My Early SANDOZ Collection

The above two Sandoz watches were part of my early Swiss collection. I had earlier thought my collection direction to be entirely Swiss Made of sorts but has now changed. I am not implying Sandoz is a lousy brand, these are quality watches in fact. Well-crafted "Rolex" hommages for their humble price tags.

What remains in my watch box now are the below two Sandoz which I find to be evergreen designs in our rapidly changing watch fashion world.

So what exactly is the Sandoz brand about?

I extracted the below writeup from Reto's famous website, PMWF (Poor Man Watch Forum: http://www.pmwf.com/Watches/WATCHSALES/SandozSWISSSalesTable.htm). Surf on to this fantastic site for more info on watches.

"The distribution and the use of the Sandoz name remains mysterious as there is no information available about the Sandoz History after 1971. It seems that the heirs of Henri Sandoz sold the right to use their name to Sandoz Far East Co. Ltd. which resides in Hong Kong. The same agreement seems to exist with Sandoz Singapore. ... .I found that Henri Sandoz was also the founder of "Tavannes Watch" in 1870. That date is used as the foundation date of Sandoz by all affiliated Sandoz watch companies or those that use the Sandoz name. There is no link between "Henri Sandoz" and the big "Sandoz Family Basel" (Pharmaceuticals), yet, they are often confused. If you say "Sandoz" in Switzerland, everybody thinks "Chemical Industry". If you say "Sandoz" in the Far East, everybody thinks "Watches" first."

A timepiece that can buy my current collection over & over & over again...

A close family friend attended my wedding. Having a keen eye for watches (even amidst the busy schedule of the wedding preparations), I spotted his Patek Philippe and requested to take some quick and dirty shots for my blog, which I did a few days after the wedding banquet.

Holding the white gold solid piece of mechanical instrument in my hands, you can never get tired admiring the craftsmanship of the Patek Philippe Annual Calendar. She indeed lives up to her name and clearly deserving the whopping US$80,000 price tag!

Here are the specifications I adapted from "Patek Philippe Collection highlights 2007/2008":

• Mechanical self-winding Caliber 315
• Annual Calendar
• Moon phases
• Power reserve indicator
• Slate gray dial, gold applied hour markers and numerals
• Gold "Wave" bracelet
• Sapphire crystal caseback
• 25m water resistant
• White gold
• Case diameter 39mm

His wife wears a Piaget quartz with diamond-lined bezel. I understood from her that it is a solid gold watch! Having no information at hand about the Piaget brand, the pictures shall speak for themselves.

"The First Watch on the Moon"

I bought this book, "The Unusual Story of the Omega Speedmaster" from a watch shop in Geneva during my honeymoon to Switzerland. This shop has some other Speedmaster items which I will write about in my later entries.

The Omega Speedmaster Professional has always intrigued me. Backed by a rich heritage and tested to the limits at countless space missions, the Moonwatch is my holy grail.

There are two versions of this ageless timepiece: Hexalite crystal + Steel caseback and Sapphire crystal + clear caseback. I find the former closest to the original Speedmaster from 1958, although the latter is scratch-resistant and allows the wearer to view the manual winding caliber 321.

Getting Married Tomorrow - 2nd Oct 2008

"Out Of Blog" message:

I will be getting married on 02-Oct-2008 and will not be posting new entries till Nov. Check back for more updates when I return. Keep hunting for watches!

Thank you for all the kind words, warm wishes posted/emailed to me. TIME now to do some final touch up for my Big Day!