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1969-1985 industry collapse triggered by the Seiko Astron. Cost Swiss watchmaking two-thirds of its workforce; rebounded via Swatch Group consolidation and Biver's Blancpain.
Christmas Day 1969: Seiko launches the world\'s first quartz wristwatch and detonates the Swiss watch industry.
The 2010 Spring Drive reference with a dial textured like fresh Shinshu snow.
Monochrome
Credor, a high-end division of the Seiko Group, was founded in 1974 with a focus on refined, ultra-thin timepieces that emphasise artistic and artisanal techniques. Originally catering to the Japanese domestic market, Credor has begun to expand internationally only recently (mostly with the Locomotive, based on a Genta design) and will make its debut at […]
Time+Tide
Our ever-stylish Italian correspondent's three most worn watches of 2025 are all dressy, elegant pieces from Cartier, Seiko and Grand Seiko.The post The three watches Pietro wore most in 2025 are… appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Worn & Wound
Our annual Watch of the Year post is here, and as always it’s a celebration of the diversity and strength of the enthusiast community. There’s a little of everything represented here, from the platonic idea of the Seiko diver, to highly experimental and ultra-modern, to emerging microbrands offering incredible value. But it’s not just about the watches themselves – every year has individual watches that are successful in the ways that get them onto lists like these. It’s the way our team assesses them, and gets to the heart of what makes a watch great, or interesting, or challenging. We hope you enjoy our roundup of our team’s favorite watches of 2025. Let us know yours in the comments below, and Happy New Year! Christoph McNeill For my Watch of the Year this year, I of course went with a Seiko. I know, no surprise there, but consistency is a good thing right? What can I say, I absolutely love Seiko. And I’m not just a homer, they really do put out killer stuff year after year. I nearly picked one of the amazing and beautiful Grand Seikos (the SLGW007 ‘birch’ dial), but I’ve written about the Grand Seikos a lot, and as stunning as they are, I’m a dive watch guy at heart and there is one Seiko diver that really blew me away this year. I’m talking about the Seiko Prospex Marinemaster SLA081 Limited Edition “Shinkai” diver. For brevity’s sake I’ll just refer to it as the Shinkai from here on out. The Shinkai diver is modeled after the OG ...
Worn & Wound
Travel watches have been on the absolute rise in recent years. Where dive watches were once the default option for a first sports watch, GMTs, dual times, and world timers have been making a credible play for wrist time with enthusiasts of all strata. There are practical reasons for this - movements like the Miyota 9075 and Seiko NH34 have made including a GMT complication in a watch more affordable than ever - but I think practical reasons only scratch the surface of this precipitous rise. To tell the whole story, you have to look for the romantic. There’s an inherent appeal in travel watches. They’re optimistic and remind us to stay interested in the world even when we’re stuck at home, or work, or in the myopia of day-to-day life, when the little things around us stop us from looking further. I think this appeal was only reinforced by a mandatory two-year stay inside, at home, and I don’t think it’s by chance that our collective release back into the world post-COVID coincided with the rise of the travel watch. I mean, sure, in a world where our phones automatically adjust to new time zones, and most people’s preferred travel watch is an Apple Watch, mechanical travel watches (or, really, analog - there are some pretty stellar quartz offerings to be had, you don’t need to look further than the Timex Q Continental GMT for evidence of that) may be more talismanic than necessary, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. So, with all that ...
SJX Watches
It was a mixed year for affordable watches, led by segment stalwart Tudor. While appealing offerings from brands like Grand Seiko moved up beyond the US$10,000 mark, the gap was filled by a slate of interesting releases from so-called micro-brands. Here is a selection of affordable releases under US$10,000 that stood out this year. Tudor Ranger 36 - SJX I’m a fan of Tudor – I own several – because its watches are well made and priced even better. But the brand is increasingly appealing because of its gradual evolution towards enthusiast-friendly designs. The Ranger 36 illustrates that. The original Ranger was a little bit too large for this vintage-inspired design. Tudor doubtlessly received feedback to that effect. It took the brand a while, but now the 36 mm version is pretty much spot-on. The compact size fits the design well and the watch also feels good on the wrist. And because the case and bracelet are both entirely brushed, the Ranger 36 also has a low-key look that makes it a practical watch in almost any situation. The “dune white” dial is also a nice touch; it’s a nod to the “albino” dials found on some vintage sports watches (from Rolex rather than Tudor, but that’s a distinction without a difference for most of the brands’ histories). And importantly, the Ranger 36 is the most affordable Tudor with an in-house movement. It’s a solid entry into Tudor’s world of sports watches with high-spec movements. As an aside, Tudor clearly excels ...
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Worn & Wound
I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that most of you reading this right now won’t know the name Nick Harris. Don’t worry, I’m not calling anyone out; if you weren’t a dedicated Seiko modder on the right forums at the right times, it’s not a name you’re likely to have come across. Nick, despite being an accomplished watchmaker and avid enthusiast, just isn’t as well-known as the brand he created, Orion Watches. It’s not a huge surprise. As enthusiasts, we tend to have a better memory for brands and watches than we do for people (how many of us have pulled some variation of the classic, “I can’t remember his name, but he had that great vintage Sub”), and that tendency easily extends to brands, even small ones. It’s easy to forget that many of the brands we talk about on Worn & Wound, and so many of the watchmakers that get us excited, aren’t really “brands” in the typical sense. Many of our favorite brands aren’t machines operating with marketing departments, state-of-the-art production facilities, and overflowing C-Suites. What we broadly call “brands’ are usually the result of the passionate work of one, or maybe two, dedicated creators, their brand names and logos serving more as a personal maker’s mark than as an identifier for a sprawling and impersonal corporate structure. The consequence here is that it can be easy to conflate these small one-man shops with their more established brethren. That can make it particularly diffi...
Worn & Wound
The last few weeks of the year are usually pretty quiet on the new release front, but there have been a handful of last minute limited editions come across the wires recently that are definitely of at least some interest. We just brought you news of a new Doxa LE from our friends at Topper Jewelers in Burlingame, CA, and in what amounts to an insanely quick turnaround, they’re back again with what surely has to be their final release of the year, a new collaboration with Zenith. This watch does one of my favorite things a watch can do, which is to completely hide its coolest feature most of the time, only allowing it to be visible under very specific conditions. It’s the same reason I love the less obvious and more subtle Grand Seiko dial textures – it’s the watch equivalent of a secret handshake. The Defy Extreme Diver Topper Edition is built on Zenith’s contemporary diver platform, an overengineered, 600 meter diver in the Defy line. Zenith has done a nice job of building out their diver selections in the last year or so, almost to the point where it’s hard to believe that they went so long without a true diver in the collection. At the moment, enthusiasts have the choice between the Defy Extreme Diver like the one seen here, or an only slightly more sedate “Revival” diver that’s essentially a one to one recreation of a vintage reference. The shared DNA between the two is obvious, and the way Zenith has positioned these watches within their own cata...
Monochrome
A mechanical watch is a true work of miniature engineering, regardless of the expense. A sub-€300 Seiko 5 Sports has the same basic mechanical elements and wonder as a four-figure IWC, and is just a bit less detailed and accurate day-to-day. Almost self-sufficient and independent of electricity, a mechanical watch simply needs to be wound […]
Worn & Wound
If you’ve sensed a theme with my work throughout the last year or so here on Worn & Wound, you’re not alone. The 1980s and 90s Timex catalog has fully gotten a hold of my attention for the last year or so, with pieces from that era finding their way into my watch boxes and causing a seismic shift in my collecting habits. Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat: I’ll never stray away from my mechanical pieces and Seiko divers. However, the fun and quirky nature of Timex during the latter half of the 20th century is an era I will now hold forever near and dear to my heart. I added this Timex Hooks model to my collection only a few months ago after wanting one for several years. Though I’m not an incredibly passionate fisherman, there was always something about the watch’s design that piqued my interest. Go grab your fishing rod, get some nightcrawlers from the local gas station, and head out to your nearest bubbling brook, as we take a look into what makes the Timex Hooks such an underrated watch in the brand’s catalog. History and Design According to advertisements and catalogs, the Timex Hooks model was released in 1990 alongside other outdoor watches designed at assisting in specialized outdoor activities like skiing, surfing, cross-training, mountain climbing, and more. Possessing many impressive and high-tech features for that era that we’ll dig into shortly, the Hooks retailed for $65 (the equivalent of roughly $161 in 2025). Simultaneously, Time...
SJX Watches
Among Japan’s best-kept secrets, Orient Star occupies an intriguing middle ground between tradition and technology. Its latest creation, the Orient Star M34 F8 Date Green, captures that duality perfectly by combining an old-school movement with state-of-the-art dial and escapement components drawn from the vast capabilities of its parent company, Seiko Epson. The result is a watch that feels distinctly Japanese in both spirit and execution. The M34’s new green dial is embossed with a hand-engraved stamp and coated with an optical multi-layer film that creates shifting hues without a trace of pigment - an effect more often associated with much costlier watches. Beneath its shimmering surface lies Orient Star’s enduring in-house F8 movement, which continues a lineage that dates back to 1971. Initial thoughts The dial of the M34 immediately distinguishes it within its segment. Its engraved texture, embossed from a hand-engraved die, gives the surface a natural radiance, while the iridescent green tone - created through a PVD-applied optical multi-layer film - shifts fluidly under changing light. It’s a distinctly upmarket look that signals the depth of the Epson manufacturing ecosystem behind it. The case reflects that same industrial prowess, made entirely in-house within Seiko Epson’s facilities, using 316L stainless steel finished with Sallaz (more commonly known as ‘Zaratsu’) polishing to achieve distortion-free mirrored bevels. The 40 mm size and ...
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Monochrome
There are basically two types of watch movements – mechanical and quartz. The latter is powered by a battery or a combination of solar and rechargeable cells, while the former is powered by one or sometimes multiple mainsprings with no electrical input. There are also grey areas like Grand Seiko’s Spring Drive or Accutron’s Electrostatic […]
Time+Tide
Vintage Seiko is the perfect starting point for dipping your toes into vintage collecting without breaking the bank.The post These three affordable vintage Seikos deserve your attention appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Worn & Wound
When Longines reintroduced the Ultra-Chron back in 2022, many enthusiasts and vintage watch lovers were excited by the possibility of the brand exploring one of their key collections with a new lens. To the surprise of many, the watches that have been introduced in the new-look Ultra-Chron lineup have frequently been on the more contemporary side when it comes to design. For a brand that has become known for raiding the archives, the most revered Ultra-Chrons of old haven’t really been a factor with the new pieces. That changes, however, with the introduction of the new Ultra-Chron Classic, which, as the name suggests, is a riff on the original Ultra-Chron, the one often seen by collectors as the most desirable. The Ultra-Chron has always existed as a testament to Longines’ commitment to chronometry. When the collection launched in 1967, it was the first time a watch with a movement based on those used in chronometry competitions had been successfully shifted to a mass produced product. The Ultra-Chron was one of several watches released in the 1960s that effectively threw down the gauntlet in the ongoing chronometry wars among many of the biggest Swiss brands (plus Seiko/Grand Seiko). So it makes sense that Longines would return to the original design of one their most historically important watches. The Ultra-Chron Classic is about as sturdy an example of a clean, midcentury watch design as you’re likely to see. Its circular stainless steel case comes in two si...
Worn & Wound
The Chicago based brand Haim celebrates their five year anniversary this year with what is certainly their most ambitious watch to date, the Annum. When brand founder Zakir Miah showed me an early prototype of the watch months ago at a Windup Watch Fair, I was surprised and impressed that he would even think to attempt making a watch with such a niche complication. It resets the brand in some ways, and will likely force people to consider Haim in a different way. As surprising as an annual calendar from Haim is, if you pull back far enough, there were signs that Miah wanted to move the brand into a slightly higher end and more refined direction going back a few years. The Legacy Automatic, for example, featured a custom decorated movement by an American company, Maryland Watch Works, and the whole watch was a significant step up in terms of finishing and build quality compared to prior efforts. But the real shift came with the Viajero Worldtimer released last year. This watch featured a rather clever modification of a common Seiko-made GMT caliber, replacing the hand for the second time zone with a cities ring akin to what you’d find on a classic world timer. The old-school “globe” dial was meant to recall the most famous worldtimers from the Jet Age, and while the Viajero doesn’t have nearly the watchmaking complexity of those timepieces, it was able to mimic the style of those watches to an impressive degree when you consider the price tag of $799. The Annum ar...
SJX Watches
The Orient Star M45 F8 Mechanical Moon Phase Hand Winding is the brand’s first manual-wind moon phase, and also the first in years with a solid dial, making it a refreshing change of pace from the brand’s usual fare that leans towards open-worked and occasionally over-designed styling. Initial Thoughts Excepting the vintage inspired Diver 1964, the M45 F8 moon phase is the most attractive watch in the Orient catalog to my eye. Most of the brand’s designs are too busy for my tastes, so these entries are a welcome departure that will certainly appeal to enthusiasts with more classical tastes. The moon phase disk itself, with mother-of-pearl inlay, is a highlight. And the absence of a seconds hand is a pleasant surprise, though the moon phase sub-dial feels naked without the traditional co-axial small seconds hand. Since the small seconds version of this calibre is not compatible with the moon phase module, Orient could have moved the Orient Star logo onto the sub-dial for more visual balance. Most importantly, this is a manually wound watch – with a competent movement – in a price segment where such things are hard to find. Looking at Japanese watches in particular, manual wind options from Grand Seiko and Credor are significantly more expensive, while Seiko, Orient, and Citizen dropped their entry-level manual watches years ago. Pleiades About two years ago, Orient Star reorganised its catalog by launching M Collections, a family of watches each named after astron...
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Worn & Wound
The age of the textured dial is upon us, and there’s no escaping it. No longer are we limited to Grand Seiko and similar legacy brands to bring us the third dimension on our wrists, with microbrands pitching in their own-often more innovative-takes on texture. Farer has joined the fray with their new Three Hand Series III collection showcasing three new models, each with a unique approach to the intersection of texture and color. The Three Hand collection was one of Farer’s first, and remains one of the British brand’s most emblematic. Previous iterations of the collection showcased varied numeral and index styles, and of course a huge variety of color, but with the III collection, Farer has opted for a smaller initial release of three watches. To achieve the texture, the dials are stamped with a custom press and then spray-painted, with multiple colored layers added for gradient effects. A clear lacquer layer comes next, with high gloss polishing to seal in the texture. Before we dive into the different dials, let’s take a look at the functional aspects of the Three Hand collection. With a minimalistic design and large crown at 3 o’clock, the 316L stainless steel case appears simple, but boasts some nifty construction considerations, namely a new monobloc mid-case. Sizing is on the smaller side, with a 39mm diameter and 45mm lug-to-lug span, which suits the eye-catching dial designs well. A screw-down crown ensures 100 meters of water resistance, and a b...
Monochrome
While Grand Seiko is now well-established all around the world as the higher-end brand of the Seiko Watch Corporation, Credor remains far more niche and has just begun its global expansion, primarily with the Locomotive collection, based on a vintage watch once designed by Gérald Genta. Credor, another high-end brandwithin the group, employs a more classic approach with watches […]
Worn & Wound
“Watches, Stories, and Gear” is a roundup of our favorite content, watch or otherwise, from around the internet. Here, we support other creators, explore interesting content that inspires us, and put a spotlight on causes we believe in. Oh, and any gear we happen to be digging on this week. We love gear. This week’s Watches, Stories and Gear is sponsored by Stirling Timepieces. Check out the new Jarvis Diver GMT and a link to their website below. Notorious EDC and Big Idea Design Create the Jot N Pop Photo courtesy of Dave Svarte These days, collaboration is the name of the game. Whether it’s teaming up with a famous soda brand (looking at you Seiko and Jack Mason), or two EDC powerhouse brands creating something entirely different. When our team was at Blade Show this year, we got a sneak peak of the first Jot N Pop prototype and knew it was going to be something special. According to Tom Medovich, “The Jot N’ Pop is what happens when you mash up Big Idea Design’s Pocket Pro with the Beer Bomb. A titanium pen that’s built to do whatever you throw at it, as long as whatever you throw at it is writing stuff down or opening bottles.” Regardless of how they came up with this idea, we can’t think of a more perfect tool for staying hydrated and taking notes! Built upon the design of the Pocket Pro, the new Jot N Pop is entirely machined from Grade 5 titanium (no plastic parts!), with a pocket clip made from grade 4 Ti for spring tension. Arguably the mos...
Two Broke Watch Snobs
We put COSC, METAS, Rolex, Grand Seiko, and Glashütte chronometers to the test. Here’s what certification actually means on the wrist.
Time+Tide
Former Seiko ambassador Paul de Gelder's latest show, 'How to Survive a Shark Attack', sees him deliberately encouraging sharks to bite him.The post Australian shark attack survivor Paul de Gelder comes back for a second bite with new documentary series appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
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SJX Watches
Part I of our story on the evolution of hairspring materials covered temperature compensation along with the development of the first specialised balance spring alloy, Elinvar. The story brought us to the 1920s, when scientist and horologist Charles-Edouard Guillaume (1861-1938) finished his work on nickel-iron alloys and watchmakers begun embracing Elinvar springs paired with mono-metallic balances. In this second part we turn to newer hairspring alloys, like the now-ubiquitous Nivarox. Then we look at today’s landscape and the future, touching on research done by the Swatch Group with alternative, niobium-based alloys and also the specialised but obscure Seiko SPRON 610 hairspring. Lastly we discuss silicon springs, which are growing more prevalent across a range of timepieces. Elinvar’s weaknesses Elinvar was by far the greatest breakthrough in self-compensating alloy hairsprings at the time. Guillaume considered Elinvar good enough and not needing further improvement - unsurprisingly since he was its inventor - but other watchmakers and engineers continued to experiment with iron-nickel compounds because Elinvar’s inherent properties made it a good, but imperfect, material. Even though the alloy behaved predictably with temperature changes, its physical properties were not ideal to begin with. Elinvar was a soft metal, which posed its own suite of problems for spring applications. The importance of softness in terms of hairspring performance is not related ...
Worn & Wound
Credor is a brand that even after several years of writing about watches professionally still feels truly exotic and mysterious to me. Most brands, even those at the very high end, are fairly easy to peg once you spend some time with the watches and do all the research that comes along with learning about these things. But Credor is so rare in the United States, and so niche in terms of its appeal, it’s a brand that has eluded me even as it fascinates me. It’s also feels in some ways like it’s multiple brands in one. They make the most complicated and extravagant watches under the very large Seiko umbrella, but an alert set for “Credor” on WatchRecon returns endless affordable and quite beautiful quartz dress watches, along with the odd contemporary Spring Drive powered piece. All made, of course, for the Japanese market. Last week, Credor introduced a watch that will probably not be seen in my WatchRecon alerts anytime soon, sitting at the opposite end of the spectrum from those affordable dressy pieces. The new reference is GBCF999 and is part of the Goldfeather collection, a series of very refined dress pieces that explore a variety of decorative arts in watchmaking. The Goldfeather Tourbillon, as it’s officially known, is the first time a tourbillon has been featured in the collection, and the watch also incorporates a number of other advancements in decoration and iterations to the Goldfeather case design. We have to start, of course, with the dial, wh...
SJX Watches
Credor returns to its first-ever tourbillon with the Goldfeather Tourbillon GBCF999, a watch that emphasises traditional Japanese craftsmanship with maki-e lacquerwork and hand engraving. Tracing its lineage back to the inaugural Seiko tourbillon that was launched in 2016, the Goldfeather Tourbillon is equipped with an improved tourbillon movement featuring a clever twist. Despite its elaborate decoration, the Goldfeather possesses a far more subdued look than its 2016 predecessor, the Credor Fugaku Tourbillon, which was not only decorated in maki-e and engraving but also set with blue sapphires. Initial thoughts Credor timepieces are almost always appealing propositions, since they usually sit somewhere between more affordable Seiko watches and high-end Grand Seiko models. While Credor is often synonymous with simple but highly decorated watches – like the famous Eichi II – its catalogue boasts truly noteworthy examples of complications. The new Goldfeather Tourbillon is one of these noteworthy watches. It’s a relatively restrained watch but executed with an impressive level of quality, especially in its decoration that is uniquely Japanese. And the slim movement is uniquely Credor in style and finish. In terms of hand finishing inside and out, the makers of the Goldfeather Tourbillon cut no corners. The Goldfeather’s form is inspired by a model from the 1960s; the clean case design is clearly suggestive of those times. The overall look manages to blend classical...
Monochrome
Credor is often regarded as being a connaisseur’s brand, one of those beguiling watchmakers known and appreciated by a small group of deeply devoted watch collectors and enthusiasts. Part of the Seiko corporation, Credor represents the high-end side of the company, combining the most special traditional craftsmanship techniques with Japanese watchmaking artistry. Although it has […]
Worn & Wound
There’s something satisfying about handling a watch that feels like it knows exactly what it is. The Longines Spirit Zulu Time 1925 (L3.803.5.53.6) landed on my wrist with that kind of confident presence-not shouting for attention, but quietly competent in the way good tool watches should be. At 39mm with a mix of steel and 18-karat rose gold, it’s Longines’ centennial nod to their 1925 original, the world’s first dual time zone wristwatch. The question isn’t whether it’s historically significant-it obviously is-but whether it actually earns its place in today’s crowded GMT field. Longines, GMT Watches, and the Inevitable Tudor Question Let’s address the elephant in the room: if you’re shopping GMT watches around this price point, you’ve probably looked at the Tudor Black Bay GMT ($4,675). It’s the obvious comparison, sitting at roughly the same price with similar functionality. But where Tudor leans into its diving heritage with a rotating 24-hour bezel, Longines approaches GMT complications from their aviation roots. The Spirit Zulu Time 1925 isn’t trying to be a dive watch that happens to track time zones-it’s purpose-built for travelers and pilots who need to know what time it is “there.” The other natural competitors include the Grand Seiko Spring Drive GMT ($6,900), the Raymond Weil Freelancer GMT Worldtimer ($3,175), and the NOMOS Zürich Worldtimer ($6,100). But it’s worth noting these watches solve the multi-timezone problem...
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