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...

TThis may very well be the most killer iteration of all those very killer early Carreras. Reverse panda, three register, inner tachymetre scale. What this unpretentious chronograph has lost in minimalism, it makes up for in being true to form: motorsport heritage. A racing chronograph without a tachymetre scale is...

I (and probably many others) had a collector tell me once, ‘. . .just buy the sub.’ In the previous decade those would have been wise words to adhere to, almost poetic in their truth. The world which we now inhabit, I think it is safe to say, is a...

There are not many watches which can be said to truly be daily-wearable grand complications. Fewer still which execute this trick so nonchalantly. Let’s be honest, since ~2018 the Royal Oak has become a category unto itself, one with . . .associations (by which I mean baggage). However, this pinnacle...

We’re back in the realm of Wilsdorf details again, but for good reason. I’ve covered a majority of the Cosmograph and Daytona’s evolution through the market’s flux. The 6240 is a rare bird I have never had the pleasure to cover. I would venture to suppose it is, arguably, the...

This is a watch which, I think it’s fair to say, we’d all been hoping for for some time. Grand Seiko’s SBGW line is mainly comprised of elegant three-handers. Their restraint and simplicity is the line’s strength. However, up until last year, the only dials available were whites, blues, and...

In the pantheon of great watch calibres, many actual experts far more learned than myself have placed Omega’s 321 (and all Lemania 2310 ébauches) in the top spot. It has literally been to the moon, sustained some of Patek’s most complicated efforts, and been cased in many of the most...

Not all symptoms of modern watch collecting are as lamentable as the AD situation or Nautilus hype would suggest. One marked advancement, to my sensibility, has been the return to svelte proportion. Now, this in no way meant to be domineering. Buy what you like and what you feel expresses...