Best Super NEWS Watches
Talking Watches: With John Edelman
Every watch collection is different, shaped by the experiences, interests, and whims of the collector assembling it. Some are hyper-focused on a single make, model, or complication, while others are eclectic and allow the various facets of the collector's personality to shine through. John Edelman's collection is without question the latter. Edelman is a longtime veteran of the design industry and the CEO of Design Within Reach, a position he's held since 2009. He's a man with serious taste that encompasses the worlds of interiors, vintage cars, photography, watches, and more. But, what makes his connoisseurship so charming is the complete lack of pretension he e...
Welcome to Friday Live! This week your hosts will be HODINKEE Vintage Watch Expert Louis Westphalen and HODINKEE Editor in Chief Jack Forster, and today, they'll be looking at something near and dear to the hearts of watch enthusiasts everywhere: the centuries-long debate over whether an automatic or hand-wound watch is better. From the earliest self-winding pocket watches by Perrelet and Breguet, in the 18th century, to the first series-produced self-winding wristwatches by John Harwood, right up to today, automatic movements have evolved alongside hand-wound calibers, and each has both benefits and drawbacks.We'll also be looking into the potential shark tank that is vintage watch collecti...
This week, no chronographs. Instead, our focus today is on tool watches that really changed how a three-hand watch is perceived. We start with an IWC Ingenieur ref. 866, which offered antimagnetic protection to its movement. Next we have the GMT-Master, which brought a completely new take on travel watches; today, we have a version from the 1980s, the reference 16760 with its "Fat Lady"?nickname. You will also get a sporty, chic Vacheron Constantin 222, and a resilient Breitling TransOcean in yellow gold.?This is your Bring A Loupe for August 4, 2017. An IWC Ingenieur Reference 866AD, With Sigma Dial Also...
Here's the thing: watches get stolen. It's a sad reality that every collector, enthusiast, or one-flashy-watch-owning, nightclub hopping?bon vivant hopes never to encounter but a good watch is a tempting target. Small, easily purloined, and trivially easy to transport across international boundaries, watches are among the most tempting of targets for criminals looking for something easy to steal and hide. Here's the other thing: stolen watches get sold. No one steals a watch without hoping to profit from it, and there are any number of ways to turn a stolen watch into cash, many of which involve either misrepresenting ill-gotten gains to a third party, or (worse ...
Happenings: RGM To Celebrate 25th Anniversary With An Open House and Museum Tour
The American watchmaking industry is experiencing a resurgence as of late, with many new watch brands popping up across the country. This is mostly a recent phenomenon, but there is one American brand which can boast 25 years of watchmaking: RGM Watch Company. To celebrate their 25th anniversary, RGM is opening their doors to the public for two days in September. RGM's Model 801-EE On Friday, September 15, RGM will hold an open house to showcase their watchmaking techniques, including both the making and finishing of parts. Additionally, RGM will demonstrate their guilloch techniques. The brand is well known for their b...
Introducing: The Breguet Marine quation Marchante 5887
The Breguet Marine quation Marchante 5887 was the biggest news from Breguet this year C you might almost say they launched a new flagship model. It's a relatively large, platinum cased watch, and by far the most complicated timepiece in the Marine collection C it's a perpetual calendar, with running equation of time, as well as a 60-second tourbillon and a peripheral rotor automatic winding system. The Breguet Marine quation Marchante 5887 is the most complex watch yet in the Marine collection. There have been several interesting design decisions made in the general arrangement of the dial C it's an easy thing to miss at fir...
Just Because: The De Bethune DB28 Digitale
The De Bethune Digitale DB28 is not a new watch; it was first launched in 2014 and it's probably one of the better known watches in the DB28 collection, all of which have in common the use of a case with very distinctive open articulated lugs. Several of the DB28 watches also feature a spherical moonphase complication, which is something of a signature rendition of this complication for De Bethune. We just recently had a Digitale in the office and we thought that, despite having covered the watch when it first came out, that it would be great to take another look C both for the aesthetic decision-making that went into it, and for its combination of technical features that support, and are cr...
Introducing: Moonwatch Only, The E-Guide (Including An Interactive Reference Identifier)
The scholarship on vintage Omega Speedmasters has reached an impressive point, but its depth and complexity came with a not-unexpected challenge: knowing by heart all the key distinctive features of the various references becomes an almost impossible to a normally constituted human brain. Hence, the need for something as extensive as the very thorough book, Moonwatch Only C its authors go as far as cataloging the different shapes of the clutch bridge from the caliber 321 through its entire production. This book is definitely the encyclopedia on everything Speedmaster related, but at four pounds, its 496 pages are not that travel-friendly. This is wherein the lies the value of the digital ver...
Hands-On: The Baume & Mercier Clifton Manual 1830, With The Silicon Twinspir Balance Spring
Baume & Mercier is generally not thought of as a technical brand per se C instead, its focus is on producing design forward watches backed up by reliable, basic, mechanical Swiss watchmaking. In that sense the company is almost a throwback, and represents the kind of watchmaking that in the pre-quartz era was the mainstay of the Swiss watch industry. This sort of approach to watchmaking represented a world in which wristwatches weren't primarily optional style accessories, objects of narrowly focused connoisseurship, or a form of introspective personal satisfaction. Instead, for the vast majority of people who bought and owned them, they were before anything else a necessity, and if you ...
Editors' Picks: Five Date Displays Done Well
Alright, the day has finally come. I'm going to talk about one of our favorite hot button topics C date windows. Yep, that's right folks: I, Cara Barrett, love a good date window. Not only do I love them, but also I think they are the second most useful function of a watch (after telling the hour and the minutes, of course).?Do you know how often I check my watch for the date? At least 10 times a day, no joke. And when I'm wearing my Daytona, I still?check 10 times a day and am disappointed?that my watch doesn't show me what I'm looking for. By now, most of you have already scrolled down to the comments section to express your disdain for me, my opinion, and any of my calendar-inclined compa...
Hands-On: The Casio G-Shock G-Steel GST200RBG-1, In Collaboration With Designer Robert Geller
Designer Robert Geller is a major force in the fashion world, and for the last several years he's partnered with G-Shock in preparing looks for his men's style runway shows (his last five runway shows have all featured G-Shock watches). German by birth, the 41 year old Geller resides in New York with his wife and two young daughters, and has won many awards for his designs; he won the GQ Best New Menswear Designer Award in 2009. There is often an undertone of politics and protest to his work C his fall collection for 2017 was entitled, "Love and War" and featured a palette of greys and blacks broken up by occasional flashes of color, especially fuschia.? ...
Business News: Audemars Piguet Announces New North American CEO, Antonio Seward
Audemars Piguet has announced a new North American CEO, Antonio Seward. Seward has replaced Xavier Nolot who was at the helm for four years and is now in Le Brassus as the Chief Supply Chain Officer.Seward, who was born in London to Argentinian parents, started his career as a Brand Manager for Bay Distributors Inc. C a regional distributor in Latin America and the Caribbean for several luxury brands including Audemars Piguet. He officially joined Audemars Piguet in 2008 as Managing Director for Latin American and moved his way up to CEO of Spain and Portugal in 2010. Over the years he oversaw the French market, and was most recently the General Manager of Audemars Piguet, Southeast Asia. ...
Business News: M.A.D. Gallery In Geneva Robbed
According to Swiss news publication 20 Minutes, the MAD Gallery in Geneva was robbed on Tuesday night at 6 PM. Two armed men entered the store at closing time and fled with a handful of watches of an undisclosed value. Luckily no one was hurt. According to sources, the two men were last seen at 6:50 PM fleeing in an SUV across the Swiss countryside tailed by policemen. They have yet to be found. The HM6 Alien Nation. The MAD Gallery is the watchmaking and mechanical art gallery owned by Max Bsser-founded watch manufacturer MB&F, and the showcase for cool and unusual objects such as the Nixie Machine II?(top image), ...
This week, we are all about rare versions of cult watches. Today you'll see a Jaeger-LeCoultre Geophysic E168 in yellow gold, and a limited edition Royal Oak in tantalum and steel. We'll also be taking a look at an early Universal Genve Polerouter Sub, and a 24-hour Breitling Top Time, with an interesting double-signed dial.?This is your Bring A Loupe for August 11, 2017. An Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Championship Reference 56175TT, In Tantalum And Steel It's true that the reference 56175 is not only the midsize version of the Royal Oak, and it is also powered by a quartz caliber (AP designates it as a ca...
Rewind: Six Of The Most Watch Nerd-y Of All HODINKEE Watch Nerd Stories
It's been said that God, or the Devil (your mileage may vary) is in the details, and nowhere is that more true than in the various narrowly focused worlds of connoisseurship. Stamp collectors may have their British Guiana 1 Cent Magenta, but watch collectors and enthusiasts have an inexhaustible cornucopia of minutiae over which to obsess as well. Whether it's vintage Speedmaster logos, the most intimate details of the private lives of Rolex bracelets, or the profound cloud of mystery surrounding the origins of that most ubiquitous of all pieces of horological equipment C the spring bar C we watch lovers love nothing better than to investigate, perseverate over, and interminably argue about ...
The Value Proposition: Rado HyperChrome Captain Cook Limited Edition
Baselworld 2017 was full of great watches, especially for a sports and dive watch aficionado. There were Omegas Trilogy Speedmaster, Seamaster 300 and Railmaster, the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Tribute to Mil-Spec,?the Oris Chronoris, a couple new Tudor Black Bays, and of course Rolexs new Sea-Dweller. But the watch that stayed with me from the moment I saw it until long after the Messe hall doors closed for another year, was the Rado HyperChrome Captain Cook. It wouldnt be a stretch to say it was my favorite watch of the show, or at least in my top two or three. I got on a list for a press review sample right away and then waited and wondered if the allure of this vintage-styled diver w...
Introducing: The Doxa SUB 300 Aqua Lung Edition (Live Pics & Pricing)
Among collectible vintage dive watches, there are a few that stand out as truly rare, such as the Tornek-Rayville TR-900, and the Submariners that Rolex and Tudor made for the British and French Navies, respectively. Add to that list an even more obscure watch: the Doxa SUB 300 Black Lung. By now, Doxa is well known to even casual dive watch fans for the brands SUB series that debuted in 1967 C purpose-built divers with a quirky shape, engraved bezel and that famous orange dial. The earliest examples C the SUB 300 no T, with a thin case and domed acrylic crystal C are rare enough, but Doxa made a mere handful of them with a black circular U.S. Divers Co. Aqua-Lung logo on the dial. So...
Welcome everyone! Well, it's Episode 14 of Friday Live and today we have an interesting lineup for you. Mr. Antonio Seward, the just-appointed CEO of Audemars Piguet North America, will be sitting down with us today to talk about the U.S. market, the ever-popular Royal Oak, where he sees the Millenary line headed, and more.After a brief intermission, we'll be going live again with Jack, Louis, and Cara, who'll be bringing you the first installment of a new Live feature, Fill In The Blank, with rapid-fire responses to incomplete horological sentences covering ... well, you'll just have to tune in and find out!As always, remember, if you're watching the show live in the app, don't forget to hi...
Weekend Reading: Three Cars Owned By Briggs Cunningham Are Coming Up For Sale Next Weekend
One of my favorite figures of the greater vintage watch world is American sportsman and entrepreneur Briggs Cunningham. I wrote about his watches (and cars) last year in one of my favorite stories of 2016?and while this website is and always will be dedicated to watches, every now and then, we take a minute to call attention to some amazing cars for sale that have particular meaning to us here in the collectible timepiece world. Today is one of those days.?Indeed, coming up for sale next week in Monterey during car week are three very special vehicles that speak to three different sides of Cunninham's influence in automobiles: special commissions, racing, and actual car building.? ...
Announcements: Jon Bues Joins HODINKEE As Senior Editor
We're never standing still here at HODINKEE. Every day we work to bring you new and better things, whether that means a whole new video series, an in-depth, 5,000 word article, or an improved app experience. Today we're excited to share some big news with you on that front: Jon Bues will be joining the HODINKEE team as our Senior Editor. Whether you realize it or not, you're probably already familiar with Jon and his work. He has more than a decade of experience at the helms of various watch publications and is a fixture in the industry scene, with outstanding access and perspective. Over the years, Jon has served as the managing editor of International Watch mag...