Two Broke Watch Snobs
The Best Watches Under $1000 That We’ve Ever Reviewed
After years of reviewing watches, these are the best ones we recommend under $1000 that perfectly balance design, comfort, and reliability.
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Two Broke Watch Snobs
Time+Tide
INTRODUCING: MB&F; LM2 Palladium celebrates its 10-year anniversary
A decade after its first release, the MB&F; LM2 is back in a special palladium case Symmetrically opposed balance wheels connected by a planetary differential Movement developed by Jean-François Mojon of Chronode and finished by Kari Voutilainen By this point, it should be no surprise that whatever comes out of the fun factory in the … ContinuedThe post INTRODUCING: MB&F; LM2 Palladium celebrates its 10-year anniversary appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Time+Tide
HANDS-ON: The Depancel Serie-R Cruiser draws high-octane inspiration from the world of motorcycling
Motosports get a lot of love from the world of watches, from the smallest microbrand homage to Rolex sponsoring almost all of the Formula 1 Grands Prix. Sadly, one side of automotive expression that doesn’t get anywhere nearly as much recognition is motorcycling. Doing their bit to redress the balance, the Depancel Serie-R Cruiser taps … ContinuedThe post HANDS-ON: The Depancel Serie-R Cruiser draws high-octane inspiration from the world of motorcycling appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Deployant
New Release: Polo Ralph Lauren Polo Vintage 67
The petite seconde configuration and flat case with stepped bezel is a stylistic homage to vintage timepieces. It echoes the era of fixed lugs monobloc cases that were once made from nickel plated brass. The spade hands and arabic numerals are flanked by a railroad minutes track which matches the classic look. While this may have to do with branding, a simpler logo without the large POLO font could have added more balance to the dial which favors the more subdued look. Otherwise, we welcome Polo Ralph Lauren's new Vintage 67 which acts as an avenue to initiate fashion lovers to the world of watchmaking, starting with the fine handwinding La Joux Perret movement. The watch is priced at US$2,700.
SJX Watches
Exhibition: Vacheron Constantin ‘The Anatomy of Beauty’ in Singapore
To mark the reopening of its boutique within the same complex, Vacheron Constantin (VC) has just inaugurated The Anatomy of Beauty, an exhibition taking place in the ArtScience Museum of Marina Bay Sands from now to November 2, 2022. Open to the public with free admission, the exhibition is an all-encompassing showcase of the brand’s watchmaking split into three sections, starting with its historical timepieces and culminating in its modern-day grand complications like the Tour de l’lle. The first section, Our Heritage: A Legacy as Precious as Time, presents a selection of the brand’s notable timepieces from its earliest years – the oldest watch on show is exactly 200 years old – continuing into the present day with the landmark Tour de l’lle launched in 2005 to mark the brand’s 250th anniversary, an impressive double-faced watch with 16 complications. A pocket watch dating from 1822 with an engraved case set with amethysts The Tour de l’lle Following that comes The Anatomy of Beauty dedicated to the brand’s traditional and artisanal decorative techniques. Amongst the highlights is the Métiers d’Art “Great Civilisations”, a quartet of watches unveiled just earlier this year at the Louvre. Métiers d’Art “Great Civilisations” Finally Science and Complications explores the five most important complications for VC, namely the tourbillon, split-seconds chronograph, retrograde display, perpetual calendar, and minute repeater. The key exh...
Video
Watch Collectors Getting Into Vintage Rifles!
Vintage Rolex, vintage jacket, and now... a vintage rifle! Today is "new gun day" and I just picked up my very first rifle: a rare 1963 Winchester Model 70 chambered in .300 Win Mag. This American icon is coming with...
Hodinkee
Dispatch: We Spent A Night At The Audemars Piguet Hotel (Which Is Not Really Called That)
Technically, people, it's called the Hôtel de Horlogers. Either way, feel free to scatter my ashes here when I am gone.
Time+Tide
Every Watch Tells A Story: “As soon as I saw it I thought, ‘Wow! I have to have that watch one day.’”
Tommy is a Time+Tide Club member who works in cricket and, as a result, travels a lot and spends an inordinate amount of time in airports. That means he also gets a lot of exposure to new watches in the duty-free section, which is how he first spotted the Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Geographic. “As soon as … ContinuedThe post Every Watch Tells A Story: “As soon as I saw it I thought, ‘Wow! I have to have that watch one day.’” appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Quill & Pad
Foradori: Exciting Local Grape Varieties From Trentino, Italy
The Foradori family believes that It is its duty and privilege to wake up every morning and to be free to work according to the message that the earth conveys in that moment. And according to Ken Gargett, this approach tastes divine!
Hodinkee
Business News: The Nicolas G.Hayek Watchmaking School Is Making Watchmaking Education More Accessible Than Ever
The school is going above and beyond free tuition.
Hodinkee
Orient Star Diver 1964 2nd Edition
Striking the perfect balance between refined elegance and real-world toughness
Video
The Truth About Grail Watches
Ask any seasoned collector what his or her grail watch was upon first entering the hobby, and chances are the answer will be very different from what it is today. As our knowledge grows and our tastes mature, so too d...
Revolution
Roger Dubuis Refreshes Its Knights of the Round Table and Excalibur collections
Roger Dubuis debuts a Knights of the Round Table watch with tourbillon and a new Excalibur with a massive balance wheel
Time+Tide
Why I bought a vintage Seiko pocket watch
This 1974 Seiko pocket watch ref 6602-9010, stands apart from all my other timepieces. Today the convenience of a hands-free wristwatch has seen pocket watches mostly relegated to collectors, Victorian enthusiasts, Steampunk fans or people who want engraved presentation items. Pocket watches are still available new today, from low-end pieces to mid-range Seiko (eg SWPQ002 and … ContinuedThe post Why I bought a vintage Seiko pocket watch appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
SJX Watches
Hublot Unveils the Big Bang Integral Time Only
While a pioneer in luxury-sports watches with its gold-meets-rubber models of the 1980s, Hublot is a relatively new arrival to the world of luxury-sports watches with an integrated bracelet – with its opening act being the flyback chronograph of 2020. Now a simple, fuss-free version joins the line up. At LVMH Watch Week 2022 the brand has taken the covers off the Big Bang Integral Time Only, which has an integrated bracelet naturally, but also is the most compact men’s Big Bang to date at 40 mm wide. And in typical Hublot style, the new Time Only is available in a trio of materials, none of which is steel but instead titanium, ceramic, or yellow gold. Initial thoughts It’s great to see Hublot adapt its products to accommodate demand for small(er) watches, especially since the Big Bang has always been, well, big. The trimmer size of the Time Only brings it closer to the dimensions of the traditional luxury-sports watches, which are essentially elaborate bracelets that tell time. Despite its uncharacteristically smaller proportions, the new Time Only is still very much a Hublot. It manages to capture the Hublot style in both design and materials, while avoiding some of the cliches of the integrated-sports watch category, namely a patterned dial or a case and bracelet in steel. The most obvious difference between the Time Only and the typical integrated-bracelet sport watch is the dial. Doing away with the dial altogether and exposing the movement underneath leaves it ...
Hodinkee
Recommended Reading: A Day In The Life Of Cartier North America President Mercedes Abramo, Via 'The Cut'
Cartier's top executive in North America on work-life balance, confidence and humility, and making sure things don't get lost in the shuffle.
Hodinkee
Magazine Feature: The NBA Shot Clock Has Been Wrong From The Jump
Bad math led us to 24 seconds, an interval that compromises free-flowing play and makes a mockery of horology. Here’s what it should be instead.
Video
Top 6 NEW Watch Releases That Dropped This Week - July 2026
Welcome to the watch releases update for the third week of July 2026. We have new models from Doxa, Panerai, Orient and more. Enjoy the video:)
Quill & Pad
Our Predictions In The Mechanical Exception Category Of The 2021 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG): Clocks Rock! But Should They Even Be In This Category?
So what do we have here? A watch with an innovative escapement style, two minute repeaters, an ultra-thin timepiece, and two clocks: the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève has never seen such a wildly different bunch in one category – not even the Mechanical Exception category, which is kind of a fun free-for-all in terms of mechanical creativity. Join our panel's discussion right here.
SJX Watches
A. Lange & Söhne Unveils the Saxonia Thin Aventurine in Pink Gold
Three months after Watches & Wonders 2021 (where it debuted the Triple Split in pink gold amongst others), A. Lange & Söhne is now back with more new releases, as is now the norm with watch fairs having gone online. Of the trio of new launches, the Saxonia Thin is the simplest, but no less striking. Clad in lively, blue aventurine glass and pink gold, the watch has a rich, sparkly aesthetic quite antithetical to the fuss-free style usually associated with the German watchmaker. Initial thoughts While flourishes like the aventurine-glass dial are uncommon for Lange in general, the sparkly glass dial is not new. In fact, the material was first used in the white gold Saxonia Thin back in 2017. The brand followed up with the same but with a black aventurine-glass dial last December, and then the pair of Little Lange 1 Moon Phase earlier this year. That’s four models with aventurine glass dials in as many years. The new model is a first, in that it matches the blue aventurine-glass dial with a pink gold case, giving the watch a warm aesthetic not found in earlier versions, or even the broader catalogue where the combination of pink gold and blue is found only on the recent Triple Split. This is no doubt a good news for collectors that already have everything from the brand and want something different. Still, the frequency of aventurine-glass inevitably chips away at its uniqueness. One nitpick I have about the watch is personal – I find the Saxonia Thin too wide and f...
Time+Tide
The new and improved Cartier Ballon Bleu deserves to blow up
Although it hasn’t even reached its 15th birthday, Cartier’s Ballon Bleu already holds an incredibly firm standing in the world of fine watchmaking, and amongst the litany of iconic designs stemming from the jeweller of kings. Its universal appeal, holding a perfect balance between masculinity and femininity, combined with the quintessential elements that make it … ContinuedThe post The new and improved Cartier Ballon Bleu deserves to blow up appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Revolution
Time Trial: Wei Unboxes the New IWC Big Pilot 43mm
Wei unboxes the new IWC Big Pilot 43mm, and also walks us through their patented quick change system that makes changing straps hassle-free.
SJX Watches
Montblanc Introduces the Star Legacy Suspended Exo Tourbillon
One of the most interesting new releases from Montblanc at Watches & Wonders 2021 is the Star Legacy Suspended Exo Tourbillon, a technically impressive movement fused with a sparkly aventurine-glass dial. It’s equipped with a larger-than-usual balance wheel positioned above the dial, seemingly suspended but actually part of the tourbillon regulator. Initial thoughts Introduced at SIHH 2018, the Suspended Exo Tourbillon movement was most recently seen in an open-worked variant unveiled last year. Despite not being new in terms of mechanics, the new Star Legacy Suspended Exo Tourbillon is different enough from its predecessors – and still powered by the same fine movement. Very much living up to the Star Legacy model name, the aventurine-glass is restrained and modern, especially when combined with the white gold case, giving it a different look from the earlier models that were in rose gold. Typical of Montblanc’s higher-end watches made at the former Minerva manufacture in Villeret – as opposed to its more affordable timepieces, manufactured at the main facility in Le Locle – the Star Legacy Suspended Exo Tourbillon is remarkably well-finished. Worlds apart from Montblanc’s entry-level tourbillon in terms of movement decoration, the movement is also more traditionally finished than comparably priced alternatives such as the Audemars Piguet Code 11.59 Flying Tourbillon. However, because the movement was derived from the pocket watch calibres developed by M...
Video
The Most Underrated Luxury Chronograph From Germany - Glashütte Original Seventies Green
On this channel, we review watches that are available for purchase on TeddyBaldassarre.com
SJX Watches
Insight: Patents in Watchmaking
Patents in watchmaking are often brushed over by the brand themselves, except when tallying them in marketing material. But they are important, and can be foundational to a brand, as George Daniels’ famed co-axial escapement is synonymous with Omega. But there is a great deal more in watchmaking that can be protected with a patent than a lubrication-free escapement. A large proportion of the parts that make up a watch – from case materials to time-display mechanisms – can be patented, and often are. That begs the question: what exactly can be patented? The common obstacle encountered by a would-be inventor is that patents are notoriously difficult to secure, especially if applied for without specialist help. Going from application to approval of a patent often requires several years, and approval is not a certainty. Gaining a patent hinges on three criteria: the invention in question must be new, non-obvious, and useful. Beyond the necessary knowledge of prior inventions – in order to prove the patent-pending idea is new – the incredibly specific wording required for patents can be daunting to an independent applicant, so it usually falls to a patent attorney to lead the application process. But patents can be lucrative for an inventor, especially for an innovation targeted at the consumer, which is why new patents are registered every day. The United States Patent and Trademark Office, for instance, received just under 670,000 patent applications in 2019, and gr...
Time+Tide
The gold and the beautiful: the Hublot Spirit of Big Bang Meca-10 King Gold
Editor’s note: This year at Hublot has focused heavily on celebrating the 40th anniversary of the brand, but there was another important new chapter in the history book of the masters of fusion. The in-house Meca-10 movement, a caliber that has been restricted to the classically round Big Bang case, was set free into the … ContinuedThe post The gold and the beautiful: the Hublot Spirit of Big Bang Meca-10 King Gold appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
SJX Watches
In-Depth: Quantifying Performance and Trade-Offs in Movement Design Part II
Previously, in Part I of this series, we analysed and reviewed over 40 watch movements in terms of their potential chronometric performance – via the Horological Density Factor (HDF), which encompasses balance power and power reserve against the size of the movement – and debated the various trade-offs that had been made in order to achieve specific technical or aesthetic characteristics. Many readers then asked how more commonly known and accessible movements compare. To answer that we needed more data from the industry. Fortunately, Swiss movement makers Valjoux, Fabrique d’Horlogerie de Fontainemelon, Unitas, as well as their parent company Ebauches SA – now all part of ETA – once published beautifully comprehensive, detailed data sheets that included balance wheel inertia values. Armed with this data, we have been able to analyse and plot a further 25 movements alongside the previous group (with the disclaimer that it might not be fully up to date since the data sheets date from before the Quartz Crisis in the 1970s) to give a total of 68 to allow further investigation and review. The analysis Several popular movements have been added: the workhorse ETA 2824-1 and -2, the ubiquitous ETA Valjoux 7750 chronograph, the large diameter ETA Unitas 6497-1 and -2, and the ETA Peseux 7001. We also added, among others, the integrated chronograph cal. 4130 in the Rolex Daytona, and the modular chronograph versions of both the ETA 2892 (known as the ETA 2894) as well as...
SJX Watches
Auction Watch: Sotheby’s to Sell Legendary, Royal Breguet Pocket Watches
Sotheby’s watch auction at the end of October will be headlined by a trio of historically important and highly complicated Breguet pocket watches that were all once owned by royalty, and then part of the David Salomons Breguet collection. The top lot will unquestionably be Breguet no. 2788, nicknamed “The Prince Regent’s Resonance”, an experimental 1818 watch with twin balance wheels operating on the principle of resonance. [Update October 27, 2020: The sale of watches from The Museum for Islamic Art will be postponed until sometime in November 2020, due to the museum having decided to rethink the deaccessioning of part of its collection.] The twin balance wheels of Breguet no. 2788 Given their hallowed provenance, the trio of Breguet watches being offered for sale is surprising, but perhaps in keeping with the times. Despite the golden age of pocket watch collecting having seemingly come to an end – or perhaps because of it – several important pocket watches have sold well in the last two years. Amongst the recent highlights is one of the oldest watches known, the 369-year old Cremsdorff preserved in mint condition, and the 20th century masterpiece by George Daniels. The majority of those came from the massive collection put together by the late Erivan Haub, a supermarket tycoon who was perhaps the most important collector of pocket watches in his day. Sotheby’s upcoming London auction, however, has a handful of exceptionally important pocket watches from...
Time+Tide
VIDEO: Oh, hello there Raymond Weil Freelancer Calibre RW1212 in Green, looking sharp in the metal
Well, the enthusiastic comments on the video, the site post and the socials have confirmed it – this new Raymond Weil Freelancer in a pitch perfect olive green, with that eye-catching exposed balance well and truly have your attention. Which is why we thought we’d upgrade the Hands-On review and bring it to you in … ContinuedThe post VIDEO: Oh, hello there Raymond Weil Freelancer Calibre RW1212 in Green, looking sharp in the metal appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Video
The stunning affordable alternatives to high end watches
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