Posts by Erik Gustafson
Burgundy Dial 2960 Cartier Santos Carrée
Lacquer dial in a Santos is a particularly strange and attractive thing. Like seeing Dame Hellen Mirren act her socks off in Fast & Furious. Or perhaps more relevant, like a beautifully dressed Stella dial Day-Date that chain smokes and surrenders. This dial was made to celebrate the Santos’s 75th, clearly not to legibly tell…
Read MoreSaatchi Salmon Dial Patek Philippe 3940G
There are but a handful of Patek Philippes made in the last two decades which will go down as all time greats—a smaller fraction of production than prior decades. The 3940 is one. It is only recently becoming fully understood as the pivotal reference it is, the start of serially produced high complication, the philosophy…
Read More‘Penge & Privatøkonomi’ IWC Mark XII Limited Edition
Almost every watch enthusiast has a soft spot for the IWC Mark XII, but almost no watch enthusiasts are aware that a few oddball 90s collaborative limited editions exist. The red centre seconds here is not some ill-advised service replacement, this is 1 of 25 examples made for the Danish magazine Penge & Privatøkonomi in…
Read MorePaul Newman 6239 Rolex Daytona
This is the first Daytona, where it all began, 6239. The 6239 Paul Newman, despite not sporting Oyster pushers, is about as close to blue chip in the pump-pusher vintage Rolex world as it gets. Although thanks largely to provenance, a different PN 6239 still holds the record today for the most expensive vintage watch…
Read MoreBreguet Dial 44920 Movado Celestograf
When watch enthusiasts say vintage Movado, they’re usually picturing an M90 series chronograph. But that’s not even close to where it ends. This Celestrograf is as complicated as vintage Movado gets and it’s about as lovely a complete calendar as has even been created. This is from the mid-40s, 18k gold, and has some of…
Read MoreBurlwood Dial 16019 Rolex Datejust
You’re used to wood dials in Day-Date, but Datejust? Yes, it happened, they’re just far less common. Particularly in white gold, and this is the rarest of the lot. Only seen in 16019, it’s a much darker burlwood than what we usually see in Day-Dates, likely walnut, and it was made with extra long minute…
Read MoreMk3 A386 Zenith El Primero
Few chronographs don’t get the credit they deserve like the A386. Because I try to be a bit professional here once in a while, I threw the search terms ‘Rolex Daytona, Omega Speedmaster, Heuer Carrera, and Zenith El Primero’ into Google Trends to approximate the relative interest (specific vintage references don’t have enough volume). Over…
Read More‘Deux Ors’ 96061 Cartier Santos Dumont
The Santos is bewilderingly broad church. But 70s Santos Dumont is never the wrong choice, with its Frederic Piguet 21 and 4.5mm thinness (including crystal). And even in that niche, there’s still a lot to learn. This may look like a gold case, and it is. But it also isn’t: the bezel is white gold…
Read MoreFumé Dial 110.313 Heuer Silverstone
Some watches seem removed from time, perennially elegant, like the 3940, 1463, 5513, or any other arrangement of four digits from Patek or Rolex that you care to mention. Others lean into their era and attach themselves to it violently, like tap dancing on the Titanic until the trends change and it sinks. The Silverstone…
Read More6036 Rolex ‘Jean-Claude Killy’ Datocompax, Pink Gold
There’s Rolex, and then there’s complicated Rolex. The latter, we’ve only seen a handful of times and it’s pretty much all vintage. You could make an argument for the Sky-Dweller, but I wouldn’t want to. No, full calendar and split seconds Rolex emerged in the 50s and disappeared as quickly as they came, now extremely…
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