Lacquer dial in a Santos is a particularly strange and attractive thing. Like seeing Dame Hellen Mirren act her socks off in Fast & Furious. Or perhaps more relevant, like a beautifully dressed Stella dial Day-Date that chain smokes and surrenders. This dial was made to celebrate the Santos’s 75th,...

There are but a handful of Patek Philippes made in the last two decades which will go down as all time greats—a smaller fraction of production than prior decades. The 3940 is one. It is only recently becoming fully understood as the pivotal reference it is, the start of serially...

Almost every watch enthusiast has a soft spot for the IWC Mark XII, but almost no watch enthusiasts are aware that a few oddball 90s collaborative limited editions exist. The red centre seconds here is not some ill-advised service replacement, this is 1 of 25 examples made for the Danish...

This is the first Daytona, where it all began, 6239. The 6239 Paul Newman, despite not sporting Oyster pushers, is about as close to blue chip in the pump-pusher vintage Rolex world as it gets. Although thanks largely to provenance, a different PN 6239 still holds the record today for...

When watch enthusiasts say vintage Movado, they’re usually picturing an M90 series chronograph. But that’s not even close to where it ends. This Celestrograf is as complicated as vintage Movado gets and it’s about as lovely a complete calendar as has even been created. This is from the mid-40s, 18k...

You’re used to wood dials in Day-Date, but Datejust? Yes, it happened, they’re just far less common. Particularly in white gold, and this is the rarest of the lot. Only seen in 16019, it’s a much darker burlwood than what we usually see in Day-Dates, likely walnut, and it was...

Few chronographs don’t get the credit they deserve like the A386. Because I try to be a bit professional here once in a while, I threw the search terms ‘Rolex Daytona, Omega Speedmaster, Heuer Carrera, and Zenith El Primero’ into Google Trends to approximate the relative interest (specific vintage references...

The Santos is bewilderingly broad church. But 70s Santos Dumont is never the wrong choice, with its Frederic Piguet 21 and 4.5mm thinness (including crystal). And even in that niche, there’s still a lot to learn. This may look like a gold case, and it is. But it also isn’t:...

Some watches seem removed from time, perennially elegant, like the 3940, 1463, 5513, or any other arrangement of four digits from Patek or Rolex that you care to mention. Others lean into their era and attach themselves to it violently, like tap dancing on the Titanic until the trends change...

There’s Rolex, and then there’s complicated Rolex. The latter, we’ve only seen a handful of times and it’s pretty much all vintage. You could make an argument for the Sky-Dweller, but I wouldn’t want to. No, full calendar and split seconds Rolex emerged in the 50s and disappeared as quickly...

Not all Datejust are created equal. This will become immediately apparent if you check out Monaco Legends 2021 result for a red jasper white gold 1601, which hammered at 186K US. Many think of the Datejust as that two-tone thing you have to buy for your significant other to get...

If you love your Daytona, you should know its grandfather. This is the ref. 3525, not the first Rolex chronograph, but likely the first Oyster-cased Rolex chronograph. It goes by ‘Monoblocco’, ‘Barilotto’, and ‘Prisoner of War’ all as nicknames. The first two are easy to explain, the third I’ll get...

It’s not often discussed in these terms, but in the very early days of watchmaking, before even pocket watches were commonplace, the Swiss looked toward the English as the more established regional watchmaking industry. It was only after John Calvin banned things like dancing and the wearing of jewelry that...

There is something fantastic about pairing high complication with vibrant color. Somehow, complication and the effort required to create it tends to bring about the serious side of aesthetics and design, almost as a way of saying ‘you should take this seriously’. This is the other philosophy. Most collectors tend...

This isn’t a new Watches & Wonders release and it’s unrelated to Omega’s Trilogy set, apart from being heavily 2915-inspired. This is from 1998 and is one of very few Omega limited editions from that time which is actually limited, at just 150 examples. 150, rather significantly, for the 150th...

Rexhep is arguably the most discussed independent of the last few years. The questions are twofold: the why and the how of the furor. I believe they’re both founded in excellent watchmaking. Perhaps we were all a bit primed after the stratospheric explosion in the likes of Dufour, Smith, and...

With no hyperbole whatsoever, this is probably the most desirable Aquanaut in the world. It’s a 5065, the first 38mm ‘jumbo’ reference, one of a handful (and that might be too generous) to exist with what is called a ‘Plum’ dial. It may even just be two examples, yet to...

If one Googles ‘FP Journe Chronomètre’, it will autocomplete Bleu. But the time-only Souverain extends well outside Google’s tastes. It is quite unusual that in the lesser complicated Journe, it’s the non-guilloché Bleu that everybody knows. When, if you can enjoy a reserve, you get a guilloché dial as well....