Strapped!

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I’ve heard lots of people say, over the years, that the Daytona is a “bracelet watch”. Now, it’s one thing to have an opinion (and we all know what they say about opinions) but it’s another to make a contention that’s simply incorrect, and offer it as dogma. As most people will know, the Daytona has been offered by Rolex with a strap option for many years and whilst I don’t know if those gorgeous vintage models were similarly supplied from the factory they certainly look good on leather.

Anyway, one of my biggest flipping regrets relates to my absolutely mint and full set 16519; this was the white gold variant that was produced immediately before the current range, and I sold it for a good £2000 less than it was worth having picked it up for a similarly good price. Oh, and it was, of course, on leather…

Some months later, I managed to get hold of a 116520 – the stainless steel model from the current range – with a white dial and stainless steel bracelet. I always fancied putting a strap on it but that’s not an entirely straightforward matter; Rolex add a fixed end link for their gold watches that are produced to wear on a strap, and the gap one’s left with in simply swapping out the bracelet can be a bit unsightly. However, that’s no longer an insurmountable issue as there are now a couple of independent manufactures of OEM-spec end links that complete the look of the watch for anyone who wants to go down that route. A friend posted on TURF recently about a set he bought from George in Singapore and it was enough to prompt me to drop George a line and then place an order myself.

The end links arrived yesterday, and I have to say that they’re beautifully finished. I had already bought a shiny alligator Rios strap in preparation for the delivery, and last night I mounted the end links and strap and was absolutely delighted with the results. Now, there will no doubt be some that don’t like the combination, but please don’t tell me that the Daytona wasn’t intended to be worn on leather. It was, it is, and I am!

99.1 x 0.040363269 =

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I posted the other day about how pee’d off I was to let my newly-acquired Dornblüth 99.1 go to a new home; as many have found before me, at 42mm it really does wear quite large, and – much as I liked it – I knew that in reality it was too big for me. Anyway, on Wednesday I met up with Kirk and Andrzej, some mates from TZ-UK, for one of our regular chats over a coffee in Radlett and Kirk bought along his Kal 04.0, just to rub salt into the wound.

Now, this is a genuinely rare watch; only one year of production (2006) and in total 75 pieces were made, of which 50 were in stainless steel and 25 in rose gold. With a very wearable 38mm case, the other striking difference to Dornblüth’s other models is that the internals in these are based on a GUB movement from some time around the early 90’s (not sure exactly when, but I’m about to mail Dirk Dornblüth to ask him). I quote from the Interweb:

The 04.0 caliber is based upon a small cache of antique movement parts produced in Germany by GUB. Largely reworked and augmented with other parts (some manufactured in-house) by D.Dornblüth & Sohn, it bears these attributes: 29.4 mm diameter; 3.8 mm height; 18 rubies; power reserve 36 hours (+/- 5%); 18,000 semi-oscillations per hour; rose gold three-quarter plate with yellow gold hand-graving of manufactory name and serial number; Geneva stripe finish; retracing ratchet; double sunburst finish on the crown wheels; flat polished, heat-blued screws with beveled edges; Glucydur screw balance with Nivarox 1 spring; swan-neck fine adjustment on the hand-engraved balance cock. [Gold chatons too – Ed]

The applied numerals are black steel whilst the hands are blued, and all in all it really is a wonderful watch. I’d been looking at/reading about them for a couple of years, but after realising how scarce they are pretty much gave up on finding one. Just trying it on was actually an unexpected pleasure, so I gave Kirk a withering look and advised him in no uncertain terms that my name was as good as on it.

Fast forward to 8.30 yesterday evening, and I had a message from Kirk. It took me a minute or two to realise he was actually offering me the watch, another ten minutes to transfer the funds and less than an hour to meet him and take the package – complete with some rather nice Lindt chocolates – from his hands. In truth, the timing isn’t great as I only recently stretched myself a bit to land a lovely JLC that I’d been after for some time. However, these just never seem to get sold, and I reckoned it was now, or never. Now appealed a bit more 🙂

These are obviously a bit rushed, but I’ll follow up with some more over the weekend…

Back in the fold

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A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to pick up a Dornblueth 99.1 that was listed on TZ-UK as unworn and pristine. It was a beauty, with applied blue numerals, but like many before me I realised after wearing it for a while that it really does need a slightly bigger wrist than my own. It bothered me as the 99.1 is a bit of a stunner, but at the same time I came to this conclusion a watch I’d been thinking about for many, many months also popped up for sale. A few PMs later and I’d sold one and bought the other.

The watch in question is a JLC Master Calendar in it’s newest guise (it’s actually a mid-2014 model, so almost NIB). Reminiscent of the Master Moon, gone is the power reserve from the old model, which allows the logo to go back where it belongs just under the 12 marker; and also gone is the large case, as JLC have reverted to a perfectly proportioned 39mm for what is essentially a pretty dressy watch. Since I sold my MUT Moon (I just don’t get on with ultra thins, for some reason) I’ve been sorely missing a JLC so I’m delighted to have one back in the fold. This one as a triple date moonphase so right up my street, and on the wrist it’s nothing short of gorgeous… much, much nicer than I was expecting, in fact. For those who like some technical details…

Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre
866

Movement
Automatic
Number of pieces : 305
Vibrations per hour : 28800
Power-reserve : 43 Hours
Jewels : 32
Barrel : 1
Height : 5.65 mm

Functions
Hour – Minute
Seconds
Moon phases
Date
Day
Month

Case
Stainless Steel
Water resistance : 5 bar
Diameter : 39mm
Thickness : 10.6mm

Dial
Silvered sunray-brushed, rhodium-plated hour-markers

Hands
Dauphines

Strap/bracelet
Alligator Leather

Buckle
Double Folding Buckle 16.0 mm

The black alligator strap that came with the watch is too long for me, but as I already wear my GO PC and IWC Portuguese on black leather I’ve ordered a dark hazelnut matt alligator with square scales from Camille Fournet. I think most people know by now that these are effectively the OEM straps that come with the watch, but buying from CF direct means they’re about half the price of going to JLC themselves. In the meantime I’ve mounted a Rios croc that arrived a couple of days ago, and that’s actually destined for my Daytona when the custom end links arrive from Singapore.

Anyway, apologies if I’ve rambled on a bit, but here are a few photos in customary fashion.