Bring a Loupe: An Alpina-Gruen Techni-Quadron, A Universal Genève “Eric Clapton,” A Cartier “Bebe Guillotine,” And More

You’re halfway through August, Baller. August. The mind positively reels that yesterday saw the first pre-season NFL games, and soon enough even pope-themed hats and baseball games will be in the rearview, and we’ll be pulling coats from closets (for those of us in the northern latitudes, anyway).

Scorekeeping from last week—the Zodiac Poor Man’s Heuer sells tomorrow, the Seiko 7018 passed, and the JLC Master Calendar Meteorite is still available, as is the Patek 5000R. For those who want to know more about the 5000, I strongly encourage you to read this phenomenal article by Edouard Henn on Collectability about the model, which I would have linked last week had I been bright enough to know it existed.

Strays

This Tissot Antimagnetique is worth a serious look, even though it’s missing its second hand. Certainly, we’ll all be missing plenty of original parts when we’re as old as the watch (also, as cool as the model is, it’s not so precious that its value would be dinged too much by sourcing a close-enough replacement). If that Harwood from last week’s strays got your attention, here’s another lovely one. Cartier Pashas have never quickened my pulse, but man oh man, this one’s got its hooks in me. Solid gold Polerouter? Solid gold Polerouter. Speaking of gold, this Gubelin is both a) nothing all that special and b) impossibly beautiful, and if those gold offerings still aren’t enough for you, fine, here’s a Patek 3800/1 from 1995 that comes with its original box.

Alpina-Gruen Techni-Quadron

I have, in the past, covered a Gruen Techni-Quadron, and my proclivity for covering as many different watches and models as possible led me to exclude this (I take not boring you, Baller [or the editors tasked with handling my stuff], very seriously). However, my personal hang-ups have proved no match for the freakish heat of this Alpina-Gruen Techni-Quadron, and it’d feel cruelly churlish not to include it.

First, this watch has no business whatsoever looking this good at almost 100 years old. None. Sure, there’s a bit of patina in the innermost circle of the upper part of the watch, but even that almost looks good. But beyond that, the silver case also looks sensational, with not only clear markings on the caseback but also the elegant original lines carved into the lugs on the front still present. Sure, it’s all softened with age, but seemingly only in ways that enhance the watch’s overall appeal.

Even more than the lack of spots, dings, and time-related wear, this watch’s design is phenomenal, and images of that dial should be enlarged to wall-sized prints and sent to everyone designing watches, not as encouragement to imitate, but as a reminder of how much can be done. The watch is small—20mm wide, 43mm lug-to-lug—but I cannot imagine the circumstances in which that data would lead someone not to want this thing, which is available from Collectors Corner NY for $6,300.

Universal Genève “Eric Clapton” Ref 881101/01

Few things beat finding amazements where you don’t expect much. This isn’t novel or insightful or anything—we’re all looking for that seductive exception that perforates the monotonous mundanity of our default settings.

The Universal Genève Eric Clapton is precisely that watch in many ways. Sure, we now expect celebrities and folks in the public spotlight to have cool watches, but it certainly wasn’t always that way, which makes that picture of Clapton and Hendrix such fun. They were two of the best guitarists alive at that moment! Clapton wearing a killer watch feels like a cherry atop a whole mound of extant cherries.

And then there is this specific Universal Genève Eric Clapton, listed in all places on Goodwill, and this one looks remarkable. The dial and hands are clearly original and not relumed. The bezel and signed crown are also original, and while the case has obviously seen wear, the lyre lugs still look great, and the caseback’s decent enough for the reference and serial numbers to remain legible. This watch is easy to imagine cleaned up just a bit and doing real well with a dealer or auction house, which makes it all the more fun that it’s right there, on Goodwill, waiting for whoever’s willing to chase it. Bid to $4,445 at the time of writing, this auction ends tomorrow evening.

Cartier “Bebe Guillotine”

Yes, another 1930s rectangular watch, and this one with similar measurements—20.5mm wide, 37mm lug-to-lug. That, however, is where the similarities run out between the Alpina-Gruen and this extraordinary Cartier “Bebe Guillotine” shutter watch.

The background to this watch is that, in the early part of the 20th century, companies began trying various methods for protecting the (glass) crystals on watches (among them the JLC Reverso). The shutter system—designed, developed, and refined by Edmond Jaeger—was primarily used for purse watches, but Cartier ordered 50 wristwatches featuring the shutter system, and apparently noted such watches in their logbooks as “Bracelet-Montre Bébé Guillotine.”

This example—offered by Menta Watches for $175,000—looks to be in really, really great shape, with the 18k gold case in phenomenal condition and a clean dial. Given the power of Cartier’s allure and the watch’s rarity, the price isn’t remotely shocking, especially when you consider Sotheby’s sold an example for 166,399 CHF in May. It’s a beautiful, precious-metal-cased, historically significant, truly rare watch, and that it deploys such a fascinating and uncommon feature to keep the dial and crystal covered makes it that much better.

Choose Your Own Military Monopusher

These old-issued chronographs have always done it for me, though my introduction to them came through the 1970s models (mostly Hamiltons and CWCs), which had two pushers and used the Valjoux 7733. While the military connection’s plenty cool, the design itself is fantastic, with big lumed numerals at 6 and 12 balanced against smaller white numerals with lume plots for the rest of the hours. However, those later watches only exist because of a change in the British Defense Standard, which, in 1970, allowed chronographs with either one or two pushers. Before that, all British military chronographs were monopushers.

Mr. Clymer’s story of buying a 1930s Longines 13ZN monopusher hit hard back in 2013, and while other aspects may’ve had an effect, I’m pretty sure my fondness for monopushers started there. While there are plenty of other interesting monopushers—the Longines model from the Munich Olympics in ’72, the Seiko model from the ’64 Olympics—these military ones are pretty phenomenal, and this week you’ve literally got a black or white choice.

First is this Lemania British Royal Air Force Monopusher. Given the asymmetric case, you know it’s a Series 3 version of the watch, and, yes, this example has been worn a fair amount. The steel case seems unlikely to have been polished, but it’s surely seen enough hard objects to pick up almost 60 years of scuffs. Also, the lume in the hour and minute hands doesn’t look great. That said, it’s an historically significant timepiece, and, at least in my own head, issued watches should look worn, right? Is there anything more antithetical than a babied military watch?

However, the folks at Craft and Tailored have you covered if you’d rather a white dial variant. This watch was issued to the Royal Australian Navy (hence the RAN on the dial), and has a symmetric case (it’s a Series 2). Aside from the different fonts and the lack, on theRAN monopusher, of a circle T denoting tritium, the dials are basically mirror images of each other, but the case on the RAN monopusher’s noticeably less worn.

While the listing for the Lemania RAF doesn’t show a movement, smart money’d be on it being, as in the RAN monopusher, powered by a Lemania cal 2220, a classic column-wheel chronograph with a Breguet overcoil. The Lemania RAF is being auctioned on the 19th in the U.K. with a 2,000-3,000GBP estimate, while the RAN monopusher’s available from Craft+Tailored for $8,500.