Decade long hunt for my birth year watch, and my first complication!

[jw0n]

For nearly a decade (check my join date on TRF!), I have had romantic notions of embarking on the quest to find an appropriate birth year watch. At long last... I think I can put a stop to it. The year in question is 1984 -- from Rolex, I had always played with the idea of a Submariner, but it was a transitional year and did not quite seem to have enough "meaning". It was the same case for the GMT, Daytona, Datejust and Day Date. Many nice watches in that year, but nothing... important enough. In the Omega camp, the only model I would be interested in would be the Speedmaster and, again, not an important year for the speedy.

Over the last 18 months, I had been reading more about neo vintage watches and was interested in the offerings from AP, VC and PP. Specifically, their perpetual calendar watches; with AP introducing their QP in 1978, VC in 1983 and PP in 1985. In the dawning era of quartz watches, it felt like a rebellion to introduce ultra-thin, automatic perpetual calendars.

What initially attracted me to this watch was the extract of archives which dates it to 1984. This is an early "Swiss" only dial with a champagne dial. Later versions typically have a "sigma Swiss sigma", then "Automatic" text and towards the end of production, the addition of the Maltese cross. Also, with VC, the 1120QP (which is a JLC 920 ébauche with Depraz perpetual calendar module) displays a 48 month sub-dial that also tracks leap year (unlike the AP). This is the less conventional display of a perpetual calendar, but this difference also results in a slightly slimmer watch.

Of course, I was also attracted to the fact that production numbers were small; an estimated of just 2,300 perpetual calendar watches over 23 years (1983 to 2006) of production -- nearly 3x less than both AP and PP. My grail birth year watch is actually the VC 43032 (skeletonized version of the same watch, produced by VC from 1984) but with today's astronomical prices, I simply have to be realistic

Thank you for taking the time to read! It is nearly 2am here and I am still processing this... but I have a feeling I'll fall asleep soon with a smile on my face.

[vecca]

Nicely done. I've toyed with getting a "birth year" watch as well. Just haven't pulled the trigger. Congrats

[jynx1972]

Fantastic choice

[Wahlberg]

Beautiful watch! What's the reference of the one you bought?

The skeletonized version is stunning as well. Kinda amazed that this watch was made from the mid 80s until the mid 2000s.

[Wahlberg]

Just saw your post on watchpro, QP 43031 it is! Can't find any information or listings about it.

[RW16610]

Congratulations, Won! I've always wanted a birth year watch in the collection as well. You chose wisely here, and it's got a wonderful story behind it. Enjoy in good health.

[brandrea]

Congratulations Won, well done

[BNA/LION]

Very Cool! Congratulations!

[alllexandru]

Congratulations, nice read !

[Ichiran]

Congratulations Won! This is such a nice and warm looking PC! Love it.

[1William]

Congratulations.

[jw0n]

Thanks for the kind words, TRF!

Originally Posted by Wahlberg

Just saw your post on watchpro, QP 43031 it is! Can't find any information or listings about it.

Yes that's right; reference 43031, with 43031 being the open-worked variant. There are still a few for sale on some websites today, although those are latter variants from the 90s. Btw, an interesting reference point for me was from ACM linked here, which may be good reading material for you. I had considered an AP QP as well, but given how the emergence of VC's QP was closer to my birth year, I felt it had more importance.

Originally Posted by vecca

Nicely done. I've toyed with getting a "birth year" watch as well. Just haven't pulled the trigger. Congrats

Originally Posted by RW16610

Congratulations, Won! I've always wanted a birth year watch in the collection as well. You chose wisely here, and it's got a wonderful story behind it. Enjoy in good health.

I would say there is no real rush in acquiring one. Then again, after 10 years, I really did take my time. We don't all follow the same "buying principles" so as long as it makes you happy, that's the right watch to get

Originally Posted by Ichiran

Congratulations Won! This is such a nice and warm looking PC! Love it.

Indeed, a huge plus for me was how early dials were champagne (versus eggshell white and later on, white). I feel it does give the watch a warmer tone and (I am biased here) wears well on my wrist.

The excitement of wearing this has been very real!