HANDS-ON: 6 decades on and still going strong – the Piaget Altiplano 60th anniversary
Though Piaget has made a lot of noise in the past 12 months with the sporty steel Polo S, the undeniable heart of the collection is the ultra-slim and ultra-sexy Altiplano. Born in 1957 and named for the flat South American high plains, the Altiplano and the legendary caliber 9P that powered it, have become synonymous with thin. This year marks the collection’s 60th anniversary, and to celebrate Piaget has released two limited editions in white gold that speak to the model’s rich heritage. Today we’re looking at the larger 43mm automatic version, though there’s also a manually wound 38mm option. For a watch that slides under the cuff at a mere 5.25mm thin (and a movement that’s less than half that, at 2.35mm), this Altiplano has ample presence on the wrist. Basically, that’s because this watch is all dial. It’s a blue sunburst, which – as you can see from these pictures – shifts from cool grey to far richer tones, depending on the light. Aside from the colour, the dial is an exercise in pure design, with long white gold indices and matching hands. Somehow the elegant printed dial text and pale blue cross hair (another nice nod to…
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This year it appears that the Submersible collection is a major focus for Panerai, with the brand releasing a veritable pack of new models in all manner of materials and sizes. But there’s one watch above all else that has inflamed the passions of the Paneristi, and that’s the PAM 00671 – AKA the Blue Bronzo. For anyone not familiar with the legend of the Bronzo, a little backstory. In 2011 Panerai released the PAM 00382, a green-dialled Luminor Submersible cased in bronze, limited to 1000 pieces, though we suspect they wouldn’t have had too much trouble selling 10 times that number. While it wasn’t the first ever bronze cased watch, it was the watch that started the bronze craze. Well, this year the Bronzo is back, and blue. And what a blue! Forget any notions of in-your-face summer blue. Instead this is the darker, more mysterious hue of deep oceans. In fact, under the halogen lights of SIHH, the dial looked almost black, with occasional brilliant flashes at just the right angle. The colour of the dial might be the most obvious change, but it isn’t the only one. The luminous material on the hands, dial and bezel has been given a vintage creamy tone to match…
The first day of any overseas watch fair is pretty much a blur of lights and (occasionally ticking) sounds for Felix and me. Don’t blame that on the boogie, blame it on the tyranny of distance. For the friends we are yet to meet this week in Geneva, here’s a pre-emptive answer for you: “We landed the afternoon before doors opened.” Stepping off a 24-hour flight from some mythical place known as Australian summer into a blizzard of snow and new watches means that few stand out from the maelstrom. These are the five that did from Day One of SIHH 2017. The Panerai PAM671 – the blue dialled Bronzo It lives! Some mocked our crystal ball skills when we published these predictions a few days ago, but critics should note we were profoundly right when we suggested Panerai might release a blue-dialled Bronzo to stand muscly shoulder to muscly shoulder with its rare and highly sought-after green-dialled brother. And choosing between them for most handsome is even more difficult than with the Hemsworth family. The combination of deep, navy blue dial with the gold-like hue of the new bronze, and then the luscious chocolate-rich brown strap… Be still our beating wrists. The issue…
Two thousand and sixteen will surely go down in the annals of watch-lore as the year of the Daytona. Not only did Rolex finally update their stainless steel icon, but they also unveiled two new precious metal versions. We’ve already looked at the oh-so-shiny green and yellow gold version, and today we hold in our hands the slightly more understated white gold option. The main change here is, of course, the dial. The iridescent blue starburst is called, somewhat unimaginatively, ‘blue’ by Rolex. We were hoping for something more romantic, like ‘ocean depths’ or ‘arctic night’. Regardless of what you call it, the dial is a stunner, and the perfect counterpoint to the high shine of the heavy white gold case, especially with the red highlights on the counters and the ‘Daytona’ text. As far as colour combos go, this one works beautifully – understated and distinctive all at the same time. Unlike its steel brethren, the bezel on the 116509 hasn’t recieved a ceramic upgrade, and is still polished gold, though the tachy text is in the new radial style. The calibre 4130 ticks away behind the scenes, with superlative accuracy. Of the three different metal versions of the Daytona Rolex…
Time for the final leg of our tour of the best ‘affordable’ watches of 2016. We’re now at the upper end, at that fun little sweet spot where things start to get really interesting, with some serious in-house movements on offer, and amazing solid designs. It’s the upper limit for many people, so a lot of these options are less disposable and more ‘one good watch’. We’ve snuck a few pieces in that are priced just north of 5k, because we’re devious like that. And of course, if you wanted to spend a few (hundred/thousand) dollars more, the sky’s the limit, but we had to end this somewhere. Longines Avigation Type A-7 The words ‘value’ or ‘bargain’ don’t frequently come up when talking about a watch that’s getting close to $5k, but they’re totally applicable in the case of the Longines Avigation. It takes the heritage charm we loved in their 1918 model from Basel last year, and adds a monopusher chronograph in an offset case similar to the Vacheron Historiques American pieces – but for about a fifth the price. That’s a big win in our books. The darkness of the faux-patina indices might be a little heavy-handed, but overall it’s a…
“What watch should I buy for ___ dollars?” is the almighty question we hear day in and day out. And while there’s no simple answer, we thought we’d point you in the right direction with a ‘best of’ hit list in every thousand dollar interval from one to five over the next few days. We can’t possibly hit every single watch in each segment, but our goal is simple — to give our fellow enthusiasts a healthy set of options that fit a wide range of tastes and budgets. With that in mind, let’s kick things off with eight of the best for under a grand. Seiko Turtle Reissue SRPA21K OK, so this guy’s a total no-brainer – a reissue of Seiko’s classic (and now quite collectable) 6309 series day-date divers. The originals were in production from roughly 1976 to ’88, and this past year saw countless fans shouting “Shut up and take my money” as the numerous variants of the Turtle reissue sold out, time and time again. The line includes something for everyone, including a gilt-dial variant, all black, all blue, a very cool grey made-for-the-Thailand-market Zimbe Turtle, and of course this one, the limited-release SRPA21K PADI-partnership blue-dialled model with pepsi bezel.…
Editor’s Note: And the top story of 2016 is…*drumroll*… Fakewatchbusta’s guest post on whether it’s ever acceptable to wear a knock-off timepiece. This story, written by the Batman of watch busting was ‘Yuuuge’, to borrow from the lexicon of President-elect Trump. It’s full of drama, sass and humour. Kind of like Downton Abbey. Fun fact: it’s inspired – like so many of the best things in life – by Robert Downey Jr. I am the person behind the @fakewatchbusta account on Instagram and I was kind of shocked when I got the assignment of writing on this topic. It’s like asking Superman if it’s OK to bring kryptonite to the party. Anyways, I’ll approach this as seriously as I can…. ARGUMENT #1 – “I wear fake watches when I travel in case I get robbed” In the words of penny stockbroker Timothy Sykes: “Rich people wear fakes as backups, especially in third world countries… but poor people don’t get that.” The argument here is that he might get robbed? Do you think a potential robber will study the font alignment and hand stack of your Rolex GMT-Master II to check if it’s genuine before he robs you? A proper insurance policy trumps this argument anyway.…
Editor’s Note: The Daytona had to make this list. It has, hands-down, been the most hyped/discussed/desired watch of 2016 – and we caught a bit of a lucky break at Baselworld, managing to post the first hands-on video review. Of course, we spent some quality time with it later in the year, but that’s a different story. This is the one you’ve been waiting for. Steel Daytona. Cerachrom bezel. Drop the mic, cue the applause. The Rolex Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona – reference 116500 to its friends – is a watch that lovers of the Big Crown have been clamouring for for years. And boy, have Rolex delivered. Not only is the bezel made from beautiful, impervious Cerachrom – but the design has been tweaked so that it evokes the Daytonas of yore. And the Australian RRP? $15,700. Not bad, not bad at all.