tomvox1’s Watches for Sale — 1960s Movado Cal. 95M Chrono w/Stunning Inverse Panda Dial

It”s time to kick off April in stunning style — no fooling. To make that happen I have on offer, a beautiful 1960s Movado caliber 95M chronograph with coveted black dial with contrasting white registers, aka an Inverse Panda dial, one of the most sought after chronograph layouts in vintage watches.

1960s Movado Cal. 95M Chrono Panda

The unique 95M in-house chronograph movement was one of Movado’s crowning achievements and it operates in a funky “upside down” manner, with the bottom pusher starting & stopping the timer and the top pusher resetting it, likely due to its innovative modular design. Also unusual is that the minute counter is calibrated for a full 60 minutes as opposed to the more common 30-minute register found on most chronos.

1960s Movado Cal. 95M Chrono Panda

Further adding to this watch’s allure is the all-stainless steel screwed case, which features an inner anti-magnetic dust cover and was manufactured by FB (Francois Borgel/Taubert & Fils) who also manufactured water resistant cases for Patek Phillipe, Vacheron and Mido among others.

1960s Movado Cal. 95M Chrono Panda

But the real star of the show is the beautiful glossy black dial with contrasting white sub-registers and silver print. That super legible layout gives this 35mm Movado loads of class and wrist presence even with its modestly sized proportions. This 1960s stunner is simply a big league addition to any vintage chronograph collection and is probably still undervalued in the grand scheme of things. Once you behold that Inverse Panda dial and strap it on you’re bound to fall in love with it — just like I did!

1960s Movado Cal. 95M Chrono Panda

Check out the complete ad now over at the always hopping Omega Forums’ Watches for Sale section for many more pictures and complete condition report. I doubt it will last so you better pounce!  SOLD

2019 F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain — Results & aftermath

Mercedes and Hamilton pounce as Ferrari fumble away a win in the desert; Bottas P2 ahead of hard-luck Leclerc while Vettel spins

Ferrari had the dominant car and driver all weekend long. And in Sunday’s race at the Sakhir Circuit in Bahrain everything appeared to be playing out just as it had in practice and qualifying, with a Prancing Horse firmly in the lead. It was their rising young star Charles Leclerc who was dominating from the front, showing his class by fighting back first against his 4-time World Champion teammate Sebastian Vettel when Vettel got away quicker at the start and then leaving the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas in his wake. The 21-year-old pole-sitter looked to be on course for his maiden Formula 1 victory and perhaps the establishment of a new team and driver pecking order in the paddock. But on Lap 46 the dream weekend of Ferrari dominance began to crumble as Leclerc began compiling of engine issues and his blood-red car began losing power with what appeared to be a turbo problem. With Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton running a clean race even though he lacked the pure pace of the Prancing Horse the 5-time and current World Champ was in perfect position to take advantage of the Ferrari’s ill-timed reliability issues. In heartbreaking fashion, Leclerc saw his almost certain victory evaporate as Hamilton’s Silver Arrow relentlessly closed down his previously unassailable lead. On Lap 48 the Englishman passed the wounded Ferrari easily. Worse still for the Scuderia, Bottas was also able to catch up to Leclerc and took away P2.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

In a bare minimum of good fortune for the crestfallen Ferrari pilot the race finished under the Safety Car when both Renaults suffered terminal mechanical failures on Lap 53 of this 57-lap contest. With the drivers forced to hold station for the final few laps, this insured that Leclerc at least made the podium and kept his P3 before Red Bull’s Max Verstappen could dispatch him on track, as the Dutchman most likely would have. But it was cold comfort on a day that promised so much more for the famed team from Maranello and their young Monegasque phenom. To compound Ferrari’s woes Vettel had a disappointing effort. Continue reading →

2019 F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain — Qualifying results

Leclerc scores maiden pole in Bahrain ahead of P2 Vettel to lead Ferrari rebound & front row lockout; Mercedes’ Hamilton only third fastest

After showing disappointingly pedestrian pace at Formula 1’s season opener in Australia two weeks ago, Ferrari rebounded strongly during Saturday qualifying for Round Two at the Sakhir Circuit in Bahrain. And it was their precocious first year driver Charles Leclerc who bested not only the field for his first career pole position but also his 4-time World Champion teammate, Sebastian Vettel. Under the bright lights of this night race in the affluent Persian Gulf nation it was the Monégasque Leclerc who shone the brightest, setting a new track record of 1:27.866, eclipsing Vettel’s previous record lap from last year. With Ferrari back to the form they showed in preseason testing, the Scuderia dominated all practice sessions and then locked out the front row when it really mattered. And their 21-year-old ostensible Number 2 blasted a shot across not only Mercedes’ bow but also senior stablemate Vettel’s. The braintrust at Maranello have to be feeling much better about taking the fight to Mighty Mercedes than they did a fortnight ago after their underwhelming run in Melbourne. Now it’s up to the Prancing Horses to run away from the Silver Arrows come race day tomorrow and prove that it really will be game on for the Constructors’ Title in 2019.

Mercedes were clearly second best on Saturday after dominating the debut race of the season which led to Bottas’ impressive win. Lewis Hamilton did out-qualify Bottas P3 to P4 but then he also led the field from pole at Albert Park and was outclassed by his Finnish teammate. So look for Hamilton to work very hard to best Bottas tomorrow even if Mercedes do not have the pace to challenge for the win against what looks to be a resurgent Ferrari at a track that really seems to suit their blood red cars. Continue reading →

2019 F1 Grand Prix of Australia — Results & aftermath

Game on at Mercedes — Bottas earns dominant victory in season opener, Hamilton a distant second; Red Bull’s Verstappen gets first Australian podium with strong P3; Ferrari flummoxed

After getting pipped for the pole in Melbourne by Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton in Saturday qualifying for the season opening Australian Grand Prix Valtteri Bottas and the rest of the F1 world could be forgiven for thinking “here we go again.” But come race day at the Albert Park hybrid street circuit, Bottas decided to flip the script that saw him playing wingman to Hamilton’s team leader for the past 2 seasons. After earning precisely zero victories in 2018, Bottas spent the off season hardening his body and mind. And when the lights went out to start a race for the first time in 2019 the Finnish driver leapt away from the line and left Hamilton in his rearview mirrors. Bottas quickly established such a comfortable lead over his 5-time and current World Champion teammate that Hamilton was never able to make a dent in it for the entirety of this 58 lap Grand Prix. While the team brought Hamilton in for Medium compound Pirelli tires on Lap 16 in response to the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel’s stop a lap earlier, Bottas kept swanning away on track for several more laps on the preferred Soft rubber. Running in clean air, Bottas actually increased his lead and took it all the way to Lap 23 for his first and only stop, also going onto the Mediums.

Crucially, Bottas got on better with both those tires and his machine than Hamilton, who was left grumbling about pit strategy and the poor performance of his Pirellis relative to his teammate. No on in the field had anything for Bottas in this year’s Australian GP. In the end he dusted Hamilton by over 21 seconds, laying down a promising marker — as well as the fastest lap of the race, which earns a bonus point this year — and serving potential notice that this year Hamilton could be facing the stiffest challenge since the determined Nico Rosberg was his Silver Arrows stablemate. Of course one swallow does not make a spring but the dominant performance by Bottas Down Under can only serve to increase his confidence for the fight ahead of him. It should also be interesting to see whether the previously cordial relationship between the two Mercedes drivers remains the same or if Bottas will have to deal with the head games that Lewis deployed on Rosberg now that he has a teammate who may once again pose a genuine threat.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen ran an excellent race nearly mounting a challenge against Hamilton for second place in the debut of the team’s new Honda power unit. Though the Dutchman ran out of laps he still earned his first Aussie podium and was far quicker than the Ferraris. Continue reading →

2019 F1 Grand Prix of Australia — Qualifying results

Hamilton lays down marker for 2019 with pole run in Melbourne, pipping Bottas to lock out front row for Mercedes; Ferrari’s Vettel only good enough for P3 start in first race of new season

After the long, dark winter the new 2019 Formula 1 season began in earnest at the sunny Albert Park circuit in Melbourne, Australia on Saturday with the first qualifying session of the year at the now traditional opening weekend from down under. Proving that the more things change the more they stay the same, Mercedes’ ace Lewis Hamilton, the current reigning World Champion, snatched pole out of the hungry hands of his Finnish teammate, Valtteri Bottas. With Bottas entering his third year with the factory Mercedes team desperate to give Hamilton more of a challenge and shed his wingman reputation it looked midway through Q3 that he’d done enough to get the better of Lewis. But Hamilton marshaled a mighty final lap of just 1:22.043, good enough for the lap record, as well as the pole over his crestfallen teammate by a mere .012 seconds.

If Bottas was dismayed yet again by Hamilton’s unearthly quali pace Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel must also have had a sinking feeling of deja vu. After finishing second to Hamilton in the championship for the last two seasons and working under a new team boss after Maurizio Arrivabene was canned in favor of former technical director Mattia Binotto, Vettel could only have been disheartened to find the pace of this year’s model of Prancing Horse still wanting that certain bit of magic in comparison the peerless Silver Arrows. Vettel could do no better than P3 with a time some seven-tenths slower than his pole-sitting nemesis. Vettel’s new teammate Charles Leclerc, who made the leap from last year’s sister Sauber team to Ferrari’s second seat, displacing veteran Kimi Raikkonen in the process, acquitted himself very well with a solid P5 run his first time out of the chute. Leclerc was bested, though, by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who pushed his now-Honda powered chassis to the very edge and up to a P4 qualifying time. It was difficult to get a true read on Red Bull and their engine partners, however, as Verstappen’s new teammate Pierre Gasly, who was promoted from Toro Rosso, got caught out by rapidly improving track conditions in Q1 and was bounced with only the 17th fastest time in that first session. Look for a lot of passing from Gasly early in tomororw’s race as he looks to atone for that lackluster effort and show that team Red Bull made the right choice is letting Daniel Ricciardo to give him the first team drive.

Further down the order, the Haas F1 team made a strong opening bid to earn the “best of the rest” moniker, as the returning duo of Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen qualified P6 and P7 respectively. Continue reading →

What we’re reading — Becoming Elektra: The True Story of Jac Holzman’s Visionary Record Label by Mick Houghton

If you’re a classic Rock fan with a particular interest in the 1960s like me then Becoming Elektra: The True Story of Jac Holzman’s Visonary Record Label by Mick Houghton is a must read piece of music history. As its long subtitle proclaims, Becoming Elektra is both a biography of legendary music executive Jac Holzman and also a testament to Elektra Records’ uniquely eclectic and pervasive impact on the popular music of the baby boomer generation. Houghton traces Holzman’s pioneering technical efforts and prescient eye for talent with admirable thoroughness from the Folk boom of the 1950s and early ’60s to the LA-based psychedelic Rock explosion of the late ’60s to the Soft Rock adult contemporary acts that came to dominate radio in the ’70s.

Most famous for signing The Doors, Holzman’s legacy is much more than that admittedly awesome feat. He comes across as a fascinating and driven guy with an unusually compassionate feeling for his artists, as well as something of a technical visionary and studio perfectionist with a super wide range of musical tastes. A native New Yorker from a reasonably prosperous family, Holzman returned to the city determined to make his mark in music after precociously forming Elektra while still in college. Like so many of his generation he found that the action was happening downtown in Greenwich Village, where he opened a record store in 1951 with a small recording studio in the back. Holzman’s soon realized that the sound on the records for the folk performers of the time was nothing like the richness of their live performances. So Holzman abandoned selling records and focused on seeking out unique new talents and then recording them to their best possible advantage. That became the Elektra signature throughout his years running the label.

The list of artists that Holzman corralled is nothing short of astonishing. In the folk era it included Village stalwarts like Jean Ritchie, Phil Ochs, Judy Henske, Fed Neil, Tom Paxton and Tom Rush, as well as reviving the career of Blues pioneer Josh White and discovering a young Coloradan with a big voice named Judy Collins. Continue reading →

Getting ready for the 2019 Rolex 24-Hours at Daytona

That great harbinger of a new year’s racing season gets underway today — the Rolex 24-Hours at Daytona. The official start of IMSA’s ultra-competitive Weathertech Sportscar Championship, America’s answer to the WEC, and the unofficial starting gun for the feast of motorsports that lies ahead of us in 2019, this year’s Rolex 24 will feature a dazzling array of high tech cars and the world’s best drivers.

The grueling overnight marathon inevitably attracts top talent as third and fourth drivers for teams with deep pockets and this year is no exception. In the Prototype class, Acura Team Penske will add Indy stars Simon Pagenaud and Alexander Rossi to their regular two-car lineup of Juan Pablo Montoya & Dane Camron and Helio Catsroneves & Ricky Taylor respectively. Meanwhile Wayne Taylor’s redoubtable #10 Konica Minolta Cadillac gets a serious infusion of star power with Toyota WEC teammates, Le Mans winners and former F1 aces Fernando Alonso and Kamui Kobayashi bolstering regulars Renger van der Zander and Jordan Taylor as they try to defend their overall Weathertech Championship in this crucial first contest. Continue reading →

1968 Vintage Rolex 1600 Datejust Smooth Bezel

tomvox1’s Watches for Sale — 1968 Vintage Rolex 1600 Datejust Smooth Bezel

It may be a new year but my obsession remains great vintage watches. Which is why I’m very happy to make my first offering of 2019 a classic and uncommon reference 1600 Rolex Datejust with smooth bezel in all-stainless steel.

1968 Vintage Rolex 1600 Datejust Smooth Bezel

This 1600 DJ dates from 1968 and features a super clean silver sunburst dial with original Tritium luminous and a minimally polished case. The special thing about the 1600 Datejust is its smooth, Explorer-style bezel. This reference was also made in much fewer numbers than the more ubiquitous fluted white gold bezel 1601 and the castellated steel 1603.

1968 Vintage Rolex 1600 Datejust Smooth Bezel

On the wrist all those clean lines translate into an absolute knockout. Even better, the stalwart caliber 1575 Chronometer movement has been recently serviced for maximum future reliability and faithful service for many more years to come.

1968 Vintage Rolex 1600 Datejust Smooth Bezel

Supplied with a very attractive and suitable shell cordovan strap this Datejust is a beautiful synthesis of sportiness and elegance. Its timeless design is just as handsome and masculine today as it was when it was manufactured those 50 years ago. So start the year in classic vintage Rolex style and make this great Datejust your own today!

1968 Vintage Rolex 1600 Datejust Smooth Bezel

Check out the complete ad with many more pictures and complete condition report over at Vintage Rolex Forum’s Market section. You’ll be glad you did.  SOLD

Men’s Cologne — Icon by Alfred Dunhill

Dunhill Icon is definitely more than just a pretty flaçon. Contained within the exceptionally heavy and cool textured steel-jacketed bottle, which resembles one of their vintage Deco or Mid-Century table lighters, is a very fine modern take on the classic fougére.

Described by the house as a “woody-aromatic” what comes across on first sniff is more like a new riff on Dior’s original Eau Sauvage, with a less sweet but still fizzy neroli/bergamot combo exhilarating the senses while a nice black pepper note plays against this enticing semi-fruity opening. The orange-pepper vibe also brings to mind (or nose) Terre d’Hermes, though Icon is no where near as earthy as that influential composition. And the spicy pepper in Icon works just as well as it does in Chanel’s more grapefruit-oriented Bleu, undergirding the composition beautifully to let the citric notes, especially the very orangey neroli, do their thing in pleasantly bright and naturalistic fashion.

Where Dunhill falls short of Bleu de Chanel and my other favorite classy modern crowd pleaser, Acqua di Gio Profumo, is in its lackluster performance. Officially classified as an Eau de Perfum, this moniker can only be referring to the quality of the ingredients and the concentration of natural oils in the juice because it certainly doesn’t project or last like a Parfum. More like an Eau de Cologne or, in fact, like the utterly pleasant but notoriously weak Eau Savage EDT.

While the note pyramid is almost comically overstuffed with wishful thinking ingredients like oakmoss, leather and the ubiquitous note du jour, oud, I get little to none of these. Continue reading →

2018 F1 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi — Results & aftermath

Hamilton finishes historic season in style with dominant win in Abu Dhabi; Vettel runner-up, Verstappen P3

Newly minted 5-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton resisted complacency and instead turned in another vintage Hammertime performance to cap off a historically successful 2018 Formula 1 season. Mercedes’ ace lead the race from pole, dominating from the front, and never faced a serious challenge in Sunday’s in Abu Dhabi Grand Prix from futuristic Yas Marina, the final race of the year. Hamilton picked up his 11th victory out of 21 contests and scored his record-setting 408th championship point. For as close as the season seemed at just a little over the halfway mark, Hamilton and Mercedes dominated Ferrari down the stretch en route to the team’s fifth Constructors’ title on the trot since the start of the current hybrid formula. Ferrari have got to be hoping that next year’s rule tweaks can slow the German juggernaut down in 2014. The fabled Scuderia were left pondering the ashes of another failed campaign and wondering where exactly they lost their way not long after the summer break. The Prancing Horses seemed poised to take their challenge to Mercedes’ dominance down to the wire after Vettel’s victory at Spa in August. But then Hamilton reeled off 6 wins in the last eight races with Kimi Raikkonen at COTA in the United States the only Ferrari driver standing on the top step during that amazing run. There will have to be a lot of midnight oil burnt at Maranello during the short winter break if Ferrari and Vettel are to have any hope of catching up to what is now officially a dynastic championship run by Hamilton and mighty Mercedes.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

The race got off to a scary start on the opening lap when the Renault of Nico Hulkenberg and the Haas of Romain Grosjean touched wheels while fighting for the same piece of real estate, sending Hulkenberg’s car airborne and barrel rolling several time before ending up in the energy-dispersing “Lego” barriers upside down. The helpless Hulkenberg was extracted from the car after some time and emerged unscathed, though the time it took to get him out did bring home the double-edged nature of the Halo system. Things might not have been so positive had his car been on fire during all the time it took to get Hulkenberg out of there safely.

Thankfully, though, the German was unhurt and the race resumed when the Safety Car came in at the end of Lap 4. Hamilton once again vaulted to the lead on the restart, while the Red Bull of Max Verstappen began making up places at a furious pace after software issues at the very start of the race saw the Dutchman drop like a stone from his initial P6 position on the grid. Continue reading →