The collaboration between Urwerk and De Bethune for the upcoming Only Watch is pretty straightforward: an Urwerk wandering hours time display module mounted on a De Bethune base movement, and housed in a De Bethune case. But it works, and the Moon Satellite is one of the coolest watches of the charity auction.
Conceptually the Moon Satellite is similar to the Arpal One made for the last Only Watch. Long and sleek, the Arpal One was a collaboration between Urwerk and Laurent Ferrier that looked good, but with an enormous case – it was 60.8m long – that was much too large.
The Moon Satellite, on the other hand, is just right. That’s because the case is derived from De Bethune DB28, which is a large watch but one with a smallish footprint and sprung, pivoted lugs that allow it to hug the wrist. The Moon Satellite is slightly larger than a DB28, but almost the same on the wrist.
Entirely in mirror polished titanium, the case looks like a helmet for a warrior robot. Its shape is asymmetric – angular on the lower half and rounded at the top – in order to accommodate the time display. It’s reminiscent of a helmet, but instantly recognisable as coming from Urwerk, having the U-shaped crystal first found on the Urwerk UR-103 and now on the UR-105.
Coincidentally, both Urwerk and De Bethune position the crowns on most of their watches at 12 o’clock, and so there it is. Though it has a similar shape to the standard Urwerk crown, the Moon Satellite crown is flat, so that it can clear the pivoted lugs. But it is too flat, making it difficult to use.
Satellites and a moon
The time display is vintage Urwerk, essentially a 21st century take on the wandering hours complication invented in the 17th century. It uses four satellite discs to indicate the time against a minute scale on the lower edge of the face, with the carrousel carrying the satellites covered by a black “canopy” made of polyetheretherketone (PEEK), a high tech plastic, which has been decorated with a hobnail surface.
But the time display discreetly includes a signature De Bethune complication at six o’clock – the spherical moon phase, which is made of two joined halves, in blued steel and palladium respectively. It’s accurate to a day in 1,112 years, as compared to the norm of 122.5 years.
From the back, the look is vintage De Bethune. The base movement is a De Bethune calibre (I think from the DB2100 family) that’s wonderfully striking.
Both the barrel bridge and base plate are finished with a mirror polish, a decoration inspired by 19th century Chinese market pocket watches and one favoured by De Bethune. The broad expanse of polished metal contrasts against the blued bridges for the balance wheel and triple pare-chute shock absorber – both patented De Bethune inventions.
The balance is made of heat-blued titanium with white gold regulating masses
Concluding thoughts
Proof that the right collaborations make sense, the Moon Satellite is one of the stand outs at Only Watch. Urwerk and De Bethune nailed it, even if the crown is inconvenient.
The estimate, however, feels a bit high. It starts at 120,000 Swiss francs, which is fair enough for the watch, but isn’t low enough to give the bidding some runway, an important factor in drumming up enthusiasm during a live auction. Many of the other watches in the auction, like the Akrivia Rexhep Rexhepi Chronometre Contemporain or Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime, have conservative estimates that will eventually be a fraction of the hammer price.
Key facts and price
Urwerk x De Bethune Moon Satellite for Only Watch 2019
Frequency: 28,800bph, or 4Hz Power reserve: Four days
Strap: Fabric with titanium pin buckle
The Moon Satellite carries an estimate of 120,000-150,000 Swiss francs. It’ll be sold at Only Watch 2019 that takes place on November 9, 2019, at Christie’s in Geneva. For more, visit Onlywatch.com.
Update November 11, 2019: the Urwerk x De Bethune Moon Satellite sold for 300,000 Swiss francs, with no fees since it was a charity auction.
Following the launch of the one-of-a-kind 1858 Split Second Chronograph with a blue agate dial for the upcoming Only Watch charity auction, Montblanc has unveiled a limited edition in bronze with a nephrite jade dial.
The eight-piece edition was created for Salón Internacional Alta Relojería (SIAR), a big watch fair in Mexico City attended by most major brands, explaining the green dial with red accents – a nod to the Mexican flag.
Though the bronze-and-green livery has been applied to multiple models in the 1858 range, the new SIAR edition adds a fascinating point of departure, with the dial being a semiprecious stone rather than the usual lacquered brass.
The dial is essentially a thin slice of nephrite, a mineral better known as jade. It’s usually dark green, but sometimes also yellow or white; white nephrite is known as “mutton fat” jade in China and highly prized. The other mineral also known as jade is jadeite, but it’s harder, denser and often found in brighter colours.
Mechanically and aesthetically, the watch is as retro as it gets. The design of the dial was inspired by a pilot’s chronograph produced by Minerva in the 1930s. It has a double chronograph scales – a telemeter on the outer rim and a snail-shaped tachymeter in the centre.
The rose-gold plated cathedral hands and Arabic numerals are coated with faux-aged lume, as on the regular production model. The red seconds numerals and hand adds a rich contrast against the pleasingly busy dial, ensuring greater legibility.
The pocket watch movement
While the dial is special, the rest of the watch is identical to the standard model unveiled at SIHH earlier in the year. The case is bronze and measures a large 44mm wide and 14.55mm in height.
A single pusher embedded in the crown starts, stops and resets the chronograph, while the pusher at two o’clock activates and resets the rattrapante, splitting the two chronograph seconds hands, allowing the watch to record twin, simultaneously elapsed times of up to one minute.
The size of the watch is not caused by the complication, but because the calibre inside was derived from a pocket watch movement.
Visible through the sapphire case back is the stunning, hand-finished MB M16.31. It is essentially the MB M16.29, which was derived from the pocket watch cal. 17-29 of 1929, but with the addition of a split-seconds mechanism on top.
The MB M16.31 is beautifully decorated with Geneva stripes, perlage and anglage, all done the traditional way. For instance, the anglage, or polished bevels, is executed with a stick of Gentian wood instead of a polishing wheel. And the movement includes with the signature Minerva arrowhead chronograph lever and a large balance wheel that beats at a traditional frequency of 2.5Hz.
Key facts and price
Montblanc 1858 Split Second Chronograph Limited Edition 8 Reference 125603
Diameter: 44mm Height: 14.55mm Material: Bronze Water resistance: 30m
Movement: MB M16.31 Functions: Hours, minutes and small seconds; split seconds chronograph Frequency: 18,000vph (2.5Hz) Winding: Manual wind Power reserve: 50 hours
Strap: Green alligator leather with beige stitching
Limited edition: 8 pieces Availability: Only available at Montblanc boutiques in Mexico Price: €39,500
An F.P. Journe Octa Calendrier caught my eye at Phillips’ upcoming Geneva auction, not because of the watch itself, but because of the name engraved on the movement: “John R. Asprey”.
Now 82, John Rolls Asprey ran his family’s luxury emporium in its heyday, when it was a purveyor of watches, jewels, silverware, fine bookbinding and hunting accessories, with the Sultans of Brunei and Oman as its top clients.
Unusually, Asprey was a prominent name in two diverse segments of watchmaking – what are now valuable vintage watches, think “Khanjar” Rolex watches, as well as modern-day independent watchmaking. How it came to be is the remarkable story of the rise and decline of a grand name in British luxury retail.
A wondrous emporium
Long before luxury brand names had coalesced into conglomerates like LVMH and Richemont, they were independent, family-owned enterprises that were small but globally known – at least by the right clientele. Amongst them were names that are still famous today, including Cartier, Louis Vuitton, and Tiffany & Co., but also one that is less well known now, Asprey of London.
Founded in 1781 and having opened in 1847 at 167 New Bond Street – still its premises today, albeit leased – Asprey was once London’s leading luxury merchant. In some ways, it was the ultimate gift shop, where one could buy all manner of exotic and exquisite goods from all over the world, from books to watches to sceptres to crystal. Many of the elaborate objects in silver and gold were crafted in firm’s own workshops, located just above its retail floor.
Asprey’s customers included several generations of the British royal family, Indian maharajahs, and even one of the Beatles. In fact, Asprey once held the Royal Warrant for every British monarch since Queen Victoria, though it now only holds the Royal Warrant for the Prince of Wales.
It was run by family members since the beginning, and so it was in the 1970s, when the younger generation of Aspreys, namely the cousins John and Maurice, came on board. The pair helped turn the company into a go-to destination for the rich, while still retaining its old world, upscale charm. Asprey became a favourite of the Arab visitors who began to visit London in the 1970s to spend their newfound petrodollars.
Asprey as it is today at 167 New Bond Street, London. Photo – Asprey
Tall and urbane, John Asprey was adept at cultivating clients from the Middle East, travelling to the region regularly. By the mid 1970s Asprey had expanded and opened concessions in Japan, Oman, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain. And it was then that Asprey became the choice supplier of watches to Sultan Qaboos of Oman, who had only taken the throne in 1970 after overthrowing his father.
One of the world’s legendary watch collectors, the Sultan not only built his own vast trove of watches, but he also favoured watches as gifts. Such watches usually bear the Omani national emblem of a khanjar, a traditional Omani dagger with a hooked blade, over two crossed swords, on the dial.
Though many makes of watches bear the khanjar emblem, ranging Patek Philippe to IWC and even Baume & Mercier, most famous are the Rolex sports watches. Many were gifted to the British military personnel who helped the Sultan take power, put down the Dhofar Rebellion, and then modernise the country’s military. For years, Asprey was the supplier of such watches to the royal palace of Oman.
A 1970s Rolex Submariner ref. 1680 with a ref “Khanjar” that sold for about US$300,000 at Phillips in 2018
Bankrolling the independents
But John Asprey himself was also an early and enthusiastic supporter of emerging independent watchmakers. In 1987, Mr Asprey commissioned a young Francois-Paul Journe – who had set up his own workshop in Paris just two years earlier – to build the first of three Sympathique clocks, all of which were panelled in different semiprecious stone and set with diamonds.
Inspired by Abraham-Louis Breguet’s originals, the Sympathique clock winds and sets a pocket watch that is set into a cradle before the owner goes to bed each night, leaving the watch ready to be carried the next day. The clocks were reputedly destined for the Sultan of Oman, who, as it happens, also owns an original Sympathique, one owned by royalty no less. And it was through Mr Asprey that Mr Journe became acquainted with the Sultan and his collection, eventually resulting in further royal commissions for custom-made timepieces.
And in the early 1990s, Mr Asprey ordered 24 tourbillon wristwatches from Daniel Roth, soon to become a star independent watchmaker of the decade. The watches were designed in Mr Roth’s trademark style with a double-ellipse case, but borne the Asprey name on the dial. It was a major gesture of support for a watchmaker who had only struck out on his own in 1989, and something Mr Roth still remembers with gratitude three decades later.
One of the Pendule Sympathiques made by Francois-Paul Journe for Asprey, this one panelled in pink chalcedony. Photo – F.P. Journe
From left: George Daniels, John Asprey, and Francois-Paul Journe, at a 2010 dinner organised by Mr Journe to honour Daniels, whom he considered an inspiration. Photo – F.P. Journe
Empire building
For some two centuries, the Asprey family retained control over the company, though ownership was eventually split between various branches of the family. By 1980 things came to a head when one branch of the family, led by Maurice Asprey and his father Phillip, sold their one-third stake in the business to Dunhill-Logida, a consortium backed by Alfred Dunhill, and businessman Mahdi Al Tajir, then the United Arab Emirates’ ambassador to the United Kingdom.
Dunhill was then owned by Rothmans, the British tobacco giant controlled by South African entrepreneur Anton Rupert via his holding company Rembrandt. In the 1970s, Rupert began to transform his tobacco holdings into a luxury goods empire. Before the bid for Asprey, Rupert had consolidated the various arms of Cartier Monde, forming the base for what is now Richemont. Asprey would have fit neatly into his nascent luxury goods empire; in 1984 Rupert also attempted to buy Tiffany & Co.
But one faction of the family, led by John Asprey, was opposed to selling out. They managed to retain control, with help from a group of investors that included the now defunct British conglomerate Sears. Mr Asprey consolidated his control of Asprey, eventually owning almost half the equity, and listed the company in 1982.
In 1990, Mr Asprey appointed the flamboyant, Palestinian-born Naim Attallah as chief executive, and he took Asprey on a turbocharged expansion spree. While some of the acquisitions were niche and esoteric – an antique clock dealer Ronald A. Lee, Parisian jeweller Rene Boivin, and dressmaker Tomasz Starzewski – most of the big ones were mass market watch and jewellery chains, including Watches of Switzerland and Mappin & Webb, and Swiss watch retailer Les Ambassadeurs.
Asprey’s sales grew from £29m in 1985 to a peak of £188m in 1994. It was said at the time that the firm’s top four clients accounted for 80% of sales – and the top client alone was half of turnover.
And empire’s end
But Mr Attallah’s growth strategy of expanding into the mid-market luxury segment ran headlong into a recession. By early 1995, Asprey was heavily in debt and its share price was down 75% from its 1994 high. Mr Attallah was forced to step down in May 1995, and by the end of the year, the company had been sold to Prince Jefri Bolkiah of Brunei for £243m, twice the market capitalisation at the time, but still below its peak in 1990. Half of the proceeds went to the Asprey family, who sold most of their stake.
Then the country’s finance minister and favourite brother of the Sultan of Brunei, Prince Jefri was reputedly Asprey’s best customer, the top client. But not long after came the Asian financial crisis, which forced the Prince to restructure and then liquidate his many assets.
At the same time, Asprey was haemorrhaging money. In 1999, its turnover was £49m – and its losses just over £100m.
Already having sold most of its subsidiaries, Asprey was finally merged with Garrard, and the resulting Asprey & Garrard (A&G) sold in 2000 to Silas Chou and Lawrence Stroll, who made their billions from their ownership and subsequent sale of Tommy Hilfiger. Having paid £100m for A&G, the duo recruited former senior Louis Vuitton executive Gianluca Brozzetti to run the company.
He proceeded to embark on an expansion spree (again), aiming to grow the brand into a global luxury house to rival Hermes and Louis Vuitton. Asprey drastically expanded its offerings, eventually stocking some 5,000 different products. Earlier in his career, Mr Brozzetti had helped start up Bulgari’s perfume and cosmetics division, so it was unsurprising that Asprey eventually came to sell aftershave and bath soap, all packaged in the firm’s signature purple.
At the same time, the company spent a fortune on real estate, including US$100m just to renovate its flagship in London – which was redesigned by Norman Foster and lost its trademark black and gold facade – and build a new one in New York’s Trump Tower.
In 2002, perhaps to pare their losses, Chou and Stroll sold a 40% chunk to Edgar Bronfman Jr., best known for losing much of his family’s Seagram liquor fortune by buying entertainment conglomerate Vivendi. At the same time, a smaller stake went to the Saudi Ojjeh family of the TAG Group, once the owners of TAG Heuer.
By 2005, A&G was circling the drain. In early 2006, its owners handed over the company to its main creditor, HSBC, wiping out their investment, estimated to be US$500m. The bank then split A&G, selling Garrard to investor Ron Burkle, and Asprey to a pair of American private equity firms, which have been attempting to restore Asprey’s former glory since, with little success. In 2018, Asprey’s revenue was just £20m – less than what it was in 1985 – on which it reported a loss of £16m.
Today Asprey still occupies 167 New Bond Street, but the property is now owned by Hermes, having long been sold sometime during the company’s 20-year downward spiral. The store still sells a diversity of luxury items – and is also a Rolex retailer, probably its lifeline – but lacks the finesse of before. Its own brand of watches, for instance, are essentially rebadged Bovet timepieces. But inside, towards the back, up a small staircase, is a poignant reminder of Asprey’s 1990s heyday – an impossibly baroque, gargantuan clock almost as tall as a man and made of semiprecious stone that was once destined for a palace far away.
And just down the street from Asprey is William & Son, established in 1999 by Mr Asprey’s son William. Now situated on Bruton Street, opposite the Hermes boutique, the store originally opened at another location in September 2000 as “William R. Asprey Esq.” but was forced to change its name in the wake of a lawsuit filed by Asprey. William & Son naturally retails several independent watchmakers, including F.P. Journe.
A bigger clock you never did see
The Asprey F.P. Journe
In 2009, William & Son marked its 10th anniversary, and F.P. Journe helped mark the occasion by producing a special Octa Calendrier with a dial identical to the watch pictured, but with a rotor engraved with the William & Son anniversary notation. Evidently, Mr Asprey received a near identical watch that year.
Mr Asprey’s Calendrier is marked “John R. Asprey” on the barrel bridge, but the movement is otherwise identical to the standard version. While the watch has been worn, it was not worn very much, and remains in excellent shape. It is also accompanied by the original certificate stating it was made for Mr Asprey for the 10th anniversary of William & Son.
The Octa Calendrier is lot 7 in the Double Signed happening on November 9, 2019 in Geneva. The rest of the catalogue can be seen on Phillips.com.
Correction November 3, 2019: William & Son is currently located opposite Hermes, but is on Bruton Street, and not Mount Street, which was its former location.
