VIDEO: Game, set, match…point. A closer look at Rado’s HyperChrome Match Point
Sports tie-in watches play a — if you’ll pardon the pun — dangerous game. On the one hand there’s a lot of gloss (and potential sales) to be earned from the association with an event that’s under the spotlight. The downside, though, is you might end up with a watch that looks more like a souvenir than a fine piece of precision engineering. This Rado HyperChrome Match Point walks this line just fine. To most casual — and even closer — viewers, it’s a regular Rado chronograph, complete with the high-tech ceramic case and bracelet so synonomous with Rado, as well as a particularly handsome brushed blue dial and some nice raised, applied Arabic numerals. But look very closely and you’ll notice the subtlest tennis detail on the dial — that outer track is marked with a scale specifically calibrated for the time between points in ATP and Grand Slam games. Now, if that’s not a detail for the real fans, I don’t know what is. Rado HyperChrome Match Point Australian pricing and availability Rado HyperChrome Match Point, limited to 999 pieces, $6475
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The Porsche Design by IWC Ocean 2000 ref 3504 is the kind of model that makes the experience of being into watches great again. But more about the watch later. Because the really great news is that we have one (in pretty extraordinary condition) to auction on eBay, from this morning. You can bid on the watch right now, here. The auction will run for the next seven days. All monies raised will go toward the vital work of Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Assocation of Victoria, an organisation dedicated to finding a cure for MND. “Until there is a cure, there is care,” their site promises. Anyone who has been touched by MND knows that it is a cruel, dehumanising disease whose usually slow progress is agonising for all involved. Needless to say, it is a worthy cause. And the cause is combined, in this effort, with a pretty incredible watch, as we said above, in pretty incredible condition. Once you scratch the cool, smooth, pebble-like titanium surface of the Ocean 2000 you are immediately drawn into a world of storytelling and mythology that has been nicely compacted by the 35-odd years since its release. This, in short, is a crush…
I have a confession to make: In 2018, I, Cameron Wong, did not purchase a single watch for myself. Not on purpose, it just kind of happened. It’s not like I didn’t have any on my radar either, I just think that I was able to satisfy the itch all year long by having the luxury of being able to review watches for a living. At least that was until Christmas time rolled around, and my trigger finger began to twitch, and the golden tones of the Casio G-Shock Full Metal GMW-B5000GD-9 moved clear into my sights. Now I know I just confessed to not buying a single watch for myself all year, well, that’s still technically true, because this one was actually a “gift” — albeit one that I may have cleverly suggested to my wife. It was Christmas after all. My first impression was … man, is this thing gold — like really, really gold. Honestly, I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting older, but I’ve found myself coveting more and more gold watches. I’m not quite ready to take the plunge with a solid gold AP Royal Oak (I wouldn’t say no though), however I felt that the…
Editor’s note: Basel is just around the corner, which means that I’m spending more time than is strictly healthy speculating on what configurations of complications we might be seeing from our favourite brands … like Grand Seiko. But you know what? It would be a hard task indeed to improve on the long tall drink of water that is this Grand Seiko GMT. If you were looking for a go-anywhere-do-anything type watch (and honestly, aren’t we all?), then a stylistically versatile steel GMT on a bracelet would tick a lot of the boxes. And as far as versatile steel GMTs go, there aren’t too many options that offer quite as much as Grand Seiko’s SBGJ203. It’s got the looks: a distinctive, angular and exceptionally well-finished 40mm case, paired with a rich dial that sets an exceptionally high bar for the competition. There’s fine detail at play, but it’s not a watch to peacock its virtues, or to sacrifice comfort and function in favour of style. And then there’s movement. Grand Seiko’s 9S86, released in 2014, is a connoisseur’s choice, a well-finished automatic that beats at an accurate 5Hz rate, with an antimagnetic balance spring and 55 hours of power reserve. Not…
For today’s review of Seiko’s Shippo Enamel watches (SPB073 and SPB075 to be precise), we’re doing something a little different, because, as it happens, two of the T+T team, Sandra and Justin, happen to own one of each. So, over to them on the how, the why and what they’re like on the wrist … First encounters Sandra: It started with Cocktail Time – no, not the Happy Hour when you sit around enjoying fancy drinks, but Seiko’s watch collection of that name. They had me at the dials – the beautiful texture, the gorgeous colours. Not to mention Seiko’s fantastic value-for-money proposition. But. Big but – the watch is large, my wrist is tiny. End of story. But this year, the 33mm version arrived. Perfect fit but none of ‘my’ colours. It had to be blue or green. Meanwhile, here at Time+Tide, my colleague Cameron had written about a limited-edition Presage with a blue Shippo enamel dial. It looked nice – really nice. But no, I was fixated on the non-existent blue-dial 33mm Cocktail Time. Surely Seiko would do it eventually? I would wait. Justin: My fascination with Seiko’s enamel Presage pieces goes back a few years to 2016. If…
“Living the dream” is how I’d best describe the two co-founders of microbrand watch company Nodus. The pair may be relative new recruits to the micro-watchmaking game, but Cullen Chen and Wesley Kwok have turned their passion for watches into their dream business, releasing their debut model, the Nodus Trieste, in 2017, taking its inspiration from ’60s dive watches. Since then, the young up-and-coming microbrand has gone from strength to strength, building itself an enthusiastic cult following on the forums, and Instagram and the like, as well as releasing brand new models quicker than an elephant running downhill. With each new release continuing the same dive/tool watch trend that kickstarted the brand into existence, before culminating in what is their most impressive offering yet, the Nodus Avalon. To see what makes the Avalon so impressive, you only need to look at the specs and, for that matter, its price. Available in several dial colours and starting at $625 USD, its case is CNC-machined out of a solid block of 316L stainless steel, measuring a goodly 43.5mm across with a lug-to-lug of 48mm and a thickness that measures 12.9mm from its caseback to the top of its double-domed sapphire crystal. It’s…
Marie-Laure Cérède, creative director of watchmaking at Cartier, is our eloquent tour guide for the 2019 Cartier collection, with a focus on the new faces and physiques of the Santos family. The 2019 Santos-Dumont T+T: What is the logic behind the new quartz movement-powered and smaller-sized Santos-Dumont? MLC: Since we relaunched the Santos last year we have a new generation of Santos lovers, and we wanted the Santos-Dumont to also address the expectation of the new generation. For me, it really completes the family. You have the style and the quality of the higher range, but you have a new price point too, of 2900 (EU). It is a new quartz movement with an autonomy of six years, twice the standard of the traditional one. When we created the Santos-Dumont we wanted it to be the first watch, especially for this young generation. It’s an access to the brand and an access to the Santos family. I think it has the same values as the millennials. It’s very thin, it’s smooth, it has the trend of vintage pieces and I am convinced now that people are looking for something different. Maybe they will not start their journey with a round…
Over the last few years, Cartier’s watch releases have been consistently impressive, alternating between savvily commercial and outrageously stunning. This year we saw that strong trend continue. Cartier Santos de Cartier Chronograph The big news was the addition of a chronograph to last year’s wildly popular new Santos. In addition to complication, this model adds some not insignificant bulk. Cartier Tonneau Deceptively simple and unerringly elegant, this quartz-powered Tonneau is a real looker, and as someone with a fairly large wrist, I was surprised how good it looked on me. Cartier Tonneau Dual Time Skeleton This watch is a classic case of why you need to see real-life pictures of a watch (or even better, the actual watch). When I saw the press release renders I was a little underwhelmed. In real life? I was blown away. Cartier Santos-Dumont This simple, slender quartz watch was one of the most pleasant surprises of SIHH, eminently wearable and Cartier design at its most pure. Cartier Santos de Cartier Skeleton If you’ve ever wanted proof that Cartier is interested in growing its fanbase, this is the watch. On the one hand, it’s classic Cartier — the skeletonised Santos has been a staple for…