It is an unfortunate truth that, in our little world, hommage is often a dirty word. This doesn’t have to be the case, it’s just what happens when inspiration is taken lazily. Too many companies can easily copy design elements, grab a Miyota, and call it a day. But the...

At the risk of being terribly passé, I’m about to quote myself. Sorry. In writing about about different 1803 a few months back, I said that ‘The joys of Rolex Day-Date collecting are in many ways like the joys of mild alcoholism. In both, the satisfaction is to be found...

Before Rolex had named anything the Daytona, before Paul Newman had a salad dressing or Cosmograph named after him, and before the Speedmaster had gone to the moon, there weren’t many renown chronographs. In fact, the wrist-worn chronograph was really only gaining popularity as a thing in the decade previous....

James May, an intelligent man, once stated that ‘No one truly understands electricity.’ He’s right. I have a degree in physics. I can describe its effects, predict and calculate ohms, probably wire a house with some effort, but at a certain level we all have to have faith that there...

When Rolex turns to you for expertise, you’re doing something right. That was role of Comex in 1970, a French dive company that aligned well with Rolex’s aims to push the Submariner to new depths. The strategic partnership was simple: Rolex provided Submariners and Sea-Dwellers to Comex free of cost...

Omega gave the world the 861 Speedmaster in 1968. Despite many loupe-carrying nerds decrying the changover from column wheel to cam switching, the movement proved so effective for Omega that it remained in production effectively unaltered until 1992. And even then, the change wasn’t huge moving the 1861. Effectively, you...

It’s really not often that the rear of a watch without a display back is more captivating than dial-side. It’s all a bit Kim K if you know what I mean. But that’s about all this Explorer II shares in common with the Kardashians, because otherwise this one of the...

Trigger warning here, I’m about to assault an icon. I’ve always found the name Datejust a bit hilariously apologetic. It’s as if Hans himself went, ‘Well, we can do a Day-Date, but this one is just a date, sincerest apologies.’ Make no mistake, any DJ is an excellent watch. But...

Few watches tell the world that you know exactly what you’re doing like an FB-cased M95. When one has spent years immersed in the vintage world, they start recognizing shared componentry. You recognize a Singer made dial. You know that Zodiac is running a Valjoux 7734. And you know that...

There aren’t many truly underrated references in Omega’s back catalogue anymore. Every collector knows and loves the early Seamasters, Ultraman 145.012s, Mad Men Constellations, hell even Schumacher’s Daytona is on the rise these days. However, amongst the dazzling base 1000 bezeled 2915 Speedmasters and tantalizingly-lollipopped 2913 Seamaster 300s, it’s easy...

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...