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Roman Sharf:
Anyone? Are we rolling?
Roman Sharf:
Guys, I like to save the best for last sometimes with these unboxings. Today, I think I’m going to talk about the first watch, which is the most special watch in this unboxing. But, I will leave something special for the end. It’s in this tiny little black box.
Roman Sharf:
Alex, what is this?
Alex:
Is that a Millenary Star Wheel?
Roman Sharf:
That is a Millenary Star Wheel. You’re absolutely correct. I’m going to start with how this thing works. It’s known as the Wandering Hours. Right? If I go to set the time, you’ll notice these discs move, and you’ll also notice the numbers changing around on these discs. Therefore, right now it’s showing 1:15 and it continues on. And these discs do rotate as needed in order to show the correct time. But, let’s talk about the history of this thing, right? It goes back to 1655. And you’re going to say, “Well, wait a minute, Audemars is not even that old.”
Roman Sharf:
Pope Alexander VII was in Rome and Vatican at the time. However, he had issues sleeping. They did not have Xanax back in 1655, so what do you do? He reached out to Barberini, Barberbuni, one of us trusted Cardinals and really told him that he’s having trouble sleeping. He set out and went out to the Campani Brothers, Italian clock makers, and explained to them the problem. And they said, okay, we got to make a watch that A, doesn’t tick-tock and B, he can actually see the time in the middle of the night because what he complained about is the tick-tocking in the middle of the night.
Roman Sharf:
They made a new escapement where they changed the crank to make “the silent crank.” The tick-tocking problem was solved. What they did is they actually put an oil lamp inside this clock. There’s a similar one somewhere in the British Museum, they have a bunch of them around. And they came up with this thing called the Wandering Hours, right, where there was a little window that had Roman numerals go through that little window that showed every quarter hour and the oil lamp would then project that on the wall, so in the middle of the night when the Pope couldn’t sleep, he was able to look at the clock and see what time it is in the middle of the night, without listening to the annoying tick-tock. And I don’t know if that solved the sleep issues or not. Not sure, maybe it did, maybe it didn’t, but it gave birth to what we know today as the Wandering Hours.
Roman Sharf:
And this is what AP was inspired by in 1991 when they first came out with this thing they called the Star Wheel. Now, mind you, this wasn’t a successful watch. It had a very short run. This is another one of those watches that I’m actually considering keeping because this is one of the most iconic designs out there. This very watch gave Felix Baumgartner from URWERK, the inspiration to create URWERK. If you look at any URWERK today, what happens, it’s literally cubes that go around a circle that changes time, which is very similar to this right, to the Jump URWERK watches, as we call them. And URWERK he gave inspiration to URWERK, and if you fast forward, even further, there’s a particular Moser watch out there that looks extremely, extremely similar to the Star Wheel. There you have it. A story that started in 1655, all the way out to today, the Wandering Hours live on. This segment was brought to you by the Roman Sharf.
Roman Sharf:
Let’s move on to some other pieces that I want to unbox. Rolex. Now that is a beautiful packing job. Rose gold Daytona. This is one of the first iterations of the rose gold Daytona. When they took the Daytona to rose gold, it was this watch, and this watch in reverse where the dial was rose and the sub-dials were black. But it was this very watch that gave birth to the rose gold watch. And it’s been produced ever since in many variations, including this one.
Roman Sharf:
Moving right along. Oh, look surprise, it’s another Rolex. Oh, look, it’s a two-one Sub old school. Not the pre-ceramic. This is one of the later ones. The way you tell is to gold through the buckle. The earlier ones didn’t have gold through the buckle. With this guy, you get that neo-vintage look, with the newer ones it’s a bit cleaner, but nevertheless, it’s good how… These watches, I remember you’d be able to pick them up for $45,000 back in the day, right? And they’ve got more than double in value because the keyword there is value.
Roman Sharf:
Let’s look at an AP. Tired of Rolex. Ooh, hold on. Did, we unbox one of these yesterday?
Roman Sharf:
We did, but somebody decided to get creative with this watch, and look what they did.
Roman Sharf:
What they did is they utilized both straps. Now, because normally if you wanted to do this and mess around this… Actually, that’s a cool look. I like that.
Roman Sharf:
Back in the day, if I wanted to do it, I’ve done this in the past with the older Audemars. You had to get out the screwdriver, the screwdriver stand, because old APs that have the two screws, it’s a pin that goes all the way through. It goes through the system. It goes through the lugs and you have to put it down on one of those screwdriver holders or use two screwdrivers to get them on and off. It’s a bit of a process. Where in today’s APs, it’s not, which is why whoever owned this watch before got creative with it. And I like that look.
Roman Sharf:
Another Rolex. Going back to the Oysterflex. I like this Oysterflex because of the dial color and the fact that it’s white gold. To me, it just works, right? I mean, it’s just one of those things where I think it just works. I wish that Rolex would take note from AP, and Hublot. Yes, that’s a Hublot. Hublot was the one that did the whole easy interchangeable straps, but I’m not sure if they were the first ones that did it. I’m sure there were other companies out there that did the easily interchangeable straps, but it came with a watch rather than all the watches or a line watches. Oh, look, this is my daughter, who by the way is back from camp and she’s going to be coming to work with me.
Roman Sharf:
We have a small black box, which doesn’t belong to a watch. This is just a generic box that somebody put this watch in because this is not any watch box. But, what it holds is extremely special. And that is the Panerai Radiomir GMT Lo Scienziato which is scientific. I know I butchered that because I’m not Italian. Panerai came up with Lo Scienziato a few years back, and they did it in titanium. And it was set to be the latest Tourbillon in the world, right? Especially for a watch, that’s such a large case. Now, this isn’t the one, this wasn’t the first one they made. The first one was in titanium. It was in a case that was titanium.
Roman Sharf:
I actually did an entire video on one of the watches on my desk where I reviewed that Tourbillon,
so I’m not going to get into too many details about this watch. I’m just going to show you this watch. Now, look at the back of the watch, because I don’t know if you guys notice anything special about this. Well, first of all, note, the Tourbillon cage, that’s suspended in mid-air as if nothing is holding it. This is a Tourbillon that moves across two axes, not one, therefore making it more accurate. Because remember gravity pulls this way, right? In the standard Tourbillon only works one… It’s like this.
Roman Sharf:
What makes this watch super special, and this isn’t the lightest one, there’s a lighter one that they made, is the fact that it was the lightest one. And what they utilized is, they utilized, believe it or not, 3D printing to make the bridge. If you look closer, basically everything that you see inside was literally made with a 3D printer, layer, by layer, by layer. And each layer is point something, something in size… I know it’s smaller than a hair. That’s how small these layers were. That’s how they 3D printed this watch.
Alex:
Do you see 3D printing becoming more and more inclusive in watches?
Roman Sharf:
I think so because it’s just a technology that’s useful. But again, useful in what application is the question, right? If you got to make it by hand… You see that thin little cage-looking thing right here? And if you can zoom into that. That’s not a thing you can make by hand, especially if it’s that thing right? Obviously, all technology is being used in current watchmaking, and rightfully so. The days of a guy sitting behind a tiny little machine and literally making little wheels, those days are over because we have the technology for that. Does that take away from that handmade single watchmaker thing? Nobody does it because, at the end of the day, that watchmaker has to make that watch work.
Roman Sharf:
This one is an Astron. And I hate this box because I know these are the boxes that get all messed up. I just hope that this one did not. So far so good. But these are the ones that get super sticky. Oh well. It’s questionable. But what this is… See, yeah. Nevermind. This box is no good. What this is an overseas, a Roseville Autograph with a white dial. People prefer blue. People prefer black, but some do prefer white because I feel like the white dial, once I get all the black stuff off. It does dress the watch up and it dresses it up nicely.
Roman Sharf:
Guys, a little bit of history, a little bit of wow, a little bit of technology, a little bit of Alex who says a lot. And that is going to conclude today’s very special unboxing, where I am still going to say that historical, and this is the most amazing watch that I unboxed from a modern technology. And it’s going to be that Panerai. That will be the most impressive, but you guys can comment and let me know what you think.