Happy Tycoon

Chapter 52: Master Cottier

Lying on the big bed without an image, Yang Jing pressed this extremely precious watch firmly on his chest with both hands, and it took a long time to comfort the heart that almost jumped out of his throat.

Yang Jing didn’t even dare to look at this watch attentively, for fear that he couldn’t pull it out when his eyes were stuck in.

From the first sight of this watch, Yang Jing has been convinced that this is definitely a Patek Philippe platinum world time watch, and it was made by Master Lewis Cottier himself.

Without him, you can see this just by looking at the unique shape of the second hand.

Lewis Coutier’s works have a remarkable feature, that is, the unusual shape of the hands, especially the hour hands, are completely handmade, and the hands in each watch are slightly different. This became the ‘signature” of the master Louis Cottier, which distinguishes it from other watches.

And this characteristic of Master Lewis Cottier is also unique in the world!

The case of this precious world time watch has a diameter of 39.5 mm and the strap is black. The most important thing is that whenever Yang Jing sees the unique black and white 24-hour dial, the heart will accelerate involuntarily beat.

This is a Patek Philippe platinum world time watch!

Even before they discovered this watch, people all over the world thought that there was only one piece of this watch.

Even Master Lewis Cottier did not say that he had made a second watch of this type.

But in fact, the three letterheads that appeared along with this piece of the watch proved that Master Lewis Cottier had indeed made a watch of the same type in the past, and also revealed a little-known piece of Master Cottier. Of the past.

In the watch industry, when you mention the master Lewis Cottier, everyone will say that he is a watchmaking genius who has surpassed his time!

When I mention this master watchmaker, I have to talk about the world clock.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the embryonic form of world time was still vague. With the deepening of the second industrial revolution, with the invention of trains, ships, and automobiles, mankind’s ability to break through space constraints has become greater and greater, making travel between two cities far apart relatively easy. At the same time, with the invention of the telegraph, instant communication on a global scale has become possible, which requires a unified setting of time around the world.

Especially on a certain day in that era, trains from two cities at different times collided due to improper time coordination. For this reason, Shengford Fleming, a railway engineer employed by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company at the time, became determined to change the status quo.

In 1876, Shengford Fleming suggested that the world time should be summarized into 24, and every 15 degrees of longitude should be the same time zone in the world, and 24 of the 26 English letters except “J, Y” should be named. At first, people did not realize the importance of world time, because after all, only trade or workers like him need it. As he spared no effort to report to each other, the concept of world time was finally recognized at the International Meridian Conference in 1884.

The world’s first dual-time zone pocket watch that was subsequently born is called “Captain’s-watches”, which is mainly used by train drivers.

As the creators of time, after the promotion of the concept of universal time, watchmakers have been devoted to exploring the secrets of displaying time in multiple regions and even the world at the same time.

Universal time was first applied to pocket watches, but when it comes to the originator of modern world time watches, it is the world time zone mechanism invented by Master Cottier in 1935.

The world time watch is a kind of time zone watch, which can display the time of more than 24 cities. The world time watch is the most complicated time zone watch, and it is the well-deserved almighty king in the time zone watch. By displaying 24 different time zones around the world, and adjusting the major cities pointed to on the dial scale to adjust to the local time, holding the world time watch in hand, as if grasping the pulse of the world, 24 simultaneous beating hearts indicate every time corner.

On September 28, 1894, Master Cotier was born in Carouge, Geneva, a small place in Sardinia under the rule of the Bourbon dynasty.

Cottier’s father, Emali, was already a well-known watchmaker at the time and owned a small workshop in Le Saint-Victor, Switzerland.

When Cottier grew up, he studied at the Geneva Watch School. Because he was good at repairing complicated watches, he was recommended to Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf by the famous watch historian Alfred Chapis and commissioned the restoration. And maintain the precious antique watches in his collection.

Facts have proved that this professional study has profoundly affected Cottier and benefited him a lot in the years that followed, especially during the Great Depression. After the end of his studies, he successively served as a technical instructor in several local factories. After the economic crisis in the late 1920s, many factories were forced to reduce their output, while the factories he served directly closed down. At this time, Cotier decided to start his own personal business amidst internal and external troubles.

At that time, in the small city of Ruvotier near Carouge, Switzerland, Cotier’s wife opened a stationery shop. In the studio behind that stationery shop, Cotier worked for 13 years. Here, he began to make table clocks, pocket watches, watches and hand-made movement molds. Most of the watches he made were special jumping watches and automatic watches that were rare at the time. In 1931, it was in this workshop that Cotier produced the first world time zone pocket watch for a famous watch and jewelry store called Beszanger.

After continuous design and production, Cottier has gradually become an expert in world time zone watches. He has designed works for many watch factories in Geneva, and these works have the same characteristics.

His best and most stable client is Patek Philippe, which commissioned him to design and manufacture a large number of world time zone watches. And Vacheron Constantin, Agassi and Rolex also commissioned him to design the world time zone table, and Cottier quickly became a famous person in the industry.

In 1935, Master Cottier invented the world time zone watch structure (Heures-Universelles, HU). This exquisite structure has completed the 24 time zones of the world previously summarized by Shengford Fleming as if fatefully, and the HU organization accommodates 24 time zones in the same dial.

In 1937, after two years of meticulous research and development, Cottier finally produced the world’s first world time watch for Patek Philippe www.readwn.com He installed a separation mechanism inside the movement, that is to say, when the user When the adjustment button is pressed, the hour hand and the outer ring of the city each move one step in the opposite direction, but the minute hand is always connected to the movement at this time. This promotes the movement to maintain precise travel time.

In the same year, he made the world’s smallest world time zone watch for Patek Philippe. From 1937 to 1938, he made a three-calendar world time zone clock for Patek Philippe. This complicated clock is now displayed in the Beyer Museum in Zurich.

In 1940, at the request of Patek Philippe, Cottier made a watch with both world time zone and pulse meter functions for a customer of the company, a doctor in Paris.

In 1946, in order to thank the citizens of Geneva for their contribution to the just-concluded World War II, they were designed by Wengel. Cottier produced four gold world time zone watches decorated with enamel for Agassi. The watches were given to several major military leaders at the time: Churchill, President Truman, Stalin and General de Gaulle. Kottier also made a world time zone clock for the widow of President Roosevelt.

By that time, Cotier had become a famous watchmaker, and the Patek Philippe Platinum World Time Men’s Watch Ref-1415-HU, which once set the world record for watch auctions, was made in 1939. .

Yang Jing holds this identical Patek Philippe Platinum World Time men’s watch Ref-1415-HU, which was made by Master Cottier in 1940, and the customer is the doctor in Paris.

All of this is on the three letterheads wrapped together with the watch…

PS: I would like to thank you for the rewards of “Lighting to See Others” and “Ink Fragrant Charm”.