Letter from the Editor: 2020 in review
There’s a quote I haven’t been able to get out of my head this year. It’s “Never waste a good crisis”. I’m not sure what it was intended to mean, or who said it in the first place. But I am sure as hell of one thing. We have not wasted 2020. And by “we”, I mean the team at Time+Tide. And I mean “we” the watch industry, that have fought to survive; to find ways forward when every path seemed blocked, and also to do more good for the world than in any other year. These are the “better angels”, to pinch a phrase from the US President-elect Joe Biden, that I refer to throughout this column. But let’s not be cavalier. At many times, the last 12-months has felt like a tightrope walk above intensifying flames. Which begs the first question – which of 2020’s multiple crises might we have wasted? The first crisis was in January When those figurative flames were very real, very hot, and responsible for torching great tracts of Australian flora, fauna and dreams. Countless houses, properties, businesses, and, yes, animals, were destroyed. At its peak, I flew to Sydney for an event. The…
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The lack of watch fairs and face-to-face watch showings meant that I saw fewer watches in the metal in 2020 than I had done in the last 10 years. But this lack of face time didn’t stop me salivating over a few key pieces that shot straight to the top of my wish-list. These were my three favourite watches of 2020. Glashütte Original Sixties Blue Annual Edition The burnt orange and forest green iterations of this watch were already provocatively sexy. But the glacial glory of this pale blue version is truly mesmerising. The shift in colour on the sunray-finished dial is achieved by first building a base colour through a galvanic coating process, before several layers of different coloured lacquer are applied. Completing the package is the brown-grey nubuck calfskin strap. Nubuck, as you may well know, is essentially top-notch leather that’s buffed on the outside, to give a slight nap to the material that produces a velvet-like surface. I’m increasingly drawn to it as strap texture for its effortlessly relaxed quality that make it the wrist-bound equivalent of a comfortable pair of desert boots. Here it’s employed in particularly ingenious fashion to riff off that iceberg of a…
“It’s the million dollar elephant in the room,” says Eric Ku, the world-renowned watch expert and dealer. “Why can nobody get anything now?” He’s referring to the extraordinary difficulty facing the average punter hoping to buy a new steel Rolex without paying way over the recommended retail price on the grey market. In the watch community, this has become a common lament. For the average buyer, sourcing a steel Rolex at the recommended retail price can increasingly feel like mission impossible. Whereas five years ago, the “Batman” blue and black bezel GMT-Master II was the hard-to-get model, and then the Daytona became the next must-have, the drought has now spread to all steel models, Professional range or not. The extent of the Rolex scarcity was summed up a month or so ago when the respected auction house Phillips sold a selection of models from the Rolex Oyster Perpetual collection that only came out in August last year. This tells you everything you need to know about the insane demand for new Rolex stock. Auction houses, after all, specialise in trading the most rare and valuable goods that cannot be bought through standard retail channels. In listing this Oyster Perpetual family,…
I’d almost have to include a ‘ghost watch’ in my three, as there was a long period, at the height of our first lockdown, where I stopped wearing a watch altogether. Despite appearing on Zoom daily, often back to back, for a good few weeks, if not a month, I went bare-wristed. The reason? Two things: it was somehow uncomfortable to be keeping up a sense of normalcy when the weirdness of working out my days in a 1.5m x 2.5m pool shed was so real. Secondly, my relationship with material things went through all kinds of twists and turns in 2020. That’s a story for another day. The comeback, which happened around May, was with the Rolex Yacht-Master, but more of that below. These were the three watches I wore most in 2020. A quick disclaimer that the watch I wore most in public in 2020 was the H. Moser & Cie. Pioneer Centre Seconds Midnight Blue dial, as that was my weapon of choice for LVMH Watch Week in Dubai at the start of a year that degenerated with dizzying speed. It was in all the pics from that great event, and very nearly could have edged in had…
The Rolex Sky-Dweller is an underrated watch. Hell, you can still sometimes find precious metal examples of this hefty-cased wristwatch in Rolex boutiques. Try doing that with a Daytona. But unlike many other Rolex pieces, the Sky-Dweller is a complicated companion despite its relatively simple design. In fact, while you might not immediately suspect it, this is the single most complicated Rolex according to its movement. Featuring the pretty remarkable Rolex in-house caliber 9001 (which holds more than a dozen patents in its design), the Sky-Dweller offers the time, date, second time zone, and month on its display, which also makes it an annual calendar. How does it display the month? Above all of the stick indices around the dial is a small aperture that you might miss if you weren’t looking at it, which displays the month in red. There are 12 hours in a day, but also 12 months in a year, so Rolex decided to make the hour markers slightly more useful than they are normally. The ring you see at the 6 o’clock position displays the second time zone, with the red arrow you can see just below the Rolex crown at 12 o’clock. But how…
Editor’s note: There’s no doubt that the Bulgari watch department is having a very big year. So far they have got hearts racing with the launch of their record-breaking Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Chronograph Skeleton Automatic, the new Octo Finissimo in satin-polished steel, and then their remarkable High-End Watch novelties. And if that wasn’t enough, there is also the new entry point to the realm of Swiss-Italian watchmaking that is the Bulgari Aluminium collection. This is everything you need to know. Bulgari has revived a late ’90s classic with the new Bulgari Aluminium collection this year. A great blend of daily and luxury wear, these lightweight watches pack a heavy punch. While watch designs can be quite homogenous in a traditional industry, the new Bulgari Aluminium 2020 models are welcome revivals with their distinct Bulgari aesthetic. The case(s) These new models are fabricated in a great everyday material: aluminium. While aluminium is not considered a luxury material, when done right, it can provide a luxury experience on the wrist. The lightweight aluminium makes for an elegant yet sporty and smart-casual aesthetic. You certainly won’t miss the fact that this is a Bulgari watch. The brand name can be found on the…
Let’s all just close our eyes for a moment and imagine the perfect watch. It would surely need to be something versatile, simple, but with plenty of well-finished details that will brighten your mood with every glance at the dial. A bit of history wouldn’t go astray either, knowing that, while trends may come and go, your watch will remain a timeless classic. That’s what an old-fashioned horology nut would say anyway. Whereas MAD Paris know that the true perfect watch is whatever the client thinks looks cool. Halving water resistance, destroying the original warranty … there is no cost too big to get in the way of their bold visualisations and that’s ignoring the actual dollar value. Having established themselves as a leading name in luxury timepiece modifying from 2007, MAD aren’t afraid to ruffle a few feathers. Let’s take a look at five pieces which typify the daring designers. Rolex Daytona They say when you want to fit in, wear black. What they neglect to mention is that adding hot pink detailing and a ring of pink sapphires will stand out from a mile away. A matte carbon-black coated case and textured dial stand as a solidly crafted…
If you’re a regular reader of Time+Tide, you’ll know we’re big fans of the Seiko 5 Sports x Street Fighter V Editions. We first took a look at the full collection, before zeroing in on the Blanka green machine and the Ken red rocket models, and now we’re going to take a closer look at the Ryu edition. It’s an interesting watch, not just because of its Street Fighter connection, but because it’s probably the most wearable/least bonkers watch in the entire collection. When you strap the Seiko 5 Sports SRPF19K Ryu to your wrist, you’re getting a more subtle nod to the fight game franchise and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Consistent with the rest of the collection, the case measures a tidy 42.5mm in diameter and offers the same 100m of water resistance and houses the automatic 4R36 movement within. But the stark white of the textured dial, that matches the white fabric strap, creates the perfect textile canvas for the bold black and red “Coke” bezel. The white of the dial and strap are said to be inspired by Ryu’s Judo uniform and works a treat as an “if you know, you know” reference to his…
Every year, the Time+Tide team publishes NOW, our annual print extravaganza. As it says on the cover, essentially it’s a watch buying guide that rounds up the year’s most notable releases into a greatest hits compilation of about 200 watches. But in amongst the usual suspects from the likes of Rolex, Omega and co are some genuine horological oddities. Here are some of weirdest watches – the strangest, most delightful creations we have been lucky enough to come across. Ranging from a Swatch to a million-dollar watch with one of the longest names in the magazine, prepare to be wowed. Hermes Arceau Pocket AAAAARGH! Have you always hankered after a pocket watch with a cover decorated with a Tyrannosaurus Rex made from hand-cut leather fragments? If so, you’re in luck! Yes, this fearsome visage, in fact, conceals horological craftsmanship of the highest possible order. Inside the white gold case, the enamel dial beats to the rhythm of a minute repeater and a tourbillon movement. And rest assured that despite the T-Rex motif, this isn’t a watch with short hands. Price $490,000 AUD Jacob & Co. Twin Turbo Furious La Montre Noire Bugatti Some watches are made by their stories created…