VIDEO: Fantastic 4 – the best TAG Heuer watches from Baselworld 2017
TAG Heuer is a brand with the pedal to the metal – which is appropriate given their motorsports heritage. Having said that, TAG Heuer’s Baselworld 2017 releases have been both diverse and prolific. There’s the heritage hotness of the Autavia, but there’s also the slimmed down and blinged up versions of the aggressively modern and technical modular Carrera. But the real surprise is a completely revamped and reimagined Link – what was once bold and chunky is now sleek and dressy…
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Some of the most important, exciting watches are those made by watchmakers who push the barriers of what’s possible. The deepest, the most complicated, or in the case of this Bulgari, the thinnest. Bulgari has a proven record when it comes to high-end, ultra thin horology. They hold the record for the thinnest tourbillon and the thinnest minute repeater. Now they can add the thinnest automatic movement to the list. The movement in the new Bulgari Octo Finissimo Automatic is a mere 2.23mm thick, 0.7mm thinner than Piaget’s legendary 12P. On top of that the whole watch comes in at a mere 5.15mm thick. This extremely slight movement, paired with the lightweight titanium case means that the Octo really is a feather on the wrist. The real trick to making a thin movement is to make one that is robust enough to stand up to regular daily wear, and on that front the Octo certainly delivers. Beating at 3hz, and with a platinum micro-rotor that’s able to generate an impressive 60 hours of power reserve, the Finissimo is no delicate dress-only piece. On top of that the Caliber BVL 138 has been designed to very tight tolerances, with many elements…
Baselworld is a pressure cooker. It’s an intense week full of back-to-back appointments, cramped accommodation and more watches than – if we’re being really honest – is healthy to try and process at once. So it’s only to be expected that Andrew and I have our own instincts about what are the hotties and notties. In fact, sometimes it can get downright frosty in Chez Time+Tide. It’s Saturday evening here, and instead of chilling out we’re getting fired up over a few Feldschlössen and five watches we just can’t see eye to eye on. Rolex Oyster Perpetual Sea-Dweller ANDREW: I’m rapt they’ve onboarded the new Sea-Dweller with the 3235 movement, but I’m not as into the larger 43mm size. One of the best things about Rolex is the sheer ergonomic perfection of the OP case in its purest expression, which is 40mm with that svelte case profile you can spot a mile away. And that’s the thing, a Rolex doesn’t need to be big to be noticed. FELIX: I think you’re missing the point. People want big Rolexes – the Sea-Dweller is one of the models that looks good at a bigger size. The cyclops is classic Rolex, and who doesn’t like red text? Sure,…
In the months, weeks and days leading up to Baselworld the speculation around what novelties Rolex would release reached a near fever pitch. Pundits made predictions about what the new Sea-Dweller would look like, and if we’d see extensions added to the Daytona and Yacht-Master family. But no one predicted an updated Sky-Dweller… Originally released in 2012 the Sky-Dweller has always been something of a niche proposition. Highly complex and only offered in precious metals, the dressy Rolex lacked the instant cachet of the Professional series. Well, with the addition of competitively priced Rolesor models (the steel and yellow gold has a Swiss RRP of 16,300 CHF and steel with a white gold bezel is 13,700 CHF) we expect the Sky-Dweller will rocket to the top of a lot of people’s interest lists. It’s not just the fact that Rolex has democratised the Sky-Dweller somewhat that has people interested, they’ve also given it a facelift, lengthening the hands, replacing numerals with indices and blending the 24-hour disc into the dial. All this adds up to a Sky-Dweller that looks and wears differently to the original, and we’re pretty sure Rolex has another hit on their hands.
The new Autavia is finally here. Twelve months after TAG Heuer announced the Autavia Cup, an innovative, open design process that allowed fans to have their say on the look of the final product is here, and it’s quite the looker. The Autavia, a portmanteau combination of automobile and aviation, was first released by Jack Heuer in 1962 and was the first chronograph wristwatch with a rotating bezel, a feature that added even more functionality to the already utilitarian watch. And, as is the case with all of Heuer’s chronographs, the identity of the Autavia is inseparable from the world of racing – it was a model worn by legendary racers such as Jo Siffert, Mario Andretti and Jochen Rindt. The combination of classic chiselled-jaw manliness and heady nostalgia for the golden age of racing means that the popularity (and value) of vintage Autavia’s has been skyrocketing in recent years. Which brings us to the 2017 reissues. Based on the 1966 ‘Rindt’ model (reference 2446, mark 3), the latest Autavia is a smart blend of vintage style and modern sensibility. Visually the watch is a very close fit to the original, with the most noticeable change being (predictably enough) the dimensions.…
One of the brands we’re always excited to see at Basel is Tudor. They’ve built a reputation for consistently delivering solid, and occasionally surprising watches, and 2017 is no different. We take a look at four new versions of their flagship Black Bay. There’s the simple but upscaled BB41, the blingy BB S&G, the rugged new BB Steel and the complex BB Chrono. If there’s one thing that struck us about the collection as a whole, it’s just how versatile (and enduringly popular) the Black Bay design is.
Omega’s box set celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Railmaster, Seamaster and Speedmaster has been one of the talking points of Baselworld 2017, and not just because of the watches. The box itself is a work of craftsmanship in itself. It isn’t just like an Omega box from the 50s, it has been made to be exactly the same, with corduroy and gold foil lettering and all. We have the pricing, the live images and the (included) travel pouch all in this two-minute video.
This post is served with an almighty fist pump, because just like our crystal ball ‘predicted’, Longines has announced a 90th Anniversary version of the Lindbergh Hour Angle, a few months ahead of the anniversary celebration. Longines has still managed to pull out a major surprise though. The steel and titanium watch will be limited to just 90 pieces. The hour referenced in the name of the model will be about as long as it takes for the model to sell out. The original ‘hour angle’ watch was designed in a partnership between Charles Lindbergh and Longines following his 33-hour flight from Roosevelt Airport to Le Bourghet, outside Paris. The historic feat was timed by Longines, who were official timekeeper for the World Air Sports Federation. Lindbergh had some ideas about how to determine longitude during long-distance flights using a rotating bezel to allow for the correction of the equation of time and a rotating centre dial that allows for synchronization to the second. The resulting watch, which has had several reissues over the years, indicates the hour angle in degrees and in minutes of arc in addition to indicating hours, minutes and seconds. Pilots and navigators have used the hour…
This post is served with an almighty fist pump, because just like our crystal ball ‘predicted’, Longines has announced a 90th Anniversary version of the Lindbergh Hour Angle, a few months ahead of the anniversary celebration. Longines has still managed to pull out a major surprise though. The steel and titanium watch will be limited to just 90 pieces. The hour referenced in the name of the model will be about as long as it takes for the model to sell out. The original ‘hour angle’ watch was designed in a partnership between Charles Lindbergh and Longines following his 33-hour flight from Roosevelt Airport to Le Bourghet, outside Paris. The historic feat was timed by Longines, who were official timekeeper for the World Air Sports Federation. Lindbergh had some ideas about how to determine longitude during long-distance flights using a rotating bezel to allow for the correction of the equation of time and a rotating centre dial that allows for synchronization to the second. The resulting watch, which has had several reissues over the years, indicates the hour angle in degrees and in minutes of arc in addition to indicating hours, minutes and seconds. Pilots and navigators have used the hour…
One of the highlights on our Baselworld calendar is seeing what heritage re-release Longines has cooked up, and whoo boy, have they pulled out all the stops in 2017 or what. You’re looking at the Heritage 1945, an absolutely on point interpretation of a mid-century dress watch. Based on a 1945 design called the Calatrava by collectors, this watch does everything right. Funnily enough it’s the exact watch that Sunflowerman illustrated as part of the Watercolour Watch project back in 2015. The 40mm steel case is simple, and not overly fussy, with a flat bezel just the right width and a slender-yet-functional crown. The mid-tan nubuck strap with single line of reinforcing stitching in contrasting thread walks a perfectly straight line between dress and casual. The real star is the dial. For such a minimal layout, Longines has packed it full of sexy detail. First of all there’s the vintage velvet effect of the brushed copper-tone convex dial, then there’s the alternating steel-tone applied hours markers and printed mid-century Arabic numerals, all of which contrasts with the long, elegant leaf hands in blued steel. The small seconds subdial has a concentric circular finish, just to keep things interesting. Oh, and…