Last week, I had to buy a new desk chair. This is a thrilling start, I know. But in the modern age that proved to be mind-bogglingly complex task. There were chairs that looked like they should be on the starship Enterprise or chairs that looked like they should be...

Very quietly, Lange have been releasing some absolute killer dials under the Little Lange 1 umbrella. Little is a bit of a misnomer, as there’s really nothing little about this watch in effort or proportion. This is more accurately the midsized Lange 1, a 36.5mm take on Germany’s best golden...

For many years, Tudor hardcores had been noting Snowflake Subs with an odd combination of round hour markers, snowflake hands, and shield dials. They all seemed to emanate from Canada and often retired Royal Canadian Navy personnel. Scholars had known for many years that there were Tudor Submariners issued to...

For two years, I drove a black on black Defender 110 (the old one) everywhere. This is not a normal look in the United States. Additionally, I am not a small man. Everywhere I arrived, people assumed I was a drug dealer. Now, that’s actually not as bad as it...

If there is a god, I like to imagine that tropical dials are his way of saying, ‘wear your damn watches’. The sun is a ball of nuclear chaos 8.3 light minutes away from Earth. But its effects are not always this attractive. Consider for example the female residents of...

Of all the many adjectives one could throw at this 7928 including tropical, ghost, gilt, and PCG, I believe the most interesting may be antifragile. That word has more depth than the etymology alone may suggest. Nassim Taleb, a Lebanese author and risk analyst, has a book on the topic....

Becoming truly obsessed with watches can elicit many unintended consequences: financial ruin, loneliness, a sudden urge to wear cardigans, and, perhaps most surprisingly, an expertise in materials science and metallurgy. This last pair comes mostly from the independent watchmakers, who seem to be running an unspoken competition to see who...

Without doubt, this is one of the most curious IWCs to ever wear the name Ingenieur. The 3805 is a mecha-quartz chronograph with alarm complication in a 34.5mm steel case unlike any other. The design feels influenced by aviation, Genta, and a fascination with knurling. It’s not what first comes...

I don’t really understand flex culture, in watches or any other discipline. But surely, if you wanted to show Jake Paul that the sole thing worse than a fake Richard Mille is a real one (I jest), this is the ultimate flex: a watch which tells the world it’s owner...

How many truly water resistant GMT Chronographs from the 60s can you think of? My guess is one, although there are a few others. The C or compressor case Autavia is possibly most useful 60s Heuer and it’s not difficult to image the lifestyle it was made for. This GMT...

Despite the name ‘Platinum Jubilee’, this is not a platinum watch. No, it’s steel, and it’s far, far cooler than that. In celebration of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee, marking the first British Monarch to give 70 years service, a small run of 300 Black Bays were made. But not...

This may come as a surprise, but Patek’s annual calendar calibres actually requires a greater number of components than their perpetuals: 324 for the annual base calibre vs 280 for the perpetual. This 5035, the world’s first annual calendar complication, was intended to help bridge the gap between a Calatrava...

If you didn’t know, the original Fifty Fathoms was developed in collaboration with the French Combat Diving School, a tool needed for the most elite units of the French Navy (later Commando Hubert). Captain Robert Maloubier, who was previously a British Special Operations secret agent during WWII (and had an...

It seems like a simple idea: take 12 and, instead of aligning it to the top of a watch, align it to the point at which your eye naturally rests when a watch is on your wrist. But the effect is profound. This play on true north brings with it...

I’m calling it now; this is the sickest Royal Oak I’ve stumbled across this year. Not only is it one of my favorite iterations, ‘The Owl’, a dual-register Day Date. Not only is it a cream dial, beautifully ageing over time. It’s Tiffany-signed. Any one of these bullet points is...

Something as unassuming as a little circled T on a dial can belie a whole lot of significance. To the untrained eye, this is a vintage Seamaster like any other. To you and I, it’s an elusive, fixed springbar, thoroughbred mil-spec diver. No one will mug you for it in...

Cartier have a long and storied history of quietly creating limited unique variants for particularly loyal VIP groups, markets, or even singular collectors. These watches are not usually clocked by the mainstream watch media and only surface years after release here, in forums, blogs, or in person meetups. Such was...

This unassuming Tudor combines the very best of two iconic chronographs: the practicality of a Big Block sprinkled with the the magic that was the flamboyant Monte Carlo dial. This is an automatic 7750, but with a dial very reminiscent of the 7100 series Monte Carlos. Alongside the standard production...