Two Broke Watch Snobs
One Of The Coolest Japanese Watches You’ll Probably Never See In Person
Credor's new Kuon GCLX995 pairs a blue ceramic dial with hand-wound Spring Drive in a 39mm steel case. Here's what stands out.
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Two Broke Watch Snobs
Credor's new Kuon GCLX995 pairs a blue ceramic dial with hand-wound Spring Drive in a 39mm steel case. Here's what stands out.
Fratello
Goodbyes are never easy. Nevertheless, after five years in production, Greubel Forsey is removing the Balancier Convexe S² from the catalog. The brand follows this strategy to maintain extreme exclusivity, preserve high secondary-market value, and ensure a focus on innovation and hand-finished quality over mass production. The two farewell creations - one in black ceramic […] Visit Introducing: The Final Versions Of The Greubel Forsey Balancier Convexe S² to read the full article.
Monochrome
More than just a game, Mahjong is a cultural bridge connecting global Chinese communities and the East and West, historically serving as a crucial medium for social bonding. And today, it serves as a source of inspiration for the creation of a new watch, or to be precise, the hand-carved Mahjong tiles are used as […]
SJX Watches
Citizen invented the first solar-powered analogue watch way back in 1976, and now it’s marking 50 years of its signature timepiece with “The Citizen” Eco-Drive 50th Anniversary. Five decades on Citizen’s solar technology is amongst the most advanced, and the anniversary edition is equipped with a movement that runs within five seconds a year, and will last 18 months on power save mode. But the dial, on the other hand, is traditional Japanese craft: it’s made of washi, a paper that’s dyed by hand, and translucent enough to allow solar charging. Initial thoughts The combination of washi, Super Titanium, and high-end quartz is a familiar one, with Citizen having applied it to past limited editions. Although Citizen is repeating the formula, this remains impressive from both a technology and materials perspective. The ultra-accurate A060 is one of the most sophisticated analogue quartz movements on the market, while Citizen’s proprietary hardened titanium, first polished by hand then hardened, is equally impressive. Tech aside, the anniversary edition stands out for the washi dial that adds a little bit of traditional Japanese craft to all of the cutting-edge tech in the watch. The dial is made of Japanese paper that’s dyed by hand with old school dyes obtained from plants. That said, this anniversary edition is still a relatively niche product for enthusiasts who appreciate high-end quartz technology packaged well. All of that tech and finishing comes at a pri...
Teddy Baldassarre
For a watch-enthusiast raised on traditional analog timekeeping, jump-hour watches do not necessarily present the easiest or most intuitive way to read the time on their dials, but they inarguably offer one of the most dynamic ways to do so. Instead of a slow-moving central hand to indicate the hour, watches with a “jumping” design rely on a numbered disk that flips instantly to the next hour numeral at the start of each new 60-minute period. These disks most often operate behind a round aperture and are usually paired with either a similarly rotating disk for the minutes or, perhaps, with an analog hand for an interesting hybrid design. And while they may seem decidedly avant-garde in their aesthetic, watchmakers have incorporated this style of time display in their movements for over a century. Here is a look at eight of our favorites from recent years. [toc-section heading="A. Lange & Söhne Zeitwerk Date"] The Zeitwerk, which German luxury watchmaker A. Lange & Söhne introduced in 2009, is technically a “digital” watch, but it isn’t like any other one you’ve ever seen: there are no electronics, no LCD screens, and you won’t find it at your local big box store. The Lange Zeitwerk Date flies in the ionosphere of high horology, with a 44.2mm round case, made of 18k white gold or rose gold, framing an intricately crafted dial that boasts a jumping-hour digital display, powered by the manually-wound L043.8 movement. Every detail of this watch is a handcraft...
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Two Broke Watch Snobs
Farer's new 35mm Furneaux and Belzoni feature spun gradient dials, a hand-wound Sellita, and steeper cushion case angles.
Worn & Wound
And just like that, it’s Super Watch Season. Every year we see a handful of watches that come to market that exist for the purpose of displaying the absolute pinnacle of what a brand can accomplish. Think of ultra complicated watches from Vacheron Constantin released in recent years, or pieces from Greubel Forsey focused on extravagant hand finishing and machining. The new release from Girard-Perregaux feels like a member of this rare category. The new Minute Repeater Flying Bridges combines a tourbillon and a minute repeater with GP’s famous “Three Bridges” movement architecture. The highlight here, beyond the rarity of a repeater, is that the new Calibre GP9530 is a self-winding movement (via a micro-rotor), which is exceedingly rare among chiming watches and, to a lesser extent, tourbillons. Girard-Perregaux has a long history in chiming watches that dates back to the 1820s, and the Minute Repeater Flying Bridges is fashioned as a tribute to those earliest repeaters, while being unapologetically contemporary in its design. Certainly part of that tribute is in the craftsmanship itself, and in the use of the most modern technology available to create the best chiming mechanism possible. To that end, the movement has been radically skeletonized not only for aesthetic reasons but to prioritize resonance. According to the brand, every technical choice made in the development of the new watch was made in the name of optimizing the sound of the chime. For a repeat...
SJX Watches
The niche market for modern automatons just a little less tiny with Hugo Rittener’s Le Majordome, a mechanical butler that pop ups and greet the onlooker on demand. In the tradition of historical automatons, Le Majordome is entirely mechanical and driven by complex clockwork, and made entirely by hand. Initial thoughts Hugo Rittener is a young automaton maker from the Vaud region of Switzerland. Having cut his teeth working with François Junod, one of the most celebrated talents in the field, Mr Rittener has now gone into business for himself. Against this backdrop, Le Majordome (“the butler” in English) represents a foundational release. Compared to the timepieces we sometimes call mechanical art, this tabletop automaton serves no actual utility; there’s no time-telling and no complication other than the bronze figure itself. In terms of pure mechanical art, this is as artful as it gets. Having taken over 1,000 hours of work, from design to finishing, the (Le) Majordome is a mechanical animation of a bronze-sculpted and gold-plated butler figure, which raises his top hat towards those who actuate the mechanism. Mr Rittener poetically describes the Majordome as an automate d’accueil - meaning “welcoming automaton”. The mechanical butler does in fact greet its audience, so it could be used as an extravagant welcoming party trick. Hugo Rittener will make 10 pieces of the Majordome in total, over the course of some years. Given the highly artisanal process...
Breitling has made some big moves recently, first with the introduction of an exclusive new three-hand caliber, and secondly, by reinventing some of their best-loved legacy models. The new Caliber B31 made its debut in 2025, powering the 38mm Top Time B31. The 3-handed daily driver was a perfect platform to roll out th
Monochrome
Long associated with pilot’s chronographs and robust instrument watches, Tutima has, over the past decade, built a compelling “classical” collection. The Patria line, introduced in the early 2010s and coinciding with the brand’s return to Glashütte, offered refined cases, restrained dials and, most notably, beautifully executed hand-wound movements rooted in Saxon tradition. Following earlier executions […]
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Fratello
Having the exact time on hand is nothing special nowadays. Almost always, you’re connected to satellite time (GPS), which is based on atomic clocks in satellites that measure time to 100 billionths of a second. Optimizing accuracy through mechanical parts is a whole other matter and an age-old quest. A chronometer - the word derives […] Visit Chronometer Watches Matter - Why The World Of Luxury Needs Accuracy to read the full article.
SJX Watches
H. Moser & Cie. dips its toes into ceramic for the first time with the Streamliner Tourbillon Concept Ceramic, a bold watch that blends an original design with the high-tech proprieties of ceramic. Despite being a variation of a well-known model at its core, the new Streamliner is unexpectedly different and appealing, especially with a hand-finished ceramic bracelet, an unusual feature even in its segment. Initial thoughts The use of ceramic materials in watches is no longer a novelty. The inert and hard material is appealing for its near-invulnerability to scratches and high tech feel. Ceramics are typically employed for either for aesthetic or technical purposes, but usually for watch cases, while ceramic bracelets are almost exclusively the preserve of large brands that can afford working with the hard-to-machine material. Though still a niche brand, H. Moser & Cie.’s bestselling Streamliner is dressed entirely in ceramic, with a ceramic case paired with a ceramic bracelet. An all-ceramic bracelet is a rare sight from a brand of Moser’s scale. The matte, brushed finish of the ceramic exterior is at the opposite end of the colour spectrum compared with the bright red yet minimalist dial, giving this the signature Moser look. The granular, glossy finish of the fired enamel dial contrast and complements the matte, stealthy sheen of ceramic. The watch is paradoxical in some ways. Pairing Moser’s first ceramic case and bracelet with a tourbillon is somewhat incong...
Time+Tide
If MeisterSinger’s usual single-hand watches are about de-emphasising exactitude, the new Panthero does something a little more nuanced.The post MeisterSinger marks 25 years with the Panthero Jumping Hour, expanding beyond their one-handed oeuvre appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
SJX Watches
Citizen, one of the world’ largest watchmakers by numbers, teams up with niche Parisian watch customizer Romaric André for a surprisingly good collaboration with the Citizen Tsuyosa seconde/seconde/. Creative, quirky, and very affordable, the Tsuyosa collaboration depicts the aftermath of the minutes hand slicing through the applied hour markers. And it does it quite well: the artfully positioned hour markers really do look like they have been cut in half. Initial Thoughts Citizen’s latest Tsuyosa is interesting, clever, and affordable. In fact, it is only around US$20 more expensive than the entry level Tsuyosa, making it something of a no-brainer for someone who wants a well-priced watch with a sense of humour. Like Seiko’s “5KX”, the Tsuyosa is an ideal platform for this project, as the model has intrinsic appeal as an integrated bracelet sports-adjacent watch, while also being affordable enough to be an impulse buy based on a cool dial. Nitpickers might point out that a pixellated sword isn’t sharp enough. The pixel art “sword” minute hand may be seconde/seconde/’s best known motif, but it also requires suspension of belief that the hour markers have been cleaved in twain by the minutes hand. Which is unfortunate, as the effect is otherwise so well executed. Of course, without the 8-bit katana it wouldn’t be immediately recognisable as a seconde/seconde/ project, but that is true of many of the best Mr André’s best works, such as the Uncatchable...
Monochrome
Who doesn’t know MeisterSinger…? If you are into watches, with just a superficial interest, the name surely rings a bell: it’s a single-handed watch! Founded in Münster in 2001, the brand decided to build its identity around the idea that time doesn’t need to be dissected into seconds and minutes. By returning to the single-hand […]
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Fratello
Although the Singaporean brand RZE has only been around for five years, it quickly cemented itself as a fan-favorite microbrand. Combining a strong visual identity with unique technical execution and very sharp pricing, RZE’s founders have a winning recipe in hand. Today, I have the pleasure of introducing the next model, the Resolute Type A. […] Visit Introducing: The Superfly RZE Resolute Type A - A New Take On An Old Concept to read the full article.
SJX Watches
Orient Star marks a milestone with the M34 F8 Skeleton Hand Winding 75th Anniversary, combining the brand’s technically adept, manually wound skeleton calibre with a novel, laser-engraved meteorite pattern in a maximalist open-worked package. The M34 F8 Skeleton also stands out for the tech inside the mechanical movement: proprietary silicon escape wheel with a novel, optimistic geometry that helps the M34 punch above its weight from a technical standpoint. Initial thoughts Last year, Orient Star launched the brand’s first manually wound moon phase – made of mother-of-pearl no less – for fans of understated, formal watches. Now celebrating its 75th anniversary, Orient Star has cast aside restraint to mark the occasion with something for a more maximalist breed of collector. The new skeleton has a blacked-out case and bracelet and an open-worked version of its top-of-the-line F8 movement. Notably, the movement plates are bridges, which are exposed front and back, are decorated with a laser-etched meteorite motif that is impressively detailed. This skeletonised anniversary limited edition also features the latest technology from its powerhouse parent company Seiko Epson, including a silicon escape wheel with an especially advantageous design. While silicon is increasingly common in the watch industry, it is used primarily for hairsprings. This puts Orient on the list of short brands with a proprietary silicon escape wheel that includes blue-chip names like Patek Phil...
Worn & Wound
The one handed watch is a curious thing. On the face of it, it seems illogical. On a mechanical watch, stripping away a more precise minute hand in favor of a single hour hand negates one of the things enthusiasts covet most: precision. Or, at least, the relative precision. Things like COSC certification and the hard work and ingenuity that go into making mechanical movements become secondary when you pull back sufficiently far from an ability to clock the time to the exact second (indeed, the COSC will not certify any watch without a seconds hand). But removing that hand is additive, as well. It forces the designer of a watch to think very critically about how that hand is going to tell the time, and the thing that actually defines one handed watches is not so much the fact that they only have a single hand, but the way in which that hand interacts with any timing markers on the dial. There are different approaches, of course. Avant-garde designs might strip out markers altogether, so that a dial’s texture or material can be the singular focus of a piece. This, to me, feels like the most jewelry oriented option possible. Another approach, and the one most often favored by Meistersinger, a brand known primarily for their one handed watches, is to focus like a laser on readability at a glance, designing markers and indices that are large enough and graduated to a degree that makes it relatively easy to get the precise time at a glance. I often think about the time I spe...
Teddy Baldassarre
Citizen tapped into something special with the Zenshin collection, and while it spans a range of executions, it’s hard to beat the simple charm of the three-hand model rendered in the brand’s proprietary super-titanium. The Citizen Zenshin brings a fully integrated design to bear, capturing a mid-century sporty aesthetic that feels effortless in use. An integrated bracelet is a trend that has firmly established itself in the zeitgeist of how we wear and experience watches, and with the Zenshin, Citizen has found a way to bring the design to a much wider audience thanks to an approachable price point. But that doesn’t mean they’ve skimped on the details. [toc-section heading="History And Context"] Looking back, Citizen has a history of great integrated bracelet designs, as well as pioneering materials like titanium. The Zenshin builds on that expertise with an entirely novel design that doesn’t feel old, but does somehow feel familiar. This is a tough category to make an impression within, especially at this price point, but Citizen has found a way thanks to the unique shape of the case, and the textured dial colors. It’s a well considered design that doesn’t feel like it takes itself too seriously, which is a difficult balance to achieve. [toc-section heading="Reviewing the Zenshin"] The Zenshin begins with a 39mm case that features some angularity at both ends. It makes for a tidy footprint on the wrist, and lends some personality to the overall presen...
Quill & Pad
The new Armin Strom Tribute 2 Aurum caught my attention immediately with its striking gold-coated mainplate hand-finished with the rare tremblage engraving technique, giving the dial-side an exceptional textured surface that plays with light and depth. The post Aurum Awakened: Armin Strom Unveils the New Tribute 2 Aurum Edition appeared first on Quill & Pad.
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Fratello
What’s my favorite version of the Royal Oak Offshore after the illustrious “Beast”? This might surprise you, but I always thought the three-hand diver was a very good watch. The dial, free of cluttering sub-dials, and the crown that rotates the inner dive bezel on the side of the 42mm case looked cool, clean, and […] Visit A Wave Of Five New Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Variations Hits to read the full article.
Teddy Baldassarre
Fundamentally, mechanical and quartz movements do the same thing: they both tell thetime. But the ways in which they both do it couldn’t be more different. Not to get into acomparison guide here, but in a nutshell: a mechanical watch is powered by a mainspringthat’s either wound by hand or automatically through wrist movement. Energy is releasedthrough a complex system of gears, an escapement, and a balance wheel that beats steadily back and forth. There’s no battery, just centuries-old engineering refined to an art form. These watches aren’t the most accurate, but accuracy isn’t really the point. Craftsmanship, tradition, and the emotional connection are. Quartz watches, on the other hand, are powered by a battery and use an electrical current to make a quartz crystal vibrate at 32,768 times per second. That vibration is incredibly stable, which is why quartz watches are vastly more accurate and require far less maintenance. They’re practical, reliable, and often more durable for everyday use, as well as being notably more affordable. Neither system is inherently “better,” though. Mechanical watches speak to passion and heritage, while quartz prioritizes precision and convenience. Ultimately, it’s less about the movement inside and more about what you want your watch to represent on your wrist. [toc-section heading="Next-Level Accuracy"] Some watches measure accuracy in seconds per day, others by seconds per month. Butthere also exists a small group of t...
Fratello
Over the past year, the Bulova Super Seville has become a popular canvas for IFL Watches’ hand-painted and bespoke dials. For the new Super Seville Risky Riches, IFLW decided to have fun with the concept of making bold moves to become rich. The dial takes the iconic style of the board game Monopoly and transforms […] Visit IFL Watches Introduces The Bulova Super Seville Risky Riches to read the full article.
Time+Tide
The Perception Millésime 漩 (Xuán) features a stunning natural pietersite dial, which is fully hand-cut and polished by master craftsmen.The post Atelier Wen releases a new chapter in the Perception Millésime series, with a unique pietersite dial appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Hodinkee
The Escale Worldtime is back with a gorgeous hand-painted dial and a tourbillon option, while the new Twin Zone tracks any two time zones, anywhere, including half-hour offsets.
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