INTRODUCING: The Audemars Piguet 2021 Royal Oak Chronographs powered by in-house AP caliber 4401
We all know the “Holy Trinity” manufacturers can be called out at times for being on the slower side when it comes to product evolution. To be honest, that’s for a good reason, too. The pursuit towards perfection has to be careful and calculated, and each of the brands have to ensure their watches live up to the name and quality associated with their Maison. This year, however, Audemars Piguet is proving its manufacturing metal – introducing a slew of upgrades to their novelties. The 2021 Royal Oak Offshore Divers received a new movement and interchangeable strap system, and now the Audemars Piguet 2021 Royal Oak Chronographs are pushing the offering further with a first for the lineup: an exhibition caseback proudly displaying the latest generation integrated flyback chronograph caliber 4401 (originally launched inside the Code 11:59). The 41mm cases are all executed in pink gold, its hue boasting the intricate light play that results from their top-class hand finishing. The vertical brushing perfectly extends from the bezel, to the case and, if paired with it, the bracelet. The satin elements shine, whereas the polished elements go dark head on with light. When viewing from an off-angle, however,…
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If variety is the spice of life, then whoever who signs off on the G-Shock limited-editions must have some extremely tingly tastebuds. The staggering range of influences that inform these pieces is like something out of a Dr Seuss fever dream, happily jumping from Borneo rainbow toads to NASA space travel. The sheer number of limited editions that G-Shock crank out is extraordinary, too. According to G-Central (the G-Shock Watch Fan Blog), the brand produced 88 limited editions over the last 12 months at the time of writing. Here, in no particular order, are seven of our favourites. A Bathing Ape (BAPE) x Kid Cudi x G-Shock DW-6900 Before his career as a rapper took off, Kid Cudi worked at the BAPE Store in New York. Throw in the fact that he’s also a die-hard G-Shock fan and this collaboration feels like it was always destined to happen. The watch itself is a technicolour DW-6900 with a bright pink bezel, red and blue bands, and a yellow band keeper. Hit the EL backlight and up pops the BAPE Gorilla alongside Kid Cudi’s Moon Man logo. It all adds up to a super-fun combo that’s guaranteed to boost your serotonin levels…
As we’ve previously reported, eBay are raising their game in the watch marketplace. One huge stride in the right direction came with their new eBay Authenticity Guarantee – a service where watches costing $2000 and above are eligible to be substantiated by an independent verification service before being shipped to the end consumer (currently only for listings in the United States). It’s clear this is no passing fad for the platform either, eBay are in it to win it. To show their dedication to watches, and the watch community at large, eBay has created their first ever product-dedicated Instagram account: @eBaywatches. We all have heard of eBay success stories, where collectors have found some pretty sweet bargains in the marketplace. I found my coveted 1999 Seiko SBWA001 Spring Drive First on eBay, and would have had a much harder time tracking the extremely rare (one of 500) Japanese domestic market model down without the platform. While that watch was one of many victories for me on eBay, including a Patek Philippe Golden Ellipse ref. 3548, future winning buyers can feel even more assured thanks to the new Authenticity Guarantee and eBay want all of #watchfam to know about this new…
Ball’s Engineer Hydrocarbon DeepQUEST has been known for many things – the monobloc titanium case, an automatic helium escape valve built into the crown, lume you could light a nightclub with – but it’s fair to say it hasn’t always been fêted for handsome looks. Sure, last year’s DeepQUEST II had a personality to match its 1000m depth rating. The bezel was muscular to say the least. The crown mushroomed out in presumption that its owner would be wearing thick gloves. And the numerals at 6 and 12 were applied in an almost matchstick arrangement of “micro gas tubes” (sealed tritium gas) so bright you could tell the time from an ocean away. Even that uppercase in the name – DeepQUEST – muscles in. It was never a watch for hiding under the cuff, but for being seen over a diving suit. But now comes the Ball Engineer Hydrocarbon DeepQUEST Ceramic – with its ceramic bezel and simpler dial – and if the DeepQUEST II is a guy two weeks into his rotation on the oil rig, the DeepQUEST Ceramic is the same man a couple of days after getting home. Cleanshaven, nice haircut, fresh shirt and a splash of…
Right now, Meghan Markle is the single most divisive woman in the Western World. Following her explosive interview on Oprah alongside Prince Harry, the Duchess of Sussex has become a wildly polarising figure. To her supporters, she’s emerged as a fearless advocate of positive change. Serena Williams, for example, described Meghan as “selfless” and “truly noble” after the Duchess revealed her racism claims against the royal family and described how the pressures of her role left her feeling suicidal. Critics like Piers Morgan meanwhile dismissed the Oprah interview as a “two-hour orgy of pious, self-indulgent, score-settling twaddle” in which Meghan cynically played both the mental health and race cards to deflect any criticism from herself. Yet aside from plunging the British monarchy into a wibbling state of crisis, Meghan is now inciting debate in the watch world, too. Media analysts and commentators all over the world have pored over the Oprah interview frame-by-frame with Meghan’s every word and gesture dissected for potential significance. Over the course of this exhaustive scrutiny, attention has inevitably turned to her wrists. During the interview, royal watchers noticed that on her left wrist, Meghan was wearing the diamond Cartier bracelet that once belonged to her…
Writing this story has proved to me the growing popularity of olive-green dials. What was meant to be a snappy round-up, quickly snowballed into a two-parter simply because there were far too many great options that we couldn’t bear to leave out. Perhaps that shouldn’t be surprising, either. Olive green, after all, is a colour that’s particularly well-suited for watch dials being at once distinctive but highly wearable, too. Check out the pieces in this second installment as we consider some green-eyed beauties from Patek Philipp, Hublot, TAG Heuer, IWC and Rolex. Patek Philippe Aquanaut 5168G The Grail Grenade – I’m hereby claiming this nickname for Time+Tide (including hashtag rights) for what could be the ultimate slimline sports watch on a rubber strap. Patek Philippe’s olive dial is a calm, greyish green whose delicate grid pattern makes it look like, yes, a hand grenade framed by white gold. A rugged sports watch on rubber is enough of a contradictory reference for Patek Philippe already, but that etched pattern set against the broad bezel with its large expanse of brushed white gold only underlines the sweet juxtaposition. The way those striations in the brushwork play with the mirror polished bevel through…
Sometimes when I sit down on a Friday afternoon with a beverage of some description (today, an ‘Almond Negroni’ my colleague Matt claims he invented) to write the Friday Wind Down, I need to pause for a moment to consider the theme of the week. Not this week. This week, everywhere I look, it’s green, green, green. Green like the fields in The Sound of Music, green like voting for Adam Bandt (Melb reference, apols) or green like the Guinness on St Patrick’s Day in a faux Irish pub. In watchmaking, green is proving a welcome respite from the dominance of blue – and it’s becoming so prevalent, that even before the Audemars Piguet onslaught, we had crafted not one but two lists of olive watches. Green is in fact so prevalent, that we are able to compile very long lists of shades of green, not just the colour itself. We took a look at some of the best olive-green dial watches (in itself demonstrating the depth of the green options), with pieces from Longines, Seiko and Farer. Likewise overnight Audemars Piguet announced their own collection of green dial watches with five pieces in the Royal Oak collection and an…
Audemars Piguet is coming in hot for 2021, and AP is not pulling any punches. It is clear the plan is to usher in a new era of timepieces, and in particular the Audemars Piguet 2021 Royal Oak Offshore collection is home to two brand new innovations: an all new in-house caliber and the first-ever interchangeable strap system. The Royal Oak Offshore is a fan favourite among the collecting community, and it is one of the more commonly spotted wristwatches on famed athletes around the world. It is fair to assume these new watches will have fans of the brand worldwide lining up to reserve one for their wrists and collection. The Audemars Piguet 2021 Royal Oak Offshore Diver / 42 mm Collection Each of the new Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Divers are 42mm in diameter and cased in fan-favourite stainless steel. The iconic octagonal case profile takes on its most robust form, with a ceramic screw-down crown shouldered by crown guards securing the watch to depths up to 300 metres. To control the stepped inner bezel timing ring, a second ceramic screw-down crown can be found at the 10′ position. While the toughest form of the Royal Oak,…