Jaeger-LeCoultre Memovox Vintage Meca

Collecting The First Swiss Quartz Movement: 5 Beta-21 Watches To Look For
If you haven’t noticed, it’s quartz week here at HODINKEE. Earlier this week our resident watchmaker, Aaron, wrote about the Girard Perregaux caliber 350, and Jack wrote about the Grand Seiko Quartz SGBX061. But what about other collectible “quartz” watches, like the Beta 21 movement, on the market today? The history of quartz is a complex and lengthy one, so I will try keep it short and sweet. Quartz was invented in 1928 by Bell Labs, and due to the sheer size of early quartz clocks, were mostly restricted to use in labs as reference timekeepers. Quartz experimentation continued through the decades and by the early 1960s quartz movements had been miniaturized enough to allow for them to be used in marine chronometers. It was at this time, that the major Swiss watch brands caught wind of this new technology and approximately 20 maisons (including Omega, Piaget, and Patek Philippe) created the Centre Electronique Horloger (CEH) in 1962 in Neuchâtel

New strap for my Speedmaster
How do you guys like this new strap? Gold alligator with polished buckle from Camille Fournet, Paris. Looks like a high quality strap, easy to install.

Trying to buy a 5170 -- what am I doing wrong?
I'm in the market for a new 5170G-010, the white gold / black dial version with Breguet numerals that Patek stopped making last year. Even though discontinued, they seem to be abundantly in stock at both ADs and grey market dealers.I'd prefer to go the AD route, but it seems none in the US or Europe are willing to discuss much of a discount (a couple thousand dollars off at most). For a $81,000 MSRP slow-selling watch, I'm surprised I cannot get better traction anywhere. The grey market dealers are selling for ~25% off.Maybe the problem is that I'm not an existing customer? In my ideal scenario, I'd locate a watch in Europe, negotiate a 20-30% discount and then benefit from the VAT refund when having the watch shipped to the U.S.Can anyone provide any feedback or advice? Maybe my expectations for AD discounts are simply unrealistic and I should go grey market?

Submersible base?
I've been seeing quite a few Submersible models on the board lately. Thinking I need one to go along with my Luminor and Radiomir. However, I love my PAMs without second hands.So did Panerai ever make a Submersible like this?Thanks!

Oyster Bracelet Additional Link?
I am looking for an additional link for my Polar Expll. The bracelet is ref 78790. My question is does the replacement link need to come from an identical bracelet or would a link from say a 93150 bracelet fit??Thanks David