5 of the best quartz watches that watch snobs approve of
A lot of the discussion about what makes a watch good value is centred on the mechanics responsible for keeping the time. When those glorious mechanics are removed in favour of a soulless electronic module, many enthusiasts switch off. But this needn’t be the end of the discussion. Quartz watches, for all their sins and the brazen mutiny of the ’70s, have a lot of good things going for them. Firstly, they are more accurate. That’s a pretty short discussion, but it’s true. Even if a traditional mechanical watch were able to be so finely tuned that it could keep time as well as a quartz equivalent in a controlled environment, the minute these competing watches hit a wrist in the real world (along with its frequent shocks, temperature fluctuations, and evermore present magnetic fields that come with it), the mechanical watch would almost certainly experience the odd fluctuation. For fans of hyper-accuracy, the arguments are obvious. But what quartz also enables established luxury watchmakers to do is offer the same build quality (in terms of cases, dials, hands, straps, packaging, and so forth) at a fraction of the cost. Not only are quartz modules incredibly cheap (with many that…
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It’s 2019. So podcasts and niche indie brands are where. it’s. at. Which is why today’s recommendation is the perfect package — offering both in spades. The Worn & Wound podcast is one of the best in the space, and it only gets better when they assemble the veritable avengers of “micro” brands, the guys behind Halios, Autodromo and Baltic. These guys drop some serious insights into the small indie scene, and what it’s like to run a small brand. Great insights, well recommended. These three brands offer some amazing value and are killing it on the design front. Forty-five minutes well spent. Get it where you get your podcasts, or listen here.
Editor’s note: There’s something about GMTs. Even if you don’t travel or do business in far-flung parts of the world, there’s a romance and sense of adventure to these timepieces. And 2018 was a particularly strong year for the complication, with a brace of strong offerings. So here’s that time Andy and I made awkward puns and chatted about the best GMT watches of Basel 2018. Oh, and if you’re really observant, you might notice we mention five watches at the start of the video, but only show four. That’s because we had to hold off on talking about this one until later. But even if it didn’t make the final cut, it’s still in the list. It very quickly became apparent — after only a few hours on the ground at Basel 2018 — that GMTs were everywhere, and not just the obvious Pepsi-bezelled, Jubilee-braceleted option from the Big Crown. So Andy and I took some time out from our busy schedules to discuss this phenomena, and some prime examples. So, in addition to the Rolex GMT-Master II, we noted that Patek had doubled down on their Calatrava Travel Time. TAG Heuer added a little more complication to their…
Editor’s pick: Whenever I pop into an op shop (or thrift store for our American readers), I always make sure to have a look at the watches, JUST IN CASE. Because you never know, you might just have the level of luck of this guy who, in 2016, picked up a Panerai that turned out to be worth a shade more than the 10 pound asking price … It’s happened again. First, this guy found an original LeCoultre Deep Sea Alarm in a thrift store. And now, the son of a Cheshire man who bought a Rolex-made Panerai issued to the Italian Navy in WW2 at a car boot sale for 10 quid has sold the watch for £46,000 at auction. It turns out the timepiece was one of only 618 Rolex 17 Rubis Panerai 3636 watches made between 1941 and 1943. Your pain is our pain. “He was so shocked by the result he had to be told the final sale price three times by the auctioneer — as he had expected the antique to go for around £500,” reports the Daily Mail. “Made by the Italian company Panerai, in a collaboration using a Rolex movement, the oversized wristwatch was sold without…
Editor’s note: Watches can be intimidatingly confusing things, full of obscure parts with funny names. In this first part of our ongoing series ‘The ultimate watch glossary’, we start things off nice and slow with some entry-level terms. Even if you’re all over these terms, this page is perfect for sharing with your watch-curious buddies … Case The case is the exterior of the watch. It can be made from a range of high-tech or precious materials, but steel is most common. Typically, measurements are provided as the diameter, excluding the crown. Bezel The bezel is the ring that surrounds the dial of the watch (on the outside), and typically plays a role in attaching the crystal to the watch. If the dial is surrounded by a separate internal ring, that is often referred to as a chapter ring. Strap The strap is a material band that attaches the wristwatch to the wrist. These are often made of leather but can be made of fabric, rubber, and other materials. A proprietary strap is a specially shaped strap that only fits the watch for which it was designed (in the same way, a proprietary lug system only accepts a strap that…
In yet another example of water being wet, desirable Rolex models are not easy to get. And while the issues with Rolex stock should not be news to anyone reading this, this analysis from WatchPro’s managing editor Rob Corder is a somewhat more evidence-based analysis than the usual feverish hyperbole. Corder uses the tried and tested method of seeing what sort of actual stock is in stores across the world, and the picture is grim … I have searched the cabinets of authorised dealers in Dubai, central London, Edinburgh, Heathrow and Gatwick Airports, Las Vegas, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco and not one of them had a single steel GMT or Submariner. The key takeaway here is that the risk of consumer frustration is real and present, and rumoured production increases of around 6% will not be enough to tip the supply/demand balance, unless Rolex is willing to shift production ratios more heavily towards steel pieces. Read the full story over at WatchPro.
Editor’s note: In the last few years, two-tone watches have moved from fringe to mainstream trend status. And while it’s clear that yellow gold has been largely replaced with pink, the other material de rigueur is typically steel. Which is why we’re still so into the Girard-Perregaux Laureato in titanium and pink gold – the perfect meeting of opulence and function. One of the most impressive collections we saw at SIHH 2017 was that of Girard-Perregaux, dominated by the sporty, ’70s-inspired Laureato collection. And while most of the Laureatos walked a pretty established product path — a top-end tourbillon, 42 and 38mm models in a few dials and case materials, as well as smaller, diamond-decked women’s models — one model stood out, both in terms of style and construction. I’m talking, of course, about the watch in the above picture, a 42mm two-tone Laureato in a bi-metallic case. And while two-tone is hardly unusual (especially this year, when it’s launched into legit ‘trend’ status), you don’t see too many watches in a mix of precious pink gold and technical titanium. Which, looking at this piece, is a little bit of a surprise, because, boy, does the combo work. Both metals have been given…
Editor’s note: From dive to dress and some gorgeous dials in between. Cam has a look at 11 of the best Grand Seiko watches of recent times … Just 10 years ago, buying a Grand Seiko meant either having to buy a plane ticket to Japan, convincing a relative/friend/acquaintance/that-guy-you-met-one-time to buy a ticket to Japan, or navigating your way around Japanese online retailers – searching every page for an image of your heart’s desire and then using Google translate to confirm that they even offered international shipping. You see, despite having a history that stretches back to 1960, it wasn’t until 2010 that Grand Seiko was properly introduced to the world. Once one of Japan’s best kept secrets, Grand Seiko was born from Seiko’s desire to show the world what Japanese watchmaking could do. And in the years since, the innovative brand has become one of the most influential. Still, as Felix put it last month, “there remains an air of mystique around the Japanese brand”. And while his excellent video explained some of the essentials, I thought I’d add some more meat to its bones with this list of 11 key models from the collection, and just why they…
If you pay attention to the more business-to-business end of watchland you might have noticed that UK-based mega-retailer Watches of Switzerland (not to be confused with our local Aussie retailers of the same name) recently listed on the London Stock Exchange. They noticed it over at Axios, where this interesting piece on the business of telling time comes from. Lots of it will be anecdotally familiar to people in the trenches of watch collecting, but it’s interesting to see it picked up by capital N News. Our key takeouts? Yup, Ecommerce is still the next big thing, but we’re not sure what it’s going to look like: Luxury goods giant Richemont, owner of Cartier and Jaeger-LeCoultre, is going for broke, investing nearly $3.4 billion in used watch seller Watchfinder and other online vendors last year. They’re not alone. And the industry is finally engaging with second-hand watches in a serious way, with AP, Breitling and LVMH all planning to address the secondary market, which could be bigger than new. This, combined with supply issues among certain brands, is why we’re seeing a situation where “used watches sold online in 2018 regularly fetched higher prices than new ones”. It’s the wild…
At long, long last we were able to host the Australian launch of the Longines Legend Diver Black at our headquarters in Cremorne, Melbourne this week. It heralded the watch officially going on sale in our shop, where it will be available for the next two months exclusively in Australia. To say that the moment was long-awaited would be a dramatic understatement. We’ve wanted to share this particular watch — a big, blacked-out, contemporary step forward for Longines — since March last year when we first laid eyes on it. The dress code was black, anyway you like it. The weather was black, as Melbourne loves it in winter. But the mood was as warm and spicy as the just-launched Four Pillars Bloody Shiraz Gin, dancing on guests’ tongues the minute they arrived and were handed one as a welcome cocktail. The star of the show though, without question, was the heart of darkness focused in two shiny display cabinets and on the wrists of Andrew and Felix – the Longines Legend Diver, in black. On the night, in order to allow guests a chance to try it on, we wore it on our ‘Midnight Dark’ premium ballistic nylon NATO strap,…