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 Seamaster 300 story began in 1957 with the CK2913. In that first Seamaster 300, Omega had created a reliable water resistance with handsome lines that recalled naval pieces of WWII, decades earlier. It was a monumental success, one which Omega built upon in this iconic, oft-overlooked second generation ref....

Cartier are something of a master at evolving variations on a theme, all equally elegant. However, some are more equal than others. The CPCP era is, if not the most classic, Cartiers most sincere attempt to flatter enthusiasts of traditional watchmaking. This Tank à Vis hails from that time, but...

Those who explore the very extremities which modern tool watches have to offer will very often zero-in on Sinn. While there are watches which can dive deeper, watches with greater shock resistance, and and watches with higher legibility, Sinn consistently place themselves at the center of the correct Venn-diagrams for...

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.’ Blancpain and Jean-Claude Biver may not have quite singlehanded dragged Swiss mechanical watchmaking into...

The Day-Date (colloquially President) is arguably Rolex’s most iconic model, full stop. It is classic, subdued, sophisticated, timeless, and coveted. Like much of vintage Rolex the variety of iterations and custom-order examples within this one model could serve as subject to multiple volumes of research. This elicits the query, where...

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...

I often the more archetypal, restrained offerings from a house the more attractive options. This Pioneer, for example, is a distilled essence of Moser. The Pioneer offers a classic Fumé dial with a contemporary case, crown, and handset design. Zero frills. Instead, Moser focussed on perfecting their craft in execution....

Last month, I featured a light-dial 3506 in a blind attempt to describe my admiration for the ‘slim’ case Genta Ingenieur SL. That article proved I was in good company, as many echoed the same sentiment. Since then, I have not been able to get that watch out of my...

Greenland is an unrelenting place. Cold, wet, windy, rocky, and unconquered in places even today. We, the horological hardcore, know and love the fact of Smith’s co-ascension on Everest with an early Explorer. These were watches built to purpose, that of weathering all conditions. This ref. A404 is in fact...

1969 was quite the year. Aside from Omega’s all-time greatest product placement, the Swiss were manufacturing some seriously attractive metal. There was the iconic Speedmaster, the 6263 Daytona, and the El Primero. Zenith’s chronograph did not receive attention in proportion to the impressiveness of its engineering in period. The El...

Breguet: the name itself is enough to weaken the knees of those who care about history. Yet, when I said Breguet, what came to mind? Chances are it was one of two things: either the Marie-Antoinette pocket watch and other unimaginably unattainable relics of horology’s blossoming or things like the...

If you’re anything like me, this isn’t really a vintage diver; it’s more akin to Colombian white powder. When a non-name brand 70s diver presents a certain level of design sense, history, and value I find it almost sinful to ignore. Japanese-based WMT are currently producing late 60s Rolex (heavily)...

The difference a bezel can make is extreme. In March 2015, I had the opportunity to attend the Geneva Motor Show. What I expected to find there were many Cosmographs, and I did. But what surprised me, more than any concept, was the sheer quantity of Batman GMTs on wrist....

There’s a lot of buzz around Cartier these days. Thin, elegant, significant, and discreet . . .these are the attritbutes collectors seem to hold dear today. We are witnessing an equal and opposite reaction to the ostentatious Stallone Luminors and endless Offshore LEs of the early 00s. The era of...

Given recent world events, the moniker this Royal Oak holds is keenly poignant. Nonetheless, chess grandmaster and political activist Garry Kasparov is proving quite the fountain of insight during troubled times for all. Something of a reminder that many Russians are only hostage to a government operating as a mid-century...

‘Simultaneously totally opulent yet somehow tasteful.’ That is how I’ve previously described the 1680/8 conversationally and stand by it. Rolex’s fabled gold Submariner may in fact be the single watch most classically representative of the ‘fuck-you-money’ attitude, and somehow it has aged into a thing of connoisseurship and studied attention....

Highly collected, issued military watches do not necessarily have to come with prohibitive values. With a little careful research, one or two may actually provide value. And when I say one or two, I mean basically just Seiko 7A28 military chronographs. As a rule, I tend to prefer mechanics to...