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Best Super NEWS Watches
Pre-Owned Watches From A. Lange & Sohne, Grand Seiko, And Omega
Happy New Year! As we enter the second year of HODINKEE Pre-Owned, we're looking forward to growing our operation while continuing to present the clearest and most transparent picture of every watch as possible. Every single watch we offer is photographed in-house by our team, and we review every listed piece ourselves, going out of our way to highlight not only what we love about it, but also "what to know" and "the backstory." There's nothing worse than buying a watch and being told by your friend that something isn't right about it. So we take that right out of the equation. To start the year off, we've put together a short round-up of six of the most interest...
Saturation diving with Japan's mack daddy dive watch, the Grand Seiko SBGH255
This is a watch review. It just so happens to be one that involved staying three fathoms beneath the surface of the sea, overnight. The vessel on the right is La Chalupa, in 1972. It's designed to be towed behind a boat to the location where it will sit on the bottom. I recently stayed at the Jules Undersea Lodge, the current iteration of what once was La Chalupa, an undersea living habitat that was part of the Puerto Rico International Undersea Laboratory program. PRINUL kicked off in 1972, squarely in the middle of the golden era of Man in the Sea research programs that saw aquanauts living and working at depth studying mari...
Everything You Need To Know About The Omega Speedmaster
Welcome to our new Weekend Edition, where we will be highlighting curated themed content for your Saturday and Sunday reading pleasure. Think of it as a weekly deep dive into the most perennially popular topics in the world of watches. Plus, a few surprises along the way. To kick things off, we're clicking the top pusher on a particular iconic chronograph. You may have noticed that Omega came into the New Year like a rocket with a brand-new Canopus (that's white) gold Speedmaster boasting an inflation-friendly price tag of $81,000. Never one to let a Speedy-centric event pass us by, we thought this famous timepiece would be the ideal first theme for our inaugural...
What Watch Did Bradley Cooper Wear in Nightmare Alley?
After a brief hiatus and some much-needed R&R, Watching Movies is back in full force for 2022. To kick off the new year, I thought it would be nice to set our sights on a film released right at the tail end of 2021. It's a rather dark piece of cinema from visionary director Guillermo Del Toro that puts leading man Bradley Cooper at the center of events that touch on the macabre, the magical, and the mechanical (watch puns are in this year). Richard Jenkins, Guillermo Del Toro, and Bradley Cooper on the set of Nightmare Alley. Photo, Searchlight Pictures It's called Nightmare Alley (2021) C a re...
Review Of The Timex T80 X Judith Leiber Watch
Known for its crystal-studded, animal-shaped, ladies-who-lunch-style handbags, the Judith Leiber brand is no stranger to collaborations. Nor is Timex, for that matter. But they still make interesting bedfellows. Timex has always had a whiff of practicality, purpose, and accessibility, while Leiber has a distinct Dallas vibe to it C both the city and the TV show. Its products arrive noisily, like a champagne flute thrown across the room. The Timex x Leiber collaboration has resulted in two watches, the 38mm stainless steel Q Timex and the 35mm rose gold-tone stainless-steel T80, which is the one I put ...
HODINKEE Editors On What They Want From The Watch Industry In 2022
Headline image, Rolex movement manufacture center, Bienne.? Just as in the larger world, 2021 in the watch world was a time of dramatic ups and downs, of breathtaking highs (often in prices), very low lows (it was, for better or worse, the Year Of The Hype Watch), and everything in between. The HODINKEE creative team was there every step of the way, and some of us have strong feelings about what we want and don't want to see from the industry in 2022. Danny Milton: Sustainability If there's one thing I would like to see in 2022 from the watch industry, it's less, not more. Sustainability is a word that w...
Finding J.P. Morgan's Long-Lost Pocket Watch
The show returns for 2022 with a very special episode featuring a chat with returning guest and friend-of-the-show, Daniel Miller. Daniel is a business reporter and journalist for the Los Angeles Times and he recently published a story about his prolonged hunt to find a very special pocket watch commissioned by the famous banker, J. P. Morgan. The watch had been made in 1909 by the British firm J. Player & Sons and had traded hands several times before disappearing in the late 1970s C and that's where Daniel started to work. It's a fabulous story, highlighted by a remarkable cast of characters that would eventually lead Daniel down...
Hey HODINKEE Question: Is The Tourbillon A Complication?
One of the things that makes being an enthusiast about anything fun is the acquisition of a specialist vocabulary C a secret, private language if you will, known only to the initiates, which serves to separate the profane from the inner secrets of the clan. Wine, cars, and watches (among other things) all have a specialist vocabulary which makes for clarity and specificity in discourse (yay!), and also gives us points over which to argue (double yay!!). Watchmaking is fun in this respect because there are so many words, as well as so many words for the same thing (in French, German, English, or what have you). I have been to Japan several times to visit various w...
The Hublot Big Bang Camo Texas Disappoints Our Native Texan
Although I've spent the past eight years living in New York, I consider Texas my home. I was born in the West Texas desert, where my father worked in the oil fields. When I was seven, we moved to a suburb north of Houston where I spent my formative years. I'm proud to be from Texas. It's one of the most economically, racially, culturally, and environmentally diverse places in the world. The integrated circuit was invented here. And space travel in the United States was born less than an hour's drive from my high school. I've grown used to hearing frequent criticisms about my home state, ones that are both fair and unfair. Texas is by no means perfect (no place is...
We Designed Our 2022 Fantasy Watches
If you were ever to spend a few moments as a digital fly on the walls of HODINKEE's many Slack channels, you'd likely not be surprised by how many conversations revolve around watches we wish existed or even simply the small changes we might make to a watch with the hopes of making it subjectively perfect. It's a foundational element of watch nerdery, the idea that your tastes, along with a few strokes of a photoshop brush, could render unto the watch industry the next "it watch." Or, at the very least, a watch that you would love to own.?As such, we thought it would be fun to have the Editorial team dream big C that is, as big as James' JV Photoshop skills will allow?C and offer up a dream ...
Elegant Watches Strike A Chord With Koji Attwood
When Koji Attwood was in kindergarten, his teacher noticed he had a problem. He had trouble writing, using scissors, and tying his shoes. To help improve his hand-eye coordination she suggested he try playing the piano. Now 49, with a PhD degree from Juilliard and many solo performances at Lincoln Center under his belt, Attwood is still playing piano. He's a professor at the University of Utah, where he specializes in transcribing music for piano solos, from music that was originally written for other instruments. "This way," he says, "I'm able to experience it as an active participant rather than just a listener." He has no problem tying his shoes. ...
Six Blue Watches That Aren't The Tiffany Blue Patek Philippe 5711
Earlier this year, as perhaps you heard, Patek Philippe released a Nautilus ref. 5711 with a Tiffany Blue dial, one of which promptly sold for $6.5 million in a morning auction that made many collectors weep into their Wheaties.?In the event that the Nautilus isn't quite to your taste (or your budget, or your ability to dunk) we've found six watches that scratch a similar itch.?Read on for our editors' picks and find the blue that's right for you. A Light Turquoise: Rolex Oyster Perpetual Blue 36mm There's really nothing not to like about this watch. It's a Rolex Oyster Perpetual C a 100m, prototypical w...
A Look At The Grand Seiko SLGA009 White Birch Spring Drive Caliber 9RA2
Last year was an exciting one for Grand Seiko. With the original White Birch Hi-Beat, the SLGH005, the brand officially announced its Series 9 design (though the watch seems to have been quietly introduced earlier) with a stand-out dial that quickly became a fan favorite. This piece brought GSs year-old escapement to a more affordable and non-limited production model. So it was little surprise when the watch was picked as the Mens Watch of the Year by the Grand Prix dHorlogerie de Genve and by HODINKEEs own Logan Baker as his favorite new watch of 2021. Ill leave you to decide which honor is more prestigious. ...
How Did The Citizen Watch Company Get Its Name?
No matter how long you write about something (in my case, watches, and for quite a while) there will always be things that have slipped under the radar, and some cases for an almost incredibly long time. (I read Charlotte's Web in third grade but I didn't realize until five or so decades later why the farmer's family was called "Arable" C chez Forster we now call those long delayed realizations of the obvious "Arable moments.") Citizen Eco-Drive Tough Take, for example, the venerable institution that is the Citizen watch company of Japan. I've been a Citizen owner for many years (a Skyhawk, an Eco-Drive Tough, and one of the r...
A Former CIA Case Officer Reveals The Surprising Connection Between Watches and Espionage
[Editors Note: The author of this story, a former undercover officer for the CIA, has asked to remain anonymous.] Hes late. Its pouring and Im standing in a dark alley in a North African capital at the height of an ongoing military coup, waiting for my source. I nervously glance down at my titanium Panerai Luminor Marina 8 Day. The still-glowing hands indicate it is 2:01:15 AM. If the asset, a foreign intelligence officer who is taking great risk to spy for the United States, does not arrive in the next 45 seconds, Ill have to disappear into the night, missing a crucial opportunity to collect intellig...
Hypebeast's First Watch Collaboration Is A Future Classic
Timex, a frequent collaborator in the digital media space (ask me how I know), is launching a new watch this morning. It's an updated take on the company's self-winding, vintage-inspired M79 and it was designed in collaboration with Hypebeast, the pioneering C?and publicly listed! C?media group, luxury e-commerce destination, and creative agency. A genuinely limited run of just 500 pieces C a seriously small figure of watches for Timex C the M79 "Fuchsia" is priced at $299 (a reasonable $20 surcharge over the standard-production M79). It will be available exclusively through HBX, Hypebeast's online retail platform, starting at 9:00 AM ET this morning. ...
This Watch Came Back From The Dead.
For many, the arrival of quartz-powered movements was the horological equivalent of the meteorite that ended the Mesozoic Era. Sure, some species survived, but most were obliterated C never to be seen again. Such was the fate of much of the mechanical watch industry in the late 1970s into the early '80s, where countless brands and movement makers were shuttered, unable to maintain business in the face of the almighty battery. You might not have thought about it this way, but the big brands that we know and love today are survivors of that extinction-level event. Fifty years ago, Rolex, Omega, Patek, AP, et. al, were part of a vast and expansive landscape of mechanical watchmaking heritage ...
The TAG Heuer Autavia Celebrates Its 60th Anniversary In 2022
The Autavia is one of the most important chronographs in watchmaking. Period. It's the oldest of TAG Heuer's (ne Heuer) trio of notable chronograph wristwatches, debuting in 1962 at the hand of the 28-year-old Jack Heuer during his first year as CEO.?You'd think the chronograph's seniority would secure its place at the front of TAG Heuer's catalog, but for some reason or another, the Autavia has almost always been the odd watch out during the 21st century, ranking behind both the Carrera and the Monaco in significance. In 2017, when the Autavia turned 55 years old, it appeared like things might be sl...
Another Thursday, another round of HODINKEE Pre-Owned highlights.?This week we've put together a brief selection of six of the more esoteric and fun pre-owned watches to land on the site. As always, head over to our dedicated HODINKEE Pre-Owned homepage to browse hundreds of watches,?with new pieces added daily,?or read on to check out a few of our team's recent favorite additions.? OMEGA Speedmaster Specialties Olympic Games Collection Tokyo 2020 Blue Limited Edition The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics kick off on February 4, a little over two weeks away and a little over six months since the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics wrapped up. Time shen...
Watches Cost More Than Ever: Are You Getting What You Pay For?
Headline image, Paul Newman's Paul Newman Daytona, which hammered at Phillips in 2017 for $17.75 million. One of the first Internet forums for watch enthusiasts, back in the long-gone early 2000s, was a shaded green refuge, far from the madding crowd, called ThePuristS.com. The name reflected the ideology of the forums C it was meant to be a place where, without the distractions of a sales forum, or of discussing pricing and discounts, anyone who loved watches could come and talk about them. Maybe you could afford a Patek minute repeater and maybe not, but that didn't mean you couldn't learn about them, talk about them, and have an opinion about them and it was, ...