If an alien was beamed down to Earth, or Mark Zuckerberg asked you (which amounts to the same thing, really), you’d have a hard time explaining why the 2499 is a million (and up) dollar watch in USD while this 3970 is a ‘mere’ 150-250K-ish watch, broadly speaking. But, show...

This is where the Basculante started, except this one is so vintage that back then Cartier just called it the Tank Cabriolet Reversible. The Basculante naming convention only became standardized around the ref. 2390 in the 90s and this incredible time capsule dates from the 1940s. If you’re a student...

Early Autavias are amongst the beautiful professional chronographs ever made. They have the historic chops to rival pre-moon Speedmasters and even Daytonas. Speaking plainly, the other two evolved more gracefully with age in the decades that followed. The current TAG Autavia I regard as a shell of its former self....

Middle Eastern signatures are one thing, but when you see a polychromatic painting of a Quraysh Hawk in enamel, it’s always an occasion. Made for the emir of Dubai Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, examples are far less in number than say an Oman Khanjar dial. More importantly, for us...

Many will argue this is the first-ever Explorer, ref. 6350. But others will state it’s the ref. 6150. In the 6150, only some examples actually said Explorer on the dial and it wasn’t yet an officially certified chronometer. By this 6350, both traditions were firmly in place. It’s kind of...

When this IWC sold new in 1995, it had an MSRP almost identical to a top-of-the-range BMW 5 Series (thanks @alteuhrener for that excellent bit of trivia). Today, it’s far less than half that. And yet, today as back then, it’s one of the most elegant minute repeaters ever designed....

If you thought integrated bracelets started and ended with the holy trinity, that’s not even close to accurate. Omega had an entire range by the 70s, an effort which is easily and often overlooked. But it really shouldn’t be, particularly if you’re out for a value. This is one of...

The 1655 isn’t just where the Explorer II began, it’s one of the strangest anachronisms in the Rolex back catalogue. By comparison to a GMT or Sub, it takes a very specific kind of collector: one that appreciates the start of a story to exclusion of all things. We usually...

The emoji Day-Date isn’t the first time Rolex let their hair down, but when they did so in the past, man, it was just so much more tasteful and elegant. They say subtlety is an art that’s been lost on our generation and I’m inclined to agree. Back in the...

In 1959, before the formula for what would become a dive watch was well-established, JLC had a go. And what they came up with was markedly different to what we think of as a dive watch today, leaning more into their technical ability to leverage complication. What resulted was this,...

Long time readers will know by the rehaut, this is a Rolex that is not what it first appears to be. If you love watches, you’d spot this case from across the room. You’d say ‘Nice Oysterquartz’, and in 19/20 passes, you’d be entirely correct. But this is the one...

The new Ingenieur is great. Or maybe great-ish. Fine, it’s just okay. Here’s my gripe and it’s not the RRP: IWC have gone a bit out of their way to not advertise its magnetic resistance, it’s not listed on their site. It’s not even on Hodinkee. Somehow, everyone missed the...

If the tourbillon is often utilized a bit garishly (and let’s be honest, it is), it certainly didn’t start that way. Despite almost no one knowing the reference and it rarely receiving a mention at all, this ‘Sun Ray’ ref. 25643 was the world’s first self-wound tourbillon wristwatch and the...

This is a 25720PT Star Wheel, obviously, but not as you know it. A handful of very rare, very unusual iterations were created. There are fewer than five known with gem set bezels. In yellow gold, a couple ‘tiger eye’ dials were made. But in platinum, two colored dials were...

Much has been discovered since this first Finds post on an Obsidian Datejust. Below is a copy of our updated perspective on these stone dial Datejusts, taken from our most recent article written 2024. Here’s just about the most controversial Rolex around today. It goes by Obsidian, a volcanic glass,...

This is one of those rare occasions where a solid caseback is way, way more interesting than the dial. Simply engraved, ‘Grand Prix de Monaco 1996’, it unlocks a whole world of unknowns and potential history. We know for certain that in the ’96 Monaco Grand Prix, Michael Schumacher took...

It’s been at least two years since I’ve seen one of these surface in the market, but that ends today. If over the last few years anyone thought the increased interest in vintage Cartier was a fad, neo or true vintage, nothing could be further from the truth. We’ve seen...

I’ll just say it, people who don’t appreciate vintage Zenith are philistines. Zenith were wildly experimental with case design and developed the most technically proficient automatic chronograph movement of the decade, still in use today. And yet, everyone still conflates them with 90s televisions. But don’t take it from me....