Earlier this week, friend of Hairspring Robert-Jan Broer of Fratello wrote a fantastic piece on the Speedmaster Moonphase and all its iterations, which I’ve always felt is one of the most attractive flavors of Speedmaster. Something about the additional layer of vertical symmetry and light sprinkling of complication elevates the...

There are several replicated studies in psychology which demonstrate that the more frequently we see a face, the more attractively we tend to rate it. The theory is that the the more quickly and fluently we process beauty, the stronger its perceived effect. I’ve found much of Genta’s work has...

There seems to be some magic about the inception of a career. Let me explain. Einstein invented the theory of relativity at 26, writing his seminal paper shortly after graduating while working in the Swiss Patent Office. Brandon Flowers of The Killers wrote Mr. Brightside at 22, two years after...

The military Tudor rabbit hole goes deeper than you think. You will be familiar with the snowflake-handed 9401/0 Marine Nationale which has recently seen new life via the FXD. But Tudor’s military history extends far beyond France. South Africa issued its Navy divers a small run of ref. 7016 subs....

No watch is more fit for purpose than a 1016. That purpose is adventure, it has been from the very start. So when you come across an example whose dial has clearly been used well and hard, well, this may be the reference’s ultimate expression. It’s kind of like seeing...

The first time you lay eyes on a ref. 1004 is a lot like the first time you learn how Germany’s energy is sourced: you sort of think, ‘Huh, that’s a strange beast. Surely that doesn’t work?’ In both cases, you’d be right. The 1004 is the reference that launched...

Not all Valjoux 72s are super-unobtainium. Daytonas are, some Universals are starting to be, and many screw-back Autavias are already there. But the latter, slightly blockier, and more robust 2446C is still represents significant value compared to just about everything out there. There are many subtle differences within 2446s, case...

Patek’s Calatrava always reminds me a quote from Charles de Gaulle, when asked by journalist how he might go about uniting France in wartime he replied, ‘How can you govern a country which has two hundred and forty-six varieties of cheese?’ Patek’s Calatrava has seen hundreds, if not thousands of...

The French are efficient to the same extent that Germans are famed for riding down the street on a bicycle with a baguette under one arm, chainsmoking and being rude to foreigners; which is to say they’re generally not efficient at all. Nonetheless, our man from Marseille had the idea...

We all know 90% dark chocolate is best. Anything less is for children. Anything more is for people who want to prove to you how much they like chocolate, it’s overpowering. This, I know, is the same reductive argument than anyone driving more slowly than you must be an idiot...

The Cintrée (French for curved) case could arguably be called the first ergonomic wristwatch, curved to adopt the wrist rather than built around a movement and given lugs. That’s fairly substantial historically. The last time I wrote about one, I compared it to the Herman Miller chair I now own...

I’m as fond of a good metaphor for communicating my views on any given watch as China are of polluting oceans. The Day-Date, more than almost any other watch, lends itself to a particular analogy: drink. There are endless variants, each quite personally expressive, and they all get you to...

It’s pretty brazen to name a collection, ‘The Six Materpieces’. That’s like McLaren naming their track car the Senna. Or a restaurant I once visited in San Diego that had a Cioppino called ‘The Bourdain’. Generally speaking, it’s best practice to let someone else declare your work a masterpiece. And...

The 1019 Milgauss is the sole watch where I prefer a non-luminous dial to tanned tritium, because it signifies something really rather special historically. It is said that science advances in irregular leaps and bounds rather than consistent steps. Perhaps not by coincidence, the same could be said about Rolex....

Last year, I had the chance to have a short chat with one of Czapek’s three founders. Straight away, I asked him the query I always do when I don’t really understand a brand, ‘Can you tell me a little about this effort, why it needs to exist, and what...

This unassuming diver is one of Schaffhausen’s best kept secrets. If I told you today that IWC were about to release a fully integrated titanium diver that could go down to 2000m, was going to be issued to the German military, had an antimagnetic cage, tritium, and with a design...

This is a Royal Oak in the same way that Yoko Ono is a member of The Beatles . . .which is to say this isn’t a Royal Oak. Despite the bracelet and design language similarities, AP never called the 6005 Jumbo a Royal Oak, it went simply by the...

There is only one watch that has combined Zenith’s A386-style tricolor subs with an A3818 Cover Girl case. It fact, it’s really the only other watch Zenith made in period besides the A386 to sport the grey-dark grey-blue. It even brought the famous ‘sharks tooth’ chronograph seconds track from the...