EVERY WATCH TELLS A STORY: Khando's Seiko SRPC91K is something borrowed and something blue
If you’ve ever dropped into the Time+Tide HQ in Melbourne to pick up a copy of NOW Magazine or try on a DOXA, chances are that you were greeted by the effervescently charming Khando. She has been a member of the team since the second half of last year, and previously worked in the fashion industry with a number of international brands. As a result, most mornings begin with Khando arriving at the office wearing a piece from the latest Acne or Balenciaga collection. But, disturbingly, without a nice wristwatch. To solve this troubling issue, and being the smart negotiator and savvy salesperson that she is, Khando managed – in a matter of days not weeks as part of the T+T team – to acquire a watch on indefinite loan. Think of it as a peppercorn in legal parlance, where an agreement has been arrived at with very little specified on the actual terms of the deal. The watch in question is none other than the Seiko SRPC91K “Save The Ocean” Turtle. An admitted lateral step from the runways of Paris and Milan that Khando is more used to, but an important part of her daily routine nonetheless. So until a…
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Editor’s note: When people talk about the Grand Seiko Snowflake as being one watch, they are in fact forgoing the many and varied shades of snow that Grand Seiko has showered us with since the OG became almost a pillar in itself. Here, we choose a Snowflake for every season, to show the nuance and subtle colourings that distinguish each model and show its versatility. By the end of this detailed article, you should know which particular type of snowflake is right for you. For many, Grand Seiko is synonymous with Snowflake, and for years there was only one Grand Seiko Snowflake to choose. Now, as the prestigious Japanese brand becomes better known in the world, that landscape is changing, with more of those delicate, gorgeous dials making their way across the world. And, in the manner of Vivaldi’s most famous work, we’re breaking it down, four seasons-style. Spring – Grand Seiko Snowflake SBGA259 Spring is brought to us courtesy of the SBGA259, which doesn’t deviate too much from the original, but adds a few blossoming buds of colour in the form of gold-tone hands and dial markers. In a contrast that only seems to make the white of the dial…
You’re washing your hands multiple times a day. You’re trying to social distance wherever possible. You’re taking such precautions in order to minimise the potential spread of COVID-19. But what are you doing about your watch? Think about it for a second. Your watch accompanies you practically everywhere, it’s in direct physical contact with your body and the outside world and you rarely wash it (if ever). It’s therefore never going to be an entirely sterile object. That was emphatically demonstrated by a February study when the Department of Biological Sciences at Florida Atlantic University swabbed 20 watches for germs. Four of the watches were found to have E. coli on them while nine watches harboured staph. None of which is particularly savoury. But in the middle of a global pandemic the stakes have got significantly higher. After all, research published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that microbes of coronavirus can linger for up to 72 hours on stainless steel surfaces. So could the watch that’s glinting on your wrist right now potentially be carrying the virus? That’s the question Time+Tide put to Dr Lotti Tajouri, Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences at Bond University and one of…
So, remember how TAG Heuer pretty much stopped the show at LVMH’s Dubai Watch Week at the start of this year with their stunning Carrera 160 Years Silver? Remember how much you, and pretty much every other person in our community, immediately wanted one, only to be told that all 1860 examples were sold out? Well, turns out, they weren’t. In fact, TAG Heuer’s three best limited edition releases of this year thus far – the aforementioned Carrera 160 Years Silver, the ultra funky Carrera 160 Years Montreal and the fresh to death Fragment Design Chronograph – are available for online pre-order (depending on your location, though most are reportedly covered), and we’ve got the links. This is very handy for people who are unable to get to a boutique to place an order, which is many of us in the pandemic-stricken age. But first, patience my dears, let’s remind ourselves of a little bit about each of these great chronos. TAG Heuer Carrera 160 Years Silver T+T founder Andrew McUtchen said the Carrera 160 Years Silver “might be the perfect watch”, and that sentiment is very, very accurate. Just look at it: it’s simple, elegant, restrained and timeless – it is…
This week on Micro Mondays, we are looking at a brand that is a little older than most of the watch manufacturers we feature in this column — Ollech & Wajs. And what a story the company has … This might be one of the best-kept secrets in the watch industry, with the Zurich-based company being founded in 1956 and specialising in tool watches for a number of different armed forces around the world. The brand saw its peak during the Vietnam War when they were sold to soldiers on US military bases in the 1960s, before slowly retreating from popularity over the following decades. It was only recently, in 2017, that the brand entered a new phase, when one of the original founders, Albert Wajs, sold the company to a passionate collector, who has since relaunched the brand. In the few years since, Ollech & Wajs has released a number of exciting watches that return to the tool watch roots of the company. With the brand ethos firmly planted in the styles of pilot, military and diving watches, the combination of authentic history and honestly sourced vintage cues are seeing the brand rise once again with the current surge…
Longines has had quite the 2020. First came the excellent Khaki Green addition to the HydroConquest collection, and then we scored an entirely new and very exciting collection in the Longines Spirit. And now, to round out something new and something updated, comes something from the past – but, we think you’ll agree, very much fit for these times, even if Luke from the team considers that the times they are a changin’. Called the Classic Tuxedo and Tuxedo Chronograph, these two timepieces are faithful re-creations of two Longines wristwatches that were made a long, long time ago. With enough Art Deco flair to make Jay Gatsby blush, these could well be the nicest-looking wristwatches the legacy watchmaker has dropped this year, and now that we’ve spent some time with each of them, we can tell you what they’re like on the wrist. We’ll start with the stainless steel cases. For the three-hander Ref.L2.330.4.93.0 Classic Tuxedo, Longines has gone with an archetypally styled, highly versatile 38.5mm case that sits wonderfully on the wrist and cuts a lovely visage. Thanks to elongated, subtly curved lugs, the watch also wears slightly larger than you might expect, meaning it’s going to appear nigh…
Well, one of 2020’s worst-kept secrets is out of the bag – Tudor has gone and released a brand new iteration of the best watch it makes. Ladies and gents, introducing the Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight Ref.M79030b-0001. Now, we’ll skip all the conjecture and polarisation that this watch has already managed to conjure up in the community, because there’s a question that needs answering – just what kind of blue is the new Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight? That may seem like a silly question. I mean, there’s myriad renders and press photos floating about. But for anyone who’s ever seen a watch online and then been shocked at just how different it looks in the metal, you’ll get why this is such a burning curiosity for us. Is it really navy? Is it royal blue? Or tinges of teal? Or, to quote a local legend, is it Electric Blue? (See the YouTube clip for some background music to the post…) We’ve sourced some very telling side-by-side comparison photos, with the new kid on the block up against some other popular blue-dialled watches from both inside and outside the family. Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight Ref.M79030b-0001 Vs. Tudor Pelagos Ref.M25600TB-0001 As you…
When it comes to tool watches, there are few brands out there as dedicated to instrument aesthetics as Bell & Ross. Although they may lack centuries of heritage, starting off in the early ’90s with Sinn making their watches, they’ve endeavoured not to be left behind in the everlasting race for technological advancement in watchmaking. Combining their ubiquitous cockpit-instrument inspired case design with their expansion into dive watches, Bell & Ross have brought out the B&R BR03-92 DIVER FULL LUM, a timepiece that truly looks like it was pulled from the cluster of a nuclear submarine. Of course, the focal point of this beast is the ghoulish, luminous dial. With two slightly different shades of pale green in regular daylight, in darkness (given enough sun exposure or charge with a UV light) the C5 and C3 pigments of Super-LumiNova are torch-like in their brightness. The benefit of a luminous dial rather than just lump-painted hands and markers is that you’re reading the negative space, giving you much more information. Once lit, the matte black surrounds of the hands, applied indices, and printed minute tracks on the chapter ring grant the contrast necessary for reading the time and elapsed-time diving bezel.…
There’s very little that hasn’t been done in watchmaking. That’s part of what makes vintage-inspired new releases so popular among watch enthusiasts, especially for diving styles. Mido’s Ocean Star range has sat in this bracket, earning a good reputation for solidly built and classically handsome dive watches for their affordable cost; however, they toed the line between vintage and modern quite conservatively. The new Mido Ocean Star Decompression Timer 1961 smashes that established model by going back to Mido’s mid-century cult classic, the Powerwind “Rainbow” diver. This isn’t just a one-for-one reissue, as many brands would be tempted to make. Firstly, the case has been bulked up for modern tastes. A 40.5mm diameter ensures wrist presence and legibility, but short, vintage style lugs remain in place to keep it from being overbearing on the wrist. Even with a domed sapphire crystal, the 13.4mm thickness shows some restraint as well. The original may have claimed a 300m water resistance, but without a screw-down crown that may not have held up over the years. The newer Decompression Timer uses a more standard three-piece case construction with a screw-down caseback and crown, getting that rating to 200m. The caseback is also beautifully etched…