Japanese independent watchmaking has blossomed in the last 5 years like few areas of watchmaking. From Norifumi Seki’s independent display watch to Asaoka’s gorgeous Tourbillon Noir, there’s a wealth of personality being expressed in metal. One, though, has recently enjoyed the brightest spotlight of all thanks to Ed Sheeran and...

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....

Surely if any chronograph deserves a moonphase complication, it’s the Moonwatch. But, like all good things, it was only introduced in the 80s. This is the ref. 345.0809, better known by collectors as the Speedymoon. Not only does it bring the most romantic of complications to the party, but it...

Pre-Richemont Vacheron Constantin can be accurately summed up by just the hands and dial of this ref. 47052. The hands are voluminous and domed, almost cylindrical with a mirror polish. That finishing takes time. And then there’s the dial: ‘Vieux Panier’ hand guilloché that almost resembles brushstrokes, applied Matese cross,...

Universal Genève are coming back. For true vintage lovers, they never left our thoughts. And throughout all these 70 years, one reference has always remained the apex. Elusive and extremely scarce, this is the 22560 A. Cairelli Split Seconds. This 44mm oversized chronograph is wafer thin, made for the Italian...

This is one of the great, ‘what might have been, had Rolex pursued a different path’ watches. It’s the 3055, better known as the Piccolino, and it has more in common with the Patek Philippe 130 than a 6265 Daytona. Piccolino means little ‘little one’, but it packs an outsized...

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...