Best Super NEWS Watches
Sunday Rewind: The HODINKEE Team (Circa Three Years Ago) Picks Their Favorite Watches Under $5,000
A blast from the past! Take a look at this collection of staff picks for watches under $5,000. From usual winners like NOMOS, Seiko, and Tudor, to accessible world timers, oddball divers, and vintage gold chronos, many of the names have changed but the recommendations remain tastefully strong.? In an interesting contrast, not only does this nearly four-year-old article have a handful of watches that would still make for a great sub-$5,000 choice today (or even less if second-hand), but some of the selections are no longer available under the imposed $5k limit (such as solid gold UG chronos and Camaro 7220s). Like the HODINKEE mas...
Breaking News: A Prototype Patek Philippe Aquanaut Sells For CHF 401,000 At Antiquorum Geneva
Heading into this auction season, there was no watch that snared my attention more than this prototype Patek Philippe Aquanaut offered by Antiquorum. The watch kind of had everything C?tons of interest, more than a little intrigue, and a lot of traits that would make it a near-perfect storm for today's collectors. I spent the last few weeks asking basically anyone who would weigh in what they thought of it, and you can read all about my findings here. The TLDR version is simple though: There was no clear consensus and people I trust said everything from "this will be the watch of the May 2019 auctions" to "it's a fake and I'd never tell someone to bid on it." I honestly had no idea whether i...
Found: A Pair Of Sterile-Dial Glycine Airman Watches Sold At Naval Supplier Kroesen's
If you were in a Navy SEAL team in the late '60s you may have been issued a Tudor 7928, before the MIL-W-50717 specification for military dive watches was released. The Tudor 7928 is an off the shelf model, not necessarily produced specifically for combat use, but it was issued to various units inside the American naval special operations community. Former SEAL Moki Marti shared a bit of insight on Talking Watches: The first two Tudors were free, but if you lost those youd have to buy your third for a hefty $64. It makes sense that SEAL team members are issued watches due to the nature of the teams' missions, but what about ever...
Hands-On: The Moritz Grossmann Corner Stone, With The New Caliber 102.3
As anyone who's spent any amount of time looking at watch movements knows well, the number of non-round calibers is, comparatively speaking, vanishingly small and often extremely expensive. Cartier makes several shaped movements, like the Crash Skeleton and some of the openworked Santos models; Patek Philippe still has a rectangular movement in its lineup (the caliber 25-21 REC, although the company no longer offers the movement in non-gem set watches) and Jaeger-LeCoultre has some in its Reversos. Laurent Ferrier has a rectangular movement in his Bridge One watch; Rolex used to offer one in the Cellini Prince, and a handsome bit of work it was too, but the Princes were discontinued, and the...
Hands-On: The Farer Eldridge Chronograph Automatic
Continuing on their path of ongoing expansion and subtle evolution, enthusiast favorite Farer recently released a new line of automatic chronographs. Available in a quartet of colors, the Farer Chronograph Automatic emphasizes the brand's eye for wearable and thoughtful sport watches with a distinctive personality and, should you desire, a dash of colorful charm. Seen here in the brown dial "Eldridge" colorway, the Farer Chronograph Automatic is also available in blue (dubbed "Cobb"), black ("Seagrave"), or a more recent green sunray ("Lander"). This ever-so-slightly metallic brown coloring has a chocolate tone that is nicely acc...
Introducing: The Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Grande Tradition Rptition Minutes Perptuelle
The ability to create watches mostly independent of movement and component suppliers has become increasingly widespread in Switzerland in recent years. But for a long, long time, there were just a handful of watchmakers that did this. This was certainly the case when I first started out covering watches back in the mid aughts. ?Jaeger-LeCoultre, with its sprawling manufacture in Le Sentier, under whose roof virtually every mtier associated with fine Swiss watchmaking is practiced, must have been nicknamed the Grande Maison for good reason, I remember thinking back then. For sheer breadth and scope of in-house watchmaking capabil...
Hands-On: The Zenith Defy El Primero Double Tourbillon
The Defy family is currently Zenith's go-to collection for presenting innovations, and in recent years, there have been a slew of them C most recently, we had the Defy Inventor (first introduced as the experimental Defy Lab) which has a new type of monobloc silicon oscillator beating at 18 hertz, or 129,600 vph. ?These are not, most emphatically, your father's (grandfather's?) El Primeros C while on the one hand, Zenith is the only company of the three that introduced self-winding chronographs in 1969, to still produce (more or less) the original movement, the Defy El Primeros are visually aggressive and technically advanced explorations of how far the horological envelope can be pushed, oft...
Timex is back with a modern re-edition of a watch that represented a major pivot for the American watchmaker. The Q Timex is an almost 1:1 reproduction of an original model, right down to the screw-in battery hatch. Remember those?? It was 1979, and the horological world was in the midst of a massive change. Quartz movements had rocked the industry, and the shift had created market circumstances where it made sense for American brands like Hamilton to sell their name and IP to foreign corporations. Timex and Bulova remained American in 79, but in order to stay afloat they had to create products that went with the current trends,...
Introducing: The Jaeger-LeCoultre Atmos Transparente (Live Pics & Pricing)
It wasn't the most hashtagged. Images of it being held inside a supercar, next to a bucket of champagne did not go viral. In fact, I didn't even notice it at SIHH.?I am of course talking about the brand new Atmos from JLC C the so-called Atmos Transparente.?It is, without a shadow of a doubt, a beautiful, beautiful thing. Yet, I know what you're probably thinking: If this is another Marc Newson collab, boy it's super cool but almost certainly way out of my price range. Well, you know what C?it's not, and it's (maybe) not.? I will never forget reading a piece Jack did on the Atmos a few years back, highlighting the fact that yes, ...
Last night, while at the ceremony for The Webby Awards in Lower Manhattan (where we were honored to take home the award for Best Practices), we couldn't help but say "hi" to the illustriously educational Neil deGrasse Tyson. To our delight, Tyson, a well-known astrophysicist, TV personality, and science educator, was wearing a very special watch C the 18K gold Speedmaster which Omega presented to him at the Starmus Festival in 2017. As one of three recipients of the festival's Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication, NDT's accomplishment was marked with the gift of a seriously rare gold Speedy.? The Omega Speedmaster "Starmus," as worn by Neil d...
Happenings: The HODINKEE Shop At The 2019 Greenwich Concours d'Elegance
Summer is upon us (or so they say) and we are kicking things off with a pop-up shop in sponsorship of the 24th annual Greenwich Concours d'Elegance. The Greenwich Concours (hosted in Greenwich, Connecticut) is the largest such annual event in the Northeast, showcasing a collection of gorgeous vintage cars from around the world. This year, the concours will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of Zagato, the Italian body-builder, as well as Bentley, Arnolt, Super Cars, and highlights from the upcoming Bonham's auction.?The weekend includes two concours back to back C American-made cars and motorcycles will be showcased on Saturday, while international models will be showcased on Sunday. ...
Hands-On: The HYT H1.0 Black Fluid
HYT has maintained a singular focus on incorporating fluid into the mechanics and aesthetic language of its watches since 2012. Their latest creation, the H1.0, uses a black fluid in conjunction with Super-Luminova C7 to display the time, backed up by an incredibly intricate movement utilizing thermal compensators, borosilicate capillary tubes C a conventional going train, lever escapement, and balance do the heavy lifting for actual timekeeping.? There's a certain freedom that haute horology manufactures can take when it's clear the machine they're creating is intended to tell the time, but ?in a novel, visually striking way. Designs don't have to be purely func...
Introducing: The Vacheron Constantin Patrimony Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin With Blue Dial
This blue-dialed beauty is the fourth execution so far of Vacheron Constantin's Patrimony Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin, a model that has been in the Vacheron Constantin collection for the past 8 years. Like two of the previous versions, this one has a 5N pink gold case (the third, non-gold version is in platinum). Befitting its name, the Patrimony Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin is slender, especially given the complex automatic calendar movement inside, though its diameter places it on the slightly larger side of things at 41mm.? The movement inside one that is likely known to regular readers of this site. It's the caliber 1120 Q...
Introducing: The Omega Speedmaster Apollo 11 50th Anniversary Limited Edition (Live Pics & Pricing)
We knew that 2019 was bound to be a big year for Omega and the Speedmaster. After all, it's the 50th anniversary of the lunar landing C an event that immortalized the Speedy and turned a chronograph named and conceived for driving into the Moonwatch. The timepiece we have here is?a tribute to that first watch worn on the moon, but with forward-looking developments that bring the Moonwatch up to the technical and chronometric standards set forth by Omega's Master Chronometer Certification. Powering the Omega Speedmaster Apollo 11 50th Anniversary Limited Edition is the new Cal. 3861, which readers will remember from our earlier introduction of the all-gold Apollo ...
Introducing: The Breguet Classique Tourbillon Extra-Plat Squelette 5395 (Live Pics, Pricing)
The extra-thin tourbillon has been one of the more prominent battlefields on which the extra-flat/ultra-thin watch wars of the last few years have been waged. Since 2013, we've had some doozies, including the Arnold & Son UTTE, the Jaeger-LeCoultre Hybris Mechanica 11 (which was a minute repeater to boot), and of course, the remarkable Bulgari Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Automatic, which is the current world record holder for both thinnest automatic tourbillon, and thinnest tourbillon, period (having broken, finally, and by a razor thin margin, a record that had been held since 1986, by Audemars Piguet). The Breguet Classique Tourbillon Extra-Plat Squ...
It's Friday, which means we've got another hot and spicy order of vintage watches coming right up for your enjoyment. All budgets have been taken into consideration this week, with picks like an impossibly sharp Movado 431 coming in at under the $1,000 mark, going all the way up into five figures with a knockout Royal Oak. For those that enjoy oddities, you're in luck, as there's a top quality Juvenia Arithmo, along with a quarter-repeating Driva to raise the stakes. Were also making a case for the comeback of Universal Genve, so reading up is advisable.? Universal Genve Polerouter Sub Every now and ag...
Introducing: The Blancpain Air Command Flyback Chronograph Limited Edition (Live Pics, Pricing)
The Blancpain Air Command was originally produced by Blancpain in the 1950s, and was supposedly intended for use by the US Air Force, the US Navy having already adopted the 50 Fathoms diver's watch. The Air Command was a flyback chronograph, constructed somewhat along the lines of the Type 20 spec, and supposedly 12 watches were made and offered to USAF pilots through Blancpain's US distributor, Allen Tornek. It's now an extremely rare grail watch for vintage Blancpain collectors C they've appeared at auction very rarely. One is coming up at Phillips Hong Kong later this month, with an estimate of $50-100,000; and prior to that, another one (not the same watch) hammered in 2016, also at Phil...
Sunday Rewind: A Week With The A. Lange & Sohne Lange 1 Time Zone Luminous
As a fan of all watches that offer clever multi-time zone displays, I adore the Lange 1 Time Zone. It's a watch that is equal parts a personal grail and something of a statement of aspiration. So not only would I love to one day have one to call my own, but also to know that I had worked hard enough to earn it. In looking for something special to highlight in the HODINKEE back catalog, I was reminded of this impressive write up from Ben that was actually my own introduction to this lovely dual time watch from Lange.? Providing ample context and background on both Lange and the Lange 1, Ben offers a knowing deep dive on a ve...
Introducing: The Omega De Ville Trsor 40mm With Manually-Wound Master Chronometer Caliber
A few months back, Omega released a limited edition Trsor to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Omega brand name. If you dont remember, it might be because it happened the same day as Omega announcing theyd be resuming production of the caliber 321, which obviously got a lot more attention. This Trsor was in solid gold and introduced a new caliber, the 8929, the very first hand-wound movement to get the Master Chronometer certification.?What weve got here is a set of five new mainline Trsor watches that utilize the same basic design and the same awesome movement. There are two models available in steel (with white or textured blue dials), two models available in gold (with grey or ...
Introducing: The HODINKEE Magazine, Volume 4
The HODINKEE Magazine is back with Volume 4! As you can see on our cover, which features one of the great chronograph movements of all time C the legendary Longines 13ZN C were putting watches front and center with this one. The HODINKEE Magazine is a beautiful soft-cover print publication that celebrates our editors' abiding love of watches in addition to their interests in other things that we think HODINKEE readers will enjoy, including collectible cars, design, style, travel, and more. Every article is painstakingly researched, reported, and edited; every photograph is carefully taken and selected; every story is chosen to be compelling and surprising, yet t...