Found: A Cabinet Full Of New-Old-Stock Enamel Dials At The Minerva Manufacture
A lot of watchmaking history these days comes to us in the form of marketing from big brands that are trying to part us from our money through references to heritage and provenance. There’s still a lot of real history out there, though. A ton of it, actually. And when you find it, sitting in front of you in a large wooden cabinet on the top floor of a building across from some scenic cow pastures in the Swiss Jura, it’s nothing short of awesome. I paid a visit to the Montblanc-owned Minerva manufacture in Villeret, Switzerland, last week and found some pretty amazing stuff.
Much like the state they’re named for, California (or Cali) dials have something inherently cool and playful about them. With their nonchalant mixing of formal Roman and casual Arabic numerals, you just know these watches don’t play by the rules. Which brings us to the Panerai PAM 629, first seen at Watches & Wonders in 2015. This stealthy/sexy watch raised a few eyebrows when it was released, as it was the first time the brand had paired a Cali dial with the sportier Luminor case shape.
Editor’s Pick: Last year we received a tip-off that popular Australian actor Rodger Corser has a Tudor story to tell. Not only does he wear a Black Bay on his latest show, Doctor Doctor (he’s also in zombie series Glitch if you’re OS and also thinking he looks familiar), it turns out the vintage model he sported in ‘Doctor Blake’ was also a Tudor. And not just any Tudor… I first noticed it for a split-second in Channel 9’s new show Doctor Doctor. Pause. Rewind. Yep, there was no mistaking the black bezel and dial on the wrist of Hugh Knight (the titular doctor) – definitely a Tudor Black Bay. I filed that knowledge away in the part of my brain dedicated to celebrity watch-spotting, not imagining for a minute that a few weeks later I’d be having a drink with Rodger Corser, in a tiny laneway bar, talking about that exact timepiece. Watches tell you a lot about a character, and a bad choice is immediately obvious. But for Rodger, the Black Bay Black is more than just a smart props decision, it’s a deeply personal link, one that ties into his other on-screen personas and informs his craft. Of course we spoke…
Editor’s note: At Time+Tide we’ve always felt that gendering watches is somewhat pointless and arbitrary. If you like it and you can wear it, that’s all that matters – right? Sure, there won’t be too many fellas out there rocking 28mm diamond-studded Datejusts, and conversely it’s a rare woman who can rock a 50mm+ timepiece. But between these two poles there’s a wide range of ‘men’s’ watches that look the business on a woman’s wrist. We asked Ceri David to hunt down six of the best. Ever since the female of the species began wearing trousers circa the 1920s, they’ve been gradually but persistently encroaching into the territory of men. Never has the saying ‘give them an inch’ been more relevant. Next minute, they had the right to follow whatever career path they fancied and the freedom to get a short haircut without bringing shame on the entire family, and the world was upside down. Women wearing men’s watches is just the latest example of this invasion – and you know what? Get used to it. Full disclosure: I am a woman, so I’ll stop with this ‘they’ nonsense. After centuries of not having a choice, we can finally do what we like, so is…