The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Mid-1950s ref. 1-260 SS Unitime in original condition sold at today's (9/15/10) NYC Antiquorum auction for $7500 USD (including buyer's premium):


http://catalog.antiquorum.com/catalog.h ... tionid=240

That's about double where I would have pegged it. Impressive...but it is a pretty rare watch in steel.

Then again, it could be an outlier, as there were some pretty high (IMHO) hammer prices for a trio of Premiers, as well:


http://catalog.antiquorum.com/catalog.h ... tionid=240

http://catalog.antiquorum.com/catalog.h ... tionid=240

http://catalog.antiquorum.com/catalog.h ... tionid=240


Could be auction fever but we have seen big gains in Vintage Breitling prices over the last 5 years so who really knows what the new normal is?
Best,
T.

P.S. Adding to the vagaries of auction results, a super rare SuperOcean Chrono with less-than-perfect but original (I believe) dial and original hands & bezel failed to meet the reserve apparently:

http://catalog.antiquorum.com/catalog.h ... tionid=240

Was planning to bid on the Unitime as I have been looking for a long time, but went way too high for my tastes. Remember that the buyer's premium is huge - 25%, hammer price was 'only' $6,000, but still a lot more than I was prepared to pay.

...one must assume that people factor that into their bids (they should, at least). Therefore, I don't really get it when we factor it out of the result. In other words, the buyer was willing to pay the gross price inclusive of buyer's premium. Therefore the gross price is the actual price, period, isn't it? Unless you are saying that bidders forget that extra cost in the heat of the moment, which could well be...
Best,
T.

I can only speak from experience, but I try to be logical about it and factor in the 'total' cost when bidding, but it can be difficult when the bidding actually heats up. Easier by internet as the drama is less (for me at least).

I have to say though that the premiums are getting way out of hand - I know that Antiquorum has costs, but they must make an absolute mint on these - and remember that they also take a chunk of the proceeds from the seller, plus listing and catalogue fees.

I had a Unitime 1-260 I bought for $325 five years ago. I was selling off a few vintage watches to help pay for sons college education and sold it to a broker in California for $1800. I felt it was probably worth about $2400 at the time. They keep going up.

When I first saw the picture on antiquorum I thought the dial looked iffy, but Timezone posted some nice pics of it in a trailer for the auction. Not amazing condition but as you say rare.



http://forums.timezone.com/index.php?t= ... v=&reveal=



This is the same Superocean that they sold for $9000 back in December 2009.
http://catalog.antiquorum.com/catalog.h ... tionid=223

Perhaps it has some issues the original buyer didn't like. Also that bezel is not the one that appears in any of the catalogue material or most of the ones I've seen before including my own.(Not mine, picture found on the net)

About the Superocean, does anyone know of an earlier divers chronograph than this one, which I believe came out in 1958. Is this the first waterproof chrono with rotating bezel?

The TransOcean was around the same time - don't recall the exact year from memory.

There's a gold plated one coming up in their next sale.

http://catalog.antiquorum.com/catalog.h ... tionid=241



The TransOcean is a time only watch I believe. I was thinking about divers chronographs. Cheers.

Good point about the bezel. Almost (but not quite) looks like the style for the early Blancpain Fifty Fathoms:



Maybe aftermarket? Or could it be a variation we have not seen before? I agree, it is unusual and thanks for pointing out the difference.



Inetersting question. About the only possible rivals I can think of would be the Movado/Zenith Sub Seas (which may be later):



and the Blancpain Air Command (which should be from right around the same mid-late 1950s period):



I think the BP has a screw down crown. Not sure about the early Super Sub Seas.
Best,
T.

Yes. It might be correct, but all I can say it is not the one shown in the adverts. Who knows they may have made an second bezel. guess you'd need it in your hand to kow for sure.



Like you I think these are later. One sold at Christie's which was dated 1965.

http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_ ... 103e6f51fa



http://forum.chronomania.net/board_entr ... 002#p87051

A beautiful watch. No one knows much about these, seems they might have been a been produced to compete for the French Type 20 contract. I do think they're a pilot watch though and not deisgned as a divers. Interestingly the back say "water resistant" and not "waterproof" like the Fifty Fathoms.

Here's a couple of nice timelines for Diving watches.

http://lesmala.net/plongee/histoiremontre.htm
http://www.rruegger.ch/dive_watch_history.htm

It looks like the closest one is the Vulcain Cricket in 1961, then the Aquastar Deepstar and Benthos in 1963 as well as the Nivada Chronomaster. Both of these timelines mention the superocean in 1958 and no chronographs before that.

http://jlc.watchprosite.com/show-nblog.post/ti-484976/



http://www.invenitetfecit.com/modeles/c ... er_en.html


http://militarywatch2.monsite-orange.fr ... index.html


http://thewatchspotblog.com/?p=581

So it looks like Breitling might have another technical first.