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Fratello
Another Friday, another list. This week, we follow up on last week’s list of the top five Rolex GMT-Master II alternatives with the best alternatives to the Rolex Explorer II. It’s a logical step since the two models offer much of the same functionality. But they are inherently different watches in terms of presence and […] Visit Fratello’s Top 5 Rolex Explorer II Alternatives In 2026 to read the full article.
Monochrome
Long associated with pilot’s chronographs and robust instrument watches, Tutima has, over the past decade, built a compelling “classical” collection. The Patria line, introduced in the early 2010s and coinciding with the brand’s return to Glashütte, offered refined cases, restrained dials and, most notably, beautifully executed hand-wound movements rooted in Saxon tradition. Following earlier executions […]
Time+Tide
Urushi lacquer and raden mother-of-pearl grace the dial of Ressence's latest Type 9, which is limited to just 8 numbered pieces.The post Ressence taps Terumasa Ikeda for hand-made resplendence in lacquer and mother-of-pearl appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Fratello
Three years ago, the Raymond Weil Millesime Automatic Small Seconds timepiece won the GPHG 2023 Challenge Watch Prize. That was a bigger surprise to most watch fans than Audemars Piguet winning the Grand Prix for the Code 11.59 Ultra-Complication Universelle RD#4. Since that award-winning watch, many variations have debuted. And truth be told, they all […] Visit Introducing: Three New Raymond Weil Millesime Small Seconds Watches With Tuxedo Dials to read the full article.
SJX Watches
The Expérimentale 1 debuted last year as the capstone to the first quarter-millennium of the house of Breguet. We attended the launch event and shared immediate hands-on impressions, but watches like this don’t come along every day, or even every year, so it’s worth a fresh look now that some time has passed and the dust has settled. On paper, the Expérimentale 1 arguably represents the highest form of the mechanical watch. To understand the technical details of what makes the watch so groundbreaking, this in-depth analysis should be considered required reading. In short, the cal. 7250 housed within introduces the first-ever contactless mechanical escapement that simultaneously achieves two feats that Abraham-Louis Breguet himself toiled to accomplish throughout his entire career, namely, an oil-free escapement and stable amplitude. The Expérimentale 1 delivers both, and more. That said, as a wristwatch the Expérimentale 1 is tantalisingly imperfect owing to its polarising design. In fairness, this arguably says more about the difficultly of communicating technical breakthroughs to a non-technical public than it does about the design process at Breguet. It could also be the result of Breguet learning lessons from its own past. A modern (Marine) chronometer The Expérimentale 1 is most notable for its novel escapement and what it signals about the future direction of the brand, but it’s also worth analysing the updated Marine-style case, which is the most challeng...
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Worn & Wound
Sinn is celebrating its 65th anniversary with a limited edition of one of its most peculiar watches. Not peculiar in terms of design, but because it feels like an outlier to the rest of their catalog, though in some respects, it’s also the most recognizable. The Sinn 903 is a pilot’s chronograph with an internal slide rule bezel that bears a striking resemblance to another famous watch, the Breitling Navitimer. But it’s important to note that it’s not a copy of a Navitimer. Rather, Sinn has owned the rights to this design since the late 1970s. A cult classic, it stands out aesthetically from Sinn’s other instrument watches, which tend to have a toolish, stripped-down look. By comparison, the 903 is more elaborate and, given its associations with the design, a more Swiss-luxury aesthetic. With that said, as Sinn is Sinn, they bring their engineering flair, while also keeping the price relatively approachable. This is true for the general 903 models, but even more so for the 65th anniversary model, the 903 Ti II Anniversary. Interestingly, you’ll see the number two in the name, because Sinn actually made a previous version of a 903 in titanium for its 35th anniversary. Why the 903 and why titanium? Well, we don’t know, but it’s certainly a welcome metal for this watch, and, as it’s been 30 years, a welcome return. Sinn uses grade five titanium for the case and the five-link bracelet, which has a bright, steel-like look that can be polished, while still bene...
Teddy Baldassarre
In 2017, IWC introduced a proprietary alloy called Ceratanium, or ceramized titanium, a hard, lightweight material that combined the best of ceramic and titanium. Oh, and it happened to look pretty cool as well. The material has been used sparingly in the intervening years, largely appearing across the brand’s sport-watch portfolio, from the Pilot to the Aquatimer collections. This week, Ceratanium is making its first appearance in the Portugieser collection with a new, limited-edition 41mm chronograph featuring a Ceratanium case affixed to a black rubber strap. In an effort to drive the point home, the rest of the watch is fully murdered out making the IWC Portugieser Chronograph Ceratanium a decidedly sporty take on this otherwise dressier collection. [toc-section heading="What's New"] The new watch is the Portugieser Chronograph Ceratanium, and it turns the classic chronograph layout on its head by rendering every detail in shades of black (insert Henry Ford quote here). The Portugieser is a historic watch with roots that date back to the late 1930s, and its modern aesthetic is largely referential to that history. That underlying design remains intact here, with a large, open dial hosting Arabic numerals at each hour, and a set of leaf hands tracking the time against them. The two subdials are arranged vertically, retaining a symmetric layout that recalls the original time-only references that had subsidiary seconds located at 6 o’clock. Using Ceratanium (which ha...
Worn & Wound
When we create a post on the Worn & Wound blog, we check a little box on the sidebar of our backend system to categorize the watch we’re writing about. The options are things like “Diver,” and “Chronograph” and “Dress,” which is about what you’d expect, and these well understood categories are appropriate for most of the watches we write about. But my absolute favorite thing is when a news release (or an actual watch!) comes across my desk that can only fit into one category, at the very bottom of the list: Unique. More than any other brand (besides perhaps MB&F; and Urwerk), Ressence really has a lock on the Unique category here at Worn & Wound. One of many reasons we continue to be drawn to them year after year. Their latest, the Type 9 IKE, is unique even within the Ressence catalog. Built on the (relatively) approachable Type 9 platform, which features an easy to wear 39mm case and a simplified version of the already incredibly stripped down Ressence Orbital Convex System (ROCS), the new limited edition is a collaboration with Japanese artist Terumasa Ikeda. It’s also a twist on a trend we’ve been seeing play out in the watch industry over the last few years, but you probably wouldn’t think at first glance that this is actually a very intricately crafted mother of pearl dial. Ikeda’s work has a style that can be described as mixing very old craft techniques with a futuristic, almost sci-fi inspired design code. The Type 9 IKE’s dial looks...
SJX Watches
One of the longest-lived models in the IWC catalogue, the Portugieser Chronograph is simple, distinctive, and handsomely proportioned. Now it’s undergone a surprising makeover to create the Portugieser Chronograph Ceratanium, which has just debuted publicly on Ed Sheeran’s wrist during the musician’s tour of Australia. Now in its second generation with an in-house movement, the Portugieser Chronograph has a clean aesthetic with vertically laid out registers and a large-but-thin case. Usually available only in gold or steel, the case is now Ceratanium, essentially titanium that’s been treated to form a hard ceramic layer on its surface. Ed Sheeran wearing a Portugieser Chronograph Ceratanium during his concert at the Marvel Stadium on February 26 in Melbourne, Australia. Image – Mark Surridge Initial thoughts IWC doesn’t put out many interesting watches now (regrettably), but the Portugieser Chronograph Ceratanium certainly stands out. Though it’s essentially a cosmetic variation of a familiar model, it is appealing. I’ve long been a fan of the Portugieser Chronograph; I like the proportions and design. The design is now over 30 years ago but still feels fresh. The Ceratanium version is odd yet likeable. The all-black livery feels like a mismatch with the classical style, but somehow it works and fits the minimalist look. Despite the appeal, the new Portugieser is expensive. It costs 50% more than the steel model, which feels like too much notwithstanding th...
Fratello
The original Pepper0ni and Hawaiian pizza watches that our friends at Time+Tide cooked up with Studio Underd0g in 2024 started life as an April Fools’ joke the year before. Then, they turned into a very real, very tasteful, and very successful collaboration. They toured the world through a series of pizza parties and finished with […] Visit Last Call For Pizza! Studio Underd0g And Time+Tide Serve Classic Cheese And Burnt Pepper0ni Pizzas to read the full article.
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SJX Watches
An eighties icon that is finding fresh footing, Raymond Weil has extended its GPHG-winning dress watch collection with the Millesime Small Seconds 39 mm “Tuxedo”. Available in three appealing colourways, the Millesime features Art Deco-inspired typography that brings a surprising degree of energy to the line-up’s familiar sector-style dial. Initial thoughts Raymond Weil was one of the biggest names in Swiss watchmaking in the 1980s and 1990s. Raymond Weil himself was one of the first entrepreneurs to see a future for mechanical watchmaking amidst the rubble of the quartz crisis, launching his eponymous brand in 1976. While peak production is in the past, the brand seems to have rebounded with a collection of well-received dress watches and savvy limited editions. The new Millesime Small Seconds embodies the carefully considered details that have underpinned the brand’s recent resurgence. It’s not revolutionary by any means, but at just US$2,295 it offers an affordable entry point to the world of Swiss dress watches. Affordability is one thing, but appeal is another. Fortunately the 39 mm Millesime hits many of the right notes in each of the three colourways, including a so-called ‘tuxedo’ configuration in either classic back and white or on-trend burgundy, as well as a dark blue option that might be the dark horse favourite. Art Deco trio All three models have a few key things in common, starting with the stainless steel case. The Millesime measures 39 mm in ...
Monochrome
A compact evolution of Ressence’s signature pebble-shaped case designs and original display of the time that circles around the dial like planets orbiting the Sun, the Type 9 is the brand’s smallest, lightest and most accessibly priced watch to date. Given its minimalist display and compact (wearable) proportions, the Type 9 has been singled out […]
Fratello
These days, “heritage” might be the most overused word in watch marketing. Every other press release seems to reference archives, vintage inspiration, or a glorious past. But at what point does heritage become a crutch rather than a strength? In this episode of Fratello Talks, Nacho, Daan, and Thomas unpack the role heritage plays in […] Visit Fratello Talks: Is Heritage Overused And Overrated? to read the full article.
SJX Watches
While silicon mechanical movement components have swept across Switzerland, adoption has been slow within the Japanese watch industry, stymied by Swiss patents and professed concerns over the material’s durability. To this day, it remains the unlikely domain of Orient Star, a small brand with priority access to Seiko Epson’s massive industrial base. This positions Orient Star to capitalise on consumer demand for increasingly long power reserves, without sacrificing performance. Thanks to an ultralight and geometrically efficient escape wheel with a patented design, Orient Star is able to deliver a 70-hour power reserve without resorting the same counter-productive trade-offs to balance energy made by some Swiss peers – here’s how it was done. A silicon wafer of escape wheels. Image – Seiko Epson The quest for longer power reserves Recent consumer demand for longer power reserves has sent the industry’s engineers scrambling for ways to increase the autonomy of existing movement platforms. A movement’s power reserve is dictated by the length of the mainspring, which unwinds at a constant rate. That is why using a chronograph doesn’t cause a watch to run down faster – usually. Of course, you need to find somewhere to fit that extra length of mainspring while maintaining the movement’s dimensions, such as by thinning out the barrel walls, narrowing the inner barrel arbour radius, or, reducing the thickness of the mainspring. However, while decreasing the ma...
Worn & Wound
I’ll admit, I’m late to the party. I didn’t discover Atelier Wen until last year when a friend told me I should check out the brand and connected me with its founder, Robin Tallendier. The pair knew how to tug at my heartstrings straight away: enamel dials. For those of you who know a little bit about me, you are well aware that métiers d’art crafts are my passion, but I have a particular affinity for enamel dials. Perhaps it is more than an affinity and closer to an obsession. I have taken my love of enamel from admirer to aspiring artisan, completing three enameling apprenticeships in Switzerland to learn the artform myself. After going back and forth with Robin for a few months and musing over the watches from a distance, I finally had the chance to experience them in the metal for the first time at Dubai Watch Week last November. I was immediately struck by the technique of the Ancestra and Inflection dials with a hammered base that added further depth and texture to the enamel itself. While the beauty of enamel (especially when paired with techniques like guilloche) is its interplay with light, something about the organic nature of the hand hammering brought an even deeper sense of life and movement to these dials. Since then, Atelier Wen has branched out, expanding its expertise in stunning dials beyond guilloche, hand hammering, enamel, and (in the past) porcelain to its latest model showcasing natural stone: the limited edition Millésime 2025 Percepti...
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Worn & Wound
I’m going to say something quite controversial here, dear Reader, and tell you that I think pizza, in general, is just okay. I’ve had Neapolitan-style in Naples and Chicago-style in Chicago, and even Altoona-style in Altoona (for the unfamiliar, it’s got green peppers and American cheese on it and is disgusting). I’ve just never been especially impressed. With pepperoni or without, deep-dish or thin-crusted, it’s all the same to me. I mean, I like pizza, but I’m not one of those performative yuppies who sit behind their keyboard (okay, I am right now, but that’s because I’m getting paid to be) and tell you about the virtues of this type of tomato and that type of dough and the purity of ingredients and how pineapple on pizza isn’t real pizza and blah, blah, blah. Like I said, it’s not that I don’t like pizza. I just don’t think it’s anything to get worked up about. To me, it’s in the same category as Jacob Elordi or any organized religion: I have no strong opinions either way, I just don’t need to be told why it’s great all the time. Perhaps this is why I was dubious at first glance about the return of two pizza-inspired watches by Studio Underd0g and Time+Tide: the Burnt Pepper0ni and the Classic Cheese. Following the first pair of pizza watches released in 2024, this new iteration builds on that cult following with updated designs that lean into the theme without losing the brand language that has come to define Studio Underd0g. First, the...
Teddy Baldassarre
The New Store Is Officially Here. At 4x the size of our previous location, we have welcomed a wider selection of brands including TUDOR, IWC, and Blancpain, Longines and others with space to truly make it a community hub for watch events and watch culture. Now open just blocks away from our first store, and still in We
Monochrome
Among the incredible variety of materials used to decorate dials, mother-of-pearl is an all-time favourite. Obtained from the inner lining of oyster and mollusc shells, mother-of-pearl is a captivating, naturally iridescent material that adds a unique shimmer to dials. Working with GT Cadrans, a specialist Swiss dial manufacturer, Czapek embellishes its Antarctique S and Promenade […]
Fratello
It’s time for a short confession: generally, I am not the biggest fan of skeletonized watches. While I greatly appreciate the possibility of witnessing a caliber in action, I much prefer to see it in action through a sapphire display in the case back. It’s purely an aesthetic thing because, as a design fanatic, I […] Visit Hands-On With The Rado Anatom Automatic Skeleton to read the full article.
WatchAdvice
As the F1 season for 2026 is about to get underway, official timing partner TAG Heuer has released a special Connected Calibre E5 X Formula 1 edition that puts you right in the action! What We Love 45 mm case size is perfect for a fitness-oriented smart watch for those with average and above wrists The ability to customise the interface and displays Interconnectivity with the F1 app – perfect for F1 fans What We Don’t Spoiler alerts if you want to watch the races after they have run (like I do) Smart watches are not for everyone, so consider if this is for you It is not designed for smaller wrists, but the 40 mm Connected range fills this void now Overall Score: 8.9 / 10 Value for Money: 9/10 Wearability: 9/10 Design: 9/10 Build Quality: 8.5/10 The Formula 1 season is upon us again, and 2026 marks TAG Heuer’s second year as the sport’s official timing partner. To kick off the season, which starts next week in Melbourne, TAG Heuer has released a special edition Connected E5 smartwatch designed with Formula One fans in mind. Based on the new Connected E5 45mm models released last year, this isn’t just a cosmetic redesign. The watch delivers real-time Formula One data, giving fans up-to-date information throughout the season and across each race weekend via a direct link with the F1 App and the FIA. The new TAG Heuer Connected Calibre E5 x F1 Edition First Impressions I reviewed the Connected E5 last year in the 40 mm case size, and it proved excellent for track...
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Fratello
Seiko has used its 5 Sports collection to reintroduce some of its great designs from the past. Often, they have been collaborative, limited-edition releases that have become hugely popular. With the new Seiko 5 Sports SRPM09 HUF Limited Edition, the brand brings back another funky watch from its archives. The new watch shows inspiration from […] Visit Introducing: The Seiko 5 Sports SRPM09 HUF Limited Edition to read the full article.
Time+Tide
This special edition smartwatch features a dedicated app for keeping up to date on F1 races, as well as a race-inspired design.The post TAG Heuer’s Connected Caliber E5 45mm x Formula 1 keeps you on track, and on the track appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Fratello
Having the exact time on hand is nothing special nowadays. Almost always, you’re connected to satellite time (GPS), which is based on atomic clocks in satellites that measure time to 100 billionths of a second. Optimizing accuracy through mechanical parts is a whole other matter and an age-old quest. A chronometer - the word derives […] Visit Chronometer Watches Matter - Why The World Of Luxury Needs Accuracy to read the full article.
SJX Watches
Seiko and American streetwear brand HUF team up to reimagine a classic from Seiko’s back catalogue with the affordable Seiko 5 Sports HUF Limited Edition. Inspired by Seiko’s Time Sonar flyback chronographs from the 1970s, the sunburst translucent dials have been given a new look in HUF green that works particularly well with the sonar theme. Initial thoughts Seiko’s latest streetwear collaboration is with HUF, an American brand founded by professional skateboarder-turned-fashion designer Keith Hufnagel. This is Seiko’s fourth outing with HUF, following a trio of diver-style “5KX” limited editions. The dial is inspired by a pair of Time Sonar flyback chronographs with translucent plastic dials that Seiko sold during the 1970s. Despite not being a chronograph, the design is essentially the same as the original, which also had only three hands despite being a chronograph. The Seiko 7015-6010. It initially came with a compass that attached to the strap – most were lost with time. Image – Seiko Design 140 In its original chronograph format, the user could leave the Time Sonar’s chronograph running to act as a sweep seconds hand while reducing wear on the vertical clutch, and a flyback function enabled immediate timing of intervals up to one minute. In this sense, the unusual functionality was similar to that of the more recent Patek Philippe ref. 5975. Seiko offered the originals with brown and blue-green translucent dials (meant to appeal to teenagers) which...
Teddy Baldassarre
Most people think that getting into "real" watches requires a heavy-duty investment or a deep knowledge of Swiss history. In reality, enjoying horology shouldn't require a trust fund or a PhD in movement calibers. But for a long time, the market felt split between cheap, disposable plastic watches and unattainable luxury pieces. There was simply no middle ground for a high-spec timepiece that you weren't afraid to use. It was exactly this dilemma that became the driving force behind California-based watchmaker, Vaer. The two ends of the watch-collecting scope left a huge gap for anyone who just wanted an affordable daily beater that could hold up during a weekend hike or a daily commute. So, Vaer pledged to fill that gap. [toc-section heading="The Gamble – Why Vaer Exists"] VAER founders Ryan Torres and Reagan Cook Watch collecting can be an expensive hobby. In the world of horology, $10,000 is the type of money that secures a stainless steel Rolex Sub and a lifetime of brand prestige. For most young professionals with a passion for watches, saving up that first ten grand is a rite of passage. But for Ryan Torres and Reagan Cook, founders of Vaer watches, that money represented a fork in the road. When the two entrepreneurs looked at their savings, they could have gone one of two ways: walk into a boutique and leave with a trophy on their wrist, or bet every cent on a dream to build the "perfect" everyday watch that didn't yet exist. They chose the latter. C5 Field Bla...
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