Live from Christies...

Just received a mail from Philipp... who is in Geneva right now at Christies. In the preview for the Monday auction. The original DeepSea... next to his SingleRed Deepsea Jacques Piccard, which will be for auction for charity on Monday...

Keep you up-dated...

One of the rarest....

Today we do some Omega.... and as my friend seems to say these days... 'Omega is the way forward' LOOL! But really it's a ultra rare watch. One out of about 10 issued. Of which only 4 are known till today. One of them is in the Omega museum... and the rest are in hands of collectors. Like this one. The PloProf Comex. At the end of the 70th 3 Comex divers spend eight days at 250 m during operation Janus. Equipped with those PloProfs. Unfortunately because of it's high price Comex opted for the Rolex watches. Lucky for us ;-)

The watch has a special engraving on the back. And looks ultra cool. Part of Comex history!

Ultracool.....

Well i have the great privilege to be able to play with this one today. A fantastic 1665 Comex, 2nd series.... directly from the original diver. And what a sexy beast it is in front of the camera. Check the dial. See the 2000ft=600m ? Only on Comex my friends. You only see this dial on Comex watches. All the red and white 1665 have 610mtr (except the earliest ones of course). This one has a great case and perfect dial. The engraving is magical. 2nd series means, it's within the 1665 isuue-numbers above 2100. 2000-2100 is first series. And super rare. The 600 dial was only made for Comex. There are also 610 mtr Comex dials, but they where only used in the last batch or as replacement dial for damaged 600 dials later on. A lot of the great missions from Comex history and world rekord dives where archived with those watches. Often only handed over for special deep mission at the beginning. Good to know, that these watches started to see action in the late 70th. When the DRSD was developed long before that. Till then Comex mainly used 5513/5514 watches with valve. So i guess they took no chance for a product which did not proof it's quality for sure.

Here are also some images of divers ...

I love vintage Panerai !!

Next to vintage Rolex the vintage Panerai watches are the real treasures for me. Hope to ever be able to get one... but he... i am lucky to have some friends who are passionate about them also. So i have the privilege to be able to touch and feel them once in a while. And they are so ultra cool and rare! They share a great history and i always think of the time they where used... when you read one of the books from Ralf Ehlers and Volker Wiegman you know what i mean.

Last week got a mail from a real nice and great Italian collector... with some great images to share here on my blog! Big thanks for that... love it!

The watch is Radiomir Panerai with a fascinating discoulored dial. It has also a nice Hermes matching colour strap.
Ref.6152-1 manufactured in 1954 cal 618 15'''3/4. Thanks Auro for sharing.

A very special piece of metal...

At the Milsub meeting there was one special piece of metal among the watches. A little plate.. but ohhh so special.

It is a small plate, which was handed over when a diver took a Panerai for the missions. Never seen one before.

Maybe someone else of the Paneristi knows more about them...?

Chester 8.00... a real nice place...

Well the meeting was held in a real nice city! Loved it.. at 7.45 in the morning!

Milsub Heaven !... the biggest collection ever...

Last weekend i had the great privledge to join a small group of collectors, who are madly in love with the Milsub. And we where able to join forces and build up the biggest collection of Milsubs together in one room. What a sight... what a weekend! So much passion shared.... in name of the Queen and country.

All references where there... 5513, 5517, 5517 Maxidial and 5513/5517's.

5513 < > 5517 Milsub

I nice comparison between 2 of the 3 different Milsub references. The Milsub is one of the coolest Rolex watches around. For me the grail of the Submariners. Watches which are part of history. They where used some earlier... but the once we like most started service in the mid 70th... and where issued for a couple of years to the british special forces. As SBS commando's, but also mine clearance divers and units that went to missions along the SBS/SAS commandos.

Years of cold war, fires all over the world, Northern Ireland, Falklands,... Asia...

Missions of highest secrecy and danger. I started reading some books on the issue. And i was so fortunate to meet one of the original owners of those watches. And the stories and emotion of that day will stay with me forever. Without any meaning of talking glorious about war or force! When you read the book of Duncan Falconer "First into Action' you will understand more about what those watches had to go through. The ultimate Toolwatch!!!

Here is some more history on the SBS.

The watches are modified Submariners. According to MOD specifications. For the use in service they needed sword hands, T-mark on the dial as sign for tritium, 60 minutes bezel (also it seems there where some issued with 15 minutes bezel, but it's still an issue among collectors if so ), fixed bars, a MOD admirals strap and engravings on the backcase which state the MOD numbers and year of issue and number.

The sword hands are one of the biggest visible changes on the watch. On the wrist they are magical!

The Milsub was issued in different batches, with different engravings (style and type) and in 3 references. 5513, 5517 and the doublereference 5513/5517.

Also with different dial types. With the Maxi MK1 dial as the most beautiful one.

Out of the about 1200-1300 Milsubs produced only little numbers survived in full-spec condition. Often you see them with 15 minutes bezel or mercedes hands. Or with Omega sword hands.... often changed by the MOD watchmakers in time of service. As they did not care... just to get the watch ready for missions again.

Well there is so much more to say... so much to discover still and so many stories with those watches.

Here are 2.... next to each other. Compare the dials. The 5513 with the vanilla patina and the 5517 with the more orange one.

Cool straps part 3

What i like about the tool-watches, is that seem to be made to shine in all kind of configurations. With a black bezel, faded bezel,.. on steel, jubilee, leather, nato strap and.... i really like the looks of a Sub on a vintage SWISS Tropic strap. Made of rubber. As i understood from a friend who is deep into military watches and Comex... also a lot of MN watches where worn on such straps. Also Comex divers used them. I was happy to find a vintage one.

White Seadweller Mk1

We often feel for 'rare' watches.... often putting value to it. Like the DRSD... it ain't rare and still valued higher then a white one. Ok the 2 red lines are coool. But when we look at rarity (and forget about PPDRSD, Mk2)... this one is rarer. Only produced for a short while like the RailDial. The great white MK1 1665. Right after the MK4 DRSD. Look at the typography.. it's like the MK3 DRSD, which stopped years before. And was followed by the Mk4 DRSD with more non-serif types of fonts and closed 6. And by the way... just look at the beauty of the tritium... that is flufffffffyy.