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Mooieklokjes
·😁Until this watch crossed my path. A year or so ago I came across an old watch ad pictured below. It showed a toolwatch I had never seen before; a compass and a watch combined.
Sometimes when you see a particular watch, it triggers a chain of emotions. When I saw this it, it triggered an enormous amount of greed 😁. I just had to have it. However all I could find on the internet was a picture of these ads and a picture of a Ductor Northline example in not the best shape. But nothing else. No information, nothing. I translated the ad with Google and it roughly says:
“Ductor Northline
The triumph of time and direction. Everyone wears a watch, preferably on the wrist. Add the compass and you are ready with the Ductor Northline for the great adventures and the noblest assignments.
Unique in its kind for its originality, its aesthetic appearance and the safety of its mechanism. Provides you, at will, with the permanent means of knowing the time and determining the direction of the magnetic meridian, without even removing the bracelet.
In all circumstances it shows you the route to follow. On land, at sea, in the air, attribute of your security, you wear on the wrist.
Your victory over time.
Your mastery of the elements.
Your star and your salvation.
All over.
Night and day.
Pretty promising ad right? You would think they sold tons of them. But they did not.
And just when I started to think that this watch was a myth, I ran into a very similar watch by accident on the big, well-known auction site. The dial wasn’t branded as Ductor, but as Opera, which I had never heard of and explains why I didn’t see this Northline configuration before. Maybe other brands used these as well.
Apparently this Opera Northline has had several owners in the last two years and is the only Opera Northline I can find pictures of on the internet. The condition is crazy. It’s so sharp and looks so crisp. The 36mm stainless steel case works perfectly on my wrist. With its 12mm its relatively thick, but suits the elegant toolwatch vibe of it well. What’s interesting as well are the 21mm lugs. A size you don’t see very often. The glass on the compass side can be rotated and has fixed line on it to mark the cities for the GMT-like function. I’m not totally about its use though. The ad states that the compass contained liquid, but it has dried/leaked out.
The watch side also has a cool feature. The dial contains the cardinal marks of the compass. Also not sure if they’re there for aesthetics or if they have a function of some sort. The same goes for the bezel. I am not sure how to read it and how it can be used. I hope you guys can enlighten me about that.
Oh well, my apologies for the long read. But I do hope with all the knowledge combined on this forum, we can work out a bit of history on Ductor, Opera and the Northline watches.
Thank you for reading!
Sometimes when you see a particular watch, it triggers a chain of emotions. When I saw this it, it triggered an enormous amount of greed 😁. I just had to have it. However all I could find on the internet was a picture of these ads and a picture of a Ductor Northline example in not the best shape. But nothing else. No information, nothing. I translated the ad with Google and it roughly says:
“Ductor Northline
The triumph of time and direction. Everyone wears a watch, preferably on the wrist. Add the compass and you are ready with the Ductor Northline for the great adventures and the noblest assignments.
Unique in its kind for its originality, its aesthetic appearance and the safety of its mechanism. Provides you, at will, with the permanent means of knowing the time and determining the direction of the magnetic meridian, without even removing the bracelet.
In all circumstances it shows you the route to follow. On land, at sea, in the air, attribute of your security, you wear on the wrist.
Your victory over time.
Your mastery of the elements.
Your star and your salvation.
All over.
Night and day.
- Double action instrument.
- Rotor with watch and compass.
- Instant central reversibility.
- Line of sight for direction of travel.
- Fixed or retractable sights.
- Liquid oscillating brake compass.
- Movable telescope adjustable to the north bridge.
- Correction of declination.
- Global variation indices.
- Special waterproof box.
Pretty promising ad right? You would think they sold tons of them. But they did not.
And just when I started to think that this watch was a myth, I ran into a very similar watch by accident on the big, well-known auction site. The dial wasn’t branded as Ductor, but as Opera, which I had never heard of and explains why I didn’t see this Northline configuration before. Maybe other brands used these as well.
Apparently this Opera Northline has had several owners in the last two years and is the only Opera Northline I can find pictures of on the internet. The condition is crazy. It’s so sharp and looks so crisp. The 36mm stainless steel case works perfectly on my wrist. With its 12mm its relatively thick, but suits the elegant toolwatch vibe of it well. What’s interesting as well are the 21mm lugs. A size you don’t see very often. The glass on the compass side can be rotated and has fixed line on it to mark the cities for the GMT-like function. I’m not totally about its use though. The ad states that the compass contained liquid, but it has dried/leaked out.
The watch side also has a cool feature. The dial contains the cardinal marks of the compass. Also not sure if they’re there for aesthetics or if they have a function of some sort. The same goes for the bezel. I am not sure how to read it and how it can be used. I hope you guys can enlighten me about that.
Oh well, my apologies for the long read. But I do hope with all the knowledge combined on this forum, we can work out a bit of history on Ductor, Opera and the Northline watches.
Thank you for reading!
Edited:
