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Best Super NEWS Watches
The watch you are about to discover has, according to Vacheron Constantin, been under development for eight years and is the product of the combined talents of three master watchmakers who oversaw the entire project. But its also much more than that. Its both a museum, and a window into the future.Any really complicated watch is the former. Timekeeping is something as old as mankind, and was based, for tens of thousands of years, not on machinery, but on astronomy: the observation of the mechanics of the heavens. As with the persistence of Latin and Greek in medical terminology, many apparently weird or downright perverse horological traditions are rooted in long-past realities most of us ...
HODINKEE Watch Buying Guides And Collections Now Available On eBay
Did you know that HODINKEE has been putting together weekly buying guides and collections of currently listed items on eBay? Given the popularity of our guide to buying vintage watches on eBay, we decided to put together buying guides for a more broad range of brands and interests, including affordable Rolex, non-moonwatch Speedmasters, womens" watches, affordable chronograph brands, and more.While the guides provide some of our best practices for what to look for when buying, the collections provide examples of items currently listed on eBay. We hope that these guides and collections serve as a useful resource for collectors diving into the world of vintage watches. Buying Guides- A Gui...
At 98 mm in diameter and 50.55 mm thick, you probably would not want to put the Vacheron Constantin Reference 57260 in your pocket. Why is it that the more complicated a watch is, the thicker it is? The answer reveals a lot about movement architecture and design. Like building architecture, movement architecture relies on certain critical elements to keep everything working well. Tall buildings depend on elevators to quickly move people from floor to floor. Comparatively, a complicated watch movement is built around the rotation of the center and fourth wheels. These wheels rotate at once per hour and once per minute, respect...
Audemars Piguet has released a new take on one of its most popular model, the Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar. The latest iteration follows the release of the last QP wristwatch in 2012 with an upgraded and upsized movement, a slightly more complicated display, clearer dial, and larger case size. All details below. The Reference 26574.1220 comes in four different versions, two in stainless steel and two in rose gold with either a navy blue or silvered "Grande Tapisserie" dial. Due to the enlarged case size (now 41mm up from 39mm), the dial and its indications are more legible. Dial display includes: day, date, astronomical moon, mon...
Introducing: The Alpiner Manufacture With Alpina AL-710 In-House Automatic Movement
Alpina has released a new version of the Alpiner Manufacture that encases the in-house Alpina AL-710 automatic movement. The watch, inspired by a 1950s Alpiner design, maintains the clean lines and practical elements associated with the active brand. The Alpiner Manufacture features a 41.5 mm stainless-steel case with sapphire crystal case back exposing the in-house automatic movement. The dial is a light cream color with applied Arabic numerals, center seconds (with the brand's red triangle icon), and subsidiary dial for date. The Alpiner Manufacture is priced at CHF 2,790. For more info...
Hands-On: The Montblanc Bohme Moongarden
I have never seen a watch like this before. Sure, it looks like a watch I have seen before, but when you take a close look you realize that this isn't your average calendar watch. This particular watch is called the Moongarden and it is a new addition to the Bohme, Montblanc's collection for women. What makes this watch so different you ask? Well I will get into that in a bit, but first a little background on Montblanc and their women's watches.Montblanc was founded in 1906 in Hamburg, Germany, as a pen-making company. In 1988 it became part of the Richemont group and then later in 1997 it began making watches in Le Locle, Switzerland. However, it wasnt until 2008 when the brand began crea...
Introducing: The Unique MB&F Melchior For The Only Watch Auction
MB&F has just announced that they will be donating a unique Melchior (co-created with L'Epe 1839) to the Only Watch auction taking place in November of this year. The Melchior, released at Baselworld earlier this year, is a highly functioning robot-form timepiece that was created in a limited series of 99 pieces. This is the 100th piece. The Melchior features 480 components and functions include: jumping hours, sweeping minutes, double retrograde seconds, and an impressive 40-day power reserve due to the five mainspring barrels. What makes the Only Watch Melchior a piece unique is the red shoulder pads, as the other 99 p...
Introducing: The Breitling Galactic 36 SleekT
Breitling has released a new addition to their Galactic 36 collection for women. The watch, named the Galactic 36 SleekT, features a slimmer case and SuperQuartz? movement. The SuperQuartz? movement is officially-chronometer certified and it displays a level of precision 10 times higher than that of a standard quartz movement. The stainless-steel case is 36 mm in diameter and is water resistant up to 330 feet (100 meters). The bezel is made of scratch-proof, smooth tungsten carbide. The watch comes with a mother-of-pearl or black-lacquered dial with or without diamond-set indexes. ...
This week's Bring A Loupe will present to you some unusual, even a bit outlandish, yet truly beautiful watches. Let's start with a tool watch that Patek manufactured in the 1960s, with a stainless-steel case! You will also discover two rare divers, the Omega Marine C the first diver watch ever produced C and a more recent Universal Geneve. Unfortunately, we will also need to flag many doubtful pieces that you should stay clear of. This is your Bring A Loupe for September 18, 2015. A Tool Watch From Patek, The Amagnetic Reference 3417 Countless times you have heard in Bring A Loupe that steel Pateks ar...
Historical Perspectives: American Pocket Watches: A Primer For The Wristwatch Collector
John Cote is a professional photographer and watch collector living in Indianapolis, Indiana. HODINKEE welcomes his insights on the world of American pocket watches. C NM What should a wristwatch nerd know about American pocket watches and the industry that made them? In my opinion, from the late 1850s until just after WWII, the American watch industry produced more and probably better portable timekeeping machines than the rest of the world combined.I said portable timekeeping machines instead of watches, because during the same time the Swiss produced a lot of fabulous and technically amazing watches. The American watch industry primarily produced time-only wat...
Yes, this really happened. Last Thursday in Geneva, Vacheron Constantin catapulted itself into the record books by showing what is now the undisputed king of mechanical watches C its 57 complication reference 57260. My colleague Jack Forster masterfully explained this incredible piece here, and our technical expert Nick Manousos tackled it here. If you've read those two stories, you should know everything there is to know about the 57260, right? Sure, except what it's actually like to see this monster of horology in the metal, to hold two pounds of history in your hand, and to see the box in which it will live its life. Today, we have exclusive live photographs of the most complicated watch ...
The 19th of September marked the date of the opening of what is, without exaggeration, one of the most exciting horological events I can recall in a long time. Montres Breguet, and the Legion of Honor (one of the San Francisco Museums of Art) have partnered to create the exhibition, Breguet: Art And Innovation in Watchmaking, which presents over 80 watches, clocks, and instruments spanning a wide period in early Breguet production, including the most productive years of Breguet himself, as well as those of his son, Antoine-Louis. The exhibition was years in the making and planning, and is co-curated by Martin Chapman, the c...
The Value Proposition: The Seiko SKX007 Diver's Watch
Hello, 007. Today were going to take a look at what Ive always assumed is another one of the worst-kept secrets in modern watchmaking: the Seiko Diver, model number SKX007. Its probably the single best value at any price point, in an automatic watch that fits all the criteria of the infamous ISO 6425, which specifies the criteria for a watch to be able to call itself a divers watch (at least, in ISO member nations). Yes, it fits both the letter and the spirit of the law, but as with another worst-kept secret from Seiko C the incredible Seiko 5, which we looked at not long ago in our story A $75 Watch That Looks Like A Million Bucks C it ultimately manages to be so appealing on its own ...
Fake watches are scary and plentiful, great original watches are beautiful but scarce C this is why we keep you up to speed in our weekly edition of Bring A Loupe. However, a weekly column isn't enough to flag all the offenders and we see countless bad watches sell each week. Sometimes, however, we see one that is so offensive, and in this case, so expensive, that we just have to dedicate an entire story to it here. A watch listed right here on eBay is supposed to be a rare Patek Philippe. It is, of course, not at all a Patek Philippe, but that doesn't prevent it from having a price of over $18,000 right now, with two more days to go.I will not only expose the parts that make this fake the w...
Announcing The 2015 HODINKEE Reader Survey: Answer These Few Questions, Win A Vintage Rolex Explorer
Every now and then, we at HODINKEE take a second to stop, think about where we are as a business, and for whom we work. The last part of that equation is simple C it's you, the watch lover. So, just like we did two years ago with the HODINKEE Fifth Anniversary Survey, today we are back to learn more about you, our readers. We want to know what you like, what you don't like, how and where you consume our editorial, and a little bit about yourselves. These surveys are incredibly important to us because they ultimately drive what we will build over the next few months and years. And us being us, we would never ask for anything without giving something back, and as such, do we have some prizes f...
Guest Editorial: Your Help Is Needed To Save A Landmark Clock In New York City
Mr. Troy Torrison is a Creative Director at Ogilvy & Mather, New York, and a Board member of the Tribeca Trust. HODINKEE welcomes his opinion and insight. C NMImagine if London's Big Ben was sold to a real estate developer to be converted to a private residence. Of course in order to do that, the clock's magnificent mechanical movement would have to be removed. The world would be outraged, and rightly so. Something very similar is going on in New York City right now, and you can help. New York Life Insurance Company's former headquarters at 346 Broadway in TriBeCa is an incredible late 19th-century office tower, designated as a New York City landmark in 1987....
Hands-On: The Les Indomptables de Cartier Dcor Watch
It is no secret that Cartier does luxury well. As one of the most iconic watch and jewelry brands in the business (and they have been for decades), Cartier never ceases to amaze me in how well they create such beautifully crafted objects. Launched in April of this year, Les Indomptables de Cartier Dcor Watch is from the Metiers dArts collection is no exception. At first glance it appears to be just a pretty watch with a Panther covering part of the dial. That is until you take it in your hands and realize that the Panther is in fact removable AND a brooch. This type on innovative design exactly why Cartier is one of the best. ...
On September 22nd, the Chopard Group (which includes Chopard, the watch and jewelry maison, as well as Fleurier Ebauches, SA, the movement manufacturer) announced the very first timepiece from La Chronomtrie Ferdinand Berthoud. La Chronomtrie Ferdinand Berthoud is a new business for the Group C it was first announced in 2013, and its first wristwatch represents what co-presidents Karl-Friedrich Scheufele and Caroline Scheufele (brother and sister) hope will be the first in a series of wristwatches inspired by the life and work of Ferdinand Berthoud. These watches are intended to be a no-holds-barred exercise in luxury watchmaking, and will occupy a commensurate price point, but according t...
Bring a Loupe: A Selection Of Elegant Watches From Jaeger-LeCoultre, Patek, And Rolex
This week's Bring A Loupe will explore a new side of horology, featuring thin and elegant watches that would go so well with a smoking jacket. Expect some great pieces from the most renowned manufactures at tackling slimness issues C Jaeger-LeCoultre and Piaget of course, but also Rolex, with the forgotten Veriflat. For the chrono addicts, get ready for an outstanding Heuer Autavia and a very full set Rolex Daytona. This is your Bring A Loupe for September 25, 2015. Foreword: the case size of the selected watches might appear tiny on paper, however you should consider that a flat profile always increases the perceived dimensions on the wrist, as illustrated by Ja...
I am often asked if there are any watches being made today that I would deem collectible in the long run. While the every day answer would be, no, at least not in the same way that vintage watches are collectible there are some exceptions. We are in something of a renaissance of watchmaking, with new materials abound, millions of dollars in R&D budgets, amazing technology, and more appetite for mechanical timepieces than ever before. So there are bound to be some watches that we'll look back at and say, "Yup, that was special."Here are three modern watches, all made within the last four years, that I genuinely believe have a chance at being collectible down the road, all for sale in An...