Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Very few names in the world of horology raise as much controversy as Jose Perez, better known by his pseudonym Jose Pereztroika. Auction houses and watch brands respect and fear him in equal measure.On one side, they tacitly recognise his expertise and forensic scrutiny of certain collectable timepieces. It is through this analysis that Perez has uncovered cases of Frankenwatches \u2014 amalgamations of genuine parts not original to a watch when it left its manufacturer \u2014 being sold at auction. On the other, his work has landed Perez with an injunction served in the canton of Geneva, a collection of \u201cletters before legal action\u201d, and the disabling of his Instagram account where he promotes his findings \u2014 although it has always been restored.Born in Switzerland, Perez trained in architecture and industrial design but pursued a career in advertising. He worked for several notable Swiss agencies before turning freelance. Then, a chance encounter with a Panerai watch in 1998 inadvertently changed his life. \u201cIt brought back memories of my childhood reading comic books about the Italian navy divers, but it also started a fascination with dive watches and the inherent extreme engineering in their construction,\u201d he says.His \u201caddiction\u201d to investigating the details about a watch\u2019s authenticity really started in 2012 when he acquired a Panerai that was a modern reissue of a prior model. He started to research the vintage market and, in doing so, came across a website called Homage Forum.It was both eye-opening and worrying, as some on the forum knew how to convert movements, and treat parts such as hands and dials, to make them look aged.After his own attempts at fabrication, Perez took to researching historic movements, gathering information on thousands of vintage watches for his database \u2014 and realising that many purportedly original examples were dubious at best and definitely fake at worst.He joined various forums \u2014 the most famous being the online Panerai collector community, the Paneristi \u2014 to share his research. But, in doing so, he became unpopular among vintage watch owners. In 2015, therefore, to make the information he gained accessible to all, Perez started Perezcope.com.Perez, who now lives in south-east Asia, has since branched out to look at other auctioned timepieces, the most famous of which was an Omega Speedmaster ref 2915-1 Broad Arrow auctioned at Phillips in 2021. Perez admits it was probably his \u201cfavourite investigation, and outcome, because it was well made\u201d.For Perez, it all seemed too good to be true: a company chief executive wondering if a prototype of its most iconic watch ever existed, the arrival of one \u2014 suitably aged \u2014 on the market, and the setting a record-breaking SFr3,115,500 ($3.4mn) price at auction.The devil is always in the details. Precision in the work was of paramount importance to mePerez, though, saw several problems: the watch face, as striking as it was, belonged to another vintage Speedmaster; the case and bezel were not correct; parts of the movement had been replaced; and the lume on the hands looked as if it had been reapplied.The media picked up on it, as did the authorities.It now appears that the watch was the fraudulent work of three former employees, who have been subpoenaed to appear before court on criminal charges. Omega has said in a statement that the piece, which it bought for the Omega museum, is an \u201cassembly of mostly authentic Omega components\u201d, and that it and Phillips had been \u201cthe joint victims of organised criminal activity\u201d in this incident. A Phillips spokesperson said the auction house did not offer watches unless it was \u201c100 per cent satisfied about their authenticity\u201d and that \u201crepresentatives of Omega saw the watch before they purchased it\u201d.What separates Perez\u2019s work from others\u2019 is his attention to detail and singular pursuit of forensic information. He attributes this to his training in architecture, but equally to his passion for the subject. \u201cIt was the details that I liked the most in my previous career,\u201d he explains.\u201cPrecision in the work was of paramount importance to me but, when you start looking at watches, you do not see the details at first, you just see the whole thing.\u201cBut, the more passionate you are about them, the more you start looking at certain elements, then you go deeper and deeper.\u201dWhat started off as a hobby has become a full-time commitment. Among Perez\u2019s most recent analyses is a debunking of the legend around the rare Rolex Space-Dweller models which have suddenly reappeared, and questioning whether the oft-repeated tale of the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms coming before the Rolex Submariner is actually true.Perez\u2019s fascination is not limited to details \u2014 the story surrounding a watch is just as relevant for him.He defends his work in poking holes in official narratives as \u201cit is important to expose these things, to make people aware, as it\u2019s detrimental for the whole collector community\u201d. However, at the same time, \u201cthere are really great watches out there that have a fantastic provenance story\u201d.\u201cI don\u2019t want to see this market destroyed,\u201d he says. \u201cI just want to contribute to cleaning it up. I believe watches have the potential to be somewhere completely different, with prices for really great pieces being much higher, similar to art and vintage cars.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Very few names in the world of horology raise as much controversy as Jose Perez, better known by his pseudonym Jose Pereztroika. Auction houses and watch<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-56597","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-culture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56597"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56598,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56597\/revisions\/56598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}