Latest watch news · Page 39

Welcome to another episode of Fratello On Air! This week, we discuss sleeper watches from the ’90s and ’00s. It was an interesting period for timepieces, representing a transition from smaller, often quartz-powered models to mechanical ones. Let’s just say that watchmakers were finding their collective feet again with interesting results. Still, there were gems, […] Visit Fratello On Air: Sleeper ’90s And ’00s Watches Worth Waking Up For to read the full article.

I always thought of Glashütte Original as a modest watch brand. However, the German watchmaker does indeed use its Vintage Collection to experiment with more than the usual black, silver, and blue dials. This is where the new Glashütte Original Sixties Chronograph Annual Edition comes in with its groovy purple dial. I even got to […] Visit Get Your Groove On With The Grape-Dial Glashütte Original Sixties Chronograph to read the full article.

Earlier this year, TAG Heuer unveiled the latest iteration of a longstanding model, the Monaco Chronograph TH20. It’s essentially a reissue of the Monaco ref. 1133 made famous by Steve McQueen, but not a one-for-one remake, and it’s the best to date. The Monaco TH20 retains the familiar dial design and case outline, but the case has been reworked in both design and material. The square case is sleeker and more lightweight, being in titanium instead of steel. And it gets upgraded with the TH20 movement, instead of the ETA 2894-2 found in many earlier generations of the model. Initial thoughts I’ve always liked the Monaco, especially the ref. 1133 B. It’s a distinctive and arguably iconic design that evokes the 1970s. And it’s different from more famous 1970s designs, which are mostly sports watches with integrated bracelets. Though the Monaco is not particularly ergonomic due to the size and shape, it is cool. The ref. 1133 remake has been in TAG Heuer’s catalogue for a long, long time with many, many iterations to date. Most earlier generations were powered by the ETA 2894 – an ETA 2892 with a module on top – that was a convenient solution for the left-hand crown. The new Monaco is an all-around upgrade with the in-house TH20 movement and titanium case. The TH20 is a competent calibre with solid specs, albeit still very industrial, but good enough for the price segment. The titanium case is a less obvious improvement in terms of design, but it improves the ...

IWC’s history is dotted with landmark innovations such as Albert Pellaton’s pawl winding system, Kurt Klaus’ famous perpetual calendar, and Richard Habring’s split-seconds chronograph module; the ProSet perpetual calendar system continues this legacy. This bidirectional perpetual calendar module made its debut earlier this year at Watches & Wonders inside the Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar ProSet, and remains true to IWC’s identity as an engineer’s manufacture. A smaller Big Pilot QP The Big Pilot ProSet unveiled at Watches & Wonders blends the manufacture’s latest engineering feat with the beloved styling of the pilot’s watch. The ProSet system is currently only available inside the 42 mm Big Pilot. Powered by a downsized base calibre, the 42 mm ProSet is the first Big Pilot under 46 mm to include a perpetual calendar. IWC has a tweaked and scaled down the its signature Kurt Klaus module in the past for the 42 mm Portugieser and some Portofinos, but somehow it never made into the reduced Big Pilot collection. Unfortunately, these smaller watches lacked the now-iconic digital year display, and instead featured a subtler (but more forgettable) leap cycle aperture. The ProSet brings back the four-digit year display, making this watch almost indistinguishable from the original 46 mm version. Apart from some styling choices, the main difference in the displays is the lack of a power reserve indicator. The cal. 82665 inside is powered by a single mains...

IWC’s history was dotted with landmark innovations such as Albert Pellaton’s pawl winding system, Kurt Klaus’ famous perpetual calendar, and Richard Habring’s split-seconds chronograph module. Though IWC has arguably been thin on such innovation in recent years, the ProSet perpetual calendar is a long overdue return to form. The calendar’s clever features make it true to IWC’s identity as an engineer’s manufacture. Set entirely via the crown just like the Kurt Klaus calendar, ProSet can also be adjusted forwards and backwards, making it both idiot-proof and convenient. A smaller Big Pilot This bidirectional perpetual calendar module made its debut earlier this year at Watches & Wonders inside the Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar ProSet, which blends the manufacture’s latest engineering feat with the beloved styling of the pilot’s watch. The ProSet system is currently only available inside the 42 mm Big Pilot. Powered by a downsized base calibre, the 42 mm ProSet is the first Big Pilot under 46 mm to include a perpetual calendar. IWC has a tweaked and scaled down the its signature Kurt Klaus module in the past for the 42 mm Portugieser and some Portofinos, but somehow it never made into the reduced Big Pilot collection. Unfortunately, these smaller watches lacked the now-iconic digital year display, and instead featured a subtler (but more forgettable) leap cycle aperture. The ProSet brings back the four-digit year display, making this watch almost ...

It is July, my wrist has grown two millimetres since Tuesday, and my clasp is not ready. a serious question, delivered with love: why is on-the-fly micro-adjust still a Rolex + tudor + Omega perk instead of an industry standard?. Wrists swell in summer, integrated bracelets don't budge. Why every bracelet in 2026 should have on-the-fly micro-adjust. Statement to the industry.

What is a summer watch?  It’s a question I ask myself every year around this time. It’s partly rhetorical. We all know, somehow, what a summer watch is. It conjures something in the mind’s eye of a watch enthusiast that is colorful and probably on the sporty side. It looks best when sun drenched, on the beach or a patio or a hiking trail. Or maybe even with brightly glowing dial furniture in a dark movie theater on the hottest summer afternoon, when you just need to be in an air conditioned space for a few hours.  But I also wonder, annually, if this is actually a real thing. Any watch, of course, can be worn in the summer. If it’s summer, and you’re wearing a watch, the transitive property (I think that’s the one) proves you are wearing a summer watch. It could just as easily be a Patek Philippe Ellipse as a Tudor Pelagos, even if you’re bound to sweat through the leather on the former, and even if the latter will never see a running faucet to clean a dirty dish, let alone ocean depths.  Eventually, though, I always come back to the Seiko Orange Monster. Specifically, my Orange Monster, an SRP315. As someone who normally is inclined to minimize the impact of seasonality on a watch, and insist that any watch can be worn anytime of year (they don’t actually know what season it is, after all), the Orange Monster is the one exception, the counter example that makes me question my loosely held summer watch takes. Because, frankly, I have no desire to wear th...

We’re about half a year removed from the release of Toledano & Chan’s b/1.3r, certainly the brand’s most ambitious release to date with a solid gold dial, subtly updated case construction, and their first “Swiss Made” designation. They’ve followed up that launch with their first collaboration with The Horologly Club, the Hong Kong based watch collecting community (which actually has members all over the world, including T&C; cofounder Alfred Chan), just announced this morning. The new limited edition, which they’ve called the Breutalist, takes on a familiar form with some very specific design codes that fans of the brand will likely welcome. The distinctive shape of Toledano & Chan’s watches have taken inspiration from the former Whitney Museum building, designed by Marcel Breuer, from the very beginning. The building is considered a masterpiece of Brutalism, an architectural discipline often cited as inspiration by watch designers, but rarely actually “getting it” in the way Toledano & Chan does (they ship their watches in concrete presentation boxes, which puts them miles ahead of other so-called Brutalist brands, in my opinion). The design of the iconic windows in that building, specifically, is what lends T&C;’s watches their distinctive, asymmetrical shape, and informs the shape of the crystal, which has become a T&C; calling card.  The idea behind the Breutalist is to be far more straightforward and literal in what it takes from Brutalism and Breu...

What We Know Breitling's Top Time has long been a unique outlier in the Swiss brand's line-up. A chronograph model with a square (ish) cushion case launched in 1964, it aimed to attract a new crop of younger consumers with its hipster design.  The Top Time soon made it onto the wrist of no less an icon than James Bond in the 1965 film adaptation of Ian Fleming's Thunderball, which saw Sean Connery's 007 sport the watch while driving an elegant and refined British sports car, the Aston Martin DB5.  The rest, as they say, is history. The U.K.-built Aston became synonymous with the U.K. secret agent. The Top Time? Not so much. While it thrived as a model line for Breitling, Bond moved on to a series of other watch brands in subsequent installments of the film series, from Rolex to Seiko, and these days, Omega, via a longstanding product placement deal.  Now Breitling, following the successful launch last year of the limited edition Top Time B01 'Racing' Series in 38mm, and the deal this year to hook up with Aston Martin as a sponsor of its F1 team and other motoring endeavors, is giving us its tribute to the DB5 in three limited edition models that aim to capture the refined elegance and power of the grand touring car on the wrist.  The new Top Time Chronograph B01 Tribute To Aston Martin DB5 case measures 41 millimeters by 47.9 millimeters and13.8 millimeters thick. The dial of each limited-edition model features a wood inlay rehaut, meant to evoke the wooden steering w...

RGM Watch Company has never been a brand to chase trends or pop culture. Founded in 1992 by Roland G. Murphy in Pennsylvania, the brand has built its reputation on traditional watchmaking, producing around 400 watches annually while preserving crafts such as engine turning, movement decoration, and even in-house calibre production. Its latest release, however, […]

In time to celebrate the Apollo 11 Moon landing of July 12, 1969, Swatch x Omega releases a limited edition MoonSwatch featuring Moonshine Gold.

Breitling has unveiled the Top Time B01 Chronograph 41 Tribute to Aston Martin DB5, a three-watch limited-edition collection inspired by the British grand tourer introduced in 1963. This is the historical side of the new Breitling–Aston Martin partnership, and it is a far more literal meeting of the two brands than the Formula 1-themed Navitimer that opened the collaboration. Time and speed, reunited The connection is not manufactured from a marketing spreadsheet. Breitling launched the youthful, speed-focused Top Time during the 1960s, and Sean Connery wore a modified Top Time reference 2002 in Thunderball in 1965 while driving the Aston Martin DB5. Now Breitling has translated the car’s silver bodywork, dark instrumentation, timber trim and hand-finished leather into three versions of its modern cushion-cased chronograph. All three measure 41mm in diameter and 13.3mm thick, use domed sapphire crystals, offer 100 metres of water resistance and arrive on brown calfskin straps with folding clasps. A wooden inner bezel is the defining DB5 detail: it recalls the car’s steering wheel and dashboard without putting a miniature vehicle on the dial. The silver-dial steel edition echoes the DB5’s bodywork and handcrafted interior. Image: Breitling. Steel: the closest match to the classic DB5 Reference AB0178121G1X1 is the most direct interpretation. Its stainless-steel case surrounds a silver-toned dial, brown wooden tachymeter scale and a hand-coloured gradient leather str...

We have some exciting news to share. Worn & Wound has acquired Lorier. Lauren and Lorenzo Ortega, Lorier’s founders, will remain partial owners of the business and retain creative stewardship of the brand, with Lorenzo serving as Creative Director. The goal of this partnership is to unlock Lorier’s full potential, freeing Lauren and Lorenzo to do what they love most: designing great products and engaging with the Lorier community. In turn, Lorier gains access to Worn & Wound’s infrastructure of customer service, fulfillment, product procurement, logistics, and more. Together, we’ll scale operations to meet the overwhelming demand for Lorier. This will take time. There’s significant pent-up demand for Lorier’s core line, and in one week we’ll be unveiling updated versions of some of the brand’s most popular models: the Hyperion, Hydra, Falcon, and Astra. We’ll be honest, we expect this run to sell quickly. But, rest assured, we’ll reinvest to increase production runs, rerelease other core models, and develop new lines. Until now, Lorier was run solely by the Ortegas. They poured everything into it, building a remarkable brand and an even more remarkable community. But as demand for Lorier grew, Lauren and Lorenzo hit a crossroads. With their capacity tapped out, they either needed to find the right partner to help them scale or consider options for exiting the company. Thankfully, they chose the former. We’re honored to be entrusted with Lorier’s ong...

Another collaborative project has just launched, and one that is certainly not meant to be conservative. On one side is young indie brand Toledano & Chan, founded by Phil Toledano and Alfred Chan, and focused on bridging conceptual art, brutalist architecture and watchmaking, creating sculptural watches with a design like no other. On the other […]

When Vacheron Constantin announced the original Twin-Beat at SIHH in 2019, I wasn't in the watch space in the same way I am now. I was also focused on a much different price point—the one I shop in, not the one that I've since become fascinated by. So I missed it. A lot of people did, it seems. I don't think this watch, as interesting as it is/was as a first release, was made in particularly large numbers, and for over a year, I heard rumblings about the eventual return of the Twin-Beat. Well, it's here. It's improved. And yes, in the metal, it's both entertaining and impressive. But what is it? Essentially, the watch leverages two balances that beat at different rates to provide either 4 days of power reserve running at 5Hz or 70 days in standby mode at 1.2Hz. Oh, and it's a perpetual calendar as well. We covered the technical aspects back in 2019, so this will focus more on the watch as a revived model. The technical is the key here, but the form factor is impressive as well. A perpetual calendar, with dual balances, measuring 42mm and 12.3mm thick, it's hefty because of the platinum case, but it wears quite well despite the technicality. Vacheron has a tendency to make some impressively complicated watches and, unfortunately, make them quite large in the process. This would never have been a problem in the old days (especially for brands like Patek, which dominated this high-end, integrated complication space), but then again, the specifications of the old days don't ...

Breitling has announced a series of limited-edition Top Time B01 Chronograph models celebrating the Aston Martin DB5. These three motoring-inspired chronographs feature a cushion-shaped case with subtle Art Deco grooves in each corner. Combined with pump pushers, the design delivers a distinct 1960s character, making the connection to Aston Martin’s legendary British grand tourer feel […] Visit Breitling Launches A Top Time Trio Paying Tribute To The Aston Martin DB5 to read the full article.

The late 1970s were a wildly transitional era for horology, one where the delicate, fragile elegance of the dress watch was shoved aside for the bold integrated steel sports watch.

DOXA has returned to the world of novelist, explorer and shipwreck hunter Clive Cussler with its lightest tribute yet. Released on July 15—the day Cussler would have turned 95—the SUB 300 Ti5 Clive Cussler is limited to 300 pieces and recasts the original 1967 SUB 300 in Grade 5 titanium. DOXA SUB 300 Ti5 Clive Cussler. Image: WatchRider. A titanium dial with hidden history The most unusual detail is not the metal case but the dial. DOXA constructs it from two superimposed Grade 5 titanium plates. The upper plate is laser-cut, creating a layered relief, while the sandblasted finish gives the grey surface an appropriately industrial character. Black lacquered hands preserve contrast and the oversized orange minute hand supplies the familiar DOXA signal colour. The dual-plane titanium dial and two-scale bezel. Image: DOXA. The date disc and the numerals 15, 7 and 31 appear in orange, spelling out Cussler’s birth date: July 15, 1931. The unidirectional bezel is equally busy for a reason. Its polished outer scale shows DOXA’s no-decompression depths in orange, while the brushed inner track carries a conventional 60-minute scale in black. DOXA SUB 300 Ti5 Clive Cussler. Image: DOXA. Familiar SUB 300 proportions, less weight The cushion-shaped case measures 42.5 mm across, 45 mm lug-to-lug and 13.4 mm thick. Grade 5 titanium is used for the case, bezel, screw-down crown and screw-down caseback, while an anti-reflective glass-box sapphire crystal preserves the domed profi...

Twelve warriors gather around the table once again, but this time, Camelot gives way to Edo Castle. Roger Dubuis has a knack for creating watches that are equal parts human imagination and great craftsmanship, the kind you can spend hours staring at, whether they call upon dragons, knights, or are high complications that look like […]

The breakaway is five minutes ahead of the peloton. It’s a strong group, and you’d better do your best to catch the four Bravur Team Heritage watches that are in the lead. They look strong and stylish in their historical team kit colors of St. Raphaël, Peugeot, Renault, and Mercier. Forget about the ultra-aero Lycra […] Visit Catch The Four Bravur Team Heritage Watches In The Breakaway to read the full article.

The Nodus Sector Deep Black Destro proves you don’t need to spend a fortune for a genuine 500m dive watch with thoughtful engineering.

Stone dials have long held a special place in fine watchmaking. No two are ever alike, each preserving colours, textures and patterns formed over millions of years. For Gerald Charles, working with stone means embracing a challenge. The Masterlink is anything but round, and its asymmetrical silhouette leaves almost no margin for error. See how […]

In an age when luxury brands seem incapable of subtlety, there is something deeply seductive about a watch dial that says… nothing at all. Just form, texture, proportion, and confidence. Increasingly, some of the coolest watchmakers in the world are discovering that the ultimate flex is silence. It is a fascinating reversal of decades of […] Visit The Ultimate Flex: When Watch Brands Leave Their Names Off The Dial to read the full article.

On the morning of March 30, 1937, 16-year-old King Farouk I of Egypt visited the workshops of Vacheron & Constantin in Geneva. He had been on the throne for less than a year. His father, Fouad I, had died in April 1936, leaving him the crown, the palaces, and a collection that included one of the most complicated watches the Swiss had ever produced. The welcome was formal, as the company’s records and the following morning’s edition of La Suisse both confirm. The young king was received by the company’s directors and shown the workshops. He was already, by multiple accounts, deeply interested in watches as objects to be understood from the inside — the tour of the manufacture was a pilgrimage. Vacheron Constantin, before Plan-les-Ouates. Image – SJX composite/Vacheron Constantin At some point during the visit, Farouk made a remark that passed into the house lore of Vacheron & Constantin and into several of his subsequent biographies, though seldom accurately. The original French, as La Suisse reported it, was precise: “C’est qu’on n’abîmera jamais autant de montres que je n’en ai abîmé étant enfant!”, which translates as “One will never ruin as many watches as I ruined as a child.” Secondary sources have rendered this with démontées — dismantled — in place of abîmé; a small but telling substitution that transforms an admission of destruction into evidence of mechanical curiosity. A child who dismantles watches is a nascent watchmaker. ...

From Nivachron to besançon, from ISO 6425 to the quartz crisis. a working glossary built for people who read spec sheets for fun and want the concrete answer, not the marketing line. The WristBuzz Watch Wiki: 323 watchmaking terms explained across movements, materials, complications, regulation, history and design. Built for enthusiasts, buyers and journalists who want the concrete answer.

If you’re a fan of cinema and horology, there’s a new collaboration that needs to be on your radar. Releasing right alongside Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated summer blockbuster, the Hamilton x The Odyssey limited edition watch is a masterclass in storytelling through design.  Nolan and Hamilton have a legendary history together think of the famous “Murph” watch from Interstellar or the custom digital piece from Tenet. Designing for a Mythic Era The Khaki Field Auto “The Odyssey” Limited Edition takes Hamilton’s classic 42mm Khaki Field platform and completely reimagines it through the lens of ancient Greek mythology.  Here is how Hamilton brought the ancient world to the wrist: The Material: The traditional stainless steel case is swapped out for warm bronze. Not only is this historically fitting for the armor and weaponry of the era, but it means the watch will develop a unique, personalized patina as it ages.  The Dial: The vertically brushed black dial features a subtle bronze-toned pattern around the perimeter, directly lifted from the texture of Odysseus’ helmet (played by Matt Damon in the film). The Hands: Instead of standard pointers, Hamilton opted for bronze-colored, sword-shaped hands that reference the hero’s legendary blade. The 12 o’clock index is even modeled after a rivet found on his sword’s scabbard.  The Caseback: Flip the watch over, and you’ll find a lightweight titanium caseback engraved with Odysseus’...