The fastest and most secure way to protect the watches you love.
We've minimized the paperwork and maximized protection, so you can stop worrying about your watches and focus on enjoying them. Solid Cvc Slub Terry
![Hodinkee Pre-Owned Picks December 8, 2023](http://cdn.globalso.com/mzlknitting/French-Te06.jpg)
In most cases, you'll get a personalized quote in seconds and your policy kicks in immediately.
Wherever you are on planet Earth, your watches are protected. Rest easy and travel safely.
If you suffer a covered loss, there's no deductible and no gimmicks. Ever.
Each of your watches is covered up to 150% of the insured value (up to the total value of the policy).
Our quotes are based on historical sales and real-time market data allowing us to give fair prices without all the hassle.
The fastest and most secure way to protect the watches you love.
We've minimized the paperwork and maximized protection, so you can stop worrying about your watches and focus on enjoying them.
In most cases, you'll get a personalized quote in seconds and your policy kicks in immediately.
Wherever you are on planet Earth, your watches are protected. Rest easy and travel safely.
If you suffer a covered loss, there's no deductible and no gimmicks. Ever.
Each of your watches is covered up to 150% of the insured value (up to the total value of the policy).
Our quotes are based on historical sales and real-time market data allowing us to give fair prices without all the hassle.
The fastest and most secure way to protect the watches you love.
We've minimized the paperwork and maximized protection, so you can stop worrying about your watches and focus on enjoying them.
In most cases, you'll get a personalized quote in seconds and your policy kicks in immediately.
Wherever you are on planet Earth, your watches are protected. Rest easy and travel safely.
If you suffer a covered loss, there's no deductible and no gimmicks. Ever.
Each of your watches is covered up to 150% of the insured value (up to the total value of the policy).
Our quotes are based on historical sales and real-time market data allowing us to give fair prices without all the hassle.
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Plus a killer complicated JLC Master Control and a read-to-dive Omega Ploprof.
Each week, we present a selection of our favorite watches from the pre-owned side of our collection. Captured by our talented in-house photographers, you get a closer look at what makes these watches so special. This week, we have a solid gold neo-vintage Rolex Submariner, a seriously complicated JLC Master Control, a modern-day Omega Ploprof ready to hit the water, a quintessential AP Royal Oak with a blue dial, and a Genta-designed IWC Ingenieur.
The full gold Submariner is just about as cool a flex there is when it comes to precious metal sports watches. We once ran a story called "The Man with the Golden Sub," which followed a diver who exclusively wore an all-gold Sub, putting it through its paces and using it as a dive watch should be used. That's the beauty of a solid-gold Submariner: With it, you get the heft and luster of the 18k gold but lose nothing when it comes to capability. It's damn near perfect in that regard.
The Rolex Submariner ref. 16618 is sort of the quintessential "Gold Sub" because it represents the last vestige of neo-vintage Rolex diver design in precious metal form and because it saw a run spanning close to three decades, right into the era where Rolex switched to the super case, the maxi dial, and the ceramic bezel. The ref. 16618 gives you that vintage, classically proportioned feel, and (in the case of this particular watch) you get the recognizable blue sunray dial and matching blue aluminum bezel. Key things to look at with this piece are the tritium indication beneath six o'clock, meaning the luminescent material on this watch is tritium (giving a high likelihood it will develop a nice patina on the markers) and the strong brushing on the gold case, which plays nicely against the polished center links of the bracelet. The gold Submariner in blue is a classic any way you slice it.
If there's one thing enthusiasts talk about when it comes to Jaeger-LeCoultre, it's the brand's penchant for movement-making. It has a serious history, much like Zenith, in producing movements for the most recognizable names in horology. But don't sleep on the watches themselves. Who are we kidding, though? The Reverso is an icon in its own right that nobody is sleeping on, but maybe we should be paying more attention to the Master Control range of watches. This is where JLC is producing some of its best work when it comes to timepieces fit for everyday use.
Enter this Master Control Calendar watch, which sees JLC playing around with several eras of watch design from the 1930s to mid-century to the modern day. This watch effectively gives you everything you might be pining over from a house like Patek, but that you're getting here at a far more compelling price point. We're talking wonderfully executed annual calendar complication, moonphase/ running seconds subdial integration, and vintage-inspired pointer date. Add this to the mid-century proportions and overall dial layout via the applied numerals, and it's hard to disagree with this offering from JLC.
Hodinkee Lead Editor James Stacey once called the Omega Seamaster Ploprof "the peak of Big Dive Watch Energy" even inventing the acronym BDWE. And we have to agree with his assessment here. Developed in the late 1960s as the original Omega Seamaster 300 faded from existence, the Ploprof was Omega's big swing at designing a true diver's diver. That meant putting function over form (while still considering the form) and crafting one of the most unique designs that has ever been put into production anywhere in the world of watches…from any brand.
But Omega has not given up on the Ploprof, even choosing to update it just this year with a blue anniversary edition affixed to a rubber strap. But what we have here is sort of the quintessential modern design when it comes to the Ploprof. At 55 x 48mm and a manageable lug-to-lug width, this watch is made even more wearable by its titanium construction and mesh bracelet. You still get the hallmarks of a Ploprof via the orange bezel-locking button and the oversized crown protector on the left side of the case (another keystone of the watch's design ethos). This is likely not a watch for everyone, but it's one that exudes a confidence that has persisted for some six decades.
In what is undoubtedly one of the more puzzling components of choosing what Royal Oak is right for you, the calculus has no doubt included choosing between a 15202 or a 15500 series RO. Over the years, those reference numbers have changed slightly, and now you're more likely to be choosing between a 16202 Jumbo or a ref. 15510. The former, despite the name, is actually smaller in diameter than the latter, but we digress as we look more closely at the watch at hand: The AP Royal Oak ref. 15510 in steel with the iconic blue Petite Tapisseire dial.
One key component, visually, you'll notice about the 15510 is the sole Audemars Piguet text near 12 o'clock, whereas the Jumbo will have that plus Automatic just beneath it and the applied AP logo down above six o'clock. And then there's the size. The Jumbo comes in at 39mm with an 8.1mm thickness, whereas the 15510 is larger at 41mm and a 10.5mm thickness. From across a room, you're still getting just about every ounce of iconic Royal Oak design language from this piece. That, and these tend to be priced far better when it comes to pre-owned. In the end, it's all a matter of what you prefer on your wrist.
Rounding out this week's collection is a watch from IWC designed by the very same individual who conceived the Royal Oak: Mr. Gérald Genta. The Ingenieur is something of a cult classic IWC model because it bleeds that core 1970s integrated bracelet design language. That design is something of a departure from the dyed-in-the-wool military pilot motif you're accustomed to seeing the brand produce. Nonetheless, it has gone on to have a considerable fanbase and act as a cornerstone collection in the brand's broader offering.
This particular watch, with its conservative 34mm sizing, dates back to the 1980s and gives you everything you want out of a vintage Ingenieur: full steel construction, the golden accents in the hands and markers, the multiples of IWC branding (serif and script writing), the '70s/'80s Ingenieur logo, and the off-center screws around the bezel. While IWC did revamp the Ingenieur line just this year at Watches & Wonders, it's still a far cry from the throwback design the IW3506 presents. They don't make 'em like this anymore.
For our entire collection of pre-owned watches, go to the Hodinkee Shop.
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