WHO TO FOLLOW: @ alpagota
When Gaëtan Gaye moved from Richemont’s Amsterdam office to Ressence in 2015, he doubled the size of the Antwerp-based team, which was quite the change in scale. What hasn’t changed, is his twin passions for watches and cars, as evidenced by his Instagram feed. NAME: Gaëtan Gaye OCCUPATION: International Brand Director for Ressence HANDLE: @alpagota FOLLOWERS: 3.4k LOCATION: Antwerp, Belgium Tell us about joining Ressense. Well, I was asked by Benoît Mintiens, the founder of Ressence, to help him develop as a brand and as a business. Coming from Richemont to a start-up was a real challenge, professionally and personally, but it has been an amazing adventure. From our collaboration with Mr Porter [https://www.mrporter.com] to our presence at SIHH, we’re growing step by step. What are you working on at the moment? Growing Ressence in a stable and healthy way is keeping me busy, as we are working on so many projects at the same time. Benoît and I are brainstorming a lot as we want to create our own path in terms of products of course but also on every other aspects of the business. We believe in integrity and creativity. I can’t tell you more unfortunately but you’ll hear…
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Captain James Cook was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy and he is credited as being the first European to make contact with the eastern coastline of Australia. Considering the number of Europeans that make contact with the east coast these days – especially the bit between Sydney and Cairns – he definitely started a route that started the whole of Europe tanning. In more interesting news, to have a ‘Captain Cook’ in Australian (possibly Cockney) rhyming slang is to have a look at something. Yes, really. With those local references, how could we not be drawn to this reissue of a watch first released by Rado in 1962 of the same name (minus the HyperChrome) that swings both ways with contemporary/commercial and vintage designs? There are three new references, including a white women’s version with diamonds, a limited edition (of 1962) 37mm dark grey sunburst dial version (pictured here) on vintage leather strap and a larger 45mm titanium model. Despite water resistance of 100m in the first two versions and 200m for the titanium one, In our meeting Rado’s staff were quick to point out that it’s “not a dive watch”, functionally speaking. The Hyperchrome Captain Cook is quite petite by modern standards, a perception further enhanced by…
The Hublot booth at Baselworld is a busy place, a multi-level monolith that’s more akin to a mini city than a trade show stand. We spent a few hours there, taking photos, shooting video and generally getting acquainted with the new collection. We had the door of our little room open, and we could hear the constant, polite hubbub that, in a lot of ways, defines Basel. One French phrase made its way repeatedly to our ears – ‘La Rainbow’. Curiosity got the better of us and we asked to see this rainbow everyone was talking about. A few minutes later a covered tray appeared in the room, and La Rainbow was unveiled. The Big Bang Unico Sapphire Rainbow, to give this piece its proper name, is one heck of a watch. Like the rest of Hublot’s sapphire-cased watches it’s housed in a 45mm Big Bang case, crafted from ice-like sapphire, with a composite resin dial which allows a clear view of the HUB1242 flyback chrono movement. So far so sapphire. The bezel though is something else entirely. The base is 18K white gold, and it’s set with 48 baguette cut stones – sapphires, rubies, topazes and tsavorites – in all the colours…
It’s Longines’ 185th anniversary this year, as you might have seen so it’s no surprise that the key heritage pieces were very strong at Baselworld. As we’d hoped, the new Lindbergh Hour Angle model – which I developed strong feelings for after a visit to the Longines headquarters in Saint Imier earlier this year – did drop early, ahead of the 90th Anniversary of the pioneering aviator’s famous New York to Paris crossing. If the watch was somewhat expected, the style was not; it has has a surprisingly contemporary feel. Hello there black PVD bezel, for example. And the Longines Heritage 1945, well that gave us a serious case of de ja vu back to 2015, when the supremely talented artist Sunflowerman painted an almost identical model for the Longines Watercolour Watch Project. The king move, though, was Longines launching their first range to be fully COSC-certified, the Record collection. It’s an extremely accessible range in terms of price that may answer prayers for those wanting a time and date chronometer without the usual cost, but it may also serve to raise questions about why rival brands charge such a premium for a certification when Longines has managed to have prices from…
Two of the most visible trends at Basel 2017 have been bright colours and unusual materials. For their second collection in collaboration with the Renault Sport Formula One team, Bell & Ross’ BR-X1 combines both in one big, bold package. The chassis for this popping Bell & Ross is the large BR X1 case, in lightweight, hi-tech Carbone Forgé. The engine is the same, skeletonised automatic, modular chronograph we’ve seen in previous BR X1 models. But the real winner is the colourful livery. Renault Sport’s yellow is vey much in evidence, in case details and chronograph rockers as well as the thin outer bezel. But it’s inside the dial where things start to get really colourful. The 60-minute scale is demarcated into bold five-minute blocks, with chronograph hands in yellow, running seconds in green and a date window picked out in red. The combination of size, weight and colour makes this a very fun watch to wear. Of course Bell & Ross did not just pick these colours out of the ether, the inspiration comes from the highly technical steering wheel of an F1 car, where colour is used as the fastest way for drivers to identify functions in an environment where…
TAG Heuer is a brand with the pedal to the metal – which is appropriate given their motorsports heritage. Having said that, TAG Heuer’s Baselworld 2017 releases have been both diverse and prolific. There’s the heritage hotness of the Autavia, but there’s also the slimmed down and blinged up versions of the aggressively modern and technical modular Carrera. But the real surprise is a completely revamped and reimagined Link – what was once bold and chunky is now sleek and dressy…
Some of the most important, exciting watches are those made by watchmakers who push the barriers of what’s possible. The deepest, the most complicated, or in the case of this Bulgari, the thinnest. Bulgari has a proven record when it comes to high-end, ultra thin horology. They hold the record for the thinnest tourbillon and the thinnest minute repeater. Now they can add the thinnest automatic movement to the list. The movement in the new Bulgari Octo Finissimo Automatic is a mere 2.23mm thick, 0.7mm thinner than Piaget’s legendary 12P. On top of that the whole watch comes in at a mere 5.15mm thick. This extremely slight movement, paired with the lightweight titanium case means that the Octo really is a feather on the wrist. The real trick to making a thin movement is to make one that is robust enough to stand up to regular daily wear, and on that front the Octo certainly delivers. Beating at 3hz, and with a platinum micro-rotor that’s able to generate an impressive 60 hours of power reserve, the Finissimo is no delicate dress-only piece. On top of that the Caliber BVL 138 has been designed to very tight tolerances, with many elements…
Buying vintage watches on Ebay can be a risky business. There’s a lot of sharks and gussied up pieces in those murky waters. But, every so often those incredible barn finds do happen. Like this reference 7923 Tudor Submariner, which at the time of writing has a high bid of $99,999 USD, with 2d 16h to go. Yes you read that number right, a buck below one hundred grand. And to think that the seller originally listed it with a starting price of $3500, and the following sparse (almost poetic) description; The model number is 7923. This is one of the few manual winding watches. There is no band. The watch does NOT function. There is a ding in the crystal @ 5:27 with scratches front and back. It seems that on March 20th the San Francisco seller realised what they had on their hands, possibly due to the presumed deluge of interest in Tudor’s first ever dive watch, as they updated the description to let us know the watch was now in a safe deposit box and to provide geiger counter readings and other information expected of a watch of this rarity. Of course we can’t know for sure if…
Baselworld is a pressure cooker. It’s an intense week full of back-to-back appointments, cramped accommodation and more watches than – if we’re being really honest – is healthy to try and process at once. So it’s only to be expected that Andrew and I have our own instincts about what are the hotties and notties. In fact, sometimes it can get downright frosty in Chez Time+Tide. It’s Saturday evening here, and instead of chilling out we’re getting fired up over a few Feldschlössen and five watches we just can’t see eye to eye on. Rolex Oyster Perpetual Sea-Dweller ANDREW: I’m rapt they’ve onboarded the new Sea-Dweller with the 3235 movement, but I’m not as into the larger 43mm size. One of the best things about Rolex is the sheer ergonomic perfection of the OP case in its purest expression, which is 40mm with that svelte case profile you can spot a mile away. And that’s the thing, a Rolex doesn’t need to be big to be noticed. FELIX: I think you’re missing the point. People want big Rolexes – the Sea-Dweller is one of the models that looks good at a bigger size. The cyclops is classic Rolex, and who doesn’t like red text? Sure,…