HANDS-ON: All aboard with the Longines Railroad
We’re not alone in our love of Longines heritage offerings – the classic designs and smart prices make them consistently instant hits among watch enthusiasts, and every year we get some new treasure from the brand’s seemingly endless archive. We’ve had dive watches, pilot’s watches, even trench watches – but we’ve never seen a train watch, until now… The American railroads ‘General Railroad Timepiece Standards’ specified that timekeeping equipment from then on must “be open faced…use plain Arabic numbers printed bold and black on a white dial, and have bold black hands…” The Longines Railroad takes its name and design from highly precise ‘railroad grade’ mid-twentieth century Longines watches intended for use by railway workers. Before the invention of electronic safety mechanisms, accuracy on the railways wasn’t just a matter of good customer service, it was a matter of life and death. In fact, it was a head-on collision in 1891 caused by a slow pocketwatch that caused the American railroads to put together the General Railroad Timepiece Standards. These guidelines specified that timekeeping equipment from then on must “be open faced… have a minimum of 17 jewels, adjusted to at least 5 positions, keep time accurately to within a gain or loss of only…
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The story in a second Yet again, Tudor has delivered one of the most talked about watches of 2016. If you’d asked me in the early months of 2016 if the bronze trend had a future, I’d have said no. To all intents and purposes the craze, spearheaded by Panerai, was on the wane. Sure, the ancient-yet-innovative alloy had its charms, but it takes a certain type of person to mess around with sulphur and lemon juice, making their watch look like something salvaged from a shipwreck. I thought bronze would always be a niche case material, not a mainstream proposition. Then I saw the Tudor Black Bay Bronze. Catapulting off the incredibly strong Black Bay family, this watch has what it takes to bring bronze to a much bigger audience. The case We have to start this by talking about the case. The two key take away points here are size and material. At 43mm across this is the biggest watch Tudor has ever made, and boy does this incremental increase make for a big impact when it comes to on-the-wrist presence. For me, the size and bulk of the BB Bronze make it much more of a ‘fun’ watch,…
As far as origin stories go, the Reverso has one of the best. Back in the 1930s, Jaeger-LeCoultre’s most famous model was conceived to withstand the rigours of polo, thanks to its ingenious flip-over case design. When the mallets started swinging and balls went flying, the watch could safely bury its face until the action was over, using its caseback as protection. Much later (1994 to be precise) the line evolved to include two-faced models, and the story became less about hiding away when the going got tough, and more about choosing which side was best equipped for the task in hand. It was a split personality. And really, who doesn’t love the idea of that? We’re all familiar with the double lives led by Batman and Bruce Wayne (in fact, both Kilmer and Bale have worn Reversos in their turns as the Caped Crusader), Spider-Man and Peter Parker. And let’s not forget it’s more than just comic book stuff – the alter-ego concept stands up in just as well IRL. Take Beyonce and Sasha Fierce – the ballsy character she used to step into when she needed to transcend her pre-show nerves (maybe she borrows Jay-Z’s from time to time). But if that’s…