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Results for Swiss vs Japanese Watchmaking

4,409 articles · 663 videos found · page 90 of 170

Seiko SKX007 Review Teddy Baldassarre
Seiko May 15, 2025

Seiko SKX007 Review

We never really know how – or when – it happens, but some watches manage to achieve an iconic status that gives them a certain immortality long after discontinuation. We know the types, from the Speedmaster to the Submariner to the Royal Oak. But not all icons are pricey and they’re certainly not all Swiss. Enter the Seiko SKX007, a watch without a nickname, whose reference number is as recognizable as any of the aforementioned icons I just listed. The SKX, as we call it shorthand, is the value king in all of horology because of its capability from top to bottom, literally. Today we are going to be examining the SKX007, a watch that Seiko has since moved on from and never truly replaced. We will look at it at face value (as well as current secondary market value), for the watch’s impact on collector culture, and for its staying power even in the face of no longer remaining in production. Seiko SKX007 History And Specs In order to properly contextualize the SKX007, we must go back in time to the 1970s, when Seiko made its first impactful dive watch. Notice how I say "impactful," as the lot of you ready yourselves to remind me not to discount the 62MAS. For the record, I am not – at least not entirely. The 62MAS has proven to be a classic for Seiko, but the diver that really put the brand on the map in terms of culturally relevant tool watches was the Ref. 6105 which was worn by Martin Sheen in the film Apocalypse Now. It has since gone on to take the name of his c...

Introducing – The New Ice Blue Kurono Tokyo 2025 Jubilee Sensu EOL Monochrome
Kurono Tokyo 2025 Jubilee Sensu EOL May 14, 2025

Introducing – The New Ice Blue Kurono Tokyo 2025 Jubilee Sensu EOL

After several years of covering this independent Japanese watch brand, you should now be familiar with Kurono Tokyo‘s work. And if not, what matters here is that we’re looking at the accessible side of independent watchmaker Hajime Asaoka (also behind the return of Takano), with classic designs and outsourced movements to keep the prices reasonable. […]

Introducing – The New Vacheron Constantin Overseas Grand Complication Openface Monochrome
Vacheron Constantin Overseas Grand Complication Openface May 13, 2025

Introducing – The New Vacheron Constantin Overseas Grand Complication Openface

Long considered the domain of delicate watches, grandes complications (in the more extensive use of the term, and not the traditional definition of the grande complication – repeater + chrono + calendar) have found their way into collections designed for adventure. The incorporation of complications reflects a broader change in watchmaking, where tradition is no […]

Introducing – The Impressive Hublot MP-10 Tourbillon Returns in Black Ceramic and Sapphire Crystal Cases Monochrome
Hublot MP-10 Tourbillon Returns May 12, 2025

Introducing – The Impressive Hublot MP-10 Tourbillon Returns in Black Ceramic and Sapphire Crystal Cases

Hublot has never shown a reverence for conservative watchmaking. Starting with its explosively named Big Bang collection, Hublot revels in innovative material combinations and loud, audacious designs. However, when it comes to showing off its horological muscles, Hublot’s Masterpiece suite is where you’ll find the most technically complex models. Last year, Hublot inducted another Masterpiece […]

Hands-On: The New Nivada Grenchen Chronosport Blue Fratello
Nivada Grenchen Chronosport Blue Spring started May 11, 2025

Hands-On: The New Nivada Grenchen Chronosport Blue

Spring started strong for Nivada. The Swiss watch brand released two new models in its Chronosport line, expanding it to five watches. We were lucky enough to try both the automatic and the mecaquartz versions. In this review, I’ll go hands-on with the former, namely, the Chronosport Blue. But before we get into that, let […] Visit Hands-On: The New Nivada Grenchen Chronosport Blue to read the full article.

Introducing: The Oris Aquis Date Taste Of Summer Capsule Collection - It’s Hot And Happening In Hölstein Fratello
Oris Aquis Date Taste May 10, 2025

Introducing: The Oris Aquis Date Taste Of Summer Capsule Collection - It’s Hot And Happening In Hölstein

Have you ever thought about summering in Hölstein? After seeing the Oris Aquis Date Taste of Summer Capsule Collection, you might want to consider it. The colors of the Swiss town in the warmest months of the year inspired the dials of these watches. One version shows a gradient sunrise-like red-pink dial, while the other […] Visit Introducing: The Oris Aquis Date Taste Of Summer Capsule Collection - It’s Hot And Happening In Hölstein to read the full article.

This is the Company Quietly Making the Rubber Straps for Nearly Every Brand in the Industry Worn & Wound
Blancpain May 8, 2025

This is the Company Quietly Making the Rubber Straps for Nearly Every Brand in the Industry

Rubber straps are relatively new in the centuries-old history of wristwatches, and their widespread popularity is even more recent. Like many elements of watchmaking, rubber straps first came into use for a specific utilitarian purpose, and now-in a world that no longer needs watches as practical tools-rubber straps no longer need to be purely functional. They can simply be a fashion statement.  The first rubber straps appeared in the 1960s throughout the catalogs of brands like Rolex, Tudor, IWC, and Blancpain. Fittingly, these rubber straps were perfect for sport models like dive watches thanks to their lightweight build, durability, and resistance to the elements. Still, it would be another three decades before the rubber strap would transform from an occasional companion for a tool watch to a prominent bracelet material seen across styles and brands at all price points.  Hublot was at the forefront of shifting the perception and prevalence of the rubber strap. In 1980, the brand debuted the material in its catalog in a surprising way. The Classic Original (later revived as the Classic Fusion) featured Hublot’s signature porthole shaped case rendered in polished and brushed gold, complete with a black rubber strap, perfectly complementing the model’s black dial. The watch was not only the brand’s first to showcase a rubber strap but also the first luxury wristwatch ever to combine a rubber strap with a precious metal case as opposed to stainless steel. The d...

Just Because – The Colliding Worlds of Cars & Watches with The Horology Club Europe and Le Carage Monochrome
May 8, 2025

Just Because – The Colliding Worlds of Cars & Watches with The Horology Club Europe and Le Carage

The rise of interest in watches has sparked many exciting initiatives to share the passion and knowledge for watches and related fields of interest. One such initiative is a watch club, whether online or physical. Like-minded people connect over watchmaking in general, specific brands, or even specific watches, which is nothing new, and it’s an […]

Collective Horology’s Open House LA Event Is Back For 2025 Fratello
May 8, 2025

Collective Horology’s Open House LA Event Is Back For 2025

If you’re in Los Angeles or just looking for an excuse to be, make sure Saturday, June 7th, is on your radar. That’s when Collective Horology’s Open House returns for its second year. If you’ve got even a passing interest in independent watchmaking, this is the kind of event you’ll want to check out, especially […] Visit Collective Horology’s Open House LA Event Is Back For 2025 to read the full article.

Oris ProPilot X Review Teddy Baldassarre
Oris May 7, 2025

Oris ProPilot X Review

Oris made its first watch for aviators, the original Big Crown, way back in 1938, and has been riffing on that ingenious and influential design ever since. Defined by its large, fluted winding crown, designed to be easy for gripping by hands in heavy pilot’s gloves, the modern Big Crown series - now hosting both the sporty ProPilot and the more elegant Pointer Date versions - has become a major pillar in the independent Swiss brand’s portfolio. In 2020, Oris launched Caliber 400, the first in-house automatic movement it had made in its long history, and debuted it inside a watch from its popular Aquis diver collection, following that model up with a Caliber 400 version of its other divers’ model, the retro-styled Divers 65. In 2022, Oris finally arranged a marriage of its oldest watch model - well, a descendant of it, anyway - with its newest exclusive movement, introducing the first ProPilot X Caliber 400 models. Now available in a variety of avant-garde colorways, these siblings to the larger, Sellita-equipped ProPilot Date models (example below) offer a marked contrast with their predecessors while still carrying the banner of the overall series. Here is what you should know about the ProPilot X, where it came from, and what Oris has been doing with it lately. The Brand History: Paul Cattin and Georges Christian founded Oris in 1904, in Hölstein, Switzerland, naming the company after a nearby brook. A maker of pocket watches and, by 1925, the increasingly...

Introducing – The New Ulysse Nardin Diver Hammerhead Shark Limited Edition Monochrome
Ulysse Nardin Diver Hammerhead Shark Limited May 7, 2025

Introducing – The New Ulysse Nardin Diver Hammerhead Shark Limited Edition

Few brands are as deeply embedded in maritime chronometry as Ulysse Nardin. With nearly 180 years of watchmaking heritage, the brand’s ties to all things nautical find expression in the more classical Marine collection and the brazenly contemporary Diver family. Following the 2018 relaunch of the Diver Chronometer 44mm series and a series of Diver […]

Introducing the Squale Corallo NOS 2008, Featuring a New Old Stock Case from the Archives Worn & Wound
Squale May 6, 2025

Introducing the Squale Corallo NOS 2008, Featuring a New Old Stock Case from the Archives

These days, it seems like every watchmaker is getting back to their roots and releasing redesigns or homages to past hits. I won’t speculate on what this means for the world psyche at the moment, but it has certainly produced a few discussion worthy pieces, whether controversial, widely popular, and everywhere in between. Swiss dive watch specialist Squale is capitalizing on the nostalgia boom with the Corallo NOS 2008. While the Corallo isn’t a rehash of a specific model for the brand-originally founded in 1959 as a case maker for other brands and known for their extreme divers and tool watches-it is a callback to designs of that decade, both from Squale and the watch world as a whole, and revives their “Corallo” case style from the decade, as they rediscovered 300 new old stock (or NOS) examples of the case in their archives three years ago. The name means “coral” in Italian, supposedly chosen for the eight rounded humps that form the bezel of the watch, giving it a shape reminiscent of the aquatic life form. I can’t see the resemblance, but I do like the silhouette that the humps give the watch, imbuing it with a symmetry that feels aggressively tactical, and makes sense for extreme diving applications; a gloved hand underwater will have no problem gripping the bezel with the namesake protrusions. The Corallo measures in at 36.8mm in diameter, 10.5mm in thickness, and 44mm lug-to-lug, and the 316L stainless steel case itself is a blend of the original ...

Tudor Adds a Limited Edition Carbon Chrono to the Black Bay Chronograph Lineup Worn & Wound
TAG Heuer whose parent company LVMH May 5, 2025

Tudor Adds a Limited Edition Carbon Chrono to the Black Bay Chronograph Lineup

We haven’t remarked on it all that much to this point, but one of the inescapable trends at Watches & Wonders this year was a prevalence of F1 cars making appearances around the Palexpo. If you scheduled your meetings in a particular way, you could easily be convinced that every Swiss watch brand has some level of involvement with the sport. IWC, of course, is just beginning to promote F1, the highly anticipated new film starring Brad Pitt that is said to feature many, many IWC watches. And then there’s TAG Heuer, whose parent company LVMH secured a lucrative deal with Formula 1 in the off season, and returned TAG to official timekeeper status. Both of these brands had actual cars in their booths, and they drew a crowd all week. Then there’s H. Moser, a sponsor of the Alpine team, and finally (please get in the comments if I’ve missed one) there’s Tudor, a partner of the Visa Cash App Racing Bulls Formula One Team, who took this weekend’s Miami GP as an opportunity to release their latest racing themed watch, the Black Bay Chrono Carbon 25.  The limited edition (2,025 numbered examples) chronograph is modeled on the Black Bay Chronograph, a watch that has seen its share of special editions in the last few years, mostly by way of colored dials. This watch is a little different as it represents an all new case material for the Black Bay Chrono, making use of Tudor’s carbon fiber composite material (the caseback, pushers, and crown are all rendered in titanium ...

Introducing – The New Kudoke 5, with a 24h Rotating Celestial Disc Monochrome
May 2, 2025

Introducing – The New Kudoke 5, with a 24h Rotating Celestial Disc

Independent watchmaking continues to thrive with imaginative creations, and Stefan Kudoke remains a standout name to watch. His HANDwerk collection, launched in 2019, established his reputation for blending mechanical finesse with artistic expression. The Kudoke 1 and Kudoke 2 exemplified this fusion beautifully. With the Kudoke 3, he pushed the design further, retaining his signature […]

Record Breaking Konstantin Chaykin ThinKing Debuts at Auction SJX Watches
Patek Philippe Calibre 89 ref 989J May 2, 2025

Record Breaking Konstantin Chaykin ThinKing Debuts at Auction

If you want to own the world’s thinnest mechanical watch, the Konstantin Chaykin ThinKing, you’ll have to fight for it at The Geneva Watch Auction: XXI, which will see the first production example go under the hammer. The 1.65 mm stature of the ThinKing is even more impressive coming from a small Russian independent watchmaker, considering previous records were set by big Swiss brands ranging from Piaget to Richard Mille. Notably, this is not the first time a landmark release has been trusted to an auction that isn’t linked to a charity. The most famous example of this was the Patek Philippe Calibre 89 (ref. 989J) back in 1989 at Antiquorum’s thematic sale. The ThinKing will be sold in the first session of the auction, which starts on May 10, 2025, at 2 pm. The ThinKing in profile. Image – Phillips Mr Chaykin achieved the record-setting height with clever construction, including a “double balance wheel” system that places an intermediate wheel between the balance and escapement, allowing both to sit on the same plane. Another notable technical feature is a barrel that is open on both sides, and no thicker than the mainspring itself. And unlike most serially-produced Konstantin Chaykin watches, each ThinKing is made, finished, and assembled by Mr Chaykin himself. Wearability is enhanced by the bolt-on protective shroud in titanium christened “PalanKing”. This increases the height to 5.4 mm, but adds key-less setting and winding, and automatic winding by a...

In-Depth: Hidden Innovation in the Urwerk UR-150 “Scorpion” SJX Watches
Urwerk UR-150 “Scorpion” Urwerk May 2, 2025

In-Depth: Hidden Innovation in the Urwerk UR-150 “Scorpion”

Urwerk is universally known for its unique approach to time-telling, usually marrying the classic concept of wandering hours with avant-garde styling and reinvented mechanics. The brand’s signature brand of watchmaking is exemplified by the UR-150 “Scorpion”, which demonstrates the brand’s ability to reinvent the wheel in displaying the time. The UR-150 is a time-only watch, showing just the hours and minutes, but with a technical execution that is sophisticated and elaborate. Nicknamed “Scorpion” due to its crisp retrograde hour hand that brings to mind the desert creature’s swift sting, the UR-150 features a central carousel that creeps slowly over the course of one hour, only for the hour hand to snap back and reset with a lively action at the top of each hour. The concept of satellite and retrograde hours is not new to Urwerk – in fact the idea dates back to the Opus V – but in the UR-150 the mechanics underlying the time display have been refined, upgraded, and elaborated upon. Dissecting the time display module of the UR-150 is a fascinating process that speaks to the talent of the watchmakers and constructors at Urwerk who conceived these radical time displays. The mechanics are inventive, especially in the interconnected nature of the various sub-assemblies ranging from the retrograde to the satellite discs. The construction also incorporates finer engineering details like main shaft that supports two concentric but independent axes of the carrier...