FRIDAY WIND DOWN: Feat. Celebrity Death Match, Notorious Robberies and Every Watch Tells A Story returns!
Good news is about as rare these days as a Hodinkee Limited Edition, especially the cache of their Limited Editions they released at retail this week as a goodwill gesture. But we do have some to make your Friday feel a little less surreal. Two months after the ‘Watch & Act!’ Auction had its glorious conclusion, we were finally able to take that happiest of trips to the bank to get cheques to disburse to organisations that still need it on a day-to-day basis. Our CFO and I had a smile on our faces when we held this fistful of dollars, very briefly, before sending out. It was the highlight of the week. But on the site, there were plenty of story highlights to keep quarantined people entertained. James pulled in an absolute monster traffic result with his first and certainly not his last Celebrity Watch Death Match; Jay-Z vs Drizzy. Not only did people read it, they voted, enthusiastically. There were more than 3000 total votes on Instagram. For the winner, check out the wrap-up, which will be dropping tomorrow, and stay tuned for the second death match. It’s a doozy! Every Watch Tells A Story is a series…
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This week we were lucky enough to have a number of the latest releases from Seiko and Grand Seiko in the office, and we put the call out to Time+Tide readers to find out the questions they had about these new pieces. If you missed the Q&A on Instagram stories (you can still find them in the Seiko and Grand Seiko highlights on @timetidewatches), we’ve collated those questions and their answers right here. If you had any questions on the new collection that you didn’t get to ask, don’t hesitate to send us a direct message and we’ll do our best to get back to you in person. So without further ado, let’s get into it. Which model are you most excited about? I was personally very excited about the Grand Seiko SBGW258, which is a sensational watch in the metal. The 38mm case is perfect, the dial is fantastically balanced, and seeing the logo that was used in 1960 is really special. The way the light plays with it is something you really need to see in the metal. Depending on your tastes, it could easily be a one-watch collection. Would love to hear about the SPB149J. This watch…
Have you ever bought a pre-owned watch? Do you know exactly where it came from? It’s worth asking yourself that question because luxury watches are wildly attractive to thieves. Not only do they command a strong resale value, but the fact that watches are small enough to slip into a pocket makes them easy to transport and move on to buyers who may have no idea of their stolen origin. As a result, it’s hardly surprising that watches are regularly targeted by crooks. As the following crimes show, there are unscrupulous people out there who’ll go to extreme and sometimes violent lengths to separate you from your timepiece – particularly, it seems, if you’re travelling to Paris … Rafael Nadal hit by Grand Slam scam After winning the 2012 French Open, Rafael Nadal climbed into bed in his five-star hotel suite in Paris and took off his Richard Mille RM027 Tourbillon. He placed the $US375,000 watch — which weighs less than 20g (including the strap) — on his bedside table and nodded off to sleep. When he woke up the watch was gone. The worst thing about all this? It wasn’t the first time the tennis player had fallen victim to a…
Unless you’ve been practising a technological and communications ban as well as self-isolation, you no doubt will have heard about the Unimatic x Massena LAB Modello Uno Ref. U1-ML6. But while the new limited edition timepiece garnered some serious press in the watch world, and all 99 examples sold out in less than one minute, a lot of you are still asking: “Who is Unimatic?” So, sit back, relax and allow us to explain. Established in 2015 by two Milanese natives, Giovanni Moro and Simone Nunziato, Unimatic is an independent Italian micro watchmaker like no other. Moro and Nunziato met while studying industrial design at Politecnico di Milano (Polytechnic University of Milan), the largest technical university in Italy. The duo quickly struck up a friendship and, as Moro explained recently in an interview with Gear Patrol, even started buying vintage watches together. Fast-forward a few years and Moro, after attempting a few watch designs himself, reached out to Nunziato with the idea of creating a timepiece together. What they came up with would become Unimatic’s first and most popular model – the Modello Uno. This no-nonsense dive watch presents a minimalist, almost Bauhaus-like design, one that takes inspiration from some…
“It’s completely irrational. It’s a horrible affliction,” says Kevin O’Leary. “Once you’re infected, you have to deal with it. You have to live with the disease.” Just like that, the Shark Tank personality confirms he isn’t just another rich guy with a bunch of rich-guy watches. He is one of us. He has fallen, quickly, and with unstoppable momentum, down the horological rabbit hole we call home. While that metaphor — of watch collecting being akin to an infection, a disease — now takes on a different spin in these COVID-19 days, it is still the only one that works for just how deeply watches can invade the psyche. Where did Kevin O’Leary come from and how did he make his money? Kevin was born in Canada, but was an incredibly well-travelled child thanks to his step-father working at the United Nations. “Cambodia, Ethiopia, Cyprus, Switzerland, France, Germany, Japan,” he said, listing a few of the places he lived as a child. “Because the United Nations has offices in Geneva, at a very early age I was spending a lot of time in Switzerland and my step-father got me into two passions. One was wine and the other was watches.”…
Good news is hard to find in today’s locked down, socially distanced world. But we have some. Because today, after patiently waiting for all watches to be received by their buyers (two of the remaining watches are unique pieces and are still in production), we went to the bank and drew five bank cheques for $30,000 Australian dollars, made out to our bushfire relief beneficiaries. There will be a smaller second-round payment once the final watches are received. The ‘Watch & Act!’ World Watch Auction can now be officially closed off. Celebrate! To refresh your memory, the organisations we’re supporting are the Country Fire Authority, the New South Wales Rural Fire Service, the Gippsland Emergency Relief Fund, the World Wildlife Fund and Wildlife Victoria. Just because the immediate danger has passed, the legacy of our worst-ever fire season lives on for many Australians and for the wildlife trying to survive in savagely denuded environments. The money that has been raised is still desperately needed. Here’s what two of the groups receiving funds had to say about the donations: John Mitchell – President of the Gippsland Emergency Relief Fund (GERF) All funds donated are still critical, because we have farmers who…
Last year, we aired the first series of ‘Every Watch Tells A Story’ on YouTube. The premise is as simple as it gets. When we invite raucous crowds into the Time+Tide home base for events, occasionally we offer them the chance to tell the story of their watch. Which promptly explains why everyone in these videos IS SHOUTING. Hey, what we lose in audio quality, we gain in good vibes. Because part of the sport of agreeing to do one of these, is then enduring all the heckling you get from other guests while you do it. We sit them in front of the media wall, turn on the bright lights, mic them up, and ask them a couple of questions about their watch for the evening. Some of the stories are dramatic. Others are pragmatic. But all are interesting, simply because they’re relatable, and they’re personal. The first episode for our second series of stories, stars Joseph. He tells the story of his Seiko 5 Sports SRPD79K1, a watch whose appeal is heightened by its after-market integrated black rubber strap. Despite its undeniably sporty styling and intention as a watch, it looks surprisingly appropriate and at-home with Joseph’s work…
Today, we’re facing off two of the music industry’s biggest names – the one and only Hova, AKA Jay-Z, is going to have his watches pitted against none other than Champagne Papi himself, Drake. There’s going to be four rounds in this horological heavyweight showdown, spread across four different categories – dress watch to die for, modded and murdered out mayhem, weekend warrior, and deathblow, the ultimate flex piece. Whose watches will come out on top in this instalment of Celebrity Death Match? There’s only one way to find out. Dress watch to die for: Jay-Z – Jaeger-LeCoultre Grande Reverso Ultra-Thin Tribute to 1931 Pink Gold Ref. 2782521 A more classic dress watch we struggle to think of. Jay-Z’s JLC is a straight-up killer choice for the myriad red carpets the hip hop mogul would find himself on. In fact, the Reverso, although not initially designed as a dress watch, today may well be one of the archetypal models of the genre. This Reverso, in particular, the uber-rare Ultra-Thin Tribute to 1931 Pink Gold Ref. 2782521, just oozes class. Big props to J-Hova. Drake – Richard Mille RM 07-01 Pink Gold To use a very vogue exclamation … Oof. Talk…
Seiko is a brand that is well accustomed to competing with itself. Both to raise the bar for the brand’s watches, and for the betterment of the global watch industry. From the revolution of bringing quartz-powered movements to the masses, to embarrassing the Swiss at their own Chronometer Trials, the intrepid Japanese pioneers can seem to be their own sole competition. With each generation, Seiko and all of its divisions, Grand Seiko chief among them, stop at nothing to self-improve, find new innovations, and stun the watch world. The trend continues in the Grand Seiko SLGH002 60th Anniversary Limited Edition, which is a completely reimagined approach to the Hi-Beat automatic movements of the ’60s and ’70s in the revolutionary 9SA5 movement. The elegant and classically styled SLGH002 being the first production run to house this new flagship design. The allure of a 36,000 vph tick has always been slightly quirky. Take any regular 28,800 vph movement, make it tick faster, and the most noticeable changes will be the sudden drop in power reserve and hike in the recommended servicing intervals. But, for those who salivate at a near-perfect sweep of the seconds hand, watchmakers strived to find a way to…