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Vintage Rolex Stolen in Paris

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Unfortunately at 19.00 on Saturday 16th February, 4 vintage Rolex watches were stolen from me at Gare de Lyon station in Paris.

If anyone has any information or is offered the watches, please contact me
via telephone on +44 7977 469 568 or email sales@vintage-db.com

A reward is offered for their safe return.

Model references & serials as follow

Rolex 6263 Daytona with 2 colour White Paul Newman Dial. Serial 3,645,876

Rolex 6536-1 Submariner with 4 Line Gilt Dial & Red Triangle Bezel. Serial 399,718

Rolex 16610 Submariner with Tiffany & Co Dial. Serial X456,213

Rolex 5512 Submariner 2 Line Gilt Outer Track. Serial 764,291

Do you have an original vintage Rolex, Patek Philippe, Omega or Blancpain watch you are looking to sell, value or just share your story? Please contact Daniel Bourn via sales@vintage-db.com or tel. +44 7977 469 568.

Patek Philippe Nautilus 3700/1 Oman

Monday, June 18, 2012

The recent Geneva Auctions included the following Lot (315) from Christies

The watch attracted much interest and was finally acquired by Vintage-DB for 81k CHF, 30k above the original estimate, not particularly surprising if you consider the Lot Notes advised that "In depth research results in the discovery that this reference 3700/1 is the only known example of a stainless steel Nautilus model made to the special order for the Royal Household of the Sultanate of Oman." This statement is actually not quite correct, as we were aware of another other example, although this made the lot more interesting.

We previously presented via the Vintage-DB Blog, information on the special order vintage Rolex watches issued by Sultan Qaboos Bin Sa'id to the British Military (Rolex ref. 1665 Oman Khanjar & Qaboos Sea-Dwellers) in the 1970s, of particular interest in this instance are the Rolex Red 'Oman Khanjar & Qaboos Sea-Dwellers which are found in a consecutive numbered batch of 80-90 watches. This is unusual as most serials are issued in a random order & not assigned to a specific model, indicating a dedicated special order to Qaboos.

We can now be quite sure that not only did Qaboos commission a special order Patek Philippe Nautilus 3700/1 with Oman Khanjar dial, but as with the Red 'Oman Khanjar & Qaboos' Sea-Dwellers, the discovery of a 2nd Patek Philippe 3700/1 with Oman Khanjar dial (pictured below) indicates that the watch sold by Christies forms part of what is also a small consecutive serial batch of the iconic Genta designed Patek Philippe Nautilus 3700/1. Incredibly the 2 watches that have surfaced have consecutive serial numbers 536.200 and 536.201 (536.201 is the Christies watch), movement numbers are just 1 digit apart 1.304.952 and 1.304.954 and the Patek Philippe Archive Extracts advises that both watches were sold on 31st July 1978.

PATEK PHILIPPE - NAUTILUS - 3700/1 - OMAN KHANJAR - Serial. 536.200 - Movement 1.304.952

PATEK PHILIPPE - NAUTILUS - 3700/1 - OMAN KHANJAR - Serial. 536.201 - Movement 1.304.954

PATEK PHILIPPE - NAUTILUS - 3700/1 - OMAN KHANJAR - Serial. 536.200 & 536.201

Further research indicates the possible existence of a 3rd + 4th watch with serial numbers which enables us to estimate a consecutive numbered batch of approximately 20 examples.

Given the interest, demand and ever increasing values of the genuine Oman issued Rolex watches, a special order Patek Philippe with the Oman Khanjar dial crest is important to both vintage Rolex & Patek Philippe collectors and increases the interest, understanding and significance of the 1970s Qaboos era watches.

IMPORTANT WATCHES - Geneva May 2012

Saturday, May 12, 2012

This weekend sees the first of the 2012 'Important Watch' auctions held bi-annually in Geneva, Switzerland (May & November).

More than 1250 lots will be auctioned over 3 days with public viewings held from Friday to Sunday, & the auction schedule as follows :-

Antiquorum - May 13, 2012 at the Grand Hotel Kempinski
Christies - May 14, 2012 at the 4 Seasons, Hotel Des Bergues
Sothebys - May 15, 2012 at 13 Quai Du Mont Blanc

The November 2011 Geneva auctions saw a record of $50 million achieved by the 3 auction houses over 3 days, with an incredible $29 million coming on the final day in a 9 hour stint by Aurel Bacs of Christies who advised ‘they had never seen such intense buying activity’.

Highlights of the November 2011 auctions included:-

Vintage Rolex ref.8382 in 18k Yellow fold with Cloisonne Dial feat. Neptune - REALISED 609,000 CHF

Vintage Patek Philippe ref. 3448 in 18k Rose Gold - REALISED 2,099,000CHF

Vintage Rolex Submariner ref. 5513 from the 007 Movie Live & Let Die - REALISED 219,000 CHF

Whether the total sales record will be surpassed again this time remains to be seen, as despite the number of lots available, there is not quite the same apparent quality in volume of available this time in my opinion. Not particularly surprising given that the demand for investment grade vintage watches from established & new collectors in the last year (especially vintage Patek Philippe & Rolex) has been quite exceptional & is maybe now creating a shortage of vintage watches at the higher end.

From the viewings made to date, here are a few of my personal favourites, all again from Christies who are currently leading the way in terms of quality.

Vintage Rolex ref. 8171 Padellone in Steel

Vintage Rolex ref. 971 Prince in Platinum

Vintage Patek Philippe ref. 3448/6 in 18k White Gold

The weekend also provides a great opportunity to catch up with collectors & dealers from around the world & view some of the rarest watches that are held in private collections.

Stayed tuned for further updates on the Vintage-DB blog over the next few days, and results of the important lots starting with Antiquorum on Sunday via http://twitter.com/#!/VintageDB

Do you have an original vintage Rolex, Patek Philippe, Omega or Blancpain watch you are looking to sell, value or just share your story? Please contact Daniel Bourn via sales@vintage-db.com or tel. +44 7977 469 568.

Chrono Fever.....

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Watches always seem to appear in batches...inspired by my good friends Philipp Stahl (http://rolexpassionreport.com/) & Bernhard Bulang's (http://100percent-rolex.blogspot.com/) recent Chrono meeting in Maastricht, i made a little effort myself to gather a few new vintage chronographs, great quality of course, but with some extra details to keep things interesting.

6239/6238 Cosmograph - Serial 923xxx - Mk1 Crème Double Swiss Dial with Underline

6238 Chronograph - Serial 1.2xx.xxx - RARE Transitional Silver Sunburst Dial with Scale in Blue

6239 Daytona - Serial 1.4xx.xxx - 3 Colour Black Paul Newman Dial

6239 Daytona - Serial 2.xxx.xxx - Black Dial with Silver Gilt Script + RARE Light Blue Daytona

6262 Daytona - Serial 6.xxx.xxx - Silver Sunburst Big Red Daytona Dial

© Copyright Daniel Bourn www.vintage-db.com

Do you have an original vintage Rolex, Patek Philippe, Omega or Blancpain watch you are looking to sell, value or just share your story? Please contact Daniel Bourn via sales@vintage-db.com or tel. +44 7977 469 568.

So Tempting......

Monday, April 23, 2012

I love the feeling of driving a vintage car, but rarely do all of the required elements....time, perfect weather, a working car....come together on enough occasions to make ownership a practicality....but this week i was nearly very tempted to try my hand again....on eBay unsold at 104,000 USD was this fantastic original 1958 Aston Martin DB 2/4 Mk III.

Restoration is always time consuming and rarely do you recover your investment, but with this car it could have been fun just to leave and drive it as is for a few years before passing it on to someone else to complete the restoration.

Vintage Aston Martin DB2/4 MKIII

Original Leather + Carpets

Ok. Maybe i might have changed the carpets .-)

Do you have an original vintage Rolex, Patek Philippe, Omega or Blancpain watch you are looking to sell, value or just share your story? Please contact Daniel Bourn via sales@vintage-db.com or tel. +44 7977 469 568.

© Copyright Daniel Bourn www.vintage-db.com

Rolex 1665 Pat. Pending Sea-Dweller - US NAVY Issue

Sunday, April 15, 2012

In December 2011, we presented via the Vintage-DB Rolex Blog, a pair of Rolex 1665 Double Red PATENT PENDING Sea-Dwellers with consecutive serials, which were originally delivered to 2 divers for testing purposes while they were working for dive exploration companies other Comex in the late 1960s.

Shortly after acquiring these watches, we were fortunate to discover another original owner example of the Rolex ref. 1665 ‘PATENT PENDING Sea-Dweller’, but this time from 2128 batch and again not delivered to Comex.

The following Rolex ref. 1665 ‘PATENT PENDING Sea-Dweller’ was issued by Rolex for testing purposes to the delightful Chuck E Gross whilst serving in the US Navy in the late 1960s.

Chuck very kindly provided to us along with his watch & documented provenance, his US Navy discharge papers, military diving patches, diving pins and a copy of an article for Research magazine in which he featured.

We will leave it to Chuck to describe in his own words

‘In 1967 I joined the US Navy Experimental Diving Unit in Washington DC evaluating Saturation Diving Techniques. During this period I was presented with my Rolex Sea-Dweller for Operational & Comfort Testing in exchange for written reports on its performance during saturation dives to 600 & 750 ft, and wet testing using a research chamber to 1000FSW. I was awarded the watch on completion.

During my career I undertook the following dives accompanied by my Rolex Sea-Dweller

· 1968 - Westinghouse Oceanic Division, Saturation Dive 600ft

· 1969 - Duke University / US Navy, Saturation Dive 1000ft

· 1970 - Vietnam, US Naval Forces

· 1971-73 – Harbor Clearance Unit-One, Hawaii

· 1973 - Aegir Habitat, Saturation Dive

· 1974 - US Naval Deep Sea Diving School Instructor, Washington DC

· 1975 - US Naval Medical Research Institute, Bethesda

· 1977 - US Navy Retired

· 1977 - Launched ‘State of the Arts Hyperbaric’

· 2001 - Retired’

US Navy discharge papers (honorable)