With Christmas just around the corner, I thought this eye-catching watch might be appropriate. Red and gold? Very Christmassy!
(Click pictures to enlarge)
I find it incredible that in a design meeting for this watch, someone said “How about gold with a red dial?” and it was given the green light. Amazing!
However, after a quick search, it seems like gold watches with red dials were a thing during the 1970’s and 80’s, especially at the luxury end of the market. Here are a few examples from Rolex, Cartier, Piaget and Omega.
Whilst re-watching the movie Casino recently, I also spotted that Robert De Niro was wearing a gold watch with a red dial in the diner scene where he confronts Lester Diamond (a quartz Piaget Polo apparently.)
So, if you fancy donning a red shirt and tie, breaking out the ivory suit for that Sam ‘Ace’ Rothstein vibe, there are quite a few options out there.
Not being quite that flamboyant, I bought this watch because, aside from being hilariously over the top by modern standards, how many of these gold 777’s can they have sold, half a dozen, ten maybe?
In the car world there’s a phrase ‘rare, but nobody cares’ and this watch is one of many horological equivalents.
It is however, much better quality than you might imagine. The first thing of note is the case, which has a great Mondia branded caseback and crown and was made by EPSA (Ervin Piquerez S.A), who produced the Compressor cases used on many high quality divers from this period.
The case is also plated to a thickness of 20 microns, which is higher than average by industry standards and is a great barrier against wear-through on the lugs.
Inside the watch is an A. Schild cal. 1913, a ‘top-spec’ 25 jewel automatic with a beat rate of 21,600 bph and a crown operated quickset for the date. The sibling cal. 1902/03 movement (without the quickset) was used in many watches during this period, a few examples I’ve already covered on the blog being the Aquastar Atoll and Seatime divers, and the Glycine ‘Pumpkin’ pilot’s watch.
The watch arrived as a non-runner and a quick diagnosis revealed that the hairspring had been damaged. Not terminally in this case, which was good news, so after a bit of time spent repairing it to put things right, the movement was fully disassembled and serviced without any further issue.
Mondia had also gone to the trouble of matching the date ring to the dial on this model which was a nice touch, so I was pleased to find that all the paint and decals were intact as finding another would have been impossible. (I’ve had a good run on this potential problem so far… long may that continue!)
The case was cleaned and given a spruce up to restore the shine, the crystal was polished and a new caseback gasket fitted to finish the job. The watch also arrived sporting a suitably garish gold bracelet which I cleaned, sized and refitted, though I’ll probably replace that with a gold plated mesh strap at some point.
So there you have it, I now have a ‘Christmas Watch’, at least for this year anyway. Is that even a thing? 🙂
Whilst doing research for this post I spotted that Mondia have recently re-issued another model that I’ve written about on the blog, the Mondia Top Second (the one with the flashing dot.) The watch is available with black, green and also a red dial, but unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view), no gold option.
Finally, rather than posting again in a few days, I’ll use this post to wish all readers a great festive season and all the best for a successful 2024. Have a good time everyone!
Rich.
