Jaquet Droz ventured down the path of skeletonisation with its sophisticated Grande Seconde model in 2018. Marking a bold new design language for the brand, the elegant figure-eight configuration of the Grande Seconde was reinterpreted in diaphanous materials, and the supporting architecture stripped back to reveal the movement. For 2021, Jaquet Droz proposes three new ceramic […]
Each of the models in the Rolex Professional series is a tool watch made for a man on a mission. While the Submariner and Sea-Dweller are diving watches, the Rolex Explorer II was originally built in 1971 for speleologists or cave explorers who required a sturdy, functional and highly legible watch while working in almost total darkness. Fortunately, it’s proven to be sufficiently versatile for other pursuits. The Rolex Explorer II Ref. 216570 is the model’s most recent incarnation and, if you know Rolex by their divers, you’ll be surprised by its no-nonsense toughness, instrument-like dial, and crisp black and white hand set. My favourite detail? That would have to be the big orange GMT arrow. The 42mm case is true to its size and, while the black dial version might slim it down a tad, the polar white dial here is intensely legible and perfectly balanced. There’s something alluring about the perfect whiteness of the dial surface which, with its chunky indices framed in black, works so well with the black Mercedes hands. It might all have been a bit too perfect and monochrome had it not been for the zingy EXPLORER II wording and GMT hand that are…
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And how the strange Tissot Rock Watch made a bigger impact than you might think.
While the Speedmaster remains Omega’s most successful watch, specifically since the renewal of the collection recently, the other important pillar in the collection if, of course, the Seamaster. Past years have seen the brand focusing mostly on the Diver 300M. Yet, there’s another dive watch that deserves some attention, an even more powerful model with […]
A week’s worth of retro watch spotting begins with the ’80s comedy king and a watch fit for a president.
Over the past few decades, the G-Shock and the Swatch have gone from cult to classic – and cast an unexpectedly long shadow in high end-watchmaking.
Question: How do you catch and wrestle a giant Pacific octopus? The answer, of course, is very, very carefully. That’s according to the Canadian Television Network who reported the extraordinary tale of a veteran octopus wrestler whose 1953 Rolex Explorer sold at a New York auction house last month for $126,000 USD. Bill Hook is a Vancouver Island resident who dropped out of high school at 15 to become one of the first scuba divers in British Columbia. His Rolex Explorer was a gift from his first wife and he wore the watch while taking part in spearfishing and octopus-wrestling competitions in Victoria and Seattle. As Bill explains in the story, timing is vital when you’re wrestling a giant Pacific octopus. “You go out and dive down and look at the rocks and if you could see some crab shells out in front, you had an octopus den,” Hook told CTV News. “When it came out, the one who found it gets first chance at catching it. Then when you catch it, you can get your arms around it and it will have its arms around you, and you swim to the surface,” he explained. “They did that in Victoria…
The post This tale of an octopus wrestler’s Rolex Explorer worth $126,000 will change the way you view your watch appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.
Totally tubular timepieces that represent everything we love about watchmaking’s most infamous decade.
A five-day celebration of an unfairly maligned, chronically misunderstood, and frankly fantastic decade in watchmaking.
Chronoswiss is best known for its vast portfolio of regulators, a style pioneered by the brand with the first serially produced wristwatch launched in 1987 – the Régulateur. While I’m a big fan and even went in-depth with the evolution of Chronoswiss regulators, there’s another pioneering style that helps define the brand. In 1995, Chronoswiss […]