Hodinkee
Weekend Edition: A Primer on Dress Watches (Which Are Coming Back In Style Right About...Now)
There's more to life than steel sport watches.
21,706 articles · 217 videos found · page 269 of 731
Hodinkee
There's more to life than steel sport watches.
Two Broke Watch Snobs
For under $300 is Scurfa Watches the full package? Get all the facts, details, and unique photos you need to make the best choice right here!
Deployant
Six Independent Watchmakers who you may not know: Ch. Frodsham, McGonigle, Petermann-Bédat, Sylvian Pinaud, Tulloch and James C. Pellaton.
Two Broke Watch Snobs
Kaz and Mike celebrate 2 years of TBWS and share a handful of watches they hope to see discounted during the wave of Black Friday sales. What do you have your eye on this year? Be sure to share the watches you're hoping to hunt down this holiday season.
Deployant
The Chief Editor makes his picks from the crop of Baselworld 2018 watches. All likely to cause heart palpitations from your bank manager. Selection from Rolex, Grand Seiko, Andreas Strehler, H. Moser and Patek Philippe.
Revolution
Suzanne’s note to Santa isn’t just a list of watches, but a list of watches in very specific case/strap/dial combinations. Rudolph had better be good at helping take quick notes; just ONE day to Christmas now!
Worn & Wound
I was recently invited by the Hampden Watch Company to participate in their First Hand Watchmaking Workshop and experience what it’s like to build my own watch from the ground up. I first happened upon the program through an Instagram advertisement at the beginning of 2026, only a couple of months after its December 2025 launch. Upon my initial review of the program’s website and details at that time, my only gripe was the cost of the workshop itself (a topic we will revisit later), especially as an enthusiast who bases his collecting solely on the affordable vintage sphere. When Hampden reached out to me, I became eager to see how my area of watch collecting would intersect with a different sphere of the hobby; in essence, how my ultra-budget-conscious perspective on watch collecting would intertwine or potentially clash with that of a more luxury oriented experience. Additionally, having personally performed minor maintenance and repairs on watches without professional equipment or knowledge of how to fully disassemble or reassemble a movement, I was curious to see what type of experience I would gain and potentially implement in my daily watch life through participating in the workshop. The day starts at 9:30 AM in Hampden’s headquarters located in a rather quiet area within the West Loop of Chicago. The well-preserved architecture of the building’s interior is a remarkable demonstration of how to properly preserve old industrial spaces from a period gone by–...
SJX Watches
Watches & Wonders, the world’s most important luxury watch fair, will return in 2027 from April 5-11 in its traditional venue of Palexpo, the cavernous exhibition complex beside Geneva’s airport. The event takes place over a week, with Monday to Thursday being invite-only days open to members of the trade, while Friday and the weekend are ticketed public days. All of the major luxury brands will return for the fair, including Rolex, Patek Philippe, Tudor, and Chanel, alongside a range of independent marques. But 2027 will also see new exhibitors, including Breitling, Gallet and Universal Genève, the trio that make up the House of Brands, the entity set up to contain the three brands led by Georges Kern. Notably, niche Italian jeweller Damiani will also exhibit at W&W; 2027, joining giants like Cartier, Bulgari, and Van Cleef & Arpels.
Hodinkee
Last year, we covered the launch of Marteau & Co., a new, small, independent-focused auction house that took a new perspective on what auction houses can (and, in their view, should) do for the watchmaking artists who have become such high-demand subjects. In Europe and the UK, artists are owed a portion of the sale fee when their work reaches the secondary market. It seems only fair, when a $100,000 watch these days can reach a million on the secondary market and the original maker doesn't get a penny. At Marteau, of the 20% fee added to the hammer price, the watchmaker receives 3% to acknowledge their work. Lot 6, a unique Voutilainen Regulator Decimal Repeater. Estimate of CHF 300,000 to 600,000. The current Marteau & Co. auction catalog recently went live, and bidding is open (online only) from June 10 to June 17. There are a lot of great watches to bid on, headlined by the return of an OnlyWatch collaboration, a unique Vianney Halter, and a unique Voutilainen Regulator Decimal Repeater. There are also a number of watchmakers who have only come to auction a handful of times, and I got to see a number of them in person. But I wanted to start with two watches that might potentially go for more affordable prices, watches from Baltic/SpaceOne and Furlan Marri. Lot 2, a Baltic x SpaceOne Seconde Majeure unique pieces. Estimate of CHF 3,000 to 6,000. Lot 1, a Furlan Marri Mechaquartz "Prototype" with a unique dial. Estimate of CHF 500 to 1,000. The Baltic x SpaceOne collabor...
SJX Watches
Phillips’ spring auction season goes east for The Hong Kong Watch Auction: XXII on May 30 – 31. As usual, Phillips has put together a very strong lineup, and, as is often the case at watch auctions, Patek Philippe watches — both vintage and modern — have an outsized share of the catalogue. Lot 940 – Patek Philippe Bailey Banks & Biddle Triple Complication Patek Philippe produced this watch for Philadelphian jeweler Bailey Banks & Biddle around 1895, and it bears only the retailer’s name on the dial, which was not unusual. While the company came to a rather undignified end in the 21st century, it was once a manufacturing jeweller, medalist, and major Patek Philippe retailer. The dial is in rather rough condition by the standards of enamel dials, and while the dial may the most important thing to many wristwatch collectors, here the triple-complication movement is what matters. It features a minute repeater, chronograph, and perpetual calendar — which is presumably instantaneous. Note the lack of a minutes counter for the chronograph. While taken for granted on modern chronographs, most Patek Philippe triple complications did without it. In fact, the most common upgrade path for triple complications was a rattrapante, not minutes counter. The counterweighted pallet fork is also worth mention — this refinement disappeared as the Swiss lever matured and watchmakers realised a lighter pallet fork was better than a balanced one. The movement is fully functional, ...
Hodinkee
The Schaffhausen-based H. Moser & Cie. made quite an unconventional splash this year at Watches & Wonders, with its completely out-of-left-field collaboration with Reebok for the Streamliner "Pump," a watch-and-sneaker release that only this brand could somehow manage to pull off. But there was a release that kind of slipped under the radar earlier in the year that I think offers a really excellent combination of Moser's strengths in one watch, which warrants a closer look. I'm talking about the Endeavour Tourbillon Skeleton launched at the end of January, and it's been a watch I've wanted to see in person since the announcement went live. On paper, it seems like a simple enough concept: take the skeletonized flying tourbillon movement Caliber HMC-814 introduced back in 2024 for the integrated bracelet Streamliner collection, and pair it with one of Moser's more classic and conservative Endeavour silhouettes. For me, that skeletonized flying tourbillon caliber has remained one of my favorite architectures that the brand has ever come out with, and I think the extra bit of elegance gained with the Endeavour case makes it stand out on its own. That 40mm Endeavour case, in 5N red gold, should feel very familiar to those who like Moser's designs. It is a twist on a dressier silhouette that looks simple from the top down, but at any other angle, the Endeavour has many interesting little design touches, from the concave bezel to the distinctive sculpting of the case flanks. They...
Time+Tide
The new Wren Diver 38 Crimson is not only the latest and first red take on the brand's popular dive watch, it's also a Time+Tide exclusive.
Monochrome
With the Panthero Jumping Hour presented earlier this year, MeisterSinger proved that even within its restrained philosophy, there is room for technical expression. Now, with the new Souscription Panthero Jumping Hour Guilloché, the brand takes another interesting step. The subscription idea dates to the 18th century, when watchmakers would produce a watch only after a […]
Hodinkee
What We Know Want to see a magic trick? No, not the kind the Joker pulls in "The Dark Knight," but instead something pretty cool that Ming has cooked up with their new 29.06 "Peep Show." The watches below look markedly different, but the only thing that's changed is the direction the hands point. When Ming Thein showed me this watch last fall, I immediately got what was going on as he turned the crown. If you were doing the same, you'd see that the guilloché dial with a multiphase color-shifting coating (like on the 57.04 "Iris") slowly fades in and out of visibility, turning from a dazzling view to pitch black as the hands move. Any guesses on how it works? Well, it's kind of a trick question, because the hands aren't actually hands. Instead, they're polarized sapphire discs with a hands made of Super-LumiNova X1 fill. The two pieces of sapphire are linearly polarized, so when they're aligned (on top of each other or directly opposite each other), the polarizer lets light in, and you can see that metal disc with color-shifting treatment. As the hands rotate, you see less and less of the dial until it turns black when the two discs are at 90º to each other. When you learn the effect, it's pretty simple, but it's certainly effective in person. All this is in a 29-series case, which is a bit more reserved than the 57-series case. It's made in lightweight Grade 5 titanium, measuring 40mm by 11.8mm, with a 22mm lug width. The case has a 50-meter water resistance. Inside the ...
Monochrome
Timex and affordable quartz watches are synonymous and have been since the brand ceased mechanical watch production in 1982, following the Quartz Crisis. Few brands have found as much success as Timex with quartz, and innovations like Indiglo (bright, uniform dial electroluminescence introduced in 1992) have kept them on top for decades. Only a few […]
Worn & Wound
“Watches, Stories, and Gear” is a roundup of our favorite content, watch or otherwise, from around the internet. Here, we support other creators, explore interesting content that inspires us, and put a spotlight on causes we believe in. Oh, and any gear we happen to be digging on this week. We love gear. Space Jam 30th Anniversary x Q Timex Limited Edition I can only imagine the experience I had seeing Space Jam for the first time, at five-years-old and living in Kentucky, is akin to others’ experience seeing Casablanca or Star Wars: A New Hope. Having previously grown up on a diet of Barney and Disney VHS tapes, I thought that Space Jam was pure cinema (so much so, I used to cover the fact that I was gay by saying that Lola Bunny was my first crush on a girl). Having since revisited this classic in recent years, I can now only assume there was a gas leak at Warner Bros. And yet, I’m happy to say that others must similarly hold a soft spot for this movie, since Timex has just released a limited-edition Q Timex to celebrate the film’s thirtieth anniversary. What’s particularly lovely about this release is how they didn’t try to modernize or upgrade the graphics or design language of Space Jam – this watch could have easily been released in 1996. Bugs is seen shooting a hoop at 9 o’clock while a basketball attached to the second hand slowly rotates around the dial, coming into contact with a basket at 3 o’clock. With this edition limited to just 1,000 pie...
Worn & Wound
One of my favorite days on the watch media calendar every year is the Naoya Hida preview day. Every spring for the last few years, watch media types make appointments at the Armoury on the Upper East Side to get a look at the upcoming Naoya Hida releases for the year. It feels like a very old fashioned way of doing things. Yes, there’s a press release sent out ahead of time, but Naoya Hida only makes one announcement like this per year – there are no mid-cycle drops or limited editions released to coincide with some later event. Members of the Naoya Hida team are present and there to explain the collection, piece by piece. This year, Naoya Hida will produce a total of 10 models, 7 of which are new designs. We won’t go through each one here, but rather focus on the references that are completely new and those that have the most notable upgrades. The reference that immediately caught my eye and was easily the most unexpected of the bunch is the new NH TYPE2C-2. To this point, Naoya Hida has really been defined, in my estimation, by their dial aesthetic, which prominently features elaborate hand engravings in the dial surface. It’s a very traditional and inherently ornate way to make a dial, and the execution is always top notch. It’s a type of craft that’s a true “IYKYK” proposition, though. From a distance the handwork on these dials might not be obvious, but they really come alive under close examination, especially under a loupe. Anyway, the TYPE2C-2...
Monochrome
Independent Japanese watch brand Naoya Hida & Co. usually plays it discreetly, with only a batch of new releases per year and a highly limited production capacity. Last week, the brand released its entire range of models for 2026/2027, a total of 10 new watches and 7 new references, including a spectacular chronograph, a compact […]
SJX Watches
Daniel Roth’s latest addition to its time-only portfolio is the Extra Plat Platinum. A familiar face in a new colourway, the Extra Plat offers the Tourbillon Platinum‘s stealthy look in a more accessible two-hand format. Powered by the DR002 in-house calibre developed by Louis Vuitton’s La Fabrique du Temps (LFT), this regular production model brings a decidedly subtle look to the brand’s simple dress watch. Initial thoughts It’s been interesting to observe Louis Vuitton’s confident foray into haute horlogerie through the revival of Daniel Roth. Despite the corporate structure, astute collectors continue to speak of Daniel Roth in the same breath as other leading independent watchmakers. To the independent-collecting cognoscenti, the platinum Extra Plat should prove a compelling option – rooted in the early history of the independent watchmaking movement but built to meet contemporary expectations. Following Daniel Roth’s launch of the Tourbillon Souscription, the time-only, manually wound Extra Plat — “extra flat” for non-French speakers — debuted in an 18k yellow gold souscription edition followed closely by regular production models in rose gold, with and without skeletonisation. The new platinum Extra Plat rounds out the set. Combined with the matching dial with contrasting finishes, it creates a rather stealthy profile for this otherwise opulently finished dress watch. Extra Plat-inum The platinum double-ellipse case shares the wrist-friendly d...
SJX Watches
Phillips’s upcoming sale The Geneva Watch Auction: XXIII is packed with spectacular watches, including some already well known to collectors like the extra complicated La Royale by Louis Audemars, an unsual Patek Philippe worldtime ref. 2523, and the Golay Fils & Stahl astronomical watch. But among the finest is a simple watch that tracks only the time and state of wind, yet is comprised of several hundred parts: Victor Kullberg No 6583. Behind those three hands is a one-minute tourbillon equipped with an Earnshaw detent escapement, a massive free-sprung compensation balance, anti-magnetic helical balance spring and reverse chain and fusee, making it one of the most elaborate three-hand watches imaginable. Even at its high estimate of US$102,000, this pocket chronometer amounts to something of a steal, especially in an auction where multiple steel sports watches carry much greater estimates. The cult of the chronometer Swiss and English horologists disagreed on a great many things, from the ideal shape and material of escape wheels to the definition of a chronometer. To the Swiss, the title of chronometer was bestowed based on merit as a timekeeper. Any watch could be one if it kept good time, especially with a trusted, independent attestation of its accuracy. Watches submitted to observatory trials — or tested according to the ISO 3159:2009 standard today — are chronometers by this reckoning. England was dominated by the cult of the [marine] chronometer, unsurprisin...
Fratello
Panerai excels at advancing watchmaking through bold material innovation. Its latest breakthrough introduces the world’s first watch case machined from hafnium. The metal appears here in a 47mm Submersible case. Hafnium ranks among the rarest industrial metals on Earth. Global output measures only a few dozen tons annually. The element exists solely within zirconium ores […] Visit Panerai Pushes Material Science With Its New Submersible Navy SEALs Afniotech Experience PAM01089 In A Hafnium Case to read the full article.
Hodinkee
If there's a watch that seemingly stole the hearts of many collectors this year at Watches and Wonders, it's definitely Chopard's new blue-dialed L.U.C 1860 dress watch. The funniest part is that the new model is really only a dial color change. That's it. And yet, among a sea of new designs and complications, Chopard managed to pull off something much larger than its description on paper, and ended up being one of my personal favorite releases from the show. If you're familiar with the previous, now-discontinued salmon dial version of the L.U.C 1860 released back in 2023, well, chances are you already know much about this watch. But its identical specs are very much a good thing, as I think Chopard has really hit a home run with the 1860 as a proper, compact, and thin (8.2mm) dress watch amongst its larger L.U.C. movement-powered siblings. The 36.5mm case in Chopard's Lucent Steel alloy is very safe in its design, with smooth, curved lines and a fully-polished, rounded bezel and top lugs. While there aren't any little extra design touches that add any additional flair, the sides are vertically brushed to create a bit of contrast. Is the case boring as a result? Certainly not in my eye, as its subdued character works well in the 36.5mm format and, most importantly, it serves as a very nice frame for a spectacular dial. That dial, produced by Chopard's in-house dialmaker Metalem, is an absolute home run. And it surprises me to say this, given that I typically don't care a...
Worn & Wound
Welcome to the first installment of a new monthly column called Spotted. Here, I’ll break down the latest themes I’m seeing in the horological landscape. While trends are inherently fleeting, the observations we’ll look at in this series may stay or go away – only time will tell if these are fads or in fact historical markers of this era of watchmaking. In addition to spying and identifying the overarching patterns taking shape in watch design, I’ll help us bring them down to earth in our own collections and on our wrists. For our inaugural edition of Spotted, it feels important to distill some key observations from Watches and Wonders. Here, we have one of the largest sample sizes of new releases all hitting the market at once, and there are a few themes that struck me across the whopping 66 brands who participated in this year’s event. The first concept I want to look at isn’t super straightforward to articulate, so stick with me here – I’m going to start by succinctly naming it “complex superlatives.” Complexity in watchmaking can take many forms from actual horological complications that allow watches to perform functions beyond basic timekeeping to more subtle complexities like intricate finishings, record breaking feats, or material innovations. The examples that stuck out of this somewhat amorphous idea come from Jaeger-LeCoultre and its Gyrotourbillon Stratosphere Triple-Axis Tourbillon in contrast with Ulysse Nardin’s new Super Freak. Jae...
Monochrome
You don’t have to be a watchmaking fan to know that the Rolex Oyster Perpetual is one of the few watches that defines the brand and modern horology at large. As the direct descendant of the 1926 Oyster, one of the very first waterproof wristwatches, this time-only, robust, precise, and endlessly wearable watch is what […]
Monochrome
Christiaan van der Klaauw is a renowned Dutch independent watch brand specialising exclusively in astronomical complications, making it the world’s only atelier dedicated solely to handcrafted timepieces inspired by celestial mechanics. Founded in 1974 by master watchmaker Christiaan van der Klaauw, who retired in 2009, the brand is now in the hands of watchmaker Pim […]
SJX Watches
To mark 30 years of its Fleurier manufacture, Chopard has introduced a new variant of the watch that started it all. The new Lucent steel L.U.C 1860 adds a blue dial to the brand’s flagship time-only dress watch. The L.U.C 1860 is short on novelty, being merely a new colour for a model that debuted in 2023, but the incremental improvements result in a sleek and sophisticated steel dress watch. Initial thoughts The L.U.C 1860 is very traditional dress watch in the sense that nothing feels exaggerated. At the same time, it doesn’t feel boring thanks to its guilloché dial and the obvious quality of the movement within. While there are some who believe that a proper dress watch must come in precious metal, the popularity of the steel-and-salmon L.U.C 1860 released in 2023 proves there’s an alternate perspective. The brand’s proprietary ‘Lucent’ steel makes the watch more accessible, especially in the age of near-record gold prices. Despite the use of a comparatively humble material, the case finishing remains high-end - though the design is generation behind the new case profile introduced for the Grand Strike. Since the original L.U.C 1860 debuted in 1997, it has always been a small watch. For a time, that left it out of step with consumer preferences, especially in the early 2000s, but tastes have once again shifted back in favour of smaller cases. In this context, the vintage-leaning 36.5 mm size feels just right. That said, while it makes sense for Chopar...
Worn & Wound
This one is for elder millennials and Gen-X only. In perhaps the most surprising collaboration we’ve seen in a while, H. Moser has partnered with Reebok to bring us the Streamliner Pump, a limited edition of 500 pieces total across two variants, that combines the familiar, Art Deco inspired shape of Moser’s integrated bracelet sports watch with one of the most iconic sneaker designs of my childhood. For the non-sneakerheads or readers who are simply too young to remember, the Pump was a Reebok sneaker that became a cultural phenomenon in the early 1990s. The gimmick was that with the “pump” of a large orange button on the top of the shoe’s tongue, the wearer could inflate and regulate a fitting cushion in the lower part of the tongue to obtain a better and more secure fit. It was an answer of sorts to Nike’s “Air” technology, but more tactile and focused on the user experience. It was also tailor made for splashy marketing campaigns with big celebrity endorsements (Dee Brown and Shaquille O’Neal are the NBA stars that immediately come to mind as Pump wearers), and I can vividly remember desperately wanting Pumps of my own at an age where I honestly thought I for sure would have a career in professional basketball. Moser has captured at least some of that nostalgia with this new release. For the Streamliner Pump, Moser has added an anodized aluminum pusher to the case at the 8:00 position, the “pump” as it were. Press it, and the pusher transmits ene...
Monochrome
Last year was a watershed moment for Grand Seiko with its announcement of the world’s “most accurate mainspring-driven movement”. Crafted in the Shinshu Watch Studio, the brand’s groundbreaking Calibre 9RB2 – with an annual deviation of only ±20 seconds – debuted in Evolution 9 cases. True to Japanese reverence for nature and Grand Seiko’s talent […]
SJX Watches
With wind in his sails following the successful Origine series, independent watchmaker Sylvain Pinaud returns with his most ambitious project yet, the succinctly named Tourbillon. The watch looks and feels a lot like its time-only predecessor, but the movement is in fact completely different, with twin mainspring barrels and a fast-rotating 30-second tourbillon. The Tourbillon in platinum with a white agate dial. Initial thoughts Appetite remains strong for high-end time-only watches, but the leading independents are increasingly leaving simplicity behind and treating their collectors to additional complications. Mr Pinaud’s Tourbillon exemplifies this shift. Despite the greater complexity of its movement, the Tourbillon is no larger than the simpler Origine. In fact, it’s about 1 mm smaller in diameter. That’s impressive considering it fits an extra mainspring barrel and adds a zero-reset seconds functionality to its namesake tourbillon. This latter functionality - specifically its heart cam - is on full display through an opening in the running seconds sub-dial at nine o’clock. But its the 30-second tourbillon that gives the watch its name, and which warrants special scrutiny. Fast-rotating tourbillons - which rotate more quickly than once per minute - are quite rare. They require more energy and greater care in assembly, since they almost invariably use lighter components. In the case of the Tourbillon, the slender three-armed cage is made of titanium, r...
Monochrome
When it comes to ceramics, Rado is the brand that comes to mind. Rado presented its first ceramic watch in 1986, just 40 years ago… This anniversary marks not only a technological breakthrough, but also the beginning of a long-standing expertise that has become a signature. This special occasion allows us to sit down with […]
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