Nothing gets me like attention to detail. It’s why it hits so wrong when Ben Affleck sports a modern Deepsea in Argo while everything else was perfectly 70s. It’s why James Bond’s undersized NATO makes my nails itch. It’s also why I love the fact that this trapezoidal date window...

The history of the Day-Date flows much like a river or family tree, there are tributaries branching every which way leading to exciting new places. Many of these historical tributaries were dead ends, never to be revisited or referenced again in Rolex production. Some of the better known paths are...

For those who worship at the altar of moonwatch, there’s a lot to learn. Good luck distinguishing a CB case from an HF. Same goes for a 105.002 from a 2998. This problem is made worse by the fact that Omega people are so keen to demonstrate themselves as in...

Competition breeds excellence. It puts a deadline to your goals. It gives you a reference point for your abilities. It rewards effort. It punishes laziness ruthlessly. So what happens when you take famously scrupulous and detail-oriented culture, then get them to compete in horology? The competition I speak of were...

When asked by journalist how he might go about uniting France in wartime, Charles de Gaulle famously replied, ‘How can you govern a country which has two hundred and forty-six varieties of cheese?’ His response perfectly encompasses how I feel about the Patek Philippe Calatrava, a fundamentally good thing which...

I watched the new Top Gun last night (I know, I’m behind) and I took two things away from it: 1. IWC must’ve gone nearly bankrupt paying for that pocket watch promotion. 2. People who wear PVD chronographs are cool. I know that’s not the moral Joseph Kosinski was trying...

The path to learning is through making mistakes. Rolex are often said to never make mistakes. That’s not quite true. There’s the double 9 Air King, 16710 ‘Error’ Dial, Patrizzi Daytona, Fuchsia GMT, Cream Explorer, I could go on. There’s a trend here: do you see it? Rolex do make...

Everyone loves an underdog story. We root for Argentina. Critics fawn when a shed-built Lotus edges out a Porsche. It’s why hipsters exist, always trying to hop on the small but rising trend. But when two underdogs collaborate? I really struggle to think of successes. For example, the recent Fiat...

There has never been a more 90s Blancpain than what you see before you. Sure, there’s the six masterpiece collection which is probably the most lauded effort the Le Brassus manufacture besides the Fifty Fathoms. But a full cloissonné dial that looks like Piet Mondrian was inspired by the stained...

Patek owns the perpetual calendar chronograph. If I say GMT you’re thinking of the soda company synonymous, not Omega. MB&F invented, and now owns, the double chronograph (not to be confused with split seconds). Almost every watch complication has a luminary entrant that dominants enthusiast headspace. FP Journe may have...

Tiffany is not complicated. It’s a brand. It sells stuff. So why does everyone behave as if anything bearing the holy stamp is the second coming? I’ll tell you why, it’s personal. Collectors look for any excuse to stand out. It could be patina, a stamp such as this, hell...

If you’d hopped in a Delorean and accidentally found yourself in 1970s Geneva, you’d struggle to find a Aquanaut. Shop all you like, there were very, very few options for luxury sports watches designed to be worn on rubber. The Yacht Club II is the first watch I’m aware of...

Amongst a certain set of watch enthusiasts, the dual-tone split of a sector dial inspires the same sort of awe as Moses parting the Red Sea. It’s not a complex task, a sector dial. They began in the 1920s as a means of additional clarity, often in pocket watches. They...

When you approach the entire world through watches, it’s easy to get a slightly skewed view of things. See, I imagine all Special Ops guys running around with Sea-Dwellers on their wrists. I imagine every runway model wears a vintage Tank. Every F1 driver must rock a vintage Autavia, right?...

Of all the varied types of ageing a watch may exhibit, what collectors call a spider dial must be the most contentious amongst people who really know Rolex. You think Israel v Palestine has some ardent extremists? Walk this GMT into the Hodinkee office and watch a civil war ensue....

The midsized neo-vintage RO known as the 14790 looks better to me today than it ever has. The tide of neo-vintage is rising anyway, but this ship has a hydrofoil on it or something. But they don’t all look like this. After introduction taking over from the first ref. 4100...

The vintage Tudor Ranger, prior to reissue, was hugely popular amongst a very tiny subset of Tudor scholars and enthusiasts. In fact, I wrote an article last year arguing that, with a little alcohol-induced scholarship, I couldn’t see why there was no hype surrounding it. To quote, ‘I mean, it...

If a watch collector hears the numbers 5402, they start thinking of early Royal Oaks. And then, like a meth addict seeking the pure stuff, they start looking to see if it’s a numbered A-series or latter B/C/D. They’ll even itch uncontrollably if you leave them wondering long enough. But...