Nicolas Hayek always adored Breguet. Throughout his tenure, that respect showed through in a refusal to modernize or cheapen the watchmaking. Breguet under his guidance simply continued with the Roth legacy, and some of those references are worth looking more closely. This is the 3137, a Power Reserve Moonphase that...

Any Royal Oak without brushing on the top of its bezel is serious business. At a glance, it almost looks wrong to have a fully mirror-finished bezel. But it isn’t wrong, it’s platinum. And it’s very likely to be a vintage QP. The evolution of the Royal Oak QP is...

Error dials are something we typically associate with Rolex, things like the infamous double-9 Air King. Surely, the holy-trinity Patek Philippe has never faltered that obviously. We hear frequently about how, while Rolex make in excess of one million watches yearly, Patek Philippe make just 60-75K watches. And yet, in...

There are few greater value opportunities than the current market for first generation Overseas, pretty much all variants, but salmon dials in particular. A direct descendant of the 222, this was the intermediary step between 222 and the calatrava cross-inspired case that many know today. The first generation is not...

There is no objective reason early Carreras should not be held in exactly the same esteem as manual pump pusher Daytonas. But that’s particularly the case for this, the 2447NST. NST here denotes a black dial with tachymetre, which really completes the minimal Carrera aesthetic by tying in Heuer’s motorsport...

This is one of the most unusual Voutilainens I’ve ever seen surface and it’s not like there are many I get to talk about to begin with. The Vingt-8 is Kari’s aesthetic sense, distilled. What the Chronomètre Bleu is to FP, the Vingt-8 is to Kari. Only this Vingt-8 is...

Patek may indisputably own the perpetual calendar chronograph, but IWC contested the 5004 Perpetual Calendar Rattrapante in the same year it debuted with this: the ref. 3751 Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar Rattrapante. It included the most infamous advertising campaign any watch has ever braved, almost unimaginable today, which began in...

In Datejust collecting, this is the peak. It’s a stone that’s not found in Day-Dates, a shade of royalty reserved for the Datejust only, which elevates the model to something far beyond 1601. It’s what’s known as a red jasper dial and it’s far less common than the already hard-to-find...

This is a first series: Genesis. It’s the sort of 3940 that will raise the heart rate of even the most grizzled collectors. The very first 25 went to Beyer and were signed as such, then began the über desirable standard first series. They are solid caseback. Sunken Subs. And...

In vintage, there are two different types of people. Some like tropical dials, cases that were used until not a millimeter is left unscathed, watches with stories. Others want a museum example, something that is true and original, but looks like it was left in your grandfather’s drawer (as is...

It’s hard to think of a three hander with date that’s more classic than a 1601 Datejust. But they do exist. The vintage world has these little understudied pockets capable of amazing everyone. This is one. It’s a Constellation, and it’s a Constellation in the same way that U2 is...

As a vintage lover, I like the Le Mans as much as the next guy. But one thing saddens me. It feels like we’re seeing the slow, steady extinction of the solid caseback. And solid casebacks are never cooler than when made in precious metal. Solid gold and platinum casebacks...

I have never met S.M. Alzouman, but I know that he is, to use the modern parlance, an absolute G. This is a 3700 Nautilus in two-tone, as late-70s as the Nautilus aesthetic gets. But I’m fairly confident you won’t have seen this dial before, because this is the only...

On a recent podcast episode, I voted for this 90s ref. 47101 as the greatest chronograph pusher of all time. Both for how sexy, at home, and stylized the pusher itself is (almost square on wrist, yet oval in profile), but also the feeling of this 2310 backing it up....

Perfect simplicity is more difficult to create than complication. As the often misattributed quote goes, ‘If I had more time, I would’ve written you a shorter letter.’ I don’t have time, so I’m going to fully expound the many virtues of the 565 with complexity. It’s one of the earliest...

You’re probably asking yourself now, ‘What is Hairspring doing talking about a Black Bay 58?’ Look a little closer at that dial. If one needed convincing that Tudor are operating today in the role that Rolex did 50 years ago, we need no further evidence. This is the Hodinkee ‘Friends...

The case could easily be made that the three ‘holy trinity’ neo-vintage perpetual calendars, the storied refs 5548, 43031, and 3940, are the most important complicated serially produced watches of the modern era, particularly the 5548 for bringing the category back. But that’s like saying David Gandy is handsome; duh....

A watch may lead an infinite number of lives, but only some result in patina. As the saying goes, one should use their tools. This is a ‘pre-moon’ 2998, and no, your eyes do not deceive you, that bezel is green. Only a very narrow range of 2998 bezels are...