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Best Super NEWS Watches
Sarah Miller Visits The AP House
When I set out to visit the Audemars Piguet House in London, the day after madly googling How do you pronounce Audemars Piguet, just about the only thing I knew about the place was that it was hard to find. I, a professional, was determined not to miss it. Yet at the appointed hour C an unseasonably warm but breezy late-October weekday afternoon C I found myself wandering up and down the legendarily posh New Bond Street, amidst post-lockdown London shoppers swinging embossed bags from everywhere from Versace to Primark, feeling lost and foolish. A call to my AP House contact revealed something amusing: The green flag hanging outside the clubhouse, letting AP superfans know they were at the...
Jack Forster's Deep Dive On Co-Axial Escapements
Headline image, Omega Speedmaster Master Chronometer, with co-axial caliber 3861. Image by Tiffany Wade. Note on diagrams: for clarity, most omit the outer part of the balance and show only the balance roller, which is at the center of the balance and carries the jewels with which the balance interacts with the rest of the escapement. I remember, many years ago, sitting at an Omega press breakfast (I forget specifically the watch or watches we were there to see, although I still remember the era when, if you wrote about watches, you got to see them in person on a regular basis). As it happened, I got a seat next to Omega's CEO, who at the time was Stephen U...
Omega Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch Caliber 3861 Review
It feels like the new Omega Speedmaster has been with us for years already, doesn't it? Surprisingly, it was only in January of this year that Omega announced the first major overhaul to its flagship chronograph, outfitting it with the Master Chronometer-spec, Co-Axial escapement-equipped caliber 3861.? This week, unexpectedly, the announcement was on our minds all over again, after we found out Roger Smith had purchased an example for himself (the sapphire sandwich example, no less) and Jack schooled us on why the Co-Axial escapement actually matters. If that wasn't enough, our pals in the HODINKEE Shop also announced a restock ...
What Watch Does John Goodman Wear In The Big Lebowski?
It's the story of the laziest man in all of Los Angeles, a man for his time and place C The Dude. Released in 1998, The Big Lebowski was considered to be a lesser Coen Brothers feature C glazed over in its day C that steadily amassed a cult following due to the growing popularity of the DVD. The movie is a modern take on the classic noir (its very name a play on such films as The Big Sleep), replacing the dashing Bogart-type star with a deadbeat, pot-smoking, strike-bowling, rug-loving, ne'er-do-well named Jeffrey Lebowski. I have seen this movie somewhere around 15 times over the years. The sheer brilliance of the writing initially took my attention off of a certain (somewhat) era-appropria...
Patek Philippe Makes Tiffany Blue Nautilus
The end is near. The Patek 5711 will retire next year C and that revelation dominated 2021 watch-industry news in a way nothing else did. We only learned about the 5711's discontinuation thanks to a run-out list, but the news spilled out of our little universe of watch nerdery in fantastic fashion. Teeth were gnashed. Garments were rended. The buzz culminated in Patek Philippe president Thierry Sterns blockbuster interview with The New York Times, in which he justified the choice to call it quits on his most popular watch, which was originally launched back in 2006. In the Times interview, Stern said that there would be "a victory lap" for the company's most buz...
An IWC 43mm Big Pilot In Titanium And Bronze
How much Big Pilot news can we take in one week? Well, apparently we have room for some more as IWC announced, just yesterday, the release of two new entrants into its popular Spitfire collection. But these aren't the 46.2mm Big Pilot's watches, but rather the new kids on the block: The smaller 43mm Big Pilot which hit earlier this year at Watches & Wonders. It's fittingly called the Big Pilots Watch 43 Spitfire. What we have are two watches, in two case materials, offering different design takes on the basic vintage Spitfire aesthetic. One piece is titanium with a black dial, and a military Flieger-esque dial layout with wh...
Introducing: The Casio G-SHOCK Ref. 6900-PT80 By John Mayer
Shop this story The Casio G-SHOCK Ref. 6900-PT80 By John Mayer is available now in the HODINKEE Shop....
I rediscovered reading for pleasure this year. A preposterous statement, you might say, given the fact I spend all day reading and writing about watches and my heretofore inefficacious undergraduate degree in English literature, but it's true. Before 2021 reared its ugly head, it had been many years since I found myself sitting and enjoying a novel or work of nonfiction. My media diet was steady, sure, but it lacked the substance C?and I lacked the stamina C?that a steady appetite of physical books ably provides. Given my restored appetite for long-haul reading, I naturally found myself adding a number of new watch texts to my reading list and library. It was a g...
Watch Of The Week: Grand Seiko GMT
In my experience, time can help you decide what it is that you ultimately want. It took years for me to arrive at the SBGM221 GMT, my only Grand Seiko and the first watch I purchased after joining HODINKEE. And it's a watch that I'm not sure a young me would've worn, but by giving myself time, I came to this dress GMT when I was at the right point in my collecting journey. It started back 2007, on my first trip to Japan, when I visited Grand Seiko on assignment to learn about the general GS philosophy of watchmaking and Spring Drive, in particular. I was just a couple of years into covering watches, and the immense cultural opportunity handed to me by this experi...
With the latest installment of Dubai Watch Week running in the final week of November, we wanted to take a few minutes to chat about the latest watch releases, get a first-hand impression of what it was like to be at the show, and consider where this growing show is headed. As I've not yet had the pleasure of attending Dubai Watch Week, I was more than happy to have the excuse to call upon two of my favorite co-hosts, Robin Swithinbank and our own Jack Forster.? Robin attended Dubai Watch Week this year (and wrote a couple of stories for HODINKEE, linked below) and Jack has attended in previous years, so I thought this pairing would be...
Twenty-five years ago, watchmaker Michel Parmigiani, with the support of the Sandoz Family Foundation, founded Parmigiani Fleurier. The company has grown considerably since then and the brand, as well as its related companies (which include movement manufacturer Manufacture Vaucher, casemaker Les Artisans Boitiers, and others), have become well-established features of the Swiss watchmaking landscape. In celebration of the company's anniversary, Michel Parmigiani and a team of artisans and designers have created something extraordinary. I haven't seen the watch in person C it was finished very recently and the entire project, from conception to completion, took less than a year, which is incr...
Highlights From Phillips New York Watch Auction December 11th
It's the most auction-y time of the year, and just in time for all you last-minute procrastinators who haven't yet figured out what to get the watch collector in your life (or?yourself), Phillips is holding its 2021 New York December Auction on the 11th of this festive month. As you might expect, the auction does follow the inexorable and apparently irreversible trend of rising prices for just about anything with hands and a crown, but there are still some surprises tucked away behind the blue-chip big names (which, I hasten to add, are still very much present and correct). Here are eight lots (well, six lots and two groups of lots) worth looking at for the insights they offer into the marke...
KAWS Ikepod Collaboration Surfaces At Highsnobiety
Here's a fun bit of recent watch-industry trivia we didn't expect to be talking about today.?Highsnobiety, the online fashion and cultural platform, just announced that it has sourced a complete set of all four watches that formed the original KAWS Ikepod Horizon Collection in 2012.? Ikepod, of course, is the watch brand started by the internationally acclaimed industrial designer Marc Newson, in 1994. And unless you've been living under a rock, KAWS is likely the most talked-about artist of the last decade. (Funny enough, the other contender for that title C?Jeff Koons C?also collaborated with Ikepod.)? ...
Josh Shapiro's Infinity Tantalum Limited Edition
It's not easy to come up with a truly unique idea while still operating within the confines of staid traditional watchmaking, but leave it to Josh Shapiro to innovate in a tight space. The high school teacher-turned-watchmaker out of Los Angeles introduced the watch world to an entirely new engine-turned dial pattern called "infinity weave"?with the introduction of his Infinity Series watches in 2019. The concept is based on fractal patterns that exist in nature; it's essentially a basket weave within a basket weave, and it's nothing short of absolutely beautiful. Every time I see one of Shapiro's watches I feel proud that we have an American watch that can truly contend with the popular ind...
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? Click?here. This Week's Vintage Watches None of the watches in this week's vintage drop are double-signed. Not a single one has a blue dial even. We are not offering a watch with a display caseback, let alone one with printing on it. There is one from Patek Philippe but it shouldn't generate many comments, Instagram Stories, or outrage. Rather, this ref. 3796 Calatrava will b...
The Watches of Art Basel Miami 2021
What do Art Basel Miami and the dearly departed Baselworld have in common? Well, they both have Basel in their name and they're both owned by the Swiss company MCH Group, but beyond that, absolutely nothing. Except that watches play an outsized role in the overall conversation happening at each event. Even though the dominant conversation was around NFTs, cryptocurrencies, and modern art, you knew just by looking around the room that people were intentional with their watches, at the very least, if not full-on watch aficionados. Many people live for this week-long celebration of art, and brands do, too. The watch industry powers Art Basel through key marketing pa...
Memphis Design Is Coming For Your Watches
In the design world, trends never really die. They come and go, swept up in the wave of taste and cultural relevance before burning out for a period only to resurface, years later, slightly revised but mostly the same. Over the past decade, few trends have held on as tightly as Memphis, a school of design known for its bright colors, confetti-esque graphic patterns, elementary shapes, and an almost exaggerated two-dimensionality. The style has cycled in and out of popularity across fashion, interiors, and home goods since an eccentric group of designers from Milan, Italy, first introduced the world to Memphis design in the early 1980s. Ettore Sottsass ...
The Best Watches To Give As Gifts
So your friend has come to you for watch advice (a dream come true!) and you, being the benevolent soul and generous bosom buddy we all wish for, decide to gift your curious buddy a watch. If a momentary panic has set in, don't worry about it. We turned to the H editors to help you find a watch that is interesting enough to fan the flames of curiosity within them, but not so fussy that they feel overwhelmed by owning and caring for such an object, while still managing to look cool. Here are their picks of the best watches to give a friend to get them really into watches. Timex MK1 Mechanical ...
The Richard Mille RM 35-03 with an automatic winding rotor featuring user-adjustable geometry
Richard Mille watches have often featured technical advances which sometimes get obscured in the larger narrative about the brand and by the sheer enormity of the price points they occupy, but they are, nonetheless, bona fide technical achievements. A tourbillon watch that's literally light enough to float and robust enough to tolerate being on the wrist of Rafael Nadal doesn't come along every day.? The new RM 35-03 is a line extension of the original RM 035 watches, which have an ultra-light movement weighing just 4.3 grams. The watch at launch will come in two versions, in blue Quartz TPT with a white Quartz TPT caseband and w...
What Watch Does Bruce Willis Wear in Die Hard?
The holidays are near, and it's time to cover one of the most requested C by you, the readers C watch-related movies out there. Die Hard (1988) is basically the adult version of Home Alone, with a ton of explosions, a ton of action, and a ton of Alan Rickman (RIP). It's the film that started the debate, "What makes a Christmas movie?" Is this a Christmas film? I'll leave that up to interpretation. What it definitely is is a movie that takes place at a Christmas party, with a slyly Christmasy score, and a pretty wild firearm-related reference to Santa Claus. Oh, and lest we forget, it features a watch tailor-made for its machine gun-slinging, late-'80s action star. ...