The earliest iterations of the JLC Memovox (shorthand contraction of the Swiss for ‘the voice of memory’) hold a spellbinding attraction for many of us. The watchmaker’s watchmaker quickly iterated on the mechanical alarm complication through the 1950s and 60s but truly hit what I would term design perfection right...

Walking around any major city with a truly exceptional watch on wrist is a bit like walking down the street holding a Van Gogh above your head. Without wishing to be ostentatious, in many respects you are doing someone a very slight favor by adding a degree of culture to...

1943 Panerai have very little relation to the Richemont powerhouse of today. Modern Panerai gets a hard time from many enthusiasts, this can happen when you are less-than-truthful as to where your movements are born. A fraction of that criticism is deserved, while the larger whole is likely not. There...

For neo-vintage collectors, this somewhat polarizing fliegerchronograph has few equivalents. It’s an IWC that hits all the pleasure receptors where modern watches often can’t: swathes of tritium, 36mm case, restrained dial with extreme legibility, and original Milanese steel bracelet. Sure, it’s not all perfect; 4:30-date haters will, no doubt, not...

Despite often speaking about striving to feature a diverse range of interesting wristwatches, here I am presenting another Explorer simply for the fact that I love its patina. Yes, there was a lovely 6150 here just last week. But I’m a simple man, and when a level of perfectly honest...

When one thinks tropical dials, the usual suspects are 1680 Sub, 2998 Speedmaster, or maybe even an 1163 GMT if you’re a bit alternative. 3800 Nautilus is not even in consideration, the most studied reader of John Reardon’s Collectability will struggle to readily imagine just what that might look like....

I’ll be the first to admit that, historically, gem-set Rolex have never really spoken to my heart as a collector. Yet, as I’ve said here frequently, it is the mark of a true enthusiast to be able to appreciate that which they do not necessarily desire. As gem-set watches go,...

The Camaro was Jack Heuer’s attempt to capture the heart of the American muscle car market in watch form, strategically named after the eponymous Chevrolet in order to get a foot in the US market. Its cushion-case and traditional dial were a blend of the successful Monaco and Carrera lines,...

The subtlety of one color can make a watch. I feel, perhaps too strongly, that British racing green may in fact be the classiest hue to ever exist, full stop. This isn’t some childish James Bond Aston fascination or anglophilic pandering, no. On its own merits, the precise deep green...

Many will argue that the ref. 6350 is Rolex’s first Explorer. Yet, the DNA which saw what many would consider the core of the Explorer design, that being its 3-6-9 dial, began here in the ref. 6150. That simple change from the previous triangle indices at every hour in 1952...

Interesting and attractive watches can still be found for reasonable prices. Wakmann were, from the 1940s until 1970s, a US importer for Breitling. Toward the middle of that tenure, the group decided to branch out and bring their own sporting watches to market. In doing so, they tapped Breitling’s supply...

What defines a great chronograph? Historic significance? Technical sophistication? Beauty? I would argue the Monte Carlo is spectacular chronograph, though it doesn’t excel particularly in any of the above criteria (I find it more playful than beautiful, though certainly attractive). Many collectors love the 7149 (bakelite bezel), 7159 (steel bezel),...

The 165.024 is not a rare watch. Yet, often, the original examples are worn to hell with flaking lume, abused cases, and corrosion peppering the movement. Even worse, there are an abundance of unoriginal examples. Today, we have the opposite: an original, yet very composed Seamaster 300. The 300 was...

Watches from IWC which predate their major sports lines are a bit under the radar today. This simple three-hander proves the point. Exquisite 35mm proportions, a restrained dial, vintage IWC script signature, alpha hands, competent automatic calibre . . .I could go on. Yet, little ink has been spilled on...

The classic, iconic (I can actually use that adjective here) small-crown Submariner is ageing remarkably well. Every single Black Bay 58 you see plastered across your Instagram feed owes its existence to this design. The red triangle bezel, proud small crown, tapered lugs, and Mercedes handset went on to define...

When John Reardon states that ‘for the price, there is arguably no other watch that encapsulates all that defines Patek Philippe’, you listen. In gross understatement, the man knows Patek Philippe. Further, when nearly every notable collector starts referring to the 3940 as Patek’s quintessential calendar, you know we are...

The El Primero story is lore, not only for its extreme ambition in engineering but equally that the world almost lost the calibre through the quartz crisis. Thank god for Charles Vermot, the watchmaker who disobeyed Zenith’s head office instructions to sell off all things to do with mechanical watchmaking,...

This is, without question, one of the rarest and most shrouded Tudors produced of recent years. And yet, it has received so little attention, partly because it looks so damn similar to its four line regular production counterpart and partly because so little is known. In 2021, Tudor announced a...