Just Because: The Unique Watches Of Vacheron Constantin’s Les Cabinotiers ‘Mécaniques Sauvages’ Collection
Eagles, rhinos, and tourbillons – oh my.
HODINKEE Radio: Episode 22: Stephanie Bednarek
An exciting career in the business of outer space and a love for mechanical watches go hand in hand for this week’s guest.
Value Proposition – Review of Seiko 5 SNK809 – A Lot of a Mechanical Watch for Less than $100
A few years ago, we published a story named “The Cheapest High-End Watch“. We searched for the most affordable high-end watch, comprising a mechanical movement, in-house manufactured of course, from a brand with an undisputed pedigree, preferably family-owned, and the watch should be (relatively) small and elegant. And guess who won the title… not Patek, not Vacheron, not even Rolex or Omega. It was a Seiko 5! While pretty much everyone thinks of Switzerland when we’re talking about high-end watches, we felt that one specific brand was often missing in the discussion… Today that’s changing already and certainly since Grand Seiko has been positioned as a separate brand, this Japanese giant is taken very seriously. Japanese movement are gaining traction in general, and despite being cheap (the word affordable doesn’t even work anymore), Seiko 5 watches are true mechanical, bang-for-the-buck “high-end” pieces. Time to demonstrate this, with the not-even-100-dollar Seiko 5 Military SNK809.
In The Shop – Introducing: The Seiko Presage Urushi Byakudan-nuri Limited Edition SPB085
The latest Seiko Presage Limited Edition features the collection’s most complex lacquerware dial yet.
H10: My Favorite HODINKEE Story: Will Holloway
“I got into watches because of that John Mayer video.”
Pre-SIHH 2019 – Laurent Ferrier Galet Annual Calendar School Piece Opaline Black & White
At the SIHH last year, Laurent Ferrier introduced a superb watch, both visually and technically: the Galet Annual Calendar School Piece. Not only it brought a brand-new movement, hand-wound and with a clever annual calendar display but the design, totally in line with our perception of Ferrier, was just beautiful. And there was that pale yellow gold case too… One of favourite “indie” watches of 2018. As part of the Pre-SIHH 2019 novelties, the Geneva-based brand is launching new versions of this watch, the Laurent Ferrier Galet Annual Calendar School Piece Opaline Black & White, with new dial colours and finishes.
Pre-SIHH 2019 – HYT H20 “Time Is Fluid” (Hands-On)
Since 2012, HYT has measured time in a non-conformist way, uniting esthetics, technology and somehow philosophy. Time is fluid and its flow is displayed by liquids moved by a mechanical movement (To learn more about the company and its innovative, patented technology, you can watch our recent video here.) Presented in 2018, the H0 and H20 models express the flow of time with smooth curves, fluid shapes and virtually no straight lines. It showcases the brands raison d’êtrein a striking way. The fluidic time indication is presented in full glory, under an impressive cloche-like sapphire crystal. This allows a 360° visibility of the time and of the mechanical movement’s architecture.
HANDS-ON: Ready for anything – the Seiko Astron SSE170J1
Seiko’s Astron (the new GPS one, not the groundbreaking quartz one) is a pretty incredible piece of kit. Ostensibly, it tells the time, day, date and a second time zone. But the trick is in the method. The Astron, thanks to GPS technology, keeps track of time by talking to satellites — a quite cool party trick. Given its go-anywhere accuracy and automatic time zone adjustment, it makes sense that the Astron is billed as an adventure watch for the travelling set. And never has that been more apparent than with this watch. Don’t mind the ‘Solar Executive Sports Series’ name, this watch is, in fact, the most rough and tumble Astron yet. The incredible versatility of the solar 8X53 is matched by the super-hard titanium case (with rose gold tone in this case) and ceramic bezel. The rich, golden brown ceramic bezel, by the way, is inlaid with UTC times on the top and IATA codes on the side, all of which, in a neat trick, have some impressive luminous powers. The shape of the case is more streamlined, too, a more rugged sporty look that downplays the still hefty 46.7mm diameter and 14.5mm height. Best of all, though,…
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INSIGHT: Classic design pushed forward – the world of watchmaking at Breguet
With a brand so rich in history, the origins of what can only be called typical Breguet design cues date a fair ways back into the archives. Contrary to the case of countless other brands on the market, the components that make up Breguet’s core design mantra could hardly be accused of being derivative, and each element has its own origin story of sorts rather than the typical “we put that there because we wanted to make a dive watch”. Breguet has been busy perfecting their craft since 1775, and have consistently survived the industry’s ups and downs including the quartz crisis. Of course, the brand changed hands a number of times between its origins and landing in the firm grip of the Swatch Group in 1999, but this length of continuous operation, combined with some fairly impressive innovation through the decades and centuries, is nothing to sneeze at. For the sake of brevity, we’re going to stay on the design side of the fence this time around. Dem hands tho … (and them digits) It’s hard to say which Breguet design cue is the most easily identifiable of them all, though few would argue if the classic blued Breguet…
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Introducing: The H. Moser & Cie. Heritage Bucherer Blue Editions And Endeavour Diamonds Bucherer Blue Editions (Live Pics & Pricing)
Two new models join Bucherer’s growing collection of exclusive Blue Edition watches.