Posts Tagged ‘Chronograph’
DB12 De Bethune Chronograph
De Bethune make wildly technical alien spaceships, right? Well, not always. At least it didn’t start that way. The early years of De Bethune were different, pre tenuous Starry Varius puns. This simple restrained chronograph, yes still made by De Bethune, is a magnificently uncommon thing. These were the early years of the manufacture, when…
Read MoreTürler Dial 4178 Vacheron Constantin Chronograph in Pink Gold
In 1950, you had few options if you wanted a chronograph that leaned more toward dressing than driving. You could wander down to Patek Philippe and grab a 1463. In retrospect, good move. Audemars Piguet would sell you a Valjoux 13 VZAH ref. 5522, which is quite an amazing thing, but they only sold one…
Read More‘Everest’ Vacheron Constantin Overseas Chronograph
I can count on two hands the number of times a watch released post 2018 from a non-independent stopped me dead in my tracks. Four of those fingers are taken up by Lange. And three of them are Vacheron’s. Two of Vacheron’s are what happens when a watch brand listens to its customers and isn’t…
Read MoreE335 Lecoultre Valjoux 72 Chronograph
Valjoux 72 is a broad church. Everyone thinks manual Daytona first. But the legendary chronograph calibre is behind much of great vintage Heuer, Universal, Breitling, and Enicar. Lesser known, its widespread adoption even intersects with the history of the esteemed ‘Grande Maison’ Jaeger-Lecoultre. And where V72 meets JLC, it is a bizarre, varied, but undeniably…
Read More1579 ‘Spider Lug’ Patek Philippe Chronograph in Pink Gold
Lug design counts for at least half of the way a watch wears, its importance cannot be overstated. Assuming a case is reasonably proportioned, which is a tall order for some brands, the lug makes or breaks it. In car design, brands carefully construct a wheel & tire package with a balanced harmony of width,…
Read MoreBrushed Dial Movado M95 Sub Sea
There is a Scandinavian ideal known as Janteloven, which is a bit tricky to define but I’m going to try. Broadly, it’s a laughably egalitarian ideal that eschews any expressions of extreme individuality or success. In plain English, it’s a concept that aims to make the opposite of ostentation aspirational. Now, I enjoy a good…
Read MoreTropical Mk2 Dial 1163 Heuer Autavia GMT
For all their motorsport ties and Ryan Gosling ad nonsense today, Heuer sure knew how to do a travel watch. And travel does suit the motorsport lifestyle, more than a simple chronograph. This Autavia would’ve been perfectly suited to time laps at Silverstone, fly to Monte Carlo, and time again while not loosing track of…
Read More‘Paul Newman’ Lip Genève 830 Chronograph
You know that meme that goes ‘Mom, can we get X?’ ‘We have X at home’. This might be the only meme-appropriate watch instance where X is both less expensive and just as cool, but fits the format. This is a Lip 830, but it’s know affectionately as the ‘Paul Newman’ Lip, for its likeness…
Read MoreA3817 Zenith El Primero
Vintage Zenith chronographs pull off a trick that very few watches can. Amongst enthusiasts, they wear totally without class. I don’t mean that how it reads. I mean they seem to be effortlessly ‘right’ in just about any social strata, equally at home at some brewery in a t-shirt or at the French Laundry under…
Read More12295 Universal Genève Tri-Compax
Post WWII, the Tri-Compax was it. Introduced at Baselworld 1944, the triple-complication (it’s often mistakenly assumed that “tri-compax” refers to the triple chronograph sub dial configuration) aviator’s offering was every bit as stylish as it was complicated. There aren’t many designs which feel perfect nearly a century on, this is one of them. In fact, as…
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