The Portofino fake watches with white dials from IWC Schaffhausen have been bringing the laid-back Italian lifestyle to wrists for over 30 years. Now, this timelessly elegant watch family is gaining two new members, a tourbillon model and a moon-phase watch. Today, we are presenting the tourbillon model.
The Portofino Hand-Wound Tourbillon Rétrograde (Ref. IW516501) is the first Portofino to feature a tourbillon, with the balance, pallet and escape wheel mounted in a cage that rotates around its own axis once every minute. The newly developed hacking tourbillon enables the IWC copy watches with automatic movements to be set with down-to-the-second accuracy. IWC has also revised the geometry of the pallet and the escape wheel, plus it has manufactured the components using diamond-coated silicon, thus reducing friction. This contributes substantially to the power reserve of eight days achieved with the IWC hand-wound 59900 calibre. A retrograde date display and power reserve display accompany the flying minute tourbillon on the silver-plated dial that features gold-plates hands and solid gold appliqués.
The 45mm case is made of 18-carat red gold. The sapphire-glass back provides a view of the hand-wound IWC-manufactured calibre 59900, which is adorned with Geneva stripes.
The cheap IWC Portofino replica watches are worn on a dark brown alligator leather strap by Santoni.
There were some who predicted that the wristwatch would go the way of typewriters and videotapes. Not so. At Sotheby’s Australia’s May 23 Important Jewels auction a Rolex watch sold for $219,600 including buyer’s premium, way above estimates of $80,000 to $120,000. This is claimed as a new record price for any watch sold at auction in Australia.
Of course this was no ordinary watch. It was a exquiste Rolex Daytona fake watch, circa 1970, known as a ‘Paul Newman’ by collectors. The late actor wore one most of his life and a new generation of collectors regard these as the ultimate trophy timepiece.
The vendor was from Western Australia. The watch had been bought new and handed down through his family. It came with the original box and documents, including service certificates.
Vintage Rolex Dayotna replica watches with self-winding movements have become one of the hottest categories around the world and there are signs they are taking off here. The Daytona sold by Sotheby’s Australia went to an international collector bidding online.
Also in May, Mossgreen had more modest success with a gold Rolex President with lapis dial, selling for $27,280, and a vintage Rolex Explorer, circa 1971, selling for $12,400. Mossgreen’s best result was in November 2014 when it sold a Rolex Daytona for $93,000.
Gold standard
These are strong results for the Australian market, but pale into insignificance compared to the 18ct gold Daytona watch which fetched $US3.7 million at Phillips’ annual Geneva Watch Auction held on May 15, 2017. There are only three known examples of the Daytona in gold. The top five results at Geneva were all well above the million dollar mark.
Rolex and Patek Philippe dominate the international scene, to the point that rarites are now beyond the reach of the average collector. But as suggested by Adrian Hailwood, director of watches at Fellows Auctioneers in the UK, there are opportunities in the lower tiers.
Writing in the December 2016 edition of English car magazine Motor Sport, Hailwood predicts that vintage TAG Heuer, especially early model Autavias, are also about to take off.
“Fake watches with white dials that might have sold for £3000 10 years ago are now making £30,000, confirming Heuer as the next big thing,” he notes. These Heuers were the actual models worn by Formula One racing drivers in the 1950s to 1970s period. Known as sports chronographs, or tool watches, they are similar in size to contemporary watches. Vintage time-only watches are now seen as too small for modern tastes.
In demand
The Omega Speedmaster (known as the moon watch) and Universal Geneve’s Tri-Compax are others in demand. Vintage Tudor and Breitling watches are also recommended by Hailwood.
“Clean original examples of these are a great buy,” he says, “even if they have already started to go up in price.”
The sports watch concept dates back to 1926 when Rolex copy watches with steel cases introduced its Oyster case, offering protection against water, dust and shock. They were cleverly promoted through real life events. In 1927 Mercedes Gleitze, a secretary from London, swam the English Channel wearing a Rolex Oyster. Aviators and mountaineers wore them, as did adventurer Thor Heyerdahl on his voyage across the Atlantic by papyrus raft.
These days they are more of a status symbol. According to Patti Sedgwick, head of Jewellery at Mossgreen, “men look at each other’s watches as an indication of how well they are doing”.
No other luxury brand manages its heritage with quite the same erudition and style as Cartier replica watches with white dials as can be seen through the constantly refreshed cycle of exhibitions that the maison stages or supports around the world, from properly academic retrospectives presented by the likes of the British Museum to more conceptual experiences such as the “Precious Garage” staged as part of Milan’s Fuorisalone.
The cheap Cartier Crash fake watches in Motion show, staged at the new Design Museum in Kensington breaks new territory for the brand as it leaves much of the curation to Norman Foster and the museum’s director, Dejan Sudjic. Lord Foster gives the exhibition a much more personal flavour that Cartier could impart itself, as he focuses on the characters and cultural shifts that excite his attention. In practice, that means acknowledging the enormous energy that Baron Hausmann’s new city plan unleashed, looking at Louis Cartier’s relationship with adventurous spirits such as the pioneering aviator, Alberto Santos-Dumont and Gustave Eiffel and exploring Louis Cartier’s interest in new technologies. There’s a replica of the Demoiselle plane that Santos-Dumont built to contest the Deutsch Grand Prix d’Aviation as well as designs doe cars, boats and planes form Louis Cartier himself.
The greater part of the exhibition concentrates on the watches and timekeepers that Cartier design for the following generations for whom flying was more glamour than adventure (at least in theory). There are numerous versions of the Tank, the wristwatch that copy watches with golden cases designed after seeing a First World War Renault tank, mystery clocks, nécessaires for motorists, while the Foster touch makes itself felt through beautifully designed showcases and models made by the Foster and Partners studio. Underpinning the exhibition is Foster’s absolute respect for the craftsmanship that is at the heart of everything that Cartier does, a concern that takes physical form with the inclusion of a watchmaker’s workbench and tools.
When Emperor Napoleon III asked Baron Haussmann to clean up the stinking, narrow streets of 19th century Paris and recast the French capital as a modern, airy and elegant city, little did he know he would usher in a gilded age of invention.
Haussmann’s new Paris rapidly became an epicenter of elegance and fine geometry, of machines, mechanisms and structures that no one had seen before. Gustave Eiffel built his bridges and his famous tower, while Alberto Santos-Dumont made fantastical flying machines for racing and for zooming around Paris to all of his favorite restaurants.
Around the same time, Louis Cartier replica watches with mechanical movements moved his workshop to central Paris and, inspired by Haussmann’s strict geometric shapes, began designing his watches and clocks with angles and fine lines to reflect the new, spare and industrial aesthetic.
Cartier and London’s Design Museum are marking that moment in history with an exhibition curated by the airplane-obsessed British architect Sir Norman Foster, which runs from May 25 to July 28.
Cartier in Motion
“Cartier in Motion,” which is co-curated by the Design Museum’s director Deyan Sudjic, takes a look at the design revolution that happened in those years, and how Cartier Santos fake watches with white dials and jewels were shaped and influenced by the inventors of the day.
The star of the entertaining show is Santos who, with his passion for nutty flying machines and great heights, pushed exquisite Cartier Santos replica watches to come up with the wristwatch at a time when everyone was wearing a pocket watch on a chain.
The newfangled Cartier invention was an efficient device that allowed Santos to tell the time without having to lift his hand from the steering wheel of the airplane.
Fittingly, the centerpiece of the show is one of Santos’ Demoiselle airplanes, a spindly, one-seater creation made from bamboo tubes. It sits in the middle of an upstairs room at the museum, surrounded by cases full of more than 170 objects and artifacts. There are Cartier copy watches withand jewelry, a vintage workbench with tools, backlit black-and-white images of Cartier and his fellow innovators, and a timeline that aims to contextualize all that was happening during the golden years of Parisian invention.
There’s even a tableau featuring replicas of the “high furniture” from Santos’ Paris apartment. He liked his guests to experience what it was like to eat and drink 10 feet off the ground.
Foster, who is best known for projects such as The Reichstag Building in Berlin, London’s Millennium Bridge, Wembley Stadium and the Great Court at the British Museum, said the Cartier project played to his obsessions.
Cartier in Motion
“I’m an aviation freak,” Foster said during a walk-through. “I’m fascinated by how things are made, and I think there’s a kind of inner beauty in the making.” Foster said he’s always been moved by the “time, love and craftsmanship that goes into something that will never be seen.”
The show has been designed around “Paris and the new geometry of Haussmann. It’s also a departure from a normal exhibition because everything is movable and reusable. The show is totally independent of the space,” he said.
He was also interested in bringing the themes of urbanism, design, fashion, art and locomotives together in one show. “I’ve never been happy compartmentalizing different worlds,” he said.
Pierre Rainero, director of image, style and heritage at Cartier, said the aim was also to explore the “how” and the “why” behind the objects and that the show was the result of much in-depth research.
Highlights include the original Santos copy watches with golden cases design from the early 20th century: Cartier’s design features straight lines, right angles and rivets that resembled the ones on the Eiffel Tower.
The show also demonstrates how Cartier has been able to accommodate changing times and tastes. There’s an updated version of the Santos from the Seventies. Waterproof with a metal bracelet, the watch can be worn day and night, to the office and during sports.
Surely, those improvements would have wowed the daring Mr. Santos.
