Best Super NEWS Watches
This Week In The Shop: Four New-For-2024 Watches From Zenith
Your Weekly Shop Brief While we're on the subject of new watches from Zenith, the brand's new DEFY Skyline Chronograph definitely deserves a mention. We have this one in blue, though I am surprisingly drawn to the silver dial model if I were to pick a favorite. Four New-For-2024 Watches From Zenith I think we can all agree that Zenith is on something of a roll this year. Among its class of 2024 releases, we've seen the brand experiment with color and materials, put the revival spin on some of its most dynamic heritage designs and complications, and refine and expand upon its contemporary fare. In attempts to at on...
Introducing: The Unimatic Toolwatch Series
Today, fan-favorite Unimatic has launched what is only the brand's second permanent collection C the Toolwatch series. The line is launching with two models and a total of four variants, all of which are quartz-powered and meet the MIL-STD-810 standard in the hopes of offering a value-forward and extra tough take on a functional everyday tool watch with either a field watch or a diving watch expression of Unimatic's clean and well-known aesthetic.? The Toolwatch series starts at 350 euros and has two field-style models (the Quattro UT4 and UT4-GMT) alongside the dive watch-derived Modello Uno UT1 and UT1-GMT. The full specs are b...
Hamilton Khaki Field Mechanical 38mm Review
Certain watches are just nearly perfect. These watches are perfect enough that when a friend inevitably asks for my recommendation for a "first good watch," I can size my friends up based on their use case, budget, and personal vibe and land on one of a handful of great options. For my more rugged, outdoorsy, "rough-on-their-stuff" friends, that option is almost always the Hamilton Khaki Field watch in 38mm. Even more importantly, Hamilton has consistently rolled out more and more options of dial colors and case treatments over the last few years that make it easier for folks to find the right version for their style, and last month, they expanded the line even further. ...
Buyer's Guide To The Audemars Piguet Disco Volante
Finally, something Gerald Genta didn't design. As it turns out, when you're a guy as prolific as Genta, who pumped out hundreds of designs for 15 francs a pop in the '50s and '60s, you get credit for even the stuff you didn't do. But Audemars Piguet is unequivocal in who designed the "Disco Volante" ref. 5093... "Audemars Piguet sometimes also worked with independent designers, such as the German Gebhard Duve, who created the so-called 'Discovolante' 5093 models in the 1950s," it writes on its excellent AP Chronicles site. AP also provides these 1952 sketches from Duve: Oh man, I love a good archival sketch. A 1952 sketch fr...
A Note On The Future Of Hodinkee
Hey Guys, Ben here. You know, the guy who started this blog called Hodinkee. I thought it was time to check in with everyone because there's been a lot said about this little company recently C some of it true, a lot of it not, and almost none of it by us. All this chatter got me thinking about what is next for this company I love. How can we make it better? After some personal reflection, we all decided that the new Hodinkee looks a lot like C well C the "old Hodinkee." Today I am here to tell you that moving forward Hodinkee's primary focus will once again be creating the world's most detailed, enga...
HODINKEE Radio: Q&A And A New Seiko Chronograph With Blake Buettner And James Stacey
We're back with another episode of Hodinkee Radio. In addition to the podcast feed, each episode also has video, so swing by Hodinkee's YouTube channel (or watch below). Only want the audio? It's being published to the same old Hodinkee Radio feed, so check your feeds or subscribe wherever you find your podcasts (might we recommend Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or TuneIn). Today, we're chatting watches with our guest, watch journalist Blake Buettner. Blake's a veteran of watch media, having first contributed to Hodinkee in 2010. After that, he went on to work with StockX before becoming the Managing Editor of Worn & Wound. Now...
In-Depth: The Patek Philippe Ref. 2497, Part 2: The Rarest Examples And A Buyers Guide
Recently, we took an exhaustive look at the Patek Philippe ref. 2497 from a scholarly perspective, tearing down each minute detail that makes Patek's first center-seconds perpetual calendar so remarkable. If you ever had a question about production numbers or design details, you hopefully have your answer now. But frankly, that's not the fun part. As it always is, the fun part is looking at the incredibly rare stuff. In part two, we're going to tackle the stuff that people like me (who will likely never buy a watch like this) will really enjoy C checking out the rarest types. It's like window shopping a vintage Ferrari dealer: purely aspirational but equally sati...
Introducing The Omega Bronze Gold Edition For The 2024 Olympics
The Omega CK859 from a couple of years ago is one of my favorite modern Omega releases. Heritage-inspired but undeniably modern, it hit all the right notes, but its production run was short (too short!). For the Paris Olympics set to begin this week, Omega has introduced its latest take on the 859, the Paris 2024 Bronze Gold Edition, in celebration of the Paris Olympics.? Like the CK859, the Bronze Gold Edition has a case measuring 39 x 11.7mm (46.2mm lug-to-lug) made of Omega's bronze gold alloy that's made of 50 percent copper, 37.5 percent gold, allowing it to be hallmarked as 9-karat gold. The "BG859" C?BG refers to the bronz...
Hands-On Review Of The Furlan Marri Disco Volante
For some reason, Furlan Marri caught fire with its first release in 2021. That watch, a meca-quartz Patek 1463 homage for a few hundred bucks, seemed to be just what many enthusiasts wanted during those frothy pandemic years. At the time, I was a simple enthusiast sitting in Chicago and even had a healthy bit of skepticism about this new Furlan Marri brand C after all, why on Earth would a meca-quartz homage that costs 300 bucks resell for like $1,000? Not that any of this was Furlan Marri's fault. As we now know, it was the product of a confluence of things that we need not repeat again here, except to say that I don't think it'll happen again soon, though these...
Introducing: MoonSwatch Mission To The Super Blue Moonphase
Yesterday, Swatch released Mission To The Super Blue Moonphase. This very blue watch features the usual chronograph function, this time with a silver-blue opaline dial, and a UV ink moonphase positioned at the two o'clock subdial. The moonphase indicator is painted with UV ink, which glows blue. The hour, minutes, and (tip of the) chronograph seconds hand is, of course, Super-LumiNova?, which also glows blue. This is the first MoonSwatch in the collection with a pulsometer scale instead of a tachymeter function. This begs the question, "Is this really a MoonWatch?" You all can decide in the comments... ...
Gatherings: 100 Years Of Citizen: Honoring The Past, Embracing The Future
In 1924, CITIZEN introduced its inaugural timepiece, a pocket watch crafted by the Shokosha Watch Research Institute. Tokyo's mayor, foreseeing a future where watches would be accessible to all, coined the name "Citizen." Since then, CITIZEN has steadfastly pursued its mission to create watches that add genuine value to daily life. Fast forward to July 2024 in New York City's Greenwich Village, a gorgeous curated collection of the 100 most significant CITIZEN watches of the company's first 100 years was on display along with a timeline of the "CITIZEN Phylogeny," showing the design evolution of CITIZEN watches over the company's ...
Introducing: The Christopher Ward Trident Pro 300 GMT
Christopher Ward, maker of the cheapest, most expensive watches in the world C their words C just announced the return of a GMT model to their core line of watches, the Trident Pro 300. Offered in three variations, with a fair amount of options to get yours just the way you like, it's a GMT with a value focus and a handful of colorways to spice up your selection process.? First up, the basics: the new offering from the British brand is called the Trident Pro 300 GMT, and it's made of steel. You also have the choice of three different specifications, starting with a dark dial (navy blue) or light dial (white), each with a "blue" c...
Photo Report of Intersect Los Angeles Watch Show
Intersect Watch Show was born in 2021, a simple watch meetup hosted by Nodus at a brewery with a pandemic-limited 45 attendees and a few friendly brands shipping out their watches for display.? Last week, I was one of 600-plus attendees to pass through Intersect Los Angeles 2024 in downtown Long Beach. Intersect has expanded beyond its original L.A. home, hosting events in Austin, Atlanta, and with more in the works, but this was its biggest effort to date. More than 20 brands showed up, including Formex, Nodus, and Jack Mason, the three brands that collaboratively organize and manage Intersect.? Whil...
Hands-On: Vacheron Constantin's Green Dial, Pink Gold Overseas
Earlier this year at Watches & Wonders, Vacheron Constantin basically overshadowed everything else they could do by breaking their own record for "world's most complicated watch" with the Berkley Grand Complication. Despite being a one-off piece, it drew pretty sizable crowds to Vacheron's booth to see a watch that would likely not be publicly displayed for a long time.? But that wasn't the end of things for Vacheron at the trade show. And as loathe as I am to wax poetic about a new dial color (with one recent exception), this watch has stuck in my mind over the last few months: the Overseas Dual Time in pink gold with green lacquered sunburst dial. Yes, it's...
Inside The Manufacture: A Backstage Pass To The Production Of The MoonSwatch And Scuba Fifty Fathoms
This story was originally published by Hodinkee Japan on May 29, 2024. The accompanying text has been translated from Japanese to English.? I opted to linger in Switzerland after the conclusion of Watch & Wonders 2024. I just couldn't say no to the opportunity to interview the Swatch Group CEO Nick Hayek, Jr., coupled with a backstage tour of the factories manufacturing the SISTEM51 movements and the bioceramic cases. We took a hard look at the challenges and the success of the MoonSwatch and Scuba Fifty Fathoms, and the manufacturing process that made it possible. The Success Of The MoonSwatch And Scuba Fifty Fathoms ...
Grand Seiko SBGA507 & SBGA509 Review
In the heat of summer, Grand Seiko is dropping two cool new interpretations of their 44GS design for the U.S. market, both drawing from the various hues of the sunrise and sunset over Lake Suwa to the southeast of the Shinshu Watch Studio, where Spring Drive watches are made.? SBGA509 Both watches are powered by the Spring Drive Caliber 9R65 caliber with 72 hours of power reserve and 15 seconds per month of accuracy. That movement is visible through a display caseback in the otherwise stainless steel case (with stainless steel bracelet) that measures 40mm by 12.5mm. But as it often is, these limited editions are all about the...
The Man Who Brought The Olympics To Tokyo In 1964
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics is finally upon us and this is the second-ever Olympics to be held in Tokyo, following the 1964 games of nearly 60 years ago. The event was delayed for a year due to the novel Coronavirus pandemic, and the athletes are competing without the cheers of a live audience, under the guidance of state of emergency protocols C an unprecedented circumstance in the history of the games. While I didnt win any tickets, the love of watches brought me to the story of a family with a special connection to the Olympics in Tokyo. They shared with me their story of the family patriarch who is responsible for making the 1964 Tokyo Olympics possible. The Beg...
There was very little doubt that A. Lange & Sohne would do something big for the 25th Anniversary of the Datograph. This year, 2024, is a year of big anniversaries for the brand. Twenty-five years of the Datograph, 30 years of the restarted brand (and the Lange 1), and the 100th birthday of the late Walter Lange C all of these are worth celebrating. But, as someone senior at the brand told me, the 25th Anniversary was "bigger than 30," and the Datograph was the obvious choice. And yet, when I first saw a preview of the cornerstone piece Lange would later release at Watches & Wonders, I was still surprised. The two releases from Watches & Won...
An overview of baguette diamond-set watches.
Ben Clymer has a thing for baguette diamonds. He told me back in April when he showed up to Watches and Wonders wearing his new Rexhep Rexhepi Chronomtre Contemporain II Diamant. Clymer used his allocation for the most exclusive modern watch in the world C and he went for one with baguette diamonds. So what pushed Clymer to go for gems? Baguette-set watches sit at the very top of the gem-set watch totem pole. They can be tastefully opulent or outlandishly decadent. There is something undeniably refined about a sprinkling of baguette indices on a mid-century dress watch; the stones are long and slender and expensive C they are the Ingrid Bergman of diamond cuts. ...
Editors' Picks: The Best Sport Watches Of 2024, So Far
With the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad now fully underway in Paris C and dozens of medals awarded to the world's best athletes by the day C it got us thinking about the best of 2024 in a similar vein: sport watches. What are the best releases of the year so far, and why? So, we tasked our editors with handing out their personal gold medals. While we're just past halfway through 2024, and more entries in the category will certainly emerge before the end of the year, these are our winners so far. Whether your speed is a sub-$500 MoonSwatch or a million-dollar-plus Richard Mille, check out our picks below. Mark Kauzlarich: The Richard Mil...