In the time the very first 36mm Royal Oak, the 4332, was released, bimetal was the most desirable. The Royal Oak was introduced to elevate steel beyond its initial tool watch remit. But almost as soon as the ink from Genta’s pen had dried, it was introduced in precious metal....

So, you’ve decided you want a vintage Tank. You’re probably a bit French, or at least aspire toward that. Your evenings are all fine tailoring followed by some light chainsmoking with five glasses of vin. You’re ready to show the world that your refined elegance has evolved beyond a Calatrava...

Speaking plainly, this is the only ‘John Mayer’ Daytona I really care about. Okay, his is a Desert Eagle but go with me here. This Oman 6265 and the Desert Eagle 6263 (& 6265) are the only two recent sport Rolexes to share a very distinct privilege. Unlike nearly all...

You don’t change the recipe to Gordon Ramsay’s beef bourguignon. It’s perfect, he’s already painstakingly worked out every measured gram and second through repeated trial and error. That’s also why the 16/1860 has aged so gracefully, Chopard didn’t squander a perfect inheritance for the sake of just doing something new....

Are you sitting down? I’m about to say three words that don’t get put next to each other often: 222 cream dial. The 1977 222 was made with more dial iterations than people realize today. Most know the slate, which can look a bit navy in certain light, and gold....

Imagine trying to invent an entirely new movement with digital jumping seconds for fun. That’s the madness, manic compulsive obsession, that is FP Journe on full display. If you’ve ever been there, it’s actually kind of a lovely feeling. The Vagabondage series has always felt like the result of a...

It’s not often discussed in these terms, but in the very early days of watchmaking, before even pocket watches were commonplace, the Swiss looked toward the English as the more established regional watchmaking industry. It was only after John Calvin banned things like dancing and the wearing of jewelry that...

The late ’50s were a time when the world had absolute faith that science would solve its problems and deliver a future worth being excited about. But if you were an actual scientist, working hard to lead the space race or keep the cold war on ice, you were in...

Easy, breezy, and a total dime, Zenith’s ‘Cover Girl’ is named aptly. This ref. A3818 is about as niche as Zenith collecting gets, with the possible exception of the A3817. Yet somehow, even still today, Zenith collecting as a whole is still low-key. If you’re not the sort of person...

Arguably, this is how you go about being inspired by the classics properly. It’s not uncommon for new enthusiasts to learn of Roger Dubuis, see the Lamborghini-inspired Excalibur which looks like Megatron after contracting a virus, and write off the brand entirely. But modern RD is a far cry from...

Here begins the controversy. Meet the ‘Blueberry’, an enigmatic 1675 GMT-Master that comes with a fully blue bezel and more unsolicited opinions from armchair experts than OJ Simpson (he definitely did it). The Rolex community across Instagram, VRF, Watch Pro, and anywhere else you’d care to look are divided right...

There are many, many things in the watch world that simply do not make sense. Is Tim Mosso a Swiss automaton? How did watch polishing become a debate about meta-existentialism? Is Lange service Germany’s attempt to get into the cartel game? More than any of these mysteries, I seek to...

There are a handful of watches so desperately attractive and simultaneously difficult to attain that any number of players have been known to attempt to reproduce them with generic components and a liberal interpretation of intellectual property. These players will go unnamed save to say that one starts with M...

This is the kind of beautiful madness that has resulted from Kudoke’s star apprentice branching out on his own. What you are looking at is one of Germany’s newest independents. It’s not just Glashütte creating beautiful objects anymore, Dresden has been blossoming recently. This is the Sternenhimmel, which translates as...

In full transparency, when I first started down the rabbit hole of watch learning, I didn’t ‘get’ double signed dials. Tiffany, Oman, or Domino’s, it always seemed a bit too close to those car dealers who’d put a sticker that says ‘Dave’s Mercedes’ next to E63 with a gaudy license...

A Speedmaster with a meteorite dial just seems right. However, it didn’t happen until 2010. Though it’s often assumed that the platinum 321 was the first meteorite dial Moonwatch, it wasn’t even second (that was the Grey Side of the Moon). Because the appearance is so similar, it’s often mistaken...

This is a prototype, depending on how you define it. At the very least, it is the first ever Series 2 Open Dial in white gold and one of 5 examples with a mark 1 movement. The mark 1’s escapement is the first evolution of Smith’s co-axial, the first step...

Watch media, collectors, and enthusiasts often speak about the Nautilus as if it’s one thing. After all, we often write ‘the’ Nautilus, as opposed ‘a’ Nautilus. Simultaneous, we more often talk about Submariners, not the sub, because we acknowledge that sub is a broad church. But both are slow evolving...