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This Week's Pre-Owned FavoritesAs we march through the heat of the summer months, our focus has turned firmly to replica watches fit for the season. What better way to enjoy the first real summer in nearly two years than with a new ?well, pre-owned ?watch that brings a bit of flavor, maybe a pop of color to your wrist? Buying pre-owned when it comes to something like a summer watch is the way to go in our opinion. Say you find that the pop of color was a bit too much for you after a few months or that this bright white dial is just not your vibe, reach out to our partners at Crown & Caliber, receive a quote within hours, and the pre-owned cycle starts all over again.
In this week's pre-owned selection we start with a Rolex Oyster Perpetual with a bright blue dial. The OP 39 is starting to become a mainstay in HODINKEE Pre-Owned, and for good reason; we hope to offer every variant at least once, soon enough. Sticking with the blue theme is a heavy hitter from Patek Philippe in their ref. 5960P Annual Calendar Chronograph, Logan has more on that one, below. In the non-blue bucket is a Rolex Datejust 36 with a deep black dial and a wink of color, every other day at least, in a "roulette" date wheel. It's somewhat of a deep cut that real watch lovers will give you props over. Who doesn't like to get a little classy over the summer? Maybe you have a wedding on the horizon? A Cartier Ronde, an A. Lange & Söhne Saxonia, or a JLC "Sector Dial" Master Control should all do the trick, you pick.
The full collection is up for your consideration and viewing pleasure over in the HODINKEE Shop. Scroll on for the full story on a few favorites from the team.
Patek Philippe Annual Calendar Chronograph Ref. 5960P Blue Dial By Logan BakerThe most approachable of Patek Philippe's "Complications" series, the annual calendar was actually invented by the brand in 1996. Unlike the triple, complete, and perpetual calendars, the annual calendar is a decidedly modern invention, set in-between the triple and perpetual calendar in complexity. An annual calendar requires an adjustment just once per year ?at the end of February, before March ?but is otherwise correctly calibrated to indicate the passing days within each month without fault. Patek Philippe offers its annual calendar wristwatches in a number of different executions, with the information displayed on the dial in distinctive ways and sometimes combined with an additional complication. In 2006, Patek Philippe debuted the 5960P - a hybrid annual calendar and flyback chronograph placed in platinum.
The 5960P is one of the most contemporary looking replica watches in Patek Philippe's catalog today. The example we're offering in the HODINKEE Shop today dates to 2012 and features a bright sunburst blue dial with red and white accents. Three apertures are set in the top half of the dial, indicating date, month, and day of week. A stacked register at six o'clock simplifies the chronograph functionality into a single area on the dial. Oh, and the beautifully decorated caliber CH 28-520 IRM QA 24H inside? It's Patek Philippe's first in-house self-winding chronograph - ever. Check it out right here.
Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Duo Day/Night In Stainless Steel By Rich FordonI've always been, let's call it, "Reverso curious." After hearing the story of how the watch came to be, for British polo players in India who found their timepieces too often damaged after a match, and seeing how the case flips, I knew it was a watch for me. I come from the vintage world, so when I started searching for a Reverso, the only option was, well, vintage, something from the 1940s or 50s, ideally. This quest proved to be an extremely difficult one, good vintage Reverso examples are just so, so hard to find ?I continue searching, passively.
In the meantime, I have seen Jaeger-LeCoultre's modern Reverso offerings flourish. If I wasn't so hard-headed and stubborn, I could have had an excellent watch to scratch this itch for years. For the real horological head, JLC has expanded on the Reverso concept to execute some of the finest watchmaking in the world, such as in the Reverso Quadriptyque, while for vintage lovers, the brand has stuck to the model's core with a continual onslaught of classically styled Tribute iterations.
If you're paying attention, there is a Reverso for you. I am befuddled that, as Cartier remains one of the hottest brands in the vintage world - on the backs of the Tank, Pebble, Crash, and others, and that momentum carries over to their modern lineup - the Reverso has seen little of this enthusiasm carry over.
The Reverso we have here has become a mainstay in the JLC catalog over the course of the past few decades, the Duo or Duoface. While the first Reverso was created with a blank reverse side in order to protect the dial during those polo matches, the flipping case has proven to be an excellent canvas for JLC to flex a bit of horological prowess. With room for two dials, why not create a Reverso with displays on both sides? And, while you're at it, why not offer a GMT function on that reverse side? This watch just makes sense at the end of the day.
The photo team took the opportunity to get creative with this Duo and I am impressed with the result. For all the details on this JLC Reverso and to take another long look at that mirror photo, hit the Shop to learn more.
OMEGA Speedmaster Moonwatch Chronograph 'First OMEGA In Space' CK 2998 Limited Edition By TanTan Wang"Is there a doctor in the house?," you hear someone shout, next to you. Even if you didn't make it past your freshman pre-med courses in college, with this limited-edition Speedmaster on your wrist, you could at the very least be a useful assistant to the doc.
The star of the show on this Speedy is the pulsometer bezel, which allows you to count a certain number of pulses while using the chronograph to determine heart rate. The pulsometer bezels of vintage Speedmasters left a lot of empty space on the solid outer ring of the dial, but this contemporary version improves on the aesthetic balance of the watch by filling out that space. You may have noticed that, to accomplish this, the markings now count 30 to pulsations instead of the 15 of the past. I personally find that this bezel yields a far more useful metric in day-to-day life than a tachymeter, and if I could swap all the bezels on the chronographs I own to pulsometer bezels, I absolutely would. It's a truly quirky feature that I wish was much more commonplace in the world of chronographs.
The fourth model released in the now discontinued CK2998-inspired lineup, this 2998-piece limited edition features a striking black handset and red chronograph hand and marks a stark departure from the blue-toned limited edition that preceded it. It's a bolder and sportier look for the watch, yet still remains a classic with the smaller 39.7mm case and the manually wound caliber 1861 inside.
If you found your heart rate particularly high after reading about this watch, take a look at all the details right here.
A Patek Philippe 1579 Chronograph In Platinum Est. 1.1M 1.7M Plus Who Is David J. Paper 1055