Formula 1 season preview – the teams and watch brands partnering up for 2021
As the anticipation rises and the desert air shakes from F1 engines firing up, before the five lights go out at the 2021 season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, we will see the Rolex hands ticking into position, ready to start racing. Time+Tide will, of course, have watches on the mind. Any sport associated with speed and timing has some link to timekeeping and watches by association. But, unlike Omega with the Olympics, and Seiko with World Athletics, Formula 1’s litany of watchmakers are all entwined even deeper. Not only with timing the laps, but also with the sport’s reputation for opulence and cutting-edge engineering. Developments in the world of F1 timekeeping sponsorship aren’t usually the most exciting part of a season. This, after all, is a sport where the cars travel at over 320kmph, political turmoil bubbles away in the paddock and there are occasional spectacular crashes where modern safety measures (usually) allow drivers to walk away unscathed. But for keen-eyed viewers there is a lot to be gleaned from which watches are worn where. While the regulations for 2021 only allow minimal changes to be made to the cars from last season, this year has seen quite a lot of…
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Of late, eBay has been making serious strides into the pre-owned watch market and they certainly aren’t slowing down. They recently started a new Instagram account dedicated solely to watch content and just a few months ago announced their Authenticity Guarantee program to verify watches sold for $2000USD and over. This week eBay is offering another sweetener to consider their platform if you’re a watch buyer. They’re offering a $500USD discount on watches that cost more than $2500USD until March 28 (see T&C below). To make the most of this deal and a half, we’ve pulled together a list of eight pretty interesting watches that span a range of brands and complications, but all ring the till up to about $5kUSD, just to make sure your $500 discount is going to work. Rolex DateJust with blue dial We all know that stainless-steel Rolex is a white-hot category and if you add a blue dial into the mix, it only gets more desirable. This 36mm Rolex DateJust features a blue dégradé dial that is just a delight to look at and the case looks to be in decent condition. While the bracelet is not original, the price reflects this missing piece…
While Grand Seiko watches invariably have more of a claim to being works of art than practically all other brands at their price point (and beyond), the Grand Seiko SBGD207 is on a whole other level. Masterpiece is not a term the brand throws around lightly. The Masterpiece collection within Grand Seiko’s catalogue represents their peak craftsmanship: they are high-end watches with high-end price tags and high-end watchmaking. To better understand the amount of time it takes to produce these watches, last year’s Grand Seiko SBGD205, a limited run of ten pieces, has yet to be completed by the manufacturer. The Grand Seiko SBGD207 Spring Drive 8 Day Masterpiece 140th Anniversary Limited Edition of 15 pieces is the sequel to the SBGD205, which incorporated blue sapphires and diamonds into a gorgeous dial. The Grand Seiko SBGD207, however, incorporates rich green tones into its dial – quite timely considering green increasingly seems like the colour of 2021. The platinum case is 43mm in diameter and 13.5mm thick. While the diameter on paper may seem large, the compact lugs mitigate the wrist presence of the watch on what could easily be a unisex option. Platinum is a tough and heavy precious metal,…
Bremont has long been considered Britain’s largest watch brand. Now the founders, Giles and Nick English, are looking to build on that success after opening the doors this week to their much anticipated manufacturing and technology centre, The Wing. With the Bremont Manufacturing and Technology Centre (AKA The Wing), Bremont are looking set to stretch their lead, after their 19-year quest to increase vertical production on what is already a strong range of hardy tool watches. Through the shots of photographer Alan Schaller we get the first glimpses of what is a 35,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility at the edge of Henley-on-Thames in South Oxfordshire, to a scale not seen in the UK since the 1960’s. This facility essentially brings the Bremont mission statement to life: “To make exquisitely engineered mechanical timepieces on British soil with the lofty objective of reinvigorating the nation’s horological past, using our adventurous spirit, passion for detail, desire to innovate and dedication to the highest quality of customer satisfaction.” Time+Tide has reported at length on the exciting revival of British watchmaking (check out our article series “11 days of Londoners” ) and, personally, I’m a staunch believer in the growing market force of independent brands.…
Bronze is nothing particularly new to dive watches. For a time now we have seen manufacturers leverage bronze for its history in diving and the precious metal like tone it carries on the wrist. But not all bronze is created equal. While collectors typically prefer natural patina, in favour of forced or faux-patina, Instagram is ripe with shots before and after bronze cases were left to “force age” – going so far as to leave a watch in egg wash to create a “found at the bottom of the sea” aesthetic. In my opinion, however, the grey-green tone that results (known as verdigris-oxidation) is not very desirable. It creates a corrosive look that can completely deaden the precious tone of bronze. While such a corrosive surface layer is known to protect the underlying metal from further corrosion, it can be quite harmful to your skin and even result in turning your wrist green. This is why Omega spent years developing a whole new alloy for the category, the fruits of their labour being the new Omega Seamaster 300 Bronze Gold, with a Bronze-Au375 Gold alloy that both your eyes and skin will appreciate. The beauty here is you get a…
When it comes to Omega dive watches, the Seamaster 300 is an enthusiast favourite. Yes, the Diver 300M collection is hugely popular, but for those who aren’t after a contemporary design and prefer the softer and more balanced designs of the Omega archives, then the Seamaster 300 is where you may well eventually find yourself. For 2021, the Bienne-based watchmaker has reinvigorated the collection with all new Omega Seamaster 300 references that remain faithful to the original design, but have a few key updates. With that in mind, we wanted to take a closer look at the new Omega Seamaster 300 versus old variations and unpack the key differences. The dial construction This year the Seamaster 300 has received a totally new dial, both in its construction and in its details (which we’ll get to in a minute). It features what is known as a sandwich dial, which is a first for Omega and basically means that it has two dials sandwiched together to add more visual depth. The baseplate of the dial is German silver, which is coated in vintage-coloured Super-LumiNova, before being covered with the second dial of common bronze which has the hour markers and numerals cut…
Only two weeks ago we introduced you to the firework display of bedazzling colours in the DEFY 21 Felipe Pantone, which hypnotised us with small, fresh flashes of the rainbow. This time, Zenith shows us how the angular tool presence of the DEFY series projects an image of quiet elegance, in the Zenith DEFY 21 Ultrablue. As the more formal and less outrè brother of the Ultraviolet of 2020, the new Ultrablue is no less of a wrist presence. This time, the dark, matte sandblasted titanium case is matched to the comfortable signature DEFY rubber strap with an indigo blue textured fabric pattern. The light high-tech dynamic language of titanium is a perfect way for Zenith to underline what is their technical tour de force chronograph. Just as the Felipe Pantone edition thoroughly distracted us from what is a seriously impressive version of the El Primero calibre, one press of the top right pusher and you’ll be sold. The mad whizz of the 1/100th second hand through its 360,000vph will boggle your synapses. Equally mind-bending is the fact that all the tech of the twin escapements will fit within a case of such lightness and softness of touch thanks to…
The fan favourite Omega Seamaster Diver 300m is getting more than a facelift in 2021. That’s right, the watch best known for appearing on the wrist of 007 will now be available in full ceramic in the all-new Omega Seamaster Diver 300m Black Black. And that repetition in the name is for emphasis. This watch is very black indeed. The new design keeps the same 43.5mm case size as the other ceramic reference (ref. 210.92.44.20.01.001 on rubber) with 14.47mm thickness, but is slightly larger than the traditional Diver 300m that measures 42mm in diameter. In ceramic, it is a watch you can expect to wear considerably lighter than the typical stainless-steel case construction thanks to the ceramic material, weighing in at 115g or about 20% lighter than in steel. The Omega Master Chronometer Calibre 8806 powering the new ceramic dive watch is consistent with other references within the collection, offering 55 hours of power reserve and magnetic resistance to 15,000 gauss. You might be wondering how you tell the time on a watch that is completely black, but Omega has considered this practicality. The ceramic has been finished variously across the watch, from the case to the dial to the…
Finally, after a five-year hiatus, my inner petrolhead is awakened from its slumber, and by a watch! I will not bore you with my younger days of owning British sports cars from the Triumph GT6 to a Lotus Elan to a lovely series 1 Jaguar XJ6 from 1970 with dark blue leather seats. But one glance at the Bremont Jaguar E-Type 60th Anniversary Chronograph and I’m getting a delicious sense of deja-vu. I can almost smell the petrol and Connolly leather. I’ve got both family and past in the UK, so I do feel a little bit less objective than I should. But come on, how can you not get slightly patriotic about the Brits with their new focus on watchmaking profiled in our stories here. Bremont are well known for their intrinsically British offerings, ultra strong steel cases, and handsome tool watches – an oft-abused term (not by me, surely?), but here it honestly rings true. The Bremont team will this week inaugurate their new factory and showroom and are a big part of bringing watchmaking pride and scale back to the green isles of Great Britain. Here we have two unashamedly proud British chronographs with a large dollop…
Seiko’s pop culture collaborations have offered a sensational demonstration of playfulness and creativity in watch design of late. You need only look to their Street Fighter or Naruto-inspired Seiko 5 lineups to see just how unique these watches can be, but the latest collaboration with recently-independent Kojima Productions takes things up a notch, bypassing the entry-level and going straight for the luxury quartz model that is the revitalised Seiko Astron. Taking inspiration from the cutting-edge quartz technology that Seiko embarked on in the late ‘60s and the GPS-powered digital sorcery of modern watches, this Astron sets to explore unknown galaxies through its links to Ludens, the bad-ass sci-fi mascot of Kojima Productions. Kojima Productions is the Tokyo studio led by Hideo Kojima that devised the cult game Death Stranding that won the “PC Game of the Year” at last year’s Golden Joystick Awards. The watch is packed with almost as many references to Ludens as it is with high-tech functionality, with the most evident being the carbon fibre weave pattern on the dial reflecting the skeletal mask which Ludens wears beneath his space helmet. The weekday, 24-hour, and alternate time zone subdials are integrated on a single plane, representing the…