World Time is a complication invented and still dominated today by Patek Philippe. The lineage of all your 5130 and 5230s can very directly be traced back to this ref. 1415, the earliest widely-produced (yet still exceptionally rare) Patek World Time. This was a watch created as the entire world...

I am of a generation where cigarette advertising has been banished and demonized for the entirety of my years. Despite this, and largely due to a Formula 1 livery addiction, I find myself very nostalgic for cigarette-adjacent advertising from the late 60s and early 70s. Mission Winnow doesn’t quite do...

Very little can truly be described as timeless. A Patek Calatrava deserves that laudable adjective like little else. The 2508, produced between 1951 and 1960, is a high point of the Calatrava lineage for many. It debuted a larger 35mm case manufactured by Taubert & Fils (later known as Borgel)...

In 1970, the Chaumet brothers were hired to bring Breguet back to their former glory. One of the longest running and most historically significant manufactures of all time (ever heard of the Breguet hairspring or overcoil?), Breguet was to be made the high-end name in Switzerland once again by new...

The M95 is a chronograph to tell the world you know precisely what you’re up to. Immense history, detail, and charm contained within a single chronograph that, for the most part, the watch public remain nearly oblivious toward. This is certainly one of those watches which, if spotted on the...

Despite all the admiration, scholarship, and even Jack Forster’s article in the last year, the 3521 remains an alternative and yet-to-be-fully-appreciated modern classic. Whatever it means precisely to be a modern classic, I know not. But it seems to me as if the category were invented for these Ingenieurs. This...

Despite looking like it belongs on the wrist of one of Darth Vader’s upper-level henchmen, what we have here is basically a time-only DB from the earlier years. Intended to be a successor to the DB20 and 22 sports line, the 24 introduced a new case shape that is tangent...

The opulence and excess that was profuse to the early 2000s has a place. And that place is nowhere but the dial of a 116519. For all their reputation as a notoriously conservative watchmaker, when Rolex let their hair down they really know how to let their hair down. This...

The Navitimer story is nearly unparalleled in its historic depth. But even the most arduous journeys begin with a single step. The Navitimer’s baby steps into the world of aviation chronographs began here. There is, to this very day, fierce debate surrounding the precise year the Navitimer was borne. Most...

Is there a more unique intersection of steel 36mm Royal Oak, usable complication, petite tappisserie, and character? This is, without question, the most outrageous dial I have ever seen to grace a 25730ST. Outrageous is an adjective chosen carefully; some will describe this dial as the work of the heavens...

The square 222 is that genre of watch which will make zero sense to anyone outside the depths of the horological rabbit hole: unconventional, obscure, shrouded in mystery, and still something of a footnote today. It is rare to come across an original shape 222 in steel, midsized or jumbo....

If you’re going to opt for the classic Cartier, a Tank, you might as well opt for the variant that looks like its namesake. The Tank À Guichets is perhaps the watch which, in Cartier’s entire range of offerings, stands farthest away from the limelight. This has shifted slightly in...

Four digit Rolex are highly collected and often discussed, the era where many consider Rolex to have ascended its all-time apogee. Even so, the depth of Wilsdorf’s catalogue is such that one or two references have escaped the watchful eyes of collectors. The humble 1500 Oyster Perpetual is a distilled...

Auro Montanari once stated in a Phillips interview some years ago that he mainly collects five houses: Omega, Longines, Cartier, Patek Philippe and Rolex. I am certain there are exceptions, for example I’ve seen his Universals in other media, but when pressed those five came to mind. If one needed...

I have, many times, cited mid-century Omega Constellations as a fantastic entry point to vintage and outsized value proposition today. This Constellation falls into a different category: something of an apex reference. What started as a humble bridge between sport and dress models in 1952 had, by the mid 60s,...

In any sane market, when a new model debuts, consumers prefer it to the previous. Watches tend to grow more robust, svelte, and technically sophisticated with age. However, despite this, collectors will often to swarm toward recently discontinued watches over their more modern counterparts. Why is this? In part, because...

For what mass hysteria surrounds steel sport Rolex today, I simply cannot imagine a stronger antidote. For what is not a massive price difference compared to the current secondhand market base GMT-Master II value, this insane vintage reference is on the table: 1978 production in full gold, substantially less common,...

The Rolex Submariner is perhaps the most iconic wristwatch of all time. The Tudor Submariner, well it isn’t. And it’s all the better for it. Tudor’s 9411/0 Snowflake sub is not rare. But it is purposeful, eccentric, inconspicuous, and a value still today. Moreover, unlike a 5513, you’d have to...