The watch collection of tennis player Gael Monfils is as thrilling as his playing style
It is no secret Gael Monfils is an absolute superstar on the tennis court. He is known for his lively and exciting matches where his acrobatic and daredevil style really entertains fans of the sport. We recently covered his bonkers experiment with Greubel Forsey, where he was enlisted by the brand to wear their GMT Sport watch during practice and even smash a few serves full speed directly at the $500,000 timepiece and its front-facing sapphire crystal. A lesser-known fact about the top-ranking tennis player is that he is a fully-fledged horology addict and watch enthusiast who even has a dedicated Instagram profile to share his passion for the hobby. With his success in the ATP, and various brand sponsorships, Gael has a fair amount of dough to allocate towards his watch addiction. As a result, the watches he owns and shares are some serious high-level creations – think Patek Philippe, Blancpain, Breguet, Audemars Piguet … the list goes on and on. Here are my top three he has shared so far. MB&F LM Thunderdome View this post on Instagram A post shared by @myson.watches Adding this watch to your collection is the perfect wrist-statement to proclaim…
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This year has sucked with the suction power of an industrial vacuum cleaner hoovering up a barrel full of straws. So we all hope that 2021 salvages this grim situation with new opportunities, experiences and an overall healthier world. Considering the chaos of the year, watch releases were actually pretty strong, yet there is always room for improvement. The watch industry and even its community of devoted fans have room to grow and this is (hopefully) the year to make it happen. We need more innovation, creativity and value in both product and perspective to spice things up. So 2021, please be better. And to help in this self-improvement challenge, here are five new year’s resolutions to apply within the world of watches. You are no longer a cool contrarian when making sarcastic Rolex jokes (guilty) Look, it definitely sucks we are not all able to get Rolex watches at retail. It seems unfathomable that the barrier to entry is not simply saving up the money to buy one and the frustration is very real as a result. We see it all the time on Instagram and Facebook – people are increasingly fed up with the brand and turning on…
Everyone will remember the toilet paper shortage of 2020, as panic buying took hold of people around the world, but watch collectors will remember another shortage. The apparent global scarcity of Casio G-Shock GA2100-1A ‘CasiOak’ models from retailers’ displays, with a frenzy of buying that led to the humble G-Shock selling way above its retail price on the secondary market. If you told me in 2019 that a standard production G-Shock was going to effectively have a wait list, I wouldn’t have believed you. But then again, I wouldn’t have believed much of what was going to happen in 2020. But why is it so popular? It’s a mix of form, function and the watch that it reminds us all of. And by that I mean it looks good thanks to being less visually chunky compared to other G-Shock references — it is comfortable on the wrist thanks to it’s 11.3mm case profile and it serves up the eternally popular octagonal bezel. What’s not to love? Casio G-Shock GA2100-1A ‘CasiOak’ price and availability: The Casio G-Shock GA2100-1A ‘CasiOak’ is $260AU, and is currently available. However, due to it’s popularity, it might be worth calling ahead to your local authorised dealer to…
There’s a quote I haven’t been able to get out of my head this year. It’s “Never waste a good crisis”. I’m not sure what it was intended to mean, or who said it in the first place. But I am sure as hell of one thing. We have not wasted 2020. And by “we”, I mean the team at Time+Tide. And I mean “we” the watch industry, that have fought to survive; to find ways forward when every path seemed blocked, and also to do more good for the world than in any other year. These are the “better angels”, to pinch a phrase from the US President-elect Joe Biden, that I refer to throughout this column. But let’s not be cavalier. At many times, the last 12-months has felt like a tightrope walk above intensifying flames. Which begs the first question – which of 2020’s multiple crises might we have wasted? The first crisis was in January When those figurative flames were very real, very hot, and responsible for torching great tracts of Australian flora, fauna and dreams. Countless houses, properties, businesses, and, yes, animals, were destroyed. At its peak, I flew to Sydney for an event. The…
The lack of watch fairs and face-to-face watch showings meant that I saw fewer watches in the metal in 2020 than I had done in the last 10 years. But this lack of face time didn’t stop me salivating over a few key pieces that shot straight to the top of my wish-list. These were my three favourite watches of 2020. Glashütte Original Sixties Blue Annual Edition The burnt orange and forest green iterations of this watch were already provocatively sexy. But the glacial glory of this pale blue version is truly mesmerising. The shift in colour on the sunray-finished dial is achieved by first building a base colour through a galvanic coating process, before several layers of different coloured lacquer are applied. Completing the package is the brown-grey nubuck calfskin strap. Nubuck, as you may well know, is essentially top-notch leather that’s buffed on the outside, to give a slight nap to the material that produces a velvet-like surface. I’m increasingly drawn to it as strap texture for its effortlessly relaxed quality that make it the wrist-bound equivalent of a comfortable pair of desert boots. Here it’s employed in particularly ingenious fashion to riff off that iceberg of a…
“It’s the million dollar elephant in the room,” says Eric Ku, the world-renowned watch expert and dealer. “Why can nobody get anything now?” He’s referring to the extraordinary difficulty facing the average punter hoping to buy a new steel Rolex without paying way over the recommended retail price on the grey market. In the watch community, this has become a common lament. For the average buyer, sourcing a steel Rolex at the recommended retail price can increasingly feel like mission impossible. Whereas five years ago, the “Batman” blue and black bezel GMT-Master II was the hard-to-get model, and then the Daytona became the next must-have, the drought has now spread to all steel models, Professional range or not. The extent of the Rolex scarcity was summed up a month or so ago when the respected auction house Phillips sold a selection of models from the Rolex Oyster Perpetual collection that only came out in August last year. This tells you everything you need to know about the insane demand for new Rolex stock. Auction houses, after all, specialise in trading the most rare and valuable goods that cannot be bought through standard retail channels. In listing this Oyster Perpetual family,…