Quill & Pad
Watch collector Quentin R. Bufogle was determined to add a piece to his collection harking back to those dust-strewn days of early Las Vegas, a time when the occasional tumbleweed still ambled along what would one day become the famous Las Vegas Strip. And he found it in a 1946 Bulova Aviator B. Here's how and why.
Hodinkee
It might not be the most surprising or revolutionary, but it sure is really damn cool.
Teddy Baldassarre
Oris made its first watch for aviators, the original Big Crown, way back in 1938, and has been riffing on that ingenious and influential design ever since. Defined by its large, fluted winding crown, designed to be easy for gripping by hands in heavy pilot’s gloves, the modern Big Crown series - now hosting both the sporty ProPilot and the more elegant Pointer Date versions - has become a major pillar in the independent Swiss brand’s portfolio. In 2020, Oris launched Caliber 400, the first in-house automatic movement it had made in its long history, and debuted it inside a watch from its popular Aquis diver collection, following that model up with a Caliber 400 version of its other divers’ model, the retro-styled Divers 65. In 2022, Oris finally arranged a marriage of its oldest watch model - well, a descendant of it, anyway - with its newest exclusive movement, introducing the first ProPilot X Caliber 400 models. Now available in a variety of avant-garde colorways, these siblings to the larger, Sellita-equipped ProPilot Date models (example below) offer a marked contrast with their predecessors while still carrying the banner of the overall series. Here is what you should know about the ProPilot X, where it came from, and what Oris has been doing with it lately. The Brand History: Paul Cattin and Georges Christian founded Oris in 1904, in Hölstein, Switzerland, naming the company after a nearby brook. A maker of pocket watches and, by 1925, the increasingly...
Time+Tide
Bell & Ross celebrates its most recognisable model's 20th anniversaryThe post Bell & Ross unveil the BR-03 Skeleton, celebrating 20 years of the squared-off aviation instrument appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Teddy Baldassarre
The pilot watch genre is a funny thing. These watches are marketed and sold for their connection to history and/or their usefulness within the field of aviation. This history has set a visual identity that defines the genre to this day, with complications like flyback timers and slide rules often featuring heavily. Of course, very few of the owners put these features to use, with fewer still serving as actual pilots. Thus, the pilot watch genre really serves as more of a vibe than any kind of practical watermark. There are exceptions to this, however, and ironically enough, some of the most practical everyday tool watches find themselves with the “pilot watch” designation, and there is perhaps no better example of this than the IWC Mark XX. The name of the game with any great tool watch is clarity. Ideally, there’s nothing superfluous to cloud the core goals of the tool, with a premium placed on simple legibility. One of the strongest templates based on this ethos is the IWC Mark XI from the late ‘40s. It wasn’t the first IWC Mk watch, but it is the one responsible for casting a die that persists to this day in the form of the Mk XX. There are important distinctions, which I’ll get to, but the underpinnings of the modern Mk XX collection are built on the same general formula that made the Mk XI great: it’s easy to use, easy to understand, easy to wear, and is exactly as stout as it needs to be. IWC enjoys a highly developed design language for its range of pi...
Worn & Wound
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 Benrus Wristwatch Here’s a nice little vintage Benrus, with fancy knotted lugs. The yellow gold filled case is a hair under 30mm, but what this watch lacks in size it makes up with style with those wild lugs. The case looks to be in really nice shape with sharp edges. The two-tone bullseye style dial is nice, with an even patina. The manual wind movement is clean and runs well per the seller. Nice vintage piece that would look great at your next cocktail party! View auction here Croton Chronomaster Aviator Sea Diver Ah, the Croton Chronomaster Aviator Sea Diver, the watch with the coolest name ever! And this example is an absolute beauty. The 38mm stainless steel case is unpolished, with perfect sharp chamfers on the lugs, and the aluminum diver bezel is pretty much perfect. The black dial is super clean, with perfectly aged lume, and same with the hands. These Chronomasters came with many different movements, but this example has my favorite, the buttery smooth Valjoux 23, a manual wind masterpiece. This has to be the nicest example of this iteration of the Croton Chronomaster I’ve ever seen. If this floats your boat, here’s your chance to grab one! View auction here Vi...
Monochrome
Bell & Ross has never strayed far from its winning formula of aeronautical instrument-inspired watches. Brandishing the tagline “from the cockpit to the wrist,” Bell & Ross’s watches are loyal to the “circle within a square design” inspired by dashboard flight instruments. However, the brand has understood that to reach more customers, it needs to […]
Worn & Wound
It’s a common refrain here at Worn & Wound: every year is an anniversary. Like death, taxes, and Photoshop renders of what collectors predict the new Rolex will look like, the celebration of anniversaries in the watch industry is a certainty. We’re not complaining. An anniversary of an important watch or collection is a great time to take stock, and there have certainly been plenty of desirable releases over the years centered around big anniversaries. This year, Bell & Ross is celebrating 20 years of the BR-03 collection, their iconic square watch that has become the “face” of the brand over the past two decades. The celebration begins with the new BR-03 Skeleton, a collection of three watches that capitalizes on a big trend across all sectors of watchmaking while removing the BR-03 from its aviation themed roots, at least a little bit. Bell & Ross has been making skeletonized watches for years (often as part of their Skull series), and these watches highlight their proficiency in that area, and also take advantage of their creativity with lume. The new BR-03 Skeleton is available in three variants: Black Ceramic, Grey Steel, and Lum Ceramic. All three feature 41mm cases and a new movement, the BR-CAL.328, designed specifically for these watches. While the specs of the caliber are in line with previous time only movements used in recent BR-03 releases (like those, it has a 54 hour power reserve) its architecture has been adjusted, highlighting an “X” motif...
Monochrome
It is widely known that IWC has experience with ceramic watches since it was the first brand to release a timepiece made of zirconium oxide (the real name for ceramic) in 1985 with the Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar. In recent years, the Schaffhausen-based brand has been playing a lot with colours, releasing Top Gun models […]
Fratello
Fortis is a brand that is constantly on the move. In the last six months, we have seen new versions of the Novonaut N-42, a new model range with the Vagabond V-40 GMT, and even new movements. For its latest releases, Fortis introduces two new Flieger models with black cases in two sizes. But the […] Visit Fortis Introduces Four Flieger Models Powered By The New Manufacture Werk 7 to read the full article.
Fratello
Another historic French watch brand has been revived, and this time, it’s in a way we’ve never seen. Chronofixe, initially founded in the 1850s, became a well-known altimeter and Type 20 chronograph maker in the 1960s. After that, though, the brand went quiet. A virtually unknown Chronofixe watch, model Flight 1952, already surfaced a few […] Visit Hands-On With The Chronofixe × Seconde/Seconde/ Asterix Watch to read the full article.
Monochrome
With its long-winded name, IWC’s new watch can best be described as the more complex brother of a Performance Chronograph released in 2023 for four-wheeled pilots. Equipped with the brand’s innovative perpetual calendar movement and its uncommon digital display, the Performance Chronograph IW388801 comes with a dashing black and golden colour scheme. Presented in 2023, […]
Monochrome
A couple of years ago, IWC introduced a Big Pilot’s watch with a device developed by the brand’s Experimental Engineering Division to protect the movement from extreme shocks. Not any only shock, mind you, but acceleration forces in excess of 30,000Gs (akin to the speed of a battleship shell) that no pilot could survive. Today’s […]
Revolution
Monochrome
One of the most recognisable models of Bell & Ross, the French brand that finds inspiration in the dashboard instruments of military aeroplanes, is the BR-03. Debuting in 2006 as a smaller version of the whopping 46mm BR 01, the BR-03 was updated two years ago and revisited in smaller 41mm cases. Benefitting from the […]
Worn & Wound
Last year was, no matter how you look at it, a transformational one for Bremont. Nowhere was this more obvious than at Watches & Wonders 2024, where the English brand rolled into Palexpo with a new CEO, new watches, and an entirely new brand identity. To say they caused a stir would be an understatement, and the brand’s radical reinvention was one of the prevailing narratives in the show’s aftermath. Still, amidst all the discourse and new collections, one key Bremont tentpole went undisturbed last year - but no longer. Now, for Watches & Wonders 2025, Bremont is introducing an updated offering of pilot’s watches, bringing what is arguably Bremont’s most important collection of watches in line with the rest of the new Bremont catalog. The updated Altitude lineup is made up of three new models: The Altitude 39 Date, the Altitude Chronograph GMT, and the Altitude MB Meteor (a successor to the MBII), and offers the best balance so far between a classic Bremont feel and the brand’s updated identity. There’s also a perpetual calendar to be discussed, but that’s for another time. Notably, each of the new watches retains Bremont’s hallmark Trip-Tick case, which was notably omitted from last year’s launches. Still, there is no confusing these for old-school Bremont. The updated Altitude collection boasts a slimmer look, with thinner lugs and bezels, and the watches each adopt a near-monochromatic colorway, dropping some of the colorful flourishes Bremont has of...
Fratello
There’s more than new Ingenieurs to see at IWC’s booth at Watches and Wonders 2025. Yes, there’s also a quintet of new IWC pilot’s watches. First up are three new pilot’s chronographs linked to Apple Original Films’ upcoming movie F1, which is set to release worldwide this summer. There’s also more complicated stuff - specifically, […] Visit A Squadron Of New IWC Pilot’s Watches Touches Down At Watches And Wonders to read the full article.
Monochrome
There is good news for sceptics who feared Bremont had forsaken its roots. Although the company is no longer in the hands of its founders, Giles and Nick English, their passion for British aviation history and pilot’s watches endures in the new Altitude collection. Marking a new era, the brand releases three redesigned pilot watches […]
Monochrome
Vintage pilot watches have soared in popularity with remakes of legitimate aviator watches by historical brands and look-alikes by countless others. However, when Patek Philippe introduced its Calatrava Pilot Travel Time Ref. 5524 during Baselworld 2015, it caught everybody off guard. Presented in white gold with a blue dial and pushers on the left, the […]
Revolution
SJX Watches
The flagship watch of Breitling’s best-known watch, the Navitimer B19 Perpetual Calendar Chronograph is now more affordable. The latest iteration with an “ice blue” dial retains the specs of the pink gold 140th anniversary edition launched last year, but trades precious metal for steel. Unlike last year’s limited edition, the new steel model is regular production and is priced under US$30,000, over Breitling’s traditional sweet spot on the price spectrum but still half the retail of the anniversary edition. Breitling Navitimer B19 Chronograph 43 Perpetual Calendar_Ref. PB1920251C1P1_RGB Initial thoughts The new Navitimer B19 keeps it affordable, relatively speaking, by combining Breitling’s excellent in-house B01 movement with the tried-and-tested Dubois Depraz perpetual calendar module. The resulting watch is thick at almost 15 mm high, but combines several complications in Breitling’s iconic slide-rule pilot’s chronograph. While the watch is pricier than most of Breitling’s offerings, it is one of the few perpetual calendar chronographs in this price range. Most of such watches tend to be a lot more expensive, although Austrian independent watchmaker Habring² offers similar for less in keeping with its focus on affordable complications. Value proposition The new B19 retains the same basic specs as its precious metal counterpart. The stainless steel case measures 43 mm in diameter and 14.94 mm in thickness. Water-resistant to 30 m, it features the Navit...
Deployant
A new Breitling Navitimer B19 Perpetual Calendar Chronograph. It is in a steel case, 43mm case diameter, and not limited.
Hodinkee
With a movement only just recently announced last year, this new release is one of the most affordable of its type on the market.
Fratello
Breitling introduced a new perpetual calendar chronograph caliber to celebrate the brand’s 140th birthday last year. The impressive movement was featured in a trio of rose gold limited editions. Today, caliber B19 gets a permanent foothold in Breitling’s collection. This is the Breitling Navitimer B19 Chronograph 43 Perpetual Calendar. With such a descriptive name, I […] Visit Introducing: The Breitling Navitimer B19 Chronograph 43 Perpetual Calendar In Steel And Platinum to read the full article.
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