The magazine of Christopher Ward. Issue 35. Winter 2024
The Lumiére:
a light, light show
Despite its 10.95mm height, the Trident C60 Pro 300 ‘Lumiére’ leaps from your wrist. (Just like it jumped off this page.) Its brightness results from proudly protruding indices and the logo they encircle. Featuring facets finely machined to tolerances of 0.03mm, these mini-monoliths are super-legible in daylight. But it’s the Globolight®, the unique luminous ceramic from which they’re hewn, that produces their astounding, super-brilliance at night. And inspired this timepiece’s name. The light show doesn’t end there. Carved from titanium, the 41mm case incorporates a second sapphire crystal displaying its super-accurate movement. But it’s not the back of this beautiful tool watch you’re buying into. Is it?
Do your research
christopherward.com
Loupe.
The magazine of Christopher Ward.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that everything that could have been written about The Beatles has been written. But as always with the Fabs, something appears and makes us interested again. This time, it’s watches, specifically the timepieces of Paul McCartney and John Lennon. If the murky story of Lennon’s Patek Philippe doesn’t make you think twice about who you trust, you may need to reread it.
On the subject of beautiful watches, you can read the full story of the new C1 Bel Canto Classic on page 12 and find out how CW’s team brought a classic aesthetic to our famous chiming watch.
Elsewhere, you’ll also find a stunning photographic essay on the history of denim, how explorer and CW Challenger Tom Hicks took on the mountains of Kyrgyzstan, and an essay from Laura McCreddie-Doak on why men’s watches are so much more tech-y than women’s.
Enjoy the issue!
Editor: Anthony Teasdale
Art Director: Jamie Gallagher
Designer: Sam Burn
Photography: George Simms
It’s in our DNA
Many commentators of the watch industry would agree that when Christopher Ward launched its first Bel Canto in late 2022 it was a game-changer for us – and the industry as a whole.
Many asked why it was that such a relatively small watch brand like Christopher Ward was able to do something nobody else had ever achieved; namely, bring to market such an exquisite watch at an affordable price?
While there’s no denying the Bel Canto was, and is, a high water-mark for our brand, those of you who’ve followed our progress won’t have been shocked by the ground-breaking innovation/value equation of the Bel Canto. It’s in our DNA.
And now, two years later, we launch the secondgeneration Bel Canto. Same innovation, same uncompromising quality, same incredible value. But now with a classical design twist. Maybe it’s time to begin your own tradition (now that sounds familiar) by owning the watch that changed everything.
Mike & Peter
Latest news from Christopher Ward and the wider world of watches
New COO for Christopher Ward
Leading advertising MD Sarah Baumann joins the company
Christopher Ward has appointed a new chief operations officer (COO). Sarah Baumann joins the company with a background in advertising and marketing, including 17 years at advertising agency, Leo Burnett, where latterly she was deputy CEO. For the past five years she held the managing director role at new media disruptors, VaynerMedia EMEA and The Wild by Jungle. Sarah was also a Campaign magazine ‘40 over 40’ winner in 2021.
According to CW co-founder and CEO, Mike France, “Sarah combines exceptional leadership and strategic skills with a
profound knowledge of the new brand and business landscapes, which is going to be vital as we look to continue our trajectory of rapid growth in the coming years.”
“It’s not every day you discover a brand like Christopher Ward;” says Sarah. “Aside from its extraordinary growth and highly engaged community of watch-lovers, Christopher Ward is making waves within one of the world’s most established industries because of its vision, design, quality and value of its product. I’m absolutely thrilled to be joining Mike, Peter and their talented team for CW’s expansion.”
Moonphase for GPHG!
The C1 Moonphase has been shortlisted for a GPHG award – the ‘Oscars’ of watchmaking.
Launched in October last year, the 40.5mm watch has been put forward for the ‘Challenge’ prize, which celebrates watches that cost less than 3,000 Swiss Francs. The Moonphase is up against five other watches, and the prize will be judged by 827 industry experts.
Last year, Christopher Ward became the first UK brand to win a GPHG award when the C1 Bel Canto won the ‘Petit Aiguille’ prize.
Meanwhile, Christopher Ward will release a smaller version of the Moonphase when a 37mm version is launched towards the end of the year.
How the press fell for Lumière
The C60 Trident Lumière, cover star of the last issue of Loupe, is a dive watch that lives and dies by its lume. So it’s heartening to see that the watch bloggers and reviews are as keen on it as we are.
Adrian Barker describes it as “an insane amount of watch for the money”, while WatchChris says it’s “One of the best bezel actions I’ve experienced… the best dive watch of 2024.”
Jorg Weppelink of Fratello is particularly impressed by the use of solid chunks of Globolight®, a luminous ceramic, on the dial. “We have seen
dials before that use solid lume blocks,” he says. “But this is truly on another level.”
Oracle Time’s Sam Kessler says: “I can’t think of any that can stand up to the C60 Trident Lumière for its mix of good looks and practicality. And price. Always price, with Christopher Ward.” Finally, Buffy Acaia of Time + Tide, says Lumière is “Christopher Ward’s most refined dive watch yet.”
Letter from Biel
The latest news from our Swiss HQ
It’s been a busy late summer and early autumn at the atelier. We’ve been working on the C1 Moonphase and preparing the first steps towards the platine for the C1 Bel Canto Classic.
The work with this watch shows our progress this year. We’ve successfully mastered the Bel Canto production process – vital in reducing waiting times – and have hired additional staff in our quality assurance department. This is part of a process that’s been going on for the last few years.
If you’re a Christopher Ward fan, you’ll know we’ve been making more complicated watches – while the volume of all the timepieces we make has increased. Due to this, the industrialisation of the assembly became necessary, and has required a different mindset, tools and processes. The Bel Canto production upgrade shows we’re getting this right!
This isn’t just about the Swiss team’s achievements, however. We’re constantly in discussion with Maidenhead, too. Every week, someone from one side of the business works on the other. The two arms of the business are working so well together.
There’s been talk of a slowdown in the Swiss watch industry, but because we have some great products in the pipeline, we’re very positive and will do everything we can to push on and improve every aspect of what we do in 2025. As Mike France always says: onwards and upwards!
Jörg Bader Jr, CW product director
Dallas showroom opens!
Christopher Ward’s first showroom in the USA is now open. Located in Frisco, near Dallas/Fort Worth airport, it’s staffed by CW’s North American brand director, Mike Pearson, and new showroom manager, Trey Foote.
An experienced watch industry professional, Mike was previously integral to increasing Zodiac’s presence in the US, while Trey has spent the last five years as IWC’s client care manager.
“We’re both excited about welcoming fans of Christopher Ward,” says Mike. “We have the complete Christopher Ward collection for you to explore, and you can try on as many watches as you wish. Don’t forget, when you’ve chosen your watch, we’ll ship it directly from the UK to your home in the States – and we’ll pay all postage and import duties, “giving you a serious saving overall.”
CW meets a true American hero
Christopher Ward’s progression in the United States continues after the company’s US brand director, Mike Pearson, manned the CW stall at the Hook ’24 symposium at Grand Sierra Resort and Casino in Reno, Nevada.
Hook is organised by the Tailhook Education Foundation, an independent, non-profit organisation that provides scholarships to the children and grandchildren of US Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard personnel.
One particularly welcome guest was General Austin S. Miller, a retired four-star general in the US Army, who’s also a Christopher Ward customer.
“They say, ‘never meet your heroes’ but on that day, I did,” says Mike. “Many years ago, General Miller was pictured wearing a Christopher Ward and had no idea how much that image meant to our brand. To meet General Miller among so many American heroes is a moment I’ll always treasure.”
Mersey paradise
Exciting details of Christopher Ward’s northern hub at the new Everton Stadium
As the completion of the new Everton Stadium grows near, Christopher Ward has been announced as a ‘Founding Partner’ of the ‘Dock On 1’ concept – a revolutionary area of bars and restaurants for Everton fans to enjoy on matchdays.
Dock on 1 will also incorporate a separate Christopher Ward showroom and matchday experience area provisionally called ‘The Christopher Ward Pavilion’. It'll be open on non-matchdays for CW customers to try on and buy watches and become the company’s northern hub. When Everton are playing, it will function as a CW-branded private hospitality experience.
“Becoming a Founding Partner of Everton Stadium represents a new high-water mark for Christopher Ward, especially as the result of our partnership will be a unique, world-first experience for fans of both Everton and Christopher Ward,” says CEO Mike France. “I’m not aware of a more exciting, innovative project that combines the worlds of premium watchmaking and elite sport. I can’t wait to invite our first guests in less than a year – even Liverpool fans are welcome!”
CW’s Everton sleeve deal
Christopher Ward and Everton have agreed on a deal that will see CW become the ‘Official Sleeve Partner’ of the Men’s Senior Team. This means the CW logo will be visible on shirts - as worn by Jesper Lundström, left – for all cup and league games during the 2024/25 season, the final season Everton will play at Goodison Park.
The company’s name will also continue to appear on the back of Everton Women’s playing shirts as part of a multi-year arrangement announced earlier this year. Christopher Ward was proud to become Everton’s first Official Global Timing Partner in June 2022.
Release: 2025
No matter how perfect its design, every watch needs a refresh from time to time (look at the evolution of the Rolex Submariner for proof). Recently, Christopher Ward’s management and design teams have been looking at one particular model to build on its foundations – and making it even more special.
“At the moment, this particular model could perform better,” says Will Brackfield, designer at Christopher Ward. “So we’ll increase its ‘field watch’ aesthetic, using more matte colours and bringing new straps. The new colours have a definite ‘old Land Rover’ feel, but I can’t say more!”
Things to come
Another area of improvement is the dial, which is due a tasteful refresh. “We’ve had a lot of love from fans about a beautiful dial pattern on one of our most successful collaborations,” says Will. “So we’re looking at using that textured pattern on the reinvigorated field watch but in new colours.”
The story is an all-around upgrade, but it doesn’t go so far that it loses the soul of the original watch. “From what we’ve seen of the early prototypes, we’ve got the balance right,” says Will. “And from the reaction to the dial around the office, it’s going to get a lot of love.”
NO ONE EXPECTED BEL CANTO TO BECOME CHRISTOPHER WARD’S MOST IMPORTANT WATCH, BUT IT HAS. AND NOW, WITH A SECOND ITERATION, THE BEL CANTO CLASSIC, SITTING ALONGSIDE THE ORIGINAL, IT’S STARTED A NEW JOURNEY FROM A ONE-WATCH LINE TO FULL COLLECTION
Words MATT BIELBY
Once in a while, a watch comes along that changes the company that made it: the Royal Oak at Audemars Piguet, Rolex’s Submariner, the Navitimer, Speedmaster, Tank…
For Christopher Ward – unexpectedly, excitingly – that watch has been Bel Canto, a sideshow that became the main event.
“Bel Canto is Christopher Ward stretching itself, offering outstanding value in a whole new way.” says Mike France, CW co-founder and CEO, “It’s a specialist piece that caught the imagination of the horological world – and is now our best-selling watch ever.”
This winter an important new chapter begins: the numerous travails of scaling up production are over, with waiting times becoming shorter. By the end of 2025’s first quarter, watches are targeted to be shipped as they’re ordered. It also marks the moment Bel Canto evolves from a single watch into a genuine range, with the launch of the separate-but-equal Bel Canto Classic.
You can see the headline changes immediately: a more classically styled time-telling dial; a simpler, no-lume handset; and a spectacular guilloché finish to the ‘platine’, that coloured disc that serves in lieu of a traditional face. There’s a new range of straps and colours too,
revisiting the Azzurro and Verde of the original limited edition Bel Cantos – though both catch the light slightly differently – and adding two new shades, Oro and Argento.
Bel Canto began as a dream of CW technical director Frank Stelzer, but the first time anyone outside the company got a proper look at it was at Worn & Wound’s Windup Watch Fair New York, in October 2022. Mike and watch designer Will Brackfield were there, early samples in their pockets – not for public consumption, but to quickly flash at select individuals to gauge reactions. “So, what do you think?” Mike would ask, and each time the answer came back strong and clear: “I love it. In fact, when can I get one?”
What was even more exciting was how many of their peers attending – people from Zodiac, Fears and Studio Underd0g –put their names on the waiting list. “When you see brands you admire signing up for a watch like this, you know you’ve got something special on your hands,” says Mike.
Not every Christopher Ward watch has a launch party, but Bel Canto did, and it was
rather a fine one – at Leighton House, the refurbished art gallery in London’s Holland Park. A thrilling night, but a rather strange one, in that nobody there was able to buy a watch: all 300 of the initial run of Bel Cantos had gone the night before.
“It went on sale at 4pm on November 1st, and 24 hours later we were at our own event wondering what to say to all the people who wanted one,” Mike says.
“A day later, on November 3rd, we decided to bring forward the green for pre-order on Friday, 4th.”
If there’s one thing everyone should know about Mike, it’s that he loves music, and the next day he was in central London to see Ralph McTell. Before that, though, he and wife Lorraine were enjoying G&Ts at a street cafe, paying more-than-usual attention to his phone.
The green Bel Canto would go on sale that evening, and Mike’s mobile was rigged to buzz each time an order came in. Bzzt, went the phone. Bzzt, bzzt, bzzt. By the time Ralph came on, the entire second run of another 300 had sold out. It had taken just over two hours.
Bel Canto wasn’t just selling out lickety-split; the horological world was reacting to it in a most enthusiastic way.
THE BEL CANTO CLASSIC
HAS A CLASSICALLY
STYLED TIME-TELLING DIAL; A NO-LUME HANDSET; AND A SPECTACULAR GUILLOCHÉ FINISH TO THE ‘PLATINE’ “
Fratello called it “unique and charming”. For Hodinkee, it “plotted a new course for the brand”. Bel Canto didn’t need this, of course – it had already sold out, twice over – but damn, it was good to hear.
“Early on, we had a fantastic review by Andrew Morgan then of WatchFinder, and now a significant YouTube influencer,” Mike says. “His piece went around the world – and now everyone felt they had to chime in. It got us wondering: what should happen next?”
That night, Mike couldn’t sleep. He started doing back-of-an-envelope maths in his mind, and the next day spoke with Jörg Bader Snr, director of the company’s Biel operation. “The watch is so strong, I think we can do 5,000,” he said.
Jörg knew this might be the challenge of his professional life. “OK,” he said.
“So you can do it?”
“No,” said Jörg. “But we’ll find a way.”
Everything, it was clear, would need rethinking. The first limited edition Bel Cantos added up to a not-insignificant number of watches, only possible thanks to the help of specialists like Armin Strom and Chronode. For the ongoing series, these boutique companies didn’t have the capacity to be able to fulfil the numbers Christopher Ward had in mind.
Bader Jnr, product director in Biel. “Nobody in the history of Swiss watchmaking has sought to do something this complex, in these numbers, in this sort of timeframe.”
And with uncharted territory comes mistakes, dead-ends, and previously sound wisdom that has to be rethought totally.
“Then there was my design,” says Will. “I’d always thought of Bel Canto as a limited edition, so I’d made very few compromises with it, adding all these curved bridges and fine chamfered edges – things you could conceivably achieve at a few hundred units, but a real issue at serious volume. Not only that, but when you’re exposing as much of the movement as we are with Bel Canto, any blemish becomes a major issue – and even humidity can cause them. Working out where in the chain you’re having each problem is tricky, because you only come across them at the very last step.”
facturer who’d really struggled,” Mike says. “And the search for someone else brought us to Philipp Staub of Paoluzzo AG, a company we've recently taken a 20 percent stake in. Philipp is an engineering maestro who lives and breathes machines, and over the last six months has been a major reason why we’ve been able to deliver Bel Canto as efficiently as we can.”
New suppliers often bring with them unexpected bonuses, and so it is with AJS Production SA, which uses advanced ‘femto’ lasers to render the platine’s guilloché finish. This gives a far better surface than a punched guilloché would, yet is more affordable than a hand-finished alternative. “You can even shrink a repeating pattern as you go towards the centre of a surface and make it larger at the edges,” Will says. “And we’ve taken full advantage with the Bel Canto Classic.”
“Has anyone ever done what we’re doing here?” Mike asked one day. Certainly not Omega, not Rolex, not even Patek Philippe, who make more high-end complications than anyone. “Unless we’re missing something, this is uncharted territory,” says Jörg
It all meant Bel Canto was different to other Christopher Wards in one significant way: when you buy a Twelve or Trident, you can almost guarantee your watch will ship the day they take your money. With Bel Canto, however, there was a waiting list, and it grew and grew. “I don’t think it ever quite got up to 15 months,” says Mike. “But it could have.”
New suppliers were needed, and fast. And Christopher Ward lucked out with the people they found. One was APJ Sàrl, a small but ambitious finisher based in Haute-Sorne; another the innovative CNC company Paoluzzo AG.
“We’d been working with a CNC manu-
With all these guys now on board, each week has seen assembly times speed up and the end results become nearer and nearer perfect. “We’re in a virtuous circle now with volume leading to greater efficiency leading to even greater quality,” Mike says. “We’ve created a semiindustrialised machine that’s delivering highly sophisticated, brilliantly wellmade pieces at a price nobody believed possible, the fulfilment of the Christopher Ward dream in many ways. And this puts us in a great place for the future, as our capability now matches our ambitions.”
The assumption, of course, is that the new Classic will storm away in terms of sales – “not least because it represents the first time two of our strongest colours have been available in a series run”, Mike says – and you can be certain the story doesn’t end here. Mike can envision a permanent three-model Bel Canto range at some point, and further limited editions too. Impossible? So it would have seemed just a couple of years ago, but at this point – and considering how far everyone has come – it would be foolish to bet against it.
C1 Bel Canto Classic
Open series
Diameter 41mm
Height 13.2mm
Lug to lug 48mm
Weight 53g
Case Titanium Grade 5
Crystal Domed sapphire
Dial colour Oro, Verde, Argento, Azzurro
Depth rating 3 ATM / 30m
Movement Sellita SW200-1 Automatic with FS01 module
Functions Hour, minute, hour chime
Power reserve 38 hours
Available now
£3,495 / $4,225 / €4,550 on leather
£3,745 / $4,540 / €4,885 on bracelet
The three horsemen
Riding to the rescue, a trio of ambitious new suppliers have given their all to make Bel Canto happen
Mevland Krasniqi of APJ Sàrl
Christopher Ward started working with APJ at the end of 2022, when Mevland was introduced to Jörg Bader Snr. “And as time’s gone on, we’ve become closer and closer,” Mevland says. “Jörg and I regularly share a meal; Peter and Mike have come to visit us in Switzerland; and I’ve been with Jörg to England. I’m driven by the love of a job well done.” Mevland has been happy to hire and train new staff, move to new premises and fine-tune production flow to meet Bel Canto’s vastly increased demands; he’s even developing a new machine, unique in the industry, to carry out basic operations, while simultaneously upping the precision of their manual work.
Philipp Staub of Paoluzzo AG
Jörg came to Paoluzzo AG through another supplier, who’d recommended them for their winning combination of good quality and fast delivery. A background in aerospace and medical technology has served them well, and though tolerances may not need to be quite so high in the watch industry, optical perfectionism is paramount. “Our long-standing employees have enormous experience optimising the milling process,” says boss Philipp Staub “And we’ve become highly efficient in the production of parts. We’re excited by new approaches, continual optimisation, and innovative products.”
Delalande
AJS has long worked with Christopher Ward, but since 2022 this has ramped up, thanks to such ambitious details as the laser-decorated guilloché of the Bel Canto Classic. ‘Femto’ lasers emit extremely short light pulses enabling the greatest precision, as the energy is concentrated in a very short space of time, limiting thermal damage. “This means we can engrave a wide range of materials without deformation or cracks,” says manager Howel. “Unique dials can be created that would be impossible with traditional mechanical machines. CW’s requests are always bold but pragmatic, and we can’t wait to discover what’s next!”
Howel
of AJS Production SA
It’s in the jeans
The history of denim is the history of American cultural domination in the 20th century – as a fascinating new photobook shows
Denim is the great American fabric. Like Coca-Cola and Big Macs, the Levi’s denim jeans grandad puts on to mow the lawn are the same as Ariana Grande or Taylor Swift wears in photo shoots. In jeans, we’re all equal.
Today, denim – from serge de Nimes, a tough cotton from Nimes in southern France – is the de facto material of the planet’s leisure trousers. But for its first 100 years, it was used in practical, hard-wearing garments designed for manual workers, most famously by Polish immigrant Levi Strauss, who imported it to San Francisco for his miners’ overalls in the 1860s.
Now a beautifully illustrated new photo book, Denim: The Fabric That Built America 1935-1944 by Graham Nash and Tony Nourmand, pays tribute to denim’s ‘golden age’ – when it clothed the country’s workers as they super-charged the economy after World War II. These monochrome photographs are taken from the US Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information archive, and contain unforgettable images – many
of which could have been taken at your local hipster cafe today. You’ll see cowboys – of course – but also female factory workers in double- and triple- denim, mechanics, lumberjacks and even a proto-DJ flicking through an album of acetate records wearing some smart overalls.
The pictures were taken by photographers like Dorothea Lange, Gordon Parks, Arthur Rothstein, Jack Delano and Russell Lee, who captured an aesthetic about to go from the workshops and farms of the midwest to the run-down estates and coffee bars of Britain and beyond – thanks to a combination of moves, television and rock ’n’ roll.
Eighty years on from the images you’ll find in this book, denim’s grip on fashion, music and film is as strong as ever.
Seems like those good ol’ boys and girls were really onto something.
Denim: The Fabric That Built America 1935-1944 is out at the end of October
Photobook
Car trouble
The symbiotic relationship between the design of cars and watches has been going on for over a century, but the results are aren’t always successful
Words: Ken Kessler
Ken Kessler
When cars and watches are mentioned in the same sentence, one usually assumes the talk is about how car and wristwatch manufacturers collaborate. No surprise there, as the double branding is the most visible manifestation of carsplus-watches, along with logos plastered all over race circuits, cars and drivers’ overalls. The two are inextricably linked, not least because wristwatches arrived soon after the first automobiles and the earliest races.
As far back as the 1920s, when Ettore Bugatti commissioned Mido to produce watches in the shape of his cars’ distinctive radiators, automobiles and watches have been linked beyond the latter’s use for timing competitions. Chevrolet followed, too, and the promotional element ultimately embraced the most obvious form: watches that look like steering wheels, from Lancia, Ford and others.
Long ago, I gave up keeping a master list of these unions when it passed more than 100 watch brands and 45 car makers. The disparity comes from certain watch brands producing for more than one car marque, and car companies which have formed more than one alliance. Bugatti and Ferrari, as examples, each account for
a half-dozen or more car/watch offerings. Far more elemental to the marriage than sharing logos would be cross-pollination in styling and functionality, and of late, even the technology.
Car and watch enthusiasts both have their own preferred eras, maybe even one or more. For me, watches from 1930-1980 hold the most interest, and car-wise it has to be French cars of the 1930s and British cars of the 1950s-60s. It's the latter that provided so many classics in the sportscar field that it is no wonder we see them reflected in so many different watches, especially chronographs.
Forget the assorted attempts at making chronographs which look like car dial clusters and car fascias which look like chronographs. Both lose legibility because the former becomes too stylised while the latter suffer from clutter. It’s far more
fundamental than that, by making dials and subdials which resemble gauges, especially those from English sports cars of the 1950s and 1960s like Jaguar, Triumph, Austin-Healey, MG and Sunbeam.
All would have been fitted with gauges from, yes, watchmakers. Both Smiths and Jaeger were among the most successful suppliers of rev counters, speedometers, fuel, temperature and oil pressure gauges, and other instruments, not just timepieces.
Connections between Jaeger-as-instrument maker and Jaeger-LeCoultre, the watchmaker, ended in the 1930s when the majority of the instruments manufacture was sold to Smiths, but this shows how interwoven the tradition is. And it’s not a case of which came first because – obviously –clocks have been around a lot longer than automobiles. Yet it’s easy to understand, especially as Smiths and Jaeger made both,
how the shared expertise benefitted each type of instrument.
Because of this, it’s almost instinctive for watch companies to look to car gauges for inspiration if wanting to add an automotive flavour to their creations. As with the actual double brand collaborations, the aesthetic cross-pollination is rampant.
Italy’s Mazzuoli created the Manometro, styled after a non-automotive gas pressure gauge, but Giuliano Mazzuoli collects vintage Alfa Romeos, so the company’s Contagiri looks like an Alfa speedometer and the Transmission’s case resembles a gear.
Though Singer Reimagined is known for Porsches, its wristwatches are generic in their styling. All could have been plucked from a dashboard. B.R.M. watches feature drilled hands which recall chassis- and
Mido’s classic Bugatti watch
Smiths and Jaeger supplied rev counters, speedometers and other instruments
wheel-lightening techniques. Mazzuoli’s aforementioned Contagiri and many of Reservoir’s watches ensure that their timepieces resemble true speedometers as they feature retrograde hands. White numerals on black dials, white hours and minutes hands, maybe red for sweep seconds: it’s all about instant legibility. If the blended bloodlines of cars and watches still seem forced or tenuous, they’re intertwined on countless levels. It’s worth recalling that, before the Richemont Group acquired Jaeger-LeCoultre, IWC and A. Lange & Söhne, the three high-end watch companies were owned by VDO, so it came full circle, back to car gauges. And I just love knowing how, at the same time, Vodafone owned VDO. Which means that, however briefly, Jaeger-LeCoultre, IWC and A. Lange & Sohne were… British.
Laura McCreddie-Doak
Women’s
work
Watches and Wonders, the annual Geneva gathering of luxury watch brands and less luxurious watch writers, is always a place for surprises. This year was no exception. There was Professor Brian Cox introducing us to IWC’s new Eternal Calendar, whose moonphase won’t need recalibrating for 45 million years (we’ll be checking up at the end of this period).
Tudor’s stand had half an America’s Cup yacht hanging out of it, and Bremont got everyone talking about its rebrand.
However, the most surprising timepieces came from an unexpected avenue –women’s watches. Van Cleef & Arpels devised a whole new mechanical landscape to make flowers move for its Brise d’Ete, while Chanel created its own inhouse automaton to make mademoiselle wiggle her hips and snip some scissors.
That might sound frivolous, but these watches were mechanical marvels –innovations in a space where it rarely happens. Look back at major horological leaps which appear in men’s watches. It makes sense. As Will Brackfield, watch designer at Christopher Ward says: “In modern watchmaking, a large number of the biggest and most influential brands are parts of large luxury groups where quarterly earnings are deemed very important. The male market is viewed as the safe consistent option to deliver numbers.”
Given the male domination of the watch industry, it’s easy to forget that the first ever wristwatch was made for a woman – a queen, no less. Rumoured lover of Queen Elizabeth I, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, presented Her Majesty with what could be described as a wristwatch as a
The technical side of watchmaking – and watch-selling – has always been designed to appeal to men. Why is this, asks Laura McCreddie-Doak, and isn’t it time the ladies got a look in, too?
new-year gift. However, despite the origins of the wristwatch, it’s been an arena dominated by men and their wants.
“Watches are historically the only ‘jewellery’ for men” says Christopher Ward’s senior designer Adrian Buchmann. “Also, there’s a belief that mechanics are for men, while women are attracted to aesthetics. I wouldn’t say there’s something in either brain to condition that at birth: to me, it’s more about the environment that conditions us.”
Things are changing. A survey by pre-owned watch website Chrono24 showed that, on its site, 58 percent of the watches sold were automatic, despite 52.7 percent of women’s watches for sale listed as quartz. It also showed that, although women lean towards watch brands with a strong jewellery presence such as Cartier,
Chanel, Chopard, and Bulgari, one in every third watch sold is a Rolex. Whether that’s due to the powers of suggestion from their Crown-obsessed partner is up for debate.
Will believes, however, that the jewellery side of a business that also makes watches can hinder innovation in women’s watches.
Cracking the female market could yield huge results
“These groups with giant jewellery arms are focused almost exclusively on women, so they don’t feel the need to push boundaries in watches when they can make consistent money with jewellery,” he says. “Really cracking the female market could yield huge results – but ultimately will require more risk.”
Maybe the other question is, what would innovation in women’s watches look like? Buchmann feels that sometimes what
passes for mechanical advancement in timepieces marketed as female are surface-level. “Some brands are bringing some kind of mechanical innovation and complications for women’s watches, but they always leave me with a funny taste,” he says. “There are some fantastic developments, from Van Cleef for example, but it feels like it’s still a design for a ‘Barbie girl’, something without depth. But who said butterflies and flowers are a women’s thing and gears a men’s thing?”
This might get to the nub of the problem. Flowers are not exclusive for women, and neither is an interest in mechanics the sole preserve of men. However, that is the binary in which the watch world has found itself. The two watches from Chanel
There’s a belief that mechanics are for men, aesthetics for women
and Van Cleef & Arpels mentioned earlier are mechanical triumphs, but if looked at in another way, the gears and wheels are being used to do something essentially frivolous – a byword for feminine. As women, sometimes it feels as if we’re expected to appreciate the spectacle but not ask too many questions about the science.
But, to spin this argument another 180 degrees: why should innovation always be practical? What’s wrong with employing science and mathematics to the service of beauty and whimsy? Why is Van Cleef & Arpels’s design team finding a solution to making an enamel flower-head on a stalk move any more worthy than George Daniels creating the co-axial escapement?
Maybe the question isn’t: “Why isn’t there more innovation in women’s watches?” but rather, “Why are we still framing that question through the male gaze?”
Tick to ride
In this Great Watchwearers’ special, we look at the horological choices of the world’s most famous songwriters: The Beatles’ John Lennon and Paul McCartney
With unlimited wealth, John Lennon and Paul McCartney could have had the pick of the world’s most expensive watches. But as they were – and in McCartney’s case, are – more interested in rock ’n’ roll than haute horlogerie, timepieces have never featured heavily in Beatles lore. But a little digging reveals that, as with any Beatlerelated matter, things are more complicated (and infinitely more interesting) than you’d, ahem, imagine.
John Lennon
After The Beatles split in 1971, John Lennon moved permanently to the US with wife Yoko Ono. While he still recorded music, Lennon settled into a life of domesticity at the family apartment in New York City’s Dakota building.
Shortly before his 40th birthday in October 1980, and only a couple of months before his murder, Ono bought Lennon a Patek Philippe 2499 perpetual calendar chronograph – one of the rarest watches in the world – from jewellers Tiffany & Co. The watch, along with a knitted tie and a diamond US flag tie pin were given to him in the studio where he was recording his final album, Double Fantasy. Why she bought that watch is a mystery – he wasn’t a ‘watch guy’ – but she knew a good investment when she saw it.
A direct descendent of Patek’s 1941 Ref. 1518, the first watch powered by a serially produced perpetual calendar chronograph movement (Calibre 13), the 2499 boasted a moonphase complication, perpetual calendar and 37.5mm case – large for a midcentury watch. Between 1950 and 1981, only 349 were made. Lennon was overjoyed with the watch, and there’s a famous picture of him by rock photographer Bob Gruen showing it off with a big grin on his face.
After his murder, the timepiece, like many of Lennon’s possessions, disappeared
But after his murder, the timepiece, like many of Lennon’s possessions, disappeared. Fast forward to 2006 – and Yoko Ono’s ex-chauffeur, Koral Karsan. Originally from Turkey, Karson was arrested for trying to blackmail Ono for $2m, and was deported back to Turkey. In his possession was a selection of Lennon’s personal items that Ono, according to Karsan, had given him for safekeeping. She has no idea that he took the haul with him – including the Patek – when he was deported.
In 2009, Karsan met with a friend, ‘Erhan G’, and proposed he use the watch as collateral on a loan – which was agreed to. In 2013, with the Patek in possession, along with the other items from the Lennon haul, Erhan G met with Auctionata, an online auctioneer with the goal of selling the watch.
After the authenticity had been proved, Karsan signed a legal document in 2005 saying he’d been given the watch by Ono. However, in January 2014 Auctionata pulled the auction – and decided to sell the watch privately to an Italian dealer located in Hong Kong for €600,000. According to Hodinkee: “A few months later, the Italian dealer took the watch to Christie’s Geneva to inquire about selling it. After receiving the watch in June, Christie’s contacted Ono’s attorney in September 2014 to inquire about the watch. This surprised Ono. She replied that the watch must still be at her home, locked in a cupboard with other items
from Lennon. After all, this was one of the last gifts she’d bought Lennon just two months before his death. But after looking through her cupboard, Ono discovered for the first time that the watch she’d bought Lennon 35 years prior was no longer there. According to Ono, Karsan was one of few individuals given access to the room where she kept the watch and Lennon’s other personal items.”
Following an investigation into Auctionata after its bankruptcy in 2017, ‘Erhan G’ was given a one-year suspended sentence for knowingly handling stolen goods (Karasan’s location remains unknown). Once Christie’s knew the watch had been stolen – Ono officially registered it as such in 2017 – the Patek was put in storage (and legal limbo), with both Ono and the Italian dealer claiming it as theirs. The dealer says he had no idea the watch had been stolen.
Paul McCartney
According to The New Yorker magazine, it’s likey the watch – perhaps the most valuable timepiece in the world – will soon be returned to Yoko Ono if the Swiss Supreme Court ruled the watch is rightfully hers. And once more, she’ll be able to hold the watch she bought for her husband and the personal message she had engraved on the back:
(JUST LIKE)
STARTING OVER
LOVE YOKO
10 • 9 • 1980
N. Y. C.
When it comes to watches, Paul McCartney can afford to buy any timepiece he wants – and a thousand times over. But as a working-class Liverpudlian – albeit one who’s done pretty well for himself – the idea that you’d wear a blingy, diamond-encrusted watch is unthinkable. No Scouser wants to look like a flash ‘wool’.
This isn’t to say that Macca doesn’t care about his choice of wristwear: it’s just that he prefers the ‘stealth wealth’ look – in this case, the 40.8mm Patek Philippe Aquanaut (Ref. 5165A) on its ‘tropical’ rubber strap. The rubber used was a year in development, is made of more than 20 materials – and, according to Monochrome is “impervious to saltwater, UV deterioration and bacteria – and was even tested by the US Food and Drug Administration”. Launched in 1997, the Aquanaut is a sporty spin-off of the Gérald Genta-designed Nautilus, and boasts a similar porthole-designed, satin-brushed case. Aimed at a younger clientele – and popular with dot-com millionaires in the late 1990s – its
dial delivers more legibility with fully-lumed Arabic numerals and indexes which contrast with the dial’s geosphere pattern.
The Aquanaut is powered by Patek’s Calibre 330 SC movement, an automatic self-winding movement that’s just 3.5mm thick, and oscillates at 21,600vph.
McCartney wears the watch on his right wrist in the way that he plays the bass like a left-hander too. But that’s not the only watch – or watches – he’s associated with.
In 1964, the Beatles were due to tour Australia. Without the benefit of a GMT watch – CW’s Trident GMT was unavailable at the time – Paul wore a watch on each wrist: one set to the local time, the other to UK time so he could make sure he could ring his girlfriend Jane Asher at a civilised hour.
Today, McCartney shows no sign of swapping his Patek for anything fancier, and you can spot him wearing it in his James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke appearance on YouTube. Sometimes you have to… let it be.
Holy SH**!
Or perhaps that should be “Unwholly SH21”? Because to mark the 10th anniversary of our five-day chronometer movement, Calibre SH21, we’ve subjected it to open-heart surgery. Between The Twelve X (Ti)’s front and rear sapphire crystals, we’ve re-forged and skeletonised components with custommade, diamond cutters. Then sculpted them to a precise, polished finish using re-programmed state-of-the-art CNC machinery. This industrial evolution extends to the outside with a 41mm case made from Grade 2 and Grade 5 titanium. Its top ring is rhodium. And it premiers a new micro-adjustable bracelet. When you find out how much it costs, we swear you’ll love it.
(And maybe utter the odd expletive yourself.)
Do your research
christopherward.com
Peak performance
The story of a CW Challenger attempting to climb one of the highest mountains in central Asia in the name of snow leopard conservation
Tom Hicks
Tom Hicks is an explorer and conservationist – as well as a Christopher Ward Challenger. As part of his work for the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation (a charity partner of CW), Tom spent June and July attempting to climb one of the highest peaks in central Asia with the goal of raising awareness for the charity’s snow leopard preservation initiatives. Here, he talks with Loupe about his experience at the top of the world.
Hi Tom! You’ve been on an adventure. Tell us about it!
I’ve been in Kyrgyzstan for the last few weeks, attempting to climb Lenin Peak, one of a chain of five mountains that were the highest in the USSR, and are also the natural habitat of the snow leopard. Thanks to the work the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation is doing in partnership with Christopher Ward, I thought it would be a challenge to see how far we could get up a ‘snow leopard’ mountain to raise awareness and funds.
How did it begin?
I flew into the capital, Bishkek. From there, I took another flight to Osh, the second city. After that, there was a seven-hour bus ride to the foothills of the Pamir mountain range and the base camp of Lenin Peak. There’s a bronze bust of him at the summit!
What was the purpose of the expedition?
The purpose of this and all the other trips I’ve done is to bring attention to wildlife conservation. Any way I can to raise awareness to species like the snow leopard, I’ll do it – including trying to climb up a 7,000m mountain!
How was your journey?
Brutal. I was initially part of a team of seven climbers attempting to climb Lenin Peak and another nearby mountain. Of the seven, I was the only one who left without injury or illness. Not through skill or toughness, but luck. One guy busted his knee; another had heart problems, and another got early-onset cerebral oedema – brain swelling .
It sounds awful…
The weather was really tough. I was there for June and July, and only three climbers managed to summit Lenin Peak in that time. We had winds of 60mph, plus snow, which meant we were pushing through waist-deep snow in very high winds. There were avalanches, too. Three climbers from another team got caught up in an avalanche, and sadly, one died.
The mountains bite heavily. Some local people said that the mountain didn’t want anyone to climb her: she was fighting back. As we went up through the glacier, the crevasses were getting wider and wider, and we came across new crevasses we hadn’t seen on the way up. One of the team members fell through an ice bridge. Only because he was attached to a rope could we bring him back up!
Did you conquer the mountain?
Unfortunately not. We were in the mess tent, all the radios were talking about the weather, and we were wondering what to
do. Two locals said, “There’s a 10-15 percent chance we’ll summit.” And we could see weather fronts coming in regularly. When we went to Camp 3 at 6,100m, the weather changed and you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. The decision to not go to the summit was made then. And it was the right one.
Do you see any snow leopards?
It wasn’t possible this time. The base camp is at 3,700m and Camp 1 is around 4,600m, which is the altitude at which snow leopards live, but sadly, we didn’t see any. However, on the return leg, I met up with our snow leopard conservation team based in Kyrgyzstan. They’d set up some camera traps on a 10-day expedition and were able to identify the specific tracks that snow leopards like to use and scent-marking rocks where they rub their necks. As they’re solitary animals, apart from when mating, it’s their social media!
Did you wear a Christopher Ward watch on the climb?
I wore both the C60 Anthropocene and C60 Atoll – swapping between the two. Both are sturdy, and the lighter dials attracted questions from other climbers, who were wearing digital/GPS watches. I really appreciated the lume, too. We climbed a lot through the night, leaving at 2:30am to avoid the sun melting the ice – it was really cool to see how they glowed in the dark. And thanks to the Anthropocene’s GMT function, I always knew what time it was at home as it was set to British Summer Time.
How are you feeling now?
I’ve been back in the UK for a few weeks, and it’s been a bit of a blur getting back to reality. Three or four weeks sleeping in a tent on the side of a mountain does that to you! I had a culture shock when I went into Sainsbury’s for the first time!
davidshepherd.org
Culture that’s worthy of your time
Love movie posters? There’s
a new book you
should know about
What is it about the visual mix of movie stars, typography and copywriting that makes a movie poster so cool? It can’t be coincidence that aspiring hipsters cover their walls in posters for the likes of Betty Blue, Blow-Up or The Italian Job
Now, film posters are getting the attention they deserve with 1001 Movie Posters: Designs of The Times, a richly illustrated photo book showcasing the greatest genre examples in one volume. From the lithograph that publicised the first public film screening by the Lumiere brothers in 1896 to blockbusters like La Dolce Vita, The Man With The Golden Arm and Star Wars, this is an essential purchase for any lover of film, design or advertising.
As the publishers, Reel Art Press, says: “There’s always been a raw immediacy to film posters: provoking and enticing, shocking and seducing audiences across the threshold of the movie theatre. The
artists tasked with communicating that have been at the forefront of design: ground-breaking visionaries such as Saul Bass, Paul Rand and Bill Gold; Eastern European artists using poetic, surreal and often disturbing imagery in highly original and subversive concepts; and modern studios taking a 360-degree approach to branding.”
The book is edited by Tony Nourmand, who’s selected posters from over 20 countries by art directors and illustrators –many of which are examined in detail. And as well as the beautiful graphics – we could look at the poster for Metropolis all day – there’s also a detailed history of these posters, and how they reflect the culture surrounding them.
Without exaggerating, it’s a blockbuster.
1001 Movie Posters: Designs of the Times is published by Reel Art Press
The album Blood on The Tracks… rising 50 and still ‘Forever Young’
Released on January 20th, 1975, to largely mixed reviews, Blood on The Tracks is widely acknowledged as Bob Dylan’s finest album. And when you think about a cannon of work that includes Blonde on Blonde and Highway 61 Revisited, it also has a claim to be the best rock ’n’ roll record – ever!
Coming soon after his return to form with 1974’s Planet Waves, (and yes I know Forever Young is a track from the Waves album), Blood blew out of the water those who thought Dylan had lost his way since the mid-’60s, and established him as an artist who could prosper in any era.
As with most things ‘Dylan’, the stories, myths and misconceptions about Blood on The Tracks could be turned into a PhD course. Is it his breakup album (he’d recently separated from his wife, Sara Lownds)? Why did he heed his brother’s advice and re-record five of the 10 tracks in
Words: Mike France
Minneapolis in just two days, with different musicians, just weeks before its release? Was the album inspired by his octogenarian art teacher who had recently opened his eyes to new artistic horizons?
Dylan either denied or treated with disdain these lame attempts to ‘understand’ him and his work. What he cared about was the work. And what work it is. Perhaps the definitive example of Americana folk-rock, it has a timeless quality that keeps on giving to the regular listener.
Whether the album is autobiographical, or not, the narrator’s tales of lost and unrequited love thread their way throughout with You’re a Big Girl Now, You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go and If You See Her Say Hello delivering the most memorable examples.
Bitterness, revenge and even selfloathing are also never too far away with Mr Zimmerman and the nearly eight minutes of Idiot Wind on the first side has bile-a-plenty to spare. It is, however, one of his greatest songs with lines such as, “Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth/You’re an idiot, babe/ It’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe.” Savage yet beautifully crafted at the same time.
Space forbids me to go through all 10
tracks of Blood, but there are no fillers, just a bona fide genius at work in every groove, honing his art to yet another previously unclimbed pinnacle. Bob is still playing (and modifying) many Blood tracks live with songs such as Tangled Up in Blue and Shelter From The Storm staples on his Never Ending Tour which reaches London’s Royal Albert Hall again this November.
Myself and Peter Ellis will be there (November 14th) so if you are, too, maybe we’ll meet up in the bar. If you can’t make it, you can always treat yourself by listening to Blood on The Tracks and allow yourself to be tangled up in a masterpiece for 52 minutes and 46 seconds.
Ken Kessler continues his look back on the mechanical watch revival and argues that today’s watch culture owes everything to the enthusiasts of the 1990s
While watch lovers could rejoice at the arrival of auteur watchmakers from the mid-1980s and through the 1990s, all of these ‘nouveau’ brands landed in the extreme high-end. With the exception of the late, lamented MHR, none of the houses born in the 1980s produced anything even remotely affordable. Instead, they had to compete with the haute horlogerie establishment. After all, there were no cost-cutting measures available when making minute repeaters or triple calendars.
Haute horlogerie had been defined by Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, Vacheron Constantin, GirardPerregaux, Ulysse Nardin, IWC, Chopard, Cartier and other grand maisons which survived the Quartz Crisis. All offered complications, precious metal cases, gems if required, and innate exclusivity. And all possessed provenance.
Creating a further challenge to the newcomers were the long-dormant or forgotten historic brands revived by well-financed backers, most notably Blancpain, Breguet, A. Lange & Söhne, Glashütte Original, Panerai and others. The practice of resuscitating moribund brands continues to this day, some valid, some specious.
Among the all-new houses, Franck Muller – though offering the almostapproachable, time-only Casablanca – focussed on complications. Philippe Dufour, Roger Dubuis and Parmigiani Fleurier celebrated classicism. Daniel Roth (who helped revive Breguet in the 1980s when it was owned by Chaumet) and F.P. Journe both emulated Abraham-Louis Breguet, creating ultra-refined pieces that reflected this. Greubel-Forsey would focus on tourbillons, MB&F and Urwerk on wild innovation, Alain Silberstein on funkiness. Svend Andersen, Antoine Preziuso, Vincent Calabrese, Kari Voutilainen, Peter Speake-Marin – dozens of new makers appeared, all exclusive, all expensive and thus exclusionary.
measures when compared to quartz – the market had grown so rapidly that there was space for all-new, entrylevel brands to appear. Unfortunately, due to a shortage of watchmakers in the 1990s, the result of collateral damage after the Quartz Crisis and the closing of watchmaking courses and schools, it would take time for them to appear. As it turned out, we would have to wait until the next century.
In the interim, the needs of the newcomers, who perhaps did not inherit their grandfathers’ Rolexes, Pateks or Vacherons, required addressing. Here were swiftly-educated connoisseurs who aspired to brands above entry-level: purely mechanical but priced below the threshold of new watches from Rolex, Omega, Breitling, Cartier and other companies which themselves were far less costly that anything from Patek, Audemars, Vacheron, et al.
Dozens of new makers appeared, all exclusive, all expensive and thus exclusionary
As the post-Quartz Crisis watch revival engendered and encouraged this new demographic, two paths developed for those without deepenough pockets. It was in the late1980s that the first wristwatch-only auctions started to take place, from watch specialists including Dr. Crott and Antiquorum. Ultimately, the major auction houses of Sotheby’s, Phillips, Bonhams, and Christie’s would join in. Prior to this, ‘watch auctions’ meant pocket watches and clocks and maybe a few wristwatches.
Mechanical watches that people could afford were needed. While established companies such as Hamilton, Certina, Seiko, Tissot and others were manufacturing sensibly-priced models – certainly affordable by most
Although auctions no longer seem occasions for finding bargains, not least due to the surfeit of sufficiently wealthy enthusiasts and the ever-increasing investment value of vintage watches, in the years before watch culture took off one could find pieces at ridiculously low prices. This observation isn’t a stretched reference to ‘the good old days’: looking back at old auction catalogues, the usual suspects – all Pateks and Vacherons, Rolex chronographs, perpetual calendars, etc – absolutely commanded high bids, if nothing like today.
If you weren’t in the bidding for a 1940s Patek Philippe World-Timer or a 1950s Longines 30CH-equipped
chronograph, you might consider one of the ‘Dirty Dozen’ watches – field watches supplied to servicemen in World War II – then so plentiful you could find them in charity shops. Aside from the IWC, Jaeger, Omega, and Longines models, the rest were easily acquired for £50-£100. Even the Grana had yet to go extra-terrestrial.
(How do I know? Because I was a watch dealer back then. Breitling Navitimers? £400. Lemania RAF chronographs? £250. Beaten-up Rolex Submariners? £300. Yes: £300. And if the cynic in you is thinking, “Sure, but £300 back then was a fortune,” in today’s money, that’s £720 according to the Bank of England – for a Submariner. In 1990, nobody gave a toss about ghost bezels, tropical dials or pointed crown guards. Nicknames were reserved for human beings. “Paul Newman”? An actor, not a watch.)
As an alternative to auctions – which can require of the bidder a mentality not unlike that of a gambler in a casino – the second path proved less nervewracking, especially for suspicious types or those lacking confidence in their watch knowledge. While counterfeit watches were not quite as plentiful as they are today, and auction houses tried to exercise due diligence, there were still risks, especially with used Rolexes and Cartiers. Perhaps the best thing about the past for buyers of used watches was that nobody was faking much else. You were usually safe with vintage Omegas and Tissots and Doxas.
Concurrent with the creation of wristwatch-only auctions and vintage watch retailers (remember – this predated the internet and social media) was the birth of print magazines devoted solely to watches. Despite Messrs Duggan and Somlo leading the pack by some years, the English-language territories were the last to enjoy watch journals. Watch culture began in earnest first in Italy, followed in no particular order by France and Germany in Europe, and Hong Kong and Japan in the Far East.
Notable was Polso, an Italian magazine that was licensed in numerous territories to create titles in France, the USA, the UK and elsewhere. Its main rival was Orologi –Le Misure del Tempo, still in business and soon approaching its 400th issue. At one point in the 1990s when I was buying every issue I could find during my travels, I counted – with little effort – nine watch magazines in Italy, four in the USA, five in France, six in Germany, three in Hong Kong. (Oh, and one in the UK.)
In the ’90s there were nine watch magazines in Italy… and one in the UK
This hunger for knowledge –brand histories, comparative tests, technical features, news, watch fair reports – proved that something was happening to the way watches were perceived, used and appreciated. In addition to the featured articles, especially in German and Italian publications, there appeared classified ads where readers could buy not just accessories such as straps and storage boxes but actual vintage watches.
Into that climate the earliest specialist vendors of pre-owned (that wonderful euphemism for ‘second-hand’ and ‘used’) watches began to appear. The only way to find a second-hand watch was in a pawn shop or jewellery store which sold traded-in watches prior to the arrival of the now-established, then-pioneering retailers founded in the late-1970s and early-1980s: David Duggan Watches and Somlo Antiques in London, Wanna Buy A Watch? in Hollywood, Panerai expert Ferretti in Montecatini, and others with vision in Paris, Tokyo, Manhattan and any capital you can name.
Magazines provided multiple solutions for watch aficionados who might not live in cities with specialist watch dealers, who cared not for auctions, and who wanted to learn more. The journals played no small role in establishing a global community of watch devotees, as if providing a public service. As outlets for knowledge, opinions, and especially for commerce, the magazines would serve as templates and set the tone for the websites that would ultimately eliminate them.
In the final part of this series, Ken looks at social media, the impact of the internet, and the revival of British watchmaking
Archie Gemmill wasn’t much to look at. Small in stature and with the sort of long-but-balding hairstyle that made youthful athletes of the 1970s look like middle-aged trade union leaders, Gemmill was in every aspect ordinary.
Except one. He was a superb footballer. The classic Scottish ‘terrier’, Gemmill played for Derby County and Nottingham Forest, and was famous for his vision, skill and work rate. Which is why, alongside stars like Graeme Souness and Kenny Dalglish, he was part of Scotland’s World Cup 1978 Cup squad.
It’s easy to forget – though not if you’re Scottish – that England didn’t compete in a World Cup from 1970 to 1982. So when manager Ally McLeod took his ‘army’ to Argentina for the tournament, Scotland was the team Britain was supporting.
Yet, despite the hype – the team had a parade before the tournament began – Scotland drew with Iran and lost to Peru. Only a victory by three goals over the much-fancied Netherlands could take them through to the next stage. An impossible task.
But no one tells Scotland. Despite conceding early on, the Scots bring it back to 2-1 and pin the Netherlands in their own half. On 47 minutes, the ball breaks free. Picking it up on the edge of the Dutch box is Archie Gemmill. He skips over the trailing leg of one defender, then weaves past two more, sending them not just into next week but a different time zone.
Now it’s just him and goalie Jan Jongbloed. Gemmill, coming in from the right, twists his body, leans back and chips the ball over the advancing goalie – before peeling off in joy, his left fist
raised in triumph. In just six magical touches, he has made history.
On the footage – which you can watch on YouTube – commentator David Coleman, his voice sounding like it’s coming from Mars, says, “A brilliant goal from this hard, little professional has put Scotland in dreamland.”
Sadly, Scotland’s trip to dreamland was temporary, and despite winning 3-2, were eliminated. But Gemmill’s goal remains Scottish football’s most iconic moment. In the 1996 film Trainspotting, Renton, played by Ewan McGregor, says after one romantic encounter, “I haven’t felt that good since Archie Gemmill scored against Holland in 1978!”
Everywatch™
We designed the Sealander to do-anything and go-everywhere. With this new 36mm GMT, the range now offers an anytime watch for everyone. Its perfectly proportioned, Lightcatcher™ (another trademark) case protects a precision
Sellita SW 330-2 Swiss movement, with 56 hours power reserve and dual time functionality. It sports highly legible, highly luminous indices and hands, contrasted against a black, white or dragonfly blue dial. Each Sealander is available on a wide selection of quick-release straps. Or you can opt for either our Bader Bracelet™ or Consort Bracelet™ (yup, more trademarks) or both. Neatly (and nattily) bringing us to its other complication: which Everywatch™?
Do your research.
CUSTOMER NUMBER
Meet the new Classic, pg.12
