The Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Micro-Rotor is clean, serene and wears like a dream
A luxury, integrated-bracelet sports watch is nothing new. The Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Micro-Rotor – a luxury, integrated-bracelet sports watch that’s executed oh-so well, however, is damn near unique. Zach already waxed lyrical about the charms of the Parmigiani in his tour of NYC while sporting the rose-gold variant, but we couldn’t quite get enough. … Continued
The post The Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Micro-Rotor is clean, serene and wears like a dream appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.
The post The Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Micro-Rotor is clean, serene and wears like a dream appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.
A lot of watches have been released recently. So to assemble my favourites, there was a lot of ground to cover, specs to take in and wrist-shots to snap. With so many options to consider, in order to pick my top five, I really needed to take some time to digest. But Labor Day has … 
Thanks to the vintage looks of its steel case, the DOXA SUB 300 is a cult diver’s watch. But ever since the SUB 300 Aqualung US Divers in carbon fibre came out, its dark presence has haunted the dreams of DOXA fans (in a good way). Sleek and moody, the DOXA SUB 300 Carbon turns up the emphasis on the SUB 300 as a pure diver’s tool, while at the same time underlining the blisteringly fresh dials. If, like me, you fancy the stealthy embrace of carbon fibre, this is very much your ticket. I do warn you though, you will have serious decision issues, as we have six colourful references in the DOXA SUB 300 Carbon collection to choose from. As a whole new sub-category (pun intended) within the DOXA portfolio, the smooth tactility of the high-grade carbon fibre takes the brand to another level. As icing on the candy coloured cake, these babies are COSC-certified, chronometer spec diver’s watches. Professional Part of the rise of DOXA from niche favourite to Instagram star is the Swiss brand’s tight focus on diving watches. That’s why it seems apt to start with the zesty orange of the Professional in the classic DOXA…
That is if I ever really had one. When it was released in 2018, the Rolex GMT-Master II Pepsi Ref. 126710 BLRO quickly cemented itself at the top of my wish list, grail list, things-I’d-kill-for-to-own list (you get the picture). It remained firmly in the realm of dreams until recently when I decided to bite the bullet and pick up one second-hand. Yes, I paid market premium and all. Cue the laughter of the lucky collectors who were able to pick one up at retail – congrats to you if you fall into this category. The only way I could make it work without living on the street was by completely detonating my entire collection and going all in on the latest iteration of Pepsi. Was it worth it? Well let’s find out. Once I put it on I felt… Relieved more than anything. Relieved that I hadn’t just jettisoned some watches I really loved for something so hyped up. I was torn internally whether to go for it. Andrew warned me off it, telling me it was more blueberry than Pepsi. As someone who has wrist-rolled his way through pretty much every important watch out there his opinion carries a lot…
We all know that pretty much any stainless-steel Rolex sports watch is insanely popular right now. In fact, there’s an unrelenting groundswell of hype around these watches that is undeniable. But do they really deserve it? One of the most prominent watches in the Professional range is the Rolex GMT-Master II Ref. 126710 BLRO, which instantly commanded a long waiting list ever since it was first released back at Baselworld 2018. Sure, we know it’s a good watch, but is it actually worth the premium that it demands on the secondary market? With a 40mm stainless-steel case, red and blue Cerachrom bezel and solid-link jubilee bracelet, the Rolex GMT-Master II Ref. 126710 BLRO is a watch with a long history behind it. This history began in the middle of the 1950s when Rolex worked with pilots from the Pan-Am airline to develop a functional travel watch. Nearly seven decades later, the Rolex “Pepsi” GMT is still a watch in extremely high demand and its value continues to climb. Housed inside the Oystersteel case is the automatic in-house caliber 3285, which is Rolex’s most sophisticated GMT movement to date. With 70 hours of power reserve, an anti-magnetic Chronergy escapement and a temperature…
When one of your non-watch friends asks how much your watch cost, they’ll probably be shocked or straight up appalled that anyone could spend thousands, never mind tens of thousands of dollars on something that tells the time “just like your phone”. So how do you explain the reason why watches are so horribly expensive? More to the point, how do you justify a hobby that has the potential to be ruinously expensive? The team over at the Wall Street Journal just took a look at three big reasons why watches are so costly and the first two might be a little more comfortable to explain than the third. The materials used in watchmaking are expensive It’s true, for a very long time watches and even pocket watches have been produced using precious metals. The use of precious materials definitely isn’t restricted to the cases of watches with gem-setting on cases and dials, as well as a select group of watchmakers such as Journe even making movements out of gold. Watchmakers are very highly trained, which makes the craftsmanship expensive I remember speaking with Stephen Forsey about why his Greubel Forsey Hand Made 1 had such a price tag of…
Editor’s note: Andrew walked through the door of the Time+Tide office one afternoon in February and looked down at his wrist. “It’s a watch that can wear you if you’re not careful,” he said, gaze still fixed on the Hublot Big Bang Integral King Gold that he was wearing. A strong statement from a man who has spent the last decade or so with an untold number of watches. So why does it have such an impact? After spending a week with the Hublot Big Bang Integral King Gold, Andrew explains what this new design offers in gold. T+T: When did you first see it and what was your first impression? Andrew McUtchen: I first saw it at Dubai Watch Week and was immediately captivated by the reflections on the bracelet and the way that the bracelet locked up with that recognisable case in a way that, to me, reinvented the Big Bang as a design proposition. Why is the Integral such a significant design change for the Big Bang collection? The reason the bracelet is such a big deal is because the Big Bang has been built on a of the “art of fusion” ever since its launch. This…