There are a few special edition and/or rare watches that just have desirability written all over them; whether it be because they have an interesting heritage or just because they look cool, they are the kinds of watches that would land us in big trouble with our bank managers in the unlikely event that the ever came up for sale.

My favourite? Probably the Rolex GMT PanAm. When PanAm commissioned Rolex to make a watch suitable for use across changing timezones (it was the early days of trans-atlantic flight), the story goes that the big cheeses at head office got jealous of the pilots' new toys and started 'borrowing' them for their own use. Anywho, someone somewhere got wind of this, and so a small handful of white-dialled GMTs were made for the naughty big cheeses to stop them stealing standard issue equipment. Not much of a punishment really, but nevertheless it gave us this (images courtesy of Stefano Mazzariol):







What's your favourite special edition or rare watch?

We had one of those in once... even seeing it in the flesh I didn't quite believe it!

What's the story behind this one?

Ah I see! I thought there was something different about this particular one or something.

It is a gorgeous watch.

The 376.0822 is considered fairly rare, there were about 1,500 made, so 1/1,500 -



1/500 (estimate) -



1/250 (for the LE) -



1/50-ish (issued)



1/20-ish (800 issued, few survive)



And one I haven't got that I would love to have one day, 92 issued but have only ever seen 4 -



Favourite 'wearing' watch is easily the Sinn, favourite 'vintage' watch is the Lemania.

I think vintage military chronographs are probably my favourite 'niche', there are some really nice ones (some of which above) but others which I'd like to get a hold of one day (some being only dreams!); Porsche Design/Orfina/Arctos Bund, Peruvian Airforce Speedmaster & Cosmograph, Heuer Bund, Zenith/Universal Geneve Cairelli/Leonidas AMI, Lemania 1872 SwAF and SAAF, Lemania 2220 RN mono-pusher, Sinn EZM1 ZUZ/ZTZ, Heuer Cal. 12 prototype Bund, Dodane type XXI flyback, Breguet XX and a fair few others...

Don't get me started on issued divers...

I'd love an Autavia Diver 11630P or 1163P.

I've been lucky enough to have / have had these rare pieces

Kenso Nautilus # 17 of 48 made



Dornbluth 99.1 - # 273 of perhaps just over 300 made to date



and this Lufthansa Cargo Sinn 144 GMT

I wouldn't mind an Omega Speedsonic f300 (tuning fork movement)

I don't know how rare they are but tuning fork watches haven't been made for quite a few years now.

Another one I wouldn't mind, the Poljot Sturmanskie Civil

This particular model always seems to be sold out. I've never actually seen one in stock on any of the Russian watch websites.

Comex branded Rolex Submariner.

Speedmaster snoopy for me!