In The Shop – Introducing: The Cooper Strap Collection
An assortment of new straps with a back-to-basics appeal.
The story of the Rolex with 9 lives, twice
Editor’s note: Rolex is probably the strongest watch brand on the planet, but as well as their worldwide fame and popularity, they make incredibly reliable and robust wristwatches. One key part of their success at consistently producing hard-wearing watches is the quality control at their factory, ensuring that every timepiece that leaves the building has met their strict standards. As a result, it’s an incredibly rare moment when a Rolex is found with any mistakes, but that is exactly what happened when an Air-King popped up with a very unusual dial. It’s a modern-day escape from Alcatraz, where the escapee is a defect on a watch that makes it to market, and Alcatraz is the Rolex manufacture. That, I suspect, is flattering Alcatraz. Because, the fact that a modern Rolex with a defect you can actually see even exists is unthinkable to the point of immediately being suspected as a hoax. But here it is. Not only does a ‘double nine’ Rolex Air-King 116900 — with a nine where the ‘3’ numeral should be — allegedly exist in the wild, it’s been captured by Watchfinder & Co., who used the occasion to do a proper exposition on just how extraordinary that fact…
The post The story of the Rolex with 9 lives, twice appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.
Review – Grand Seiko Elegance GMT SBGM221
Precision, perfect execution and beauty are very real concerns in Japanese craftsmanship and Grand Seiko’s mission, ever since its creation in 1960, is to live up to these demanding principles. Precision and superlative execution are easy to gauge in Grand Seiko’s repertoire, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder and not everybody warms […]
Coming off third best: 4 great bronze watches from 2019
One of the most polarising materials to make a return to prominence in watchmaking over the last couple of years has been bronze. Why does this ancient material cause so much conjecture when it’s used as a timepiece’s case material? Well, for a start, it can’t come into direct contact with your skin for prolonged periods of time, because if it does, there’s every possibility your left wrist will end up looking like Bruce Banner’s when he gets angry. And, unlike steel, for example, a bronze watch will drastically change in appearance over the course of your ownership, as it is highly reactive to things like air, water, sweat … you get the picture. But bronze does have distinct benefits, too, and chief among them is an extreme resistance to corrosion. As a result, CuSn (bronze’s molecular formula) has been heavily utilised in the cases of dive watches. It is also, subjectively, a very handsome material for watch cases, and these are four of our favourites bronze timepieces from 2019: IWC BIG PILOT’S WATCH PERPETUAL CALENDAR SPITFIRE The Big Pilot series is one of the most iconic ranges within the IWC catalogue. For a brand capable of some seriously high-end…
The post Coming off third best: 4 great bronze watches from 2019 appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.
A guide to microbrand watches with big-box quality under $6000
How to define microbrand watches is a conversation topic that has worn out many watch journalists’ tongues. With proposed criteria ranging from price to retail model and everything in between, there isn’t much consistency in how this new phenomenon is received or perceived. Perhaps one thing that can unite the explosion of newcomers that the industry has seen since the advent of crowdfunding platforms is independence. You don’t find micros in a group. They may band together with other micros to pool event resources and widen their audience reach, but they are generally the ones in control of the purse strings and, most crucially, design decisions. Group ownership does funny things to a brand. It can bend them all out of shape and into new shapes that fit the group’s overarching narrative but not the brand itself. Microbrands are not beholden to such nonsense and, so, along with independence, you should expect to find a clean narrative that translates well into identifiable, high-value products trying to offer a lot of bang for your buck. And the best way to do that is to not go too crazy. Depart the beaten path, sure, but don’t beat it to death. Stick close…
The post A guide to microbrand watches with big-box quality under $6000 appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.
Weekend Round-Up: A New Fork, Walking Across America, And Road-Legal Racecars
Kick-off the new year off in Monaco, California, and inside the mind of Gen Z shoppers.
The Petrolhead Corner – The Most Anticipated New Cars of 2020
New year, new decade, new episode of ‘The Petrolhead Corner’. And to start 2020 in high gear, we’ve decided to look at what is going to be launched in the coming months. On the contrary to the watch industry we know so well, the car industry is less secretive and cars are often pre-announced (with […]
Top of the podium: 5 of 2019's best gold watches
Nothing says flex like a solid gold timepiece. Doesn’t matter what sort of gold it is either — yellow, white, pink … if it’s 18k, then chances are you’ve obtained a level of wrist-worn one-upmanship that few can ever hope to own. And 2019 was not shy at all about giving birth to some very, very hot examples of precious metal marvels from a number of different watchmakers. We’d love to mention all of them, but as the title of this story would suggest, the need for summation means that we must choose our five favourites … so here they are: H. MOSER & CIE. ENDEAVOUR BLUE LAGOON It is rare to see one of the industry’s most mercurial brands tapping into the current mass-market trends, but in the case of the H. Moser & Cie. Blue Lagoon that is exactly what’s happening. It seems the wealthiest watch collectors in the world are not, in fact, immune to the industry’s current obsession with teal. Achingly beautiful is the only way we can begin to describe it. Ref No: 1200-0206 / Case size: 40mm / Case material: White Gold / Movement: HMC 200 / Price: $34,850 PIAGET ALTIPLANO The Piaget Altiplano collection…
The post Top of the podium: 5 of 2019’s best gold watches appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.
The best watch ads of the last 50 years
The importance of advertising in the world of luxury watchmaking can hardly be overstated. How a brand is perceived is everything. An effective campaign cannot just establish a model as a classic of the future, but position a brand so effectively that not even decades of half-hearted follow-ups or PR missteps seem capable of affecting its standing. Ambassadorships often go hand-in-hand with advertisements – a trend arguably started by Hans Wilsdorf’s decision to strap a Rolex Oyster to Channel swimmer Mercedes Gleitze and then featuring her image in the write-up of her endeavours. But that is ancient history. Let’s focus instead on the five best watch ads from the last 50 years. Rolex We’ll get this one out of the way early. You can’t ignore the power of The Crown, and so omitting it from a list of this nature would be for nothing but effect. Credit where credit is due, no brand has the visibility of Rolex, and that position has been helped by astute, if somewhat conservative campaigns, throughout its history. Here we see the classic Day-Date model pitched as the watch of presidents. You don’t get much better than that. Patek Philippe If you’ve not seen Patek…
The post The best watch ads of the last 50 years appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.
Editors’ Picks: Our Watch Resolutions For 2020
What would you change for your wrist in 2020?