Say what you will about Vader, the man’s got taste. The 101.035 was Lange’s last production watch to feature platinum with an all-black dial. The reference’s run was stopped short after seven years, as Lange started to desaturate the platinum and black market they observed in other brands and their...

This is not a new watch, it is a love letter. See, Chopard revived not just their long-astray name with one effort, but an entire style of watchmaking. If the CPCP Monopoussoir was a well-heeled investment in independent watchmakers as effective ghost-writers, then the incredible LUC 1860 watches of the...

No, this is no Aquastar sub-brand. Ardath were a Dreyfuss-owned midcentury watchmaker with eclectic inspiration. The manufacture made classic Roman chronographs, Roskopf movements, Swiss lever three-handers, and even pioneered dual timezone displays in the Long Distance (a watch with one dial sharing two movements, one automatic and one manually wound...

Blancpain once ran an ad campaign stating ‘Blancpain has never made a quartz watch and never will.’ That’s convenient, as the house had gone bankrupt well ahead of the quartz crisis and Biver only restarted production once mechanical watchmaking was trending back to strength. Jaeger Lecoultre, on the other hand,...

Like very few aspects in life, it is often possible in watch collecting for one to both have their cake and eat it too. There are ultra-thin perpetual calendar chonographs, dive-GMTs, modern fusée chains, and value independents. Indeed, we are in something of a renaissance for the width and depth...

IWC is no little known secret amongst the German cognoscenti; enthusiasts world-over are aware of their robust history. However, even with relatively strong scholarship and attention, one or two references may still slip through the proverbial cracks. In fact, I think IWC probably has at least one watch in just...

This one is about to get as nuanced as my posts come; which is to say I’m not really that educated on these matters. Nonetheless, we’re going to get down and dirty with Wilsdorf iterations again. The 7928 is one of my highlights in all vintage divers, for its working-class...

I’ve never admitted this here, but there are certain very uncommon watches for which I’ve made a mental contract with myself. The commitment is this: if I ever see one in the wild, I will start up a conversation with its wearer no matter how difficult the circumstances may be....

This unassuming Speedmaster seems an unlikely candidate for the title holy grail. Nonetheless, Speedmaster collecting legend Chuck Maddox settled on the title after tirelessly seeking one out with “the same fervor as King Arthur sought the Grail”. In the era during which Maddox wrote his articles for print, much less...

I’m not sure the word bewitching has ever been more appropriate. Some watches are designed or marketed to be elegant, while others simply are. Fair to say this is the latter. IWC was on something of a roll in the early 60s with a series of restrained time-and-date-only steel watches...

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...

A ‘first’ in anything remotely tied to Wilsdorf, whether coronet or rose, tends to attract attention and huge premiums. However, there are exceptions to every rule. With enough niche subcategorizations, anything can be said to be unique; that’s not what I’m arguing here. What I am arguing, with a little...

I would like to begin by making a distinction. I’ve been corrected by people who know far about the subject than myself that style is the equivalent of fashion, removed from time. Style is eternal, fashion is of the moment; they are not synonymous. Cartier has always been presented by...

The Lange 1 is amongst my most hotly watched pieces right now. This is not because it’s hyped, (relatively) it isn’t. Market values haven’t exploded in the same way that the Chronomètre Bleu’s have—although let’s be honest if anything deserves to it might be the 1. Modern Lange began with...

It’s a rule of life; Japan gets some amazing watches that the rest of the world never lays eyes on. This is more common than one might think, and not just in Japanese manufactures like GS. One of the stranger early watchmaker ‘collabs’, was between Omega and Japan’s oldest department...

Ulysse Nardin are today probably best known for their outrageous Freak designs and, if I’ve had anything to do with it, an FP Journe designed monopusher. However, I do not think it would be hyperbolic to state that some of UN’s 1960s divers and chronographs were of a quality comparable...

Watch releases innovative or beautiful enough to take your breath away are few and far between. Seeing a small, modern independent execute both arts while being funky enough to remind one of the 1970s Omega Flightmaster or Sinn 142 is another thing entirely. In the casual horologist zeitgeist, H. Moser...

I have never more lamented my Neanderthal wrist proportion more than just Monday. Let me explain. One of the great joys in this small project are the watches you all send in. Over the weekend, reader @brendano11 threw this in my inbox and my, was I disappointed. Disappointed only that...