Le Petit Prince - The Russian Edition

For the adventurous collectors in us, we dare to venture to places where few will go. Watch collecting, at least for me, is a hobby and I would like to think I'm not a "snobbish" collector. I am one who will buy what is "fun". When I came across this watch, I had to blog about it.

Back in 2022, the Russian Watch Award Best Russian Mechnical watch was won by this model the "Le Petit Prince" aka The Little Prince.

In one of our watch gatherings, a fellow collector brought this watch. For more information on the gtg, read the blogpost here. That's the fun part about our gatherings. Meetings collectors who are well versed with the global offerings as diverse and as far away as Russia (by the way, I own a few Russian watches too). Our gathering is always around 2 themes and the recent gathering was around watches under S$2,000 and watches with a skeletonised or unusual dial structure. This Little Prince watch was one of those that was brought to the gathering.

Designed and developed by Anton Yaitsky and Dmitry Chugunov (I hope I got their names correct), the Little Prince won the Russian Mechanical category in the 2022 Russian Watch Award.

The dial side faithfully reproduces the book cover with the Little Prince standing on the planet. The aventurine dial shimmering in the dark represents the starry night sky - perfect!

The timepiece looks simple enough but try telling time... now that requires some explanation. The timepiece is actually a "single-handed" watch a la Meistersinger. With the single handed watch, every advancement of one "minute mark" spells 5 minutes which also means that the hour hand also represents the minute hand. A perfect watch for the Sunday to slow things down...

Referencing the above picture, there are 2 markers - one just below the 12 o'clock that suppose to be a "Star" and the other the "Sun". The "Star" circles on the outer rim while the "Sun" on the inner (bigger) rim.

The "Star" (with trails) shows the elapsed seconds going round the dial. This means the "star" circles the dial once every 60 seconds.

The "Sun" on the other hand, moves slowly on the outer rim, 5 minutes every advancement.

The centre of the dial is also well decorated - nicely reflecing the night sky with stars and planets.

The case back probably got its inspiration from the picture above...

The back of the case is closed with the engraving showing the Little Prince. It shows that this is a Limited Edition of 300 pieces and made with silver. Unfortunately, I don't read Russian so I can't tell you the meaning behind the inscriptions.

This is another winner in my books. An award winning watch for under S$2,000 and rather well made. This manual winding timepiece is limited to 300 pieces and someone is trying to sell it for S$15,000... yes, you read it right! $15,000... If there was profiteering to the moon and back, this is it! Good luck!

Watch collecting as a hobby should be affordable and most of all, fun! Buy what you like, that's what I say to anyone who asks me about which watch to buy. Go in knowing you like it and even if the secondary market price drops drastically, why will you care? Just enjoy the watch! But if your decision is based on secondary market prices, then your selection will be severely curtailed. But then, that is me... there is no right or wrong. Just personal preferences.

New Year GTG - Amazing Line Up Part 2

Wow, what a new year gathering it turned out to be... Many unexpected pieces turned up for this gathering which was held at Under Der Linden Restaurant at Portsdown Road. Company was great and so was the line up, food and wine.

As usual, we have a theme around every gathering - this time around, theme 1 was any skeletonised timepieces or pieces with unusual dials and theme 2 was any timepiece under S$2,000 when you bought it. Unofficially, any NWA qualifies too. This is Part 2 of the report and you may connect to Part 1 here.

For Part 2, I will focus on watches under S$2,000 when you bought it as well as any NWA and those who "did not get the memo"... Let's start of with the most colourful one on the table. The Underd0g Watermelon. What a timepiece and what great value it represents. Fitted with a Seagull column wheel manual winding chronograph movement, the Watermelon is my first Underd0g

After the Underd0g, the next under 2k must be the RZE RESOLUTE Pro - Jet Black Enamel. Not bad for an email dial with a Miyota 90S5 Automatic Movement. Titanium bracelet to boot.

Up next, the very unusual Ralph Lauren Stirrup...

What a steal for below S$2,000! And it is the automatic version too... not the quartz! It's themes like these that bring out the unexpected. As I have mentioned, we typically have 2 themes around our gatherings and most come double wristed. The idea is not to bring your most coveted or expensive watches but those that many may not have had the chance to see or even know about.

And what about the Ba111od Chapter 1? When it was launched, Chapter 1 was a concept watch which debut below US$1,000.

One of the collectors in our group picked this up for less than $2,000 - the Chronoswiss Regulateur. Back in the day, if you know where to find, you could get a bargain and this is one such example.

And what about this Horizon watch which was launched on Kickstarter for under S$2k... there is always a bargain on Kickstarter and this is one such deal.

Then there is this Unimatic U1S-HS2 Mickey. The watch comes with a Swiss Sellita SW200-1 movement and just under S$2k. Well made for that price point.

Great value for this rectangle Trafford Crossroads.

The Formex Field watch is up next. Second time Formex has turned up in our gathering. The last being at our gathering at Seafood Shack.

Then there is the Maurice Lacroix Masterpiece Jour et Nuit, another unusual piece and all for under 2k. As the name suggests, it displays the day and night with the use of the hour hands. During the day, the "Sun" is on the upper half of the dial indicating the hour of the day. When night falls, the "Moon" takes over.

The surprise for me was this Russian watch called "The Little Prince". The more "famous" Little Prince is of course from IWC but this is a rather unique piece which was part of a Russian crowd sourcing site - and yes, for under $2,000. In fact, it was under $1,000! This is a single handed watch featuring only the seconds and the hour/minute (increments of 5 minutes) ala Meistersinger. I'll be doing a separate blog on this special Russian Little Prince. Such a unique piece.

Nivada Grechen F77 is a new watch to me. Comes in the under 2k category.

Impressive is what I would say about the Seiko Ginza Alpinist SPB259 for a watch under S$2,000. Made to celebrate the Seiko 140th Anniversary and Limited to 3,500 pieces

Vintage for the evening is this Tugaris Day/Date which was one of the first watches one of our collector bought. Still ticking and definitely of sentimental value. But time for a spa yah?

Coming up next are the NWA

First up, the Goldpfeil Svend Andersen. Quirky time telling machine wouldn't you say?

This is another - the Waldoff Tourbillon.

Missed this one on the skeleton category but just as well featuring in the NWA - the TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon.

Then there is the other category... "Missed the Memo" category.

The Glashutte Original Panoinverse. I kinda like this watch - putting the movement side up with the hand engraved balance cock in clear view. Wow!

Then there are 2 Patek Chronographs, Aquanaut no less.

Ah, the Nomos Metro Date Power Reserve. This one's got a funny way of adjusting your date. No quick change here. Gotta have the hour hand go from 10pm past 1am, turn it back past 10pm, hear a click and advance the hand past 1 again to have a date change.

What's a gathering without good food? Blue swimmer crab salad...

And for mains, Wagyu beef strip loin

Or duck breast

I was so caught up and I missed the dessert... so much for being the host at Under Der Linden.

And then there is the table shot...

Another successful gathering, if I may say. Healthy discussions, good food and greater company. Looking forward to the next one very soon since this is the Leap Year!

New Year GTG - Amazing Line Up Part 1

Wow, what a new year gathering it turned out to be... Many unexpected pieces turned up for this gathering which was held at Under Der Linden Restaurant at Portsdown Road. Company was great and so was the line up, food and wine.

As usual, we have a theme around every gathering - this time around, theme 1 was any skeletonised timepieces or pieces with unusual dials and theme 2 was any timepiece under S$2,000 when you bought it. Unofficially, any NWA qualifies too. Starting the ball rolling is the UN Freak this being the original version. How's that for a start?

And then there is the IWC Portuguese Skeleton Minute Repeater Ref 5421... another winner for this category! Wow!!!

Then there is the Cartier Santos de Cartier skeleton.

The Japanese are represented by the Orient Star M34.

A first for me... handling the Horage Tourbillon 1. Underneath the skeletonise dial is a movement that packs 5 days of power reserve. Impressive!

And something totally new (under the NWA) is the Vincent Calabrese Sun-Tral.

What's so special about this timepiece is that the jumping hour complication is right at the centre of the timepiece. Unlike his earlier pieces (like this Goldpfeil below), the jumping hour indication is at the 12 o'clock.

This Sun-Tral has the jumping hour located at the centre. There are not many out there that has this central jumping hour complication. Kudos to Mr. Calabrese.

Another NWA is this RZE Endeavour Azure Blue. And in this case, the watch also qualifies for a watch under $2,000... well made for a watch in that price range.

The Atowak Tarantula is considered as a special dial but in this case, also NWA.

Yet another recent NWA is this Chopard LUC Lunar One Perpetual. This platinum specimen is the first version which is smaller at 39.5mm. And this being the Leap Year, just nice to be looking forward to another gathering featuring all the perpetual and annual calendars... another gathering coming up. And someone in the group asked a question that got me stumped for a moment - does the Leap Year indicate shows as 4 or 1? Well, I know in some cases they show as L and the correct answer to the question above is... 4.

The other special dial is this Angles Three Kings automatic watch which was launched via Kickstarter in 2021.

Three discs wondering around the dial displaying the right time... All for US$450 when it was first launched.

Another special dial candidate is the HYT H0. This fluid filled timepiece is all of 48mm, huge!

But what is special about this timepiece is how the hour is shown. In this case, the green colour in the tube around the case periphery indicates the hours.

Under Der Linden was a perfect location for us. We had a private room and the ambience was great.

Food was good and the company was great. Stay tuned for Part 2 of the GTG...