Archive for February 2023
Nivada Grenchen Chronomaster Aviator Sea Diver
When one of my friends who’s just dipping their toes into our world asks me to recommend a vintage watch that’s affordable, interesting, and just cool, I struggle these days. Ten years ago, I’d answer Heuer and UG. Five years ago, I’d point to 90s Cartier (hah! definitely not today) or the Dirty Dozen. With…
Read More6541 Rolex Milgauss
Rolex’s storied professional line conjures images of Pan-Am, Comex, Hillary, spelunking, the Daytona 500, and, if you like 5s on your dial, the British RAF (Air-King). Yet there is one professional’s Rolex which often receives little or no mention. Many Rolexes today a marketed under the heading ‘rare’. The 6541 Milgauss, an antimagnetic scientist’s chronometer,…
Read More‘Swiss Only’ 43031 Vacheron Constantin Perpetual Calendar
The holy trinity 80s ultra-thin perpetual calendars that resuscitated mechanical watchmaking as an art form post-quartz-crisis are truly entering their own today. They made quartz look childish, like when you challenge your dad to a drinking contest only to realize your life has ill-prepared you (or wasn’t as depressing as you thought). You leave ashamed…
Read More‘Chicchi di Mais’ 16570 Rolex Explorer II
If a watch-curious alien were to come down to Earth, you’d have a very hard time explaining why vintage watches are more appealing than their modern counterparts. Generally speaking, things get objectively better over time. That is, with one exception: tritium. The warm glow of a well aged 3H (tritium is in fact hydrogen-3, why…
Read More‘Yves Klein’ 25820ST Audemars Piguet Royal Oak QP
About five years ago, I encountered my first Yves Klein Royal Oak at a collector meetup in San Francisco. I made an all-too-obvious audible gasp when I clocked it. My girlfriend of the time, who was starting to learn the ropes, said, ‘So that’s just a blue dial Royal Oak, right?’ as I started to…
Read MoreMk3 A386 Zenith El Primero
Whoever came up with idea to make the three subdial registers of the A386 tri-color is a genius. In watch design, the gold standard is being distinctive enough to be recognized from across a room or mid-distance. Most meaningful designs nail this trick, but there are surprisingly few. Why does this matter? The majority slice…
Read More1991 Cartier Paris Crash
The Crash is that sole watch whose trajectory best encapsulates the last two decades of watch collecting as a whole. In the year 2000, very few would be able to describe the differences between a London and Paris Crash. Today, anyone who’s aware of Loupe This has that covered. It has blasted from relative obscurity…
Read More‘Milspec 1’ Blancpain Fifty Fathoms
There is no greater tell that a watch is firmly in the collector zeitgeist than when Hodinkee writes a guide on its genealogy. But when the Fifty Fathoms passed that milestone passed last month, it seemed perhaps a bit overdue? I mean this is really the first dive watch as we know the formula today.…
Read MoreStep-Case ‘Tasti Tondi’ Longines 13ZN
Round pushers on a 13ZN and you’re definitively in the cognoscenti, no matter where you’re turning up. Raj Chaudhuri wrote an exceptional article for ACM last year titled ‘Is the Longines 13ZN still collectible?’. The answer, if community enthusiasm is anything to go by, is yes. It certainly deserves to be. But we’re very much…
Read More3508 IWC Ingenieur 500000 A/m
If you’ve been shopping for a toaster recently, you’ll know most people buy a Cuisinart. Alternatively, you could buy a 600 USD Wolf that is milled from steel, toasts four slices at once, senses where slices are loaded to self-center, and will automatically recognize bagels from bread. The one review I could find describes as…
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