When this Calatrava was made the WWII was still raging on

citizenrich
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early SS references tend to be more valuable than any metal including the whitest metal of all, platinum. This holds true for all manufacturers' but especially vc and pp.

U ulackfocus
You don't see many stainless Pateks of any type. 馃憤
 
citizenrich
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afinewatch afinewatch.com
I do know that this one brings more than it's yellow gold brothers.
Platinum one however is much more expensive. By today's standards of a mans watch these are small.
Since first wrist watches used pocket watch movements I wonder whether the watch manufacturers were trying to reduce the size and thickness or wrist watches for many years.


I think reducing size was the driving force of the wristwatch industry for 50+ years. More specifically: thin.

this culminated with the piaget cal. 9p (and it's succesors).

then the quartz "crisis" happened

The end.
 
U
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citizenrich citizenrich
I think reducing size was the driving force of the wristwatch industry for 50+ years. More specifically: thin.

Correct. However here are some adjustments:

citizenrich citizenrich
this culminated with the piaget cal. 9p (and it's succesors).

Jaeger developed the thinnest viable* manual wind movement in the late 40's and licensed it to AP as the 2003 and VC as the 1003 in the early 50's. It's 1.64 mm thick compared to the Piaget 9P's 2.0 mm which was released in 1957. The 9P is the thinnest true in-house manual wind caliber. AP now owns all rights and tooling as part of the deal to sell their 40% interest in JLC to Richemont.

* The Jean Lassale caliber 1200 was only 1.2 mm thick, relying on tiny .2 mm ball bearings. Shown at Basel in 1976, it was a very faulty movement and didn't last long on the market. Production stopped in late 1979 and the rights to the name were sold to Seiko.

citizenrich citizenrich
then the quartz "crisis" happened

No comment. 馃榿

citizenrich citizenrich
The end.

Not quite! Piaget is introducing more ultra-thins, and several companies are back in the game like Lemania.

(Ultra-thin calibers are the main focus of my collection 馃槈 )
 
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