Saturday, October 10, 2009

AP Lady classic



This is an AP I bought in Thailand World Trade Centre in 1997 whereby the Thai Baht dropped by 100% at that moment due to the Asian Financial Break down. I bought at about HKD$10,000, I bought an Hexgon Cartier TT Auto Santos at About HKD4,500, A Rolex TT Ladies Date just at about HKD10,000.

The rest of them I sold already and make some profit when I returned HK. I And I keep this AP for one my daughters when they grown up later. As this is the watch of the 80's and was well designed with the shape of almond, you see the crystal has to be cut very precisely to fit the watch. It mechanism is close to perfect, very accurate, I have never sent them for cleaning as it runs very smoothly.
When I wind two rounds, the watch will be alive, and it could run to the last mini gram force of the spring can release. That means that the mechanical fiction is very low.

This is how to tell how good the watch was made!

Now this watch was wearing by by elder daoughter in Thailand Working as Intern oin Bangkok.

Bangkok Snob




1950 Omega Moonphase Man's watch


A rare 1950 moonphase man's rolled gold watch, manual winding, very part is orginal, the dial is a bit stained after many years, still its Value is about HKD$2,000.00.

Calatrava SJ5520

Patek Phillips Calatrava 5520J 200 pcs Limited edition. Dress watch, classic, very elegant with the neat dial design!

Rolex Day Date Osyter Perpetual






This is Rolex Oyster Perpetual, Day Date Ref.18039. With Nickel-finished Lever movement. 31 jewels, Original Diamond set numerals, Centre Seconds, Apertual for day at 12, magnified windwo for date, the tonneau-shaped water resistant-type case with White Gold milled bezel, screw back, screw down crown.White gold Day Date is always the best watch as Rolex collector's item as it value can be well miantained over the years.
I can recalled that the SS Osyter perpetual Date just boy size was selling HKD$4,800 in 1980, a TT Date just was about HKD$8,900, and a Yellow Gold Oyster perpetual Day Just large size was about HKD20,000. A Oyster White Gold Date day was about HKD$28,000.

Now it is about HKD241,600 (model 218239) and the Platinum version with diamond bezel (model 118346) is HKD$445,100 as on the lastest Rolex price book dated 6th April 2009.


HK Snob



Friday, October 9, 2009

N° 01, "Sailing Dream" by Antoine Preziuso


"Sailing Dream" No. 01 of a limited edition series of 30 examples. Made in 1997. Rare and fine, tonneau shaped, center seconds, water-resistant, 18K yellow gold gentleman's wristwatch with 42-hour autonomy and three color gold erotic automaton scene with an 18K yellow gold Antoine Peziuso buckle. Accompanied by a luxury fitted box. Current value is estimated Around $20,000.00

HK Snob


Sunday, October 4, 2009

How to tell different type of Gold for Watch?


When a Colleague asked me Will Rolex gold colour watch will fade its colour and how thick the gold is plated for me. I think I need to tell and explain the various terms of gold in use for watch. Rolled Gold Rolled gold is a very thin sheet of gold that is laminated to a lesser metal (usually brass). The two layers of metal are heated under pressure to fuse them together. The sheet is them rolled into a very thin sheet and then used to make watch Watch made by rolled gold wear well over time. It is now almost replaced by gold Plated process nowadays. Rolled gold pieces are marked rolled gold plate, R.G.P., Gold Plated Gold plating is a method of depositing a thin layer of gold onto the surface of another metal, most often copper or silver (to make silver-gilt), by chemical or electrochemical means. Watch in the 60-80’s had a thickness of Gold plating such as 20-40 microns Nowadays the Gold colour watch made by plating can be just as thin as 3-5 microns, This thin gold layer will be wearing off in time. Some old watch or pocket watch engraved with say gold for 20 years means that they can be last for 20 years, just to tell you they are made thicker only. They are not solid gold watch 9, 14 and 18 Carat Gold While pure gold is yellow in color, gold can also appear to have other colors. These colors are generally obtained by alloying gold with other elements in various proportions. For example, alloys which are mixed 14 parts gold to 10 parts alloy create 14-carat gold, 18 parts gold to 6 parts alloy creates 18 carat, and so on. This is often expressed as the result of the ratio, ie: 14/24 equals 0.585 (rounded off), and 18/24 is 0.750. Carat is normally expressed in Ct of K. Nowadays, Solid Gold watch is almost found to be 18 Ct rare to see 14 Ct. 14 Ct is only found on ring and jewelery, but no watch! Carat As a measure of purity, one carat is purity by mass The most common carats used for gold in bullion, watch and jewelery making and by goldsmiths are: 24 carat (millesimal fineness 999) 22 carat (millesimal fineness 916) 20 carat (millesimal fineness 833) 18 carat (millesimal fineness 750) 15 carat (millesimal fineness 625) 14 carat (millesimal fineness 585) 10 carat (millesimal fineness 417) 9 carat (millesimal fineness 375) 8 carat (millesimal fineness 333) 1 carat (millesimal fineness 042) Some watch maker tends to engrave 18K instead of 18 Carat, in fact they bear the same meaning.

Vermeil Vermeil, a French word which came into use in the English language, mostly in America, in the 19th century as an alternative for the usual term silver-gilt, is a combination of sterling silver, gold, and other precious metals. It is commonly used as a component in jewelry. A typical example is sterling silver coated with 14 carat (57.5%) gold. To be considered vermeil, the gold must be at least 10 carat (42%) and be at least 2.5 micrometres thick. In the US, sterling silver covered with a base metal (such as nickel) and plated with gold cannot be sold as vermeil without disclosing that it contains base metal. Cartier used to produce a lot of Vermeil Santos Watch as some of the lower line of watches. White Gold and Platinum In Chinese Hong Kong, White Gold and Platinum bears the same Cantonese Pronunciations, White gold is an alloy of gold and at least one white metal, usually nickel or palladium. Like yellow gold, the purity of white gold is given in carats. Platinum is another type precious metal which is used to be more expensive than White gold. White gold's properties vary depending on the metals and proportions used. As a result, white gold alloys can be used for different purposes; while a nickel alloy is hard and strong, and therefore good for rings and pins, gold-palladium alloys are soft, pliable and good for white gold gemstone settings, sometimes with other metals like copper, silver, and platinum for weight and durability, although this often requires specialized goldsmiths. Almost all white gold jewelry is rhodium-plated since gold alloyed with palladium or nickel never comes out true white, but tinted brown, therefore requiring a thin layer of rhodium to mask the tinted shade and make it true white.

Colour of Gold Rose gold is a gold and copper alloy widely used for specialized watch due to its reddish color. It is also known as pink gold and red gold. As it was popular in Russia at the beginning of the nineteenth century, it is also known as Russian gold, although this term has become somewhat rare. With different additive and other element, we can produce many types of colour of Gold, Black, Purple, Grey, Pink or Rose Gold.

Gold Filled Gold-filled jewelry aka "Rolled Gold" or "Rolled Gold Plate" is composed of a solid layer of gold bonded with heat and pressure to a base metal such as brass. Some high quality gold-filled pieces have the look, luster, and beauty of 14 karat (58%) gold. I Hallmark A hallmark is an official mark or series of marks struck on items made of precious metals — platinum, gold, silver and in some nations. Hallmarks can only be found on Solid Gold Watch. In my understanding, Gold plated watch is no a gold watch, gold watch means solid gold ( the whole piece of watch was made form a big piece of Solid Gold Rolex, Patek Phillippe seem did no produce any gold plated watch at all. Correct me if I am not correct! What material I should buy for Watch? In normal selling price as we can see, a Stainless steel watch may sell at $1,000. Watch of the same type made with Solid 18K gold may be selling at $3,000 And $5,000 for Pink Gold or Rose Gold and $8,000 for 18K Platinum. The price can vary 3-10 times with difference of metal to make the case with the same Watch engine! So as a collector, if your budget can allow, buy Solid Platinum watch and Pink Gold Watch is the best in investment as they usually produces less! Of you want to collect the watch because of the engine is good, then why not just go for the stainless steel version!?

HK Snob

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Audemars Piguet Tourbillon

In 1987 Summer, The whole centre page of Newspaper had a stunning Ad about a slim beatiful watch. This is AP Tourbillon and I recalled that they are asking for HKD200,000.00 as a used one! That was a kind of price of a 400 Square foot flat in Hong Kong. I had been dreaming of seeing this watch and I had a chance to watch it at Jordon Centre 2nd floor. That old fat man was selling this watch. That watch would cost me a few years salary at that time...

This is ao far the best deisgn slim, Tourbillon watch so far...

Jordon Yau Ma Tei HK Snob

World Smallest Mechanical Watch


This Jaeger- LeCoultre '101' wristwatch movement introduced in 1929 remains the smallest mechanical wristwatch movement ever made.

It was put into series production and remained available at least until the 1950s.
Queen Elizabeth II got one of this watch in 1950's.
It comprises 98 parts, measures 14mm x 4.8mm x 3.4mm, and weighs only 0.9 grammes (including the dial and hands). LeCoultre company have manufactured precision watch components since 1833.
In 1903 Jacques David Le Coultre entered into a partnership with the chronometer-maker Edmond Jaeger and together they manufactured some of the most technologically advanced watches of the era. They also introduced the Reverso watch in 1931, which became one of the best known watches in the world.


Feverip

World Smallest LED watch


Tokyofl Japanese online watch store Tokyoflash just informed us about a new LED Wristwatch, which is supposed to be the world's smallest LED watch. Tokyoflash should have the overview of all LED watches so I believe them if they say the Retsu by Saishin LED watch is the world's smallest LED watch. Measurements of this cryptic LED watch are 25mm x 30mm x 8mm and the weight is 40g. The metal dial features a clean design and the watch comes with a black suede strap. Price is $127.08


HK Snob

World's Thinnest Watch

Years of development creating the world’s thinnest movement with a built in super light alloy and a traditional Steinhausen design, has resulted in a new watch marvel. You don’t have to pay a lot to look rich when you wear our Victorian Watch from Steinhausen. Thickness of the watch is 2mm!

Munich German Snob

10 Most Expensive Watches



















10 – $734,000 – Breguet pocket watch 1907BA/12

9- $800,000 – Blancpain 1735, Grande Complication

8 – $860,000 – Louis Moinet Magistralis

7 – $1 million – Hublot Black Caviar Bang

6 – $1.1 million – The Chopard Super Ice Cube

5 – $1.3 million – Patek Philippe Sky Moon Tourbillon

4 – $1.5 million – Vacheron Constantin Tour de l’Ile

3 – $4 million – Patek Philippe’s Platinum World Time

2 – $11 million – Patek Phillipe’s Supercomplication Calibre 89

1 – $25 million – 201-carat Chopard







Cheap HK Snob

TechnoMarine 2008 Olympic


TechnoMarine - Collection : 2008 Olympic - Model number: 808001
Movement: Swiss-quartz Chronograph,
Case material: Stainless steel,
Satin finished bezel held with 4 screws.
Scratch resistant Sapphire crystal,
Tang buckle with logo,
Case diameter: 41 millimeters wide x 46 high,
Case Thickness: 13.7 millimeters,
Black genuine rubber strap + 4 xtra straps in Olympic colors: red, yellow, green blue will fit up 8 1/2 inch wrist.
Band width: 31 millimeters at its widest part, 23mm at it's narrowest.
Dial color: multi-colored, Hands & Markers - silvertone.
Features date calendar, window display, 35 min retrograde, 1/10 sec, 60 sec register hands. Date at the 4 position, water resistant: 100 meter / 330 feet.
Price: $500.00

Rolex Safari



Limited dial design reflecting the Safari Desert.


Feverip

IWC Big Pilot




This is a 8 day Auto watch, huge, classical and stylistic.

MIH


Calender Single button chronograph 42mm. vry special Design.

Cartier Ronde



Manufacturer: Cartier
Model Name: Ronde
Model Number: Model CRWY1527951
Gender: Mens
Movement: Manual Winding
Movement Details: Limited Edition of 1000 Individually Numbered Pieces
Case: 18k Rose Gold round style Cartier case with exposition back to view movement (35mm dia.). Water-Resistant to 30 meters / 100 Feet
Dial: Off-White (cream) Dial with black Roman numerals
Strap Band: Strap band with 18k Rose Gold Cartier Rose Gold deployant clasp
Condition: Pre Owned
Watch Category: Contemporary
Additional Information: Cartier special polished wood jewelry style box with special wood eye loop and booklet included
Retail/Replacement Price: $100,800.00

HK Snob