Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Prepetual Calendar Silver Dial Automatic Men's Watch 26574ST.OO.1220ST.01

NEVER - Never ever put a dirty watch in the washing machine
This happend by accident to a good friend of mine.The (two weeks old) Lady Datejust was in the pocket of her Jeans when she put it in the washing machine.But it stayed not in there

Just for us Longines members
Bagged my Flagship - just waiting to hear from the seller about shipping. Don't tell anyone from the other forums yet although I did quietly post about it on the back end of a thread in the GDF. I was looking at two models that had some very nice aspects. The first was this:It has a caliber 30L - probably the finest manual wind production movement Longines ever made, and the chronometer 30Z version crushed the competition at Neuchatel from the late 50's into the mid 60's. It also has a cross-hair dial and subdial; I'm a sucker for that. I like the classic sunburst pattern, and the hands are a style I don't have on any other vintage Longines. One huge drawback - a plain caseback without the trademark 3 mast ship. That's what killed it for me.The other was this:A caliber 341 - from the series I need to complete the foundation of all the pre-quartz Longines automatics. It has a few features I was after like the 3 mast schooner on the caseback, the date at 12, and faceted lugs. Th

Seeking clarity!
I posted this a few years back in the general discussion forum. Think here might be a better place for it. (I recently acquired a Gallet 30 minute timer/stopwatch at an estate sale that works perfectly. I am seeking any information/insight on this model as I have been unable to pin down the vintage of this stopwatch or its retail market. There is plenty of general and company info on the web but I have found nothing on the specific movement/model I have. I have found one model that is very close but not identical to mine. The Gallet I found was a decimal artillery timer/stopwatch marked Jules Racine & Co. Swiss 7seven jewels unadjusted on spare parts compartment(JXR on balance) No3364 D.R.P.388992 +No100230 on bridge. The information dates it to WWII era. Mine is marked Jules Racine & Co. Swiss 6six jewels 1one adjustment on spare parts compartment (no JXR on balance) No3364 D.R.P.388992 +No100230 on bridge. The dial is (near mint) porcelain enamel, hands are blued (looks to be

Takeaways from Geneva
I wanted to follow up and give some insight to collectors based on what I saw in Geneva. They really did give us a look under the hood. We saw even production sheets that stated how many pieces for the run and how many runs per year. I wont speak specifically to that given their transparency. Bottom line, those of you who think the best days of Patek are behind them are crazy. Here are a few facts I am comfortable sharing:-53000 watches per year-12000 quarts watches- 41000 mechanical watches a year-5% of mechanical production are grand complications- The remaining are complications, calatrava, gondola, nautilis, aquanaunt-nonquarts- So ~2100 grand comps a year- there are 38 grand comp references for 2013/14 (35 men, 3 woman)So bottom line, those of you who believe that Patek is over producing their grand complications due to moving to in house movements are wrong. They are most likely producing the same to less. yes there are many more 5140 than 5208 but 2100 piece per year of their fl

Finally Joined the GMT Club...
As the title states, I finally took the plunge and joined the GMT Master Club... Yeap, after a three week wait, and an outstanding salesman at the local AD, I am the happy and proud owner of a BLNR.Initially, I was almost convinced that I wanted either a DJ II or the newer DJ 41. Visited an AD in Germany to try one on and found the DJ 41 to be a beautiful piece but a bit too small for my liking. I then joined this forum and started lurking around and learning every bit I could about the Rolex brand and its different model variations. This is when the GMT truly caught my attention.About three weeks ago, I went out to take my parents around, whom were vacationing in the area. I decided to go into the Rolex website to see if there was an AD nearby. To my surprise there was one very close by. As I walked towards the AD, I came across another high-end/luxury watch store which is not an AD. Right there on the window they had a brand new BLNR. Went in to try it on but they wanted €1,200