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Time+Tide
The latest Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept watch uses new Chroma Forged Technology that results in a luminescent carbon case.The post Audemars Piguet’s latest Royal Oak Concept uses a new luminescent carbon case appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Time+Tide
Lightweight and with a high-revving engine, the Alpine Eagle Cadence 8HF is the watch embodiment of a rapid sports car.The post Chopard makes a case for high-beat sports watches with the titanium, 8Hz Alpine Eagle Cadence 8HF appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Worn & Wound
History is a double edged sword for a budget conscious collector like me. The nerdy half of me loves to get caught up in the horological space race of 1969 and participate in the 1953 drama of debating if Smiths or Rolex wore it best on top of Everest. But while my romantic side finds joy in history, the frugal collector in me has some reservations. This side of me knows that the watch industry is in constant flux as it adapts to new technologies, reacts to wars and navigates economic shifts. It’s the side of me that acknowledges brands brimming with pedigree did not weather this history unchanged, and can’t help but notice the value from those shiny new microbrands with seemingly no history to offer. What is a collector to do when they have a romantic enthusiast on one shoulder telling them the story behind a watch matters and a frugal cynic on the other asking if a plastic chronograph is really worth a premium because its metal counterpart went to the moon? Personally, rambling blog-style until coming to some sort of conclusion aimed at making sense of an often nonsensical hobby has never steered me wrong. Provenance vs Pedigree: A Collector’s Dilemma Historical watch conversations often focus on provenance, which can most simply be defined as the story behind a specific watch. Provenance is what separates Paul Newman’s Daytona from every other “Paul Newman” Daytona. It’s what makes Buzz Aldrin’s out-of-this world, misplaced Speedmaster worthy of obsessio...
Worn & Wound
Farer has long been on my radar as a watch brand to trust not only for exceptional quality, but a distinct design language imbued into every new reference the British brand puts out. Take, for instance, the four new references from their latest Cushion Case collection. Already a favorite (or should I say favourite) of Farer fans, the cushion case is at once totally classic and modern. Because of this chameleon-like quailty, Farer has played with the coloring and design of each watch to make four distinct “personalities” to the series. Let’s explore each model here. The new lineup features four distinct models, each offering a different style while maintaining the signature cushion case silhouette that has become a hallmark of Farer’s design ethos. First up is the Benham, which stands out with its bold cherry red dial, accented by horizontal grooves and a playful baby blue seconds hand on the sub-dial. The brushed bezel adds a sporty touch, complementing the watch’s contemporary look. Inspired by Gertrude Benham, an English explorer and mountaineer, this watch embodies adventure and boldness without veering too much into ostentation. On the other hand, the Mansfield Midnight offers a more refined and sophisticated aesthetic. Its deep inky blue dial is highlighted by polished rose gold batons and numerals, further complemented by its rose gold dauphine hands, for a classic look. This watch balances metallic tones with polished rose gold accents, making it a sligh...
Fratello
I have just returned from my summer holidays (in Austria), where I brought a handful of watches to wear. Typically, I travel as light as possible. Especially when leaving the EU, I try to bring one watch to prevent problems with customs. This time, staying within the EU, I brought four watches with me: the […] Visit Fratello Favorites: The Best Summer Watches At Three Different Price Points - RJ’s Picks From Swatch, Rolex, And Blancpain to read the full article.
SJX Watches
The owner of brands like Omega and Longines, the Swatch Group just announced its results for the first half of 2024. The half-year numbers crystallised a slowdown that the watch industry has felt since late 2023. Revenue was down 14.3% to CHF3.44 billion, while operating profit plunged 70% to just CHF204 million, giving the group an operating margin of just 5.9%, compared to 17.1% from a year earlier. According to Swatch, the fall in revenue was “triggered by the sharp drop in demand for luxury goods in China (including Hong Kong SAR and Macau SAR)”. At the same time, wholesale sales fell over 10%, indicating that third-party retailers are ordering less watches from the group’s brands, which in turn indicates the retailers’ pessimism for the short- and medium term. Swatch also explained the poor results by noting the group did not “make any redundancies… [and] maintaining all production capacities and not laying off qualified staff”. This was done so that “the Group [will] recover more quickly and benefit more significantly from the next upswing.” The progressively weakening positions of each of the group’s brands relative to the competition – marques like Breguet and Blancpain stand out in this regard – imply this might be overoptimistic. Notably, Swatch stated “the Swatch brand bucked the negative trend” thanks to the bestselling MoonSwatch, but this was not (and will not) be sufficient to help the rest of the group given the low value of Swat...
Monochrome
Considering how time is indicated on most watches – hands rotating 360-degree around the dial – it is no surprise that the vast majority of timepieces available on the market have round cases. But there is always room for creativity, originality and audacity. Watches don’t have to be round to be either striking or elegant. […]
Worn & Wound
What was your first watch? Not your first mechanical watch, not your first nice watch, but actually your first watch. If you’re around my age, I’d hazard a guess that it was probably something fun. Neon Shark watches, bright G-Shocks, and outdoorsy Timexes were the thing on my playground growing up, and it’s a recipe that still works just as well approaching (or beyond) 30 as it did approaching 10. All this is to say that colorful and waterproof is a recipe for success, and one brand that really gets this is Vero. I don’t exactly remember the first time I crossed paths with a Vero, but I do remember the minty green dial standing out against the stark black bezel, and that I found myself pretty taken with their line of colorful dive watches from the get. It’s an interest I haven’t really shaken, and one only compounded by the latest iteration of their signature dive watch, the Open Water, now in a 38mm case. The big headline here is a series of subtle refinements to the Open Water model, all of which add up to a stark evolution of Vero’s flagship diver. To look at the new Open Water 38 in isolation, one might be hard-pressed to call out many of these changes but put the old and new models next to each other, and the difference will be clear. The most visually dramatic of these changes is the shift from a black DLC finish on the bezel to a boldly colored Cerakote treatment. A stark black bezel has been a key visual hallmark of the Vero Open Water, so moving...
Fratello
It has been maybe six years since I picked up this tiny Bulova on a business trip to Budapest. After finishing my meetings, on my way to the train station, I stopped at my favorite vintage watch shop. As I always do, I asked for something unusual… The owner picked up a black-dial Bulova, which […] Visit #TBT The Unusual Waterproof Case Patented By Bulova In The Late 1950s to read the full article.
Time+Tide
Swatch has once again fired up the watch community with two teasers suggesting a new collaboration with Omega is coming June 2024.The post Swatch drops teasers for June 2024 Omega collaboration. These were your predictions appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
SJX Watches
IWC just revealed an experimental Pilot’s chronograph with a luminous ceramic case – on the wrist of Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton at the Monaco Grand Prix. Christened Ceralume, the material was developed XPL, the watchmaker’s experimental engineering department. According to IWC, the Ceralume concept watch was glowing a bright blue for more than 24 hours in dark chamber tests (although it didn’t state how the material was “charged” prior to the test). According to IWC, the patent-pending material is created by blending ceramic powder with Super-Luminova, the luminous material produced by RC Tritec that absorbs light energy and then emits it. Being non-radioactive, Super-Luminova is widely used to illuminate watch dials, and also suited to a case material. Though IWC has not revealed specifics about future plans for the material, it did say Ceralume will “form the foundation of future developments and releases.” Lewis Hamilton at the 2024 Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix Initial thoughts Ever since the discovery of radium in 1898, luminous materials have become commonplace in watches, primarily to aid legibility. With legibility being less crucial today, luminous paint is increasingly used for purely aesthetic purposes. Moreover, luminous ceramic is not actually new. Tudor, for instance, used luminous ceramic hour markers in the Black Bay Pro of 2022. IWC is the first to make an entire case from the material, albeit not one that is available commercially (ye...
Quill & Pad
Swatch stands as a testament to innovation, resilience, and creativity within the watch industry. Born out of the ashes of the Quartz Crisis, Swatch both saved the Swiss watch industry from obsolescence and revolutionized it through its groundbreaking approach to design, manufacturing, and marketing.
Time+Tide
Buffy looks to the Swingin' Sixties to find out more about a Rolex cocktail watch that, just like a chameleon, easily changed colour.The post The curious case of the Rolex Chameleon and its many variants appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Fratello
It has already been just over two years since the Omega × Swatch Speedmaster MoonSwatch came out. At the time, the lines in front of the Swatch boutiques were unheard of in the watch world. Although the hype isn’t as huge anymore, new versions, like the recently introduced Snoopies, keep the Bioceramic phenomenon alive and […] Visit Sunday Morning Showdown: TAG Heuer Formula 1 × Kith Vs. Omega × Swatch Speedmaster MoonSwatch to read the full article.
Fratello
Hello, and welcome to an on-location episode of Fratello Talks. Today, Nacho, Daan, and Lex are coming to you from the Watch Valley event in Utrecht, where Swatch Group novelties for the first half of 2024 were unveiled. They’ll run through some of their favorites and give opinions on the different brand’s new watches and […] Visit Fratello Talks: Swatch Group Novelties From The Watch Valley Event In Utrecht to read the full article.
Quill & Pad
When starting out on a watch journey, one of the first questions to consider is the choice between quartz and automatic watches, with the perception that mechanical watches are "better" and more expensive, while quartz watches are entry-level and lower quality. While this may hold some truth, luxury brands also produce high-end quartz pieces that are equally impressive from a technological standpoint.
Fratello
Nezumi Studios is known for its big-value chronographs, and despite the rising prices of wristwear, this doesn’t appear to be changing. After 13 years in existence and nine years of creating mid-century-inspired sports watches, the Stockholm-based brand is now an established player on the watch scene. David Campo, founder and lead designer of the Swedish […] Visit Nezumi Brings Back The Tonnerre Chronograph - A ‘60s-Inspired Duo With A Small-Cased Punch to read the full article.
Worn & Wound
Today, Hublot has announced not one, but six new versions of the Big Bang Integrated Time Only, and here’s the kicker - this time they’re 38mm. When the first Hublot watch was launched by Carlo Crocco all the way back in 1980, it stood out. Totally different from anything else on the market, it supposedly took Crocco and his team at MDM Watches three years to develop the rubber strap for the first Hublot. The juxtaposition of a high-end gold case and an integrated rubber strap defined that first watch and “The Art of Fusion” would become the signature of a brand defined by experimentation. It was in that spirit that Hublot released the first Big Bang on a bracelet in 2020 (just a few weeks before the pandemic, as it turned out). I remember the prevailing sentiment at the time being slight surprise that a braceleted Big Bang didn’t already exist and a bemused “okay” before everyone got very distracted by the world shutting down. That first 42mm Big Bang Integral Chronograph was followed up by a 40mm Big Bang Integral Time Only two years later. Those first two Integral models featured skeletonized sapphire dials and sporty red and black highlights. Like many large Hublot releases, they each felt decidedly masculine. Today’s new Big Bang Integrated Time Only releases are much more sedate, swapping sapphire skeleton dials for solid ones finished in somewhat more traditional polished blacks or sunray blues. With their more neutral designs and smaller case siz...
Worn & Wound
This year at Watches & Wonders, Oris finds itself focusing primarily on a single collection: the Aquis. For years, the Aquis has carried the torch as the brand’s flagship modern sports watch. A capable diver with an integrated bracelet (it had one before they were cool), the Aquis has been made in a dizzying variety of case sizes and dial variants over the years, with complicated models, limited editions, and even diamonds finding their way to the line. But over all that time, the Aquis itself has never really had a proper reset. That changes this year, with a new, more refined Aquis Date that seeks to improve on the old version in all the ways watch collectors care about. The new Aquis is made of a number of subtle changes that add up to a noticeable, if incremental, improvement. This is not a radical rethinking of the Aquis, but feels more like an admission from Oris that certain elements of the tried and true design could be tweaked for a better overall experience. It’s an approach, frankly, that we think more brands should take. When something is generally pretty good, it makes no sense to kill it and start from scratch. Success over a long period means little iterative changes that make your product better as performance expectations shift, and Oris seems to embrace that. Of the changes made to the new Aquis, the most important is likely the small tweaks to the case. Oris has redefined the Aquis silhouette by making everything a little more balanced, with lugs t...
Fratello
What better way for a watch brand to mark a significant anniversary than to present the result of a project that is equally challenging, ambitious, and just a little bit mad? Swatch introduced its revolutionary Sistem51 mechanical movement in 2013. It did so to mark 30 years since the brand’s inception. The challenge Mr. Nick […] Visit A Behind-The-Scenes Look At The Swatch Sistem51 - Including A Tour Of ETA In Boncourt to read the full article.
Fratello
Today, we’ll take a closer look at a fascinating watch that I recently purchased at auction. As we’ll see, the watch brings together several notable details that separate it from other 30T2 models from the period. It was a gamble, but it has turned out to be a rewarding one thus far. I don’t often […] Visit Vintage Watches: An Omega 30T2 With A Sterling Silver Case to read the full article.
Quill & Pad
When starting out on a watch journey, one of the first questions to consider is the choice between quartz and automatic watches, with the perception that mechanical watches are "better" and more expensive, while quartz watches are entry-level and lower quality. While this may hold some truth, luxury brands also produce high-end quartz pieces that are equally impressive from a technological standpoint.
SJX Watches
Best known for its Urwerk-inspired Project 1, Barrelhand is now working on the Monolith, a watch for astronauts featuring novel innovations, including an air-tight crown that can be adjusted in space or underwater. Described as a “professional grade EVA [extravehicular activity] tool watch compatible with current and next generation xEMU spacesuits”, the Monolith is a work in progress, however, a bit of it has just landed on the Moon. The case back of each Monolith will carry a “Memory Disc”, a nickel-alloy plate with 1,000 pages worth of micro-engraving. A permanent, analogue physical storage medium, it’s a time capsule of sorts. A single Memory Disc has just landed on the Moon as part of the payload on the IM-1 mission carried by the Nova-C lunar lander, nicknamed “Odysseus”, launched by Intuitive Machines, a privately-funded space exploration enterprise that has contracts with NASA to deliver cargo to the Moon. Alongside the Memory Disc, IM-1 also carried an artwork by Jeff Koons as well as a space camera, all of which will remain on the Moon (at least for now). Initial thoughts The Monolith is an interesting proposition as according to Karel Bachand, Barrelhand’s founder, the watch is developed to pass the “EVA tests originally outlined for the Apollo missions… [and] we have full documents outlining the criteria and corresponding tests it needs to pass.” Although detailed specifications of the watch are not yet available – they will be when th...
Monochrome
Single-hand watches are the mainstay of German brand MeisterSinger. Proving that single-handed watches can perform multiple functions, MeisterSinger has produced a rich collection, ranging from straightforward time-only models all the way up to a sophisticated repeater or a jumping hour dive watch. Today, MeisterSinger releases three iterations of its classic time-only No.03 model in a […]
Worn & Wound
eBay Finds is back! This bi-monthly installment will feature a selection of watches currently listed on eBay that have caught the eye of editor Christoph McNeil (@vintagediver). If you come across any hidden gems on the ‘Bay drop us a note at info@wornandwound.com for potential inclusion! Ollech & Wajs Navichron Regatta Starting off this week strong with a killer vintage Ollech & Wajs Navichron Regatta chronograph. The watch itself looks to be original and vintage, but the box and ‘papers’ that are with it are not, and neither is the bracelet. That said, the watch is really nice. The large steel skin diver case looks unpolished and the black dial looks to be in good shape. The black acrylic 12 hour bezel insert looks to be in good shape too, which is not always the case. Seller states the watch is powered by the classic workhorse Valjoux 7733 and that it’s running well and keeping time. The bracelet may not be original, but it’s the same beads of rice style as the original. Not sure what’s up with the modern/made up box/papers, but the watch head looks legit to me. View auction here Vintage Tissot Visodate Seastar Here is a neat vintage Tissot Visodate Seastar that has a unique look. The square steel case is sharp and unpolished, and has a personal engraving dated 2/19/66. The silver dial is clean, with a vertical brushed finish and has applied steel hour markers and slim steel dauphine hands. There is a date window at 6 o’clock, preserving the symmetr...
Worn & Wound
I’ve long been on record as an appreciator and fan of the wilder designs from Bell & Ross. Few watch brands, in fact, have a wider design purview than B&R;, which has fairly traditional aviation inspired watches at one end of the spectrum, bronze skull watches on the other, and their standard square case instrument watches right in the middle. The LUM series, an ongoing collection of watches that use luminescent material in a manner that can only be described as Maximalist, sits somewhere near the skulls, I think. Watch enthusiasts, of course, are notable in that we tend to love inventive applications of lume, but bold designs centered around the stuff still feel fairly niche. The new BR-X5 Green Lum takes the brand’s experiments with lume to a new level, giving the case itself the full lume treatment. Seeing the press release for this watch, I knew immediately that it was destined to be a new object of obsession for me, perhaps not unlike my beloved Multimeter. It takes the still relatively new BR-X5 platform, the brand’s most contemporary and forward looking case design, and gives it a visual and material transformation via the brand’s LM3D composite. This material is made from quartz fibers which are completely photoluminescent, giving off a pronounced green glow. The case is a combination of this material and DLC coated titanium, which effectively acts as a shell with large pieces of LM3D at the top and bottom of the case. The dial is matte black and serves to...
Worn & Wound
The Longines Legend Diver is a perennial contender insofar as enthusiasts are concerned, and it truly feels like it has always been relevant. Dual crown case, distinctive hands, inner rotating bezel – these have really come to define a model that has become a core of the Longines sport watch lineup. Indeed, it was part of the opening salvo of vintage-inspired tool watches that shifted an entire industry towards that genre over the last decade; in fact there is a non-zero chance the timepiece you are wearing as you read this exists thanks in part to the Legend Diver. Lately the Spirit line has garnered a lot of attention (and for good reason) but Longines has not left its dive watch to languish. After 16(!) long years since Longines reintroduced the model back in 2007, they have refreshed their most famous dive watch. Spoiler alert: there’s a lot to like. Updates to the Legend Diver have been made both inside and out. There’s no need to bury the lede here: the most notable change is that the case has been redesigned and downsized from 42mm to 39mm. More on that in a moment. It still utilizes Longines’ exclusive L888 movement, which is now COSC certified. Longines claims their movements are cased then tested continuously for 15 days across three temperature levels and numerous positions before certification. Another notable change is that the date at 3 o’clock is now nowhere to be found. This is part of Longines’ effort in achieving ISO 6425 certification, whi...
Worn & Wound
Sometimes a watch comes along and just kind of stops you in your tracks. We all, I think, have those moments where we stumble across a watch or see a new release and imagine that the brand has downloaded your thoughts and run them through some kind of artificial intelligence program designed to create watches that are uniquely appealing to you, and you alone. I think a lot of people are actually going to find the new Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Moon to be that kind of beautiful, but it happens to hit on a bunch of things that really sing to me in a watch like this. The Master Ultra Thin watches are incredible pieces of engineering, with impossibly slim movements that translate to cases that provide a wearing experience like little else on the market. If I could ever identify a gripe with the line, though, it’s that the dials have never really blown me away. They are very nice, to be sure, but they have a tendency to be relentlessly dressy, and a bit sober. That’s perfectly fine of course for a watch in this genre, but they tend not to have that “wow” factor. They’re watches for connoisseurs who know exactly what they’re looking for. The newest entry in the Master Ultra Thin collection has all the watchmaking chops and refined sensibilities of every other watch in their corner of the JLC family tree, but this one leads with the dial in a way that others don’t. The new Master Ultra Thin Moon features a dark gradient blue dial, borrowing a bit of that...
Worn & Wound
Has the new Swatch X Blancpain Scuba Fifty Fathoms completely taken over your Instagram feed? It has for us. Ever since the watch was teased via a cryptic newspaper ad a little over a week ago, speculation has run rampant about just what Swatch might be up to this time. Their follow up to the Uber-successful MoonSwatch is a bio-ceramic timepiece in much the same vein, but sub oceans for planets, and the mighty Fifty Fathoms for the Speedmaster. Here, the Worn & Wound editorial team reacts to the latest Swatch, sure to generate not just long lines this weekend, but red hot takes for months on end. Zach Weiss Can lightning strike twice? It can if you build a large enough lightning rod, or so the folks at Swatch believe. When the MoonSwatch launched last year, there was a lot of speculation as to whether or not they would do something similar with another brand. Another “crossover for the people,” to be kind. The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms always seemed like the most likely candidate as, well, there aren’t many other truly iconic watches under the Swatch umbrella. At least, not on the scale of the Speedmaster. A year and a half-ish later, we know the answer. My first reaction wasn’t “wow, I can’t believe they did it again!” It was “already?”. Yeah, I’m not surprised Swatch would try to double down on their most successful launch, not just recently, but, like, ever, I was just surprised it was so soon. The Moonswatch has had an odd life cycle that I would hard...
Time+Tide
Well, considering the big launch yesterday I think we all know what the news of the week is: the new Swatch x Blancpain BioCeramic Scuba Fifty Fathoms collection. The Swatch x Omega MoonSwatch was a groundbreaking collaboration. Upon its debut, not only did it shake up watch enthusiasts, it also affected the mainstream. Genuine collectors … ContinuedThe post Swatch x Blancpain collab has debuted. But will it have the same lasting momentum as the MoonSwatch? appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
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