Hodinkee
Best of Watchville: An In-Depth Guide To Patek Philippe Vintage Chronographs
Settle in and get comfortable for a long and enjoyable read.
4,435 articles · 18 videos found · page 76 of 149
Hodinkee
Settle in and get comfortable for a long and enjoyable read.
Revolution
In the first of our collaborative articles with Alexandre Ghotbi, Head of Watches, Continental Europe and Middle East at Phillips Watches, Revolution demystifies the rarefied world of Patek Philippe chronographs made before the 1980s.
I mean, just look at them!
Revolution
A skeletal essentials-only guide to the Tudor chronographs that were produced from the 1970s to 1990s, in mostly incomplete sentences.
Deployant
To mark its third year of partnership with Renault Sport Formula One™ Team, Bell & Ross presents three high-performance chronographs.
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_btn title="Shop Our IWC Collection" color="inverse" align="center" i_icon_fontawesome="fa fa-shopping-cart" add_icon="true" link="url:https%3A%2F%2Fshop.revolution.watch%2Fshop%2Fwatches.html%3Fbrand%3D25||target:%20_blank|"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]If they could have any, I mean ANY super power from the Marvel or DC Universe, most guys end up...
With the popularity of Tudor chronographs at fever pitch, Revolution looks at their exponential rise to collector’s favourite.
Revolution
Chronographs are probably the most popular complication. They are pretty affordable (for a complication) masculine and have a sporty appearance that most men like, weather we’re talking mono poussoir chronographs or the three button chronographs, it’s a type of watch that we find in almost any watch collection. Cartier has currently two interesting chronographs in […]
Hodinkee
Congrats on making it through another week, Baller, and your reward, sadly, is not more information about an extraordinary new Rolex, nor is it a pretty fantastic video with a legendary rapper, but instead just a quick roundup of some excellent watches out waiting for new owners. Scorekeeping last week's picks, the Smiths DeLuxe sold for 6,000 GBP, the Smiths W10 for €1,400, the Gübelin 18k triple-date moonphase remains available, the Universal Genève FS went for 600 GBP, and the Autavias sells today. Strays Photo courtesy of Drouot. If you've been holding onto an old steel chronograph pusher cap and don't know the case it works with, maybe have a look at this Heuer chronograph (presumably ref. 2444) and consider the JLC Memovox in the same lot an added bonus. Speaking of Memovox (I'm not guessing the plural of that noun), this sure checks a few boxes should you find yourself in the market for a lovely vintage example. I covered a Hamilton Cross Country a few weeks back, and here's a similar example if that one managed to get its hooks in you. For the Beatles mega-fan in your life, this Old England Apple watch is unlikely to be something they've seen (it's also unlikely to sell for less than 3x the €200 high estimate). This Vacheron Constantin 2045 is just lovely; this Corum bears a shocking resemblance to David Bowie's 1979 SNL performance look, and if there's a cooler tropicalized Carrera up for auction this week than this one, I didn't see it. Omega Suverän You'r...
WatchAdvice
Longines has put a new spin on another classic complication, but does the function translate to form? Let’s find out! What We Love: Modernised take on heritage design Big but easy to wear Ludicrous value proposition What We Don’t: Dial feels slightly shrunken Unusual clasp system Is a manual wind chrono still the way to go? Overall Rating: 9.25/10 Value for Money: 10/10 Wearability: 9/10 Design: 9/10 Build Quality: 9/10 Watch brands pay tribute to their heritage in different ways. Some do this by way of lineage, where iconic aspects of their design or craftsmanship are carried forward into the modern day. Others do this through innovation, respecting their history of disruptive advancement by introducing new technical breakthroughs with every consecutive piece. However, esteemed watch brand Longines takes a different route: reviving and overhauling watches from its exhaustive archives. Even a slight glance towards its catalogue is indicative of such dedication. Almost all of Longines’ watches, through both design and engineering, uphold what is nearing two centuries’ worth of tradition. But for as often as it loves to resurrect archival pieces, it does so in a way that feels organic to the brand’s longstanding philosophies. Earlier this year, that ethos manifested itself in the Conquest Heritage Central Power Reserve, a reintroduction of a timepiece from the lesser-known horological history of the 1950s. This time, they’ve gone even further back to the early...
Monochrome
Cyma’s history begins in the 1860s, with the establishment of the Tavannes Watch company in the Swiss Jura, laying the foundation for a manufacture that would become an important name in Swiss watchmaking, even though the Cyma name was only registered in 1903. By the 1920s, the company had grown into one of Europe’s major […]
Revolution
Hodinkee
What We Know A. Lange & Söhne is synonymous with the most elegant approach to maximalist watchmaking. The tiny time-telling cities contained within the brand's cases are hypnotic and baffling. Trust me, it becomes all the more impressive when you visit Glashütte and see the work in action. And the brand's CEO, Wilhelm Schmid, has said that among the complicated watches the brand is known for, their most talented watchmakers would often far rather work on tourbillons and perpetual calendars than the famous Triple Split. It's that complex. It's that impressive. And after five years away, it's back. In 2018, Lange launched the first version of the "upgrade," of sorts, to the brand's Double Split. The watch is essentially a rattrapante (a chronograph that can time two intervals), but with the added ability to "split" the interval of the 30-minute counter and, with the Triple Split, the 12-hour counter. It's an incredibly technical and impressive bit of watchmaking and even more impressive when you hear it's cased in a relatively compact (for its complexity) 43.2mm by 15.6mm case, now in platinum. This is the first time the watch has been made in platinum and the first example since 2021. The dial is 0.925 silver, with a light grey track and main dial and dark grey lower subdials, plus luminous hands and hour markers. Finally, the case is water-resistant to 50 meters. The movement, the manually wound L123.1 caliber, is made of 567 parts, 46 jewels, and has 5 screwed gold chat...
Revolution
Hodinkee
What We Know While not a part of Geneva Watch Days (which starts this week), Chopard is preempting the show a bit with two new 25-piece limited editions in their L.U.C. line—the brand's in-house haute horlogerie division. The first up (and more expensive of the two) is the L.U.C. 1963 Heritage Regulator, a 40mm by 10.3mm watch in 18k ethical white gold with 30m water resistance. The dial—which conveys hours (in a subdial), regulator-style minutes, GMT, power reserve, running seconds, and date—is a sunburst-finished silver tone with blue-transferred numbers. The caseback showcases the manually wound, four-barrel (in series) L.U.C 98.02-L movement layout that delivers a massive 9 days of power (part of the Chopard Quattro technology). This kind of high-power-reserve movement has become pretty normalized for Chopard and, because of that, I don't think it gets the appreciation it deserves. The movement, running at 4Hz, is also fantastically finished and features a Poinçon de Genève quality hallmark, plus COSC accuracy certification. As mentioned, the L.U.C. 1963 Heritage Regulator is limited to 25 pieces and is now available, retailing for $50,900. On the sportier end of things is the 42mm by 11.48mm 1963 Heritage Chronograph cased in Lucent Steel. It features a deep blue sunburst-polished, galvanic-treated dial, an eggshell-colored printed dial, and Rhodium-plated white gold hands for the hours, minutes, seconds, chronograph, and 30-minute and 12-hour counters. The wa...
Hodinkee
Welcome to August's end, everyone. I never know how to start these things—there's too much variety in most of our days, meaning that, short of borderline universal cultural experiences, it's hard to know what we'd all even know about. That said, I'd like to offer quick thanks: I've now lucked into writing Bring A Loupe for six months, and it's just tremendous fun, soup to nuts. Thanks for reading, and I look forward to working as hard as I can to not bore you for as long as I'm allowed. Also, boo to Dolly Parton's and Tim Curry's passing. Terrible plot twist. Scorekeeping last week's picks, the Hublot Orlinski's on hold, the Seiko Sportura sold for €1,350, the Breitling Tabarly for €760, and the Yema Tomahawk for £800. Strays I have failed to highlight fun skin divers over the last couple of weeks, so let me ameliorate that lack with this Dupont and this LIP. They share identical all-steel skin diver cases; the differences in their bezels are awfully minor, and the Dupont's got a bracelet, so maybe that's enough of a needle-mover. This Breguet Chronoscope pocketwatch in platinum's not in perfect condition—the dial's got a few spots—but it is also incredibly gorgeous, the design is fantastic, and Monaco Legend Group sold a silver version in 2023 for €16,000, so plan accordingly. I could be wrong, but it looks like this ultra-thin solid gold quartz Jaeger was made by other brands as well, among them Bulova (who called their version a Phantom) and Microma (appare...
Revolution
Worn & Wound
If you’ve attended a recent Windup Watch Fair in Chicago, there’s a very good chance you’ve run into Doug LaViolette. Doug is the founder of the Brian LaViolette Scholarship Foundation, a Wisconsin based watch enthusiast, and honestly one of the nicer people you’ll encounter in this hobby. For years, the scholarship foundation named for his late son has raised money for over 1,200 scholarships for students across the United States and abroad, and now a new watch from Sheffield, a limited edition of just 95 pieces, will help in the cause. Before we get to the watch, it’s important to have some context and understand the story behind it. Brian LaViolette was given his first watch at the age of four. It was a Green Bay Packers themed watch, and it kicked off a fascination with watches and watch collecting that would last until his life was tragically cut short at the age of 15 in a swimming accident. The LaViolette family founded the scholarship foundation shortly after Brian’s death, and Doug’s own watch enthusiasm continues in earnest to this day. Sheffield is a natural choice as a collaborator for the LaViolette family. For starters, there’s some geographical proximity. Founder Jay Turkbas grew up in Minneapolis, and that is where his fascination with watches began. There is also some symmetry in the origins of Sheffield as we know it today. The original incarnation of Sheffield, a historically British brand, was the maker of the first watch Turkbas eve...
WatchRider
In my opinion, panda watches are probably the most beautiful and classic watch designs ever made, which explains why I own around ten of them. In this article, we are looking at two models from Casio that I own: the Edifice EFB-730D-7AV on a stainless steel bracelet, that has a clean silver dial with black subdials, and the Edifice EFB-730L-7AV on a brown leather strap, but with a more vintage off-white dial and orange accents. And to make this even more interesting I will compare them with my Tudor Black Bay Chrono Panda M79360N-0002. In the following sections, I will cover what I like, what I do not like, or rather what I would like to see in future versions, whether these watches feel premium, and two questions you probably have in mind: why I own both and whether I am going to sell them. Panda Design, Case Size and Comfort The panda dial is clearly the main attraction, but what makes these Casio models stand out from the many affordable panda chronographs is the shape of the case. Instead of using the familiar round design seen on watches such as the Tudor Black Bay Chrono, the EFB-730 has a tonneau shape that immediately reminded me of the legendary Zenith El Primero A384. Introduced in 1969, the A384 combined a distinctive tonneau-shaped case (often referred to as a barrel shape) with a white dial, three black chronograph counters and a date window positioned between four and five o’clock. The modern A384 Revival faithfully recreates that design with a 37 mm tonnea...
WatchRider
For years, the watch-collecting corners of the internet have echoed with the same tragic lament: “The Tudor Black Bay Chrono is too big! It’s too thick! The sides are too flat!” Honestly, the complaining always cracks me up. I wear the 41mm Black Bay Chrono regularly, and as a woman who supposedly falls into the “needs a smaller watch” demographic, I’ve never once felt like I was lugging around a grandfather clock on my wrist. I think the 41mm wears beautifully. But apparently, enough guys shed tears in the comments sections over those few extra millimeters that Tudor finally decided to pass out the tissues and downsize. Let’s talk about the yellow elephant in the room. Enter the Tudor Black Bay Chrono 39 (M79310N-0001). If you’re going to shrink a watch, you might as well make it loud enough that people still notice it. Tudor absolutely nailed the visual impact here. The watch has quickly earned the “Bumblebee” nickname thanks to its vibrant matte yellow dial heavily contrasted by two black snailed sub-counters. Complete with Tudor’s signature lumed Snowflake hands, a domed sapphire crystal, and a black anodized aluminum tachymeter bezel, it walks a perfect line between vintage motorsport heritage and modern swagger. While I will defend the bold, chunky stance of the 41mm all day long, I have to give credit where credit is due, the engineering on the 39mm case is undeniably impressive. Tudor didn’t just shave 2mm off the width; they completely ...
Monochrome
Leica’s relationship with mechanical watches is still relatively young (even though some watches have existed during the 1990s), yet it has a solid foundation, as we explained in our article here, and in an interview with Dr Andreas Kaufmann, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Leica Camera AG, who has been a key player in […]
Time+Tide
The Bulova Military VWI Special Edition supports the Veterans Watchmaker Initiative, with 10% of the sales proceeds donated to the VWI.
Worn & Wound
The longer I navigate my watch journey, the more I realize it’s a bit like dating. You get a press kit and metaphorically swipe left or right in a very judging-the-book-by-its-cover type of way. The aesthetics are often the first thing to draw you in and make you curious or to turn you away. In either case, as a good journalist, I’m usually compelled to read the press release and gather a bit more information, skim the profile if you will. I can fully admit aesthetics are highly subjective, but substance is vital. Still, I can’t fully assess a watch without going hands-on. Images can either disappoint or not quite do justice to a design, and the promises spelled out in specs need to be put to the test. Seeing a watch is the real make or break moment to determine if we’re a perfect match. I recently went through this dating ritual with Split watches, a London-based independent brand making its U.S. debut with a new GMT. A few things really stood out to me when I first received the announcement. The look of the watches was interesting, combining unique design elements, shapes, and colors. Reading about the vision behind the design was poetic, drawing from elements of music and nature – two of my favorite sources of inspiration. The watches are powered by the Miyota 9075 true GMT movement – calibers I’ve developed even more appreciation for after visiting Citizen’s movement factory earlier this year. Beyond the watches themselves, I was equally impressed wit...
Time+Tide
Chronoswiss unveils the Opus Dakar Sundown, pairing a two-tone steel and red gold case with a skeletonised, desert-inspired dial.
Monochrome
When your brand name is a contraction of three historic French car manufacturers – Delage, Panhard and Facel Vega – the automotive theme is more than a passing reference. Founded in 2018 by engineer and motorsport enthusiast Clément Meynier, Depancel‘s core products focus on sporty racing watches and chronographs. The distinctive rectangular Serie-R collection welcomes […]
Revolution
Time+Tide
The Casseil II is a sequel from Makina that moves in a different direction from the original, introducing a musclular, brutalist look
Hodinkee
Go Knicks. That is all. Scorekeeping last week's picks: the Grand Seiko sold for $29,700; the Patek Philippe 570 is still available; the Certina CD sold for €120; and the LeCoultre Uniplan sold, but the auction house didn't upload the final price. Strays Photo courtesy Goodwill. Here's a Breguet Classique 5907 on Goodwill. Yes, a Goodwill in Minnesota received, as a donation, a solid-gold Breguet with a four-day power reserve, a manual-wind 510DR movement, a full guilloché dial, Breguet hands, and, as if all that weren't enough, the watch comes with its original box. As Warren G advised, mount up. Beyond that heavy-duty watch in the least likely place, this Dodane Diver is very cool, and this Vincent Calabrese (who also made the Corum Golden Bridge) Wandering Jump Hour on Meticulist is incredibly cool. Apparently, it's my time—or a good time generally—to be excited by rectangular-cased non-Reverso JLC models, and if you've been after a Juvenia Architect, this one seems like it'll be gorgeous once it's cleaned up a bit. I don't know anyone who collects Verity watches, but this diver sure looks great with its classic Monnin case and—there's no other word for it—rad hand set. Finally, here's another IYKYK from Zenith, this time a 40T, which has absolutely nothing going for it other than a beautiful, simple case and a dial marking beneath the handset that has to be one of the coolest movement-related badges on any model I'm aware of. In an effort to balance out last...
Monochrome
Timex is one of those names in watchmaking that dominated with radically affordable, mass-produced watches. Like many others, the brand felt the crunch of the quartz crisis, largely shelving mechanical production. It did not have much choice but to embrace quartz. It was a smart move then, but they never truly lost their mechanical watchmaking […]
Monochrome
Cuba may be making headlines today for reasons far removed from motorsport, but there was a time when Havana was among the most glamorous destinations in the world. During the 1950s, the city was a vibrant mix of culture, entertainment and international sport, attracting celebrities, entrepreneurs, and racing drivers. It was the racing capital of […]
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