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In Ken Gargett’s opinion, Billecart-Salmon’s Cuvee Nicolas François is a great champagne, whatever the vintage, but from 2008, it is transcendent. The champagne is of a gleaming appearance, like cut crystal. One sniff and it is obvious we are dealing with something that is wonderfully complex, elegant, still fresh and impeccably balanced.
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Like a proper gentleman, Hollywood legend Clark Gable paired wristwatches to go with his outfits both on and off screen. Gable had a gold Rolex Oyster Perpetual Reference 6011 and also wore a Patek Philippe Reference 1526 Perpetual Calendar, prominently seen in ‘Soldier of Fortune’ as Nick Gould highlights here.
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The MB&F; HM11 earns its name Architect by the inspiration for its case design. Its inspiration comes from 1960s architecture, and one could imagine seeing this shape, enlarged to life-size, as a comfortable home overseeing the Mediterranean.
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Bhanu Chopra picked up his unique piece Kudoke Flieger Concept from Stefan and Ev Kudoke over lunch at their favorite steakhouse in Dresden, Germany. Here he describes how and why he fell in love with this unique one-off timepiece and what makes Kudoke's watches so special in general.
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Seriously, let’s face it, criminals are flippin’ stupid! Here are six reasons why stealing watches is a really bad idea (aside from the obvious) and those who try probably won’t get away with it anyway.
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For a Greubel Forsey, the Balancier 3 looks like a mid-size watch with a diameter of 41.5mm. Martin Green takes a closer look.
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The Urwerk UR-112 Aggregat is a fantastic new mechanical smorgasbord introducing an evolution of the boutique brand’s developments combined together, hence the German name Aggregat ("aggregate"). Since seeing the movement in the summer of 2021 Joshua Munchow had been very much looking forward to its launch. He wasn't disappointed.
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Watch straps and buckles (both pin and folding) are the nearly ideal way to fit your watch to your wrist, but they have an inherent drawback: the standard holes in the strap are 8 mm apart, so unless you are very lucky you have to select a hole that either makes the strap too tight or too loose. The perfect answer is either paying for a custom strap and hoping that your wrist size doesn't change or a Roland Iten RWC09 adjustable buckle.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger recently flew into Munich Airport en route to his native Austria with a Audemars Piguet watch that he planned to auction at a charity gala for organized by his climate foundation. However, he didn’t declare the watch to customs officials - ouch!
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In GaryG's 30 years of “serious” participation in the watch hobby, he has met few, if any, more interesting individuals than William Massena Rohr, founder and leader of Massena Lab, and Luca Soprana, an independent complications specialist. Here, Gary reviews (and photographs) the Old School watch collaboration between Soprana and Massena Lab.
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George Cramer looks across more than one hundred years of evolution of what may well be called the world's first pilot's wristwatch: the Cartier Santos-Dumont.
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The Schwarz-Etienne Roma Synergy by Kari Voutilainen for Oster Jewelers. has a design as sharp as the name is exhausting. Two variations - both steel - exist in the form of eight 39mm examples and eight in 42mm.
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Having relocated to Deeside, Scotland, Colin Alexander Smith fulfilled a lifelong ambition of fly fishing on local rivers and fisheries. For some insights into fly fishing in Scotland, he talked to Alastair Peake who, with his twin brother Will, runs the aptly named Twin Peakes Fly Fishing.
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Which Rolex models will be most sought after by collectors in the future? That’s not a trick question. And Watchbox’s director of media Tim Mosso and global head of trading Mike Manjos are here to answer it for you in the second episode of Watchbox’s new video series “Around the Crown,” which is dedicated to future classics from the Rolex catalog.
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When GaryG recently took a good look at the current state of his watch collection, he was surprised by the large proportion of dark-dialed pieces in the mix. He has enjoyed – and photographed – each of three of these watches a great deal, but it isn’t until recently that he pulled them together in one place for side-by-side shooting and direct comparison. The results (and the watches) are simply stunning.
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The Arnold & Son True Beat Tourbillon Escapement (TBTE) embodies two of the Swiss watch industry’s greatest talents: craftsmanship and AstroTurf. Beautifully built but tenuously tied to an historical dead guy, the True Beat is a triumph on substance. With essentially no history but outstanding modern credentials, this tourbillon proves that talent alone can yield a great watch.
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Quentin R. Bufogle could go on and on about the Zenith Chronomaster Tribute to Charles Vermot’s stunningly beautiful, metallic blue dial, silicon escapement (visible via the open heart feature), COSC chronometer certification and that it’s one of the last truly great Chronomasters, but that would be missing the point, i.e. how Charles Vermot saved Zenith.
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In the annals of A. Lange & Söhne history, the Double Split was one of the most widely celebrated releases. It introduced the idea of a split-second and split-minute chronograph allowing the wearer to time at least two events lasting up to an hour. The Triple Split is the inevitable progression of it, adding a split-hour function to allow timing two multi-hour events up to 12 hours.
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In no particular order, here are 15 watches from 2023 that Ian Skellern would love to own (if somebody else was paying) and one that he hopes to buy for himself.
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While the original L.U.C 1860, with caliber 1.96, was spot on for the era, the current L.U.C 1860 in Lucent steel is just that again. It shows once more that trends come and go, but circle.
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Are there special vintage watch dial variations named after notable women in a vein similar to that of the Paul Newman Rolex Daytona? Nick Gould was wondering just that and researched. Finding a photo of Vanessa Redgrave wearing a Rolex Submariner Reference 5513 with "Explorer" dial in 1966, he ruefully opines that this rare model would sound so much cooler as the Rolex "Vanessa Redgrave" Submariner rather than what collectors call it now: Rolex Reference 5513 Submariner with Explorer dial.
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Topside, Montblanc’s 43.5mm Vintage Chronograph sets the stage for its marvelous mechanism within. A mother-of-pearl crown insert confirms that this watch is an image-builder for the larger house of Meisterstück.
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When the Omega Specialties CK 859 launched in the spring of 2022, it flew a bit under the radar as other releases were still garnering a lot of the press (fairly typical for spring in Switzerland). But it quickly picked up steam as people realized what a little gem this watch was, and it became a star in the eyes of fans of sector-dialed watches.
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Happy New Year to all and many thanks for your support and comments throughout 2023. Before we head off into 2024, and the chaos that it promises, a few ‘Best Of’ selections from the past 12 months.
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London, one day in the not-too-distant future, the final board meeting of the Lux Timepieces III Fund had been a stormy one. Principal investor Igor Abramovich had flounced out after throwing his Roger W Smith Series 1 on the boardroom table, where it shattered into dozens of meticulously handmade pieces . . . hang on to your hats because this is a wild and laugh-out-loud ride!
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As the resident gentleman of Quill & Pad, I feel that the time is soon approaching to write an obituary announcing the death of the dress watch. It is not that we didn't see this coming, nor is it an isolated event, but it still hurts.
Quill & Pad
There is one wine book that every wine lover, from the most recent beginner to seasoned professional, simply must have. ‘The Oxford Companion to Wine’, edited by Jancis Robinson MW. The first edition came out almost thirty years ago. There was nothing like it. Still isn’t.
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In Martin Green's opinion, the Tudor Ranger has a timeless quality that some might look upon as being too plain but has a deeper charisma that reveals itself over time. At 39mm, the Ranger is neither too large or too small. And he looks at if it's a better deal than the Rolex Explorer.
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Alex has been a serious watch collector for decades, but it's only in the last few years that he has focused his attention to independent watchmakers. Here he shares the story of his collecting journey and why he bought a Vincent Deprez Tourbillon Classique Souscription Edition
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To mark the sixtieth anniversary of the Autavia wristwatch, TAG Heuer is rolling out two executions of an automatic flyback chronograph, a textbook example of how to transform historic looks into contemporary classics: the Autavia Chronometer Flyback.
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