Rhuigi Villaseñor of LA luxury street brand Rhude explains how vintage watches nearly bankrupted him. Plus, Brendon Babenzien (founder of New York menswear brand Noah) addresses the famous Thanksgiving turtle watch.
Seiko’s pop culture collaborations have offered a sensational demonstration of playfulness and creativity in watch design of late. You need only look to their Street Fighter or Naruto-inspired Seiko 5 lineups to see just how unique these watches can be, but the latest collaboration with recently-independent Kojima Productions takes things up a notch, bypassing the entry-level and going straight for the luxury quartz model that is the revitalised Seiko Astron. Taking inspiration from the cutting-edge quartz technology that Seiko embarked on in the late ‘60s and the GPS-powered digital sorcery of modern watches, this Astron sets to explore unknown galaxies through its links to Ludens, the bad-ass sci-fi mascot of Kojima Productions. Kojima Productions is the Tokyo studio led by Hideo Kojima that devised the cult game Death Stranding that won the “PC Game of the Year” at last year’s Golden Joystick Awards. The watch is packed with almost as many references to Ludens as it is with high-tech functionality, with the most evident being the carbon fibre weave pattern on the dial reflecting the skeletal mask which Ludens wears beneath his space helmet. The weekday, 24-hour, and alternate time zone subdials are integrated on a single plane, representing the…
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The concept of the compressor or super-compressor watch, due to its cool and technical design, is certainly very appealing, even though relatively rare nowadays in the Swiss watch industry. Only a few brands continue to manufacture such water-tight watches. Among them is a brand that has recently resurfaced with a collection of modernized watches inspired […]
I’ve had quite a few microbrands in my personal watchbox. In fact, my first new mechanical watch after a waning vintage obsession was a microbrand. Due to the smaller nature of these businesses, one of the main attractions of buying these watches is the possibility of interacting with the brand owner during the retail process and even developing a relationship of sorts. In addition, there is something cool about the ability of these plucky small manufacturers, many of which are run by one person, to go out alone and stand up to the greats. Alan Tsao of Tsao Baltimore is one of these guys and the 32-year-old founder has now released a brand new model: the Tsao Baltimore Legacy. A small producer like Alan has the agility to feel the pulse of the watch-collecting community and respond fast, releasing models that hit the sweet spot at the right time. Liberated from the bureaucratic rigmarole that working with a large design team involves, he’s able to make quicker decisions and jump on trends while they’re still beginning to crest. If the owner has the right eye for design and colours, there can be a hyper quick turnaround compared to, say, a…
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What’s better than one complicated Cartier? Three complicated Cartiers, especially when they arrive in a specially designed marquetery finished and lacquered wooden box. These three pieces that make up the new Cartier Fine Watchmaking Rotonde de Cartier Precious “Icons Set”, which share the two uniting themes of mystery and skeletonisation. But in a world where the brand is best known for their classic designs from the beginning of the 20th century, what does this trio of large platinum watches really offer? Is it a case of complication for its own sake, or do these pieces actually add something to the current catalogue of the French-founded firm? For more than a hundred years, Cartier have played with illusion in their product design, but more specifically in their watch and clockmaking. Cartier Mystery Clocks are some of the most coveted examples of horological handicraft in existence, with 101 different examples offered by Christies in an important sale last year that showed the mind-bending diversity of design. It is this legacy that has inspired these three watches, each of which features a tourbillon at its heart and an element of historical mystery in their design. Astromysterious This is my personal favourite of the…
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Not to say “we told you so,” but…
Dive watches are probably the single most popular watch category and with good reason. They are robust, water resistant and, as dress codes become increasingly casual, can also be worn pretty much anywhere you aren’t expected to wear a bow-tie. The variations within dive watches over the decades are another reason that collectors find them so compelling. Some dive watches have important links to armed forces around the world, which can send enthusiasts into a frenzy of minutia obsession. Likewise the different ways that brands have creatively overcome the challenges of the deep, such as legibility or helium build-up, allow for rich scholarship into the details of such evolutions. But at the core of it, we all just love watches that look great and don’t need to be wrapped in cotton wool as we go about our busy lives. And if we don’t have to spend a fortune, that’s even better. So what are the best affordable dive watches out there right now? We’ve put together a list of 11 different references from a number of different brands that will all ring up the till less than $5k (in watch collecting, everything is relative, especially what is affordable) and represent…
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The colour green might be the latest trend in watchmaking and even refer back to Audemars Piguet’s groovy colourful stone dials of the 1970s, but it has another far more interesting connotation that ties in very nicely with the iconic Royal Oak watch. Green is also evocative of the evergreen or perennial trees that grow […]
Our European Editor, Mike Christensen, tested out the new Tissot PRX, a throwback to a classic design from 1978. After a week on the wrist, here is what he made of one of the most accessibly priced integrated bracelet watches around. What was your first impression? Hear me out here, but… surely I’m not the only person to have a mild fascination with North Korea? Specifically the secretive country’s industrial peak in the 1970s when it was more commonly known as the People’s Republic of Korea. Or PRK. PRK, PRX – no one can argument there’s an uncanny resemblance there. Hence my rather unusual initial impression of the relaunch of this popular stainless-steel sports watch by Tissot, which has always been recognised for its integrated bracelet. North Korea aside, I was immediately struck by its sleek design contours and how lost you could get in the depth of the black dial – staring into it provided hours of soul-searching. How does it feel on the wrist? Considering its size of 40mm, it wears particularly slim and light and is the opposite of cumbersome while still managing to feel extremely robust (what the ‘R’ stands for). Incidentally, the ‘P’ stands for…
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Season three of Drive to Survive dropped at 6pm Melbourne time on Friday March 19th and, if you were anything like me, then you were up until 4am watching the entire series in one sitting. Okay, so maybe you’re not that obsessed, but if you’re even a little bit like me then your eyes were probably drawn to all of the watches. Formula 1 has a long history with timekeeping, as does all motorsport, but when you see the Rolex billboards plastered over nearly every Grand Prix, you realise just how much watches are part of F1’s DNA. As we did when season one of the show came out, I binged Drive to Survive and tried to spot as many interesting watches as possible. Here are some of the highlights. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari driver) Hublot MECA-10 Black Magic As a member of F1’s emerging young guard, he’s proven himself to be one of the best drivers on the planet, to the point of thrashing four-time world champion and ex-Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel on track. He’s clearly Ferrari’s future, having signed the longest term contract ever in the Scuderia’s history and, as a model for Giorgio Armani, he’s also a total…
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