WristScan

...happens to be a theme very close to the heart in this neck of the woods. Why? As 'sandgroper' will be quick to tell you, the black swan (and not the Sandgroper!) is the official emblem of the State of Western Australia, known to all who live here as 'God's own acre'.  Sorry; photographic proof is not possible at the moment (blame iPad), but will follow. 

As for the black swan in the collection?  Please remember that this is written by someone verging on OCD whose mantra has been 'AHCI or Indie; very simple; white metal; under the radar'.  It should then be obvious that the choice of a very complicated watch, from a grande maison, in rose gold would be 'counter-intuitive' (to put it benignly).  Here is the black swan, and here it stays:





Cheers,
pplater. 

Coat of Arms:



Two Kangaroo, one Black Swan and, two boomerang.

Of course, a crown to complement the picture.

Cheers,

Nilo

Additionally, the native flowers either side of the crown are known as 'Kangaroo Paw'.

The black swan sits on a representation of a river. The river which runs through Perth (capital of Western Australia) is called the Swan River, famous for its many (you guessed it!) black swans.

Cheers,
pplater.

I had been in Australia many times but always in Sydney.

Someday I need to see "the other side of the Moon".

Cheers,

Nilo

...food is on the table and wine in the glass. Just bring a watch or two when you visit.

Cheers,
pplater.

I only need to persuade my wife to resume travel.

Every time I invite her for a trip, the answer is "We already had been there".

Since Perth was never on our list ... it may be a good excuse.

Let's see.

Cheers,

Nilo

I hope you bring this when you next visit..! Love this for its totally hidden secret...ding dong..!

Yours,

Andy.

Shortly after a very similar first reaction it became an obsession. Now, if only Kari would produce one in platinum at a similar price point it would be 'game over' for this little black duck. Errrrrrrrr... little black swan.


Cheers,
pplater.

don't think I could afford it but nice to get first refusal..!!

Speak soon dude,

Andy.

PS - you'll laugh at this... we went to Loch Fyne on Wed in London with G and 5 others and they said there was one turbot left so as I missed out last time G said I could have it..!! Then they came back to say it had gone so I had to choose something else again..!! Ha ha
One day I'll get one

"Do you have turbot?"
"Just sold the last one"
"Haddock?"
"Cat got it"
"Plaice?"
"Still on the truck love"
"Cod?"
"Those bloody Icelanders nicked the lot"
"Monkfish?"
"Oh, let me think...no"
"Snapper, blue bone, barracuda, marlin, groper, trout, salmon, herring, dolphin, narwhal, piranha???"
"No need to get snaky, love! I think we might have some...no; all out I'm afraid. Would you like some cheese?"
;-)

Cheers,
pplater.

Yes that sums it up perfectly....I did get an oyster though..!! LOL

Andy.

... a bit trying to find which timepieces in my collection could fit your request for showing our "Black Swan watch".

After thinking a bit about this, I discovered I got not one, but three Black Swans in my collection:

First, a 1655. That is a reference to which I had never paid the least attention...  Till I read a passionate post written by Nicolas, which convinced I badly needed one for myself.

Casually, just around a month after that reading, I came across this specimen, which of course, I cound´t let go.
Must say I had never seen one in the flesh before, here in my Country, so it is considered very rare down here.

My second Black Swan, is my Le Coultre chrono, with a 72 Valjoux caliber inside.
When a good friend dealer of vintage watches described me its dial by phone, I said to myself "this is not for me", but anyway I went to visit him. As soon as he showed and let me try it on my wrist, I knew I couldn´t return it to him.

My last "black swan" is a timepiece of which I many times had declared "I would never buy" or "I´ll never spend this kind of money for this watch". Many friends listened me to say that very seriously, and I´m known to be faithful to my word.
But when this timepiece came unexpectedly (and with a good story I already told here)  I couldn´t find my own card printed in seven languages with the phrase "Thank you very much but no", which I always carry in my pocket.

I wish you like my three black Swans Nilo! And I wish a Great Week End to you and all my dear friends here at Purists!!
Very cordially, Abel.

c 1972 reference 1655:

Ref 6239 from 1967:

Le Coultre ref E2644

Is the definition of a Black Swan.

Beautiful, balanced and is a LeCoultre.

Not that the two Rolex are not swans but I love those aged chronos.

Cheers,

Nilo

... regarding the Le Coultre, it shares its movement with the Daytona. It´s dial is actually blue, which is clear on the center of dial, and gets darker towards its perimeter, where it blends with the black of the tachimeter scale. Very nice and unusual indeed.

Have a nice week end my friend! Very cordially, Abel.

... Le Coultre got a great charme, and a beautiful dial, but I guess the Daytona got its own legend and an interesting story behind.

Glad you like it! I send you my best cordial regards, Abel.

its the black swan that will forever swim to the other side of the lake to avoid capture.

G

... fishing nets unexpectedly!

Have a nice day my dear friend Graham!

Very cordially, Abel.

of black swans that truly captures the essence 

No message body

Many years ago there was an Emperor so exceedingly fond of new watches that he spent all his money on buying them. He cared nothing about reviewing his soldiers, going to the theatre, or going for a ride in his carriage, except to show off his new watches. He had a watch for every hour of the day, and instead of saying, as one might, about any other ruler, "The King's in council," here they always said. "The Emperor's in his watch room."

In the great city where he lived, life was always gay. Every day many strangers came to town, and among them one day came two swindlers. They let it be known they were watchmakers, and they said they could do the most magnificent watches imaginable. Not only were their finishing’s uncommonly fine, but watches made with this kind of finishing had a wonderful way of becoming invisible to anyone who was unfit for his office, or who was unusually stupid.

"Those would be just the watches for me," thought the Emperor. "If I wore them I would be able to discover which men in my empire are unfit for their posts. And I could tell the wise men from the fools. Yes, I certainly must get at least one specific watch made for me right away." He paid the two swindlers a large sum of money to start work at once. ...

Basel 2013 - The emperor's watch. The pinnacle of watchmaking.

It is just perfect from each angle and even the buckle is to die for ...



Stay tuned until you will see the outstanding finishing of the movement - drop dead gorgeous!



HAGWE,

Oliver

this one is even better. Hard to believe, but true

Any fool can see that watch needs regulating!

;-)

Cheers,
pplater.

I believe that the hands are way too short.

Nice story.

Cheers,

Nilo

... focused, that I can even see those little dust speckles on the crystal! Must take care to clean it next time you take a picture!

Look forward to view its marvellous movement!

Kind regards, Abel.

cleaning ... cleaning ... cleaning ... and cleaning

Yes, it is the beginning of the day here in Arizona. I took this shot yesterday. It is actually seven shots, stacked together as one. I wanted to play with this photoshop capability with my new Fuji X100S. Notice in the second crop that the second hand shows two positions, and the minute hand has a ghost. I suppose that if I got serious about this technique that I would want to stop the mechanism. I was just playing - the idea is to be able to use a large aperature (f2.8 in this case), and take multiple shots with a very narrow depth of field, then combine them all together. Kinda like HDR for focusing.

Have a great weekend!

This technique is called "stacked focus" and was originally created to produce microscopic pictures.

I did some, using a very painful software application, that takes forever to produce the results.

I didn't knew that this facility is now available inside the camera.

Thank you for bring our attention to this. It should be a great tool for static macro pics.

As you mentioned, the pain is that the object must be 100% static.

Cheers,

Nilo