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Well, I have to say I love this watch, which has just been auctioned at Sotheby's for £13m - but no, I am not now £13m in the hole: I was not the buyer.
But it is beautiful. It shows the night sky over New York (home of the squillionaire who commissioned the watch in 1925), the phases of the moon, sidereal time (more on that later), the equation of time (which as you may know is the left-to-right motion of the sun in Shez's figure-of-8 analemma demonstration last night), sunrise and sunset times, has a perpetual calendar that I think needs to be adjusted once every 400 years, and... and... and... it's beautiful. More details about it in this Patek Philippe video.
Just one thing bothers me: haven't they misspelled 'sidereal'? Is this actually a Chinese fake worth twenty bucks???
Posted : 11/11/2014 6:36 pm
Just one thing bothers me: haven’t they misspelled ‘sidereal’? Is this actually a Chinese fake worth twenty bucks???
Does look that way doesn't it?! Oops! Quite a typo! Perhaps it is a knock-off… ?
Posted : 11/11/2014 6:57 pm
Just one thing bothers me: haven’t they misspelled ‘sidereal’? Is this actually a Chinese fake worth twenty bucks???
I think both spellings are acceptable. The word comes from the Latin root sidereus. In French, it is spelt sideral.
Posted : 12/11/2014 6:53 am
Topic starter
In French, it is spelt sideral.
I thought that might be so but the rest of the face is in English with words like 'Sunrise' and 'Sunset'! I thought it might be an American spelling but when I google 'sideral' no proper authorities come up top of the list ('freedictionary.com' etc).
You're not the buyer, are you, Mike?
Posted : 12/11/2014 7:12 am
You’re not the buyer, are you, Mike?
No, I wanted one for each wrist, and they couldn't accommodate 😉
Seriously though, it is utterly beautiful.
Posted : 12/11/2014 7:35 am
Alright, I'll bring the watch to out next meetup event for everyone to have a closer look. One at a time please, no crowding around me. Took a lot hours of flower selling in Peckham market to save up for this
Posted : 12/11/2014 2:14 pm
Tej I think you have a fake as the real one is on my mantle piece.
Posted : 13/11/2014 2:25 pm
I am sure mine is real, Brian, it says "made in Sweetserland"...
Posted : 13/11/2014 2:37 pm
