Technicolour treats: The most colourful watches of 2019
Last year saw the release of a great many brilliant and colourful timepieces that aren’t shy of living on the brighter side of life. In particular, there were a fair few vibrant ladies watches that were unveiled, which are sure to liven up even the dullest of occasions. Here are some of the most colourful watches released in 2019: CASIO MT-G 20TH ANNIVERSARY B1000RB No list of the year’s most noteworthy watches would be complete without the cascade of colour that is the Casio MT-G B1000RB. A veritable rainbow explosion, the B1000RB hit Baselworld like a ton of bricks, bowling people over with everything from delight to disgust. It’s certainly on the higher-priced side for a Casio, but when you get it on the wrist, the dimes and dollars don’t seem to matter so much anymore. Ref No: MTG-B1000RB / Case size: 55.8mm / Case material: Ion-plated Steel / Movement: Tough solar-powered quartz / Price: $1849 HUBLOT BIG BANG UNICO BLUE MAGIC A nice royal blue is always a popular option in the colour stakes. Hublot capitalises on all the love for our boy blue, with the Blue Magic watch, a 45mm, full ceramic limited edition (limited to 500 pieces),…
The post Technicolour treats: The most colourful watches of 2019 appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.
2019 was a full-on year here at Time+Tide — we launched Australia’s premier watch club, the second edition of our magazine, NOW Issue 2, became the official distributor for DOXA watches in Australia and New Zealand and launched our very own online store, the Time+Tide marketplace. We also, rather obviously, wrote a shedload of stories for what was a very important year in watchmaking. And now I’ve got to whittle down the 1000+ posts and give you my five favourites … so here they are: MY WEEK WITH: The Girard-Perregaux Laureato Chronograph, and how I got completely turned around to loving it Andrew’s weeklong review of his personal Girard-Perregaux Laureato Chronograph was one of my favourite horological reads of 2019. In a past life, I worked for an Authorised Dealer of GP as a salesperson, and it used to confound me how ignorant people were to both the Laureato and Girard-Perregaux itself. Here is a watch that was conceived in the golden age of luxury steel sports watches with an integrated bracelet and, crucially, released a full year before the aristocratic Patek Philippe Nautilus. And Girard-Perregaux has been around since 1791, making it one of the oldest watchmakers on the planet.…
Nothing says versatility and breadth of ability like a two-tone watch, and while the steel and gold aesthetic has been considered more than a touch dull over the last decade, the blended material timepiece well and truly made a comeback in 2019, with myriad watchmakers embracing the semi-formal aesthetic. With that in mind, we thought we’d take a look at three of our favourite examples of two-tone timepieces released last year. Here they are (in no particular order): ROLEX SEA-DWELLER The Sea-Dweller is a serious dive tool, but it’s just as comfortable on the red carpet. The bi-colour version released this year at Baselworld hammers home the collection’s luxury credentials. While the Rolesor (two-tone) model pictured here is incredibly current, the vintage appeal of the full steel reference 126603, with its flash of red text on the dial, harks back to the earliest iteration from 1967 and will satisfy those who aren’t yet ready to embrace the return of yellow gold. Ref No: 126603 / Case size: 43mm / Case material: Oyster Steel and Yellow Gold / Movement: 3235 / Price: $23,400 TUDOR BLACK BAY CHRONO S&G The Black Bay Chrono gets the two-tone treatment with the introduction of the…
One of the most polarising materials to make a return to prominence in watchmaking over the last couple of years has been bronze. Why does this ancient material cause so much conjecture when it’s used as a timepiece’s case material? Well, for a start, it can’t come into direct contact with your skin for prolonged periods of time, because if it does, there’s every possibility your left wrist will end up looking like Bruce Banner’s when he gets angry. And, unlike steel, for example, a bronze watch will drastically change in appearance over the course of your ownership, as it is highly reactive to things like air, water, sweat … you get the picture. But bronze does have distinct benefits, too, and chief among them is an extreme resistance to corrosion. As a result, CuSn (bronze’s molecular formula) has been heavily utilised in the cases of dive watches. It is also, subjectively, a very handsome material for watch cases, and these are four of our favourites bronze timepieces from 2019: IWC BIG PILOT’S WATCH PERPETUAL CALENDAR SPITFIRE The Big Pilot series is one of the most iconic ranges within the IWC catalogue. For a brand capable of some seriously high-end…
How to define microbrand watches is a conversation topic that has worn out many watch journalists’ tongues. With proposed criteria ranging from price to retail model and everything in between, there isn’t much consistency in how this new phenomenon is received or perceived. Perhaps one thing that can unite the explosion of newcomers that the industry has seen since the advent of crowdfunding platforms is independence. You don’t find micros in a group. They may band together with other micros to pool event resources and widen their audience reach, but they are generally the ones in control of the purse strings and, most crucially, design decisions. Group ownership does funny things to a brand. It can bend them all out of shape and into new shapes that fit the group’s overarching narrative but not the brand itself. Microbrands are not beholden to such nonsense and, so, along with independence, you should expect to find a clean narrative that translates well into identifiable, high-value products trying to offer a lot of bang for your buck. And the best way to do that is to not go too crazy. Depart the beaten path, sure, but don’t beat it to death. Stick close…
Nothing says flex like a solid gold timepiece. Doesn’t matter what sort of gold it is either — yellow, white, pink … if it’s 18k, then chances are you’ve obtained a level of wrist-worn one-upmanship that few can ever hope to own. And 2019 was not shy at all about giving birth to some very, very hot examples of precious metal marvels from a number of different watchmakers. We’d love to mention all of them, but as the title of this story would suggest, the need for summation means that we must choose our five favourites … so here they are: H. MOSER & CIE. ENDEAVOUR BLUE LAGOON It is rare to see one of the industry’s most mercurial brands tapping into the current mass-market trends, but in the case of the H. Moser & Cie. Blue Lagoon that is exactly what’s happening. It seems the wealthiest watch collectors in the world are not, in fact, immune to the industry’s current obsession with teal. Achingly beautiful is the only way we can begin to describe it. Ref No: 1200-0206 / Case size: 40mm / Case material: White Gold / Movement: HMC 200 / Price: $34,850 PIAGET ALTIPLANO The Piaget Altiplano collection…
The more you look at different watches, the more critical you become, as you better understand what the watchmaker and designer were trying to achieve, and how successful they were at executing it in the final watch. This year, I got a lot of opportunities to handle hundreds of different watches, both new and vintage, and after thinking for a couple of weeks about the best of the new watches, these are my five favourites of 2019. Longines Heritage Classic It unfortunately isn’t often that brands nail the details of heritage-inspired wristwatches, but for me, Longines accomplished just that with their Heritage Classic, which was released at the end of 2019. At 38.5mm in diameter and just over 12mm tall, it is well sized for pretty much any wrist, as well as being fairly accurate to the dimensions of the original watch from 1934. The sector dial is engaging while restrained, and offers the best balance of vintage and modern of any watch this year. Greubel Forsey Hand Made The Greubel Forsey Hand Made is a watch that offers an almost spiritual impression when seen in the metal, such is the depth of human ingenuity and dedication that is evident.…
Staples, all good watch collections need to have staple pieces. A versatile daily beater, a rugged weekend warrior, a lauded grail watch and, of course, a great dress watch. But what are the characteristics of a great dress watch? Well, for a start it needs to be slim so it will fit under a cuff easily — there’s no greater sin than wearing a monolithic timepiece that awkwardly sits atop the cuff of a shirt or suit jacket. Another requisite is a leather band, as very, very few dress watches can successfully pull off a matching metal bracelet. And finally, a great timepiece to wear with a suit has to have a beautiful dial — it doesn’t need to be overtly complicated, nor should it be overtly OTT; it just has to be aesthetically pleasing. With all this in mind, we thought we’d share with you five of the best dress watches of 2019. LONGINES MASTER COLLECTION The appeal of a blue-dialled watch has much to do with the way it pairs with almost any outfit. But it’s also about how its softer aesthetic compares to the starkness of some black or white dials. The Longines Master Collection nails this…
It pains me so to admit this, but oftentimes a story is only as good as the photos that accompany it — especially when you’re writing about something as intricate and nuanced as watches. A good snap of a timepiece is not only the glorious icing on a particularly wordy cake, it actually assists us scribes in helping to articulate different facets of a given wristwatch. In short, a good photo is crucial in this game. Luckily for us here at Time+Tide, our photographer is a chap named Jason … and he’s a bloody wonderful photographer. And when Deputy-Editor Nick Kenyon said he wanted me to pick my favourite watch photos from 2019 that Jason had taken, I did so with verve. Here they are.
Yes, the technology almost single-handedly destroyed the Swiss watch industry, but whether you want to admit it or not, quartz watches are brilliantly impressive, and they have been the main proponents in democratising timepieces as we know them today. Ever since the ingenious battery-powered Seiko Astron first burst onto the scene on December 25, 1969, the Japanese watchmaker has been at the forefront of the uber-accurate mechanisms. But, crucially, many watchmakers now employ the use of quartz power, and we thought we’d take a look at four of the best quartz watches of 2019. GRAND SEIKO SBGN009 Released to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first quartz watch, the SBGN009’s luscious blue dial has the kind of repeating pattern in the background that very few brands can pull off without it looking chintzy. Cue Grand Seiko, whose reputation for remarkable dial designs is now well entrenched. The colour-matched seconds hand, GMT hand, logo, and chapter ring provide true chromatic harmony with the two shades of blue on show. Limited to 2,019 pieces. Ref No: SBGN009 / Case size: 40mm / Case material: Steel / Movement: 9F86 / Price: $4000 UNIMATIC MODELLO TRE Every watch collector should make space for a…