Bring a Loupe: Neo-Vintage Genius From Chopard And Parmigiani, A Waffle-Dialed Rolex, And A Patek 96
Happy Friday, and welcome back to Bring A Loupe! After highlighting a “Price On Request” Rolex Deep Sea Special last week, I’ve done all I can to focus this week’s picks around value. That’s not to say there are no “expensive” watches here—of course there are—but at each asking price, I feel a lot of watches are being offered. We have everything from neo-vintage classics to the first Patek Calatrava, with 1950s Rolex and Movado along the way.
But first, results! While good news these days is hard to come by, I’m happy to report some more than solid showings from last edition’s picks. In Detroit, the estate-fresh and doré-dialed Patek ref. 3940 sold for $156,250 — by my count, a public auction record for a second series doré 3940. The Abraham-Louis Breguet-era “eccentric” Breguet pocket watch, a real piece of watchmaking history, hammered for €85,910. And our humble Movado-made Gübelin found a new home on eBay for a best offer below €750 — congrats to the new owner!
Onward! Here are this week’s picks.
1990s Chopard Luna D’Oro Perpetual Calendar In Platinum
Chopard’s watchmaking reinvention and successes of the 1990s deserve a lot more attention. Karl-Friedrich Scheufele’s repositioning of Chopard with the caliber 1.96 in 1996 and other offerings like this Luna D’Oro was remarkable. And the brand’s crafting of the L.U.C collection as a premium option within an already premium brand was groundbreaking. So groundbreaking, in fact, that now, decades later, larger brands are trying to copy Chopard’s model (but that’s a story for another time).
The Luna D’Oro is a 36mm in diameter automatic perpetual calendar option with an interesting retrograde date at 12 o’clock. When Chopard made this watch, the competition was quite thick. Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, Blancpain, Breguet, and Vacheron Constantin all made an automatic perpetual calendar. But that’s what this time period was all about for Chopard—making watches that were on the level of that list of brands, associating Chopard with that list, and not being afraid of that competition.
As a watch rather than a brand-building tool, the Luna D’Oro is gorgeous, especially in platinum like this one. The case has shades of Laurent Ferrier in its shape, but has few details like the crown guards and crown-shaped calendar correctors that lean more sporty than classy elegance. It’s a balance that is well struck. The movement is cool too, Svend Andersen, of Andersen Genève, developed the calendar module, and the base is a LeCoultre cal. 888.
The seller, Ben at Watch Brothers London, is asking £19,450. See his great photos and contact him here.
Considering what you would pay for one of those competitors’ automatic perpetual calendars in platinum, the sub-20k pound asking price here is beyond reasonable.
2000s Parmigiani Fleurier Toric Chronogragh In Platinum
Early Parmigiani Fleurier watches are among the best made from the neo-vintage period. In the 1990s, with this whole movement happening in Switzerland, reviving traditional, ultra-well-made watchmaking, Michel Parmigiani set up a brand, made some fantastic watches, and changed an entire small Swiss town. As traditional watchmaking fell out of favor decades ago, Fleurier, a town built on horology, felt the pain. Parmigiani was established, and Mr. Parmigiani successfully convinced Chopard to move to the town, which revived the area a few years later. It’s an amazing story, and the watches produced in these first few years are so good.
The brand was established in 1996, and the first model was the Memory Time, a GMT, but by 1998, the Toric Chronograph was added to the catalog. It utilizes a Zenith cal. 400z El Primero ébauche modified and finished in the Parmigiani workshops, features a gorgeous case with hand knurling, and has an engine-turned “barleycorn” guilloché dial, and was good enough for the King of the United Kingdom. In platinum with a black dial, this is the ultimate spec for this model. It’s in the Bonham’s catalog at an extremely attractive estimate, too — have at it.
This Parmigiani Fleurier is lot 22 of Bonhams New York Watches online sale ending on Thursday, April 24th, at 12:00 PM ET. The estimate is $5,000 – $7,000. Check it out in full right here.
1952 Rolex Oyster Perpetual Ref. 6098 With “Waffle” Textured Dial
An entirely different waffle-textured dial than the new Land-Dweller, this Oyster Perpetual, made in either 1952 or 1953, is special in a few ways. Firstly, the reference. If you fire up Google and punch in “Rolex ref. 6098” you’re going to find some truly spectacular watches. I’m talking about half a million dollar star or “Galaxy” dials and “Pre-Explorer” examples worn by Sir Edmund Hillary and other early Everest explorers. In the 1950s, this was Rolex’s do everything, be anything 36mm Oyster Perpetual—the brand used it for everything, both common and special.
While the one we have here probably sits more towards the common end of the 6098 spectrum, it is still special and far more accessible. The honeycomb or waffle-textured dial, which collectors tend to use the terms somewhat interchangeably, is clean and devoid of any luminous material. Which, in this case, is intentional rather than a condition flaw. Without lume in the hands, the dial has not been exposed to the radiation that would come with it, resulting in a very even patina throughout that matches the yellow gold case quite well.
Interestingly, the serial number of this watch, 917,XXX, sits within the same range as those incredibly rare and uber-expensive Galaxy dials I previously mentioned and linked out to. For under $20,000, you can own a watch that is not only great on its own but was made alongside one of the most collectible vintage Rolex oddities.
The seller, Michael Morgan of Iconic Watch Company in California, has listed this Rolex on his website with a price of $19,500. Get all of the details right here.
1960s Patek Ref. 96 Calatrava In 18k Yellow Gold
Patek’s original Calatrava—before it was known as the Calatrava—is the reference 96, which was produced for over 40 years, from 1932 to 1973. As with any area of vintage watch collecting, typically the earlier the production, the better. But with the 96, outside of special dials or case metals, condition really does top everything else. This is a small, 31.5mm in diameter, simple watch. With that, the general tendency is to focus on the condition. And while I can sometimes disagree with the overall hyper-fixation on perfect, perfect condition, for the 96, I wholeheartedly support collectors waiting for a really nice one.
This example is just that—really nice. It’s not the oldest version of this reference, as it was produced in the 1960s, and no, it’s not a special variant either. In fact, it’s probably the most common. But the condition is very, very nice. The “short signature” dial looks, from the photos at least, to be excellent with no major spots or flaws. Patek signatures are hard to examine from afar, especially when a small auction house takes sub-par photos, but I would take the gamble here as it looks clean. Notably, the case condition is super strong. Just look at that hallmark on the case flank and the general shape of the lugs. As a smaller watch, you want to find an example with nice, full lugs to get the most out of the original design.
I’m not a huge fan of this vintage 14k yellow gold bracelet, but it is still a positive. If you’re like me and hate the look, you can take it off, fit your favorite strap, and sell the bracelet to reduce your cost. Boom, you just bought a vintage Patek for a discount.
This Patek ref. 96 is lot 67 of Ahlers & Ogletree Inc.’s Fine Jewelry, Watches & Luxury Accessories sale on Thursday, April 24th, at 10:00 AM ET. The estimate is $10,000 to $14,000. Check out the auction listing right here.
1950s Movado Kingmatic Sub-Sea In 18k Yellow Gold For Tiffany & Co.
A vintage Movado on Bring A Loupe, what a surprise, right? Yet, this is a special one. Last October, I featured a similar Tiffany & Co.-stamped Movado on offer via the estate auction website Everything But The House, and it’s haunted me ever since. It was the nicest Movado for Tiffany I had ever come across. I decided not to bid as I was a bit overindexed on Movado at the time, and, ultimately, a friend of mine here in New York won the auction. However, it must be said that the watch is so good, annoyingly good, really.
Anyway, chasing that dragon, here is a very similar watch on eBay with some notable differences. First off, we have the same Movado cal. 431 full-rotor automatic movement, one of Movado’s best time-only movements, and the culmination of the brand’s early automatic winding development. However, the dial here is one I have come across on other Kingmatics of the time. It is simple yet elegant, with nice pearling on the minute track. Compared to the watch sold in October, I believe this was made a couple of years later, probably closer to 1960, as the dial design is more 60s than 50s. The main difference with this watch is the case.
This 14k yellow gold case is stamped inside with a Movado USA logo, meaning it was made here in the States, a common practice at the time. The movement and dial were shipped to the States for casing as a tax workaround. Sometimes, the US-made cases are of poor quality (particularly with Rolex, to be honest), but this specific manufacturer, Lapwell Watch Case Company of Greenvale, NY, did excellent work. Lapwell designed and manufactured cases for Longines, Omega, LeCoultre, and others. If you run into a vintage US-made case, check for the circle L hallmark.
An eBay seller out of Dumont, NJ has listed this Movado for a buy it now price of $2,625 or best offer (make an offer, I think $2k would buy it). The full listing is right here.
Hodinkee
