The Perezcope Effect
There Is A New Sheriff In Town
A Curious Case of a Missing Cosmograph
On Jake's Rolex World and Jake's Panerai World, we specialize in telling accurate historical stories as well as busting falsely perpetuated myths. Jose is a member of Jake's Rolex World team, and he specializes in separating-fact-from-fiction in the horological world. Jose is what I refer to as a Horological Forensics Investigator. Jose has eagle eyes and pays a TREMENDOUS amount of attention to detail. Jose is the real deal...
At the end of this story, I provide a link to an interview with Jose on Le Monde Edmond that was published earlier today. It is one of the best interviews I have ever read, so when you are done reading this story be sure to check it out by clicking the red text above or go read it now, then come back and finish reading this story!!!
Jose on a recent trip to Italy in front of the Villino Panerai to meet with Maria Panerai
Jose and I have been collaborating for some time now on both Rolex and Panerai history. The result of some of our collaboration are the two historical timeline posters seen below. I want to point out Jose made and beautifully laid out the posters. I contributed with historical facts, and by consulting on some of the layout elements, as well as adding subject content to better contextualize the timeframes.
The first timeline poster below covers the History of The Rolex SEA-DWELLER. If you examine the poster closely you will see on the left side, vintage Panerai watches that affected the development of the Rolex Submariner and SEA-DWELLER.
The next photo below is titled, "The Panerai Time Machine." This magnificent timeframe poster charts the REAL history of Panerai vintage watches. I highly recommend right-mouse clicking on the poster above and below, and opening them in a new window so you can check out the incredible high-resolution details.
Some people think this is bad for the market, but I think it is great as it stops bad actors from putting forth manipulated watches for the sake of making a fast buck. In the final analysis, Jose's horological forensics investigations result in much better scholarship for the REAL marketplace.
Despite being focused on the vintage Panerai marketplace, Jose has been quietly focused on the vintage Rolex marketplace, and he just fired his first salvo across Phillips Auction House bow. I believe Phillips is innocent and was likely deceived, but this is a serious wake-up call for ALL the horological auction houses.
Below you can see the actual Instagram post:
The photo below is the watch in controversy that Phillips Auction House sold at Auction in 2015, which is a Rolex Chronograph Reference Number 6239, which sold for close to $100,000.
The photo below of the watch in controversy is from Jose's database. Notice the dial has indelible identical markings (circled in red, which are unique like a fingerprint) as the watch above, with the exception, it is missing the word "COSMOGRAPH" below "ROLEX" on the dial. This watch was sold on December 12, 2011, at the Antiquorum Auction House for $27,500.
In Jose's Perezcope Instagram thread seen below, we later see Benjamin Clymer of Hodinkee.com commenting as well as Phillips Auction House response:
The entire response from Phillips Auction House can be read below:
@PhillipsWatches Official Instagram Response
Following this post, we've examined the photos, and even without having the watch in our hands again, we agree the dial appears to have been altered at some point before it was originally consigned with us. We are in the process of reaching out to the buyer to extend our apologies and invite him to return the watch for a full refund.
Since our founding in 2014, Phillips has always sold watches in good faith, and the authenticity of the watches we offer is of paramount importance. We’ve always pledged to address problematic watches in our auctions in good faith in response to any issues raised by the community.
Outside of our own due diligence process, if a watch is proven to be of questionable authenticity before it’s sold, we respond by removing it. In the event a watch is sold and is later determined to be problematic, we back all of our watches with an authenticity guarantee to protect our buyers. We thank @perezcope for bringing this issue to our attention.
We love watches as much as you do and are committed to strengthening this community together with all of you. We apologize to the community, and as always, we welcome your constructive feedback and look forward to enjoying this mutual passion together for many years to come.
I want to respond to Phillips statement, not on Instagram, but here on Jake's Rolex World.
When Phillips said:
"We love watches as much as you do and are committed to strengthening this community together with all of you."
I believe this is a really profound point. All of us, including you—the person reading this—are members of the online watch collecting community, which represents the future of watch collecting. Events like this help the community come together to collectively participate in meaningful discussions only the internet could facilitate. The more people know the truth around the world, the more valuable the real watches become, and I am not specifically referring to value in terms of dollars, but in terms of historical significance.
Now that the cat is out of the bag, one question might be, how did Jose figure out the Rolex 'Solo' had been manipulated? Jose maintains an enormous horological database that has many interesting facts and figures regarding vintage watches. Jose noticed the position of the ROLEX name printed on the dial of the supposed 'SOLO' looked incorrect. So he cross-referenced it in his Daytona Database and discovered the same watch was sold twice. Jose then compared the images of both watches and was able to make a positive ID.
Basically, a 'SOLO' Dial Rolex Daytona is worth much more than a standard dial version that has the 'COSMOGRAPH' dial designation below the 'ROLEX' pad print on the dial. Jose said he believed some bad actors figured out how to use some kind of special solvent to remove just the 'COSMOGRAPH' pad print, which is basically painted, without affecting the 'ROLEX' pad print. The method they used is able to remove the pad printing without any traces—as if it were never there.
DO YOU KNOW THE WAY TO SAN JOSE?
I am used to talking with Jose on a regular basis and he constantly blows my mind with his insight, passion for the truth, and knowledge, so it should come as no surprise in the above-mentioned interview he does it again, but this time in public. Jose's deep and meaningful research and historical knowledge is extremely remarkable, and in the future, Jose and I plan to unveil many more details that will reveal the real and true history of Panerai in a cohesive manner. All I can say is the notion that reality is often more interesting than fiction is on-point in this case.
Jose and I are also working on some really cool Rolex history projects that are mind-blowing...so stay tuned!!!
