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Best Super NEWS Watches
Introducing: This New Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra Is Olympic Gold
Just how many Tokyo 2020 Olympics watches does Omega have up its sleeve? Well, apparently one more C and it saved the shiniest for last. Feast your eyes on two new Omega Aqua Terras C one 38mm, and the other 41mm C in 18k yellow gold no less. Both watches come on a blue leather strap and feature a striking blue dial playing off the Tokyo 2020 emblem. From afar they look effectively identical, but upon close inspection, there are some differences. One is the trapezoidal date window on the 41mm version compared to the circular window on the 38mm. The larger watch also has Arabic numerals circumventing the dial while the smaller one does not. Lastly, the applied hou...
The Sports Section: The Watch Lovers Guide To The Tour De France
While most of us in the States are breaking in our flip-flops, stocking the fridge with hot dogs, and belly-flopping our way down a backyard Slip N Slide, the worlds 180 best cyclists have hit the roads in France to traverse more than 2,000 miles (3,000 kilometers) of brutal terrain. And yes, some of them are wearing watches. In fact, Le Tour is?loaded with watch- and time-related drama. Consider this your backyard-barbecue conversation guide to the Tour de France, from a horological perspective.But first, a quick explainer on the Tour. The first Tour de France was in 1903. It is the oldest of the grand tours in Europe, including the Giro dItalia and Vuelta a ...
Introducing: Track The Date And Time For The Next 100 Years C If You Can Figure Out How To Read It
Ochs und Junior is the very definition of a "cult brand" and the recently released "cca," or "calendario cent'anni" is exactly the kind of watch that's earned them a sterling reputation with folks in-the-know. Dr. Ludwig Oechslin's vision of simplifying the way we read otherwise complicated watches drove the design of this watch. Inside the titanium case is a modified Ulysesse Nardin movement that displays hour, minute, second, date and month up to the leap year accurately for 100 years. Through a series of dots that rotate around the dial, the watch can track the proper length of a month (from 28 to 31...
Watching Movies: Brad Pitt Builds A Baseball Team While Wearing A TAG Heuer in 'Moneyball'
Brad Pitt makes his return to Watching Movies. We last saw him as the grizzled, over-the-hill, stuntman Cliff Booth in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. He won an Oscar for that one. This week, we find Brad Pitt as Billy Beane, the soft-spoken, tobacco spitting, Oakland A's General Manager in Moneyball (2011). He should have won an Oscar for this one. Based on a true story, the? film takes place in 2002 and follows Beane and his assistant GM Peter Brand (played by Jonah Hill C another Watching Movies alum) as they turn Major League Baseball on its head, using analytics to build a competitive team on a budget. Both Pitt's and Hill's characters wear some pretty killer stainles...
Five Minutes With ... : John Malkovich
John Malkovich is the most unexpected of all watch brand ambassadors. He has no official Instagram account. He is not regularly photographed shirtless by paparazzi and though he certainly does his fair share of press, he is not the kind of celebrity who cultivates a very visible public persona.That Malkovich attracted the interest of Richard Mille for a role as an ambassador was as surprising to him as it was to us. "I, like you, was surprised when I was approached by Richard," he says. "I was surprised because I probably am unlikely, but that might be why Richard chose me, as well. And I really liked him. I really like his seriousness of intent, his enthusiasm, ...
In-Depth: Life Is A Cabaret, Lange Handwerkskunst Tourbillon, That Is
Hand-wound movements, especially haute horlogerie hand-wound movements, are a bit of an endangered species nowadays. Shaped hand-wound movements C that is, non-round calibers C are even more rare. When Lange & Sohne launched its first collection of four watches in 1994, one of them C the Arkade C featured a hand-wound, shaped movement, the caliber L911. The Arkade was the smallest of the four launch models, at 26mm x 22mm x 6.4mm thick, but still managed to incorporate Lange's signature big date complication. In 1997, Lange launched a larger, rectangular watch. This was the Cabaret. The Cabaret used a movement very similar to the L911. This was the caliber L9...
Introducing: It's-A-Me! The TAG Heuer Mario Connected Watch!
The world loves Nintendo's mushroom-eating, brick-breaking rotund Italian plumber. He's been the object of affection ever since he was imagined up by Shigeru Miyamoto and introduced to the public in the 1981 video game, "Donkey Kong." There's an annual Super Smash Con, a three-day Super Smash Bros video game tournament complete with DJs fueling nightly ragers in Virginia. Super Nintendo World, a theme park dedicated to all things Nintendo C and largely Mario C opened its doors in Osaka earlier this year. And now, Mario is leaping right into the world of smartwatches. You can leave your Game Boy behind and take Mario with TAG Heuer's new Mario Connected watch. It'...
The Value Proposition: Is This New Casio The Best Watch Under $25?
Our collective understanding of what constitutes "value" in watchmaking C?or really in any sort of niche collectible C?is deeply irrational. The further you go into watch collecting (or stamps, pocket knives, headphones, etc.), the more unfazed you'll be by price tags that can quickly vault from double and triple digits to four or C?gulp C five and above. Of course, we can all agree that value will always remain a subjective assertion. A $500 Seiko Monster is a hell of a deal when you're comparing it to other entry-level mechanical dive watches, but for most people it's also a nonsensical amount of money to spend on a watch. (As the great philosopher Bo Diddley related in Trading Places: "In...
These Two New Blue Dial Limited Editions Prove That Lange Never Settles
Along with the uber-release, the Cabaret Tourbillon Handwerkskunst, Lange is introducing two new limited editions of existing models: The Langematik Perpetual in white gold or pink gold, both with a blue dial, celebrating 20 years since the introduction of the model, and the Saxonia Thin in pink gold with a gold flux dial that emulates the way the night sky sparkles. The Langematik Perpetual in white gold. These watches certainly don't exist in the shadow of the Cabaret Tourbillon Handwerkskunst, despite the shocking price differential (over $200,000), and are heavyweights in their own right. In fact, when the Langematik Perpe...
Its my beater.– you, me, probably that guy over there This is a statement Ive heard echo through the watch community for years, applied to timepieces ranging from $15 Casios to $9,000 divers. The term has gotten so drenched in subjectivity that means everything and nothing. Is beater pejorative? Is it synonymous with disposable? Should you be proud of your beater? Do you need a beater? Basically C why is beater?I think this nebulous term should mean something specific and play a particular role in a watch collection. Not a watch that I dont care about, but rather one that doesnt need to be cared for. ...
Introducing: The Doxa Sub 200 Whitepearl Is Anything But Vanilla
Color has long been an important element of the Doxa dive watch range. So much so that the brand's various colorways even have their own names. Orange? Try "Professional." Yellow? That's "Divingstar." And now you can add "Whitepearl" to the list as Doxa's entry-level model, the Sub 200, now comes in a fully white version. With black outlines for the markers and a luminous black handset, the Sub 200 Whitepearl has a crisp white dial and a matching white bezel with a sapphire insert. Offered with the option of a shorter white rubber strap, Doxa clearly sees this seventh version of the Sub 200 as a unisex model (and I'd agree). ...
In-Depth: A Definitive Deep-Dive On The Freestyle Shark Watch
I have spoken about my first watch on a couple occasions. Both times, I hinted that it was not literally my first watch, so that when I eventually got around to writing about this watch, no one could call me a liar. I am, of course, talking about the Freestyle Shark Watch C i.e. the not Casio and not Timex digital number that many of us grew up with. The Shark, born in 1981 amid the gnarly waves and sandy beaches of Southern California, is currently celebrating its 40th anniversary. This is the first (but not the only) time this article will make you feel old. While many people, including me, consider this to be the watch of our youth, it isn't (or wasn't) just m...
Business News: The Magnifique Rebirth of the French Watch Industry
When President George W. Bush left office in 2009, one British tabloid newspaper offered him a fond farewell by running a list of his "most memorable malapropisms, mispronunciations and mangled statements." At number one from 50 was the infamous line that "the problem with the French is that they don't have a word for entrepreneur." Whether the former leader of the free world actually said this or not C it's been disputed C the comment played perfectly to Britain's insatiable appetite for ridiculing the powerful C and the French. The French, meanwhile, were stung. France's problem was not so much that it lacked entrepreneurs, but that...
To view the entire current selection of vintage watches available in the HODINKEE Shop, click here.Questions? Send us a note, or let us know in the comments. Want to sell your vintage watch through the HODINKEE Shop? Click here.Want to sell your pre-owned watch through Crown & Caliber? Click here. This Week's Vintage Watches Stating that vintage watches are all about the details on HODINKEE seems like an extreme, extreme clich at this point. But hey, it's true. This collection is a great testament to this overused statement. It takes "dog-leg" lugs and "pie-pan" dial on a vintage Omega Constellation to really get a collectors' bl...
A Week On The Wrist: The Vacheron Constantin Historiques American 1921
Wearing watches can be a lot like cosplay C you feel different by sheer virtue of the watch you wear on your wrist. Maybe slapping an orange-dial Doxa gives you the full Cousteau experience (extra points for the red hat), or perhaps you're going for the full Victorian effect, complete with pocket watch and monocle. The Vacheron Constantin Historiques American 1921 falls squarely into the category of making you feel like you, but better. It's the full embodiment of the 1920s, both from an aesthetic point of view, and a cultural one. Even its very name is a bit deceptive C a hallmark of the "roaring" decade. ...
The Best Watches Found In The Government Archives
I rise today to celebrate government bureaucracy, or at least one single facet of it. Its ability to catalog, track, and organize information is awe-inspiring, and in the case of the United States of America, there are thorough records dating back to the era before we became an independent nation, all the way up to multimedia archives of events that happened yesterday. It's all there.? If youve listened to an investigative podcast in the past five years, you're probably familiar with? journalists using the Freedom of Information Act to uncover important details and back up stories holding institutions and individuals accountable. Instead I used it to ask the US government to send me documen...
This Couple Tells HODINKEE About The Watches They Wore At Their Wedding
Post-pandemic wedding season is in full swing, which means couples everywhere are contemplating a special timepiece for their special day. Wedding Watches invites couples to share the watches they wore or plan to wear for their 2021 ceremony. Want to be featured? Email us at [email protected]. Dipayan Gupta and Erik Johnson come from very different backgrounds. Gupta was born in India and spent his childhood between Toronto and New Delhi before moving to the United States in 2000. Johnson was born in California and spent his 20s in Boston, New York, and San Francisco. When the couple met in NYC, they found they had a lot in common C they both love art and sp...
In-Depth: Tony Rice's Hands: How the Bulova Accutron Spaceview Became the Watch of Bluegrass
Tony Rice had the most influential hands in bluegrass guitar. His right hand had the precision of a metronome. His left hand glided over the fretboard of his 1935 Martin D-28,? known as "the Antique," playing elegant and intricate jazz and folk-inspired licks C music in the context of bluegrass yet never confined by it. And on his left wrist sat a Bulova Accutron Spaceview with a 214 movement playing its own song C an F#, flat by nearly a quarter step C at a steady hum. It was a watch that Tony Rice wore nearly every day for the last 45 years of his life, humming a note from the Accutron tuning fork that lulled him to sleep each night as he tucked his hand beneath his pillow, the watch still...
Introducing: Seiko Channels Pogue And Pepsi Vibes In A Fan-Designed Limited Edition
Last fall, Seiko introduced an online contest that gave watch collectors the opportunity to design an original watch, based on the entry-level Seiko 5 Sports platform, with five adjustable components (bezel, case, dial, hands and strap/bracelet). ?Then fans got to vote on whichever submitted design was their favorite, a true community effort. The Seiko 5 Sports SRPH19 Limited Edition The campaign officially wrapped in January of this year, after 16 million votes had been submitted from more than 48,000 original watch designs. The winning watch, announced earlier this week, walked away with over 50 percent of the vote total. Th...
In-Depth: Watchmaking Is Dead. Long Live Watchmaking!
In a story we ran not long ago about a new watch from Ming C the 20.11 Mosaic C there was an interesting comment, to the effect that the watch represented creative watch design, not creative watchmaking. The comment got me thinking about what exactly constitutes creative watchmaking these days, and where the line is between the two. Watchmaking, to state the screamingly obvious, is the making of watches C and a watch is more than the movement. The design of the case, dial, and hands are all part of watchmaking, if you take a big-picture perspective. But what the commenter meant, as far as I can tell, is that there was nothing interesting going on in the watch fro...