achieving the perfection in case materials....

what is the ultimate in case material for you??

i am sure you demand beauty, durability, finish, practicality, cost and so on for your dream watch and in what ways have the manufactures responded...???

all these years we have seen use of materials and treatments such as

platinum (always expensive)
gold (yellow/white/red/rose)
stainless steel (the usual stuff watch cases are made of)
titanium (very light)
alusic (must be hideously expensive)
ceramic (always dark and black)
bronze (not common)
aluminium (light)
PVD / DLC etc.... (surface treatments)
carbon (expensive)

since the enemy of most watch lovers are scratches, i sincerely hope the industry can innovate seriously and give us a super durable finish that can withstand daily wear and tear....... at the moment, the in-favour high-tech material ceramic is still pretty expensive but it can get only more affordable in time to come......

my choice? i dun expect much so give me a super DLC finish in choices of clear coat or black...... just like the transparent / translucent films and skins we all use for mobile phones and laptops......

a chunk of rolex platinum....

assuming one has a liking for the less common ....

and he would probably eliminate steel and gold from his choices of material for his timepiece.....

i think this means that platinum could emerge as one of his hallowed picks....

no one comes close to rolex when we are talking about the sheer numbers of platinum watches being made and for S$69,937, you can choose the rolex day-date II in platinum and ice-blue dial (2nd from left in the pic)....

certainly it makes a cool timepiece for a towkay (boss in hokkien dialect)..... best for making business talk ..... and not only at the golf course but also any coffee joints.....

rolex submariner 116618 and 116619 list prices

since white gold is more expensive than yellow gold, the still-quite-new rolex submariner in white gold also retails for a higher price than its yellow gold brother....

116619 rolex submariner in white gold.. S$40,840

116618 rolex submariner in yellow gold (blue/black bezel).. S$37,318

happy shopping..!!

some list prices... rolex day-date II

ok for the sake of those who are interested.... here are the list prices for the rolex day-date II watches....

218235 rolex day-date II in rose gold... S$41,362

218238 rolex day-date II in yellow gold.. S$37,840

218206 rolex day-date II in platinum.. S$69,937

happy shopping..!

rolex crown...... as in winding crown

it's common knowledge that there are three dots on a rolex triplock crown.............. whereas two dots or a dash for a twinlock crown.......

however, not everyone knows that the central dot is larger for a white gold triplock crown as shown on the rolex white gold submariner (pic below) ....



maybe it's an intentional move by rolex ........ to enable their technicians to differentiate the materials of the winding crown with ease.......... stainless steel, white gold and platinum do look very similar ............

while a person can obviously tell the difference in weight between a platinum and steel watch easily, the size and mass of a small winding crown can be a liability in this case.......... a person cannot be depended to judge the difference between 2 items of very similar weight.......

like the deepsea, the new range of submariners come with the brilliant glide-lock oyster bracelet.............. simply breathtaking in its concept, design and operation.............. i dare to say rolex has completed wiped out the competition with this new bracelet............



photos copyright of rolex enthusiast

what lies beneath??? rolex

saw a question on a watch forum about rolex dials and appliques........ e.g.

which dials are in 950 platinum?

are the dials made of brass?

are the markers made of gold?

this picture can answer most questions...........

cross that ring!

one of the grand dames of the watchmaking world patek philippe has launched a new jewellery line..... and i dun mean bejewelled watches but plain old jewellery........

i think they are prefer the ladies...... cos guys get to have cuffliks only and that's all..... meanwhile the ladies get all the good stuff.... like these beautiful rings.....



well the designs are pretty unique and clearly were inspired by their famous watches.......



what do you think...??? will they be a commercial success??

rolex series 3: the white gold daytona 116509

do you like the rolex daytona, the most sought-after stainless steel chronograph in the world....:P

well if u are a daytona fan, i think u will like the white gold version..... for many years, the white gold daytona was available only with a leather strap but never with a bracelet...... somehow i never found the daytona attractive with a strap...... the watch was made for a bracelet and it's a match made in heaven.... hehe....


when rolex launched the white gold daytona on bracelet, there were only 2 dial options...... the silver and the matt black (more grey than black actually)..... current list price is S$39399....

as far as i know, the first few pieces of the 2 watches were traded at premium prices........ as time went on, dealers sold the watch at list price and now you can get them at a discount.......... well, it's not everyday that ppl will buy a S$40k watch right?...... after all the rich uncles and aunties have bought their share, who else...?? of cos the demand would drop and hence, selling prices also dropped....

one simply have to handle this watch to understand what is it about........ it feels substantial and hefty.......well, gold is heavier than steel.... since the whole watch is white gold, it certainly feels OOMMPHH!.... once on the wrist, it will constantly remind you that you are wearng a GOLD watch hehe..... no doubt about that...

internally, all daytona watches are the same..... as in they all use the 4130 movement, rolex's first in-house chronograph movement (with 72 hours of power reserve! go rolex go!)......... the models differ in materials, strap/bracelet and dial options.....

my favourite white gold daytona is the one in black dial...... the red hands look so beautiful against the matt black dial .... the contrast is strikingly HOT..... so far i have never seen anyone in the streets wearing this.......

in recent years, rolex have added more dial options for the white gold daytona on bracelet....... there are now the mother-of-pearl dial and the meteorite dial, not forgetting the diamond dials......... more choices for the bling bling crowd........ all very yummy and very nice......esp the black MOP dial...... haha, maybe u can't wait to own them all..... but that will take quite a load of cash....