How Deep is your Love?

Taken on the posters, magazine of  HK, Manila Airrport, Department store by my HTC ONE

Besides the beloved Rolex Submariner, DeepSea, Sea dweller, this are some of the known best diver' watches.

Blancpain X Fathoms

The latest C Fathoms of Blancpain revisits its iconic 1953 edition. The depth gauge of max. 90 metre and maximum depth reached memory, a retrograde 5-minutes counter for decompression stops feature and three barrels ensuring a five-day power reserve marks this Blancpain the most high-performing diver watch today. The Calibre is 9918B, based on the manufacture-made Calibre 1315  which was proven of its worth by successfully powering several models in the Fifty Fathoms collection.

Omega Ceragold Sea Master Planet Ocean

With the industrial technologically breakthrough, gold is injected  into a zirconium-based bezel to make the numbers and markers appear even, last and smooth like silk for touching.  The 18Kt markers are coated with white Superluminova that emits blue light, which the minute hand and the dot on the diving bezel give you green light. This beautiful watch is equipped with Omega Co-Axial Calibre 9301, the first chronograph in the manufacture’s family of using Co-Axial movements.

IWC

IWC Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph Editions “Volvo Ocean Race 2012”

To congratulate the start of this year’s Volvo Ocean Race and the teams taking party in the prestigious event, IWC launched the Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph Editions “Volvo Ocean Race 2012. Touted as amongst the toughest and most spectacular competition of 73,000 KM of treacherous waters across 4 oceans and 6 continents. This robust and advance IWC-manufacture 89361-calibre movement is housed in an elegant titanium case and is made water-tight to 6 Bars, fitted with a screw-in crown with matching profile crown protection.

The Chronograph has fly back function, as well as an analogue display with two hands in a sub-dial for long-stop times.

Ulysse Nardin Champion’s Diver Plushenko Limited Edition (250 pcs)

Ulysse Nardin started their early business with Marine chronometers where the Ship captain’s  most treasureable tool on board for all distance, course, and mileage calculation.

 The Champion’s Diver Plushenko Limited Edition was designed in collaboration with Evgeni Plushenko, Russian Olympic Champion figure skater.

NU Calibre 26 is a self-winding movement with 42 hours of power reserve indicator, as a traditional application for the Brand’s Marine Collection, the stainless steel case is protected with vulcanized rubber, that could give you a pleasant smooth feeling on your wrist, and to reduce any scratches onto your hands. This watch is made as a tribute to Evgeni Plushenko…and the one who buys it.

Tudor Pelagos

Tudor Pelagos marks the first venture into high tech diving watch, it is maiden watch that is made with Titanium, which makes senses as for it lightness, durability and free from any scratches. The satin finished titanium case is water-resistant to a depth of 500 metros. With a helium escaper valve visible at the side. An unidirectional bezel in titanium with a Matt black ceramic insert hour markers is large and luminescent with hands in Tudor's "snowflakes motif.

ow deep is you love on divers Watch?

Jaeger-LeCoultre Deep Sea Chronograph

This diver watch is equipped with an operating indicators can quickly tell if the chronograph is working, that is, if it’s really measuring set time intervals, if it’s ready to be activated. And be assured that correct time was displayed on the various counters. Its employs JLC Calibre 758 which has up to 65 hours of power reserve.

Rolex Submariner

Needless to say this is by so far likely the most popular diver’s choice for both armature users  and professionals, and watch collector as of it name in the waters for the past 50 years.

If you are diver, that is the basic tool you may have already…

In terms of Value and durability, I choose Rolex Submariner, In terms of technology and function, that is Blancpain, In terms of cost performance, that is Tudor and JLC, in terms of Style and probably of its exquisite shape, I think Omega and IWC, In terms of history in the name of Marine watch and Clock, and the Small number on Earth that we can have, that is Nardin… Give no excuse not to buy all but one….without consideration of the money in my pocket, I am sure I take the Blancpain! Because it was an Iconic watch since 1953!

HK Snob

Is Thinner the better?

Royal Oak 1972 Jumbo 39mm Calibre 2121 Taken By HTC One

Since the time we had pocket watch, Swiss watch makers were doing their best to design a thinner watch to show off their technology and skill of watch-making. Gradually when wrist watch is replacing Pocket watch, this game of going thinner had been started already!!

Until the year I was borne, 1957, Piaget created the 2mm thick hand wind movement 9P. more and more watcher is going for thinner, Vacheron Constantin, Universal, JLC.

Ultimately with lot of works and experiment, Piaget invented another 2.3mm Automatic Watch movement 12P.

Then a new company Jean Lassale which was established in 1976 successfully made a thin movement to a merely thickness of about 1.2 mm. Jean Lassale created the world record of super thin Calibre 1200 in 1976 and then the automatic Calibre 2000 one year after.

Thin watch is an equivalent of better quality watch was the mindset of most of collector or connosieuer for watch. As no other small company could beat this with launch of thinner watch. So  the big player like VC, PP, Piaget kept making thin watch with 35mm dia. to satisfy the world…

1990, Panerai  swiped the market with a new wave of  “New”, “Large” and “Expensive” to bring us enter to this Happy Land of Dinosaurs, till 15 Sept 2008, Lehman Brothers went bankruptcy,… this episode carried the label of big watch back to stone age. Watch makers then issue watches with Standard, Low profile, Complicated and Traditional watch still able to take major portion of the market share. Till 2010.  Piaget perfect with an new 1208P which was modified base on the blue print of 12P, to continue the legend of a thin watch, immediately made me recalled those name of thin watch; LeCoultre, Frederic Piguet, Lemania..etc

Thinner is better but tougher, in order to maintain the accurate time keeping, thinner watch has no room for you to play around. A small second point hand wind watch may require same or even more effort to build an automatic watch that come with date! As most of the time is required to fine tune the 5 Positions precision , some times it may re-setup again and again!

Time seems has stopped by AP since 1972, as after 40^th anniversary, AP Royal Oak 39mm super thin watch still maintaining the use of 2122 movement, that has been used since 1972,  the watch has a thickness is 3.05 mm, Same movement are also being deployed by PP and VC on their watches.

This is one of the reason that man people is searching for the early AP RO using 2121 movement, and that watch has been the hot item in recent auctions.

HK Snob

No Fakes Pledge Scheme

Picture taken at HKIA by HTC One handphone

Hong Kong was known to be the Paradise for Shopping, this statement may still valid as we have the largest number of watch shops and some of the name in luxury goods per square kilometer in certain area like South Tsim Shat sui.

Some people ask me where to buy Rolex that is for sure no Fake one!

I would have to recommend them going to these “No Fakes Shops” with this label… This word “正” is a adjective means “Real” or “good” in Chinese.  

Without that, I can not say they would likely selling the fake Rolex, but they may not be recognized by the Intellectual Property Department of HK that this is a shop that selling Real good stuff. If I were you, especially foreigner, try to go to shops with this label, it should be displayed in the shops window or displayed outside the entrance.

For more, go visit www.nofakes.hk

HK Snob

The Super Early Royal Oak

The Very First Royal Oak now assigned as Reference 15400 41mm, Ever.
That is dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the Royal Oak firstly introduced in 1972.
They have a ton of interesting RO's to choose from, including several LE's.  But, the two Royal Oak's from the collection that we're most excited about are relatively simple watches.  The first, as seen above, is actually the very first 41mm Royal Oak. The reference 15400 that was introduced in SIHH this year. is now ready for you to order Price HKD$132,000.
There are only limited shipment to HK, Dial colour Grey, white and Blue. Remember earlier the Auction for the original 1972 39MM Junbo watch was HKD$225,000.00!
Now you can get a new one at a fraction of the aution price!
HK Snob

The HK Master of Time

Asian's most famous watch connoisseurs Chung Wing Lun Alain died on 8 Oct in HK. He was born in 1951 in a rich family of Guangzhou, fond of writing, football, started new life in HK when he was studying  middle school, had managed Hi Fi audio business in HK in the 80's and started to publishing Watch Critics 名錶論壇 magazine in HK. Gradually becoming the leading magazine on watches. It is one of the most representible magazines of watch in Asia.

He likes wine tasting, food, cars, and fountain pen collection.

He has collection of over 400 pieces of watches and probably 300 fountain pens.

What's about this genius is his knowledge about watches and pen collection.

Though he has so many collectible watches yet what he said: It is a Kind of enjoyment whilst waiting for the next more adorable watch…” time is moving on whiles he had completed his journey on Earth, Wish he had the best in his new life.

I feel bore as we can not read anymore of his article with sharp and biting critics about watches no more!

Aftermath, I should not take too much wine, as I have similar hobby as Alain Chung; Watch, Fountain Pen, Wine, Hi Fi, Vinyl collection, calligraphy, and … of course I can not compare my watches with his collection as I am just a 2 feet dwarf standing in front of the Colossal!

HK Snob

There is no Counterfeit for Quality

Quality product

Counterfeit is not new, in fact back to Roman times, Counterfeit money was punished by death, the Roman also counterfeited wine and the ancient Egyptians made counterfeit precious stones such as emeralds.

Ulfberht Swords

The city of Solingen was the Toledo or Damascus of Northern Europe; swords that came from Solingen, particularly from the family of swordmakers known as Ulfberht, were revered, and many counterfeit sword makers stamped the word “Ulfberht” on their blades to give them more value. In fact, the early Viking swords are often said to have been the predecessors to the knightly broadswords/arming swords of the middle ages. Swords from the Viking lands (including Northern Germany) have a long and distinguished history through the middle ages, and the swords they used were made by German stamped “Ulfberht” it is sharp and yet tough but not easy to break, whereas there were a lot of fake sword stamped “Ulfberht” were sold to the Vikings, once the Vikings fight with it to their enemies,.. it broke and caused their life…

I used to have a Polo shirt labeled in “ Made in USA” when I bought it is 1996 until now I am still using it. It is soft and tough to wear and tear, I used to have a few Gregory back packs with label “Proudly made in the USA”,  How many types of shirt that carry a motif of alligator, or Crocodile on it?! Probably 20 types . how can you tell the difference of them… I hardly can! As there are too many label using an Alligator as their brand name. 

Counterfeit In China

We have heard about a lot of China Made counterfeit Goods. There are a lot of fake Rolex, Fake Omega, Panerai, fake eggs, Fake Soya sauce made of human hair, Fake Ferrari F40, Fake peanut oil by diluting with the sewage collecting from hotel ditches, fake Bird’s nest, what else? Fake “Baby-Boy” who by sticking a fake genital on “baby-girl” selling at RMB 88,000 to a Shanghai man, 3 days later he found out that the genital dropped out during the bath with the “Boy”. China can fake almost everything as there are a lot of scientists and chemists, they could be super genius if they apply these Hi-tech into a proper way, what are the ethics of conduct in front of huge profit by making Fake Products.

Counterfeiting by Hi-tech

It wouldn't be surprise that Counterfeiting is a organized crime, they have factory in China, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong, They make digital Fakes with some kind of Minolta laser Scanner and 3D Vision recognition system that can copy your watch in less than 4 minutes, with a near perfect 3-D picture digital version of your watch, they can easily perform a Reverse engineering and create the exact dimension in AutoCAD or Solid Edge programme, these programmes can be fed into an micro CNC machine to reproduce the same piece of part of your watch with a tolerance of not more than 5 microns.

However they can not reproduce the same quality of the part as the material is different.

Like a Ulfberht sword that no one could copy as it takes a tedious works to mix with metals with different types and there was a technique that only Ulfberht knows on how to control the fire temperature and the tempering duration, it takes many days  to make a good words! In short, there is no way to copy the quality.

Likewise Watch like Rolex can not be copied, as they have a lot of works to do in order to make such watch… they copy the shape and the case but the quality of the parts could hardly be copied, besides there is enormous process control parameters to make such parts and to assemble them, only Rolex knows how.

Made in Switzerland,

Made in China, Made in France, Made in Germany, Proudly made in the USA, made in Switzerland, made In India … we may associate each of these labels with an image  entrenched in that culture of that Countries...

BMW is made in Germany, immediately I think of German Engineering  which is likely best in the world… My old man told me a story the Japanese made the world smallest pin and gave to German, the German Said, “I can drill a hole in the Pin!”

With these name in Quality it stands for, each denotes a reality whose contour are more or less clearly defined each extols its virtues and draw a modest veil over the darker side. Beyond attesting to a guaranteed origin, all these flag-bearers for a country’s savoir-faire have a perfectionist goal.

“Designed by Apple In California, Assembled in China”  Unimaginable twenty years ago,, this sudden about turn, instigated by the brilliant and already sadly-missed Steve Jobs.

How about the Watch that is “Swiss Made?” Swiss made is a fabulous ambassador for Swiss Quality. Many are those legitimately benefit from it, with 24 carat tricksters  and other prestidigitators following in their wake. The same ones who magically made a component disappeared in Asia to then pull it out of a hat in Genève! Or Vice-versa to feed the torrent of so-called Quality Counterfeit or so-called Grade A Fake in Low Wo Commercial centre at Shenzhen.

There is no way by means of legal framework or customs raid, or police control to prevent us from Achieving anything more ambitious that current standard, let’s take a different approach: Self-regulation. Swiss Made is not just a guarantee as much as a promise.

Swiss Made stands for the watch are made in Switzerland, and

“Swiss Made” It stands for Trust and credibility. Swiss made remains the foremost ambassador for Swiss watch making  To define Swiss made, players should would do well, to accept the rules of authenticity, transparency and respect…

And I believe the end user’s appreciation is the best to tell how good the watch is. Swiss made does not necessarily represent Good Quality, but from the historical data, a Swiss Made watch has already carried this message’ Swiss Quality is Guaranteed” and Swiss quality does mean already certain good quality by itself!

Quality is the basic requirement for a product to be successful, Quality interpret s as good value for money, it lasts and it performs well above your expectation.

It carries the traditions, history, ethics of good workmanship and test before shipment to you and offer a good after-sales service, this is a Basic need for Swiss Quality Watch.

So next time, we should go for a genuine watch from the proper Authorized Agent or shops. Those who sells you a Rolex at a fraction of price we normally pay for is Fake, and We should not support this.

The Definition of “ Swiss Made”

There are two conditions that must be fulfilled for goods to be legally labeled as being of Swiss origin:

• The Swiss portion of the production cost must be at least 50%.
• The most important part of the manufacturing process must have taken place in Switzerland. The “most important part of the manufacturing process” is that part of the process that results in a completely new product. The

But there are a lot of rule issue at different time in defining the terms Swiss Made, by Swiss Law, the above one was widely been used.

HK Snob

As what HK people say:真的假了不, 假的真了不

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Jumbo 1972

The Pictures are taken today by HTC One

I still recall that PP AP, VC and Piaget had been named as The Big Four from Switzerland in all ads and watch magazine in the newspaper Ad of 80's in Hong Kong… and they ranked AP the top of the Four. (Correct me if I am wrong.)

In the 70’s Some of the best movement that collection won't miss: IWC 85 series, Vacheron Constantin 920 (Audemars Piguet 2120, Vacheron Constantin 1120, Patek Philippe PP28-255*) Patek Philippe 460, Omega series 5, and the most adorable Rolex 1570.

Especially Rolex is the most cost effect amongst al these top brands.

This is the first Jumbo AP Royal Oak equipment with this 2120 Movement with 39mm in size

The Total Thickness of the whole watch is merely 7mm. It is very thin, and the watch is extremely accurate, meaning that you can not notice any minor change at all on the minute hand after I have timed it for one month.
This is one of my favourite items from Audemars Piguet, big, thin, Simple, stylist, solid Gold, Vintage, memorabilia, beautiul, rare and not too expensive!

Once, some people asked me if this is quartz movement!

HK Snob

Rolex Country Code

Since 1985 Rolex used 3 numbers as to indicateCountry Code of that Rolex Watch.

On the Warranty certificate there were punched holes representing the Country Code.
That is an indication where the watch would be shipped from Rolex Genève.

The Rolex has certain marketing demand on watch from every different country, some of the
special watch may not be available in certain country, and some of the watch of Country A and
Country B may have minor difference. Only Rolex marketing manager knows the myth.
Somehow that Country code could be used to answer question from the Customs officer
when you cross from one Country to the Border of next.

Rolex has never published a list of country codes, these codes are the collection of
Rolex watch collectors.

* These "special" country codes stand for Rolex Headquarters itself and are only used
for a direct purchase by private customers at Rolex headquarters.
Those watches Cannot be Fake…!! What a Collectible Rolex Country Code!

HK is 888 which is very Good for Chinese, “發” pronounced as “FAT” meaning simply “Wealth”
“Treble 888 is really good Country Code for people of HK! “發發發”

828 is Taiwan and 838 is China which are all good numbers, so you should know Rolex has a
good understanding about the need of Chinese.

These are the Country Code we have for your Reference.

Code Country 010 Switzerland 012 Switzerland 013 Switzerland 014 Switzerland 015 Switzerland 021 Switzerland 022 Switzerland 023 Switzerland 025 Switzerland 026 Switzerland 033 Switzerland 037 Switzerland 044 Switzerland 045 Switzerland 061 Switzerland* 100 Germany 109 Germany* 110 France 112 France 113 France 119 France/Comex 120 Austria 121 Austria 123 Austria 126 Austria 128 Austria 130 Belgium/Luxemburg 133 Netherlands 134 Netherlands 135 Netherlands 136 Netherlands 137 Netherlands 138 Netherlands 150 Spain 160 Great Britain 170 Italia 200 Greece 201 Malta 202 Turkey 207 Corfu

Code Country 208 Greece 213 Portugal 217 Portugal 217 Portugal 218 Portugal 226 Danmark 228 Danmark 233 Danmark 237 Iceland 265 Sweden 267 Sweden 270 Sweden 271 Sweden 283 Finnland 321 Czech Republic 325 Serbia Montenegro 400 Hong Kong 413 Korea 430 Singapore/Brunai 431 Malaysia 440 Taiwan 500 India 505 Pakistan 514 Bangladesh 527 Middle East 529 Saudi Arabia 532 Saudi Arabia 535 Katar 536 Abu Dhabi 537 Dubai 538 Oman 542 Iran 548 Israel 612 Egypt 634 Congo 668 Mombasa 680 South Africa 700 Canada 710 USA 720 Mexico

Code Country 722 Mexico 733 Honduras 741 Bahamas 742 Bermuda 752 Jamaica 757 Antigua/Aruba 758 Virgin Islands 761 Netherl. Antilles 762 Aruba 765 Antigua 766 Saint Martin 767 Grand Cayman 768 Panama 770 Venezuela 780 Brasil 781 Chile 790 Argentinia 810 Australia 818 Phillipines 828 Taiwan 838 China 842 New Zealand 871 Hawaii 872 Alaska 873 Guam 888 Hong Kong 900 Japan 902 NATO Airbase (D) 906 NATO Airbase (D) 907 NATO HQ (D)

HK Snob