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,...

Five years ago, I attended a small dinner with a group of collectors. They chose an exceptional restaurant, I attired appropriately. There, I was lightly chided, by a man in red trousers I will add, for wearing a 16808 with a suit. Now, I’d never claim to be an authority...

The rattrapante is not just a classic high complication, it’s actual magic. I maintain that no one man really understands fully how they actually work, a bit like electricity. Even all the mental might of Jack Forster, who probably came closest to making the topic relatable in his Lange 1815...

If this whole post seems backwards, it’s because we’re looking at something French with two faces. Or perhaps I should say a watch without a rear, because today describing something as two-faced and French is just how you pronounce Emmanuel Macron in English. This is the CPCP Basculante, with a...

FP Journe knows how to celebrate a boutique opening. Remember the Byblos? This is Centigraphe equivalent, 1 of 20 made to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Hong Kong boutique. The Centigraphe is FP Journe’s approach to the chronograph complication, and while he’s most well-known for for constant force tourbillons...

This is what’s called a Soleil dial, and unless you’ve been collecting Speedmasters for a few years you probably won’t have ever come across one. Even if you have, chances of seeing one in the metal are slim. It’s a steely-blue metallic and is one of just a handful of...