No products in the cart.
Best Super NEWS Watches
Introducing: The Omega Speedmaster Apollo 11 Anniversary Limited Edition (Live Pics & Pricing)
SOLID. GOLD. SPEEDY. You knew Omega had something up its sleeve for the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 and it turns out it is a re-creation of the exceedingly cool Speedmaster BA145.0220, replete with the burgundy bezel and black onyx markers. For those about to hit Wikipedia, yes, Apollo 11 is arguably the Apollo mission, having put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the surface of the Moon on July 20th, 1969. Gold is customary for 50th anniversaries, and Omega went all out in creating a special edition that speaks directly to Speedmaster aficionados and of the era that created the Moonwatch.? ...
Hands-On: The Grand Seiko Elegance Collection 'Slim' Hand-Wound Limited Editions
One of the few quibbles Grand Seiko fans in particular, and watch enthusiasts in general, have with Grand Seiko watches is the relative thickness of the watches. To some degree, this is a consequence of Grand Seiko's decision to go with quite robust construction for their movements, but the desire for Grand Seiko quality and value in a more slim watch had in general remained unsatisfied, until the recent introduction of four new watches in the Elegance collection, which use a newly introduced hand-wound caliber. The new movement is the caliber 9S63, which is configured with a power reserve at 3:00 and a sub-seconds dial at 9:00. This yields wristwatches with a 39mm diameter and a height of 1...
Panerai: The Making Of A Design Icon, Part 2
In recent years, one area in which Panerai's sought to distinguish itself is in the use of novel materials, both for aesthetic reasons, and to provide real materials advantages in technical watchmaking. This is an imperative inherited from Panerai's roots, as a watchmaker, in making practical tool watches for challenging real world applications, and from its heritage as an engineering company that made naval instruments in addition to watches for a number of different purposes, but Panerai today is innovating in materials that its original watchmakers and designers never dreamed of. Brainstorming and concept development happen in...
Introducing: The Slim DHerms Titane
Herms is back with a casual addition to the Slim d'Herms collection called the Titane. Initially conceived and launched in 2015 by La Montre Herms creative director Philippe Delhotal, the Slim line has been expanding steadily over the last few years; we even teamed up with Herms to create not one, but two limited edition Slim models last fall. Between the gorgeous slim case and the simple dial that's chock full of beautiful details, its easy to see why the Slim dHerms was a home-run from the second it was released. While the watches have earned a sterling reputation for sticking to genuine manufacture watchmaking and representing a truly handsome execution...
Introducing: The Seiko Prospex 1970 Diver's Re-Creation Limited Edition SLA033
This is something to quicken the pulses of Seiko dive watch enthusiasts: a modern version of the famous 6105, also known as the "Willard," as that was the model worn by Martin Sheen in his portrayal of Captain Willard in Apocalypse Now. The original 6105 came in two versions C one was the standard cushion cased 8000/8009, and the other was the larger 8110/8119. The later is the model worn by Sheen in the film, and it's a classic of dive watch design of the era C big, with an eye-catching asymmetrical case that features substantial crown guards and the crown at 4:00, with 150 meter water resistance. As with other dive watches of the era, the problem is not so much finding one as it is finding...
The Baselworld watch and jewelry show that opens March 21 in Basel, Switzerland, will be one of the most watched C if not the most attended C shows in years.This is the first show after the calamity that was Baselworld 2018. That show, in which the number of exhibitors dropped by 50%, plunged the event and its parent company, the MCH Group, 100 million Swiss francs into the red and triggered one of worst crises in its 101-year history.?Within months, its long-time managing director stepped down; its largest exhibitor, the Swatch Group, abruptly withdrew from the 2019 show; and the CEO of the MCH Group, the exhibition company that owns Baselworld, resigned under fire.? ...
The Horological Society of New York's award-winning classes are on the road again! Classes will be held in Silicon Valley, California, over the weekend of April 6-7, hosted by Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry. Next, over the weekend of April 13-14, HSNY heads to Houston, Texas, for classes hosted by Chopard. At HSNY's Horological Education classes, students discover what actually makes a watch tick. The hands-on classes are taught by HSNY's staff of professional watchmakers. Students work on a mechanical watch movement, studying the gear train, winding and setting mechanisms, and escapement. The weekend half-day classes cover everything taught during the individual ev...
Panerai: The Making Of A Design Icon, Part 3
Watchmaking has always been both an art and a science. At Panerai today, there is a great deal of traditional watchmaking, but there's also an ongoing effort to ensure that the most basic virtues of watchmaking C accuracy, dependability, and reliability C are respected as well. That side of modern watchmaking is increasingly a matter of using the best in modern technology to ensure that the many aspects of watch functionality which clients expect to be flawless, each and every time, actual meet those expectations. The problem is a complicated one and not just because even the simplest watches are complex machines in which each part must interact seamlessly with all the others. It's also chal...
Opening tomorrow in London is Well Suited, a so-called "selling exhibition" of top-tier independent watches paired with tailoring and menswear. The former come courtesy of the Phillips Watch Department, in particular Mr. James Marks, and the latter come from Thom Sweeney, a London tailoring firm founded by Luke Sweeney and Thom Whiddett, who, according to Phillips, are both watch collectors themselves. This isn't the first time Phillips has done something like this, having formerly teamed up with our friends over at The Rake and Mr. Porter for last fall's Styled watch auction.The exhibition itself features around two dozen watches from brands like Rolex, Patek Philippe, Richard Mille, F.P. J...
Like it or not, the hunt never stops. Shortly after last weeks installment of Bring A Loupe went live, I was back at it. Luckily, in that first burst of treasure hunting, I found several of this weeks picks which Im sure youll get a kick out of, and then some. At the sporty end of the spectrum, weve got a couple of divers, including the seldom-seen Triton Spirotechnique. Following it is an accessibly priced Omega Seamaster with a bit of more going on in the cool department in comparison to most other examples of the reference. Should interesting provenance be up your alley, theres a world class Tudor Submariner along with a Universal Genve Polarouter De Luxe worth checking out. Onward...
HODINKEE Radio: Episode 35: Baselworld 2019 Preview
Subscribe to the show: (Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, TuneIn). Already heard it once or twice? Please leave a short review here, and tell us which guests we should have on! Its not too often that we can get the whole HODINKEE editorial team in one place at one time. But, special circumstances call for a special response: With Baselworld less than a week away we were able to wrangle almost everyone into the studio to talk about what lies ahead at the year's biggest watch fair. Its hard to believe its that time of year again (we say that every year), but in just a matter of days well get to see the latest releases from literally...
Hands-On: The Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime Ref. 6300A For Only Watch 2019
On November 9th, at the biennial Only Watch charity auction held in Geneva, this one-off Patek Philippe, the Grandmaster Chime Ref. 6300A For Only Watch 2019, might become the most expensive watch ever to sell at auction. This means it could potentially dethrone the famous Paul Newman Daytona.? It might sound like an unlikely scenario, but the economics of the situation do indeed make sense: The world's most prestigious manufacture, Patek Philippe, takes the most complicated wristwatch they've ever produced, the 6300G, and create a singular execution in stainless steel with a dial thats even marked, "The Only One." Talk about a ...
Editors' Picks: Four Pilot's Watches From Phillips Double Signed Auction
The symbiotic relationship between manufacturer and retailer has kept the watchmaking industry alive since the birth of the retail model. Manufacturers produce the watches; retailers sell them to the public. It's a relationship that has relied on trust and a shared philosophy. But sometimes the partnership went beyond that. Sometimes manufacturers tipped their proverbial hats to special retailers by producing a "double-signed" piece for them, putting the retailer's name on the dial along with that of the watch brand. Double-signed watches are interesting to collectors because we can ascertain a good bit about the watch simply from the retailer logos C where it wa...
Introducing: The TAG Heuer Monaco Caliber 12 Final Edition
In case you somehow missed it, 2019 has been a very big year for watch anniversaries, and one of the absolute biggest has been the 50th anniversary of the Heuer Monaco. What started out as a square-shaped chronograph developed with architects and other creative types in mind went on to become strongly associated with '70s motorsport and is, to this day, probably the most famous watch ever to appear in film thanks to Steve McQueen and the 1971 racing classic Le Mans. Over the last 50 years, the Monaco has been a mainstay of the Heuer C and later the TAG Heuer C lineup. In its anniversary year, TAG Heuer has paid tribute to the dif...
Introducing: The TAG Heuer Monaco 02, The First Ever Monaco With An In-House Movement
For most of its 50 years, the Monaco, whether Heuer or TAG Heuer, has had a movement that was produced by a supplier, which is not the outrage that newcomers to horology often think. As has been pointed out very often, here and elsewhere, the traditional practice in watchmaking has been to rely on movement suppliers and you didn't generally boast about the movement (there were exceptions but I'm speaking here of the general case) because you were using the same movements as your competitors. (There are caveats to this but again, it's general case we're talking about here, not the exceptions.) There is a sense in which the original Monaco used an in-house movement, or at least an in-house-ish...
The Grey NATO: Episode 93: A Chat With Andy Mann
Subscribe to the show: (Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, Google Play). Already heard it once or twice? Please leave a short review here, and tell us what topics you'd like us to chat about.? To most watch enthusiasts, the name Andy Mann might be familiar from his association with Zodiac watches, in particular, the recent Super Sea Wolf 68 Saturation collaboration that he helped design. But his work goes well beyond sketching out dive watch dial designs. He's a National Geographic photographer, a senior fellow at SeaLegacy, and an award-winning filmmaker. He's also an avid rock climber who makes his home in decidedly landlocked Boulder, Colo...
Editors' Picks: My Six Favorite Watches At Only Watch 2019
Only Watch generates a ton of buzz when manufactures step outside their comfort zone and produce totally unexpected watches. Since each Only Watch in unique, manufactures can put aside the standard market research data and get creative. There are no boards or stakeholders to answer to; it's just a singular watch that's designed to be a crowd pleaser. At the auction, Patek Philippe always comes out in full force; F.P. Journe debuts entirely new complications; and Tudor has historically broken its own rules. It's an exciting event from a horological perspective, but ultimately it's about the fight against Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Proceeds from the sales go towa...
Introducing: The HODINKEE Magazine, Volume 5
The HODINKEE Magazine is back for Volume 5, and this issue is a great one. We've searched near and far for the most engaging long-form stories to tell. And each one of them has been rigorously researched, written, and edited by the HODINKEE team;?we've also worked with some of the world's most talented photographers to ensure that Volume 5 is our most beautiful issue to date.? The storytelling runs deep in the HODINKEE Magazine, Volume 5. Of course, we already know that watches can be much more than just objects that tell time. They can be heirlooms that connect family members across generations. The rusted-out Rolex Datejust on ...
Found: The Original Prototype That Inspired The Tudor P01
Earlier this year at Baselworld, Tudor debuted the controversial P01. The design was polarizing, dividing the Tudor camp into those who praised the manufacturer for breaking the mold and acknowledging the brand's experimental military roots, and those who thought the P01 was too strong of a departure from the norms of conventional tool watch beauty that the Black Bay line has come to define.? We recently had the opportunity to handle the original prototype the watch was based on at Tudors Geneva HQ. It was born from Tudors "commando" prototype development program that was set up to solve horological problems for the U.S. Navy i...
Breaking News: Grand Seiko And Seiko Will Not Participate In Baselworld 2020
HODINKEE has just learned that Grand Seiko, and Seiko, will not be participating in the 2020 edition of the Baselworld trade show. Seiko has been a participant at Baselworld for several decades, and the departure of the two brands C which, of course also includes Prospex, Presage, and all the other Seiko families of watches C comes at a transition time for the trade show, which like many such shows is working to redefine itself in a rapidly changing media landscape. The original source for this information was the publication Chronos Japan. Asked about the departure, Seiko and Grand Seiko have communicated to HODINKEE that the primary...