Daniel shares his views on the retail side of the watch business and the continuing impact that social media is having on the industry.
MWM: How is business?
DS: Business is steady at the moment, like with anything it has its peaks and troughs.
MWM: What are you currently working on?
DS: We’re trying to improve the marketing side of the business and building our social media presence. We want to try and bring the company into the 21st century.
MWM: Tell us something we don’t know about Somlo London
DS: Obviously we are known for our vintage OMEGA watches but when we travel to exhibitions we also have a huge selection of Antique Pocket Watches, some of which date back to over 400 years ago. This was really the very beginning of portable horology but the workmanship and skill that went into these pieces is astonishing.
MWM: What watch do you wear?
DS: 9 Days out of 10, a 1967 Speedmaster 105.012 CB (below). I have a couple of other pieces in the collection but I’ve had a Speedmaster since I was 18 years old. There’s something about the old 321s though, with that combination of history and character. Also I’m a sucker for a chronograph!
MWM: Which watch would you like to own?
DS: If I’m being really indulgent, a Patek Philippe Ref. 1518 perpetual calendar chronograph (below). It is both incredibly complicated and elegantly simple at the same time… Something Patek really excel in.
MWM: What do you like best about the vintage Watch business?
DS: You never stop learning. There is so much information and so many little details about vintage and antique watches that I don’t think it will ever be possible to know everything. New information is always coming to light and the collecting community is always happy to share their theories and opinions.
MWM: What don’t you like about the vintage Watch business?
DS: People who buy watches as a commodity. I read somewhere the expression: ‘you should buy with your heart, not your wallet.’ Vintage watches have character and soul. They should speak to you and that is why we should buy them. Not just for the return after 3-5 years…
MWM: What is next on the horizon for you and the business?
DS: We want to organise more events so we can really connect with the watch community. Also to encourage more young people to take the leap into vintage watches. All collectors have to start somewhere and they need guidance.
Daniel is a Friend of MrWatchMaster
Originally published by MrWatchMaster- December 23, 2019
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A piece of jewellery that will truly surprise and delight is a secret watch. Also known as hidden timepieces because the dials are cleverly concealed – tucked under, say, a dazzling gemstone – these fabulous jewels-cum-watches have captured the imagination of collectors for more than a century. “Secret watches work wonderfully as both bracelet and timepiece,” says Jennifer Rummery, head of research at antique watch dealer Somlo, in London’s Burlington Arcade. “Clients are tired of walking into luxury watch boutiques and buying the same piece as their friends. Vintage secret watches are highly individual and collectors are drawn to their multifunctionality.”
Examples from the 1930s to the 1970s – such as a c1970 Piaget (£13,500) with a sapphire-trimmed diamond face set on hammered white gold – are especially desirable. Prices have risen “exponentially” in the past 10 to 15 years, says Rummery, especially for unusual, avant-garde styles, such as a 1940s, knot-like design (£12,500) in interwoven gold by Gaucherand, a house beloved by Elizabeth Taylor.
The origins of the secret watch remain disputed. One theory is that during the early 20th century – the apogee of the genre’s fashionability – a hidden watch allowed women to avoid the social faux pas of publicly checking the time. But Paul David Maudsley, international specialist director of watches at Phillips, who sold a beautiful 1940 Vacheron Constantin gold, ruby and sapphire example for £6,750 in 2015, isn’t entirely convinced. “In high society, it was considered impolite to look at your watch, but that very much carries on into today,” he says.
Sarah Davis, communications director at jewellery dealer Siegelson, says the fear of breaching etiquette seems rather at odds with the Roaring Twenties. “Women were dressing up, going to nightclubs and listening to jazz music, which was all a little scandalous.” So such bold watch designs, their dials coquettishly concealed, were right on trend. The firm currently has a c1937 platinum and diamond Boucheron watch (price on request) with a dial set on a rotating globe. The ball’s guilloché etchings and mesh bracelet, paired with the pivoting mechanism and invisible springs, highlight the then industrial influences on design. “Secret watches can be gimmicky,” admits Davis, “but extraordinary ones marry beauty and technology.”
Of course, certain watch houses, such as Patek Philippe and Rolex, command premium prices: a splendid gold, sapphire and diamond secret watch with a bejewelled cover by the former sold for $10,000 at Sotheby’s last year, exceeding its $5,000-$7,000 estimate, and 1stdibs currently has an exceptional diamond and emerald Patek Philippe design with an interlocking gold-leaf bracelet for £14,500. Meanwhile, a sleek c1950 Rolex with a square dial and mesh bracelet sold at Christie’s in 2015 for $18,750, surpassing its $8,000-$12,000 estimate. Omega, too, excelled in the form, most notably post the 1940s. A 1944 Omega swirling gold creation that recalls opulent pieces from antiquity when its diamond cover is shut was recently sold by Somlo for £14,500, while 1stdibs has a c1950s Van Cleef & Arpels example with an Omega movement for £12,200.
Elsewhere, the Bulgari Serpenti is fast earning cult status. This snake-motif beauty coils around the wrist and has a dial hidden inside the serpent’s mouth. Two spectacular examples sold at Christie’s in 2015 for a combined total of about £840,000. One, with a hammered-gold body top‑and‑tailed with jadeite and diamonds, was dragon-like in style; the other had the snake’s scales crafted from coral, onyx and diamond (Siegelson has a similar piece – price on request). And last year, Bonhams auctioned a chic, pale-blush, enamelled version for £60,000.
Cartier set the bar for secret watch design in the art deco period, when the jeweller sequestered dials under clusters of precious stones or designed them around particular themes. The tradition continues today: online site Beladora currently stocks an exceptional c2009 piece ($78,000), the dial revealed by sliding aside the bejewelled head of a panther, a favourite Cartier motif.
A 1970s Cartier hidden watch, designed by Augustin Julia-Plana with lapis lazuli, malachite and diamonds, is a prized piece for one collector, a former interior designer. She has several secret watches, including 1940s examples by Omega and Gübelin, and a rope-like 1950s Tiffany design – and credits the watch collection she inherited from her parents with fuelling her passion for concealed timepieces: “I’m drawn to anything unique, and these have that perfect fusion of incredible technical movements and femininity. Today’s wristwatches are too bulky and masculine. These are discreet; people just think I’m wearing a gorgeous bracelet.”
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If you want to purchase a vintage Omega timepiece from an authorized dealer, there’s literally only one shop in the entire world that can help you: Somlo Antiques & Omega Vintage. The little shop located at the northwest corner of the Burlington Arcade has very little to do with British watchmaking – other than the fact it’s owned and operated by an Englishman with a penchant for British pocket watches – but we just had to make a stop in London to see why it’s the destination for everything vintage Omega.
George Somlo has been selling antiques for more than 40 years, starting at the tender age of 13, when his father asked him to lend a helping hand at his shop on Portobello Road on the weekends. After briefly leaving the family business to pursue a career in accounting, Somlo returned to antiques, opening his first shop on Bond Street before transferring to the arcades nearby – first came the Piccadilly Arcade, and then in 2008 the Burlington Arcade.
That move was triggered by a conversation with Nicolas G. Hayek, co-founder of the Swatch Group, who had noticed none of the many vintage dealers in the Burlington Arcade seemed to carry vintage Omega. Wanting to raise the stock of these watches, Hayek approached Somlo with the idea of opening the first legitimately authorized vintage Omega retailer. It was a totally novel idea, and at the time a bit of a shock for the industry to see manufacturer support the sale of second-hand watches. Tudor very recently became the second watch company to support the sale of vintage pieces, albeit next to wristwatches in their current collection, but this is anathema to how the watch industry has traditionally operated.
Ask Somlo about wristwatches, and he’ll be the first to admit he didn’t think they would become as popular as they are today. His own collection focuses primarily on pocket watches from the golden age of British watchmaking – the era of Thomas Tompion, John Arnold, George Graham, and Thomas Mudge. He also owns a Breguet souscription watch, a decidedly non-British (and unbelievably impressive) creation.
What his watches have in common is that they contain early examples of important innovations. Tompion was one of the first watchmakers to utilize balance springs in his watches, and Somlo’s example, made in the 1680s, is one of his earliest attempts (this was only a few decades after Huygens fitted a spiral balance spring to a timepiece for the first time, around 1657). He also has a watch made by Graham, Tompion's apprentice, that contains a very early cylinder escapement, which Graham had introduced just two years earlier, in 1725. The cylinder escapement was the first real alternative to the earlier verge, and became very popular for a time until being eclipsed by the lever and detent escapements. The watch dates to 1727.
While his personal preference still lies in antique pieces, Somlo says he decided to add wristwatches to his shop windows as a necessity, once it became obvious that not all his clients necessarily shared his love of antiquarian pocket watches. And, sure enough, a young and curious new crowd soon came through the doors to talk about wristwatches at Somlo Antiques.
A military issue Seamaster 300? A "lollipop" Speedmaster 2998-1? A Chronometer 30T2? You name it, Somlo’s got it. And, if for some strange reason they don’t, they can almost certainly find it for you. That incredibly rare Speedmaster Mission Case that brings together 23 Speedsmasters? Of course they have one of the 40 ever made. It's not even a question.
Omega isn’t the only brand Somlo carries. The boutique also offers vintage pieces from Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, and Piaget. But what makes Omega unique, according to Somlo, is the volume of watches the company has made throughout its history, which ensures there will be no shortage of stock. And he wouldn’t be able to carry those had Omega not been consistent in its record keeping. Most manufactures, especially those producing mass quantities, aren’t capable of telling you about each and every piece which has left their workshops, but Omega can. And for Somlo, it will.
A number of illustrious watchmakers have also gained experience working at Somlo Antiques. This includes British watchmaker Peter Speake-Marin; the man currently tasked with repairing Omega watches at Somlo, Wayne Clark, has a large tattoo of an Omega movement on his left forearm. If that doesn’t put you at ease, I don’t know what will. Clark is Omega-trained and officially on the Swiss company’s payroll. He’s capable of completing most repairs in London, receives parts supplied directly from Omega, and is in constant communication with its museum. And that explains, to some extent, why Somlo customers do not mind paying a premium for their Omegas. You know you're getting the real deal.
Somlo’s lease is expiring next year, and Somlo admits he fears specialized retailers are being pushed out by higher rents. Already, larger companies are slowly invading the narrow London thoroughfare, but he says Omega has thrown its full support behind the boutique. Years after he first arrived with the support of Mr. Hayek, the Burlington Arcade is now full of Omega watches, but none quite matches the collection which can be found at Somlo. And that isn't changing anytime soon.
For more on Somlo Antiques, visit Somlo.com.
Manager and watchmaker, Somlo Antiques
Tell us a bit about Somlo and the type of vintage watches you specialise in.
We deal with several high-end watch brands including Patek Philippe, Cartier and Vacheron Constantin, as well as antique pocket watches from some of the biggest names in horological history, spanning more than 500 years. We also represent Omega as the only official vintage Omega boutique in the world.
Which Omega models are particularly covetable for collectors at the moment?
There are followings for many of the various vintage Omega lines but the clear winner is the Speedmaster. This timepiece was the first watch worn on the moon and bears a design inspired by the dashboard of Italian sports cars. Interestingly enough, it is the references that pre-date the moon landings that have the biggest appeal.
What are your standout models?
Our stock covers hundreds of years of horological innovation, but standout pieces would include an incredibly early English pocket watch by John Snow dated around 1630; a wonderful Patek Philippe minute-repeater perpetual calendar; and a very rare, platinum, skeletonized Omega De Ville wristwatch (one of only 10 produced).
Do vintage watches usually require any special maintenance once they’ve been bought?
The watch should be serviced every three to five years depending on its use, as with most modern watches. Additionally one should never risk taking a vintage watch anywhere near water, even with diving watches.
What’s the most memorable or interesting piece to pass through your boutique and why?
We currently have a magnificent piece of English horological history by the famous company S Smith & Sons. Made in 1904, it’s a large, open-faced gold pocket watch with an incredibly rare English lever tourbillon. This watch achieved outstanding results from the Kew Observatory trials and is rated Class ‘A’ for its accuracy.
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