Most collectors get lost only in the marketing story, the waitlist, or the logo. Aeternus is for people who want to know what is actually ticking, and what a listing is actually worth. The story is the point. The campaign is not the whole of it.

  1. Research — Tenue Score. How much mechanical watch is in this watch.
  2. Decide — Ask. What this listing is actually worth, in private.
  3. Learn — writing, The Long Sweep, and The Gospel of Horology.

Research

Tenue Score answers one question: how much watch is this? In Switzerland they would say tenue: how the watch holds itself. Engine, Frame, Bench. You send a brand, a model, and a reference. You get a reading back. Quartz is not scored. Price is never on the sheet.

Tenue Score — how much mechanical watch, shown out of 100

Engine — the calibre and how it times

Frame — case, clasp, crystal

Bench — whether it can be kept alive

Craft — handwork, 0 to 20, shown beside the number, never added

Vision — invention as architecture, beside the number, not yet scored

A high Tenue Score can still print Craft at 0. Craft and Vision stand beside the number. They do not inflate it. The split is the point.

Decide

Ask is for people who already buy and sell. You get a market range, a cash buy-back, fees, the most you should pay, the risk, and a call: buy, caution, or avoid. Ask may show a Tenue Score so you can see the substance. It may never write a dollar amount back into that score.

Learn

The Long Sweep is the video program. Heath Jackson hosts. Episode 0 teaches the score with two watches. Twelve shorts follow, one claim each.

The writing is long and short. The Gospel of Horology is a book about what a watch means. It does not score watches and it does not price listings. There are no photographs of watches. The sample is the Foreword.

Score the watch. Price the listing. Do not mix the two.