Javier Arranz

Patek Philippe, as you may alredy know, is one of the biggest Swiss watchmaking companies around. Having more than 2000 employees and generating more than 1.3 Billion CHF in revenue in 2016.

Some sources say that the 180-year-old watchmaker could be sold for 7 billion to 9 billion euros ($8 billion to $10 billion). This implies a big deal not only for the company itself, but also for the watchmaking industry as a whole.

Patek Philippe ref. 5740/G-001. Source: Patek Philippe

This enterprise has been owned by the Stern family for almost a century, in which they developed their most iconic and famous models. Creating a brand culture and reputation that may be affected by the ownsership change.

It was interesting to hear in the corridors of the Geneva watch salon that a potential sale of the high-end watch brand Patek Philippe could be approaching soon,

“In 2014, Stern told Swiss newspaper Le Temps that the company may eventually need to leave Geneva or put itself up for sale if its tax burden wasn’t reduced. Months later, the company announced a 450 million-franc ($451 million) investment plan in the canton.” Source: Bloomberg

Thierry Stern (Chairman of Patek Philippe). Source: Bloomberg. Photographer: Michele Limina

Nevertheless this could be just a rumor running around watchmaking industry, as ocassionally rumors come up after the big watchmaking fairs (like SIHH, celebrated last week).

If we take a look at previous purchases of watchmaking brands, for example: the sale of Breitling for 800M€ to private-equity owners CVC Capital Partners, we can see a clear change of direction in the company’s business activities. Those could lead to a positive outcome or a disaster for the brand.

If you ask my opinion, I would probably tell you that Patek Philippe has a strong foundation that may be lost if they sell the company. They will most likely have the same watchmaking teams, same quality and same objectives, but the stablishment of new Directors may change their vision, that in my opinion, won’t be positive for the brand.

We will love to hear your thoughts on this, reach out on Instagram for a discussion at stemandbezel.

If we would ask any vintage-aficionado about their favorite chronograph movement from the last century, they will most certainly say the Omega caliber 321. This chronograph movement resulted from a collaboration between Omega and Lemania. Firstly called the CH27 C12 project (Lemania 2310), it was used in high-end watch brands such as Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet or Vacheron Constantin.

Firstly introduced in 1946, it was every collector’s dream. Colum wheel chronograph, robust but elegant, nice 44h power reserve and three registers. Sadly, production was ceased in 1968.

It’s not new that this caliber is mostly known for its appearence inside the famous “Moonwatch“, the Omega Speedmaster from 1957 to 1965, and later inside the Omega Speedmaster Professional from 1965 to 1968.

Omega Caliber 321. Source: Watchbase

We can say that today is a happy day for Omega collectors and vintage watch lovers. Omega released the long waited announcement that the caliber 321 was back in production:

3… 2… 1… We have lift-off! #OMEGA is proud to announce that the famous Calibre 321 is back in production!

The watch community as far as we could see, has positive reactions about this news:

Wei Koh (founder of The Rake and Revolution Watch) says: “This is incredible”

According to Fratello Watches: 

The biggest question remains: which watch will Omega use for this new caliber 321 movement? You can bet it will be a Speedmaster, but what model and will it be the Moonwatch or a different version? What will be the effect on the price and how many of them will be available? Let the guessing begin. Omega promises us to share more news and details with us in the coming months. You must know, we are thrilled!

Raynald Aeschlimann, CEO of Omega, said, “It’s amazing that so many people are passionate about the Calibre 321. We produced the last one in 1968 and fans have never stopped talking about it. That shows how special it is. We’re very excited to finally meet their wishes and have gone to great efforts to bring the movement back.”

This movement will not be used in a limited edition watch, but there will be a limitation in production for the reasons stated above. Omega reveiled that there will be something in gold, for sure. Also, this movement will not be used in any of the upcoming Apollo 11 Limited Edition models in 2019.

Something worth looking into is the effect on prices of vintage 321’s. Is there going to be an effect? Many people believe that one factor that made the 321 caliber very desirable was the low amount of calibers that were available, creating a shortage that will of course increase the price. After all, Omega is producing now the cal 321 increasing the quantity of calibers out in the world, and therefore, we could expectate a decrease in prices.

Other way of looking into this is by saying that they are totally different markets that are not correlated after all. Vintage is vintage and modern is modern, and the release will not have any impact on vintage prices.

Here at Stem&Bezel, we would like to hear your thougths. You can write us an email or find us on Instagram, we would love to chat with you.

This week I had the chance to handle the brand new Oris Movember Big Crown watch, and here you will find my thoughts on it.

Source: myself. Watch provided by: Nicols Jewelers

The Oris Movember edition is a watch released yearly by Oris to cooperate with the Movember Foundation. A nice quality watch at a really good price, just below 2000€. We will take a look at the specifications later on.

The Movember Foundation works to provide consciousness to men about the most frequent issues they face during their lives: testicle cancer, prostate cancer, mental health and phisical inactivity. One of their main goals is to raise money to help the investigation of those causes.

Said that, Oris is supporting this cause by trying to raise the ambitious amount of 100,000CHF (87,566€) to help this cause. Not only Oris is trying to reach this goal by selling this watch, they also are auctioning a a lot of experiences, but thye’re also receiving donations from all aroudn the world. These experiences range from a blind date with Oris to a whole watchmaking experience, where you get to go and see how they build your own Big Crown watch, meet the watchmakers and see the Oris factory in Hölstein.

The ORIS BIG CROWN MOVEMBER 2018 EDITION

Now let’s get to the watch, beautifully sized at 40mm (a little too big for us, vintage geeks, but some of us can pull it off), it’s the perfect watch for a new collector, and here’s why:

• You get to experience a brand with so much history and heritage
• For the price, you are getting a high quality watch with the caliber Oris 754. 38h of power reserve, 28800 bph, and of course, automatic. Oh, did I mention it was in-house?
• A gorgeous variation of one of the most famous complications throughout the watch world, the date function. Instead of the most common window at 3 o’clock, you get an outside date surrounding the inner hour markers. The date, as the name sais,it’s indicated by another hand, with a red point in it. Just beautiful.
• I forgot to mention, it doesn’t have an open case back, but indeed has a beautiful one:

Source: myself. Watch provided by: Nicols Jewelers

• It also comes with a really well-made strap. It has two iconic moustaches right between the stitches on the lugs representing the Movember movement.
• Oris didn’t forget about us, watch geeks, and they give a custom Movember watch pouch, that also comes with a NATO signed with a moustache.

If you want to support this cause, you can get a very well made watch, or if you’re on the “not-so-deep pockets” you can grow a moustache or a beard yourself to show your support!