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Veterans Learn Watchmaking at VWI

By Laurent Martinez 

When I decided to write my book, ‘Timepieces, a Lifelong Love and Passion,’ I made a commitment to give away proceeds from book sales. Naturally, since I’m passionate about watches, I thought that I should look into donating to an organization within this field. After some research, I found something quite interesting.

In 1945, Joseph Bulova’s son Arde founded The Joseph Bulova School of Watchmaking. Arde Bulova “wished to repay, in some small measure, the sacrifice and service of returning disabled veterans after the Second World War.”

The goal of the school was to provide training and rehabilitation for these heroes. The watchmaking school helped train an entire generation of American watchmakers — entirely tuition-free. I found this to be a very honorable endeavor but I was not sure if the organization was still in operation.

After further research, I discovered that the original Joseph Bulova School of Watchmaking closed in 1993. However, it was revived a few years ago and renamed the ‘Veterans Watchmaker Initiative’ or VWI. 

The home of the Veterans Watchmaker Initiative in Odessa, Delaware.

The goal of VWI remains the same: to provide tuition-free training, support, and referral services to wounded veterans returning from war.

Since I greatly admire this initiative, I decided that the money from my book sales would be donated to VWI to help train these true heroes — to give hope not only to the students but to their families and communities too.

The Team 

After almost three years between writing the book, publishing it, and selling it, I was ready to go and meet with the organization to make my first donation. I was also curious to meet the team behind VWI.

My meeting was set up for a personal visit at their location in Odessa, Delaware, where I was to meet Sam Cannan, the head of the organization, and some of the staff, teachers, and students. I did not know what to expect, but now I can say it was a wonderful experience.

While the school’s philosophy is no doubt beautiful on paper, meeting veterans Cameron Garrish, Ben Herring, Tanner Caraway, Marc Clodfelter, Joey Tucker, Eric Perciado, Chris Tullis and listening to their stories was very emotional, honorable, humbling, and rewarding.

As you can imagine, all these guys have had a tough life — before, during, and after the wars they served in. I could feel each of them wanting to succeed in becoming a watchmaker and looking forward to starting a new life. 

I could sense as much pride from the students as from the teachers.

I attended a class with teacher Don Morton and witnessed the spirit of the team, as well as the individual attention given to each student.

Don Morton,VWI Watchmaking Instructor

The school has a high percentage of success and most students are hired even before graduating and getting their certifications. Some graduates will take their first career steps at prestigious companies like Tiffany & Co.

Sam Cannan, VWI Watchmaking Instructor.

In addition to the training operation, VWI is also a repair center for Bulova watches. A new building is currently being prepared to stock and manage all the watch parts inventory.

Sam Cannan and his team, including Debbie Katzmire, worked tirelessly to secure and renovate the building. They also managed to source the equipment and tools, most of which are donated by universities, from watch brands, and individuals.

The organization is the fantastic result of a team working to make goals a reality. The VWI also benefits from board members like Michael Benavente (Managing Director of Bulova and Accutron) and Diane James (Director of Strategic Brands at Watchbox), who bring their watch industry experience and expertise.

 The watch industry needs more watchmakers, and an organization like the Veterans Watchmaker Initiative can solve this shortage problem. The school is currently training seven people to become watchmakers, though this number could easily be increased with more support from the watch community and industry. 

The Veteran Watchmaker Initiative is a very transparent organization; I even saw their statements to see where funds are allocated and the cost of operations. 

During my visit I saw a vibrant and refreshing company dedicated to the good of our society and its people — and this was a wonderful feeling. It also reminds us that veterans have sacrificed their lives for our freedom, and our contribution will never fully pay back their service.

Laurent Martinez is the proprietor of Laurent Fine Watches, Greenwich, Connecticut. Read more by him at blog.laurentfinewatches.com or visit his site at www.laurentfinewatches.com.

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Bulova’s Fascinating History

By Laurent Martinez 

There are more than a few iconic American companies that can trace their success to one product in particular. There’s Ford’s Model T, The Coca-Cola Company’s Coke, and Kellogg’s Corn Flakes. 

In the watch world, there’s Accutron, which was a revolutionary electronic watch with a tuning fork that Bulova debuted in 1960. Accutron today operates as its own brand.

Before writing this article, my knowledge about Joseph Bulova was limited. However, after diving deep into researching him, I have come to realize that Joseph Bulova was an innovative entrepreneur who not only loved to invent and visualize the future but also was guided by a strong sense of ethics and values.

Joseph Bulova emigrated from Bohemia (known today as the Czech Republic) to New York in 1870. As a fully trained watchmaker, he landed a job at Tiffany & Co. but left five years later to open a small jewelry store on Maiden Lane in Lower Manhattan. It’s interesting to note that before dedicating his life to wristwatches, Joseph Bulova already had a few inventions under his belt, including making jewelry improvements to earrings, bracelets and rings.

Joseph Bulova understood time better than most and was always one step ahead. During his time in America the country was in its golden age of industry and progress thanks to railroads, manufacturing, electricity and light. It was the perfect era for Joseph Bulova to make his mark on timekeeping design and production.

By 1912, Bulova established a plant in Bienne, Switzerland, dedicated to the production of watch components and their assembly into jeweled movements. Although he was driven by the values of quality before quantity and perfection before production, Joseph Bulova was an early pioneer of mass and standardized production of watches, which he sought to fulfill his vision of putting an affordable watch on every wrist in the United States.

Bulova was one of the first brands to recognize the shift from pocket watches to wristwatches even before World War I. This was in large part due to Joseph’s 17-year-old office assistant, John Ballard, who would later become acting president of the company for almost fifty years. 

Fifth Avenue 

By 1927, the Bulova Watch Company moved to 580 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, complete with the Bulova Observatory on the roof — the first Observatory ever built on the top of a skyscraper. The Bulova School of Watchmaking is established in 1946. In 1948, Bulova develops the phototimer, which combined a photo-finish camera with an electronic timing mechanism. Bulova then introduced the unprecedented Accutron 214 electronic watch in 1960. In 1970, Bulova unveiled the 666 Devil Diver.

Bulova is associated with so many “firsts” in the industry, including the first radio clock, the first Dust-Tight Protector (to keep dust out of the watch movement), the first national radio commercial (1926), and the first television commercial (1941).

Bulova was also no stranger to pop culture with banners at the first Beatle concert in the United States. The Frank Sinatra Show musical variety show that ran in the early 1950s was also known as Bulova Watch Time. Earlier than this even, Bulova understood the importance of associating watches with celebrities of the era, like pioneer aviator Charles Lindbergh, Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller (who later became an actor famous for playing Tarzan), and General of the Army Omar Bradley.

In Space

The Bulova company was also involved with NASA, participating in forty-six space missions). In fact, the U.S. Air Force purchased an Accutron Astronaut watch for every pilot in the X-15 project, which ran from the late-1950s until the late-1960s. More recently, astronaut Dave Scott’s Bulova chronograph, which he wore on the Moon, sold for nearly $1.6 million at RR Auction.  

Astronaut David Scott wore this Bulova chronograph on the moon during the Apollo 15 mission in 1971. It sold for nearly $1.6 million in 2019.

Bulova was involved in many other applications such as developing timing instruments, clocks, and altimeters. However, some of Bulova’s work remains unknown as Bulova worked with the U.S. government on plenty of top-secret military projects.

Archives 

Carl Rosen at Bulova’s museum in the Empire State Building.

Six years ago, Jeffrey Cohen, CEO of Citizen Watch America, called up Carl Rosen, a trained engineer and the former COO of Bulova, and archivist Julie Loftus and proposed creating a Bulova archive, complete with vintage watches, ads, memorabilia, sketches, designs, patents, marketing materials, and other ephemera.

The archive contains physical recordings, as well as digital electronics files stored in a database. Not only will this work serve to keep the Bulova brand alive forever, but it also lends inspiration to the current design, marketing, and sales teams. There’s plenty of material to inspire reissues or modern interpretations of vintage Bulova classics.

Furthermore, the Bulova museum is charged with showing the history and evolution of this important watch brand. Items are presented to represent key moments of both Bulova and American history. I was amazed to see unique and iconic pieces like one of the oldest Bulova watches with an open back, as well a watch that once belonged to Elvis Presley.

Today, the company has more than 2,000 physical items like advertisements, books, memorabilia and packaging, in addition to 6,000 digital documents like scans of Bulova annual reports, catalogs, commercials, and images. If you look at the packages, names of the watch lines, and advertisements, you quickly begin to see the history of the United States unfolding in front of you. 

It’s clear that Bulova is an integral part of American history.

If you have the opportunity to visit the Bulova museum at the Bulova offices in the Empire State Building, I highly encourage it! Carl is extremely knowledgeable and passionate about his work.


 Bulova and Accutron have teamed with their headquarters, New York City’s Empire State Building, to light the building in Accutron’s signature green hue in celebration of Accutron’s anniversary on October 25.

Rosen is the encyclopedia of Bulova and he knows the ins and outs, the origins of everything, the timing, the advertisements, the why of this design or packaging, alongside a plethora of interesting anecdotes and charming stories.

If you want to learn more about the fascinating history of Bulova, I also recommend two beautiful books published by the brand. The first is “Bulova, A History of Firsts” and the second is “Bulova, A Legacy of Innovation.” A lot of documents are also accessible via the Bulova and Accutron websites.

I commend Julie and Carl for their amazing work to preserve the history of Bulova.

Laurent Martinez is the proprietor of Laurent Fine Watches, Greenwich, Connecticut. Read more by him at blog.laurentfinewatches.com or visit his store’s site at www.laurentfinewatches.com

 

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Ingenuity, Risk, and Resilience at Auction Houses

An overview of auction houses and the role they play in the watch resale market.

By Laurent Martinez

A big part of an auction house business model is sourcing pieces to consign. Of course, there are several techniques to do this, such as broad advertising or direct contact, but they all center on reaching clients (whether existing or potential) that are interesting in selling their goods. 

Certain auction houses specialize in one or two areas, while the more prestigious ones such as Phillips, Sotheby’s, and Christie’s, have multiple departments with experts running each one. For some customers, the size and geographical coverage of an auction house is important — certain clients prefer proximity and a company with offices on both coasts (and sometimes in between) can make the consignee more comfortable.

Naturally, prestige and reputation are the cornerstones of luxury sales, which is certainly applicable to auction houses like Phillips, Christie’s, and Sotheby’s.

The world of high-end watches was always associated with prestige, fashion, and social status. But these days, it’s often also associated with collecting, investment, speculation, momentum, and high demand. Most men consider watches as one of the few accessories they can wear while more and more women are entering the collecting space too.

Yes, watches are considered hot commodities right now, and we’ve witnessed some sky-high resale prices recently.

For example, in November 2021, Phillips sold a series of five F.P. Journe souscription watches ranging in price from more than $500,000 to almost $4 million. The following month it sold a Tiffany blue Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711 for more than $6.5 million. Furthermore, Sotheby’s sold Gerald Genta’s Audemars Piguet Royal Oak for $2.1 million just this spring. 

 Many factors

Factors such as brand, demand, rarity, and provenance all contribute to the values of these watches. Over the last few years, we’ve seen some incredible private vintage watch collections being sold at auction. Seasoned collectors who have been buying watches for more than thirty years are consigning their collections. As a result, we’re seeing some fascinating and unique timepieces offered for sale.

In addition to the vintage market, we’re also seeing contemporary watches re-selling for significant premiums thanks to rampant demand and COVID causing a slowdown in production.

Taking risks

However, it has become increasingly difficult for auction houses to source timepieces to sell, particularly from brands like Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe, and Rolex. In today’s environment, the once-traditional sources are drying up. Yet, Richard Lopez at Sotheby’s has managed to overcome this issue by being creative, resourceful, and not afraid to take some risks.

Richard understood many years ago that at some point, the American market would not be able to provide enough high-end timepieces for auction to satisfy the tremendous demand. So he turned to the Latin American market. Richard is originally from Ecuador, which gives him the advantage of language, as well as a familiarity with the region and culture.

Richard Lopez and the X Collection

Though he began his investigation into the Latin American market a few years ago while he was at Christie’s, he’s now putting much more energy and attention into the region. Some of his recent trips include stops in Mexico, Columbia, Ecuador, and Peru.

Lopez’s hunch turned out to be right. A collector reached out to Sotheby’s with a few photos of his collection that he was considering selling. Judging by the few photos made available, Richard knew that it was likely that there were more pieces in the collection. So he followed the lead, gave a quick estimate based on the photographs, and developed a relationship with the collector with the hope that he’d be invited to see the collection in person.

A trip was quickly arranged and Richard was delighted to find that the collector had 175 watches to sell! Plus, they were all in mint condition because security concerns meant that the watches were barely worn. It’s clear that Richard’s experience, knowledge, and expertise gave him the confidence to correctly assess the authenticity and value of each piece.

Richard’s competitive advantage of being one of the only watch specialists to cover this region paid off with this fantastic surprise, and will likely yield more in the future. It has the potential to become a gold mine for Sotheby’s. He believes that the U.S., European, and Asian markets are so saturated at the moment that the South American market is the right place to source. He thinks that there is a wealth of collectors that nobody knows about yet.

Mass European emigration took place in the 19th and 20th centuries and it’s estimated that about 21% of these European immigrants settled in Central and South America, bringing a lot of watches with them. In more modern times, there are plenty of luxury watch buyers in the region too including some very serious collectors.

Like most markets, the Latin American market is complex and challenging to understand for outsiders. Knowing who to do business with, calculating risk, investigating provenance, and so on are all important considerations — otherwise, it can become a nightmare. Having worked a few years in the region myself, I can confirm that it requires years of work and experience and plenty of learning along the way to make it work. This is not a market you can just decide to develop out of the blue and expect immediate results.

June 15 at Sotheby’s

Richard Lopez illustrates, yet again, that creativity, thinking outside the norms, and taking risks can pay off. However, that strategy must be coupled with expertise, patience, and resilience. These pieces from the private collector will be on the auction block on June 15, 2022, during the Sotheby’s Important Watches event in New York. The auction details confirm that it will showcase “Part I of The X Collection, a comprehensive and prolific curation (sic) of more than 170 wristwatches amassed by a single owner.” 

Congratulations to Richard and his team, and good luck to all the collectors who will be bidding on these exceptional timepieces.

Laurent Martinez is the proprietor of Laurent Fine Watches, Greenwich, Connecticut. Read more by him at blog.laurentfinewatches.com or visit his store’s site at www.laurentfinewatches.com

 

 

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Collecting Watch Accessories

By Laurent Martinez

We all know that the exciting world of watch collecting has witnessed tremendous growth in recent years, with plenty of hype watches and big watchmaking brands fueling more interest. However, I’ve also noticed more collectors (especially newer ones) buying watch-branded accessories and memorabilia. Items with Rolex, Patek Philippe, and Audemars Piguet logos are especially popular, and ones with Vacheron Constantin are rapidly rising in demand too.

A generation or two ago, it wasn’t that common for watch buyers to keep the accompanying boxes and papers. Yet, these days, some people like to collect tags, boxes, catalogs, brochures, displays, posters, sketches, ashtrays, vintage books, and any other merchandise associated with watches and watch brands.

One of my clients recently told me that when he buys a vintage watch, he is passionate about recreating the complete set — as it would have been originally sold at the store.

I once met a person whose father was the maintenance director of a famous watch brand in the 1950s. As a result of his dad’s job, this person had a large inventory of boxes, tools, calendars, commercial displays, and catalogs. The design and aesthetics of this era were fantastic and I felt like a kid in a candy store rummaging through all these horology ephemera.

I couldn’t help but imagine this gentleman, dressed in a sharp suit and working in New York City, working at his desk buying parts, fixing watches on his bench, leaving his cigarette in the ashtray, glancing at his calendar.

Conditions and provenance

As with any collector’s items, you must be careful when buying vintage watch merchandise, packaging, and accessories—even though you hardly ever come across fake items.

What you do have to watch out for is the condition of the items, which is the first parameter that will affect the value. Like other kinds of ephemera and accessories, they were not necessarily made to last over long periods or to be preserved throughout the years. Other considerations to keep in mind are the rarity, style, colors, and if any, the provenance of the items at hand.

I recently purchased a vintage rubber dust blower (below) with provenance to remove the dust on watches. It was old, used, and dirty but I was so excited.

A vintage rubber dust blower.

I had in my hands a tool that has been around for over seventy years, passed on through several generations of watchmakers. Using it gives me great joy; there’s something to be said about using something today that has been used over 100,000 times to do the same job – removing dust from watches.

Where to look

To find these treasures, you can scour tag sales, local flea markets, and of course, eBay. More and more famous auction houses are offering watch memorabilia too, typically towards the end of an auction.

For example, these two Rolex retailer’s window displays (below) sold for over $3,000 each.

If you can’t afford expensive watch brands, collecting memorabilia instead is a great way to be part of the community. It’s a wonderful opportunity to learn, meet like-minded people, and own a little piece of horological history. For me, these types of collectors are purists because they buy for the love of the item, and not for the potential to flip it and make money.

I get immense pleasure from looking at vintage watch merchandise and accessories. Not only are they beautiful but they also give me pause and make me reflect on what it must have been like to design, make, fix, sell, and buy watches a long time ago.

Laurent Martinez is the proprietor of Laurent Fine Watches, Greenwich, Connecticut. Read more by him at blog.laurentfinewatches.com or visit his website at www.laurentfinewatches.com.

 

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Horological Reading: “Timepieces: A Lifelong Love and Passion”

By Michael Thompson

Recently I received a copy of “Timepieces: A Lifelong Love and Passion” by Connecticut-based watch appraiser and dealer Laurent Martinez. If you’ve been a long-time iW reader or regularly read our online offerings, you’re likely familiar with a least a few of the many feature stories about watch collecting Martinez has penned for our publications.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the just-published book, which is sub-titled “An Insider’s Guide to Watches and Tips for Watch Collecting.”

Martinez writes from the point of view of both a long-time collector and as an advisor to those just starting their own collections.

In the former guise, Martinez takes the reader through his life growing up just outside Paris, through a series of jobs in restaurants and businesses and eventually to the events that led to Martinez starting his own consulting firm in the United States.

As his story unfolds, one thread remains constant: his long-standing love of watches. Martinez’s story of acquiring his first watch, a Yema dive model, at twelve-years-old will strike a chord of familiarity with many iW readers. 

Many will also sympathize with the author’s recognition several years ago, at the age of fifty, that he was ready to launch his own watch business after years as a collector. It turns out that Martinez funded his new business, Laurent Fine Watches, at least in part by drawing from his lifelong passion – he bought and sold a dozen watches.

Much of the nearly 200-page book details a brief history of watches and defines a range of technical terms. But with that covered, Martinez really begins to dig in.

In chapters such as “Provenance is Everything” to “Real Versus Fake Watches,” Martinez gathers his experience as a collector and dealer to advise the reader, underscoring his points with hundreds of examples and even more glossy photos.

Any collector, new or veteran, will both enjoy and be enriched when reading “Timepieces: A Lifelong Love and  Passion.” You can find a copy ($39.95) on the laurentfinewatches.com website and on Amazon.

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