STYLE & ERROR

Bit under the cosh as it goes. Watch-style stuff for newspaper not finished, so gonna swiftly bang something out about Daytona scene and then pull my ‘pusher’ out, (watch gag). Am slightly winging it as am over deadline to tell truth. Did however managed to file a piece about the Rolex Daytona and why it remains so very sought after. Its status is not simply down to Paul Newman’s patronage in the 1969 motor-racing film Winning (click) and its promotion, but it didn’t half help.

Paul Newman in Winning, 1969.

Rolex’s only chronograph, The Daytona Cosmograph, came out in 1963, but was never very popular back in The Sixties. It was a windey, and there are reports of people returning them after a day an a half when they stopped. People wanted an automatic Roley. Rolex didn’t make very many of them. They didn’t really market it either because the movement was made by Valjoux, a subsidiary of ETA, the Basque Separatist horologists movement (click). This meant Rolex didn’t feel it was really their watch. Then in 1969 while promoting Winning, Paul dropped a Daytona on the cover of an Italian magazine of his own volition and the Italians went Radio Rental for it (who incidentally didn’t stock it as it had been discontinued).

Cool-Wrist Luke : A ‘Paul Newman’ Rolex Daytona.

An out of production and instantly iconic watch became a must have piece for many kettle-heads. It is a great looking watch too, which helps. Clean, space-age instrument like. Much like the race suits in the film, which is sort of exciting on a man-kit level to many. The serial numbers become quite relevant with these Paul Newman Daytona guys, all four digit ones bode well for example. The left hand sub dial, the second counter, has numerals at 60, 15, 30, and 45, not 60, 20, 40 like ‘normal’ ones. Also, the P.N. one has little pyramids instead of batons as markers. Madness eh? Daytonas of varying degrees of cred go from between £15k-£100k now.

Good-old-Newman: authentic denim eyes.

The Daytona was eventually ‘oystered-up’ (waterproofed), but these meant all the pushers had screw down crowns, which was a right pain for a windey, see. Then they made it automatic, but by this time it meant that was a whole load of inscriptions and printing all over the thing that used to just say Rolex Daytona Cosmograph. Much better.

Rolex Daytona: New-One.

It remains that the steel Daytona is the one to have, and the plot continues to thicken, as even the modern production ones continue to be scarce and command a higher value that retail. Stretch tells me they go for about £8.5k-£9k down Hattons new, where as they’re £7, 400 off the manufacturer. Roley limit how many they produce though, and they won’t even say how many that is, the tricky so and sos. I spoke to James Dowling, an actual Rolex Historian about this whole caper.

“The current story is still all about supply and demand” Dowling tells me, “It’s the most complicated watch Rolex make (until the recent Sky-Dweller). They can make a finite number of these movements in house per year, so economic sense says put them in gold or steel/gold cases so they can extract a comparatively huge premium, (than in a steel case). All the answers about Daytona’s are about economics.”

Bloody cheek. It’s still their only Chrono, and it remains on many kettle-fans wish list whether P.N. style or not. Its a certain sort of ‘Euro-flash but not-quite’ look. Nicholas Sarkozy famously loves his Daytona for example. The old ‘Panda-style’ set up with black sub-dials does look best though, surely. Don’t know why Roley can’t consider doing a retro-yet-modern looking  number. Other watch brands do, don’t they?  It’s interesting the excitement and cache is about the steel version and not flashy gold or bi-colour ones. Inflated prices or not, for many fellas the Daytona remains a stylistic-steal (second watch gag).

Helmet Newman.

What’s more interesting is perhaps that after training with proper Indie 500 drivers and cars to do the film, Newman got properly sucked into the sport. What’s more, the actor was actually dead good at it. He began racing seriously. He began winning races. Now that’s method-living on a different level.

Stubbs out.

Thinking about what chronographs and sports watches mean to wear. Met the Duchess of Dundee for watch power lunch at Daluanay yesterday. That place is smart. Omelette Gordon Bennett, who’d have thought it? Now life is all about chrono-semiotics. Well, editorial lists are at least. This is the Zenith Blue Premero chrono that I saw in Basel. Like that blue. Great open dial look, fine white incriminations, plain barton markers. Really wish hadn’t lost that nail varnish while away, works for business scenarios so well, no? Meanwhile lost the morning to Apple. Hate them for that. Really hate them.

Been told must move from MobileMe to iCloud or bad things will happen. Also instructed to upgrade my Snow Leopard operating system to Lion though, obviously. Gave them dollars and time. Flipped the thing over this morning while talking with the Madre. Return to the Mac to find now it no longer wants to work with Word and all my old Office 2004 stuff. You scumbags. Why didn’t someone mention that possibility?Freaked out and melted down on line for a bit. While the whole thing fannied about downloading my essential new shite, went down cellar and did things as far removed from systems upgrades imaginable. Like sifting through boxes of buttons, semi-prestiege ballpoints and watch straps, Stone Island badges and a dozen different continental plug adaptors, almost exhausted scented candles and bags of bags. Edited a hundred luxury shopping bags that inadvertently accrued without noticing. Thankful for ridiculous to do list to refer back to in techno-melt: Cellar boxes edited – tick.

Now on a thirty day trial of Word. Not keen on the new Word. Was happy with the old Word. This isn’t fashion, this is forced perpetual consumption.

This however is the new Speedmaster Chronograph from Omega. This limited edition is called ‘First Omega In Space’ after one worn by Wally Schirra, astronaut, on 8 missions orbiting the earth.  The Speedmaster watch passed all the tests required allowing it entry into NASAs space program, so that was that. It’s based on one from 1962 which was then smaller at 31mm. This is 39.7mm. They’ve done something different with the lugs but can’t remember what. Gonna speak to my people at both Zenith and Omega and get proper images. Quite like the make-shift skew-whiff ones though as it goes. They’re the opposite of a Mac Lion upgrade. They’re not even Snow Squirrel 2.0.

Stubbs out.

NB. Squirrels 0. Stubbs 2..ahem

Those of you who read Style&Error will know that I can’t spell, and sometimes can’t tell certain words apart. For a writer this can be quite bad. However in this case I meant to use the wrong word and hopefully come up with significant double meaning while writing copy. In fact, that might be what I always do. One of my top three houses at the Basel Kettle Fest (BKF) this year was Roley. Today we’re doing the new Rolex Day-Date. Nice, no?

Ruby baguettes at Six and Nine O’Clock, eight diamonds as hour markers in 18ct Everose gold. Austerity? Take a walk. Forgot how much it is, but about £20k I think. Yes Mr.President, there’s ice in our residence. Might check price, but Rolex can be a bit funny sometimes though. Anyway, here’s a styling thing. When Rolex photograph their watches they’re always set at eleven minutes past ten and 31/32 second on the 28th of the month. And Monday. Significant. Am doing my Basel postcard for QP, so thought would regale you off this serious chap. That’s it for now. Am off to St.Ives with the Madre in the Merc I just borrowed of The Baroness Mingay. No one tell her been writing about Rolex and Mercedes in the same post, she’d flip. So the Merc’s a black 350 S and is rather smart I think. JW called it a people carrier. Some people.

TS.

Three euphoric morning runs along the river are my most resonant memory of The Basel Watch Dash this year I concede. Fully-blown-ecstatic stuff as sunshine* and i-pod conspired to create exhilarating moments. Love a good run. Love a good pun too.

The view from the bank of The Rhine in Basel.

Also love a good watch, obviously, but madly fanciable ones weren’t exactly in abundance. After each sprint back across the Mittlere Brücke to where my barge was docked, the serious subject of watch significance became number one on my agenda, aproximately speaking. That said, there’s far more pieces than gonna put up today, but want to offer the odd avid kettle-head in the congregation a fix. Here we go, again..

Patek showed me new Nautilus style with a white dial. I prefer the simple date version, but the Annual Calendar (5726/A1) was the only one that photo looked okay. Purists aren’t gonna approve of the white version as the steely blue is the classic. I really like the way the battons and hands now edged in black oxidised gold stand out so graphically. This is a graphically brilliant watch anyway, and the update just sheds new light on its stylishness, right. This Nautilus is £17.9k FYI.

From sea to sky, where at Zenith, all the chatting was about the Pilot watches they’re doing. They patented the name ‘pilots watch’, and no one else is allowed to put that on their watches, so there. The Pilot Big Date Special is above, which houses Zenith famous El Premiero movement. Its a really good watch technically and on the visuals. Have to say the Milanese mesh strap makes all the difference, feels great on. Like way there is buckle too, even though in metal.

More Zenith style, as they release kettles operating within my favourite new watch style trend, ‘Grey-Face’, is the Captains Central Second Fumé, a watch ideal for smoking quite large cigars on the deck of ones barge, right. Digging the batons again, V.Fifties. Maybe its the year of the style baton?

Glashütte Original, the East German style merchants who developed their handwriting from behind ze iron curtain, have always used a dark graphite grey face on some of their most distinctive pieces. Above is the Panomatic Luna, with moon phase and big date. Love Glashütte styling, really cool and masculine.

At the other end of my taste spectrum, was v.keen on Bulgari’s new version of their brilliant named‘Bulgari Bulgari’, a classic of theirs. This time, it’s got a massive power reserve as a big feature of its design and I think that’s super. Not for everybody, but there’s something really chic about the lines and the style to me, unapologetically luxe, and I have to say flash. Without flash in the house, just wear would low-key live, hm?

More low-key,  and also using power reserve indicator as a feature, the new version of Omega’s ‘De Ville’ is utterly charming, oui? Double good watch for £2,2,10 or £2,920 depending on strap or bracelet. Sans serif Roman numerals again eh? Cropping up in my recent editorial more and more. Talking of which, did anyone read The Daily Telegraph watch supplement on Tuesday? Had the big old thing on Pierre Arpels and his 49 as main story on my page. No? Shame. Black mark for the S&E kettles-heads from me in that case.

On the subject of read/red & black, back on the barge, Louis Vuitton were presenting their new collection. Will write more about the others, but to me, most striking were the rubber coated cased black regatta and dive watches. The Tambour Diving II is stealthy looking case juxtaposed with vivid graphics, utilising the red/white flag ships fly when divers are underneath as part of its design. The Tambour shape lends itself well to diving style.

The Regatta timer has the five minute warning facility as part of function for when all the yachts get themselves into position for the race. The upper white indicators begin to turn blue in lead up to race start. One of these two is quartz, but I forgot which. High visibility is key when one is attempting to juggle yacht position with time keeping, I would imagine. This almost raspberry red and white display would function well, even if one was attempting a start in foggy conditions. Do they do yacht racing on the Tyne still, or has that been abolished? Perhaps thats what Lindisfarne were singing about. Please see video below for reference.

Stubbs out.

*I dont jog either for the record, I run, but wouldn’t have been able to get the double pun in the title. Which would be a massive shame, no? Take it away Lindisfarne.

Was plotted next to British Olympic and previously World Light Welterweight Champion boxer Amir Khan at Topmans LFW show. Eyes went straight to Khans wrist. Here’s a juxtaposition you don’t see every day. E.Tautz herringbone vs. an Audermars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore (click) fully loaded with diamonds teamed with a fist that partly won an Olympic medal, (the other fist was in comparatively subdued mood). The 25 year old from Bolton has been dubbed King Khan, but during a watch banter with him on the FROW, Amir expressed such avid enthusiasm for various pieces he already owns and for ones he fancies wearing, perhaps King Kettle might also function as a suitable moniker.

He’d just bought a Rolex Daytona, rose gold with black face. He also told me about his other ’sports’ watch, his Hublot, and described his taste for Frank Muller as ‘an old School’ indulgence. Bless the young people. Someone said something disparaging on S&E about Khan’s watch here on a taste level, but I really like the sheer up front flash-power watch-ness of it frankly. The Offshore is the more muscled younger brother of the original Royal Oak, the first non-precious metal sports watch. Ironic then that this formidable piece is actually completely covered in diamonds, yet still with handy chrono-function and so neatly teamed with diamond ring.

Front to back: Khan, Gandy, Morecombe.

Am gonna do something on King Khan’s Kettles on our style page in The Telegraph Time supplement that comes out in May.

Stubbs out.