Monochrome
What you see is quite literally what you get with this new Samurai by Seiko. Born as the more edgy, contemporary counterpart to Seiko’s many heritage-inspired dive watches, the Samurai was introduced in 2004 and redesigned completely in 2024. Now, a year onward from the burgundy and black models that introduced us to a smaller […]
Worn & Wound
On Thursday, May 29th, the Windup Watch Shop Showroom in Brooklyn played host to a lively evening that brought the sun-soaked spirit of Marseille straight to New York City. The occasion? A special event with Jacques Bianchi Marseille, celebrating the brand’s official entry into the U.S. market and offering local enthusiasts an exclusive first look at their newest release. Since opening its doors earlier in December of last year within Worn & Wound’s Brooklyn headquarters, the Windup Watch Shop Showroom has become a go-to gathering place for collectors and brands alike. The Jacques Bianchi event was a shining example of what the space is all about: passionate people, hands-on hard-to-find horology, and a strong sense of community. Founded by veteran French watchmaker Jacques Bianchi in the early 1980s, the brand first gained attention with its JB200, a no-nonsense dive watch built for professionals-including members of the French Navy. With its signature silhouette and dial featuring a swimmer motif, the JB200 quickly earned a cult following among those who value both function and flair. Though the brand remained relatively under the radar for decades, its recent revival has reignited global interest, especially among fans of vintage-inspired tool watches with true military provenance. That history was front and center at the event with a full timeline installation, as members of the Jacques Bianchi team shared insight into the brand’s origins, its connection to Med...
Teddy Baldassarre
Before I get into this review of the Sinn 104 St Sa I white-dial watch, I wanted to offer some of my thoughts and provide some context about the brand. Now, if you know me, you know I’m a longtime fan of Germany’s Sinn and its iconoclastic range of tool watches. all of which have that extra little bit of over-engineered oomph when compared to many of their rugged peers. Come to think of it, these watches actually have no peers, given their unique solutions to problems facing watches that actually experience adverse conditions. Sinn History & Context Founded in 1961 in Frankfurt by ex-military pilot Helmut Sinn, the brand's cultish popularity stems from its technical innovations, which include the so-called "Submarine" steel, developed for the modern German Navy and found in many Sinn dive watches. Submarine steel possesses a mechanical strength more than one and a half times that of normal steel, and additionally, it's highly resistant to magnetism, cracking, and corrosion. In fact, Sinn claims the alloy is completely resistant to prolonged exposure to salt water, something that few stainless-steel formulations can claim. Sinn also employs an additional technology for hardening both stainless steel and titanium surfaces under the Tegiment name. This treatment increases both hardness and scratch resistance even further, making for a practically bombproof finish. The caseback of the Sinn U15 Sinn also goes above and beyond when it comes to handling pressure. For its p...
Worn & Wound
Despite what a look into my watch collection might imply, I don’t put a huge amount of stock into the concept of seasonal watches. Broadly speaking, most watches can easily be worn any day of the year, and in any reasonable conditions one might encounter. Still, I’m not so blind as to ignore that some watches have a definite “vibe,” and for proof of that, you don’t have to look further than the new Deep Diver from Girard-Perregaux. The Deep Diver, which Girard-Perregaux has recently relaunched in collaboration with Bamford Watches, is the latest in GP’s line of vintage revival models - or “Legacy Editions” - and follows up on the somewhat surprising success of the Casquette. Now, vintage reissues are nothing new these days, but unlike some peers, Girard-Perregaux has been cautious in diving into its back catalogue. The result of this restraint is that GP’s Legacy Editions are reliably strong releases, with each feeling like a rare treat rather than a checked box or tired contrivance. The original Deep Diver was released in 1969, but continued to evolve for a few years before being phased out of the GP lineup in the late ‘70s. The new Deep Diver specifically draws on the ref. 9108 as it existed in the mid-‘70s. The Deep Diver has always been a vintage model I’ve had my eye on (I vividly remember bidding on one on eBay when I was in college, only to get blown out of the auction at the last minute by someone who clearly knew what they wanted), but...
Fratello
It’s Sunday morning, which means it’s time for a coffee and another installment of Sunday Morning Showdown. This week, we chose two newer versions of watches that we pitted against each other back in 2022 and 2023. The Tudor Black Bay 58 GMT came out last year and is the smaller and slimmer version of […] Visit Sunday Morning Showdown: Longines Spirit Zulu Time Titanium Vs. Tudor Black Bay 58 GMT to read the full article.
In the world of military-issued watches, some models are legendary. Others are ghost stories-rare prototypes whispered about among collectors, their existence confirmed only through archival fragments or the occasional sighting in the wild. The Bulova MIL-SHIPS-W-2181 falls somewhere between the two, and for the first time in decades, one of the few surviving examples is surfacing in public-on the block at Sotheby’s, no less. A Mission-Critical Beginning To understand why this watch matters, you need to rewind to 1955. Amid Cold War tensions and escalating naval operations, the U.S. Navy sought a robust dive watch for its elite underwater teams-specifically, the Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT) and Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) units, the forebears of modern Navy SEALs. The specifications they drafted, known as MIL-SHIPS-W-2181, called for something no commercial watch at the time quite delivered: water resistance beyond 400 feet, excellent night visibility, a highly legible dial, and a locking, unidirectional bezel. The post How Bulova’s MIL-SHIPS Went from Top Secret to Top Shelf appeared first on Worn & Wound.
Deployant
GREEN ABYSS is the latest model in the Blancpain x Swatch Bioceramic Scuba Fifty Fathoms Collection which celebrates Blancpain’s Fifty Fathoms, the first true diver’s watch launched in 1953.
Fratello
The 600m-water-resistant Defy A3648, known as the Defy Plongeur, was a proper tool watch for professionals when it debuted in 1969. When Zenith launched a Revival version of the A3648 in 2024, brand fans rejoiced. At the same time, the Le Locle-based watchmaker introduced the modern Defy Extreme Diver, a worthy evolution model of the […] Visit Zenith Introduces Shadow Versions Of The Defy Extreme Diver And Defy Revival Diver to read the full article.
Teddy Baldassarre
Some of the most interesting and coveted watches on the market were designed as tools for professionals in fields that are more exciting than those of the average nine-to-fiver. Divers, race car drivers, and pilots have spurred on many of the most popular tool watch designs on the market today. Take, for example, the Rolex Submariner, designed for divers, the TAG Heuer Monaco, used for auto racing both onscreen and off by Steve McQueen, and the Breitling Navitimer, an aviation icon for decades. More than just jewelry, the timekeepers worn by these professionals, plying trades in which seconds count, were depended upon in some cases to save their lives. Pilots had to rely on their watches for critical information like calculating the distance traveled and the amount of fuel left. However, thanks in large part to digital tech, much has changed, and many great pilot’s watches are now used as heritage-infused time tellers in less austere circumstances, though the watches themselves are still more than capable. But, before we get too far ahead, what do we mean when we talk about pilot’s watches? Today, there’s an entire genre of watches dedicated to aviation. Some are homages to vintage designs, while others are modern variations on those earliest pilot’s watches. Some pilot watches are still tools, and act as backups to onboard instrumentation for professional pilots, while others are simply accessories for frequent fliers. In either case, the pilot watch genre ...
Quill & Pad
The Omega Planet Ocean launched in 2005, and in less than 20 years has gained an iconic status. Raman Kalra takes a deep dive into the Omega Planet Ocean.
WatchAdvice
The first standard production watch with the Breitling B19 Perpetual Calendar movement, of course, had to be a Navitimer. We have gone hands-on with it to see how it stacks up! What We Love That ice-blue dial is stunning! Has an amazing wrist presence and an iconic design Easy to use and adjust movement with the perpetual calendar What We Don’t The reverse-style strap can get in the way, depending on your wrist size The 30m water resistance is on the low side The 43mm size will not suit all wrist sizes if you have a smaller wrist Overall Rating: 9 / 10 Value for Money: 9.5/10 Wearability: 8.5/10 Design: 9/10 Build Quality: 9/10 When you think of Breitling, one of the first, if not the first, model that comes to mind is the Navitimer. Not only is it one of Breitling’s most iconic models, but it is also one of the most iconic watches out there, thanks to its history, unique slide-rule bezel and overall design cues that make it stand out. You can easily recognise a Navitimer on the wrist from a distance. In that regard, it’s up there with the Submariner, the Speedmaster, the Luminor, and the Royal Oak, to name but a few. So it stands to reason that it was one of the models to receive the new in-house B19 Perpetual Calendar movement as part of Breitling’s 140th Anniversary Collection. The 18k Rose Gold 140th Anniversary Navitimer B19 Chronograph Perpetual Calendar. This was my pick of the three, but we chose to review the Super Chronomat instead, given the uniquene...
Worn & Wound
The return of the dive watch to the Zenith collection has been one of the real highlights for the brand over the last year or so. It’s actually kind of crazy to consider that Zenith went so long without a true diver in their lineup, being that they’ve been one of the foundational pillars on which the whole industry saw so much growth over the last decade. It would be a little like an auto manufacturer refusing to build an SUV of some kind – why not get a piece of this segment of the market that an enormous number of people are interested in? It’s particularly noteworthy, I think, that when Zenith did decide to get back into the diver game, they did it on two fronts: with a tribute to their divers of the past, alongside a forward looking contemporary piece. Griffin Bartsch, across multiple reviews and videos, has done a nice job of breaking down both the Defy Extreme Diver and the Defy Revival Diver, watches that are very much two sides of the same coin. This week, Zenith expands their dive watch portfolio a bit further, iterating on both of these platforms via their “Shadow” series. The Shadow watches have been enthusiast favorites since their inception. We’ve previously seen both a Chronomaster Revival Shadow as well as a Defy Revival Shadow, both of which strip down the essence of a watch into a chilly, micro-blasted titanium tool. The matte finish and darker tones of the cases are really appealing. They have a way of making a watch that is otherwise virt...
Hodinkee
A classic post-quartz Japanese two-tone tool diver turns the big 4-0.
Two Broke Watch Snobs
It’s hard not to smile when a brand pulls something straight out of the archives and actually gets it right. The original Citizen Aqualand that dropped in '85 was a geeky, glorious collision of analog dive chops and digital gadgetry. You didn’t need to love diving to want one; you just needed to be the kind of person who liked pushing buttons to see what they did. I was that person. Still am.
Worn & Wound
There are lots of dive watches out there – it’s perhaps the most ubiquitous of all the watch genres. Frankly, it’s easy to see why. In addition to being highly specialized for a very specific task, they tend to work incredibly well as casual, everyday watches regardless of what you happen to be doing with them. The reason for this is very much because of the design traits these watches share that make them so highly specialized: ultra clear legibility, robust water proof cases, and a generally nondescript design that allows the watch to be worn easily with a wetsuit and also blend into the fabric of our everyday lives. But then there are a handful of truly unusual dive watches that give away their specialized nature even at a passing glance. They look less like watches and more like obscure devices or instruments that should only be used by people who really know what they’re doing, have received the necessary training, and perhaps have signed a liability waiver. The Omega Ploprof immediately comes to mind, as does something like the Singer Divetrack – these are watches that play with the form of what we understand a watch to be in the name of functionality. Citizen, for 40 years, has also made a watch that fits neatly into this category: the Aqualand. The name is a bit of an oxymoron, but the watch itself is less confusing. It has always been a uniquely specialized instrument tailored to the specific needs of divers. This year marks the 40th anniversary of t...
Fratello
The Swatch press release for this watch says it’s “inspired by the unexplored.” The deep green new Blancpain × Swatch Fifty Fathoms Green Abyss with touches of black (bezel) and beige (markers, hands, bezel numerals, etc.) takes inspiration from the ocean’s depths. Blancpain × Swatch Scuba Fifty Fathoms Green Abyss This is the ninth Blancpain […] Visit The Best Thus Far? Meet The Blancpain × Swatch Fifty Fathoms Green Abyss to read the full article.
Time+Tide
A proper tool watch celebrates its 40th anniversary.The post The new Citizen Promaster Aqualand celebrates 40 years of the first diver with an electronic depth sensor appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Fratello
In 1985, Citizen revolutionized the world of dive watches by introducing the Aqualand. Among the standout features of this then-state-of-the-art dive tool were the multifunctional digital display and built-in electronic depth gauge. The latter gave the watch its distinct shape, with the depth sensor’s hardware element protruding from the left side of the case. The […] Visit Citizen Celebrates 40 Years Of The Aqualand With A Limited Edition Of The Depth-Gauge Diver to read the full article.
Teddy Baldassarre
The Glashütte Original SeaQ debuted in 2019 alongside the German watchmaker’s then-new “Spezialist” family. The collection has grown to include the SeaQ Panorama Date, the smaller SeaQ 39.5mm, and the SeaQ Chronograph. I believe the SeaQ was the first new dive or sports watch from the brand since the Senator Sport Evolution from 2009. Inspired by the vintage Spezimatic Type RP TS 200 from 1969, the SeaQ has gone on to become one of the most lauded luxury dive watches out there. These are true luxury watches, though and they come with matching price tags. Still, the Glashütte Original SeaQ is one of the best options out there for someone with high standards but doesn’t want to join the sea (pun intended) of Submariners and Seamasters out there. There’s a funny quandary that reveals itself when looking at the SeaQ Panorama Date in comparison to the smaller SeaQ with the standard, less sexy date window. You can have the bigger case and the panorama date window or you can have the smaller case without the panorama date window. But, since you can’t have both, I made sure to add a section at the end with a brief comparative rundown of the SeaQ with the smaller 39.5mm case. Glashütte Original SeaQ Case Let’s start with the SeaQ Panorama which comes in at 43.2mm wide and 15.7mm thick with a 51.4mm lug-to-lug measurement (with 300 m of water resistance). Yes, that’s a big boy and anyone with a smaller (or even the smaller size of medium) wrist is going to have ...
Two Broke Watch Snobs
Discover the new Blancpain x Swatch Bioceramic Scuba Fifty Fathoms 'Green Abyss'-a $400 automatic dive watch dropping June 7, blending playful design with mechanical credibility.
Hodinkee
Just in time for summer, the Scuba Fifty Fathoms is back and verdant.
Fratello
The Rolex Land-Dweller was the most talked-about release of this year’s Watches and Wonders. Regardless of whether the watch appealed to everyone, due to the groundbreaking new caliber and revival of the Oysterquartz design, the general impact of the Land-Dweller was palpable. We had an opportunity to experience the 36mm and 40mm models during Watches […] Visit What’s The Perfect Size For The Rolex Land-Dweller? to read the full article.
Time+Tide
From the deep, murky depths arises a new Thrifty Fathoms...The post Swatch adds a stealthy green number to its Blancpain Scuba Fifty Fathoms collection with the Green Abyss appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Monochrome
Traditional dive watches have never waned in popularity, despite modern diving computers and even smart watches pushing them into technical obsolescence. The dawn of early divers in the 1950s is defined by two brands and two watches – the Rolex Submariner and the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms. State of the art at the time and able […]
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