Post pics of your watches ***Please NO QUOTING PHOTOS***

*following post only for your geeky early quartz types*

Following on from a previous post where our own CarltonBrowne had discovered another maker (Revue) to add to the list of manufacturers who used the Girard Perregaux 300 series quartz calibre. The reference books list GP, JLC, Favre Leuba and Breitling, to which we can also add C-B's Revue to the list. For future reference and google and since pics of these seem hard to find, here's a movement photo of the Breitling 352 movement:





Well to quote Yoda "there is another"…



The case is your standard enough early 70's GP type, the movement is marked as a GP 352. So far so typical.

Turn it over and we have something not so typical and unknown until now.



Produced/marketed by Consul. Consul and GP entered into a mutual business arrangement in the late 60's(up to mid 70's IIRC), so I had kept an bay search going just on the off chance… And this turns up in the Swiss ebay. Consul seem to have been more a "jewelry" watch producer at this time. Lots of gold pendant watches and ladies watches with the odd chronograph thrown in. This watch very much continues in the "bling" vein. Though it doesn't come across at all well in my amateur photos, to the Mark 1 Human Eyeball it's very gold. The dial and dial markings are a different shade of gold and the hands are gold. Upon a quick glance the time is "half past gold o'clock".

While GP produced a rare dial variant with a printing of the chip design, Consul went more old school "computer" with the dial being an IBM punchcards motif, that would have been still in use and in the public consciousness at the time.



Here's the inner caseback also signed Consul.

Comparing the watch to contemporary GP's, it's good quality, but the case finishing isn't quite as high. You may be able to make this out in the movement pic. The "unseen" parts of the case are left pretty much as they came out of the mould and are a little rough, whereas with a GP they would get a further lapping treatment(CarltonBrowne's Revue had this further finishing). The dial quality is the same as a GP and the hands are GP hands.

It would just be my opinion and conjecture, but because of their close business arrangement I suspect it was made "in house" by GP themselves and this is why they didn't stamp Consul on the movement subplate. I further conjecture for the same reason that there weren't that many produced. The other option is that the original Consul stamped movement was swapped out at some time in the watches past, but having taken it down to it's various parts, they all look contemporary.

The problems with my example are the movement isn't working, the quartz crystal/can is dead(a working "new" one I ripped out of a cheap casio makes it "tick" if I touch it to the circuit), the battery clamp is missing and it's missing the crown. I have a working movement in one of my GP's and it even has the exact same date stamp on the chip, but I've held off cannibalizing it so far. I don't have a crown that fits, so was keeping my eye on the bay for a similar working GP to break for parts. Condition wise it's pretty good. Doesn't seem to have had much wear. The gold plating and the underlying brushing is very good and the dial is tip top. The date advances(a weak point on these IME) and the keyless works seem fine too.

So there you have it folks, another small addition to our understanding of the early days of quartz and its place in horology. And it goes to show that oddball and rare stuff that can "rewrite the books" still show up on the Bay if you keep an eye out/are a nutcase

CarltonBrowne wrote: »

I've been waiting for this one to surface. As you say, the really nice thing about this is the computer ticker-tape motif on the dial - it makes it very much of its' time.

It sure does and if any wealthy rap artist type with a geeky side is reading this...

I wouldn't over-hype the finishing on the Revue, btw, Keitht's comments that it was also rough but he might have been comparing it to a JLC rather than GP (though I'd hope they were comparable).

Just going on my experience with them in the hand the GP's themselves vary a little in finish and weight/quality of steel. EG my Oval shaped ones aren't quite as well finished as my chunky tonneau example. The latter is as well finished as the JLC ones I've handled. Your revue looks like GP quality finish to me.

One of the problems with this geeky, early quartz era is that most of the manufacturers would probably like to bury the whole period discreetly.

Agreed, though I have found in the past Longines are unusual in not being like that. They were even quite interested in my tuning fork Ultronic when I asked for info on it. It seems as long as it has the winged eggtimer on the dial they don't give a feck and are happy to acknowledge and celebrate it.

GP of all people should be shouting their involvement from the rooftops. Given that a) they still make a high quality quartz movement and b) they set the definitive standard for pretty much every single analogue quartz watch that followed, from the cheapest Hello Kitty watch from argos, through the high end Seiko of today to the blingiest ladies Patek. Never mind that so many of those 40 year old watches are still running today and 90% of the ones that aren't can be made work by swapping in a brand new quartz crystal, because everyone still uses the frequency they set back then. Oh and the fact that the GP movement replaced jewels with teflon bearings means maintenance and oiling was a thing of the past.

On the other hand I can see why they and others are a little squeamish about the whole period. Since the reinvention and marketing of the mechanical movement as "luxury" and the higher profits made from that, bringing up a past where their watches were just as well made, far more accurate and needed far less maintenance and were more expensive at the time(for less profit) kinda butts up against their marketing and accounting depts. It's one reason I always had a soft spot for Seiko, they don't think like this. They're happy to run the gamut from cheap quartz and mechanicals all the way up to expensive quartz and mechanicals, while adding in real innovations like Springdrive while they're at it.

Still, it does mean that collectors can buy into these early quartz for a lot less outlay than what their contemporary mechanicals fetch. Even at the high end. I mean you can source a quartz Omega Marine chronometer, still one of the most accurate timepieces ever made(and with the Cousteau connection to boot), for around 2000 quid and sometimes less, yet a Ploprof of the same vintage could be three times that.

Nature of the market though. Look at the prices the "Steve McQueen" Heuers make, for a watch he only wore for publicity shots, shots that were directly orchestrated by Heuer. Whereas the watch he actually wore, a 1940's Hanhart chronograph with more actual history and watchmaking skill than Heuer could have dreamed of, you can get for at least a third less. /rant :)