Best Super NEWS Watches
Auctions: Nine Rare And Unusual Breguets From Phillips Geneva Watch Auction: Seven
Much of the excitement surrounding this spring's auction season is centered on Phillips's thematic auction, Daytona Ultimatum and its potentially record-setting top lots. And justifiably so. Following the electric, record-breaking sale of Paul Newman's own Rolex Daytona in New York last fall, the market for Rolex's flagship chronograph has heated up even more. But don't overlook another big sale taking place this spring, the main event as it were, Geneva Watch Auction: Seven. The 185-lot Phillips sale will take place over two days (May 12-13) at the La Rserve hotel in Geneva. As you'll see here, it comes with quite an eclectic selection of interesting Breguets.?...
Breaking News: Announcing The 2018 Grand Prix D'Horlogerie De Genve Jury
Today we got the first bit of news about the 2018 edition of the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genve (GPHG), the biggest awards in watchmaking, with the announcement of this year's jury. Last year we told you about the addition of our very own editor-in-chief, Jack Forster, who isn't going anywhere and will again be a part of this year's deliberations and voting. But along with our esteemed and fearless leader, there are 30 other jury members that represent various facets of the global watch community. Some are longtime veterans of the Grand Prix, while others are new to the panel. Let's take a look at who's who and why this matters.? Let's start with who's out. Th...
Auctions: The Boring Man's Guide To The Phillips Daytona Ultimatum Sale
First things first: The watch to buy in the upcoming Phillips Daytona Ultimatum sale is John Goldberger's white gold 6265. It's the coolest, most understated Rolex in the world, and since it was unveiled in my presence in November 2013, I have hoped one day I would be able to purchase it. I'm not C opening bids begin at $3 million C?but I can say this is just about the end game for me. That aside, there are 31 other fantastic and rare Daytonas from which to choose, and my old pal Stephen has given you a run-down of the seven-figure pieces here. My thoughts in this story aren't defined by price though, but rather by my own thoughts on the Daytona and the future of the collectible watch world....
Introducing: The Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Geographic WT Limited Edition
Jaeger-LeCoultre's Polaris collection was the big news at this year's SIHH, and the most complicated member of the new family is the Chronograph WT (world timer) which combines a world time complication with a chronograph. This latest introduction separates out the world time functionality, in a slightly smaller case, and with a new dial treatment. This model is going to be available only at JLC boutiques, and in a limited edition of ?250 watches. Initial Thoughts Jaeger-LeCoultre currently has two other world time models in its collections C one of them is the Geophysic Tourbillon Universal Time, and the...
Breaking News: Tiffany-Signed Patek Philippe Ref. 2526 In Platinum Sells For $642,500
When Ben first discovered that Heritage Auctions would be selling a fresh-to-market, platinum, Tiffany-signed Patek Philippe ref. 2526 in incredible condition with a matching platinum bracelet, he called it "one of the true fresh-to-market finds of the past few years." It turns out the guy knows what he's talking about. The hammer just fell and the watch has sold for a whopping $642,500 after premiums, making it the most expensive ref. 2526 ever. One of the most interesting things with this watch is that it sold through Heritage Auctions, which is a combination online/live auction house that had the watch listed and open for bidding for over a month. This result ...
Photo Report: Back-To-Back Nights With Panerai In Los Angeles
Last week we had the pleasure of hosting events with Panerai in Los Angeles on two consecutive nights C this is the first time we've ever hosted back-to-back evenings. The first celebration was at Panerai's new boutique in South Coast Plaza (our first event in Orange County), which is a beautiful and intimate space tucked into an area with a ton of other watch boutiques. Less than 24 hours later, we were back at it on Rodeo Drive at Panerai's West Coast flagship. Over the two evenings, we welcomed more than 150 guests to see the latest Luminor Due watches (including the new 38mm!), drink some Negronis, and nerd out about all things Panerai.?Thank you to Giovanni Carestia, President of Panera...
In-Depth: Diving With The Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Memovox
Theres a well known saying among divers, mountaineers, and spelunkers C two is one, one is none C that summarizes the wisdom of carrying backups for every piece of vital equipment. You never know when youll drop your glove into a crevasse in the Khumbu Icefall, your headlamp will shatter 600 feet underground, or your dive computer display will go screwy at 30 fathoms. These failures can mean frostbite, disorientation, or decompression sickness at best or, taken to the extreme, an exotic and excruciating death. Nowadays, a diver can wear two wrist computers or go old school, with an analog watch and a depth gauge, to get him safely back to the surface. In my case, wearing the Jaeger-LeC...
Introducing: A Trio Of New Colors For The Richard Mille RM 67-02
The RM 67-02 originally launched last summer, and now Richard Mille has created three new production examples that offer somewhat more subtle expressions of the same incredibly light and thin automatic sports watch.?Just as with the original pair of 67-02s, Richard Mille has connected each of these new versions with an athlete that can test (and likely prove) just how tough and sporty these wild watches really are. Coming in at 38.7mm wide and an astounding 32 grams, including the strap, the RM 67-02 should not be taken as lightly as it wears.? Along with a titanium movement and a special seamless elastic strap, the secret to the RM 67-02's lightweight constructi...
Sunday Rewind: Everything You Need To Know About The Patek Philippe Ref. 2526
Each weekend we're going to bring you a classic HODINKEE story from the archives. Whether it's a story you've already read that deserves another look or a hidden gem that you missed the first time around, we think you're going to enjoy it. You may have seen that earlier this week a very special Patek Philippe ref. 2526 sold for $642,500 at Heritage Auctions, setting the all-time record for this model. Sure, this one was a probably unique version combining a platinum case with a Tiffany-signed enamel dial and a period-correct platinum bracelet, but the 2526 has become an increasingly hot watch over the last year or two. It's not hard to see why either: It's beauti...
Inside The Manufacture: A Visit To Tudor Headquarters
The making of a Tudor watch today is in many ways similar to the making of a Rolex watch. Both timepieces are rightly renowned for their reliability over the long term, and since 2015, Tudor has joined Rolex as a maker of in-house movements. Where they occur, the differences in process, in components, or in materials typically come down to the challenge of creating a highly reliable and accurate timepiece while maintaining an affordable price. On a visit late last year to Rolex and Tudor's Geneva headquarters, I had the chance to observe some of Tudor's assembly and quality-control processes, and to document how these in-house procedures contribute to making a watch that has a well-earned re...
Editorial: Hand Finishing And Vintage Watch Collecting
Vintage watch collecting has, in many respects, changed beyond all recognition over the last 15 years, led of course by the incredibly high prices now routinely being paid for Rolex Daytonas. At one time it was possible to enter the world of vintage watch collecting and to find genuinely interesting things for under $1,000 C now though, not only has that become essentially impossible, but also there's so much money involved that at the higher end one feels more as if one's watching transactions involving an asset class, rather than watches. One of the oddest things about what's driving vintage watch collecting is that it seems to focus very much on the strength o...
Business News: Strong Start For Swiss Watch Exports
The Swiss watch industry is on a roll. Watch exports rose for the 11th consecutive month in March, up 4.8% versus March 2017 to CHF1.7 billion ($1.79 billion), according to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH). For the first quarter of 2018, exports jumped 10.1% in value, "the highest quarterly growth since June 2012," the FH said in a statement. Hong Kong and China ?led the way. Watch exports to Hong Kong, Switzerland's top market, jumped 21.7% in the first quarter. "Hong Kong has been reporting sustained and uninterrupted growth for nearly one year," the FH noted. Patek Philippe factory, Geneva (clock by Jean Ka...
Editors' Picks: Our Favorite Guilty Pleasure Watches Of 2018
Everyone has a guilty pleasure watch. If you think you don't, you're lying to yourself (or maybe just to others).?Whether it's something that's outside your usual comfort zone, something that's a little louder than you might like, or even just something far outside your budget, there's always that timekeeper that you can't help but search for on Instagram, or drop into a retailer to try on when you see it in the window. Here are our editors' top guilty pleasure picks from the 2018 debuts C a few of them will likely surprise you. Cara Barrett C Cartier Rvlation d'Une Panthre I still havent forgotte...
Introducing: The Bovet Re?cital 22 Grand Re?cital
Bovet has just announced one of the most complicated and elaborate watches it's ever made, and it's also one of the most complex watches we've seen thus far this year. A combination tourbillon, perpetual calendar, and tellurium, the Re?cital 22 Grand Re?cital, in its complexity and artistry, represents the summary of one man's obsessions in watchmaking and in watch design. Initial Thoughts Pascal Raffy is one of the few individuals in modern watchmaking who is in a position, as owner of a single brand, to more or less do what he wants, and this is Raffy at his idiosyncratic best. The Re?cital 22 Grand Re?...
Introducing: The HODINKEE Magazine, Volume 2
Today, were very proud to announce that Volume 2 of the HODINKEE Magazine is now available in the HODINKEE Shop. The second edition of our print magazine is filled with fascinating stories examining new and vintage watches, in addition to many other features that are sure to excite HODINKEE readers. When we launched the HODINKEE Magazine back in September 2017, it represented a new direction for us, a new way to tell compelling stories about the things we love. It allowed us to expand our gaze to cover all of the things that live alongside watches in our lives C such as cars, fashion, architecture, and technology C and to build ...
In-Depth: The IWC Doppelchrono Reference 3711
From very early on in my days covering watches, one of the things I have admired about IWC was what I came to view as its scrappiness. How did IWC consistently offer reliable complications for a fraction of the prices seen from established haute horlogerie brands? What I would soon learn was that IWC had a handful of watchmakers and engineers who had a knack for approaching long-existing complications in completely novel ways. Long before it became a marketing powerhouse with ties to film and sports, IWC was a value-oriented connoisseur's brand. It made a perpetual calendar, a split-seconds chronograph, and even a grand complication C and it built all of these complications on the backbone o...
Recommended Reading: Why North Korea Keeps Changing Its Time Zone
The history of time zones is one of those things that's far more fascinating than you'd think. They're a product of industrialization and globalization, and are actually a relatively recent invention. Some time zones in fact are still in flux. Case in point: North Korea will be changing its time zone by 30 minutes for the second time in the last half-decade. Why, you might ask, is one of the world's most-talked-about countries concerned with turning its clocks forward half an hour when bigger things seem to be pressing? Politics, of course.If you go back to 1912, when the Japanese occupied the Korean Peninsula, the invaders moved all the clocks forward 30 minutes to sync up with those back h...
In-Depth: Deciphering Dive Watch Markings
The dive watch is a simple creature, a blunt instrument if you will, with a simple but important brief: track elapsed time legibly under a fair amount of water pressure. And the earliest ones C Blancpains Fifty Fathoms, the Rolex Submariner, Zodiacs Sea Wolf C got it right, with 300 feet of water resistance, clear dials and rotating timing rings. As the dive watch evolved, what then was left to improve? Bezels ratcheted and locked, bands were invented to adjust for compressed neoprene sleeves, and, of course, water resistance was increased. But with a limited scope of things to tweak, watch brands went to work implementing solutions to help divers solve problems underwater in an attempt ...
Recommended Reading: A Husband And Wife On A Mission To Revive Indian Watchmaking
You might not immediately think "India" when talking about major watchmaking hubs, but for a few decades in the latter part of the 20th century,?there was in fact a domestic watch industry there. The state-owned Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT) was founded in the 1960s in partnership with Japanese watch giant Citizen and thrived until the late 1980s when demand started to wane. During it heyday though, it produced over 100 million watches, making it one of the world's most prolific watchmakers.Eventually though, demand did fall off, and the company was forced to close in 2016. Two Indian watch enthusiasts are now trying to bring watchmaking back to their country however, launching their own mic...
Auctions: Nine Hidden Gems At Sotheby's Geneva
Auction season is now in full swing, and this upcoming weekend the collector community will descend upon Geneva for sales from Christie's, Phillips, Sotheby's, and more. If the November auctions tend to be the year-end blockbusters, it's the May sales that set the tone for the coming months, telling us what is hot and what is not. There are a lot of big-ticket watches getting tons of attention C the top lots from Daytona Ultimatum chief among them C but auctions can still be great places to find exceptional, unusual watches at fair and even aggressive prices. The days of totally swiping something at a mainstream auction are basically gone, but not everything has to carry an "I bought it at S...