Bring a Loupe: A Patek Phillipe 5000R, A Seiko 7018-8000, Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Calendar Moonphase Meteorite, And Much More

Welcome to the dregs and dog days of summer, and happy Friday again. I was emailing someone in Germany who informed me she'd be out of contact until her company reopened—they shut down for the first three weeks of August—and I desperately wish that idea had taken hold worldwide. Especially for those of us north of the equator, these weeks feel like they'd be best spent lounging, taking a sort of seasonal siesta, reading books (the new Tana French is phenomenal) and catching up on shows and movies (Widow's Bay, good lord). Scorekeeping last week's picks: the Wittnauer 235T ends tomorrow, the 8th, and is at $800 at the time of writing, the Blancpain sold for €20,000, and the Eberhard and Cleto Munari are both still available. Strays Photo courtesy of Tropical Watch. My apologies, Baller, for not including this Harwood automatic from the 1920s in last week's listing. While it's a tidy, tiny 30mm, Harwoods are worth paying attention to because they're some of the first automatic watches ever (Leroy beat them, apparently, as being the very first), and you'll note the thing's crownless as well, because the unmarked bezel's not a timing bezel, it's how the time was set. Congrats to whoever snagged it. If you're also more than a little ensorcelled by asymmetric watches, and this Cartier ticks all sorts of boxes (other than all the diamonds). At some point I'll find a Smiths worth giving full coverage to, but until then, this Smiths Imperial—part of a three-watch lot—is worth further consideration if you're interested in some classic midcentury British watchmaking. Finally, you know that thing sometimes when you unintentionally make a sound when you glimpse a watch—something between the sound you'd make at seeing a very cute puppy and an envelope full of cash lying on the sidewalk? This rose gold 1601 from Tropical Watch initiated such a sound in me, enough so that Ellen, from across the room, asked if everything was okay. On to the show. Patek Phillipe 5000R Photo courtesy of Craft + Tailored. I don't know if my love for off-center subseconds hands started with seeing the Dufour Duality, or if the Duality was simply the first representation I saw that sort of soothed my inner desire for that particular design element. Obviously, Dufour's not alone in making exquisite off-center subseconds watches—there's Romain Gauthier's C, F.P. Journe's Chronomètre Bleu, and at the opposite end of the price spectrum, there's Baltic's MR Classic. And then there's this Patek 5000R. Interestingly (or not, depending on your tolerance for fairly trifling details), the Patek was released in '92, the Dufour in '96, though the watches share little other than appearance. You're free to get as deep into the weeds about the 5000 as you wish—that its design had something to do with Ferrari seems like the juiciest rumor. Like a lot of things with potentially interesting backstories, this watch's actual existence and how it looks (and, presumably, wears) are more important in this context than whatever apocryphal genesis tale led to its creation. Photo courtesy of Craft + Tailored. Photo courtesy of Craft + Tailored. This is an almost pure dress watch—it lacks even the date (if you like the 5000 but want a date display, the Patek 6000 has you covered). I don't know about the rest of you Ballers, but I aspire, someday, to need only to know the time. At present, with children needing rides to ballet recitals and soccer practices, I need all the data I can get (I spent all day last week thinking it was Wednesday when it was, in fact, only Tuesday). This simple, refined watch allows me to dream of a future in which my time is more my own, and the day and even date hardly matter. Photo courtesy of Craft + Tailored. Of the fewer than 2000 Patek 5000s produced, the rose gold case is one of the less common variants, and the case here looks dynamite and is 35mm. The showstopper, however, is the black feuille hands and the pink dial with applied gold indices, legible and clear and totally beautiful. That this happens to be co-signed with Tiffany is almost just gravy. This watch comes with box and papers and the original strap and deployant clasp, and is offered by Craft + Tailored for $38,000. Seiko 7018-8000 Photo courtesy of Live Auctioneers. Christian Danneman, an excellent watchmaker I'd highly recommend (especially if you, like me, love JLC Futurematics), once wrote this: "What do you look for in a chronograph watch? For me, size is a big issue, as I have a tiny wrist. On top of that, I like a date on my watch, and of course an hour recorder. Also, I like automatic watches, and a fly-back might be nice … With all those requirements, I'm moving swiftly into the £5,000 range of chronographs. Few will have those functions (Zenith 400Z, …), and the size requirement is out of the door." He was writing about the Seiko 7016, a watch that is, with one small distinction, identical to the Seiko chronograph under consideration here. I think about this quote quite a bit, because one of the things it's easiest to do with watches is to sort of lose sight of what you actually want in a watch and focus, instead, on the watch you want. It's a subtle difference, but it matters. Photo courtesy of Live Auctioneers. Photo courtesy of Live Auctioneers. This Seiko 7018 is another of those watches that should be better known, though I'm certainly grateful it's not. First, the only difference between a 7016 and a 7018 is that the former features a stacked hour hand in the chronograph subdial at six, whereas the 7018 has only a 30-minute counter. In all other ways, they're essentially identical: they lack running seconds, feature day and date complications, and both come in 37.5mm cases. This example, being auctioned on the 9th, is one scuffed crystal away (and, perhaps, a service) from glory, in my opinion. The dial looks excellent, the lume on the dial and hands match, and the case retains its original finish and, I suspect, comes with the original bracelet. While the listing doesn't note the condition of the movement, I can say from experience they're repairable, and it's a flyback chronograph, which carries its own cachet. Please note I'm making an educated guess that this watch is a 7018-8000 and not a -7000—there are fairly minor differences between the two, which mostly come down to case finishing and bracelet. Bid up to a whopping $25 at the time of writing, these Seiko 7018s (and 7016s) are highly-wearable complication-packed joys to wear. Zodiac Poor Man's Heuer Reference 7721 Photo courtesy of Live Auctioneers. Yes, this is a chrome-plated watch, and yes, it's a lowly "Poor Man's Heuer" (PMH), but don't let those details hold you back. Powered by a Valjoux 7733, this Zodiac's a 36mm reverse panda chronograph that offers a decent bang for the buck if you happen to be hankering for such a timepiece. A quick refresher: if you don't know your Poor Man's Heuers, these watches are Heuers in all but name. The case on this Zodiac, for instance, is stamped between the lugs with reference 7721, which of course was a Heuer model as well. Heuer had similar arrangements with plenty of other companies, including Tradition, Hamilton, Dugena, and LeJour. Photo courtesy of Live Auctioneers. Photo courtesy of Live Auctioneers. The only hang-up I've ever had about these PMHs is that they don't come with the gorgeous lugs you'd get with a 60s Carrera; that's the biggest trade-off. If you can get past that, however, this is the sort of watch that offers that beautiful panda itch so many of us have felt the need to scratch at some point. This specific example looks in pretty good shape, without any obvious wear-through to the chrome, and with lume that's aged nicely. The Valjoux 7733 is both a) nothing fancy and b) such a fantastic movement, and made in such numbers, that it'll likely, with decent care, outlast all of us. With no bids and a starting price of $700, this auctions on the 9th. Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Calendar Moonphase Meteorite Photo courtesy of Subdial. Let's file this one under the headline "classics are classic for a reason". I don't know for sure, but it seems likely that JLC was the first company to bring a triple-date moonphase to market in 1945, though Movado introduced the Celestograf in '47. Regardless, for those of us still years from needing nothing more than a Patek 5000 and who want or need the full spread of calendar data on our wrists, the 50s and 60s offered a bounty of options. Even now, if you're comfortable with a vintage watch with a snap-on caseback, examples of these watches remain plentiful, though often fairly beat up. Photo courtesy of Subdial. Photo courtesy of Subdial. This JLC Master Calendar is as good a contemporary option as you could hope for if the vintage option doesn't quite do it for you, or if you'd like something more contemporary and better made. The classic layout remains, with the date and month up top, a moonphase and the running seconds at 6, and the date listed at the edge of the dial and pointed to by a blue-tipped hand (there are correctors at 2, 4, and 8 for quick adjustment of each). However, in place of the old (typically) manual movement, this one's automatic, and the watch itself has been upsized to 40mm. Regardless of how you feel about meteorite dials, you have to at least admit or appreciate the symmetric charm and romance in a moonphase watch with a dial made of literal space stuff. Subdial's got this watch—with comes with its box and papers and signed deployant clasp—for £8,950.

Editorial note: This article was created by A Bit Lavish Miami’s Magazine as an original editorial reinterpretation based on publicly available reporting. Original source: hodinkee.com. Read the original article here: https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/a-patek-phillipe-5000r-a-seiko-7018-8000-a-zodiac-poor-mans-heuer-reference-7721-and-a-jaeger-lecoul.
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