Posts Tagged ‘GMT’
Tropical 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 MoreMk1 Enicar Sherpa Jet GMT
A small but vocal section of the vintage watch collecting community has for years tried to make the case that Enicar’s sport watches from the 1960s and 1970s measure up to their counterparts from Rolex and Omega. This Sherpa Jet can and should be Exhibit A in their case. This reference 126/002, circa 1964, was…
Read More2446C Heuer Autavia GMT Second Execution
How many truly water resistant GMT Chronographs from the 60s can you think of? My guess is one, although there are a few others. The C or compressor case Autavia is possibly most useful 60s Heuer and it’s not difficult to image the lifestyle it was made for. This GMT offered the ability to fly…
Read MoreNo Reserve eBay Find: 1 of 500 SBGM239 Grand Seiko Hodinkee GMT
It is very easy to be cynical about the Hodinkification (Hodinkee-fication?) of our passion over the last decade, though just what that means is not well defined. Is that definition hype? Convergent tastes? Blasé mentions of MSRPs over triple the median yearly income of the US? Always matching your cardigan to your chronograph hand? Just…
Read MoreValue Prop: SBGN005 Grand Seiko 9F Quartz GMT
There has been an interesting shift in the last year or two around these parts. It used to be, whenever I featured any quartz caliber, opinion would clearly polarize about 50/50 in favor or stark opposition of battery-based timing. In recent months, not a single quartz watch has received anything but resounding endorsement. In all…
Read MoreWell-Preserved Black 16570 Rolex Explorer II
There are many trends that need to die in vintage watches. Socially-driven hypebeasting, frankenwatching, thoughtless dial refinishing, and default factory service case polishing to name a few. However, my day-to-day life touches on one unfortunate trend more frequently than most: what I call hyper-niche collecting. Let me explain; there are people who will not purchase…
Read MoreBulova Accutron Astronaut GMT Type 4
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. Accutron was hugely innovative, among…
Read More1655 Rolex Explorer II ‘Freccione’ Mark 5
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 rate . . .and for…
Read MoreA Charming Enicar Jet Graph Mark 3
Enicar, ever the forward-thinking watchmaker, saw the inherent redundancy in the word chronograph that others had missed. There is not a watch with a chronograph that measures something other than a function of time. Therefore, their family of chronographs were simply labelled ‘Graph’. I approve of this efficiency in language. The Graph family consisted of…
Read MoreOne Characterful Pilot: Breitling 812 GMT Chronograph
If I’m aggressively, incriminatingly honest, the Navitimer tends to bore me slightly. Even the AOPA dials. I much prefer something like a Co-Pilot, Chronomat, early Premier, Unitime, or this. Breitling’s history is rich enough that they need not rely on the Navitimer’s past as heavily as they have historically. When most people think shouty, colourful…
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