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Book Review: Modern Caribbean Rum by Matt Pietrek and Carrie Smith
‘Modern Caribbean Rum’. has already been dubbed the bible on the subject. The first thing you are going to notice about this book is its size. It is massive!
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‘Modern Caribbean Rum’. has already been dubbed the bible on the subject. The first thing you are going to notice about this book is its size. It is massive!
Quill & Pad
The annual calendar is much more practical than a standard calendar, which needs correction in all months with 30 days or less; the annual calendar only needs correcting once a year in February. For owners of this noble yet practical complication, making this adjustment marks a yearly highlight. In celebration of the annual calendar, here are three exciting new models to kick off 2024 in style.
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Japanese watch giant Seiko once again draws upon its many years of experience in the discipline of diver’s watches to reboot a timepiece from 1968 for a new generation. The two Seiko Prospex 1968 Diver’s Modern Re-Interpretation Save the Ocean limited edition timepieces are real dive watches made for professional divers and pioneering adventurers, manufactured to weather the most extreme situations under water.
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The 30th anniversary of the Royal Oak Offshore (ROO) is an excellent time to think seriously about how good this watch is as a collector’s item. An essential aspect of this subject is mechanical watches with complications.
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The Patek Philippe 5002 Sky Moon Tourbillon launched in platinum for the 2001 model year, the 12-complication featured two dials. Dial one was devoted to a moonphase indicator and a perpetual calendar with retrograde date display. On the sub-dial display for months, simple text promised a tourbillon regulator within the case.
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Mascarello is an Italian wine producer family that adheres to the old ways. Apparently, there is no email nor website (I certainly could not find one), and until 1990 they did not even have a phone. However, there are many who believe that Maria Teresa (granddaughter of founder Giulio Mascarello) has taken the wines to unprecedented heights. After a recent visit to the winery in Italy, Ken Gargett is one of them.
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The Armin Strom Mirrored Force Resonance Fire has captivated everybody with the mesmerizing appearance of its twin balances and the unusual, long, sinuous, grey spring gently oscillating along the middle of the watch. 'The Horological Journal' editor and watchmaker Justin Koullapis asks the question, "Does it live up to the hyperbole?"
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With Martin Green's collection evolving, He decided to spice up his vintage Rolex Oyster with a colorful polka dotted dial.
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For watch lovers, the name “Paul Newman” is associated first and foremost with Rolex, and in particular with a subset of that brand’s Daytona watches with specific dial characteristics, including a recessed outer seconds track and subdials that feature block-shaped hashmarks and Art Deco-style Arabic numerals. But what does this nickname mean for these references on the vintage market? And what does GaryG think about it?
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While we are now looking forward to the 2024 releases, Joshua Munchow looks back at 2022, which was a pretty tremendous year for watchmaking.
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George Cramer was pleased to see a stunning new historically inspired Santos-Dumont model in stainless steel at SIHH 2019. And to his Cartier-enamored eye it looked even better than the model from the now-defunct Collection Privée Cartier Paris (CPCP) collection.
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Many of the trends that we have experienced happening slowly over the last few years have continued. These include more dial colors, case materials, and a shift to smaller case sizes. However, it feels we have also hit a turning point where some changes are coming about.
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The Girard-Perregaux Neo Bridges Aston Martin Edition is a watch that quickly captures your heart. And that was no easy challenge, as Martin Green explains.
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As Joshua Munchow swiped through posts on Instagram one day, he was stopped in his tracks, toothbrush dangling from his gaping mouth, eyes wide, and one singular thought running through his head as he stared at his phone: Grand Seiko doesn’t make movements like this. This is an avant-garde tourbillon movement with a constant force escapement and incredible, exposed mechanics! What in the world . . .?! Meet the T0.
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Ian Skellern, speaking from many years of experience, says that the R8 MKII Sport belt buckle isn’t a show pony, it has much more functionality than simply stylishly holding up your trousers. But above all, it is a pure indulgence.
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If there’s one thing (apart from snow) heralding the start of winter in Scandinavia, it’s frost. The dial of the GoS Sarak Frost recreates the scintillating appearance of icy frost.
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Diver’s watches are meant to be rough, tough tool watches, and limited editions are made to cash in on a model’s popularity. The Bell & Ross BR 03-92 Diver Full Lum is both, yet disproves these paradox presumptions as Martin Green discovered after wearing this watch for a while. What did he think? "It's lit!"
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Joshua Munchow explains why he thinks manual winding watches are for horological connoisseurs and why more complexity isn’t necessarily better in some cases.
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One of the reasons that GaryG bought a C By Romain Gauthier Titanium Edition Two is that it fits his shifting lifestyle and watch-wearing habits; as more and more of his time is spent in casual clothing and running various errands, it’s great to have a piece that has a true sporting character yet still packs the punch of a top indie creation.
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Finnish watchmaker Stepan Sarpaneva has just released a watch that helps you keep track of time no matter how light or dark it is outside: the Midnight Sun.
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As Martin Green became ever more impressed by the performance of the Valjoux 7750 chronograph movement, he also found himself enamored by its little quirks and the variety of watches it has been tapped to power. Here Martin outlines the history of this classic automatic chronograph movement.
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Martin Green has been a big fan of Chronoswiss since the 1990s and thought it tough to improve any of their models. However, the new Delphis, Chronoswiss has clearly taken things to the next level.
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Ian Skellern had the honor to be interviewed by Rikki Daman for the Scottish Watch Podcast. If you are interested in how Ian came to be a watch journalist and how he convinced Aldis Hodge to feature in the Making Time documentary, check this out.
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Before Ken Gargett smoked a Diplomaticos 30th Anniversary PCC Cigars, he asked for some thoughts. The responses ran the gauntlet from seriously good to stunning.
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One of the best things about Dubai Watch Week are the presentations, debates, and talks in the Horology Forum. These cover a very wide range of topic and are usually 45-minutes long with time for audience questions at the end. Here are five that Ian Skellern particularly enjoyed that will hopefully both entertain and educate, as well as give you an idea of the types of diverse topics covered.
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Once in a while on the collector forums, a question is posed: is there anyone in the collector community who has never, ever, owned a Rolex? As a general rule, respondents to these queries tend to express disbelief that such a creature could possibly exist given the quality and ubiquity of the brand’s watches. Well, folks, GaryG is here to tell you that such people do exist, and that he is one of them. How could it be? And then what happened?
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Warren Buffett’s oft-repeated mantra is “I only invest in what I understand”. If you are a watch collector or simply interested in watches (and if you are reading this, you probably are), you probably have a better understanding of the historical and technical aspects of watchmaking than anyone – even Warren Buffett.
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The 2023 Dubai Watch Week (DWW) has drawn to a close and what a fair it was: simply sensational. Here is Part 2 of Ian Skellern's DWW 2023 photofest. Enjoy!
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I estimate I’ve seen - and have personally moderated 10 Dubai Watch Week Horological Forums talks - around 80 of these ‘events’, and many have been very, very, good: either. But at the 2023 fair I saw one that just blew me away (and I’m a jaded old industry veteran). Don't miss this!
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From the time GaryG revealed that he'd added a Patek Philippe Reference 5170P chronograph to his collection, he has frequently been asked two questions: how does it compare to his Patek Philippe Reference 5370P split-seconds chronograph and how does it compare to Patek Philippe’s prior flagship chronograph, the platinum-encased Reference 5070P? Find out here!
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