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Try to think of an objective fact about watches. If you’re anything like me, it’s a task that sounds simple at first, but quickly turns into a surprisingly difficult thought experiment. After some head scratching, my attempt at this exercise ended with a relatively short list, made up mostly of historical facts and a small number of all-encompassing physical descriptions: Watches were invented in the 16th century. They tell time, generally, and are powered by some sort of movement- quartz, mechanical, electric, tuning fork, or otherwise. They are round, or not. And have three hands, or more… and sometimes none at all. As it turns out, objective facts about watches are in short supply, which by default makes mastering the subjective a primary element of watch collecting. Luckily for me and all the other self-proclaimed voices of authority spamming the forums alongside me, becoming an expert boils down to the ability to pick (usually meticulously researched) standpoints where the stakes are low and our personal beliefs are inherently never wrong. In the very first article I wrote for Worn & Wound back in 2023, I stated that forming opinions was one of my favorite things about the hobby. In the time since I picked the premise of individual stances as my first published words on this site, I’ve formed countless of them, and still find tremendous joy in doing so. Watches are round…or not Some of my early opinions (such as a logoed counterbalance on the second hand...
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eBay Finds is back! This bi-monthly installment will feature a selection of watches currently listed on eBay that have caught the eye of editor Christoph McNeil (@vintagediver). If you come across any hidden gems on the ‘Bay drop us a note at info@wornandwound.com for potential inclusion. Vintage Wyler Dynawind Got some great Finds for you this week, beginning with this super cool and seldom seen vintage Wyler Dynawind. The stainless steel case is made in an octagonal shape, with nice angled lugs that match. The case appears unpolished, with sharp corners and clearly legible caseback engravings. No mention of the case size, but I’d guess it’s in the 35mm range. The black dial has really unique chevron shaped steel inlays on either side, complementing the angles of the case perfectly. Steel dauphine hands and no date window complete the angular, symmetrical design. The crown is signed with the Wyler “W” logo as it should. No movement pictures but it runs per the seller. The watch is on a vintage steel stretch band, but this would look sharp with a nice black croc strap in my opinion. View auction here Vintage Seiko DX Next up is a lovely vintage Seiko DX in superb condition. The 36mm steel case is unpolished, with sharp edges and original brushed and polished finish. The case has integrated lugs that attach to the original steel bracelet with a Seiko signed buckle. The dial is a beautiful, two tone bullseye design, with silver in the middle and a blue outer ...
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One of watchmaking’s simplest but most iconic complications, the date window, is the source of much admiration, and yes, a little bit of ire. One of the biggest points of contention on any inclusion of a date window is the balancing of it on the dial; after all, how do you place it to not ruin the symmetry (or asymmetry) of a carefully-crafted design? With their new Ref. 5330 Dive Chronometer, Serica has chosen a sleek solution for their first date window inclusion: nestle it at 3 o’clock, taking the place of the marker, and give it a crisp red accent to stand out. Sure, it’s not necessarily revolutionary, but it adds a sophisticated touch to an already clean dial. The core tenets of the 5330’s design carry over from other models in Serica’s Dive Chronometer lineup, with circular hour markers and a double graduation bezel being the most recognizable, and a 39mm 316L stainless steel case housing an identical SoProd M100 Swiss automatic movement. The matte black dial and anthracite-grey outer bezel ring contrast with the steel of the inner bezel and case, and the cream Super-LumiNova on the hands and hour markers. Similarly, the cream date window and red numeral add both a sense of cohesion and a highly legible flash of color to give the dial an extra layer of aesthetic complication. It’s certainly a welcome addition visually, and keeps the design from feeling too austere. At 12.2mm in thickness and 46.5mm lug-to-lug, the 5330 is sized well for most wrists, and...
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The third annual British Watchmaker’s Day was held this year on March 7th. As in previous years, the room was packed with brands and attendees, and there was an undeniable buzz of excitement. This was both my and Zach Kazan’s second time attending the fair, though between us, we’ve been to all three years, and it seems we’ll go annually. Not only are there great watches and event-specific limited editions, but the British indie scene is particularly exciting. The brands have a unique personality and a collaborative spirit between them that is great to see. But more importantly, the crowd is amazing not just at the fair, but also at our annual meetup with Arken. Below is a gallery of photos from the event. Enjoy! Images from this post: The post Gallery: British Watchmakers’ Day 2026 appeared first on Worn & Wound.
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Ever since I got the results back from a DNA test I sent off to Ancestry, I’ve become something of an unrepentant Anglophile. That doesn’t mean I’ve covered my walls in Union Jacks or suddenly embraced everything coming out of Britain (I still think The Beatles are just okay). But even so, I do have a bit of a soft spot for all things English – and you can include Farer in that mix. Farer has long been a watchmaker that I’ve admired, not least of all because there’s a good chance that anyone on their payroll and I are related (it is a rather tiny island). In reality, Farer has built a brand on two pillars which have made it undeniably eye-catching: a keen sense of color and a suite of watch types for anyone’s personal preference. And with the release of their latest 35mm Cushion Case collection, we see both of these qualities in action. The new models build on the cushion-shaped case Farer first introduced in 2022, but bring the design into a smaller format. Measuring 35mm across and just 10mm thick, the new collection has had some design changes to better suit the updated diminutive size. Subtle adjustments to the case architecture give the design a slightly sharper and more contemporary feel. The bezel now slopes more dramatically, helping the polished surfaces catch the light from multiple angles. That curvature continues through the case sides into Farer’s distinctive “bat ear” lugs, while a scalloped section between them allows the strap to sit clo...
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And just like that, it’s Super Watch Season. Every year we see a handful of watches that come to market that exist for the purpose of displaying the absolute pinnacle of what a brand can accomplish. Think of ultra complicated watches from Vacheron Constantin released in recent years, or pieces from Greubel Forsey focused on extravagant hand finishing and machining. The new release from Girard-Perregaux feels like a member of this rare category. The new Minute Repeater Flying Bridges combines a tourbillon and a minute repeater with GP’s famous “Three Bridges” movement architecture. The highlight here, beyond the rarity of a repeater, is that the new Calibre GP9530 is a self-winding movement (via a micro-rotor), which is exceedingly rare among chiming watches and, to a lesser extent, tourbillons. Girard-Perregaux has a long history in chiming watches that dates back to the 1820s, and the Minute Repeater Flying Bridges is fashioned as a tribute to those earliest repeaters, while being unapologetically contemporary in its design. Certainly part of that tribute is in the craftsmanship itself, and in the use of the most modern technology available to create the best chiming mechanism possible. To that end, the movement has been radically skeletonized not only for aesthetic reasons but to prioritize resonance. According to the brand, every technical choice made in the development of the new watch was made in the name of optimizing the sound of the chime. For a repeat...
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Otsuka Lotec has emerged as one of the most exciting Japanese independent brands, a corner of the enthusiast world that is greatly expanding at the moment. Otsuka Lotec has found a niche with (mostly) affordable watches with a steampunk aesthetic, with lots of exposed gearing and an overtly mechanical look and feel. I’m an owner of the No. 5 Kai, and it’s one of the most satisfying watches in my collection – there’s really nothing else quite like it, at least under $10,000. Prior to this week, the latest release from the brand was an ultra high end complicated piece with a tourbillon and chiming mechanism with a retail price soaring into the low six figures, but they’ve returned to earth with the all new No. 8, which once again combines complications unexpectedly and gives the wearer a unique view of the mechanism inside. Like the haute horlogerie adjacent No. 9 linked above, the No. 8 features a square case fashioned from stainless steel. Time is read via a jumping hour display on the left side of the dial, and a retrograde minute display on the right (there is also a running seconds indicator at roughly the 12:00 position). Figuring out how to read the time when you first encounter a watch like this is part of the fun, but once you grasp what’s going on, it’s quite intuitive. The current hour and minute are easy to see at a glance if you look for the red indicators that correspond to each. A video posted on Otsuka Lotec’s YouTube channel makes the drama...
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As Watches & Wonders approaches, I find myself thinking back to last year’s fair and the various high and lowlights from that crop of releases. I’ve commented before about a pretty big highlight of last year’s show being Parmigiani Fleurier’s output, particularly their very strong Toric perpetual calendar. This is one of those watches that I rarely go a week without thinking about, like the woman in the white dress that Bernstein remembers from the ferry in Citizen Kane. Anyway, Parmigiani is always a fun meeting at Watches & Wonders and my expectations are high after last year. In what I imagine will be their last release before the show next month, the brand has just introduced a new pink colorway to the Tonda PF line in 36mm. I’m not sure if we can consider this a preview of things to come (honestly, we probably can’t) but it’s a strong release nonetheless further bolsters the Tonda PF platform as an important player in the integrated bracelet sports watch landscape. The new Tonda PF Automatic 36mm Alta Rosa brings a lighter dial color to the steel version of the 36mm Tonda PF for the first time – previously this watch had been available in blue and two shades of gray. Pink dials of course are often associated with watches targeted toward a female clientele, but hopefully the greater watch collecting community has moved beyond these types of prohibitive norms around gender and watch preferences. This is a really attractive color that can be worn by a...
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I’ve been a freelance journalist for 14 years, and while watches have been part of my repertoire since the beginning, I didn’t fully niche into the horological sphere until 2018. One of the assignments I consider to be a breakout story that really gave my career in the watch world momentum came a year later in 2019. At the time, I was writing for The Hour Glass, and I had the opportunity to cover the inauguration of the Gérald Genta Heritage Association. In my then seven-year journey ascending to full horological obsession, I had come to revere Genta as one of the most influential figures in the history of watchmaking, and, in particular, I was charmed by the story of how the Royal Oak came to be. Yes, I have since referenced, been told, and retold the tale dozens of times over, but for me, Genta and the creation of the Royal Oak – the moment that arguably gave his career in the watch world momentum – will never get old and forever hold a special place in my heart. With that said, I’m here to share my hands-on experience with Audemars Piguet’s first semester novelties thanks to a recent trip to AP House in downtown New York City. Among them are several new versions of the Royal Oak, and while none of these are the frontrunner of the lineup, they still bear recognition in my humble opinion. Yes, I will have to respectfully disagree with my Editorial Director Zach Kazan’s opinion piece defining the Royal Oak as “a pure flex.” Sure, like countless luxury ...
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If you forced me to place a bet, perhaps on a platform like Kalshi, on what the latest release from Kurono Tokyo would be, there’s probably no way I’d put even a nickel of my own money on a dive watch. And if you told me that the dive watch in question would be of a unique modular design, I’d probably just be even more confused. That’s basically how I felt when I first saw the news of the new “Kurono Diver’s” watch from Kurono, which is basically two watches in one, and represents a hard left turn for a brand that we thought we had figured out. I feel like I talk a lot about how nice it is to be surprised in this industry, and this is a great example of a watch that I don’t think anyone saw coming and gives us all a chance to contemplate something a little different. Before we get into the Diver’s though (the name of the watch is stylized somewhat confusingly with the possessive apostrophe ‘s’), it’s worth setting the proper context for Kurono Tokyo, because this watch upends a lot of the expectations collectors probably have for the brand. The first thing to understand is that Kurono is the brainchild of watchmaker Hajime Asaoka, widely recognized as one of the great independent watchmakers in the world. His Kurono line has become popular over the last few years as it gives enthusiasts who might not be inclined to pay well into the five figures for an Asaoka branded watch a chance to get a lot of his aesthetic in an affordable package. It’s a dif...
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Look, I’m not going to say that I have all the answers here, people, but if there’s one thing I know how to spot, it’s a good notebook. While taxes may send me into a tailspin and I enter a fugue state any time that I’m forced to load the dishwasher, I can confidently say that if you want your notes written down and you want to carry around something that’s aesthetically pleasing…well, I’ll humbly say that I’m your guy for the right answer. Partially, my knowledge of notebooks is collateral damage because of my job – it doesn’t take a rocket scientist (or even someone who knows how to load a dishwasher) to see a job in pens has given me a deep understanding for what one writes with as much as what one writes on. To this effect, I have a general knowledge of the pros and cons of legal pads versus Moleskines, washi tape versus Scotch. But that stuff can be found fairly easily – Reddit, for better or worse, is a gold mine of information on stationery. But the other reason I find myself knowing about stationery is, quite simply, it’s a passion of mine. While some may find something akin to passion in their marriage or by binge watching Heated Rivalry, I’m much more likely to get butterflies ripping the cellophane off a new notebook versus ripping – you get the picture. This is all to say that, when I tell you Plotter makes some of the most beautiful notebook covers out there, you need to believe me. And when I tell you that pricetag flirting somewhe...
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Unimatic has introduced the Modello Cinque UT5-TANC, a new collaboration developed with British designer Nigel Cabourn and menswear retailer The Armoury. The watch continues Unimatic’s previous work with Cabourn, which began in 2019, while also marking the brand’s latest project with Hong Kong-based menswear store The Armoury. Anyone familiar with Cabourn’s work will already know his passion for vintage army style, so the UT5-TANC should feel right at home within the British designer’s aesthetics. The UT5-TANC takes the form of a compact expedition-style tool watch built around Unimatic’s 36mm Modello Cinque case. Made from 316L stainless steel and finished with a stonewashed Cerakote coating, the watch comes in two versions: UT5-TANC-A with a green case and UT5-TANC-B in navy blue, with both references sharing the same navy dial. As mentioned, the case follows the familiar Modello Cinque layout, with a fixed monoblock bezel and an 8mm screw-down crown bearing Unimatic’s Alchemical Sun emblem. Flipping the watch around reveals a caseback that’s engraved with a dazzle camouflage pattern. To keep the overall restraint of the expedition watch – or, as the brand has put it “exploration over ornament” – the dial is minimally designed and more about function than form. For example, the numerals are filled with Super-LumiNova GL old radium, along with luminous dial markings and an open seconds track to aid visibility in low light. The Nigel Cabourn logo appe...
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The countdown to Windup Watch Fair Dallas is officially on, and we’re excited to spotlight one of the main events with our pals at Bulova, helping bring this year’s show to life. As the premier gathering for watch enthusiasts, collectors, and the watch-curious alike, Windup is the best place to go hands-on with unique watches from around the world-and we’re thrilled to return to Dallas for the second year in a row. This year’s event takes place at the always lively Hickory Street Annex, a perfect setting for a weekend packed with watches, community, and a few surprises along the way. Not only are we expanding Windup Dallas to three full days this year, but we’re also introducing something new to the Windup experience. On Saturday evening, Bulova will host the Bulova Block Party & BBQ, taking place just outside the venue: The Bulova Block Party & BBQ Hickory Street Annex 501 S Second Ave #200, Dallas, TX 75226 Saturday, March 14: 4:30PM – 7PM Early registration is recommended Expect Texas-style BBQ and an outdoor bar with amazing food and beverages available for purchase, live music, and plenty of reasons to stick around after the show floor closes. Bulova will be showcasing collaborations that tap into different corners of American heritage-from the world of motorsports to the enduring style of the American West. Bulova, Shelby, and the Spirit of American Performance Bulova’s connection to racing runs deep. During the 1960s and ’70s, the brand served as...
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The Seiko SNA411 has been an icon of the watch industry for years. Frequently appearing on “Best Affordable Watches” lists, it’s no wonder Seiko’s other two variants would eventually catch the eye of collectors as well. The SN413 is far and away the most sought-after variant of the Flightmaster formula, but what about the often overlooked SNA414? I’ll be the first to admit that gold-tone watches are typically not in habitual rotation within my collection––aside from a few special pieces––but that doesn’t mean there’s not a lot to enjoy about this model. What makes the SNA414 a good candidate for your next acquisition? Let’s find out. The SNA414 History and Design Nailing down a definite release date for the SNA414 is difficult, but according to numerous blogs, press releases, and wristwatch websites, it appears this variant began production sometime between late 2007 and early 2008. I’m unsure whether all three variants of the lineup were released at the same time, but from sources consulted online, it appears they were at least announced and brought to market around the same time. I must note that the name “Flightmaster” may confuse a few collectors out there who may have seen another model of Seiko’s catalog nicknamed with the same moniker. In the 1990s, the first iteration of the Flightmaster was released with the 7T34 movement. The -6A09 variant is technically the first gold Flightmaster the brand produced, making the subject of this art...
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Once again, here I am late to the party as our own Zach Kazan blows my mind with another brand specializing in artistic dials featuring my favorite métiers d’art craft: enameling. You may recall when he first covered the partnership between De Rijke & Co. and the illustrator Guy Allen two years ago. Now the duo is back with another trio of driver’s watches spanning on the previous Amalfi theme, this time with a stronger focus on the automotive angle. While the Dutch watchmaker and the British artist have been teaming up for nearly a decade, the pair took their work to the next level in 2024 by collaborating on their first set of watches, establishing the Amalfi special editions. The initial set of three watches focused on the themes of air, land, and sea with distinct designs and color palettes reflecting each element. Thanks to champlevé enamel, the illustrations come to life with texture and depth. For the uninitiated, the specific technique of champlevé enamel (French for “raised field”) is similar to cloisonné. However, instead of raised sections to hold enamel, reservoirs to hold the material are created by carving directly into the metal base. The newest trio builds on these designs, but now takes the automotive theme more literally on both the enamel dial and the engraved caseback. The names of the models draw from three regions, the Amazon, Sahara, and Turini, and each gets a corresponding vehicle you might drive there. For the Amazon, you get the Landr...
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It’s a fair assumption that if you’re the kind of enthusiast that’s interested in independent watchmaking, the allure of something a little different isn’t lost on you. The independent watch space is a wildly diverse one that’s full of outsider artisans, but even in a field of outsiders, English watchmaker James Lamb is something of an anomaly. Lamb’s watches genuinely don’t look like anything else on the market. While they’re all time-only affairs, they feature an offset sub-dial layout that frees up the outer portion of the dial to be used as a decorative space. With his Origin Series, Lamb applies strikingly colorful enamel work to the outer dial section. With his latest release, the Linea Edition, Lamb has collaborated with one of the UK’s most respected ornamental engravers, Joanne Ryall, to create a line of watches with beautifully hand-engraved titanium and gold outer dials. While the dials are showstopping displays of handcraft, Lamb’s watches also feature completely handmade cases (read: no CNC machines used), which he crafts out of Argentium silver. Lamb’s case designs are robust and understated; they do a fabulous job of grounding the watch’s bold dial designs, but the craftsmanship that goes into them is something serious horology enthusiasts fawn over. For Lamb, a self-proclaimed watch industry isolationist, doing things like crafting his cases entirely by hand is kind of the whole point of making watches. Lamb deliberately avoids...
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Like the now-ubiquitous diver and pilot styles, the mil-spec field watch is experiencing a moment in the sun. The appeal is easy to understand: much like how the original Willy’s Jeep took to post-war civilian life by offering cheap, rugged, and reliable transportation, the military-styled field watch offers significant toughness while keeping functionality simple and usable for everyday telling. Put simply, it’s a romantic promise of adventure and bravado, scaled down to wristsize. Canadian watchmaker Marathon has been making mil-spec timepieces since WWII, and has offered tactical variants like the 41mm Anthracite GSAR for those looking for that covert ops image; the new 46mm Anthracite Jumbo Day/Date, and the 36mm Anthracite MSAR Auto straddle that original model in the Anthracite lineup, and offer further complications for the enthusiast audience. The two new models in the Anthracite Search and Rescue (SAR) Unit borrow heavily from their 41mm predecessor in both styling and construction. Both feature a 316L stainless steel case with titular Anthracite finish, a uni-directional bezel, a screw-down crown, and tritium gas tube and MaraGlo luminous numerals, hands, and markers. Visually, the watches look very similar; Marathon’s legible and surprisingly un-aggressive typefaces keep the white numerals crisp and clear against the black dial. The overall styling is complicated but not visually distracting, an important aesthetic facet for a field watch. On the 46mm mo...
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I used to really enjoy watching sports. But over the last few years, it’s become almost impossible to enjoy, as it feels like telecasts exist for the sole purpose of driving viewers toward gambling websites like FanDuel and DraftKings. It’s truly pervasive, and depending on how you view sports betting it’s either a mild annoyance or the sign of something darker and more insidious: the steady financialization of every form of entertainment. This isn’t an editorial on the ethics of gambling (or capitalism) but I’ve been thinking about both over the last several hours after we learned that Bezel, the online watch retailer that acts as an authenticated marketplace for many sought after watches from Rolex, Audemars Piguet, and others, has teamed up with Kalshi, the prediction markets platform that lets users place bets not just on sports, but on questions like “What will Pete Hegseth say during his press conference?” and “Which bank will take SpaceX public?” Now, Kalshi users and presumably watch collectors and speculators can bet on changing watch valuations, as well as the likelihood of potential new releases. This seems like a uniquely terrible idea, and I hate everything about it. First, and this goes almost without saying, as watch enthusiasts, we are always trying to divorce ourselves from placing a high degree of importance on the value of any given watch. While nobody wants to lose money on an expensive watch purchase, real joy in this hobby comes ...
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Despite frequently being (in my opinion, falsely) labeled as a boring, neutral color, beige has been making a splash across the watch world recently. When paired with the right auxiliary colors, beige can appear adventurous, rugged, and even classy, in the right circumstances. Perhaps I’m biased, as my 1983 Volvo 240 DL sports a handsome Rose Beige exterior, but it really is one of the most versatile colors, especially when paired with the right contrasting shades. One of beige’s best applications is in vintage-inspired timepieces, and Hanhart has jumped on the retro field watch trend with their latest, the 417 TI Desert Pilot Limited Edition, available in 39 and 42mm case sizes. Hanhart has long been known for their military-style sport watches, and across the German brand’s 144-year history, they’ve had no shortage of classically-styled pilot watch variants. The 417 TI Desert Pilot combines sharp legibility thanks to black details on the beige dial, with robust functionality and case construction. Both sizes sport a Grade 5 titanium case with a matte finish, giving the watch a rugged, utilitarian look; this is furthered by the crown at 3 o’clock, flanked by two pushers that control the dual chronographs on the dial, positioned at 3 and 9 respectively. The hand-wound, Sellita-based AMT 5100 caliber movement is responsible for the flyback column-wheel chronograph functionality, and is visible through an exhibition caseback, which feels unusual but not unwelcome...
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It’s gonna be cold, it’s gonna be grey, and it’s gonna last you the rest of your life. Okay, perhaps the quote from Groundhog Day has a bit too ominous of a tone when discussing a watch. Pretend maybe this was said in a nice way, give me a bit of a break (there’s been snow on the ground for 6 weeks) and we can move on with this hands-on of Traska’s newest entrance into the horological space – The Chronograph. This 39mm automatic chronograph is packed with features and comes in at a fairly reasonable $1650. The matte grey dial, unique approach to chronograph sub-dials, and attention to detail on finish and features makes this one stand out from the pack. Let’s take a closer look at this brand new piece from Traska that seems to check a lot of boxes that we as enthusiasts look for in our next watch. $1650 Review: the Traska Chronograph Case Hardened Stainless Steel Movement Seiko NE86 automatic chronograph Dial Tungsten grey with applied indices Lume BGW9 SuperLuminova Lens Sapphire Strap Hardened stainless steel bracelet Water Resistance 75 meters Dimensions 39 x 46.5mm Thickness 13.75mm Lug Width 21mm Crown Screw down Warranty Yes Price $1650 Case Clocking in at a very reasonable 39mm wide, the Traska’s hardened steel case wears great on my 6.75” wrist. The case features a mix of brushed surfaces with polished bevels. It’s a nice mix of finishing that blends the more matte elements with the high shine polishing, resulting in a case that is interestin...
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If you had told me a few years ago that much of what I’d be doing at Worn & Wound in terms of new release coverage would be writing about mother of pearl and stone dial executions like a beat reporter at small town paper assigned to the high school basketball team, I probably would not have believed it. But here we are, multiple years into a trend that does not really seem to be letting up. It started with a resurfacing of high end vintage watches with exotic stone dials, moved to bigger brands capitalizing on the hype, shifted to smaller makers and microbrands offering impossibly affordable options, and now we’re back at the high end, and seeing brands looking for new ways to combine stones and materials in novel ways. Last week, Czapek announced a pair of watches that make particularly interesting use of mother of pearl. The Antarctique S Ice Cloud is, at a glance, simply an Antarctique with a mother of pearl dial. But there’s some special artisanal work that has gone into the making of this particular dial, which has been conceived as a “poetic interpretation of cloud formations in an icy landscape.” The dial is constructed from a piece of white mother of pearl that is cut to just 0.2mm thick – the height of two sheets of paper, according to Czapek. A varnish is then applied to the underside of the mother of pearl surface using a horsehair brush, which creates a cloudlike pattern that is unique to each dial. The varnish itself is tinted blue, and the art...
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At its core, good branding comes down to balancing two often contradictory things at once: to maintain brand recognition, while not becoming stale. For a brand like MING, which has built something of a reputation for its roster of eye-catching designs, this is an especially fine line. The Malaysian watchmakers have continued to up their own ante, so to speak, meaning that to build a better watch, they have often had to compete against themselves in both aesthetics and technical precision. This is, perhaps, why they have looked back at the 57.04 Iris, but this time with a slightly softer eye. Instead of the vibrant purple-blue dial, MING has released the 57.04 Phoenix, with a decidedly more monochromatic dial in grey. At first glance, this may seem like a safer play for the brand; but, I can assure you, it’s anything but. Using the same multiphasic coating that was seen on the Iris, the Phoenix uses radial cutouts on the metal baseplate, curved sculpting, and negative relief. The finishing touch is the redesigned subdial, which has been treated with Super-LumiNova X1 and MING Polar White lume for added visual texture. The end result is a dial that leans more on light and shadows than colors to build a watch that is dynamic while highlighting all the technical precision we’ve come to expect from Ming. Like the Iris, the Phoenix is set up as a destro (left-handed) monopusher chronograph, powered by a uniquely configured Sellita for MING Cal. SW562.M1 movement, promising r...
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Benrus has unveiled a new version of their Sky Chief, a classic pilot’s chronograph that dates to the brand’s 1940s heyday. There are many, many vintage inspired chronographs and re-editions of classic references on the market, so it takes a certain something to stand out from the crowd in this particular watch collecting niche. It appears that Benrus, for this release, has taken the approach of creating a vintage styled chronograph that is truly in line with the proportions of the original, something a lot of brands simply don’t care about, or don’t quite go far enough in emulating. The headline here, I think, is that the new Sky Chief measures in at a very vintage-accurate 36mm in diameter. The original Sky Chief was approximately 35mm, so this is about as close to the original as anyone has a right to expect given the need to use a modern movement. The decision to go small here has two key benefits. First, obviously, the case is going to wear great on a huge variety of wrists. The 36mm diameter is a very accommodating size, and the case height of 11.9mm and lug to lug of 42.5mm make for a watch with classic proportions, at least on paper (we haven’t seen the Sky Chief in person yet). The other important benefit of a smaller case that people do not talk about nearly enough when it comes to watches like this, chronographs in particular, is that you wind up with a far more balanced and cohesive dial. A smaller case of course means less dial space, and for a c...
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One of the more unexpected developments in the enthusiast watch space over the laste year or has been the emergence of the jump hour as a staple among design driven and creative microbrands and affordable independents. It seems like they are popping up just about everywhere at price points that encourage collectors to take a chance on a very niche complication. For those of us who have been around this stuff for a while, it’s genuinely been kind of surprising, as we can clearly remember a time when very few people gave these watches a second thought, and smaller brands were absolutely not interested in putting watches like these into the market. The jump hour is pretty far removed from the vintage inspired sports watches that have had a stranglehold on affordable watch enthusiasm in recent memory. But as the pendulum swings in another direction, the more brands are finding an opportunity to experiment with this very old fashioned complication. Christopher Ward is actually no stranger to jump hour watches, having released their first back in 2011. Their latest is still powered by the venerable JJ01 movement, a caliber that predicted much of the brand’s future success and interest in higher end watchmaking. The C1 Jump Hour Mk V in “Dusk” red is the brand’s latest, and limited edition variant of the Jump Hour Mk V that Griffin reviewed here. The broad strokes are of course the same: a 39mm steel case measuring 47.5mm from lug to lug and 14mm thick, with a multi...
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