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Results for The 2017-2022 Vintage Market Boom

41,263 articles · 6,128 videos found · page 1191 of 1580

Blancpain Finally Gives Fifty Fathoms Fans What They’ve Been Asking For Worn & Wound
Blancpain Finally Gives Fifty Fathoms Apr 1, 2024

Blancpain Finally Gives Fifty Fathoms Fans What They’ve Been Asking For

Last year marked the 70th anniversary of Blancpain’s iconic Fifty Fathoms dive watch, and to celebrate they launched three new watches in three acts. Act One was a contemporary take on the Fifty Fathoms in stainless steel, Act Two was a high-tech modern piece geared toward pro divers in titanium, and Act Three was a historical MIL-SPEC interpretation in 9K Bronze-Gold. Despite the critical acclaim, collectors seemed to have been left wanting. There has been an appetite for a contemporary sub 45mm diameter, non-limited-edition version of the Fifty Fathoms for many years, and for 2024 Blancpain is finally making it happen with new 42mm-diameter Fifty Fathoms Automatic models in the permanent collection. They will be offered in both red gold and corrosion resistant grade 23 titanium. The latter is like grade 5 but has lower oxygen, nitrogen, and iron content. It also has better ductility and fracture toughness, which, according to Blancpain, makes it excellent in saltwater environments. Powering these new Fifty Fathoms is the in-house Blancpain Caliber 1315 automatic movement. Its construction includes three series-coupled barrels that can provide a class leading five days of power-reserve. It is elaborately decorated, at least compared to most divers, and has an 18K red gold oscillating weight sporting an NAC coating, whose design is inspired by the rotor of the original 1953 Fifty Fathoms. All of this, of course, is visible through the screw-down sapphire display back. Th...

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#TBT Dress To Impress With A Pontife-Handed Alpina Cal. 586 Fratello
Alpina Cal 586 It Mar 21, 2024

#TBT Dress To Impress With A Pontife-Handed Alpina Cal. 586

It is not difficult to recognize a simple time-only watch from the 1940s. There are tons of them. They have either plain dials or dials with Arabic numerals. Not many watches from that time had hours marked with Roman numerals, and even fewer had so-called Pontife hands. And this is the first time I’ve found […] Visit #TBT Dress To Impress With A Pontife-Handed Alpina Cal. 586 to read the full article.

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How A Colorful Watch Strap Can Lift Your Timepiece Game Fratello
Mar 19, 2024

How A Colorful Watch Strap Can Lift Your Timepiece Game

Watch enthusiasm is often marked with periods of restlessness. A desire to expand a watch collection can lead to either a sense of achievement or sometimes regret. Before taking the plunge, it is also worth considering a colorful watch strap to mix up the look of your existing collection. It could save you thousands. It […] Visit How A Colorful Watch Strap Can Lift Your Timepiece Game to read the full article.

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Recap: Watches, Diving, & Enthusiasm At Dubai Watch Week Worn & Wound
Urwerk Nov 27, 2023

Recap: Watches, Diving, & Enthusiasm At Dubai Watch Week

Last week marked the 6th edition of Dubai Watch Week, an educational forum and brand exhibition situated in the heart of Dubai’s Financial Center. This is not a commercial event (no watches are sold by the exhibiting brands) but rather an event put on for the community, featuring masterclass sessions around the craft, open forums from watchmakers, and even debates between collectors and media personalities. This year offered a selection of new release announcements and incredible talks to take in (along with some truly epic watch spotting along the way), and we also took the opportunity to take in a bit more of the surrounding region with a few dives, a trip to the world’s tallest building, and even some Formula 1 racing down the coast in Abu Dhabi for good measure.  Dubai Watch Week is organized by Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons, the largest watch retailer in the region, offering everything from Rolex and AP, to Urwerk and MB&F;, many of whom are represented in the fair. The grounds of the fair are open to the public and free to attend (though registration is required), with a strong presence from the local enthusiasts communities and their families. Meeting members of the Dubai Watch Club, as well as some enthusiasts passing through the region to take in the fair (including several from our own W&W;+ Slack channel) was among the highlights of my time in Dubai. The fair itself was split into two sections, with an indoor hall surrounded by an outdoor pathway upon which some of th...

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Auction Watch: Patek Philippe World Time Ref. 5110G Prototype Dial at Sotheby’s SJX Watches
Patek Philippe World Time Ref 5110G Nov 3, 2023

Auction Watch: Patek Philippe World Time Ref. 5110G Prototype Dial at Sotheby’s

One of the interesting lots this auction season in Geneva is the Patek Philippe ref. 5110G world time with a prototype dial at Sotheby’s. Scheduled to go under the hammer on November 5, 2023, the watch fitted with a monochromatic printed dial marked “Prototype”. Patek Philippe prototypes, or even prototype dials, rarely emerge in public, so this world time is notable in itself. Another recent example of a prototype was the Aquanaut prototype that sold at Antiquorum in 2019 featuring a “comet” power reserve that was never found on the regular production model. Unlike the Aquanaut prototype, however, this world time only has a prototype dial. The watch itself is a standard ref. 5110G that’s accompanied by the usual guilloche dial as well as an archive extract. According to Sotheby’s, the consignor of the watch is a watchmaker who worked at Patek Philippe for many years, so he presumably installed the prototype dial on a regular production ref. 5110G. Although simpler than the standard dial, the prototype dial is certainly more interesting. The central portion is a plain, flat white with black print, while the cities disc is off white. The dial is hardly fancy but possesses a clean, functional aesthetic that is strangely appealing. Moreover it runs counter to the prevailing Patek Philippe aesthetic that favours guilloche and applied numerals, making it visually unique. The simplicity of the dial, however, means it might have been a test dial installed in a proto...

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Profile: Hannelore Lass, Watchmaker and Engraver SJX Watches
Sinn Sep 5, 2023

Profile: Hannelore Lass, Watchmaker and Engraver

German-born Hannelore Lass has mastered the art of engraving, but she is also a trained watchmaker. Together with her husband, independent watchmaker Christian Lass, they live with their two children on the idyllic Danish island of Fyn, a two hour’s drive west of Copenhagen. It is there that they created the 30CP, the time-only wristwatch that marked the debut of the Christian Lass brand. Hannelore’s career meandered through European watchmaking before landing her on Fyn. Having started her career at Sinn, the German brand best known for its “tool” watches, she would go on to become the in-house engraver for Vianney Halter, followed by a stint as a freelancer working with BNB Concept, before moving to Denmark with her husband to establish his eponymous brand. The burin as a watchmaking tool Crafts that concern the smallest of parts have always had a particular impact on Hannelore; the interaction of the hands with the very small was something that gave her extreme pleasure. So having finished high school, Hannelore considered watchmaking as a possible career. Living near Frankfurt at the time, she visit the Sinn, which is located in the city. It was during this visit that Hannelore experienced one of the defining moments of her life. “During the tour, we were shown a gigantic cupboard brimming with small boxes full of minuscule parts,” says Hannelore, “That’s when I knew what I wanted to do!” Image – Hannelore Lass The experience led her to send an app...

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Hands On: Longines Master Collection Small Seconds SJX Watches
Longines Master Collection Small Seconds Jul 27, 2023

Hands On: Longines Master Collection Small Seconds

Longines marked a historical milestone last year with the well-received Master Collection 190th Anniversary, a watch that combines classic good looks with a modest price tag. Now the brand has taken the same styling and applied it to another model to create the Master Collection Small Seconds. The Small Seconds makes its debut in a pleasing variety of dial colours, including a fashionable “salmon”. As much of a value proposition as last year’s anniversary model, the Small Seconds retains the same aesthetic as its predecessor but with a subsidiary seconds at six that gives it a more retro feel. But because of the small seconds, it becomes a noticeably thicker watch. So even though it looks much like the anniversary edition, the Small Seconds feels different. Initial thoughts The Small Seconds is largely identical to its centre-seconds counterpart, so it has much of the same appeal. The design is a pleasing vintage style with all the right elements like Breguet numerals and leaf-shaped hands. Admittedly, the styling is somewhat generic – it’s vintage inspired rather than a remake – but the result is appealing, especially considering its affordability. Although the watch is clearly an industrial product, the details are done well, the engraved numerals are especially attractive. This is especially so on the anthracite and salmon dials, which have the numerals in contrasting plating. The anthracite dial is especially striking because it is a relatively uncommon co...

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Rolex Shock Drops New Daytona Commemorating 100 Years of LeMans Worn & Wound
Rolex Shock Drops New Daytona Jun 12, 2023

Rolex Shock Drops New Daytona Commemorating 100 Years of LeMans

This weekend marked the 100th running of the 24 hour race of Le Mans at the Circuit de la Sarthe in France, and Rolex took full advantage of the occasion with the release of a new Daytona with a dial that recalls the now famous ‘exotic’ dial, aka Newman dial, of older references. This release is surprising for a few reasons, and may even offer some insight to what we might expect from Rolex moving forward. We’ll get to all that, but in many ways, this is the Daytona that enthusiasts have been asking for since the late ‘80s – it’s the ‘greatest hits’ watch, perfectly capitalizing on the the new Daytona chassis released just earlier this year at Watches & Wonders, which we went hands-on with right here. First and foremost, Rolex is not in the habit of dropping new releases outside of their regular yearly cadence. We last saw it with the release of the Deepsea Challenge in late 2022, the first commercial Rolex to tout their RLX titanium material. While that watch could be considered something of an outlier, given its rather extreme nature, the Daytona is another story entirely. This new reference, the 126529LN officially, joins the new collection as a regular production model. That reference number ends in four characters that have never appeared together in the Daytona family, the 29 indicating a full white gold case and bracelet, and LN, or Lunette Noir, meaning it sports a black Cerachrom bezel. Vintage Rolex Daytona reference 6263 with exotic dial The firs...

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