Angelus were famous for their high end movements and calendar watches, and this one does not disappoint.
HOW DO WE DATE THIS WATCH?
From the production dates of the in house calibre 255 movement, and this helpful article that chronicles the history of Angelus and includes an original Dato 12 advert, we believe this watch was made circa 1952.
CONDITION
You could wait an awfully long time before you see another Angelus for sale. Their best known model is the Chronodato, and this Dato 12 watch has the same unique day date window but without the stopwatch function of the Chronodato.
This watch has several good things going for it apart from being rare. The style will appeal to many people, and neither the dial nor hands have any lume (It would have been radium at this date, which would still have been radioactive for another 1,500 years+). The watch is running nicely, and the day wheel is in English. As the video shows at the end of the month you have to adjust the date manually, just like the Venus 210 found in watches like our Philippe from 1955. Plus the case is not the gold plated version (the case back is stainless steel, but the case appears to be chromed.) The movement is working well, and features some high end horological specification that most customers would never have been aware of, such as a free sprung hairspring to eliminate isochronism errors between the regulating pins. You normally need to go straight to £15K+ watches to find that attention to detail. No wonder Panerai chose Angelus to provide them with movements for some of their watches in the fifties.
The bad points are the dial is damaged between 12 and 1. Some people will instantly be put off by this, others may not have noticed and are having to check the photos again to see. There is also a small dent near 7. But the dial is clean and easy to read, so we found it easy to forgive these signs of life. The blued hands appear original but such is the scarcity of information on these we can not be 100% certain – the few photos of this model we found all have different hands. The strap is new and on a deployant chromed clasp. The case is a good 35mm size, larger than average for the time.
This watch will be supplied with our Certificate of Authenticity.
Please see the HD video for more detail.
SIZE
Width with crown 36.6 mm
Width without crown 34.9 mm
Between lugs 18 mm
Lug to lug length 42.9 mm
Case Thickness 11.1 mm
Bracelet maximum length n/a
All sizes are approximate.
Included with this watch is a 3 month guarantee and free delivery to UK addresses. If you live outside the UK we can still deliver to most countries. Please see our Worldwide Shipping information, or Contact Us.
