Chronograph Watches · Page 33

Hands On: Hublot Big Bang Unico in Mint Green Ceramic

One of the year’s best summer watches, the Hublot Big Bang Unico Mint Green Ceramic is a fresh interpretation of the brand’s signature collection. Housed in a 42 mm case clad in candy-like, mint green ceramic, the Big Bang Unico features Hublot’s top-of-the-line HUB1280 flyback chronograph movement with an unusual, dial-side integrated construction. While technically identical to other ceramic Big Bang watches, the new mint green colour is unusually fun and approachable. This new edition of the Big Bang joins the permanent collection, and extends the brand’s industry-leading range of coloured ceramic watches. Initial thoughts Hublot is a brand that tends to elicit visceral polarisation among collectors, and it’s easy to see why. The bold designs are seen as outrageous by some, and the pricing puts them out of reach for those focused on maximising their horological dollar. But Hublot has outgrown its early reputation as a Royal Oak imitator and found its own identity, in part through its leadership in ceramics and willingness to experiment with design and colour. In this case, the mint green colour looks great, and considering the glossy finish, it looks almost like candy. This gives the watch a friendly countenance that results in an amusing tension with the overtly masculine, technical structure of the case and design of the dial, with its stencil-like hour markers. The Big Bang collection is all about its signature architectural case, and the mint green editio...

Bring a Loupe: A Lange Double Split, A Heuer Camaro, And An Early Jaeger Chronograph

All that and more in this week's edition of Hodinkee's What's Selling Where column.

Hands-on – The Dashing Retro Allure of the Eberhard & Co. Chronographe 1887 Édition Limitée

Founded by Georges Eberhard in 1887 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Eberhard & Co. had established itself as a purveyor of innovative, technically advanced chronographs by 1919. Although the independent brand is well-known among Italian collectors, and its Chrono 4 model, with four separate counters inspired by the dashboard of race cars, might resonate with some readers, […]

Sunday Morning Showdown: Omega Speedmaster Calibre 321 Vs. Rolex Cosmograph Daytona

It’s Sunday, so it’s time to wake up with a nice cup of coffee and another Sunday Morning Showdown. This week, Mike and Jorg picked two absolute heavy hitters to face off in this battle of stainless steel chronographs. Mike picked the current Rolex Cosmograph Daytona ref. 126500LN, while Jorg picked the Omega Speedmaster Calibre […] Visit Sunday Morning Showdown: Omega Speedmaster Calibre 321 Vs. Rolex Cosmograph Daytona to read the full article.

Watches, Stories, and Gear: Splashdown With Tudor, Yashica’s City 300 and The OGR2

“Watches, Stories, and Gear” is a roundup of our favorite content, watch or otherwise, from around the internet. Here, we support other creators, explore interesting content that inspires us, and put a spotlight on causes we believe in. Oh, and any gear we happen to be digging on this week. We love gear. SPLASHDOWN While you might know the story of how the Omega Speedmaster became the official Moonwatch, you might know the story of Navy-UDT Frogman who were tasked with safely recovering astronauts as they returned to Earth. Just as the astronauts relied upon their speedmasters,  the UDT Frogmen had their own piece of critical time keeping kit: the Tudor Submariner 7928. While these divers would preform critical roles in supporting Nasa’s splashdown recovery program, their story remained largely untold, until now. On Thursday, June 24th, Tudor unveiled a short film dedicated to these men, aptly titled “Splashdown: The Little-Known Story of Navy Frogmen and the Space Program”.  Featuring members of the team, their family, and even Jack Carr, the short film can be watched on Tudor’s website alongside various historical images. Little Camera, Big Punch Yashica, a Japanese camera company, has announced their newest compact camera, the City 300.  Similar in size to a point-and-shoot camera or the Ricoh family of cameras, the new City 300 combines a 50MP sensor, a fast F/1.8 lens, and what appears to be a flip/tilt screen; all for an estimated US retail price of $4...

Hands-On: the Aera M-1 Blackbird

Is it too late to dub the summer of 2025 “Black Watch Summer”? That might be how I remember this particular season. The watch I’ve worn most, by far, as the temps have soared is my Ming 37.09 “Uni,” a blacked out void of a watch if ever there was one. And a few weeks ago at Windup I purchased my first vintage watch in ages, a DLC coated Favre-Leuba chronograph that I couldn’t pass on. And now, as we’re fully in the dog days, I sit here with the new Aera Instruments M-1 Blackbird on my wrist, another cool, sleek, blacked out watch that bolsters the notion that Aera is one of the most interesting accessible indies of the moment.  I reviewed Aera’s D-1 dive watch a few years ago, and the tone of that review was one of pleasant surprise. At the time, the brand was in the midst of launching their second collection, and from the photos and press materials I had seen, I was struggling to make sense of why this brand needed to exist. That might seem like a harsh standard, but we live in a period where it’s incredibly easy to churn out incredibly generic sports watches for minimal money and talent that absolutely no one needs. The whole point of this website, as I see it, is to find the stuff that has a real reason to be made because it offers something different. So I was surprised to find that the D-1 subverted my expectations by flipping the idea of a dive watch on its head. It kind of looks like a generic dive watch at a glance, but every single detail is act...

First Look – The Montblanc 1858 Unveiled Minerva Chronograph, A Warm New Face for Minerva’s Reversed Marvel

Minerva, founded as H. & C. Robert in 1858 in the Swiss Jura village of Villeret and renamed Minerva SA in 1929, remains one of the great guardians of traditional chronograph craftsmanship. Its first chronograph movement, the Calibre 19-9, debuted in 1908, and for over 165 years, its workshops have produced some of the finest […]

Hands-On: The Albishorn Type 10 Classic – An Imaginary Vintage Pilot's Watch That Finally Exists

What came before the vintage Type XX Pilots' Chronographs? Nothing, really. But if you imagine hard enough, it could have been this.

Opinion: The Culture of the Royal Oak Has Overshadowed the Watch Itself

I can remember the exact moment I realized that Audemars Piguet was not the brand for me: I was listening to an episode of Hodinkee Radio in early 2019 featuring an interview with then current AP CEO François-Henry Bennahmias during which he boasted that he does not read books. For whatever skills Bennahmias has as an executive, and whatever objectively nice qualities come through in the watches made under his tenure with the brand, something about this statement immediately turned me off. In the parlance of 2025, you’d say it gave me “the ick.”  Over the last few years, I’ve thought about this moment a lot as integrated bracelet sports watch mania has waxed and waned, and my own taste has solidified somewhat. Back in 2019, my exposure to Royal Oaks was fairly limited. I basically knew what watch media and the burgeoning watch collector’s scene on Instagram told me. And the narrative, by and large, was that these were the crème de la crème of the high end, a watch that every collector should strive to own. In those days, it really was that simple: there were a handful of watches from big brands that seemed to be on everyone’s hit list at one time or another. The Submariner, the Speedmaster, the Royal Oak. It was drilled into my head, and all of our heads, that watches like this – the icons – were worthy of our universal devotion.  I eventually owned both a Speedmaster and a Submariner. Both of which, I’d eventually realize, were not for me for a vari...

Hands-On With The Cool Retro TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph Stopwatch

In recent times, TAG Heuer has done a great job of balancing modern-looking Monaco releases with others that tell the great racing stories from the past. By doing so, the brand caters to a varied audience. I lean heavily into the Monaco’s historical side because that’s where I find the romance of this classic. So […] Visit Hands-On With The Cool Retro TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph Stopwatch to read the full article.

IWC’s Latest Pilot’s Chronograph Introduces A Summery ‘Miramar’ Blue

Introducing: The Porsche Design Chronograph 1 – 1975 Limited Edition (Live Pics)

A titanium homage to F.A. Porsche's cleanest Chronograph 1 design - now available without a required car purchase.

Porsche Design Bares it All With their Latest Limited Edition

Back in April, Porsche Design quietly hosted an event that gave the press the opportunity to go hands-on with a selection of current offerings and upcoming launches across its merchandise, sunglasses, luggage, and, of course, watch collections. This was a rare opportunity given that, apart from occasional meetups or the secondary market, there has been no simple way to physically put your hands on a Porsche Design watch. That is until now, as Porsche Design has announced a new retail partnership with Watches of Switzerland, allowing enthusiasts to shop the collection physically. Alongside that announcement, and perhaps more pertinent to our readers, Porsche Design has debuted a new Chronograph 1 1975 Limited Edition model that I spent some hands-on time with at that earlier event.   Exactly 50 years ago, Porsche Design released an uncoated version of the original Chronograph, to which this model pays tribute. That model was meant to complement the all-black 1972 Chronograph 1 model, as this new version is intended to complement the modern all-black version that was released in commemoration back in 2022. One key change here, though, is in the chosen material. While the original 1975 uncoated Chronograph 1 was crafted in steel, this new version has been machined from titanium, still uncoated but bead blasted for finish. It will offer slightly warmer hues and a lighter weight-wearing experience than the original, but it will still deliver a similar vibe with a modern twist...

Porsche Design’s latest piece, the Chronograph 1 1975 Limited Edition, digs through the archives for a niche bit of inspiration

As stripped back as it gets for a Porsche Design Chronograph 1.The post Porsche Design’s latest piece, the Chronograph 1 1975 Limited Edition, digs through the archives for a niche bit of inspiration appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

Tudor Black Bay Chrono Review

The Tudor Black Bay Chrono hit the market, somewhat unexpectedly, in 2017, boldly elevating the already red-hot Black Bay collection into a new tier of horological prestige and marking the debut of a collaboration (again, rather unexpected) between Rolex-owned Tudor and its Swiss sport-watch competitor Breitling. Nearly a decade later, the model still represents the highest level of complication in Tudor’s 21st-Century lineup, and yet this Tudor chronograph also remains very manageable, as a subfamily, in terms of material, size, and colorway options - an area in which the larger Black Bay collection, some might argue, has gone a bit far in the opposite direction, now encompassing three distinctive iterations: original Black Bay, Black Bay 58, and Black Bay 54 (which we reviewed here), all touting different sizing and multiple colorways and materials. And this doesn’t even include the other “complicated” extension of the line, the Black Bay GMT, which recently debuted in the “58” sizing and which seems to unveil a new bicolor bezel or dial color every year since its 2018 debut. Originally called the Heritage Black Bay - as it was clearly an homage to vintage dive watches from Tudor’s watchmaking history, which began in 1946 - the OG Black Bay model traces its aesthetic roots to the Oyster Prince Submariner, released in 1954, one year after big brother Rolex rolled out its own much more famous Submariner watch. This original version, Ref. 7922, used the ...

A. Lange & Söhne Datograph Perpetual Tourbillon Reviewed by Tim Mosso: A Machine with Heart and Soul

The A. Lange & Söhne Datograph Perpetual Tourbillon lives up to its name. It has a date, a chronograph, a perpetual calendar, and a tourbillon. But it has more: this watch has character. Assigning human traits to a cold machine is a – romantic – fool’s errand, but it’s also irresistible in the presence of a masterpiece. A. Lange & Söhne’s warmest watch is more than a machine with a heartbeat. It has soul.

Introducing: The Limited-Edition IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Top Gun Miramar In Light Blue Ceramic

You have already seen the beige Mojave Desert, white Lake Tahoe, green Woodland, dark blue Oceana, and Jet Black fly by. Now it’s time for another Top Gun-inspired color. The IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Top Gun Miramar is a limited edition of 1,000 watches, each in a light blue ceramic case. The matte dial […] Visit Introducing: The Limited-Edition IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Top Gun Miramar In Light Blue Ceramic to read the full article.

Hands-On: The Rolex "Alcaraz" Daytona With Turquoise Lacquer Dial ref. 126518LN – Yet Another Watch I Wish I Could Pull Off

In our last hands-on of this year's Rolex Daytonas, we look at colorful dials and what makes a good nickname.

Unimatic Unveils Its New Diving Heritage Collection That Perfectly Captures Vintage Charm

It has been a while since we covered Unimatic, but that doesn’t mean the Milanese brand hasn’t been very active. On the contrary, Unimatic has recently released a few great collaborations. Among them were its first mechanical chronograph, created with Henry Singer, and a stellar blacked-out chronograph made in collaboration with US clothing brand Todd […] Visit Unimatic Unveils Its New Diving Heritage Collection That Perfectly Captures Vintage Charm to read the full article.

New: More summery colours for the IWC Pilot’s Chronograph TOP GUN Miramar

With two new references, the IWC TOP GUN Mirarmar collection is gearing up for the northern summer with a new blue shade developed by IWC and Pantone.

Introducing – The New Oris Divers Sixty-Five Chronograph 40mm in Ocean Green

Oris’ beloved Divers Sixty-Five series has been charming fans of laid-back, vintage-inspired dive watches for over a decade now. First revived in 2015 to celebrate the Hölstein-based brand’s iconic 1965 dive watch, this collection has since grown into a full family of neo-retro divers and sporty daily wearers, always blending mid-century charm with modern mechanics. […]

Introducing: IWC's TOP GUN Pilot's Chronographs Go Sky Blue With Two New 'Miramar' Models In Ceramic And Steel

Sky blue for TOP GUN. A match made in the heavens.

Hands-On: the Albishorn Type 10 Chronograph

I’ve reached the age where I regularly feel the temptation to say things along the lines of “back in the day…” This applies to various things, such as life without smartphones, dial-up modems, and Napster, among others, but occasionally, it also applies to watches. You see, it wasn’t that long ago that things were quite different. Dive watches were all north of 40mm, in-house movements were rare under $5k, microbrands were dismissed as a passing trend, and, most relevantly to this review, mechanical chronographs under a certain price were primarily powered by Valjoux 7750s or a close variant. With sub-dials at 12, 6, and 9, day-dates at three, two-pushers, cam-actuated, and always automatic, approachably priced mechanical chronographs were limited in their design options. Even 3, 6, 9 layouts were rare, powered by 7753s or ETA 2894s, and often limited to Swatch group brands. The point is that in 2025, it’s almost hard to imagine a world of such limited chronograph options. Today, thanks largely to Sellitta, 3, 9, and 3, 6, 9 layouts are typical (I actually miss 12, 6, 9 now), monopushers are no big deal, manual winding is an option, flybacks, GMTs, and even column-wheels are on the table. Simply put, it’s a good time to be a chronograph fan. Yet, even in this golden-age of chronographs (ok, that might be a stretch), there is room to stand out. Enter Albishorn, which launched in 2024 with a series of chronographs powered by a bespoke movement, based on a fun r...

IWC Debuts Pale Blue Ceramic with the “Top Gun” Miramar

IWC continues to grow its line of ceramic-cased pilot’s watches with the Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Top Gun Miramar (ref. IW389409). A limited edition of 1,000 pieces unlike most other ceramic models that are regular production, the Miramar joins the pilot’s watches with ceramic cases in white, dark green, dark blue, beige, and of course classic black. For someone who wants the same colour, but for half the price, IWC has also launched the Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 with a “Miramar blue” dial and stainless steel case (ref. IW388117) that’s regular production. Initial thoughts The IWC aviator’s watches with ceramic cases are generally appealing, the ceramic cases add a cool factor to an otherwise standard and functional design. But there are now a lot of them in multiple colours. The range of colours feels a little much, especially for a watch that meant to be rooted in aviation instruments. Because of the historical basis of IWC’s pilot’s watch line, the collection has always seemed a bit more serious minded, but the many colours run counter to that. That is, the Miramar itself is a likeable watch. The colour is unusual and fun while also being different. It brings to mind the fashionable shade of baby blue associated with Tiffany & Co., but is clearly different in being darker. And IWC’s build quality is always reliable; the cal. 69380 inside is an industrial workhorse found across the brand’s catalogue. The Miramar is also priced correctly, th...