SOTC 23 and Season's Greetings
Hello dear crunchers,
It’s that time of year again, when one looks, somewhat appalled, at one’s collection and its status. Well, it’s maybe more accurate to say that one’s wife is appalled, as one is feeling childishly proud while being all the same stricken by the realization that although some of the timepieces included in it are practically never worn, they’re all still there, alongside many new ones…
Is selling some of them to become one of 2024’s first resolutions? Perhaps. I have singled out four of them to be placed on the butcher’s block, but how soon will I actually cut them out, remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, 2023 has only been about additions, ten overall, and these were mostly made along my usual lines: some dress watches, some complication watches, an occasional GADA piece. Some new, some used, some NOS. Each piece was bought for under (usually much under) 1000 Euros. No diver yet… I’m beginning to wonder if I’ll ever buy one.
So, without further ado, here is the SOTC:
Firstly, all the watches that existed in it last Christmas are, as I’ve mentioned, still there. These are:
1. The Smith Military.
2. The Tapferkeit Vermachtnis.
3. The U-Boat Darkmoon 44.
4. The Universal Geneve La Classique.
5. The Yema Flygraph Pilot M2.
6. The Christopher Ward C1 Grand Malvern World timer.
7. The Dunhill Centenary.
8. The Echo/neutra Averau Moon phase.
9. The Epos Emotion 3391.
10. The Epos Originale 3420.
11. The Knot “Japan Collection” 2021 edition Urushi dial.
12. The Knot “Japan Collection” 2022 edition “Kanazawa” platinum leaf dial.
13. The Kronos Quantième Chronographe.
14. The Louis Erard 1931 small seconds.
15. The Mido Belluna II Heures et Minutes Décentrées.
16. The Rado Centrix UTC.
17. The Pierre Châtelain (but really Epos) 3157 Régulateur.
18. The Vario Versa.
19. The Yonger et Bresson Chambord.
Should you wish to learn more about them, it’s all here:
https://www.watchcrunch.com/Saree1968/posts/the-2022-sotc-report-and-season-s-greetings-22288
While 2023’s “crop” is as follows:
1. Dubois 1785 Tonneau Big Date GMT: despite its name, this is more of a dual time than a GMT, and quite a gorgeous one IMHO. Dubois claims to be the oldest watch factory in Switzerland and to have been operating since the mid-18th century, but was not registered as a producer before 1785 (either way, the brand has been around for a very long time). The Dubois family ownership was over, as it has been the case for many Swiss brands, by the mid-1980s’. Since then, the company changed hands several times until the current owner, Thomas Steinmann, bought it eleven years ago, having raised the money by crowdfunding. As if this was not unorthodox enough, he had recently proved to be quite a revolutionary, as a new crowdfunding was conducted to finance the purchase of 275,000 vintage Swiss mechanical movements to be used in new watch collections. When it was over, Steinmann was left with two-thirds of the shares, while ceding the rest to some 900 shareholders from 31 countries. My watch was recently assembled by Dubois from NOS parts produced during the era of a previous owner, Schweizer Uhren Edition. It is powered by a Soprod TT651 movement, which was considered (though based on Eta 2894) to be very sophisticated at the time.
2. Frederique Constant Heartbeat Retrograde: this used thirty second retrograde watch, was bought in very good condition from a Japanese seller, after a very long search – I was not sure I would find something of the sort within my per watch budget, but as I’ve already learnt during my ongoing collector’s journey, fine pieces at reasonable prices do exist out there, and can be sourced if one is patient and persistent enough. In this case, the complication is achieved thanks to an Agenhor module added to an ETA-2982 movement.
3. Carl F. Bucherer Adamavi Autodate: just a gorgeous 39mm dress watch made by a brand that is very often overlooked. Bucherer’s in-house movement pieces are far too expensive for affordable watches collectors, and I therefore had to settle for a model housing what the brand calls the CFB 1950.1 caliber, which is basically the ETA 2824-2.
4. Omega DeVille Manual Winding: being a dress watch guy, it’s not surprising that my favorite range from the brand is DeVille. This elliptic vintage one is powered by the manually wound 625 caliber, and is currently the smallest watch I have – only 32X26 mm of simple, pure elegance.
5. Zenith Courvée: this Courvée (French for “curved”) watch is also rectangular – a classic dress watch having very little to do with the style Zenith became mostly known for. It is also powered by Omega’s 625 caliber, renamed by Zenith as the Cal 30.5, and I find it to be one of my most versatile watches as far as matching a timepiece to one’s attire is concerned.
6. Auguste Raymond “Jumping Jive”: Auguste Raymond, AKA ARSA and once the proud owner of the Unitas watch company, is an independent Swiss watchmaker which recently seems to be more active than it had been for a long while (it changed owners in 2019). This specific jump hour watch was made sometime in the early 90s as part of the brand’s “Jazz” collection. With a specially modified AS-1727 movement, it enabled me to enrich the collection with a complication usually only found in much more expensive timepieces.
7. Bulova Saltarello: I stumbled on this cute little piece while looking for the jump hour watch and although the word “Saltarello” implies it, it is not a jump hour, but a watch with a digital hour display visible from a small window on a very slowly moving disc. Nevertheless, and being a true régulateurs fan, I couldn’t resist buying it as well (especially, as it was very reasonably priced and kept in very good condition). I just loved the design, which may invoke the memory of old Elgin pieces but is actually an “homage” (let’s be nice about it) to the very rare 1930s’ Rolex Prince Jump Hour (owning this Bulova is therefore probably the closest relationship I will ever have with a Rolex watch). Powered by an ancient manual winding FHF 138.001 movement, I actually give it much more wrist time than I give the Auguste Raymond…
8. Eterna “Reveil pour lui 1948” Heritage range: if I thought that looking for a well-kept Swiss mechanical jump hour or second retrograde under 1000 Euros was challenging, it was easy comparing to my search for such a watch, the complication of which would be a mechanical alarm. I was on the look for one for most of 2023, and almost pulled the trigger on three or four pieces that nonetheless did not make it all the way through to my watch boxes for various reasons (condition, uncertainty about the seller etc’). My patience was rewarded late in the year, as I was able to purchase within my budget a NOS (!) watch, and a very special one. Eterna (founder of ETA) decided to make it when it found in its warehouse, less than a decade ago, seventy unused AS-1475 movements from the 1950s’. The seventy timepieces made were therefore a one-shot affair, a variation of Eterna’s Heritage Collection 1948 model, and I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to purchase one of them, and even more so – to have gotten an unworn one!
9. Zodiac Olympos “Worn & Wound Military Edition”: occasionally I’ll fall for a field watch… and I just fell in love with this one the moment I first saw it last year, but always thought it to be somewhat overpriced. A nice promotion some months ago took care of that, and the trigger was pulled. At 40mm it is two mm bigger than the non-LE re-launched Olympos, has an improved water resistance (200 meters) and IMHO is a masterclass in how a vintage-style modern field watch should look and feel. The movement, an “in-house” (Zodiac does belong to the Fossil Group) STP 13-3, has had some mixed reviews. I’ve detected no problem yet, but we’ll see.
10. Radcliffe Le Dome: I’ve purchased the last watch (I think… who knows…) to be added to the collection in 2023 quite some time ago, and was very excited to receive it a few hours ago for various reasons: it is the first watch I bought as a Kickstarter campaign backer; it shows the time in a way which is totally different from what I’m used to (and from what’s generally out there, since MB&F and my budget don’t even belong to the same galaxy); it is my first watch to be operated by a Seiko movement (a modified NH38); and it’s gorgeous. Kudos to Radcliffe’s Tayeb Boussalia for the initiative and the design (I cannot yet speak of its operation or accuracy since it arrived today). I believe Le Dome is sold out but you can pre-order a (Chinese, I believe) Tourbillon version and Tayeb will be launching another interesting project on Kickstarter come February.
So, there it is, fox. I hope that you enjoyed in 2023 watch collecting and, generally speaking, all things watches, as much as I have. I hope that you will enjoy it even more next year, and that it will be a wonderful year for you and your loved ones. Season’s Greetings to all!
55 year old wine pro. I recently decided to feed my interest in watches, that has been dormant for years, some timepieces and knowledge.