No products in the cart.
Best Super NEWS Watches
Outside of the watch enthusiast bubble C where mere mortals who verge on watch-curious roam free, unfettered by a memory backlog of reference numbers and caliber updates C the brand Jaeger-LeCoultre is synonymous with one very well-known watch: the Reverso. For those of us who understand a little more about the history of watchmaking, Jaeger-LeCoultre is equally as famous for its indispensable role in the evolution of mechanical watchmaking. I should preface this article by acknowledging that a deep dive into movement history isn't my usual MO. But this is Jaeger LeCoultre, a brand whose production of calibers is deeply rooted in...
Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Yusama 8- watch coffret
Unless you live a blissful, social media free existence or you truly do not care even the tiniest bit about luxury fashion brands, then you will have noticed the very splashy collaboration between Yayoi Kusama and Louis Vuitton which launched earlier this month. It's such an event that a monster-sized Kusama sculpture was planted on the flagship Champs-lyses Louis Vuitton store in Paris. Kusma towers over the Art Deco building, perched in place to cover the whole thing with giant-sized versions of her famous colored polka dots. Kusama is in her 90s. Still working and still relevant. She is kno...
An Introduction to Independent Watchmaker Xhevdet Rexhepi
When I finally get Xhevdet Rexhepi on the phone for a video call, he's sitting in his apartment in Geneva, a bike just visible in the background. He's joined by his girlfriend, Teresa, to help translate, though Xhevdet's English is more than serviceable, even when talking through things like movement architecture and artistic inspiration that can be hard to explain in any language. We're speaking a week after Xhevdet announced the Minute Inerte, the first watch he'll produce under his own name. Since the announcement, it's felt like Rexhepi has sat at the center of the independent watchmaking conversation. But the conversation is thankfully laid back C like the o...
Reading Time At HSNY: Hands Of The Clock, Hands In The Book
This article is the third in a new series, Reading Time at HSNY, written by HSNY's librarian, Miranda Marraccini. Find the first article here and the second here. Some might be tempted to think that all technology that exists today is digital, but as watch people, we know that watchmakers still use their handsCtheir digitsCto create intricate, accurate, and beautiful timepieces. As a new member in the world of horology, I'm interested in this kind of artisan labor, and as a librarian, I'm also interested in a different kind of handiwork: handwriting in old books, that shows how these books were used and loved. ...
Introducing the Grand Seiko SBGW295 titanium urushi dial
It was 1913, just one year after the death of Japan's Emperor Meiji and still in the early days of the Taish era, when Kintaro Hattori, the founder of Seiko, would make a bold move that would change the company forever. ?The "Laurel," Japan's first wristwatch, would set the company on the path to becoming a powerhouse of watchmaking worldwide.? Ever a fan of anniversaries, Grand Seiko is bringing back another iteration of its own "First," collectors' nickname for the ref. 3180, Grand Seiko's first watch released back in 1960. The new SBGW295 celebrates the anniversary of the Laurel with "Brilliant Hard Titanium" and Grand Seiko's quintessential touch of Japanese...
Record Swiss Watch Exports and MoonSwatch Sales In 2022
The numbers are in, and Swiss watch exports totaled CHF 23.7 billion in 2022, an 11.6 percent increase over the previous year, and an all-time high for the industry. This is according to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH), which last week reported its year-end figures for the wholesale value of Swiss watches exported. This rise is mainly due to an increase in the value of watches exported, not the volume. About 15.8 million units were exported in 2022, half the amount exported in 2000. But back in 2000, the Swiss were exporting primarily cheaper quartz watches (92 percent of exports were quartz). Mechanical watch exports have nearly tripled sin...
New Vintage Watches In The Hodinkee Shop
To view the entire current selection of vintage watches available in the Hodinkee Shop, click here. A batch of five new vintage watches hit the Hodinkee Shop on this, the first Wednesday of February. Vintage, as a category, is gathering some steam in the new year. Beyond the market thoughts to come out of The Original Miami Beach Antique Show, the category we call vintage has been in the news recently C at least here on the digital pages of Hodinkee. Be it Jaeger-LeCoultre's recent commitment to "The Collectibles," Tony Triana's thorough guide to the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, or Tag Heuer and Vulcain's heritage-inspired releases, it is abundantly clear that vintag...
Why My First 'Nice' Watch Was A Grand Seiko SBGW283
This is a story about what you want and what you can actually have that I think has a happy ending. A few months ago I realized that I had been in the watch world for almost two years. I'd started a nice little collection. I had a vintage Omega DeVille, a G-Shock, a Luch, and a Ruhla, which I got at a flea market in Hamburg for 40. I was ready for a real watch. I think the DeVille bordered on real watch, but what I guess I mean by "real" is financially painful. Financial pain comes at a relatively low threshold for me C I mean, at least compared to most watch lovers. I told myself that if I achieved...
The New Urwerk Jump Hour UR-112
The wild minds at Urwerk are back with a new limited edition blacked-out version of the brand's fully-digital display, the UR-112 Aggregat "Back to Black" in DLC-coated titanium and steel, a part of Urwerk's Special Project line. Hiding under an open-worked steel "bonnet" (hood for us Yanks) is a fully mechanical but wildly futuristic UR-13.01 caliber powering the digital display with jumping hours and a rotating barrel showing various five-minute intervals which trace vertically from top to bottom pointing to the number of minutes past that interval. The hood can also be fl...
So often technical innovations in watchmaking require a large swath of knowledge to truly be appreciated. Take, for instance, a silicon balance wheel, and what someone might think upon hearing those words. A silicon balance wheel? Neat! What's a balance wheel? Why do I care about silicon? Is it different than silicone?? As someone whose livelihood is tied to the click-click-clicking of watch-curious fingers, I hope that that balance wheel sets someone off on their watch-loving journey. But! It is occasionally fun, thrilling even, in its own sick way, to encounter a watch innovation that almost anyone can appreciate. ...
Tom Brady Wearing An IWC Portuguese Tourbillon Hand Would Squelette
Tom Brady, 45, announced on social media today that he's retiring from the NFL, this time "for good." We'll leave his football accolades to the sports websites C?seven-time Super Bowl champion, three-time NFL MVP, all-time leader in passing touchdowns, yards, and completions (we could go on) C and instead focus on the watch we saw Brady wearing as he strolled a red carpet in Los Angeles last night: an IWC Portuguese Hand-Wound Tourbillon Squelette ref. 5462. The night before posting his retirement video, Brady was in Los Angeles for the premiere of 80 For Brady, a movie about four friends (played by Jane Fonda, Sally Field, Rita ...
Carrera Chronograph x Porsche Orange Racing
TAG Heuer and Porsche announced their sixth watch today, celebrating their two-year partnership with the bold and sporty new Carrera Chronograph x Porsche Orange Racing. If orange is your color, this watch has your number and then some. The bright orange seconds hands, sub-dial hands and surrounds, outer track, crown accent, and even stitches on the woven leather strap stand out against the black DLC steel case with a black ceramic tachymeter fixed bezel. The tachymeter stands out as well, this time in white, matching the white five-minute intervals on the dial and white lume of the hands. But if you have any doubt about what bra...
Summary of New Audemars Piguet Releases
Welcome to our new weekend column. Think of this as a catch-up session for those 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. Let's dig in. The groundhog saw his shadow so we're hunkered down for another six weeks of winter, but at least we have a...
New Piaget Polo Watch With Green Perpetual Calendar
The new Piaget Polo Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin represents a meeting of Piaget's expertise in ultra-thin watchmaking and its continuation of the Polo line. First a very short history lesson. When Piaget launched the Polo in 1979, ?some people liked it. It had alternating horizontal ridges and grooves called godroons and they went all the way down the bezel into the bracelet. Pro-Polo people said this watch achieved perfect integration of case and dial and bracelet. Some people didn't like it. ?They said, wow this looks like a Grald Genta watch except it's not made ...
Introducing: Hodinkee Collection 01
Making our own products is something we've been thinking about for years. Ideas have been kicked around in the back channels of Hodinkee in some form or another since our migration from Tumblr (remember those years?) to dot com. Since 2012, Hodinkee has partnered with countless amazing watch brands and dabbled in some other areas as well C apparel with Drake's, photography with Leica, accessories with S.T. Dupont and Montblanc, and storage cases with Globe-Trotter.? It's not just watches that inspire us.– Jeff Hilliard, Director of limited editions The Hodinkee 6-Panel Hat in Navy Wool and Utility Tote in Khaki...
Watch Auction Market Trends And Predictions for 2023
A couple weeks back, Danny pulled out his crystal ball and made a few predictions for 2023 C titanium Daytonas, SeaSwatches, things of that nature. Today, I've decided to dig mine out too, and with the help of a few friends, make some predictions for the year, but focused on the auction and secondary market. Drawing on a few friendly experts, results from the last few auctions of December and January, and my eavesdropping on as many deals as possible at the Miami Beach Antique Show without getting slapped with a restraining order, here are five things to watch this year. (1) The Year of the Anti-Trend A watch we've beaten to dea...
The Five Time Zone Watch By Jacob The Jeweler: A Hip-Hop Classic
In November 2003, Jay-Z performed a sold-out "retirement" concert at Madison Square Garden. Every major artist in hip-hop and R&B was in attendance. Beyonce, Ghostface Killah, Pharrell, Missy Elliott, Foxy Brown, and Mary J. Blige all performed alongside him. At 10 years into his career, he was already one of the greatest rappers of all time and was on the cusp of becoming one of the most important cultural figures of a generation. On that night, to mark the momentous occasion, Jay-Z was wearing a Five Time Zone watch. Jay-Z performing at Madison Square Garden in 2003. Image: Courtesy of Getty. The Five Time Zone had been ...
Seiko certainly knows when it's got a good thing going and while it might not want to mess too much with success, it certainly knows how to give its watches a cool and fresh new look. For evidence, look no further than today's expansion of the Seiko Black Series with three of the brand's most popular watches. Much the way Seiko blacked out its Tortoise and King Samurai last year, Seiko is going dark with coated versions of the 1965 Divers SLA067, the Divers SPB335, and Alpinist SPBJ337. SLA067 If you were to take bets on which of Seiko's models would get the blacked-out treatment next, these three watches should have been high...
The Longines Pilot Majetek Review
Longines has an enviable (to put it mildly) back catalog from which it has drawn to create modern iterations of historic pieces C and that includes deep cuts. Today, it has released one of the said deep cuts: the Pilot Majetek. This new release is a call-back to the brand's aviation ties as the original watch from which this is based was released in 1935 and was specifically designed for Czech Pilots C though some were manufactured for civilian use. The Pilot Majetek pays homage to that original 1930s model both in aesthetics and with some (overt) Easter eggs. The most basic design code on this piece is its cushion case, though t...
It's new watch season as we approach Watches & Wonders, which means we are starting to see novelties trickle out from brands across the horological spectrum. Sinn is the latest to announce its newness with a flagship novelty for 2023 (so far at least): The T50. This is a watch that takes everything hardcore Sinn fans love C a purpose-built spirit and capability C and raises the stakes. Where the U50 is a watch crafted from submarine steel, the T50 offers a case in either titanium or Sinn's own "Goldbronze". ? Aesthetically this is a more stark affair than the U50 which has splashes of red color. The case itself is bead-blasted, adding texture. The elapsed-tim...