Time+Tide
Hublot’s next big move, Grand Seiko’s design secrets, and Serica’s unexpected partnership
Hublot’s next chapter, Grand Seiko’s design philosophy, and Serica’s unexpected Peugeot collaboration headline this week’s watch news.
18,561 articles · 125 videos found · page 558 of 623
Time+Tide
Hublot’s next chapter, Grand Seiko’s design philosophy, and Serica’s unexpected Peugeot collaboration headline this week’s watch news.
Worn & Wound
You probably know I’ve been a fan of Papar from the brand’s launch in 2024 with its initial model, the Anillo. Since this inaugural GMT collection, the brand has expanded with the addition of a diver called the Cenote. Now, we get a third collection that offers a wandering-hour: the Vuelte. Before even reading the full press kit and just browsing through the images of the latest model in Papar’s lineup, I could see the brand’s distinct and playful DNA shine through in details like the now-signature octagonal case created by intersecting planes giving the impression of folded steel and the poetic color-changing crescent moon logo smiling. I could also see the Vuelte bringing a new personality to the lineup – one that’s a bit more restrained and minimal. However, knowing the attention to detail and the meaning attached to those details that’s been a throughline with Papar’s designs, I also knew there was more than meets the eye behind the aesthetics of this latest offering. The Vuelte introduces a wander-hour complication executed with a very distinct all-black design. If you’ve been in the watch world for a while now, you are well versed in the plethora of blacked-out watches available from nearly every brand. Leave it to Papar to put its own spin on the color concept. Rather than relying on conventional hands, an aperture carrying the current hour travels around the black dial while a red triangular indicator traces the passing minutes along the perimet...
Worn & Wound
Today, Christopher Ward officially introduces what some might call one of the worst kept secrets in indie watchmaking. We all knew that a dressy version of the brand’s Loco was coming – their British Watchmakers’ Day limited edition kind of gave it away. No one really thought that would be a one off, right? The all new C1 Loco Classic arrives as a fully formed product line within the brand’s Atelier lineup, and offers collectors who might have bristled at the aggressively sporty, angular C12 Loco a more refined option built on the same caliber with the same dramatic architecture. The C1 Loco Classic is built on a 41mm 904L stainless steel “Light-catcher” case with a mix of high polished surfaces and contrasting brushed elements. The case features a pronounced groove running through the middle section, following through to the lugs, and has a curvy, rounded appearance. It’s a thick case, measuring a total of 14.1mm tall, but over 5mm of that height belongs to the domed crystal – Christopher Ward says the case itself is 8.55mm thick. Despite its overall height, Christopher Ward has gone to great lengths to create a softer and more organic shape for the Loco Classic, and while it might not work on every wrist, visually it certainly meets the brief of a more refined Loco. As an owner of a C12 Loco, I can say that while I enjoy the case quite a bit, the real draw of the watch is the movement and the dial, and the way those two aspects of the piece are integr...
Hodinkee
What We Know It's New York Watch Week, which means lots of new releases hitting your feed. But if you're like me, the most exciting ones to find out about this week are often the special editions from the brands at Windup Watch Fair. Last year, I picked up a New York Edition Metric Chrono from Jonathan Ferrer at the Brew table at Windup—which featured dials inspired by the distinctive patterned flooring of New York subways. It was an extremely weird and fun edition, so naturally I've been looking forward to seeing what Ferrer has in store for this year. Turns out, Brew is taking inspiration from another iconic mode of New York City transportation for this year's special edition launching at Windup Watch Fair—the yellow cab. With the very evidently named Metric Chrono Taxi, the familiar mecaquartz chronograph from the brand gets a black, white, and yellow livery for a dial that reflects the motifs of the cars you love and hate in the city (depending on whether you're a rider or a pedestrian, of course). The Metric Chrono framework remains the same here, with a steel square(ish) cushion case design coming in at 36mm and a thickness of 10.75mm. Given the case shape, the lug-to-lug measures a bit longer, though still very compact at 41.5mm. It comes on a steel bracelet with quick-release spring bars and offers a water resistance of 50 meters. Inside is the Seiko VK68 mecaquartz chronograph movement, sitting behind a checkered solid caseback. The dial is where things get in...
Hodinkee
This story has been republished from our friends at Hodinkee Australia. What We Know Today, a luxury sports watch with a rubber strap is nothing revolutionary, but in 1980 it was scandalous. Italian watchmaker and entrepreneur Carlo Crocco fired the starting gun on a casual-luxury sports watch revolution when he combined a gold case with a rubber strap to build his ultimate Mediterranean summer watch: the MDM 'La Hublot.' Turns out his idea caught on and was quickly embraced by royalty in Monaco, Spain and Sweden, to name just a few. An archival shot of Carlo Crocco posing with early MDM Hublot models. Rarely-seen 'pre-Biver' Hublots, including chronographs and a dive watch. The original MDM 'La Hublot' and the new Hublot Classic Fusion Tributo. It's hard to imagine that Hublot is almost 50 years old. We as collectors tend to think of it as a young brand - and in many senses, it still is - but a half-century ain't nothing to sniff at. 46 years after its inaugural release, Hublot is going all the way back to its Carlo Crocco roots with the Hublot Classic Fusion Tributo, a standard-production watch that pays tribute to where the maverick brand started, made with the input of Mr Crocco himself (who officially exited Hublot in 2008). This release encompasses two models in 38mm, one in yellow gold and one in white gold, both housing a Zenith-sourced movement. In a departure from the standard Classic Fusion, the Tributo returns to the original MDM Hublot's 12-screw bezel design ...
Hodinkee
What We Know If you know Urwerk, you know that they've always been looking toward the stars, making instantly recognizable watches with the brand's iconic satellite display that rotates around the dial, with the hour pointing to the minute track as the whole display turns and snaps to reveal each passing hour. They've played with a variety of approaches to this concept, widening the minute track and speeding up the snap as well, but today's release of the UR-300 "Time Quantum" introduces a new mechanic that the brand says is inspired by things at the atomic level. Not to be confused with Urwerk's other atomic-inspired watch (one of my top 10 favorite all-time modern watches, the AMC special), this watch draws from the concept of polarized entities—neutrons and electrons—swirling around. Instead of the rotating single carousel in the past, the new display features a "T-frame" structure. The current hour displays as usual; the flat portion of a triangular hour module is made of beryllium copper, brass, anodized aluminum, ARCAP AP1D, and titanium, and points to the current minute as it travels on a 108º arc. The other hours are rotated 120º on their axis to hide them for legibility. Once it approaches the 60th minute (and transitions to 0), three things happen. Power built up during the rotation forces the T-Frame into rotation in a split second. The frame jumps forward and rotates 72º to put the next hour display into position, also rotating the hour module to be visi...
Hodinkee
What We Know There's a new miniature watch in town, and it's the Jaeger-LeCoultre 101 Chain. Inspired by a 1955 Duoplan model nicknamed the "Chain" for its "braided" gold-link bracelet, the new high-jewelry watch reinterprets that design with a sculptural 18K pink-gold bangle. It features diagonal bands that alternate between black HyCeram (a high-gloss ceramic material) and rows of brilliant-cut diamonds, offering a contemporary take on the original's sinuous chain motif. The bangle is cast in a mold made specifically for each watch, with 36 cavities filled by hand with liquid HyCeram. A master gem-setter then drills and sets the alternating diagonal bands with brilliant-cut diamonds. The finished bangle frames a diminutive watch with a black lacquered dial, which has a "JL" monogram above the hour and minute hands, all surrounded by a diamond bezel—bringing its overall diamond weight to an approximate 2.73 carats. But despite all the jewelry surrounding it, the real star is the Calibre 101, the world's smallest manually wound mechanical movement. The story dates back to the Duoplan, which was invented and patented in 1925, before JLC introduced the Calibre 101 in 1929 using the same two-level architecture (hence the name "Duoplan"). At just 14mm long, 4.8mm wide, and 3.4mm thick, the movement weighs barely a gram, and remarkably, its dimensions and architecture remain unchanged nearly a century later. Today, each movement takes around 40 hours to assemble by hand, maki...
Hodinkee
What We Know Hermès has released two new versions of its H08 sports watch. It feels like the H08 has lived a lot of lives in the five years since it was originally released at Watches & Wonders 2021, and these latest releases bring yet another new look to a line that has expanded pretty steadily since then. Here, we have two new versions of the H08, each in a braided glass fiber composite case, but where previous watches that have used this material have coated it in a dark blend of aluminum and slate, with these new watches, Hermès has dropped the slate dust. The result is a lighter, brighter finish, complemented by ceramic accents in either bright blue or white. The blue watch also comes equipped with a rhodium-plated, "crystal sandblasted" textured dial, with blue details matching the ceramic bezel, while the white watch has a lacquered white dial. Each has details in Hermès' signature orange. Beyond the new finish and color, these are largely the H08 as we have come to know it, with a cushion-shaped 39mm x 39mm case, rubber strap, and Hermès' hallmark rounded numerals, and are powered by the automatic Hermès Manufacture movement H1837, a movement created exclusively for Hermès by Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier. Prices for each of these new versions of the H08 sit at $8,600. What We Think This is a pretty straightforward case of a new colorway, but a new colorway done extremely well. The H08 has existed in a funny position for Hermès since its release half a decade...
Hodinkee
What We Know It's been five years since Ming and Massena Lab released their first collaboration. In that time, both Ming — the Malaysian-born microbrand founded by Ming Thein — and Massena Lab — the concept studio and curatorial brand created by collector William Massena — have grown and evolved somewhat dramatically, with Ming having moved through several generations of iteration, and Massena having worked with a somewhat staggering number of brands. Now, with each brand having grown up quite a bit, they've come back together to announce the Ming x Massena Lab 57.09 Secret Honey. The new watch, built on Ming's latest design platform, is a time-only watch that evokes similar ideas to the two brands' first collaborative effort half a decade ago, but updates them, bringing to the new watch many of the tricks Ming has developed over the last few years. Put another way, this is still a honeycomb-dialed Ming, just with a little more cheek. Here, Ming has blended the honeycomb concept with their multi-layered "secret" dial to create something dynamic and fun, with a lot of the charm of midcentury favorites in an undeniably contemporary package. Like so many Mings, the dial here is multi-layered, with a dark brown lacquered base dial sitting below a trio of rotating sapphire discs, each of which rotates at a different rate. These three discs are perforated with a different pattern and finished in a different color, with the bottom two layers finished respectively in orang...
Hodinkee
What We Know The American West has long been a defining source of inspiration for Ralph Lauren. In 2018, the brand launched its Western Watch Collection to celebrate its 50th anniversary, extending Western influences to the wrist. Today, the brand is offering a fresh take on the Western Cushion model from the original collection, with the most noticeable change being its more compact, 38mm case offered in a total of three new versions. The American Western pocket watch that launched in 2018, which featured an IWC "Jones caliber" as the base. The watch first launched in 2018 with a 42mm case, among five other limited-production models, including a 50mm full hunter pocket watch. For the movements, Ralph Lauren partnered with Richemont brands Piaget and IWC, marrying Swiss-made tradition with the spirit of the Wild West. The Western Cushion 38mm retains the original design's pillowy case, crafted from hand-engraved and aged sterling silver to resemble vintage Western silverwork. The watch comes in three dial versions: black lacquer, off-white lacquer, and a natural turquoise stone. The black lacquer dial is paired with contrasting off-white numerals and a black calfskin leather strap, while the off-white version takes a slightly more traditional approach with black numerals and a brown calfskin leather strap. The turquoise dial also has black numerals and comes on a brown calfskin leather strap, although its natural stone surface gives each watch a slightly different ch...
Hodinkee
What We Know We are six years into the reign of the Legacy Machine EVO, a sportier version of MB&F;'s most "traditional" (and I use that term loosely) watch designs, which had the added benefit of higher water resistance, a built-in FlexRing shock protection system, slightly less delicate dials, and a different case design that lends itself to the rubber straps. We've had the Perpetual EVO, Sequential EVO, Sequential Flyback EVO, Split Escapement EVO, and LM101 EVO. Now, the original Legacy Machine, the LM No. 1, joins the collection with two case materials: titanium and a limited-edition rose gold. It seems like case sizes are the most hotly debated topic these days, and MB&F; has never shied away from a large case. It's needed to accomplish the dramatic design and depth of the floating balance that hovers over the dual time display (now in sunburst-polished black, flat subdials). The cases are 42mm by 16.8mm, with a 52mm lug-to-lug and 18mm lug width. This brings one major update to the EVO series: these watches now have quick-change rubber straps, made possible by a case redesign (so this won't apply to swapping into other EVO series models). Another update: the original's vertically moving power reserve indicator is now more traditional, rotating side to side and pointing at an inclined scale. One of my favorite things about the Legacy Machine is that it's so wild in the front and more traditional in the back. The movement is still the Jean-François Mogard-designed cali...
Hodinkee
What We Know When Garmin launched the Marq collection in 2019, it answered what Garmin customers had been asking for: a premium product with top-end engineering. With today's launch of the third generation, Garmin is pushing that idea further. The collection debuts six new watches—the Marq Adventurer, Athlete, Aviator, Commander, Diver, and Golfer—offering something for everyone. The Marq 3 Diver. Before we get into the six variations, we need to start with the 47mm case, because much of what's new comes from how it's built. Garmin uses a process it calls nano molding technology, which bonds a glass-filled polymer to the titanium at the nanoscale. The polymer sections at the top and bottom of the case give the antennas a non-metal window for transmission, and because the bond needs no gasket, it produces a thinner case. Garmin says that is what made room for the LTE and satellite radios on top of GPS, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi. On the left, the Marq 3 Adventurer, on the right is the Marq 3 Golf. It also removes the five button holes in the Gen 2 case. A polymer wall seals the case, and an inductive sensor behind it registers each press, with a tactile element on the outside for the click. Garmin's point is that the crown and pushers are the usual failure point on a dive watch, and here nothing passes through the case. The process also forced a change to the Commander's DLC coating, which is normally applied at a heat that would deform the polymer, so Garmin moved to a lower...
Hodinkee
Last month, I spent an incredible week in Thailand for Siam Paragon Bangkok Watch Week. Over a week of talks, panel discussions, and brand presentations (some moderated by yours truly) organized by the team at Siam Piwat, there was no better way to discover a whole new side of watch collecting. Spending more time in Southeast Asia has always been at the top of my list, because I think the region brings together some of the most diverse and interesting tastes in watch collecting. Most special of all is finally meeting so many watch nerds that I've connected and chatted with online for years, along with making many new friends. It's these moments that remind you how small this little world is, and how it's the people and not necessarily the watches that make this space so interesting. Image courtesy Siam Paragon Bangkok Watch Week. Bangkok Watch Week wrapped up its weeklong watch fest with one big hurrah—a sort of after-party. This "Asia-Pacific Get Together" was what I had been looking forward to the whole time—just a big ol' gathering of watch collectors from all over Asia, descending upon an open bar and having a fun time. But while I spent a lot of time chatting with so many folks, I was still on the clock, after all, and got to do some fun watch spotting with my camera during the whole thing. So I hope you enjoy seeing so many fun—and sometimes insane—watches. Happy scrolling through the sea of wristshots. And for those who I got to meet and connect with at Bang...
Hodinkee
What We Know Have you played "hide a World War I battleship?" I mean, who hasn't? It's basically the number two teenage pastime in the United States Midwest and Great Plains, with all those giant bodies of water in places like Nebraska, South Dakota, and the like. No? Okay, well, hiding ships was a life-or-death proposition back in World War I and World War II, and for a brief period from around 1917 to 1918, the answer was not to try to hide them at all. That's where Toledano & Chan got the idea for the new b/1 "Dazzle:" obfuscate, not obliterate. If the concept of "dazzle camo" sounds familiar, it's because Bulgari tried its own version of this disruptive pattern material (DPM, as it's known in the industry) just a few months ago. We even mentioned this watch coming from Toledano & Chan, which was revealed when it was nominated for a GPHG award. As a refresher, I'm going to paraphrase what I said before. British zoologist John Graham Kerr proposed (to Winston Churchill in 1914) a DPM designed to change the perceived outline, size, distance, and direction of ships at sea based on the same concept that zebras use to hide their distance and numbers from predators. The idea was convincing enough that a large number of ships were painted, and while some German U-Boat captains did say that the pattern was effective, it's still unclear how true that was. Regardless, radar basically made the whole idea obsolete, and now it's largely an oddity outside the automobile road-test...
WristBuzz
Seiko's viral 2024 concept watch is now real, limited, and built around a very literal take on the panda dial
WristBuzz
Baltic's rugged field watch goes full lume and full color, inspired by the dramatic terrain of southern Iceland, and now comes in a new 34mm case.
Hodinkee
This story has been republished from our friends at Hodinkee Australia. What We Know Under the stewardship of CEO Davide Cerrato, we’ve seen a revitalised Bremont experiment with all sorts of things—jumping hours pieces, meteorite dials, space watches—as well as ceramic cases, especially for its Supermarine dive watch. In 2024, they launched their first full-ceramic watch, the Supermarine 500 Black Ceramic, following up with a Jungle Green ceramic limited edition built to take on the tropics. Now, the British brand has debuted a Deep Blue ceramic Supermarine 500 that’s ready for the depths. While this new colored ceramic Supermarine is a follow-up to the Jungle Green, quite a lot has changed in the Supermarine lineup since its launch, including an upgraded movement with an improved power reserve. It also now sports a wave pattern on the dial rendered in black, which provides good contrast against the white Super-LumiNova (with blue emission), and brings some added texture and depth to the dial. The blue ceramic case measures the same dimensions as the rest of the Supermarine 500 lineup at 43mm across with a thickness of 13mm. It’s rated to 500 meters and also features a helium escape valve on the left side of the case that’s finished in a color-matched blue. The bezel insert is ceramic - it's laser-engraved with embossed numerals - yet both the bezel ring and the crown are titanium, not that you'd immediately clock it. Bremont has nailed the color-matching acro...
Hodinkee
With the massive rise in interest in independent brands over the past few years, it seems like it's basically impossible to even begin to meet with watchmakers these days, let alone have a meaningful conversation with them or see their watches. I have to field the question "How do I meet ___" at least once a week. No matter the answer, it requires some effort. But what if I told you that you could walk into a room and see Rexhep Rexhepi chatting with Max Büsser, right next to Kari Voutilainen, who is looking at Jean-Claude Biver's watch while Jean Arnault looks at Trilobe. All while Rémy Cools, Theo Auffret, Gaël Petermann, and Florian Bédat are chatting at a table nearby, their watches in hand. That's IAMWATCH in Singapore, and it's happening again from November 12 to 15 at the Singapore Edition. Kari Voutilainen and Jean-Claude Biver. I was there two years ago at the first iteration of what I will say is one of the most "me" watch fairs ever made; you can see my 2024 Photo Report here for a sense of the event. I love the people of the watchmaking as much as I love the watches—maybe even more because I can't afford most of the big-name independents, but I can enjoy talking to them and learning from them all the same. The Hour Glass, one of the world's largest retailers, is also putting it on, and it's run by long-time avowed independent watchmaking acolyte and Managing Director Michael Tay. Proof of how stacked this event is comes from the list of names I'm going to...
Hodinkee
What We Know Angelus has dropped the curtain on three new limited-edition watches built on the same platform as the fan-favorite (and GPHG-winning) Chronographe Télémètre, only not quite. With this trio of novelties — appropriately dubbed the Chronographe Tachymètre — Angelus has dropped the telemeter scale, replacing it with a tachymeter, and bringing with it a slightly sportier look than we've come to expect from Angelus's most compact modern offering. The new model follows up a limited-edition take on the idea of a Chronographe Télémètre released in collaboration with Monochrome Watches earlier this year. But where that watch featured a double-tracked tachymeter and a decidedly vintage aesthetic, these new watches offer a decidedly different take on the concept, leaning into the look of midcentury racing watches. Here, that means you have the same bi-register chronograph layout, but with a single-track tachymeter and subdials finished in contrasting colors. Like the Chronographe Télémètre that preceded it, the new Chronographe Tachymètre is offered in three configurations, with two of those in steel cases and the other in yellow gold. The yellow gold offering — which is limited to 15 pieces — is fitted with a yellow-gold-tone dial with green (really, a very dark grey with a greenish hue) accents. The stainless steel watches are offered with either a salmon dial with grey accents or a grey dial with blue accents. These watches come in editions of 30 an...
Hodinkee
This story has been republished from our friends at Hodinkee Australia. What We Know Toledano & Chan, the horological design collaboration between artist and collector Phil Toledano and watch designer Alfred Chan, is back with their latest brutalist architecture-inspired watch, the Oshinobi. This one throws a new concept into the mix: concealment. O-shinobi is a Japanese term used to describe a person of high rank traveling incognito, which should give you a hint at how this Toledano & Chan watch works. It’s a secret watch, fitted with a horizontally sliding cover that reveals an organically shaped and concave dial set with two carats of snow-set diamonds. To fly even further under the radar, the crown is hidden, accessible from the underside of the case at 12 o’clock. The inspiration for the Oshinobi's dial and crystal shape also comes from this idea of concealment, inspired by natural geodes that look like any other rock until they’re cracked open to reveal a world of crystals festooning the inside. The result is this architecturally aggressive bracelet shape that hides an organically shaped, irregularly diamond-studded secret inside. Phil, Jamie, and I sat down over the weekend to talk about the Oshinobi, and he tells me that he’s long been fascinated with vintage secret watches that conceal their dials. Hearing conversations in the watch community about safety concerns about traversing cities with flashy watches, he sees the Oshinobi as the antidote. Phil Toled...
Hodinkee
What We Know For all the conversations about what to do when a dial is damaged, possibly fit for restoration, or a watch needs some repair, I don't recall many examples of watches with dials that come pre-repaired. That's essentially what Arsène Lippens has launched: a watch inspired by the Japanese craft of Sashiko, which artfully patches and repairs textiles (largely denim) to extend their lives and turn them into something beautiful. In collaboration with Pey van der Wel, a Dutch artist who runs SASHIKODENIM, the brand's new limited edition of 10 pieces is the second in its "Threads of Time" series celebrating textile crafts. The watch is a relatively straightforward release as an entire package: a 37.5mm by 9.9mm 316L stainless steel case housing a manually wound Sellita SW210-1b movement with a 48-hour power reserve. The case is water-resistant to 50 meters, with a solid caseback and a box dome anti-reflective crystal on the front side. The thickness largely comes from the depth required for the dial, which is the star of the show. The dial is made of denim, with 12 individual hour markers hand-stitched one thread wide through the dial, with a cross-hatch at 3, 6, 9, and 12. Of course, none of these dials are the same, and you could argue that some, including the one shown here, might not be perfectly aligned to the hour marker. But so be it. The watch celebrates a centuries-old handcraft and its beautifully imperfect nature. Of course, the watch comes with a denim s...
Monochrome
Introduced in 2024 when the brand fully revamped its dive watch collection, the 43mm Supermarine Full Ceramic has since appeared in Polar White, Jungle Green limited editions, and a non-limited Tactical Black version. Now Bremont expands the series with the new Deep Blue, a 250-piece limited edition that brings another colour to a collection built […]
Fratello
There were already Jungle Green, Tactical Black, and Polar White versions of this watch, and now there’s a fourth variation. The Royal Marine-approved Supermarine Full Ceramic Deep Blue is an aquatic-colored extension of Bremont’s dive-watch collection. This limited edition of 250 pieces has a colder, darker look inspired by the point where ocean and ice […] Visit The Royal Marine-Approved Bremont Supermarine Full Ceramic Deep Blue Makes Its Debut to read the full article.
Hodinkee
What We Know Last year, Glashütte Original released a trio of porcelain-dial watches as part of its collaboration with Meissen, Europe's oldest porcelain manufacturer, dating back to 1710. Today, the two historic German houses are partnering again, this time to release a new porcelain-dial watch inspired by Jugatsu-zakura, a Japanese cherry blossom that flowers intermittently during the colder months. The "Cherry Blossom" Senator Meissen retains all of the original collaboration's specs: It measures 40mm wide and 10.2mm thick, is set in red gold, and features an exhibition sapphire crystal caseback. It also comes on a dark blue Louisiana alligator leather strap with a red-gold pin buckle. The dial is made of a thin slice of white porcelain that acts as a canvas for the hand-painted layers, which are fired at 900° Celsius between each layer to achieve maximum depth and intensity. Glashütte Original's lettering and Meissen's crossed swords logo are hand-painted near the center, but besides that, the dial has a blank format. The exclusion of any hour markers, numerals, or indices allows the cherry blossom motif, with its slender branches that extend upward and delicate, pale-pink flowers, to shine—punctuated only by solid-gold hour and minute hands. Powered by Glashütte Original's in-house automatic Caliber 36-16, the watch offers 100 hours of power reserve and operates at 4 Hz. The movement also features a silicon balance spring and a stop-seconds mechanism. (aka hacki...
Monochrome
Jacob Arabo, founder of Jacob & Co., has a flair for showmanship. Whether you like them or not, his creations are strikingly expressive and absolutely like no others in terms of aesthetics and technicality. The visual spectacle of watches such as the Astronomias or the Bugattis is captivating, with bold 3D architectures that come alive. […]
Worn & Wound
We’re at an interesting time when it comes to the dialogue in the watch community on vintage inspired watches. Watches that make explicit references to the past are simply less common now than they were a decade ago, or even 4 or 5 years ago. I’ve long believed that a maturing group of collectors who entered the hobby when these watches were all the rage have aged into a point in their collecting journeys when more adventurous and contemporary designs simply have more interest. But this theory really only applies to what most of us refer to as “midcentury” watches. Think about the earliest dive watches from Rolex, Blancpain, and others, the types of dress and everyday watches worn by Don Draper on Mad Men, and extending through to the earliest bits of 60s and 70s funkiness. That’s the vintage inspired wheelhouse for watch brands seeking to tap into the community’s desire to commune with the past, whether through real or imagined nostalgia. Watches from a century ago are an entirely different category. Enter the Hamilton American Classic Cushion Mechanical. This is an entirely new collection from the brand that finds them looking to designs from the 1920s for inspiration. Watches from this period never really had a widespread moment of resurgence like divers from the 1960s, but if you’ve spent some time in the hobby you’ve undoubtedly encountered collectors who are deeply into exactly this kind of thing. There are a number of interesting reasons to colle...
Hodinkee
What We Know Seiko has unveiled two limited-edition chronographs born from its power design project, a long-running internal design initiative that encourages designers to explore ideas beyond the constraints of commercial product development. The new watches are based on A Watch Exclusively for Panda Lovers, one of seven concept pieces presented at the 2024 Incredibly Specialized Watch Exhibition, where designers were challenged to create watches tailored to extraordinarily specific audiences. Among the seven concepts, none generated quite as much excitement as the panda watch. Nearly three years after its debut as a one-off exhibition piece, it has now become a production model—remarkably faithful to the original concept. The original "A Watch Exclusively for Panda Lovers" was displayed at the 2024 Incredibly Specialized Watch Exhibition. Original design sketches from the exhibition. The watch was designed by Kiyotaka Sakai, a member of Seiko's product design team who also works on Grand Seiko's Evolution 9 Collection. His starting point was a deceptively simple question: Is a watch called "Panda" really seen as a panda in anyone's eyes? The idea draws on the Japanese concept of mitate—finding unexpected visual associations between seemingly unrelated objects. While collectors have long referred to black-and-white chronographs as "panda dials," Sakai wondered what a watch would look like if it were designed not to resemble a panda dial, but an actual panda. The answe...
SJX Watches
The Omega Seamaster Diver 300M James Bond and Spectre collection pairs familiar no-date divers with competing character motifs, including platinum-gold variants in two limited edition boxed sets. The watches extend Omega’s most successful screen partnership while leaving the underlying Seamaster largely unchanged. Initial thoughts Omega’s partnership with James Bond remains one of the great marketing coups of the 1990s, pulled off by none other than Jean-Claude Biver. While it’s easy to feel cynical about product placement, especially today, the pairing made a lot of sense for film franchise looking for a fresh start with a new leading man. Today, the film franchise is at a turning point — Daniel Craig’s successor has not yet been announced, and it’s an open question whether the character’s appeal will extend to younger demographics. Despite these headwinds, the James Bond effect is no doubt a positive one for Omega, which has released dueling Seamasters — one for the titular character and one for his recurring nemesis, Spectre. The “James Bond” variant There’s also a pair of boxed sets — one for the hero, another for the villain — that include 77-piece limited edition variants of both the steel Seamasters and heavyweight versions in platinum-gold, which is mostly platinum with a bit of gold added to the alloy. The platinum-gold models weigh in at more than 200 g, nearly double the weight of the stainless steel equivalent on a strap. The “Spectr...
Monochrome
As smaller, historically inspired, shaped watches find renewed interest, it is no surprise that Hamilton looks back almost a century for its latest collection, reviving the cushion-shaped watches that defined part of its portfolio in the 1920s and 1930s. The new American Classic Cushion Mechanical takes direct inspiration from the Cushion Plain and Cushion Engraved […]
Hodinkee
What We Know Sinn just dropped a new take on their classic 103 St pilot chronograph to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Lufthansa, one of the world's largest airlines. The new watch, which — fittingly — is limited to just 100 pieces, takes the model 103 and strips it down to the bare essentials. The result is the Sinn 103 St Sa Lufthansa, a watch that's slightly outside the norm for Sinn and replete with details nodding to the German flag carrier. The most obvious of these is the use of Lufthansa's signature shade of yellow for the hands and subdials markings associated with the chronograph function. The only other "colors" used are several shades of grey, each of which is pulled directly from Lufthansa's style guide (Lufthansa's iconic dark blue didn't make the cut for this one). Other Lufthansa-inspired details include a special engraving on the watch's rotor, visible through a sapphire display caseback, and an opening in the chronograph seconds hand meant to evoke the shape of an airliner window. Notably, this is not the first collaboration between Sinn and Lufthansa (though it is the most limited I'm aware of). The first of these (again, that I'm aware of), was the 747-piece limited edition Sinn 144-747.CARGO. Released 25 years ago, this was a very cool take on the Sinn 144 that included a scale around the rehaut that indicates target flight altitude for a Boeing 747 loaded to a given gross weight under normal atmospheric conditions. This was followed up by the 7...
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