A 37mm sport Rolex would cause standing ovation across all of social media in today’s climate. Yet, set your year back a few decades and 37mm was absolutely massive. This rose gold IWC would have been a behemouth in its period, but a very sexy one. One may observe just...

Breitling’s Navitimer and its logarithmic slide-rule bezel have remained a staple of aviation since inception. The 806 made its debut in 1954 at a massive 40mm with a very flat crystal. Those proportions, when combined with its distinctly flat crystal and . . .let’s be kind and call it ‘busy’...

Halloween is coming in August this year, or so this 1655 would have one believe. The 1655 Explorer II is undoubtedly a grail sport Rolex for many and could be a real contender for my personal perfect one tool watch (I don’t frequent the Mariana Trench often, before you object)....

I’ve often said here that I tend to gravitate toward a given brand’s more minimal offerings. Pairing back the flying tourbillons, flyback chronographs, and deadbeat-seconds leaves room for a watchmaker’s design and finishing efforts to shine through. Leave it to the slightly unhinged Dutch brothers to design a time-only watch...

Developed after the initial Worldtimers by Louis Cottier, the 2597 is damn cool Travel Time from the very start of the jet age. The reference can be thought of as a 570 with a little je ne sais quoi complication. The watch featured an early iteration of a travel time,...

Polarizing is not a strong enough word to cover watch collectors’ vast opinions on this reference. Bulova has some heavy hitters in their back catalogue. If you don’t believe me, take a deeper dive with this 885104/01 worn on the surface of the moon which sold at auction in 2015....

This is last bastion of manual-wind Carreras and it’s a damn attractive holdout. This early-70s iteration of the Carrera sported a sunburst silver dial, contrast subs, and tritium. That tritium is, in my opinion, what makes this example. That is in addition to a bulletproof caliber, strong 39mm case, and...

Green dial 5711s are one thing. That is watch which says you are either an extremely close client of Patek or a bit of an idiot. And because the two are indistinguishable from a glance, the net effect Patek’s reseller’s are having is that of making their most valued customers...

Veteran watchmakers don’t come more likable than Peter Speake-Marin. The manufacture bearing his name has created wild flying tourbillons, highly finished ETAs, technotime mods, and everything in-between. What makes this independent special is the highly-specialized design and proportion. The Piccadilly case with its three-piece design and stout lugs are instantly...

If you’ve been around here for a bit, you’ll my stance on the world’s first true automatic chronograph: all of the three. I call it convergent evolution in watchmaking. This is not that. This is something more akin to Cartier looking over their metaphorical shoulder at JLC’s exam answer bubbles....

What you are looking at is not hype or hollywood-adjacent marketing. I like to think of it this way: a 5513 with a PhD. The Milgauss was created in the 6541 generation to meet the demands of scientists working in heavy magnetic fields. The level of significance this steel sports...

There is an entire sphere of watchmaking I enjoy deeply which falls under the heading ‘forgotten-could-have-been-greats’. The requirements are as follows: the watch must have been initially innovative or mould-breaking, succeeded by worse iterations or killed off, and is now only appreciated by a select few. In that lies the...

The watch-unique patination vintage provides is occasionally just perfect. Tropical watches from Italy are not particularly trustworthy and half the world’s ghost bezels are now in fact bleached, not sunned. Honest wear is a rare thing in the modern watch world. That’s just why I adore the Speedmaster I share...

When one thinks 1940s wristwatches, dedicated big pilots, telemetre scales, and Compaxes race to mind. There was, however, a more celebrated side to watchmaking that continued through hardship. Not every movement was intended to be a tool. Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, and Audemars Piguet made extremely refined chronographs in the...

When you see a Rolex with square pushers and a push-back case design, you know things are getting interesting. Last round, I presented a non-sigma Cosmograph that everyone will be familiar with. Today I’m pushing that lineage: meet Grandad. The Rolex antimagnetic chronograph preceeded the 1955 6234, a watch most...

Sandoz is not a name you frequent until you reach the dark dusty corner of a Redbar meetup. At some point, perhaps five years into your journey, you’ll come across one. I remember very specifically the first model I ever saw, a Monsoon very similar to the piece we see...

Independent manufacturers don’t come much more independent than a single Austrian husband and wife duo. Richard Habring was trained in the 1980s through Karlstein an der Thaya and was something of a prodigy, presenting a self-designed minute tourbillon in an incline movement by graduation. After meeting Maria and jointly deciding...

Today we’re getting a little nerdy within steel sport Rolex. 6263s can be found in a wide range of configurations, even for an early sport Rolex reference. Of those that don’t have Daytona in above above the 6 o’clock subdial, most are what are called ‘sigma’ dials. Sigmas either side...