Five Things

[mlcor]

• Switzerland doesn’t have any gold, but most of the gold in the world passes through Switzerland. More than half of that gold comes from other countries that don’t have any gold, like Great Britain, the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong. The gold in a Swiss watch will have come from mines in ninety countries, and some of it will be from war zones, and some of it will be from countries that have little interest in the welfare or safety of gold miners. Fortunately, for the Swiss refineries and watchmakers, the regulatory agencies just need to know the last country the gold came from, not where it was mined. Ther’s just no knowing, when you sit at the leather-topped desk in the boutique, where the gold in that watch has come from, or what crimes were committed along the way. Naturally, you could say the same of the gold in your wedding ring, or your mobile phone or laptop, which has probably travelled the same tarnished route.

US conflict minerals laws are supposed to prevent this over here. You have to be able to certify that your minerals didn't come from conflict areas, all the way back to the mines. Not so easy when you're making a finished product, say, an electronic device that uses tin on a circuit board.

[Kronos]

• 
  
  Very naughty, King George.
  

As I recall, our predecessors over here had a few issues with him and his parliament.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tribe125]

As a follow-up, this is the watch being auctioned earlier this year, for £1.6 million -





And the ‘Whirling About’ plaque -

[Fantasio]

Why two seconds subdials?

And the ‘Whirling About’ plaque -

Sent from Maxwell Smart’s shoe.

[tribe125]

Why two seconds subdials?

One is running seconds, the other can be stopped and started for timing.

[Fantasio]

I was puzzled, because coundn’t find a pusher for that purpose.

the other can be stopped and started for timing.

Sent from Maxwell Smart’s shoe.

[tribe125]

I was puzzled, because coundn’t find a pusher for that purpose.

I think there’s a slider on the side of the case.

[tribe125]

• Jaeger-LeCoultre might today be known as LeCoultre-Borgeaud, if Auguste Borgeaud hadn’t fallen off a horse. Antoine LeCoultre was an enterprising man, but in 1858 it was his son-in-law Jean François Gallay that ran the company, and nearly caused its financial ruin. Borgeaud rode to the rescue, but then fell off his horse and was never the same again. Antoine and Borgeaud retired into the background, and under the stewardship of Antoine’s three sons, LeCoultre-Borgeaud became Le Coultre et Cie. For a while, family tensions must have been running quite high in the tiny interrelated community of Le Sentier. We hear no more of Jean François Gallay.
  
  
• The Patek Philippe Nautilus uses pins and collars, and didn’t have hacking seconds until 2019. In most other respects the Nautilus is unlike the Seiko 5.
  
  
• Opaline dials aren’t opalescent like opals, and they don’t have the distinctive appearance of opaline glass. On the other hand, opaline is a handier description than ‘neither matte or gloss, sometimes with a variable tint’. Strictly speaking, opaline dials should have a silvery coating of powder beneath a transparent layer, but for many watch companies, opaline is the equivalent of silk paint.
  
  
• Longines didn’t really mind, when Nicolas Hayek told them to stop producing their own movements in 1988. Walter von Känel, the veteran Longines President who ran the company for fifty years, had long put ‘optimal reliability’ at the heart of Longines. Interviewed in 2018, Känel said that he never regretted the loss of in-house capability. “Yes, we were using ETA movements, because they were the most reliable!”
  
  
• Did Rolex make a Mickey Mouse watch? They’re out there, and Sothebys are happy to sell them at auction, as are Christie’s. Rolex has never complained, and neither it would seem has Walt Disney. But no, Rolex has never made a Mickey Mouse watch. Putting Mickey on the dial is a way of selling old Rolex Oysters that are too small for the modern market. Rolex doesn’t object because the watches are modified rather than fake, but you’d think that Disney might be interested in the steady supply coming from ABP in Paris. Naturally, there are people who say that there are Mickey Mouse watches made by Rolex - it’s just that they’re so rare that no-one has ever seen one.

[skywatch]

• The Patek Philippe Nautilus uses pins and collars, and didn’t have hacking seconds until 2019. In most other respects the Nautilus is unlike the Seiko 5.

Did you mean to write "Not unlike the Seiko 5"?

(Oh, and thank you for these things. I enjoy them very much.)

[tribe125]

Did you mean to write "Not unlike the Seiko 5"?

(Oh, and thank you for these things. I enjoy them very much.)

No - and thank you!