Russell Crowe Watch Collection Going to Auction at Soberby’s on 7th April 2018, here is a video courtesy of Time & Tide interviewing Russell about his collection and why he purchased certain watches? the auction is called art of divorce some great pieces he has and great story behind each piece. A true collector selling 31 pieces of his own Panerai, Rolex, Breiting, Cartier ….
Hands on With Rolex Oyster Perpetual Datejust 16233 Diamond Dial 18K gold and stainless, this a lovely dress piece by Rolex part of the Datejust range it is very similar to Rolex 16234 on previous post but with a gold Fluted Bezel gold crown and gold centre links.
The Datejust is very popular model for women and men and made in 5 sizes 26mm, 28mm, 31mm, 36mm, and 41mm which is a new model 2017. This particular one is 36mm case size so can be unisex as women are wearing big watches these days so hence Rolex bringing 41mm Size out too.
The Datejust is a blend of polished steel polished Gold fluted gold bezel with satin finish, water resistant to 50m and comes in 100,s of colours, metals, styles. This one has a gold Dial with Diamond at each hour plot and gold hour plus minute hand, sapphire crystal with the Rolex bubble over the date aperture at 3 o clock. This one dates to 2000 in 2004 the DJ was refined.
The bracelet on the Datejust is the jubilee version small half rolled gold link with steel outer links on a folding steel clasp. The DJ is a great watch and a lot of flash for the money is probably why so popular in the pre-owned market suits all types of people. Sports Rolex has always been the most desirable model but not best selling Models
Rolex always made beautiful watches there is not many I do not like.
Talking Watches With Aziz Ansari part of the talking watch series by Hodinkee. No surprise he has Rolex in the collection as most collectors do it would not be a collection without Rolex. Back in New York Benjamin Speaking to stand up comedian award winning actor Aziz. Watch collecting has become a serious hobby these days folk fighting for vintage Rolex’s Patek Philippe, Heuer etc at big auction houses around the world and paying exceptional amounts of money for them not sure will the bubble burst?
The big auction house Christie’s, Sothebys are really pushing these Vintage watch auctions there is a big one currently on now by Christies.
Some of the 2017 Watches That Created a Buzz, 2017 had some great new arrivals at Basel that collectors went out to get collecting watches is becoming a more popular hobby in recent times. The first one I feel created a storm was The Rolex Sea Dweller Red Writing unfortunately still waiting for mine and hoping to see mine early in 2018. So here is a video from Hodinkee.
1. Rolex Sea Dweller 126600
2. Rolex Sky Dweller 326934 Stainless Steel stunning Blue Dial comes in six variants, three in 18k Gold & Steel plus three in stainless still with 18k white gold bezel. These are becoming very hard to get at Rrp waiting lists running in to years already, you can see why the blue steel one is gorgeous another one still waiting to get a phone call from Rolex AD!
3. Omega 1957 Trilogy Editions a blast from the past three re-editions of vintage classics to suit all tastes. Omega never been short of producing Limited Editions pieces over the years. They consist of Speedmaster, Seamaster, Railmaster made in numbers of 557 for the set of 3 at Rrp around £16000.00 and 3557 produced in individual pieces totally over 10,000 which i felt is too many. Great editions for Omega Lovers.
4. Tag Heuer Autavia Re-edition came from the classic vintage version which was a greatly loved piece, I do love the vintage Autavia really have some great pieces.
5. Tudor Black Bay Heritage S&G was new edition to Heritage range, 18K Rolled gold and steel a lot of watch for Rrp of £3580 which are not easy to find in Tudor dealers was very lucky to get one.
All in all some great watches in 2017 lets see what Basel 2018 brings!! Happy New Year 2018
Watch Spotting: Richard Hammond receives his treasured Rolex Sea Dweller back after the fire ball crash in the Rimac concept one on series two of The Grand Tour. The second series kicked off a few weeks ago with the 3 stooges Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May with some watch spotting which part of the show all 3 handed each other a holiday gift, Jeremy hands Richard is Sea Dweller in glass case saying made in Switzerland pictured below that had survived the crash.
The car Richard was driving in the up hill climb in Switzerland was a Rimac Concept One 220mph full electric powered made in Croatia. The back end of the course Richard lost control and flipped the electric super car which in turn burst in to flames. The watch as you can see survived as Richard did, which I am sure Richard will always rememeber the crash when looking at the time on his Rolex Sea Dweller 16600. I think the Rolex may need to go off the Rolex for a full service and health check all thou it was noted was working when handed to Richard shows how strong and robust the sea dweller is that model was discontinued around 2008 /9 a great watch to have in any collection. The Sea Dweller was never loved by Rolex fans as much as the Submariner but in recent years folk are starting to really to take to them.
The video of the crash below:
Here is Hodinkee top 10 videos and interviews in 2017 with some the worlds biggest watch collectors and stars plus some great watch reviews as always.
10. The New Omega release at Basel 2017
9. Talking watches with John Eldeman
8. Rolex Sea dweller 126600 a week on the wrist
7. Talking watches with Jack Nicklaus
6. Three on Three steel sports watches
5. Talking watches with Ahmed Rahman
4. The Sale of the Paul Newman Daytona
3. Talking Watches With Alton Brown
2. Talking Watches With Morgan King
1. The apple watch series
The best from Hodinkee 2017 some of the best of the best enjoy!!
Rolex Gmtmaster II 16710 Coke Bezel “Stick Dial” as the title says this a classic from Rolex designed for pilots back in the 50’s and still go strong today probably much more loved than ever!!
The Gmtmaster has a long standing history which I will briefly make a few pointers on. Gmtmaster always aspired to pilots, cause of the functionality of the watch, 2 time zones for flying to countries and keeping track of local time. The Gmtmaster in-brief history all started with model 6542 which was a modified Rolex Turn-o-Graph (Ref 6202) with mods to the movement and bakelite Glowing bezel which rotated and that model is very rare and collectible today and was first seen in the James Bond Film GoldFinger on the character Pussy galore.
The Gmtmaster has had plenty of changes over the years since the 1950’s the firsts ones had gilt dials and used radium on the hour plots that glowed in the dark which still glow today 60 years on, as Radium is radioactive material but was used in small amounts of course. Then in the 60’s Rolex moved on to matt dials with Tritium on the hour plots instead of radium which they used all the way up to 1999 and then moved on to Luminova which is used to present day.
The Gmtmaster charm is still there thou prices souring especially the really old vintage pieces after the 6542 came the 1675 which production run from 1959 to 1980 which was Matt dial with Tritium hour plots. The hacking feature started around 1971 hacking feature is the second stops on pulling the crown out as previous models the seconds hand run continuously when changing the time, after the 1675 came the 16750 model came with Matt dial also tritium plots with hacking feature which Rolex rolled out also the quickset date change. The older models never had this feature so date changing was a pain to correct the date. But this model was transitional model where the rare early ones where matt dial then later ones glossy dial with tritium hour markers with white gold surrounds.
The next model was 16760 Gmtmaster II and was the first Gmtmaster II sapphire crystal, quickset date change, but with a fatter case and know as “fat lady” due to the fat case, The next model was 16700 Gmtmaster which launched same time as the 16710 Gmtmaster II around 1988 but was cheaper version supposedly!
The 16710 Gmtmaster II which run for around 20 years and was the modern classic in every way Coke Bezel, Pepsi Bezel, Black Bezel etc… This particular one has a error on the dial which makes it special, the II on the dial after Gmtmaster has the top lines of the I missing and is seen on some dials between 2002 and 2007 upto when Rolex introduced 116710 Gmtmaster II Ceramic. Some of the later stick dials have the new 116710 movement which are thought to be rare to have hold of.
Rare Rolex Submariner Explorer dial Sold for £230K at Lockdales Yesterday in Ipswich it smashed the previous record for this model. The watch is Rolex Submariner 5513 which is a great watch in itself but Rolex back in the 1960’s added the 9, 6, and 3 to dial and only made a short production run. The owner of the piece said he nearly damaged the watch when it dropped in a cement mixer some time ago but it seem to have survived the fall.
Now 60 years on the watch are collectible as hell, the more original it is the more the watch does at auction these type of pieces always end up in top auction houses around the world to bring the premium when the hammer falls you rarely see one for sale in a top vintage Rolex shop.
The auction house estimated £7000 to £8000 which would be correct for a fantastic condition 5513, but this was the biggest sale to date since opening in 1996! The commission on this sale was £38k a nice days work for Lockdales.
The 5513 has a stunning patina on the metres first dial all matching just perfect, the bezel looks original to the watch and the lugs just look pucker for 60 years of age with the original expandable oyster bracelet. This model is slightly rarer with underline under the “Swiss” at 6 o clock. The watch had bidders in the room from all over the world in total over 100 bidders online for the watch in the end a collector from Italy won the auction to take home the stunning Rolex Submariner explorer dial.
This Rolex around the 1960,s would have been around £70 to purchase and today’s equivalent of £1000, that was great investment piece for the owner god knows what the hammer price would be with box and papers with the original sales receipt!
The Paul Newman Daytona is coming up for sale shortly and will break world records as the most expensive watch to date.
The worlds most valuable watch brand? every year a marketing research consultant Kantar Millward Brown does a report regarding the rankings of all the world’s leading brands by estimated figure of the brand value. The Brand Z Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands, which is the report basically ranks the world’s top 100 big hitters for equity. The report bases this on number of key factors, key product segments, luxury.
The brand reportZ issued in June this year, comes no surprise “Rolex” is the top dog with an estimated value of $8 billion dollars, it was based on complex financial factors and consumer surveys. Appartley KMB interview 3 million consumers about 50 worldwide markets regarding 100.000 separate brands. They compile data from some of leading business platforms and share companies etc.
Rolex unfortunately did not make KMB top 100 brands worldwide as they was just under the threshold of $11.3 billion and need to be over that figure to be in the top 100, but they did come in the top 10 of the luxury section at number 5. See list below:
Top 10 most vauable Luxury Brands in 2017, Brand Value in $billion dollars
1. Louis Vuitton | $26 billion
2. Hermes | $23 ”
3. Gucci | $13 ”
4. Chanel | $11 ”
5. Rolex | $8 ”
6. Cartier | $5.8 ”
7. Burberry | $4.2 ”
8. Prada | $3.9 ”
9. Dior | $2.3 ”
10. Tiffany & Co | $2.3 ”
Rolex is Switzerland’s best selling brand by income revenue, it was recently the worlds number one selling watch brand by revenue now Apple is number 1. Apple have a staggering Brand value of $234 billion and is number 2 on the top 100. Google is the number 1 with $245 billion. Rolex is a private company so does not disclose a lot of data and sales figures but they believe to have a annual watch sales of $4.5 billion. The full indepth report you can see here Milward Brown Brands
But Rolex is still a luxury watch brand that we all love and cherish their watches!
Hands on With Rolex Datejust 16523 Bi Metal “aka Rolex Thunderbird” this a 1980,s vintage model which is a Rolex datejust with a rotating bezel and is known as the turn-o-graph. The turn-o-graph was designed for a easy way to measure and record time not sure the concept of that!!
They was a vintage ad pre 1950’s for the Turn-O-Graph ref. 6202 states ” now the simplest of all ways of timing has been invented. It is built into a wrist-watch called the Rolex Turn-O-Graph. The watch consists of an extra rim / bezel round the watch head. This bezel is marked from zero to sixty and is easily turned by hand.
To time a operation or also, all you need to do is align the 0 mark on the bezel with the second or minute, or hour hand of the wristwatch. Thereafter, at any moment, you have an immediate record of the time elapsed.
This functionality of the turn-0-graph was adopted US air force aerobatic squadron and the watch became the official pilots watch known as the “Rolex thunderbird” for the US market.
The early vintage model Ref 6202 did resemble the future Submariner’s which probably would have been the better root for this model, as this one the 16523 is simply a Rolex datejust with the rotation bezel for recording time.
This model is stainless steel and 18k gold comes on the jubilee bracelet but is optional with the oyster bracelet, date window at 3 o clock, they also do this in all steel too. But round year 2000 the watch was totally revamped, In around 2006/2007 the watch was discontinued probably down to poor popularity of this model. But overall nice looking watch with a vintage look and not too pricey either slightly cheaper than a normal datejust.
