Best Super NEWS Watches
Bring a Loupe: A Fiery Gold GMT-Master, A Square 1950s Patek, And A Habring Limited Edition
Happy Friday, and welcome back to Bring A Loupe! Before we get into our regularly scheduled programming, in auction news around the internet, I've been following the sale of a 1909 T206 Honus Wagner baseball card at Goldin Auctions. This PSA 1-graded example, dubbed "The Connecticut Wagner," hit the online auction block in March and saw aggressive bidding surpass $3.2 million within the first few hours. After that initial frenzy, stories were written about this possibly becoming the most expensive card ever (it would have needed to pass the $12.6 million of a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle, graded a 9.5 by SGC). Ultimately, the Wagner failed to meet its reserve when bidding ended below $4 million ...
Introducing: Hamilton's New Khaki Field Mechanical Might Be A Perfect Push For A Trip To Switzerland
This might be the most specific and out-of-the-way watch I've covered, but knowing how much folks love Hamilton, rare finds, and an excuse to travel, let me introduce you to four special editions of Khaki Field Mechanical timepieces from Hamilton available only at their global stores in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Lancaster, and Zermatt. Today's release is the Zermatt boutique exclusive, a 38mm Hamilton Khaki Field Mechanical inspired by the Swiss Alps and the famous Matterhorn. The new release features a textured dial that shifts with the light, imitating the changing sunlight and its effects on the alpine mountains. Measuring 38mm by 9.2...
Hands-On: The Nivada Grenchen F77 Mark II Takes A Strong Vintage Design And Makes It Even Better
The Nivada Grenchen F77 was relaunched in 2023, and, like many other Nivadas of recent memory, is a relatively faithful 37mm homage to a vintage piece from the brand's extensive (and more profound than I realized) back catalog of interesting pieces. The original was released in 1977 as part of a surge of integrated bracelet sports watches that were nearly simultaneously introduced in the era (despite nearly all of them struggling to find success).?Similarly, it seems that almost every brand, from microbrands to unexpected launches from the biggest brands, has reintroduced an integrated bracelet watch. Chalk it up to IBF (Integrated Bracelet Fatigue) that this is the first time we've covered ...
Introducing: Tudor Pelagos FXD Chrono "Yellow" Including Live Pics
The Tudor Pro Cycling Team will make its Tour de France debut next week, marking a historic milestone for the young squad. The race will also see team owner and former professional cyclist Fabian Cancellara return to the Tour for the first time since 2016, though now in his new role behind the scenes. To herald Cancellara's triumphant return to cycling's most prestigious race, Tudor is releasing the limited edition FXD Chrono "Yellow'' with color accents that nod to the 'Maillot Jaune' (yellow jersey) worn by the race leader.? The watch is, for all intents and purposes, a new colorway on a carbon chronograph watch we've seen befo...
Photo Report: Pitti Uomo Summer 2025
With the Celsius up and sleeves rolled, you couldn't pick a better vantage for watch spotting than Pitti Uomo, the bi-annual men's fashion week in Florence. Famous for its stylish attendees, it's no surprise that there are many watch enthusiasts in the well-tailored crowds. Moon-phase watches, at anything but astronomical prices, made a rare appearance from recent Noah x Timex collabs to Longines. Solid steel APs seem to be the new tough guy timepiece, paired with chic Neapolitan summer styles or rough military vintage. Dress watches, dainty, particular, obscure, and esoteric, enjoy the popularity vintage Rolex watches once did. ...
Introducing: The Laventure Marine Type 3 Chronometer
Laventure, a Kickstarter brand turned microbrand, just released what might be its most compelling design in the Marine Type 3. These new watches take the previously established design language in a new direction, with what might be its most original model to date. The new Marine Type 3 is inspired by a fusion of 1980s watch design and marine chronometers, resulting in a Grade 23 titanium case, 38mm in diameter and 11.2mm thick (including the tall acrylic). Even with the flare of the "integrated" end link design, it remains a reasonable 46.2m...
Introducing: Marathon Limited Edition ADANAC Stainless Steel Navigator Pilots Automatic
Marathon Watch is a truly international watchmaker. The 85-year-old company, based in Canada, manufactures and assembles its watches in Switzerland at its facilities in La Chaux-de-Fonds. At the same time, its biggest customers are government agencies, including U.S. government divisions such as the military. But today is Canada's birthday, and the brand is leaning heavily into its home country roots, offering a limited-edition Canadian heritage moment with the ADANAC Stainless Steel Navigator Pilot's Automatic.?Canadians are generally subdued when it comes to flag-waving. These, however, are not subdued times, and the ADANAC is about as patriotic a timepiece as one could expect to see from ...
Introducing: The Last Greubel Forsey Balancier Contemporain
The Balancier Contemporain is one of Greubel Forsey's most successful models from their more classically designed collection. Like all of GF's offerings, it's wonderfully conceived, immaculately constructed, and incredibly expensive. And now, it's almost gone. The Balancier Contemporain is getting one final ride with a 33-piece stainless steel limited edition before the watch is discontinued forever. When the Balancier Contemporain was released in 2019, it satisfied many fans (and critics) by taking the high horological and finishing standards of Greubel Forsey and casing it in a smaller 39.6mm by 12.25mm package. That size remai...
Introducing: Vacheron Constantin Mtiers d'Art Tribute to The Celestial
Every year, Vacheron Constantin expands its offerings as part of the Mtiers d'Art program, emphasizing exceptional craftsmanship. In 2021, the Maison showcased the Minute Repeater Tourbillon Sky Chart Leo Constellation Jewellery, a stunning sapphire-set watch that features all the complications listed in its name but is crafted as a unique piece. This year, the brand has launched twelve individual references (with limited production of each reference), each featuring a blue sunburst dial that depicts a hand-guilloch zodiac sign and its corresponding constellation, with the main stars highlighted through brilliant-cut diamonds. The four dials showing human figures also have opaline details....
Review of the F.P. Journe's Tourbillon Souverain Joillaire With Ruby Case
The Monday before Watches & Wonders is the perfect storm of reasons things get overlooked. It was a pretty exceptional Monday, to be fair. I experienced a steel Patek 1518 for the first time, wore the Vacheron Constantin Solaria (the most complicated wristwatch in the world), and covered F.P.Journe's new releases, including the Chronomtre Furtif. At the tail end of my Journe appointment, their press person told me he had something special, something so unique and precious he was only showing it to a select few. And I couldn't put it on my wrist. Then, a few hours later, Rolex launched the Land-Dweller, all hell broke loose, a crush of releases came, and I co...
Watch Spotting: David Beckham's Unique Diamond-Set Tudor Black Bay Chrono At Wimbledon
Sir David Beckham has one of the most recognizable wrists in the world. With tattoos reaching down to his fingers, it's impossible to mistake his wrist for anyone else's (even when he "accidentally" leaks an off-catalog Rolex). But not only was Beckham sporting something new and special at Wimbledon this weekend, he was doing so on a different wrist than usualand he was more than happy to show it off. Photo by Getty Images. First spotted in a reel posted by Adrian Barker of Bark and Jack, David Beckham has a new gift from Tudor to celebrate his 50th birthdaya unique Black Bay Chrono with a black lacquer dial, diamond indices...
The Fondation Haute Horlogerie (FHH), a non-profit organization launched two decades ago to promote and support Swiss watch culture, knowledge, and skills, is looking outward to attract the next generation of watchmakers and enthusiasts. The industry group, founded and backed by Richemont, Sowind Group's Girard-Perregaux, and family-controlled independent Audemars Piguet, is launching online training, education, and certification courses that can be purchased by non-industry professionals for the first time.? Pascal Ravessoud of FHH, Patrick Pruniaux of Sowind, Ilaria Resta of Audemars Piguet, Aurlie Streit of FHH, Cyrille Vigneron of Cartier at the op...
Introducing: The Zenith x Time+Tide Defy Skyline Skeleton 'White Surfer' Ceramic
Our friends down under (and across the pond and in the Big Apple), Time+Tide, are launching their third and final watch in their "Surfer Trilogy" series with Zenith with the new Defy Skyline Skeleton "White Surfer" Ceramic available on July 10 at 9 am AEST (July 9, 7 pm EST). The watch, featuring a brushed and polished 41mm white ceramic case, bracelet, and folding clasp, is complemented by a gradient blue skeletonized dial and light blue movement mainplate. If you need a recap on their previous two "Surfer Trilogy," Time+Tide started with a micro-blasted titanium Deft Classic Skeleton "Night Surfer" in 2021 and Defy Skyline Skel...
It took the current young king of Swiss independent watchmakers, Rexhep Rexhepi, years to sell his first watch, and a few more for the collector community to wake up and pay up for his horological artistry. But when his timepieces broke records selling for millions at auction one weekend in Geneva last year, he wouldn't have been eligible for a centime of the proceeds for watches he sold to clients years before, when he was less of a horology rockstar.? Rexhep Rexhepi in his Old Town Geneva atelier. Image: Janosch Abel, for HODINKEE Magazine, Vol. 10. That's because, unlike contemporary artists in the U.K., European Union, Aus...
Dispatch: Scenes From The Swatch Museum
A few months ago, I took the train from Geneva to Biel to visit Swatch for a tour through the brand's Sistem51 movement factory and was thoroughly impressed by the operation. As a bonus, I was delighted to learn that the Swatch Museum was located just steps away from Swatch's corporate headquarters, itself just a brief walk from my outpost of the Biel Courtyard Marriott. Cit du Temps houses both Swatch and Omega museums and connects to Swatch HQ. It's free to the public, sharing the same building as Omega's museum. Covering a broad range of models since the brand's inception in 1983, the Swatch museum has so much to see that ...
Hands-On: The Ianos Dytis Diver
It's been six years since Jason Heaton reviewed the Ianos Avyssos, the first dive watch from the then-upstart brand Ianos Watches, where the brand blended its Greek roots from founder Jacob Hatzidimitriou into a familiar dive watch silhouette. This year, Ianos launches its third and final model in its dive watch trilogy, the Dytis, in its most compact case yet. The Dytis takes the second-generation design from the Ianos Mihanikos and downsizes it to a more wearable 41mm diameter. Made from sandblasted Grade 2 titanium, the Dytis boasts chunky proportions, with a 14.68mm height. However, the short design of the lugs and 49mm lug-to-lug measurement help keep the ov...
Bring a Loupe: A Pair Of Honest Tudors And The First Quartz-Powered Patek Philippe Wristwatch
Welcome back to Bring A Loupe, and happy Fourth of July! I'll get ahead of the comments and issue a mea culpa to our non-American readers for celebrating the most US-centric of "holidays" I can imagine you'll all be okay. The good news? All four of our picks this week hail from Switzerland, the land of neutrality, fine watchmaking, and financial instruments. But first, results. Our Habring2 Monochrome Montre de Souscription 1, up for auction on LoupeThis, has sold for $7,810. The "Solaris" Rolex GMT-Master ref. 1675 in solid yellow gold has found a new owner via Tropical Watch the asking price was $36,550. And, last but not least, our eBay Movado Datron HS360...
F.P.Journe Award-Winning Young Watchmaker Alexis Fruhauff Aims To Put Clocks Back On Trend
Alexis Fruhauff doesn't mind going against the grain. While much of the horology industry focuses on high-profile wristwatches, the young Paris-based talent has zeroed in on clockmaking. It's a choice that's served him well in his budding career, and in April, he won the prestigious F.P.Journe Young Talent Competition.? Alexis Fruhauff It's a notable prize that aims to identify and highlight a single watchmaker whose work reflects technical achievement, traditional craftsmanship, and perhaps most importantly, the audacity to explore new interpretations of timekeeping. Fruhauff took the win for his Pendule Seconde, as seen be...
Vintage Watches: Five Potentially Market-Changing Vintage Watches We'd Love To See Return At Auction
We've reached an era in collecting where it feels like everything is known, all the good watches have been discovered, and there's nothing new under the sun. The proliferation of information, which was often out of reach even twenty years ago, has made it incredibly difficult to find something earth-shatteringly new to get people even to sit up a little bit in their seats. Sure, there are still some great watches yet to be found, but there are also a few exceptional watches that are known to collectors but haven't been seen publicly for quite some time, which gives a sense of rediscovery when studying them. A previously unknown and restored Patek Philip...
Understanding Valuation and Appraisals When Getting Your Watches and Jewelry Insured
In the past five years, we've been on a rollercoaster in both the primary and secondary markets. Inventory, pricing, demand, and availability have all been in flux, reaching highs and lows as they attempt to stabilize at a new normal.The pandemic created lasting shifts on both sides of the coin, from how the industry produces and allocates to how consumers buy (and sell) within their collections. This was a bit jarring to say the least, but this is nothing new, confirms Nate Borgelt, the head of the watch department at Bonhams. "With any type of investment, there will always be volatility C the oil market, the stock market C watches are no different. Look back at the 2008 financial crisis an...