From Salt Bae to Brad Pitt, 7 Patek Philippe Nautilus wearers you might not know about
The Patek Philippe Nautilus remains one of the most coveted watches in the world, with a long waiting list for anyone buying through an AD, and and prices fetching well above RRP on the secondary market. It is a favourite amongst current-day celebrities such as Ellen DeGeneres, however with a little digging we have discovered some more surprising owners in showbiz and beyond. A little backstory first. The original Nautilus was launched in 1976 as a contemporary in design and style to the Royal Oak by Audemars Piguet, which was launched in 1972. Perhaps not surprisingly, given their similar aesthetics, both timepieces were designed by Gérald Genta. And while the popularity of the Patek Philippe Nautilus has exploded around the world in recent times, the reception to the model’s ascension hasn’t all been positive. The inflation in price and demand has resulted in some claims that hype around the model is “killing it for collectors”. That matters not to these famous fans, past and present, who have a Nautilus in regular rotation. Jonah Hill Jonah Hill isn’t a name that immediately comes to mind when you think of Hollywood stars with jaw-dropping watch collections, but as we see right here,…
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It started with an invitation to join Watchonista’s ‘Home Time Live’, a new series on Instagram that takes followers into the homes of the industry’s leaders and luminaries for an intimate interview. Georges Kern, CEO of Breitling. Jean-Christophe Babin, CEO of Bulgari. Max Büsser of MB&F. And now, a Happy Hour version of the usual midday broadcast featuring Time+Tide. Exciting! It was a rad proposition, because — thanks to some brutal time zone trading — it also meant me drinking breakfast beers while we did it. Josh, meanwhile, sipped a much more civilised evening tipple. But, aside from discussing our chosen beers, what else would we talk about? Josh Shanks and I had a WhatsApp chat. We settled on a live version of our very own ‘Celebrity Watch Death Match’, where we would pit five of our own personal watches against each other. The categories for the watches would be Dive Watch, Pilot Watch, Dress Watch, GMT Watch and, Josh’s last-minute inclusion of a ‘Curiosity Category’. Throughout the battle, we maturely, and in as least a biased manner as possible, tried to select a winner. The idea was that we’d then compare our own ratings with The Internet. We planned to put…
Recently, Andrew put together his greatest hits from the Time+Tide Watches YouTube channel, chronicling some of the finest pieces of information and entertainment-rich video we have ever produced. It wouldn’t be fair to let him have all the fun, though, so I put together my own list, much of which I enjoyed for years before I joined the Time+Tide team. You can find my full playlist of my highlights right here (close to 3 hours of viewing), but I also wanted to include a couple of my real favourites below. Russell Crowe on the stories behind his watches, and why he’s selling them “A spring clean on a celebrity scale,” is how Felix succinctly put it, and that’s exactly what we got. Russell Crowe showed us how to sell off a collection in style, and was generous enough to share a few of the stories behind the watches he was auctioning. Top-notch stuff. A week on the wrist with the Chopard Alpine Eagle, one of the most controversial watches of 2019 This was a longer-format look at one of the most talked about watches in 2019, the Chopard Alpine Eagle. Andrew nails the nitty-gritty detail of why this watch is…
Michael Jordan is an NBA legend who many consider to be the greatest player of all time, the GOAT, or, if on social media, simply the goat emoji. Jordan won a total of six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls and is nicknamed “Air Jordan” and “His Airness” for his ability to hang in the air on the way to the basket. Stopping time. When it comes to timepieces, Jordan has shown an eye for purchasing models that have been less known to the masses at the time. As one commenter on an Instagram thread put it, “When you’re the goat, you don’t have to follow the herd.” A. Lange & Söhne Datograph Probably one of the coolest finds of 2020 that I uncovered was Jordan sporting a first generation A. Lange & Söhne Datograph in platinum on matching platinum bracelet back in 2002. The Datograph was a revelation when it was unveiled at Baselworld 1999 and at the time not too many people would have been aware of the brand in the early 2000s. Seeing MJ rocking one in 2002 was definitely eye opening! Franck Muller Long Island Perpetual Calendar At 6ft 6 inches, Michael Jordan is a tall…
Remember the moral of The Emperor’s New Clothes? When something is universally praised, you become unwilling to speak out, even if something is gravely wrong on a fundamental level. That’s how I feel about the Cartier Tank. I know this is wildly sacrilegious. The Cartier Tank is, after all, one of the most iconic watches of all time, whose classic design has withstood the fluctuating whims of fashion for more than a century. Since Louis Cartier rolled it out in 1919, the Tank has graced the wrists of a veritable Who’s Who of movers and shakers. You want names? OK, let’s start with Clark Gable, Rudolph Valentino, Cary Grant, Bob Hope, Cole Porter, Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington, Truman Capote, Fred Astaire, Gary Cooper and Jackie Onassis. More? Alright then, how about Steve McQueen, Muhammad Ali, Calvin Klein, Yves Saint Laurent, Ralph Lauren, Patti Smith, Claudia Schiffer, Sofia Coppola, Angelina Jolie and Michelle Obama. Yet all these illustrious go-getters turned a blind eye to what, I believe, is a truly strange and unnerving detail. And when you take another look at the Tank, I think you might agree. Personally, whenever I see that watch, I suddenly come over like a die-hard…
Editor’s note: The Cartier Pasha is a watch surrounded by curiosity. Legend has it that it was commissioned in the 1930s by the Pasha of Marrakesh, who wanted a watch he could take into the water. The design then lay dormant for decades, before it was revived in 1985 by one of the most creative minds the watch industry has ever seen, Gérald Genta. It isn’t a watch you see very often, in part because Cartier no longer produce it, and also because the generously embowed case, Vendome-style lugs and chained crown guard are no longer in white-hot vogue. To arrest some of the blinding spotlight from the onslaught of blue dial steel sports watches that are currently enjoying it, let’s take a closer look at why Fergus decided to pick up one of these unusual Cartier watches. I think I was actually actively seeking out something that had a gold dive bezel, as well as some actual water resistance. I’ve got my Great Grandad’s old Omega Seamaster, which was the first watch I ever owned, and when I got that, I thought: “Well, this is it, I’m never going to need another watch again, this watch is so good.”…
The dusty shelves of antique stores and less-trafficked avenues of eBay are full of watch brands whose glory days are well behind them. DOXA, who date their history back to 1889, was almost one of those brands. But thankfully, the name persevered, and DOXA is still with us today, and the brand’s future looks bright – almost as bright as their famous orange dials. The history of DOXA is one that’s best told in two chapters. The first is the late 19th century story of a brand that began, like so many, in the Jura Valley – the heartland of Swiss watchmaking. Georges Ducommun quickly built DOXA into a brand with a strong reputation for reliability and innovation, including their eight-day calibre – patented in 1908 – which became widely used in dash-mounted clocks in automobiles and planes. But DOXA’s main moment didn’t come until some years later, in 1967 to be precise. But before we go into the specific details in which the iconic DOXA SUB was born, let’s talk a little about the dive watch more broadly. While watches made to survive the rigours of the underwater environment existed in the early 1900s – the Rolex Oyster case…
Let’s not mince words. Watch and carmakers have been jointly responsible for some very, very lazy collaborative timepieces. I won’t pick on too many examples … but to say that some of Ferrari’s early efforts with Panerai and Girard-Perregaux lacked imagination would be a gross understatement. The Prancing Horse turned it around though – Maranello’s latest limited edition timepieces made in conjunction with Hublot have been wonderful. In fact, it could be argued that Ferrari and Hublot’s collaborative efforts have set a new benchmark for what the automotive and horological industry needs to create moving forward. The key, it turns out, is good old elbow grease. The Hublot Ferrari Classic Fusion GT designed by the “Centro Stile Ferrari”, which sounds so much sexier than the “Ferrari Design Centre”, visibly draws inspiration from the GT and was designed and crafted in the Maranello workshops. It’s not just PR hype. You can see the work. It’s a huge leap forward for the Big Bang, and we are on record as loving it since the day we laid eyes on it. And now Zenith has entered the fray with Land Rover to create a new, limited edition timepiece that honours JLR’s latest off-roader, the all-new Defender.…
TAG Heuer has beefed up its popular Aquaracer GMT lineup with their latest release – the TAG Heuer Aquaracer GMT Ref. WAY201T.BA0927. And is it just us or is that ‘WAY’ in the title sent to trigger a subtle reference to you know who? If that’s the intention, there are many interesting details this Aquaracer brings to Wayne Manor. Similar to its red and blue brethren, which was unveiled in 2017, this new Aquaracer has got a lot going for it, so let’s walk you through the salient specs. The size of the stainless steel case, which features both brushed and polished elements, has remained unchanged at a beefy 43mm across, making it substantially bigger on the wrist – 3mm to be exact – than the obvious comparison watch in the same colour way, the Rolex GMT-Master II BLNR. Sitting atop the case is the watch’s new aluminium unidirectional rotating bezel, which sees the top half painted a deep black, to indicate nighttime, and the bottom half painted a handsome blue, which represents daytime. Just as before, this Aquaracer features an impressive 300 metres of water resistance, thanks largely to a screw-down crown and screw-down caseback. The dial of the watch has come…
Last week’s Celebrity Watch Death Match pushed it to the limit, as John Mayer and Ed Sheeran, according to you guys, ended in a white-knuckle draw. I called it 3-1 for Mayer, but you begged to differ. We had ourselves a 2-2 deadlock. So we were forced to clarify the rules. What happens when it’s a hung jury? In this case, given the depths of both gents’ collections, the answer was simple. We go deeper into their catalogue, find some contenders and get the show back on the road for round two. So buckle up, because we’re hurling the watches of these two titans of folk and pop rock back into the amphitheatre of mayhem, and only one will emerge victorious. There are three new categories, so as to ensure there will be no pesky deadlocks … let the onslaught begin. Dangerous Divers John Mayer – IWC Aquatimer Jacques Cousteau “One of the coolest dials I’ve ever seen” … that’s what Mayer said about his IWC Aquatimer Jacques Cousteau in the first-ever episode of Talking Watches. Now, while Mayer is probably a touch biased with that superlative statement, there’s no denying that the dial of this watch is mesmerising. And it’s also one…