3,862 articles · 51 videos found · page 42 of 131
Monochrome
10 years ago, a young architect named Michiel Holthinrichs had the idea to create watches… But not like every other young indie watchmaker. What made it unique? The Ornament 1 was the world’s first 3D-printed stainless steel watch. And it certainly had a design of its own, inspired by Michiel’s previous career. The specially-commissioned watch […]
Teddy Baldassarre
Before we get into my review of the Oris Big Crown Pointer Date Bullseye, let's get some context about the brand out of the way. Oris traces its foundation to 1904, when two natives of the Swiss watchmaking town of Le Locle, Paul Cattin and Georges Christian, opened their watch factory in the German-speaking Swiss town of Hölstein. Cattin and Christian named their company “Oris” after the Orisbach tributary, a brook near the factory.A maker of pocket watches and, by 1925, the increasingly popular wristwatches, Oris enjoyed a long period of growth and expansion throughout the following decades and even made its own movements. Losing its independence during the consolidation years of the Quartz Crisis, Oris regained it in the 1980s, when a management buyout transformed the company and solidified its mission to make only mechanical watches going forward. Today, Oris is well established as a staple for value-conscious collectors of Swiss-made watches. While much of its modern output is devoted to sport-oriented timepieces, like the popular Aquis and Divers (formerly Divers Sixty-Five) diving watches, the brand’s most recognizable and emblematic collection is the Big Crown Pointer Date, which has been a mainstay of the brand’s portfolio - and in constant production - since 1938. It was the first watch with a date indication displayed via a central hand on an outer scale, and it took the other part of its model name from its signature design element - an oversiz...
Worn & Wound
Omega pleased a lot of dress watch and vintage fans this week when they launched the new Constellation Observatory collection at their Swiss headquarters. Zach Weiss is on the ground in Bielle even as we speak getting hands-on with the new watches, and he’ll have a full hands on report with his own photography coming soon. For now, a quick rundown of the new collection, and why it’s a fairly major play for the brand. The Constellation is a historic Omega collection that has changed a lot through the years, always remaining flexible with the current styles and trends of the day. This collection, though, is a direct shot at the hearts and minds of Omega purists, as its effectively a recreation of the original 1950s Constellation in its broad strokes. The cases and dials will be familiar to anyone who has collected or admired original Constellations, with highly angular cases and distinctive dogleg lug design. That said, these are not one to one recreations of watches from the 1950s. The cases, on paper at least, are rather large for what most would agree is a riff on a classic dress watch. The diameter is 39.4mm, and case height is 12.23mm. The lug to lug span comes in at 47.2mm. So, not small by any means, but we’ll look forward to Zach’s impressions of how they actually wear soon enough. As is typical with Omega these days, we have a wide variety of case material and dial options available. We get all three gold alloys that Omega likes to deploy (Sedna, Canop...
Monochrome
As you might remember, Louis Vuitton and De Bethune recently introduced the third chapter in LV’s ongoing journey through independent watchmaking, the LVDB-03 Louis Varius Project, following the LVRR-01 Chronographe à Sonnerie made with Rexhep Rexhepi, founder of Atelier Akrivia, and the LVKV-02 GMR 6 made with Finnish-born watchmaker Kari Voutilainen. While we were expecting to […]
Monochrome
The Club Campus collection is Nomos Glashütte’s accessible, robust mechanical watches, designed with a younger audience in mind and made with the same in-house rigour as the rest of the catalogue. Since its introduction in 2017, the concept has remained, with clean Bauhaus-inspired construction, playful California-style dials, and a rotation of fresh colours. For 2026, […]
Worn & Wound
When we talk about Longines on the website, we usually do so in the context of their vintage reissues and vintage inspired watches. They’ve carved out a niche for themselves in this particular area that is basically unrivaled among the big Swiss brands. From the Legend Diver onwards, they’ve done a remarkable job of raiding the archives and bringing back both popular and oddball references of historical significance. Similarly, their most important contemporary line, the Spirit Collection, is itself heavily influenced by the aesthetics and design codes of midcentury watches. That isn’t to say that Longines has neglected more contemporary designs. They’ve dipped into ultra-modern territory (with a great deal of success) pretty recently with bold updates to the Ultra-Chron, for example. But I think it’s fair to say that they aren’t necessarily the brand you look to if you’re thinking about picking up a solid, modern dive watch. It’s just not their lane, and some of their competitors have really nailed this genre down pretty hard. So this is the framework for a big relaunch this Spring for the HydroConquest, a line that has already gone through a handful of redesigns and shuffling over the years, most recently becoming a vehicle for a GMT complication in a case size that frankly strains even the most burly of wrists. There’s never really been anything wrong with the HydroConquest, per se, but for a variety of reasons it’s not usually mentioned in the s...
Teddy Baldassarre
The Longines Hydroconquest, the Saint-Imier brand’s most prominent and forward-looking diver’s watch, made its debut in 2007 and has changed very little in its key features and elements - despite expanding during the nearly two decades since into a variety of sizes, colorways, and materials. That all changes this year, as Longines has introduced the next generation of the Hydroconquest, defined by a host of contemporary upgrades. Here’s what you need to know. [toc-section heading="Origin of the Hydroconquest"] Before the Hydroconquest came the Conquest. Longines has been making timepieces since 1832, but it wasn’t until 1954 that the Swiss watchmaker began engaging in the modern marketing practice of introducing product families with distinctive names. “Conquest” was the first such name to be registered, on April 3, 1954, with the Swiss Register of Intellectual Property. The original Longines Conquest (reproduced above) was equipped with a highly accurate automatic movement and a water-resistant case that also protected the movement from magnetism and shocks. Despite these utilitarian elements, however, it was undeniably a dress watch, at a very modest 35mm and with a clean, minimalist dial. Longines introduced the bigger, sportier version of the Conquest, called the Hydroconquest, in 2007, during an era when large, rugged watches, particularly divers’ watches, were reaching new heights of popularity. The Hydroconquest, in contrast to its predecessor, was...
SJX Watches
Omega is reviving one of its classics with the Constellation Observatory, a tribute to the manufacture’s illustrious past. The new Constellation collection returns to the “pie pan” dial that Omega devotees have championed for years, and represents a strong bid from the Bienne-based manufacture to reassert itself in the market for high-end dress watches. The 21st century Constellation “Pie Pan” adopts many aesthetic cues of the vintage original, made during Omega’s heyday in the mid-20th century, but is resolutely a modern-day Omega wristwatch in quality and technology. From solid gold dials to proprietary alloys to a latest-generation movement, the Constellation Observatory has it all. The new Omega Constellation Observatory collection. Initial thoughts Omega’s recent efforts in dress-watch chronometers have been less cohesive and arguably less successful than the competition. The Constellation Manhattan with its integrated bracelet design differs from what most expect from a dress watch, while the De Ville line is handsome enough, but lacking the distinctiveness that serious dress watch collectors expect. In contrast, the Constellation Observatory is a serious effort that captures much of the magic of one of Omega’s most beloved historical designs, namely the Constellations of the 1950s and 1960s. The look is not too dissimilar from last year’s Seamaster 37 mm Milano Cortina, limited edition that met with commercial and critical success. With the Obser...
Teddy Baldassarre
[toc-section heading="Squale Overview"] Squale is a historic manufacture with a particular specialty in the realm of dive watches. The company’s heritage is deeper than you may realize, as it extends beyond its own footprint, touching an extensive list of partners that helped to shape the dive-watch genre as we know it today. The story of Squale is one of intrigue, and while it became a well known case supplier through the ‘60s and ‘70s, the Swiss brand also boasted a collection of its own designs that hold as well today as they did then. Understanding Squale means taking a step back into the era that birthed it, an era defined by the burgeoning sport of recreational diving as well as the advent of military diving operations. If you’re a fan of dive watches and the history of their use, Squale is a brand that should be on your radar thanks to its plentiful contributions. Beyond that, collectors will find a vast array of designs in the brand’s modern catalog that both break new ground and preserve the best portions of its history. In this overview, we’ll connect all the dots from then to now. [toc-section heading="History and Heritage"] Squale was founded by Charles von Büren in 1959 in the beautiful lakeside town of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. While that’s the official date, von Büren had been assembling watches under his own name for the prior decade, meaning he brought some pedigree to the name from the get-go. The modern dive watch genre was in its ...
Time+Tide
Continuing to push for material innovation in the watch industry, ArtyA brings us a case made from an underutilised stone. The post ArtyA pushes case material boundaries with the new Purity Moissanite Curvy Tourbillon appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Hodinkee
The Swiss-based watchmakers pick up their second major award in three years.
Two Broke Watch Snobs
A hands-on Oris Aquis New York Harbor II review, covering wear, dial, and real-world impressions of this distinctive Swiss dive watch.
Teddy Baldassarre
Blancpain, founded in the Swiss village of Villeret in 1735, has been making timepieces for almost 300 years, but perhaps its most impactful contribution to wristwatch history was relatively recent - and began its heralded life as a military tool rather than a luxury item. In 1953, Blancpain was headed by Jean-Jacques Fiechter, an avid diving enthusiast who had long wanted to develop a watch that would be ideal for his hobby. Fiechter worked with Captain Robert Maloubier, a French naval officer, to design a reliable, mission-ready timepiece that Maloubier’s elite combat diving team could wear. Here we will take a look at the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe, a more everyday take on the iconic diver. [toc-section heading="Blancpain Fifty Fathoms: A Historic Divers’ Watch"] The watch, called the Fifty Fathoms, had a 42mm steel case - exceptionally large for the time - and it was water-resistant to 91.45 meters, or 50 fathoms, the maximum depth recommended for scuba divers. Its dial was black and its numerals were luminescent for greater legibility underwater. It was the first divers’ watch with a self-winding movement, the first with an antimagnetic case, and the first to employ the patented, double-sealed crown that Fiechter had developed. Most notably, the Fifty Fathoms was the first watch to include a lockable bezel with dive-time scale that rotated in only one direction. This practical and potentially life-saving innovation prevented a diver from acciden...
Two Broke Watch Snobs
Christopher Ward's CW-002 is its first in-house True GMT, built from scratch after Swiss suppliers offered no viable option.
Worn & Wound
Christopher Ward’s releases basically fall into two categories for me. There are the watches that the brand clearly intends to have broad appeal across a wide segment of the watch market. This is really most of their watches. Think of the Sealander and Trident collections, and indeed most of the Twelves, and you have watches that are very well made and attractive but not exactly groundbreaking. Then there’s the Loco, the Bel Canto, and some of their more experimental pieces that play with aventurine and sapphire dial elements. These watches veer into the avant-garde and serve as showcases for what Christopher Ward is capable of at a higher (but still very fair) price point. I’ll admit, I’m partial to the latter, and less interested in the former. The Loco and Bel Canto in particular really demonstrate Christopher Ward’s ambition to be more than just a former maker of homage watches. These watches fully escape the brand’s roots. Their latest release, the C63 True GMT, sits somewhere in the middle. Built on the Sealander platform, the new True GMT is exactly what it says on the tin: a sporty multi-time zone watch with an independently jumping local hour hand. A “true” travel GMT, offering significantly more use while on the move between time zones than a “caller GMT,” still the standard for this type of watch under about $5,000. What makes this watch special is that it represents nearly as much movement innovation and development as the brand’s more...
Fratello
Some things must be titanium - orthopedic implants, for example. And the Lockheed SR-71 “Blackbird,” the retired Mach 3+ reconnaissance aircraft, could only do what it did because it was made of titanium. The three new titanium King Seiko Vanac watches might also qualify as something that just has to be made from that special […] Visit Hands-On With The Three New King Seiko Vanac Watches In Titanium to read the full article.
Monochrome
Prospex Marinemaster… When you hear these two words, you know things are about to become serious. The name Prospex is all about tool watches for Seiko, being the contraction of Professional Specifications. This is the line of watches where you’ll find instruments made for exploration and diving. Marinemaster is another name with great importance for […]
Worn & Wound
Try to think of an objective fact about watches. If you’re anything like me, it’s a task that sounds simple at first, but quickly turns into a surprisingly difficult thought experiment. After some head scratching, my attempt at this exercise ended with a relatively short list, made up mostly of historical facts and a small number of all-encompassing physical descriptions: Watches were invented in the 16th century. They tell time, generally, and are powered by some sort of movement- quartz, mechanical, electric, tuning fork, or otherwise. They are round, or not. And have three hands, or more… and sometimes none at all. As it turns out, objective facts about watches are in short supply, which by default makes mastering the subjective a primary element of watch collecting. Luckily for me and all the other self-proclaimed voices of authority spamming the forums alongside me, becoming an expert boils down to the ability to pick (usually meticulously researched) standpoints where the stakes are low and our personal beliefs are inherently never wrong. In the very first article I wrote for Worn & Wound back in 2023, I stated that forming opinions was one of my favorite things about the hobby. In the time since I picked the premise of individual stances as my first published words on this site, I’ve formed countless of them, and still find tremendous joy in doing so. Watches are round…or not Some of my early opinions (such as a logoed counterbalance on the second hand...
Worn & Wound
eBay Finds is back! This bi-monthly installment will feature a selection of watches currently listed on eBay that have caught the eye of editor Christoph McNeil (@vintagediver). If you come across any hidden gems on the ‘Bay drop us a note at info@wornandwound.com for potential inclusion. Vintage Wyler Dynawind Got some great Finds for you this week, beginning with this super cool and seldom seen vintage Wyler Dynawind. The stainless steel case is made in an octagonal shape, with nice angled lugs that match. The case appears unpolished, with sharp corners and clearly legible caseback engravings. No mention of the case size, but I’d guess it’s in the 35mm range. The black dial has really unique chevron shaped steel inlays on either side, complementing the angles of the case perfectly. Steel dauphine hands and no date window complete the angular, symmetrical design. The crown is signed with the Wyler “W” logo as it should. No movement pictures but it runs per the seller. The watch is on a vintage steel stretch band, but this would look sharp with a nice black croc strap in my opinion. View auction here Vintage Seiko DX Next up is a lovely vintage Seiko DX in superb condition. The 36mm steel case is unpolished, with sharp edges and original brushed and polished finish. The case has integrated lugs that attach to the original steel bracelet with a Seiko signed buckle. The dial is a beautiful, two tone bullseye design, with silver in the middle and a blue outer ...
Monochrome
Following the sudden and surprising departure of Antoine Pin in January, after being at the head of TAG Heuer for just over a year, the Swiss watchmaker owned by French luxury powerhouse LVMH has just announced the appointment of a new CEO – after several shakups, following the departure from this role in 2013 of […]
SJX Watches
The Audemars Piguet (AP) Royal Oak “Jumbo” Extra-Thin Openworked 39 mm is an appealing new variant of a watch that’s already in short supply, famous as much for its scarcity as its octagonal bezel. Seen previously in white gold, the Jumbo Openworked returns at the top of its class with a case made from lightweight titanium and palladium bulk metallic glass (BMG), a material that gives the bezel its almost ethereal mirror finish. The Jumbo Openworked is not a limited edition, but its undeniable appeal will make it hard to come by, even by Royal Oak standards. Ideal configuration The Royal Oak is one of the most sought-after watches in the industry, and one of the few collections that consistently trades at a premium to retail, according to WatchCharts. With its iconic Genta design, slim form factor, and high-end calibre, it’s easy to see why. That said, some configurations are more appealing than others, and this titanium and palladium version of the Jumbo Openworked ranks highly in the Royal Oak pantheon. It’s worth exploring why it works. Starting with the sizing. In 1972, the Royal Oak was broad and flat by industry standards, but the “Jumbo” moniker now feels misleading for a 39 mm watch. Ironically, the “Extra-Thin” designation also feels misleading for the opposite reason - 8.1 mm is plenty thin, but there are now so many thinner watches that the terminology feels out of date. Setting aside AP’s historical naming conventions, the Jumbo Openworked...
Monochrome
If you think about Volvo estate cars, you probably will think about those large, boxy ones from the 1980s and 1990s. While very practical, they weren’t necessarily the most sexy cars, apart from a few special ones like the 850 T5R. But there was a time when Volvo made an estate car that was gracious, […]
Monochrome
Founded in New York in 1921 by Romanian-born brothers Benjamin, Oscar, and Ralph Lazrus, Benrus relied on Swiss production, centred in La Chaux-de-Fonds, and during the 1930s and 1940s, it became known for its pilots and military watches. Early models such as the Flyer and Airman were popular among the airline pilots, helping establish the […]
Fratello
Morgan Stanley Investment Management published its Ninth Annual Swiss Watcher on February 19th. The report dives deep into the commercial performance of the Swiss watch market on a brand-by-brand level. I assume very few watch enthusiasts read the whole thing, but one table is rather famous: the top 50 Swiss watch brands ranked by turnover. […] Visit Subprime Reporting? Thoughts On The Recent Morgan Stanley/Swatch Group Controversy to read the full article.
Fratello
Depancel has made a name for itself by creating an extensive collection of race-inspired chronographs. For its newest effort, the brand teamed up with an actual racing team to become an active partner in modern motorsports. The Série R01 Depancel × DAMS Lucas Oil fuses the retro silhouette of the Depancel Série R01 and the […] Visit Hands-On With The Collaborative Série R01 Depancel × DAMS Lucas Oil to read the full article.
Fratello
“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.
Fratello
Time flies when everything resonates nicely, doesn’t it? It sure does for Armin Strom. No fewer than 10 years have passed since the independent Swiss house launched its breakthrough resonance mechanism. Although not actively marketed as an anniversary model, I reckon it is safe to say this rather exuberant version, the Armin Strom Mirrored Force […] Visit Introducing: The Armin Strom Mirrored Force Resonance Ruby to read the full article.
Hodinkee
Vintage sizing, a slim profile, and all the good looks that made the vintage Sky Chief a vintage Hodinkee favorite, now back in action.
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...
Teddy Baldassarre
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
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