There’s no way to keep up, Baller. It’s true. There’s too much to do and too little time, and somehow it’s another Friday, and before we relax together and look at some interesting watches available over the next week, let’s take some comfort in the fact that, here in the States, two small-market teams are squaring off in the World Series. Incredibly, the Brewers ranked 19th in total payroll for 2026, while the Rays ranked 25th. I bring this up only to note that anything is possible, and huge congrats to fans of both teams. Sure seems like it’s gonna be an amazing series.
Scorekeeping last week’s picks, the Boucheron remains available, the Breguet sells today, the IWC Aquatimer passed at auction, and the LIP Paul Newman sold for €820.
Strays
Photo courtesy of Drouot.
Mr Clymer, Mr Wind, and Mr Dunne raised a good point that Jaeger-LeCoultre is still underrated, and while this one’s unlikely to be a $1M watch, I can think of a few DuoPlans that look more fetching. For those still seeking a slightly under-the-radar integrated-bracelet sport watch from the 70s and 80s, may I present this Omega ‘Alveoles.’ Here’s a vintage anonymous beauty with an 18k gold case and running seconds at the top rather than the bottom of the dial, and, from the same auction, if there’s a better-looking vintage regulator than this Eterna on auction anywhere in the coming week, I haven’t seen it.
Certina DS-3 Super PH1000M
Photo courtesy of The Saleroom.
The upcoming Dr Crott auction goes down on Halloween, and the entire catalog packs so much dazzle it’s hard to know what to focus on. First, there are more excellent pocket watches, especially school pocket watches, than we can reasonably cover here, so please dig into the listings. There’s an outrageously beautiful Jaeger-LeCoultre time-only, a pair of Longines 13ZN flybacks in the same lot, a (likely) WWII POW Rolex chronograph, a vintage 13CZAH-powered chronograph from Audemars Piguet, a Zenith G381, and, from Doxa, not only a Sfygmos but also a Seconde Morte.
While this Certina DS-3 Super PH1000M may not be the rarest watch available, I hope the pictures make it clear why it’s being highlighted here. While the listing doesn’t explicitly claim it’s new old stock, the pictures sure argue that it is, from the purple wax on the caseback to the unscuffed case to the tag in the second picture.
Photo courtesy of The Saleroom.
Photo courtesy of The Saleroom.
Introduced in 1976, the Certina DS-3 Super PH1000M is a legitimately interesting bit of horology, with earlier iterations of the diver—specifically the DS-2 Super PH500M—having been used by aquanauts in Tektite I and II. Certina’s DS—which stands for ‘double security’—remains an interesting attempt by a very good brand to increase a watch’s ruggedness.
This particular model is a lot of watch, at 43mm wide and 18mm thick. I can’t make a compelling argument for tolerating that thickness beyond what you can see in the pictures. That gorgeous dial! The flawless lume! Sure, it has a screw-down crown, comes on its original bracelet, and was Certina’s first 1000M diver with a quickset date, but those selling points take a distant second place to the watch’s look.
This auctions with all the rest of Dr Crott’s amazements on Halloween, has an estimate of €1,000-2,000, and has no bids presently.
Ulysse Nardin ‘Big Aviator’ Pilot’s Watch
Photo courtesy of Drouot.
Here’s a very cool and uncommon banger, a Ulysse Nardin “Big Pilot.” While it doesn’t seem to have a murky past, not much is known about the reference, and there aren’t many around—only 288 were ever made. Some diligent Omega Forums members track examples of this model that come up for sale in a thread, which makes it all the more fun that this one, selling in Germany next Saturday, seems fresh to market. And to be clear, it’s not like they never come up—Phillips sold one in May for HK$127,000. They’re out there, just not often.
Photo courtesy of Drouot.
Beyond how few were made, plenty about this watch is borderline enormous. Start with the 38mm case, which was plenty sizeable when the watch was made in the 1940s. Also enormous is the amount of radium on the dial. I’ll leave others to debate radioactivity and safe exposure levels, but this watch is emphatically not for folks who fear anything that makes a Geiger click.
Photo courtesy of Drouot.
Photo courtesy of Drouot.
A scan of the watch’s condition supports the listing’s reasonable claim that this example “is likely to be the best-preserved example to come onto the market to date.” The dial is excellent, the lume is excellent, and the case is almost comically unblemished. Any 80-year-old watch without caseback scratches or marks on the (presumably) factory brushing would be remarkable, but finding this uncommon watch in this condition is almost shocking.
With an estimate of €12,000-20,000, this watch sells tomorrow, October 24th, and if this Ulysse Nardin doesn’t do it for you, Cortie, like the other auctions featured this week, has plenty of other fantastic options, including a Lemania TG 195 and a Longines 13ZN reference 23021, with central seconds and minutes, in steel.
Svend Andersen World Time “Christopher Columbus”
Photo courtesy of Drouot.
Svend Andersen’s World Time watches are mechanical marvels that, despite being covered here on Hodinkee (including in print), don’t seem to attract the attention you’d expect. Svend Andersen spent years at Patek before striking out on his own and, beyond World Time watches, the man’s work is pretty extraordinary: he’s one of the co-founders of AHCI, once made a clock in a bottle, and no claims that he’s too stuffy or serious could ever stick, given erotic automatons (for instance, this, or this, or this).
Photo courtesy of Drouot.
This World Time is from the watch’s second edition and, like the first, was built on a Frederic Piguet automatic caliber with an Andersen-designed module for the World Time (the third edition, launched a year after the Christopher Columbus model, was the thinnest World Time at the time). The model was a limited edition to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Columbus landing in America, and was available in a variety of metals—yellow, white, and rose gold, as well as platinum.
Photo courtesy of Drouot.
Photo courtesy of Drouot.
This yellow gold example looks to be in really excellent condition, with a flawless dial and a case that’s clearly been well cared for. It’s 35mm and features lovely scrolled lugs and fine caseback etching. Bidding starts at €10,000 and, as with the other watches coming up at auction this week, the Meeting Art catalog is worth a longer look beyond this Svend Andersen, including this IWC Ingenieur, this Chopard Dual Time, another glorious solid gold Zenith, this time a G583, and this Breitling 777.
Eterna “Majetek”
Photo courtesy of Luxo Time Firenze.
A dozen years back, Eterna reissued one of its classic military watches. The reference was made for the Czech Air Force, first supplied by Longines and later by Eterna and Lemania, and it picked up its nickname because the phrase ‘Majetek Vojenské Správy’ was etched on the back of the issued Longines examples. The casebacks of issued Eternas were stamped only with serial numbers, and for more info about the watch and the reissue, you can check out Hodinkee’s early coverage here.
Photo courtesy of Luxo Time Firenze.
This example looks fairly good for its age. Yes, the case has been polished, and there’s at least some argument that this could’ve been an issued (rather than civilian) model, given that the caseback seems to have had something polished off. Regardless, the watch presents well otherwise.
Despite its softness, the 38mm cushion case is pretty lovely, and there’s no argument about the glossy dial with its radium lume. Eterna’s 852S manual-winder powers the watch: a fairly large (31.5mm) movement with a 50-hour power reserve and as elegant and simple a design as anyone could hope for. The crown looks original, and the lume on the hands has turned a little green, but it’s still there. I’d also note that if you dig into this model, you can find other examples with a different seconds hand, but there are plenty with this one as well, so we’ll have to trust that Eterna did the best it could with whatever parts it had on hand.
Photo courtesy of Luxo Time Firenze.
Photo courtesy of Luxo Time Firenze.
This Eterna is available for a bit over $4k from Luxo Time Firenze, which is a tad on the high side. That said, these come up infrequently enough that, if you’re in the market for one with the curvier Eterna badging, it could be a bit till you find another. If you don’t care as much about fonts, here’s the same model, offered by a seller on eBay, with a slightly different variation on the Eterna script.
