Nineties Blancpain is a distinct beast entirely, from all of horology. Famously, toward the ceasefire of the quartz crisis, Blancpain ran ads claiming ‘since 1735, Blancpain has never produced a quartz watch and we never will.’ Jean-Claude Biver and Jacques Piguet may not have quite singlehanded dragged Swiss mechanical watchmaking...

I simply cannot get enough of the calibre 1.96. As I’m not picking one up anytime soon, this is my love letter. It is possible for something to be expensive and massively undervalued. Much in the way that a multitude of collectors have only recently begun to acknowledge the exceptional...

This, I could fairly argue, is perhaps one of the most attractive vintage dive watches to ever exist. The Navies of France, Germany, and the United States all used the now-legendary Fifty Fathoms at some point in time and in so doing made it a relatively famous and desirable tool....

Watch enthusiasts are, almost by definition, students of detail. Early Speedmaster productions, particularly pre-moon, offer a wealth of varying tiny details which may fill a lifetime of study. Few of them, however, are able to spotted across a room. I can only think of tropical dials, broad arrow/alpha handsets, straight...

How do you celebrate a 100 year anniversary of Vacheron Constantin’s presence in Japan? With a 75-example run of beautifully hand guillochéd Traditionelles, obviously. No, I don’t understand why the run wasn’t 100 examples either. Nevertheless, the rest of this effort VC simply nailed. The Japan 100 Years Traditionelle’s pièce...

Eclectic, eccentric, and something of an enigma, FP Journe’s Élégante was originally conceived during a trip to the Middle East in 2003, where he was asked by many clients’ wives why he had not yet offered a women’s watch of any kind. Eight years of hard work went into an...

A damn great watch doesn’t always have to require dipping into to your least successful child’s college fund. It’s easy to become cynical when a humble no date Sub is listed as an ‘investment class’. Yet, I believe in the core of my being that watches should be enjoyable to...

There is little that draws my eye like a damn lovely Sherpa Graph. The attraction is threefold: the obvious physical beauty, what an Enicar says about you (i.e. you know watches and care little for snobbery), and the value they present relative to other Valjoux 72 peers. Plus, there’s the...

Wei Koh & crew know what makes a beautiful watch. Nowhere has this been more evident than their three collaborations with Chopard, of which this recent scientific dial is the third entry as an LE of 25 examples. This is the best of Revolution’s eye, Chopard’s high-end Qualité Fleurier movement...

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...