World Time

Years of collecting before my first Patek Philippe, and when the moment finally came, it was not a Nautilus. It was a discontinued world timer, the 5130G launched in 2006.

The 5130G is a neo-vintage play, plain and simple, with the micro-rotor calibre I had always wanted to own. A small personal bonus: the city disc still reads Hong Kong, which the newer models dropped. One line of text, but it is my home.

This is where the fun lives in collecting right now. Neo-vintage is the last corner of the market where homework still beats money. I say this from experience. Two of my favourite underdogs, not anymore though, are Breguet and Daniel Roth. Both were quiet buys once. Both have since gone completely mad at auction. And honestly, the hunt is the point. The buying is almost secondary.

It is a thin, quiet watch in white gold on leather, and nothing about it announces itself across a room. The world time is the sort of complication you actually use: one push of the button at ten advances the city disc, the hour hand and the 24-hour ring together. Turn it over and the 22k gold micro-rotor is the reason I wanted this calibre in the first place.

Breguet and Daniel Roth have been found. So has the 3940, the perpetual calendar that flew to irrational prices after Philippe Stern passed away in June 2026. What I took from that is simple: the pieces I am happiest with are the ones I understood before the crowd did. So the next question I keep asking myself, and anyone who will listen, is what the next neo-vintage hidden gem is.