Do your friends think watch collecting is strange? These are the best watches to get your friends into watches
If you, like many others, stumbled across the watch collecting hobby entirely by yourself, you know that feeling of loneliness. You may spend hours perfecting a wrist shot to show off your grail purchases, incredible bargains, or vintage eBay snipes, only to have friends and family snub you by exclaiming, “You bought another watch?” Well, if you really want others to appreciate your hobby like you do, you need to give them a taste for themselves. Whether you save up for something special or gather some buddies to pitch in, these are five of the best watches to get your friends into watches too, from cheapest to dearest. Casio AE1200WH-1A It’s safe to say that every soul on the planet is familiar with Casio’s digital watches, thanks to the ubiquitous $20 AUD marvel, the F-91W. They’re rugged, last forever, and their retro-utilitarian stylings have cemented them as classics with even the snobbiest of wristwatch enthusiasts. However, if you want to step it up a notch, the AE1200 series offers a wide set of useful features with a much quirkier and distinguished appearance. The ability to store multiple alternate time zones, complete with LED world map display, makes this a perfect watch…
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OK, let’s start by remembering the SBDC007, the legendary Seiko Shogun. Now I might be slightly biased because, at one point, I had two of them — after reading reviews saying the watch was so good it’d make you forget your other wrist-worn beauties. Well, believe the hype. The watch was that good and pretty difficult to get your hands on, too. It was a pure JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) model, large but deceptively light in a way that made its 43.5mm size seem smaller on the wrist. Now the new Seiko Prospex SPB189 and SPB191 have arrived and they’re a significant step up. Here’s why … First impressions After a couple of years lamenting the discontinuation of the SBDC007 … voila! The Seiko Prospex SPB189 and SPB191 are here. The Shogun is back in business, sharp as before, and with a crisp white brother in arms on soft rubber. The case and bracelet While the faces are different and specs are seriously improved, the body of the watch still exhibits that muscular angularity and sharp dynamism. As soon as you grab it, you’ll notice that it’s deceptively lightweight is due to the titanium build. The bracelet on the black…
The perpetual calendar is widely recognised as one of IWC’s greatest strengths. Back in the 1980s, legendary watchmaker Kurt Klaus was challenged to develop a new version of this highly intricate mechanism. He responded with an ingenious upgrade that essentially streamlined the complication by doing away with the correctors and enabling the calendar functions to be manipulated via the crown. The new IWC Portugieser Perpetual Calendar 42 Boutique Edition offers an even more refined expression of this idea to deliver a simple solution to a complicated problem. Just like Kurt Klaus would have wanted. The case As the name suggests, the case of this latest perpetual calendar measures 42mm in diameter and sits a modest 13.8mm off the wrist. It’s by no means a petite watch, but is remarkably compact if you consider the level of complication on offer. The compact case proportions are an exciting step by IWC to produce slightly smaller perpetual calendar watches and make them more accessible in the process. The lugs are elegantly tapered to ensure the more modest specifications on paper match what you are feeling on your wrist. It’s not too big and not too small – the stuff of Goldilocks’ dreams. The…
Editor’s note: Sometimes we can miss things that are right in front of us. That’s how it is with the Longines Master Collection – which happens to be one of the bestselling lines for the brand. Watchmaking know-how does not just happen overnight, it is acquired over decades and centuries, and Longines offers such a rich history for new consumers to leverage – bringing quality and value-driven offerings to modern buyers looking for something classic on the wrist. Time+Tide always strives to bring awareness to all quality watch offerings, so it would be remiss if we didn’t remind you of the value found in the Longines stable. Let’s revisit the time Andrew personally went to see the watch in the metal, and how pleasantly surprised he was with the lineup … When it comes to Longines’ yearly new releases we are like heatseeking missiles for the vintage fire the brand has at its disposal – few archives are as deep or as versatile as Longines, and it means they can pick and choose between adventurers’ watches, avant-garde designs, classic dress … the options are almost endless and they impress with regularity. But we rarely look at the everyday collections that,…
Earlier this year, in April, the IWC Portugieser 2020 Collection was announced at Watches & Wonders. The Portugieser was created in 1939 due to a demand for a marine-deck chronometer experience that could be translated into a wristwatch. Legibility and accuracy are the two pillars that hold up the Portugieser line, and IWC has changed very little to the winning formula over the years. As IWC puts it, this year was the evolution of a classic. In order to maintain the Portugieser aesthetic we have all come to know and love, the majority of the evolution throughout the lineup is actually internal – with new in-house calibers raising the bar more than ever. IWC Portugieser Automatic 40 The Automatic 40 is the most compact watch within the collection, and also the most faithful to the original Portugieser profile found in the original reference 325 from 1939. Water resistant to 30 metres, the cases are 40.4mm in diameter with a thickness of 12.3mm – providing a sporting yet elegant profile on the wrist. The dial has the same traditional layout with large Arabic numerals surrounding the dial, and sub-seconds complication found at the 6 position. The dial crystal is made with…
Watching on from the sidelines, consumers on social media constantly beg the watch industry to put the novel in novelties, asking for original, fresh, and forward-thinking designs in a conventional and traditional industry. Instead, we get 1mm variations in size, a new dial colour, and the crowd goes wild to the extent that boggles the mind. In other words, people don’t know what they want. If you’re a watch lover that genuinely seeks a different view of things, the Ulysse Nardin Freak X Magma is for you, and it’s coming in hot. The case The 43mm case is made of both carbon fibre and titanium. The carbon fibre is composed of a red polymer, while the titanium is DLC treated to a shade of black. The bezel is rendered in DLC-treated titanium, with both brushed and sandblasted finishes. This pairing of carbon fibre and titanium not only provides the watch with a magma-like aesthetic to live up to its name, but also a robust case that will protect the carousel tourbillon within. The watch is water resistant to a depth of 50 metres, so you do not have to worry about the fire going out if the watch gets wet.…
Pilot’s watches have always been a strong category for watch consumers around the world, drawing an emotional and heritage-driven connection to the symbiosis between aviation and horology. Inspired by a Harrier XV741 flown in a 1969 Transatlantic Air Race from London to New York, AVI-8 offers a value-driven pilot’s watch designed with a clear and detailed love for all things aviation. The brand has worked very hard to appropriately pay homage to Tom Lecky-Thompson and his team through subtle nods to the pilot and plane that won more than 50 years ago. Code-named “Blue Nylon” by Lecky-Thompson and his team, AVI-8 decided to make their second limited edition celebrating the victory a watch that tastefully pairs with blue leather and nylon-velcro straps – the AVI-8 Hawker Harrier Blue Nylon Limited Edition. The AVI-8 Hawker Harrier Blue Nylon Limited Edition features a 44mm stainless steel case that is 13.5mm thick and approximately 52mm across the wrist lug to lug. Water resistant to 50 metres, the watch will make a nice companion for daily wear. In tribute to Lecky-Thompson and his Harrier XV741, the watch has a custom self-winding rotor designed to resemble the famed Rolls-Royce Pegasus engine that powered the plane’s flight. With…
Despite my Nordic roots and name, it’s beginning to occur to me that I’m not cool enough for the new Linde Werdelin. The Swiss-Danish watchmaker is well known for their decidedly strong design language. Increasingly, they’re nearly as well known for their stoic refusal to be deterred from banking all on it. Today, it’s the same. They’ll stand their ground with a very special 88-piece limited edition of their first diver, the Linde Werdelin Oktopus Blue Sea. Immensely strong looking, and dainty like, well, an anvil or a block of arctic granite. Which is exactly why we enthuse about these large pieces of horology: broad at 44mm, but lugless, with a comfortable 46mm length, and shaped to fit the wrist, so comfort? Yes. Presence? Like wow. The Oktopus is a big tool diver, seemingly bulletproof with the milky-white strong LW alloy, with a dark bolted-down bezel and tough rubber strap. The multi-layered dial is an architectural gem, and while it seems a very calm light grey tone, something magical happens as soon as you enter a dark corner of the room, or even sit in your car. A transformation into a multi-coloured, Miami Vice-sorbet colour-infused light-bomb. How did they do that? …
Divers! We love ’em. I’m wearing a technical diver as I’m writing this — helium escape valve and all. Does it mean I’ve got a diver’s kit packed up, in the boot of my car, ready to go? Not unless you count the defunct photo props I have in a box, dry since 2010. It’s not about the action itself, it’s about knowing you can. We’ll show you some of the best dive watches of 2020 over $10K, safe in the knowledge that you can jump on a plane, charter a speedboat out to an atoll in the Pacific, and jump in. Specially this year, we deserve it, if only for the tingly rush of pre-adventure. But remember, even bone dry, these watches are tough enough to climb that peak too (what do you mean you haven’t got crampons or rope?). Seiko Prospex 55th anniversary SLA039 Let’s take the bull by the horns: yes, this is a very expensive Seiko, at more than $10K, and you will surely not understand why until you try it on, as I did here. It might still seem expensive, but will blow you away with its Grand Seiko finished Ever-Brilliant steel, and seem way too…