Independents

pplater
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Seek one out...

It really is one of those watches that, as they say, you have to see in the metal to truly appreciate.
 
Take it from a ‘large’ individual and a fan of larger sizes – it wears larger than its size! That may in part be a function of its very open face and the fact that the lugs are so 'square' to the case, in a surprisingly contempoarary way. You don’t see it in pictures, and it is not uncomfortable, but it is a stylish modern quirk. The hands have a tint of French blue - peacock blue - that is almost iridescent. The eye for detail is remarkable (29.5 dots around the moonphase ring, for example) and the hobnail guilloche is finely executed – the previous custodian described the whole design as ‘deconstructed Breguet’ and his point is well made.

As a fan of the Independents also, it was necessary to consider which others might have been available in the same ballpark. This one pushed in ahead of the possibility of a Moser, a Pita or a Sarpaneva, for example: that should tell you something, shouldn’t it?  There were several factors which weighed in that decision: the simple elegance of the watch (being more reminiscent of classical watchmaking, and therefore of ‘the craft’); the whole Goldpfeil ‘back-story’ of a privately commissioned and visionary series of pieces (now never to be repeated); the rarity factor (this particular piece, branded as a Jutzi, is apparently 1/1, but even the Goldpfeil badged pieces are few) and, frankly, the opportunity to give a good home to a piece by one of the less prominent (in watch terms anyway) AHCI members.

It was also the first regulator in the watchbox. That has taken some getting used to, but it's like seeing your own country before seeing the world, isn't it? Why pursue other eccentric or novel methods of telling the time before acquiring a regulator - the historical mainstay of the watchmaker's atelier and an important piece of regulating equipment?

Good luck with the decision-making process!

Cheers,

pplater.