FAP. Three little engraved letters with multitudes of meaning to just a few people. The best sort of watches, I’ve always said, are those that don’t shout for the attention they garner. But a Fuerza Aérea del Perú (Peruvian Air Force) Seamaster 300 takes that notion a bit further. You...

This charming Beyer has a remarkable ability to delight just about everyone, even the most jaded collectors who’ve seen it all. Beyer is the watch person’s signature, found on everything from Rolex to Patek, and longest continuously running watch boutique in the world. But it was Theodore Beyer who built...

A few evenings ago, I popped round a cocktail bar I quite like here called Death&Co. It’s trendy. The sort where the bartender will give you a disapproving scowl if you order a scotch neat, as I always do, instead of the ‘Disco Kitten’ which includes chiles and a sprig...

The tourbillon makes no sense in the modern context. It’s designed to counteract the pull of gravity, down, on a balance. In a pocket watch, that’s great, because it’s always vertical. But in wristwatches, well, it’s about as useful as a chocolate teapot. Nonetheless, a rotating tourbillon cage does provide...

It was bound to happen eventually, we have a third million-dollar Speedmaster on the market. There was the somewhat erroneous 3.4M tropical 2915-1 result from Phillips. Then, perhaps more understandably, Wally Schirra’s 145.022BA hammered at 1.9M from RR. Now, another actual astronaut’s personal watch. It’s not a coincidence Carpenter’s is...

Like Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, wabi-sabi has a hold on me. I think what appeals to me so strongly in a tropical dial is that it’s a massive middle finger to the idea of putting a watch in a safe and waiting for appreciation. This is appreciation through love,...

The 90s are in. I’m not a judge of fashion, or indeed style. But I did hear someone say hella in my grocery store self-checkout last week and thought I’d entered some Doctor Who time-based joke. But I hadn’t. Nowhere is this more true than watches, where the 90s and...

For decades, it seemed like Seiko never knew exactly what to do with Credor. The subsidiary brand was invented in 1974 in order to take the fight back to the Swiss in high-end watchmaking (quartz and mechanical). But hang on, wasn’t that the purview of Grand Seiko already? Or King...

If you want to keep people guessing, a Rolex ghost dial is a great start. But if you want to take anonymity to its ultimate extent, who would have guessed Breitling would outdo themselves? Far from the garish oversized Breitling for Bentleys of the early 2000s, this is an aviators...

Last evening, Rhianna made some noises which could be described as music in front of 28.5M viewers. You may have gathered, I’m not terribly fussed over modern pop. But I am, you may be surprised to hear, a massive fan of Riri. Because she has been snapped a handful of...

There are watches you love right away, watches that shine brighter than Margo Robbie and have Nelson Mandela’s depth of character. 1518s, Rexheps, George Daniels, etc. Others though, take a little warming to. The two-tone (SA) ref. 25594 is neither. This is a watch that is so iconoclast that it...

There’s an old German proveb that goes ‘Das billige ist immer das teuerste’, or ‘The cheapest is always most expensive’. Germans invest in quality. You get the sense that a watchmaker on a bench at Lange wouldn’t be able cut a corner if they tried, that in their mind anything...

Ghost dials are the ultimate form of discretion through patina. Something about the philosophy of wearing a Rolex which doesn’t say Rolex anywhere (or only just) is very enticing. I’ve previously likened the effect to de-badging a luxury German sportscar, which is surprisingly common over there. But, given more thought...

Last year, Cartier outsold Omega by turnover for the first time, taking second place behind Rolex as Switzerland’s largest watch seller. This worries me slightly. It’s not that I don’t want Cartier to do well, quite the opposite. But I also don’t want Cartier to become more associated with Harrods...

One of the greatest food critics ever, AA Gill, would always write that the quality of the food in a restaurant is inversely proportional to the splendor of the view. The structure of this dichotomy applies very well to hype watches equally, where the intrigue of the watchmaking or history...

There is no greater shame than seeing a once pioneering, irreverant watchmaker become diluted in selinity, as different ownership structures muddle that once-crystalline purpose. There’s a terrible feeling that acquisition will see an independent go from unbridled passion to release after release of tired and thoughtless nouveau-riche cash grabs. That...

For decades, a gold Sub has always been the universal standard ‘F-you money’ watch. In much the same way that Rolls Phantom wafts past in total opulence, the 1680/8 wears with similar imperious grandeur. People know what it is, people know what it means. This one, though, it’s a bit...

Rolex’s storied professional line conjures images of Pan-Am, Comex, Hillary, spelunking, the Daytona 500, and, if you like 5s on your dial, the British RAF (Air-King). Yet there is one professional’s Rolex which often receives little or no mention. Many Rolexes today a marketed under the heading ‘rare’. The 6541...