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Best Super NEWS Watches
Talking Watches: With Mitchell Schwartz
When you're an offensive tackle, kneeling at the line of scrimmage, staring the defense in the eyes, you have one thing on your mind: Protect the quarterback. For nine seasons in the NFL, that is exactly what Mitchell Schwartz did; first with the Cleveland Browns and then with the Kansas City Chiefs, where he received All-Pro honors and C no big deal C won a Super Bowl. During his journey through the NFL, he picked up a few things along the way. He published a book, became something of a celebrity amateur chef, and built an impressive collection of watches. His watch story goes all the way back to his childhood in Los Angeles, wh...
Hands-On: Yes, You Can Still Buy A Casio Calculator Watch
Given that I was born in 1986, much of my context for the 1980s is based on the remnants that bled into the early '90s. And while my birth year instilled in me a deep love for Timex, I know that it's impossible to discuss '80s watches without paying respects to a true hero of the watch world C a post-Quartz Crisis love letter to the future of wrist-born technology.?The Casio Databank. This watch is where we first saw a rampant progression of tech that was disconnected from the idea of traditional watchmaking. Sure, a Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar or even the Oysterquartz of the same era would represent an incredible amount of tech...
In-Depth: The Unexpected Influence Of The Tissot RockWatch
The Swiss watch industry is ruled by tradition. It is frequently C some would say rightfully C criticized for being overly conservative. Every so often, however, a radical idea will slip through the cracks. Sometimes, these forward-thinking projects are the result of industry-wide desperation. And other times, they're simply too good of an idea to pass up. The Tissot RockWatch, a mid-1980s release made of solid Swiss granite, was a bit of both. Few of today's watch enthusiasts would consider the RockWatch revolutionary, if they're aware of it at all. They might even call it a gimmick, and they might be right. But I've always been...
In-Depth: The Watches And Clocks Of Back To The Future
Marty McFly lays asleep on his bed, his suspenders hanging off his Guess jeans. He's just a denim jacket and a "life preserver" puffer vest away from his normal iconic costume. There's a Panasonic Flip Clock 6105 (the precursor to the 6205 prominently featured in Groundhog Day) perched above his bed. The time flips from 12:27 - 12:28 AM, triggering the ethereal sounds of Fleetwood Mac's own Lindsey Buckingham singing the lesser-known track "Time Bomb Town."The phone rings."Marty, you didn't fall asleep did you?" Doc Brown's iconic voice inquires from the other end of the line.The scene that follows is fascinating for a number of reasons. First, it introduces us to Doctor Emmitt Brown, Marty'...
Introducing: The Tissot Heritage Memphis Limited Edition
As '80s Week rolls on, we're psyched to see that Tissot has recently announced a re-issue of an avant-garde model from the late 1980s. Based on a creation from the Italian designer and architect Ettore Sottsass, this is the new Tissot Heritage Memphis Limited Edition, a four-model quartz-powered line of bright and bold watches with a specifically '80s flair that draws its name from Sottsass' Memphis Group. Available in 34mm and 41mm (two iterations in each size), the Memphis LE is not a direct re-issue but rather a re-imaging of the original model from 1988. Initial Thoughts While that original model was ...
Interview: In the Early '80s, Quartz Was King. This Man Had Other Ideas.
In a moment of darkness for an entire industry, Gerd-Rdiger Lang helped pull mechanical watchmaking back from the abyss. But he didn't launch his company, Chronoswiss, with a goal so grandiose. He simply needed work, and mechanicals were what he knew. A watchmaker from the age of 15, Lang eventually branched out into watch design and entrepreneurship to make Chronoswiss one of the best-known independent marques of the past 40 years. There were hallmarks of a Chronoswiss watch: An exaltation of historical design elements such as onion crowns, coin-edge bezels, and regulator displays. And Lang paired them with exhibition casebacks. Ever the watchmaker, Lang wanted clients to see the movement ...
Playlist: The Top Twenty '80s Songs About Time
The 1980s were known for many things. Two-tone Rolex. Bad hair. And music, so much music. We always love it when horology intersects with popular culture. So as part of our '80s Week content bonanza, we asked our friend Matthew Schnipper C the omnivorous pop fan and delightfully droll writer who runs the Deep Voices newsletter C to make us a playlist of 1980s songs that grapple, in one way or another, with the concept of time. It's called Time After Time After Time After Time: HODINKEE Does the '80s. And you can listen on Spotify right here. Like any good mix, it's a blend of old favorites and new discover...
Once Upon a Time: Doxa's Lost Decade: The Aubry Era
The tonneau-cased, orange-dialed Doxa dive watches you know are most likely from the '60s and '70s. Jacques-Yves Cousteau played a role in the development of the models, Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt wore one, The Grey NATO boys love them, and they've earned a cult following among collectors. But the production of those watches ended in the mid-seventies. There's a whole era of designs from the '80s that were born and died in that decade. Production of Doxa watches fizzled out by the early '90s until the Jenny family acquired Doxa in 1997 and re-started production of the brand's range at scale, but exactly zero designs from the '80s ...
If it hasn't hit you yet, HODINKEE looks a bit different this week. Articles highlighting our editors' favorite watches from four decades ago and what was on the wrist of Eddie Murphy when promoting 1987's Beverly Hills Cop II have replaced our typical coverage. We're not just going to breeze by that incredible Paramount Beverly Hills Cop II Letterman's jacket, we see you, Mr. Murphy. Anyway, yup, it's 80s week here at HODINKEE. All the stories from the week can be found here, on the official '80s Week page C check it out, it'll be a great primer for this week's vintage selection. 1983 Rolex ...
Portfolio: Rappers And Watches: It All Started In The Old-School '80s
Hip-hop and watches are inseparable. Jay-Z gives Daytonas as party favors. Nas has a Patek Nautilus 5712R so beautiful that it's been immortalized in a book. Lil Wayne wears G-Shock. Just last week, the late Pop Smoke dropped a posthumous song called "AP" about his icy Audemars Piguet. And the connection between hip-hop and horology was forged in the 1980s, when rappers began to see enough commercial success to merit splashing out. Photographer Janette Beckman was there when it happened. After coming up in the London punk scene, she landed in New York City just as hip-hop was taking off, and her images stand as definitive documents of hip-hop's early flirtation w...
Editors' Picks: Our Favorite 1980s Movie Watches
If there is one thing we know about the '80s, it's that it was as good a decade C if not the best C for movies as any other. A lot of us grew up on these films. We've touched on Back to the Future already and spotted watches on icons like Harrison Ford and Eddie Murphy. But we couldn't let this week end without sharing a few more ways watches showed up in the culture. So our editors got together and picked their favorites from '80s movies. Some of the picks are well known, some are not C and one flat out doesn't exist (see if you can guess it before scrolling down). We've even got a Paul Newman deep cut. All of them beautifully capture the era; in fact, it's hard to imagine the decade in fil...
Interview: The '80s Design Iconoclast Who Would Not Be Put In A Box
In 1987, French interior-architect-turned-watch-designer Alain Silberstein unveiled his colorful and geometrical Krono Bauhaus with Valjoux 7761 movement. It's a business-on-the-inside, party-on-the-outside chronograph if there ever was one. And it must've struck an otherworldly profile at Baselworld, where other independent innovators included Chronoswiss and Blancpain C very conservatively designed watches by comparison. More than 30 years later, a Silberstein design still stands out, even among those from the countless independent watchmakers he inspired. Though Silberstein no longer operates the watch factory he opened in 1990, he hasn't slowed down. Most rec...
The Value Proposition: Five Significant Undervalued Watches Of The '80s
As someone who both grew up during the 1980s and fell in love with watches back then, I was excited to see the '80s Week theme appear on HODINKEE. It reminded me of an email I received from Ben Clymer back in 2019, where he asked some friends for our thoughts on watches we believed should be worth more than they are. As I thought through my answer, several pieces introduced in the 1980s came to mind, and a theme surrounding this decade I'm nostalgic for emerged. As brands were coming out of the darkness of the Quartz Crisis, some very important and innovative watches came to market that, when considering their current market prices, offer great value for collecto...
Introducing: The Hamilton Intra-Matic Chronograph H (Live Pics & Pricing)
Hamilton, already known as the watch of Hollywood, has more recently become synonymous with high-value, manual-wind, vintage-inspired watches. There's, of course, the well-covered and much-loved Khaki Field Mechanical, and the more niche (but no less cool) Khaki Pilot Pioneer Mechanical. But both of those watches are time-only, i.e. complication-free.Today, that changes, as Hamilton introduces a new watch into the manual-wind fold: The new Intra-Matic Chronograph H. This is a vintage-inspired mechanical chronograph that expands the brand's mechanical offering and does so with some '60s panache. Initial Thoughts ...
Introducing: The Sinn U1 DS Limited Edition
With the onset of spring comes an increased pace for new watch announcements not to mention warmer weather that has us daydreaming about days in the ocean. Right on cue, last week Sinn announced its latest limited-edition diver, the U1 DS. Limited to 500 units based on a full-sized U1 and crafted from hardened submarine steel, the U1 DS sports a special dial created via a grinding process that gives each example a unique finish. Initial Thoughts Regardless of spec, the Sinn U1 is one of the toughest and most focused dive watches on the market today. One of the German brands most well-known designs, the...
Interview: Why The Former Head Of Bulgari Watches Left To Run Parmigiani
Guido Terreni has one of the most interesting minds in luxury. His insights and opinions about human desire the impulse that fuels all discretionary purchases go right to the heart of which watches succeed in an era where, strictly speaking, nobody needs them.Terrenis instincts guided one of the most successful watch lines of the last decade, the Octo Finissimo, which he launched while running Bulgari's watch division. His new brand is about as different as it gets from the last. Parmigiani Fleurier has a niche audience and a culture of discretion, starting with its namesake restorationist founder, that undergirds virtually everything it does. HODINKEE spoke...
Culture Of Time: The Watches Of WandaVision
The closest thing we've gotten to must-see television this year is Marvel Studios' WandaVision C a rip-roaring, time-bending superhero show as seen through the lens of classic TV sitcoms. That's a lot to take in, but if you watch the show (which aired its series finale yesterday), then you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't seen the show, consider this a spoiler warning, and go watch it C and while you're watching, keep an eye out for the watches. The show signaled its watch-y ways before it even debuted, when both lead actors (Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany, playing Wanda and Vision, respectively) were wearing vintage timepieces on the cover of Entert...
Hands-On: Traversing The Straight And Narrow With A Grassroots Dive Watch
Originally launched in 2008, the Kansas microbrand Raven has since produced a wide range of everyday sports watches ranging from hommage-effect divers like the rather prescient Vintage of 2011 to more burly 2,500m water-resistant leviathans like the Titanium Deep. With this blue-dial version of the Trekker 39, Raven further establishes itself as a small brand with its finger on the pulse of current enthusiast interest. Raven is the second small brand operated by one Steve Laughlin (who you might remember from this), who cut his teeth with Benarus, a company that formed some of my earliest fascinations with this fun and accessible...
HODINKEE Radio: How 'Grand' Should Grand Seiko Really Be?
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! It was only two weeks ago that Grand Seiko launched its latest crop of watches, including a number of pieces featuring new calibers and a handful of high-end limited editions that push up against the boundaries of the brand's usual wheelhouse. It got us thinking: Is the Grand Seiko of today the same Grand Seiko many of us fell in love with years ago when it was almost unknown outside of die-hard enthusiast circles? How is Grand Seiko balancing evolution and growth w...
Introducing: The Citizen New Generation Mechanical Watch With Caliber 0200
In recent years, Citizen has established its position as the producer of hyper-accurate quartz pieces C when you hear "annual accuracy," you think of Citizen. The Caliber 0100, which has a stunning accuracy of 1 second per year, was an astonishing achievement, and the watch represented a crystallization of Citizen's long-time R&D in the frequency manipulation of quartz crystals. That same Citizen has now introduced a mechanical piece with a brand-new caliber: The Citizen Mechanical Caliber 0200, an apparent counterpart to its "annual accuracy" quartz models. This watch was made possible through the technical exchange with La Joux-Perret, a Swiss movement pr...