HANDS-ON: Hublot’s Classic Fusion Titanium Green proves they’re the masters of colour
This week we’re looking at Hublot watches that aren’t the Big Bang. Yep, you read that right. For all that the brand is virtually synonymous with their iconic (or is that iconoclastic?) sports watch, it turns out Hublot isn’t afraid to show their softer side on occasion. You know what else Hublot has never been afraid of? Colour. Both these characteristics are very much in evidence with this stylish Classic Fusion Chronograph in green. First of all, a quick primer on the Classic Fusion line — the collection, introduced in 2010, is intended as a slightly more subtle (dare we say dressier?) offering than the traditional Big Bang, while still possessing some of those indisputable Hublot hallmarks — the ‘H’ screws on the bezel, the solid end links on the strap, and those contrasting ‘ears’ on the case at three and six. It’s a softer Hublot, sure, but it’s still a Hublot. It’s also an incredibly stylish watch. The green they’ve opted for is a rich olive, dark, and far from garish. The satin-finished green sunray dial is a wonder to behold, throwing light all over the place thanks to the polished, faceted markers and hands, not to mention the…
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In a clip produced by Vanity Fair to coincide with the release of Ozark Season 2 on Netflix, Jason Bateman, Laura Linney and Julia Garner explain Ozark ‘hillbilly’ slang. We’re sure you’ll agree that they all play second fiddle to the 1979 Rolex Daytona hanging casually from Bateman’s wrist throughout. It’s not the first time we’ve spotted it on Bateman (Felix caught him at the 89th Academy Awards in February of 2017), The story goes that he traded a Rolex Sea-Dweller and a Franck Muller for it (and one suspects a cartel amount of cash), and the outcome of the flip is that he’s clearly not being any kind of safe diva about wearing it all the time. Which is heartening, really. With a film and television career spanning nearly 40 years, Ozark is quite a different turn for Bateman, who stars as Marty Byrde, a Chicago Financial Planner who gets mixed up with a Mexican drug cartel and is forced to move to the Missouri Ozarks to launder money to keep his family alive. Part Breaking Bad and part Narcos, the series is dark and violent, quite different for the star who is best known for his comedic roles in films such as Horrible Bosses and The Break-Up and famously…
To most people, The Dirty Dozen is the prototypical misfit movie, starring the late, great Lee Marvin. But to watch fans, it’s something else entirely. In watchland, the Dirty Dozen refers to the 12 suppliers of watch, wrist, waterproof timepieces (the WWW engraving on the caseback) to the British Ministry of Defence during World War II. Some of those suppliers, such as Longines, IWC and Omega, are well-known names today, but others, like Timor, Vertex and Grana, are consigned to those particularly brutal pages of history. But, as with all things military, these watches have a cachet and a cult following, thanks to their utilitarian style. And amongst aficionados of the Dozen, the Longines Greenlander is seen as one of the most desirable. It’s fairly rare, with only about 8000 being made, but it’s also the largest, at 38mm, and has an interesting stepped design. All things that proud owner Andre points out. What makes this watch even more special (to my mind at least) is that Andre wears it regularly, and without fear. Andre’s example is special in that it’s retained its radium dial, and looks exceptional on that worn fabric strap. A beautiful watch, worn well and full…
Panerai has just dropped a quintet of new, boutique-only watches and they are straight fire. These watches, called the Mediterraneo Edition, are all in Radiomir 1940 cases, and include a 42mm steel automatic (PAM00933), a 45mm GMT and a 45mm GMT with power reserve (PAM00945 and PAM00946 respectively), a red gold 45mm automatic (PAM00934), and a large 47mm hand-winder (PAM00932). Now, aside from the cases, what unites all these watches are the dials. The dials on these watches are a gradient blue, produced using an exclusive manufacturing process. These sort of smoky, graduated dials are really on-trend right now, and Panerai’s execution looks – from stock images at least – exceptional. Lighter in the centre and fading to an inky black, they really do evoke a deep, dark ocean, and the contrast with the cream-coloured print and luminous materials is on point. We’re looking forward to seeing all these models (particularly the red gold, which should be stunning) in real life, when they arrive in boutiques in mid-to-late September. But if you like what you see, don’t delay, as apparently they’re very popular. Panerai Radiomir 1940 Mediterraneo Edition Australian pricing Panerai Radiomir 1940 Mediterraneo Edition PAM00933 (42mm, Automatic), $13,850;…
There are few things I love more than a watch that surprises me. It’s something that doesn’t happen near enough for my liking, but it happened with this Longines. It was in the Longines booth at Baselworld, the first day of the fair. Trays and trays of watches had just been laid out in front of us and we were working out what to photograph and focus on. The new Legend Divers, obviously; cool new V.H.P. variants, a really sexy blue and gold Record. Then, the brand representative thrust something from the Master Collection into my hand. Steel, 40mm case, day-date display. Sure, it was nice, but a novelty? Not so much. I made polite sounds of appreciation and handed it back. No, she said, look again. And I did. I noticed the dial text first — ‘annual calendar’ — and then realised that it wasn’t a day-date, but rather a month and date. This seemingly innocuous watch had just jumped right to the top of the list. Before we talk more about the watch, let’s talk calendars. There’s a bunch of calendar complications, from the simple date, all the way up to the celestial stuff, but in my experience there…
Call me a romantic, but the moon phase complication is amongst my favourites. Paradoxically, it’s also amongst the least functional — tracking the waxing and waning of our most significant satellite isn’t something that’s high on my list of life priorities. And when the topic does come up, I can, you know, look at the sky. But, really, that’s not the point of a moon phase. It’s a complication of wonder, one that speaks — on a scale far broader than hours or minutes — to the passing of time. It also reminds you that time isn’t an abstract concept, it’s linked to astronomical events — the earth, sun and moon etc. Raymond Weil has done well to capture this overall sense of stargazing whimsy in their Maestro Moon Phase. I mean, sure, the perfectly sized 39.5mm steel case is plain and simple, living up to the classic principles of the Maestro family. The dial, though, is where it really comes alive. Blue tones are the order of the day, but the effect on the wrist is far from flat or monochromatic, thanks to the various surface treatments: wavy radial guilloché in the centre, concentric rings for the hour track,…
The story in a second: Same great watch, brand new dial. The centrepiece of Seiko’s 2018 Prospex collection is, without doubt, the brand new and very blue ‘Save The Ocean’ series, offered in Turtle, Samurai and solar variants. It follows on from the recent Black Series and Blue Lagoon. But while last year’s limited edition was purely a cosmetic update, the Save The Ocean release has an element of social responsibility. Seiko has teamed up with Fabien Cousteau (grandson of Jacques-Yves Cousteau), who is himself a marine conservationist, to raise funds and awareness for Cousteau’s Ocean Learning Centre. Part of this awareness-raising involves prominent displays of what healthy and not-so-healthy marine environments look like in several Australian cities. So, not only do these watches look the part, they also do their part. The case First up, aside from the dial and bezel, this watch is pretty much identical to its regular release brethren. So, you’re getting the same angular, slightly blocky steel case, with solid proportions of 43.8mm across and 12.82mm tall — with a neatly knurled crown at three and fairly pointy guards. One point of difference between this and the regular Samurai models is that the grippy bezel…
In case you’ve missed the news, a new rom-com, Crazy Rich Asians, is coming to a screen near you. The film adaptation of Kevin Kwan’s bestselling book series has received huge praise since its premiere, notably for the way it’s challenging stereotypes of how Asians are represented in major Hollywood films. The film concentrates on a young Asian-American couple making the journey back to Singapore to meet the family. Of course, the plot twists when the woman travelling to meet her boyfriend’s family finds out they are one of the wealthiest in Singapore. Without spoiling anything, the film naturally explores how Singapore’s 0.01% spend their wealth, featuring a dazzling assemblage of luxury homes, cars — and watches. Filmmaking aside, Crazy Rich Asians caught our attention for another reason: its props, or more specifically, a very specific prop. Before we dive into the detail, it’s important to note that Kwan had a very deliberate hand in choosing the props for the film. We recently got word that Kwan insisted on using a specific Rolex ‘Paul Newman Daytona’ (reference 6263) for a particular scene in the film. Multiple sources have since established just how important the use of this specific watch was to Kwan,…
This month was an interesting one as far as spotting goes, including an unexpected Rolex Submariner, a rare vintage Tudor, an obscure Heuer chronograph, and a very special limited edition Autavia — amongst others. Let’s get cracking. In case you missed it, this month Time+Tide hosted an Autavia Collectors’ Lunch, here in Melbourne. Guest speaker David Chalmers, of Calibre 11, is an authority on TAG Heuer ( and Heuer) and had recently collaborated with TAG Heuer on a very limited Autavia ‘Jo Siffert’ piece. David joined a select group of Heuer enthusiasts to share industry insights and war stories. As he shared the recent success of his first ever watch sale, I couldn’t help but notice he’d kept number 11 for himself. As we enjoyed David’s presentation, I couldn’t help but notice the guest next to me was wearing a very unusual vintage Heuer. So unusual, in fact, I’d never seen one in person before! It turned out that Damian was sporting a vintage Heuer Chronosplit, which was released in the 1970s. They actually have a pretty fascinating and important history, which David’s well documented over on his site. Damian’s a pretty big Heuer guy and often finds himself trawling the…
Grand Seiko’s Snowflake (the more evocative name for the SBGA211 née SBGA011) is undoubtedly one of the most popular watches in their line-up, and understandably so. With its titanium case, seductive Spring Drive movement and one of the best-loved dials in the business, it’s remained unchanged (reference number and dial naming convention) since 2010 (see our review and video in case you’re unfamiliar). Part of the appeal is the fact that the watch is as pure as its namesake. The Snowflake is unchanged, untouched and undiluted by case/dial/size/etc variants. Except that’s not quite the case. Meet the SBGA259, a Snowflake with brilliant gold hands and hour markers. Now, first things first. This is not a new watch; this reference was introduced last year, and prior to that, there was the SBGA059, with the older style dial that has existed alongside the original since at least 2012. And even though it’s been around for years, knowledge of it — like with many ‘special’ Grand Seikos — is quite low, as it was originally made only for boutiques or the Japanese market. But, with Grand Seiko’s growing global popularity and availability, it’s time to shine a light on the Golden Snowflake. Ostensibly,…