852 articles · 5 videos found · page 19 of 29
Fratello
When two of the most likable people in the watch industry collaborate on a watch, only good things can happen, right? With collaborations, success is never a guarantee, but the new Oak & Oscar Atwood Wind Vintage Edition is an absolute winner. The only complaint is that so few will be made. Here at Fratello, […] Visit Introducing: The Oak & Oscar Atwood Wind Vintage Edition to read the full article.
Fratello
Do you like themed parties? I’m not a huge fan but, as they say, different strokes for different folks. Audemars Piguet celebrates its 150th anniversary this year, and although such a monumental moment in the brand’s history could well do without a theme, there is one. The theme “AP” picked and explored is ergonomics. It […] Visit Introducing All Of Audemars Piguet’s First-Semester Novelties For 2025: New Perpetual Calendars, Ceramic Offshore Variants, And Three Code 11.59 Models to read the full article.
Fratello
Seven months have passed since Oak & Oscar released its Atwood hand-wound chronograph. However, it seems that founder Chase Fancher and the team were already plotting the next model, the Humboldt GMT SAR Edition. To be fair, this is a limited offering designed with a search and rescue team in mind. However, it deserves attention […] Visit The New Oak & Oscar Humboldt GMT SAR Edition to read the full article.
Worn & Wound
On a new release calendar that’s full of limited edition collaborations that don’t always make a ton of logical sense, it’s refreshing to see one come across our desks that feels like a genuine meeting of the minds. Oak & Oscar is a longtime fixture in the micro/independent brand space, and at this point it’s fair to say that they’ve carved out a pretty recognizable niche for themselves. When you think of Oak & Oscar, you probably immediately think of the brand’s midwest roots, a love of the outdoors, and, of course, bourbon. Their latest release, a 50 piece limited collaboration with the St. Louis County Rescue Squad, combines at least two of these ideas, and the result is a handsome, sporty GMT that first right in Oak & Oscar’s wheelhouse. For context, the St. Louis County Rescue Squad is made up of volunteers who provide lifesaving services to outdoor enthusiasts visiting northern Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA). As Oak & Oscar explains, the BWCA is an “outdoor-lover’s dream,” featuring hiking trails, camping, canoeing, and more. Oak & Oscar became a member of the Boundary Waters Business Coalition in 2021, a sign of their commitment to the preservation of the BWCA. To that end, the new Humboldt GMT SAR Edition serves as a reminder of that commitment, as well as a means to help fund the efforts of the St. Louis County Rescue Squad (a portion of the proceeds from the sale of these watches will be donated to the Squad). This new lim...
SJX Watches
An academic, horologist, and innovator, Urban Jürgensen is today best known for giving his name for the watch brand that’s now run by independent watchmaker Kari Voutilainen and his daughter, Venla. But Jürgensen was the most important watchmaker in Denmark in the early 19th century. He also developed a longstanding relationship with the most important Danish scientific society of the last three centuries, the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters (RDASL). This article explores the relationship that shaped his work on clocks and watches. A need for precision Being a horologist in Denmark at the turn of the 19th century was not necessarily a very noble job. A handful were highly regarded workmen, but none were on par with scientists on the social ladder. Astronomers were buying English precision clocks for observatories and sailors still navigated by the movement of celestial bodies[1]. But times were changing, chronometers were already known to the king and government of Denmark, and the benefit of precision timekeepers for various types of expeditions was already becoming known around Europe. Mudge & Dutton astronomical regulator clock. Previously in the Observatory of Copenhagen, now located in the offices of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters. Image – The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters/A.B.L. As international conflicts were at the time were a limiting factor in importing chronometers from foreign countries, attempts were made...
Fratello
Another Friday, another Top 5! This week, we look at some of the best Audemars Piguet releases of 2024. With a new CEO Ilaria Resta now leading the brand, it will be interesting to see what the future has in store. In her first six months on the job, we have seen quite a few […] Visit Fratello’s Top 5 Recently Released Audemars Piguet Watches - More Than Just Royal Oaks to read the full article.
Fratello
It’s time to chime in on the best watches under €2,500. It’s a tough subject for a couple of reasons. First, many of my colleagues have already opined and used up some great picks. Second, this price level now feels like a no man’s land because most brands prefer to play above or below it. […] Visit Fratello Favorites: The Best Watches Under €2,500 - Mike’s Picks From Seiko, Ming, Oak & Oscar, And Longines to read the full article.
Worn & Wound
For nearly a decade, Chase Fancher and his team at Oak & Oscar, along with their partners, have not only been creating great and sporty timepieces, but they have also been creating a community. To them, the people that purchase their watches are not customers, they are owners. As such, the community has been asking for a new Oak & Oscar chronograph for quite some time. Especially since their Jackson Big-Eye was discontinued. The Jackson, you’ll recall, was a 40mm x 14mm 30-minute chronograph, with flyback function, and it housed a manual wind Eterna Caliber 39 movement. The community’s prayers have now been answered with the new Oak & Oscar Atwood. Just like its predecessor, it is also a proper Flyback chronograph, but this one can time intervals up to 12-hours. Instead of the Eterna caliber 39, it houses an AMT5100M caliber, which is a product of Sellita’s high-end skunkworks AMT division. It is a 23 jeweled, manually wound chronograph with a 58-hour power-reserve, and with the crisp, tactile satisfaction of its blued column wheel you’ll find excuses to time anything. You will also find all the usual Oak & Oscar refinements, including a sandwich dial, a signature high-contrast extra-long chrono seconds hand, and each subdial features subtle yet bright hints of orange that increase the legibility of the timing function. There is also a subtle nod to their first chronograph, which includes a wrapped tachymeter scale along the rehaut that goes to 54 units. As they li...
SJX Watches
Oak & Oscar has just launched its second chronograph, the Atwood, a modern take on vintage racing chronographs that’s powered by a manually wound Sellita AMT5100M. The movement is a derivative of the Valjoux 7750 that has a few tricks up its sleeve, namely a column wheel and flyback functionality. Chicago-based Oak & Oscar was founded in 2015, making it part of the early wave of ‘micro brands.’ Over the past nine years, the brand has managed to develop its own recognisable minimalist aesthetic across a range of versatile go-anywhere, do-anything sports watches. Initial Thoughts I tend to be fond of Oak & Oscar’s designs, and a lot of that has to do with the expert use of colour. The Atwood is offered in three colourways that are each appealing in their own right, and will feel familiar to fans of the brand. The brand’s signature orange seconds hand is complemented by matching accents on the sub-dials, a stylistic choice that evokes sporty ’70s chronographs like the Tudor Monte Carlo. But the design still manages to feel fresh, thanks in part to the brand’s own strikingly modern typeface. The Atwood is the brand’s second chronograph, after the Jackson which debuted in 2017. The Atwood addresses one of the few shortcomings of the Jackson, which is the latter’s 14.5 mm case thickness. The 39 mm Atwood is comparatively slim at just 12.9 mm, a figure that includes the domed sapphire crystal, meaning that visually it will appear even thinner. While the dimensio...
Fratello
Chicago-based Oak & Oscar has been in business since 2015. Over the last nine years, the brand has assembled a back catalog of attractive, ruggedly built watches that pay tribute to the Windy City. Furthermore, the timepieces display a design consistency normally reserved for larger, historic brands. Today’s Oak & Oscar Atwood chronograph continues this […] Visit Introducing: The Oak & Oscar Atwood Hand-Wound Chronograph to read the full article.
Worn & Wound
This month I had the pleasure of speaking with Nathan Bobinchak, Head of Watchmaking for the independent brand Oak & Oscar. Nathan is a former journalist and TV news writer turned watchmaker, with an obsession for finding the best way to experience sound through home audio setups. Watches “I had my midlife crisis at 26.” Nathan delivers a dry joke as he recounts his career shift from local TV news, to his decision to go to watchmaking school. Specifically, Nathan attended The Litiz Watch Technicum, a watchmaking school outside Lancaster, PA that was founded in 2001 by Rolex. After graduating from Litiz, Nathan worked for a shop in Connecticut, eventually moving to Chicago at the beginning of 2020 and landing the job at Oak & Oscar. “I first got into Oak & Oscar with the Jackson. The Jackson is a very cool chronograph with the Eterna 3916 movement in it. It’s a very neat, super complicated, pretty movement. It has a column wheel and flyback chrono…just very cool.” Nathan explained to me that in modern watchmaking you do a lot of the same things, but said he was fortunately certified to work on watches like the Rolex Daytona, as he has a lot of fun servicing chronographs. “I can go on all day about the art of lubricating a chronograph. That is some nerdy stuff. It’s like paint drying.” I was interested, so I asked him to expound. “The only thing that makes watches hard to work on is the user. We knock them, move them around, a movement will run grea...
Fratello
This is the story of how a group of mates in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) banded together to turn their horological dream - an homage to an original RAAF watch - into a reality. If you have an interest in special military timepieces, this one is for you. It should come as no […] Visit The Story Behind A Special Royal Australian Air Force IWC Timepiece to read the full article.
Fratello
Recently, Certina provided me the opportunity to get my hands on a revived classic, the DS Super PH1000M. I love Certina, and I believe it’s a brand that does not get the kudos it deserves. This article is about the watch from which this new release took its design cues, and it has an incredible […] Visit The Certina Watch Issued To The Elite Royal Australian Navy Clearance Divers to read the full article.
Two Broke Watch Snobs
Get a detailed look at the CWC 1980 Royal Navy Diver re-issue. Read more for specs and a full review with original photos.
Worn & Wound
If you’ve met Chase Fancher, founder of Oak & Oscar, you probably know that he’s something of a bourbon enthusiast. I’m not saying you’ll be plied with the stuff if you come hang out at his booth at a Windup, but I’m not saying that’s definitively off the table, either. So it wasn’t a huge surprise when news came across the transom that Oak & Oscar’s latest limited edition is a thoughtful collaboration with FEW Spirits, whose founder and master distiller Paul Hletko is a personal friend of Chase’s. The new watch, a variation on Oak & Oscar’s popular Olmsted, the brand’s 38mm field watch, has plenty of little Easter eggs for bourbon lovers, but is also just a great looking execution of what has become a signature referenced. Those Easter eggs are threefold. First, the dial the color of the Olmsted FEW is a dark salmon tone lifted directly from FEW’s own color palette. It should be immediately recognizable to fans of the FEW spirits, but is also an altogether appealing shade in its own right, and represents Oak & Oscar’s first attempt at a salmon dial, a color that has taken off in popularity (and proven to be highly versatile in a huge variety of watches) over the last few years. Second, and this is somewhat standard on these types of collaborations, the FEW logo is displayed near the 6:00 position. Besides the FEW and Oak & Oscar branding, the dial is quite clean, without any excess text, and lets the color shine (but, not literally, because it...
Worn & Wound
Windup NYC is a wrap, and the festivities saw the debut of many new watches from a huge variety of brands. Oak & Oscar is a Windup mainstay and a core part of the microbrand space (a term which admittedly seems less and less adequate as the years go by and these shows get bigger and bigger, but that’s a topic for another day), and they took the opportunity to debut a new flavor of an old favorite over the weekend, the Humboldt GMT in titanium. It’s immediately recognizable as an Oak & Oscar and will slot nicely into their existing catalog, but offers a handful of new details and innovations that show the Chicago based brand is still interested in moving forward and expanding the idea of what an Oak & Oscar watch should be. The big news here is the titanium case. The Humboldt GMT in titanium is made from the grade 5 variety, and comes in at a weight of just 74 grams when mounted on a leather strap. It comes in at 39.5mm (with a bezel overhang of 0.5mm) and is 46.8mm from lug to lug. According to the brand, it’s 20% lighter than the original Humboldt GMT in stainless steel, which equates to a difference you’ll really notice on the wrist. It immediately makes the watch sportier based on ease of wear alone. For the dial, we get a dark green shade, which is the same tone used on the green Olmsted. Like many other Oak & Oscar watches, this one has a sandwich dial construction, which allows for tons of contrast via lume that is present under the main dial layer. There...
Quill & Pad
The first Black Tot Day was in 1970, the last day on which sailors in the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy were issued their daily rum rations (“tots”). Pusser's has taken the exact recipe used by the Royal Navy when it discontinued the daily ration on July 31, 1970 and used it to make its rums, the only producer in the world to do so. Here, Ken Gargett fills us in on everything tot - he luckily doesn't go "sipping the admiral," though.
Hodinkee
While the Concept's movement may be the biggest achievement, the newest flying tourbillon chronograph might be the moment the Offshore comes into its own in a new, big way.
Hodinkee
For the first time, the Offshore is fully back in black (ceramic, that is).
SJX Watches
Founded by a duo who trained as jewellers, Molnar Fabry specialises in transforming old pocket watch movements and installing them in custom-made wristwatches. Based in Slovakia, Molnar Fabry recently completed its third minute-repeating wristwatch, the Royal Symphony Minute Repeater. The Royal Symphony is powered by a movement from a 1910 pocket watch made by Haas Neveux & Cie., a Geneva-based watch brand known for its high-quality movements that active from the mid-19th century to the 1920s. In typical Molnar Fabry style, the movement was entirely reworked, not only to restore its mechanical function, but also entirely decorated to a high level that includes engraving on the bridges. Initial thoughts Each watch made by Molnar Fabry is unique and mostly made according to the client’s specifications since most are made to order. As a result, the brand’s house style covers a diverse aesthetic – it is certainly not for everyone – but the quality of work is always impressive. Being jewellers, the brand’s founders apply the same artisanal, manual techniques used in producing jewellery to their watches. Even in photos the artisanal nature of the work is apparent, ranging from the movement decoration to the hand engraving on the case back. However, Molnar Fabry’s work on the movement is primarily decorative rather than mechanical. As a result, the Haas Neveux calibre still has a balance staff without shock protection. That’s like a non-issue in a watch like the Roy...
Hodinkee
Seven years after Chase Fancher started the brand, Oak & Oscar is just hitting its stride.
Time+Tide
So Queen Elizabeth II is dead. And whether you’re a republican or a royalist, it’s hard to remain totally unaffected by the sudden departure of arguably the most famous person on the planet. In England, the Queen was a benign fixture, a symbol of reassuring constancy in a world of change. What she embodied was … ContinuedThe post Royal standard: The Queen’s life in watches appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Quill & Pad
The OAK Collection is filled with extraordinary, museum-quality, one-of-a-kind timepieces, many of which are either historically important, unrepeatable special orders, or rare limited editions. These include (but are not limited to) five Patek Philippe watches once owned by Henry Graves, 16 Nautiluses, seven Voutilainens, and a plethora of rare Rolex and Patek Philippe models!
Quill & Pad
Chimay is a Belgian Trappist beer fermented in oak barrels. Whether you drink it soon after purchase or cellar it for extra richness and complexity, this is a cracking beer and definitely one that should be on your radar. And it is a brilliant match if you want a full-flavored cigar, says Ken Gargett.
Time+Tide
Ineichen Auctioneers are known for their thematic auctions, whether it’s focusing on blue dials for “Precious Blues” or the rose-gold themed “La Vie en Rose” auction earlier this year. They also have a pioneering spirit – their most recent Joker XXX auction consisted of a three-piece set including a piece unique watch, Porsche 911, and … ContinuedThe post My 5 favourite lots from the Ineichen Royal 50 auction on May 28 – with no buyer’s premium! appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Time+Tide
If you have been tuned into the watch world of late, the name Patrick Getreide must ring a bell. His unveiling of the OAK Collection, and its subsequent exhibition, has caught the eyes of enthusiasts and collectors around the world – most of whom have been itching to get a closer look at his pieces. … ContinuedThe post Ten things I learned from super-collector Patrick Getreide – the man behind the OAK Collection appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Deployant
The OAK Collection exhibition - 'One of A Kind' - 168 'best of the best' vintage and contemporary watches. A must visit for all watch enthusiasts.
Quill & Pad
A very special new exhibition opens this week at London’s Design Museum: the OAK Collection (“OAK” stands for “one of a kind”). This exhibition comprises unique and ultra-rare museum-quality timepieces that have been amassed by a single collector over the last 40 years, including the largest number of Patek Philippe timepieces once owned by Henry Graves, Jr. But that is not all.
Time+Tide
Let me just say from the outset that if you are in London, or any of the locations this exhibition will eventually travel to, this is an absolute must-visit. One benefit of joining the industry for me has been ticking off bucket-list items such as visiting watch manufactures and museums in Switzerland. To see large … ContinuedThe post The OAK Collection travelling exhibition reveals one of the wildest private hauls on the planet appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Quill & Pad
The first Black Tot Day was in 1970, the last day on which sailors in the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy were issued their daily rum rations (“tots”). Pusser's has taken the exact recipe used by the Royal Navy when it discontinued the daily ration on July 31, 1970 and used it to make its rums, the only producer in the world to do so. Here, Ken Gargett fills us in on everything tot - he luckily doesn't go "sipping the admiral," though.
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