Best Super NEWS Watches
Everything You Need To Know About Swatch
The Moonswatch may have been one of the biggest stories in the horological world in the last six months, but one of the companies behind it, Swatch, has been making headlines for nearly 40 years. Founded in 1983 C squarely within the Quartz Crisis of the '70s and 80s C Swatch was created to be the antithesis of its more established and historically ingrained European watchmaking competitors. The watches were inexpensive, battery-powered, and quartz-regulated. They were designed to be casual, fashionable-yet-disposable (i.e., plastic-cased) accessories. Swatch was also a powerful Swiss-based response to Japanese upstart Seiko, who was battering those larger Swiss ...
For a long time, I thought the whole "summer watch" thing was completely bogus. What makes a watch any better for summer? Sure, the weather is warm, and conditions are different from, say, winter (when it's, you know, cold and snowy), but what does your watch have to do with that??What about regions of the world where it stays hot year-round? Are they limited to wearing a summer watch for the entire year??For a long time, this whole thing didn't make any sense to me. But over the past few months it finally clicked. A summer watch isn't entirely about the design of the watch itself, but the attitude around wearing a watch. A summer watch is, as the kids say, a vib...
We Know The Watch Brad Pitt Wears In "Bullet Train"
In the new and patently ridiculous action flick Bullet Train, Brad Pitt plays a contract criminal on a simple snatch-and-grab job to secure a briefcase containing $10 million. The case is located on, yes, a bullet train. Pitt receives contemporaneous instructions from his handler over the phone and his job is to get on at one station, grab the goods, and get off at the next. Seeing as this is a movie C something like Kill Bill meets Kung-Fu Hustle C I am sure you can guess that nothing goes to plan. Instead, Pitt is left to deal with a train full of criminals all unknowingly caught up in an impossibly intertwined scenario. ...
Waitlisted's Ming 20.09 Tourbillon
Lead image, Mark Kauzlarich.In?Watch of the Week, we invite HODINKEE staffers and friends to explain why they love a certain watch. This week's columnist is the talented photographer James K., also known as @waitlisted. This is, ostensibly, a story about a watch: the Ming 20.09 Tourbillon.? If your first thought upon seeing this watch was "I didn't know Ming even made a tourbillon," well, you would be forgiven. No big announcement preceded the 20.09's gestation or release, and only 10 pieces exist. It's the latest watch to emerge from Ming's Special Projects Cave, the division under which the brand pursues ambitious, experimental, pro...
Grand Seiko's New 36.5mm Watch Is A Game-Changer
Earlier this year, Grand Seiko released the Heritage Collection 44GS 55th Anniversary Limited Edition C a pink dial stunner with a smaller-than-usual 36.5mm case sizing. Most looked at this and thought it to be a watch specifically tailored for a female watch buyer (due to the dial color). Some thought the watch was flat-out cool for any gender, and was also a promising sign of things to come. GS has now delivered on the promise, adding two new dial variations of that same design to the heritage collection. Only they aren't limited editions. The new models in silver (SBGW291) and chocolate (SBGW293) sunray dial configurations are permanent additions C here to stay. ...
This Keyboardists Collection Hits All The Right Notes
Hero image by Day19 Minneapolis rock band Motion City Soundtrack has a hit single called "My Favorite Accident." Maybe you've heard it, or seen the video that has almost 2 million streams on YouTube, driven by crunchy riffs from guitarist Josh Cain. Anyway, in live performances of that song, right after frontman Justin Pierre belts out "Inside the times we never had right /Inside two years alone with you" there's a quick pause before the next big drop. In that pause, keyboardist Jesse Johnson goes fully inverted, doing a handstand on his Moog synthesizer, throwing a kick, and landing just as the song picks back up and the crowd goes wild. ...
The CIGA Design Blue Planet Is The GPHG's First Chinese Winner
November 2021. I was sitting in a crowded amphitheater in the heart of Geneva when the well-heeled Swiss crowd suddenly started to murmur. We were all attending the watch industry's annual awards ceremony, the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genve (GPHG), and the winner of the "Challenge Watch Prize" C?for the best-nominated watch with a retail price below CHF 3,500 C had just been announced. For the first time in the GPHG's 21-year history, the show had a winner from outside the traditional horological meccas in Europe and Japan. Overcoming a crowded field of mostly Swiss-made timekeepers, a small company named CIGA Design became the first Chinese company ever to be...
Fratello Watches Teams Up With Louis Moinet
What happens when a Netherlands-based group of watch lovers and writers teams up with one of the most historic names in chronographs? The new Fratello Louis Moinet Memoris Spirit 40 Chronograph Limited Edition.? Louis Moinet is a high-end independent Swiss watchmaker we haven't covered too often on HODINKEE in the past, but the new Memoris Spirit 40 Chronograph is providing plenty of reasons to stop and stare. Building on the company's long-standing flagship chronograph family, the latest version of the Memoris Spirit utilizes Louis Moinet's just-announced 40mm case design in titanium, which measures a full six millimeters sma...
A Hands-On Review of the Zenith Defy Midnight
I have been wearing the Zenith Defy Midnight Borealis for a month. For more than 30 wonderful days I have sunk into the richness of its blue-to-green gradient guilloche? dial. I have grinned glassy-eyed at the light playing on its diamond indices and bezel. I have watched its hair-thin seconds hand, ballasted by a small sharp star, make its way past the logo C which itself is rather starry. At first, I thought this watch had too much color for me. Not necessarily the intensity of color, but the two-tone aspect of it. Don't get me wrong, I accepted the loan graciously, but thought the plain blue, multi-star-studded Defy Midnight would be more my speed. But as so o...
Seiko Expands The Prospex Speedtimer Line With The SRQ043
Announced just today, the Seiko SRQ043 is an expansion of the Speedtimer line within the brand's ever-growing Prospex collection. Based around an automatic chronograph movement rocking both a column wheel and a vertical clutch, the SRQ043 sports a blue dial with red accents and it is not a limited edition.? Much like the pre-exisiting SRQ035, 037, and the limited edition SRQ041, the Speedtimer SRQ043 has a steel case measuring 42.5mm across, 15.1mm thick, and 50 mm lug to lug. The case, as well as the included steel bracelet, have been treated to Seiko's Super-Hard coating and the SRQ043 also includes a calf leather strap.? ...
Notification Nonchalance With The Timex X Adsum MK1
Ever get tired of all the notifications? The red dots, flashing LEDs, and haptic buzzing of a life over-connected? For those who might wish to pare down and live in the moment, Timex has just announced a collaboration with Adsum (a Brooklyn-based apparel brand) that offers subtle tweaks on their MK1 field watch alongside a philosophical campaign that encourages the owner to be present and to enjoy a watch that is meant to melt into the background of your day. As the marketing tagline says, "Know the time without seeing you have 1249 unanswered emails."? Given that the mere concept of having that many unopened emails is enough to ...
The Best Watch Under $200 Is The Orient Bambino
It's been about seven years C like three years shy of an entire decade C since we decreed that the Seiko SKX007 was the no-brainer best value in automatic watches. It reigned mightily as king. And we were its loyal subjects. Today, with the SKX long since discontinued, the best value in watches is the forum darling from a well-known Japanese brand with a tangential connection to Seiko. That's right, it's the Orient FAC00008W0 C also known as the Orient Bambino. This watch in particular is the Bambino Version Two. There's a big difference between the Bambino and the SKX. The Seiko was an ISO-rate...
A Week On The Wrist: With The Neomatik 41 Update, NOMOS Puts A Ring On It
Last year, the German watch brand NOMOS released a Bauhaus-style piece called the Metro Neomatik 41 Update. I've had my eye on it ever since. In fact, once you notice what's going on with the design, it's hard to take your eyes off of it. While a lot of brands retread their heritage C to the point where a major design change constitutes moving around some dial text or enlarging the case size by a millimeter C NOMOS genuinely tries to push things forward. Check out that date ring around the circumference of the dial. NOMOS says it's "reminiscent of a series of small metro train carriages" with the two neon orange carriages framing...
Second Opinions: If You Really Love a Watch, Give it Away
In April of this year, my friend Mike walked by a vintage watch shop in downtown Zurich. In the window was a 1971 Omega Seamaster in yellow gold. A thousand fine scratches gave the metal a matte finish; the dial was the color of pale Champagne. Mike was instantly infatuated. He didn't mind C?or even bother translating C?the German inscription on the caseback: Herrn Fritz Jakob, Fur 25 Jahre Treue Mitarbeit. Mike walked out with the watch on his wrist. Later that day, his girlfriend deciphered the engraving: Mr. Fritz Jakob, For 25 Years of Loyal Cooperation. Mike called me immediately. "Can you believe this shit?" he asked. ...
Vintage Rewind: Rolex GMT-Master Reference Points
To view the entire current selection of vintage watches available in the HODINKEE Shop, click here. Certainly one of the most recognizable Rolex models in any iteration and maybe among the most iconic wristwatches ever produced, the GMT-Master is always worth an extended look. From the very first reference 6542 all the way to the modern "Pepsi," "Batman," and "Batgirl," Rolex has expertly used color to create an undeniably great GMT watch. Starting and ending in the classic "Pepsi" (or "Pan-Am") red and blue, the tones of the GMT-Master have varied to include black, gold, and a few shades of brown. Wi...
Weekend Edition: Photo Reports
If a picture is worth 1,000 words, then the Photo Report format has saved us all from a lot of reading while offering a specific and often rare glimpse into the wide world of watches. As something of a dilettante photographer myself, I adore creating these posts as they commonly combine several of my passions into one (hopefully beautiful) collection of images that provide a visual context for watches and watch enthusiasts.? For this image-intensive Weekend Edition, we've collected a wide array of special Photo Reports that show the breadth of the format and also that of watch enthusiasm as a whole. As many of y...
Emeril Lagasse's Watch Collection
Welcome to '90s Week, where we're revisiting the raddest (and most underrated) watches of the decade, plus the trends and innovations that defined the end of the 20th century. Plug in your dial-up modem and grab a Crystal Pepsi.?We'll be here all week. Photo Courtesy of Emeril's Homebase Photo Courtesy of Emeril's Homebase I grew up in a household where my mother watched soap operas like EastEnders and my dad watched 60 Minutes and cooking shows on the Food Network. And by cooking shows I mean Emeril Live. In my mind, Emeril made the Food Network.?His was t...
Hey, dude.? In case the headline didn't give it away, we're diving into the watches and watch culture of the 1990s. Believe it or not, '90s now means vintage (or at least "neo-vintage"), so it's an opportune time to reconsider the timepieces that came about in the age of Kurt Cobain and Drakkar Noir C?the last decade before the internet changed everything.? This week we'll revisit the most significant C and most underrated C 1990s watches, tracing the evolutions, icons, and grails of the decade that is somehow thirty years ago. We're kicking things off this morning with a direct-to-VHS movie (aka YouTube video) starring James, D...
The Curious Case Of Swatch's Most Extravagant Watch Ever
Welcome to '90s Week, where we're revisiting the raddest (and most underrated) watches of the decade, plus the trends and innovations that defined the end of the 20th century. Plug in your dial-up modem and grab a Crystal Pepsi.?We'll be here all week. Swatch knows how to throw a birthday party.?When the Swiss maker of colorful, affordable, and mostly plastic-cased quartz watches turned 10 years old in 1993, there was no Fudgie the Whale cake to celebrate. Swatch opted to commemorate the moment with the Tresor Magique, arguably the most expensive and luxurious Swatch ever made. Bada-bing, bada-boom, Swatch was growing up right in front of everyone's eyes. ...
What Watch Does Owen Wilson Wear In 'Secret Headquarters?'
In the Marvel era, movies have lost some of their originality. It's all about existing IP, which means we rarely get a surprise C especially in the summer. This year has given me a bit of hope, though. From Everything Everywhere All At Once to last week's featured movie, Bullet Train, it seems like this sort of filmmaking is on the rebound. We're not talking Oscar bait, but rather the kind of entertainment where you can shut off your brain and ram popcorn fiercely into your face. That's what Secret Headquarters, the latest film from Henry Joost and Ariel (Rel) Schulman (of Catfish fame), is all about. It's a modern day childhood adventure movie, almost in the mol...