As some of you know, I am collecting pocketwatches, IWC only.
Far from saying that my collection is a museum collection but I am proud to
have found some nice and rare pieces over time.
Some of the pocketwatches are common, easy to find on the market, sometimes in
better condition than mine, but some I have are gems.
So in these crazy times, as the museum in Schaffhausen is closed, why not open
one here on the forum.
As long as the museum is closed, I will post here daily a pocketwatch from my
collection.
I hope I don't run out of pieces before the virus is beaten. Fingers crossed
for all of us.
I will post them in a random order, with some comments, feel free to join.
Keep safe all.
DAY 36 : ref 5503
Today, Sunday, so time to take a special one out. The ref 5503.
This very heavy sterling silver pocketwatch was for a long time on my wishlist
so I was super happy to get it in my collection earlier this year.
It has a moonphase and a calendar function. The movement is Cal. C.9721 finely
engraved and shown behind a glass back, covered by the silver back.
The moonphase is from the same type as we see in the early Portugieser
Perpetual and the GST perpatual ( and other pocketwatches )
It has a fantastic sparkling sky next to the moon. Every moonphase was unique.
It is made of Goldstone, Blausfluss or Avventurine.
From wikipedia :
"Another common name for the material is aventurine glass, based on the
original Italian name avventurina (from avventura, "adventure" or
"chance").Also it is called "Dell Roba" (In Farsi: دلربا) Persian) which means
"Charming", or "monk's gold" or "monkstone" from folkloric associations with
an unnamed monastic order.
The material is sometimes called sandstone when used in watch dials, despite
its lack of resemblance to the porous, matte texture of the natural stone.
Curiously, "aventurine" glass is one of the few synthetic simulants to provide
the eponym for the similar natural stones. The mineral name "aventurine" is
used for forms of feldspar or quartz with mica inclusions that give a similar
glittering appearance; the technical term for this optical phenomenon,
"aventurescence", is also derived from the same source.
One original manufacturing process for goldstone was invented in seventeenth-
century Venice by the Miotti family, which was granted an exclusive license by
the Doge.[citation needed] Urban legend says goldstone was an accidental
discovery by unspecified Italian monks or the product of alchemy, but there is
no pre-Miotti documentation to confirm this."
The 5503 was a limited edition...of 1000. I believe they were a bit optimistic
at IWC to sell 1000 of these when you see the pricetag the watch had at that
time.
In the 1998 catalogue, we find the 5503 at a price of 18750 CHF. To compare
with other watches in the same catalogue ; the ref 3706 Pilot chrono costed
3950 CHF and the Da Vinci Perpetual in steel was 14500 CHF.
I don't think many were sold.
and a better view of the stars sprakling
And here with the first IWC wristwatch with a calendar function, the ref 3710.
And a closer view on the decorations
The wattch
Mark, you