A Trip To The Brocante Part 1
I was in Geneva for a week for watches and wonders. It has always been my dream to visit the Planpalais Flea Market there, but the timing is never good — the marché aux puces is held on Saturday morning and I’m usually only in town Monday to Friday. But this year the stars aligned. I was in Geneva until Monday and my work obligations were not until the afternoon. So I woke up with the birds and headed to the brocante!
Because we were in the heart of Swiss watchmaking, I was primarily on the hunt for watches and watch ephemera. I knew I would find horological treasure but I didn’t have high hopes of getting a deal — Geneva is a very expensive city and my experience with the Basel flea market many years ago proved that just because a place has a lot of something doesn’t mean you’ll get a bargain.
The first good sign of the morning was the sight of cardboard banana boxes full of NOS watch straps, watchmaker’s tools, and watch parts. The Planpalais is a diggers market and most of my best second hand finds have come from patiently searching through crates.
Pictured above is find number one—a little ladies Zodiac. It was a little dirty but it was ticking.
Watch number two was this Camy dIve watch. Another runner! I found both at a table run by a Turkish gentleman. He found most of the things on his table is Istanbul. At least I think that’s what he said — he didn’t speak English and his French was worse than mine. That’s why I was a little surprised when he said the price for both watches was 20 CHF.
I pretty much skipped away from my new friend, I was so happy. And I had a great deal of fun examining all kinds of watch-related ephemera. In retrospect I should have grabbed some straps — there were lots of small width options including a box full of straps that looked like they were made from kimono fabric. A friend later explained that Geneva was full of storage lockers full of parts and accessories from businesses that had gone out of business in the 1980s. The merchants and the market were basically buying up these lockers and selling them unsorted at the Flea because that was the quickest and most cost effective way to move merchandise. Like a strawberry farm where you pay for the privilege of picking your own fruit.
Going back to the bracelets, I bought this very vintage, unsigned watch for its stainless steel ladder strap. It seems to be a version of the Bonklip, a bracelet that first appeared around 1929/1930. A New Jersey jeweler named Walter M. Krementz was first to patent the design in 1929 and the Bonklip is considered the first affordable and mass-produced metal bracelet.
I’ve read about them but had never held one in my hand before. The most distinctive feature is that the clasp “klips” in-between any two links so that it can adjust it to any wrist-size. The configuration was particularly popular amongst WWII aviators because it could be worn over a flight suit and then quickly sized back down for civilian life.
It did take time and several helpful YouTube videos to help my figure out how to work the bracelet. But once I had the knowledge, it proved super easy to use and surprisingly secure. The weather was unseasonably warm in Geneva and the ladder-style made it very comfortable to wear.
Even I bought the watch for the bracelet, I’ve also grown fond of the watch itself. It has a cross cross dial design, copper coloured applied numbers and a solid stainless steel case. My guess is that it dates from the 1950s and that the bracelet is not original to the watch. It, too, is keeping good time. And I bought it, along with a mechanical pencil advertising Swissair Cigarettes and a sterling silver ID bracelet for 10 CHF.
