As a bit of an automotive enthusiast, rust terrifies me. It is the cancer of all mechanical art. One which we seek desperately to avoid. To see it celebrated openly seems simultaneously beautiful and sacrilegious. If any niche could pull off the celebration mechanics and rust, it would be independent...

I live for fun dials. My life is sad, I am aware. But nonetheless, I cannot hide my enthusiasm for this ultra-outrageous 1970s diver from Opera watches. I know nothing about Opera other than that they created some shouty divers from ETA bases in the mid 70s. This 2783-base example...

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but with this 1655 Freccione (Italian for arrow, or orange-hand today), I’m beginning to think beauty is better defined by the eye of the market. In the last five years 1655 values have been steadily trending upward at an increasing...

After having recently featured Universal’s international variant, it seems timely that a lovely example of the genuine article is now on offer. This Compur, which later became the Compax, was a chronograph contemporary of Patek’s 130 and VC’s 4072. Neither of those chronographs are exactly unattractive. The same goes for...

Haute horology is normally obsessed with elegance, fit, and finish. Romain Gauthier hits the latter two, but opts for a more industrial approach to watchmaking’s top end. The Logical One is his principle work, a brave movement design with little consideration given to tradition. GPHP has acknowledged the genuis in...

Audemars Piguet has never shied away from limited releases. There are boutique Royal Oaks, commemorative Royal Oaks, and custom-order Royal Oaks from early in the model’s history. Modern limited releases usually vary in dial hue or material. Today’s feature changes both. The white gold and salmon 15202BC was released in...

My recent pet fascination has been neo-vintage—particularly limited—pre-instagram watches. You may recall seeing the Septantieme, SSASS Alpinist, or early steel Franck Muller recently. I may need to create a category here. The deeper I dive, the more vast this space seems to become. While searching out a strong vintage Tissot...

The Seamaster 1948, if you don’t know, was released in 2011. If you don’t know Omega, that doesn’t make a lot of sense. The model was design to recall one of the best vintage Seamaster designs with modern updates. They pulled a Singer on their own history. This Seamaster 1948,...

Modern sleeper watches are few and far between. Discretion is not as marketable as it once was. This Ulysse Nardin Monopusher is a true sleeper in three contexts. First, the watch may wear a marking from Ulysse Nardin, but was originally designed by a young FP Journe for La Joux-Perret....

Just when you think vintage Rolex ‘barnfind’ possibilities have fully dried up, something like this happens. 6200 Submariners are not exactly common. They are so uncommon, in fact, that I’d wager most owners could name half of the other owners. What I am saying is this: there are only a...

Hajime Asaoka’s sub-brand Kurono Tokyo started with a bang in 2019. No matter what you think of the recent trend of independent sub-brands, the ground Kurono have covered in a very short time is remarkable. In two short years, they have left a true imprint on the collecting public’s consciousness....

I like misfits. As a guide to life, they are generally more embracing of themselves and interesting. Granted, one could say all smackheads are also misfits. The rule is not absolute. In watchmaking, there are monolithic corporations like Richemont or Swatch. Then there are the established independents: think Journe, Dufour,...

Few watches will ever experience the fame that the Daytona has gathered in its recent few decades. Perhaps the Nautilus and Royal Oak have seen similar ascensions, but that’s all I can think of with a massive 10 seconds of thought dedicated to the effort. However, there are no other...

If you’re a watch collector hardcore, you likely love Universal Geneve. If you’re a bit of a watch obsessive, may be aware some of their movements made their way into watch assemblies under other names. By no means was UG the ETA of their era. However, some sales did take...

Blancpain and Jean-Claude Biver are often credited with leading the charge of mechanical watchmaking’s return to dominance post-quartz crisis. Defiant ads proclaimed ‘there has has never been a quartz Blancpain and there never will be’. Pieces like the revived Fifty Fathoms, 1735 Grande Complication, and (toward the end of JCB)...

The Movado M90 is an early two-register chronograph that has largely been consigned to the history books. Recent explosions in value of François Borgel (FB) Patek Tasti Tondis has also pulled up values of M90 and M95 Tasti Tondi case variants. The humble non-FB cased M90 and M95, however, are...

There’s something very majestic about Grand Seiko’s double-signed era. After the SBGR305 introduced GS-only signature dials, independence was solidified. Before that, times were more uncertain. There is a certain lack of confidence or perhaps humility that the double signature implies. A large Seiko at 12 is stealth. If you know...

AP’s first Perpetual Quantieme, the 5548, was conceived in secrecy during the height of Switzerland’s quartz crisis. At the time, the marque was struggling and contemplating leaning more on quartz for future models. Three senior watchmakers within AP (Michel Rochat, Daniel Golay, and Wilfred Berney) developed an ultra-thin perpetual calendar...