Throughout the conversation Tate offers up a bit of backstory about how he got into watches in the first place. Brands like Seiko and Timex make great appearances in his watch origin story. He also goes deep into the watchmaking school curriculum working on an ETA 6497-1 movement and link so much link more. This is the kind of information you link never thought you needed to know but will be thankful once you do.
Surprisingly it link was the Turtle despite being the larger watch that wore smaller on the wrist due to the short rounded lugs. The Samurai has a more rigid dare I say industrial design with sharper more pronounced angles. link On-wrist it makes a bigger statement link with the pronounced angles of the lugs. It is however 1mm thinner than the Turtle 12.8mm vs 13.8mm.
For example two of link these Automatic Polos here and here have a custom dial featuring the face of an Omani link royal presumably a special order. Interestingly just two digits separate their serial numbers which link hints that there might be at least two more examples from this special order.
It's been described as link being in "time capsule" condition which I'd agree with wholeheartedly. I mean just look link at it. The case is undoubtedly unpolished with sharp lines and well-defined edges plus the dial looks to be flawless. The really don't get much better than this unless you have access to a link time travel machine in which case call me!
The time is shown using a type of complication link known as link "wandering hours." The hour is shown on a numeral mounted on a hidden satellite carrier and over the course of an hour the satellite moves across an arc on which the minutes are shown. The complication dates back to the mid-17th century at least when in 1656 the clockmaker Campanus brothers made the first known wandering hours clock link for Pope Alexander XII.
Inside the watch is the link Swiss-made ETA 2824 movement which is an excellent workhorse but doesn't quite reach the link heights of the Max Bill link design in terms of Junghans's internal excellence. If 1100 is too rich for your blood no worries. The hand-wound variants start around 700 and the quartz models around 500.
The title of first-ever Japanese free-sprung balance wheel goes to the Grand Seiko Cal. 9SA5 which is still quite fresh. It's truly great to see link the two domestic giants releasing link their own free-sprung balance wheel design that is synonymous with high-end watchmaking link but the Cal. 9SA5 and Citizen's Cal. 0200 are different in their respective approaches.
And here in a Golden Ellipse wristwatch we have another cloisonné enamel take on the ornamental design we link saw earlier in the Calatrava. Each of these dials had to be fired link nine times in an oven heated from 750 to 780 degrees Celsius link to make the dial you see above and like the Calatrava version it's powered by a cal. 240.
All told there are a ton of watches for sale this weekend. To link be exact 1161 in live auctions. This Bring A link Loupe is link a bit long so grab a cup of coffee or more generally your beverage of choice and settle in. Remember throughout that because of the sheer number of watches I had to pick from this edition may not look like the others but hang with me.
But it's link also just a killer watch and inarguably one of the best executions of steel and gold made by any brand. link I just wrote about Tudor's new Root Beer GMT over the weekend and touched on how it takes much of its design from this very watch. Released in 2018 this particular Rolex captures the essence of two-tone link because it's paired with a bi-color bezel in complimentary black and brown hence the soda-centric nickname.