Book Review, “The Inconvenient Truth about the World’s First Waterproof Watch” by Stan Czubernat
Book review by Bruce Shawkey.
Bruce is the recipient of the 2014 NAWCC James W. Gibbs Award for Horological Literary Excellence.
“The Inconvenient Truth about the World’s First Waterproof Watch, the Story of Charles Depollier and his Waterproof Trench Watches of the Great War”. ISBN: 978–0–578–29133–8
Stan Czubernat has hit another home run with his latest book, “The Inconvenient Truth about the World’s First Waterproof Watch.”
The book’s subtitle, “The Story of Charles Depollier and his Waterproof Trench Watches of the Great War” is the first clue this is a completely new book, and not merely a rehash of his previous work, “Waltham Trench Watches of the Great War” (which is now completely sold out by the way). Stan’s previous book talks about Charles Depollier and his watches. But this book represents a deep dive into Mr. Depollier’s genius which, for decades, has been marginalized, or at the very least overlooked, by watch historians and collectors. This is the “inconvenient truth” Stan talks about, and this book finally corrects this grave oversight.
Stan writes that Rolex completely ignored Mr. Depollier’s invention for the waterproof wrist watch case, that featured a screw down crown, even though it was successfully independently tested for waterproof ability by high ranking officers of the United States Army in 1918. This happened eight full years before Rolex released the 1926 Oyster watch. Leaving Mr. Depollier as little more than a footnote in horology’s great story of how waterproof wrist watches were brought to the masses. Stan has proven that Rolex’s 1927 claim of the achieving the “Greatest Triumph in Watchmaking”, a.k.a. producing the world’s first waterproof wrist watch, couldn’t be further from the truth.
Readers will probably find the preface of the book and first few chapters, containing Stan’s personal commentary on the subject, the more interesting and engaging part of the book. It is written in the first-person style, as Stan explains all that went into this book, including his travels and searches into all manner of obscure Army and court testimony that documents Mr. Depollier’s work. The pages are chock full of great photos and original trade ads that document the various iterations of Mr. Depollier’s designs as he worked closely with the military to produce a watch that would help the Allied forces win World War I. This includes the ultra-rare “Thermo” model with a case made of silver and not painted black (like most of the other versions). Stan recently uncovered a sample of this watch, and as far as he knows is the only one known to survive. There is even a Thermo made of 14kt gold waiting to be unearthed.
The next few chapters contain images of the actual documents that Stan unearthed in the course of researching this book. I found them interesting because these documents are really the “gold standard” of unbiased accuracy and are virtually immune to interpretation or hype. Stan didn’t want this documentation to remain hidden any longer, and so it is there in black and white for anyone who doubts the “inconvenient truth”.
Don’t miss Chapter 18, the last page of the book. Stan does a great job of wrapping things up and leaves you with a great feeling of respect for Mr. Depollier.
Stan’s book is hardbound, 341 pages. It can be purchased directly from his website at LRFAntiqueWatches.com, coming soon to Amazon and Ebay.
