No one knows precisely how the Turn-O-Graph bezel wound up on the wrists of the USAF Demonstration Squadron, better known as the Thunderbirds. Lore holds that one pilot previously bought one for himself on his wedding, and, after discovering how useful the rotating bezel was, the US government placed an...

So you’ve been watching the fall auctions and standout Rolex 6062 lots, pining. Some have used the headline ‘most beautiful Rolex ever made’. But let’s say you don’t have the spare 2M CHF sitting around that one commanded a few days ago. Fret not, JCB and Blancpain’s best ever sequences...

This 222 is the archetypal double take watch. Glance once, and it’s a bimetal 222 jumbo. Incredible watch, in any dial. But glance twice and your mind begins to process that this is something bizarre. The hands are non-luminous dauphine, solid gold, and not batons. In attention to detail, the...

Steel and Journe are almost antonyms, in FP precious metal is the standard. That is, except for one short blip around 2015 (forgetting minute repeaters and the Holland & Holland). Collectors will know, there are two closely linked, but slightly separate major transitions in FP Journe’s history. The first came...

Franck Muller is often called the ‘master of complications’, but in truth there’s only one of his that I care about. It’s a simple chronograph, made before he discovered blow (after saying this for years I can now blame that framing on our friends at Amsterdam Vintage Watches), and it...

In 1950, you had few options if you wanted a chronograph that leaned more toward dressing than driving. You could wander down to Patek Philippe and grab a 1463. In retrospect, good move. Audemars Piguet would sell you a Valjoux 13 VZAH ref. 5522, which is quite an amazing thing,...

Tom Landry is one of the most important and influential figures there has ever been in American football. And this is his Day-Date. No, not just the same reference. This is Landry’s actual Rolex, the precise one that’s been immortalized and carved on his statue’s wrist outside Texas Stadium. Head...

The perfect companion for a Rocky III-style training montage, Rolex’s ‘Tiger Eye’ dials are one of the lesser seen but always noticed hardstone dials. They’re a product of the 70s, unapologetically so, and carry the flag for the brown aesthetic revolution still today. Lapis and Onyx dials have soared in...

No, you’re not having an aneurysm. This is a 16520, but not as you know it. This is a test dial, often called a prototype though that’s not exactly correct, made by singer for Rolex before the Zenith Daytona existed for COSC testing. And yet, it looks like what would...

I can count on two hands the number of times a watch released post 2018 from a non-independent stopped me dead in my tracks. Four of those fingers are taken up by Lange. And three of them are Vacheron’s. Two of Vacheron’s are what happens when a watch brand listens...

Valjoux 72 is a broad church. Everyone thinks manual Daytona first. But the legendary chronograph calibre is behind much of great vintage Heuer, Universal, Breitling, and Enicar. Lesser known, its widespread adoption even intersects with the history of the esteemed ‘Grande Maison’ Jaeger-Lecoultre. And where V72 meets JLC, it is...

When watch lovers throw around the phrase ‘exit watch’, which is a fanciful concept in itself, they usually mean ‘the next watch I can reasonably see myself attaining.’ If a sole watch is going to pull you off the hedonistic treadmill entirely, it has to be an order of magnitude...

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 time you’d be off. This is a 1530, it’s mechanical, and it’s what came first. The 1530 confounds expectation, made in...

The Santos Dumont was designed for aviation yet, in my head, it belongs permanently on the French Riviera, casually cruising the cliffs between Monaco and Cannes in an Aston. Some watches exude a certain presence that you can’t get away from. For example, a 5513 is no-nonsense, here to get...

I believe wholeheartedly we’re all in the outset of something pivotal happening right now with the 3940. Since ceasing production in 2007, there were always those who appreciated its proportions and font. But quickly thereafter, collectors also began to appreciate its role in pulling PP toward the modern era and...

To any sane outsider, perhaps someone who just bought their first 40mm 5226G Calatrava, vintage Rolex lovers seem a bit deranged. Like Tolkein’s Ringwraiths, we scour Middle-Earth in search of the one, obsessing over its most insignificant minutia. We have our own tongue, whispering things to each other like rail...

Every discipline has its greats. Rock has the Stones. Italian has risotto. Le Mans has the 917. Absolute pricks have Kim Jong Un, second only to Jake Paul. But ski racing? Skiing has Jean-Claude Killy. The French alpine skier took home a trifecta of golds in the 1968 Winter Olympics,...

This is something of a final boss for those who worship at the altar of Moonwatch. It’s known as the ‘Red Racing’ or sometimes ‘Black Racing’, as both colors are distinct to this dial. There are two iterations, with and without a professional line, and fewer than 10 examples of...