I’m looking at possibly my first purchase of a vintage Chrono. It’s a Gigandet and has Wakmann on dial as well. I see Wakmann as stand alone brand and also sometimes asssiciated wit Breitling. Was a Wakmann a manufacture for other brands? Bonus question (lol), some brands tout incbloc case as well. Is this a third party case or shock system?
Great looking watch ... Gigandet is Wakmann model from my reading ...Beautiful clean triple...bet it ain’t cheap either. Wakmann has been increasing in price of late.
Ya, I like it a lot. The split paddle hands are so inelegant they are cool lol. I just don’t know the Wakmann association with the brand and am curious.
Good article here: http://www.woundforlife.com/2015/07/20/lessons-in-wristory-whats-a-wakmann/ I believe that Gigandet was the French or French/Swiss side of the business. I agree that there was a connection between the three brands. Most likely a distribution agreement with a common agent (say Wakmann in the US) to import watches. Similar to the arrangements between Longines, Wittnauer and LeCoultre during the same period. This does not mean that the watches were made in the same factory. Incabloc was a shock-resisting system that was licensed to many watch companies. The license probably allowed them to use the name on dials and advertising. gatorcpa
It wasn't so long ago that these were typically >$1,000. Nice watches, but they are complicated and service is expensive. gatorcpa
Only thing holding me back, as a “watch person” of less than a year I’m not sure I want the responsibility on making sure everything works. I don’t even have a trusted watch service person I’ve worked with. These are complicated, but vintage divers right now are pretty hot and much more expensive to get into right now. I’m not sure I even like vintage, but I’d like to have something in the collection.
Where do you live? This is a Valjoux movement that a competent watchmaker can easily work on. Yea you have to have this as a fair weather watch ... OF can hook you up with a good watchmaker. My shop charges me between 3-400 USD to set these right.
Instructions are included in this service manual. http://watchguy.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Valjoux-72-72c-88.pdf The manual would be helpful for your watchmaker. gatorcpa
This is a minor thing, but I believe that the pointer-date hand is not quite right. If you look at other examples, you will generally see that the end of the hand wraps around more than a half-circle, whereas this hand has only a small arc. Maybe this is a variation, but at least I think you should do some research and look at a bunch of photos. Here are a couple of examples. Others models have hands with open squared ends. https://shop.analogshift.com/products/wakmann-triple-date-chronograph-1 https://www.ebay.com.sg/itm/VINTAGE...ALJOUX-730-FOR-PARTS-OR-RESTORE-/253321036873Purchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network
Ya, I’ve been looking at pics. I’ve seen other Gigandet models with more of the half circle. Granted, I don’t know if this model is correct either: