Best Super NEWS Watches
History Of The Cartier Tank Must
On a rainy day in late February, I made a pilgrimage to Cartier's glimmering New York flagship on Fifth Avenue. The store is swathed in wood, like an old library that happens to be filled with jewelry instead of books. It looks like the physical embodiment of the Cartier I've always held in my mind, a genteel brand for ladylike patricians who value diamond-encrusted cases, delicate proportions, one puff too many of a floral perfume. But of course, these days the brand has a much wider audience. So wide, in fact, that the store requires a nightclub-style red rope to corral all of us into a tidy line. The Must De Cartier from ...
Vintage Watches: Trend Report, The Year So Far
We have arrived at our first break in the HODINKEE Vintage 2022 calendar. In a year where we are pacing to list more vintage watches to the site than ever before, a breather sounds nice right about now. After years of hearing from many members of the HODINKEE community that our vintage drops simply sold out too fast, this year we aimed to offer more without sacrificing quality C more of the watches that we hear about the most, more Datejusts, more Submariners, more Daytonas, more Patek. As a vintage team, we aimed to hit the point where someone could log on to the site and find themselves a vintage Speedmaster any day of the week, not just Wednesday. A ...
In 1948, shortly after WWII, both IWC and Jaeger-LeCoultre created watches to British Ministry of Defence (MoD) specification known by the moniker "Mark XI." The JLC version was short-lived, fizzling out around the early 1950s, while the model from the International Watch Co. lasted another three decades, until roughly 1981. That watch has gone on to considerable fame and collectibility. Its 36mm sizing has invoked comparisons to the iconic 1016 Rolex Explorer, only with real battle-tested use. Much like the Omega Speedmaster, it had an iconic manual-winding movement by way of the Caliber 89. IWC hasn't lost sight of the importance that the watch plays in its leg...
Five Pre-owned Skeleton Watches
We've gathered a collection of skeleton and openworked watches in the HODINKEE Shop because some movements beckon to be viewed from both sides. They're just too cool to relegate to the caseback. With brands from Cartier to TAG Heuer, this collection isn't really a skeleton crew, either. There's something for everyone, including a wide range of price points and types of watches. From watches whose displays reveal an expanse of their movement to those with calibers conceived to let in lots of light, we have you covered.? Zenith Chronomaster El Primero Full Open When we think about the most important watch movements of the modern era, Zenith...
TAG Heuer's Orange Diver Is Pure '70s Cool
Here at HODINKEE, we've spent the better part of 2022 lauding TAG Heuer's decision to bring back a 40mm option into its diver range. The Aquaracer Outdoors, also known as the 40mm Aquaracer, took us all by surprise and left us grinning. When Watches & Wonders hit, TAG brought out yet another entry into that 40mm fray by way of the Solargraph C a solar-powered diver with an all-black aesthetic and a unique take on luminous treatment. Needless to say, we loved that one, too. But it would be naive to think that TAG, the brand known for large divers for the better part of the last decade, would just stop playing in that sandbox. And so we saw something in Geneva ...
HODINKEE Three on Three Returns
After a two-year hiatus, Three on Three is back. And for our big reboot episode, we're getting philosophical. In the old days, we'd pick a strict, quantifiable criteria (por ejemplo: Best mechanical watches under $1k) and have three people compare three different watches that hit the mark. Nothing wrong with that approach. But over the years, we've learned that a lot of folks collect for more abstract reasons. For instance, they want a special watch to celebrate a personal milestone C that's it, that's the criteria. In that spirit, we gathered three women to discuss watches that say "success." Any watch, new or vintage, was eligi...
The new G-Shock GA-B2100 Adds Serious Functionality To The CasiOak Design
We woke up this morning to a pretty exciting update from our colleagues in Japan at HODINKEE.jp: G-Shock will soon be releasing an updated and improved version of its contemporary cult classic, the "CasiOak." The releases will fall under the new GA-B2100 reference banner C?signifying an upgrade over the original GA-2100 from 2019 C?and will be outfitted with two of G-Shock's key 21st-century developments C Bluetooth connectivity to the G-SHOCK Connected smartphone app and Tough Solar charging, which will allow a watch to run indefinitely in the presence of light, without the need for a new battery.? Five GA-B2100 color alternativ...
Five Fun And Functional New Releases From Sinn
During my recent trip to Geneva for Watches & Wonders, I happily carved out a few minutes to leave the Palexpo with Logan and swing by "Time To Watches," an auxiliary watch brand exhibition in Geneva. The show featured booths for several great brands but I was admittedly most interested in the latest from one of my favorite brands, Sinn. Sinn announced several new and updated models this spring and I was thrilled to get a chance to see many of the new offerings and combine them into a sort of summary of what stood out for me. Here are the highlights. EZM 1.1 S To celebrate...
HODINKEE Weekend Report Case Materials Other Than Steel
For almost the entire time I've been at HODINKEE, when it comes to case materials there has been steel and everything else. It's not hard to understand why. Steel is cheap (you can buy a kilo of 316L stainless steel for less than ten bucks depending on where you buy from) it's tough, relatively easy to machine, and doesn't have some of the versatility problems that materials like gold and platinum can have. There is something about it that appeals to our love of the rugged individualist C steel, if it were an action movie star, would be Harrison Ford, with a vibe of, "I don't want any trouble but if you push it you're gonna find out I'm tougher than I look." Howe...
What Watch Did Paul Rudd Wear in 'Ghostbusters: Afterlife'?
We live in an age C cinematically speaking C where intellectual property is king. Studios are bought and sold based on what franchises exist in-house. It's why Disney bought Lucasfilm (Star Wars and Indiana Jones). It's also the reason Paramount+ is set to release a making-of-The Godfather series, and why Amazon will no doubt spin-off the James Bond series in all manner of directions. But sometimes, a reboot, or retooling, of a movie franchise comes from a more personal place. Such is the case with Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021). I actually can't believe I typed that sentence, but it's true. I was hesitant to even watch the film, after seeing the Spielberg-esque ...
As our weekly column Watching Movies recently celebrated its first birthday, I thought it might be a good time to take a closer look at the series and some of the great watches featured within. Joining me for this silver screen-themed episode is the creator of the series, Danny, along with Nora and Cole.? We dig into why watch spotting is so much fun, how watches get picked for movies, our dream watch-specific roles, and some of the hardest spots covered in the series. Thanks so much for listening and for helping Watching Movies celebrate this milestone. Here's to many more years of perfect pauses and eagle-eyed spots.? ...
Old-school Subteley With The Omega CK 859
Of the several new models that Omega recently previewed in Miami, one reference stood out among the deep-diving Ultra Deep and increasingly colorful Aqua Terras and Speedmasters. It's the new CK 859, and in a room full of bright and boisterous sports watches, this classically-minded and comparatively demure model managed something remarkable C it stood out because of its subtlety. Sure, the big divers and vibrant dials will always be the ones to grab headlines, but for those of us with a taste for old-school design, the CK 859 offers a compelling blend of Omega's past design brilliance and its modern-day watchmaking excellence. ...
Atelier Wen Perception Series Watches
Watch manufacturing in China is a massive industry. It's an open secret that many components used in popular watches can come from the middle kingdom, along with entire watches from many well-known microbrands C and not to mention packaging, straps, and watch-related accessories. But the Western watch world doesn't necessarily celebrate Chinese manufacturing in the same way we do Swiss, German, and Japanese production. Atelier Wen is looking to change that. The brand boasts the tagline "Proudly made in China" and produces watches that blend elements of French know-how and Chinese design motifs and ideology. It was born when two w...
The Jaeger-LeCoultre Rendez-Vous Dazzling Star, Introduced At Watches & Wonders 2022
Much has been made in recent years, here and elsewhere, about the fact that calling a watch a men's watch or women's watch is usually unhelpful C people will wear what they want when they want, especially when it comes to something as conspicuously non-essential as a mechanical watch. One place the difference does play out, however, is in the making of complicated watches and sometimes you will see a very nifty complication used in a timepiece billed as a ladies' watch which you would not see in a typical so-called men's watch. It's almost as if the category gives a watch brand and its designers a feeling of freedom to come up with something unexpected and ingenious that they wouldn't necess...
HODINKEE Interview With Ginny Wright
As the watch industry explodes, there's more interest than ever in the professionals behind the scenes. In this new series, we meet the creatives, executives, and other power players who make the business tick. Click here to read our first two installments. For the past year, watch-industry newcomer Ginny Wright has been steering the almost-always-sold-out ship at Audemars Piguet. It's an admittedly strange position for a new CEO to find herself in C with a product in so much demand that it basically sells itself, how can an executive really move the needle? Wright, who came to AP from the luxury apothecary Kiehl's, has decided she's ...
Laurent Martinez's Favorite Watches
The problem with a lot of watch books is that they're not about reading so much as they are about, well, flipping. Laurent Martinez, who's as serious about books as he is about watches, thought about that and took a different approach.?A fifty-five-year-old French-born dealer of specimen watches and a consultant to the Wright Gallery's watch department, Martinez has just self-published his own book C Timepieces, A Lifelong Love and Passion; An Insider's Guide to Watches and Tips for Watch Collecting C?and though it isn't intended to be a groundbreaking work of literature, it is, as an advice book about watch collecting, refreshingly personal and deep. Timepieces ...
The Nevadian Collector Is An Incredible Patek Philippe Auction
The spring auction season is officially here! I'll be headed out to Geneva in a little over a week to bring you live coverage of the auctions at Phillips, Sotheby's, and Christie's, but before the spotlight shines over to Switzerland and Royal Oak mania (here and here), it's worth poking our lens over to Hong Kong, where this coming Monday (April 25) Sotheby's will be auctioning off one of the more impressive single-collector sales of vintage Patek Philippe watches in recent memory. Billed as the "Nevadian Collector," the sale consists of 40 total wristwatches and pocket watches C all but two lots are Patek Philippe C?and the level of historical significance is i...
A Hands-On Review Of The New Zenith Chronomaster Open
It's not often we see watch companies returning to the early- to mid-2000s era of watchmaking for inspiration. Although vintage reissues are a dime a dozen these days, watches typically don't commemorate the early years of the 21st century, when enthusiasm for high-end mechanical watches was just beginning to expand beyond its '90s status as a cultural niche. Zenith was, like many brands at the time, growing. It had been acquired by LVMH in 1999, and in 2001 new leadership was installed in the form of CEO Thierry Nataf. The Nataf era at Zenith lasted until 2009 and C?to put it nicely C?it isn't a period generally looked at favora...
Why Jonny Lieberman Likes The Seiko Tuna
In Watch of the Week, we invite HODINKEE staffers and friends to explain why they love a certain watch. This week's columnist is a veteran of the automotive media industry C Senior Features Editor at MotorTrend, host of The InEVitable podcast, and co-host of Spike's Car Radio. I have big wrists and like things that are overengineered. If I were a vehicle, I'd be a Mercedes G-Wagen. So it's probably not surprising that I've fallen hard for the massive chonk of a dive watch currently residing on my left wrist: The Seiko Prospex Marinemaster Professional Automatic 1000M SBDX014, better known to watch geeks as the Emperor Tuna. ...
Benjamin Lowry is a former Coast?Guardsman and commercial diver. He's written extensively about dive watches at A Blog To Watch. When it comes to technical diving, he's the real deal. He also runs a popular instagram account, @submersiblewrist, that looks at the intersection of horology and commercial/military diving. There are no waves. No scenic beaches. No coral. No shipwrecks or treasure. Visibility conditions are poor. The water is 33 degrees according to a thermometer I zip-tied to my harness for the dive supervisor's benefit. The only fish I have seen over the course of the last three hours was a visibly-dead example of what I believe to be a walleye, roll...