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The Watch Enthusiast #10 May 2004

The Watch Enthusiast May 2004

TIAS.com presents:

The Watch Enthusiast

May 2004

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In this Issue
Welcome! Louis Audemars Collecting on a Budget Fun Pocket Chronographs	Musings Helpful Resources Questions and Answers Subscribe / Unsubscribe

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1. Welcome! Welcome to the May 2004 issue of The Watch Enthusiast. The Watch Enthusiast is a free monthly newsletter about watch collecting. Our goal is to provide:

Original articles about the enjoyment of collecting and wearing wrist and pocket watches.
Up to date information based on reliable sources.

In this issue, there's an article about a little known high-grade watch company, one focusing on what I like in pocket chronographs and a short piece on collecting wristwatches on a budget. You will find many similarities from last issues collecting pocket watches on a budget. Please let me know if there is a particular watch or style of watch that you would like to see discussed in future articles.

2. Louis Audemars Louis-Benjamin Audemars was born in 1782 and eventually came to epitomize how one visualizes the qualities found in a top Swiss watchmaker. He was a creative genius, a perfectionist and an immensely hard worker.

Following training at Meylan, he founded his own company in 1811, which was based in Les Brassus, Switzerland. His sons worked with him and continued the firm until 1885. This family must be considered the preeminent Swiss watch-making family of the 19th century. Their major innovation, far from the only one, was the invention of the stem winding and setting mechanism.

The firm produced very high quality innovative pocket watches. Over the 74 years of its existence they produced approximately 9,000 watches. At Swiss watch auctions, this firm's pieces generally command more than similar pieces from the top makers (Patek or Lange) for the time period. However, the firm appears to be little known outside of Switzerland as pieces can be found at a reasonable level at non-Swiss watch auctions.

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The firm was best known for its complicated pieces and also produced many outstanding time only pieces. As with all major watchmakers, ladies pendent watches do not see the same type of price as a man's size piece, even if it has a well-crafted movement.

3. Collecting on a budget - Wrist Watches If you are currently collecting on a budget, you probably looked at the prices in the various Market Reports I do with horror. When collecting on a budget, you need to zero in on an area to collect, be flexible, trust your instincts and be brave. Yes, that sound counter-productive, but it is the best way to develop a great collection. You will find that the general rules for collecting are the same for both wrist watches and pocket watches. However, due to the more mass produced nature of wrist watches and the fact that there are many more unique pocket watches (at all price points) there are certain differences in exercising the basic rules. Currently there appear to be many more collectors of high-grade wristwatches than of the equivalent pocket watches. This makes it more difficult to collect on a budget as a high-grade wristwatch is going to be selling at a multiple to the equivalent pocket watch costs.
... Lord Elginl ...	Specialization (know yourself) --- decide exactly what lures you to purchasing wristwatches. Is it the overall style? Or is your interest limited to the cases or dials? Is it the quality of the movement? Are you drawn to complicated pieces (moonphase or chronographs, etc)? Do you buy watches to make a statement, either of arrival or how you are facing the day or a particular event? Is the statement you want to make reinforced by style or by the name of the producer? Remember that you may have to pay dearly for a top producer, for example a wonderfully designed gold Lord Elgin, will probably cost 1/20th of an equivalently designed Patek Philippe. If you only require the style, get the Lord Elgin, if you require the best for personal pleasure or prestige, then you may have to pay for the Patek.
The more you know of yourself and what you want in the wrist watch, the more likely you purchases will continue to call to you for years. This way, you'll avoid the feeling of wasting time and money regarding any watch purchased to fulfill your own desires. You should find that even when you go through a life change, most of the watches that were truly you will continue to give you the pleasure of their company. Flexibility -- you should never go shopping with the idea that you are going to buy a specific piece. This can lead to bidding wars or a feeling of depression if that piece is not available at the show or store or is considerably more than what you are willing to pay. If at a watch show or an auction, look at everything as this is where you get those great pieces that you never considered. This may be difficult if you have decided that your collection will only consist of Patek Philippe chronographs -- then again, that would also mean that your version of a budget is considerably different from mine. The more limited your scope for your collection, the more likely you will go over budget on a specific piece. Trust your instincts -- If you've taken the time to learn your collection area and understand the need for flexibility then trust yourself to make solid buying decisions. If you are looking at a piece and it calls to you, if the price is reasonable, answer the call and take the piece home.
Be Brave --- This does go with "trust your instincts." If your instincts say that this watch epitomizes who you are or makes the type of statement that you want to make, then go for it even if you have never heard the maker's name or there is no name listed at all. It is not unusual for fun well-made Swiss pieces to be made by that most prolific of all makers, anonymous, including one of my favorites (shown at right.) In particular, if you find yourself saying "that's the most unusual piece I've ever seen" and/or "I really like it" but it is a little more than you had planned to spend, spend it. If it is the most unusual piece you've ever seen, it is probably worth it and would be one of those pieces that you will always regret if it did not follow you home.	...more...
Don't get carried away -- This is more important for wristwatch collectors as there are very few truly unique wristwatches. So you have to know the next step, which is -- if the watch is priced considerably over what you want to spend (and your figure is realistic), let it pass and save your budget for another piece that calls to you at a reasonable price. However, never buy anything because the price is right --- only buy something that calls to you -- it does not matter how cheaply you got a piece if you don't wear it, enjoy viewing it or just feel content owning it -- you've overspent. In total, know yourself, know what you want in a wristwatch, know the value of the types of pieces that call to you and buy those pieces (if reasonable) no matter the maker.

4. Fun Pocket Chronographs I find that most chronograph watches take themselves very seriously (or, at least the watchmaker did). Whether for reason of dial or case or mechanics, I prefer chronographs that I don't need to take seriously. One of the first ones I ever bought (sold years ago) was a Hugenin split-second chronograph, What made it fun for me was the fact that the watch was made prior to the invention of the reset so I got to dream of the horse trainer timing the splits and then relaxing while he resets the watch by hitting the buttons exactly when the two hands come together and again at 12.

I like chronographs whose dial clearly shows that they are a chronograph, but do not overly shout it. I also find the military chronographs are too severe, probably just in knowing the purpose the piece was purchased to handle. However, I do find interesting when there is information -- maybe a company name -- listed on the dial. What was the purpose of this watch?

Click here to enlarge image and see more about item 3258: U. S. Air Service Chronograph

Maybe someone can tell me how Allion à Versailles related to the U.S. Air Service, as I can dream up some intriguing notions -- none of which I believe are real.

I have found that chronographs usually come in either a very elaborate case to overall or a quite plain case that puts the focus on the mechanism. I enjoy the pieces that are somewhere in between -- maybe with a floral or striped case without a severe dial.

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5. Musings... As I hope you have discerned from reading this and other issues that I do not wish to take watches too seriously, but that I do wish to enjoy them and spread that enjoyment to others. (If I sell a couple, so much the better -- however, I believe this issue is late because I actually sold a piece from April's issue within an hour of the issue being distributed. Sometime the possibility of success is frightening -- but I'm over it now --- thank you for the purchase.)

Please provide your comments about this newsletter and let me know if there is any watch collecting area you would like to see explored in this newsletter.

6. Helpful Resources For the watch historians out there, Christian Pfeiffer-Belli recently published (2003) a book by Hartmut Zantke titled Louis-Benjamin Audemars his Life & Work. Zantke had the assistance of many of Audemars descendants as well as major Geneva auction houses.

The book has been published in both German and English. Because of its price, I will probably wait until I can either find it at auction or it is produced in paperback format as a leather-bound tome is too much for me to handle as part of a reference library. However, I found the basic write-up of the book to be helpful to verify what I've written above.

7. Questions and Answers
? Question: So, what level of accuracy should I expect from a vintage/antique watch? Answer: First, if you insist that you know exactly what time it is (to the level of the atomic clock) then a vintage or antique watch is not for you. If you are like most of us where time is a little fuzzy (as I sit here writing this I see different times from the telephone, the computer and my watch) then you can handle owning and wearing vintage and antique pieces. To determine how accurate your watch should be, you have to look at three main items: a) how accurate was the watch when made b) what quality is the movement c) the age of the watch and how often was it used First, you have to base how accurate a watch should run based on how accurate it ran new. Generally, you can expect that watches that were made to meet specific time guidelines, (American Rail Road watches or Observatory trial pieces) can, if they have been well maintained, still keep extremely accurate time. (Personally, I look for within a minute a day). Basic low-jeweled cylinder watches (especially those found in ladies pieces that look like pieces of jewelry) and the old verges that rely on a chain driven mechanism were not accurate to start with and cannot be expected to be better than the 5-10 minutes in a day off that they may have been new.
And (this does go in step with original accuracy with a slight difference), there were certain watches that were quite accurate when new, but because they were not jeweled (which reduces friction) they are now less accurate than when new because they have worn more than a highly-jeweled watch. A great example of this is the Girard-Perraugaux Shell Oil advertising watch that was produced in the late 1940s and shown at right. This watch only had seven jewels as the advertising pitch was that the Shell Oil contained in the watch lubricated it against friction wear better than if it was fully jeweled. However, just as you should change the oil in your car every 3,000 miles, over time the oil needed to be changed and the watch just was not really set up to be resealed in the same manner. Thus, this watch will become more erratic than a similar quality watch that was jeweled.	shell oil advertising watch
Finally, the older the watch is and the more it has been used, both may adversely affect the accuracy of the piece. Over time, parts need to be replaced, and others wear to a point where they still work, just not as well as they did originally. While I expect railroad grade pocket watches and quality wrist watches to still keep accurate time, I'm happy when a 1750's watch ticks and consistently moves the hands forward. Know where you fall on the need-to-know-exactly-what-time-it-is scale and purchase a watch that, at a minimum, fulfills your need to know.

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Thank you for reading!

If you have questions about watches or watch collecting, please forward to huck@tias.com. We will not respond to questions solely about value of a particular watch. For an estimate, discuss with watch friends, check with a local appraiser or auction houses or, on the web, try http://www.kovel.com for a price book or http://www.whatsitworthtoyou.com/tias.htm for an online appraisal.

Please e-mail Huck@Tias.com with any comments or if you would like to write a short note for this newsletter. Also, please let me know if there are any items that you would like me to search for free to forward this to a friend. To subscribe to this or other TIAS newsletters, especially The Cuff Linker for which I'm also the editor and primary author, go to http://www.tias.com/subscribe

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I'm still hopeful that some of you will write in with your own collectors' creeds. If you have particular rules that you have followed to a fun collection, please write in so they can be passed on to everyone.

Thank you for reading! Please feel free to forward this to a friend.

Paul G. Huck
email: Huck@Tias.com
website: http://captainhucksbooty.com