Yesterday, we brought you Part 1 of our History of the Patek Philippe Aquanaut. That article paints a picture of the environment in which the Aquanaut was conceived and launched. The heady days of the dot.com boom in the mid-1990s, marked by a decidedly more casual approach to luxury. With its finger to the pulse, […]
1969 was a revolutionary year for watchmaking with the advent of the automatic chronograph with three distinct projects presented almost simultaneously. Fifty years down the line, Zenith has been celebrating the 50th anniversary of the El Primero with great fanfare, Seiko commemorates 50 years of automatic chronographs, and TAG Heuer pays tribute to its 50-year […]
It’s taken some time, but the Patek Philippe Aquanaut has become sought after by watch collectors – especially in steel (no surprises there). That will probably sound strange if you’re relatively new to the world of high-end watches and are accustomed to seeing Aquanauts advertised at double retail. After all, based on the way the […]
When you think about Heuer watches, everybody has in mind the Jack Heuer era, meaning the Carrera (in all its executions), the Autavia and, 50th anniversary obliges, the Monaco. Yet, there are many other watches, mostly chronographs, produced under the Heuer name that deserve some attention. One of them, a true sleeping beauty, a “Heuer […]
Based on the vintage reference 6087, a watch launched in 1955, the modern so-called Cornes de Vache is, without doubt, one of the most sought-after Vacheron Constantin Chronographs. Available only in platinum or pink gold until very recently, a new steel version has recently been introduced… but given the limited production and great demand, it […]
The Constellation family has been around for 66 years and is currently one of Omega’s oldest collections. What started out as a chronometer for men in 1952 has undergone countless aesthetic transformations, from the pie-pan dials of the 1950s to the ultra-thin quartz watches of the 1970s leading to the consolidation of the collection in […]
In our modern age of smartphones and wearable tech, it’s easy to forget just how indispensable the humble mechanical wristwatch once was. Yet even a brief foray into the world of military watches is enough to provide a vivid reminder. Rugged, reliable and entirely fit-for-purpose, these simple timekeepers have played a critical role in the […]
July 1969 – July 2019. In a week, the world will celebrate one of mankind’s greatest achievements: walking on the Moon. On July 20th 1969 (or July 21st depending on where you are on Earth), 3 men, onboard a not-so-safe rocket named Saturn V, travelled to our nearest satellite and 2 of them (Aldrin and Armstrong) step […]
No watch can compete with the story of the Moonwatch. Period. And you can be sure that Omega will be pulling out all the stops and rolling out the red carpet to celebrate the golden anniversary of the Speedmaster’s Moon landing. On 16th July 1969, the Apollo 11 lifted off from the Kennedy Space Centre […]
By the early 1940s, Emile Gagnan and Jacques-Yves Cousteau’s Aqualung – the first commercially successful self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (a.k.a Scuba)- had become a worldwide phenomenon. Along with the growing popularity of recreational diving, the needs of military and professional divers underscored the paramount importance of reliable sub-aquatic instruments. Developed in 1953, the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms is often regarded as the archetype of the dive watch: a robust, highly legible watch, water-resistant to great depths (91 meters, in this instance) and equipped with a unidirectional rotating bezel to time dives.