Teddy Baldassarre · Page 44

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Teddy Baldassarre

Citizen Jun 11, 2024

Citizen Dive Watches Guide

Citizen Watch Co. of Japan has been making watches for 100 years, and a glance at the brand’s current portfolio reveals that quite a few of those watches are dive watches. It’s not surprising, since Citizen has been in the business of supplying watches for divers since the early 1980s, and has been extending the variety of styles, functionalities, and even movement types available in the various collections ever since. So how do you decide on whether you want your first (or next) Citizen dive watch to be an Eco-Drive or an automatic? An everyday-wear Fugu, a multipurpose Aqualand, or a deep-diving Eco-Zilla? Our comprehensive guide is here to help you, with a brief history of Citizen dive watches and a rundown of all the styles available today. Swiss watchmakers began embracing purpose-built, water-resistant divers’ watches in the early 1950s, while their contemporaries in Japan came aboard a decade or so later. As many history-minded watch enthusiasts are aware, it was Citizen’s competitor, Seiko, that released the first Japanese-made divers’ watch, in 1965. However, Citizen’s Parawater, regarded as the first “water-resistant” Japanese watch, preceded it to market six years earlier, in 1959. The Parawater watches (as above) were waterproof to 50 meters of depth, an impressive feat for the era, and they were the forerunners of Citizen’s contemporary line of dive watches, which began in the 1960s but really kicked into gear with the release of the Promast...

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Teddy Baldassarre

Jun 6, 2024

18 Roman Numeral-Dial Watches From Under $500 to $40,000

In an era when the line between what is a sports watch and what is a dress watch have been blurred substantially, the presence of Roman numerals on your watch’s dial is one of the last reliable hallmarks that identify it as a timepiece meant for dressing up, not down; a watch designed with classical elegance in mind more so than robustness or even optimum legibility. Of course, Roman numerals in general are rarely encountered in most people’s modern lives, the annual naming and marketing of Super Bowls being the rare exception. Thus, watches with Roman-numeral dials are relatively rare in the horological wild as well, albeit still occupying an appealing niche embraced by many watch manufacturers as well as by an avid core of enthusiasts. Here, we’ve tracked down 18 that are on the market in 2024; as per our usual format, they’re spotlighted in ascending order of price and represent a wide range of price points. Orient Bambino Day-Date Price: $410, Case Size: 40.5mm, Thickness: 12.6mm, Lug to Lug: 46.5mm, Lug Width: 21mm, Crystal: Mineral, Water Resistance: 30 meters, Movement: Automatic F6B22 Often under the radar of American watch consumers and overshadowed by its larger Japanese brethren, Citizen and Seiko (which with it shares a corporate connection through Epson), Orient has been making value-oriented watches in Japan since 1950. The Bambino, Orient’s dressy gents’ model, offers simple three-handed options and a handful of “quiet” complications, like th...

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Teddy Baldassarre

Jun 4, 2024

The 10 Best Australian Watch Brands in 2026

When you think of Australia, watches are probably not the first images that come to your mind. Kangaroos, boomerangs, Hugh Jackman, and Nicole Kidman, maybe, but not watches. However, much like Great Britain, France,, and our own United States, Australia in the 21st Century has given rise to a creative and ambitious generation of watch aficionados-turned-entrepreneurs that are eager to establish home-grown watchmaking in the Land Down Under. While a full-fledged horological industry in Australia is still quite a way from becoming reality - unlike those aforementioned nations, it has little watchmaking history to speak of, and outsourced parts and even manufacturing are still the norm - these 10 Australia-based watch brands are making timepieces worthy of enthusiasts’ attention. Melbourne Watch Co. Founded: 2013 Headquarters: Melbourne, Australia Founder: Sujain Krishnan Notable models: Melbourne, Flinders, Portsea, Fitzroy Melbourne Watch Company started out as a crowd-funded venture in 2013, a passion project for founder, former IT consultant and self-trained watchmaker Sujain Krishnan. It attained early success with its first timepiece, the Flinders Automatic, a business-casual steel watch named for a central train hub in the founder’s home city of Melbourne and sporting a dial inspired by that station’s clock. The brand has expanded its offerings in the decade-plus since, now offering no less than seven collections, all taking their names and some aesthetic cu...

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Teddy Baldassarre

Glashutte Original May 30, 2024

Glashütte Original Spezialist SeaQ Chronograph Review

While it was established relatively recently, in 1994, Glashütte Original can legitimately trace its lineage as far back as 1845, which also happens to be the year that watchmaking essentially arrived as an industry in Germany. As I cover in much greater detail in this article, a full century of horological tradition, centered in the town of Glashütte in the state of Saxony, came to an end with Germany’s defeat in World War II. It was replaced by a new era in which a state-owned conglomerate of once-independent heritage watch manufacturers, the Glashütter Uhrenbetriebe or GUB, shifted focus from artisanal techniques and luxuriously decorative timepieces to mass-produced tool watches for military and civilian customers. Many of the watches produced in the GUB era - spanning the Cold War years from 1951 up to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1990 - are largely forgettable, but Glashütte Original, the luxury-watch firm that emerged from the dissolution of the GUB, has cherry-picked the most interesting and memorable of those utilitarian timepieces, produced in the late 1960s and ‘70s, for modern reimagining in its “Spezialist” series. Serving as the base model for the Spezialist models is a single, now-collectible divers’ sport watch from 1969, the Spezimatic Type RP TS 200, which was the first dive watch produced in Germany (technically, at the time, East Germany) that met the international ISO 6425 standard. Glashütte Original paid tribute to the fondly rem...

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Teddy Baldassarre

May 28, 2024

Watch Bracelet Types: Here Are the Most Famous and Popular Styles

Among the many decisions facing a prospective watch buyer before pulling the trigger on a new timepiece, is choosing which type of strap or bracelet it should have. We covered the various types of watch straps in this article; read on for our rundown of the most popular watch bracelets, focusing on some of the influential, proprietary styles from brands like Rolex and Breitling, which have impacted numerous other brands’ designs, as well as more niche-oriented options geared to collectors and historical-minded enthusiasts. Oyster Bracelet Rolex’s iconic Oyster bracelet is the template from which many other three-link bracelet styles have been drawn. Its name comes from its association with the Oyster case, which Rolex first introduced in 1926 and for which the original version of this bracelet served as an extension. Oyster bracelets are recognizable for their wide center links bordered by thinner end-links. Rolex patented the design in 1947 and fitted one on a watch in 1948. In the early versions, the links were riveted; these were phased out in favor of a “folding” style in 1967, which eventually gave way to the modern, solid-link style in 1975. Three-link bracelets like the Oyster and its various descendants are particularly popular on sports watches and dive watches.  President Bracelet The Rolex Day-Date appeared on the market in 1956 and with it came a new three-link bracelet called the President. Intended as the epitome of Rolex’s luxurious bracelet optio...

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Teddy Baldassarre

May 23, 2024

12 Carbon Fiber Watches from Entry-Level to Luxury

Since its beginnings, the wristwatch industry has engaged in an ongoing quest for materials that are lightweight yet exceptionally tough - a quest that has led to the mainstreaming of once-experimental materials such as titanium and ceramics. Among the most recent and most high-tech substances adopted for watchmaking are carbon fiber compounds, pioneered by research scientists in the 1950s and ‘60s and first used in the manufacture of automotive and jet engine parts. The first wristwatch with carbon fiber in its case was an IWC Ingenieur in 1980; other watchmakers followed suit in the ensuing decades, some of them even developing new and more resilient substances by combining carbon fibers with other materials. While the watches on this list cover a vast range in terms of pricing, design, and technical complexity, all of them share the core attributes bestowed by carbon fiber and its various derivatives: exceptional lightness, durability, scratch- and corrosion-resistance, and an industrial-chic surface treatment that is sure to spark conversation among fellow watch aficionados. G-Shock Mudmaster GWG2000 Price: $800, Case Size: 61.2mm x 54.4mm, Thickness: 16.1mm, Crystal: Sapphire, Water Resistance: 200 meters, Movement: Casio Tough Solar Casio’s vast and diverse G-Shock collection offers some of its toughest multifunctional watches in the task-specific “Master of G” collection - like the Mudmaster, which as per its somewhat cartoonish name is aimed at wearers ...

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Teddy Baldassarre

Longines May 21, 2024

Longines Conquest 38 Review

Last year, Longines relaunched the Conquest, a mainstay of its collection since the mid-1950s, in a new execution heavily influenced by its earliest vintage forebears and staking out a dressier territory than its sporty dive-watch sibling, the Hydroconquest. Longines set out to expand the new Conquest’s appeal this year with a new series of models in unisex 38mm cases. Read on for a hands-on review of the new Conquest 38 with an effervescent champagne dial. Longines, founded in 1832 in the Jura valley of Switzerland, where it remains headquartered today, can claim a variety of milestones in its long history, including one that is largely overlooked. In the 1950s, Longines became one of the first watchmakers to introduce product “families,” today a staple of the watch industry; the first was the Conquest collection, whose name was registered on April 3, 1954 with the Swiss Registry of Intellectual Property and which launched that same year. Like just about any timepiece well past the half-century mark on the market, the Conquest has evolved substantially over the decades since. The first Conquest (Heritage re-edition pictured above) was a model of midcentury masculine simplicity, and one of the first wristwatches notable for its high levels of waterproofness and magnetic resistance. Its steel case measured a modest (but at the time standard) 35.2mm and fastened via wide, chamfered lugs to a leather strap. Its champagne-colored dial had arrowhead-style notched indexes ...

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Teddy Baldassarre

Timex May 16, 2024

Are Timex Watches Good? All You Need to Know About the Quintessential

For many watch enthusiasts, a Timex watch is the gateway drug for a lifetime of timepiece obsession - understated in presentation, stylish in execution, affordable in price and found just about everywhere. And what Timex may lack in prestige and collectibility, especially when stacked up against industry titans from Switzerland, it makes up for in the key role it has played in "democratizing" timekeeping and for its undeniable influence on Americana and popular culture. How much do you really know about Timex? Read on for a brief but detailed historical perspective, followed by a showcase of the most noteworthy Timex watches on the market now. Waterbury Clock Company Factory  From its earliest days, the company now known as Timex was dedicated to making timekeepers that were both reliable and affordable to the masses. Based in Waterbury, Connecticut, and originally a division of brass manufacturer Benedict & Burnham, the Waterbury Clock Company opened its doors in 1854, specializing in the mass production of clocks with gears and wheels made of brass. By 1857, when it was incorporated as an independent business, Waterbury Clock Company was churning out millions of clocks, all priced lower than their European competitors, with parts sourced from manufacturers in Connecticut’s Naugatuck Valley region, which became known at the time as the “Switzerland of America;” Waterbury, the largest city in the region, still carries the nickname “Brass City.” The manufacturi...

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Teddy Baldassarre

May 14, 2024

Counting Down the 15 Oldest Watch Brands in the World

Watchmaking is a trade that goes back to the 16th Century, and building mystique and legitimacy on a long, historical legacy is a common theme we find in many companies that make watches today - particularly those whose roots reach back for a century or more. But which companies have really been making watches the longest? In a way, it’s a sticky question, one that can lead one into a minefield of semantics and trivia. Jaquet Droz, for example, claims a founding date of 1738 but the modern version of the company was established in 2000 when Swatch Group acquired the name. A. Lange & Söhne carries on the tradition of the original company founded in Saxony in 1845 but has really been in operation only since 1990 (and to be fair, the company is very transparent about this). The Swiss-based Graham brand traces its legacy all the way back to the London atelier of British watchmaker George Graham in 1695 but has no connection to it other than design inspiration. In assembling the following list of the oldest watch brands still making watches today, I went with the companies that, in my judgment, can legitimately claim a direct lineage to the original founding, even allowing for ownership changes and periods of dormancy along the way. Without further ado, here is a countdown of the 15 oldest watch brands in the world today; you may be surprised by who is included as well as by who is excluded. 15. Zenith (1865) Zenith's founder Georges Favre-Jacot was only 22 when he founded...

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Teddy Baldassarre

May 13, 2024

21 Movie Watches Spotted on the Big Screen, from 1961 to Now

Spotting watches in the movies, on the wrists of our favorite actors and often playing key roles in the film’s storyline, has long been a favorite pastime of cinephiles and watch enthusiasts, and identifying these movie watches, often all the way down to each model’s individual reference number, has become an online cottage industry. This compilation in no way purports to be the most comprehensive list of every movie watch ever, but it does spotlight some of the most noteworthy watches worn on the silver screen over the past sixty-plus years. Without further ado, let’s grab our popcorn and dive into the list, in more or less chronological order from the 1960s to today.  And for those of you who want even more about movies and watches, make sure to check out our original feature length masterclass Watches of Cinema here. Hosted by watch and movie obsessive (not to mention our VP of Content here at Teddy) Danny Milton, this 10-part video walks through the history of watches in movies decade by decade. So, grab some popcorn and get comfortable because this is gonna be fun. Blue Hawaii (1961) - Hamilton Ventura American watchmaker Hamilton introduced the first electronic watch, the Ventura, to great fanfare in 1957, and the watch would go on to even greater fame when it was worn by Elvis Presley - at the time, arguably the biggest star in the world - in the 1961 film, Blue Hawaii. The watch, which is believed to be Presley’s own rather than a prop (see above), ...

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Teddy Baldassarre

May 10, 2024

The Top 10 Watchmaker Schools in the United States

For most of us, the art and science of watchmaking is simply the technical underpinning behind the timepieces that fascinate us as enthusiasts, hobbyists, and collectors - an esoteric and intricate world delved into at varying levels of interest based on our individual curiosity about, and/or understanding of, the mechanisms involved. For some, however, learning how to assemble, repair, or perhaps even build a watch from scratch is an obsession that can lead to a lifelong and very fulfilling career as a trained watchmaker and repairer- and to put it bluntly, the watch industry needs more of them. Here are the 10 state-accredited educational institutions in the U.S. offering full-time curricula for watchmaking careers as compiled by the Horological Society of New York.  Gem City College School of Horology, Quincy, IL Photo: AWCI Gem City College was founded in 1870 as Gem City Business College by Civil War veteran DeLafayette Musselman, whose name still adorns one of the campus buildings. Located in the city of Quincy, adjacent to the Mississippi River, the College added its horology school in 1961, which was a department that had actually migrated over from Bradley University in neighboring Peoria, as well as a cosmetology program in 1975, expanding from its original business model of training students in business-specific courses like banking, penmanship, and accounting. Today, the Horology School offers courses in watchmaking and watch repair, clock repair, jew...

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Teddy Baldassarre

May 7, 2024

17 Day-Date Watches From Under $200 to Over $50,000

In many ways, we are living in a “less is more” era of watch design, in which watch dials continue to trend toward symmetry and simplicity; an era in which even the humble date window, the simplest and perhaps most utilitarian complication for an everyday-wear watch, has found itself unwelcome to many enthusiasts of this new generation of understated timepieces. And yet, the appeal of the day-date watch - one notch of complication above the simple date-display model, designed to clue in the wearer not just to the date on the calendar but the day of the week - remains strong. From a utility standpoint, it shouldn’t be surprising, especially in our current fast-paced era, in which home-office work and 24/7 connectedness blurs lines between weekdays and weekends more than ever, and forgetting what day it is becomes an issue for more and more people. If you’re in the market for such a watch, or just intrigued by the diverse ways in which a timepiece can display this useful information, check out the list below, in which we spotlight a selection of day-date watches, from entry-level to high luxury, in ascending order of price. Timex Q Timex Inspired SST Price: $179, Case Size: 38 mm, Case Height: 11.5 mm, Lug Width: 18 mm, Crystal: Acrylic, Water Resistance: 50 meters, Movement: Quartz Analog Timex has had success in recent years in reproducing some of its cult-favorite vintage models for today’s increasingly savvy collectors seeking out the sweet spot between his...

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Teddy Baldassarre

Tudor May 7, 2024

Tudor Black Bay: A Comprehensive Guide to the Collection

The Tudor Black Bay took watch fandom by storm when it hit the market in 2012 and the sporty, vintage-inspired divers' watch has since grown into an extensive family with something for just about everyone, now boasting in-house calibers, multiple styles and sizes, and even some precious metals and complications. In this comprehensive guide we explore the origins of the Tudor Black Bay and showcase the standout models you can buy right now.  FOUNDATIONS OF TUDOR With an eye toward making watches that would be affordable while still maintaining a high level of quality, Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf registered the Tudor brand trademark in 1926, and began running the Tudor company as a subsidiary brand of Rolex in 1946. Tudor watches were the only watches on the market at the time that featured reliable third-party movements inside the famed waterproof Rolex Oyster case, also developed in 1926, and were initially more geared toward the tool watch market than were Rolex timepieces, which already enjoyed a reputation as luxury items. The first Tudor watch with the “Oyster” name followed shortly after the launch of the brand, in 1947, kicking off a long tradition of timepieces suitable for underwater adventure. The first Tudor Prince model followed in 1952, around the same time that Tudor began an R&D; partnership with the French Navy (Marine Nationale), from which would emerge the brand’s first dive watch. THE OYSTER PRINCE SUBMARINER The Tudor Oyster Prince Submariner, Tu...

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Teddy Baldassarre

Citizen May 3, 2024

Citizen Eco-Drive Guide

The history of the watch industry is rife with groundbreaking technological developments that came about through necessity. Dive watches’ unidirectional rotating bezels were developed to save the lives of scuba divers by ensuring they wouldn’t misread their time underwater and inadvertently run out of oxygen. Luminous paint on watch dials was invented so wearers could read the time in the dark or underwater. Antimagnetic innovations in watch movements came about as everyday life in the 20th century exposed us to more and more electromagnetic fields that affected our watches’ efficient running. One of the more recent examples is Citizen’s now-famous and still-exclusive Eco-Drive movement - which emerged as a direct result of the worldwide energy crisis that galvanized environmentalists in the 1970s. Citizen pocket watch from 1924 Citizen, like all watch companies that trace their history back to the early 20th Century, was a traditional watchmaker long before it became an innovator in high-tech, electronic timekeeping - founded in 1918 in Japan, as the Shokosha Watch Research Institute. The name “Citizen” first appeared on one of the company’s pocket watches in 1924, an indication that Shokosha, which officially became Citizen Watch Company in 1930, would be devoted to making timepieces that were accessible to “all citizens” of Japan, and eventually, of the world. By the 1970s - with several milestones under its belt, including the first calendar wat...

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Teddy Baldassarre

Patek Philippe May 2, 2024

The Most Expensive Patek Philippe Watches

Founded in 1839 in Geneva, Patek Philippe has long been the gold standard of high watchmaking, pioneering complications and design elements that are now found widely throughout the watch industry - from the first keyless winding system in 1845 to the first annual calendar wristwatch in 1996, with many other innovations and historic timepieces in between. Throughout the maison’s long and prestigious history, watches from Patek Philippe have proven to be among the most coveted and valuable on the watch-auction circuit, making up nine of the 10 most expensive watches ever sold and 14 of the top 20. What are these record-breaking Patek Philippe timepieces, what makes them so special, and exactly how much money did they fetch when the hammer came down? Below, we count down the top 10, ending with the most expensive watch ever sold at auction. Patek Philippe Gold Chronograph Ref. 1527 ($5.709 million, 2010, Christie’s) Sold at Christie’s in 2010 and still holding its spot in the top 10 most expensive Patek Philippe watches, this exceedingly rare perpetual calendar chronograph with a yellow-gold tonneau case more than doubled its pre-auction estimate. Its matte silver dial features applied Arabic numerals, a tachymeter scale, and three subdials for chronograph minutes, running seconds, date, and moon-phases. Its movement is stamped with the prestigious Geneva Seal, attesting to its elite level of finishing as well as its chronometric performance. 9. Patek Philippe Titaniu...

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Cartier Apr 30, 2024

Cartier Tank Watch: The Ultimate Guide

The Cartier Tank is one of the most influential and recognizable luxury watches in the world, as well as being one of the few truly iconic timepieces whose appeal is truly unisex: Cartier Tank watches are beloved by both men and women and worn in a diverse array of sizes, colorways, and variations on the original watch’s classical shape and dimensions. Throughout its prestigious history, the Cartier Tank has evolved in ways that are both subtle and revolutionary and has appeared in forms of which many of us might not even be aware. Here is a guide to the modern Cartier Tank collection and a bit of background on each model.   While it is today better known as one of the world’s leading jewelers, Cartier’s roots are in the art of horology. Its eponymous founder, Louis-Francois Cartier (above, 1819-1904), was an apprentice to master watchmaker Adolphe Piccard before founding his own company, at the age of 28, in Piccard’s Parisian workshop in 1847. Several generations of family ownership would follow, and Cartier’s watches, and eventually its jewelry, cultivated a worldwide audience and an esteemed client list that included aristocrats and crowned heads; Britain’s King Edward VII famously dubbed Cartier “the jeweller of kings and the king of jewellers.”  In the early 20th century, during the third generation of family ownership, Cartier produced some of its most epochal timepieces under the creative direction of Louis Cartier, grandson of Louis-Francois, who...

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Teddy Baldassarre

Tudor Apr 26, 2024

Tudor Black Bay Fifty Eight: Our Guide to All the Watches

Tudor returned to the U.S. market after a lengthy absence in 2013 and the Rolex-owned brand had its first big hit in this modern era with the launch of the Black Bay (originally the Heritage Black Bay), a stylish, sporty divers’ watch, with a plethora of historical details drawn from Tudor dive watches of yore. In 2018, in response to growing consumer demand both for more modest case sizes and for greater period authenticity in vintage-style timepieces, Tudor introduced the Black Bay Fifty-Eight, which proved to hit the sweet spot for many contemporary enthusiasts. Named for the year 1958, in which Tudor released the Oyster Prince Submariner Ref. 7924, the most clear forerunner to the Black Bay, the Black Bay Fifty-Eight models match that watch’s 39mm case diameter, which is downsized from the 41mm-to-43mm sizes still common to the core Black Bay series. Since its launch, the Black Bay Fifty-Eight has become one of the most popular extensions of the expanding Black Bay collection, and has been the stage for Tudor’s recent (and historically rare) forays into the realm of precious metals. Descended From a Prince: Black Bay DNA The aesthetic origin of the Black Bay starts with the Tudor Oyster Prince Submariner, released in 1954, one year after big brother Rolex rolled out its own much more famous purpose-built dive watch, also called the Submariner. This original version, Ref. 7922, used the same “Mercedes” handset found on many Rolex models and was water-resistan...

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Teddy Baldassarre

Seiko Apr 25, 2024

Seiko GMT Watch Buyer's Guide

More than just about any other watchmaker, Japan's Seiko has become known for offering not only multiple styles and complications in its product families, but also several different types of movements - from affordable quartz, to proprietary hybrid Spring Drive, to high-tech solar and radio-controlled, to classically traditional mechanical. However, one Holy Grail combo that has eluded Seiko and its fans until very recently is the rare GMT (aka dual-time) watch powered by a mechanical movement and priced at what most would consider entry-level for a budding collector. Fortunately, the past few years of R&D; have yielded several all-new GMT-equipped, self-winding mechanical movements for the Japanese megabrand, which have found their way into several models in its modern collections. Here’s a guide to familiarize yourself with all the Seiko mechanical GMTs on the market now - and yes, all of them offer the enticing value proposition that has made Seiko a darling of enthusiasts at every level of economic means. SEIKO 5 SPORTS The Seiko 5 Sports series traces its roots all the way back to 1963 and the original Seiko Sportsmatic 5, a groundbreaking timepiece that ushered in the emblematic “five attributes” that define Seiko’s entry-level mechanical collection today. These include automatic movements, date or day/date displays in a single window, water resistance, a recessed crown at 4 o’clock, and a case and bracelet made of durable materials. Stylistically, the w...

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Rolex Apr 24, 2024

Rolex GMT-Master II: The Ultimate Guide

The Rolex GMT-Master II is one of the most coveted luxury travel watches on the planet, and its predecessor, the original, non-numerical GMT-Master, basically established the template that other dual-time zone timepieces have been following for more than half a century. Here is a detailed look at the history and evolution of the GMT-Master II, from its aviation-inspired beginnings in 1954 to the iconic status it enjoys in the modern era, with all the major models spotlighted in between. 1954: “PEPSI” FOR PILOTS Rolex, the luxury watch firm founded in 1905 by Hans Wilsdorf, achieved one of its many milestones in 1953 with the launch of the Oyster Perpetual Submariner, the first serially produced wristwatch with a case water-resistant to 100 meters and hence one of the first and most influential watches purpose-built for diving. If the watch community was wondering what Rolex could possibly do for an encore, they didn’t have long to discover the answer. The following year, 1954, saw the introduction of another trend-setting, genre-defining timepiece, the original Rolex GMT-Master (Ref. 6542, which actually hit the market in 1955), the first watch capable of displaying the time in two separate time zones thanks to the clever addition of a fourth, central 24-hour hand and a bidirectional rotating 24-hour bezel. The initials in the watch’s name signify “Greenwich Mean Time,” the system of world timekeeping based on the calculation of mean solar time from the Royal ...

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Hamilton Apr 23, 2024

The 10 Best Hamilton Watches for Every Type of Enthusiast

While it’s been making its timepieces in Switzerland since the 1970s, Hamilton Watch Company, founded in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1892, has few peers when it comes to being a vital thread in the historical tapestry of American watchmaking. The heritage brand, today a part of the Swiss Swatch Group conglomerate of companies, continues to lean heavily into its New World roots for its diverse collection of product families, which ranges from military tool watches to sporty divers, from elegantly appointed dress pieces to retro-futuristic curiosities - while also maintaining a price-to-value ratio for which the brand has long been renowned. It can fairly be said that there is a Hamilton watch for just about everyone, no matter what style they’re seeking. Here, in the tradition of our previous guide to the best Longines watches, we run down 10 of our favorite Hamilton watches that run the stylistic gamut from sporty to dressy, from high-tech to classically mechanical. For the Military Buff: Hamilton Khaki Field Mechanical Price: $595, Case Size: 38mm, Thickness: 9.5mm, Lug width: 20mm, Lug to Lug: 47mm, Crystal: Sapphire, Water Resistance: 50 meters, Movement: Mechanical Hamilton Caliber H-50 Field watches are an enduringly popular category of timepiece, and without Hamilton, the style as we know it might not even exist. Hamilton basically invented the genre with the “trench watches” that it supplied to American troops during World War I, kicking off a long tradit...

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Oris Apr 22, 2024

Oris Aquis Buyer's Guide

The Oris Aquis collection of sporty dive watches is one of the Swiss brand’s most popular - and notably hosted the first Oris watch outfitted with the in-house Caliber 400 - even though it traces its history back just over a decade, to 2011. Like many watch models that catch on strongly with both collectors and casual fans, however, it actually represents the successful evolution of several models that preceded it. Here’s everything you need to know about the Oris Aquis, from its history, to the most prominent models available now, to its central role in Oris’ environmental sustainability initiatives.  ORIS ORIGINS AND AQUIS EVOLUTION Oris, one of the watch world’s few remaining major independent brands, traces its history back to 1904, when it was founded in Hölstein, in the German-speaking Swiss canton of Basel-Landschaft, by Paul Catlin and Georges Christian. The company, which the co-founders named after a brook near the factory, expanded throughout the early 1900s, at one point becoming the largest employer in Hölstein, with over 300 employees and factories throughout Switzerland. In 1925, Oris began making wrist watches, and in 1928, under the leadership of Christian’s brother-in-law Oscar Herzog, a new era of expansion and innovation began. Oris started making its own escapements in the watershed year of 1938, which also saw the release of the brand’s iconic Big Crown watch with pointer date function. The first automatic Oris watch was launched i...

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Teddy Baldassarre

Apr 16, 2024

The 12 Best Luxury Dive Watches for 2026

There are dive watches that you wear to go diving and there are dive watches that you wear - well, maybe afterward, to the country club where you go to talk about diving. It is this latter category that we’re focusing on with this list - so-called “luxury” dive watches, timepieces that still offer all the functionality and toughness one requires of a diver (all of the watches listed come in at 200 meters or more of water resistance) but do so at a higher level of elegance than elevates them from tool watch to dress watch - i.e., precious metal or exotic-material cases, extra complications, exclusive designs, artisanal executions, or a combination of the above, all of which account for their accordingly lofty price points. Here are a dozen that qualify. Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Diver Price: $30,500, Case Size: 42mm, Thickness: 14.2mm, Water Resistance: 300m, Crystal: Sapphire, Movement: Automatic Audemars Piguet Caliber 4308 Audemars Piguet added a purpose-built dive watch to its Royal Oak Offshore collection of boldly styled sport-luxury timepieces - which spun out of the original, classic Royal Oak series - in 2010. The Royal Oak Offshore Divers feature 42mm cases that are integrated not into metal bracelets (like those of the core Royal Oak models) but into sleek, sporty rubber straps suited for underwater submergence. The cases are water-resistant to 300 meters and the dials, with the hallmark “Mega Tapisserie” textured motif, host a pair...

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Teddy Baldassarre

Apr 5, 2024

Watches for Engineers and Scientists: A Brief History in Six Iconic Ti

Looking at the watch market as it exists today, one will notice that the most popular styles, even on the luxury end, have their roots in “tool watches” aimed at a particular audience of users: professional and recreational divers, pilots and aviation hobbyists, competitive racing drivers and motorsport enthusiasts, military operators and outdoorsy weekend warriors. Nearly all of these styles trace their origins back to the early to mid-20th Century - an era in which, around the same time, many watchmakers were developing another style of tool watch, one that we really don’t see as much anymore because so many of its elements have been absorbed into the mainstream, incorporated into sport watches and dress watches alike: a watch targeting engineers and scientists who plied their trade around magnetic fields. Here are six of the most important watches from this now-rare genre and a bit of historical information about what each of them contributed.  1930: Tissot Antimagnetique The need for a watch that could withstand the ill effects of magnetic fields was felt as early as the 1920s, when the use of electricity in homes as well as businesses became more widespread. One of the first watchmakers to respond was Tissot, founded in 1850 in the Swiss town of Le Locle. In 1930, Tissot released to the market the aptly named Antimagnetique, the first wristwatch with a magnetism-resistant movement. Tissot accomplished this feat by using the non-magnetic metal palladium for v...

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T Teddy Baldassarre

Teddy Baldassarre

Rado Apr 3, 2024

What You Should Know Before Buying the Rado Captain Cook (Updated for

Since it hit the market less than a decade ago, the Rado Captain Cook has rapidly built an avid following among watch enthusiasts while also casting a brighter spotlight on its parent brand, which had previously been known more for avant-garde, fashion-oriented timepieces than vintage-look, sport-focused ones. Eyeing one of these retro-stylish and accessibly priced divers as your next watch purchase? Here is what you need to know about the Rado Captain Cook collection. The Brand Behind the Captain: Rado History Rado was founded in 1917 by brothers Fritz, Ernst, and Werner Schlup, who converted their parents’ home in Lengnau, in the Swiss canton of Bern, into a watch factory. Originally dubbed Schlup & Co.,the family firm started out making movements but eventually found success as a watch producer in 1957 with the launch of the Rado brand (the name means “wheel” in Esperanto) and its first timepiece, the Rado Golden Horse, one of the first wristwatches marketed with an emphasis on its antimagnetic properties. The company followed it up in 1962 with the futuristic DiaStar model (below) - touted as “the world’s first scratch-proof watch” and recognized as the first commercially available “ceramic watch” - which was groundbreaking in its use of hardmetal and sapphire glass for increased scratch-resistance.  The DiaStar ushered in Rado’s modern credo of exploring the most avant-garde, high-tech materials for ideal comfort and durability in its wat...

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T Teddy Baldassarre

Teddy Baldassarre

Breitling Mar 27, 2024

Breitling Superocean and Superocean Heritage: The Ultimate Guide

Historically, Breitling is a watchmaker known for two horological specialties: aviation watches and chronographs. In its most famous timepieces, in fact, like the Navitimer and Chronomat, the two genres elegantly merge into an iconic whole. While this is still largely the case today, Breitling has also staked out for itself a successful and impactful niche in the category of dive watches; its robust and stylish Superocean collection, introduced in 1957 during the early heyday of recreational diving, continues to command a large and avid audience today. Now divided into two distinctively different yet historically related families - the Superocean and Superocean Heritage - and offering both three-hand and chronograph models in a steadily growing array of sizes, materials, and colorways, Breitling’s seaworthy fleet offers a sporty option for just about everyone. Here is a brief history of the Superocean and a guide to the modern collection. 1957: Ref. 1004 Diver and Ref. 807 Chronograph The launch of the original Superocean, Breitling’s first purpose-built divers’ watch, in 1957, was timed to commemorate 25 years at the helm of the company for Willy Breitling, the only son of founder Gaston Breitling and the inventor of such enduring classics as the Chronomat and Navitimer. Commercially, it was also driven by the growing popularity of scuba diving as a hobby and the subsequent market desire for wristwatches that could be worn underwater. Several of that genre’s p...

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T Teddy Baldassarre

Teddy Baldassarre

Glashutte Original Mar 22, 2024

Glashütte Original PanoMaticLunar Review

Founded in 1994 in the wake of German reunification, but with roots tracing back all the way back to 1845, Glashütte Original has become firmly established as one of the world’s premier luxury watchmakers, one of the vanguard of firms that have put the little town of Glashütte, in the eastern state of Saxony, back on the map of world-class horological hubs after decades of postwar dormancy. In 2003, Glashütte Original introduced the first PanoMaticLunar, a handsome moon-phase timepiece that was notable for its delicately balanced array of indications, assembled on the principle of the Golden Ratio, and which today stands as one of the pillars of the diverse PanoMatic collection. In 2022, Glashütte Original released a crowd-pleasing version of the PanoMaticLunar in a striking, dark green dial and stainless steel case, which quickly and easily became the standout model in the Lunar family. I had the chance to get my hands on the watch recently for a full-on review, which follows below.  The Case: The soft, round PanoMaticLunar case measures 40mm in diameter and a substantial but not unwieldy 12.7mm in thickness, Its thin sloping bezel has a gleaming, polished finish, while the case middle sports a hairline brushed pattern on its surfaces. The sharply curving lugs continue the theme, with a mirror polish on their top surfaces and vertical brushing on the sides and bottom. The caseback, attached by five sunken screws, has a slight convex curve that helps the watch...

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T Teddy Baldassarre

Teddy Baldassarre

Mar 21, 2024

Watch Lume 101: The Complete History and Primer on Reading Time in the

Luminous material on watch dials - referred to in shorthand as “lume” by both industry insiders and avid enthusiasts - is an element taken for granted nowadays. It can be said without hyperbole that a watch dial without lume is a stylistic outlier in this modern era, but this wasn’t always the case. Discerning the time in the dark presented a major problem for watchmakers in the early days before the widespread use of electricity in homes, and at first the only solution that could be offered was an audible rather than visual one: watches that chimed the time on demand, like minute repeaters and sonneries. Only a handful of wealthy individuals could afford these highly complicated timepieces, however, so a more widely accessible technology was needed as wristwatches spread to the general populace. Around the dawn of the 20th Century, watchmakers turned their attention to making watch dials that could be read in the dark, paving the way for the luminous materials that are still used commonly today. The road to perfecting the technology, however, would not be easy, and at times would even be dangerous. Radium The first material applied to watch dials for nighttime luminescence was a paint made from radium with zinc sulfide, which, thanks to radium’s half-life of 1,600 years, offered a long-lasting glow during that period before dimming - the catch being that radium, as its name implies, is radioactive. One of its earliest uses can be traced to a pioneer of devel...

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T Teddy Baldassarre

Teddy Baldassarre

TAG Heuer Mar 19, 2024

TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph Guide

The TAG Heuer Carrera is widely regarded as one of the OGs of racing-inspired chronograph wristwatches, and today - decades after both the model and the deadly road race that gave it its name appeared to have been permanently discontinued - it claims a spot atop the leaderboard in the Swiss watchmaker's modern collection. Here's how the Carrera raced to worldwide acclaim, upgraded its engines along the way, and roared back from the Quartz Crisis to engage and energize a new generation of watch enthusiasts. The company we now know as TAG Heuer traces its history to 1860 and its founder Edouard Heuer; “TAG” would be added to the family business’s name in 1985, when the Techniques d’Avant Garde (TAG) Group obtained a majority share. From its beginnings, the company placed an emphasis on sports timing and on optimizing the precision of the hand-held and dashboard-mounted chronograph timepieces that were its specialty. Edouard Heuer’s most significant contribution to timekeeping was the oscillating pinion, patented in 1887. This device, which simplified the construction of chronograph calibers by decoupling the stopwatch mechanism from the timekeeping function, is still used commonly in movements today. In 1911, Heuer developed what is regarded as the first dashboard chronograph for cars and aircraft, the “Time of Trip,” and in 1914 released its first wrist-mounted chronograph (which, like many of its contemporaries, was a repurposed pocket watch with its sin...

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T Teddy Baldassarre

Teddy Baldassarre

Mar 15, 2024

31 Blue Dial Watches from Under $300 to $50,000+

After well over a decade of growth in both popularity and market presence, watches with blue dials can no longer be considered either a niche or a trend; blue-dial watches now make up a significant segment of new models being released, joining basic black and silvery white as a go-to colorway, whether the watch is simple or complicated, sport or dress, sleek and shiny or boldly textured. As such, assembling a list of favorite blue-dial watches has become increasingly challenging as more and more options become available. For this list, we wanted to strike a balance between entry-level and high-luxury while also showcasing a wide range of styles and functions and turning the spotlight on some newer models as well as some established favorites. Read on for the list, arranged in ascending order of price; we’ll also likely be adding to it in the future, so feel free to leave your own suggestions for best blue-dial watches in the comments below.  Citizen Promaster Diver Price: $300, Case Size: 44mm, Thickness: 11.6mm, Lug Width: 20mm, Crystal: Mineral, Water Resistance: 200m, Movement: Citizen Eco-Drive E168 Citizen unveiled its Promaster line of professional-grade sports watches in 1989 and its Promaster Diver models - equipped with the Japanese brand’s proprietary Eco-Drive technology, which uses light to perpetually charge the movement - have proven to be among the most popular of Citizen’s vast portfolio of timepieces. The 44mm steel case features a 60-click rota...

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T Teddy Baldassarre

Teddy Baldassarre

Seiko Mar 12, 2024

Seiko Presage Cocktail Time Guide

In their relatively short tenure on the international market, Seiko’s Presage “Cocktail Time” watches have already established themselves in the minds of many enthusiasts as one of the watch industry’s very best value prospects in the realm of automatic dress watches - boasting in-house movements, high-end finishing, and the colorful dials that lend them their nicknames, each inspired by concoctions from Japan’s world-famous high-end cocktail bars. Here is a guide to the Seiko “Cocktail Time,” with highlights and milestones from the modern collection. Happy Hour in Japan Seiko served up the first round of its “Cocktail Time” watches exclusively to customers in Japan. The first of these  “JDM” (Japan Domestic Market) models debuted in 2010 and carried the Reference number SARB065. Now discontinued (and accordingly in high demand by collectors), this watch (above) and its siblings, the SARB066 and SARB068, featured 40mm cases in stainless steel, which were fairly thick at 13.3mm high. The movement inside the cases was Seiko’s Caliber 6R15, with bidirectional automatic winding, a 50-hour power reserve, and an impressive resistance to magnetic fields of 4,800 A/m.  Unlike the many Presage models that followed, the originals were not nicknamed after specific cocktail concoctions but simply for different styles: the SARB065 with its ice-blue dial was “Cool,” the SARB066 with a pale, cream-colored dial was “Dry,” and the reddish brown dial of t...

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