1,855 articles · 123 videos found · page 44 of 66
Time+Tide
Three configurations, all in 38mm ceramic cases, Miyota-driven, and less than 1k USD!The post Earthen introduces a trio of ceramic-cased watches that cost just US$899 appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Fratello
With the Contrail GMT, Nodus delivered one of my favorite affordable GMT watches that is currently available. The Los Angeles brand showed that an awesome travel watch does not have to cost more than €1,000. On top of that, the quality and level of finishing of the Contrail is nothing short of impressive. Stating that […] Visit The Nodus Sector II Dive GMT Is The Best Affordable Traveler’s Watch to read the full article.
Worn & Wound
One of the most satisfying experiences you can have when you write about watches is when a new piece completely meets or exceeds all of your expectations. This is a somewhat rare occurrence. When you see as many watches as we do, we notice all the little imperfections, compromises, and, sometimes, flat out mistakes. It means that even when we like a watch a lot our minds naturally go right to the idiosyncrasies that make it less than perfect. Because, after all, no watch is perfect. There are always small things that will bother you or that you wish had been handled in a slightly different way. But then, sometimes, a watch comes along that legitimately stuns you. Even better when it’s from a brand that you’ve been waiting literally years to see if they could live up to the lofty ambitions they set for themselves, that they told you about over coffee in Geneva at an impromptu meeting with a table spread with rather rough prototypes. Holthinrichs is a brand that’s been on my radar for just about as long as the brand has existed. Their design language, inspired by architecture, the elegant lines of classic sports cars, and their home city of Delft, is infused with a uniquely Dutch sensibility, and has always grabbed me. Brand founder Michiel Holthinrichs has emerged as one of contemporary indie watchmaking’s great characters. I hope he’d take it as a compliment if I described him as Biver-esque, but there’s some connective tissue there for sure in the way Mich...
SJX Watches
Omega continues its trickle of summer releases with the Aqua Terra 150M Turquoise, which has its smoked turquoise dial now matched with a black ceramic bezel for a cohesive look. Available in both 38 mm and 41 mm formats, the new Aqua Terra is pricier and arguably less versatile than the standard Aqua Terra, yet is strongly appealing – is the blue worth the green? Initial Thoughts The ceramic mania that gripped the industry a few years ago has cooled, but the material is here to stay, and this example is all the better for it. We’ve already seen this dial on a pair of bracelet-borne Aqua Terra earlier this year. Now it’s back with an integrated rubber strap and complementary black ceramic bezel. Even though this lacks the bracelet of the all-steel version, it’s more expensive, priced at about US$1,000 over the steel model on a bracelet. The retail price of US$7,300 is still affordable, and acceptable given the level of quality, but the value proposition is less clear. While the Aqua Terra’s boardwalk-to-boardroom versatility makes it a prime candidate for someone’s sole, “go anywhere, do anything” watch, the exotic colour palette and lack of a bracelet rule it out as such for most people. Instead, I imagine Omega is targeting brand fans who are less price-sensitive looking for a summer watch. Even for an owner of more than one Omega, the new Aqua Terra is different enough to make it interesting. Deja Blue While no longer novel, the fume turquoise dial rema...
SJX Watches
Now into the second half of its second century, Piaget unveiled the Polo Flying Tourbillon Moonphase, an eccentric entrant in the crowded field of luxury sport watches. The charm of the watch lies in its unusual feature set: an extravagant dial and easy wearing format, which includes interchangeable rubber and leather straps. Housed in a sleek, 44 mm titanium case, the Polo Flying Tourbillon is the most complicated watch in the Polo collection since the underrated Polo Tourbillon Relatif introduced two decades ago. Initial thoughts I have a soft spot for watches like the Polo Flying Tourbillon that don’t fit neatly into any pre-conceived category. It’s risky to make watches like this; watches that look a bit odd on the spec sheet but feel good on the wrist. On one hand, it’s overtly sporty with a titanium case, a rubber strap, and a robust 100 m water resistance rating thanks to dual gaskets in the crown. Looked at from another perspective, it’s a piece of true industrial-haute horlogerie with a flying tourbillon and a thoughtfully executed pointer-style moonphase indicator, sans date. This last detail stands out to me, because the date and moonphase complications usually go hand-in-hand. To be clear, I don’t miss the date; its absence contributes to the care-free nature of the watch. The 44 mm titanium case looks large on paper, and indeed, the diameter is accentuated by its 9.8 mm case height, which is on the thinner side as such things go. But the Polo wears w...
Time+Tide
Has Seiko completely stolen Rolex's thunder by collaborating with Pepsi on some real 'Pepsi bezel' watches - that are less than $1,000?The post Forget GMT-Masters: Seiko has officially teamed up with Pepsi appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
SJX Watches
In the world of independent watchmaking, Phimphrachanh – pronounced “fin-fra-chan” – is a name worth learning. Born in France, Dann Phimphrachanh is a Portuguese citizen with Laotian heritage who produces watches in Switzerland. That multicultural heritage that informs his approach to horology, personified by the Seconde Vive, his first wristwatch. The Phimphrachanh surname, inherited from his Laotian grandfather, a political figure in Laos, speaks to this lineage, but Dann’s professional and personal identity is firmly rooted in Portugal. After training in Lisbon’s watchmaking school and working at traditional Swiss watch brands, Dann set out to build his first watch on his own terms: by hand, with minimal industrial tools, and a commitment to preserving classical methods in a modern context. In a world where “independent watchmaking” can sometimes feel like just another label, Dann reminds us what it really means. The Seconde Vive, the result of years of solitary work, is both a technical achievement and a reflection of a deeper pursuit, a journey shaped by tradition, silence, and the slow mastery of time itself. The Seconde Vive Origins When Dann first left for Switzerland, he carried with him an image shaped by the glossy pages of watchmaking magazines, a world where the watchmaker was portrayed as a solitary figure, pursuing perfection in a quiet, idyllic workshop. “It was that image I went looking for,” he recalls. Reality, of course, was more co...
Monochrome
Anoma, the indie microbrand founded in London by Matteo Violet-Vianello, derives its name from “anomaly”, indicating its less-than-conventional approach to design. Taking design cues from art, architecture and nature, the brand is making a name for itself with its shaped watch case. The brand’s first watch, the sculptural A1 with a rounded triangular case inspired […]
SJX Watches
Roger Dubuis is celebrating 30 years by looking back on its days as a trend-setting independent. The Excalibur Biretrograde Calendar deftly balances the spirit of Genevan watchmaking from the brand’s early years in the 1990s with the boisterous designs of the 2000s in a manageable size, but less manageable price. While the style is reminiscent of the oversized Excalibur models that were far from ergonomic, the Biretrograde Calendar has been redesigned for wearability. The retrograde calendar mechanism on the front is an in-house construction, built on top of the brand’s own automatic movement that is unexpectedly sophisticated and classical. Initial Thoughts Roger Dubuis is a marque built on calendars, so the new Excalibur has historical resonance. The late Roger Dubuis was a Patek Philippe alumni who caught his big break working with Jean-Marc Wiederrecht, who would go on to found Agenhor, on a double retrograde perpetual calendar developed for New York jeweller Harry Winston. It was during the project that Dubuis met his future business partner, Carlos Dias, an entrepreneur who would help establish the Roger Dubuis brand and transform it into a hit maker in the 2000s. The same double retrograde perpetual calendar mechanism would accompany the first Roger Dubuis model the brand’s debut in 1995. And the retrograde calendar also has a historical connection to Geneva, as a local watchmaker named Marius LeCoultre created the most prolific retrograde perpetual design of ...
Teddy Baldassarre
It's no understatement to say that the Rolex Land-Dweller was the talk of Watches & Wonders 2025, which took place in Geneva a few months ago. A new Rolex collection with an integrated bracelet and a brand new movement? Well, we would expect no less. There is something fundamentally earth-shaking about massive shifts in the Rolex atmosphere. Mixed metaphors aside, just because we have seen Rolex develop and launch an entirely new collection quite recently (with the 1908, released just two years ago, in 2023), it doesn’t make it normal. Before that it was the Sky-Dweller, and years before that, there were variations on the Yacht-Master. The launch of the Land-Dweller proved to be one of those milestone moments. The Land-Dweller is the product of 18 new patents specific to this watch, as Rolex has developed an entirely new watch both inside and out. No, this is not a new complication, but it is a brand-new approach to timekeeping. It marks the first development of a new escapement system at this scale since the arrival of the Co-Axial escapement from Omega some twenty-five ago. In short this is big news. As you likely have seen by now, Teddy and I had the chance to see this watch up close and personal ahead of this year's Watches & Wonders a few months ago (you can find our full video hands-on review on YouTube now) and were also lucky enough to do it prior to a lot of the pre-release noise really reaching peak volume. That is to say, we were able to learn about the mech...
Fratello
Nezumi is one of those microbrands that I always follow closely. I like its overall retro style, but that’s only half of the story because plenty of brands release new watches based on historical designs. What makes Nezumi stand out is the use of color. The brand often uses less obvious color combinations. I like […] Visit Hands-On With The New Nezumi Corbeau CQ4.702 - Featuring Black DLC And A Pop Of Color to read the full article.
Monochrome
Taking its inspiration from yesteryear’s rudimentary tower and table clocks, MeisterSinger has built a solid brand and rich collection around a rather unusual premise: all its watches are equipped with a single hand. The philosophy behind the single hand is to offer a more leisurely, less manic approach to timekeeping in our information-saturated lives. The latest […]
Time+Tide
Branding is everything, but these three brands are secure enough in their own aesthetic that they've completely adopted the brand-less look.The post The coolest watch brands that don’t put their brand name on the dial appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Fratello
Los Angeles-based brand J.N. Shapiro Watches has achieved a somewhat mythical status since Josh Shapiro founded it in 2018. The watches are elusive and exclusive creations that dent your budget and test your patience. What if you don’t have US$75,000 to spend and/or lack the mental stamina to wait around three years for your watch? […] Visit Hands-On With The New J.N. Shapiro Infinity Series Pure - California-Made Classicism to read the full article.
Teddy Baldassarre
Over the past several years, the topic of women and watches, women in watches, and the best watches for women has become a much-debated topic, both by the enthusiast community and by watchmakers and brands themselves as they struggle to get on the pulse of what women consumers in theory want. After the angry mob raised their symbolic pitchforks across forums at the watchmaking world’s perceived lazy marketing strategy – distilled by the catchy term “pink it and shrink it,” which pointed to the industry's tendency to supply smaller, pink or mother-of-pearl-hued, quartz models in its designs, specifically marketed toward women – I think there is still a great scrambling by brands to pinpoint what women with their exponentially growing purchasing power really want, and will actually transform this demographic into a healthy and dependable consumer base. But I will concede that this is a great challenge indeed because, as we should all know by now, the tastes and stylistic ideals of the women consumer are as varied and complex as women themselves. As a woman in the watch world, I think we are simply looking for a watch landscape that more accurately reflects that, and one with the same consideration and attention to craft (especially in the mechanical department) that has been given to watches marketed towards men. Taking all of the above into consideration, I’ve put myself to the daunting task of rounding up what I think are the most compelling watches, both ...
Time+Tide
Mother-of-pearl dials are too often relegated to lazy, shrink-it-and-pink-it watches. Here are some that don't fall for that trope.The post 9 of the best mother-of-pearl watches for all wrists, from $60 to $60,000 appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Fratello
Today on Fratello Talks, we are joined by special guest Øystein Husby, co-founder of Straum watches. RJ and Nacho sit down with him to talk all things Straum, including the brand’s origins, meeting co-founder Lasse Farstad at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design, how their background in design and love for Norway’s wild nature […] Visit Fratello Talks: Straum Watches And The New Straum × Fratello Jan Mayen Titanium With Co-Founder Øystein Husby to read the full article.
Monochrome
The small German town of Glashütte is steeped in watchmaking history, as we all know. No less than 12 brands, from high-end to more accessible, are nestled there, making it the historic and beating heart of German mechanical watchmaking. Being able to bear the town’s name on one’s dial is also something quite special, as […]
Time+Tide
One of the slimmest complete calendars on the market, and it's less than 4k USD?The post Raymond Weil’s Freelancer Complete Calendar is slim, stylish and a stunning value proposition appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Hodinkee
After Kissling took the helm in October 2024, there seems to be a new spark at Breguet. We look at what lies ahead for the man and the brand.
SJX Watches
Les Cabinotiers is Vacheron Constantin’s programme dedicated to one-off and special-order watches. The latest to emerge from the workshop is the Les Cabinotiers Temporis Duo Grand Complication Openface, a large, complicated watch with an intricate calibre and an unusually modern, clear sapphire dial. The look is more contemporary than usual for a Les Cabinotiers grand complication, thanks to both the sapphire dial with its off-centre displays and a monochromatic grey finish on the movement. An evolution (and stylistic upgrade) of the solid-dial Les Cabinotiers Minute Repeater Tourbillon Split-Seconds from 2022, the Temporis is underpinned by a base movement that features a minute repeater and tourbillon; on top sits a traditionally constructed split-seconds chronograph mechanism that is paired with the calibre in an unconventional manner. The layers inside the cal. 2757 S of the Temporis Initial thoughts Twenty twenty-five has been good for Vacheron Constantin in terms of complicated watches – the brand started the year with the Solaria, the most complicated wristwatch ever made, and has followed up with the Temporis. In comparison to the Solaria with 41 functions and a price tag in the mid-millions, the Temporis is simple and affordable, but still impressive. Though it is largely identical in terms of the movement to the 2022 model with a solid dial, the Temporis offers a lot more visually with its open dial. Though the look is modern – compare this to the baroque B...
Teddy Baldassarre
Before getting into the CasiOak, let's revisit some brand history. Japan’s Casio, renowned as the producer of the world’s first portable electronic calculator, released its first watch, the quartz-powered Casiotron, in 1974. But it wasn’t until 1983 that the electronics giant really made an impact on the timepiece world with the introduction of the first G-Shock. Conceived by Casio engineer Kikuo Ibe, who had experienced the loss of the beloved pocket watch his father had given him after he accidentally dropped it on a hard floor, the G-Shock was positioned from the beginning to be the world’s toughest watch, and the first to use urethane rubber in its construction. From the original DW5000-C (recent version pictured above), with its rectangular case, all-digital LCD timekeeping display, and quartz movement with 10-year battery life, sprang an extensive family of G-Shocks, which by the time of the model’s 40th anniversary in 2023 would include both digital and analog-digital models as well as a variety of high-tech case materials. In 2019, the G-Shock family tree added a branch that made fans of a certain type of high-end sport-luxury timepiece stand up and take notice - namely the so-called “CasiOak” models (below), whose roots, it could be argued, reach back not only farther than the first G-Shock but even farther than the Casiotron. Why "CasiOak?" It was a Swiss luxury watch, as groundbreaking in its own way as the G-Shock, that ultimately paved the w...
Quill & Pad
Tamim Almousa explains with a bit of satire how it’s impossible to be a good Muslim without being modest and humble. Wearing a gold watch goes against these virtues. It’s less the material itself and more the Glengarry Glen Ross statement it makes: See this watch? How obnoxious. But that's a rule he is happy to break for a few special watches.
Fratello
A little less than a month ago, we saw the introduction of the Longines Spirit Zulu Time 1925. The watch commemorates 100 years of Longines dual-time watches in a rather bold fashion. Its rose-gold-capped bezel and matching gold dial details set it apart from any other Spirit Zulu Time. I was immediately intrigued by this […] Visit Hands-On With The Longines Spirit Zulu Time 1925 - Two-Tone For Those Who Don’t Like Two-Tone to read the full article.
SJX Watches
SJX recently visited Vacheron Constantin and sat down with Christian Selmoni, style and heritage director, and head of speciality watchmaking, Jean-Marie Bouquin, to discuss the Les Cabinotiers Solaria Ultra Grand Complication, the most complicated wristwatch yet made. Mr Bouquin led the development of Solaria, and assembled it, creating a wristwatch that’s a worthy follow-up to the most complicated portable timepiece ever, the Berkley Grand Complication that was launched just last year. That in turn broke the record set by Vacheron Constantin in 2015 with the ref. 57260 “Tivoli”. They discussed the intricacies and innovation in the Solaria, including its modular “plug and play” perpetual calendar, and the implications for future Les Cabinotiers projects, as well as the novel star-tracking chronograph, and the benefits of using silicon for the spokes of the balance wheel. They also touched on the absence of a grande et petite sonnerie.
In the world of military-issued watches, some models are legendary. Others are ghost stories-rare prototypes whispered about among collectors, their existence confirmed only through archival fragments or the occasional sighting in the wild. The Bulova MIL-SHIPS-W-2181 falls somewhere between the two, and for the first time in decades, one of the few surviving examples is surfacing in public-on the block at Sotheby’s, no less. A Mission-Critical Beginning To understand why this watch matters, you need to rewind to 1955. Amid Cold War tensions and escalating naval operations, the U.S. Navy sought a robust dive watch for its elite underwater teams-specifically, the Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT) and Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) units, the forebears of modern Navy SEALs. The specifications they drafted, known as MIL-SHIPS-W-2181, called for something no commercial watch at the time quite delivered: water resistance beyond 400 feet, excellent night visibility, a highly legible dial, and a locking, unidirectional bezel. The post How Bulova’s MIL-SHIPS Went from Top Secret to Top Shelf appeared first on Worn & Wound.
Quill & Pad
The Omega Planet Ocean launched in 2005, and in less than 20 years has gained an iconic status. Raman Kalra takes a deep dive into the Omega Planet Ocean.
Fratello
I have had the pleasure of meeting Josh Shapiro, owner of the eponymously named J.N. Shapiro Watches, several times. Hailing from Los Angeles, he has a wealth of knowledge about watchmaking history, movements, and finishing techniques. Until now, he has focused on exclusive and expensive watches with prices over $75,000 and wait times of nearly […] Visit Introducing: The New J.N. Shapiro Infinity Series Pure to read the full article.
SJX Watches
J.N. Shapiro’s Infinity Series Pure is a new entry point into the American brand. This follows the top-of-the-line Resurgence, the most American-made mechanical wristwatch built since Hamilton shut down in the 1960s. This new model focuses purely on the dial and hands, which are excellent, while trusting Swiss suppliers with ancillary details like the case and caliber. The result is a much more accessible, though less impressive, watch than J.N. Shapiro’s usual fare. Initial Thoughts When the original Infinity line was discontinued in 2023, it left the brand without an entry-level watch, and the company put all of its efforts behind the ambitious Resurgence project. Now that things have settled down, the team once again has the bandwidth to support a second model. The Infinity Series Pure uses an off-the-shelf La Joux-Perret (LJP) movement. While a good, slim movement with an extended power reserve, the LJP F200/7380 isn’t particularly premium, and a downgrade from the UWD cal. 33.1 used in previous infinity models. For example, Ralph Lauren uses the LJP movement in its Vintage 67 line priced at around US$3,000. The case is also outsourced, likely to a Swiss manufacturer, through the Alternative Horological Alliance (AHA), a consortium of independent brands that J.N. Shapiro helped found. This focuses all of Shapiro’s attention on the dial and hands, though both are significantly less complex than on the Resurgence. At US$26,000 the Infinity Series Pure is about a ...
Monochrome
For a retro-styled chronograph, the beauty lies in mechanical and historical details. With the new Chronographe Télémètre, Angelus again reaches into its storied archives to recreate the past and distil its essence into a remarkably fresh and undeniably refined timepiece. The latest addition to the La Fabrique collection, the Chronographe Télémètre debuts in three variations: […]
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