Wednesday, September 9, 2009

FLAGSHIP by Longines




One of the most sought after vintage watches manufactured by Longines.
The Flagship watch carries with it an illustrious history of the great adventurer - Columbus who discovered North American Continent.

Precisely this is the watch made by Longines to commemorate Columbus' historic voyage led to his greatest find in life - North America. Flagship was manufactured in circa 1956 - 57 period, the watch is made of solid 18k rose gold and houses a manual hand-winding movement.

The most interesting part is the18k solid gold watch case back, embossed with the flagship of Columbus' fleet. The detailed and very fine craftsmanship (of the flagship) is among the best in any watch case back design.

Noted that Longines took an initiative to reproduce the flagship model in the early 2000s based on its original vintage, sold on limited edition.

What you see in the picture is the ORIGINAL flagship made in 1950s. It is definitely one of my desired collections.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Rolex Oyster QUARTZ



The Rolex Oyster Quartz is no longer in production for quite a while.
They were steel, gold-steel versions on sales in the 1980s - 90s.

In the past, the Rolex Centre would provide free battery change for Rolex Quartz for life-time (as promised). In recent time Rolex Centre in Singapore has started to charge customer S$35.00 for workmanship (according to them) which includes inspection of the mechanism during battery change. But i enjoyed free-of-charge batter changes in the past.

The quartz movement in this Rolex model is highly complex and premium quality, it is officially certified chronometer. It only uses battery from original source - Rolex.
The watch shown here is made of stainless steel &18K gold. Noted that on the dial it signs OYSTERQUARTZ DATEJUST.
The Rolex Oyster Quartz becomes yet another highly sought after collectible among the enthusiasts. Up till now, this model remains the ONLY watch in which Rolex had manufactured with a quartz mechanism/movement.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Frederique Constant Manual



Frederique Constant is known to be a small Swiss watch manufacturer that makes high quality wrist watches.

The company adopts traditional watch making techniques in making watches that are classic in appearance, complemented with its own mechanical movements.

This piece was made circa late 1990s specially for rich Indonesian market segment. It comes with a hand winding mechanical movement (see case back picture). The dial is of classic white ceramic design, small second hand sub-dial and signed Frederique Constant & Geneve.
Watch case is made of stainless steel & 18k gold plating.

The watch belongs to the range of early models made by FC and still sought after among Indonesian riches.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Big Size Skeleton Wrist Watch by SACOM





This is a piece of classic big size wrist watch made by SACOM, a respectable watch manufacturer that traced back to its origins from making very good pocket watches in the1900s for European market.

The watch dial is in traditional skeleton layout, matched with a small second hand dial at 9 o'clock position; it is manufactured with a manually hand winding pocket watch movement.

This model was sold in Hong Kong in circa 2004, with very limited pieces from the boutique.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Vintage Rolex Pocket Watch



A vintage Rolex pocket watch, circa early1900s.

From the case back engraving, it was originally a collection of a Parry family until it ended up in an antique shop in Perth, Australia. It was in 1999 when I saw it one morning in the shop and bought it straightaway. Later the watch was sent in to the Rolex Centre (Singapore) for thorough check and confirmed 100% original.

The watch dial was made from silver and its case was gold-plated.

A rare piece indeed.

Omega Speedmaster



This is a special model of Omega speedmaster, because of its size & design feature.

Observe carefully, it is slightly smaller than the normal speedmasters and its dial comes with minutes numeric markers, i.e. 5, 10, 20, etc... aligned to the hour bars. (The normal speedmaster models do not have this design feature).

The watch movement is automatic winding.

It is topped with the bubble glass which is the most unique feature of original speedmaster.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

IWC Chronograph GST Titanium



This is a rare titanium IWC chronograph model GST (stands for Gold.Steel.Titanium).
The model's production was stopped in 2003.

This piece comes with an automatic movement (there's a quartz movement model apparently) and production numbers are much less than the steel model.

The GST titanium is highly sought after by serious collectors these days due to its rarity and scratch proof titanium material used. It remains one of IWC's most classic chronograph designs. There are stainless steel version being auctioned on the Internet but not the genuine GST Titanium model.