rolex lost many years ago by a farmer in England. Did a cow eat a Rolex? When I read the initial coverage in British regional and national press, parts of the story seemed very confusing to me. So I did a little sleuthing and got in touch with a family member of the watch's original owner, who kindly agreed to answer some questions and share pictures of two watches involved in the chain of events. So here is my take on the tale. The articles I read suggested that the recovered Rolex had been eaten by a cow when it disappeared from farmer James Steele's wrist in 1974. If true, that means, at some point, the watch made a journey through the four chambers of the cow's stomach, exited stage tail, and lived in a field until the metal detector started wailing and the watch was recovered this year. So, the first question I asked of Steele's son, Andrew, was "How certain is your Dad

During a recent visit to a watch shop I was reminded of my state capitol building. A ground floor boutique in a major US city. The two wouldn't seem related: a capitol is the seat of government while a watch shop is a retail setting. But the shop I visited and my state capitol have one architectural feature in common: a mantrap for entering and exiting (also known as a sallyport). A mantrap is a "neutral zone," or buffer, separating a secure space from the outside world. It features two doors but each door will only unlock if the other door is locked (in other words, both doors will not simultaneously unlock except under extreme circumstances). Entering or exiting a space secured by a mantrap goes something like this: press a button for the door in front of you and someone buzzes it open. You enter the mantrap and the door you just used closes behind you and locks. You're "trapped." Then, provided conditions are right (you present ID or pass some kind o