No products in the cart.
Best Super NEWS Watches
Bring a Loupe: A Grail Patek, And Many Beautiful Watches From Lange, Jaeger-LeCoultre And IWC
For this week's Bring A Loupe expect a very eclectic selection. You will discover a grail chronograph from Patek, and an iconic Rolex GMT. We've also found many beautiful blue dials, from a rare Jaeger-LeCoultre Memovox to a sparkling Lange Saxonia. And completing the round-up, we have a couple of unusual and very interesting watches, including a Tudor Advisor, and the Heuer Solunar. This is your Bring a Loupe for August 7, 2015. A Dream Patek Chronograph, The Reference 1518 This Patek 1518 is undoubtedly my favorite of the week, the more so because I got the chance to put on my wrist. With this one ...
Hands-On: With The Bulgari Serpenti
The Bulgari Serpenti Collection is probably one of the most widely recognized jeweled watches on the market today. It is seen on the wrists of numerous high-profile celebrities and after seeing one in person, I can say with certainty is it definitely a showstopper. Bulgari, the well-known italian jewelry company, was founded in Rome in 1882 by Greek jeweler, Sotirios Voulgaris (later Romanized to Bulgari). The company continued to grow and was managed by three generations of the Bulgari family before being acquired by LVMH in 2011. It wasnt until the 1970s, when the company saw very strong growth, that it became the internat...
At The Bench: Dissecting The New Eterna Caliber 39
For a watchmaker, a genuinely new ebauche (a raw movement) hitting the market is kind of like being told there is a new energy source. Theres a lot to be excited about, skeptical about, and a lot to learn. When I saw that Eterna (oddly enough the original creator of ETA) had created such a movement I had to get my hands on one. When it comes to watches, there is marketing and there are gears. You can bend the truth with press releases, but you can't fake the mechanics, and that is why I wanted to take it apart and understand what they were doing and how they did it, and if there is promise for this new power source. The Ete...
Hands-On: The Jaquet Droz Astrale Grande Heure Black Enamel (Live Pics, Official Pricing)
What determines a brands ups and downs? Sometimes the success or failure of a particular company in front of a particular audience can be a difficult thing to understand. Jaquet Droz came to the attention of serious connoisseurs many years ago with some of the strongest and most original design work I think Id seen, at the time C their two signature design elements were the lavish use of extremely fine fired enamelwork in their dials (I still remember the first time I saw a paillonn enamel Jaquet Droz watch, at a collectors event organized by the firm at the Museum of Arts & Design, here in New York, in the early 2000s) and a willingness to explore the use of negative space in their ...
Introducing: The Cartier Ronde "Croisiere" Cruise Collection (Live Pics, Pricing)
Well, though its still just barely mid-August, the days are already getting shorter, and the first back-to-school sale catalogues are in the mail. A lot of us are spending the last couple of golden (we hope) weeks of summer getting all the relaxation crammed in that we can before heading back to our various versions of work-related reality. So, since summers lease hath all too short a date and that date is pretty much upon us, why the heck is Cartier launching a cruise collection of mens watches now? Well, to understand the timing, you have to know what a cruise collection is. In the style world, a cruise collection (th...
Hands-On: The Omega Speedmaster Mark II Rio 2016
There are a lot of things, lets face it, that serious watch lovers love to hate, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say, hate on C the latter referring to the occasional tendency to dislike something purely on principle. Often, of course, there are reasons the pitchforks and torches come out; one of the worst offenders are themed limited edition watches (which predictably often consist of little more than a logo on a dial and the least cost-intensive possible modification to the packaging). The problem is that a lot of the time the connection to the theme of a limited edition watch seems pretty thin C and on top of that a lot of the time, the design decisions used to tie the watch in...
Introducing: NASA Wants A Smartwatch And YOU Could Be The Designer (If You've Got The Coding Chops)
We all love our Speedmasters, and even the X33 has gotten some love around here lately. And we all know that a few quartz digital watches have made it into orbit, and with good reason C G-Shocks and the Timex Iron Man are tough, dependable, and... well, they're tough and dependable. But time, if nothing else, marches on C and NASA just posted a contest on Freelancer.com inviting all and sundry (well, at least, those of you who can write code and don't mind doing it in the Samsung Gear SDK) to help put together what might be the first flight-qualified smart watch, based on the Samsung Gear II.That's right, if you head over to Freelancer.com you can see all the details. This is the real deal C...
A recent post (and by recent, I mean, from this morning) on the Omega Speedmaster Mark II Rio 2016 prompted a commenter to observe that he hadn't seen any pictures of an astronaut wearing a Speedmaster for EVA (that is, Extra-Vehicular Activity, better known as a spacewalk) in "decades." Somewhat piqued by this, I did what any real watch enthusiast does C I didn't go to primary sources like Omega, NASA, the European Space Agency or anyone else who could have given a verifiable, fact-checkable, New York Times level answer to the question of whether or not the Speedmaster has been used in manned spaceflight since the Apollo Era. No, no, I am a watch enthusiast, and there are traditions to be f...
Weekend Report: Car Spotting At The 2015 Quail Motorsport Gathering
This weekend is, without a doubt, the most exciting of the calendar year for vintage and exotic car lovers C especially those who find themselves in Monterey, California. Monterey Car Week is the undisputed epicenter of rare automobiles, and while the benchmark event is certainly the Concourse d'Elegance at Pebble Beach (which takes place Sunday), Friday's Motorsport gathering at the Quail Lodge is becoming increasingly popular. Today, as we have done many times in the past (here at Pebble in 2013, here at Goodwood in 2012, here inside the legendary Bruce Meyer's personal garage) we want take you inside a special event so that you can appreciate the fine craftsmanship and artistry that we we...
Introducing: The MeisterSinger USA Benjamin Franklin Limited Edition
MeisterSinger is singularly known for its singular display of time C that is, the fact that there is only one hand indicating the time on the dial. The brand successfully executes this concept by designing dials with an arithmetical, almost gauge-like rendition of hours and minutes. You neednt look further than the Circularis to understand MeisterSingers timekeeping model.While we were pleasantly surprised when MeisterSinger added extra resolution to one of their pieces by using a jump-hour function (Jack made it a value proposition almost exactly two months ago) C MeisterSinger has switched gears again (pun intended) and has released a watch that removes resolution from an already minimal...
In-Depth: Smoke And Mirrors In The American Watchmaking Industry
Recently there has been a resurgence of new American watch brands, selling "handmade watches, manufactured and built in America. Bringing watch manufacturing back to the USA is a huge and exciting undertaking that a wide audience of watch customers are eagerly waiting for. The problem is, a lot of the watch brands advertising using those slogans are not telling the truth. If your watch isMade in USA,the movement inside it also needs tobe made in the USA. Some background helps for clarity. A mechanical watch consists of a case, strap or bracelet, dial, hands and movement. The movement is the engine of a watch, containing all of the pa...
Found: Captivating Clockmaking Videos From The Clickspring Project
Have you ever wondered about all of the different machining tasks that go into making a clock or watch? Machining is a lot of fun, and takes a good amount of skill and determination. Clockmaker Chris from Cairns, Australia, has been publishing a series of videos documenting his clockmaking/machining work, and they are absolutely captivating. His project and website are appropriately named Clickspring. Have a look, and be warned that you may end up watching his videos for the rest of the day once you start!...
Here at HODINKEE, we like watches. We like them a lot. And though we do sometimes write about watches that inhabit stratospheric price points, we also know that realistically speaking, there is not always an absolute connection between price and quality (actually a lot of the time there's a surprising disconnect, but that's another article). We know that getting as much bang as possible for the buck is a major pot-sweetener when it comes to picking a watch, and so we went 'round HODINKEE HQ and asked all and sundry to tap a favorite under the magic $5,000 mark. Read on to find out who picked what, and why. Ryan LeFevre, Senior Software Engineer ...
At SIHH 2015 Vacheron Constantin launched its new Harmony Collection and one of the big favorites amongst enthusiasts was the Harmony Chronograph Small Model, which houses the much-loved column wheel, hand-wound chronograph caliber 1142 (based on the Lemania 2310, but updated by Vacheron with a number of upgrades and improvements C including a free-sprung adjustable mass balance, higher frequency, and an engraved balance cock, among other things, as well as the level of meticulous hand-finishing you'd expect from Vacheron. ?But that watch was positioned by the company as a lady's timepiece (as always, the diamond setting and small size don't definitively make the watch gender specific but th...
The Strange Experience Of Living On Mars Time (In Brooklyn)
I think we can all agree that if youre reading HODINKEE, you are at least somewhat interested in time. Watches measure the passage of time, and watches are why were all here, right? Well, today were talking to an artist who has abandoned Earth time and has instead been living on Mars time, which is approximately 2.7% slower than Earth time C and looking at how living by the time of another world made her feel like an alien on her own.I recently sat down with artist and PhD candidate Sara Morawetz at Open Source Gallery in Park Slope, Brooklyn, where she has made a temporary home for the duration of her Mars time performance, How the Stars Stand. For 37 days C the amount of time it takes...
Hands-On: The Vacheron Constantin Historiques Ultra-Fine 1955
This is not a new watch for Vacheron Constantin and thats actually true in two senses. The first sense has to do with this specific model: the Historiques Ultra Fine 1955 was first introduced in 2010 and it was at the time of its launch, the thinnest mechanical watch in the world, at only 4.1 mm thick overall. It also had what at the time was the thinnest mechanical wristwatch movement ever made: the Vacheron Constantin caliber 1003, which was and is a full-bridge, hand wound caliber measuring only 1.64 mm thick. (For reference, the ubiquitous ETA 2892 is 3.6 mm thick, albeit it is an automatic movement; the Piaget 833P is 2.5 mm thick and is a hand-wound movement.) ...
Phillips Names Sam Hines International Head Of Watches
The biggest news in the watch auction world over the last 12 months is the creation of the Phillips Watch Department, in conjunction with former Christie's head Aurel Bacs and Livia Russo. Not only does the team now include Paul Boutros in New York and Paul Maudsley in London, but as of today, Mr. Sam Hines, a former colleague of Mr. Bacs' at Christie's, has been named international head of the department. It must be stated that Hines is an actual employee of Phillips, while Aurel Bacs, Livia Russo, and Paul Boutros remain partners and independent contractors to Phillips. What this means exactly is, frankly, meaningless to the end consumer C all members and partn...
Introducing: Breguet Exhibition To Open At The Fine Arts Museums Of San Francisco
Breguet has announced that the largest exhibition of Breguet antique timepieces will open at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. Breguet: Art and Innovation in Watchmaking will open on September 19, 2015, and will run until January 10, 2016. This is the first-ever retrospective of the work of Abraham-Louis Breguet and the exhibition will consist of more than 70 pocket watches, clocks, and horological instruments. The exhibition is broken into themes throughout Breguet's life and career including: subscription watches, touch watches, simple watches, repeating watches, automatic watches, travel clock...
Earlier today we told you that Phillips has a new international head of watches in ex-Christie's co-head Sam Hines C but we know what you guys like to see, and that's watches. So we're back to give you a small little taste of the types of watches we'll see in the Phillips Geneva Watch Auction: Two, taking place this November 8th. Patek Philippe 2497 Perpetual Calendar In Pink Gold The first watch we'll look at is a reference 2497 from Patek. The 2497 is considered one of the finest and most elegant watches made by the house of Patek C it is a perpetual calendar dating to the 1950s. The last time we me...
The Value Proposition: A Seventy-Five Dollar Watch That Looks Like A Million Bucks
I sometimes wonder, when we post pictures and articles of watches like this, or this, or even this, whether we are not inadvertently creating the impression that we spend most of our time at Chateau Hodinkee alternating between sippin Darjeeling on the veranda with our pinkies out, and upbraiding Manservant Jeeves for being slow with the Pol Roger and caviar at teatime. When youre heavy into mechanical watches theres a sort of creeping tendency, over the years, to make the unspoken assumption that all other things being equal, you get what you pay for C which is to say, if its not expensive it aint much. The fact is, though, that really good design, quality in execution, and even real h...