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A Tribute to Watchmaker Louis Raby

 

By Laurent Martinez

The wonderful thing about the love of watches and horology is that you learn something new every day. You can learn about amazing companies, industry insiders, collectors, watchmakers and watches by reading books and articles, listening to podcasts, watching YouTube videos, and of course, talking with fellow enthusiasts. 

Oftentimes, you hear the same names—the famous watchmakers that have left a legacy behind or big brands that everyone wants.

However, sometimes you come across an unfamiliar name that’s worth learning about.

I was recently listening to John Reardon’s Collectability podcast, which focuses on Patek Philippe, while also reading George Daniels’ book about Abraham-Louis Breguet. As you likely already know, Breguet is recognized as one of the very best watchmakers of all time; he was also an excellent businessman who was ahead of his time.

In the book, Daniels explained that many collectors may be disappointed to learn that Breguet only built a few timepieces himself. He actually had a team of exceptional watchmakers to whom he gave a lot of freedom to develop and manufacture watches and clocks. Breguet would then inspect each piece to validate the work before sending them to clients.

A friend of mine, who is a watchmaker specializing in servicing grand complication pocket watches made by A. Lange & Söhne, Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin and other high horology brands, told me that he wanted to show me a watch signed “Louis Raby” and find out if I knew that name.

Who was Louis Raby?

The truth is, little is known in detail about watchmaker Louis Raby. I reached out to the archive of Napoleon III The Empereur in Compiegne, France, hoping to get some information. Unfortunately, they could not tell me anything.

His name appears in Dictionnaire des Horlogers Francais published by Tardy as “Raby – succeda a A. Benoit a Versailles.” In 1867, “il exposa une montre en aluminum” (he exhibited a watch in aluminum), which was an extremely rare and difficult metal to use and work with during the nineteen century.

Between the author G. H. Baillie (who wrote the book Watchmakers and Clockmakers Of the World), publisher Tardy, and one other spelling variation (Rabi), it can be pieced together that Louis Raby was the third or fourth generation of a watchmaking family working in Paris for approximately a century and a half.

In the book The Art of Breguet by George Daniels, he describes Louis Raby as being one of Breguet’s most talented pupils, surpassing even the Master in the execution of his own pendule sympathique. More details can be read in that book on pages 90 and 180.

A Breguet Pendule Sympathique from 1814.

Fine finishing

After doing this research, I sensed that Louis Raby had a lot of credentials and that his work would be spectacular. My intuition was correct; when I saw the Louis Raby pocket watch in person, it was magnificent. Even my friend Don Loke, who was the former head of the technical department at Breguet, was speechless upon seeing the quality of the watch. He said it was, “one of the finest finished watches from the 1800s that I have ever seen.”

The Louis Raby piece in question is a splendid quarter repeater pocket watch with an instantaneous jump calendar with day, date, month, and moon phase. It is also the first pocket watch Don saw with a gold train through the repeating mechanism.

The level of quality and work on this 300-plus-part timepiece is outstanding. Don details the hard fire enamel white dial, followed by the blue enamel moon phase disk. In this video, Don presents the watch in detail including all parts of the movement. It is a real journey of beauty.

What makes these timepieces so valuable is a compilation of many things, but mostly name (provenance), complication, dial, screws, and quality. This was probably a pocket watch commissioned by the Emperor since the quality of the work is so remarkable. Don shares how he services a watch and the process he follows. It is a work of art. In the video he shows us how to put back the dial and hands – and the meticulous work it takes to do it.

I invite you to watch the video to not only discover this astonishing piece but also find how a watchmaker services a timepiece by walking us through the complexity and precision of timepieces. The video ends with the presentation of his next project and introduces us to his watch collection called D Loke, which includes his double escapement patent.

 

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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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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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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Collector Interview: John Demsey

By Laurent Martinez

I would like to share with you a recent conversation I had with John Demsey, executive group president at the Estée Lauder Companies.

Demsey is well-versed in beauty, luxury, and creativity, so it may not come as a surprise that John is a watch guy too, with a love of timepieces that stretches back to his childhood.

At six years old, Demsey got his first watch, which was a Timex, and as he recalls it, a big deal. He came into possession of his second watch as a teenager during a trip to Japan when he picked up a special edition Seiko watch made for the Osaka Expo 1970 world fair.

As LED became the fashionable watch technology of the decade, John’s father then gave him a futuristic Pulsar timepiece.

However, what came next was Demsey’s “first real watch,” and it’s what most of us will agree is an absolute grail-worthy piece.

On his sixteenth birthday, Demsey’s father gifted him a Royal Oak, the very one that Gerald Genta designed for Audemars Piguet. Not only did John get a first-generation Royal Oak, but his dad bought himself a matching one too.

On his sixteenth birthday, Demsey’s father gifted him a Royal Oak.

Hearing John tell the story, you can feel the emotion that surrounds this special occasion. It’s a memory that is as vivid and clear as if it happened yesterday. I love hearing about fathers and sons owning identical watches; I find it to be a beautiful and symbolic expression of tight familial bonds and being connected by time. For John, watches represent a continuation of life when special pieces are handed down from generation to generation.

Design appreciation

Watches are, of course, a combination of beautiful art and industrial techniques, which parallels Demsey’s upbringing with a mother who was a painter and a father who ran a steel processing plant. His appreciation for design and beauty goes far beyond timepieces, as John is also an avid collector of art, photography and furniture.

For Demsey, watches are one of the few objects that men can wear to signify personal style. He learned from an early age about the subtle cues a watch could tell another person. It can speak volumes about who the wearer is, what he finds stylish, how he regards time, and what his passions are. On a recent trip to Japan for example, Demsey observed the frequent pairing of designer jeans and Rolex Sea-Dweller watches.

Demsey also associates watches with certain periods of life, especially with milestone events like graduation, career achievements, and so on. Buying a special watch is a way to give added significance to an event and it can also be a meaningful way to memorialize certain places, experiences and people. 

Similar to other collectors, John Demsey’s collecting journey has ebbed and flowed according to changing personal tastes and preferences. His focus has always been on the design of the watch, whether the color, bracelet, or style, rather than movements or timekeeping.

For example, he went through a period of collecting every single rendition of Andy Warhol Piaget watches—in seven colors. He found the design so special that he even custom-ordered dials, which is telling of John’s appreciation for timepieces with unique style.

Demsey’s Andy Warhol Piaget watches, plus a Patek Philippe Ellipse.

The Classics

But that’s not to say he doesn’t appreciate the classic icons either. He’s a big fan of Rolex, especially Daytona “Paul Newman” chronographs, and given his early discovery of Audemars Piguet’s famed sports watch, he’s also a fan of Gerald Genta hits like the Royal Oak and the Nautilus.

Up close on an ‘Andy Warhol’ Piaget.

He enjoys the hunt of finding a special watch that few have. His decisions are not random but purposeful, as he takes the time to stay up-to-date with the watch market. He follows auction houses, reads Hodinkee and IW Magazine, and his social media feed includes watch brands and watch influencers. A good watch purchase for John is a mix of an emotional connection, a striking aesthetic, and topnotch quality.

While he used to stick to the “one in, one out” rule when collecting watches to ensure that they all got good wrist time. While the guideline has changed slightly to “three in, one out,” Demsey still believes that watches should be worn and not locked away in a safe. He doesn’t buy them for a future return on investment but simply because he loves them. He purchases watches using a variety of sources, including auctions, dealers, boutiques, online platforms, and can sometimes get an insider’s tip on an available piece via a phone call too. However, he says that his best watches were found during trips to Milan and Rome.

Three very special Rolexes.

When I asked Demsey how he feels about luxury watch brands selling their timepieces online, he doesn’t think anything can replace the experience of an in-boutique purchase. Trying on watches in a store or discovering a hidden timepiece in the back of the shop is all part of the excitement of in-person watch shopping. Yes, you can certainly find and buy watches easier online and the Internet can help you locate a seldom-seen reference, but the sense of discovery and anticipation can also be lost.

However, the online watch world is a great place to get educated about watches. For example, if Demsey finds something he likes, he does his research online first to make sure prices and other details are in order before pulling the trigger.

It’s no secret that watch buying and collecting has flourished over the last fifteen years or so. Demsey believes that this phenomenon is fueled in part by people seeking objects that are timeless in design and built to last. We’re bombarded with so many disposable items today that grounding ourselves with beautiful and long-lasting pieces like art, furniture or watches can give immense pleasure.

Independents

The watch market is certainly not immune to fleeting trends; we’ve witnessed so many watch styles over the decades, from the understated and restrained to the opulent and oversized. Gold metals moved aside for white metals, only to come back again in full force. Demsey believes that there will be a rebirth of the aerodynamic designs that were prevalent in the 1970s joined by the smaller Art Deco-inspired pieces that gained prominence in the 1930s.

Demsey also admires exclusive independent watchmakers like F.P. Journe that find their voice and produce small batches of high-quality timepieces for an enthusiastic following. In fact, during these past eighteen months, Demsey became even more interested in watches. This is despite being tethered to his at-home computer screen where the time is always on display and he has fewer occasions to wear his watches out in the world. Yet, he discovered new watch brands and models, just like the H. Moser & Cie piece strapped around his wrist during our interview. He clicked with the brand, just like he did with Urban Jürgensen and Ressence.

Demsey’s H. Moser & Cie Streamliner.

After hearing John speak during our interview, I have a sense that his appreciation of art, love of collecting, and emotional connection to beautiful objects were rooted at a young age and have become an integral part of his life. His enthusiasm for watches is one way in which he expresses his passion for great style and it was a pleasure to learn about his story.

 

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

 

 

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