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It is first day of month....first day of May...the Labour Day
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Today special treat another POTM...this time




So let's enjoy

1. Please introduce yourself!

I am a vintage guy from the 60ies of the last century. As are most of my watches.

My current home base is in Switzerland, and I say “current” because I’ve spent many

years in various places abroad and enjoy the interaction across countries, cultures and languages.

“HSTE” was for many years the internal abbreviation of my name in one of the companies I used to work for.

It still has a special meaning to me as back at that time in that company I got to know “HABS” who later became my wife.

2. How did you discover WatchProSite and what does it mean for you to be one of PuristS?

Quite often, when I did my “deep-dive” investigation about a particular watch, I ended up on WatchProSite to find the information.

This confirmed to me two things which are essential to this blog: 1) discussions across brands and 2) a large number of highly knowledgeable experts.

When I posted my first piece about Karl Lagerfeld and his black AP Royal Oak 5402 (close to 10’500 views to this date)

I realized by the amount of feed-back that I could add value to this community which I am very happy to do.

www.watchprosite.com

3. What watch are you wearing today and how you choose watch the “of the day”?

Today I wear a Breitling AVI ref. 765 “co-pilot” with a digital minute counter from ca. 1953.

When I had sent it to Breitling for a movement overhaul, I actually received a letter from the museum asking

if I would consider selling my watch to them. I friendly declined and had it serviced. I consider it to be one of the most beautiful watches I own.

I usually chose my watch of the week rather than the watch of the day as I have all my watches in the bank safety deposit.

The choice is the result of my actual mood, the weather & season, my schedule of the week ahead and, quite often, inspired by the post of other PuristS.

4. What is your favorite watch/brand/complication?

I do not have a single favorite brand. Given however the fact that I am a “vintage watch guy”,

I have established a clear preference for brands who are respectful with vintage watch collectors

and their watches when it comes to repairing and servicing them. Unfortunately the number of those

brands lacking such respect is increasing rapidly. In terms of a watch model/reference, vintage Speedmasters

are watches which are very high up on my favorite list. But then there are so many other nice watches that

I can not have THE favorite one. In terms of complication, I actually started my collection with mechanical

wrist alarms (JLC Memovox, Oris Alarm, GP Alarm, Poljot Alarm, Omega Memovox to name a few) but my favorite complication is the chronograph.

5. When and how you discover horology?

I grew up in Schaffhausen/Switzerland, the home town of IWC.

At young age I remember spending hours browsing through the then famous white booklets

which were the yearly catalogs of IWC. My fascination was particularly drawn to their tool watches: the Ingenieur (ref. 1832),

the Titan Chrono (ref. 3700), the Ocean 2000 (ref. 3500) and the compass watch (ref. 3510).

The price guide of the catalogs however kept bringing a brutal end to my dreams.

During the mid-80ies I realized that the Swatch, launched in 1983, started to become a “hype”

with limited editions, art editions, collectors gatherings and first dedicated Swatch auctions.

I was able to find many interesting models, built a fairly large collection and sold everything

through auctions and at collectors meetings at the peak in 1991/1992. With the proceeds

I paid my taxes and I purchased my first “real” watch, a Zenith Chronograph from 1966 with

the 146D movement in 18k gold. It went on from there very slowly and picked up at a faster pace in recent years. 

6. What element of the watch is for you make it or break it factor?

Ideally, a watch combines the following aspects: good design, high quality movement,

rarity, technical/military importance, mint condition, full set. There are quite a few vintage

watches ticking the first four criteria such as the AP Royal Oak 5402, the IWC Ingenieur 1832,

the PP Nautilus 3700, the Breguet Type XX, the LeCoultre Polaris E859 and many more.

I must be able to wear the watch, hence no “NOS with sticker on the back” and the likes.

7. If you could design your own watch what would it be and what it would look like?

It would be looking exactly like the Speedmaster 2915. And the next day like the Royal Oak 5402.

And the next day like the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms. And the Speedmaster 2998. And the LeCoultre DSA.

And the Zenith Cairelli. And……

8. What is the watch that will last leave your collection and why?

Probably my black AP Royal Oak 5402 A-Series “Karl Lagerfeld”.

Top design, top movement, very early, very rare (find a black 5402!!), very wearable.

In addition, this watch does clearly not tick the “Mint condition” box, it is in what I call “rocked condition” which I particularly like in this case.

9. What do you love and hate about the watch industry today?

I have a skeptical view on the modern watch industry, certainly on the luxury segment.

I would not want to spend a fortune for a modern luxury watch which probably is powered

by an off-the-shelf standard but slightly modified movement, knowing that at least one third

of the price I pay goes into the rent of flagship stores, the advertisements in glossy magazines,

into the contracts with brand ambassadors. This is why most of my modern watches are from Sinn in Frankfurt.

These are top quality tool watches at very modest prices like the Sinn U2C which was produced only 50 times.

But then – guess what – the Zenith PuristS15 is one of the few top notch exceptions which I love!

I am very grateful to have the privilege to own one. And I will get the Speedy-Fratello.

And the 60 years trilogy set. And in addition a separate non-trilogy 60 years Speedmaster.

Nevertheless, I am not a good customer for the modern watch industry.

But I guess I am a good “brand ambassador” for those brands who treat collectors of their heritage fairly and respectfully.

Omega and Longines are two positive examples in this field.

10. What was the evolution of your collection and how do you see it in next decade?

Luckily I accelerated my speed of building the vintage collection across brands still early enough to find

some very interesting, rare, good condition watches. It is not only that the prices have sky rocketed but

I guess even more importantly, the “supply” has just totally dried up. My “anchor brands” are Omega, Heuer and IWC.

But then you will see when browsing through my posts here, that I have watches across many brands, covering most letters from A-Z.

More recently, I have started to build “families” around some topics: the first four generations of IWC Ingenieur,

all black dial and steel bracelet; the four main variations of the Heuer Bund; the Genta/Hysek “Jumbos” to give a few examples.

How do I see it in the next decade: I have no idea. And I am certainly not in the “next decade” game as I rarely plan anything in life further ahead than for the next 6-12 months.

11. What other hobbies do you have?

Well, it is nice if there is somebody out there who builds a nice car around a watch.

So I like what has been built around the Breitling dash clock. But this is not really a hobby but rather fun.

12. Your life motto and life philosophy is…

I have to disappoint on this front as I have neither a life motto nor a life philosophy.