The Rolex chronograph as we know it extends far earlier than the Daytona name. It extends earlier even than Oyster Cases and WWII, to the mid 1930s. This is the ref. 2508, a steel two-register chronograph with a silver gilt, black dial. It’s the very first two-register, two-button Rolex Chronograph....

Far before the Cubitus took a legend and messed about with its proportions, Vacheron Constantin took their integrated poster child and injected some of David Coulthard’s chin. It didn’t work back then either. In fact, the Square 222 was a total flop. It is unconventional, still shrouded in mystery, and...

Normally when talking about Datejusts, adjectives like humble and simple get thrown in. There’s nothing humble about this 1600 though, it’s downright nobility. 1600 is a bit of an unusual flavor, as it ditches the fluting for a sterile, smooth bezel. Some adore this, some hate it. Regardless of preference,...

Up until 2022, the final boss of the Overseas range was either the QP Skeleton or Dual Time Everest, inarguably. The true genius of the QP was not just complication, but complication with more thinness. Normally, the greater a component count in a calibre, the larger the height. Here, that...

Never has the phrase good things come in small packages been more appropriate than to describe the ref. 5959R. The 5959 is equal parts serious weapons-grade watchmaking with serious whimsy. Released in 2005, this was actually the very first fully in-house Patek Philippe chronograph of any sort. And they chose...

Where you see feuille hands on a 3970, you know you’re talking early series and immensely collected watches today. But this isn’t a 3970. It’s a 3971, a reference created before the standardization of selling both a solid and sapphire caseback with each 3970. The 3971 was a screwdown, sapphire-backed,...

Universal Genève’s great early chronographs very rarely went above 36mm. This is a 1940s Compur with a seriously uncommon black gilt dial, and it’s 37mm—far oversized for its time. On top of all that, it has big eyes, or equally oversized subdials. It’s known as a Compur, and it’s in...

Finds. There are just a handful of über-Lange 1s, ref. 112.046 is one of them. It is a direct descendent of the 112.021 Lange 1A, the very first guilloché dial Lange of any model line. Except this later iteration, the ‘Floral’ (as this 112.046 has come to be known, for...

More normal Day-Dates are the value of the decade at the moment. There is no watch as significant in vintage Rolex that also remains somewhat accessible. That said, this isn’t exactly a normal Day-Date, only normal-ish. It's white gold with Arabic discs and, more importantly, cigarette hands. It’s an 1803/9,...

The 14790 is one of the longest-lived Royal Oak references made. Debuting in 1992, it ran until 2006. In that time we saw the transition from petite to grande tapisserie, Gay Frères single pin bracelets to AP dual screw bracelets, the expansion of possible dials, calibre 2125 to 2225, tritium...

This is peak Philippe-Stern-era Patek Philippe. The 5004 is the watch that built so much reputation and rapport under the brand that Patek could afford to erode it for a generation or two. It is the modern classic, Ed Sheeran gets it (read Time lately?). To bring the brand onto...

Stone dial Datejusts, particularly in white gold as this example is, took a very particular type of buyer in the mid-70s. This wasn’t the top of the Rolex catalogue in period, the Day-Date had already emerged. For both a stone dial and precious metal, you were adding a very significant...

Here’s something almost wrong: a Lange where the wearing view is more beautiful than the caseback. 414.049 is reference not likely to ring any bells, and that’s because it’s a piece unique. Lange have a long tradition of sponsoring automotive concours, specifically Villa d’Este. They don’t necessarily indulge in one-offs...

Ed Whites are a category of watch which don’t really exist anymore. This was a humble tool made to serve a purpose with a calibre 321, decidedly not a luxury product. It filled its role admirably and as such became named after the man who accomplished the first American spacewalk....

Aside from the strata of piece unique one-offs for royalty, this is unquestionably one of the rarest Rolex dials to ever be produced—in single digits known now. Moreover, it’s a Stella. Stella Day-Dates are increasingly sought after for many reasons; this is the original colorful OP with added complication, one...

What Pre-Souscription is the Journe, this is to Daniel Roth. Those who know the master’s early work will notice, this dial is a little unusual. First, it’s Clous de Paris and not pinstripe guilloché. Second and more notably, the plaques engraved with ‘Daniel Roth’ and ‘Numero’ are in contrasting yellow...

The 25558 is the ultimate evolution of the 5548, produced from 1988 until 1993 to celebrate the resurgence of complicated mechanical watchmaking to Switzerland. 146 examples were made in 18k yellow gold. They're divided into two case types, this earlier extruded pusher and a later flat pusher. Arguably, this is...

The 5070 is a very significant reference to Patek Philippe. It marks success, even excess, and the triumphant return of the humble chronograph. You see, chronograph production through the later part of the last century was anything but continuous at Patek Philippe. It went 1463 from the early 1940s until...