Posts Tagged ‘Quartz’
6001 Audemars Piguet ‘Beta 21’ Quartz
The ref. 6001 is not something you’re likely to have seen before. It’s not a Royal Oak, designed by Jean-Fred Meylan not Genta, and it shares almost no visual identity with any other AP save for its petite tapisserie dial. Fewer than 350 are thought to have been made from 1974 until 1978, succeeded by…
Read More186.0013 Omega Equinoxe ‘Reverso’
What happens when you take a Reverso and force it to listen to Take Me Home Tonight by Eddie Money (what a jam) on loop for a year? You wind up at one of the great oddities of the 80s. This is the ref. 186.0013, arguably the height of Omega’s experimental years in the throes…
Read More3303 IWC Ingenieur SL Quartz Jumbo
In art, design, music, and many other creative disciplines, you are taught the rules first so that you may choose to break them deliberately. This, I never used to understand, why not just lean in to unbridled creativity? I’m not sure I have the answer, but it’s probably something like ‘rules hold wisdom’ or ‘constraints…
Read More6005BA Audemars Piguet Rectangular ‘Royal Oak’
This is a Royal Oak in the same way that Yoko Ono is a member of The Beatles . . .which is to say this isn’t a Royal Oak. Despite the bracelet and design language similarities, AP never called the 6005 Jumbo a Royal Oak, it went simply by the ‘Quartz Line’. But between friends,…
Read More3312 IWC Yacht Club II Jumbo Quartz
A few years ago, I read Mark Manson’s The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck. Somewhat contrarily, I didn’t find it terribly enlightening. But I do think it had one of the greatest titles of the last decade. Because everyone’s flirted with idea of embracing the carefree, that ‘stop caring, start living’ mantra you’d…
Read More3311 IWC Quartz Yacht Club II
A circle within a stop-sign within an elongated hexagon, the Yacht Club II is an acquired taste. I’ve previously described it as Genta-designed (likely, actually no one seems to know for certain) and Germanically-gorgeous, but this one in particular will ruffle some feathers. This is the quartz Yacht Club II. I know, I know, hear…
Read More165.9.30 Jaeger-Lecoultre Odysseus in Tantalum Rose Gold
Tantalum is not often seen in watchmaking. It’s difficult to work with, extremely so, but highly corrosion and scratch resistant with a gunmetal-blue tone that is just gorgeous. FP Journe launched the Chronomètre Bleu in 2009 and made elaborate fanfare about how innovative it was to be executed in tantalum. However, like many things, JLC…
Read More819901 Cartier Santos Galbée Moonphase
This is perhaps one of the most difficult watches to attempt to categorize, ever. It’s integrated, but it isn’t really sporting. It’s full yellow gold, but not really a dress watch. It has a moonphase, but it isn’t a mechanical movement. Now I am, somewhat infamously, a lover of mechanical watchmaking. But I always appreciate…
Read MoreF.P. Journe Élégante 48 Titalyt
Eclectic, eccentric, and something of an enigma, FP Journe’s Élégante was originally conceived during a trip to the Middle East in 2003, where he was asked by many clients’ wives why he had not yet offered a women’s watch of any kind. Eight years of hard work went into an in-house quartz (or as Journe…
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…
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