Two Broke Watch Snobs
Glashütte, Nomos, and Buying A Watch Abroad
Firstly, I’d like to share my experience purchasing a new watch while abroad. Secondly, I want to analyze how and why one might purchase a watch while traveling.
3,435 articles · 9 videos found · page 53 of 115
Two Broke Watch Snobs
Firstly, I’d like to share my experience purchasing a new watch while abroad. Secondly, I want to analyze how and why one might purchase a watch while traveling.
Worn & Wound
Collective Horology, the private watch club/independent brand retailer/producer of thoughtful limited editions, is back with their latest release in an ongoing series of collaborations. This time, they’re working with Montblanc, tapping into the brand’s association with the historic Minerva manufacture, maker of some of the most important chronograph calibers in the history of watchmaking. The 1858 Minerva Monopusher Chronograph “Blue Arrow” P.05 is a high end “What if…?” hypothetical come to life, and a great showcase for a truly special movement. As with all Collective limited editions, this one is something more than a reissue or a tweaked colorway. It exists to tell a specific story about the brand in a way that can often only be done from the outside. According to Collective, the seed of inspiration for the P.05 came from Eric Wind, or more specifically a watch in his case at the 2022 Windup Watch Fair. That year, Eric brought a Minerva stopwatch to the show, and it reminded Collective founders Gabe Reilly and Asher Rapkin of Minerva’s sporting roots, opening up a series of entirely new design possibilities. The 1858 Monopusher Chronograph that Collective and Montblanc came up with drew on the sportier design cues from that stopwatch, including the colors, finishing techniques, and the case material (robust stainless steel, of course). The end result is a chronograph that has many key vintage inspired design elements that are core to Montblanc and Mi...
Worn & Wound
This year, TAG Heuer’s new release strategy has largely centered around a rethinking of the classic Carrera. The introduction of the new “Glassbox” references at Watches & Wonders were a show favorite, and they’ve lingered with us in the months since as tasteful, wearable chronographs that make us think of all the things we like about vintage Carreras, but in a great contemporary package. Our meeting with TAG featured a bunch of Carreras that weren’t quite ready for mass consumption back in March, embargoed until later in the year. One was the Skipper that Blake reviewed here, and another is a new reference that dropped last week, made as part of the brand’s partnership with Porsche, that is among the most interesting (and strange) new chronographs I’ve encountered. It was perhaps the watch at Watches & Wonders that I wanted to talk about the most, but couldn’t, so I’m glad that it’s finally here, ready for its proverbial closeup. At first glance, the TAG Heuer Carrera Chronosprint x Porsche appears to be just another effort in co-branding. We’ve seen this before, of course – there was a very different Carrera introduced earlier this year with the Porsche treatment. But this isn’t your run of the mill Carrera – the movement has a party trick up its sleeve that I wasn’t expecting, and I don’t think has ever been done on a watch in quite this way. When you start the chronograph, the seconds hand jumps out of the gate very quickly, getting ab...
Revolution
Revolution
Worn & Wound
A few years ago, one of the most discussed topics on watch forums, Instagram, and indeed in the Worn & Wound office, was the huge opportunity and desire among enthusiasts for a new crop of affordable GMTs with local jumping hour capability. For a time, it seemed that small watch brands could not keep up with demand for so-called “caller” GMTs with independently set 24 hour hands, but these watches are in fact massively inconvenient for travel, even though, in most cases, they were marketed and sold as watches tailor made for crossing time zones. A watch with an hour hand that reads local time and can be jumped quickly without hacking the movement is the ultimate in terms of travel functionality (with or without the ability to track home time, in my opinion), and there was a time not too long ago where it was thought that a watch with this feature deployed by microbrands in watches under $1,000 might be nothing less than a paradigm shift in the hobby. Well, we’re fully there, folks. The Miyota 9075 exists, and has been popping up in new watches from some of our favorite small brands for the better part of a year, and now Lorier has dropped it into a pair of GMT equipped watches, finally making them the dedicated travel companions many hoped they could be. The Hyperion is what Lorier describes as “the archetypal GMT,” fitting a well established mold of classic travel watches by Rolex and others. It has deep vintage vibes, with a red and blue 24 hour bezel, gilt a...
Hodinkee
Ernest Shackleton's 1907 Nimrod expedition fell short of the South Pole, but this timepiece has survived the ages.
Revolution
Worn & Wound
The Seiko 5 Sports collection has made quite the impressive and industry-impacting run in its 55 years of existence. Within that time, we’ve seen a constant evolution of the collection with countless iterations of the Seiko 5 Sports watch. There has been a slew of limited edition pieces and special collaborations that displays the brand’s willingness to do something fun and different. There have been many “firsts” for the collection, as well as many returns to form. But no matter how much the collection has ebbed and flowed, the Seiko 5 Sports watch has a knack for finding its way into all of our collections. Whether you’re a veteran in the horology game or a rookie just getting started, a common thread will always be a Seiko 5. The collection continues to open many doors into the hobby, and for some, has kept them right in the thick of it with easy-going designs and models packed with tons of value. Today however, isn’t about the journey, but about where it all began in 1968 with the first ever Seiko 5 Sports watch. With this nostalgic release from Seiko, we get a faithful recreation of the OG diver built on the five pillar foundation from which the Seiko 5 gets its name – a sports watch containing an automatic movement, day-date display, water resistance, durable case and a recessed crown at four o’clock. The limited edition Seiko SRPK17 retains its 39.5mm steel cushion case with its distinguishable scalloped edge shaping the top and bottom. With a front-...
Hodinkee
When a 1-of-12 vintage Vacheron sells, it's time to stop talking trends to appreciate a rare watch.
Hodinkee
The brand pays tribute to old masters with beautiful white silver-plated dials and blued steel hands in its latest limited edition release.
Revolution
Hodinkee
We say Happy Birthday to the Italian icon that proves you can wear a watch and be glamorous all at once.
Hodinkee
With multiple treatments to chose from, Louis Cartier's iconic watch finally joins the Privé collection. And check out those bracelets!
Worn & Wound
There seem to be two strategies for product presentations at Watches & Wonders. The first, and more common, is to barrage members of the press with watch, after watch, after watch. Too many, sometimes, to even begin to comprehend the releases that really stand out. The other strategy, which is less common but might be growing in popularity, is to focus on a single watch, and really dive into it in great detail. That’s the approach taken by Ulysse Nardin this year with the Freak ONE, a new entry into the Freak ecosystem that sits somewhere between the Freak X, made for the most casual possible Freak-curious customer (I mean, it has a crown, it’s practically a normal watch), and the absolutely ludicrous Freak S, the pinnacle of Freak design and the most complicated watch Ulysse Nardin has made on the platform in its 20+ year history. History is at the center of the conversation with respect to the new Freak ONE. It’s a tribute, in some subtle ways, to the very first Freak, which Ulysee Nardin had on hand at the fair for the sake of comparison. Accents of gold in the Freak ONE are the most obvious connection besides general layout, common to all Freaks. But the gold here is perhaps more than just an “accent,” as we get not just a gold bezel (used for setting the time) but a solid gold movement on display at the center of the piece. The visible movement is very much the key to Freak, as it rotates around the dial (which isn’t really a “dial” in the traditiona...
Hodinkee
With a slightly redesigned case and bezel, too.
Hodinkee
Show us how much fun you can really have.
Hodinkee
Recapping North America's best vintage watch show in Miami and talking trends with those who were there.
Worn & Wound
Parmigiani Fleurier continues to iterate on their distinctive Tonda platform, dialing it in a bit further with each step, and the latest example of the Tonda PF 36mm is a near perfect distillation of the concept. We first saw the Tonda PF Micro-Rotor last year, and found a lot to love in the small details. We also found the dial to be expansive on the wrist, almost in its own way when it came to wearability thanks to the wide integrated bracelet. The Tonda PF in 36mm guise addresses nearly every issue we had with the Micro-Rotor, but welcomes a different movement in the process. The Tonda has come a long way, and this is the watch that has us most excited about its future. The modern Tonda PF is often mentioned in the same breath as contemporaries like the Vacheron 222, the Bulgari Octo Finissimo, the Chopard Alpine Eagle, the Girard-Perregaux Laureato… you get the idea, but I’d submit that this watch sits in a slightly different realm to those (also excellent) watches. The Tonda PF has a grace that’s lacking in most high-end integrated steel sport watches. In fact, I wouldn’t call the Tonda a PF a sports watch at all. This is leisure wear at its finest, and will look better than most dressed up to the nines. There is no pretense of adventure lifestyle behind the scenes with this one. The Tonda PF in 36mm confronts this fact head on, and kind of dares you to place it into any specific genre. This specific example features a “steel sand” colored dial that does...
Hodinkee
For the first time, the Offshore is fully back in black (ceramic, that is).
Hodinkee
Dial in the clouds and not a care in the world.
Worn & Wound
It’s an often repeated mantra around here: every year is an anniversary year. And if a watch brand is going to be successful in today’s hyper competitive market where, frankly, a lot of brands are offering products that are remarkably similar to one another, they need to differentiate themselves. And looking at a calendar, and figuring out how many years it’s been since “X” accomplishment or “Y” watch was first released is (usually) a decent runway for explaining what makes you special. To that end, Grand Seiko is embarking on what will apparently be a year of celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Caliber 9S, a movement which has become foundational to Grand Seiko in the decades since its debut. The Caliber 9S has become a broad family of movements over the years, as Grand Seiko has continuously refined the caliber, including adding GMT functionality. Grand Seiko has used the 9S movements as a platform for their MEMS engineering techniques, which allow for insanely tight tolerances in movement making for certain key components, and you could probably argue that 9S movements represent the most traditional watchmaking currently practiced by the brand. Today, 9S movements are universally known to be reliable and rock solid high frequency calibers that often perform even better than the specs would indicate. Most recently, the 9S served as the springboard for the creation of Grand Seiko’s next generation Hi-Beat movement, the 9SA5. While it might not be t...
Deployant
Parmigiani extends their very popular Tonda PF Automatic collection with a new smaller 36mm piece. Available in SS with plat bezel, or rose gold.
Hodinkee
How a humming movement changed wristwatches forever.
Hodinkee
I've been patiently waiting for a 1980's Formula 1 revival. Will it live up to my unreasonable expectations?
Hodinkee
Give me all the bezels.
Quill & Pad
Here are three of Sabine Zwettler's highlights premiering at the Inhorgenta 2022 watch fair in Munich, each of which comes from a German brand and each of which will do anything but break the bank.
Deployant
Vacheron Constantin re-issues their historic 222, which was the forefather to the current Overseas collection. Introducing the new VC Historiques 222.
Hodinkee
The tourbillon achieves escape velocity.
Hodinkee
Zenith's mid-2000s flagship chronograph receives new tenth-of-a-second duds.
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