Two Broke Watch Snobs
Tudor’s New 37mm Dive Watch, The Black Bay 54
Introducing a new, smaller Black Bay diver in 37mm. The Tudor Black Bay 54 takes its inspiration from the Tudor 7922 diver from 1954.
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Two Broke Watch Snobs
Introducing a new, smaller Black Bay diver in 37mm. The Tudor Black Bay 54 takes its inspiration from the Tudor 7922 diver from 1954.
Time+Tide
Oris has been on a hot streak of late, debuting the ProPilot X cal. 400, various Aquis divers including the Billion Oyster Project Limited Edition, as well as the Wings of Hope Limited Editions among others. The independent brand has proven they can play in a versatile range of price points – maintaining entry-level pieces with … ContinuedThe post GENEVA WATCH DAYS: Oris delivers new Divers Sixty-Five with caliber 400 movement and more appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Time+Tide
Editor’s Note: In a new series for Time+Tide, we recently partnered with @watchanalytics to crunch the numbers and dig into the horological market trends and value fluctuations for the references that matter. Last time, we delved into the Rolex Oyster Perpetual Turquoise and its value spike in the wake of the record-breaking Patek Phillipe Nautilus 5711/1A-018 … ContinuedThe post WATCH ANALYTICS WEDNESDAYS: New Rolex price hikes, which models were the most affected? appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
SJX Watches
An all-encompassing brand that has something for everyone, Seiko is a 140-year-old brand with a dozen or so lines spanning the price spectrum. Its flagship brand is, of course, Grand Seiko, which has enjoyed notably strong growth outside of Japan after being spun off in 2017. Now we speak with the man who was a key part of this international expansion: Akio Naito. Appointed President of the Seiko Watch Corporation (SWC) earlier this year, Mr Naito now runs the primary watch business of the Seiko group, having climbed the ranks over a four-decade career. He has held roles across various Seiko companies around the world – one of his earliest managerial roles was head of Seiko Australia starting 2002 – and was most recently deputy chief operating officer of SWC. In that role, he was responsible for international sales and marketing. It was during his tenure that Seiko brands enjoyed notably strong growth outside of Japan, most notably with Grand Seiko in America and Europe – two key markets he personally oversaw. Our founder SJX sat down with Mr Naito recently to discuss his plans for Seiko and Grand Seiko, while also touching on topics like complicated watches and the future of watch fairs. The interview has been edited for clarity and length. Mr Naito with Wako’s famous clocktower behind him SJX: I first visited Seiko’s factories in Shiojiri and Shizukuishi 10 or 12 years ago. I like to congratulate you on how the brand has developed in that time, especially Gra...
SJX Watches
Introduced in 2018 but put on hold until recently, the Skafander adapts Franck Muller’s trademark tonneau watch case for a dive watch. Getting its name from “scaphander”, an archaic term for a diving suit, the Skafander has been facelifted just as it reaches stores in both stainless steel or titanium. Initial thoughts Brash and bold watch, the Skafander is much typical of Franck Muller’s current style. At first glance, the design might seem derivative, bringing to mind the Hublot Spirit of Big Bang, and of course various Richard Mille models. But it was Franck Muller that made the tonneau case a thing in contemporary watchmaking with the Cintree Curvex – Cartier, on the other hand, invented the shape in 1906 – so the brand has every right to the shape. In fact, the Cintree Curvex was one of the “it” watches of the 1990s, so successful it arguably inspired all tonneau watches in 21st century watchmaking. Complicated and mechanical in style, the Skafander has a partially open-worked dial, which doesn’t help legibility, but it’s very much the style for modern sport watches. The Skafander manages to set itself apart amongst watches in this genre, by way of its case shape and inner rotating bezel. And priced at about US$15,000 (or 23,800 Singapore dollars), it’s relatively pricey, but on par with comparable dive watches from Hublot. The Skafander in brushed titanium Tonneau case, round bezel The Skafander’s key feature results from matching a rotatin...
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SJX Watches
A longtime watch enthusiast based in Singapore, Benjamin Chee founded his own brand almost a decade ago. Established as Millésime, the brand focused on classical and affordable watches, but it has since evolved into one that’s dedicated to more upscale timepieces. Now renamed Milléchron, the brand has just introduced its sophomore sports watch, the Monarque M. Retaining the slim dimensions that characterise Milléchron’s dress watches, the Monarque M is a dive watch rated to 200 metres that’s powered by the latest iteration of Vaucher’s micro-rotor movement. The Monarque M is being launched in two guises, the Saffron with a resplendent yellow dial, and the all-black Stealth Initial thoughts Mid-priced independent watchmaking below the US$10,000 mark is becoming a crowded segment. A few notable names in the same field offer something apart from the mainstream while being strong value, like Habring² for instance. However, their watches tend to be traditionally styled, and few have attempted a dive watch. That makes the Monarque M an exception. The watch has clearly taken inspiration from mid-20th century dive watches, but the design is clearly modern. Mr Chee describes the design as “fantasy vintage, where I take the best parts of certain vintage watches I love, and create a new watch that never actually existed but would have looked great.” Crucially, Milléchron is working with several specialists synonymous with high-quality components to put together th...
Time+Tide
Watch collecting is fun. At least it should be, which means that from time to time, you have to get back to basics and enjoy the roots of the hobby. Even though a lot of us turn a blind eye to it, one of the staples of the watch industry is inexpensive quartz-powered timepieces. For … ContinuedThe post A month in iso with the Timex Q, a watch that reconnected me with the fun in collecting appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
SJX Watches
Seiko has been on a hot streak with its remakes of vintage dive watches, including the Hi-Beat 6159 of 2018 and last year’s “Turtle” 6105. With 2020 being the 55th anniversary of its first dive watch, Seiko is reissuing three of its most well-liked vintage dive watches, the Hi-Beat 6215, the 62MAS 6217, and the “Tuna” 6159. All three remakes features notable upgrades, including the use of a new alloy named Ever-Brilliant Steel that is notably corrosion resistant. (And for those on a less-ambitious budget, the line-up also includes an affordable 62MAS remake – see this at the bottom of the story.) The vintage originals (from left): Hi-Beat 6215, the 62MAS 6217, and the “Tuna” 6159 Used for the first time in watchmaking according to Seiko, Ever-Brilliant Steel has a more silvery appearance than the steel alloy most commonly used in watchmaking – 316L or “surgical steel” – but more crucially, the alloy has better corrosion resistant. Specifically, Seiko says Ever-Brilliant Steel has a pitting resistance equivalent number (PREN) of 1.7 times 316L steel. With 316L steel having a PREN of around 25, Ever-Brilliant Steel should surpass 40 – usually the benchmark for materials uses for marine applications. The Ever-Brilliant Steel case of the SLA037 The 1965 Diver’s Re-creation “62MAS” (ref. SLA037 or SBEX009) is a remake of Seiko’s first ever dive watch. Measuring 39.9 mm by 14.7 mm, the case is larger than the original, and of course made from Ev...
SJX Watches
The timepieces that held the title of “most complicated watch ever”, as well as their famous owners, are mostly well known – save for the long-lost English grand complication commissioned by banker J. Pierpont Morgan. Morgan was a great collector of watches, and his grandest timepiece was a double-dial, astronomical pocket watch made by J. Player & Son. It was the most complicated English watch ever made, and perhaps the most complicated watch in the world at the time of its completion. Though Morgan’s watch has long been surpassed in complexity by other hands, and it bears the name of a defunct English brand, it has arguably the greatest provenance of all super-pocket watches. Unlike James Ward Packard or Henry Graves, who were both wealthy, accomplished, and little known individuals outside their fields, Morgan is still the best known banker in history; the biggest bank in the United States today bears his name. The grandest of all time But first, a brisk walk through the grand complication hall of fame. The most famous most-complicated-watch-ever is, of course, the Patek Philippe Graves “supercomplication”, which sold for US$24m in 2014 and still holds the record for the most expensive watch ever sold. Commissioned by American banker Henry Graves Jr in 1925, and delivered in 1933, the Graves pocket watch outdid the now obscure Leroy 01 that was sold in 1904 to a Portuguese millionaire. And it also surpassed the various watches produced for automobile ...
SJX Watches
Jean-François Mojon, founder of complications specialist Chronode, has a client list that reads like a who’s who of independent watchmaking: from establishment names Hermès and MB&F; to revived brands like Urban Jurgensen. His latest creation, however, is one of the most affordable to date. Constructed for Trilobe, a start-up founded just three years ago by former banker Gautier Massonneau. The brand’s first collection, Les Matinaux – “The Morning” in English – derives its name from a poem written by French author René Char. Novelty aside Built at Chronode’s Le Locle facility, Les Matinaux is designed to subvert traditional time-telling. Instead of conventional fixed indices and moving hands, the hands, or rather pointers, are fixed but the markers – on three separate chapter rings for the hours, minutes and seconds – are constantly in motion, and rotate counter-clockwise to boot. The concept is not entirely new, of course. This type of time display is most often used on digital-style dials with numerals shown either in a single line or within a window, as on the De Bethune Dream Watch 5. Affordable brands have done the same with quartz movements, including Klokers, which is sadly now defunct, as well as Lip with its Mythic Jump Hour Watch. In contrast, Les Matinaux does not have its indicators arranged in a linear manner. Instead, the trio of trefoils – trilobe is French for trefoil – seem casually scattered across the dial, so i...
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Time+Tide
Like for so many other people, Robin Williams was, and still is, a hero of mine. Growing up in the ’80s and ’90s, his movies and brand of wacky comedy taught me that life doesn’t always have to be so serious, that growing old was inevitable but growing up was optional. I can’t even tell … ContinuedThe post LIST: 6 oddball watches of an oddball comedian appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Two Broke Watch Snobs
A hands-on review of the Jack Mason Strat-o-Timer Titanium Diver GMT, exploring its lightweight build, GMT functionality, and more.
Hodinkee
If you've ever had to decide between grabbing your dive watch or your dress watch, well, why not both?
Two Broke Watch Snobs
Discover how the Marathon TSAR and Luminox Pacific Diver perform beyond the honeymoon phase. Compare wearability, durability, ownership trade-offs, and more.
Two Broke Watch Snobs
A review of the Luminox Pacific Diver Emerald Depths, focusing on tritium visibility, wrist presence, and daily wear experience.
Video
Worn & Wound
I’m not going to lie to you, I love a bit of intrigue. When I was a child, I would write notes to my mother in invisible ink made of lemon juice. When someone tells me to keep a secret (which is always a surprise, given my big mouth), I can hardly contain my excitement. And, even now, I fancy myself a real James Bond type when I hide the Amazon boxes from my husband before he comes home from work. Luckily for me, Bernhardt Watch Company just announced their Cipher Diver, which sits right at the cross-section of two of my hobbies: watches and subterfuge. Inspired by Thomas Jefferson (and, impressively, made in partnership with Monticello), the watch nods more to the third president’s inventive streak than his political career – including the rotating wheel cipher, a mechanical concept designed to encode messages through a specific alignment of letters across a series of discs. The result is a diver that cleverly allows you to keep a secret message right on your wrist. Beneath the bezel, Bernhardt has included the alphabet printed on UV-reactive ink. By aligning the bezel to a designated hour key and referencing minute markers on the dial, one is able to use the clock’s timekeeping functionality to decode the message. If that’s not some National Treasure type of ingenuity, I don’t know what is. Each diver comes with a UV decoding torch and an initial cipher card, with new encrypted messages released weekly through July 4, 2026 (the 250th anniversary of the Unit...
Hodinkee
Part skin diver, part regatta timer, whole lotta fun.
Quill & Pad
With the Overall Market Index now at a two-and-a-half year low, the broad-based nature of the declines across the market continues: Rolex prices are now also at a 30-month low, while Patek Philippe has hit a 26-month low, and Audemars Piguet is at a 27-month low.
Two Broke Watch Snobs
Reviewing the Timex Standard 40. Check out original photography, specs, and insights from an owner along with alternative recommendations.
Worn & Wound
As a watch enthusiast, how frequently do you gaze at your watch and smile? What if your timepiece could return the gesture? From the renowned interior architect Alain Silberstein, in collaboration with Louis Erard, comes the Smile-Day, a watch that quite literally smiles back. Instead of showing the days of the week, this unique piece depicts various smiley faces along with the date. As a watch enthusiast, how frequently do you gaze at your watch and smile? What if your timepiece could return the gesture? From the renowned interior architect Alain Silberstein, in collaboration with Louis Erard, comes the Smile-Day, a watch that quite literally smiles back. Instead of showing the days of the week, this unique piece depicts various smiley faces along with the date. The post The Roundup: A Watch That Smiles Back, A Diver That Will Have You Spinning, and More appeared first on Worn & Wound.
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Hodinkee
What watch do you buy for a giant of the industry? Just ask his wife.
Hodinkee
After I finished my first novel I rewarded myself with a new watch, but then I had to put it through its paces.
Deployant
We review the new Dietrich Skin Diver SD-1, a timepiece that was built for skin divers that features a combination of classic and modern touches.
Proof that a watch that can dive deeper than a submarine doesn't have to feel like a tank.
SJX Watches
Having launched a well received trio of Black Series dive watches in 2017, Seiko has done it again, but this time applying the black livery to more upscale models, including the Prospex Marinemaster and Prospex “Sumo”. The flagship model of the new collection, the Seiko Prospex Marinemaster Black Series (ref. SLA035J1 or SBDX033) is all black with red accents on the dial, historically a common colour combination for dive watches. According to Seiko, the choice of red was intentional, as it is the first colour to disappear underwater, starting from a depth of about 5 m or 15 ft. As a result, the seconds hand and depth rating disappear underwater, thus “[eliminating] unnecessary information allowing for instantaneous readability.” Limited to just 600 pieces, the Marinemaster Black Series has a steel case with a black hard coating, and the bezel insert is scratch-resistant black ceramic. It’s powered by the 8L35, an automatic movement derived from the 9S55 used in Grand Seiko models, which means it has the same architecture but without the decorative finishing found on the Grand Seiko movement. The other two Black Series models feature a black-and-orange colour scheme, and are more affordable. The first is the Seiko Prospex Black Series “Sumo” (ref. SPB125J1 or SBDC095), which is a rather large limited edition of 7,000 watches, no doubt because the Prospex Black Series “Turtle” of 2017 sold out swiftly. The “Sumo” (left) and solar chronograph The new ...
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