INTRODUCING: The Audemars Piguet Ladies’ Royal Oak turns 40 in style
OK, we’re calling it: 1976 was one of the best years in history – for so many reasons. For a start, that’s when Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life was released. It was also the year Rocky and Taxi Driver hit cinemas, and superhotties Benedict Cumberbatch and Audrey Tatou entered the world. In conclusion: a very good year. Audemars Piguet would agree. It was 1976 when they unveiled the brand new ladies’ Royal Oak (four years after the men’s model hit the market) – which means that this year she, just like those icons above, is hitting the big four-oh. And, thanks to the celebratory Royal Oak Frosted Gold edition, we’re happy to report she’s showing no signs of slowing down in middle age. Designed by renowned Italian jeweller Carolina Bucci, the watch comes in white gold or rose gold versions, which has been hand-beaten all over with a diamond-tipped tool. The result? The surface takes on a frosted texture, shimmering as if it’s been seasoned with fairy dust. It comes in two sizes, 33mm and 37mm – though we’re considerably more excited about the larger of the two, as it’s powered by an in-house automatic movement – the caliber 3120. Although this is…
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We’re big fans of German brand Nomos Glashütte here at Time+Tide, and we know there’s a lot of love for them out there in the wider watch world, too. What we didn’t know is that Jimmy Smits is into them – or rather that his character Mr Santiago is, in the most recent episode of Fox’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine. In a cameo that nicely references his NYPD Blue role, Smits plays the father of Amy, love interest to Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg), who shares his daughter’s obsessive love of detail and organisation. Jake, eager to impress his girlfriend’s dad, compiles an extensive dossier of research on him, which is where Nomos comes in. Here’s how it goes down: Mr Santiago: So, do you have a favourite watch maker? Jake: I do, but I actually have to run to the bathroom real quick. (Jake runs outside to consult his binder) Jake: (flipping through binder) Watches… gotcha! (Jake runs back to Mr Santiago) Jake: I guess if I had to pick one watch, it’d be Nomos Glashütte – it’s a German company based in Saxony… speaking of which I think I dropped a bit of a Glashütte in the baño. Steer clear. Props to the screenwriters for…
It started in Tokyo. We were over there with Bulgari to celebrate the launch of their first ever watch, the Bulgari Roma, released just over 40 years ago. We landed, in a spare moment, at the bar. Our cameraman Marcus, or perhaps me, I honestly can’t remember, suggested we have a restorative whisky. It had been a long day. Before we knew it, Bulgari’s chief watch designer, Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani had joined us, and we were once again talking watches. We started comparing Bulgari watches to whisky, and thus, one of our favourite ever videos was created. It seemed only logical that when Bulgari CEO Jean-Christophe Babin arrived at our office, we find a way to continue the tradition, but being rather early in the day, we held the harder stuff and instead played more of an in-boutique retail training type game: What watches would Jean-Christophe choose for different – and to him, wholly unknown – people that we presented to him an on iPad? His answers were, without giving too much away, brilliant. So considered. So spot-on. You’ll have to see the thought processes in action, because it’s very impressive. Enjoy our first, and certainly not our last, Celebrity Watch Match.
Right now, there’s an internal Time+Tide email thread going around with the subject line Westworld. It’s a series of communications chronicling our obsession with HBO’s latest retro-futurist hit, mostly consisting of questions (and this awesome mash-up). What is the maze? Why is there a burnt church in desert? Why isn’t Evan Rachel Wood in each and every shot? What sort of visitor would you be? When is Tony Hopkins going to crack open a can of fava beans and go full Hannibal? Of course, the major speculative drift of our correspondence is about… drumroll… watches. You see, one of the major joys we get from TV is spotting watches on wrists. And, much like the hosts after one too many reveries, it’s a joy that’s been taken away from us in Westworld. But that hasn’t stopped us. Lately we’ve been pondering what we’d use to tell the time if we were visitors to the park – much safer than dealing with the morality of the whole thing. Our first instinct was to go with wristwatches from famous American makers – Ball and Hamilton for example – though we quickly vetoed this as wristwatches would be too obvious a tell. We also dismissed using actual, period-correct,…
Turns out that Breguet, not content with nailing the brief when it comes to dress watches and innovating left, right and centre are also quite the dab hand when it comes to pilot’s watches. And they’re no Johnny-come-latelies at the genre, either. In fact, in the early 20th century, Abraham Louis Breguet’s grandson – Louis Charles Breguet – made planes under the name of Breguet Aviation. There is no connection, however, between Louis Charles’ aeronautical business and the Type 20 chronograph that inspired the Type XXI 3817 that we’re looking at today. It’s important to note that Type 20 and 21 chronographs used by the French Air Force in the early ’50s were made by a variety of suppliers. A group of six brands produced them according to a set of minimum requirements covering off form and function, with key features being the flyback chronograph, rotating 12-hour bezel and some fairly rigorous accuracy requirements. Of those brands that made these (super stylish, it must be said) tool watches, Breguet’s examples are the most coveted by collectors today. In the ’90s, Breguet realised the potential of this design, releasing a civilian version – the Type XX – in 1995, with the larger Type XXI following in 2004. We’ve seen many variations on…
Take a good look at the image below. What do you see? A ladies’ dress watch, right? That’s a fair point. When you have 44 brilliant-cut diamonds bracketing a mother-of-pearl dial, a teeny 22mm case and a wrap-around bracelet, it’s clear we’re not operating at the rough-and-ready end of the watch spectrum. But don’t be fooled into thinking the Baume & Mercier Petite Promesse is a one-trick pony. This is a versatile little gem. Here are just three ways to work it – though we guarantee there are countless more. Evening wear Let’s get the obvious one out of the way first, shall we? This watch performs very well in the presence of lace, clutch bags and Champagne. Meanwhile, thanks to a clever mechanism for setting the time using a tool that inserts into the caseback, there’s no crown on the side to disrupt the all-important silhouette, which is especially important after dark. This is elegance to a tee. Biker chic Weren’t expecting that, were you? But see, no woman worth her buttery-soft calfskin leather goes all-out butch when she does biker chic. (Exhibit 1: fresh white sneakers. Exhibit 2: lack of obvious guns and/or tyre irons.) A chunky timepiece would be overkill, while a…
‘Black’ is a term that has come to denote the best in luxury. Anyone who has either accidentally, and I’m looking at myself here, or intentionally ordered an Uber Black knows that to be true. Hublot’s All Black event, to mark 10 years since the first All Black model was released, and showcasing all the ensuing models in a glistening volcanic rock display centrepiece, did not challenge the modern logic that when it comes to luxury, and to taxis, black is better than platinum. Hublot has never done things by halves. When the brand chooses ambassadors, they choose the fittest, the fastest (of all time) and the foxiest (hello Bar, if you’re reading). When they present at Baselworld, it’s in a towering booth with eye-popping visuals cascading down every surface, crafty watch podiums that seem unprotected until you try swiping one, and a seemingly endless supply of Chairman Mr Biver’s homemade cheese inside. The same pattern holds for Hublot events, which in recent history have included a sunny day on Sydney Harbour, with the same Mr Biver and our very own Michael Clarke and an intimate night with one of the biggest soccer clubs in the world. As an opener, let’s just…
It’s been a week of milestones, both minor and major. A Patek Philippe became the most expensive watch ever sold at auction (again), the 2016 GPHG awards were announced (well done to all the winners) and Andrew clocked up a significant birthday. All occasions to celebrate. Prost! What happened In what feels these days like a bi-annual update, we now have a new ‘most expensive wristwatch ever sold at auction’, and yup, it’s another stainless steel Patek Philippe. The watch in question – one of only four reference 1518s ever made – sold in 13 minutes for the mind-boggling sum of $11,002,000 including buyers’ fee (that’s more than $14.5 million AUD). This figure far eclipses the 7.3 million CHF that a Patek 5016A-010 sold for at Only Watch last year. Now, we’d normally propose things that are a better buy than a single watch, but today let’s flip it. We’d rather have one steel Patek than nine RGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missiles. We’d only cause trouble with them. We’d much prefer this watch than to keep 29 asylum seekers on Manus or Nauru for a year. Seriously, anything is better than that. We’d rather have this rare and fine Patek instead of roughly four miles of…
We gave a glimpse of our 48 hours in paradise with the Vacheron Constantin Overseas collection a month ago, but now, with the watches officially revealed and reviewed, it’s time to turn up the envy to unforeseen levels. In addition to mouthwatering shots of the collection, hands-down one of the best in the steel sports category this year, we’re also showing here just how spectacular Lord Howe Island is. From the volcanic peaks, to the friendly schools of fish that mill around your ankles in the shallows, to the outlook from the luxury Capella Lodge where my room had, just months before, been home to Blake Lively during the shooting of shark-as-villain thriller The Shallows. It’s all here, as well as our rationale for why we chose this place to explore the Overseas collection.
Five American presidents have owned the Corum Dollar watch and, at an event at the Flying Fish restaurant on Sydney’s Jones Bay Wharf on Wednesday evening, Corum COO Davide Traxler announced that President-elect Trump will be the sixth. He told the intimate crowd that a close mutual friend had arranged an association. We didn’t know quite what to do with this revelation – the news of Trump’s victory was literally only hours old – so we kept calm and called Eric Wind, VP and Senior Specialist of Watches at Christie’s. Wind has a keen interest in presidential timepieces and in his opinion, it’s certainly possible: “I’ve seen it written that Presidents Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Clinton all owned Corum Coin watches, but I have not found independent verification for all of them. However in 2015, Antiquorum sold watches that were reportedly the spares made of the Johnson and Nixon watches.” Given this backstory, we’ve no reason to doubt that Trump will be the sixth (or perhaps seventh) President to own a Corum Coin watch. Traxler dropped this timely piece of news while he was in Sydney to celebrate the brand’s official arrival into the Australian market through Lion Brands.…