VIDEO: Wrist appeal – the Tudor Black Bay 41
Tudor’s Black Bay has evolved from a straight-up tool-like diver to an all-encompassing collection that has your wrist covered from dress to diver and any point in between. The Black Bay 41 is the dressier face of the line. Simple steel but not lacking in polish (both on the case and in the style sense), the BB 41 is a larger incarnation of last year’s Black Bay 36. This watch doesn’t stray too far from the winning formula, offering everyday functionality and a strong graphic design. All in a size that’s much more palatable for many more men. Tudor Heritage Black Bay 41 Australian pricing Tudor Heritage Black Bay 41 on leather, $3150; on steel $3500
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Grand Seiko is known for many things: mirror-like finishes, incredibly crisp casework and a design style that veers from conservative to downright quirky. But this is not a brand that springs to mind when you think of professional-grade dive watches. Until now. At Basel this year Grand Seiko released this mighty beast that we (in the best tradition of Seiko-related nicknames) have dubbed ‘The Kraken’. Now to be honest, unless you’ve got arms like Dwayne Johnson, I’m willing to bet you don’t have the wrist presence to rock this 46.9mm-wide by 16.9mm-thick behemoth (which is surprisingly light, thanks to the titanium construction). However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give it a go, especially given the suitably grand level of fit and finish on display. And while the blue dial is our pick, it’s quite limited at 500 pieces, so the regular-edition black-dialled version might be the easier fish to land. Grand Seiko Hi-Beat 36000 Professional 600m (refs. SBGH255, SBGH257) Australian pricing and availability Grand Seiko Hi-Beat 36000 Professional 600m, ref. SBGH255, $14,200; the blue-dialled SBGH257, limited to 500 pieces, $14,600
Soon after the introduction of the motor car came the introduction of motorsports. Our inherently competitive nature driving us in our search for speed and steering what was one the greatest inventions in human history towards its inevitable competitive use. From motor racing’s early days, timepieces were used to measure the difference separating victory and defeat, and, ever since, cars and watches have cosied up in the back seat with an inexhaustable (unlike these fast-paced puns) roll call of pairings. At the beginning of the 1900s, one of the main players in motorsport timekeeping was Minerva. The manufacturer was one of the first to produce movements capable of precisely measuring fractions of a second. Fast-forward to the 21st century, and Minerva’s motorsport heritage – which is now part of Montblanc’s – is being honoured in the latest Montblanc TimeWalker collection. This collection is not only home to limited-edition rally timers and UTC chronographs but also simple three-handers – the black, and the silvery-white dialled TimeWalker Date Automatics. This sporty pair shares the same basic design architecture – clean dials with large Arabic numeral hour markers and a date aperture at 3 o’clock – with their only differences being the colour and…