brand watches wiki – rolex watches, omega watches, replica watches

The Patek Philippe 2499 in pink gold – now a $ 2.75 million watch.Yesterday in Geneva, Christie’s watch department held its spring sale.  It made over $ 32 million dollars, with four inidividual lots bringing in over $ 2 million each.  The Breguet Resonance pocket watch that we showed you previously went for an amazing $ 4.68m, while the enamel Patek world timer that we showed you here went for over $ 2.9.  But, one watch we didn’t show you, a Patek Philippe 2499 in pink gold is the focus of this post, because it seems so simple, and yet it sold for over $ 2.7million.  So, what made this 2499 so special when compared to, say, your average, run of the mill 2499 like this, also in yesterday’s sale, that made only $ 314,000?  The devil is in the details, my friends.
From:HODINKEE

Read Full Post »

The Rolex Submariner.  Arguably the most recognized, respected, and clandestinely reproduced wristwatch of the 20th (and 21st) century.

Wthin the almost 60 year span of the ultimate dive watch’s reign as the king of cool (yes, the actual king of cool wore one, too), the purest example of the Submariner – those that the purists among us often seek out, purchase, and wear the crap out of, are those without a date window.  The “no date” Sub is the realest of the real.

This year at Basel World 2012, Rolex introduced a brand new dateless Submariner, the reference 114060.  But what is different about the new Sub, when from 30,000 feet, it looks just like the 14060 that we loved so dearly? Well, it has a slightly redesigned case (still 40mm), a new bezel, and a new bracelet. 

We go hands-on and in-depth after the jump.

From:HODINKEE

Read Full Post »

In 2010, Tudor introduced a watch called “The Heritage Chronograph” (inspired by this chronograph from the early 1970s) that, in the eyes of many (including us), unofficially, but dramatically relaunched the brand that few here in the US of A ever saw and those in the remainder of the world thought of as anything more than “the poor man’s Rolex”. 

You see, Tudor was designed to be just that – it was created in the 1946 to be a less expensive Rolex, and through most of its history, employed half of its parent company’s genius (the Rolex Oyster case, but not the Rolex in-house calibers) and sold for about 2/3 the price.  It made perfect sense from a commercial stand point, but it was always an afterthought to most watch guys (with the exception of a few vintage sport models.)

But, with the Heritage Chrono, Tudor began to attract fans of its own, and the coolness to price ratio on this chronograph had even the mightiest of vintage Rolex collectors clamoring to get their hands on one.  Two years later, we’re told the Heritage Chrono is now the iconic Tudor model.   Last year, Tudor released another tribute to an old ticker, the Heritage Advisor alarm (based on this guy from the 1950s).  For an alarm watch, it’s priced well and has a following all its own. 

Now just last week Tudor brought back a third heritage piece, one that completes its line-up – they started with a chronograph, then went to an alarm watch, and now they have the Heritage Black Bay, a nod to the Tudor dive watches of yesteryear.  But, when the Heritage Black Bay was leaked online a short time before Basel World 2012, the purists lambasted it as a mish-mash of historical reference – a gilt, rose dial and big crown with snowflake hands?  That doesn’t make sense.  Except, it does.

Click through for in-depth analysis, specs, pricing, and lots of live photographs.

From:HODINKEE

Read Full Post »

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Ref 5402 “A-Series”: Estimate $ 15,000-$ 22,000On the very first day of SIHH this year, we showed you the watch the #watchnerds had been waiting for – the new Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Jumbo.  The Jumbo is a special watch as we’ve told you a few times now, and this year’s release is as close to the original as any modern interpretation could possibly be.  But you know what it’s not? It’s not the original.

But, in March’s Antiquorum auction, there are actually two chances to own AP RO Jumbos from some of the very first batches to leave Le Brassus.

From:HODINKEE

Read Full Post »

Back in December, we got to play around with some amazing watches from the Christie’s sale (like this one).  One of them was the Patek you see here. It’s a reference 2481 manufactured in 1956.  It is, as you can tell, a relatively simple, tiime-only watch.  Still, it pulled down $ 464,500.  Why? Because the dial was Cloisonné enamel showing the historic “supercontinent” of Eurasia. Cloisonné dials are highly sought after by collectors and can make simple watches sell for extreme multiples of its mechanical value – as witnessed here.

Click through for more pictures of this beautiful Patek Philippe 2481 with Cloisonné dial.  For details on the sale, click here.

DID YOU KNOW? A time-only Rolex with Cloisonné enamal dial sold last year for $ 717,000

From:HODINKEE

Read Full Post »

There is no question that one of the most famous Rolex watches ever strapped on was the Rolex Submariner reference 6538 worn by Sean Connery in Dr. No. These watches with large crowns are amazingly beautiful and highly desirable, but often in varying levels of condition and rarely including the original bezel insert. Coming up for auction at Christie’s today in Hong Kong was a spectacular, mint 6538 with the original bezel insert and luminous pearl in the red triangle. The watch looks to be unpolished and absolutely deadstock. 

This Bond Submariner had a pre-sale estimate of $ 50,000-$ 75,000, but sold for over $ 92,000. It can be seen here.

Sean Connery as James Bond wearing a reference 6538 on a 16mm NATO strap in Dr. No.

From:HODINKEE

Read Full Post »

It was almost exactly one year ago that we took you to the James Bond Watches exhibit at the National Watch and Clock Museum in Pennsylvania. The highlight of that exhibit was Ian Fleming’s personal Rolex Explorer reference 1016, which continues to remain on display at the Museum.

The serial number for Fleming’s Explorer 1016 is 596851, and it was made in the last quarter of 1960. It also happened to be one of the first reference 1016 Explorers ever made. Ever since Dell Deaton made the discovery of Fleming’s watch as the inspiration for the literary James Bond’s Rolex and wrote about it in 2009, collectors have had their eyes out for any Explorers close in serial number to Fleming’s. Dell Deaton has an Explorer with a very close serial number to Fleming’s that was on display next to Fleming’s Explorer at the exhibit because his has the original dial with radium whereas Fleming’s Explorer sadly had its dial replaced due to radiation concerns.

But another Explorer 1016 from the last quarter of 1960 has come up for sale this year with a serial number on the case extremely close to Fleming’s: 596600, only 251 cases away, which is the closest in numeral proximity experts have recently identified.

From:HODINKEE

Read Full Post »

Remember when we showed you that Patek Philippe minute repeating tourbillon in stainless steel to be auctioned off for Only Watch 2011? Well this morning we got our hands on this final execution of the Patek reference 3939 at the Antiquorum offices in New York, and although it was sealed in plastic, this 33.3mm piece unique is one impressive piece of hardware. 

Click through for more live pictures of this amazing complicated Patek in stainless steel, the only one of its kind in the world.

From:HODINKEE

Read Full Post »

Roger Federer beat some Croation guy at the US Open today.  That’s great and all, but the most exciting thing we saw in the world of Federer today came with the watch we spotted on him. As you know, Roger is a Rolex ambassador, so it’s totally expected to see him wearing the crown before and after the match.  Usually, the watch he wears is a modern Submariner, GMT, or Daytona, but today he was wearing something special. 

Today he was wearing a stainless steel Daytona with a black dial, white registers, and a black bezel.  The thing is, Rolex doesn’t make a steel Daytona with black bezel (they do, however make a gold Daytona with black bezel).  To us, it looks like a Reference 6263 Daytona, an iconic vintage chronograph that was produced from 1971 through 1988.  But, it is unusual for an ambassador to wear a model that hasn’t been made in 23 years so the question has to be asked, “Did we just catch a glimpse of a future Rolex model?”

Realistically, probably not. If you check out the video above (skip to :35) the watch on Roger’s wrist really does look like a vintage 6263.  But, with Rolex releasing the gold Daytona with black bezel this year at Basel, it isn’t totally out of the question to see a pre-production model on Roger’s wrist.  After all, we already know that brands like AP are in the habit of giving prototypes to ambassadors.

So what do you think: is Federer wearing an old 6263 or a prototype modern steel Daytona with Cerachrom bezel? And, which do you think would be cooler anyway?

Related Posts: To see our exclusive hands-on with Rolex’s new Daytona in gold with Cerachrom bezel, click here. 

From:HODINKEE

Read Full Post »

Jacob & Co Question&Answer:

page number please!

THANKSSSSS!

Answer by Megan
page 329

Read Full Post »