Monochrome
Union Glashütte, one of the two Swatch Group brands located in the Saxon town of German watchmaking fame, next to higher-end manufacture Glashütte Original, manages to compete with its heavyweight neighbours thanks to its solidly built watches – often with vintage motorsport accents – but always recognised for their good value. With its close ties […]
Fratello
Many modern chronographs strive to strike a balance between vintage appeal and modern build quality. Few of those efforts result in a package as appealing as the Hanhart 415 ES Panda chronographs. These models revisit a 1960s design while delivering features expected in a contemporary tool watch. I had the chance to go hands-on with […] Visit Hands-On With Two Handsome Hanhart 415 ES Panda Chronographs to read the full article.
WatchAdvice
Hublot are an ever-present disruptor of the traditional watch industry, but do the brand’s horological standards ‘walk the talk?’ Let’s find out! What We Love: Tough, light & unobtrusive on-wrist Bold design married with demure aesthetics Surprising variation of finishes and detailing What We Don’t: No lume on a sports watch? Chronograph operation feels tougher than most Movement choice makes for a challenging value proposition Overall Rating: 8/10 Value for Money: 7/10 Wearability: 9/10 Design: 8/10 Build Quality: 8/10 When I was first introduced to the luxury watch industry and all the wonders it holds, it was an overwhelming experience. This isn’t a ground-breaking revelation – I’m sure many of you shared the same circumstances at one point – but I found myself quickly scrambling for some watch advice, no pun intended. However, since I was the only watch nerd (that I knew of) in my demographic, I naturally navigated online. There, I was told a great many facts and rules. Some of them were good, like “don’t change the date between 9 and 3 o’clock,” or “take the watch off before you adjust the time.” Other bits and pieces, however, were just opinions disguised as fact. “Never buy [this brand],” “only buy [that brand] …” All the typical drivel we roll our eyes at now; I integrated into my own beliefs as a then watch noob. Of course, this also led me to one of the watch community’s biggest discourses: Hublot. From what I saw, th...
WatchAdvice
This isn’t just another colour variant, it’s Zenith pushing the DEFY Skyline Chronograph into full-ceramic territory with its signature blue. The result is a watch that turns heads like a show car but wears like a daily driver. A fitting 160th-anniversary statement piece that blends Zenith’s history with its future. What We Love Full royal-blue ceramic case and bracelet give the watch a bold, cohesive look that stands out from almost anything else in this price segment. Despite the 42 mm size, the ceramic construction keeps the watch surprisingly light and wearable, even on slimmer wrists. Zenith’s El Primero 3600 combines high-frequency accuracy, 1/10th-second timing, and a 60-hour reserve. What We Don’t Matching blue sub-dials keeps the design cohesive, but doesn’t have visual separation compared to contrasting colours. The date at 4:30 is a necessary compromise but still slightly disrupts dial symmetry. Ceramic links can be trickier to size and adjust compared to steel bracelets. Overall Rating: 9/10 Value for money: 9/10 Wearability: 9/10 Design: 9/10 Build quality: 9/10 Earlier this year, Zenith released a host of blue ceramic timepieces in celebration of its 160th anniversary. The timepieces included the Pilot Big Date Flyback, Chronomaster Sport, DEFY Skyline Chronograph, and, of course, the very special Zenith G.F.J timepiece. These special limited edition models were given the blue colour treatment as it’s a signature colour of the brand. The colour ...
Teddy Baldassarre
Aside from the watch that was made legendary by Paul Newman - and which would forever, unofficially, carry the famous actor’s name - there is probably no version of the Rolex Daytona that is more coveted than the “Rainbow” models that bring a meticulously designed and eye-catchingly beautiful assortment of colorful precious stones to the bezel, case, and dial of the motorsport-inspired luxury chronograph. Here is the story behind the Rolex Daytona “Rainbow” and why it has become yet another smash hit for the Crown in the 21st Century. To start off, it’s worth answering the question, “Why is the Rolex Daytona so famous in the first place?” The model’s success story begins in 1962, when Rolex, hot on the heels of other genre-defining watch releases like the Explorer, GMT-Master, and Submariner several years earlier, became the official timekeeper of the “Great American Race,” the Daytona 500. In celebration of the partnership, the Swiss brand introduced its original “Cosmograph” racing-inspired chronograph watch the following year. The watch, notable for its tachymeter bezel and three-register dial design, adopted the name “Daytona” shortly thereafter and really took the enthusiast community by storm when actor, director, and part-time racecar driver Paul Newman began wearing one regularly. Newman became a big-screen icon in the 1970s, around the same time that auto racing took off in popularity as a spectator sport, and this confluence of...
Monochrome
Without a doubt, one of the most important racing chronographs ever created and arguably the most emblematic watch of the entire history of Heuer and TAG Heuer… From the first 1963 Heuer Carrera chronographs in the original round cases, the C-Shape cases to house the new automatic movements in 1969, the barrel-shaped Carreras, powered by […]
Worn & Wound
Space, fire, time. These things are elemental, conduits to deep discussions about our place in the universe, and the nature of life itself. What does it all mean? It’s the stuff of 3:00 AM dorm room deep dives, the kinds of conversations that happen after watching 2001 for the first time. Every so often, a piece of art, or an object (or even a watch!) scratches at these ideas. That’s what I started to ponder, anyway, when I first read about the new Fortis Stratoliner S-41 Reentry Edition, a striking new version of their spacefaring chronograph with a unique (literally) dial with one of the more interesting concepts behind it that I’ve seen this year. The highlight here, as you can likely derive from the images, is the dial that has been heat treated by hand. The inspiration comes from spacecraft reentering the earth’s atmosphere. This happens at an incredibly high rate of speed – roughly 15,000 miles per hour. At that velocity, the friction caused by the spacecraft as it comes in contact with the atmosphere essentially turns said spacecraft into a small, fast moving, fireball. Have you seen Apollo 13? Then you know basically how this works. A heat shield designed to control that burn keeps astronauts on board safe, and the critical structure of the spacecraft intact. According to Fortis, every Reentry Edition dial is heat treated by hand and completely unique, thanks to the unpredictable nature of the impact of fire on the titanium surface. The heat produces ...
Fratello
Hublot recently celebrated 10 years as the official timekeeper of the UEFA Champions League. To mark the occasion, the house released a special limited-edition Classic Fusion Chronograph. You may have noticed that we didn’t cover it on Fratello. Why? Well, because such sponsorships and co-branded watches tend not to interest our readers all that much. […] Visit From Stadiums To Studios - Hublot’s Atypical Cultural Footprint to read the full article.
Teddy Baldassarre
Most parts of a watch that you’ll encounter in your pursuit of horological knowledge are names that are fairly familiar and mostly self-explanatory: case, dial, hands, movement. (We run down the gamut of the most important watch parts in this article). But now and then, you may read about, or hear someone referring to, a watch’s rehaut - a somewhat intimidating-sounding French term that might give you pause at first. What is a rehaut, and what is it used for? Read on. Put simply, a rehaut (properly pronounced “Re-OHH” without the hard “T” sound at the end) is the French word for “flange,” which is the English term most often used in its place when discussing watches. It describes the rim between the periphery of the dial and the crystal. Unlike dials and cases and hands, not every watch has one. But for many of those that do, the rehaut is not only a frame that fills in the space between the dial edge and the crystal but also a utilitarian element that can add interest and even useful information to the dial itself. Some watchmakers use the rehaut for staging the hour or minute markers, In the case of chronographs, like the TAG Heuer Carrera featured above, the rehaut can provide a spot for added functional markings like a tachymeter scale (which can use the built-in stopwatch to measure speeds relative to distance) or a pulsimeter (which works with the chronograph to measure heartbeat rates). Other watches might use the rehaut for calendar indications ...
Fratello
I have long had a soft spot for Bell & Ross’s X series. The BR-X1 chronographs were some of the most technically ambitious pieces the brand has ever produced, and the BR-X5 models proved that this ultra-modern side of the catalog could also deliver good looks. With that in mind, it was only a matter […] Visit Meet The New Bell & Ross BR-X3 - A Watch Built For Extremes to read the full article.
Revolution
Fratello
Omega not only introduced the Speedmaster Apollo 11 50th Anniversary editions in 2019 but also brought back the legendary caliber 321. On July 21st of that year, precisely 50 years after the Speedmaster became the Moonwatch, the brand introduced that movement in a platinum Moonwatch, the Speedmaster Calibre 321 Platinum ref. 311.93.42.30.99.001. Omega Speedmaster Calibre […] Visit The Platinum 321 Is The Pinnacle Of Speedmaster Moonwatches to read the full article.
SJX Watches
Advanced digital watches haven’t deterred leading Japanese brands from continuing to earnestly develop high-accuracy quartz watches in analog formats. Chief among them is Seiko, which has just unveiled two new limited editions of its satellite-linked Astron GPS Solar. While the SSJ037 appears to be a simple time-only watch and the SSH185 looks like a straightforward dual-time chronograph, each watch is solar-powered and includes an electronic perpetual calendar. Limited to 1,500 pieces for the SSJ037 and 1,200 pieces for the SSH185, the new collection is sci-fi inspired, featuring colours and textures common to fictional depictions of space stations. Initial thoughts There are a couple different approaches to making high-accuracy quartz watches. The first is pretty obvious, and involves developing ever-more precise quartz oscillators. Seiko has long been a champion of this school of thought, although Citizen has inched ahead in recent years. The other approach is to make a reasonably precise quartz movement that automatically syncs with an external signal, which might be a radio signal broadcast from any of the atomic reference clocks positioned around the world, a bluetooth signal from the user’s phone, or, in the case of the Astron, a satellite signal. Since the brand debuted this technology in 2012, Seiko has refined things making the watches sleeker and the interface more intuitive. As a result, the time-only SSJ037 is an ordinary 42 mm in diameter and 12 mm thick;...
Monochrome
Farer, a British indie brand, debuted in 2015 with watches designed in London and produced in Switzerland. With an extensive portfolio ranging from characterful three-handers to GMTs, as well as chronographs, integrated sports watches, and compressor-style dive watches, the brand’s keen eye for design is paying off. Coupled with its direct-to-consumer business model, which eliminates intermediaries, prices […]
WatchAdvice
As Raymond Weil comes out of their shell, so do more incredible timepieces. But have they hit a new peak with the Freelancer Complete Calendar? Let’s find out! What We Love: An elegant and versatile design Quality-of-life upgrades to a classic complication Excellent value proposition with few competitors What We Don’t: Movement finishing somewhat lacklustre Calendar is hard to see from a distance Do we need the lume? Overall Rating: 9/10 Value for Money: 9/10 Wearability: 9/10 Design: 9/10 Build Quality: 9/10 There’s a rapid surge happening in watchmaking right now. No, I’m not talking about the newly imposed 39% U.S. tariffs on Swiss watches (though that’s a story in itself), but rather the quiet re-emergence of the middle market. As household names climb further upmarket, a new wave of brands are pushing harder than ever, flexing their creative and horological muscles to prove what they’re truly capable of. Christopher Ward is one; Frederique Constant and Maurice Lacroix are others. But perhaps the most impressive contender in this power shift is none other than Raymond Weil. Nearly 50 years young, the family-owned independent has been quietly racking up achievements and accolades. Their breakout moment came with the GPHG-winning Millésime collection, followed by ambitious world timers and flyback chronographs — complications that once felt far beyond the brand’s reach. And at Watches & Wonders Geneva this year, Raymond Weil unveiled perhaps its most...
Monochrome
Released in 2023, the Tentagraph was Grand Seiko’s first-ever mechanical chronograph… I know, it sounds weird for a brand with about 65 years of history, but all of its chronographs used to be based on a Spring Drive architecture (calibres 9R86 and 9R96) until the launch of the SLGC001. Using the Evolution 9 platform, the Tentagraph […]
Teddy Baldassarre
To be honest, most people in the know would agree that “cheapest” and “Patek Philippe” don’t really even belong in the same sentence together. That said, for many serious watch collectors, even those just starting out, one’s first Patek Philippe is both a Holy Grail and a milestone purchase to be carefully, thoughtfully planned out and saved for. And most of those aficionados are still going to be entering the brand’s world at the ground floor rather than the penthouse. So what are these “entry level” Patek Philippe watches, i.e., the models actually priced with a first-time buyer in mind? First off, we should establish why Patek Philippe watches are so coveted in the first place by laying out a bit of history. Since its founding in 1839 in Geneva, Patek Philippe has been a leader in high watchmaking, pioneering many complications and design elements that are now seen widely throughout the watch industry. Polish watchmakers Antoine Norbert de Patek and Francois Czapek partnered to form the original company, Patek, Czapek, & Cie.; French horologist Jean Adrien Philippe, who invented the keyless winding and setting system still standard on watches today, joined in 1845, and the Genevan manufacture has been known as Patek Philippe ever since. Among its many horological milestones are the first annual calendar watch and the first wristwatches with perpetual calendars and split-seconds chronographs. In 1932, brothers Jean and Henri Stern acquired Patek Philipp...
SJX Watches
Components-specialist-turned-watch brand Fleury Manufacture created its own chronograph calibre inspired by the famous Lemania cal. 2310, which debuts in the FXR-4 Chronograph. Given Fleury’s origins as a supplier of parts, the calibre is built almost entirely by Fleury, and to a high standard. And the FXR-4 stands out for another reason: while independent watchmaking is rarely the value proposition it once was, the FXR-4 is priced well. The FM04 movement Initial Thoughts Self-developed chronographs are a risky proposition for high-end independents. Established brands offer fierce competition, and developing a new chronograph calibre is arguably a thankless task today since enthusiasts remain fixated on highly-decorated three handers that offer the watchmaker a greater return on a smaller investment. The FM04 movement inside scores well in terms of construction and finishing. The architecture is more refined than most other Lemania-esque chronographs, with the chronograph driving wheel integrated into the going train. And the finishing, a mix of machine and hand finishing, has enough of the latter to be considered high end; the black-polished clutch lever is especially outstanding. The design of the exterior doesn’t score quite as well, which is not surprising given Fleury’s background as a parts supplier. The date isn’t to my preference – and the date pusher looks strangely large – it will be a meaningful value-add to others. Vacheron Constantin’s Lemania-ba...
Revolution
Time+Tide
Zenith teams up with the iconic Swiss modular furniture firm USM on an unexpectedly stylish and colourful quartet of chronos.The post A new Defy Chronograph quartet starts the partnership between Zenith and USM appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Deployant
TAG Heuer expands its Carrera collection with the launch of the Carrera Astronomer, We cover the release with our commentary.
WatchAdvice
TAG Heuer has released a new look Carrera that is very different to the standard racing-inspired models. The Carrera Astronomer is designed to cast your eyes to the heavens with its new moonphase complication, and we’ve gone hands-on for a review. What We Love The dial design is unique and looks great Very easy to wear and comfortable 39mm size The Beads of Rice bracelet elevates this piece What We Don’t Lack of lume on the dial No micro-adjust on the clasp A date display could have added to the functionality Overall Rating: 8.4 / 10 Value for Money: 8/10 Wearability: 8/10 Design: 9/10 Build Quality: 8.5/10 For TAG Heuer’s first outing at Geneva Watch Days, it has released some very cool pieces, one of which (well, three really) is the TAG Heuer Carrera Astronomer. A new take on the traditional moonphase complication, TAG Heuer has set out to embark on a new phase for the famous Carrera line. It has introduced three different variations of the Carrera Astronomer – A 500-piece limited edition with grey dial accents and leather strap, a seconds 500-piece limited edition two-tone steel and 18k rose gold plated model, and this, which I’m reviewing today – the full stainless steel model as part of the core collection. The new TAG Heuer Carrera Astronomer Collection with two limited edition pieces on leather and in two-tone, and the full steel core collection model But why an astronomical complication in the Carrera? So, in 1962, a significant moment in both watc...
Time+Tide
TAG Heuer looks to reinvent the moonphase complication in a new sporty-chic aesthetic with three new models. The post TAG Heuer goes extraterrestrial with the Carrera Astronomer (live pics) appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Monochrome
Since its launch in 1963, the TAG Heuer Carrera has been synonymous with speed, clarity, and performance on the racetrack. Jack Heuer designed it as a driver’s chronograph, stripped down to essentials with maximum legibility. Yet throughout its long life, the Carrera has never been a one-dimensional racetrack watch; it has adapted to aviation and yachting, and […]
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