Is AFL star Dustin Martin's hook-up with luxury watch chain Kennedy a case of retailers finally getting real?
Luxury brands invariably dangle a world of mahogany-panelled exclusivity. Viewed through the prism of their marketing, life is presented as a stately whirl of weekend polo, yachts and vintage convertibles. Access is restricted by a velvet rope and the relative depth of your wallet. But the chance to belong to this rarified community — the champagne always in the ice-bucket, peacocks strolling across the clipped lawn — remains an enviable prospect. Asked to pick someone who embodies this lifestyle, the AFL player Dustin Martin wouldn’t even make the draft. Sipping on a gin and juice in the Maldives, in a cabana with Serena Williams? Yes. Croquet and Couta Boats? Not so much. But Dusty Martin, king of the ‘don’t argue’ (Google it if that is foreign, and please enjoy), is exactly who Kennedy, the Australian luxury watch retailer, has plumped for in a new collaboration. At first glance, this brand fit seems as logical as Marilyn Manson becoming the ambassador for Hillsong Church. Martin is indisputably one of the greatest players in AFL history – a jaw-dropping mix of brute power, balletic movement and lethal poise. But a model of upmarket refinement he ain’t. It’s not just the neck tattoos and buzz-cut…
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Within DOXA’s lineup of tributes to its 1967-born icon, the SUB 300, the SUB 1500T poses the burning question none of us knew we were asking: What if it could go even deeper? Because one of the most self-sabotaging misnomers the watch industry has ever seen is this: the Doxa SUB 300T hints at only one-quarter of the truth. It can, in fact, go 1200 metres deep. The original SUB 300 (no T) from 1967 was thinner and was true to its name, but the 300T continues to sell itself short with its name. As as it turns out, not only can the 1500T exceed this monstrous depth by 300m, it can do so whilst capturing vintage charm and modern specifications. Without sacrifice, without cutting corners, DOXA have plunged even deeper into contention for being among the most over-engineered and potentially underpriced watches on the market. The dial Photos of this watch just cannot do it justice. The ever-so-slight doming on the sapphire crystal leaves the watch perfectly clear when viewed from the front, but when tilted to a more common on-wrist angle, the warping is phenomenal. Because of the mostly flat approach to the dial, with printed rectangle indices…
British watchmaker Bremont may have only been around since 2002, but in that time they’ve earned respect for watches that are durable and robust to an extreme degree, and British to a tee at all times throughout. Few breakthroughs have helped this reputation quite as much as the significant percentage of watches Bremont produce being set aside for an increasing number of men and women serving in armed forces across the globe. Bremont are also, impressively, official suppliers to the British Ministry of Defence. Their most recent collection includes fit-for-purpose timepieces for several different disciplines, whether that be pilot’s watches, dive watches or field watches. Here are five we’ve tried and tested. BREMONT ARGONAUT A simple three-handed watch with a dual crown system (located at 2 and 4 o’clock) and a super-compressor dive watch style design, the Argonaut’s main feature is its internal rotating bezel, designed for tracking elapsed time. Of the three new HMAF watches, this one is inspired by the Royal Navy. At 42mm and with nothing but the centrally mounted time and a 3 o’clock date to distract, the Argonaut is a highly legible watch. Ref No: HMAF-Argonaut / Case size: 42mm / Case material: Steel /…
Transparency is almost always a good thing, be it in political donations, corporate bonuses or who your local member of parliament is having lunch with. It is a concept that Chanel has adopted as a motif in their watchmaking department, seen in the Boy.Friend Skeleton, their remarkable Monsieur de Chanel Pocket Watch (an almost US$800,000 skeletonised pocket watch set with 7.12 carats of baguette diamonds and held in an 18k white gold and obsidian lion-themed stand), and now most recently with the Chanel J12 X-Ray. The J12 collection has been making significant strides into the horological landscape of late, winning the 2019 Ladies Prize at the GPHG, and bringing the monochromatic vision of Coco Chanel to life through their full ceramic cases and bracelets. With the Chanel J12 X-Ray, you get the same classic J12 shape except, instead of ceramic, almost the entire watch is made out of sapphire crystal. The bracelet is entirely sapphire apart from the pins that secure the links to one another; the case and dial are almost totally sapphire, and even the movement has been rebuilt to have sapphire bridges. The bezel and the hour markers are both set with baguette diamonds in white gold to…
David Beckham’s latest project has got off to a dodgy start. For six long years he’s worked tirelessly to establish the first Major League Soccer team in Miami. After endless wrangling over stadium sites and investment, Club Internacional de Fútbol Miami – or Inter Miami – played their first two games this month. Unfortunately, they lost both. In further bad news for the club’s part-owner, on the eve of Miami’s first-ever home game this weekend, the league has just been shut down for a month due to coronavirus. On the plus side, Beckham has already wangled a new watch out of it. The 44-year-old has been spotted with a rare custom Tudor Pelagos dangling from his heavily tattooed wrist. In modern diving-watch circles, the Pelagos rates highly — it won the prestigious Best Sports Watch category at the 2015 GPHG Awards. Nicely sized at 42mm, it’s got a lightweight build thanks to its titanium case, a ceramic bezel, auto-adjusting clasp, plus a highly respectable 500m of water resistance. What makes Beckham’s Pelagos strikingly different is that there’s an Inter Miami crest stamped at 6 o’clock. When you’re a walking super-brand, it seems, a football scarf just doesn’t cut it. In fact,…
When you think celebrities and timepieces, most people with an inkling about watch collecting would throw up the same names – Mark Wahlberg, Ellen DeGeneres, Ed Sheeran, John Mayer, Kevin Hart, Drake … you get the picture. What many people might not have realised is that Jonah Hill’s watch collection is really starting to take shape. In fact, so filled with bangers is the man’s assortment of timepieces, you could say it’s straight-up Superbad … OK, that’s a terrible pun, but you get the picture: he’s bought into hypebeast horology in a big way. So, without further ado (or another terrible pun), here are Mr Hill’s best watches. Rolex Daytona Ref.116520 Hill has been seen sporting this pre-ceramic Rolex Daytona Ref.116520 on multiple occasions, both in front of the camera and IRL. He famously wore it during filming of the smash hit Moneyball, and in the above photo he can be seen wearing it while embracing skateboarding doyen and artist Mark “The Gonz” Gonzales. This a tasteful choice by Hill, and a pragmatic one, considering the 116520’s residual value in this day and age. This watch, and the fact that Hill has been seen wearing it so often, also paints a picture…