This is a CPCP Tank À Guichets, or as I like to call it the Tankiest Tank. Cartier’s name is sexier, I admit. The Tank À Guichets has always been a limited release in Cartier, from first commission in 1928 until this 100 example run in 2004 over 90 years,...

This 3700’s dial is the only I’ve ever seen which is outrageous enough to make up for the fact that its case has ears. Now, far be it from me to criticize Genta’s pen and what today is an institution. But broadly speaking, I find every watch enthusiast is either...

You know that meme that goes ‘Mom, can we get X?’ ‘We have X at home’. This might be the only meme-appropriate watch instance where X is both less expensive and just as cool, but fits the format. This is a Lip 830, but it’s know affectionately as the ‘Paul...

I’m old enough in watch years to just remember a time when old Swiss men on the internet would call Lange ‘not as serious’ a brand as Patek Philippe. The comparison is useless, the two manufactures approach watchmaking with such distinct philosophies. But, if there were any remaining doubt, surely...

Tropical doesn’t always mean caramel. I find a lot of visual delight in the shade where dials are just starting to move off black, it’s subtlety. You’ll be used to seeing tropical subdials on the white dial 6265, often wildly so. But the black dials can also go brown, it’s...

When all you do is hunt watches all day like a shit Indiana Jones, it’s pretty easy to become jaded about even the greatest watches. You can find me a Jasper Day-Date and all I’ll want to do is compare it to the last one we featured. I love what...

True creativity, as in ground-up first principles approaches to problems, has immense value even when it fails spectacularly. JLC intended this, the Futurematic, to be a world-beater, the first watch without a crown to wind. The mainspring only winds from the motion of its bumper automatic, meaning those chronograph-like oversized...

I don’t know what a Royal Oak means any more, and I’m pretty sure you don’t either. Back in the 70s when lapels were wide enough to create lift at speed and you could actually say ‘rad’, it was one thing. A Royal Oak told the world steel could be...

For every modern run of the mill Aquatimer you’d only try on while waiting for a flight at the IWC boutique in Frankfurt, there is one which is incredibly interesting. The line has endured a massive degree of stochastic randomness with respect to greatness. Yes, many of the less thoughtful...

A childhood hero of mine, by the name of James May, used to famously spend his summers between doing Top Gear making shit documentaries learning about wine. He was accompanied by storied wine critic Oz Clarke and would drive around France in an attempt to be educated, but mostly an...

Pursuing any thread to its absolute end can often seem like madness to the outside world. I am reminded of scotch distillers, who will endlessly move certain barrels around warehouses to age closer or further from the sea, for just the right hint of salt. But also Red Bull and...

Some watches just seem to burrow into your soul. This is the epitome of that paradigm. It’s a ref. 25661 in white gold with what AP call a rosé dial, salmon to us plebeians. Just 32 examples of 25661 were made in white gold, they’re hard enough to find as...

There’s nothing like an obscure, meaningless detail to get watch enthusiasts researching. Early Carreras and early Daytonas share more than just a column-wheel Valjoux 72 heartbeat. We’re talking same hour markers, milled subdials, and subdial numerals. See, the earliest Carreras had dials manufactured by Singer—the very same of Rolex fame....

Tiffany today is under LVMH, and as such it’s also slowly LVMH-ifying. Yes it’s a brand, it will always sell things. But people behaving as if a turquoise dial is the second coming need to cool the jets, Supreme marketing won’t work forever. I liked when Tiffany, with respected to...

This is very literally Daytona royalty. The red signature at 12 is that of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said, then Sultan of Oman. Qaboos was a well-known watch lover and would occasionally gift visiting foreign dignitaries, heads of state, high ranking government officials, or noteworthy servicemen a...

It’s neo-vintage, but not what that title usually brings to mind. It’s like when someone says muscle cars and the C63 enters the conversation. It fits the category perfectly, but no one thinks Mercedes. It’s an IWC that hits all the pleasure receptors where modern watches often can’t: swathes of...

The Seamaster 321 is one of Omega’s best kept secrets, worn by Roger W. Smith and with the same storied Lemania 2310 that went to the moon. But this, the 145.005 with its ‘Ultraman’ hand, is a secret even to most Omega enthusiasts. It’s steeped in mystery, a bit like...

I’ve pondered many times if beginner’s luck is universal. We’ve all seen it, but how, why? Think in the watchmaking context. Even if you try to consciously separate the fallacy collectors have to preference the earliest iterations of any watch, it still holds. There’s a magic about tabula rasa thinking,...