Monday, April 30, 2012

Rolex Watch and Mandarin Yellow DouFold Parker


Gold is deeply rooted in the psyche of the Chinese people. Stemming from a powerful mix of cultural, social and economic associations is relevance has been augmented by the country’s experience of totalitarian government. Gold is considered a symbol of prosperity and good fortune in China.  Chinese by all means used to increase and preserve one’s family’s wealth through the generations of Gold saving.

Thousand years ago, and Palace is actually decorated with layer of gold.
And the Royal Clothe of the emperor is printed with dragon in yellow colour, symbol of  Gold…and no civilians is allowed to wear the colour of clothe in Yellow Colour, or will be killed.

Till today, the Chinese still has  strong sense to be more preferred to yellow gold than white gold, or the Precious Platinum.
.
Note that 60% of Rolex was imported to HK and China, and Amongst them 85% is Yellow gold, and in Rolex AD shops of HK, the Day Date is almost 90% n Yellow gold, some even 100%, lately the Chinese taste changes towards accepting Pink Gold as a replacement of yellow gold. But White Gold is definitely not their first Choice…As at least I have not seen many mainland Chinese wears White Gold Rolex at all in HK.

Hong Kong people has this implication since the 70’s, White gold Rolex mean “Doing or nothing”, or “ No yield “ in the casino for gamblers. And even worse is “Blue Rolex” means “ Hard to earn a living” Who wants to wear a watch that has such be negative hidden meaning, especially the Chinese, no matter young and old! Of course, 90% people does not understand the different between Date just and Day Date, as Day Date is available in Gold Only. Who will appreciate a white colour watch “ White Rolex” that is not made of Yellow Gold.

White gold is an alloy of gold and at least one white metal, usually nickel, manganese or palladium. Like yellow gold, the purity of white gold is given in karats.And most of all the White Gold watch is more expensive than Yellow gold… as ‘there are some precious metal Iridium, Palladium in the White Gold…

Nowadays Rolex uses 18KT White gold for their Day Date, alloys which are mixed 1 8 parts gold to 6 parts alloy creates 18 karat, and so on. This is often expressed as the result of the ratio 18/24 is 0.750. That is why on the back of the watch body, it was stamped “750”.

However, as my preference for Rolex, the first choice, is Platinum, White Gold, Pink Gold, and Stainless steel. As White Rolex seems has a higher hidden value in plain outlook So called Low key. Well, sometimes, as The Chinese Says, we have to put some
Yellow Chi on the body… “ Chi” means “”.  So, once in a while, I use Yellow Gold Watch…

When China becomes Richer, and people tend to go for taste,, by 2020* , I believe more Middle class Chinese will think of a 20th Century good quality Day Date would be a icon of a good taste. So It is time to keep some good quality Gold Day Date now… as today is not popular and is scarce, meaning that it will be very expensive after 10 -20 years.

Mandarin Yellow or Chinese Yellow was the fifth color introduced on the Duofold after Chinese Lacquer Red, Black, Jade Green, and Lapis Lazuli, making its debut in 1927.
It was sold with $7.0. in 1928. 
But now it becomes every  pen collectors’ holy grail pen valued USD$7,000.00 or more for mint one.. The Colour indicates the Chinese Gold Colour... that is one of the reason this pen is priciest.!

HK Snob

PS* According to BNP Paribas, and Goldman Sachs prediction, by 2025 China Economies will be same as US and by 2050, China will be 2X larger than US Economies.

Parker Madarin Yellow Duofold Pen was a courtesy picture from Penhero.com
http://penhero.com/PenGallery/Parker/ParkerDuofoldFlattop.htm

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

TechnoMarine Alpha Titanium Chronometer




Swiss made TechnoMarine Alpha T7750 Valjoux 7750 automatic mechanical chronograph wristwatch.

Swiss Valjoux 7750 automatic mechanical chronograph movement has been used for many watches in the world such as Hublot Yacht Club De Monaco, IWC Top Gun…etc

This is Technomarine Chronometer, 44mm in size, with original soft black Rubber diving strap. Retail price is about USD$2,000.00

HK Snob

Monday, April 23, 2012

Vacheron Constantin Overseas





My understanding of Vacheron Constantin in HK.

Constantin is the name of what we were told the most expensive watch, elegant watch for rich people to wear in the 80’s.

I still recall there is the Whole Page advertisement on Shing Po at that time for Vacheron Constantin
What they said is hand made, very small number of production and not so man people who can afford to buy, because it is expensive!

That was true, in that period of time like 1970, a Monthly income for a Report in Shing Po was just HKD$250, whereas a Vacheron  Constantin was asking about HKD$4,000  that is two years salary!

In the movie on 1988, Chan Ho Nam is the causeway bay gangster head and Leng Kwan (acted by Ng Chun Yu) was his opponent in the same gang,, I still remembered Mother of Leng Kwan (Hai Ping) asked his son to buy a Vacheron Constantin watch for her…

The Hong Kong Cantonese pronunciation of  Vacheron Constantin is “Kong Si Dan Ton” In 1990, some of the movie script describes the mainland Chinese Called Vacheron Constantin as “Ro Si Dan Ton”

Also there are not so many shop displayed this Watch, thus this make this watch even farther more mysterious and far way from my pocket could afford.

Soon I met a watch lover show had two brands he loved, Rolex Oyster and Vacheron Constantin, he used worn the Model 222 for many years, and that was a beautiful  Automatic Watch

Well, here I show two, Overseas Vacheron Constantin…

Both are original stainless, one with Champagne Dial and diamond bezel and the other with Black Dial and no diamond..

This is some what the basic but the Flag ship model of Vacheron Constantin…

I love more on the Black dial stainless steel…

HK Snob

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Rolex Sea Dweller Ref 16600 asking for its new owner





This is a dis-continued Sea Dweller Ref 16600, M-number, year 2008. excellent condition. Seldom used. Since this is supposed to be able to survive 4,000 feet below sea watch, so the Cyclops magnifying glass does not exist as it may crack under such high water pressure.
HK Snob
Ps Watch was Sold

Friday, April 20, 2012

World's First Waterproof Watch and the Watch of the Century, Rolex

Prior to the twentieth Century, men used Pocket watches and women wore wristwatches.
In the beginning of the 20th Century, wrist watch started to gain its popularity amongst men. German Watch Expert Hans Wilsdorf started a Company on Watch sooner was named with Rolex in London n 1905.
Wilsdrof saw the public demand on high quality watch, especial for men. He started to import watch from Swiss Aeglier Company precision movement to produce watch. In 1912, Wilsdrof renamed this Watch Company as Rolex Watch Company and moved to  Geneva.
Sooner later his Watch was awarded an official chronometer certification for accurate timekeeping, the first watch to do so.
Wilosdrof , however , was still concerned with increasing his watch’s reliability. He knew that dust and moisture could cause the watch’s imprecise, and began working on developing a water proof watch. In 1926, he introduced the Oyster, the water proof wristwatch. This was followed the next year by a famous public endorsement stunt in which swimmer Mercedes Gleitze swam across the English Channel wearing the Oyster, a world first water proof watch . In !931, Rolex improved by introducing a self-winding movement, which made the water seal function even more reliable, and invented the date display in 1945.
Rolex continues to be a world leader in Watch-Making, and the Oyster was named “ Watch of the Century” by a panel of industry leaders in 1990s.
HK Snob

Monday, April 16, 2012

This is a Way to tell you Cartier is Authentic or not by viewing the Roman Figure VII. There should be a "Cartier" encripted on it. Some Cartier model has this word made on "XI",
HK Snob

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Vintage Cartier lady Watch



Cartier was founded in 1847 when Louis-François Cartier, then an apprentice to Parisian jeweler Adolphe Picard, took over the business when his master passed away. By 1853, young Louis-François had become a favorite of Napoleon III’s cousin Princess Mathilde, who helped Cartier gain entry to Parisian society.

For the next quarter century, Cartier was strictly a jeweler, but in 1874, Louis-François’...s son Alfred gained the company’s reins. He in turn brought his sons, Louis, Pierre, and Jacques, into the firm—it was this third generation of Cartier that would make the Paris jeweler’s name synonymous with luxury wristwatches.

The first Cartier watches were diamond-studded bracelets for ladies, which were introduced in 1888 and languished until Parisian fashions changed enough in the mid-1890s to encourage the adornment of a bare wrist with a watch.

But the real wristwatch breakthrough came in 1904, when, according to Cartier lore, a Brazilian aviation pioneer named Alberto Santos-Dumont complained to his friend Louis Cartier of the shortcomings of fumbling with a pocket watch on a short test flight. Cartier made his friend a flat, square wristwatch called, appropriately, the Santos. In the process, Cartier popularized wristwatches in France and throughout the world until Today.

In 1912, Cartier introduced the oval Baignoire and tortoise-shell shaped Tortue models, followed in 1917 by Cartier’s most famous early wristwatch, the Tank, which was reportedly inspired by the design of Renault tanks used during World War I. Rudolph Valentino wore a Tank in the 1921 silent classic The Sheik.

In the early 1920s, Cartier partnered with fellow Frenchmen Jaeger and Breguet to produce movements for its watches. Other illustrious Cartier collaborators included Swiss makers Vacheron Constantin, Patek Phillipe, Piaget, and Audemars Piguet.

During the 1920s, Cartier started stamping its watches with four-digit reference numbers—today, knowledgeable collectors know to look for and verify these codes before purchasing an antique Cartier wristwatch. That way, they can tell for certain if the 1932 waterproof Pasha (made for the Pasha of Marrakesh) that they are about to purchase is real or a fake.

By 1940, Cartier had introduced a motoring watch, with a curved shape that was designed to be worn on the inside of the wrist—the winder was on the back of the watch, against the wearer’s skin, rather than the side. And then, in 1942, after the death of Louis Cartier, the company began several decades of stagnation.

Countless variations of the Tank appeared (in the Chinoise, horizontal bars at the top and bottom of the dial rest on the Tank’s vertical "treads"), and in 1965 there was even a watch whose body was shaped like a parallelogram. But it was not until the Must de Cartier in 1976 and the reissue of the Santos in 1978 that the firm was able to reestablish itself as a player on the wristwatch scene.

Attached is an Early 1990 model Lady Panthere, quartz movement, 18KT two tone…

HK Snob

Saturday, April 14, 2012

40 Years after its birth, Royal Oak Jumbo has a price!














It has been 40 years after the likely one of most beautiful watch design was created by Gerald Genta in 1972, with continuously applause of such beautiful Watch by watch lovers all over the World, a new Memorial Royal Oak design is created in 2012.

However, the original First Generation Royal Oak indicates that there is a group of die hard collectors looking for it. It is rare as AP produced only very small number of it to test the maket acceptance for the Exquisite Sport Watch as the first time.
Since the timeless 2120 movement was introduced in its Royal Oak case in 1972, with movement thickness of 3.05mm, one of the World’s thinnest mechanical Automatic movement, it provides the Hour, Minutes and Second, Date Display function. At the same time this movement Cal 2120 was being used later on Patek Philippe Nautilus 1976 and Vacheron Constantin Model 222.

The Calibre. 2120 was actually developed by Jaeguar Le Coutre. Now after 40 years, this first generation Royal Oak had appeared in Recent Auction with final bid of HKD$311,250!

Really this is a good start, I have a 18KT Solid gold one… Don’t know how much it values? It is Lower as Some one said than the Stainless steel version, but Someone said it is more expensive!. Well, needless to argue, there I have been seeing more than one time in HK market for Stainless steel Verison, one was In Champangne Court two years back, asking for HKD$59,000.00 as the condition was not too attractive! But the next day I went there, it was sold! The second time I saw it is in auction. I had a wonderful chance to get the Gold one. It is Numbered NO.XX!

It is rare too! It comes with the International Waranty booklet!

HK Snob

Monday, April 9, 2012

Rolex Ref 18038 with Arabian Coat of Arms









Rolex Ref. 18038 Dress up in other straps. The Coat of Arms is beautiful, believe this type of watch with such a condition is extremely rare!
It really looks awesome with a navy green Nato Strap!
This was found his new owner yesterday. (Sold)
HK Snob

Sheffield Cuff Link Watch



This Sheffield Cuff link has a Swiss made manual wind Watch movement. The other one is a Photo frame with cover.

It is in mint condition, I just sent it for Stephen' Overhual, as for the first time after 55 years.

The one beside is a 1930' Masoon Club badge.

HK Snob

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Rolex Daytona and Waterman Patrician













Beautiful Life nominated the Most beautiful watches that includes Rolex Oyster Perpetual Date just lady presented in BaselWorld 2010. Framing a dials of different colors from gray to chocolate is fluted or domed bezel encrusted with 24 or 46 scintillating brilliants. At 6 o’clock is the gem-set Roman numeral hour marker. Fresh, refined and extremely elegant, these new Rolex ladies’ luxury models eloquently demonstrate the gracefully feminine style pursued by all ladies’ timepieces. Top Ten Watch UK nominated these watches as the top 10 Most Desirable watch available Today. Through open vote from the people that made these 10 beautiful time pieces ever made and dating back several decades.












1. Rolex Sea Dweller
2. Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph
3. Breitling Emergency
4. Panerai Radiomir 1936 Special Edition
5. Patek Philippe Calatrava
6. Rolex Cosmograph
7. Omega Seamaster "James Bond"
8. Rolex Submariner Non-Date
9. IWC Big Pilot
10. Audemars Piguet T3 - The Terminator
From these two website, we can see that out of these, Rolex plays a major role in terms of publicity, popularity, appearance, value and image… Being a Rolex Owner, you should be proud of the watch you are wearing. If you had all these watch , then you are one of the man, does not mean you are rich enough but have a good taste enough to match with tehse votes of the Website… Simply not simple!
Watch Critics March 2012 edition Alain Chung has a very good illustration of three beautiful Daytona. The Red. The Blue and Green.. Whereby the dial material is Grossular, Sodalite and Chalcedony respectively. Rolex has been the expert in employing natural gem to make the dial, and those watch value will appreciate once after the production is discontinued. Recent year Rolex seldom work on the special dial made of natural gem as that is not easy and expensive to prepare.
Imagine you have to choose the gem for the even colour, inspection for no micro crack, the gem will be lapped to a thickness 0.4 mm approximately. then screen printing on it.. Laser cut holes and opening, insert the index. It may take 30 processes in order to make one, every process make have certain yield loss. Amongst 00 Pieces of the dials, there may be only 30 pieces is acceepted for use!
And that take a lot of time, effort, skill to achieve that, I can say some time the dial costs 30% of the cost of the whole watch.


Whilst when I search for my vintage fountain pen, the Waterman Patrician has the similar colour and likewise the Charisma…
When Waterman was losing ground to the other big three (Parker, Schaeffer, and Eversharp in 1926, They invested in the design of a new Art Deco Pen Patrician which was then launched in 1929, Entirely made of Celluloid and with a solid gold emblem, a fine big nib, the colour is magnificent. The Turquoise was one of the most beautiful pens 20 Century made. And has been top of the dream pen for Collectors.
Look at these Daytona, and Patrician, they have the similarity… Size is Big, colour is absolutely eye-catching, hand made, The Celluloid tae 5 months to settle before they can put it on the machine to chase. It takes 162 process step to make Rolex Oyster Case.
Price is High, a Patrician was selling at USD$10.00 in 1929. These Three Rolex Daytona will not selling less than 1 Million HK dollar. In my opinion, they are still the most beautiful watch money can buy. And there will be only 200 pieces only for each colour.
In term of personal perference, I like Blue (turquoise the most, then Red (the Ripple Red only in prototype) and Green (Emerald). Further more, Rolex would pursuit of the jewelery artistical excellence by carefully selection of proper colour and size of gemstones in cresating these Daytona.
HK Snob

Rolex Ref 18038 Day Date with Arabian Coat of Arms







Rolex Ref 18038 Day Date With Arabian Coat of Arms.
This is a 1980’s Rolex Solid Gold Day Date With Arabian Coat of Arms. Made in small quantity specially for the Royal Family of Saudi Arabia, Watch and case is for Rolex and Strap is made by Rolex Japan.



HK Snob

Friday, April 6, 2012

Spaceman




After Men had successfully landed on Moon 1969, there are a lot of memorial products created as to celebrate this man kind breakthrough for space exploration, Parker made the first fountain pen T1 made by one piece of Titanium including the nib, the production yield was very low and very expensive and only 2,000 pieces were made.

Inspired by man’s conquest of the moon and the astronauts, Claude Lebet, owner of the Bulle based watch brand Catena asked Le Marquand to create a timepiece. Mr. Le Marquand provided him with his first wristwatch design called, what else, the "Spaceman".

Catena introduced the fleet at the Basel Fair of 1972. The large oval case appeared to be docked on your wrist held by a triple-forked Corfam strap by DuPont. The case also had a coned dome crystal half concealed by a coloured metal visor that allowed viewing of the dial to only the wearer. All hands and markers were perfectly seventies orange with models in a variety of colours only possible during that special decade. Is is power by T-25 at night.

The watches were powered by automatic and manual winding mechanical ETA movements and were distributed by a variety brands, among them Jules Jurgensen, Fortis, Tressa and Zeno. This is one of them… Automatic, Day Date! Production period is from 1972-1977, the one shown is made in 1973.
HK Snob

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

The Price of pre-owned Rolex in Hong Kong.



According to What I have checked with major shop of Rolex in Mongkok and Sham Shui Po area.


This is roughly the price of it. All are in Hong Kong Dollars
Please note that the price is depending on the condition of the watch, whether there is original birth certificate, box, of the watch.

Here is a roughly range of price of the popular models:

Submariner Ref 116610LN New Watch is HKD$58995, pre-owned watch is HKD$30,000 – 53,000.00

Submariner Ref 16610LV Green Dial Green bezel New is HKD$66,100, pre-owned is HKD$66,000-68,000 with original Certificate and box.



DeepSea Ref 16600 New is HKD$78,735, pre-owned is HKD$50,000- 67,000.

Explorer II Ref 16570 Black dial new is dis-continued, pre-owned one is HKD$27,000-HKD$38,000 while white dial is still slightly lower in price than white with same watch condition.

Explorer I Ref 214270 new at HKD$43,605, pre-owned one is about HKD$21,050- HKD$26,000

Daytona Stainless steel black dial Ref 116520BL new at HKD$87,500, pre-owned one is about HKD$71,.000 to HKD$85,800

Daytona Stainless steel While dial ref 116520 pre-owned price between HKD$72,500- HKD$78,000.

Yacht master 40 mm Ref 16622 new at HKD$83,125, pre-owned one is about HKD$52,000 to HKD$63,000.00

You can see the price of stainless steel Rolex is highest for Daytona, followed by DeepSea, Yacht Master, Submariner II, Black then white, Explorer I.



This is a price reference for you only. There is no idea on telling you what is best in buying in the pre-owned watch market in HK. I have seen some of the watch is selling actually almost the same price as new watch in Rolex AD. Why I have to buy in these second hand market for an used watch with such a high price!?


Also, do not forget to negotiate and some time when you keep on asking, they can allow some discount on the price for you but not much, usually it is about 3%-5% more maximum.

But one thing, you should take some times finding more shops before you buy it.
And Don't think the seller is stupid in putting good watch at low price, as old Chinese said, “There is no such big toad jumping on the road”

Happy Go Shopping Rolex….

Sham Shui Po Snob

Is Tourbillon watch more accurate!?

Tourbillon was patented by watch making Master Abraham Louis Breguet. That patent has long since expired. Tourbillon is French for "whirlwind." This is because the mechanism literally spins on itself. Breguet's ideas was essentially to house a clock within a clock.

If you have a balance wheel that rotates, rotating on itself. If you understand the concept of a balance wheel, you know that it does not just turn endlessly in one direction. Rather, it moves in a back and forth manner, like a revolving pendulum. This is often referred to as balance wheel oscillation. In fact, a balance wheel is a pendulum, and the consistency of its back and forth rotations are the basis for mechanical watch movement accuracy. Of course, if the frequency is higher, likely by right, it would be more accurate. That is why Grand Seiko has a Hi Beat of 36,000 cycles per hour.

No matter what type of tourbillon used, the purpose is the same, to counteract the effects of gravity that may alter the accuracy and reliability of a balance wheel's oscillations.

A tourbillon is a in fact a balance wheel that itself rotates, but the balance wheel rotates in one direction (not oscillation), and it typically make full rotation every 60 seconds, but some design rotates every 30 seconds. For this reason, the tourbillon is often used at the seconds counter when it is used in a watch. A convenient way of putting in a second counter.

The main theory behind how a tourbillon is supposed to work, is that the balance wheel rotates to all positions in purpose of off setting the effect gravity might have on it being stuck in one position consistently. So if the balance wheel is constantly moving, then minor deviations here and there will be canceled out. But that is purely theory, as our hands are moving in all direction, the watch is not placed in juts one position. The cancellation effect is multi-degree-variation-complex. There is no fixed rate of gravity cancellation in each of the gesture position.

Most watch manufacturer actually agree but not to admit that even if the tourbillon is able to perfectly cancelling out rate affecting effects of gravity on a balance wheel, this is not the key to ensuring accuracy.


There are researches that have shown that Breguet's theories on tourbillon’s improvement are neglectible or even not effective at all on accuracy.
This carries a result that all effort in making and implementing a tourbillon movement does almost nothing to increase accuracy. Instead, a well constructed traditional watch that is finely tuned will beat out a tourbillon based watch anytime in terms of accuracy.


Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe and Blancpain, among others headed this movement. The first tourbillon-based watches were interesting, but lacked much of what people needed in a watch. Like the AP introduced in 1985, it is delicate, semi auto-wound of low efficiency, and often not very easy to read.
20 years later, automatic tourbillon movements arrived along with a number of aesthetic and functional variations, but of course the nature of the movement provided that it would always be delicate.

As such tourbillons will always remain a piece of art and miracle for curiosity, rather than watch improving technological innovations.

There are really only two reasons for a tourbillon based watch, and neither of them have anything to do with increased accuracy or reliability. A tourbillon is interesting and excited to look at. It is always in motion and attracts attention and really makes the watch seem more alive beside tick-taks,. This is especially true with the multi-axis tourbillon movements with their constant gyration. The visual splendor is there, but arguably not worth the incredible premium. Moreover it brings us such tourbillon watch is pure showiness and prestige.

Attached is the famous Blancpain Torubillon, It is simple design, it works! Blancpain Tourbillon would give you extra viewing effect beside accurate time keeping, why not?

HK Snob

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Rolex Datejust lady Ref 69173 and 79173

This is Rolex lady Datejust probably the most popular model for middle class people who wear it everyday in all occasions in Hong Kong.

Or the most favouriate choice for buying as a gift for your mother and or your 2nd wife!?
Why Do I say so as I know at least five of my friends had this watch given to their 2nd wife as a gift.
Pre-owned one with box and certificates is about HKD$33,000-37,000
That is a life time you-do-not-have-to-care-watch for women…




If you buy a Patek Philippe dress watch for a woman, especially a pretty one… likely she came back to you as a complaint as the watch was stopped because she soaked it in water when she washes hand, or dropped it in the toilet like she does with her iPhone, or let it Cleaned thoroughly in the washing machine with the clothes…. But if that is a Rolex… it will be survived!

It adds a bit elegancy to the one if she is tall and slim but not short and stalky.

attached is the Ref 79173 with mother of pearl dial for all ages and one on right Ref 69173 with diamond on dial , the later one may be perfect if you are above 35.
HK Snob