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...

If the new Ingenieur just doesn’t land quite right for you, vintage might have the answer. And it doesn’t just have to be the quite-expensive, OG ref. 1832. The Ingenieurs which arrived after, that only very few of us obsessive enthusiasts seem to talk about, are just as if not...

A few days ago, I was debating with a friend just what the purest expression of the Valjoux 72 was. There’s a lot play with here, he holds it’s an Oyster Paul Newman, which is hard to argue with. But the Daytona was just one of hundreds of references that...

The ref. 6001 is not something you’re likely to have seen before. It’s not a Royal Oak, designed by Jean-Fred Meylan not Genta, and it shares almost no visual identity with any other AP save for its petite tapisserie dial. Fewer than 350 are thought to have been made from...

What is a Rolex Explorer? A 3-6-9 dial and sterile, steel bezel? Wearing a cardigan and doing no Exploring? Or does it have to say Explorer on it? This is the central question fueling a debate that’s been raging between the farthest gone of us for some time. This 6150...

Stone dials are fraught, Tiffany stamps are equally perilous, and the only thing less common than a Stella dial is one without a crack in the lacquer. That’s the cynic’s view of the state of Day-Dates, and it’s definitely somewhat supportable. However, not all that glimmers in Day-Date is quite...

Early Roger Dubuis is often compared to Patek Philippe, which is a telling thing in itself. But RD’s detractors will often ask, ‘Why not just buy the original?’ It’s a sentiment I entirely sympathize with, the imitation of anything is rarely on par with its inspiration (particularly off-brand Doritos). But...

This is the rarest racing dial and a dream Speedmaster. It’s known as the ‘Red Racing’ or sometimes ‘Black Racing’, as both colors are distinct to this dial. Apart from the real astronaut watches and prototypes, they’re as special as Speedmaster collecting gets. There are two iterations, one with a...

Staring into an onyx Datejust is the horological equivalent of a black hole. Both aesthetically and financially, they will suck you in. Normally, I would always slightly preference a Day-Date, everything else being equal. But in stone dials, Datejusts really sing. You get more of the stone, to start. But...

Minutia in Rolex is really the name of the game, it’s a lifetime’s learning. The dial on this 7928 is spectacular, but it’s not even the most impressive part of this Sub and that’s where the minutia comes in. The very earliest Submariners, big crown and small, lacked crown guards....

At its release in ’94, this ref. 2050 was the thinnest perpetual calendar calibre ever at just 3.1mm. It remains to this day a technical marvel, yet it’s all but entirely forgotten. The 2050 was a flag placed in the ground for Schaffhausen in what was a very active battle...