Omega Caliber 564 movement circa 1968 with the famous "Rose Gold" copper finish.
In talking recently with another collector not as familiar with Omegas I was reminded of something that I haven’t seen mentioned lately: the discredited but oddly persistent myth of the “rose gold” finish on vintage Omega movements.
If you’ve been under the mistaken impression that those beautiful old vintage Omega movements were plated with rose gold, don’t feel bad. You’re hardly alone. Many collectors, watchmakers, and even Omega staff sometimes seem to suffer from the same misconception that “rose gold” finish contains actual gold content. In the initial January 2007 press release announcing the new 8500/8501 “in town” calibers, Omega appeared to be under the same misconception: Continued…
Posted in Omega Watches, Vintage Watches.
Tagged with Omega Watches, Vintage Watches.
By Rrryan
– 24 November 2009
Watch Brand Names Aren’t Just for Watches Any More
Well, get a bottle of Omega Aqua Terra Eau de Toilette of course. Duh.
Omega Aqua Terra Eau de Toilette for men. Available only through the flagship boutiques.
This isn’t quite breaking news of course, and in fact Perpetuelle did a pretty good writeup of it a little while back if you want more details.
I’m afraid we’re going to be seeing a lot more of this kind of stuff, and not just from Omega either. Just like some luxury brands have successfully moved from other luxury product markets into watches (Mont Blanc is one that comes to mind) watch brands are becoming increasingly aware that they can further monetize the followership they’ve garnered around their watch brands by selling them other luxury goods. And it only stands to reason — by buying their watches we’ve already demonstrated that we’re suckers for sentimental luxuries with money to spend. Why shouldn’t the watch brands want to sell us other stuff too rather than have us buy our luxury goods from others?
Continued…
Posted in Omega Watches.
Tagged with Omega Watches, watch marketing.
By Rrryan
– 23 November 2009
When Dumbass is not Dumb Enough.
A Whole New Level of Stupid.
When Dumbass is Not Dumb Enough?
Rogue Warrior Red Cell Silver. Photo: Rogue Warrior Watches.
The world of military watch collecting is fraught with all kinds of stupidity spouted by sellers and marketers trying to profit from some supposed “military” allure. And perhaps it’s to be anticipated when brands like Chase-Durer and Luminox have built entire brands around ostensible military connections that have often been tenuous at best.
But these watches are the most breathtakingly stupid things I have seen in a long, long time.
Continued…
Posted in Military Watches, Modern Watches.
Tagged with omgwtfbbq, quartz, rogue warrior, stupid.
By Rrryan
– 23 November 2009
And What to Do if You Get Water in Your Watch
Omega Speedmaster Professional with 6 o'clock marker that no longer glows. Water damage turned out to be the culprit.
It goes without saying that water has obviously gotten inside the watch if condensation is observed inside under normal conditions. But aside from that telltale giveaway of condensation, sometimes otherwise unexplained symptoms can present that might indicate that there’s water inside the case, among them luminous material on hands or dials that appears to darken or suddenly ceases glowing. It can be helpful to use this method to test for the presence of water to help figure out what’s going on, or even just as a precautionary measure or indicator to help determine if a watch needs to be serviced. Continued…
Posted in General.
Tagged with water.
By Rrryan
– 21 November 2009
Chinese Fake Seamaster 300. Note the "SeaNaster" text on the dial. Close, but not quite.
It’s a harsh reality of collecting that Chinese forgers are getting steadily better at churning out ever more convincing fakes all the time. And sadly it seems the Chinese fakes just took another great leap forward.
For Omega and military watch collectors the perfidity of fakes is perhaps one of the most lamentable aspect of the Seamaster 300, which would otherwise likely be known as a very desirable and collectible watch. Indeed, the glut of fakes on the market perhaps keeps the SM300 from attracting the attention and acclaim it might receive otherwise. The British Royal Navy-issued Seamaster 300 is perhaps one of the most faked military watches ever, and as the number of Seamaster 300s issued by the British is generally believed to be under 2000 or so the of fakes certainly outnumber the genuine article when examples appear online continuously.
Unfortunately the fakes are so pervasive that would-be buyers are filled with trepidation, artificially depressing pricing for the SM300. Once at a get-together filled with collectors of high-end vintage sport Rolex models I saw one collector offer another $80k for a particularly excellent specimen of an early Rolex GMT Master. To my astonishment I saw the other collector actually decline. But even in this same environment every Rolex collector I spoke with about the matter expressed an admiration for the Seamaster 300 and a desire to own one, except that all knew to be very wary of the fakes and everyone seemed to know someone who had been burned.
Continued…
Posted in Military Watches, Omega Watches, Vintage Watches.
Tagged with fake, Military Watches, Omega Watches, rolex, sm300, Vintage Watches.
By Rrryan
– 19 November 2009
Hublot CEO Jean-Claude Biver
The Economics of Marketing Watches and Luxury Goods
Hublot CEO Jean-Claude Biver was recently featured in the very interesting article “Face Value: Salesman of the Irrational” in The Economist.
And in addition to a CV that includes such famous accomplishments as successfully shepherding the rebirth and resurrection of brands like Blancpain and Omega, Jean-Claude Biver is reported to make some really, really excellent cheese too. What a guy.
Continued…
Posted in General, Modern Watches.
Tagged with biver, blancpain, hublot, marketing, omega, Omega Watches, rolex, watch marketing.
By Rrryan
– 19 November 2009
Disgraced financier Bernard L. Madoff
Here’s a quick summary of the outcome of the recent NY auction sponsored by the US Marshals Service of some of the assets seized from Bernie Madoff.
Overall, the auction fetched about twice what was expected in estimates but notably some of the vintage Rolex models like the “Monoblocco” failed to meet estimates as I predicted. As most of the vintage offerings had been restored, redialed etc. the allure for collectors was diminished and they failed to bring the pricing that might have been expected in other circumstances. Apparently the fame and notoriety of the Madoff name wasn’t enough to make up for the fact that the watches were otherwise unremarkable and lacking in genuine taste.
The utter banality of evil…
Continued…
Posted in Vintage Watches.
Tagged with madoff, rolex.
By Rrryan
– 16 November 2009
I stumbled across this article on luminous watches by TC at Kronometric a few days ago and thought I should share here. There’s a lot of misunderstanding and mis-information out there among collectors and consumers about the various luminous materials used in watches and I’d been thinking of writing something myself, but this article gives these articles give a level of detail I don’t think I could match on my own.
It does They do a great job of covering radium, tritium, and promethium radioisotope-based lume systems as well as the luminova compounds more common in modern use.
[EDIT: It’s been brought to my attention that although it adds some new info the article I linked to seems to borrow heavily from another article by Paul Frame of Oak Ridge Associated Universities and hosted by Watch Addicts. See the original Radioluminescent Paint article for the base info.]
Links: Continued…
Posted in General.
Tagged with lume.
By Rrryan
– 15 November 2009
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