One-on-one with a Sydney watch collector Part 1

One of the most common questions asked of watch enthuisasts is 'why watches?', so for both those who are already into watches, and those who are puzzled by the whole thing, we thought we'd have a one-on-one interview about this, and many other things, with a local long time collector. He wishes to be anonymous and will be known simply as 'Sydney Watch Collector' (SWC).


TheSydneyTarts: Thank you for joining me today.
SydneyWatchCollector: No worries. It's my pleasure.

TST: Let's start with an obvious one. How did you get started in watch collecting? Why watches?
SWC: To be honest I wouldn't really call myself a watch collector. I don't 'collect' watches so to speak. I buy watches (and I sell them). There is no theme nor a structure to my 'collection'. So, I'd say I'm more of a person with an abnormal appreciation for watches! Having said that, I think my interest in watches began when I was selling them, as my first job out of uni. There were a lot of down time, so I read up on watches to pass time and also to know more about them so I would be a better sales person. The more I read, the more I became fascinated with them, Then I discovered watch forums on the internet, and that was the beginning of my downward spiral. It began cheap - with a Swatch Irony Chrono which I still have, followed by a Longines, then straight into the deep end (at the time) with a purchase of a watch for over 4 figures.

The Swatch Irony chrono. It originally came on a bracelet, but has been swapped onto a strap

TST: Now you mentioned that you also sell. Are there watches that are off limits, or is nothing sacred?
SWC: I tend to hold on to watches that has a story attached to them. For example, that first Swatch Irony I still have. Although I don't really wear it any more, to me that watch was the start of my watch obsession, and it's the first watch I bought for myself (all the watches I've had before this one were all mostly el cheapos that were given to me). That first watch over 4 figures, also had a great story, and another one of my earliest acquistions, a Fortis chronograph I bought in New York, also had great stories to it too. So, watches like these I will keep. It's not a strict rule, but generally speaking those are the ones I keep. Well... there are also other ones that I keep simply because I can't sell them, unless I take a huge hit on the price!

The Fortis bought in New York. It was also the first automatic chrono in the collection. SWC feels he paid too much for this

TST: So it sounds like you have sold watches that had stories attached to them? (SWC nods) Do you regret selling any of them?
SWC: I like to think I only buy watches I like, so it's always very difficult to sell. There are various reasons for selling, of course. It could be because I needed the money to fund another purchase (usually a step up in price) or maybe because my tastes have changed. At other times it has been purely strategic, or taking advantage of an opportunity. But don't get me wrong. I don't buy watches to sell. All the watches I've bought were with the intention to keep. There are people out there that treat watches as an investment. It's not really. At best it's speculation. With watches you need to have the understanding that you WILL lose money on this. In extremely rare cases you make money, but let's just say if I break even over all on this hobby I'm laughing. But I digress. Back to your question, I don't regret selling any of my watches. It's difficult to decide to sell, but once it's gone, it's gone. I've had the opportunity to own it, and it's time for someone else to enjoy that ownership.

TST: Talking about regrets, are there watches that you regret buying?
SWC: Oh where do I begin!!! Since I was new to this whole thing I've been learning and as you learn, you make mistakes. Mind you I'm still learning and making mistakes in this watch thing. The worst ones would have to be the two Invicta watches I bought. I went through a phase when I thought as long as the movement is good, doesn't matter what the brand is. Less well known brand means cheaper prices for good movements, ja? How wrong was I! The quality was shocking and it was so hard to try to offload them. I still have one of them. The only saving grace is that now I have a perfectly good Valjoux 7750 movement that I'm planning to do a project watch on. When that'll happen I have no idea.

One of the Invictas. SWC believes that it's not bad looking, just poor quality. The dial says "Invicta-matic" but when you look through the case back that it's not "matic" of any sort... 

TST: So you've made some 'shocking' purchasing decisions. What would be your 'best' buy, or the purchases you were most happy with?
SWC: Two come to mind. One is the Omega Deville Co-axial chronograph and the other, much more recent, is the Swatch Automatic Chrono. Not only did I manage to get both pieces at really good prices, both watches are significant milestones in each brand's history. The Deville Chrono is Omega's first co-axial chronograph movement. This is the one they had quite a fair bit of issues with in the beginning and if you search the forums for issues on the Omega 33xx calibres, you'll find posts to last you many, many nights of bedtime reading. The Swatch auto chrono is Swatch's very first automatic chronograph. It's a new bargain basement auto chrono from ETA loosely based on the classic Lemania 5100 and exclusive to Swatch and Tissot so far.

Omega DeVille Co-Axial Chronograph

Swatch automatic chrono

TST: Do you have a 'grail watch'?
SWC: The term 'grail watch' has been bandied about too much it's lost all meaning. For me, the 'grail' is something that is almost un-gettable. It should be something that I would be willing to give up all the watches I have, just to obtain it. It would be the watch to end all watches. The one watch that I would be happy with for the rest of my life. So... no. I don't subscribe to the view that once you 'get' your 'grail' watch you move on to the 'next' grail.

TST: So in light of this, what's on your shopping list?
SWC: My shopping list right now:

• Omega Seamaster GMT "Great White" 
• AP Royal Oak 15300ST 
• Dornbluth & Sohne 99.1 
• PAM 372 
• IWC Portuguese 7 Days 

and pending a real life sighting, Tudor Pelagos.

TST: That is a very diverse list!
SWC: I like a bit of variety. There is something good from everyone, so I don't want to limit to just a particular brand or style.

Stay tuned for part 2: Join us as SWC shares with us some of his favourites from his collection.

An interview with Dirk Dornblüth

The origins of Dornblüth watches go back several decades, and start with a dream born of a special kinship with a pocket watch. In 1959, Dieter Dornblüth became rather attached to a sterling silver pocket watch that he’d been repairing. So attached, in fact, that when its owner picked it up, he decided to design a watch movement based on that of the pocket watch.

The design had just been finished, the movement itself barely started, when fate took a turn and he ended up in Kalbe, Saxony-Anhalt, to take over an abandoned watchmaker business, and the movement disappeared into the mists of time (no pun intended).

It wasn’t until his 60th birthday in 1999, when his son Dirk presented him with a self-made watch that the dream of 1959 was revived, and thus, Dornblüth & Sohn was born.

Recently, Dirk Dornblüth kindly found the time to answer a few questions.

1. D. Dornblüth & Sohn have been making watches since 1999. It is still very much a family business, with a limited number of watches made per year. How many are you now producing annually, and are you planning to increase these numbers?

The only change we have made during this time is the location. We are still a family business and will soon have 6 employees. Our oldest colleague Roswitha will retire in about 2 years, so we have been very lucky to find a young watchmaker to take over her tasks. He will start within the next weeks and learn from her until Roswitha leaves our team. The annual production has not increased, it is still 120 pieces. Output is limited by the traditional way of watchmaking which we utilise in our Manufacture every day.

An Evening with Define Watches

Monday 26 October 2009
Westin Hotel
Sydney

If you speak of "fine watches" to the proverbial “man in the street”, it tends to be Swiss watches that immediately come to mind, and in particular those from Geneva and the Jura region, where watchmakers formally established themselves into a guild in 1601.

The beginnings of portable time keeping actually have their roots in Germany, in Nürnberg, where in c1510 a master locksmith called Peter Heinlen created the first pocket watch. Ball shaped, it was called a "Nürnberg Egg", had only a single hand, and ran for forty hours.

Earlier this year, the German Watch Museum Glashütte was opened to the public in the former German School of Watchmaking, which was founded 150 years ago in Glashütte, a hub of both historical and modern German watch production. Although the museum focuses on the history of watchmaking culture in the area, it has a broader role in promoting watchmaking and horological education in Germany.

The Tarts have a rather diverse range of horological interests covering both vintage and contemporary watches, but there is a strong interest in German brands, with all of us either having owned or currently owning, representatives from various brands hailing from Germany. 

Thus it was with much interest and excitement that we received invitations from by Lydia and Peter from Define Watches to attend a small private showing of watches from the brands which they are importing into Australia. All the brands have something different to offer the Australian public and the majority of the brands are new to the Australian market.

I’m sure you’ve all heard of the phrase, “like a kid in a candy store”.  Now, imagine that the candy store was more like a candy supermarket, if you will. Add in the ability to try the products and all the colourful brochures you can have to your heart’s content, and then mix in hosts who have knowledge, passion and love of their products.

That just about comes close to what the Define Watches event was like.

Never before have we attended a watch event with so many watches from so many lovely brands on display/ offer (depending on how thick your wallet is, of course). Surprisingly (and pleasantly so), considering the abundance of food and drinks that were flowing, the watches were all on open display, for each and every one of we watchnuts to play with and try.

Three of us in attendance that night (and one of the other guests, who was sporting a very desirable EZM1) are current Sinn owners. The brand is stocked by Fredman SVW in the Strand Arcade (Define’s Sydney retailer for some of their brands) and the range that we could look at and play with that night was the broadest of the brand that any of us had ever had the pleasure of seeing.

Gee... you get the feeling that we quite like the brand Sinn??

There were other brands present, believe it or not....

Master engraver Jochen Benzinger’s firm Benzinger Meister-Werkstatt für Gravieren und Guillochieren both make their own highly engraved and skeletonised watches, and also supply engraving and guilloche services to other brands, using machines that are over a century old for their craft.

front....

....and back

Armin Strom AG is a relatively new watch company (established 2006) that consists of two separate brands; Armin Strom and ARMIN by Armin Strom. The watches shown by Define were from the latter. There are four models in this brand : Earth, Air, Water, and Fire. Each model features a retrograde date display whose hour, minute, and second indication is off-center.

Mühle-Glashütte

For a few of us, D.Dornblüth & Sohn was the brand that we were most excited about seeing for the first time in the flesh. I will go out on a limb here and speak on behalf of the group as a whole when we say that the watches matched our expectations in their simple elegant beauty, the design of their boxes, which doubled their use into a desk clock, and in their sheer “bang for buck”.

Although the D.Dornblüth & Sohn watches have movements which are based on a very pedestrian manual wind, the amount of work that has gone into modifying it (by hand, I might add) has rendered it almost unrecognisable. You could see the effort and the craftsmanship that has gone into the movement, and to compare it to its original configuration would be as relevant as measuring time in light speed.

The styling of the different brands distributed by Define may not be to each person's taste, but they are all very distinctive in their own ways and will most definitely not be mistaken for anything else. Apart from maybe some of Sinn's models, which could often be mistaken for Breitlings...

Jorg Schauer

MeisterSinger - which made famous the 1 handed watch.

Yes, you read correctly. 1 hand.

As well a a feast for the eyes, there was a feast for the tastebuds as well, with a wide variety of canapés served throughout the evening.

Hanging out with friends and fellow watch enthusiasts.

Double wrist action!! Sinn U2 and a LE MeisterSinger

A big thank you to Lydia and Peter for their warm welcome and for sharing their passion for these brands with us. There is more exciting news soon to come from Define, but for further information on these and other watches from these brands and others, including where to buy them, just go to their website. 

[AP & Onomatopia]