The dream brief: "No deadline, no restrictions on budget, no pressure." Eric Ku's Audemars Piguet restoration will make you melt
The absolutely magical story embedded in our latest Watch & Chill Episode revolves around the unusual story of Eric Ku’s vintage Audemars Piguet chronograph restoration. To say the watch is rare is laughably inadequate. There are 307 vintage-era Audemars Piguet chronographs in existence. Every single one of them is a piece unique (more about that in the video, see below). When Eric acquired one (his second, and yes, he is a lucky man) and decided to restore it to as close as possible to its former glory, he called Audemars Piguet. His brief to the team, including Michael Friedman, was sweet, sweet music to Michael’s ears. “It’s very exciting to us when a collector so well known to us comes in with a pressure-free scenario. No deadline on time. No restrictions on budget. Take your time. Dive deep. Study the dial. Let’s work to get the best restored dial possible. That is everything a family business like ours wants to hear. Because it’s outside of the scope of the daily grind.” As for the result, there’s a paragraph from Eric below, but in truth, the intention is just as interesting. “We wanted that dial to make people melt,” Michael says.…
The post The dream brief: “No deadline, no restrictions on budget, no pressure.” Eric Ku’s Audemars Piguet restoration will make you melt appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.
As Woody Allen famously said, “Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.” More specifically, it can help you cultivate a magnificent watch collection. But what does the rich man do when he has scratched his horological itch until it’s red-raw? When he’s become jaded with the tedious rigmarole of snapping up grail watches and minute-repeater tourbillions? He starts to focus on his crazy watch accessories instead … The coffee table of horological dreams Pedro Costa is a Colombian designer who believes that size matters. He takes classic watch designs and scales them up into pieces of furniture. His range of coffee tables has included the Patek Philippe Nautilus, Hublot Big Bang Diamonds (which got the seal of approval from Jean-Claude Biver no less), Rolex Daytona and Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore among others. Understandably, this supersizing process is extremely labour-intensive. Costa uses machinery to cut and mould the watch case, which contains a hybrid electro-mechanical movement by British clockmaker Sinclair Harding. The rest of the components are finished by hand, with each coffee table taking up to six months to complete. While these unique pieces have been commissioned by brands, Costa also accepts private commissions. The price…
The Seiko Alpinist series is a beloved staple of enthusiasts on watch forums and Instagram, with its comfortable shape, size and particular Japanese take on a sophisticated field watch with a rich history. Earlier this year, changes came to the lineup, with the Alpinist logo no longer present, and the Prospex X above the historical “Automatic” vintage font logo at 6. I observed the discussions that ensued, and was left with the positives of the excellent 6R35 movement easily tipping the scales on the plus side. This time the new Seiko Alpinist SPB155J and its siblings SPB157J and SPB159J are not simply improved, but rather redesigned from the case up, with the only instantly recognisable feature being the charming Alpinist cathedral hands, ready for a new audience. We are looking at a svelte, perfectly shaped 38mm case with the Alpinist name, yet it takes nothing away from the rich history. I, for one, am excited by these latest models, the SPB155J, SPB157J and SPB159J. How Seiko has managed to completely redesign the Alpinist range in a year with a plethora of new releases frankly boggles the mind, because this is no simple re-hash. Hopefully it will manage the feat of…
Random acts of kindness are all very well. But at Time+Tide, we prefer our gestures of mind-blowing generosity to come in a horological format. From rock stars to comedians and actors to athletes, the moral of this story is simple: work hard, amass your fortune then spread the love by upgrading the wrists of mankind, one watch at a time. Bruno Mars plays Santa In 2019, Bruno Mars revealed on Instagram that he’d given his bandmates a Christmas present to remember. “My boys continue to show the world what time it is,” he wrote in the Instagram caption. “And a band that sings together blings together! #AudeMARS” Each of the eight members of his band, The Hooligans, received an Audemars Piguet Extra-Thin ‘Jumbo’ Royal Oak Ref. 15202 in gold. The full retail price for the watch at the time: US$55,400. As if that wasn’t a nice enough festive gesture, the watches were personalised with specially made custom boxes that read: “Audemars Piguet: Bruno Mars 24K Magic World Tour Edition”. Merry Christmas indeed. Why you really want to be friends with Jay-Z If you’re hip-hop’s first billionaire, standard party invites don’t cut the mustard. So when it came to inviting VIPs…
Editor’s note: How did Hermès not only survive, but manage to thrive after resisting a takeover bid from LVMH? This story tells the tale. And leaves out what might be the best bit for us, as watch lovers. Which is Hermès’ ongoing ascendancy in watchmaking. Who could forget the extraordinary Arceau L’heure de la lune to name just one? In the autumn of 2010 Le Tout-Paris of business braced for the sad, if predictable, end of an era. After 173 years and six generations, Hermès, a purveyor of handbags to bankers and neckties to their husbands, was to become part of LVMH. The champagne-to-evening-gowns mastodon, home to Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior, among many others, had disclosed a stake of 17 per cent and rising. Bernard Arnault, LVMH’s boss, with a knack for closing in on companies he admires, had only to pick off a few Hermès’ heirs ready to cash out. Bankers assumed the wolf in cashmere would take mere weeks to gobble up his elegant prey. Fast forward to autumn 2020, and the various descendants of Thierry Hermès not only still control their family’s firm, they have beaten LVMH at its own game. One of their own,…
Some Friday Wind Downs are long, some have a point, and others are just the last thing standing between me and a cold, cold beer. That’s a dangerous place to be at the best of times — in Australia we talk about “murdering” a beer, we don’t mess around — but after a week like this, it’s truly ill-advised. Why? Because I’m excited! In just over three hours, we’ll be hitting the button on a video project with Audemars Piguet that is one of the most significant and substantial of my time in watches. It stars collector and watch dealer Eric Ku, as well as Head of Complications at Audemars Piguet, Michael Friedman, and what is vying to be my favourite watch release of the year, the glorious [Re]master01 Selfwinding Chronograph by Audemars Piguet. I want to get a few pre-games in before the drop, so, if you’ll excuse me … Hope to join you watching it all over again in an hour and a half! Between now and then, enjoy the most popular stories of the week. TAG shows off its elegant new racer TAG Heuer has just unveiled the new Carrera Elegant collection, adding another feather to the Carrera…
Editor’s note: We published this story at the height of Stranger Things mania, but it’s just as fun to check in on anytime for ’80s kids like me. Well, fun? Depends how well you deal with the flashbacks… The ’80s were Nerd City, peppered with popped polo shirts and pie-crust collars, Slime, The Breakfast Club, pommes noisettes, Pop Rocks candy and brine shrimp pets masquerading as Sea-Monkey kits. Against this neon, fad-filled haze emerges the ’80s saving graces – the best pop music in history and watches that either embraced new technology or new money. Here’s 11 (see what we did there) watches we’d be happy to see in season two. Swatch Watch – 1983 The simple plastic quartz Swatch flipped the way we looked at watches on its head, bringing a sense of play to the fore, and decreeing them style consumables. It was a democratic move away from Swiss watches predicated on careful craftsmanship to be cherished for a lifetime. Swatch meant there was a colour and design for every personality. Casio G-Shock (DW-5000C) – 1983 The durability of the game-changing Casio G-Shock managed to avoid a prohibitive price bracket while earning cult cool status. Its engineer, Kikuo Ibe,…
Unimatic’s tough Italian exterior gets the touch of Japanese designer Mihara Yasuhiro in a marriage of crisp white Cerakote™ and extreme minimalism. Unimatic, based in Milan, has a strong reputation for their no-nonsense tough 40mm tool watches, with their bold cases and stubby-perfect 49mm lug-to-lug length. With the Unimatic x Mihara Yasuhiro they have managed to bridge the divide between horology and Hypebeast. This is their second collaborative project this year, with the previous project being the instantly sold out Unimatic x Massena Lab neo-vintage version of this same U1. This time they’re back with a focus on purity, both in terms of aesthetic and shade, cranking the minimalist Unimatic design language up a notch – or a calm downturn, depending on your point of view. One thing is certain, in a world of lookalike vintage divers, this is a super-fresh ticket to a proper summer watch, not just in name but in nature, disguising what is a solid 300m Goldilocks-sized diver. Apparently stealth no longer comes only in black or grey, as a crisp white case can conceal a bulletproof tool watch. Upon closer inspection you will recognise the Unimatic language of the dial – highly legible round applied…
Every now and then you’ll come across something that makes you think, “Why doesn’t everyone do this?” This was what came to mind when I was considering the Rado Captain Cook with interchangeable straps, which offers a pretty practical solution to the limited versatility of a watch that only comes with one bracelet or strap. In this expression of the Rado Captain Cook, you are getting everything you would expect to in a piece from the collection, and a little more, so let’s take a closer look. After all, a different strap is almost as good as a new watch. The case The 42mm stainless steel case is based on the first Captain Cook dive watches from the 1960s, which were released in response to the boom in enthusiasm for scuba diving, and the need to accurately time these underwater adventures. While the original vintage references were produced in smaller case sizes, the modern 42mm case maintains similar proportions and holds true to the original inspiration. The flattened surfaces of the lugs have been finished with a high polish that nicely reflects the light and adds to the feeling of integration with the three-link bracelet that is also polished on…
An automatic dive watch that brings value to both your wrist and environmental efforts, the Seiko Prospex Save the Ocean SRPE33K is the latest special edition made in honour of protecting the ocean. Across the board, Seiko is known for providing high horological value at lower price points than its Swiss peers and the “Save the Ocean” special editions are an absolute exemplar of this. They have consistently been knockout watches with some of the best blue dials for your dollar. And boy, have they truly outdone themselves with this one. The case and bracelet The case is robust, made of stainless steel. True to its ocean and diver nomenclature, the watch has a screw-down crown (protected by surrounding crown guards), a unidirectional bezel, and a water resistance of 200 metres. Do not let the diameter of 43.8mm fool you into thinking this watch is too large for your wrist. Its lug-to-lug of 48.7mm makes this watch very wearable and compact for its size. The Seiko Prospex Save the Ocean SRPE33K is only 0.7mm larger in length than a modern Rolex Submariner and, being 12.8mm thick, is only 0.3mm thicker. This watch is more than capable of sliding under a cuff…