The phrase ‘fashion watch’ is often used in certain spheres as an insult. This is retribution. Where high fashion is concerned, there’s been a relatively recent trend of sincerity; they’re taking watchmaking seriously. In fact, many of the very high end fashion brand’s first attempts at considered offerings are more...

Variety is the spice of life and quirky date windows are the joie de vivre de Heuer Carreras. Some of the earliest dates on a Carrera can come at 12, as shown here. Or 45, in the latter iterations or very latter Hodinkee LE. But also 6, as in the...

This is one of those rare occasions where a watch feels familiar, but isn’t. The ref. 3505 is an Ingenieur very like the ref. 3506, but, again, it isn’t. Both feature the desirable graph paper dial texture, but one is far less common. This, the 3505, was the very first...

Vacheron Constantin are famously reserved and austere about their watchmaking, in philosophy, design, and engineering. But that’s actually a more modern branding construction than anything. VC went full experimental in the 80s, to an unparalleled extent. The square 222 is that genre of watch which will make zero sense to...

The Daytona has Paul Newman. The GMT-Master has Marlon Brando and Fidel Castro. The Explorer II though? It’s never really had a unilateral poster-personality to align with. Except that’s not quite accurate, because unbeknownst to many, a cream dial 16550 has been worn for decades by one Gordon Ramsey. If...

If you’ve ever wondered to yourself just how gorgeous a distilled Datograph could be, this is your answer. Lange broke all standards of watchmaking in 1999 with the aesthetically moving and impressively engineered calibre L951.1 Datograph, entirely manufactured on German soil. In the wake of that momentous release, a subset...

Historically speaking, when Omega gets it right, they get it really right. There have been solid gold Speedmasters before and there have been solid gold Speedmasters since. But the Apollo 10 50th, and BA145.022 it references, are surely high-water marks. I will always remember the first time I saw a...

For every run-of-the-mill Aquatimer you’d see at a generic airport-based IWC boutique, there is one which is incredibly interesting. The line has a massive degree of stochastic variance with respect to greatness. Yes, there are immensely boring mass produced ETA-base design exercises. But then there are the immensely capable Ocean...

Have you ever looked down at your vintage Explorer and thought, ‘Yeah this lovely, but I wish the Rolex coronet looked a little more like a frog’s foot’? Me neither. And yet, there are those among us who do. Or at least the market would seem to indicate such, as...

Have you ever visited a modern art museum and been stunned by the simplicity of an exhibit? Not in the way you would be stunned by Duchamp’s Fountain, but in a manner that makes you think ‘I could’ve done that.’ That is the sort of flooring simplicity that the Asymetrique...

I just adore, or rather I mean love, when independents take a step from impressing the world, flashing technical innovation and bold design cues, to demonstrate their ability through restrained or classic sensiblities. Dufour has the Simplicity. Roger Smith the Series I. Rexhep the Chronometre Contemporain. De Bethune, well this...

Not all Day Dates come in Oyster cases. Shortly after the 5402 graced the world with its presence, AP experimented with a few variations on the theme. Out of this early/mid 80s era came many of the iconic complicated Royal Oak offerings we revere today. However, the very first complicated...

Saab: one of many names, or brands, that you just don’t expect to tangent anywhere near watchmaking. TAG partnering with Porsche makes sense, directionally and historically. Omega and Bond; it’s not what Fleming wrote but no one will argue there isn’t synergy there. But Saab? The people who made aspirational...

A historically significant flagship, the Aviator’s Compact Chronograph (or Aero-Compax for short, Compax being UG’s parlance for complication) sits right alongside the Polerouter, Clapton, Big Eye, or Nina as core to the brand’s identity. This mid-1960s second major iteration of the famed chronograph shifted focus from timing dual events to...

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...

Birch is the kind of adjective you expect to find next to ‘Eames Chair’, not ‘Day-Date’. We all know Rolex has used the Day-Date to host hundreds of exotic dial materials, many in extremely low volumes. Readers here will know of my affection for ligneous Presidents, but I haven’t elaborated...

Tantalum is not often seen in watchmaking. It’s difficult to work with, extremely so, but highly corrosion and scratch resistant with a gunmetal-blue tone that is just gorgeous. FP Journe launched the Chronomètre Bleu in 2009 and made elaborate fanfare about how innovative it was to be executed in tantalum....

Discretion is something of a lost art to much of modern watchmaking. In many ways, a relatively thin, time-only minute repeater could be said to be the antithesis of an orange RM or rainbow Daytona. There’s nothing wrong with outward flamboyance, but it’s a breath of fresh air to see...