HOW TO: Hide your watch obsession, 9 handy hints
Odds are that if you’ve found your way to our website and landed on an article titled ‘How to hide your watch obsession’, then you’re pretty passionate about your watches. After all, they say the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. But I’m not here to solve anyone’s problems — I’m here to help you hide them. To the uninitiated, spending what seems like abhorrent amounts of money on watches might seem ridiculous. To make matters worse, it can send the wrong idea. After all, fine mechanical watches are expensive, so lots of expensive things can easily create the perception of lots of money — which probably isn’t what you’re going for (if you are, then stop reading). In fact, I’ve noticed a lot of collectors go out of their way to avoid these sorts of perceptions, especially in their workplaces. It makes negotiating an end of year bonus – or a price rise to your customers – quite a bit more difficult. Just ask Mr ‘Apple Watch’ Turnbull. Let me set the scene. You’re sitting at your desk, quietly tapping away at your keyboard – when a nosy colleague comes over, after noticing something sparkly…
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Tudor has just announced Lady Gaga as a brand ambassador and global face of the #Borntodare campaign. This announcement comes just months after the brand signed veteran sports star and style icon David Beckham. In the advertising collateral supplied Gaga wears the (now classic) Heritage Black Bay with red bezel on a red fabric strap. Lady Gaga is an interesting choice for Tudor. Even though her days of meat dress donning, scandal courting behaviour is (for now, anyway) in her past, the outspoken singer is still a much edgier proposition than your typical luxury brand ambassador, which at least lives up to Tudor’s campaign name. What’s also interesting is the choice of watch she’s promoting. Typically, female ambassadors are associated with explicitly feminine collections (think Nicole Kidman and the Omega Ladymatic), but Gaga isn’t wearing pieces from the Style or Glamour lines. No, she’s wearing the original Heritage Black Bay. In a way this is the safest choice for Tudor, as I’m willing to bet it represents the lion’s share of their sales. But it also demonstrates the Black Bay’s versatility, in that it looks as at home with high couture as it does with Gore-Tex outerwear. And if Tudor wants to pitch…
Editor’s Note: Look, it’s not the first time anyone has thought of combining watches with whisky. It is, however, surely the first time an Italian barman in Ginza, Tokyo did the matching. It was the kind of performance the hashtag #nailedit was created for. Consider for a moment that two Aussie guys dropped in to the Bulgari Tower out of nowhere, set him a bizarre task in front of some Bulgari top brass, and started rolling the tape. If you watch one watch-related video today, make it this one. We can’t get over it, or Pietro, and it’s been two years. So good. So intense. So spicy. We’re really going to have to do this again soon, Bulgari. If you want to skip my intro and get to the good stuff, drop in at 0:55. **Video may contain traces of day-drinking** Believe it or not, this idea was conceived during business hours, in complete sobriety. We had arrived at the Bulgari Tower in Ginza, Tokyo, and taken an elevator up to the bar on the top level. Our eyes were rolling back in our heads at the bar selection. The barman, Pietro, offered us a drink, but the hour hand on…
Reviewing watches like the Sky-Dweller is all well and good, but we’re (usually) quite detached about it. So we decided to find the opinions of people who had handed over their own hard-earned for the Sky-Dweller and asked them for their far less impartial take. Ashley’s perspective First we spoke to Ashley, a Sydney-based collector who’s eagerly awaiting the delivery of his Sky-Dweller. Ashley was pretty sure he was going to get it as soon as he saw the news from Basel, but handling it in person at a retailer’s event sealed the deal. Which one did you get? I went with the black dialled, white gold Rolesor version. I know the blue photographs better, but the black’s better in person and is a much more classic option. Why did you get it? When I first saw it online – partially through you guys – I thought it was a bit of a left field release for Rolex. I’ve always loved the Sky-Dweller but it’s always been out of reach for me. I’ve had loads of Rolexes, and I’ve worked out that I like ones with a bit of character or tool purpose. The Explorer and Datejust are beautiful watches, but…
Heritage reissues are hot and don’t seem to be cooling off any time soon. But as more and more brands jump on the retro train, the ratio of filler to thriller is becoming increasingly unbalanced. So we’ve put together some of the all-time greats — five cracking examples of retro done right. Vacheron Constantin Historique Cornes de Vache 1955 It might have cow horns in the name, but there’s nothing ungainly or bovine about this slender, elegant chronograph from Vacheron Constantin. But beware: beauty doesn’t come cheap, especially when it’s in a platinum case. RRP $104,000 Omega Speedmaster 60th Anniversary Limited Edition It’s as close to the original CK2915 as you can get — one of the most iconic, storied watches ever. It’s Speedmaster personified. RRP $9725 TAG Heuer Monza No, TAG Heuer’s Monza isn’t a 1:1 reissue of the 1976 original, and that’s what makes it so great. The CR2080 Monza is a case study on how to smartly and sensitively bring a great historic design into line with modern tastes. RRP $6700 Grand Seiko re-creation in steel Grand Seiko’s path to heritage greatness is one of (almost) absolute fidelity to the past. Their ‘re-creation’ of the first Grand…
Unless you’ve been living under a rock you probably know that the new, updated Sky-Dweller from Rolex is one of *the* watches of 2017. And if you’ve read our in-depth review – you should, if only for the pictures – chances are good that you know why. However, we understand that not all of you have the time for a thousand words of pros and cons (though they’re mostly pros), so being the helpful people we are, we’ve put together this short, snappy video that gives you the executive summary. We run through everything you need to know about the changes to the case and dial, as well as what’s stayed the same.
Editor’s Note: We’ve done over 1400 posts at Time+Tide, but I reckon I could count on one hand the number of stories that have featured employees whose title doesn’t start with Chief, Head, President or Vice. After speaking to Paul Gray, Boutique Manager of Bremont’s flagship store in Royal Exchange London, for a lazy afternoon at our HQ, I realised what we’ve been missing all this time. It’s the view of a company from within. The comments on culture, internal leadership and founder mythology that actually make for very interesting listening. When Paul Gray first picked up a Bremont watch in 2009, he was not struck by a lightning bolt. He did not quit his job at Jura – where he worked with brands like Sinn, Nomos, Bell & Ross among others – and beg to join the then fledgling brand. Jura were, in fact, keen on working with Bremont, but Paul was straight up perplexed. “They kept saying, check out that Martin Baker watch. I looked at it. It was a nice watch, a tough little watch, but I wasn’t getting it. What is it about it?” “But then, you put it on your wrist, you feel it, you look at it, and…
Last year, Seiko’s mainstream, mid-tier mechanical line, Presage, went global, with a collection of dressy options (including a particularly outstanding chronograph). This year Seiko expanded Presage in a big way, turning one of the most popular Japanese domestic models (JDM), the SARB065 – AKA the Cocktail Time – into a fully fledged collection. The Presage Cocktail Time consists of a range of three-handed options and a few more complicated offerings, all starring dials that pack a punch as potent as the drinks for which they’re named. We’re going to explore the broader family in a bit more depth soon, but we thought it was well past time to crack open the collection. So today we’re looking at the SSA346, a 40.5mm rose gold-toned number with well-integrated power reserve indicator that doesn’t break the flow of the dial in the slightest. There’s also a neat date subdial at six. But of course, the complications aren’t the point here — the focus is firmly on the dial, with its beautiful pressed, radial guilloché-esque pattern. Honestly, the dial alone is enough to get this watch over the line, but the fun doesn’t stop there. There’s a pleasingly domed Hardlex crystal and the rose gold coated case…