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Best Super NEWS Watches
You may have seen a few pictures of new Oris wristwatches floating around on Instagram C that's because the watchmaker is currently introducing a few Baselworld 2017 novelties, from its new base in Zermatt, Switzerland. The reason it decided to climb 7,000 feet above sea level to present their watches? To demonstrate a new limited edition which performs particularly well (or, at least, much more noticeably) at high altitudes. An original location for a press presentation, opposite the Matterhorn. The Oris Altimeter Rega is a PVD-coated limited edition of the company's self-winding mechanical altimeter, featuring the logo of th...
Introducing: The Breguet Tradition Dame Ref. 7038, The First Tradition Specifically For Women
Well ahead of Baselworld 2017, Breguet has announced the very first ladies' watch in the Tradition collection, the Tradition Dame Ref. 7038. The Tradition collection's movement architecture is based on the Souscription watches originally created by Abraham-Louis Breguet as a way of making it easier for buyers to own one of his watches. Souscription watches had a single hand, and you could buy one with a downpayment and pay the rest on delivery. Breguet being Breguet, however, they were still beautifully made and very elegantly laid out, with a symmetrically arranged train that lends itself very well to placement on the dial side of a modern wristwatch. ...
The word "badass" gets thrown around a lot these days (we know, because we're doing a lot of the throwing). However, if the shoe fits, wear it: this is, I'm pretty sure, the single most truly badass C in every way possible C personal daily wear wristwatch I've ever seen. This watch contains a tourbillon movement made by Patek Philippe especially for the observatory time trials, and it was cased and worn as a personal watch by Mr. Philippe Stern. The movement has a long history. It was completed in 1945, and was designed by the master watchmaker Andr Bornand. Bornand (1892-1967) was a professor at the Geneva School of Watchma...
The HODINKEE Jealousy List 2016
We here at HODINKEE are never ones to take a pass on a good idea when we see one. Which is why we're unabashedly stealing a year-end tradition from our friends over at Bloomberg Businessweek C the Jealousy List. The idea is pretty simple: Compile a list of the stories from other publications that you really wish you'd gotten to first and that you think everyone should read.?Businessweek's 2016 list is full of the diverse, incredible reporting you'd expect, on subjects like politics, business, and fancy butter (not kidding). We've decided to keep ours focused on the best horological stories we could find outside the usual orbit of industry media. Without further ado, here's the first annual H...
This is, without question, one of the more out-there watch collaborations we've ever seen here at HODINKEE. To celebrate the creation of its two millionth guitar, Pennsylvania-based Martin Guitar teamed up with another Keystone State stalwart, RGM watches, to create a one-off custom guitar with watch-themed inlays and an actual working RGM watch embedded in the headstock. Yeah, it's intense. Along with the unique creation is a limited edition guitar that comes paired with a special RGM watch (this one for your wrist), for a more restrained take on the idea. Let's take a look at the pair. The Two Millionth Guitar I won't go too much ...
Photo Report: An Evening With Manfredi Jewels (And Peter Speake Marin) In Greenwich, CT
In what is fast becoming a yearly tradition, this past week, our team co-hosted a warm holiday cocktail at legendary Greenwich, CT, retailer Manfredi Jewels. Manfredi is no stranger to most HODINKEE readers, as it remains one of the great independent retailers in the United States, carrying the likes of Audemars Piguet, Omega, Zenith, Ulysse Nardin, Breguet, and Vacheron Constantin, but also independents like Richard Mille, Laurent Ferrier, Ressence, and even Kari Voutilainen. So, to say that our guests had a lot to look at would be something of an understatement. What made this past week's event even more fun is that n...
The Patek Philippe Museum is, without debate, the most important collection of watches in the world. Its curator, Dr. Peter Friess, is the man tasked with managing it, maintaining it, and indeed, continuing to build it.? With a CV that contains the names Smithsonian and Getty, it is no surprise that Friess was selected to manage the Stern's most prized possessions, but in this interview with our old friend and former HODINKEE contributor John Reardon, we learn much more about the man behind the collection (like, for example, did you know he once helped Steve Jobs disassemble a watch?) and the collection itself (did you know the very first perpetual calendar ever ...
Early today I wrote about a fascinating interview with Dr. Peter Friess, curator of the Patek Philippe Museum?penned by my friend John Reardon. ?There is really so much in that story, I can't recommend it enough. But what might actually be the most illuminating thing that we touched on for a moment in our story, is that Patek Philippe recently acquired what very well could be the first perpetual calendar watch ever.?That alone is worthy of a mention, but in our edit process (yes, every story you see on HODINKEE is reviewed by our whole senior editorial team to see how we can improve upon it) we discovered something even more incredible C Jack found where and when this Thomas Mudge perpetual ...
"It's easily audible across a noisy room, above the sound of normal conversation." Those were the words used by our editor-in-chief Jack Forster to describe the volume of the Supersonneries chime in his hands-on review of Audemars Piguet's latest and greatest minute repeater. Well, he wasnt kidding, and we just got irrefutable proof on live television courtesy of CNBC and AP CEO Francois-Henry Bennahmias. Last week, during an interview on CNBC's Squawk on the Street show, Bennahmias played the minute repeater in basically the worst possible circumstances C on a busy television set C but you could still hear it chime very clearly. Even wealth reporter Robe...
Never ones to shy away from an opportunity to be provocative, H. Moser has announced that from January 1, 2017, it will no longer place the "Swiss Made" designation on any of its watches. This is an act of protest against the latest updates to the regulations governing the "Swiss Made" label, which Moser feels are too lax to be meaningful and may actually mislead consumers. The manufacture is going a step further too, saying that it will be showing "the most Swiss watch ever created" in just a few weeks, before the SIHH in Geneva. Consider us intrigued. As far as the regulations go, Moser makes a pretty good point. The new laws require 60% of the value of a...
Hands-On: The Oris Divers Sixty-Five With New Silver Dial
After first hearing about this new Divers Sixty-Five a few weeks ago, I was finally able to get some hands-on time and to get my first true impressions of the watch (because press images never, ever, do a watch justice). The watch was part of a special preview of the companys 2017 collection, which took place last week in Zermatt, Switzerland. The new diver was in unfamiliar territory then, unlike the brands new mechanical Altimeter, and while I'd love to take it diving, the mountains provided a nice backdrop for this edition's silver color scheme, the only real update to this version of the well-known Divers Sixty Five. And that's certainly not a bad thing. ...
Recommended Reading: Physicists Wonder: Does Time Really Exist Or Does It Just Look That Way?
As it turns out, time is a pretty complicated thing. And I'm not talking about measuring it, or making little devices to chime out the hours, either. I'm talking about time itself. Physicists still aren't entirely sure what time is and whether it's absolute or relative. As Quanta Magazine reports, making sense of these two totally different ways of thinking about time is a critical missing piece to the problem of reconciling Einstein's theory of general relativity, and quantum mechanics. Yep, this is one for the nerds. We can tell time just fine, but what is it our clocks and watches are really measuring? Atmos Clock by Marc Newson for Jaeger-LeCoultre....
There just aren't enough Kari Voutilainen watches in this world. Seriously. Seeing one is a pretty rare treat and almost every piece you do see ends up having something special about it that sets it apart from the rest. This watch, though, is even more unique than most. What we have here is one of just 10 Vingt-8 being made in titanium C yes, titanium C and it's number 2/10. Let's dig into this rare, amazing beauty. Most of Kari's watches are made-to-order, and it's extremely unusual for a retailer to have an already-made watch in stock. This was is no exception, and as far as we know, all 10 are spoken for and custom ordered to-spec by avid collectors. Not...
Introducing: The Oris Jazz Dexter Gordon Limited Edition, A Wristwatch Dedicated To A Bebop Pioneer
Unlike Oris's two other recent releases C a limited edition Altimeter and a new silver-dialed Divers Sixty-Five C this new timekeeper is a classic dress watch in the less well known Jazz collection, a line dedicated solely to the legends of the musical genre. Previous watches have included tributes to John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, and Miles Davis, amongst others. What we have here though is the Dexter Gordon Limited Edition, a three-hander with a beautiful grey dial and subtle nods to the musician himself. The Oris Jazz Dexter Gordon Limited Edition The Dexter Gordon Limited Edition is the seventeenth watch in the Jazz colle...
Ahead of the release of 11 month sales figures from the Foundation of the Swiss Watch Industry FH, Bloomberg has noted that this year is likely to be the worst since 1984 in units sold, though not in revenue. The Foundation notes that for the last four months, decline in sales year over year has remained almost the same (hovering right around 10%) and that there are actually signs of sales recovery in the most significant markets. While the decline remains significant for the industry as a whole, the comparison in sales volume to 1984 is perhaps less important to the industry than growth or decline in revenues. Since 2000, bo...
What Are Kids Wearing These Days, A Watch Enthusiast Wonders (Totally Seriously)
"So, what was your first watch?" Without a doubt, this is the question I get most when I meet someone and try to explain that yes, Im a watch journalist, and yes it's a full time job. For a while, its a question that I dreaded because I knew that, inevitably, my answer would be met with disappointment. My passion for watches does not have romantic backstory. It does not involve inheriting a beautiful and rare hand-wound wristwatch. It doesn't even begin with a mechanical wristwatch. In fact, my first watch was an an inexpensive and battery-powered Flik Flak ... no joke. Here's the (slightly embarrassing) proof. ? ...
The HODINKEE 2016 Video Year In Review
In late July, on our second day on the Isle of Man, we pulled up, unannounced and a bit jet-lagged, to the George Daniels estate. Arthur, somewhat bashfully, knocked on the front door, and when the current owner appeared, he said, as casually as one can, Oh right, Ive been expecting you C Ive been following you on HODINKEE Live. It was at that point that I snapped-to, realized just where we were, and that we were doing something special. Soon Mauro would be piloting the drone up and over the Daniels estate C and then over our loaner Bentley as it cruised the famed Isle of Man TT course, above green meadows spotted with sheep...
Hands-On: The Moritz Grossmann Atum Pure M, A Polarizing But Fresh Design From Glashtte
The Moritz Grossmann Atum Pure M first debuted at Baselworld earlier this year and it instantly became one of those timepieces that would garner an "oh, that watch" from anyone you tried to talk to about it. It's a sort of offbeat three-hander from Germany with an interesting time setting mechanism and a semi-transparent mesh dial. Me, I'm a fan, though I know that's a controversial opinion, and I jumped at the chance to spend some time with the Atum Pure M a few weeks ago at Dubai Watch Week. Moritz Grossmann is one of the handful of Glashtte watch manufactures that was resurrected in the last two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The first moder...
Winterproof: Polar Explorers And The Watches They Wore (And Are Wearing)
With winter taking hold of the Northern Hemisphere, many of us are wondering if our watches are up to the task of skiing, ice fishing, or the odd snowball fight on the frigid tundras of Minneapolis or Manhattan. Perhaps the best way to address this important question is to look to some people who have tested their own timepieces in harsher environs than those where most of us will be snapping Instagram wrist shots. So without further ado, here is a brief listing of some famous polar explorers, and the watches they wore.?Certainly this is an incomplete list, so if you know of others, let us know in the comments. Roald Amundsen: Glashtte Deck Watch ...
The Seven Best Watches Of 2016 That You Probably Forgot About
If you read HODINKEE regularly, then you (like us) have seen a ton of watches this year C and I mean A TON. This year we had some greats that we couldn't get out of our heads, like the Tudor Black Bay 36, Rolex Daytona with ceramic bezel, Audemars Piguet Extra-Thin Tourbillon in platinum, and the A. Lange & Sohne Saxonia Thin 37mm. But there are few watches that you may have forgotten, not because they were not worth remembering, but because of the sheer volume of watches released every year. Here are seven great watches that you probably forgot about, but definitely should remember. Grand Seiko 8-Day Spring Drive The ...