Last week's Nacional article in which it was revealed that Prime Minister Sanader has a collection of fifteen costly watches worth about 150 thousand euros stirred up a storm in the Croatian public, and was noted in much of the foreign press, having been carried by the Associated Press news agency. Government spokesman Ratko Macek reacted to public reaactions as to why Sanader had not declared the watches in his property declaration, and how in fact had the Prime Minister amassed a collection worth five times more than his annual wages. He tried to play down the entire affair using two arguments. The first was that Sanader had deposited the most valuable watch in his collection, the one he received from French President Jacques Chirac, in the national treasury. The second was that Nacional had incorrectly identified some of the watches.

But only in sentimental value could the watch Sanader received from Chirac be the most prized one in the Prime Minister's collection. It is, namely, a watch made by the obscure French firm of Bernard Richards, not at all valued among watch connoisseurs. The model Sanader got from Chirac can be purchased on the Internet for 274 euros, worth, therefore, a hundred times less than, for example, the Prime Minister's A. Lange und Sohne watch. The housing of the Bernard Richards is gold-plated with a three-micron layer, and has a crocodile skin strap. The watch has two dials, one with Roman and the other with Arab numerals. Most remarkable of all, the watch has a quartz drive. That means that it keeps time based on the vibration of a quartz crystal through which electricity from the battery is passed. A watch with a battery and quartz drive is something that no collector of refined timepieces would wear or include in their collection.

Engraved on the back of the watch is the text "Présidence de la République Française", meaning "Presidency of the French Republic". "Crocodile Fait Main" is stamped on the strap, which means "Crocodile Hand Made". The watch arrived in a box with a dedication reading "Son Excellence Monsieur Ivo Sanader", "His Excellency Mr. Ivo Sanader". The Bernard Richards watch can be ordered at the web address http://www.bernard-richards.com, along with other possible business gifts ranging in price from 79 to 400 euros. There is plenty to choose from here, from quartz wristwatches, table top clocks and fountain pens, right up to ashtrays, lighters, key chains and practical letter openers that feature a magnifying glass at one end. All orders can, naturally, be engraved with the desired message or company logotype.

IVO SANADER is a collector of expensive watchesA little over eight months ago Nacional browsed through the 700 or so gifts Ivo Sanader had received up to then as the Prime Minister and had deposited in the building on St. Mark's square. And while there were items there of unquestionably sentimental value, like a soccer ball received from Franz Beckenbauer, and even of tangibly material value, like the filigree plates of Jordan's Prime Minister Faisal Al Fayez, there was only one watch among them. Precisely this, Chirac's, quartz watch worth all of 2,000 kunas. Macek claimed last Tuesday on the HRT show "Otvoreno" that Sanader had deposited an allegedly very valuable watch he had received from Jacques Chirac. Only a subsequent review of Nacional's documentation established the real truth about the Bernard Richards watch and confirmed that Macek had not been telling the truth. That is, in short, the latest episode in the affair already known as "Sanader's Watches", which is definitely Croatia's most scrutinised and most followed political tale of early 2007. In its previous issue Nacional, through a detailed analysis of thousands of photos of the Prime Minister, managed to find shots on which Sanader has appeared in public with a series of costly watches. A total of seven very valuable watches have been identified.

Nacional owes Prime Minister Sanader an apology. By an unintentional error a watch the Prime Minister wore on his wrist on a 2004 photo in which he is shaking hands with the Guardian of the Franciscan monastery in Siroki Brijeg was identified as a Rolex Daytona Cosmograph worth 6,300 euros. This is incorrect. The watch is in fact a Montblanc Sport Flyback Chrono, worth 3,775 euros. Also, sources close to the Prime Minister have asserted that Sanader does not own a Cartier Tank worth about 4,500 euros. As for the other watches Nacional has established are owned by the Prime Minister there was no comment. As we have already said, the A. Lange und Sohne worth 28 thousand euros has been identified.

BY AN UNINTENTIONAL ERROR a watch the Prime Minister wore on his wrist in 2004 in Siroki Brijeg was identified in the previous issue of Nacional as a Rolex, and not as a Montblanc Sport Flyback Chrono. The editorial staff of Nacional extends its apologies to the Prime MinisterThen there is the Franck Muller Cintrée Curvex valued at about 10 and a half thousand euros, a Cartier Pasha with a diameter of 42 mm. Also recognised on the Prime Minister's wrist is an IWC Big Pilot (10,500 euros) and a Blancpain Villeret Ultraslim (10,000 euros). The Prime Minister also owns three Rolexes, a 5,250-euro IWC Portugese Chrono, a Dunhill, an Audemars Piguet and another Panerai.

The crown of his collection is without a doubt the Roger Dubuis Golden Square. Watches from this series are manufactured in limited editions of 28 timepieces, and cost anywhere from 20 to 100 thousand euros, depending on the model. Sanader appears on some photos with other wristwatches Nacional has not yet been able to identify. Another key issue related to Sanader's watch collection emerged last week: when did he acquire all of these expensive timepieces. According to Macek, Sanader has been collecting watches for decades, and he already had many prior to his return from Austria in the early 1990s. The only expensive watch Nacional's editorial staff was able to catch on pre-2003 photos, however, is the Panerai Luminor Marina worth about 3,700 euros. Sanader had it on his wrist at a 2000 HDZ press conference, at the unveiling of a bust of the late President Tudjman in 2001 and that same year at the HDZ General Convention. Some of the watches in the collection Sanader could not even have had before leaving Austria to return to Croatia, as claimed by spokesman Macek, nor before becoming Prime Minister.

Namely, the A. Lange und Sohne Grand Lange 1 model first appeared on the market in 2003. Sanader's ten and a half thousand euro Cartier Pasha has only been on sale from 2005. It is up to the experts to establish when the other models seen on Sanader's wrist were available to the market.

VALUABLE IWC Portugese Rattrapante watch ON CACIC'S WRIST Radimir Cacic has confirmed for Nacional that he is the owner of only two costly watches. They are the Panerai Radiomir and IWC Portugese Rattrapante models. Information published in the previous issue of Nacional, that Cacic owned a Vacheron Constantin, is incorrect. Cacic also has a fake Rolex purchased as an ironic gesture at a bazaar in Benkovac. The watch was offered to Cacic for a hundred kunas, but he decided to pay a symbolic 150 kunas for it, alluding to Sanader's collection, estimated to be worth 150 thousand euros.