Hodinkee
YouTuber Adrian Barker's first watch collab is with Christopher Ward, and it's a testament to the purpose-driven diver with a bit of MilSub inspiration for good measure.
Worn & Wound
Longines is a storied and well-respected Swiss watch manufacture that formed in 1832 and has continued uninterrupted to this day. From the first wrist chronometer in 1911, to groundbreaking flyback chronographs in the 1930s, to the world’s first hi-beat wrist chronometer in 1959, Longines holds their own in the watchmaking world. My favorite period for watches is the 1950s through the 1970s and Longines was one of the top accessible brands during that time. In 1954 Longines began a marketing strategy of product families, launching the Conquest line of watches. In 1957 they introduced the Flagship line, adding to what would become a large group of watch families, many of which are still made today. Other lines that came later include the Admiral, the Ultra-Chron and the Grand Prize. The Grand Prize line was named in honor of the multitude of watchmaking awards and honors that Longines had accumulated over the decades. It was a relatively short-lived family, produced from about 1958 to 1964 according to my research. I have found that the majority of Longines watches produced during these decades were all fairly equal in quality and craftsmanship, with most of the differences in the families being design related. The Conquests were rugged and sporty, on par with the early non-diver Omega Seamaster watches. The Flagship series were dress watches, while the Admiral line was a mixture of both. The Grand Prize family were pretty much all thin, elegant everyday type dressier w...
Worn & Wound
Few other watchmakers enjoyed as much success and cachet as Heuer, especially during the fervent 1960s and 1970s. Not only had it launched one of the world’s first automatic chronographs, but it pushed the envelope on modern design with midcentury-cool chronographs like the uniquely square Monaco. Heuer was riding high on the glamor of Grand Prix: the Heuer shield was as indelible to the backdrops of Monza and Le Mans as Ferrari, Porsche, and McLaren themselves as the official timekeeper of Formula One. But, inevitably, the quartz revolution came for Heuer. Jack Heuer was the third-generation CEO of the company that bore his name, and he had been a savvy marketer, personally hawking chronographs to drivers like Jo Siffert and Nikki Lauda. By the 1980s, however, he found himself backed into a corner, and in 1982, he was forced to sell the company to Piaget and Lemania-a humiliating low point in his life, as he recounted in his autobiography. Yet, before he departed, he gave Heuer one saving grace. In 1979, he commissioned Heuer’s first dive watch, the Professional Series. At a trade show Jack had overheard a brief conversation about the unreliability of existing dive watches, and he aimed to emulate Rolex’s success with the Submariner and Sea-Dweller. (Incidentally, Rolex owned half of Heuer’s stock market shares, and nearly took over the company around this time.) Photo by Blake Rong Heuer had spent the decade building an electronic timing division, which b...
Monochrome
Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak Offshore, also known as The Beast, muscled its way onto the scene in 1993 as a beefier and bolder version of its famous sibling, the Royal Oak. Drawing its inspiration and name (offshore) from the world of powerboat racing popular in the 1980s, the ROO family expanded, and in 2010 surfaced […]
Two Broke Watch Snobs
Timex refreshes its Deepwater Reef Titanium 200 with a new dial while keeping the same core specs and automatic movement.
Hodinkee
The Offshore Diver line is overhauled with three new colors, while the Offshore Chronograph in 43mm gets two new versions with one in the brand's latest blue ceramic.
Two Broke Watch Snobs
We did a hands-on comparison between the Casio Duro and Rolex Submariner on wearability, accuracy, water use, and long-term value.
Revolution
Fratello
What’s my favorite version of the Royal Oak Offshore after the illustrious “Beast”? This might surprise you, but I always thought the three-hand diver was a very good watch. The dial, free of cluttering sub-dials, and the crown that rotates the inner dive bezel on the side of the 42mm case looked cool, clean, and […] Visit A Wave Of Five New Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Variations Hits to read the full article.
SJX Watches
Today, Patek Philippe updated its website to include a slew of formerly off-catalogue haute joaillerie models. While none are revelations, all being well known, their presence in the catalogue reinforces the brand’s commitment to this segment, and reflects how mainstream, relatively speaking, this once-niche genre has become. This move can probably be traced back to Patek Philippe’s 2022 investment in Salanitro, the gemstone giant behind many high jewellery watches from Hublot to Audemars Piguet. Since then, the brand has placed increased emphasis on gem-set watches across its catalogue, such as the “Rainbow” Aquanaut minute repeaters the following year. In other words, it would seem the brand’s gem-setting capacity has matured enough to advertise these models. Long live the ref. 5711 Patek Philippe nominally discontinued the ref. 5711 in 2022, though its many off-catalogue variants escaped that fate. Since 2013, Patek Philippe has offered the platinum ref. 5711/1P-010 to its most important clients, while keeping it out of the official catalogue, but the model’s gem-set siblings are now officially part of the Patek Philippe lineup. The configuration of each of the four references is identical, with a gem-set bezel, baguette-cut hour markers, and a stone-matched centre seconds hand. The stones are approximately the same size across all four models, but the carat weight differs because of the density of the stones. As a result, the ref. 5711/110P-001 features 4.0...
Fratello
You’ve got to hand it to Papar Watch Co.; the young American brand certainly has a unique way of doing things. It all started with the radically brutalist Anillo GMT, and now the Cenote debuts. The Cenote Titanium + Blue and Rose Gold Titanium are dive watches with a design that builds on the angular, […] Visit Hands-On With The Angular Papar Cenote Titanium + Blue And Rose Gold Titanium to read the full article.
Fratello
Recently, I bought an Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean 600M with a 43.5mm all-brushed steel case and a sandblasted gunmetal-gray dial. This purchase came after the launch of the fully revamped Planet Ocean. With the fourth generation’s sharper facets, redesigned bracelet with polished center links, slimmer profile, and importantly, no helium escape valve (HEV) at the […] Visit Why I Bought A Third-Generation Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean 600M Over The New Version to read the full article.
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 Omega Seamaster DeVille First up this week we have a fresh and beautiful vintage Omega Seamaster DeVille dress watch. The 34mm yellow gold cap case is in nice shape, with classic 1960s slim lugs. The steel back has a nice, deeply engraved Hippocampus logo medallion. The case is a front-loading type, but this time the seller was kind enough to remove the movement so we can see that pink gold automatic caliber 563 beauty. The movement is clean and runs well per the seller. The serial number on the movement dates this one to 1967. The silver dial has an elegant linen finish to it, with gold stick markers and slim gold stick hands. There is of course a date window at 3 o’clock. The dial is super clean and looks original to me. The crown is correct for this model and signed with the Omega logo as it should. Even the acrylic crystal is signed with the Omega logo on the underside of the middle, which is always a huge plus. Great looking original vintage Seamaster DeVille dress watch. View auction here 1960s Wittnauer “Mystery Dial” Here is a spectacular vintage Wittnauer “mystery dial” watch. The mystery dial is a design where the minute hand is normal, but the hour hand ...
Teddy Baldassarre
Blancpain is the world’s most historic luxury watchmaker, with nearly 300 years of uninterrupted production. It’s also largely credited with establishing the blueprint of all modern diving watches with its Fifty Fathoms. The formula for the undeniably iconic collection has been largely unfussed with since it forever changed the watch world in 1953. But in recent years, we’ve seen the brand more willing to evolve with the times and expand its staple diver to be more wearable, and more appealing, so a broader scope of watch wearers. The most significant evidence of this change has been the introduction of the most scaled-down take on the line at 38.2mm last year, answering the call for more versatile sizing that many enthusiasts (especially those, like me, with smaller wrists) had been rallying for for years. Down below, I’m going to walk you through why this is such a big deal for this icon of watch history, the key details of the scaled-down Fifty-Fathoms, and some food for thought to keep in mind before trying it on yourself. [toc-section heading="History and Context"] Given that we have a complete guide to the Fifty Fathoms collection on our site already, I’m going to keep this section as quick and to the point as I can. I’m also going to hone in on the Automatique sub-collection, as it's the most relevant to our purposes here, and has the most verisimilitude to the original diving archetype in its design language. Though many brands were experimenting wi...
Fratello
Admittedly, we don’t hear about Canada much when it comes to watches. That’s a shame and perhaps slightly surprising, as it’s a large country with a variety of landscapes. Plus, there’s coastline and inland water to explore. This makes Montreal-based Héron a bit of an upstart. The brand began delivering watches in 2021, and its […] Visit Introducing: The Héron Marinor - An Updated Dive Watch From Canada to read the full article.
Fratello
Working in this industry, I sometimes find it strange how I can go for so long without trying a watch that has been available for years. That’s the case with the Maen Hudson diver. The Stockholm-based brand with Dutch roots first introduced the Hudson in 2018. The modern dive watch has evolved, and almost eight […] Visit Hands-On With The Redesigned Maen Hudson 38 MK5 to read the full article.
Two Broke Watch Snobs
Explore the best dive watches from microbrands we’ve worn, reviewed, and compared over years of real use. Honest pros, trade-offs, and picks worth your time.
Teddy Baldassarre
The Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean has represented a sweet spot in the now-sprawling Seamaster collection, a rarely achieved intersection between extra-rugged build and unapologetically luxurious design. The latest revamp of the two-decade-old series, which launched in late 2025, doubles down on both while also striving for new levels of comfort and wearability. Here’s a closer look, starting at the beginning. [toc-section heading="Origins of the Seamaster Collection"] Omega began making watches in 1848 (originally as La Genérale Watch Co.) and for its milestone 100th anniversary, a few years after the end of World War II, the brand founded by watchmaker Louis Brandt launched the first watch by the name of Seamaster. Not really a “dive watch” as we’d define that term today, it was marketed as a watch for “town, sea, and country” - i.e., a gentleman’s dress watch that just happened to be more waterproof than any other such timepiece of that era. (Omega had been dabbling in making wristwatches water resistant for more than a decade at that point, having released the Marine, below, an early divers’ watch with a sealed, rectangular double-case design, as early as 1932.) What distinguished the Seamaster from its contemporaries was its adoption of an innovative, O-ring-gasket device that sealed the crown into the case to prevent moisture from entering. Omega had developed that design for the tool watches it made for the British armed forces during wartime,...
Hodinkee
With an educational focus and unashamedly broad shoulders, the Decompression 02 is an uncommonly serious offering in the dive watch genre.
Revolution
Deployant
For the Olympic Winter Games to be held in northern Italy, Omega releases the Seamaster Diver 300M Milano Cortina to commemorate the event.
Time+Tide
Yema offers a modern take on its1960s skin divers, but with a very contemporary hook: a manufacture micro‑rotor plus a bronze case.The post Yema’s Skin Diver Slim Bronze CMM.20 promises patina and in-house movement performance appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Fratello
Buying a watch you already know is a very different experience from buying one you’re curious about. There’s no discovery phase, no anxious waiting for the honeymoon period to either validate or undermine the decision. Instead, it’s quieter, more deliberate. In many ways, that’s exactly how I felt when I purchased my Doxa Sub 300T […] Visit Going Yellow: Why I Bought A Doxa Sub 300T Divingstar to read the full article.
Monochrome
British watchmaking company Bremont has made some key changes in the last couple of years, not least bringing on a new CEO in 2023, Davide Cerrato (well known for releasing the Tudor Black Bay in 2012 and for working at Montblanc and Panerai). A new direction was revealed at Watches & Wonders 2024 with an updated logo and a broader […]
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