Best Super NEWS Watches
AP Royal Oak Ref. 16202 In White Gold C Review
Just over a year ago, Audemars Piguet made a mammoth C albeit possibly long overdue C change to its most iconic watch: The AP Royal Oak Jumbo. We said goodbye to the ref. 15202 and hello to the ref. 16202. The proportions of the new watch stayed the same (see Ben Clymer's reaction last year), but the movement inside was completely overhauled. The 16202 was launched in four metals: steel, yellow gold, rose gold, and platinum. Conspicuously absent from the fray (besides titanium) was white gold. That changes today. AP has unveiled a new addition to the 16202 lineup with the ref. 16202BC.OO.1240BC.02 (try memorizing that one) C a 39...
Among the myriad releases we expect to see from Audemars Piguet this year, few are as anticipated as watches made to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the Royal Oak Offshore. The Offshore has always stood on its own as the unapologetically burly, often weird, and even sometimes unwieldy sibling of the Royal Oak family. That is until today.? With the announcement of the newest Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Chronograph in black ceramic alongside a brand-new Royal Oak Concept Split-Seconds Chronograph GMT, two very wild and intense watches. Royal Oak Concept Split-Seconds Chronograph GMT. ...
Introducing: The Devil-Horned Richard Mille Priced For Rockstars
Richard Mille knows how to get conversations started on the world-wide-watch-web. Whether you love the brand or hate it, you're bound to feel something when confronted with a picture of a new RM release on your Instagram feed. Which kind of means they're doing something right. This latest model is anything but short of divisive. At first glance, the RM66 ?"Horn To Be Wild" looks like a watch made for two sides of extreme. Exhibit A : aging rockstar who wears deep v-neck t-shirts, skinny jeans and prayer beads, this rockstar once lived to beat the system, and now resides in a 20 million pound home in Kensington. Exhibit B: ?L.A. hypebeast decked out in Amiri with ...
Parmigiani Tonda PF Xiali Calendar
Parmigiani Fleurier has unveiled an incredible feat of technical achievement with the Xiali, a near-perpetual lunisolar caliber tracking the Chinese Traditional Complete Calendar that governs the dates for holidays in China and among the Chinese diaspora. This isn't the first Chinese calendar watch on the market but it's certainly the most striking. With an "Imperial red" guilloch dial and the signature Tonda PF finishing in brushed and polished steel with an integrated bracelet, the watch is a sporty design improvement on their Hijri (Islamic) calendar watch from 2020. That's right, this is not the ...
Introduction to the Breitling Navitimer Boeing 747 Limited Edition
If Breitling knows one thing, it's pilot's watches. ?Introduced in 1952, the Navitimer (that's "navigation timer"), would soon go on to become the official watch of the AOPA (Aircraft Owners and Pilot's Association; its logo is the winged crest at 12 o'clock). The larger diameter and chronograph made it a functional tool, while the slide rule was designed to allow pilots to perform any required flight calculations C?today, it continues to confound lookers-on with how it's actually used. Today, Breitling announced the Navitimer B01 Chronograph 43 Boeing 747, a limited edition of C?you guessed it! C?747 pieces to celebrate the end of the Boeing 747's production (th...
Vintage Watches: A Market Update And Trend Report Fresh Off The Original Miami Beach Antique Show
To view the entire current selection of vintage watches available in the Hodinkee Shop, click here. And now for something completely different. We're taking the week off from listing new-to-the-Hodinkee-Shop vintage watches to recap one of the hottest events in the North American watch world. Luckily, if you're reading this article and simply looking to add a great vintage watch to your collection, we still have plenty available including a 1971 Omega Seamaster 60 Ref. 166.062 and a 1997 Rolex Daytona Ref. 16520 With Full Set. Otherwise, let's hear from those who walked the trade show rows Cincluding collectors, writers, and dealers Cabout what they saw in Miami ...
Pre-Owned Picks Five Dive Watches Under $5,000
In 1953, Blancpain, Rolex, and Zodiac introduced the first watches purpose-built for diving. These were tool watches meant to be used in the very new hobby of SCUBA diving, a term that was only a year older than the watches themselves.? Early dive watches didn't have the water resistance we expect today. Blancpain called its watch the Fifty Fathoms and 50 fathoms is only 91.44 meters, a far cry from today's typical 200 to 300 meters of water resistance. Dive watches took off, becoming a staple of James Bond, and a common accessory to army troops that could get a Rolex Submariner down at the PX. They were built tough and didn't need to be removed when swimming, sa...
Audemars Piguet Code 11.59 RD#4 Universelle Introduction
Four years in, it's clear the Code 11.59 by Audemars Piguet isn't going anywhere. Sarah introduced us to yesterday's new lineup of time-only and chronograph models, but this one's a little more complicated. Okay, a lot more complicated.? This is the new Code 11.59 Universelle RD#4. AP says its latest research and development watch is its first ultra-complicated automatic wristwatch: The Code 11.59 Universelle features the new AP Calibre 1000, which incorporates 40 functions, including 23 complications and 17 "technical devices." It's a stunning combination of much of the R&D we've seen trickling out of AP since 2015 when it introduced the RD#1, and the most c...
Welcome to our new weekend column. Think of this as a catch-up session for latecomers who were too 'busy living their lives' to consume every tiny morsel of watch content all week, and an extra helping for the true friends who just can't get enough. "New Watch Alert" will feature new watch releases from the week past, "In Case You Missed It" a collection of our favorites that deserve a second look, "Culture of Time" will highlight an interesting article from outside the Hodinkee universe, and "The Conversation" is where we respond to your comments. Grab your Saturday-morning coffee, and let's dig in. Hey all you cool cats and kittens, it's Mark Kauzlarich h...
Breitling SuperOcean Automatic 42 A17366 Review
Sure, Breitling might be most recognized C?and rightly so C?for its pilot's and aviation-inspired watches. But it didn't just leave exploring the depths of the oceans to its competitors. No, in 1957, Breitling introduced the SuperOcean, both as a time-only diver and (true to form) as a chronograph. Soon, it'd release other vintage models like the SuperOcean "Slow Motion" and the Chrono-Matic, now favorites of modern enthusiasts.? What we have here is the Breitling SuperOcean Automatic 42 A17366, a dive watch from 2019 measuring 42mm in diameter and 13.5mm in thickness. This modern SuperOcean is an impressive div...
The New Omega Speedmaster Super Racing
We're live from Omega HQ in Biel, Switzerland, where the brand unveiled a two-prong release: One part new watch, one part new technical innovation. Omega has been teasing a "tiny device" and that device was announced today as "Spirate." The trademarked word is a combination of two other words: Spiral (made from silicon) and the word Rate. The result is a patented new spiral technology with enhanced accuracy by way of a fine-tuning system that offers the ability to finesse the movement plus or minus 0.1 seconds per day resulting in a complete accuracy of 0/+2 seconds per day. From a methodological stan...
New Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph Black Ceramic
You may have noticed a lot of Offshores recently, and wouldn't you know it, it's the 30th Anniversary of this oversized beast of a lineup. As a fitting salute to the original, Audemars Piguet's has announced the first ever Royal Oak Offshore in black ceramic with matching ceramic bracelet, the new Selfwinding Chronograph ref. 26238C C now badder and bolder than ever.? This burly (42mm wide, 15.4mm thick) watch pulls from the greatest hits of AP's Offshores from the last 30 years?but in never-before-seen combinations. In addition to the new inclusion of a black ceramic bracelet, you'll notice a Petite Tapisserie dial pattern previ...
Audemars Piguet's Code 11.59 Selfwinding And Selfwinding Chronographs C Now In Steel.
Four long years have passed and the Code 11.59 is still the new kid on the block, but it has grown out of its weird-looking bald baby phase. The core of the watch remains the same as what AP released in 2019; the Selfwinding houses the 4302 movement, and the Selfwinding Chronograph, the 4401. ?But it is growing into a more appealing toddler whose parents are dressing it up in smart new outfits.? These new releases offer three new colors in stainless steel cases.?They have guilloche dials with a concentric circle pattern, and each version comes in a deep, dark green, a dark blue (Bleu Nuit, Nuage 50, ?which is a popular Royal Oak ...
Review of Three Ultra-Thin Perpetual Calendars From Patek, Vacheron, and Audemars Piguet
At the Miami Beach Antique Show, I had the opportunity to stack a trio of watches I'd always wanted next to each other C the original ultra-thin automatic perpetual calendars from the so-called Holy Trinity, Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe, and Vacheron Constantin (it's a mouthful, so let's call 'em QPs, French for perpetual calendars). Even today, in 2023, I want a QP. It's so romantic and anachronistic and unnecessary C I can think of no better use for a mechanical wristwatch today than tracking the leap year as if the answer weren't a ChatGPT query away (Google is so 2022). Once quartz made mechanical watches essentially useless in the '70s, it feels lik...
Hands-On: The Synchron Poseidon
Following the sell-out performance of the oh-so-seventies Military, Sycnhron is back with another vintage-inspired dive watch called the Poseidon. Forging a direct link with the famed Swedish diving equipment manufacturer, Poseidon Dive Systems, this new limited edition offering is the civilian side of a dive watch project that saw Synchron and Poseidon designing a watch that will be tested by the Swedish Armed Forces. Offered in two versions and sporting an unexpected movement, the Poseidon picks up precisely where the Military left off. That is, somewhere in the seventies.? Using the same (or a very similar) case design as that...
Photo Reports: All The Speedmasters At Omega HQ
You may have heard that Omega made a big announcement about a tiny device yesterday. And you very well may have heard it from me. I spent the past two days in Biel C the location of Omega headquarters C for the reveal of the new in-house caliber 9920 as well as a new addition to the Speedmaster collection: The Super Racing. Say what you will about the watch itself, but Omega's new Spirate fine-tuning system is the beginning of a new chapter for the brand in terms of accuracy. Over the next few years, I look forward to seeing how this new regulation tool will be implemented across the product line. While I was there to cover the event, I figured I might as w...
Lunar New Year is traditionally the grandest ancient festival celebrating the beginning of spring. In the watch world, it is traditionally a time for rolling out watches depicting one of the dozen animals from the Chinese zodiac whose turn has come up. This year that animal is the rabbit, and wow do we have a lot of rabbit watches. This is exciting because rabbits are cute. I'm not saying watchmakers aren't up to making good pig or ox or rooster or rat watches. But rabbits? Rabbits are a win for everyone. Their appeal extends beyond the connection to the Lunar New Year and includes anyone with eyes and a heart. And that appeal only increases when one rabbit becom...
This story originally appeared in Hodinkee Magazine Japan Edition Vol. 5. The vintage watch boom swept Japan in the 1990s. Toshio Masui was a great watch dealer who supported this boom from behind the scenes and helped lay the foundation of the world-class Japanese vintage watch market. He is a well-known figure in the world of vintage watches, but not many people outside of the vintage world, even watch enthusiasts, know of him. He passed away in February 2022, unnoticed. This article is a memoir that traces his footsteps as a watch dealer and serves as a remembrance of a watch lover. Los Angeles and The American Dream ...
Why I Love the James Bond Seamaster from Goldeneye
In Watch of the Week, we invite HODINKEE staffers and friends to explain why they love a certain piece. This week's columnist is our very own Cole Pennington.? Goldeneye, released in 1995, was the first James Bond film where Pierce Brosnan sported an Omega Seamaster 300m Professional. Even at nine or 10 years old, I noticed the watch and thought it was cool. Older viewers would've known it represented a change. In the previous Bond film, 1989's License To Kill, Timothy Dalton wore Rolex. So did Sean Connery, back in his day. So did the literary Bond, in Ian Fleming's novels. I didn't know any of...
Introducing: The All-Titanium Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin 41mm
If you want to play the hits like AP, sometimes you have to consider a special remix, and the band from Le Brassus has just announced a special expression of the concept-only RD#2. This new model, which builds upon the success of a recent sibling sets the town with more titanium, less platinum, a new dial, and limited production. I'm in love.? Allow me to elaborate. The ultra-thin 41mm RD#2 was launched in platinum as a concept in 2018 (that watch can be seen below, it is supremely rare, equally cool, and very heavy on wrist). In 2019, AP announced the Royal Oak Selfwinding Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin RD#2 reference 26586IP.OO....