Over the years we’ve been asked many times if we can recommend a company to insure their new purchase from Oakleigh Watches.
Until recently we haven’t been able to help but we have just become affiliated with Assetsure who are specialists in this kind of thing.
This short blog piece is intended to give a bit of an update on the background of what is a very interesting and unusual sports Rolex model – the Milgauss.
When I first thought of writing this blog piece in the autumn of 2020, the Rolex Explorer II 16570 was one of the most overlooked and undervalued of all modern sports Rolex watches. A few months later I realised that the correction had already begun so I thought I had better get on with the piece 🙂
Once things had started to settle post war, the 1950’s saw the next – and pretty much final – significant stage in the development of the pilot’s watch.
The next stage in the development of the Pilot’s watch focused around World War Two
This part of our blog focuses on ‘The Golden Age of Flight’ – The 1920’s
The next part of our blog features a very important period in the design if not the development of the classic Pilot’s watch – The Great War of 1914-18
In this next instalment of our watch types series we encounter the Pilot’s watch – an extremely important branch of the Sports Watch family with its own loyal fanbase and following.
Welcome back – it’s time for ‘The Dive Watch Part Three’
Welcome back – it’s time for ‘The Dive Watch Part Two’
In this short series we’re going to examine the main categories of wristwatch that you will come across on your daily horological journeys and this time it’s the ‘Dive Watch’.
The Bremont MBI is a watch that’s only available by special order for pilots who have ejected from a fighter jet using a Martin-Baker ejector seat
In this short series we’re going to examine the main categories of wristwatch that you will come across on your daily horological journeys and this time it’s the ‘Sports Watch’.
This is a 100% original one owner watch with its original bracelet, papers, booklet, box and purchase receipt – it also has an incredible history.
Those in the watch loving world often rant on about how brilliant the Audemars Piguet (that’s ‘Oh duh marr piggay’ – or ‘AP’ for short) Royal Oak is.
The 20th of March 2019 is a long awaited day in the horological calendar because that’s the day that Rolex announced the new models that they are releasing at Baselworld.
If you’re reading this then you probably agree with my assertion that a special watch can become a very important part of a person’s life.
Sometimes in the process of developing a new model of watch, Rolex have been unable or unwilling to change everything at once.
In 1970 Tudor entered the chronograph market with a watch that was very different from its Rolex Daytona brethren – The two incarnations of the ’Monte-Carlo’ were bold, bright and colourful and occupied their own place in the Rolex family lineup, as a slightly inferior model to the Daytona.
At the end of the 1960’s while discussing designs for new motor sport related watches, Heuer decided to build a less traditional timepiece that Jack Heuer described as “something out-of-the-box” and “avant-garde”.
The Cartier Santos undoubtedly deserves a place in this series of blogs as one of the most significant watches through time because it was the first in a long and prestigious line of pilot’s watches.
Since the beginning of time (or at least the accurate measurement of it), clocks have been kept running using a balance wheel – a spring for power, an oscillating mass to regulate the movement and some gears (cogs, or ‘wheels’) to connect this all to the hands and to make sense of it all.
One of the questions that I’m often asked as a member of the luxury watch trading fraternity, normally by the ‘bloke down the pub’ is this:
“So then, what’s the best watch in the world?“
My answer on these occasions is usually circumspect, but today I’m actually going to answer it properly….
What do we mean by a ‘Full Set’?
Now there’s a question which is rarely asked but to which the answer is often assumed.
We’ve decided that this September it’s about time we did something to celebrate our wonderful customers and their prized Oakleigh wristwatches by way of a photo competition.
“Has it ever been polished?”
Now there are those of you out there who are actually looking for a completely factory fresh, unpolished Rolex 5513 from 1968. You know that this watch will take you years to find and that you may never ever find or own it. You also know that if you do find it you could pay twice as much for it as you would for even the best polished examples out there……
As I’ve mentioned here before, despite requiring a fairly large chunk of money to buy one, a luxury watch is not an expensive luxury item compared to other discretionary spending….
Last week I had a discussion with a customer about a mark that had appeared on the plexiglass plastic lens of his vintage Rolex….
Buying a luxury watch can often be a little nerve racking if only because of the increasing number of high quality ‘replicas’ out there. Fortunately, these are often relatively easy for the experienced eye to spot and so – touch wood – they don’t slip through the net to the customer.
You will no doubt recall that a while ago we had the Rolex Sea Dweller of a gentleman called Sam who was unfortunate enough to lose it in a marina… you’ll find the full story somewhere below.
Sam Brown used to be a diver and after he stopped he’d always hankered after a ‘proper’ diver’s watch – ‘THE’ proper diver’s watch in fact – a Rolex Sea Dweller.
Twitter is very important to Oakleigh Watches as a way of interacting with our customers and potential customers – our business started through Twitter it will always be a part of us.
This weekend The Saatchi Gallery in London’s Chelsea hosts the UK’s biggest annual gathering of watch manufacturers, enthusiasts, journalists, sellers, buyers and nerds, and it’s quite an event.
