I remember this themed auction like it was yesterday.
It was back in 2011 and Antiquorum has just announced a themed auction for the 80th anniversary of the famed Reverso. It was my very first themed auction and the excitement building around this Iconic brand was incredible. There were well over 50 different types of Reverso’s being sold and I remember being completely confused as to what I should bid on. Did I want a lacquer dial, maybe a red one? Ofcourse I did (!) – but I knew this was the one watch everyone was looking at (it ended up fetching a world record at the time for a Reverso with a CHF 30’000 final result). The brown dial one was also a dream*.
While the usual suspects (rare red lacquer or brown dials) sold for strong amounts back then, there were some beautiful black gilt and silver dial early Reverso’s that ended up selling for reasonable amounts. In fact some of them were down right bargains.
One of those ‘bargains’ had to be the E Gübelin signed reverso from 1935.
(Picture Credit: Antiquorum).
This particular Reverso is special in a number of ways.
First it is has a retailers signature on the dial**.
It is rare to have the retailer’s name on the dial of early Reversos. In fact I don’t think I have ever seen one before. Many early examples just had the name Reverso on the dial. When retailers did sell the Reverso – their name was simply not put on the dial (see Eberhard of Milano here). Secondly the dial layout is typical of the very early Reverso, except for the sub seconds. It is plain and simple and for many collectors the most attractive variant to own. Third this Reverso was one of the very earliest examples – being made in 1935 (the official Reverso production began in 1931).
To comment briefly on the case: This particular Reverso is a ‘Staybrite’ version, a particular type of steel – not all early 1930s Reverso were Staybrite, according to my research. For example my Reverso from 1937 is stainless steel so ‘acier inoxadable‘. From my understanding Staybrite was more prone to corrosion and thus some early Reversos in Staybrite might not be as sought after as later stainless steel cased ones also from the 1930s. (For more on stainless steel versus Staybrite see article here).
The movement is a ‘Le Coultre’ Calibre 410, so signed ‘Le Coultre’ – this is important (not all early Reversos had ‘Le Coultre’ movements).
(Picture Credit: Time and watches).
Why this is a PAK watch
In fairness, I could have chosen many watches of this Antiquorum themed auction as a PAK watch. It was a superbly organised auction. Antiquorum officially teamed up with Jaeger Le Coultre who checked all watches with their heritage department and issued certificates (or extract of archives to be exact) for all watches approved in the sale.
The red lacquer dial one would have qualified as a PAK for its rarity and condition but so would have the awesome brown dial example. The Eberhard – Milan signed dial is also pretty cool just because Eberhard would be important to supplying the Italian market for decades (and we all know how important the Italian market for wristwatches became).
I choose the E Gübelin one though for a few reasons. 1) Rarity. Find me another retailer only dial Reverso from the very beginning production (thats gonna be tough). 2) Gübelin is a Swiss based retailer and extremely well known and prestigious. 3) This watch sold for CHF 7’500 – in my view the bargain of the entire sale. So just because of the price factor – it was worth highlighting as a PAK watch – I think it is awesome that a collector did not have to pay a fortune to own this. And since we are going back in time, the price factor alone is worth taking into consideration as a PAK factor – especially if it seems irrational (to the up, or to the downside – as is the case here). 4) This watch is dated to 1935 according to the case number and thus a very early production Reverso.
So in summary: Here we have one of the most Iconic watches of all time, with a retailer only signature on the dial, from arguably the best period of Reverso (the 1930s). And the clever collector who snapped this particular watch up for CHF 7’500 – has a very nice piece of history in his hands (without depleting his bank account).
Well done Sir.
*(Just for disclosure purposes – I ended up buying another Reverso from this auction).
** E. Gübelin stands for Eduard Gübelin and was the founder of the famous Swiss retailer. You can read more about him here.
NB: My next PAK watch is similar in shape to this. However a different Brand. And on an entirely different level of rarity. It will literally blow your mind away. Stay tuned….
