The very first Roger Smith (RWS) Series 3 is heading to auction. Introduced in 2015, the Series 3 was the start of the date complication with the established aesethic of the collection. It nods to the commissioned rectangular-cased Series 1 which also featured a retrograde date, but that Lange Arkade-like...

To most, the word Saatchi brings to mind an art gallery in London. To watch obsessives, Saatchi is a crowning adjective applied to Patek Philipps through the late neo-vintage era. On the 5070, the Saatchi very much marks the traditional king of chronographs returning to their throne. In 2015, Patek...

You only see complicated Rolex a handful of times in vintage Rolex. In essence, you get Padellone, 6062, 4413, and this: Jean Claude Killy. A complete calendar chronograph, this is as highly collected as you’ll ever see Rolex. Killy is what happens when Daytona just doesn’t push far enough, and...

The most modern machine at Haldimann is an optical microscope from the ’60s, certainly not a CNC. Haldimann’s workshop and entire operation is his home, a villa overlooking the river Aare in Thun that has a deliberately meditative vibe. His eponymous independent manufacture makes 20-30 watches per year, entirely in...

First generation Datographs have been on a tear, and perhaps none is more under represented in the zeitgeist than the 403.032. This is not the Dufourgraph, that one has a black dial. This is the argente silver, pink gold early Datograph that has no counterpart in the contemporary catalogue (there...

There are probably far fewer than 10 of these: an Audemars Piguet ref. 25661 in platinum with a mother of pearl dial. Within the long march of the QP which brought back complicated watchmaking to Switzerland (famously developed in secret), the 25661 was first to feature a display caseback—which here...