VIDEO: Behind the scenes with Longines and the owners of Winx, who just won her 17th straight race
The ‘Longines Time Machine’ is a series of videos exploring the Swiss watchmaker’s 185-year-old history. The Longines Time Machine has also proven itself to be quite erratic, because in Episode 2, we find ourselves landed in the present year; January 2017 to be exact, in London, at the World’s Best Racehorse Awards. Everybody knows that Longines and equestrian events go together like a horse and stirrups. But what we learned at Claridge’s in central London earlier this year is that the connection runs far deeper than television rights and branding. Longines are in fact key sponsors of the industry, as well as the public-facing events, and are official partner of ‘The World’s Best Racehorse Awards’, which in 2016 had Australian champion thoroughbred Winx vying for the top spot with American thoroughbred (and the leading money earner in North America of all-time) Arrogate. The timing of this video is impeccable, as Winx just won her 17th race in a row at the Longines Queen Elizabeth Stakes in Sydney, yesterday. No Doubt, Happy Clapper and The United States, the three horses I backed to place, because Winx’s odds were $1.10, went to the front early, but as she rounded the back straight, Winx found her line and she won by five…
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Owner of Rinascita Concepts, Dino lives and breathes quality – as you’ll see through his Instagram feed. Head over and you’ll find some of the finest custom accessories and haute horology that money can buy. NAME: Richard AKA ‘Dino’ OCCUPATION: Lover of gears on a large and small scale, and part-time creator of watch accessories. HANDLE: @rinascitaconcepts FOLLOWERS: 6.2k LOCATION: New Orleans How did you get into watches? I own a company that services marine propulsion equipment so gears and engineering are directly in front of me every day, on a very large scale. I think this was what brought me into watches – I love to see the gears work in such a small scale. My first “nice” watch was a Ball Engineer, in about 2001. That’s when I fell in love with watches. What criteria do you look for in a watch when making a purchase? I’ve grown to buy what I want and not what other people think is “hot.” For a while I had a bad habit of thinking of watches as an investment and growing to like a watch afterwards, rather than just buying what I liked or wanted. Most of the collection I have now…
Forgive us readers for we have sinned. It’s been two weeks since our last Wind Down. But we’re hoping you’ll forgive us as we’ve been a little preoccupied with the cavalcade of new releases that is Baselworld. Well, now we’ve overcome the jetlag and it’s back to business as usual. Which today means making the most of the fading summer sun, with a beer in hand and some very fresh memories to pick through. What happened Honestly we’re still coming down off the Basel high, and getting up to speed with the wider watch world so we’re probably not as well placed as usual to tell you. But we do know there’s record breaking auctions in the offing, yet another Hodinkee limited edition and it looks like we’re getting a Patek Philippe boutique in Sydney. Stay tuned for our top picks of Basel video that’s dropping tomorrow, but until then, how about a Best Of list with a difference? Written by a guy named Eric. What really mattered Remember that bag of swag we’ve been stuffing with the best watch swag we can find, in preparation for giving it away to one of our subscribers? Well, just a few minutes ago we…
There’s a lot of love in the Time+Tide office for the Slim d’Hermès collection – it’s classic, classy and somewhat free from the Swiss traditionalism that constrains the rest of the fine watch industry. So we’re very happy to see Hermès continuing to expand this relatively young collection, this time with a new platinum-cased perpetual calendar. A perpetual calendar has been part of the family from the beginning. When the Slim was announced in 2015, the rose gold case with silver dial was the complicated heart of the range – a mature take on a traditional function. Structurally this new platinum version is exactly the same: 39.5mm case, in-house H1950 base movement with Agenhor calendar module, and impeccable Hermès strap. The only real changes are the case material and the new, deep blue dial. Cosmetic tweaks, but enough to make this feel like a completely different watch (and not just because the platinum adds some serious heft). The blue sunburst dial is oh-so on trend, with just the right touch of mystery. I particularly like how the mother-of-pearl moon and its aventurine night sky blend into the dial, as well as the little pop of red on the second time…
The Presage collection has been nothing short of a game changer for Seiko, and it’s turned out to be a devilish cat among the Swiss watchmaking pigeons. As Felix said, it “delivers on the spirit of fine mechanical watchmaking that Seiko is well known for, but at a price point that’s far from prohibitive.” As evidenced in the Seiko Presage SPB039J1 which comes with Seiko’s ‘Trimatic’ technology. This comprises of the magic lever (for efficient winding), Spron alloy (for stronger and longer lasting springs) and Dia-Shock (Seiko’s shock resistance technology). All for $1250.
Dive watches, almost by their very definition, tend to be oversized creatures from the deep. Historically the reasons for the chunky cases and gargantuan proportions were very clear, these watches were pushing the boundaries of what was possible – serious tools for a serious purpose. Somewhere along the way the functionality started driving the aesthetic, to a point where helium escape valves, 100 bar ratings and innovative bezel lock systems were implemented on watches that barely (if ever) saw any bottom time. It was starting to get a little ridiculous. If you wanted a solid timepiece you could swim with that didn’t do double duty as a dive weight your options were limited. Baselworld 2017 changed all that. Restraint was the order of the day all round, and the underwater world was no exception. There was a marked resurgence in the reasonably sized (sub 40mm) diver, and just as in the ‘50s, Blancpain led the charge with their 38mm Bathyscaphe model. The Bathyscaphe, originally released a few years after the first Fifty Fathoms, was always the civilian younger brother to the more military-minded original, so it makes perfect sense for the brand to shave 5mm off the diameter, and 2.63mm…
Some people’s love of their timepiece is intensely personal, to a point where it’s hard to fathom for an outsider. Others are entirely easy to understand. Aussie entrepreneur Mark Bouris, who you might know from as the TV face of the local version of The Apprentice and its celebrity offshoot. When he’s not busy being a financial guru he has a lot of love for his IWC Perpetual Calendar, that he refers to – with sweet emotion – as his ‘Double Moon’. It’s a love that knows itself. Here, he lists just how accurate the moon phase is, in detail. It’s also an exclusive love, with Mark listing its rarity – the only blue dial version in Australia to his knowledge – as a key charm. We won’t spoil the surprise any further. But needless to say, his affection for the watch is easy to share in. Let the #grail talk begin. Who’s in?