Watch quiz Ref. NQ0005 answers, Sept 27, 2026 | NO QUARTZ

Question 1

On a 'GMT' watch, what do the letters GMT stand for?

Accepted Answer

Greenwich Mean Time — Greenwich Mean Time is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, on longitude 0°. On a GMT watch, an extra hand points to a second time zone on a 24-hour scale while the main hands show local time.

Question 2

The Rolex GMT-Master, launched in 1955, was developed with which airline?

Accepted Answer

Pan Am — Pan Am's crews were flying across time zones as intercontinental air travel took off, and Rolex worked with the airline on what its pilots needed. The extra 24-hour hand and two-colour 24-hour bezel let them read a second time zone, and Rolex says the watch became the official watch of several airlines.

Question 3

Rolex's 1963 racing chronograph was first launched under which name, before 'Daytona' joined it?

Accepted Answer

Cosmograph — The first model was simply the Cosmograph; 'Daytona' then appeared on dials, initially those meant for the American market, and became standard. The name nods to Daytona in Florida, then one of the world's most prestigious racing venues.

Question 4

Rank these acquisitions by the year the watch brand came under its current group owner, earliest first.

Accepted Answer

1. Blancpain → SMH (now Swatch Group) 2. Breguet → Swatch Group 3. Hublot → LVMH 4. Harry Winston → Swatch Group — SMH paid CHF 60 million for Blancpain in July 1992 — at a time when Blancpain was already turning a CHF 12 million profit. Breguet was bought from investment firm Investcorp and became the fifteenth brand in the group, with Nicolas G. Hayek personally taking the CEO chair.

Question 5

Order these Panerai milestones by year, earliest first.

Accepted Answer

1. Radiomir, Panerai's radium-based luminous powder, is created 2. The Luminor name is registered for a new luminous substance 3. The GPF 2/56 'Egiziano' is made for the Egyptian Navy 4. Panerai first offers its watches to the public — Panerai was a military supplier for decades before any civilian could buy one; public sales only began in 1993. Four years later, in 1997, the Vendôme Group (now Richemont) bought the company.

Question 6

The A. Lange & Söhne Lange 31 stores its 744-hour power reserve in two mainsprings. Roughly how long is each one?

Accepted Answer

1,850 mm — Each of the two mainsprings is 1,850 mm long, about ten times a normal watch mainspring. At that length the torque is so high and so uneven that Lange added a patented constant-force escapement, so the balance gets the same impulse on day 30 as on day one. Winding by crown was not practical either: the watch uses a key that goes into a square socket in the sapphire caseback. It was also the first mechanical wristwatch with a 31-day power reserve.

NO QUARTZ Ref. NQ0005: the answers