Jean-Loup Chrétien's Yema Spationaute III - Mise à jour

[Seiko7A38]

I'd followed up with two more emails to William Le Calvez, to which I initially received no response. So I decided some well-deserved negative publicity was in order. I added my comments to a couple of existing threads on Forumamontres and Forum Conquête Spatiale. A few sympathetic replies were forthcoming, but the general consensus was that French auction houses were a law unto themselves. This morning I was considering sending an email to host auctioneers Drouot, lodging a formal complaint, when I finally received a reply from William Le Calvez. Evidently he already has my letter of authentication to hand and wanted my postal address.

Note the date of that quote - September 8th. Naturally, I immediately replied to Le Calvez's email, providing my postal address (which they should have had on record as the winning bidder). Then I waited another month - till 11th October, when it still hadn't arrived - so I sent them another chaser enquiring whether they'd actually posted it. I received a reply on the 14th from an employee of Le Calvez. Evidently they still hadn't mailed it, but were going that day !

Yema-SpationauteIII-Jean-Loup-Chretien-WilliamLeCalvez-eMail-14-10-2022.png (17.6 KiB) Viewed 3303 times

This morning the postman delivered a slightly soggy A4 envelope containing my certificate. It was postmarked 14-10-22.

rsz_p1860022.jpg (239.05 KiB) Viewed 3300 times

[Seiko7A38]

Although Jean-Loup Chrétien seemed generally indifferent to the watch that had been specifically designed for his mission, preferring to wear the Omega Speedmaster, there were other French and Russian cosmonauts who evidently appreciated it. JLC's statement: 'Each crew member got his watch' sent me off on another tangent. It wasn't just the Soyuz TM-7 primary and back-up crews who received them, but certain 'long duration' Soviet cosmonauts aboard Mir who were photographed wearing them, so there must have been at least nine of these prototype versions produced.

Aleksandr Viktorenko.......Soyuz TM-7 back up-crew and Soyuz TM-8 (1989).

Unfortunately, during the course of my enquiries, I failed to track down a single Russian cosmonaut who still possessed their watch ....

R.I.P. Aleksandr Viktorenko

On sad note, I read on the French Conquete-Spatiale forum that another Mir-era Soviet cosmonaut has passed away recently. Aleksandr Viktorenko died on 10th August 2023 aged 76. Although he was Soyuz TM-7 back-up commander, I never managed to find a photo of him wearing a Yema Spationaute III; he seemed to prefer Russian-made LCD watches.

Soyuz-TM-8-crew-AleksandrSerebrov-SpationauteIII.jpg (240.4 KiB) Viewed 1486 times

He's pictured above left with his Soyuz TM-8 crew-mate, the late Aleksandr Serebrov, who's wearing his in this photo.

[Seiko7A38]

On a more cheerful note, I remembered that 20th August is Jean-Loup Chrétien's birthday. France's elder spaceman is 85 today. So I thought I'd wear his 1988 Aragatz mission flown Yema Spationaute III in his honour. Here's a slightly different photo to the one I posted in the WRUW thread. Bon Anniversaire, JLC !

rsz_p1910047-crop.jpg (242.9 KiB) Viewed 1472 times

[Seiko7A38]

Remembering this thread from the old archived forum ....
Aragatz - Anniversaire 25 Ans - a celebration of Spationautes - Mis a jour: 30 Ans !
Today is the 35th anniversary (Saturday 26th November, 1988) of the launch of Soyuz TM-7 mission to Mir EO-4 / Aragatz. My apologies for this lacklustre shot of Jean-Loup Chrétien's flown Yema Spationaute III Aragatz prototype (different to that which I posted in the WRUW thread earlier).

rsz_p1950016-crop.jpg (243.38 KiB) Viewed 1342 times

[Seiko7A38]

If you've read through the first page of this thread, which is primarily concerned with a French auction house's sale of Jean-Loup Chrétien's space memorabilia in June 2022, you may recall that the featured lots included two watches: his Yema Spationaute III, which I bought, and one of his (two) Omega Speedmaster 145.022, which he also wore during the Soyuz TM-7 Mir Aragatz mission.

rsz_lecalvez-jean-loup-chretien-auction-25june2022.jpg (231.19 KiB) Viewed 263 times

https://drouot.com/en/l/18489002-histor ... speedmaste

Jean-Loup-Chretien-OmegaSpeedmaster-Drouot-25June2022-LeCalvez-Lot24-Summary.png (73.13 KiB) Viewed 258 times

From memory, the watch achieved the highest price of the auction. It was bid to €47,500 Euros, more than three times the (lower) estimate and more than three and a half times the price achieved by the Yema Spationaute III. Adding the 28.8% buyer's premium takes that to €61,180 Euros, equivalent to $64,600 USD at the then prevailing exchange rate.

That same Omega Speedmaster 145.022, serial number 39185737 is being offered by RR Auctions in their annual Space Exploration sale which ends later today, provisionally, half an hour after Midnight (7:00 pm ET). It's Lot # 6514.

https://www.rrauction.com/auctions/lot- ... pro-watch/

OmegaSpeedmaster-exJean-Loup_Chretien-RRauction-Oct2024-Lot6514.jpg (251.19 KiB) Viewed 246 times

OmegaSpeedmaster-exJean-Loup_Chretien-RRauction-Oct2024-Lot6514-Description.png (78.42 KiB) Viewed 246 times

Bearing in mind what it previously sold for, the auctioneer's estimate of $30,000 - $40,000 seems rather low. As can be seen from my screen print, it's already been pre-bid to $32,818, with a next bid of $36,100. RR Auctions automated bid increments are an uplift of 10% on the previous bid. Their standard buyer's premium is 25%. The sale naturally includes the certificate of authenticity on Le Calvez & Assoc. headed paper, signed by Jean-Loup Chrétien.

rsz_omegaspeedmaster-exjean-loup_chretien-rrauction-oct2024-lot6514-letter-.jpg (242.8 KiB) Viewed 242 times

[Seiko7A38]

Although scheduled to end at 30 minutes after Midnight (UK time) RR Auctions lot # 6514 dragged on until 01:48 this morning. This was due to their '30 Minute Rule' automatic extension being invoked 3 times by single late placed bids.

RRAuction-30MinuteRule.png (54.71 KiB) Viewed 224 times

Bidding on Jean-Loup Chrétien's Mir Aragatz flown Omega Speedmaster 145.022 finally closed @ $85,127 after 34 bids.
The price achieved of $85,127 represents a profit of 30% for the consignor / seller for their little over two year tenure.

https://www.rrauction.com/auctions/lot- ... pro-watch/

OmegaSpeedmaster-MirAragatz-Jean-Loup_Chretien-RRAuctions-Oct2024-Lot#6514-Closed-$85K.jpg (241.73 KiB) Viewed 223 times

At the time of writing, RR Auctions had yet to add their 25% buyer's premium to the displayed hammer prices.
Edit: They updated the result page a few hours later, bringing the total to $106,409 including buyer's premium.

While I was primarily interested to see how JLC's Speedmaster would fare, I was watching a couple of other lots in RR's Space Exploration auction. Probably the 'star' lot was Apollo 14 LMP Edgar Mitchell's flown Rolex GMT-Master which was hammered out for a whopping $1,730,559 (+ 25% buyer's premium to be added), making a new record selling price for a space-flown watch of $2,163,199 !! See thread on collectspace.com.

Biggest disappointment was Dave Scott's 18K gold Omega Speedmaster (Apollo 11 Commemorative), not space flown, but regularly worn by him, on which bidding stalled @ a mere $128,292 against an estimate of $200,000+. Frankly I thought it was over-hyped - see last paragraph of the description. Interestingly the result has since been removed.