Where exquisite design meets considered watchmaking, great things happen. This is perhaps no more evident than Cartier’s 1998 Paris Collection Privee (CPCP) era. The collection aimed to resurrect greats from their past like the Cintrée, Santos, Tortue, and Tank à Vis with masterful mechanical movements. It is often forgotten that...

It’s not often that Vacheron throw caution to the wind and adopt a unique time display. It’s a bit like peering into your grandfather’s record collection and seeing David Guetta or something . . .you sort of forget that they’re capable of developing new tastes. In 1994, Vacheron went raving...

If you thought the Day-Date couldn’t get more glamorous, you were wrong. Sure, Rolex’s Day-Date has played host to many an exotic dial. But even among the coveted stella, missoni, rubellite, wood burl, and aventurine dials, many consider the depth of lapis lazuli blue the most desirable. Moreover, this Lapis...

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 an early reference with acrylic crystal. Sure, it’s not all perfect; 4:30-date haters will, no...

When you think military-issued pieces, you probably think Milsub for the Royal Navy, MN Tudors, Type XX chronographs, or the Dirty Dozen. You likely do not imagine Heuers for the Kenyan Air Force. And yet, they exist. Functionally-funky vintage cool does not come much stronger than the KAF-issued 73663. The...

It’s often said that modern Rolex do not produce limited run dial signatures. This is mostly true, those efforts get diverted through Tudor more often than not these days. However, the era where Rolex would allow a foreign entity to sign 6 ended later than you may think. To commemorate...

Of all complications, the perpetual calendar might just be the watchmaker’s darling. By that, I mean the essence of what a certain brand or effort represents is often very well captured by their perpetual calendar offering. The complication requires immense skill not just mechanically, but in how to arrange such...

This unassuming Tudor combines the very best of two iconic chronographs: the practicality of a Big Block sprinkled with the the magic that was the flamboyant Monte Carlo dial. This is an automatic 7750, but with a dial very reminiscent of the 7100 series Monte Carlos. Alongside the standard production...

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,...

What happens when you take one of the most famous watch designs of all time and alter it? 9 times out of 10, it’s a monstrosity. The Tank Obus is that 1 time out of 10 where the magic is not lost, only altered. Created in 1923, the Obus has...

There’s nothing like an obscure, meaningless detail to get watch enthusiasts researching. Early Carreras and early Daytonas share more than just a column-wheel Valjoux 72 heartbeat. We’re talking same hour markers, milled subdials, and subdial numerals. See, the earliest Carreras had dials manufactured by Singer—the very same of Rolex fame....

In all its ninety years in widely varying production, it’s easy to overlook a great Reverso reference. This grail-to-me, the Art Deco, has largely faded into the background of watch collecting attention. Or perhaps, having pre-dated Instagram as a limited edition in production from 1992 to 2002, it was never...

The Dirty Dozen is the title of 1967 film, which I have never seen, in which 12 fictional soldiers had some misadventures in WW2. But I have seen all the watches 12 watches lovingly nicknamed after this movie, the watches which actually served in WW2. This dozen are a group...

Chronograph pushers don’t get better. The 1463 was Patek’s first water resistant chronograph, succeeding the previous and iconic 530 chronograph in 1940. The improvements were characterized by a larger, modern case, rounded pushers, and a screw-down back. Some call this Patek’s first ‘sports’ watch, though it is a bit of...

There are some watches so attractive that I feel something adjacent to physical pain at the fact that they will never be in my watch roll. Usually, they are highly unique: things like a Frodsham Double Impulse, a ‘Vieux Panier’ Vacheron 43031, royal blue dial E855 Memovox, . . .the...

Neo-vintage is not just collectable in Patek, VC, or AP; the era has more practical offerings as well. One, largely unsung, is the transitional 76100 Tudor sub. The reference was in production for just a few years in the mid-to-late 80s, but the 94110 ‘Snowflake’ of the same period stole...

‘The want’ is very strong with vintage Zenith. As a blanket term, ‘vintage Zenith’ covers so much: the original covergirl, G381, A277, Moonphase Calibre 3019 PHF Prototype, I could go on. In that list most definitely lies the A386. Its design is attractive, the contrasted overlapping big-eye subs uniquely lovely....

Of the last decade, Universal’s Polerouter has slowly shifted from being a niche enthusiast’s micro-rotor to a foundational reference of attainable watch collecting. No one will argue that this is not deserved; the Genta-designed aesthetic is graceful as they come. However, that shift has also seen values skyrocket, as with...