A primer on the Vacheron Constantin Les Cabinotiers Collection, and why it gets us so darned excited
Editor’s note: Justin Mastine-Frost, while being full of energy as a human being, is not what I would describe as ‘excitable’. If you ever want Justin to hype something, he is — in fact — likely to go the other way. So when we brief the mighty JMF, we do not know what we’re going to get. Which is 100 per cent part of his charm, and his personal brand. Therefore, when his copy came in about the Vacheron Constantin Les Cabinotiers Collection, it caught everybody’s attention. He was excited, hyped, and making no bones about it. These are words of fire, that — while landing on a positive note — take many prisoners along the way. Take the second sentence of the story: “In this era of overblown, overhyped, and over-exaggerated positioning by brands and their marketing machines filled with a youthful and often naive ‘we are the next big thing!’ mentality, words like unique are thrown around with impunity pretty much every other day.” It’s like the final scene of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood with Leo DiCaprio and the flame thrower! I’ll let the magic happen again in this Editor’s pick, one of our favourites from Justin, and a perfect summary of why —…
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Rado’s Captain Cook Automatic dive watch collection is downright impressive for anyone in the market for a fit-for-purpose dive watch on a budget. What’s more, it’s got a great amount of heritage — Rado has actually used the Captain Cook moniker since 1962. But these modern iterations aren’t resting on the laurels of their forefathers, they’re packing an aesthetic and technical blow that is hard to beat in the price bracket. For example, all of the watches feature glossy, vibrant dials that do a wonderful job of catching the light, offering wearers a charismatic, almost multifaceted personality. And the inwardly concave bezels, which adorn the svelte 42mm stainless steel cases, are capped with ceramic inserts, ensuring a superior level of scratch and fade resistance. Housed inside the svelte cases, which measure just 12.1mm thick, you’ll find another boon of the Captain Cook — its movement. All of the Rado Captain Cooks are powered by ETA’s monolithic C07 self-winding movement, which offers a staggering 80 hours of power reserve and a robustness and reliability that is only to be expected of a movement manufacturer like ETA. These timepieces are also more than capable of hanging with some much more expensive dive watches when…
The watchmaking mavericks at H. Moser & Cie. must be working overtime at their headquarters in Schaffhausen, because they keep dropping hit after hit in 2019. Their most recent creation is this — the H. Moser & Cie. Heritage Centre Seconds Funky Blue. Taking inspiration from both the horological creations of Moser’s founder, Heinrich Moser, and converted pocket watches from the early 20th century, the new Heritage Centre Seconds offers a distinctly inimitable aesthetic that seeks to seamlessly blend old-world charm with contemporary watchmaking techniques and technologies. The highly polished 42mm stainless steel case, for example, is shaped like a watch from the 1920s, with nicely rounded dimensions, slim, tapered lugs and even a period-correct fluted onion crown. However, the dial is signature 21st century Moser, featuring the Swiss marque’s celebrated electric sunburst “Funky Blue” colour scheme. The resulting creation offers a charismatic dichotomy between case and dial that shouldn’t work, but does. Similarly, the oversized appliqué numerals, sword-shaped hand set and “railway-style” chapter ring that adorn the Heritage Centre Seconds dial are all historically accurate, but they’re filled with both Super-LumiNova and, in the case of the numerals, Globolight, a pioneering ceramic-based lume that also utilises Super-LumiNova. The traditional-looking…
