Mk3 A386 Zenith El Primero
Few chronographs don’t get the credit they deserve like the A386. Because I try to be a bit professional here once in a while, I threw the search terms ‘Rolex Daytona, Omega Speedmaster, Heuer Carrera, and Zenith El Primero’ into Google Trends to approximate the relative interest (specific vintage references don’t have enough volume). Over…
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‘Deux Ors’ 96061 Cartier Santos Dumont
The Santos is bewilderingly broad church. But 70s Santos Dumont is never the wrong choice, with its Frederic Piguet 21 and 4.5mm thinness (including crystal). And even in that niche, there’s still a lot to learn. This may look like a gold case, and it is. But it also isn’t: the bezel is white gold…
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Fumé Dial 110.313 Heuer Silverstone
Some watches seem removed from time, perennially elegant, like the 3940, 1463, 5513, or any other arrangement of four digits from Patek or Rolex that you care to mention. Others lean into their era and attach themselves to it violently, like tap dancing on the Titanic until the trends change and it sinks. The Silverstone…
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6036 Rolex ‘Jean-Claude Killy’ Datocompax, Pink Gold
There’s Rolex, and then there’s complicated Rolex. The latter, we’ve only seen a handful of times and it’s pretty much all vintage. You could make an argument for the Sky-Dweller, but I wouldn’t want to. No, full calendar and split seconds Rolex emerged in the 50s and disappeared as quickly as they came, now extremely…
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‘Havana’ Dial 1601 Rolex Datejust
Not all Datejust are created equal. This will become immediately apparent if you check out Monaco Legends 2021 result for a red jasper white gold 1601, which hammered at 186K US. Many think of the Datejust as that two-tone thing you have to buy for your significant other to get a GMT. This does immense…
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‘Monoblocco’ 3525 Rolex Chronograph
If you love your Daytona, you should know its grandfather. This is the ref. 3525, not the first Rolex chronograph, but likely the first Oyster-cased Rolex chronograph. It goes by ‘Monoblocco’, ‘Barilotto’, and ‘Prisoner of War’ all as nicknames. The first two are easy to explain, the third I’ll get to in a second. Barilotto…
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Charles Frodsham Double Impulse Chronometer
It’s not often discussed in these terms, but in the very early days of watchmaking, before even pocket watches were commonplace, the Swiss looked toward the English as the more established regional watchmaking industry. It was only after John Calvin banned things like dancing and the wearing of jewelry that the Swiss turned their focus…
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‘Yves Klein’ Dial 25820ST Audemars Piguet Royal Oak QP
There is something fantastic about pairing high complication with vibrant color. Somehow, complication and the effort required to create it tends to bring about the serious side of aesthetics and design, almost as a way of saying ‘you should take this seriously’. This is the other philosophy. Most collectors tend to prefer pre-leap year indication…
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3693.50 Omega Speedmaster ‘150th Anniversary of Omega’
This isn’t a new Watches & Wonders release and it’s unrelated to Omega’s Trilogy set, apart from being heavily 2915-inspired. This is from 1998 and is one of very few Omega limited editions from that time which is actually limited, at just 150 examples. 150, rather significantly, for the 150th Anniversary of Omega. This was…
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Rexhep Rexhepi Chronomètre Contemporain RRCC1
Rexhep is arguably the most discussed independent of the last few years. The questions are twofold: the why and the how of the furor. I believe they’re both founded in excellent watchmaking. Perhaps we were all a bit primed after the stratospheric explosion in the likes of Dufour, Smith, and Journe to be looking out…
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