EDITOR’S PICK: Looking back at Blancpain’s commitment to the ocean for World Oceans Day
Editor’s note: Observed every year on June 8, World Oceans Day seeks to honour, help protect, and remind us all of the exceptional need to conserve the world’s oceans. A day that us, as a bunch of sea-loving Aussies in the T+T office, can most certainly get behind. And a day that we thought perfect to revisit these 12 pictures and their stories that were graciously shared with us from the pages of Blancpain’s Edition Fifty Fathoms by its editor, Dietmar Fuchs. Each year as part of the Blancpain Ocean Commitment project, 12 of the world’s best underwater photos are showcased in the annual publication. And these are some of the best since printing began in 2008. Oh, and in case you missed it, there’s a new Ocean Commitment watch to admire too. Blue in Profile — Anacapa Passage, California, 1981 Ernest H. Brooks II — Edition Fifty Fathoms 2008 “It was in early 1981 when I was going out nearly every day to take pictures of seals that I realised that, on all my dives with the seals, a lonely blue shark was circling us far in the distance. In the following days he came closer and closer until one day he…
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Today is World Oceans Day, a day that has, since 1992, celebrated our marine environments, and raised awareness for the need to preserve them. It’s a worthy cause, and one Blancpain, with their exceptional legacy in dive watches, has done a lot to support and promote. Most visibly through a series of Ocean Commitment watches. The first was a grey ceramic Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe, and the second a chronograph version of the same model. Both with rich blue dials. Today, Blancpain has announced the latest generation, the Fifty Fathoms Ocean Commitment III, and for the first time, it’s not a Bathyscaphe. Instead, Blancpain has opted for the classic Fifty Fathoms, in a 40mm satin-brushed steel case, with that characteristic sapphire-inset bezel, with sail-canvas and NATO strap options. The dial is (of course) as blue as the deep sea, with a quite attractive logo on the bottom half – a printed globe and text proclaiming its limited Ocean Commitment status. The BOC III is limited to 250 pieces, and 1000 euros from the sale of each watch (a cool quarter of a million in total) will be donated to programs working to promote ocean protection, in addition to Blancpain’s already significant…
Editor’s note: Following on from Felix’s post on Sunday, we were reminded that when it comes to predicting Baselworld watch releases, we don’t always get it exactly right. Especially when it comes to reissues. Whether it’s our own wants and desires that are trying to swing the vote towards something we’d like to see (I’m looking at you Omega … cough … Flightmaster). Or that in this ever-evolving and ever-growing industry there is bound to be watches that we just plumb forgot about. In either case, one that we absolutely did not see coming last year at Baselworld 2017 was this handsome little number from Rado, the HyperChrome Captain Cook. As far as reissues go, this one was a banger! And we here at T+T don’t mind making a few wrong predictions if it means we get to be surprised with watches like this one. The story in a second Who expected a drool-worthy heritage reissue from ceramic-focused Rado at Baselworld? No one, that’s who. While Rado is particularly well-known for their use of high-tech ceramic and hard metals, they’ve got a long history in water resistant and dive watches, launching their sporty ‘Green Horse’ series of watches (with a particularly cute seahorses…
Editor’s note: Today we revisit a golden oldie from Andrew that’s as relevant today as the day it was penned: how to casually work out if someone’s wearing the new Tudor GMT — without looking like a massive creep. We can all learn something here, so read on … Watch spotting. Don’t be shy, we all do it, and with varying levels of sophistication. Some among us are smooth as silk, spotting a watch half a room away, approaching the wearer with a smile and leaving shortly after with a photo, a story and the holy grail – a price. If you’re not already that guy, you can be. The scenario should be familiar. You’re walking down the street with your beloved and you spot a beautiful creature coming towards you. Whatever spins your tourbillon cage – Ryan Gosling’s junk, Nicki Minaj’s trunk – picture it, and squeeze it into something tight. You look down, sideways, anywhere but in their direction. You squeeze your partner’s hand tightly. All of a sudden you become intensely interested in shop displays, the pavement, birds. But at the same time you’re sneaking glances, off mirrors, windows, whatever you can. All too soon, the object of your…
Disclaimer: This post contains minimal traces of watch. But it does contain some very large diamonds. Ocean’s 8, the latest in the long-running series of elaborate heist movies, is about to hit our screens, but this time around the film is less of a bro session, as Clooney, Pitt et al. have been benched in favour of an all female crew, with Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett masterminding the (inevitably convoluted) caper. The object of their attention is a fairly pricey necklace, worn by Anne Hathaway. And here’s where things get interesting. This necklace, named the “Jeanne Toussaint” necklace, is made by Cartier, who happen to be the film’s exclusive jewellery partner, so some scenes were filmed in the brand’s New York boutiques, and Cartier watches (pro-tip for the watchspotters), jewellery and high jewellery items have their own supporting roles. The prop necklace was made in less than eight weeks by Cartier’s Parisian high jewellery workshops, from white gold with zirconium oxide for the diamonds. What I particularly like about this necklace, though, is the backstory. The necklace takes its name from Jeanne Toussaint, Cartier’s Creative Director during the 1930s, and is credited with being significant in establishing Cartier’s visual…
That’s right, a Rolex Submariner owned and gifted by the King of Cool will go under the hammer at Phillips auction house in New York on October 25. A year after the blockbuster sale of Paul Newman’s Paul Newman Daytona. It’s not just the timing of the sale that these two celebrity watches share either, with McQueen’s 1964 Rolex Submariner ref. 5513 sharing a similar story of provenance, complete with a few extra burning details. Phillips tell us the watch was purchased by McQueen in the 1960s. It was then gifted by him to his long-time stunt double Loren Janes, sometime in the mid-to-late ’70s, according to members of Janes’ surviving family. Having worked together on 19 of McQueen’s films over two decades, including Bullitt, The Great Escape and The Thomas Crown Affair, Janes was McQueen’s go-to stuntman, and before giving him the watch, McQueen had the case back inscribed: “LOREN, THE BEST DAMN STUNTMAN IN THE WORLD. STEVE.” Making this not only the earliest McQueen-owned Submariner ever put up for auction, but also the only known watch to bear the actor’s name. The story gets even more interesting. In 2016, a wildfire outside of Los Angeles, now known as the Sand Fire…
It’s easy with any brand’s new release catalogue to get swept up with the drama and complexity of the halo pieces. In the case of Glashütte Original that glory goes to the flashy green of the Sixties Panorama Date, or the bells and whistles of the Senator Cosmopolite. But sometimes you crave something simple, clean and pure. That’s where this latest take on the Senator Excellence Panorama Date comes in. If you’re not au fait with the watch, it’s one of the less complex models in the Senator family and was first introduced, with its lunar sibling, back in 2016. A well-sized 42mm by 12.2mm watch, cased here in sensible and utilitarian steel, it’s powered by the calibre 36-03, a big date-equipped take on the very impressive Calibre 36. This is one very impressive movement, a 4Hz automatic, with 100 hours of power reserve (all coming from one barrel no less), and tested to standards that meaningfully exceed COSC standards. It also looks great too, what with that double ‘G’ skeletonised rotor. But for me, this watch is all about the dial. The design of the Senator Excellence Panorama Date is quite restrained to start with, with those arrowhead hour…
Editor’s note: You don’t have to be one of Gotham’s finest to figure out that the all new, all ‘Oystersteel’ ‘Pepsi’ GMT-Master II was one of the biggest releases to come out of Baselworld this year. The hype was real. And with all this talk of two-colour bezels, we got to wondering around the T+T office, if this one — the first of the Rolex ceramic bezels to get the bi-colour treatment — can hold its own against its brand-new red and blue younger sibling. While we wait for the first deliveries of Pepsi to be made, and to find out just how the Batman stacks up, we thought it was a good idea to get reacquainted with the BLNR, and Mr Bruce Duguay’s excellent in-depth review. When Rolex introduced the updated ceramic bezel GMT-Master II nearly 10 years ago it was perhaps one of the most aggressive revisions to this historic model. A beautiful new scratch and fade resistant ceramic insert for the bezel, a heftier case and more pronounced dial ushered in a new era for this pilot’s watch. Notably absent, however, were the bi-colour bezels that had been available since the inception of the GMT-Master in the 1950s (think ‘Pepsi’ blue/red and ‘Coke’ red/black).…
Editor’s note: Speculation is, by definition, risky. But it’s also fun. And here at T+T we don’t speculate on shares or cryptocurrency — no, we make guesses on watch releases. So last year we made nine semi-educated guesses as to what watches we’d see this year … and we didn’t do so well. If you’re charitable, we can kind of claim three out of nine. Their is a new Polaris (though not the Mark II), the new Navitimer 8 does have a bit of Top Time DNA in there, and Andy did predict a gradient grey dial Blancpain Diver Date. But you know what, there’s always 2019 … Today’s list is, without doubt, one of the most meta we’ve done in a while. We’re looking forward … to the past. There’s no escaping that vintage reissues are a part of the watch collection landscape, now being a ‘key pillar’ for many brands, and guessing what they’re going to pull out of the archives is always a fun game. So Andy and I polished off the crystal ball and had a stab at what we’re going to see at SIHH and Baselworld 2018. Omega Flightmaster Andy: The Omega Flightmaster is one of…