HANDS-ON: Oris Big Crown Bronze Pointer Date
I have to admit that up until this month I all but ignored bronze watches. It seemed like a lingering trend that just didn’t make a lot of sense to me, in photos anyway. Because I’m in my late 30s and not my early 20s, I decided that this kind of pre-judgement was beneath me, and that I should probably try wearing bronze before lambasting the third-place metal in print. Luckily, an Oris Big Crown Bronze Pointer Date had just arrived at my doorstep and, lo and behold, it was rendered in bronze! Instantly I was taken with the warmth of the watch. If you have been following some of my writing you will probably know that I assign this subjective feel to watches that have softer edges, natural colourways, and textile straps. Oris is on a roll these days. They are a great corporate citizen with many initiatives related to ocean conservation (coral reefs, in particular) and employ some highly credible ambassadors (including German freediver Anna von Boetticher) who support the brand in a non-pretentious way. Their watches grab headlines in all the major media outlets, with a diverse and high-quality collection that usually hits a great pricing sweet…
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Billionaires … they’re a rare breed. In fact, according to a report from CNBC in 2019, out of the earth’s total population of roughly 7.7 billion people, there are just 2604 that can claim to have 10 figures in their bank account. More interesting still is that this same report posited that America has more billionaires than China, Russia and Germany combined. That last statistic sounds vaguely absurd … until you start to think about the enterprises that occupy the tech industry – Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon – the list goes on. In fact, Silicon Valley alone, which is just a small pocket in San Francisco’s Bay Area, has 76 billionaires. Think about that – one area, in one state, of one country, has more billionaires than Saudi Arabia, France or the UAE. The technological industry is a juggernaut, and that got us thinking, “Surely these loaded tech geniuses must rock some insane watches?” So, we did some digging, and the results are fascinating, and not what you may expect. Bill Gates – Casio Quartz Diver 200m WR Ref.MDV-106-1A Bill Gates, the richest person on earth, the biggest of big dogs, a man whose fortune is estimated to be…
Editor’s note: While he’s no longer the frontrunner to be the next James Bond, turns out Tom Hardy may not miss the opportunity to wear an inevitably limited edition Omega too much … as the Hollywood A-lister has already sported some serious timepieces on the silver screen. We’ve spotted these five beauties from his back catalogue … the man has fine taste. We have a bit of a man crush in the Time+Tide office on English actor Tom Hardy. After a film debut in Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down there has rarely been a misstep in his career — from Batman’s arch rival, Bane, in The Dark Knight Rises to taking over the mantle of Max Rockatansky in Mad Max: Fury Road. More than just his choices in playing legendary characters, this fascination with Tom Hardy is arguably more about his swagger, cool demeanour and seeming disdain for the traditional celebrity culture — opting to keep his personal life … well, private. He has shown little tolerance for interviews and press junkets (you can see one his finer moments tearing through an interviewer here), and even keeps his charity efforts with The Prince’s Trust on the down-low (which should answer everyone’s questions as to why he was a guest at the…
Find Part 1 of the Rolex Datejust history right here. A Power Watch in 1989: The Reference 16233 A good example of the historical adaptability of the Datejust came with the reversal of world fortunes in the 1980s. There were the literal fortunes made by young traders on Wall Street but also the overall optimism drawn from events of the decade leading up to the fall of communism in Eastern Europe. It was a good time to be Rolex (was there ever a bad time?), who used the energy of the time to evolve the Datejust into the reference 16233 you see here. This particular example is a vibrant and expressive combination, which in my mind completely sums up a lot of the cultural surge and individualism of the ’80s while eschewing some of the more questionable lapses in taste. In contrast to the earlier 1601, this Datejust streamlines the visuals in the form of a slim sapphire crystal and flat dial. The necessary quality textures are still present via the slightly more substantial fluted bezel and the geometrically perfect gold bar hour markers, which have lume plots subtly integrated into their ends. Mobile phones, personal computers and fax machines…
Editor’s note: The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms is, in the context of a fit-for-purpose dive watch, the original. Nothing like it had come before, and because of it, watches like Rolex’s ubiquitous Submariner exist – the Fifty Fathoms was the catalyst for what is arguably the most popular sub-genre of timepieces ever created. But, while recognising past achievements and acknowledging history is important, an inability to adapt can ultimately be a monikers downfall. That’s why Blancpain continues to push its fabled namesake forwards into the 21-century with watches like this – Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Black Ceramic. It stays true to the formula of it’s forebears, but is a resolutely modern timepiece, thanks to its large 43mm proportions, monobloc ceramic case construction and a manufacture calibre movement which offers no less that 120-hours of power reserve. Towards the end of 2018, we filmed our impressions of this imperious dive watch, and if you’ve got the time, it’s definitely worth a watch. Blancpain’s Bathyscaphe is one of those rare, chameleonic watch designs. A watch that, broadly speaking, owes great fidelity to its primogenitor, but a watch that doesn’t look dated. It’s a neutral watch — something that gives the Bathyscaphe broad appeal…
Friday, February 28 will be our first ‘Indie Explorer’ night at Time+Tide HQ, with a number of small, lesser-known brands on hand for exploration. They are Laventure, Lundis Bleus, Eza and, of course, DOXA, for whom we are the proud distributor in Australia. We will have a (increasingly) limited range to discover, as well as a quiet drink or two. One watch you’ll want to see in the metal is the Laventure Sous-Marine Steel Green, which is, as of just this week, completely sold out. This is the last model for sale anywhere in the world. The other brands will be presented by the man behind ‘Geneva Blue’, Rob Kitto. Rob is a storied watch guy, whose journey is probably worth coming along to hear about on its own. To be there, please RSVP at this link: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/indie-explorer-part-1-laventure-lundis-bleu-eza-doxa-tickets-95324031745 As a quick refresher, here is some information about the brands we will be exploring: Laventure Founded in 2017 by Clément Gaud, a native Swiss with a background in horological and automotive design, Laventure is, as the company’s motto states, a maker of “Timepieces for Explorers”. The watches aesthetically draw inspiration from some of the archetypal professional model steel sports watches of the…
In just 10 days, on Saturday the 29th February, we will be throwing a bash at our headquarters to celebrate the recent Watch & Act! World Watch Auction – with proceeds once again donated to bushfire relief. Our special guests on the night – and we’re rightfully excited about this part – are the Horological Society of New York. Deep breaths. Three ticket types are available here at our Eventbrite page (where you may also notice we have an Indie Explorer Evening coming up). $20 for general admission and a ticket to go in the raffle to win one of two seats at the HSNY Traveling Education series ‘Watchmaking 101-103 course’ the next day in Melbourne, valued at over $800. $80 ($40 for Time+Tide Club Members) for premium admission, which includes a Limited Edition Watch & Act! t-shirt. This was never intended to be available as we created it to send out to our generous auction donors AND including a raffle ticket to win one of two seats at the HSNY Traveling Education series ‘Watchmaking 101-103 course’ the next day in Melbourne, valued at over $800. The two HSNY tickets were kindly donated by The Hour Glass and by HSNY.…
In this week’s head-to-head battle of words, James Robinson squares off against Editor Luke Benedictus, as Nicholas Kenyon is still recovering from Robinson’s knockout blow in last week’s Crime or Sublime. This may well be Benedictus’s first time in the figurative ring, but he’s come out swinging. And the topic for this week’s literary battle? Wearing jewellery with watches … Crime or Sublime? Luke Benedictus – The For Argument Oh please. Surely you’ve mustered enough self-confidence by now that you can get dressed without meekly submitting to one person’s entirely subjective rulebook. The truth is that, for some people, anything goes. They can get dressed with maverick flair and blithe disregard for convention and it works for them, too. Admittedly, their rock-star swagger and charisma often stems from the fact that they are, in fact, bona fide rock stars (or similar). I’m talking about the usual suspects you find in the best-dressed lists: Jared Leto, LeBron James, David Beckham, André 3000, Mark Ronson, Jeff Goldblum, ASAP Rocky et al. Do the aforementioned actually wear watches and jewellery? Frankly, I have no idea (although as luck would have it, LeBron appears to be doing so in the first photo I googled).…
The clichés applied to these watches are endless: iconic, archetypal, essential … and the list goes on. What can be said about the Rolex Datejust that hasn’t already been said? Quite a bit actually when presented with the opportunity to look at a cross section of the watch’s evolution firsthand. Most Time+Tide readers will know that the Datejust model goes all the way back to 1945 and in this article we are going to look at the Datejust starting in the second half of the 20th century and continuing to present day, as the three watches we have on hand represent a combined 50 of the total 75-year Rolex Datejust history. A Comforting Reward in 1970: The Reference 1601 By 1970, the Datejust had established itself through the post-war period as the go-to watch to celebrate middle-class success. I know from personal research that the 1601 in this particular article was gifted by the first owner’s wife to him in celebration of his retirement from a long career in the defence department of the Canadian government. Imagine if you will, a man in his mid-60s, who has served his country for decades, opening the gift-wrapped box and seeing the glint…
Google Maps has done a good job of ruining the job of the safari-suited explorer, taking crystal clear pictures of the entire surface of the rock we call home. Where there is hope for the Indiana Jones’ of the world is what lies beneath the surface, where under the white-capped waves of the world’s oceans only five per cent has been properly explored. It is this unknown factor, and the consequential opportunity for discovery, which gets ocean explorer, diver and conservationist Fabien Cousteau out of bed each morning. While it certainly isn’t a career path that high school counsellors are pushing you towards, Fabien has continued the good work of his family, which was most notably carried out by Fabien’s grandfather, the world-renowned French naval officer and explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau. Other than a life spent in the water, both Jacques-Yves and Fabien shared a love of diving watches, with Jacques-Yves known to wear DOXA, Blancpain and Rolex, and Fabien who is rarely seen without a Seiko on his wrist. I had the chance to sit down with Fabien and discuss this in a little more detail, where he explained his position as a global brand ambassador for Seiko Prospex. “I…