Latest watch news · Page 1369

Old sport watches, classic records, and Italian wines. What's not to like?

We bring you the details and our thoughts on the latest addition to the Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Grande Tradition family, the new Tourbillon Céleste.

Roger Cooper spent 15 years sailing around the world on dinghies – wearing a £31,000 Speedmaster, no less.

The upcoming Phillips New York auction includes an unusual watch: the Monaco Piece d’Art, a one-off vintage watch restored and hand-finished by TAG Heuer that’s being sold to benefit a charity in the city. Created to mark the 50th anniversary of the iconic square-case chronograph, the Monaco Piece d’Art started out as a ordinary example of the Monaco ref. 1133B – also known as the “Steve McQueen” after the actor wore one in the 1971 film Le Mans – one of several specimens in TAG Heuer’s own museum. Hand-decorated and upgraded The Monaco ref. 1133B was powered by the Calibre 11 Chronomatic, one of the first automatic chronograph movements ever launched; the Chronomatic made its debut in 1969, the same year as the Zenith Primero and Seiko cal. 6139. Though important in the history of watchmaking, the Chronomatic movement was functional and fuss-free. So TAG Heuer decided to change that. The movement inside the Monaco Piece d’Art was taken apart and then carefully decorated, part by part, by a four-person team of watchmakers over three months. The steel levers and springs of the chronograph mechanism were straight grained and bevelled, screws heads were flat polished, gears were given circular graining, and so on. Even the countersinks for the jewels and screws were polished. The refinished movement inside the Monaco Piece d’Art (left), with an original Calibre 11 Chronomatic But the reworking of the movement was not merely aesthetic. The jewel count was...

Whether watch enthusiasts want to admit it or not, there is definitely a curiosity when it comes to celebrity watch spotting. It’s a guilty pleasure for most of us, and I have no shame admitting that I will regularly spend hours going down the virtual rabbit hole on Instagram, scoping what iced-out timepiece Mark Wahlberg has … ContinuedThe post Best of British –  4 celebs who rock Bremont watches appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

Joshua Munchow thinks that the Glashütte Original Senator Chronometer Tourbillon may be one of the best tourbillon models in modern watch history since it actually tries to achieve the goals of the tourbillon in the first place: increased precision and consistency in timekeeping. Here he explains just how it does that.

A daring analog pursuit aided by a lovely old-world sports watch.

The partnership between Swiss watchmaker Hublot and Italian car marque Ferrari has resulted in some very interesting watches indeed, and I think it should be ranked as one of the most genuinely interesting design partnerships in watches. And while the Classic Fusion Ferrari GT, with its dangerous curves, was one of the real highlight releases … ContinuedThe post VIDEO: The Hublot Big Bang Scuderia Ferrari 90th Anniversary Sapphire appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

In this week's article, we take a look at luxury sport watch and recommendation some of our favourite watches from this category.

Editor’s note: Everybody loves a watch with a party trick, and the party trick of the two-faced Reverso is hard to beat. Especially when you add a moon into the mix, as is the case with the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Moon. It’s fair to say that, for most people, Jaeger-LeCoultre in 2017 has been synonymous … ContinuedThe post Flip it and reverse it – the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Moon appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

Luxury giant LVMH has made an offer to buy Tiffany & Co., America’s leading luxury jeweller (and the biggest retailer of Patek Philippe watches in the country), according to the Bloomberg. The French group made an all-cash offer of US$120 a share, a premium of about 22% over Tiffany’s last done share price and valuing the company at about US$14.4 billion. That would make Tiffany’s the biggest acquisition ever for LVMH, which has seen its shares hit record highs recently, bringing its value to over US$210 billion. Despite being the world’s largest luxury group – its brands include Louis Vuitton, Bulgari, Rimowa, Hublot and DFS – LVMH is relatively weak in high-end jewellery, especially compared to Swiss rival Richemont, which owns Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, and Piaget, and only just picked up Buccellati. Buying Tiffany would give LVMH a bigger presence in jewellery, as well as greater exposure to the United States, which is the jeweller’s biggest market, account for around a third of sales. LVMH only just opened a bag factory in Texas, the Louis Vuitton Rochambeau Ranch, in an event attended by Donald Trump and LVMH chief executive and controlling shareholder Bernard Arnault, who’s also the third-richest man in the world. Best known for its diamond engagement rings and blue boxes, Tiffany suffered from a weak spell in recent years, with its former chief executive Frederic Cumenal, an LVMH alumni, lasting barely two years. After he departed in 2017, to be...

How many years before we even start to recognize what the most popular timekeeping devices over the last 70 years were? Another 20 years? Forty? Who will use timekeepers? And for what purposes? What will they look like? I posed these questions to a few top watch industry professionals; their replies were perhaps surprising.

A Collected Man recently interviewed Daryn Schnipper, and if you don’t know who she is … you really should. Schnipper has been working at Sotheby’s in New York since 1980, first as a watch expert, and now as Senior Vice President of the auction house and Chairman of the International Watch Division. What’s more, Schnipper … ContinuedThe post RECOMMENDED READING: An interview with Daryn Schnipper appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

The classic Omega Seamaster vs Rolex Submariner debate has been talked about so often, we sometimes forget what its story symbolizes. The debacle has drawn many different opinions, but one argument is agreed upon unanimously.

CWe watch enthusiasts love an excuse to come over all opinionated, don’t we? A little “controversy break” from our worship of calibres and references. So how about this: after-market customising. Would you or wouldn’t you? Is it cool to ice-up a Patek and black-out a Rolex – or is it a crime against horology? One … ContinuedThe post OPINION: Custom watches – cool or cliché? appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

It's a rare event when the stars align, rarer still when they align to create what may well become a truly iconic chronograph. In fact, the Singer Reimagined Track 1 may already be truly iconic: it certainly has both the pedigree and the style. And more importantly for a horological icon, the Track 1 looks like it's been around since the 1970s.

Tudor’s Black Bay Steel is the most utilitarian take on the popular diver.The post Tudor’s Black Bay Steel – all metal, no colour appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

Yard-O-Led is not exactly your average, everyday, run-of-the-mill brand name. And it's especially not an everyday, run-of-the-mill luxury brand name. However, although Yard-O-Led is an unusual name, it also happens to be a very practical one as it states right up front precisely what made it famous.

Editor’s note: In one of our favourite Sandra stories of all time, she takes aim at all the sacred cows of watch collecting, and skewers them. In style. When I talk with other women about watch collecting, the most common reaction runs along the lines of, “Oh, that’s just a sad guy thing” or “I … ContinuedThe post Are watches just an insecure guy thing? appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

Omega’s recently updated line of De Ville Trésor presents as a compelling proposition for anyone looking for a beautifully made, elegant dress watch. And, for the first time in the De Ville Trésor family, there’s now the option of steel-cased models, which can be had in a few different iterations. For a start, there’s this … ContinuedThe post Suit up with Omega De Ville Trésor appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

It was awarded to Mike "The Bike" Hailwood by Mr. Heuer himself.

Photo reports on the recent horological events in Singapore. Photographed with the Leica S + Summarit-S 70mm f.2.5 ASPH CS.

Rounding up the hottest listings from around the web.

Editor’s note: Grand Seiko is typically seen as a restrained brand design-wise (dials excepted), but this 46mm chunk of titanium and ceramic proves that the brand has it in them to pull a modern sports chrono out of the bank when it matters … To be honest, when I first saw Grand Seiko’s contemporary-looking new … ContinuedThe post Grand Seiko’s big Black Ceramic Spring Drive Chronograph GMT (ref. SBGC221) appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

Revolution gives an (admittedly biased) opinion on the supercool new Seiko 5 range.

The handful of BIG Rolex collectors meet-ups around the world represent the sanctum sanctorum of the vintage watch world, secretive affairs (which is sensible, given the dollar value of watches on the table) that offer a glimpse not just into the ultra-rarefied, and slightly odd, world of very high-end watch collecting, but also where the … ContinuedThe post RECOMMENDED READING: The World Economic Forum of the vintage watch market appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

Independent watchmakers are a major presence at Only Watch 2019, accounting for almost half the 50 lots in the charity auction coming. Importantly, two of them will probably end up in the top five by value – the F.P. Journe Astronomic Blue and the Rexhep Rexhepi Chronomètre Contemporain “Only Watch”. While the Astronomic Blue is the most complicated wristwatch F.P. Journe has ever made, the Chronomètre Contemporain “Only Watch” is a time-only watch, with a suitably modest estimate of 40,000-60,000 Swiss francs, though it’ll probably sell for five to seven times the low estimate. Hammered, and enamelled The key element that sets the “Only Watch” edition apart from the standard Chronomètre Contemporain is the dial. Completely unique because of the technique – used here for the first time in an Akrivia watch – the dial combines the surfaces finish of Akrivia’s two distinct collections: the hand-hammered decoration of the contemporary AK line and the vitreous enamel of the classic Rexhep Rexhepi range, named after the brand’s founder. Several attempts were required to get a perfect dial – Rexhep showed me one of the rejects with a cloudy finish in September – but the result is quietly impressive. Note that it is hammered and then enamelled, but not hammered enamel. Ordinarily a new dial colour doesn’t mean very much, but because the Chronomètre Contemporain regarded, and Rexhep has kept his promise not to do variations or custom orders of th...