Best Super NEWS Watches
Watch Of The Week Looks At The Omega "1894" 100th Anniversary Limited Edition
In Watch of the Week, we invite HODINKEE staffers and friends to explain why they love a certain watch. This week's columnist is our very own Editor-In-Chief. Headline image: the Omega "1894" limited edition, 1994, with new old stock 30mm caliber 269. Many years ago, in the long-gone late 1990s when I had decided to run my financial future into the ground by going back to graduate school, I used to go to the 26th Street Flea Market every Sunday, hoping to find a hidden gem. I found them periodically but even as hidden gems the price was often out of reach. I remember an enormous, complicated, Agassiz pocket watch with enough gold in the case to fill up half of Fo...
President Joe Biden Is A Watch Collector?
Just over a year ago, moments after taking the oath of office as the 46th President of the United States, Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. stepped to the podium and addressed the crowd. As he raised his arms to deliver his inaugural address, the shivering masses could glimpse on his wrist a stainless steel Rolex Datejust. Watch nerds like us already knew he was a collector. But now everyone could see it for themselves. In the spirit of Presidents' Day weekend, we thought it fitting to complete what's been an ongoing project here at HODINKEE: Cataloging the watches of the U.S. Presidents. Years ago, former contributor Eric Wind assembled a compendium of all timepieces ...
HODINKEE review of the Arnold & Son Perpetual Moon Year Of The Tiger
One of the?most interesting trends in watchmaking since the invention of Super-LumiNova has been an increasing willingness on the part of watch brands to use it for decorative purposes, not just in the service of legibility. It started out as a way of making dials readable at night that didn't involve messing around with radioactive substances that were either dangerously toxic to use, or impractically short-lived. It doesn't have the always-on glow of radium or tritium but it also doesn't have the dangers of the former, or the relatively brief lifespan of the latter, and since its introduction and replacement of tritium in the mid-to-late 1990s, it has become clear that Super-LumiNova can l...
The Watches Of The NBA All-Star Game
This past weekend, the broader NBA universe descended upon Cleveland, Ohio. It was the site of this year's All-Star weekend. But more than that, it served as the venue for the NBA's diamond celebration, its 75th Anniversary. To mark the occasion the league did something it hadn't done since its 50th anniversary, way back in 1996: It expanded its 50 best players of all time list into a 75th Anniversary team. That means that 25 new players were added to a list of the game's greats. As HODINKEE's resident basketball junkie, I had my eyes glued to the screen all weekend. The annual Dunk Contest on Saturday was nothing to write home about (unless you caught Guy Fieri ...
Dave 1 From Chromeo Shares His Watch Collection
David Macklovitchs Manhattan apartment is impeccable. Note the redwood dining table, the Noguchi coffee table, the spoils of the career of a one-time Ivy League academic-turned-touring musician in a cheeky funk duo that will make you long for a packed and sweaty dance floor. I became interested in these select material possessions that you can keep for a long time, pass on to other people, and that have a timeless, vintage quality about them, Macklovitch says. I was always into record collecting, I always loved vintage cars as a kid. With watches, I liked the craftsmanship and I wanted to learn more about that. So there was enough mystique and aura around the...
New Vintage Watches In The HODINKEE Shop
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? Email us at [email protected]?with some photos. Want to sell your pre-owned watch? Click?here. This Week's Vintage Watches On the heels of Presidents' Day here in the US, the vintage team developed a bit of theme around gold. As Laurie Sprague's Weekend Edition highlighted, our US presidents have been drawn to the precious yellow metal be it Vulcain Crickets or Rolex Day-Dates. Back in 2014, Eric Wind started his Com...
HODINKEE Reference Points Weekend Edition
Mapping and understanding the lineage of iconic watches is the guiding principle behind the HODINKEE original series Reference Points. Designed to make us smarter, well-informed, and C depending on who you trap in a conversation about the minutiae of the Zenith El Primero, for example C either more interesting or deeply, deeply nerdy. One of our most-requested article types, Reference Points is also among the most difficult to put together and write. The time, effort, and resources required to partner with experts to source rare examples of legendary watches and document them with professional video and photography lend the original series its own rarified qualit...
The Tudor Black Bay 58 Is NOT A Rolex Submariner Alternative
We're living in a time where watch enthusiasm appears to be as mainstream as it's ever been. But I fear something dangerous is afoot. In the small club we've built for ourselves, the one where we talk about watches all day and all night, we've begun to develop something of a hive mind. It's part of the reason why Rolex steel sport watches have become relatively unattainable, and why pricing on the secondary market is so bullish. The demand is there, and the demand isn't for one watch in particular, but rather a string of watches, all in the same case material, that offer similar sportiness, on bracelets from a brand whose logo resembles a king's hat (some might s...
EXCLUSIVE: The Watches In Wes Anderson's 'The French Dispatch
On a plateau overlooking the Charente river lies the French town known as Angoulme. Between 2018 and 2019, Wes Anderson and his players C some of the finest actors in the world C descended upon the small metropolis, took over one of its hotels, and began production on The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun (2021). And that's not hyperbole. Much like he did when filming his previous feature, The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Anderson quite literally reserved an entire hotel for himself and his cast. Any vacant rooms were to remain vacant. Even a private chef was brought in to prepare all the meals. But the crew? They were not invited inside the exc...
NOMOS Celebrates 30 Years Of The Tangente
The first release of the year from our friends at NOMOS is a rather straightforward update to the flagship Tangente, offered in two case sizes (35mm and 39mm), and featuring what the German company is calling a "platinum grey" dial. Inside both case options is the in-house developed and produced DUW 3001 movement, a time-only, ultra-thin self-winding caliber with small seconds at six o'clock.? These two watches are a great example of NOMOS at its very best C?the new Tangente Platinum Grey is just as elegant, wearable, and technically interesting as any Tangente we've ever seen. Plus, in chatting with the folks at NOMOS' Berlin-ba...
VIDEO: Grahame Fowler's Unrivaled Collection Of Vintage Rolex Divers
Grahame Fowler isn't new to HODINKEE, and he certainly isn't new to watches. Far from it, in fact. He is one of the consummate watch collectors on the planet and one of the early adopters of vintage military watches as objects of collectibility. He began his career in 1980s England, at a time when old (parlance of the times) military watches were sold by the tray-load in flea markets like London's famed Portobello Road. He developed his specific taste during that time C that being battle-tested, honest, and commissioned mil-spec watches from brands like Rolex and Omega. As you might have seen from a video we published almost a de...
A Worldtime Watch From Moritz Grossmann
It's not the first name most people would think of, but I genuinely consider Moritz Grossmann to be one of the most inventive watchmakers working today. The last time the German company appeared on HODINKEE, in 2019, Jack highlighted and broke down the technical merits behind the Hamatic, Moritz Grossmann's anachronistic, self-winding movement that renovates the hammer winding system for a new era and that I find incredibly compelling.? Moritz Grossmann returns today with the Universalzeit, a world-time-adjacent wristwatch that builds on the brand's previously released GMT watch. The Universalzeit features a remarkable new modula...
Six Underappreciated Rolex Watches
It's easy to spend all our time focused on the latest and greatest releases C?everyone wants the new, shiny release. In the meantime, plenty of great watches are glossed over. And while we won't say any Rolex watch is particularly underappreciated these days, there are certain watches that deserve your attention more than others. Our friends in the HODINKEE Shop curated a small selection of recent additions that we think fit those parameters rather nicely. These watches are all classics, yes, but they're a mixture of last-gen references, discontinued models, and even current-production examples that we think deserve a closer look.? Head over to the HODINKEE Shop ...
Phillips Perpetual Announces A. Lange & Sohne Exhibition
Earlier this week, the team at Phillips reached out to let us know about a pretty exciting exhibition they have opening in a few weeks. From March 9-14, 2022, Phillips Perpetual, the auction house's London-based private-sale platform, will be opening its doors to present a one-of-a-kind selection of early A. Lange & Sohne wristwatches to the public in "Made in Germany, A Tribute To The Early Lange 1 And Datograph." A. Lange & Sohne Datograph Ref. 403.032, released in 2010 As the title says, the curated collection of over 20 wristwatches will focus entirely on ultra-rare examples of the Lange 1 and Datograph, the two wa...
An Early Royal Oak Sketch Breaks Half A Million At Sotheby's
A little over two months ago, we shared the news that Sotheby's and Grald Genta's estate C led by his wife,?Evelyne Genta C?would be auctioning off 100 of Genta's original sketches, across three sales, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his most famous creation, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak. That brings us to this morning. It was just past 7:00 AM in New York on February 24, when the 31 lots in the first "Grald Genta: Icon of Time" sale began to close. Our attention was focused on the first lot, an "Original prototype design of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak," executed as a watercolor on paper by Genta, circa 1972. The final price? A cool CHF 564,500, or US...
HODINKEE Editor in Chief Jack Forster reviews the Louis Vuitton Tambour Light Up smartwatch
So here's the thing.?You might not believe it (especially if you've seen me in a couple of episodes of Hey, HODINKEE!) but once upon a time, back when Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth, I used to go to the club. Okay, not that often. Okay, hardly ever. Okay, I went to Area twice and 54 once. Anyway, the point is that when I was in the going-out-on-the-regular phase of my life, though I was really more of a dive-bar-with-a-pool-table-and-morosely-quoting-poetry kind of Jack than a club kid (my Baudelarian going-out uniform was filthy Chucks and a hundred-dollar Schott biker jacket from Canal Jeans) I nonetheless have direct personal experience of the club. And if you're currently in the club phase of...
Glashtte Original's Panorama Date Is The Best In The Business
One of the very few things that unite watch collectors today is a general distaste for date windows. It's become almost a caricature of a criticism across forums and social media alike, reliable meme fodder that crosses language barriers and price points. It's just as easy to tease the presence of?an intrusive date window on a Seiko 5 as it is on a Patek Philippe Grand Complication when you're anonymous and online. I'm here today to put an end to the date wars, or at least to proclaim a temporary victor. Enough is enough! We've gotten to a point where we've forgotten to celebrate when a date complication is executed thoughtfully and with consideration for the end...
The Royal Oak made Thom Bettridge like watches.
In Watch of the Week, we invite HODINKEE staffers and friends to explain why they love a certain piece. This week's columnist is the editor-in-chief of Highsnobiety. For the first 30 years of my life, many who knew me were surprised to learn that I didnt own a single wristwatch. I have always been a fan of nice stuff. And as that fascination swelled in a career editing a style publication (and even writing a column called The Materialist), my timepiece apathy seemed all the more out of character. I have too many other things I like blowing my money on, I used to tell anyone who asked. But if you pried further, I might have gi...
Dr. Strange Wears A Watch You Would Never Expect
Meet Dr. Stephen Strange, New York celebrity surgeon. He is to the medical practice what Tony Stark is (well, was) to everything else. He has the sick NYC apartment, the car, the fame, and an impressive watch collection, to boot. But one fateful night behind the wheel of his Lamborghini changes everything. Strange goes from head of surgery to patient facing life-altering paralysis. With few alternatives to return to his pre-accident form, he makes a pilgrimage to Kamar-Taj (HQ for the Masters of the Mystic Arts, located in Kathmandu) C in a last-ditch effort to undergo what he thinks are spiritual and homeopathic treatments. What he finds there is much more than ...
Watches, Cars, and Jonny Lieberman
This week's episode features a lengthy and very entertaining chat with my man Cole and one of our favorite personalities from the car world, Jonny Lieberman. As a long-standing editor with MotorTrend, a podcast host, an excellent Instagram follow, and an ever-growing watch nerd, we had a blast talking with Jonny about the overlap between watches and cars.? From his start with G-Shocks and a Panerai of dubious origin to his upcoming foray behind the wheel at Pikes Peak and a handful of the weirdest car/watch collaborations, it was so much fun to have Jonny on the show and I highly recommend checking out The InEVitable (a podcast for Mot...