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3,215 articles · 305 videos found · page 32 of 118

TAG Heuer’s Split-Seconds Goes High Tech with Laser Sintering SJX Watches
TAG Heuer s Split-Seconds Goes High Nov 19, 2025

TAG Heuer’s Split-Seconds Goes High Tech with Laser Sintering

TAG Heuer flexes its research and development muscles again with the performance-oriented Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph Air 1. Using the iconic square chronograph as a base, the brand’s engineers took inspiration from its Formula 1 partnership to explore new manufacturing techniques for this 30-piece limited edition that boasts an ultra-light, hollowed-out 18k gold case fabricated with laser additive manufacturing. Initial thoughts The original Monaco from Heuer remains one of the more enduring chronograph designs, with the storied past and distinctive square form. It is refreshing to see TAG Heuer using it as a base for newer, technologically-oriented pieces. This new limited edition takes the already-supercharged crystallised titanium split-seconds released earlier this year and reimagines the square case. The result is a honeycomb-patterned case that is surprisingly lightweight for the size and material. The complex and layered construction of the Air 1, here in an exploded view. The team at TAG Heuer employed a new additive manufacturing technique with the goal of a sturdy yet remarkably light chronograph. Keeping in mind that gold is a dense (thus heavy) metal, making a watch that qualifies as “lightweight” is usually incompatible with including the precious alloy. Here the engineers came up with a way to reduce the volume of gold used, while keeping the components’ sturdiness intact. The timepiece itself can be a little much in terms of styling, with the ...

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Elemental Beauty: Exotic Stone Dials for the Biver Automatique SJX Watches
Piaget stone dials have outgrown Nov 19, 2025

Elemental Beauty: Exotic Stone Dials for the Biver Automatique

Stone dials have become an increasingly visible trend in recent years; once rare, they are now widespread. Yet most rely on a handful of familiar minerals such as malachite, lapis lazuli, and tiger’s eye, leaving little room for novelty. Biver has taken a different approach with the Automatique, offering a far broader and more exotic palette of materials that includes mahogany obsidian, quartzite, and lavender jade-alongside traditional enamel dials crafted by Geneva’s leading specialists. While the new dials take centre stage, the Automatique itself is largely unchanged, and still features one of the most technically interesting movements in the genre of high-end time-only watches. Initial thoughts Mineral stone dials seem to be everywhere these days. Once the domain of brands like Piaget, stone dials have outgrown their niche and become common enough that a cottage industry of suppliers has emerged to supply them at nearly all price points; even Timex offers malachite dials. But most brands are using the same handful of stone types like malachite, tiger’s eye, lapis lazuli, and other semi-precious, but actually quite common, minerals. This is where Biver goes its own way, offering a diverse and unusual selection of stone and enamel dials, along with a few ‘ordinary’ dials for more conservative collectors. In total, 11 new references join the collection, and each has the option for a precious metal bracelet that matches the case material. As a watch, the Autom...

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Ressence Introduces a Type 1° with a Touch of Gold for Dubai Watch Week Worn & Wound
Ressence Introduces Nov 18, 2025

Ressence Introduces a Type 1° with a Touch of Gold for Dubai Watch Week

Dubai Watch Week is here, and with it, so are a lot of new watches. Ressence is marking the moment with a new limited edition take on their Type 1°, pairing what is maybe the most core model in their lineup with a rose gold-plated dial to create something that feels both familiar and novel all at once. Produced in a limited edition of 70 pieces worldwide, this is the Ressence Type 1°RG. Ressence, as a brand, is many things to many people. For some, it’s a colorful, exuberant exploration of the fun side of independent watches - a very high-end G-SHOCK of sorts, a balm for the soul weighed down far too often by the staid and serious watches that so often clog our Instagram feeds. For others, Ressence is that staid, serious watch; a brand pushing to the extremes of what a watch can be, exploring not just the complexities of modern watchmaking, but challenging the very nature of how time can be displayed and perceived. Naturally, each of these slightly pretentiously phrased extremes captures only a part of the whole; like most things, the reality of Ressence falls somewhere in the middle of these two perspectives. Still, Ressence is a brand that deservedly invites interest, and this latest release is no exception. In practice, the Type 1° is the prototypical Ressence, a pretty straightforward summation of what it takes to be a Ressence watch, and, as such, it has often served as a platform for the brand to play with its own aesthetic. In the past, we’ve seen Ressence ...

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Teddy Baldassarre Launches His First Watch Collaboration: a Brew Metric Worn & Wound
Brew Metric Teddy Baldassarre Nov 18, 2025

Teddy Baldassarre Launches His First Watch Collaboration: a Brew Metric

Teddy Baldassarre is a name that likely needs little context or introduction for many in our audience. What began as a YouTube channel focused on a discussion of watches has grown into a great deal more over the last several years. Teddy is an authorized retailer of over 50 brands, and has opened a flagship boutique in his home city of Cleveland, OH. He and his growing team are also a regular presence at industry watch events, where they provide coverage and insight on everything happening in a rapidly changing industry. Up until today, however, there was one right of passage in our shared watch ecosystem that they had not yet taken part in: the special edition collaborative watch. That changes today with the launch of the Brew Metric Teddy Baldassarre Edition.  Brew, for their part, is no stranger to the collaboration game. We’ve partnered with Brew ourselves on a handful of limited edition releases, including the “Lumint” from earlier this year. A Brew collaboration is always an interesting endeavor because brand founder Jonathan Ferrer’s designs can take on so many different forms and personalities with small changes to color, texture, and tone.  For the Teddy Baldassarre Edition of the Metric, Teddy and Jonathan have chosen to experiment with tones of blue. The dial is a dark, nearly navy shade of blue, and the tone alternates from light to dark across the subdials and handset.  There are a number of other little details on this edition that have been tweake...

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First Look – The New Parmigiani Tonda PF Minute Rattrapante with an Arctic Rose Dial Monochrome
Parmigiani Fleurier s turnaround orchestrated Nov 18, 2025

First Look – The New Parmigiani Tonda PF Minute Rattrapante with an Arctic Rose Dial

Parmigiani Fleurier’s turnaround, orchestrated by CEO Guido Terreni, is remarkable because it has been achieved on the back of one collection: the Tonda PF. Introduced just four years ago, the Tonda PF family now accounts for 85% of the brand’s sales. Often described as the brand’s luxury sports watch with an integrated bracelet, the adjective […]

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First Look – A New Grained-Copper Dial for the Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Collection Monochrome
Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Collection Nov 17, 2025

First Look – A New Grained-Copper Dial for the Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Collection

Designing a classic dress watch is probably the most challenging assignment for any designer, as it requires striking a balance between top-quality materials and finishes, an elegant yet understated dial and a slim profile. Ticking all the boxes is Jaeger-LeCoultre’s classic Master Ultra Thin collection, a classy lineup of dress watches for men and women […]

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Worn & Wound
Timex Atelier Timex has been Nov 14, 2025

WU25 Panel: Exploring Timex Atelier

Timex has been a pillar in American watchmaking, and watchmaking as a whole, for nearly two centuries. But it feels like the last few years, the American brand has really upped their game in creating interesting, engaging watches that connect with both mainstream consumers and discerning enthusiasts. Timex Atelier is a major initiative and represents a design-forward, upmarket push. Worn & Wound’s Zach Weiss and Zach Kazan hosted a panel with Tobias Reiss-Schmidt, CEO of Timex Group and Giorgio Galli, designer at Timex to learn more about the inspiration behind Timex Atelier. View the keynote in video form below or read along with the provided transcript. The following conversation has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity. Zach Kazan: Hello, everybody. I’m Zach Kazan, Director of Editorial at Worn & Wound. Welcome to our second panel of the day, all about Timex Atelier. I’m thrilled to be joined by Tobias Reiss-Schmidt, CEO of Timex Group; Giorgio Galli, designer at Timex; and Zach Weiss, co-founder of Worn & Wound and a watch designer himself. Tobias, first question for you. Timex Atelier feels like a defining new chapter for the brand. Can you tell us how this idea took shape and what inspired its creation? Tobias Reiss-Schmidt: Thanks for having us. It’s a pleasure to be here and see so much interest in watches-and in Timex. Today, you’ll hear an Italian and a German talk about a Swiss-made watch from the oldest American watch company. That’s pretty...

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The Christopher Ward C1 Bel Canto Gets a Wild Lume Treatment with the New Lumiere Edition Worn & Wound
Christopher Ward C1 Bel Canto Gets Nov 14, 2025

The Christopher Ward C1 Bel Canto Gets a Wild Lume Treatment with the New Lumiere Edition

The Bel Canto, in its relatively short history, has proven to be a surprisingly versatile watch in the way it can wear different colors and accents. That’s a little surprising when you consider the fixed nature of the exposed chiming mechanism and the way this elements dominates the look of the watch. But color and especially texture can take the Bel Canto completely different directions, conjuring both contemporary “indie” aesthetics as well as something much more classical. The latest version of Christopher Ward’s C1 Bel Canto now dons the “Lumiere” designation that we first saw a year ago in the C60 Trident. Lume was a big part of the story with that C60 Trident, but it wasn’t the whole story as it is with the new Bel Canto, which here sees its most radical reinvention to date.  Obviously, this is one for the folks who are never without a high powered flashlight in their EDC. The C1 Bel Canto Lumiere is the most exotic interpretation of the platform yet. It’s built around a platine with a sunray pattern that is intricately coated with two shades of luminescent material. This effectively lights the “dial” of the watch from behind, and below the chiming mechanism. The time-telling ring is now a solid circle of high powered Globolight lume, where the current time is read with lume tipped hands. There are no numerals or indices on this Globolight ring, and I’m sure some will balk at the fact that we now just have an approximation of the time to refere...

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Driving Design: An Audi Enthusiast Finds His Place in the Watch Community Worn & Wound
Nov 13, 2025

Driving Design: An Audi Enthusiast Finds His Place in the Watch Community

Joey is a pianist, watch collector, and Volkswagen/Audi enthusiast.  Joey and I met as many watch enthusiasts do; overhearing a wrist check conversation and nudging our individual ways into it at the same time. Of course, this conversation was also at a car show, which served as the catalyst for this eventual article, and over the course of six months, a real friendship forged through timepieces and an Audi TT RS.  A San Francisco native with an eye for custom style, Joey naturally started his car journey with custom Volkswagens. “From the specific years you bought, how you lowered it, interior to the color scheme you could tell you were from San Francisco,” he says, motioning to a VW Kharmann Ghia across the sea of car enthusiasts that we stand distanced from on a warm and clear Sunday morning in September. Family and friends modified air-cooled V-Dubs, introducing him to the art of modifying cars-a topic that remains contentious among enthusiasts, some of whom prefer to keep their classic machines stock, in stark opposition to the hot rodders and lowriders of the scene.  A fleeting glance of a late-model Volkswagen Scirocco 16V in Brilliant Black kickstarted Joey’s personal pursuit of vehicular perfection, but his first automotive love was that car’s little brother. “I ended up going to the local dealer and bought a Mk2 big bumper Jetta GLI with the 2.0L bubble-block 16V instead”, Joey admits, showing a hint of his present self’s penchant for practical...

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Hands On: Double-Faced Grand Comps for Vacheron Constantin’s 270th SJX Watches
Vacheron Constantin s 270th Marking Nov 13, 2025

Hands On: Double-Faced Grand Comps for Vacheron Constantin’s 270th

Marking its 270th anniversary, Vacheron Constantin (VC) has celebrated in grand style, exemplified by the year’s latest, a pair of double-dial grand complications: Les Cabinotiers Cosmica Duo and Les Cabinotiers Moon Dust. Initial thoughts Each of the new Les Cabinotiers watches expresses a different facet of VC’s watchmaking identity. The Cosmica Duo stands out as a true wrist-worn observatory, combining 24 astronomical indications with a reversible construction that makes it unusually wearable for its complexity, while the baguette-set Moon Dust translates horological ambition into pure jewellery, with hundreds of diamonds framing a movement that remains uncompromisingly mechanical. As a group, these watches reinforce the idea that VC’s greatest strength lies in synthesis. Few manufactures can move so fluidly between engineering precision and artistic refinement, or treat engraving, gem-setting, and chiming mechanisms as parallel forms of expression. As unique pieces, pricing is largely outside the scope of this hands-on evaluation. As is typical for VC’s bespoke Les Cabinotiers department, each watch was almost certainly developed in close collaboration with its eventual owner, making them more commissions than catalogue items. Their value, therefore, lies not only in their material complexity but also in the fact that each represents a personal chapter in the continuing story of Geneva’s oldest watchmaker. The layered architecture of the Cosmica Duo. Image ...

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First Look – Nomos Goes Gold, With Precious Editions of the Tangente Neomatik and Ludwig Monochrome
Nomos Goes Gold Nov 13, 2025

First Look – Nomos Goes Gold, With Precious Editions of the Tangente Neomatik and Ludwig

When you think about Nomos, besides the cool designs and youthful take on classic German watchmaking from Glashütte, you often picture a nice, relatively attainable watch in stainless steel. There are, of course, several higher-end models in the collection, such as the Lux and Lambda, and sometimes more luxurious special editions in gold, as recently […]

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Czapek Celebrates Ten Years with the All New Time Jumper Worn & Wound
Czapek Celebrates Ten Years Nov 12, 2025

Czapek Celebrates Ten Years with the All New Time Jumper

We’re heading into a big new release period as much of the watch industry descends on Geneva for the upcoming GPHG awards ceremony, and then heads to Dubai for the Dubai Watch Week festivities. There’s sure to be a ton of news made in the next two weeks as this year’s best watches receive their flowers and we get a first look at many of the new novelties that will close out the year as head into the holiday rush, and tempt us for 2026. Czapek, the Swiss indie best known for their Antarctique line of integrated bracelet sports watches, is first out of the gate among higher end independents with a new novelty just announced today. The Time Jumper is an audacious new piece made to celebrate the brand’s tenth anniversary, reaching back into Czapek’s roots before the current incarnation of the brand was incorporated, and also putting a new spin on a complication that has been all the rage this year.  When I first heard that Czapek would be releasing something new and splashy to celebrate their tenth anniversary, my mind immediately began wondering “I wonder what kind of Antarctique they’ve come up with?” I should not have been so cynical, but it’s an unavoidable fact that the brand has really leaned into the popularity of the integrated bracelet sports watch platform since the first of these watches was introduced around five years ago. There have, of course, been many iterations, limited editions, and complications, and it probably would have been easy enoug...

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Introducing – Roger Dubuis is Back to Classic Designs, with the new Hommage La Placide Perpetual Calendar Monochrome
Roger Dubuis Nov 12, 2025

Introducing – Roger Dubuis is Back to Classic Designs, with the new Hommage La Placide Perpetual Calendar

For many years, you’ve probably known Roger Dubuis for its bold, angular watches with openworked movements and tourbillon(s), most of them under the Excalibur collection. And while most are technically very impressive, this isn’t exactly the style that Mister Dubuis defined when he created the brand in the mid-1990s. The earliest watches, known as the […]

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Interview: Marc Michel-Amadry, Managing Director of Girard-Perregaux SJX Watches
Girard-Perregaux Appointed Managing Director Nov 11, 2025

Interview: Marc Michel-Amadry, Managing Director of Girard-Perregaux

Appointed Managing Director of Girard-Perregaux (GP) in early 2025, Marc Michel-Amadry has over two decades of leadership experience spanning both the auction world and fine watchmaking. A former head of Sotheby’s Switzerland and Chief Commercial Officer of IWC, he steps into the role at a pivotal moment for GP, which has spent the past three years refining its identity as an independent brand, alongside its sister brand Ulysse Nardin in the Sowind Group. I sat down with Mr Michel-Amadry not long after he took office to discuss what he has in store. Our conversation touched on the enduring relevance of the Laureato, the renewed importance of in-house innovation, and his plans to restore GP to its former glory. The interview was edited for length and clarity. SJX: You’ve covered a wide range of the industry, having worked with niche brands, major brands, and big groups. Tell us how you ended up at GP. MMA: People often tell me I don’t have a typical career path. Usually, you start somewhere and stay within the same group. But for me, every step has to have a purpose. I’ve always wanted to work for a brand that means something. By coincidence, I was born in La Chaux-de-Fonds - the home of GP. It’s a brand I’ve always followed. I met Luigi Macaluso early in my career and was struck by the sophistication and beauty of the brand. Beyond its know-how and history, GP has always expressed its own design because everything is in-house. Luigi “Gino” Macaluso, forme...

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Why Watches Use IIII Roman Numerals Instead Of IV Teddy Baldassarre
Nov 10, 2025

Why Watches Use IIII Roman Numerals Instead Of IV

Watches with Roman numerals on the dial are among the most stylish and classically elegant of timepieces, despite the fact that most of them have what we might today refer to as an egregious typo. Then again, it’s not really a typo if it’s intentional, right? And the use of a "IIII" in place of the standard Roman numeral "IV" is clearly a conscious decision, as it's been commonplace for centuries. In this article, we offer some possibilities as to why. As anyone familiar with the Roman alphabet knows - and nowadays that probably includes anyone who pays attention to Super Bowl advertising - the Arabic numerals 1, 2, and 3 are rendered, respectively, as I, II, and III, but the format changes with the numeral 4, which is rendered as “IV,” and 5, which is simply “V.” Without getting too bogged down in an ancient alphabetization lesson, the first three numerals after zero (and after 5) are additive, while the one before the next major character, representing 5, is subtractive: “IV” stands for 4 because it’s five (V) minus one (I). And yet, take a glance at just about any watch dial, or clock dial, for that matter, that uses Roman numerals to denote its hours and most often you will find not a “IV” but a “IIII” - the so-called “clockmaker’s 4,” which differs from the Roman numeral we’re familiar with today.  Making watches, as any aficionado knows, is one of the most meticulous, time-intensive, and detail-oriented pursuits in the world...

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Les Must de Cartier: The Misunderstood Entry-Level Cartier Teddy Baldassarre
Cartier Nov 10, 2025

Les Must de Cartier: The Misunderstood Entry-Level Cartier

The Cartier of today is undeniably a symbol of luxury and has strategically manufactured that imagery. From its quintessential deep red boxes with gold filigree border to its looping cursive script, even before you get to the object itself, whether it be jewelry or a watch, the brand has carefully crafted the entire experience of its product to position it as such. But today, we’re taking a look at an anomaly in the maison’s past, for which Cartier descended from its luxurious heights to extend its hand to the mass market. Les Must de Cartier is representative of a pivotal time in the history of watchmaking, and its contrasting accessibility played a crucial role in the maison’s longevity and its ability to weather shifting market trends. Down below, I’ll be walking you through how Must de Cartier came to be, some significant design codes, how the line has reemerged after its discontinuation, and share some musings and philosophical ponderings about this strange chapter in Cartier’s history.    Les Must de Cartier Context From its relatively humble beginnings as a local, artisanal jewelry workshop in 1847, by the turn of the 20th century, Cartier had already established itself as a global luxury powerhouse, operating in London, New York, and Paris by 1909. Each independent branch of Cartier at this time was operated by a trio of Louis-François Cartier’s grandsons, and while they often collaborated, each location developed its own unique flair and catered to ...

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Review: Looking Forward (and Back) with the Vario Futurist Worn & Wound
Nov 10, 2025

Review: Looking Forward (and Back) with the Vario Futurist

Time travel doesn’t exist. I mean, maybe they did crack that code deep in an underground bunker on the east end of Long Island between the 1950s and 1980s during what’s known as the Montauk Project. Our civilian watch enthusiast selves will never know the truth. Admittedly, I’ve been rewatching The X-Files a little bit too much lately and recently camped out in the Camp Hero parking lot to do some fishing. Fortunately (I have ZERO desire to mess with that) the closest we can get to time travel is courtesy of watch brands like Vario. They’re making some seriously cool, vintage-inspired pieces that hit on nostalgic elements of classic watches while providing all the convenience of modern construction, movements, and water resistance. Really, you’re getting the best of both worlds – vintage looks paired with modern construction. Today, we’re looking at the Futurist. A new watch from the Singapore-based brand that features a 39mm case, old-school faceted crystal, and a unique crown position that really got me thinking about why the default position is somewhere around 3 o’clock. Let’s take a closer look at this green-dialed stunner.  Case The first thing I noticed about the Futurist is the lack of traditional crown placement. No, there’s no crown at 3 or even 4 o’clock. It’s positioned at the top of the case, nestled between the lugs at 12 o’clock. The wide, flat crown has textured edges that make it easy to manipulate. Simply pull it out, set the ti...

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Watches of the Navy SEALs: A History of Service Teddy Baldassarre
Nov 8, 2025

Watches of the Navy SEALs: A History of Service

Before getting into the watches of the Navy SEALs, it's worth establishing some context about these modern-day Spartans. Officially established in 1962, the Navy SEALs, one of the U.S. military’s most elite special operations units, has its origins in World War II, with the formation of organized maritime commando teams for covert reconnaissance of landing beaches and the mounting of coastal defenses. At first designated as Amphibious Scouts and Raiders, and later as Underwater Demolitions Teams (UDTs), the graduates of the Joint Expeditionary Base in Little Creek, Virginia served admirably in the European and Pacific Theater in the years following the 1942 attack on Pearl Harbor. In the Korean War that began in 1950, an expanded force of UDT operatives played a key role, turning their covert and demolition expertise to tunnels, bridges, and other coastal targets, as well as mine sweeping and infiltration.  With another Southeast Asian conflict heating up in Vietnam, President John F. Kennedy urged Congress to allocate more of the military budget to strengthen America’s capabilities in much-needed “unconventional warfare.” The result was the evolution of the UDTs and other special forces into guerrilla and anti-guerilla units that would be able to operate on “Sea, Air, and Land” - the Navy SEALs. SEAL team members, the first generation drawn from the ranks of the UDTs, were trained not only in amphibious activities but skills like hand-to-hand combat and hig...

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Introducing: The Studio Underd0g × Massena Lab 03Series Champagne & Caviar Fratello
Massena Lab 03Series Champagne & Caviar Nov 8, 2025

Introducing: The Studio Underd0g × Massena Lab 03Series Champagne & Caviar

The Studio Underd0g × Massena Lab 03Series Champagne & Caviar has just been uncorked, and it’s as spirited as its name suggests. This limited-edition monopusher chronograph merges Studio Underd0g’s tongue-in-cheek British design with William Massena’s connoisseur’s eye. The resulting watch celebrates excess. The dial blends the soft glow of champagne with the dark sheen of […] Visit Introducing: The Studio Underd0g × Massena Lab 03Series Champagne & Caviar to read the full article.

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Windup Watch Fair NYC 2025 Recap: Ten Years In and Still Breaking the Mold Worn & Wound
Christopher Ward Oris Nov 5, 2025

Windup Watch Fair NYC 2025 Recap: Ten Years In and Still Breaking the Mold

Ten years in, and the Windup Watch Fair still feels like a completely new way to interact with the watch industry. For three days in midtown Manhattan, Center415 transformed from a sleek Fifth Avenue venue into the living, breathing heart of watch enthusiast culture. No velvet ropes, no VIP lists-just open doors, multiple halls full of watches, and a community that’s grown from a scrappy gathering of enthusiasts into one of the most important fixtures on the watch industry’s calendar, with over 11,000 attendees. This year marked the fair’s tenth anniversary, and we didn’t celebrate quietly. We expanded the layout to four full halls, bringing together more than 140 brands from 17 countries. We’d like to sincerely thank our Lead Sponsors: Bremont, Bulova, Christopher Ward, Oris, and Shinola. Without these strong anchors this experience wouldn’t be free and open to everyone. We’d also like to express our gratitude to each and every brand who participated, bringing some of the most interesting watches and products to the event and continuing to nudge the industry forward! When guests arrived, they entered through the EDC Expo, presented by Topo Designs-an energetic reception area filled with the gear, tools, and accessories that round out modern enthusiast life: knives, pens, packs, and all the small essentials that speak the same design language as the watches themselves. Beyond that, three additional halls awaited, each blending independent and enthusiast b...

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In-Depth: Patek Philippe Ref. 1518 in Stainless Steel SJX Watches
Patek Philippe Ref 1518 Nov 5, 2025

In-Depth: Patek Philippe Ref. 1518 in Stainless Steel

Many superlatives have been ascribed to what might be the most valuable watch this fall auction season – the Patek Philippe ref. 1518 in stainless steel. Headlining Phillips’ upcoming auction in Geneva, the steel ref. 1518 is paradoxically extraordinary and ordinary all at once. As the first serially-produced perpetual calendar-chronograph wristwatch, the ref. 1518 is already a landmark Patek Philippe wristwatch, one that spawned a lineage that includes the refs. 2499, 3970, and 5970. And then there’s the ref. 1518 in steel – only four are known. The steel ref. 1518 has rarity, historical importance, and an eight-figure value; but on the wrist, this “holy grail” is compact, lightweight, and monochromatic, discreetly low-key. At a diminutive 35 mm in diameter, the ref. 1518 is small by today’s standards. The watch doesn’t look like much on the wrist from across a room; in fact, it isn’t immediately obvious to a layperson (or even a casual watch enthusiast) that the watch is worth more than most houses and vintage Ferraris. Yet the ref. 1518 in steel is appealing for many intellectual reasons: extreme rarity, historical lineage of the perpetual calendar chronograph, even sheer value. This is a trophy in many senses. Historically, the ref. 1518 was important even in its time. It was once Patek Philippe’s most complicated regular production wristwatch, and the steel ref. 1518 was likely the most expensive steel Patek Philippe when it was in the catalogue. ...

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The Yema Navygraf is the Latest Diver to get the Mother of Pearl Treatment Worn & Wound
Yema Nov 4, 2025

The Yema Navygraf is the Latest Diver to get the Mother of Pearl Treatment

There is something about mother-of-pearl that seems to be catching watchmakers’ eyes lately. While I highly doubt it has to do with the fact that “Mother of Pearl” is a phenomenal drag name, I can’t totally rule that out as a possibility. Instead, more likely, it has to do with the ease in which adding the iridescent substance onto an existing design gives it new personality without really reinventing the wheel. Case in point: Yema’s Navygraf Pearl. Undoubtedly, the Navygraf is a handsome watch. But, like a drag queen, sometimes it’s hard to describe something as both “handsome” and “pretty” simultaneously. At least, that was my first impression of this French-made watch. Using the classic dive watch model, like the Navygraf, and inlaying mother-of-pearl seemed, in a way, incongruous to the steely, masculine athleticism of the silhouette. But, upon examining the bezel and dial a little more closely, I’m more inclined to think this is less of a gimmick and more of a thematic appreciation for the beauty and sport that the ocean provides (unfortunately, I’m only speculating – the press release was more focused on the technical specs of this Navygraf). So, what are the specs? This is a thinner Navygraf variant, equipped with a micro-rotor caliber CMM.2, meaning that the 316L stainless steel case measuring 39mm, only clocks in at 9.75mm thickness. The CMM.2 caliber also promises around 70 hours of power reserve, making it suitable for any diving trips ...

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