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Introducing: The New TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 300 Date And GMT Fratello
TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 300 Date Jun 3, 2024

Introducing: The New TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 300 Date And GMT

TAG Heuer released the last generation of Aquaracer Professional 300 divers in 2021. That’s not long ago, but the brand must be listening to the market. Updated versions are here today with new dials, smaller cases, and significant mechanical changes. The outgoing models were already compelling, which makes these new versions even more intriguing. TAG […] Visit Introducing: The New TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 300 Date And GMT to read the full article.

[VIDEO] A Brief Hands-On with the Tudor Black Bay 41 Monochrome, and the Black Bay Thunderdome, Part II Worn & Wound
Tudor Black Bay 41 Monochrome May 30, 2024

[VIDEO] A Brief Hands-On with the Tudor Black Bay 41 Monochrome, and the Black Bay Thunderdome, Part II

It’s been a few months since the end of Watches and Wonders, and the world of watches is starting to feel a little bit more normal again. There aren’t dozens of watches fighting for your attention in countless new release articles. What is happening though is many of these watches  are making their way into the hands of enthusiasts and first impressions and #NWAs are starting to trickle out with the best and brightest that Watches and Wonders had to offer. One such beneficiary of these new watches hitting the streets is yours truly. I got a brief hands-on with the new Tudor Black Bay 41 “Monochrome” during a pop in at the W&W; HQ, and spent just enough time with it to walk away with a few solid first impressions.  Tudor DNA Distilled Into A Single Watch One of the first things I noticed about the BB41 Monochrome is just how Tudor it really is. The snowflake hands pop off the contrasting black dial, the 60-click bezel clicks past markings with an authoritative snap, and polished slab sides make up the bulk of the height of the watch. The dial is clean and easy to read, not a hint of fauxtina in sight. There’s no date, which keeps things super simple. Two lines of text is just the right amount of words to let you know how deep you can dive and that your watch will be very, very accurate (as far as mechanical watches go, at least). Upon closer inspection, the dial features a more interesting finish than it first leads on. It’s satin-finished with a slight sunburs...

The G-SHOCK of Fountain Pens: the Pilot Varsity Worn & Wound
Seiko May 29, 2024

The G-SHOCK of Fountain Pens: the Pilot Varsity

Without a doubt, my favorite pen is the LAMY AL-Star. I could (and very well might) write paragraphs about this incredible fountain pen - something which would be an absolute joy, thanks in large part to the lovely experience the LAMY offers - but that’s not the pen I’m here to talk about today. That’s because, despite my fondness for the iconic AL-Star, it is not the pen I use most. It’s not even the fountain pen I use the most. No, that honor goes to the humble Pilot Varsity disposable fountain pen. I would categorize the LAMY AL-Star (and its remarkably similar sibling, the Safari) as the Seiko of fountain pens. Like a Seiko, it is often cited as a great first fountain pen for people looking to try something outside the typical rollerballs and ballpoints we see everyday. Also like a Seiko, the LAMY is a gateway pen, one which often leads to other more expensive options. The LAMY could easily be the one pen with which you live your entire life. For a totally reasonable amount of money, anyone could be happy with a LAMY, just as anyone could be happy with a Seiko SPB Diver. The AL-Star’s got everything you need, and nothing you don’t. It’s well-made, well-designed, and comes in so many variations that it would be hard not to find one that suits your taste. Pen collectors I know who have pens many multiples (sometimes many, many) the value of the LAMY still frequently cite it as one of their favorites. But if the LAMY is the Seiko of fountain pens, then t...

Up Close: Philippe Dufour Duality No. 3 SJX Watches
Audemars Piguet Offshore models selling easily May 29, 2024

Up Close: Philippe Dufour Duality No. 3

The most significant example of independent watchmaking in Phillips’ upcoming New York sale is Philippe Dufour Duality no. 3 in white gold. One of just nine made, this Duality is unusual in several respects. For one, it is delivered with two dials, each representing one of Mr Dufour’s trademark style – silvered and a white lacquer resembling enamel. Besides being an exceptionally rare watch, this Duality is also significant for its provenance: the current owner is both a gentleman and a collector with a discerning eye. In fact, he recognised the importance and appeal of the Duality well before most others did. At the time he bought this watch, now almost 20 years ago, a Philippe Dufour Simplicity was selling for barely more than a Lange Datograph. In fact, there were sought-after Panerai and Audemars Piguet Offshore models selling easily for more than a Simplicity. The owner’s discerning and forward-thinking taste in watches can also be inferred from his other watches in the sale. Amongst them is an F.P. Journe Tourbillon Souverain ref. TN – with a special-order 38 mm case instead of the conventional 40 mm, as well as a matched, three-piece set of the F.P. Journe Vagabondage in platinum. A tribute to the Vallée Launched in 1996, the Duality is one of the two landmark double balance wheel watches in contemporary watchmaking, alongside the F.P. Journe Resonance that debuted four years later. While the Resonance is arguably more abstract and inventive in its concep...

TAG Heuer Introduces a New Skeletonized Monaco Worn & Wound
TAG Heuer Introduces May 28, 2024

TAG Heuer Introduces a New Skeletonized Monaco

Once again, TAG Heuer has released a new Monaco chronograph to celebrate the running of the Monaco Grand Prix, which took place over the weekend in, you guessed it, Monaco. While it’s surely a bit on-the-nose to unveil a new chronograph that is named after the race itself on race weekend, we’ll forgive TAG here given the simple fact that the Monaco Grand Prix’s place in our culture. If it’s not one of the most watched races in the world, it’s certainly one of the most recognizable and well known. The word “Monaco” to many will immediately conjure images of the race, unless it’s heard by a watch collector, in which case iconic square cased chrono is likely to be front of mind. In any event, not introducing a new Monaco on race weekend would likely amount to a tactical error on TAG Heuer’s part, given the intense focus on F1 over the weekend.  The new watch is effectively a new variant of the watch released last year, which introduced skeleton dials to the Monaco collection with brightly colored accents and lightweight titanium cases. Here we have a DLC coated titanium case measuring 39mm across and 15.2mm tall, with a skeletonized dial featuring dark blue and bright yellow accents. Skeleton dials can, of course, sometimes be a bit difficult to read, but time-telling on the skeletonized Monaco is fairly straightforward with sharp white minute markers at the perimeter of the blue minute ring, and oversized lume filled hour markers set against the Caliber 02...

REVIEW: Hands On With The Bell & Ross Diver Black & Green Bronze WatchAdvice
Bell & Ross Diver Black & Green May 27, 2024

REVIEW: Hands On With The Bell & Ross Diver Black & Green Bronze

We go hands on with the Bell & Ross Diver Bronze and see how the new Black & Green colourway fairs, not to mention what the patina is like! What We Love The gold hue of the bronze case The matte green dial is silky smooth Completely different look to most other watches on the market What We Don’t The strap is a little bulky for my liking The date window could be slightly larger The bronze patinas quickly Overall Rating: 8.625/10 Value for money: 9/10 Wearability: 8/10 Design: 8.5/10 Build quality: 9/10 My first proper Hands On experience with Bell & Ross was with the Cyber Ceramic we reviewed in March this year. If you read the review (and if you haven’t, click the link and give it a read first, I’ll wait!) you’ll probably note that I wasn’t too sure on how I’d feel about an all black, square-shaped watch on my wrist. After all, I’m not that much into fully blacked-out pieces nor do I have a love for square-shaped watches. I’ve nothing against them at all, it’s just not my style…normally! But the Cyber Ceramic changed this, as after having it on my wrist for a week or more, I came to love the piece for what it was and quietly, liked having a watch on my wrist that was completely different to most other pieces out there, and not something you’ll see in the wild all that often. You’ll also note I mentioned that the watch I originally wanted to receive for the review was the recently released Diver Black & Green Bronze. Mostly for personal reasons –...

Ulysse Nardin Introduces the Military-Inspired Diver OPS SJX Watches
Ulysse Nardin Introduces May 27, 2024

Ulysse Nardin Introduces the Military-Inspired Diver OPS

Ulysse Nardin just dropped the Diver Net OPS and Diver X Skeleton OPS, a pair of military-inspired sports watches made from sustainable materials. Dressed in olive drab and black, the two watches utilise recycled steel and carbon composites, and even nylon straps made from fishing nets. Though the emphasis on sustainability and styling are clearly modern, the basis of the watches is historical: the design is modelled on the shipborne marine chronometers Ulysse Nardin was once famous for. The Diver X Skeleton OPS with its open dial Initial Thoughts Ulysse Nardin opted for more restrained aesthetics for the new Diver Duo, instead of the brighter colours found on past models. The Diver Net OPS in particular has a low-key, functional look. Notably, the trademark “X” motif on its dial – which you either love or hate – is not particularly obvious. I find the “X” too bold on some other designs, but here it works better with the military-esque look of the dial. However, both the materials and movements found inside the two watches reflect the brand’s focus on advanced, industrial watchmaking. The Diver Net OPS, for example, is an entry-level model but still equipped with an in-house movement with a silicon hairspring and free-sprung balance, along with a diamond-coated escapement. The Diver Net OPS And the use of recycled materials is also interesting. The carbon composite parts of the case are offcuts from the aircraft manufacturing, which according to the brand red...

W Worn & Wound
Worn & Wound
Zodiac Vertex May 26, 2024

A Week in Watches Ep. 81: The Return of the Ming Diver

Happy Memorial Day Weekend! While, yes, there is a genuine day of remembrance on Monday, it’s also the weekend that unofficially marks the beginning of Summer. So, you’re probably enjoying your relaxing Sunday morning and having a cup of coffee. And what goes perfectly with coffee? A Week in Watches, of course! On episode 81, we discuss some rather Summer-y new releases from Zodiac, Vertex, and Ming, as well as the new Toledano and Chan. The latter is more of a somber Winter morning, but we’ll let that slide. If you enjoy this episode, please like and subscribe; we appreciate it! This week’s episode is brought to you by William Wood, who is celebrating the release of their new Dunkirk watch. Continuing William Wood’s inspired homages to fire fighting, the Swiss-made bronze nautical watch is in collaboration with the Massey Shaw. This London fire brigade boat rescued over 600 lives off the beaches of Dunkirk in World War II. Head to WilliamWoodWatches.com to learn more and make a purchase. The post A Week in Watches Ep. 81: The Return of the Ming Diver appeared first on Worn & Wound.

12 Carbon Fiber Watches from Entry-Level to Luxury Teddy Baldassarre
May 23, 2024

12 Carbon Fiber Watches from Entry-Level to Luxury

Since its beginnings, the wristwatch industry has engaged in an ongoing quest for materials that are lightweight yet exceptionally tough - a quest that has led to the mainstreaming of once-experimental materials such as titanium and ceramics. Among the most recent and most high-tech substances adopted for watchmaking are carbon fiber compounds, pioneered by research scientists in the 1950s and ‘60s and first used in the manufacture of automotive and jet engine parts. The first wristwatch with carbon fiber in its case was an IWC Ingenieur in 1980; other watchmakers followed suit in the ensuing decades, some of them even developing new and more resilient substances by combining carbon fibers with other materials. While the watches on this list cover a vast range in terms of pricing, design, and technical complexity, all of them share the core attributes bestowed by carbon fiber and its various derivatives: exceptional lightness, durability, scratch- and corrosion-resistance, and an industrial-chic surface treatment that is sure to spark conversation among fellow watch aficionados. G-Shock Mudmaster GWG2000 Price: $800, Case Size: 61.2mm x 54.4mm, Thickness: 16.1mm, Crystal: Sapphire, Water Resistance: 200 meters, Movement: Casio Tough Solar Casio’s vast and diverse G-Shock collection offers some of its toughest multifunctional watches in the task-specific “Master of G” collection - like the Mudmaster, which as per its somewhat cartoonish name is aimed at wearers ...

[VIDEO] Review: The Grand Seiko Tentagraph SLGC001 Worn & Wound
Grand Seiko Tentagraph SLGC001 Grand Seiko May 22, 2024

[VIDEO] Review: The Grand Seiko Tentagraph SLGC001

Grand Seiko releases a lot of watches. If you’re a cynic, this might be what you’d identify as the brand’s defining characteristic. They’ve developed a reputation for endless variants, swapping dial colors, textures, case shapes, and movements in every conceivable combination. There’s a joke about weather in New England, that if you don’t like it, all you have to do is wait, and you could make a similar one about Grand Seiko: if you’re after a particular dial/color/case combo that doesn’t exist yet, there’s a decent chance it’ll materialize eventually.  But for all the SKUs in the Grand Seiko catalog, and the genuine variety you’ll find there, something was missing: a mechanical chronograph. There’s long been a line of Spring Drive chronographs (and Spring Drive chronographs with a GMT complication) but, kind of surprisingly, there’s never been a purely mechanical chrono under the Grand Seiko banner.  $13700 [VIDEO] Review: The Grand Seiko Tentagraph SLGC001 Case High-intensity titanium Movement 9SC5 Dial Blue Lume Yes, hands and markers Lens Sapphire Strap High-intensity titanium bracelet Water Resistance 10 bar Dimensions 43.2 x 51.5mm Thickness 15.3mm Lug Width 23mm Crown Screw down Warranty Yes Price $13700 That changed a year ago with the launch of the Tentagraph, the centerpiece of Grand Seiko’s Watches & Wonders 2023, and easily their most ambitious release of the year. If you take the Kodo out of the equation, it’s almost certainly t...

Massena LAB Teams Up with Raúl Pagès Once Again for the Limited Edition “Absinthe” Worn & Wound
Patek Philippe watches May 22, 2024

Massena LAB Teams Up with Raúl Pagès Once Again for the Limited Edition “Absinthe”

Massena LAB has announced a new collaboration with independent watchmaker Raúl Pagès inspired by one of the most important Patek Philippe watches of the last century. The Absinthe, which serves as the direct follow-up to the pair’s massively successful 2022 release, the Magraph, brings together a proprietary hand-wound movement, a strikingly green dial (reminiscent of the infamous spirit for which the watch is named), and all the vintage charm we have come to expect from Massena LAB in one surprisingly affordable (and highly limited) package. William Massena is one of those rare figures in the watch industry who everyone seems to know. He’s an outsized presence who seemingly manages to be everywhere at once and have a hand in every facet of the watch industry. Over the last few years though, his name has come to be associated primarily with Massena LAB, where he consistently produces some of the most talked about limited editions and collaborations on the market. This latest release follows closely on the heels of a watch introduced last month. That watch - a collaboration between Massena LAB, Pagès, and Phillips Auction House in association with Bass & Russo - debuted the M690 movement used in the Absinthe and drew inspiration in its layout from the iconic (and record-setting) 1952 Patek Philippe ref. 2458 produced for J.B. Champion, Jr.  That watch was one of only two Patek wrist watches to have been fitted with an Observatory-grade movement, and its unique d...

Hands-On With The Gerald Charles Masterlink Blue - A Luxurious Integrated-Bracelet Sports Watch Fratello
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak “Jumbo,” which May 22, 2024

Hands-On With The Gerald Charles Masterlink Blue - A Luxurious Integrated-Bracelet Sports Watch

Is the hype for luxury sports watches with integrated bracelets over? If you look at a benchmark in this market segment, the steel Audemars Piguet Royal Oak “Jumbo,” which sold for four times retail at the height of the wave, is now going for “just” twice the price on the secondary market. So, yes, the […] Visit Hands-On With The Gerald Charles Masterlink Blue - A Luxurious Integrated-Bracelet Sports Watch to read the full article.

Introducing – The Staggering Beauty of the Bulgari Aeterna High-Jewellery Watch Collection 2024 Monochrome
Bulgari Aeterna High-Jewellery Watch Collection May 22, 2024

Introducing – The Staggering Beauty of the Bulgari Aeterna High-Jewellery Watch Collection 2024

Bulgari celebrates Rome, la città eterna, with a spellbinding collection of high jewellery watches congregated in the 2024 “Aeterna” collection. This year also marks Bulgari’s grand 140th anniversary. To celebrate, creative director Fabrizio Buonamassa brings out the big guns with some of the most extraordinary timepieces dripping with the brand’s signature coloured gemstones and his […]

Introducing: The Chronoswiss ReSec Manufacture Series Fratello
Chronoswiss May 21, 2024

Introducing: The Chronoswiss ReSec Manufacture Series

Just two months ago, Chronoswiss announced a new, modern design direction at Watches and Wonders 2024. Don’t worry, hallmark characteristics such as reeded bezels and onion crowns still exist. However, the watches look more contemporary. Today’s three new ReSec Manufacture models continue the theme and bring bold dials for good measure. In late March, Chronoswiss […] Visit Introducing: The Chronoswiss ReSec Manufacture Series to read the full article.

Jaeger-LeCoultre Finally Adds their Geographic Complication to the Polaris Collection Worn & Wound
Jaeger-LeCoultre Finally Adds their Geographic May 21, 2024

Jaeger-LeCoultre Finally Adds their Geographic Complication to the Polaris Collection

There are few brands that the watch community collectively holds in higher esteem than Jaeger-LeCoultre. Think about the truly historic names in watchmaking and you’ll find vocal groups of detractors for just about every single one. But JLC is different, and always seems to be above the fray. The “watchmaker’s watchmaker” stuff is a clever bit of marketing, but it’s actually true, and keeps the brand both insulated from the watch world’s hot-take culture protected by legitimate ties to some of the most important watches ever made. But if there’s one thing, one very small thing that enthusiasts and collectors can poke at with Jaeger-LeCoultre, it’s their recent fumbling in the area of sports oriented watches.  Now, you might be saying to yourself that JLC just isn’t a “sports watch” brand, and that refined dress watches and expert technical watchmaking is their brand and butter. Of course that’s true, but JLC has made great sports watches in the past with innovative cases and movements by their own design made to be robust enough for nearly any activity. It’s a genre they’ve played in for decades. The Reverso, of course, now thought of as a dress piece, was originally conceived for polo players. If you do a Chrono24 search for Memovox references from the 1970s you’ll find no shortage of oversized, funky, cases. And of course we can’t forget the last great sports watch line Jaeger-LeCoultre had, the impressively overbuilt Master Compressor co...

Longines Conquest 38 Review Teddy Baldassarre
Longines May 21, 2024

Longines Conquest 38 Review

Last year, Longines relaunched the Conquest, a mainstay of its collection since the mid-1950s, in a new execution heavily influenced by its earliest vintage forebears and staking out a dressier territory than its sporty dive-watch sibling, the Hydroconquest. Longines set out to expand the new Conquest’s appeal this year with a new series of models in unisex 38mm cases. Read on for a hands-on review of the new Conquest 38 with an effervescent champagne dial. Longines, founded in 1832 in the Jura valley of Switzerland, where it remains headquartered today, can claim a variety of milestones in its long history, including one that is largely overlooked. In the 1950s, Longines became one of the first watchmakers to introduce product “families,” today a staple of the watch industry; the first was the Conquest collection, whose name was registered on April 3, 1954 with the Swiss Registry of Intellectual Property and which launched that same year. Like just about any timepiece well past the half-century mark on the market, the Conquest has evolved substantially over the decades since. The first Conquest (Heritage re-edition pictured above) was a model of midcentury masculine simplicity, and one of the first wristwatches notable for its high levels of waterproofness and magnetic resistance. Its steel case measured a modest (but at the time standard) 35.2mm and fastened via wide, chamfered lugs to a leather strap. Its champagne-colored dial had arrowhead-style notched indexes ...

Kollokium Returns with their First Official Release Worn & Wound
Louis Erard May 20, 2024

Kollokium Returns with their First Official Release

Back in December, we told you about one of the most curious projects to come across our desks in a long time. A new watch from a new brand, Kollokium, began making the rounds on social media and the watch-internet in the days and weeks following Dubai Watch Week. Everything about it seemed almost intentionally mysterious and vague, and their marketing materials, if you could even call them that, pointed to the watch’s so limited it’s impossible to buy friends and family run, and didn’t even guarantee a second installment. Obviously, this worked hugely in Kollokium’s favor, and watch enthusiasts with adventurous taste have been anxiously anticipating a follow up. Now it’s here, the aptly titled Variant “B”.  A brief refresher on Kollokium for those who need it: it’s the brainchild of Manuel Emch, Barth Nussbaumer, and Amr Sindi, three watch industry veterans who each come from a different side of the larger watch world. Emch will be familiar to many as the CEO of Louis Erard, and has guided that brand to new heights in the last several years with a string of popular limited editions and smart collaborations. Nussbaumer might be less well known by name, but is someone you’ve almost certainly encountered through his watch designs – he’s worked for many brands over the years, including TAG Heuer, Hautlence, Peterman Bedat, Jaquet Droz, and many others. And Sindi is better known by his Instagram alias @thehorophile, one of our favorite spots to look at gr...

Vertex Commemorates D-Day with the M36 Worn & Wound
Casio n May 20, 2024

Vertex Commemorates D-Day with the M36

This coming June 6 marks the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Vertex, the UK based watch brand headed by Don Cochrane, supplied 1,776 watches to British forces on D-Day, and to commemorate the occasion the brand has released a new reference. The M36 feels very much like a watch that Vertex could have produced at any time, but it makes particular sense in the context of the D-Day anniversary. It’s impossible to look at a watch in this style (and these proportions) from a brand with the history of Vertex and not think about the past.  The M36 was conceived as a watch that would borrow significantly from vintage military issued timepieces. To a certain extent, all Vertex watches do this. It’s in the brand’s DNA and is inescapable in the watches they make. But the M36 goes a few steps further. The case, for one, is a compact 36mm in size, which is true to the vintage watches that Vertex would have supplied, and makes the new watch a solid option for virtually anyone today. The sapphire crystal is box shaped as opposed to domed, which gives it an additional layer of vintage charm, and the straightforward dial layout with large Arabic numerals and a railroad minutes track are right in line with WWII era watches.  The watch runs on a workhorse automatic Sellita caliber and is equipped with an anti-magnetic Nivarox hairspring. The crown screws down, and provides 100 meters of water resistance. There’s also plenty of molded X1 Super-LumiNova on the dial, which if it glows anyth...

A Tudor Black Bay 58 for Inter Milan SJX Watches
Tudor Black Bay 58 May 20, 2024

A Tudor Black Bay 58 for Inter Milan

To celebrate Inter Milan’s recent triumph in the Serie A – a 20th title for the Italian football club – Tudor has created the Black Bay 58 “Inter”. This limited edition Black Bay 58 (BB58) features a gradient blue dial with the club’s emblem above the six o’clock marker, flanked by two gold stars – one for each of the football club’s 10 league titles. First presented to the club’s players, the watch will be also available to the public as a limited edition of 1,908 pieces, available only at Tudor boutiques and retailers in Italy.  Initial thoughts Football aside, the BB58 “Inter” is a good looking watch. The blue ombré dial is striking and different from the usual Tudor aesthetic, and it compliments the vintage-inspired aesthetic well. At the same time, the Inter Milan logo and twin stars are also fairly discreet, while serving as visual balance for the Tudor logo above. The rest of the watch is identical to the standard model, which means a compact, easily wearable case, high-spec in-house movement. Pricing is also comparable to the regular production model, which makes it a great value proposition. The BB58 “Inter” presented to French footballer Marcus Thuram. Image – Inter Milan I Nerazzurri Already associated with the America’s Cup, Formula 1, and pro cycling, Tudor is now furthering its involvement with football. Already the official timekeeper for American soccer club Inter Miami C.F., Tudor is now partnered with one of the most famo...

Editorial: Geneva Auctions Spring 2024 Part II SJX Watches
Patek Philippe Grande Sonnerie ref 6301A May 17, 2024

Editorial: Geneva Auctions Spring 2024 Part II

The spring auction season in Geneva started dramatically enough with a cyberattack at Christie’s that took down its website and app. Only Watch went ahead as scheduled, however, and raised over CHF28.3 million, with most of that coming from the Patek Philippe Grande Sonnerie ref. 6301A that sold for CHF15.7 million. What transpired at Only Watch also played out in the subsequent auctions over the weekend. The live sales at the four auction houses, Antiquorum, Christie’s, Phillips, and Sotheby’s, sold almost CHF85 million of watches, including fees (excluding Only Watch). This compared to over well CHF110 million for Geneva’s fall season last year. Although the sale season six months ago was buoyed by an extra live auction at Christie’s (that was subject of much chatter), the diminished total for this season reflects the state of the market. The waning sentiment was palpable in all the salerooms. That said, the auctions did throw up a handful of grand surprises, including CHF3.13 million for the Patek Philippe ref. 605 HU world time pocket watch with cloisonné enamel dial at Antiquorum, and CHF1.16 million for the Rexhep Rexhepi Chronomètre Contemporain I at Phillips. Christie’s sold the most expensive wristwatch this season with CHF2.47 million for a Patek Philippe ref. 1518 “pink on pink” (above), though Antiquorum claimed the title for most valuable timepiece with its ref. 605 HU pocket watch. Image – Christie’s The good and great indies One of the ...

REVIEW: Hands On With The Studio Underd0g Mint Ch0c Chip WatchAdvice
Christopher Ward Baltic Formex May 17, 2024

REVIEW: Hands On With The Studio Underd0g Mint Ch0c Chip

In the early 2020s, everything was shut down, and the watch industry was beginning to stagnate. However, one man decided to make the most of it and designed a watch – inadvertently helping facilitate the ‘Rise of the Microbrand.’ But do we believe the hype? Let’s find out! What We Like: A non-serious yet refined design Remarkable build quality for the price point Comfortable and well-made strap with plenty of adjustment What We Don’t: Insufficient lume Crown and pushers are extremely fiddly to use Low power reserve Overall Rating: 8.5/10 Value for Money: 9/10 Wearability: 8/10 Design: 10/10 Build Quality: 7/10 The 2020s post-pandemic watch industry has been coined by some to be the ‘Rise of the Microbrand.’ for those unfamiliar with the term, a microbrand is a watch brand, usually independently owned and run by a small team – Essentially a small business or a start-up, in normal terms. What the ‘Rise of the Microbrand’ indicates is the massive resurgence of interest in said start-ups, which in turn has been a contributing factor to saving modern horology as we know it. That might sound like hyperbole to you, but I don’t say it lightly – Microbrands like Christopher Ward, Baltic, Formex and Farer have grown to the point where they now challenge household names. Every day, promising young microbrands such as HZ Watches also come out of the woodwork, transforming the industry in small but significant ways. We even got the chance to look at a HZ wat...

HYT Reinvents Itself with the T1 Collection Worn & Wound
HYT May 16, 2024

HYT Reinvents Itself with the T1 Collection

It’s hard to relaunch a brand. We’ve seen it over and over in the watch industry: brands, in an attempt to reinvigorate themselves, gain more traction in the market, and adapt to changing times, will sometimes make a decision to completely rethink their philosophy, aesthetic, and core models. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, and there are varying levels of intensity in how fully relaunched a brand will actually go. Sometimes the shift is drastic, with new logos, new ideas, new price points, and completely new watches. And sometimes it’s more subtle, representing a small but noticeable and important tweak that fundamentally changes something about the presentation. HYT, a high end Swiss brand that has been through its fair share of tumult recently, debuted a new collection recently that we got a chance to look at during Watches & Wonders week, and it struck me as one of the smartest recalibrations we’ve seen from a brand in a long time.  If you know HYT at all, you know them for their unique time telling system that involves moving liquid around the dial through a pair of bellows that expand and contract throughout the day. There is quite literally nothing else like it on the market, and the watches have always had a half futuristic, half steam-punk vibe to them. There is real horological ingenuity at the heart of HYT, but the watches, in the past, have often been dominated by literally showing you the mechanism in a way that was, to put it bluntly, a bi...