MICRO MONDAYS: The FullGear Pioneer – a customisable pilot watch featuring tritium tubes, launching this week
We love classic pilot watches. Tough, no-nonsense brushed steel case tools that are a faithful reminder of the aviation glory days of yesteryear. What we want is a simple, clear dial and legibility on point, and monochromatic efficiency. But what if we had all this as a base, for a fully customisable watch not always wanting to be the demure quiet tool? Let’s introduce the FullGear Pioneer — it is all of the above and more, with a bright twist. FullGear is launching the Pioneer pilot’s watch on Kickstarter today, on October 12, designed by a team of veterans from the watch industry in Hong Kong. The Pioneer is, by all accounts, more than one watch if you want it to be, as this is fully customisable from the start. And not only that, we have the magic of tritium tubes included for what is night-time legibility on a different level. The tritium tubes used by FullGear are the pick of the crop, manufactured by mb-microtec AG in Switzerland, which, by virtue of their gas tube construction, do not need charging to light up your life. As an added bonus, the Nightmaster model dial also has applied Japanese LumiNova to its…
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Divers, the tough tool watches that become our best buddies on adventures, strapped on with a wetsuit as backup to a dive computer. All this sounds wonderful, though for those of you in lockdown they have an even more important task, which is to remind us of what will come, as well as adventures spent; keeping our spirits up. The Albany Watches AMA Diver is launching this week on Kickstarter, with the Albany name paying tribute to the WA city where the founder’s father grew up. This is a classic ’60s skindiver with an inspiration as beautiful as it is ancient. For more than 2000 years the Japanese female Ama pearl divers have kept their tradition alive, freediving off the coast. The numbers may be dwindling, but the oldest freediving Ama women are the toughest septuagenarians in the world, and an intrinsic part of Japanese history. The case is a simple, perfectly sized 40mm classic skindiver, with the all-important lug to lug being an ergonomic 48mm, depth tested during production and after assembly. The legible dial is classic diver chic, with the tempting choice of mother-of-pearl, blue or black, and the pleasant pop of a teal accent. This frames the…
After the success of the previous Swatch x 007 collaboration, another tough and colourful watch is back, now exclusively in time for the release of No Time To Die. In his infinite wisdom, Q has tinkered away in his basement and come up with the Swatch x 007 ²Q. Here we have a brash and colourful openworked sports watch in the SKIN Irony series, with a tough steel body, intensely Swatch, with a few tricks up its sleeve. In a world turned upside down, for 2020 Swatch and Q has done the same to the Swatch x 007 ²Q, with spectacular results, as the sporty vibe is just as cool in reverse, with added intricacy. The openworked calibre of the Swatch x 007 ²Q takes centre stage, framed by a wide silver sunray chapter ring, blue indices and lumed hands, cool characters to the brash red villainous colour of the rehaut, a bold move by the designer, Bond’s costume designer Suttirat Anne Larlarb. A superb mix of a sporty tool vibe with the smooth elegance of the lugless steel Irony case that works damn well. The inside-out vibe is underlined by the calm tartan print on the smooth brown leather…
Most of us probably haven’t tried to draw anything since high school, and those high school drawings are unlikely to be works of art. Even to the encouraging eyes of our parents. But don’t worry, because it’s never too late to learn a new skill, especially when you’ve got the best teachers, and you’re learning about a subject you’re passionate about – a subject like watches. Earlier this year, Andrew McUtchen had the pleasure of speaking with Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, the head watch designer at Bulgari and the man behind the Bulgari Octo Finissimo, and Fabrizio was generous enough to offer a quick lesson on how to sketch our own Bulgari Octo Finissimo drawing. That’s right, a five-minute lesson on how to draw one of the hottest up-and-coming sports watches of the last few decades, from the man who brought it to life. Like I said, when you’ve got the best teachers it’s easy to learn a new skill, and it’s safe to say that Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani is the best person for the job when it comes to sketching the Octo Finissimo. The Bulgari Octo Finissimo case shape in its current form was first released in 2014, housing a…
If you’ve got $1mUSD to build a watch collection in 2020, you’re used to the finer things in life. But what would you do if you could only select watches that were released this year? This is the question that has been put to the T+T Team, and in this article the team will show how they would build a $1m 2020 watch collection. Here goes. Andrew McUtchen’s Picks Patek Philippe 5370P-011 What a difference a dial makes. Identical to the 2015 version, with a black grand feu enamel dial, this top pick is all about how a vital blue grand feu enamel dial brings a mid-Century era watch into the present, 70 years later. Purists prefer the black, but I find it thrilling how this simple change can give the whole watch a sense of relevance and modernity, especially at its pitch perfect case size of 41mm. Few movements on earth can compete with this split-seconds chronograph for beauty and complexity, proudly on display through the clear caseback. Price: USD $260,000 MB&F x H. Moser LM101 The head says the H. Moser x MB&F Endeavour Cylindrical Tourbillon, for the fact that it’s more novel and more of an even-handed…
Germany is solidifying its position as among the very best go-to alternatives to Switzerland for wrist-worn marvels. While we all know that the Glashütte-based A. Lange & Söhne, Glashütte Original, Nomos and Sinn produce top-notch alternatives to the Neuchâtel valley, here is an ode to the lesser-known maisons. These are fiercely independent brands showing their 2020 models, many of which you will not find even in our comprehensive Time+Tide archives. We will endeavour to broaden your Germanic horizon with five German independent watches, from traditional Haute Horlogerie, through Bauhaus and classic Flieger style. Kudoke The Kudoke 2 Nocturne Stefan Kudoke is one of the top independent proponents of classical Haute Horlogerie, seen here underlined in his 2020 model, the Nocturne. After the award-winning Kudoke 2 in 2019, this is a sharp limited edition piece infused with a calm minimalism in dark galvanic grey. There is no distraction from a moving seconds hand, a perfectly bevelled plaque above 6 o’clock and a brushed steel rhodium-plated chapter ring with a fine bevel against the rehaut. What grabs the attention, though, is the beautiful engraved domed motif that makes for an imaginative 24-hour display at 12, framed by a delicate chapter ring. The…
Now, we all have an image of the Speedmaster Professional, the icon, the Tool of Tool watches, the Moon Watch. A beautiful 42mm piece of history, with its delicate white lumed baton hands pointing to a still timeless sixties minute track, and delicate slightly recessed sub chronograph registers on a plain, matt monochromatic dial. Twisted lyre lugs the stuff of a thousand replicas. But let’s be one hundred per cent honest with ourselves. This is not a watch per se, this is not an object to tell the time or make sure you catch the bus, but dreams made metal. Ironically, the Speedmaster Professional, arguably The Icon of tool watches, can be picked up from you local Omega dealer today, no waiting list, grey market madness or shady replicas, just pure history for the wrist with an easily scratched charming Hesalite crystal, enough to win NASA over. Instead this piece of steel represents all our collected dreams of another world, space exploration and of the toughest men on the planet, the mythical Astronauts that once set foot on the moon, their exploits abruptly replaced by soaring budgets propelling USA and the Soviet Union into the destructive spiral of Cold War.…
As a collection grows, at times it means a collector needs to be prepared to trade or sell one of their pieces in order to fund the next. At a certain point, many collectors adopt a ‘one in, one out’ policy in order to curb spending or keep a collection compact and refined. This is the story of one of the bigger trades I have made in my time as a collector, and how (and why) I was able to get my dream sports watch: a Rolex Submariner ref. 114060. What I traded … Omega Speedmaster Automatic (ref. 323.30.40.40.04.001) The Omega Speedmaster 323.30.40.40.04.001 is an automatic watch with a white and black dial with a date window at the 4:30 position. This chronograph features a small seconds counter, 30-minute recorder and 12-hour recorder with a central chronograph hand. The bezel, with its tachymetric scale, is mounted on a 40mm stainless steel case and presented on a stainless steel bracelet. Being a modern Speedmaster, it has a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal, and ticking inside is Omega’s chronometer certified caliber 3304 (based on the Valjoux 7753). Believe it or not, it’s also 100 metres water resistant, which allowed me to actually take…