Best Super NEWS Watches
While most people are surely aware of the historic sale of Henry Graves, Jr. and his grandson Pete Fullerton's watches a few weeks back (you can read about Ben's purchase from the sale here), another important Graves watch was actually sold a few months earlier, in Geneva, by Christie's - and it's a pretty cool one.?As we've told you before here, Henry Graves, Jr. was obsessed with platinum.? Like, obsessed.? In addition to that crazy platinum rectangular watch that was so costly Henri Stern (Patek USA) actually sold it at a loss, Graves commissioned this just insane platinum pocketwatch with using a movement with that was awarded first prize in the Genevea Astronomical Observatory Timing Co...
VIDEO: A Look At The Clever Nooka App
If you're reading this you probably agree with us that a phone is no substitute for a time piece. But that hasn't stopped our creative time keeping friends at Nooka from coming up with an app that actually has us clocking things on our iPhones. Nooka have added a tactile dimension to coloring and organizing time, utilizing the displays seen on their watches. In the clock, timer, and stopwatch (which measures to 1/10 of a second) modes, you can swipe between three different display modes, and then use a pull-up color wheel to paint your interface. Our favorite feature though is the world time function, which uses a set of concentric rings for the hours display - think analog world time compli...
Watch Spotting: Legendary Formula One Champion Jim Clark Wearing A Breitling Top-Time
1960s Formula One racers and their watches. It seems like you can't go a solitary day without hearing about these men and their Heuer Chronographs. Jo Siffert and his watch, Derek Bell and his, and of course McQueen's Monaco.But our friends at Automobiliac came across a really cool picture of a racer that might not be as romantic a hero as Seppi, but in actuality was arguably the strongest racer of his day. Jim Clark at the time of his death had won more Grand Prix races (25) and achieved more Grand Prix pole positions (33) than any other driver, and had two world championships to his name. On top of that, he wore a pretty cool watch - a Breitling Top-Time chronograph.As Automobiliac poin...
The Strange Leap Seconds To Occur This Weekend: Prepare Yourself For The 61 Second Minute!
Did you know that every year and a half there is a 61 second minute? There is, and it's called a leap second.? And, it's happening this weekend!? In fact, it will happen in the very last minute of the last hour of the last day of this month (aka Saturday night).? So why is there such a thing as leap seconds?"This leap second accounts for the fact that the Earth's rotation around its own axis, which determines the length of a day, slows down over time while the atomic clocks we use to measure time tick away at almost the same speed over millions of years.? So, leap seconds are a means to adjust our clocks to the Earth's slowing rotation."? More details here.(Hat-tip to @UnderTheLoupe)...
The Miami Heat won the NBA Championship last week - quickly silencing all the critics of LeBron James' decision to take his talents to South Beach.? It was LeBron's first championship, and the second title for the Heat since 2006.? To celebrate this, team sponsor Hublot decided to give the entire organization watches.? But not just any watches - big, white watches.? Called the White Hot Big Bang, these Hublots are engraved on the back with the Heat logo and date of the championship.? They were presented to not only players, but the coaching staff of the team.??Conspicuously absent from the festivities was, well, the man everyone really wanted to see, series MVP LeBron James.? James is, of co...
VIDEO: Yes, The 4N-MVT01 Is Now Real, And Working (Thanks To Renaud & Papi)
There has been a bit of a saga around watchmaker Francois Quentin's 4N watch.? It was originally shown in 2010 as a simple rendering, and some said "cool idea, but call me when it's real."? Then, over a year later, at Basel World 2012, we heard rumblings of a working prototype, though we hadn't heard anything official. But, just today, we received word that the 4N watch is now very much real, working, and for sale!?The folks who got this deceivingly complex design to work? You guessed it. Audemars Piguet Renaud & Papi, the complications wing of AP, who is also quietly responsible for getting a significant percentage of hypercomplicated watches to work.??? Watch the video above, and click...
Hands-On: With The Vulcain Nautical Heritage Alarm (Live Photos, Specs, & Official Pricing)
Vulcain continues to do just about everything right, and a it's just a matter of time before the greater watch buying masses begin to understand how great of a brand this is.? We showed you a nice looking mono-pusher from BaselWorld 2012 a few months back, and now we've got our hands on the the great Nautical Heritage Alarm.?Actually, we got our hands on two of them.? The watch above and at right below is the special edition Vulcain Trophy Steel watch, which is differs from the standard Nautical heritage with bright piping on the dial and strap, as well as a hobnail bezel.? It is a limited edition of 100 pieces.(L) The Vulcain Nautical Heritage (R) The Vulcain Nautical Vulcain Trophy LEWhile...
Live Photos Of The New C3H5N309 Experiment ZR012 On FratelloWatches
Our homeboys over at FratelloWatches recently went hands-on with the exciting new experimental project between MB&F and Urwerk, C3H5N309, which we introduced to you here.To check out the Experiment ZR012 in the metal click here....
Your Official A. Lange & Sohne Datograph Up/Down "Just Because" Photographs
We regularly post pictures under the tag "Just Because."? These are photos that have no news peg, per se, but show something pretty cool, often times next to something else pretty cool.? It looks like the trend has caught on, because A. Lange & Sohne just sent us over these pictures of their new Datograph Up/Down (of which we showed you with our own live pics a few months back) along with the Loschwitz Bridge over the River Elbe in Dresden, commonly referred to as the Blue Wonder" - or their own "Just Because" pictures.Take a look and enjoy.? From what we understand, the first batch of Datograph Up/Down's are with retailers at this very moment.? You can read more about the Datograph Up/...
Hands-On: With The Girard-Perregaux 1966 Minute Repeater (Live Photos, Specs, & Pricing)
Back during the craziness of SIHH, Jason showed you a quick look at Girard-Perregaux's stunning new 1966 Minute Repeater in a 42mm rose gold case an enamel dial. Just recently in Las Vegas, we got out grubby mitts on it again, and this time we'll be showing you the other side of this absolutely gorgeous watch, with a bunch of new specs, photos, and official price. This new repeater is as a classical a complicated watch as we saw at SIHH, and the subtleness of this piece is just sublime. The diameter of the calibre and the interior diameter of the case are perfectly balanced, a ratio that guarantees maximum resonance. The case-back is curved in order to increase the volume of air between the...
Salma Hayek's Billionaire Husband Receives Greubel Forsey GMT For 50th Birthday
The head of Paris based conglomerate PPR, Francois-Henri Pinault, recently sat down with Telegraph to discuss Puma's plans for the upcoming Olympics, where a slew of Jamaican sprinters will be sporting his product, including the gold medalist Usain Bolt. All great news if you're invested in the shoe and lifestyle business. What caught our attention is Pinault's wrist bound 50th birthday present, which caught enough of the interviewer's attention to prompt the "How much does it cost?" question along with a coy response from Pinault. The watch in question, a Greubel Forsey GMT, his response, "Oh, I don't know, it was a present from my father for my 50th birthday this month." Francois-Henri's f...
SOLD: A French Lieutenant's 1938 Audemars Piguet Gold Chronograph That Saw Action In World War II
Among the non-Graves/Fullerton watches sold last week at Sotheby's that I was most closely tracking was a 1938 Audemars Piguet chronograph in an 18k yellow gold case. As we have previously told you, Vintage Audemars Piguet chronographs are notoriously difficult to find. Just check out this post and this post to see a couple rare and valuable AP chronos.The reason why vintage Audemars chronographs are so difficult to find is simply because AP had such a limited production. The lot notes for this chronograph explain why: "In the 1930s, production levels for Audemars Piguet dropped nearly to a halt following the worldwide economic depression following the 1929 stock market crash. The firm adjus...
Hands-On: With The Mhle Glashutte S.A.R. Flieger-Chronograph (Live Pics)
This is an interesting watch we stumbled across while at Couture in Las Vegas a few weeks back. The S.A.R. Flieger-Chronograph is made by the other (other, other) brand in Glashutte, Germany C Mhle Glashutte. This particular model was designed specifically for the German Navy, and you can see that operability was really paramount in the design of this watch. The chronograph in this 44 mm watch is activated by a large push button at 8 o'clock, which means the wearer would be starting and stopping this chrono with his thumb. May sound strange, but it's not, because human being actually have a must faster response time with their thumbs than their index fingers. The standard SAR color scheme w...
Editorial: Why I Bought Pete Fullerton's Universal Geneve Yesterday At Sotheby's Graves Auction
Hey guys, Ben here.? I don't often talk about the watches that I buy for myself, because honestly, who cares? (Though, if you follow me on Twitter / Instagram, you have a pretty good idea of what I'm wearing on a daily basis.) But I bought a watch yesterday that I am totally in love with, and it's one I just had to share with you for a few reasons.? Read on, and you'll see why.I attended the sale of the Henry Graves, Jr. / Reginald "Pete" Fullerton, Jr. collection at Sotheby's yesterday in New York.? If you haven't gathered by the amount of expansive, borderline embarrassingly hyperbolic tone we've used in the coverage of this historic sale, I was really excited about it.? You see, the Grave...
At yesterday's historic sale of the Henry Graves / Pete Fullerton collection taking place at Sotheby's NYC, we saw the incredible minute repeating wristwatch belonging to Mr. Graves (with the Graves Coat of Arms on the caseback) hammer for $2.6million, with a final selling price of $2,994,500.?The unique platinum wristwatch that we featured earlier this week - you know, the one that cost Patek so much to make that it actually was sold at a loss - was another strong performer.? With estimates of $30,000-$50,000, it ended up selling for $362,500.Fullerton's prototype 2497 perpetual calendar brought in $722,500, while Graves' 1436 split seconds chronograph pulled down $662,500.? The entire, 60 ...
VIDEO: We Take The New Audemars Piguet Forged Carbon Diver Diving In Belize
On Jason's wrist is the $27,100 AP Forged Carbon Diver Around this time last year, Jason famously took the luxury diver to end all luxury divers - the AP Royal Oak Offshore Diver - deep into the waters of Bonaire in the Caribbean. He reviewed the watch not as a status symbol, but as the tool it was (in theory) designed to be - a certified diver. You can read his full-length "Week on the Wrist" here. By the way, we filmed the whole thing, and it is still today the most robust review of this watch anywhere on the interwebs.When we saw that AP would be making the very same watch, this time case in Forged Carbon, we figured, why not give it to Jason one more time, th...
Tomorrow's sale of the watches belonging to Henry Graves Jr. and his grandson Pete Fullerton is lined up to be a truly monumental event.? We were the first in the world go hands-on with the collection back in May, and we continued the coverage of this sale of the watch collecting dynasty with Graves Week the past few days.? We've showed you hands-on pictures of Mr. Fullerton's epic (and sometimes approachable) collection, and told you about the oversized platinum wristwatch that cost Patek so much money, it was sold to Graves at a loss.? Then, just this morning we interviewed five major industry insiders about what this collection means to watches in general (a great, insightful read, if we ...
Introducing The C3H5N3O9 Experiment ZR012: From The Minds Behind MB&F And Urwerk, Together
We once said that the only way you'd be able to own a watch that was the intellectual collaboration of Max Busser from MB&F and Felix Baumgartner of Urwerk is to buy a Harry Winston Opus V. We were wrong.We are proud to introduce you to a new concept brand of haute contemporary horology - C3H5N3O9. The brand came from a lunch between Mr. Max Bsser of MB&F and Felix Baumgartner of Urwerk over four years ago when the two leaders of modern horology discussed how they might work together again, officially. The easy way certainly would have been for Mr. Baumgartner and his partner Mr. Frei to design a movement for an MB&F Horological Machine, but that seemed almost too easy. ...
Rafael Nadal Loses His Richard Mille RM027 Tourbillon After French Open Win
Rafa Nadal's Richard Mille RM027 Before It Went MissingWorld No. 1 tennis player Rafael Nadal has reportedly lost his Richard Mille RM027 ultra-light tourbillon after his win over Novak Djokovic (an AP ambassador) at the French Open.? This is actually the second half-million dollar limited edition tourbillon that Nadal has had stolen - the first was taken from a locker at the Rogers Cup in Toronto a few years back.Police reports say it was taken from his hotel room, though, they go on to say his room was not broken into.? He woke up on Tuesday to find it missing, according to his family.? The Richard Mille RM027 is a limited edition of 50 pieces, and if you count the two Nadal has lost, the ...
Historical Perspectives: Just Because: Two Classic Pump Pusher Chronographs, Next To Each Other
The watch at left? A mid-1960s Heuer Carrera reference 2447N.? The watch at right? 1970 Rolex Cosmograph Daytona Reference 6262.? Both are powered by a Valjoux 72 movement, though the Daytona in this instance uses a higher beat 727 movement.? In fact, the 6262 was built for only one year, and uses the smaller case and pump pushers of original Daytona (ref 6239) but the higher beat movement of the later screw-down pushers of the 6263 / 6265, and well, every Rolex chronograph after the 6262.? These are two classic racing inspired chronographs, next to each other.? Pretty cool, right?...