Tritium Dial 5065J Patek Philippe Aquanaut
Richard Mille did not invent casual haute horlogerie, but the 90s did. The dot-com bubble millionaires were of a different ilk to pre-quartz-crisis wealth. So Patek Philippe approached the problem with typical-of-era obsessive over-engineering and thought. In the process, they accidentally made the watch world’s ultimate summer watch. The Aquanaut strap took one full year…
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2597 Patek Philippe ‘Travel Time’ Calatrava, Pink Gold
Developed just after the initial Worldtimers by Louis Cottier, the ref. 2597 is a damn cool ‘Travel Time’ from 1956, the very start of the jet age. The reference can be thought of as a 570 Calatrava with a little je ne sais quoi complication reminding you to go out and explore the world. The watch featured,…
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44018 Vacheron Constantin 222 Jumbo, Steel
Perceptions of watches change over time and no watch may have rocketed from total obscurity to the spotlight as quickly as the 222 last year. The 222 was, for some time, the very unobvious, alternative choice. I know this because for a decade until 2022, when someone asked me ‘Royal Oak or Nautilus?’, I’d always…
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Mark 2, Tropical Dial 1665 ‘Double Red’ Rolex Sea-Dweller
The 1665 Double Red Sea-Dweller (DRSD) is like a 5513 Sub turned up to eleven. It’s a little more technical with a helium valve, a little more appealing to some for its lack of cyclops, and just a little more nuanced in the details. But this DRSD goes way past eleven, thanks to a dial…
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Guilloche Dial 1803 Rolex Day-Date, Pink Gold
Until this year in the new 1908, the words Rolex and guilloché almost never went together. But very, very occasionally, there was a Day-Date with a hand engine turned dial. A quick Google will turn up the last one that came to market which we covered, a square pyrimidal cut. Some of the more famous…
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Floating Cosmograph, ‘Porcelain’ Dial 16520 Rolex Daytona
The first of anything in Rolex-land tends to be a bit different, not just because it’s new, but relative to what came after. These small, initial periods of experimentation are where you get meters first Subs, red depth Datejusts, fuchsia GMTs, ‘Blackout’ 14270s, and, indeed, this Floating Cosmograph. This is the very start of the…
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3508 IWC Ingenieur 500K A/m
In the release of IWC’s latest Ingenieur, the brand went out of their way to not advertise the watch on the basis of its magnetic resistance or indeed list it in any media. Isn’t that a bit odd for thee IWC Antimagnetic watch? In this 3508 from the late 80s, IWC were so proud of…
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2762 Cartier CPCP Tortue Monopoussoir
The Monopoussoir is dead, long live the Monopoussoir. Yes, there’s a new Monopoussoir around but CPCP will always be a more significant moment in Cartier’s long and storied ascent out of the treacherous 1980s. There is just so much to this watch, culturally and tangibly. And I don’t even think one necessarily needs the sole…
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S34 Roger Dubuis Sympathie ‘New Millenary’ Bi-Retrograde Calendar
For all the chatter around design-led watchmaking now, it’s easy to forget that Roger Dubuis went to great lengths in the 90s to create a shape quite unlike anything before or after. After branching out on his own, the Sympathie line was the first time Roger pushed the boundaries of what was possible, first in…
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Technicum Neuchâtelois Ecole D’Horlogerie Triple Calendar Chronograph
This Triple Calendar Chronograph is not a Rolex, Heuer, Girard Perregaux, or Zodiac; it has no brand, the generic label. It was the ultimate pride and joy of a budding watchmaker in the mid-late 1960s. This dial reads Technicum La Chaux-de-Fonds, short for Technicum Neuchâtelois. This was, at the time, the preeminent horological school. The…
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