INTRODUCING: The 2021 Longines Legend Divers freshen up heritage looks with modern notes
The heritage trend has definitely saturated the marketplace with virtually every manufacturer looking to their past to create interest in their products. Some do this better than others. With the current ubiquity of the faux-patinated aesthetic, designs have to be pushed even further to stand out. Re-interpretations of heritage designs typically signal that the design is largely unchanged besides minor elements being modernised to ensure they are faithful tributes. Longines, however, has taken a more interesting route of late – leveraging heritage frameworks but issuing them with new skins that cater to modern trends. We saw the Longines BigEye Avigation freshen up a past design with a shaded petrol blue dial. Now a similar shade of smoked blue lacquer has been introduced to the Longines Legend Divers collection, alongside a smoked coffee brown lacquer dial for those hankering for a warmer aesthetic. The dimensions remain the same as the original 2007 black dial model that helped usher in the vintage-inspired trend with its stainless-steel case 42mm in diameter (just like the original 7402 diver it was inspired by), 12.7mm thick, and 52.4mm lug to lug. The 300 metre water-resistant watch has a screw-down caseback, as well as two screw-down crowns…
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Thanks to the vintage looks of its steel case, the DOXA SUB 300 is a cult diver’s watch. But ever since the SUB 300 Aqualung US Divers in carbon fibre came out, its dark presence has haunted the dreams of DOXA fans (in a good way). Sleek and moody, the DOXA SUB 300 Carbon turns up the emphasis on the SUB 300 as a pure diver’s tool, while at the same time underlining the blisteringly fresh dials. If, like me, you fancy the stealthy embrace of carbon fibre, this is very much your ticket. I do warn you though, you will have serious decision issues, as we have six colourful references in the DOXA SUB 300 Carbon collection to choose from. As a whole new sub-category (pun intended) within the DOXA portfolio, the smooth tactility of the high-grade carbon fibre takes the brand to another level. As icing on the candy coloured cake, these babies are COSC-certified, chronometer spec diver’s watches. Professional Part of the rise of DOXA from niche favourite to Instagram star is the Swiss brand’s tight focus on diving watches. That’s why it seems apt to start with the zesty orange of the Professional in the classic DOXA…
Prospex is the largest growing Seiko line-up with buyers flocking to add pieces from the collection to their wrist. Highly robust and value-driven, these watches can be more affordable than their competitors with little to no sacrifice in the quality of fabrication. While many will refer to this watch as a new entry into the “Willard” line of Seiko divers – named after the watch worn by Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) in Apocalypse Now – that’s actually not the back story here. This watch is really a tribute to the Japanese adventurer Naomi Uemura, who wore a similar piece in the 1970s while completing a 12,500km solo dog-sled run from Greenland to Alaska. Now outfitted with a textured charcoal gray dial, the Seiko Prospex SLA051J1 is a modern re-interpretation of the diving watch that Uemura wore on that expedition. The SLA049 meanwhile is available in a limited-edition run of 1200 pieces and celebrates the 80th anniversary of Uemura’s birth with a blue dial reminiscent of the mountainous terrain that he explored. The stainless-steel cases are 44mm in diameter, but more compact than their diameter lets on with a lug to lug measurement under 48mm. The flying saucer-like profiles wear well…
It’s no secret we are rather enamoured with the Bulgari Octo Finissimo and calling it a micro-technological marvel of the new century would not be overselling it. Following our article on Bulgari’s latest chapter of one-upmanship – where they managed to somehow engineer a tourbillon to fit the already infinitessimally optimised space inside the angular case – we are still none the wiser as to how they did it. Surely you too have wondered just what hides within the paper thin layers of cogs, bridges and small colourful pops of jewels in their caliber BV318. Rarely have we spent so much time looking at a movement through the clear sapphire caseback in the sandblasted titanium case, every so often turning the watch expecting it to be an optical illusion. Surely it is not humanly possible to fit a traditional mechanical movement with a chronograph complication and a GMT function within a case of 6.9mm? We are deadly curious and who better to educate us than Peter Speake-Marin of The Naked Watchmaker. In his Deconstruction series, an already fascinating journey into the inner workings of the mechanical wonders we obsess over, he has dedicated his workbench to the Octo Finissimo Chronograph…
Studio Underd0g have a refreshingly playful approach to watchmaking. As the British microbrand explain on their website. “When the biggest news in the watch-world for 2020 is that a certain brand (that shall not be named) had increased their case size by an unfathomable 1mm it got us thinking… Why… so… serious…? Don’t worry, we don’t plan on taking them head on just yet, but we are here to inject a bit of silliness into what can be a very un-silly industry.” This is a very welcome perspective and plays out in Studio Underd0g’s cheerfully irreverent debut collection that consists of three watches: Desert Sky, Watermel0n and Go0fy Panda. Normally, after all, watches with bicompax and “big eye” features come loaded with vintage preconceptions. We might expect a manual movement, intricately detailed feuille hands, monochrome tones and rather high price points for the serious collectors out there. But Studio Underd0g (yes, that is a zero in their name) aim to do things differently. By adding fresh colours and humour suddenly we’re into unknown territory. Richard Benc, the founder of Studio Underd0g, seems to have a particular sense of style and an instinctive feel for both dial size and the delicate…
We really should have seen the Hamilton Intra-Matic Chronograph H coming. Having played with the idea before, this hand-wound, bi-register chrono – in beautifully proportioned panda and reverse panda dial variants – sees Hamilton effectively resurrect and update its first chronograph. The modern Intra-Matic Chronograph H is compelling in either dial, taking direct inspiration from 1968’s ‘Chronograph A’ and ‘Chronograph B’. Those original pieces have often aged beautifully, so it’s no surprise to see fauxtina deployed here. A box sapphire crystal further adds to that ’60s vibe. In all, though, it appears to be a watch that leans heavily on the vintage cues without ever losing its balance. At 40mm, the case contains the new H-51 movement (utilising a base ETA-7753) with 60 hours power reserve. It also comes with a welcome 100m of water resistance. But while the Chronograph H is a modern take on Hamilton’s original chronograph, it’s also a natural step in the brand’s recent exploration of those ’60s designs – and suggests that while they’ve been looking backwards, they’ve also been responding to the tastes of modern watch-buyers. This is not the first model to find inspiration from the reverse panda looks of the ‘Chronograph B’.…
You don’t always have to look to the usual suspects or pay a hefty price to get a quality watch. There is a wide spectrum of manufacturers in this industry and, with so many releases each year, it can be a bit of a challenge to follow every reference introduced. While the below list of watches are fabricated by well known brands, we wanted to shine a spotlight on some references that may not have received the recognition they deserve. A sleeper hit is effectively something that is not massively hyped, but has a level of quality that demands further exploration. Here are six sleeper hits we included in our Now Buying Guide… Timex x Todd Snyder “Pride” Watch At 34mm, this watch can pretty much be worn by anyone, of any identity. The theme of the watch is literally pride and inclusivity. As I have said before, Todd Snyder and Timex have teamed up to create arguably the best value proposition in rainbow watches. The Pride Watch is a nod to the pride colours derived from artist Gilbert Baker’s Rainbow Flag. The dial aesthetic is is the result of three rotating coloured discs. As the time changes and the discs…
I have made it no secret that I felt the DOXA SUB 300 Carbon Aqua Lung US Divers watch was snubbed in the Divers prize at the 2020 GPHG awards. I have nothing against Breitling, let me be 100% clear on that fact, but I personally felt that if the vote were left to the watch community then DOXA would have taken home the award. Doxa is known for its dive watches with a winning formula left largely unchanged over the years. The fact that their creations are effectively modern fabrications of designs of yesteryear is a testament to this fact, something only brands like Rolex have been able to do. When you have a good thing going, there is little incentive to switch things up. But when you find a way to bring innovative materials into an already great design, I believe such an achievement should be rewarded – and I believe DOXA did just that with their SUB 300 Carbon diver. The case The flying saucer-like profile of the case is iconic within the watch community and makes for a very wearable watch across wrists of varying sizes. It has a professional diameter of 42mm and thickness of 13.4mm.…
That is if I ever really had one. When it was released in 2018, the Rolex GMT-Master II Pepsi Ref. 126710 BLRO quickly cemented itself at the top of my wish list, grail list, things-I’d-kill-for-to-own list (you get the picture). It remained firmly in the realm of dreams until recently when I decided to bite the bullet and pick up one second-hand. Yes, I paid market premium and all. Cue the laughter of the lucky collectors who were able to pick one up at retail – congrats to you if you fall into this category. The only way I could make it work without living on the street was by completely detonating my entire collection and going all in on the latest iteration of Pepsi. Was it worth it? Well let’s find out. Once I put it on I felt… Relieved more than anything. Relieved that I hadn’t just jettisoned some watches I really loved for something so hyped up. I was torn internally whether to go for it. Andrew warned me off it, telling me it was more blueberry than Pepsi. As someone who has wrist-rolled his way through pretty much every important watch out there his opinion carries a lot…
When we talk about what attracts people to watches, you may typically expect the response to be the movement. But when it comes to the larger marketplace, arguably the most important element, aside from case diameter, is the dial. The dial is what catches your eye first. As much as some people jest they would want to wear a watch flipped over on their wrist to be able to see the movement at all times, intriguing dials are the first element you notice – the headline to pull you in and make you want to know the full story. Sport and tool watches are typically associated with plain dials that mean business, but in order to stand out today sometimes you need to spice things up. To begin celebrating the 60th anniversary of the brand, Sinn has introduced a new limited edition diver that presents a more interesting dial without losing the tough and reliable German engineering aesthetic they are known for. The Sinn U1 DS Limited Edition with “Grinding Dial” captures the image of a battle worn hull, its irregular decorative pattern sure to generate inquiry into the diver. The 44mm bead-blasted case is 14.7mm thick, 50.5mm lug to…