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Best Super NEWS Watches
Hands-On: The Bulgari Serpenti Seduttori Tourbillon
One of the most remarkable and, to many enthusiasts, easily overlooked watches of 2020 so far is the Bulgari Serpenti Seduttori Tourbillon. On price alone, it finds itself in pretty rarefied company (prices start at $78,000), and then, of course, gem-set tourbillon wristwatches are not the sort of thing which a lot of folks who find mechanical watches attractive and interesting go shopping for every day (or any day, probably).?It is, however, leaving aside questions of price and rarity, a quite remarkable example of an interesting, if niche, genre of high-end watchmaking, and it represents a pursuit of technical excellence very much in line with Bulgari's various other accomplishments over t...
Introducing: The G-Shock GWF-A1000, New For 2020 (Live Pics & Pricing)
The Frogman was made for divers as the name suggests, and it is a special model in the G-Shock lineup featuring extra tough ISO-certified 200m water resistance. The first Frogman debuted in 1993, and it has become one of the pillars for the cult success of G-Shock. This also was the first-ever G-Shock to receive an official nickname of its own, and the series has featured cutting-edge technologies and new construction techniques over the years. The GWF-A1000 Frogman is the first analog model in the series, and it features a large white handset against a dark dial, showing off its superior legibility. The watch employs a brand-new...
Sunday Rewind: Do You Need A Helium Escape Valve?
Ever wonder why your dive watch has a valve to release helium from within the case? It is perhaps one of the most specialized and over-marketed engineering solutions in the history of watches, and while lots of watches feature helium escape valves, they are only useful to one very niche and specific application. That activity is saturation diving, and for a full explanation (and all of the deep-diving excitement that it entails), look no further than the post linked below.? Originally posted a hair over three years ago, if you happened to have skipped it then, this high-pressure post explains the difference between traditional sc...
Bring a Loupe: A Seldom-Seen Datejust, A Daring Universal Genve, And A Pre-Extra-Fort Eberhard
Whether you're into gold or stainless steel, we've got you covered this week. If you're into chronographs, or more specifically, gilt dial Pre-Extra-Forts from Eberhard, Ref. 2004 Breitling Top Times, and Movado M95s, we've got you covered this week. Should you be after an early Datejust with a uniquely printed dial, or even a Universal Genve with a very small dial guess what? We've got you covered this week.? All this to say, you're in for a good one. Eberhard Pre-Extra-Fort Many think the oversized watch is largely a product of the 21st century, and while there are indeed...
HODINKEE Radio: Episode 98: Inside 'The Long Return'
Subscribe to the show: (Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, TuneIn). Already heard it once or twice? Please leave a short review, and tell us which guests we should have on! In August 1968, USMC 1st Lieutenant Barry Jones was shot multiple times as his platoon fought their way through the jungle during the peak of the Vietnam War. A bullet pierced his wrist and deflected off the Tudor Submariner he was wearing, critically damaging the watch in the process. As USN 3rd Hospital Corpsman Lorrie McLaughlin loaded Jones onto a helicopter for medical evacuation, Jones handed him the watch. It would remain with him for decades. On August 25, 2...
Hands-On: The Seiko Prospex SNJ029 Solar Diver
I have a confession to make: I've never seen Predator. Or Commando, for that matter. Take away my man card and call me a Communist, I just didn't watch a lot of action films in the 1980s, even though I was a red-blooded American teenager when those movies came out, nor have I had a desire since. Back then, I was either reading about adventures in the jungle, the desert, at the Poles, or under the sea, or I was out in the woods with my friends having adventures of my own. And I always wanted a big watch. All the cool explorers in the magazines and on TV wore big watches. It was a symbol of high adventure, derring-do, and raw capability. No anonymous lozenge-shaped connected watches in those d...
Introducing: The TAG Heuer Aquaracer 43mm Tortoiseshell Effect Calibre 5 Automatic
While the past several years at TAG Heuer have been largely invested in heritage models like the Autavia and the Monaco, their latest announcement adds some summer flair into the ranks of the Aquaracer. With two new Calibre 5-powered models sporting tortoiseshell effect bezels, it's a small change that packs a shimmering punch for patios, pools, and beyond. Offering both a?blue and a red/black colorway, these 43mm automatic Aquaracers have bezels with colorful resin inserts that mimic the flashing highlights and rich tones of classic tortoiseshell.? Initial Thoughts Given the common use of the material an...
Introducing: The Carl F. Bucherer Manero Flyback Chronograph 'Blue Horizons' (Live Pics & Pricing)
The first time that I can remember seeing a watch from Carl F. Bucherer is relatively recently in the history of the company C it was at an event in New York, in 2008, for the launch of the CFB A1000 movement, which was, at the time, the very first series-produced peripheral rotor movement. The peripheral rotor offers a number of advantages over a conventional full-diameter winding rotor, including a flatter movement as well as a better view of the movement (on the assumption that there is something worth looking at, which was and is certainly the case with the CFB A1000).?Since then, the company has gone on to introduce a number of new calibers and at the high end. Probably its most interes...
Introducing: The Omega Speedmaster Dark Side Of The Moon 'Alinghi'
If you don't follow the extremely expensive and arcane world of competitive yachting, you probably haven't heard of the America's Cup, which is the world's oldest international sporting trophy, having first been run all the way back in 1851. Coincidentally, this is just a few years after Louis Brandt founded La Generale Watch Co. which would go on to produce the first Omega watches, which were so successful that the Omega line eventually became its own brand in 1903. Believe it or not, Switzerland, which is about as landlocked a country as you can get, has nonetheless a very strong sailing tradition thanks to its enormous glacial lakes C in the summer months, Lake Geneva and Lake Neuchatel a...
Welcome to the fourteenth installment of "My Watch Story," a video series starring HODINKEE readers and their most prized watches. The submissions continue to stream in, and we couldn't be happier to share them with the watch community. Today, we have five new stories submitted by Galvin Wong, Parik Kumar, Marius Piedallu Van Wyk, Ignacio Hwang, and Melvin Poh.Feeling inspired, or just discovering this project? Please scroll down to the bottom of the page to learn how to submit your own video. But first, we hope you enjoy this installment of My Watch Story. Galvin Wong And His Seiko Lord Marvel Galvin, wh...
A Quick Note To Our Readers: Travel Clock Edition
To Everyone In The HODINKEE Community, Some of you may not know who I am, so I want to take this moment to introduce myself. I'm Eneuri. I've been reading HODINKEE since 2011 and have been part of the team for three years now leading operations as our COO. I work closely with Ben C who you all likely know C and Russell C the leader of the HODINKEE Shop C to guide our growing company in an effort to provide the best possible experience for you, our readers and supporters. I touch a little bit of everything around here, from editorial to limited edition projects to the shop. I've met several of you at our meetups and H10 event, and I hope to meet more of you in per...
Business News: Is The Worst Over For The Swiss Watch Industry?
In March, with COVID-19 raging, Ren Weber, a financial analyst at Bank Vontobel in Zurich, predicted that Swiss watch exports for the year's second quarter would fall 40% in value compared to the same period in 2019. It was an unusually pessimistic forecast, and Weber got blowback about it.? Weber, it turns out, was not nearly pessimistic enough. Data released last week by the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH) showed that exports dropped 62% between April and June. New data from the FH and Switzerland's two largest watch groups, the Swatch Group and the Richemont Group, make it painfully clear that six months into the globa...
Accuracy: The Modern Chronometer Watch And How It Got That Way
You might say, if you were a casual (or, for that matter, non-casual) observer of the watch enthusiast scene nowadays, that mechanics don't get no respect. The vast majority of the discussion about watches focuses on cosmetics C I don't mean that in a negative way; the reality is that most watch purchases and most of the subsequent enjoyment focuses on elements of a watch that don't have anything to do with how it performs as a watch. Dial colors, case and bracelet design, quality of case finishing and of dial furniture, the degree to which hand work is involved, and even movement finishing to a certain extent, all have much to do with how a watch looks and little if anything (with a caveat ...
Introducing: The Grand Seiko Elegance Collection SBGW262 (Live Pics & Pricing)
It was only last year that Grand Seiko announced a line of slim, hand-wound mechanical dress watches that debuted what has since become one of my favorite new case shapes from any watchmaker. These early examples included the SBGK002, the SBGK004, the SBGK006, and a model that Stephen spent a week with, the SBGK005.?Beyond the beautiful, slender, retro-inspired case shape that seemed to skirt the line between a traditional round dress case and a tonneau, the new Elegance "Slim" watches had a few things in common. Most obvious among them was the use of the new 9S63 manually wound movement with small seconds and power reserve, and in select cases, beautiful lacquer dials featuring maki-e accen...
Hands-On: Three Seiko 55th Anniversary Dive Watches
The trouble with limited edition watches is that they often celebrate something incredibly esoteric and only significant to a select few. Seiko's 55th anniversary trilogy is not one of those limited editions. Instead, it celebrates over half a century of innovation in dive watches. Many of us in the hobby found our way in through a Seiko diver, and that's no accident. When it comes to democratic, innovative, and honest watchmaking, Seiko is at the top. Many of their dive watches specifically exemplify that notion. Think of Seiko's limited edition trilogy release as a wearable history lesson in the long (and continuing) arc of how the Seiko dive watch has risen to become an icon. It's a crash...
Hands-On: The Hublot Big Bang Sang Bleu II
This may have happened to you: You tell someone you're passionate about watches and find endless beauty in these little anachronistic mechanical wrist machines. You wax poetic about the movement, and you might even casually use reference numbers as if the listener is supposed to know what exactly you're talking about. When you finish extolling the virtues of horology and watchmaking in a soliloquy that sounds more like a last-ditch effort to inject a semblance of momentum into the conversation, the listener promptly tells you they simply don't get it, and furthermore, they do not care to get it. For them, it's just outside the scope of anything worth trying to understand. You either have it ...
The Grey NATO: Episode 120: July Q And A
Subscribe to the show: (Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, Google Play and Spotify). Already heard it once or twice? Please leave a short review here, and tell us what topics you'd like us to chat about (or email [email protected]). thegreynato The Grey NATO - 120 - July Q And A Its the end of the month, so it must be time for another TGN Q+A episode! A huge thanks to everyone who sent in a voice memo question. We get into everything from straps to cameras, how to care for a NATO, naming your watch after a problematic historical figure, Shadow Divers, "what ifs," and a whole lot more.? One quick note to tho...
Norqain is a relatively new brand, having come into existence in 2018 as the brainchild of Ben Kffer, a young entrepreneur whose father, Marc Kffer, has been active in the Swiss watch industry for over 45 years and who was formerly CEO of Roventa Henex SA, a large manufacturing and design concern serving the Swiss watch industry, and which is located in Bienne, Switzerland. (He was also on the board of the Federation Of The Swiss Watch Industry for many years). The company also counts among its board members Ted Schneider, whose family owned Breitling for nearly 40 years prior to its sale.?Today, they've announced their first watch made as a result of their eagerly-watched partnership with...
In-Depth: The Aquastar Deepstar Resurfaces
Lac Suprieur was so named by French explorers, not because it is the largest freshwater lake on Earth or for its picturesque rugged coastlines, but because it is the northernmost of the five Great Lakes. Spanning almost three degrees of latitude between 46 and 49 degrees north, it's no wonder Superior never really warms up. Sure, the surface temperature can get tepid in late summer, prompting shrieking kids to cavort at its rocky beaches, but descend a few feet, and it's barely above the freezing point. In late August this year, at 76 feet deep, it was 9oC (thats 43oF for those of us that trade in old money). And my hands were going numb. Exploring th...
It's Friday once again, which means it's time to get down and dirty with a host of interesting finds on the market this week. With the inclusion of a perpetual calendar chronograph from IWC and an Omega Chronostop, you're bound to get your fix, but unlike other weeks, we're putting the spotlight on some horological treasures that aren't intended for the wrist. Is it more difficult to justify the purchase of a Heuer running timer, or a Jaeger-LeCoultre globe, or even a Rolex wall clock? Maybe, but there's no denying their appeal, and the want this week is strong.? IWC Da Vinci Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar Chronograph ...