2,635 articles · 2,000 videos found · page 43 of 155
The Rolex chronograph born on the racetrack. History, references and specs.
The first self-winding waterproof wristwatch with a date window - and the reference Rolex.
The 1953 Rolex diver. James Bond's watch and the template every dive watch copies.
Founder of Rolex (1905) and Tudor (1946). Invented the Oyster case and the Perpetual rotor.
Time+Tide
Has Seiko completely stolen Rolex's thunder by collaborating with Pepsi on some real 'Pepsi bezel' watches - that are less than $1,000?The post Forget GMT-Masters: Seiko has officially teamed up with Pepsi appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Quill & Pad
Thanks to its bezel, as Dietmar W. Fuchs explains, the diver's watch is a much more versatile timepiece than many people think. Aside from teaching you how to use it on land, in the skies, and under water, here he answers the perennial question of who made the first true diver's watch: Blancpain, Rolex, or Panerai.
Worn & Wound
Usually when watchmakers brag about space cred, they bring up models that have gone to space or that are made of rocks from space or that take inspiration from the solar system. Zach Smith has them all beat: the Ohio-based horological craftsman makes aerospace engineering components (among other things) at his workshop, Hour Precision. Smith had hoped from the start that Hour Precision would make watches, and found along the way the machines and expertise you need to machine intricate watch movement pieces translate well to making parts for semiconductors, medical equipment, and, of course, aerospace components. That move into non-horological industries came relatively recently for Smith, however. Before the micro-machining and before he founded Hour Precision, Smith was a high-school-aged watch enthusiast who landed a job in a jewelry school. “I was fixing heart rate monitor watches. There was a brand called Polar before the Apple Watch that made fitness watches, and I started off doing that and then moved,” said Smith. “My boss at the time was selling pre-owned Rolex. He would buy product from walk-ins and from other suppliers and refurbish the Rolex watches, polish them, etc., and then sell them. After a while where I was doing well with the Polar watches, he asked me if I wanted to start doing that.” Zach Smith, front left, upon graduation from watchmaking school. Image courtesy Zach Smith @zachsmiami From there, Smith moved to another store that processed betw...
Worn & Wound
Vintage watches remain ever popular in the watch collector’s journey. There are serious collectors who remain focused on buying only vintage. Since the pandemic, my inbox has been flooded with auction houses and vintage dealers trying to one-up each other by selling the most curated “once in a lifetime” or most expensive vintage piece. I have nothing against the sellers and buyers, especially if they can vouch for the authenticity and pay for the repairs, they deserve my appreciation. Personally, I am apprehensive of owning vintage watches at my current point of collecting. I owned a few vintage watches in my early days as a collector, most of them were bargain finds on eBay that eventually stopped working or I ended up trading, except for one expensive Rolex Datejust that had to be serviced. Ultimately, service on the Datejust was as expensive as the watch, including Rolex replacing the dial to a different color which I hated and ended up selling for a loss. I know it was a rookie mistake, but that was the end of vintage watches for me. After that experience, I stuck to buying either new watches from retailers or pre-owned watches from other collectors. As it happened, my work took me to Germany often, and there I discovered a whole new world of neo-vintage watches. Before I get deeper into what specific “affordable” neo-vintage watches a couple of my collector friends and I recommend, I should briefly define what neo-vintage watches are and why they are easier ...
Fratello
A few weeks ago, Rolex invited me to attend the World Endurance Championships 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. This series, which also includes the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans, took place on May 10th in Belgium. Hypercars and GT3 racing cars compete for six hours at this beautiful track. This year’s winning car was a […] Visit Visiting The 6 Hours Of Spa-Francorchamps And A Talk With Tom “Mr. Le Mans” Kristensen to read the full article.
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Monochrome
With all attention focused on Watches & Wonders Geneva 2025 last month (one of the most important industry events of the year), it’s important to remember that some very interesting events also take place in the United States, such as Windup Watch Fair and WatchTime New York. You won’t see the likes of Rolex or […]
Quill & Pad
The good news is that if you’re in the market for a pre-owned watch from a manufacturer that’s not Rolex, Patek, or AP, you’re probably getting a better deal today than at any point in the past five years.
SJX Watches
Topping A. Lange & Söhne’s 2025 line-up is the Minute Repeater Perpetual. Featuring a compact platinum case and black enamel dial, the new flagship watch of the Saxonia line marks the first time Lange has combined these two classic complications on their own. Limited to 50 pieces in platinum, the Repeater Perpetual is positioned near the top of the current catalogue. Beyond the technical complexity, it’s been endowed with an exceptional white gold and black enamel dial crafted in-house, and features the frosted movement finish that’s often reserved for the brand’s special editions. Initial thoughts It’s always nice to see a brand cover new ground, especially when that ground is the tried-and-true combination of a minute repeater and perpetual calendar. It’s an extravagant, decadent watch that combines one of the most legible perpetual calendar layouts with one of the industry’s most technically sophisticated minute repeaters. Beginning with its compact form, the Repeater Perpetual packs 640 components inside a platinum case that’s just 40.5 mm wide and 12.5 mm thick; roughly the same dimensions as a Rolex Submariner. It features an enamel dial in deep black, which is always a risk, since even the tiniest imperfections tend to stand out vividly. A cynic might point out that the new calibre L122.2 is largely a mashup of a Langematik Perpetual and Richard Lange Minute Repeater, but to do so would be to miss the point. The movement is everything Lange does be...
Worn & Wound
Hey, nobody’s perfect. From time to time, all of us make mistakes. Watch collecting is a wonderful hobby, but it’s also complicated and full of decision points, and that means that eventually, you’ll simply screw up. What makes a mistake a mistake, though, depends on your individual collecting goals, timing, and how much you actually bothered by the consequences of picking the wrong watch or just thinking about these things in a particular way. We asked our contributors to tell us about their biggest watch collecting mistakes, and their submissions include tales of specifics watches that immediately filled them with regret, as well as how changing views of the hobby itself led to understanding they were doing it wrong from the start. Don’t be shy, this is a safe space: let us know what your biggest watch collecting mistakes are in the comments below. Zach Kazan Mistakes? I’ve made a few. One of the most common maxims in our hobby is that you don’t really collect watches in the first few years you’re involved in all this, you’re just making mistakes and figuring out what you really like. When I look back at the early years of my watch enthusiasm, it looks nothing like where I’m at now. I never could have predicted how my interests would shift, and how my collecting priorities would change. I mean, there was a time in my collecting life when I thought it would be unthinkable to not have a Rolex in the watch box at all times. I was that guy! Really! Than...
Time+Tide
Charitable festivities, a bunch of new APs, Leonardo DiCaprio joins the Rolex fam and a new MoonSwatch - all in a week's worth of days!The post The Horological Society of New York and Christie’s team up for their 2025 Charity Auction appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
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![[VIDEO] Owner’s Review: the Vertex M60 Aqualion ND](https://wornandwound.com/library/uploads/2025/02/Vertex-Owners-Review-22.jpg)
Worn & Wound
“If you’ve heard the phrase ‘one-watch guy,’ you’re likely far beyond being one.” I’ve used that line a lot the last few years. In the last decade, the collective watch community has evangelized the ‘one-watch guy,’ transforming the concept from a simple idea into a lionized ideal rooted in the days when the Don Drapers of the world would get home from work, roll up their sleeves, and mow the lawn in cordovan loafers, Oxford cloth shirts, and a 4-digit Rolex. For better or for worse (honestly, mostly for better), we don’t live in that world anymore. Start looking around, and you’ll quickly realize that the modern one-watch guy is far more likely to own an Apple Watch or Garmin than a 1016. And yet, the theory of the ‘one-watch guy’ continues to permeate, no doubt helped along by people like me who keep writing story intros like this one. There’s a romantic simplicity to the idea; a sense that, if a collector can somehow encapsulate their taste into a single watch, they have achieved the ultimate in collecting prowess, or at least some advanced level of enthusiast zen. Generally, ‘zen’ is not a word I would use to describe myself, and I’m certainly not a one-watch guy, but I can understand why the concept holds appeal. In collecting, as in so many things, constraint can be a gift, forcing our own perspective into stark relief and keeping us accountable to our taste. From that perspective, a one-watch collection is the ultimate constraint, a...
Worn & Wound
There was a time not too long ago when hearing the name “Bamford” conjured images of customized luxury watches of all stripes, sometimes with a level of taste that would make many enthusiasts sneer. That’s the nature of custom watches, though. The designs come from the mind of the owner as much as the customizer, and hardcore enthusiasts have really never been too keen on modifying, for example, stainless steel Rolex sports watches. So the fact that Bamford is now synonymous not with custom tweaked watches (although they still do this, primarily with LVMH brands) but affordable and accessible watches geared directly toward the enthusiast market is a turn that few would have predicted a decade or so ago. But it seems to be a reflection of where Bamford Watch Department’s founder George Bamford’s interests really lie. Their latest is perhaps the brand’s most ambitious creation to date. After gaining steam over the past few years with a series of well received character watches (including a number of whimsical GMTs), Bamford has pivoted to a new dive watch concept featuring a ceramic case and a bunch of little design details that make it stand out. The new D-300 diver is available in a total of four colors: white, black, navy and green. The ceramic bit here is actually an outer shell around a titanium core, a method of case construction widely used in the watch industry that helps strengthen the case and also control costs (these watches come in at $1,950). The ...
Fratello
Working at Fratello has its perks. One of them is that, on rare occasions, we get access to our absolute grail watches. I had such an experience just a few months ago when I spent time with a Rolex Submariner ref. 5508. Today, I get yet another such opportunity. It’s my pleasure to go hands-on […] Visit Meeting My Grail: The A. Lange & Söhne 1815 Chronograph to read the full article.
SJX Watches
The Oregon High Desert might seem like a strange place to find a watchmaker, but if you happen to stop in Bend, the region’s largest city with about 100,000 residents, you’ll have a chance of running into Keaton Myrick. Inspired by the likes of George Daniels and Philippe Dufour, Mr Myrick produces largely handmade watches in small numbers for connoisseurs of independent watchmaking. Setting up shop this far from the robust supplier networks of Switzerland has proven challenging, but Mr Myrick’s story of overcoming these headwinds reveals a degree of resilience and independence that embodies the spirit of the American West. We’ve been following Mr Myrick’s career for more than a decade, profiling him in 2013 after he debuted his first watch at Baselworld 2012. Now delivering the final pieces of his 1 of 30 series, Mr Myrick has moved into a new, larger workshop and evolved many of his manufacturing processes, so we thought it was worth a visit to see what’s in store for the future of watchmaking in the Pacific Northwest. A later example from the ‘1 in 30’ series. Origins As you might have guessed, Bend, Oregon is not a hotbed for watchmaking. In Mr Myrick’s case, pursuing a career in watchmaking meant relocating across the country to study at the Lititz Watch Technicum (LWT) in Pennsylvania, where he became WOSTEP-certified and began his stint at Rolex, working in after-sales service and restoration. The founder at his bench. But it was not long before ...
Worn & Wound
If 2024 was defined by the rise of shaped cases and stone dials, it appears that 2025 is starting off with more of the same. Last year, Toledano & Chan had an unexpected hit with their debut watch, the B/1, which was a contemporary riff on the classic Rolex King Midas and similar avant garde designs, with a Brutalist inspired case shape and on-trend lapis lazuil dial. Now, for the brand’s second serialized release (they produced a pair of one-offs for auction last year with cases crafted from carbon and meteorite) they’ve made a handful of subtle refinements to the original idea, added a mother-of-pearl dial, and introduced a dramatic, faceted crystal. It’s a more complex idea but shows in clear terms how the brand might grow with future releases, showing that they have plenty of tricks left up their sleeve and intend to keep their momentum going. The new watch, dubbed the B/1.2, prominently features an asymmetrical sapphire crystal that echoes the lines of the angular case. Faceted and asymmetrical crystals are rare in watchmaking. Production of crystals in unusual shapes, particularly when made from sapphire, is challenging and expensive. Perhaps even more importantly, a crystal with facets will distort, to some degree, whatever is viewed through it, which is not ideal for time telling. It’s perhaps especially not ideal for time telling on a watch with a dial that does not include markers or numerals of any kind, like the B/1.2. But that underscores the whole...
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Time+Tide
Are non-Rolex watches becoming more mainstream, or is it a case of comedians becoming more horologically aware? The post Comedians may make jokes for a living, but they take watch collecting very seriously appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Time+Tide
Quartz can be cool, and these super collectable models from Rolex to MoonSwatch prove just how cool it can be.The post The most collectable quartz watches to annoy the snobs appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
SJX Watches
Perhaps the most surprising moment of the fall auction season in Geneva was when the hammer came down on an MoonSwatch at Christie’s for CHF69,300 including fees – exactly the same as a Rolex GMT-Master II “SARU” that sold later in the day. But as is almost always the case with record prices at auction, there was a story behind the price and a method to the madness. The MoonSwatch was the unique “millionth” example conceived specifically for this auction, where all proceeds went to ELA, a French medical charity. The ELA sale was spearheaded by Francois-Henri Pinault, the chief of Kering, the luxury conglomerate that owns Christie’s, and certainly one of the most influential people in the luxury goods business. Sitting in the room and opening the sale was Mr Pinault’s fellow trustee at ELA, Zinedine Zidane, the French footballer better known as Zizou who’s regarded as one of the all-time best players and coaches. Christie’s auctioneer Rahul Kadakia with Zizou. Image – Christie’s Bidding via phone, the winning bidder of the MoonSwatch – which sold for over 150 times the retail price – announced to the room via a Christie’s rep that his winning bid was for “ELA and Zizou”. It was clearly a statement that he or she would have paid up for whatever watch was on sale, regardless if it was plastic or precious metal. It was a good deed done that was no bearing on the MoonSwatch or watches in general. To the moon MoonSwatch aside, the season was pos...
Monochrome
The easiest and cheapest way to customize your watch is, without a doubt, by swapping the original (often boring) strap for a more personal aftermarket one – like we have in the MONOCHROME Shop. In a more complex and far more expensive way, vintage Rolex Sub and GMT collectors have long played the game of […]
Time+Tide
Rolex, Richard Mille, IWC, and Patek Philippe are all on the table. But Brady's AP is the hot topic...The post Is Tom Brady about to be in horological hot water with Audemars Piguet? appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
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Worn & Wound
I’d be hard-pressed to name a watch more iterated upon in the last few years than Zodiac’s Sea Wolf. The retro-inspired diver has been at the heart of a true brand renaissance and was at the forefront of the vintage revival movement that has so characterized the watch world over the last decade. Today, Zodiac is looking back to one of its earliest dive watches with the new Zodiac Super Sea Wolf Ref. 691. There is, as with most things watch-related and pre-internet, some debate as to the initial launch date of the Zodiac Sea Wolf, but regardless of the date, there’s no doubt that Zodiac released the Sea Wolf as part of the first wave of dive watches back in the 1950s, but while watches like the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, Rolex Submariner, and Omega Seamaster 300 soared (or dove), the Sea Wolf fell into the background - obscured to all but the most devoted watch enthusiasts alongside other early generation dive watches like the Eterna Kon-Tiki and Enicar Sherpa-Dive. By the time I got into watches in the early 2010s, the Zodiac Sea Wolf was one of the great secrets of the enthusiast world. Great examples could be had for a few hundred bucks, so for not much money, you could have a great-looking vintage dive watch with some real history. That all started to change when Zodiac, under the larger umbrella of Fossil Group, revived the Sea Wolf in 2015. The Zodiac Sea Wolf was immediately brought to the center of the horological world and has continued to stay relevant in t...
Worn & Wound
There seems to be a clear correlation between watch enthusiasts and cinephiles. From Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Seiko H558-5009 (mentioned in one of my previous articles) to Marlon Brando’s bezel-less Rolex GMT Master 1675, watches and their film counterparts have been the focus of discussion in the watch collector space for years. While an Arnie will cost you around $500 and 1675s over $10k, pieces of film history can be obtained by hobbyists of all tax brackets. However, even the several hundred-dollar price for a girthy Seiko diver may still be out of the price range for many collectors who find the allure of Hollywood memorabilia sitting in their watch case to be intriguing. Enter the Timex Camper. In the opening sequence of Ethan and Joel Coen’s 2007 masterpiece film No Country for Old Men, protagonist Llewelyn Moss (played by Josh Brolin) tracks game animals across the West Texas plains. He bends down on one knee, takes his watch out, and holds it to the sun––attempting to use the shadows of the handset on the dial to track his direction. The audience fortunately gets a few frames of the watch on screen. What’s shown is a Timex Camper, dark green, with a matching fabric strap. It’s rather small in the shot, but us collectors will take whatever wristwatch screen time we can get. The Camper’s aesthetics obviously differentiate it from the aforementioned Arnie and 1675, but its most important trait for us is its price. For well under $100––commonly li...
Fratello
Rolex surprised us all when the brand launched a Submariner with a green bezel in 2003. The stainless steel Sub was steadily monochromatic during the five preceding decades, so this was a bit of a shocker. The model was soon nicknamed “Kermit.” More than two decades later, it seems green is here to stay. We […] Visit Comparing Green-Bezel, Black-Dial Subs: 16610LV “Kermit” Vs. 126610LV “Starbucks” to read the full article.
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
Ever since humans began exploring the ocean’s depths, watch companies have been creating timepieces capable of withstanding the pressures of SCUBA diving. In the 1950s and 60s, companies like Blancpain, Rolex, and Omega raced to create watches with the greatest water resistance. However, a small collaborative brand outdid them all with a watch capable of reaching a depth of 1000 meters. It took Rolex well into the next decade before they made a watch that could go beyond that. One of those collaborators was Ollech & Wajs, and the legendary timepiece was named the Caribbean 1000. Roughly thirty years later, when the internet was still in its early stages, if you were searching the web for dive watches, there’s a good chance you came across New Old Stock (NOS) Caribbean 1000 watches by Ollech & Wajs or Jenny. In its heyday, O&W; produced nearly 10,000 watches per year. There were still quite a few unused watches available, and collectors were thrilled to have access to them. Despite barely surviving the quartz crisis of the 1970s, Albert Wajs remained in charge until 2017, when the brand was sold to Charles Le Menestrel. Since then, the brand has been revived with reimagined models from the past, such as the Caribbean. To celebrate its 60th anniversary, O&W; is launching the most authentic reproduction of the original Caribbean 1000 to date, the C-1000 A. From its short, triangle-shaped lugs, affectionately referred to as ‘Vampire fangs’ by collectors, to its narrow 12...
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