Hodinkee
Introducing: The Rolex GMT-Master II In Yellow Gold (!) And Two-Tone On A Jubilee Bracelet
We predicted it. It's real. And it's hot.
1,084 articles · 146 videos found · page 11 of 41
Hodinkee
We predicted it. It's real. And it's hot.
Hodinkee
It's a blast-from-the-past design – and 37mm never looked so good.
WatchAdvice
What we like: Great looking watch with solid engineeringExcellent fit and finishComfortable on the wrist What we didn’t : Crown guard may feel fiddly for day-to-day useSharpish edges on the claspNot the easiest watch to change straps Overall rating: 8.125 /10 Value for money: 7.5/10 Wearability: 8.5/10 Design: 8/10 Build quality: 8.5/10 First things first. Let’s all get our minds out of the gutter and leave the crude, juvenile schoolyard jokes behind. We’re better than that. Aren’t we? Yes, I get that jokes about balls are just too easy and we should all rise above it and move on to more sophisticated humour. Probably. Ball watches may not be front of mind for the vast majority of us considering a watch purchase, but it really shouldn’t be overlooked… once you get past the name… Yes, I know what I typed just in the previous paragraph. But it’s just too easy. As the size of your balls, all the best quality of the watches are hidden, away from prying eyes. But once you dive deeper you’ll see that perhaps these inner qualities are worth a second glance. Or three. To be honest, much like the rest of you, I’ve not given the Balls a second glance. Even though I’ve known about the brand for a long time, the only thing that I knew about them was their glow-in-the-dark capabilities, thanks to their tritium gas tube technology. Other than that, to me, they were just another brand utilising reliable workhorse movements from ETA/sellita, but not much else stood o...
Hodinkee
And not any old strap will fit it.
SJX Watches
For an uncompromising mechanical watch enthusiast, one of the most dreaded words in the specifications of a watch is surely “quartz”. Oftentimes that dread is followed by the thought, if only it was mechanical… I must admit this went through my mind when I discovered the lovely Cartier Santos Dumont in 2019. And that was despite Cartier’s best efforts in communicating that the movement inside was a long-autonomy quartz calibre with a six-year battery life. The Cartier Santos Dumont trio, with only the XL variant (extreme left) being mechanical In the time since, I began to ponder the question: why do I seek the latest electronic gadgets, but am dismissive towards quartz watches? Just because quartz movements are often cheap and easily available, does that leave them uniformly uninteresting? The Quartz Crisis On Monday, December 29, 1969, tucked somewhere in the The New York Times was an eight-line paragraph that ended with “[the] world’s first electronic wrist watch with a crystal oscillator.” That electronic watch, as you may have guessed, was the Seiko Quartz-Astron. It was barely obvious at the time, but the announcement, innocuous as it was, would be the harbinger of a crisis for Swiss watchmaking. The father of all quartz watches, the Seiko Quartz-Astron 35SQ in 18K yellow gold The Quartz-Astron cost as much as a Toyota Corolla at the time of of its release – its price was equivalent to about US$1,200 – and was without a doubt a luxury product. Ov...
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Hodinkee
Kelly Zimmerman pledges fealty to The Crown - and a certain German automaker.
A very deep dive on how Rolex keeps watches on wrists.
Hodinkee
Does it get any more HODINKEE Vintage than the El Primero, Submariner, and Carrera? And we're just getting started.
Revolution
Sleek clean lines are the order of the day for sports watches. Here’s a look at some of the most iconic models of the genre since the 1970s as well as their present-day reinterpretations.
SJX Watches
Distinctive with its wide, flat bezel, the ref. 5070 was Patek Philippe’s last chronograph powered by the CH27-70 movement derived from the Lemania 2310. At 42 mm in diameter, the ref. 5070 was the largest high-end chronograph on the market at its launch in 1998. Amongst the four versions of the ref. 5070 – in rose, yellow, or white gold as well as platinum – the platinum version is the rarest. Around 250 were made according to Sotheby’s, with the standard guise for the platinum case being being a metallic, muted-blue dial. Produced at the “special request of an important client” in 2012, the ref. 5070/1P-010 has a black dial, while preserving the standard dial design with its large, applied Arabic numerals in white gold. While the standard model is has the model reference 5070P, this example has the suffix “/1P”, indicating the monochromatic dial is matched by a platinum “brick” bracelet, an uncommon option only available via special order. Importantly, both the black dial and bracelet are mentioned on the certificate, which indicates the watch was sold at the Patek Philippe Salon in Geneva. The combination of a platinum case, black dial, and matching bracelet – familiar and simple but endlessly striking – has been seen before on other chronograph models, including a ref. 5004P that sold at Christie’s in 2019. But this is the first ref. 5070P in this livery to be offered publicly. Estimated at HK$4-8 million, or US$500,000-1 million, the uniq...
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Deployant
Today, we bring some light and sparkles with a series of full gold watches that we reckon are great options for any watch collection.
Quill & Pad
Our friends at The Watches TV visited Laurent Jolliet, the last “chain maker” in business in Switzerland according to Marc André Deschoux. As Jolliet crafts his bracelets and chains fully by hand, Deschoux and crew were able to find out in detail how Milanese bracelets are made, an art form no longer formally taught, and they share the secrets with us here.
Hodinkee
#everythingonajubilee
Hodinkee
Exploring two similar timepieces at two very different price points. Choose your own adventure. Featuring the Seiko SGF206 and the Rolex Day-Date Ref. 1803.
Hodinkee
Battle tested and office ready.
Video
Hodinkee
Five video stories from HODINKEE readers.
Quill & Pad
Bracelets are one of the most underappreciated watch components. They are often taken for granted, yet designing and crafting a good one comes with considerable challenges. Martin Green thinks that the new Breguet Marine bracelets are a winner, but especially in gold there's a price to pay.
Hodinkee
Five video stories from HODINKEE readers.
Hodinkee
Dwelling in the sky has never been more comfortable.
SJX Watches
One of TAG Heuer’s most distinctive watches because of its angular, square case, the Monaco turned 50 last year and the brand marked the occasion with a variety of limited edition watches as well as a hand-finished, one-off watch that was sold to benefit charity. At the same time, the regular-production Monaco in blue – arguably the quintessential Monaco design – received a substantial upgrade, with the ETA movement replaced with the in-house cal. Heuer 02. The Monaco Calibre Heuer 02 is now also available with a black dial, and a new, retro-inspired Monaco bracelet is also making its debut. Initial thoughts The Monaco is an intrinsically interesting watch because of its case. But TAG Heuer has produced many iterations that unfortunately look similar – despite having different movements – making it difficult to distinguish between them. The latest variant still looks similar, but manages to stand out from the crowd thanks to the bracelet, which has not been part of TAG Heuer’s offerings in a long time. The new bracelet is modelled on the 1970s original, but has been made more robust while being finished better. The result is a bracelet looks original and sporty. There have been numerous Monaco variations, but most were solidly constructed and well priced. The same appears to be true here. While the Monaco Heuer 02 has a new movement and bracelet, it retains the well finished case that’s a wearable 39 mm, along with the symmetrical, “Compax” dial layou...
Video
Hodinkee
Big flex in a precious metal.
Quill & Pad
Our friends at The Watches TV recently visited Laurent Jolliet, the last “chain maker” in business in Switzerland according to Marc-André Deschoux. As Jolliet crafts his bracelets and chains fully by hand, Deschoux and crew were able to find out in detail how Milanese bracelets are made, an art form no longer formally taught, and share the secrets with us here.
Hodinkee
Five video stories from HODINKEE readers.
Revolution
Hodinkee
About damn time.
Video
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