FRIDAY WIND DOWN: What, there've been some watches released? I beg your pardon?
Miracle of miracles, it’s a Friday Wind Down that is not another miserable news bulletin about a global pandemic that is coming for our lives and our toilet paper! This week, a brace of new watches were released. And what a sweet thing that is. Normality! The good news continues. We’ve just finished production on a video that was filmed ‘PC’ (Pre-COVID) in January, in Dubai, which also recaps new watches. By the brand on fire, Zenith. So, in other words, it’s a Friday Wind Down, much more like those that have come before it over the years. One of these new releases, in particular, has helped draw people out of a dark place … By being the most lurid, colourful and provocative watch of 2020. It can almost certainly lay claim to being the most lurid, colourful and provocative watch of all time, for the brand that produced it. Breitling have dredged this sparkling, technicolour gem out from amidst their usual more uniform heritage models — it is a faithful rendition of a model from 1957. A fact that many on the ‘Gram remain oblivious to. But hey, what fun would the internet be if commenters were actually well researched? There…
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When it rains it drips. And in April 2020, at a time when we need it most – our kingdom for some new watches to write about! – it drips technicolour divers, classic chronos and two absolute blue beauties. Seriously. Like blue dialled watches? Prepare yourself. In a case of simply weird timing, just a couple of days after the news that Rolex, Patek Philippe, Chanel, Tudor and Chopard have all permanently ditched Baselworld, we have witnessed a brace of new 2020 novelties. We’ve picked the great from the good, the rainbows from the duller skies and the blue in the beautiful for this Time+Tide edit. No matter what you think of them, you can’t deny, it’s good to see this cloudburst of creativity in dark times. IWC Portugieser Chronograph Truly an icon of the IWC stable, the Portugieser Chronograph may well be one of the cleanest-looking chronos that money can buy. But there’s always been a gripe with the regular ‘Gieser chrono … it’s relied on movements made by third-party outfits like Valjoux and Sellita. Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing; however, when you’re spending five figures on a watch that bears the Schaffhausen firm’s name on the dial,…
With the sell-out success of the Revolution ‘Cover Girl’ Limited Edition, and the astonishing Midnight Collection for women launched in January, Zenith are officially on a hot streak. When I put that to CEO Julien Tornare, just before we started rolling camera, he said something quite unforgettable. “When I took over [at Zenith] two and a half years ago, people were talking about the sleeping beauty. I don’t like to sleep much, so I thought we have to wake this beauty up and do something great. And now it’s starting to pay off in a great way. “Zenith has a long history: 155 years of history. We are also a very authentic brand. Every single watch we produce has a Zenith movement in it. But the heart of what we do has to be to make watches of the 21st Century.” With that goal in mind, you can’t really fault this colourful, characterful trio of new men’s watches. They traverse some ground: a flamboyant watch for the party set, a stealthy, matte execution fit for a Defender and yet more trusty, attractive Pilot watches.  
When the Monta Oceanking arrived one day, I didn’t quite know what to make of it. Luckily, I was able to secure a phone interview with Justin Kraudel, the president of Monta. Mr Kraudel is as enthusiastic about watches as any of us (perhaps more so) and was eager to school me on Monta in general and give me some excellent background on the Oceanking and where it sits in the dive watch arena. Perhaps most interesting was the portion of our chat surrounding Monta’s transactional model, which consists nearly entirely of online sales direct from their website. Total transparency in the purchase process is their first priority, along with direct customer service after the sale. Kraudel’s passion for customer experience came across completely clearly and genuinely as Monta is on a mission not only to conquer new owners but also retain a loyal following. Monta also knows that watch enthusiasts like the details. Because of its size and ability to make quick changes to product offerings and variations, Kraudel says Monta already has followers chasing production dial variations, tracking minor generational changes and creating buzz about limited edition models on the forums. This is the kind of activity that…
This week’s gone full Speedmaster. On Saturday, it was the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 13 mission, deemed to be a “successful failure”, because there was indeed a major malfunction, but all astronauts on the mission lived to talk about it. I was very fortunate to have heard this story told by one of the men who played a part, US astronaut Jim Lovell – at the NASA Space Centre in Houston. In short, when all the astronauts had to cram into the lunar module to make it back to earth after an oxygen tank exploded on board, the Speedy played its part in helping Jim nail the precise moment to trigger and then cease a crucial 14-second fuel burn to get the module angled correctly to re-enter the earth’s atmosphere. Using the earth’s horizon line as a guide and his chronograph for the fuel burn, they successfully made it back home and Omega was awarded the Snoopy Award for their crucial role in getting the astronauts home safely. If that wasn’t enough, we are also keeping an eye on the sale of an Omega Speedmaster belonging to a Russian cosmonaut that was worn in space. Nikolai Budarin wore the…
Ever wanted to own an Omega Speedmaster that was actually worn in space? Is that the most rhetorical question you’ve ever heard? If so, a) get in line, and b) you’re in luck, because online auction house RR Auction are offering just that – an Omega Speedmaster that has slipped the bonds of terra firma and glimpsed into the infinite blackness of outer space. Owned by Russian cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin, the flight-qualified timepiece was strapped to Budarin’s wrist when he took part in several of the missions that were part of the fabled Shuttle–MIR space program between the United States and Russia. All told, Budarin wore this Speedmaster while performing three Extravehicular Activities (EVAs – any activity completed by an astronaut or cosmonaut outside a spacecraft beyond the Earth’s appreciable atmosphere), including the STS-71 mission, which saw the first-ever flight and docking of a space shuttle to the MIR space station. Accompanying the extraterrestrial timepiece is a letter of provenance signed by Budarin himself, which reads: “I certify that the Omega Speedmaster Professional with the serial No. 48267771 was used by me during the flight of EO-19 on the space station MIR during intra station activity and during my three…
Editor’s note: With Rolex still yet to release a new watch in 2020, and with no release date in sight, we’ve gone back through the archives to uncover some previous models that still give us that jolt of excitement. That visceral punch of impact. Perhaps it’s the refined twist on Aussie ‘green and gold’ that makes Day-Date 40 variant from 2016 such a standout? Perhaps it’s the way that the olive and Everose colour scheme dresses the watch ever so slightly down, while clearly being a more ‘grown up’ version of yellow gold and forest green? It could also be that it still remains a relatively rare spot in the wild. Whatever the case, this is a moment of sheer Rolex genius and I love it not one iota less than when we first laid eyes on it. It’s no real surprise that Rolex — the world’s most reputable brand — is a class act. For me this was proven when I saw the beautiful new green-dialled Day-Date 40 on the first day of this year’s Baselworld fair. That class factor was cemented when I discovered the watch was available in stores on the very same day of its release. Not many brands could…
My position on wearing a watch while playing sports is already well established – I think it is a very bad idea. However, recent footage of UFC legend Conor McGregor hitting the reflex bag with a series of “bare knuckle pin pointers” has once again stirred up quite the storm in watch land. Why? Well, “The Notorious” decided to unleash hell on this freestanding bag while rocking a solid platinum Rolex Day-Date 40 Ref. 228206IBLDP with factory diamond dial. View this post on Instagram Focus on the task at hand with Bare knuckle pin pointers. A post shared by Conor McGregor Official (@thenotoriousmma) on Mar 28, 2020 at 10:07pm PDT There’s no two ways about it – this a flex reserved only for the uppermost echelon of the wide world of sports. But the “Champ Champ” isn’t the only professional athlete out there to wear an inordinately expensive watch while going about their business. Here are five other sportspeople that rock big money on their wrists while bringing home the proverbial bacon: Odell Beckham Jr.- Richard Mille RM 11-03 “McLaren” OBJ set the world on fire last year when he was spotted wearing a Richard Mille RM 11-03 “McLaren” while playing a…
Do you remember the feeling of watching Marriage Story? The way that, despite the flashes of intimacy and connection between Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, you just knew the two characters were doomed, and that it was all going to descend to a scene where Adam Driver is singing drunkenly in a bar. Well, that’s what watching this Baselworld saga has been like to report on. It doesn’t matter who is who, they both – Baselworld and the watch brands – ain’t going to end up with each other. That’s all that matters. And now we have our Adam Driver in the bar scene. Because, in a statement released overnight, Rolex, Patek Philippe, Chanel, Tudor and Chopard have announced their departure from the Baselworld trade fair. They’re out. Baselworld is all but done. While this may come as a shock to some, the writing has been on the wall for a number of weeks and months, with growing tension between the exhibitors committee of Baselworld and Baselworld management MCH Group around the cancellation of the 2020 edition of the show. Instead of attending Baselworld in 2021, the brands will hold their own event in Geneva in April 2021 at the…
The Patek Philippe Nautilus remains one of the most coveted watches in the world, with a long waiting list for anyone buying through an AD, and and prices fetching well above RRP on the secondary market. It is a favourite amongst current-day celebrities such as Ellen DeGeneres, however with a little digging we have discovered some more surprising owners in showbiz and beyond. A little backstory first. The original Nautilus was launched in 1976 as a contemporary in design and style to the Royal Oak by Audemars Piguet, which was launched in 1972. Perhaps not surprisingly, given their similar aesthetics, both timepieces were designed by Gérald Genta. And while the popularity of the Patek Philippe Nautilus has exploded around the world in recent times, the reception to the model’s ascension hasn’t all been positive. The inflation in price and demand has resulted in some claims that hype around the model is “killing it for collectors”. That matters not to these famous fans, past and present, who have a Nautilus in regular rotation. Jonah Hill Jonah Hill isn’t a name that immediately comes to mind when you think of Hollywood stars with jaw-dropping watch collections, but as we see right here,…