Talking Watches With René Beyer

we're here in Zurich Switzerland to talk to a man who's a retailer a museum curator and a watchmaker he's also a watch collector his name is Rene buyer and today we're talking watches well thank you Rene's so much for joining us it's really a pleasure to sit here in your beautiful museum and to chat with you you know for me it's also not the daily experience I have today so I look forward to the interview and welcome to everybody great if we can start can you tell us a little bit about where we are right now about this museum and your store upstairs well in reality I could tell you we are underneath varnish walls here in Zurich and this is home almost for 50 years now for this museum and just above us is your store as well yeah you should not forget to mention that it's the oldest business as far as I know we always said Switzerland but when we realized we are older than the United States as a country we were slowly modestly starting to say well we consider even probably we are the oldest no watch'n jewelry business in the world especially still being in family possession and you're what generation well guess I do not look like 250 years old but I'm a generation so in general make about 35 years on the business actively so you you've really grown up in watches you've been around watch as your whole life but but we have here your first watch a Rolex day just oyster quartz yes miss the integrated bracelet with the oyster bracelet it's a very nice watch it even bears my initials on the back and I got that at age of 16 so just one year after I left Zurich to go to the French part of Switzerland and this has followed me through all my journeys at the school of new shuttle and of lush route phone and I only gave it up afterwards around the age of 22 or 23 and I got interesting other watches and we have another day just here as well what's the story behind that HS well this is hip for the 90s to have a watch that was not stainless steel but also not all gold I like to be in a way mortars this was probably my most bling-bling watch I have I rather prefer even if it's not how a stainless steel having color such as Ray or silver like it is the case with platinum or with stainless your titanium and continuing with Rolex we we have a pair of day dates here that are in some ways very similar and in some ways very different mm-hmm you're absolutely right this is the watch my father was wearing as his white gold watch and when he died he passed away and fortune and too we had kind of split up of his personal watches within the family and I was immediately saying well this I would love to have it was the same watch that also Audrey Hynek a very close friend of my fault they were together in the military it's like army seals or people that are in the army you have a relationship everywhere in the world which is uncompelled when you have been sleeping with the cows in a farmhouse and after that you go back to a company like Rolex or buyer they kept a relationship a friend all through 40 years until the death of mr. Audrey honey go so this is also a watch that mr. order Chanukah was wearing the same model probably had many more watches but in all the catalogues it was always this presidential Rolex day-date which of course is something special everywhere when I was in America this was the watch that everybody wanted to have that was before Daytona wasn't coming on the market and another one that is a very very special piece to me for our 250th anniversary Rolex was asking us what we would love to happen it was just a year where they started to make this beautiful dials for the platinum watch his eyes Lulu Island it has from Rolex also an engraving you can perhaps read it's 250 years with our logo I wear it for very special occasions especially when I I have to chance to go to Rolex and so so far we've mostly been dealing with watches from your personal collection but we also have quite a few pieces from the museum collection which is in in some ways your family's collection so thinking about your relationship with Rolex we then have this watch which is an extremely special watch absolutely because this is the watch that has been given to my grandfather by mr. Hans Wilsdorf it's also engraved on the back side and it is also as a piece already there it was the famous day-date watch so you're very happy to have also these pieces in our collection anything with the piece that was on the Baptiste cup of oak we speak our 10960 metres below the water surface and on the other side you have the beautiful watch which is so called we don't know if it was Sherpa Tenzing or a edmund hillary wearing it on the top of Mount Everest in the 1953 expedition to that still incredible mountain and what makes it very special you can put it even over your suit you will see the bracelet is still the original one because it was impossible to think that they would have been able to open their wrists like that so they had to wear it like the pilots during World War two over there combination because at minus 40 degrees Celsius lianna what to so it's very special and it has the original tag from Edmund Hillary when he sent it from New Zealand and this is what makes us very happy that this watch is now in a place where everybody can see it that's like I still dream of having a watch that was on the moon everything that has been at the place that seems so unreal is something we need to have in the museum yeah and I mean that that's what they watched it as well right okay of course this was not the one that was on the baptists cap otherwise they would not have made it stainless t gold I was told that Rolex offered two very special partners the version in stainless the gold which is of course understandable it was exactly produced the same way yeah have you ever tried to wear this why honestly you know I now that you say that I'm tempted to try the outer yeah okay why don't we try it if you have a second oh wow I have to eat more this would be the first doctor saying you need to eat more in order to wear this watch it so P I never had this on my wrist you make me learn today things I did not know but it really looks like a little different the cake on the wrist right another brand that your family has a close relationship with is Patek Phillipe and we seek your on kind of both trays your your sort of personal watches and the museum watches watches that that represent that we have re Patek Phillipe sear all of which are very special and unique to buyer can you talk us through the three pieces okay one is a piece that was made not that many years ago it was the pre serie of the new chronograph that Patek has developed was that beautiful move on I think it was two reference 5000 170 but for buyer they decided to make the first 50 pieces with the toffee meat instead of the telemeter scale so this is a very special piece because paddock was making it for our 250th anniversary for our clients how many of them were made 50 pieces the pieces now there is another piece you have perhaps heard that we are the first Swiss retailer having a Patek Phillipe booty I feel always when I speak about paddock it's such a special relationship so they also decided for the fifth anniversary of that boutique which was in 2016 to make a special edition so panic and us we allow ourself to make commemorative pieces for the good of both companies and we can always help special collectors to get things in their collection which are even more special than what is already special that reduces here this is 3450 this is for me a very special piece because back in 1983 when I started to sell watches in our company this was my first watch I saw I first saw a Swatch watch on the same day and then in the up to know my uncle my aunt came and I suggest the temas and investment to buy this watch and today I will never sell this piece anymore this is also a part now indirectly of the museum but it's still in my private possession as long as I live but this is so special also because it is signed with buyer and whenever you have a piece that you find go for it this was about 10 15 % definitely more than a piece without retailer signature and we see that special buyer signature carry through to to a pair of pieces over here at $24.99 and then a 39 40 as well and I know we were talking a little bit before this 39 40 has a really amazing story behind it as well yeah it's also the story of recognition of Phillip stone the relationship he had with my father Teddy buyer they were really very close friends this product was actually the follower of this perpetual calendar and this was bearing that famous movement 240 automatic with decentralized micro rotor and this is for me still like an iconic watch I think if I could choose the watch of the last century which is the most beautiful one it's $24.99 but this is really the watch that my father was always loving it it was an honor for us to have the first 25 pieces that paddock ever produced of calibre 240 in this particular case for us as a pre serie of the 225th anniversary of our company for the collects it's important to know 15 of them were made in German language and 10 pieces in English okay and then this one even more special when you turn it over it says number one and has a special engraving that's right number one it says also on the dial which is very unusual because betting only puts the number for the turbine or sound on the dial you mentioned particularly Peter beyond I have never seen one of these before this is a massive rectangular yellow gold mm-hmm protects her beyond with a really interesting history can you tell us about the history of this piece yeah I could but I want to know what would you like to offer me for that I think it might be a little big for me well I think I would wear this yeah with the blue coat it would perfect right in the same year that we celebrated 225th anniversary my father was saying you know I always loved peace which panic was having and Phillip at that time he was knowing that they had three made but only one was finished as a piece and so they knew they're still spare parts which they may but they never assembled these watches so all suddenly this watch was all finished and it was offered to my father for a very reasonable price and this was another so-called gift from panic to our museum which really makes it very special because the saw peace has been afterwards also finished about ten years later and has been sold rocking and I don't remember the price but it was definitely a lot more than what we had to pay a fee right you know for me these are figures and if for any reason this museum would be all gone destroyed by fire or water what should I do with the money all the emotions all the love I have with the pieces you can never compensate me with money for what we have here so we have a responsibility and I know that you have many collectors and they should also think about not just profit profit is good but the museum we have pieces like this tower clock movement we bought for 10,000 Frank we restored it for 90,000 and we would put it up for sale it with power bring 25 thousand so it's not always thinking of making profit it's about importance of having goods which belong to this society and to make it for future generations possible to admire it so you don't want to buy I was looking a lot we'll talk afterwards okay off camera yeah what's our off camera oh I think the last Patek Phillipe we have here is this piece which is a watch you almost never see these are so hard to find and half the time when you do find them there's something not quite right about them you're also right and oh you know Cote a was seen betting these mechanisms and this is the version that also still exists today with the tool buttons where you could put just our hand one hour before or backward depending on what you wanted to show when you were traveling and I know that my father was at the Henry Stern war changes in New York and they were when he was over there in 1958 I think they were working on this mechanism so this piece also is very special even it has no dedication or something but you see the red dot means never ever sell another watch that I know has a connection to your father is is this watch which is a Daniel's pocket watch but it's it's not just any Daniels pocket watch so this watch of course George Daniels it was another important friend of my father he was always inviting his good friends to the Isle of Man and after fondue or raclette my father had always to bring the cheese he was coming up and saying Teddy I would still have some security took out his papers sneezing paper and in it it was this watch and he just said Teddy this watch I think it belongs to you he never was speaking about the price it was impossible to negotiate the price so when he said this is the word for you with just that we say thank you and how can I make the money transfer to you that was how George Daniels was and of course today we are very happy to be home of some of the pieces he has produced and they're always going directly from the hands of him to my father so that makes it even more valuable for us and the museum and then you have some other watches here that this is one non Swiss watch there's only one other non Swiss watch we have on the table and that's this watch from London zona mm-hmm in 1994 I was invited with certain other retailers in Germany and I must say this is the watch I I liked first non-typical long a watch with black dial and I like it because it has also luminous hands and it has the zero reset it's like a chronograph everything goes back to zero for the sweep second hand and I can just really to the second or synchronize the minute hand with the sweep second day so this is a mechanism that I was missing in all our collection and now we have it yeah and going back to something that's very typical Swiss and kind of stands out I think monks the rest of the collection but it is great is this mundane Swiss railway watch yeah and this one is even more special than the apples that they make and what you see now if it gets to 59 it stops and it starts again while the minute end has just been jumping it's like at every railway station in switzer they still have this mechanism this is for me like inventing the Smart Watch this is really a smart watch its way of course the railway clocks which are in the stations they function differently they have radio signals so to make it happen in a race what I don't know how they made it I'm very proud to have this watch because it's not always what this most expensive it is what this most create different what is trying to make something happen which everybody says you can't do it you mentioned your love of transportation and this watch ties into that as well well you touch me again this is my it's love in a way and now you know what happened to Breitling just last year so I feel special in a way that I have been able to enjoy that relationship was Teddy Schneider so closely that he was giving me after super constellation watch which was made in a Serie of ten pieces first for the crew of the airplane they made also a Serie of 1049 pieces exactly like that with the mentioning super constellation but I have a double double zero number out of ten since I took over the business I have added about 10% of the pieces in the museum 90% has been by my father Sora he will always remain the one that has been really having the guts and intelligence to start this collection but I'm proud in my modest way to continue to bring you also some interest to the general public and also make this collection being one of the so-called top 5 museums in this world I think that's very same you [Music]

Channel: Hodinkee

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Keywords: HODINKEE, HODINKEE Talking Watches, Talking Watches, Talking Watches with Rene Beyer, Rene Beyer, Beyer Chronometrie, Rolex, Patek Philippe, Edmund Hillary watch, Mondaine watcgh, Breitling, Rolex Deepsea

Id: ke_RlhwfSew

Length: 19min 13sec (1153 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 19 2018