Results for The 2017-2022 Vintage Market Boom

Craft at Scale: Audemars Piguet’s Industrial Strategy

Audemars Piguet (AP) is a storied name in haute horlogerie, and has long been the public face of the Vallée de Joux, the cradle of high complications in Switzerland. It’s also the only brand in the so-called ‘holy trinity’ to employ a Chief Industrial Officer (CIO). We sat down with Lucas Raggi to understand his role in shaping AP’s industrial strategy. The historical home of Audemars Piguet. Image – Audemars Piguet The context Having closed the chapter on the brand’s first 150 years, AP is flying high. According to Vontobel estimates, the brand generated more than CHF2.4 billion in 2025, making it the third-largest brand by revenue after mass market masters Rolex and Cartier. The brand is estimated to have produced more than 50,000 watches in 2025, up from 30,000 just a few years ago. The ribbon-cutting ceremony at the opening of AP’s new Arc Manufacture in Le Brassus. Image – Audemars Piguet The new Arc Manufacture, which just came online, might raise the ceiling further. In a 2022 interview then-chief executive François-Henry Bennahmias suggested AP would be capable of making up to 65,000 watches annually by 2027. These numbers represent extraordinary growth for a century-old family owned brand that makes complicated watches. So how does a brand like AP (nearly) double its output in less than a generation without sacrificing small-scale craftsmanship? In short, thoughtful industrialisation. The recently opened Arc Manufacture in Le Brassus. Image – A...

Reviewing The Zeitwerk Date From A. Lange & Söhne

A. Lange & Söhne’s Zeitwerk Date is not your normal watch, but that is exactly why we love it! We go hands-on to appreciate it in more detail. What We Love The colour combination of the pink gold and grey dial The movement! How could you not love it? The digital display makes the dial highly legible What We Don’t It is a larger version that won’t suit all wrists Being gold, it is not a daily wearer The crystal does have the ability to reflect the light against the darker dial Overall Rating: 9.1 / 10 Value for Money: 9/10 Wearability: 8.5/10 Design: 9.5/10 Build Quality: 9.5/10 When A. Lange  &  Söhne debuted the Zeitwerk in 2009, it didn’t just add another complication — it redefined how time could be displayed mechanically. Inspired by Dresden’s opera-house clock, the Zeitwerk fused architectural design with digital display, becoming one of modern watchmaking’s boldest statements. The movement, dial layout, and case proportions were conceived as a single, uncompromising idea. And for years, that idea remained (thankfully) almost stubbornly pure. Which is precisely why the introduction of the Zeitwerk Date marked a significant moment in the model’s evolution. Adding a date to a watch so resolved in its symmetry and identity is not as simple as just plonking a date window on the dial. It risks upsetting the balance that made the original so compelling in the first place. The solution was a peripheral date disc that rotates around the outside o...

Interview: the Convictions of James Lamb

It’s a fair assumption that if you’re the kind of enthusiast that’s interested in independent watchmaking, the allure of something a little different isn’t lost on you. The independent watch space is a wildly diverse one that’s full of outsider artisans, but even in a field of outsiders, English watchmaker James Lamb is something of an anomaly.  Lamb’s watches genuinely don’t look like anything else on the market. While they’re all time-only affairs, they feature an offset sub-dial layout that frees up the outer portion of the dial to be used as a decorative space. With his Origin Series, Lamb applies strikingly colorful enamel work to the outer dial section. With his latest release, the Linea Edition, Lamb has collaborated with one of the UK’s most respected ornamental engravers, Joanne Ryall, to create a line of watches with beautifully hand-engraved titanium and gold outer dials.  While the dials are showstopping displays of handcraft, Lamb’s watches also feature completely handmade cases (read: no CNC machines used), which he crafts out of Argentium silver. Lamb’s case designs are robust and understated; they do a fabulous job of grounding the watch’s bold dial designs, but the craftsmanship that goes into them is something serious horology enthusiasts fawn over. For Lamb, a self-proclaimed watch industry isolationist, doing things like crafting his cases entirely by hand is kind of the whole point of making watches.  Lamb deliberately avoids...

The New Citizen Series 8 NB608 May Be The Most Wearable Version Yet

Citizen expands the Citizen Series 8 lineup with new NB608 references. Here's what stands out and where the pricing question gets complicated.

Introducing - Kurono Tokyo Launches its First Diver, a Two-in-One Watch with Sealed Outer Case

When you think about Kurono Tokyo, the side-brand of Japanese independent watchmaker Hajime Asaoka, you should picture something compact and elegant in your mind. Watches often focus on traditional crafts, with restrained cases and classically Japanese. The sportiest models the brand has ever created were mid-century-styled chronographs. Well, this is about to change as Hajime […]

Introducing - The Série R01 Depancel x DAMS Lucas Oil Limited Edition

The connection between Depancel and the automotive world is rather obvious and quite cool. The very name of the brand says it all, being the contraction of vintage French car manufacturers Delage, Panhard and Facel Vega, and even the logo is inspired by the 1954 Facel Vega coat of arms. Then, a quick look at […]

Tissot PRX vs. Maurice Lacroix Aikon: Affordable or Luxury Integrated Bracelet Watch?

Tissot PRX vs Maurice Lacroix Aikon: see which integrated bracelet watch delivers better everyday value, comfort, design, and ownership. Find the smarter buy.

Introducing - Lebois & Co Heritage Sector Chronograph Aventurine

Indie brand Lebois & Co expands its Heritage collection with the Heritage Sector Chronograph Aventurine, a new version of the brand’s vintage-inspired chronograph distinguished by a textured aventurine dial and a revised sector-style layout. The watch also debuts a better naming structure within the brand’s catalogue, with “Heritage Sector” becoming the designation for Lebois & […]

Hands-On With The Zenith Defy Revival A3643

During LVMH Watch Week in Milan, I was especially interested in the new Zenith releases. It is no secret that I love Zenith. The brand has managed to amaze me time and again with releases that combine the best in watch design with its legendary calibers. To my surprise, for this year’s LVMH Watch Week, […] Visit Hands-On With The Zenith Defy Revival A3643 to read the full article.

Bangalore Watch Company Review: India's Horological Frontier

When surveying the horological landscape, most roads lead back to Switzerland, Germany, or Japan. But there is a burgeoning watchmaking scene emerging in India of all places and it certainly deserves our attention. Here we are going to adjust our loupe to the vibrant, burgeoning powerhouse that is Indian horology, specifically the microbrand Bangalore Watch Company. When you survey the broader horological landscape today, microbrands have become the absolute frontier of enthusiast watchmaking. These small independents are giving collectors access to serious mechanical specifications and originality without the traditional luxury markups. India is finally translating its massive cultural and technological footprint into this segment of watch collecting, and Bangalore Watch Company appears to be at the forefront of this transition. In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into what makes these watches so unique and what you need to know before you add one to your collection. [toc-section heading="Filling the Void After HMT"] To truly understand what you’re getting with Bangalore Watch Company, you have to understand the massive void it stepped into. For decades, the Indian watch market had been dominated by state-run enterprise Hindustan Machine Tools, better known as HMT (the undisputed king of South Asian watchmaking during the 1960s and 80s). Estimates suggest that HMT’s lifetime production exceeded a staggering one hundred million timepieces, generating an appetite ...

Orient’s Affordable Automatic Watch Lineup Just Got a Lot More Interesting

The new Orient Stretto collection adds four vibrant dial colors to one of the most compelling affordable automatic watches under $400.

Introducing - The Serica Ref. 6190 TDM, a Thai Twist on the California Dial

Let’s be a bit of nerds for a minute… You probably have heard the concept of JDM (in cars and watches), the contraction for Japanese Domestic Market, objects created exclusively for Japan and, in principle, not accessible outside of the Island. Which makes them cool. Next, the so-called California dial, a design that dates back […]

Rolex: “Sorry, Sir, We Don’t Serve Pepsi Here Anymore”

“Sorry, sir, we don’t serve Pepsi here anymore.” I have heard this before. Last time, I was presented with a disgusting hipster alternative, locally sourced and seemingly made of organic wastewater from small-batch sewage systems housing free-range rats. That’s what it tasted like to me, anyway. “Come on, no Pepsi or Coke?” We need at […] Visit Rolex: “Sorry, Sir, We Don’t Serve Pepsi Here Anymore” to read the full article.

Credor Eichi II Review: High-End Minimalist Elegance from Japan

You’ve heard of Seiko. By now, you’ve heard of Grand Seiko. But Credor, for many enthusiasts outside of Japan, remains mostly a mystery, despite its connection to both. But for those who are aware of Credor, it represents a Holy Grail of high-horological craftsmanship worthy of its venerated designation as “Japan’s Patek Philippe,” and perhaps no single timepiece represents its signature balance of technical complexity and sublime simplicity of design than the Credor Eichi II. [toc-section heading="Credor History"]  The legend of Credor began in 1974, when it was launched as a luxury offshoot of parent brand Seiko, initially to produce exclusively precious-metal watches. The name, which became official in the 1980s,  is a Japanified version of the French phrase "Crêt D'or," which translates as “pinnacle of gold.” This lofty claim is visualized in the now-iconic triple-peaked logo capped by three stars. Throughout the ‘90s, Credor watches (like Grand Seiko watches, before that sub-brand’s emergence as a separate, independent brand in 2017), were co-branded, with both the Credor and Seiko logos on their dials. Also like Grand Seiko (the first of which was made way back in 1960), Credor products were sold only exclusively in Japan. In the early 2000s, well ahead of Grand Seiko’s more famous coming-out party, Credor became a standalone brand, hosting all of the Japanese watchmaking giant’s forays into haute horlogerie as well as some very impressive hi...

Hands-On: The Doxa SUB 750T - A Big Watch That Wears Just Right

The oversized wrist presence and impressive specs of the SUB 750T belie a wearability that makes it one of the more interesting vintage-inspired divers on the market.

Interview: Audemars Piguet's CEO Ilaria Resta On Radical Openness, Innovation, And What The Industry Owes Its Customers (And Suppliers)

After the brand's 150th Anniversary last year, Resta and her team are already planning nearly 15 years out and want to make sure people know their values.

Introducing - Citizen Launches The Smaller, Slimmer Series 8 NB608 Collection

One of the major watch brands from Japan, and a proper industrial giant producing millions of movements a year through its Miyota manufacture, Citizen covers everything from entry-level watches to high-end models with impressive attention to detail. In between the highly accessible Tsuyosa collection and the luxury The Citizen collection sits the Series 8, a […]

The Sky Chief Returns: Benrus Bets on Heritage, Restraint, and a 36mm Case

The Benrus Sky Chief returns in a faithful 36mm reissue with a COSC-certified ETA 2894 and vintage-inspired dials.

Czapek Introduces Two New Exotic Mother of Pearl Dials in the Promenade and Antarctique Collections

If you had told me a few years ago that much of what I’d be doing at Worn & Wound in terms of new release coverage would be writing about mother of pearl and stone dial executions like a beat reporter at small town paper assigned to the high school basketball team, I probably would not have believed it. But here we are, multiple years into a trend that does not really seem to be letting up. It started with a resurfacing of high end vintage watches with exotic stone dials, moved to bigger brands capitalizing on the hype, shifted to smaller makers and microbrands offering impossibly affordable options, and now we’re back at the high end, and seeing brands looking for new ways to combine stones and materials in novel ways.  Last week, Czapek announced a pair of watches that make particularly interesting use of mother of pearl. The Antarctique S Ice Cloud is, at a glance, simply an Antarctique with a mother of pearl dial. But there’s some special artisanal work that has gone into the making of this particular dial, which has been conceived as a “poetic interpretation of cloud formations in an icy landscape.”  The dial is constructed from a piece of white mother of pearl that is cut to just 0.2mm thick – the height of two sheets of paper, according to Czapek. A varnish is then applied to the underside of the mother of pearl surface using a horsehair brush, which creates a cloudlike pattern that is unique to each dial. The varnish itself is tinted blue, and the art...

Introducing: The Ming 57.04 Phoenix Offers A More Restrained Take On The Brand's Destro Monopusher Chronograph

Following the popularity of the limited-edition 57.04 Iris, Ming is adding a toned-down (but still colorful) version to the core collection.

Introducing the Ming 57.04 Phoenix

At its core, good branding comes down to balancing two often contradictory things at once: to maintain brand recognition, while not becoming stale. For a brand like MING, which has built something of a reputation for its roster of eye-catching designs, this is an especially fine line. The Malaysian watchmakers have continued to up their own ante, so to speak, meaning that to build a better watch, they have often had to compete against themselves in both aesthetics and technical precision. This is, perhaps, why they have looked back at the 57.04 Iris, but this time with a slightly softer eye. Instead of the vibrant purple-blue dial, MING has released the 57.04 Phoenix, with a decidedly more monochromatic dial in grey. At first glance, this may seem like a safer play for the brand; but, I can assure you, it’s anything but. Using the same multiphasic coating that was seen on the Iris, the Phoenix uses radial cutouts on the metal baseplate, curved sculpting, and negative relief. The finishing touch is the redesigned subdial, which has been treated with Super-LumiNova X1 and MING Polar White lume for added visual texture. The end result is a dial that leans more on light and shadows than colors to build a watch that is dynamic while highlighting all the technical precision we’ve come to expect from Ming. Like the Iris, the Phoenix is set up as a destro (left-handed) monopusher chronograph, powered by a uniquely configured Sellita for MING Cal. SW562.M1 movement, promising r...

New: H. Moser Streamliner Alpine - Drivers and Mechanics Pink Editions

H. Moser celebrates the 2026 season with BWT Alpine Formula One Team with this two watch set of Pink Streamliner Alpine Drivers and Mechanics Edition.

A savanna showstopper: Dennison’s Safari Capsule Collection roars

Dennison takes a flamboyant turn, unveiling a pair of animal-print-dialled ALD models with diamond-encrusted cases..The post A savanna showstopper: Dennison’s Safari Capsule Collection roars appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

Swatch Group Responds to Morgan Stanley Report in Open Letter

First Look - The March LA.B AM2 Nyctalope Carbon, the Millésime March 2026 Edition

Spring is in the air, and French brand March LA.B celebrates its favourite month with a limited edition of its flagship AM2 watch collection. Founded in 2009 by three friends, united by a passion for surfing and retro design, the LA.B part of the brand’s name does not refer to a laboratory but to the […]

Hands-On With The Exciting New March LA.B AM2 “Nyctalope” Carbon

March LA.B initially caught my eye with the release of its AM2 GMT Grall Edition in 2024. But the French brand has been around for much longer than just a few years. It is the brainchild of three friends - Alain Marhic, Jérôme Mage, and Joseph Châtel. They share a passion for surfing and 1970s […] Visit Hands-On With The Exciting New March LA.B AM2 “Nyctalope” Carbon to read the full article.

One To Watch: The Ardra Labs Delta Type Offers A Unique GMT Display For All Time Zones

A distinctive travel watch featuring a clever new system that accommodates both thirty-minute and forty-five-minute offset time zones.

Introducing: The Benrus Sky Chief Returns In Awesome Vintage Style

Vintage sizing, a slim profile, and all the good looks that made the vintage Sky Chief a vintage Hodinkee favorite, now back in action.

Ruby Resonance from Armin Strom

Independent watchmaker Armin Strom has upgraded its flagship complication with a precious stone dial. The Mirrored Force Resonance Ruby is a five-piece limited edition with a dial cut from natural ruby. Initial thoughts Armin Strom is arguably the second-most prominent watchmaker (after F.P. Journe) to successfully bring “resonance” watches to market. We extensively covered the subject of coupled oscillator watches recently, which examines Armin Strom’s unique approach to achieving this mysterious effect.  Within this narrow niche, Armin Strom’s Mirrored Force series is certainly the broadest collection of resonance watches on the market, with multiple movements and many variations exploiting the almost magic coupling between two sprung balances. This new limited edition employs the familiar in-house caliber ARF21, which connects the two hairspring by a long, swivelling blade spring - dubbed the Resonance Clutch Spring. While the movement is certainly well known, this particular iteration of the watch is quite surprising: a thin slice of natural ruby serves as the dial, with all the imperfections and liveliness of a natural mineral.  Using a ruby dial is not only aesthetically appealing but poetic for a mechanical watch. The jewels serving as bearings inside every movement are synthetic rubies - a fancy sort of industrial mineral glass. The uneven bright pink and violet shades of the Mirrored Force Resonance Ruby’s dial assure us there is nothing artificial...

Christopher Ward Introduces the C1 Jump Hour Mk V “Dusk” Limited Edition

One of the more unexpected developments in the enthusiast watch space over the laste year or has been the emergence of the jump hour as a staple among design driven and creative microbrands and affordable independents. It seems like they are popping up just about everywhere at price points that encourage collectors to take a chance on a very niche complication. For those of us who have been around this stuff for a while, it’s genuinely been kind of surprising, as we can clearly remember a time when very few people gave these watches a second thought, and smaller brands were absolutely not interested in putting watches like these into the market. The jump hour is pretty far removed from the vintage inspired sports watches that have had a stranglehold on affordable watch enthusiasm in recent memory.  But as the pendulum swings in another direction, the more brands are finding an opportunity to experiment with this very old fashioned complication. Christopher Ward is actually no stranger to jump hour watches, having released their first back in 2011. Their latest is still powered by the venerable JJ01 movement, a caliber that predicted much of the brand’s future success and interest in higher end watchmaking.  The C1 Jump Hour Mk V in “Dusk” red is the brand’s latest, and limited edition variant of the Jump Hour Mk V that Griffin reviewed here. The broad strokes are of course the same: a 39mm steel case measuring 47.5mm from lug to lug and 14mm thick, with a multi...