Worn & Wound
Just A Minute with The Elliot Brown Holton Auto GMT
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VPC Introduces the Type 39VM, an Uncommonly Thin Dive Watch
Regular readers might remember our coverage of the debut watch from VPC almost two years ago. This was a special project as it comes from Thomas van Straaten, whose byline many of you may have seen over at his main gig, as a writer at Fratello. The Type 37HW, the debut release from VPC, was conceived as something as the ultimate enthusiast’s watch, with special attention paid to the small details that serious watch lovers are particularly attuned to. In practice, that means you end up with a watch that is very subtle, with lots of things that are special about it but perhaps don’t advertise themselves in big bold colors. VPC, after all, is an acronym for a Latin phrase that translates to “beauty through restraint,” and if that isn’t a mission statement of enthusiast focused watch culture, I don’t know what is. For the second VPC release, the brand is back with a watch that builds on the design language of the Type 37HW but shifts it specifically into the realm of the dive watch. The Type 39VM is, according to the brand, the thinnest 200 meter water resistant automatic dive watch on the market, which is a bold claim but seems to be backed up by a cursory review of the data. The case height is listed at 9.34mm, which is quite thin indeed for a watch like this. In keeping with VPC’s design principles, van Stratten set out to create a watch that was purely functional but also didn’t sacrifice ergonomics or aesthetics. Through an exploration of figuring out wh...
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Venezianico Updates their Most Ambitious Watch with the Redentore Utopia II
If you’re a Mad Men fan like me, then you may remember a particular scene in season 1 where Don Draper and Rachel Menken are having a conversation and the concept of utopia briefly comes up. “Maybe,” says Rachel, “They taught us at Barnard about that word, ‘utopia’. The Greeks had two meanings for it: ‘eu-topos’, meaning the good place, and ‘u-topos’ meaning the place that cannot be.” While the latter may be true for an ad exec and his department-store-heiress-slash-mistress, it doesn’t have to be for you, dear reader. All thanks to Italian watchmaker, Venezianico, who has released their Redentore Utopia II. Inspired by the Lagoon of La Serenissima, there is undoubtedly a sense of otherworldiness that this watch brings to the market, with its dial decorated with hand-engraved waves, creating a kaleidoscopic effect. Further inspired by the Neoclassicism of the Palladian Basilica, the textured dial is complemented by a 38mm stainless steel case that offers clean lines and simple ergonomics to balance the intricacies of the dial and the transparent caseback.Visible beyond it is the V5001 calibre, an evolution of the V5000 that marked a turning point for the brand. Made in Italy, the movement maintains a slim 3.5 mm profile and a 60-hour power reserve, all while improving upon previous iterations with elevated finishing, such as bridges and a mainplate treated with a 24-carat gold galvanic coating, radial Côtes de Genève, and fine perlage. The Red...
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Teddy Baldassarre and RGM Collaborate on the New 501
Many a modern watch collaboration is born from a combination of content creation and independent watchmaking; larger companies are often not as open to letting YouTubers or other creators see their inner workings, leaving microbrands and independents (who need the press) as the ideal subjects of mini documentaries and deep dives. Because of this, many creators forge relationships with the folks who run those smaller companies, which paves the way for collaboration efforts that go beyond YouTube or podcasts. Teddy Baldassarre is one of the most recognizable talking heads on horological YouTube, and has taken his passion into the world of retail as well, heading his own website and business and rocketing his name into upper reaches of watch enthusiasm. So, it makes sense that Baldassarre has sought to link his name with actual timepieces as well, and the new RGM Watch Co. 501 Teddy Baldassarre Edition hits the market as his second collaboration with an established watchmaker. Forged through a years-long friendship with RGM namesake Roland G. Murphy, the 5011 Teddy Baldassarre Edition takes the already eye-catching 501 model, and adds a touch of Baldassarre’s personality to the mix. First, though, it may be helpful to know a little bit about RGM as a brand: founded in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1992 by Murphy, an ex-Hamilton master watchmaker, RGM has long produced bespoke, custom-made watches with in-house movements. The company emphasizes domestic production of all part...
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Omega Introduces the New Speedmaster Professional “Black and White”
The Speedmaster family grows again today as Omega announces a pair of new Moonwatches to the stable. The new additions, which the brand refers to as the Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch Black and White, seem kind of obvious at first glance, but if you dig a little deeper (just a little) these watches actually say something interesting about what a Speedmaster Professional is, and it’s somewhat different than what that was only a few years ago. Broadly speaking, what we have here are a pair of manually wound Speedmasters with a classic reverse panda dial layout, one in steel and one in 18k Moonshine Gold. A reverse panda layout, with a black base dial and white subdials, is not in and of itself all that unusual, but in the world of Speedmaster Professionals it’s quite out of the ordinary. Apart from limited editions, which are really a separate category altogether, the Speedy Pro has always just been black, until it wasn’t. The introduction of the white dial Speedmaster a few years ago reoriented us to think differently about these watches, and this pair, in a small way, does it again. The execution of these Black and White editions appears to be top notch. The black dials are varnished and lacquered, which ought to give them a more luxurious orientation than the standard matte black Speedy. The subdial frames are rhodium plated, and the white subdials have been given a lacquer treatment as well. Specs match other Speedmaster Professionals exactly, as you’d ex...
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Oris Introduces the New Big Crown Pointer Date “Bullseye”
Every year in January, Oris hosts a preview event for media in Vail, CO to show new novelties that will be introduced during the first quarter of the year, and previewing their focus for Watches & Wonders. While much of what we saw was under embargo and will only be revealed in the coming months, there was one new release that landed on the day of the brand’s presentation. The new Big Crown Pointer Date Bullseye joins the collection this week, and slightly rethinks the Pointer Date formula that has been so successful for Oris over these past several years. Many of the best watches in this collection have worked thanks to a bold use of color (teals, greens, reds, and of course last year’s vibrant canary yellow version all come to mind). But this watch is more about graphics and contrast. The dial here makes use of gray and black tones in contrast to create what amounts, in practice, to a sector dial. Red accents provide some visual interest, but the dominant feature here is the cool “tuxedo” style presentation. At the preview event I thought it worked really well, particularly when you get the dial into strong natural light. The gray sections have a reflective quality that works well against the more matte black interior ring. It has a lot more depth than I was expecting, and legibility is really great thanks to the high contrast. The Big Crown Pointer Date Bullseye is housed in a 38mm stainless steel case that at this point will be quite familiar to many. There...
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Editorial: Tudor at 100
Tudor turns 100 this year. The same age as Dick Van Dyke and American Airlines. Anniversaries like this are a big deal in the watch industry – we’ve just been through a year where both Vacheron Constantin and Breguet celebrated major milestones, each with a series of special releases. That’s the playbook for a watch brand: milk the year for as long as possible with new releases that feel special. It’s a sensible strategy given that it inherently leans into heritage and prestige, both ideas that have been proven to sell watches successfully for years. This isn’t meant to be a prediction of what might be in store for Tudor this year – plenty of outlets and watch media figures have already weighed in on that topic. We don’t have any inside information, of course, so any guesses as to what Tudor might do would be just that. My hunch, though, is that we won’t see obviously anniversary inflected pieces dropped throughout the year in the same way we saw from the likes of Vacheron and Breguet in 2025. It doesn’t feel like that’s part of the Rolex DNA that Tudor shares. I expect we’ll see some very subtle 100 year mentions in Tudor marketing, a special watch or two that is not explicitly tied to the anniversary but as recognized as honoring it just the same, and perhaps something a little more celebratory around Watches & Wonders or an athletic event that Tudor is involved in (there will of course be many of those throughout the year). What I’m much more int...
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Maen Upgrades their Hudson 38 Diver
Maen’s latest is an update to their well regarded Hudson 38 dive watch, now in a MK 5 version. It’s hard to believe that the first Hudson launched all the way back in 2018. Maen is a very different brand nearly a decade later, and has radically changed not only their image but the overall quality of their watches. This is perhaps most easily understood through their popular Manhattan line of integrated bracelet sports watches, which are uncommonly well engineered for the price. Over these last few years while they’ve built out the Manhattan collection, you could probably levy the critique that they’d become a bit of a one trick pony. But it feels like with the new version of the Hudson, they are applying much of what they’ve learned with the Manhattan into a watch that probably has a bit more mass appeal and is a simpler and more straightforward proposition on its face. The Hudson 38 MK 5 is, according to the brand, the biggest update to the watch yet. The case has been completely reworked and is much more streamlined, with a thinner profile (11mm thick excluding the crystal – pretty good for a 300 meter diver) and a thinner bezel, that gives the whole package a more refined appearance and leans harder into the vintage adjacent aesthetic. This new edition also features a box domed crystal for the first time in the collection, which fundamentally changes the personality of the watch when on the wrist. Other small enhancements include the addition of a lume pip (...
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Seiko Introduces the Tonneau Shaped SPB537 to the Presage Collection
While it’s tempting to build a collection of just tool watches and divers with beefiness and durability in spades, having a good dress watch is a boon for any collector. Not only can a dress watch give you an excuse to put on that dress or suit and accessorize, it can also help remind you that function isn’t everything then it comes to timepieces; style matters too. Seiko’s Presage collection has long been a stalwart for dress watch shoppers on a budget who don’t want to sacrifice craftsmanship, and the new SPB537 reference is a tonneau-shaped addition to the Classic Series line. The enamel dial, paired with the tonneau case, is the major selling point for the SPB537, as it was designed by master artisan Mitsuru Yokosawa and his apprentice, Kazunori Uchiyama. This extra level of prestige elevates the SPB537, and adds a sort of intimacy to the design, despite it being introduced as a non-limited, continuous production model. The dial is white, a gentle contrast to the 46mm by 35.9mm stainless steel case and bracelet, and features sharp black Roman numerals, with a black minute track around the outer edge. A matching 24-hour sub-dial at 6 o’clock balances the dial, with the Seiko Presage logo just below 12. Blued steel hands provide a colorful accent, with a balancing half moon on the tail end of the seconds hand. The blue, though on the subtler side, is a welcome addition to the otherwise very business-like dial, and it furthers the artisan craftsmanship promi...
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A History and Guide to Tissot
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Why Car Enthusiast Joe Ottati Collects Cars and Watches for the Same Reasons
Joe Ottati is the owner of Ottati Car Detailing, a founder of VALT Auto Club, and a part-time Auction Specialist for Cars & Bids. He is also a co-host of the VALT podcast, which can be found on YouTube. Soft-spoken but always ready for a chat, many Bay Area car enthusiasts have likely had a conversation with Joe Ottati from the other side of a folding table, beneath a big VALT Auto Club tent. As one of the club’s founders, Ottati’s dedication to growing the car scene in the Bay Area and keeping it as inclusive and positive as possible can easily be seen in the way he interacts with everyone that comes through the tent: with kindness and small hints of the vast wealth of car knowledge within. But cars aren’t Ottati’s only hobby; he extends that interest in all things mechanical to his wrist, too. Like most of us watch nerds, Ottati’s first timepiece came in the form of a Casio. As an 8th grade graduation gift, he received a green G-SHOCK, a watch that he still owns. “It still keeps accurate time on the same battery, fourteen years later,” he says. We are currency outside his shop in Concord, where he details cars as his main job. Inside, a smörgåsbord of European beauties lie in wait, but he steers the conversation back to watches, first. “After graduating high school, I was gifted an Autodromo Stradale, which was my first mechanical watch,” he explains, “I wore it literally every day for years.” The exhibition caseback displaying the Miyota moveme...
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Just A Minute with The AVI-8 CVRT
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Seiko Kicks off their 145th Anniversary Year with Four Limited Editions
I think it’s fair to say that for any watch enthusiast out there that Seiko has played some role in discovering this hobby. As a brand that encompasses a variety of styles and price points, anyone can be introduced to the brand at any level of their growing interest. Because of this, the Japanese watchmaker’s 145th anniversary feels particularly special for anyone who, like me, spent hours scouring eBay for a Seiko, and feeling, in a small way, like you’re a legitimate collector now that you’ve graduated away from the generic watch you grabbed at Wal-Mart on a whim. To celebrate this milestone, Seiko has released four limited-edition gold-accented models, across the King Seiko, Prospex, Presage, and Astron collections. While one may think that these four watches feel slightly disjointed when taken together, each showcases what Seiko does best: balancing form and function in equal measure without ever falling into the trap of ostentation. Take, for example, the King Seiko. This anniversary edition, which joins the KS1969 series, is the first of the four and nods directly to Seiko’s founder himself, Kintaro Hattori. The dial pattern is inspired by one that Hattori-san had engraved on his personal watches and is rendered here in a grey gradient that darkens towards the edges. Keeping with Seiko’s innate ability to add decoration without excess, we see the King Seiko has added gold-colored hands, indexes, and text for a bit of personality against the grey. Most not...
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Enthusiast Spotlight with Professional Guitarist and Oris Collector Kurt Ozan
For this Enthusiast Spotlight, proudly sponsored by the Windup Watch Shop, we sit down with professional guitarist Kurt Ozan, a musician whose life on the road is defined by precision, rhythm, and feel. Best known for his work alongside Luke Combs, Kurt brings the same intentionality to his watches as he does to his instruments, favoring pieces that earn their place through use, memory, and personal meaning. Kurt is also a watch enthusiast and a bit of an Oris collector. From stadium stages to quieter moments creating new tunes in the studio, Kurt’s relationship with time is shaped by craft, connection, and the stories carried on the wrist. The post Enthusiast Spotlight with Professional Guitarist and Oris Collector Kurt Ozan appeared first on Worn & Wound.
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What We Want to See From the Watch Industry in 2026
As our collective holiday hangovers begin to finally wear off, we look ahead to a 2026 that, like any year, could bring any number of surprises. We thought it would be fun to check in with our Slack community, Worn & Wound+, to see what members were hoping to see from brands, the industry, and the community in 2026. Their responses ranged from the predictable (yes, we all want micro-adjust clasps on our bracelets) to the pointed (there is some very specific heat thrown at some very specific targets). As always, the responses reflect the broad interests of our community. The responses below have been lightly edited for clarity, and attributed to the username handles used on Slack. Let us know in the comments what you would like to see in 2026 across the watch industry. Whether it’s a specific watch, a piece of content from Worn & Wound, or something more business or industry related, we’d love to hear about it. KILO I’d like to see innovation in movement design. Specifically for off-the-shelf movements that wind their way into micros, indies, and even in legacy ‘big-watch’ manufacture. Example: the Miyota 9075 was a game-changer for the democratization of GMT watch design and manufacture. It’s time for more offerings for chronos (especially now that the ST19 is so hard for most manufacturers to source), small seconds, etc. IAN EHRENWALD I don’t know about market viability, but I’d absolutely love to see Tudor give the North Flag another chance. I’d l...
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Will 2026 Be Credor’s Year?
As a new year begins, it’s always fun to think about which brands are poised to do something meaningful over the next 12 months. Obviously, every brand starts with high hopes and great intentions, but inevitably there are just a few who really become conversation drivers in the industry. It can be fun to speculate who is in a good position to do that. Lots of time, it will be a brand in the midst of a big anniversary celebration (Vacheron Constantin and Breguet in 2025 were great examples of this phenomenon). I’d like to posit that another way a brand can make a big splash is by simply having a presence at Watches & Wonders in the spring – any brand making their first appearance at the show is going to have a great deal of attention thrust upon them. This year, Audemars Piguet makes their first appearance at the show, and of course everyone will be keeping an eye out. But everyone’s always keeping an eye out for AP. I’m more interested in another brand coming to the Palexpo for the first time: Credor. Credor of course is part of the Seiko family, and can be thought of as the high end, artistic, and craft forward expression of the watchmaking family. Credor’s watches are uncompromising and beautiful, but they are wildly underseen. They are rare, of course, and tough to find outside of Japan (similar to Grand Seiko a decade ago) but they also require a bit of a learning curve in how collectors and enthusiasts understand what the brand is all about. And that’s...
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Inside the Watch Box: Collecting Goals for 2026
If I’m looking back at 2025, it feels like the year I really embraced independent brands across price points. If you’ve listened to the podcast, talked to me at a watch event, or read between the lines of many of the articles I’ve written over the last few years, you’ll know that I’ve become increasingly bored with “big” brands and the new watches they push out to market on predictable release cycles, year in and year out. 2025 was the year that that boredom and frustration really made an impact on the purchases I decided to make. I won’t lie: I went a little overboard on new watches last year. Not having children, owning a car that’s fully paid off, and living in a world where retail therapy is often the most reliable form of comfort will do that to you. In the last year, I picked up new watches from Ming, Otsuka Lotec, Arcanaut, Louis Erard, Selten, Typsim, Christopher Ward, Nomos, and Arken. I’m happy to say that every single one of them is a little weird (Or special? Maybe that’s a better word.) and I’m very pleased to say that in just about every case I have some personal connective tie to the brand or the people behind it. That’s a thing that has become almost essential to me as I consider a new watch: I want to know the people who made it, understand their philosophy, and, if I can, develop an ongoing relationship with them. That’s a goal that’s easier to meet now than ever given the ease with which we all connect on social media, at ...
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Oris Celebrates the Year of the Horse with a New Limited Edition
One of the most reliable events on the watch release calendar every year is a glut of new watches in January celebrating the lunar new year, which this year begins on February 17. This is a very important holiday in many Asian countries, and brands with an international focus are not shy about dropping limited editions throughout the month to appeal (primarily) to customers in those territories. Of course, very often the watches themselves are quite cool outside the context of the lunar new year celebration itself, and it’s always kind of a fun spectator sport to see what brands come up with. Typically, brands will riff on the animal associated with a given year, and this year it’s the fire horse. First out of the gate: Oris, with the new Year of the Horse Limited Edition. The Year of the Horse Limited Edition can be defined by two prominent features: deep red tones, and the use of the Calibre 113 movement. The movement is somewhat unusual and not used frequently in the Oris catalog, so we’ll start there. This is a manually wound caliber with an impressive ten day power reserve, and also includes a “business calendar” that provides the day, date, and also displays the week of the year via a scale at the dial’s perimeter. The week indicator is an unusual, old-fashioned feature that holds a lot of charm, and provides an easy visual reference for how deep we are into a given year. The watch has a dark red dial with lighter red fumé subdials at 3 and 9 that in...
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Bad Watch Predictions for 2026
Every year at around this time, watch publications like to make predictions about what we’ll see over the course of the next twelve months. Personally, I really enjoy this type of content. It sets the stage for the year in an interesting way, and it also reveals something about whoever is making the prediction. Because at the end of the day, none of us really know anything. We’re all just throwing spaghetti at the wall, hoping some of it will stick. Here at Worn & Wound we have a truly terrible track record on making predictions about what will come next in the watch industry. If you dig back into our podcast archive and look at our claims, you’ll see that we’ve been very wrong about watches from Tudor, Rolex, Jaeger-LeCoultre, and many more brands. Sometimes we’re a bit early – when you make a Pelagos GMT prediction every year, eventually you’re going to be right. This year, I’m embracing chaos. These predictions are kind of wild and don’t really make any sense. But in the spirit of a world where you can bet on literally anything, I’m giving watch enthusiasts who like long odds something to spin a dream or two on. Prediction: the tide finally turns on textile straps in a war torn world Let’s face it, folks: the world is on fire. Watches offer a respite from the insanity for many of us, the same way Sunday night HBO and mom’s meatloaf feel like a warm blanket when things get crazy. This feels like it might be the time when those lingering ...
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The Bernhardt Watch Company Introduces the Cipher Diver
I’m not going to lie to you, I love a bit of intrigue. When I was a child, I would write notes to my mother in invisible ink made of lemon juice. When someone tells me to keep a secret (which is always a surprise, given my big mouth), I can hardly contain my excitement. And, even now, I fancy myself a real James Bond type when I hide the Amazon boxes from my husband before he comes home from work. Luckily for me, Bernhardt Watch Company just announced their Cipher Diver, which sits right at the cross-section of two of my hobbies: watches and subterfuge. Inspired by Thomas Jefferson (and, impressively, made in partnership with Monticello), the watch nods more to the third president’s inventive streak than his political career – including the rotating wheel cipher, a mechanical concept designed to encode messages through a specific alignment of letters across a series of discs. The result is a diver that cleverly allows you to keep a secret message right on your wrist. Beneath the bezel, Bernhardt has included the alphabet printed on UV-reactive ink. By aligning the bezel to a designated hour key and referencing minute markers on the dial, one is able to use the clock’s timekeeping functionality to decode the message. If that’s not some National Treasure type of ingenuity, I don’t know what is. Each diver comes with a UV decoding torch and an initial cipher card, with new encrypted messages released weekly through July 4, 2026 (the 250th anniversary of the Unit...
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The Seiko 5T52-7A19: An Ode to the Age of Discovery
I’ve never had many gold-tone watches in my collection, and it’s simply because I don’t have much gold jewelry to match. The benefit to this is that I’ve always been incredibly critical of the gold-tone watches I contemplate adding to my collection, knowing that I only want a few in my watch box overall. I acquired this 5T52-7A19 a couple of months ago after a spur-of-the-moment faceoff between me and the “buy it now” button on eBay. While I had owned a model from Seiko’s Age of Discovery line many years ago, I had never come into contact with one of the higher-end models from the collection. I’ve remained true to my self-implemented rule for gold-tone watches, meaning that this model will have the honor of forcing my hand to sell off another piece from the watch box. If you’ve been thinking about adding another gold-tone watch to your collection, let me introduce you to a staunch contender. Brief Overview of the Age of Discovery Line and -7A19 Model The Seiko Age of Discovery was introduced sometime between 1990 and 1992 to coincide with the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ 1492 voyage. Based on the historical time period of the same name, the Age of Discovery series is heavily influenced by the nautical theming associated with the many expeditions of European travelers between the 15th and 17th centuries. Many of the line’s watches feature motifs that harken back to crucial aspects of seafaring travel, sporting iconography such as maps, ...
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Kurono Tokyo Introduces Meteorite to the Collection with the New Inseki
Kurono Tokyo, Hajime Asaoka’s approachable watch brand, has introduced their first new release of 2026 on the very first workday of the year. Nothing like getting right back into the swing of things. The new piece, part of the brand’s “Special Projects” series, introduces meteorite to the collection for the first time. The Inseki features many of the Kurono hallmarks that have made the brand a favorite among enthusiasts over these last several years, while riding a trend in watchmaking in a rather elegant way that still feels appropriate for the brand. The centerpiece of the watch is the gray meteorite dial, taken from the Muonionalusta meteorite which fell in what is now Sweden about one million years ago. The small slab of meteorite, with the familiar striations that make the material so interesting, is surrounded by a white lacquered outer ring where you’ll find Asaoka’s custom “Calligra” typeface numerals, which have been painted in high relief. It’s a really spare execution, accented by hand bent, high polish steel hands, a design detail that has become a Kurono signature. Kurono notes that, as with all meteorite dials, no two are exactly the same. Asaoka, in the press materials for the Inseki, further explains that sometimes the variance in this material results in a piece of meteorite that is not particularly visually interesting. For this release, Asaoka has personally selected each piece of meteorite for inclusion in the Inseki’s run, and t...
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eBay Finds: Vintage Watches from Omega, Bulova, Waltham, and More!
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 Omega DeVille Starting off this week with a beautiful vintage Omega Seamaster DeVille. The DeVille is of course Omega’s dressy version of their iconic Seamaster line. This example has a 34mm wide yellow gold capped case in nice shape, looking unpolished with crisp edges on the super thin lugs. The caseback Hippocampus medallion is nice and clear. The gold dial has a delightful linen texture, with stick markers and stick hands, and a date window at 3 o’clock. The original crown has nice deep grooves, and is signed with the Omega symbol as it should. The case is a front-loading type and there are no movement pictures, but the watch runs per the seller. View auction here Vintage Bulova with Box and Papers Here is a nice little vintage Bulova, complete with original box and papers. The seller doesn’t state the size, but I’m guessing the steel case is probably 33-34mm wide. The case is sharp, with nice fancy lugs and a relatively broad bezel. The silvery dial has a military style look, with painted lume Arabic numerals and lume filled sword hands. The crown is signed with the Bulova logo. The watch comes on a cool looking steel stretch bracelet that may or not be original...
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[VIDEO] Year in Review: Our Most Worn Watches of 2025
Every year, we ask members of our team to tell us about their most worn watch of the year. This is a pretty standard piece of watch content fare by now, but there’s a good reason for its popularity and durability. Figuring out what you gravitated to over and over again in the span of the year is meaningful. It can tell us about how you lived your life in that ime span, what was important to you, and, more obviously, simply which watch resonated most with you. Here are members of the Worn & Wound team discussing their most worn watch of 2025. Be sure to let us know about yours in the comments below. The post [VIDEO] Year in Review: Our Most Worn Watches of 2025 appeared first on Worn & Wound.
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Year in Review: Watch of the Year 2025
Our annual Watch of the Year post is here, and as always it’s a celebration of the diversity and strength of the enthusiast community. There’s a little of everything represented here, from the platonic idea of the Seiko diver, to highly experimental and ultra-modern, to emerging microbrands offering incredible value. But it’s not just about the watches themselves – every year has individual watches that are successful in the ways that get them onto lists like these. It’s the way our team assesses them, and gets to the heart of what makes a watch great, or interesting, or challenging. We hope you enjoy our roundup of our team’s favorite watches of 2025. Let us know yours in the comments below, and Happy New Year! Christoph McNeill For my Watch of the Year this year, I of course went with a Seiko. I know, no surprise there, but consistency is a good thing right? What can I say, I absolutely love Seiko. And I’m not just a homer, they really do put out killer stuff year after year. I nearly picked one of the amazing and beautiful Grand Seikos (the SLGW007 ‘birch’ dial), but I’ve written about the Grand Seikos a lot, and as stunning as they are, I’m a dive watch guy at heart and there is one Seiko diver that really blew me away this year. I’m talking about the Seiko Prospex Marinemaster SLA081 Limited Edition “Shinkai” diver. For brevity’s sake I’ll just refer to it as the Shinkai from here on out. The Shinkai diver is modeled after the OG ...
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Year in Review: the Best Things We Bought in 2025
Obviously we love watches at Worn & Wound, but our enthusiasm goes well beyond what we wear on our wrists. We’re also interested in gear, tech, apparel, and gadgets of all kinds, and we never shy away from celebrating all the “stuff” that reflects our interests, large and small. This year, we asked Worn & Wound staff and our contributors to write about the best thing they bought in 2025. Not watch related, just a thing that added something to their lives. We got a huge range of responses that sometimes surprisingly tie back to our shared watch enthusiasm (and, sometimes, are just completely distinct). As always, we want to know what you think. Let us know in the comments what your best purchase of 2025 was, watch related or not. Nathan Schultz My outdoor gear philosophy was formed in my early post-college years which were spent car-less and mortgage-free as I bounced between seasonal jobs that made up for in adventure what they lacked in financial compensation. As an avid outdoor enthusiast then and now, I spent my time (and the little money I had earned) between jobs traveling and hiking, finding myself (happily) living out of a tent on more than one occasion. During this years-long period, I developed what the outdoor community endearingly refers to as a “hiker trash” mentality of minimalism that embraces frills free, budget friendly gear- a mentality formed partially out of necessity, but that also felt genuine to the same frugalness that has largely de...
Worn & Wound
Year in Review: 2025 – The Year I Got Into Keyboards
One day this year, I woke up and thought, “Zach, you know what you need? Another hobby that is expensive, nerdy, and takes up space in your relatively small Brooklyn apartment.” Ok, that’s not true, but it might as well be because the results are the same. This year, without any premeditated intention to do so, I got into the world of custom mechanical keyboards. The true origin of this newfound obsession is a happy accident. For a long time, I had been using a very compact and very crappy Logitech for my home setup. One day, it just began to really annoy me. So, I looked into getting something new, and my searching led me to a brand called NuPhy. Not knowing what I was getting myself into, I picked up the “Air 75 V2” based on many positive reviews. When I got it, I was surprised to find extra keys, a strange tool with bent wires, and a little bag containing what I learned were different types of switches. Before getting to that, though, the feel of the Air 75, a mechanical keyboard with low-profile switches and keys, was the breath of fresh air I didn’t realize I needed. As someone who spends the majority of their waking hours at a computer, I am constantly interacting with a keyboard, and like the crown or clasp of my watch, the better that point of interaction is, the better the overall experience. the Mode sixtyfive in green with GMK CYL Abstract keycaps Back to those extras. After discussing it with Blake Malin, co-founder of Worn & Wound and keyboard enth...
Worn & Wound
The Greatest Horological Masterpieces of All Time: The Great Clock of Westminster AKA ‘Big Ben’ – A Horological Marvel of Its Time
A series of features identifying the most extraordinary mechanical masterpieces in history, blending precision, innovation, and craftsmanship. We all have our favourite timepieces either in our collection or those incredible horological masterpieces that have been invented or created through the ages. This series will showcase examples from the previous centuries up to the present day and look at the importance and impact on modern day timekeeping. The Great Clock of Westminster, often known simply as Big Ben, is one of the most iconic landmarks in London and a symbol of the United Kingdom’s rich history and architectural brilliance. Housed in the Elizabeth Tower at the north end of the Palace of Westminster, the clock was completed in 1859 and has since become a celebrated masterpiece of Victorian engineering. Designed by clockmaker Edward John Dent and architect Augustus Pugin, the Great Clock is renowned for its remarkable accuracy and the deep, resonant chime of its massive bell, Big Ben. Over the decades, it has stood as a steadfast guardian of British tradition, witnessing countless historic moments and continuing to captivate visitors from around the world. Preliminary studies for the Big Ben clock tower, Houses of Parliament, Palace of Westminster, London. James Murray, 1840. Image courtesy of RIBA Charles Barry’s design for the Houses of Parliament did not originally include a clock tower. He was asked to include one and his first designs were added in 18...
Worn & Wound
Year in Review: the Changing Shape of Watch Media, and the Center of Watch Culture
It’s the end of the year, which means it’s the one time on the calendar when you the reader will be able to stand a little naval gazing about the state of watch media. Look, it’s my job to reflect on this stuff constantly, but I also know that in practical terms, it’s not really something most watch enthusiasts necessarily want to hear about. When it comes to our readership one thing is overwhelmingly true: it really is about the watches, and the data bears that out. But it’s also impossible to ignore the titanic shift in how all of this works. Artificial intelligence has fundamentally changed how enthusiasts and collectors interact with watch “stuff” on the internet and social media. Even if you’re not actively using ChatGPT or other services to get your watch related questions answered, it’s happening in the background constantly in ways you may or may not realize. Your search results no longer bring you to websites like ours, but spit out summaries answering your queries that draw from our articles and those of our peers. And the reels and posts (but mostly reels – who’s making static posts these days besides me?) that you see on Instagram are fed to you by an AI fueled algorithm. Is it showing you what you actually want to see? Hard to say. To that point, a brief aside: have you seen the new feature in Instagram that tells you what your algorithm is feeding you? It’s fascinating(?) but also probably a little useless. Mine says I’m interest...
Worn & Wound
Ruhla: The East German Watch Brand That Went to Space
For decades now, watch collectors have become enamored with the significance, popularity, and (perhaps most importantly) the absurd affordability of Soviet-era watches. There’s the ingenious Vostok Amphibia dive watch; the various Poljot and Strela chronographs vital to the Russian space program; and the minimalist, glossy-white Raketa Big Zero that signified “the end of history.” What’s lesser known are the timepieces from another part of the Iron Curtain-East Germany, which once encompassed two of the most significant areas of the historic watch industry. Today we associate German watches with the town of Glashütte, where Walter Lange set up a watchmaking school in 1841 and evolved it into one of the great horological houses. Meanwhile, about 300 kilometers to the west is the town of Ruhla. Like Glashütte, Ruhla was also known for metal mining and a tradition of blacksmithing and metalworking. After World War II, it also happened to fall into the Soviet occupation zone, even though it was as far west as one could get. Perhaps it was always fated for this. Image via Ostalgie-Ruhla: Watches of the GDR Both sides faced the evolution of pocket watches to wristwatches, on opposite sides of the World Wars. After 1945, the watch factories in Glashütte and Ruhla were reorganized into publicly-owned enterprises-having endured reparations back to Moscow (to jump-start the USSR’s own watch industry) and the general devastation of the war. Glashütte was a mor...