MOVADO M95 Chronograph ref.19038 cal.M95 / François Borgel Case

Movado's market value has been rising quietly in recent years, and the name is beginning to be reappraised among collectors.

The Cal. M95 fitted here once reigned as Movado's flagship movement.

After the merger with Zenith it was replaced by the El Primero, but at the time it stood as the highest chronograph mechanism within Movado.

What makes this movement distinctive is how it is operated: the lower pusher starts and stops, the upper pusher resets — the reverse of a conventional chronograph.

A configuration that betrays habitual operation, and one that, for exactly that reason, deepens your understanding of the mechanism.

The caseback carries the "FB" mark.

This indicates manufacture by François Borgel, the first in the world to file a patent for a screw-down water-resistant construction.

Considering that Rolex later acquired that patent and developed it into the Oyster case, the presence of that trace on this watch is no small thing.

The surface of the caseback carries the name of a former owner.

"Jacques Ouley." What time this person, with a European name, spent alongside this watch can no longer be known — but the fact that a piece made in the 1950s still keeps accurate time is eloquent enough on its own.

A watch from an era whose names go untold: we would like you to feel its quiet reliability, and the space only whoever holds it can receive, in your own hand.

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