WHO TO FOLLOW: @Creodesignwatches – the dial artist
Chris Alexander, also known as Creo Design, is a professional artist and designer who has worked across multiple media, with a focus for watch dial art. Hi Chris, what’s your daily watch and why? An Omega Speedmaster Pro 3570.50. This watch means an awful lot to me even though it has only been in my possession for about three months. The story goes way back to when I was around 4-5 years old and spending time with my late father. He was a qualified astrophysicist and taught me all he knew about space. And the clearest and fondest memory I have of him was spending hours looking at the moon and hearing about all the facts and statistics. My father was also a keen horologist and collected several clocks and tinkered away with them in his spare time. Fast-forward 30 years, and I found myself falling in love with watches all over again while painting them. My appreciation for horology was of a keen outsider — someone who admires them in a store window but never purchased. So spending a lot of money on a watch just didn’t make sense to me until I started working on them. Then it all made sense,…
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It’s easy to think of the Carrera as purely a collection of chronographs, as that complication is where its roots and, indeed, heart lies. But for a long time the Carrera has been about more than just sports timers. It’s evolved into something more, a shorthand for sports pedigree and precision. This is the spirit with which the Carrera Calibre 5 Day-Date shines. The Carrera look is still there, of course, notably in the 41mm steel case, with those proud lugs and polished bezel. But the heritage is there in the dial — the simple baton markers and matchstick hands aren’t too far off those of the earliest Carreras. What’s new, though, is the day-date apertures: large, legible and neatly framed. Honestly, I really like this sort of execution of dates. They cop a lot of flak when they’re done in a haphazard, last-minute manner, but that is most definitely not the situation here, where the supremely practical calendar info is king, standing out from the matt black dial in a good way. This Carrera is a classical beauty, and the day-date doesn’t detract in the slightest. It’s also a watch built for the everyday. It feels comfortable and solid on the…
Editors note: While I’m not sure that Barney Stinson (the chap from How I Met Your Mother, paraphrased above) would be familiar with the Longines Legend Diver, he definitely should be. Like him, the LLD possesses effortless good looks, easy charm, a youthful energy and slightly playful personality. Honestly, it’s a perfect match … Longines was making stellar heritage reissues well before it was cool. Case in point is the stylish ’60s-inspired Legend Diver, first released way back in 2007. And while it’s become de rigueur for most major brands to release one or two retro pieces a year, the Longines Legend Diver (LLD) pioneered the reissue genre, and still holds its own, thanks to a well-balanced trifecta of timeless good looks, clear vintage style and cracking value. First off, let’s tackle the style. The internal rotating bezel and twin crowns of the Legend draw their inspiration from a type of dive watch that was popular in the ’60s and ’70s called the Super Compressor. Most dive watches rely on thick cases, crystals and gaskets to create an impermeable wall to keep moisture out. The Super Compressor’s approach, however, was slightly different. Developed by case-maker E. Piquerez SA (EPSA), it relied on the…
The story in a second: Classic Carrera. More colour. If you spend more than a few minutes in the sometimes crazy world of watches, it’s easy to lose perspective. You can very quickly get caught up in the hullabaloo of new this, in-house that, and proprietary the other. But while all that stuff is cool and sometimes really matters, at the end of the day it’s a watch on your wrist with a job to do. And that job is telling the time and looking good. I think this particular model excels at this job, which is why I chose it as one of my 10 favourite Baselworld 2018 releases. I made that decision in the thick of the fair, but you know what, after a few months reflection, I think it holds up. The dial The dial is where the party is at. The matt mid-blue matches perfectly with the fixed ceramic tachy bezel (love the choice to use ceramic BTW), and is freshened up even more thanks to the white, red and orange at play. The contrasting white is great, and adds an instant retro flavour. I particularly like the break afforded by the white inner flange, which…
Brisbane watch collector Donald has steadily established a name for himself as a prolific vintage watch lover. We dive a little deeper and find out there’s more to the Don than just vintage Rolexes … Hi Donald, what’s your daily watch and why? I really enjoy wearing my Blue WG Submariner on a daily basis. Apart from being a great-looking watch, it also has a substantial weight to it; you know it’s there, which is something I particularly like. It also “flies under the radar” — I believe you need to know something about watches to understand what it really is. With the flat blue dial, blue ceramic insert, and the Glidelock clasp, all these factors add up to being a great daily watch for me. What else is in your collection? Have you got a favourite? My collection consists mainly of Rolex, Omega, Zenith and Tudor, with a mixture of modern and vintage between these brands, with most of the vintage being from the 1970s/80s. I also own a gorgeous Patek Philippe 5726A Nautilus Annual Calendar, which is one of my favourite watches. I have a few favourites in my collection, so I can’t say there is a particular watch…
One of my favourite quasi-apocryphal watch tales goes like this: There’s a guy who, for lack of anything better or more pressing to do with his life, decides to yacht-hop his way from home to Australia. Somewhere along the way, his watch (a Rolex, natch) is lost at sea. Upon mooring his boat, said sailor runs a comb through his sun-bleached locks, dons his finest T-shirt, shorts and shoes (perhaps Crocs, though hopefully not), and makes his way to the nearest Rolex boutique. Said boutique, in the manner of snooty, apocryphal boutiques everywhere, treats the intrepid traveller with disdain. The traveller, with the means and freedom to sail his yacht around the globe without a care in the world, navigates his way to another retailer and, in true Pretty Woman style, plonks down cash for a solid gold Yacht-Master (natch). I’m sure you’ve heard this story, or a local variant of it, before. It’s a good one. And even if the tale didn’t really happen, there’s a kernel of truth in there. Don’t judge people on their appearances. Not only is it bad sales in an age where streetwear reigns supreme, it’s also generally a not nice thing to do.…
Editor’s note: I’ve been saying for a few years now that Chanel is one to watch on the watchmaking front. They’ve been making watches for years of course, but in more recent times they’ve stepped up the intensity, offering beautiful (and beautifully executed) in-house movements. Sandra has the story … It’s seven years since Chanel Horlogerie decided to start developing its own movements in-house and in the last three of those years it has launched three new calibres – or four, when counting Calibre 2.1 separately. Each is strikingly different from anything offered by other haute horlogerie brands – and all are noticeably different from each other. That’s due to Chanel’s singular approach to watchmaking, which does not follow the usual path of “making engines to then put into various cases”, says Nicolas Beau, the global head of watchmaking and fine jewellery. “We think of a collection or model at the same time as we think of a calibre because there is a very strong intimacy between the two. It’s one calibre per model. So the first thing we do is imagine a calibre that has the capacity to evolve. And that creates another difficulty, which is that we must…
If you love dive watches, we probably don’t need to introduce Jason Heaton. He’s a man living the dream, a freelance writer who writes about watches only as an excuse to go out and have fun with them — be that hiking, skiing, kayaking or diving … Hi Jason, what’s your daily watch? As for a daily watch, it’s usually some sort of Doxa (I have a bit of a problem …) or a Rolex Submariner, but I also have a number of other favourites, like two Bremonts, a vintage Speedmaster, and smaller brands like Unimatic and Halios. I don’t really call myself a “collector”, since I have no real strategy for accumulating watches. To me, they’re all extensions of gear, and all have to earn their place in my watch roll. With only a couple of exceptions, all my watches have been on my wrist diving, flying, climbing or on some other adventure, even the vintage ones. My philosophy is: once you view these things as “precious” there’s something wrong. Do you have a favourite? I have a Doxa SUB200 T-Graph Sharkhunter I got a while back that I consider a favourite. I got it from the original owner, who bought it…
Often the best watches are those that come with a story attached. Sometimes that story can be attached to momentous events or achievements the watch is associated with, or the accomplishments of those who wore it. It can also be a story of how it’s made and who it’s made by. Such is the case with Seiko’s latest additions to their Presage collection — the limited edition Shippo Enamel watches. The form of these watches will be familiar to those who have come across the Presage line before, with its elongated Roman numerals and classical hands. This version, the SPB073, also sports a power reserve and date subdial to keep things interesting but, honestly, the texture of the dial itself is so good, it doesn’t need anything superfluous. As the name suggests, the dial is made using Shippo enamel, a technique that dates back to 17th century Japan, and involves several layers of blue enamel being applied and fired, to build a rich, deep colour over the guilloché base — which really shines after a final polish. The dials are all hand done by a craftsman named Wataru Totani. The results are deeply beautiful. But more than that, they make…
This month was an interesting one, and, as you’ll see, jam-packed with one particular brand. I’ll put this Heuer-overload down to the fact I spent quite a bit of time with local car enthusiasts, who have a lot of time for the brand — especially their chronographs. Let’s kick things off. Local gent Charith recently picked up this Big Pilot, as a memento to mark winning a local boxing match, which he unfortunately lost. Charith has had his eye on the Big Pilot, having always loved the reference, and the stars aligned — letting him make this purchase. The Big Pilot, at 46mm, has quite the presence, and it’s not common to spot this brown dial limited edition on the streets. Later in the month, I made my way out to Elwood one crisp winter morning, for a Porsche event. As I was waiting for a coffee, young collector and fan of T+T, Brandon, revealed a pretty cool piece. He was wearing his 18th birthday present — a vintage Heuer ‘Viceroy’ Autavia. These old ‘Viceroys’ were a promotional watch, launched between Heuer and American cigarette company Viceroy, and were a special version of the Autavia — redeemable for $88 and the end flap from the…