If you thought the original Zeitwerk was a wonderful time machine with no room for improvement, you haven’t met Anthony de Haas, Director of Product Development for A. Lange & Söhne. The incorporation of a date complication might not sound like a very big deal, but when you discover the mind-bending solutions inside the newly […]
Bremont may have only been around since 2002, but since its inception, founders and brothers Nick and Giles English have made sure that the hard-charging British watchmaker has been at the forefront of not only innovation but also military collaboration and integration. In fact, you can find a Bremont strapped to the wrist of a great many servicemen and women across the globe, and there’s a very good reason for this – the British watches offer a great level of robustness and tool watch real-life functionality that borders on being unparalleled in the horological industry. For this reason, Time+Tide is proud to stock a curated selection of the British marque’s timepieces at our market place. These are just some of the excellent timepieces we can now offer: Bremont Supermarine Type 301 This diver’s watch offers up the quintessence of a military-inspired amphibious timepiece, thanks to 300 metres of water resistance, highly legible dial with creamy Super-LumiNova indices, unidirectional rotating bezel and a highly legible dial, which is capped by an anti-reflective, domed sapphire crystal. Powering the rugged dive watch is Bremont’s Calibre 11 ½”‘ BE-92AE, a self-winding movement that offers up chronometer certification, 21 jewels, 38 hours of power reserve and…
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In March Grand Seiko unveiled its 2020 watch collection and prepared to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the brand. Among the novelties were some elegant and discreet watches paying tribute to the first-ever GS watch, a robust and high-end diver with a brand new Spring Drive movement and watches focusing on traditional decorative skills. And… […]
There is a lot to be said for a simple chronograph. Something clear, easy to read and a pleasure to look at. You don’t always want to strap a large, bulky watch to your wrist. One with more information on the dial than you will ever use, and with at least half the displays doing god knows what. Longines has spotted this gap in the chronograph game, and has capitalised on it with their latest addition to the Heritage collection, the Longines Heritage Classic Chronograph 1946. We first took a look at this watch a couple of months ago, but recently got to spend more quality time with it and get a better understanding of what it offers in a crowded market. The first thing to note — and arguably the core of the impression you get with it on the wrist — is the cleanly executed design of the watch. The highly stylised Breguet numerals in raised and perfectly applied paint, the blued steel hands and the balance of the two sub-dials make for a great-looking watch, only made more attractive by how accurate it is to its inspiration. As you might have guessed, the chronograph that inspired this latest…
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As we should all know by now, 2020 is the 60th anniversary of the launch of Grand Seiko, and while they have released a number of watches linked to this special birthday, this collection of Grand Seiko “firsts” might be the most significant yet. Based on the first-ever Grand Seiko to be born in the Suwa Seikosha factory and powered by the famed 3180 caliber, this latest collection features three references in platinum (SBGW257), yellow gold (SBGW258) and the firm’s proprietary Brilliant Hard Titanium (SBGW259). The three different references in three different metals all offer a totally different experience of this simple but beautifully designed template for a dress watch par excellence. Each blends the vintage design cues of the case and dial with the thoroughly contemporary Grand Seiko caliber 9S64. In typical Grand Seiko style, they are not reinventing the wheel, but slowly improving the fundamentals of their watchmaking until even the most basic elements are approaching the best in the world. This quiet mission is something we see expressed in these on-the-surface simple wristwatches. You might recognise them from a series of limited edition pieces released in 2017 (which we looked at here and here) that also used…
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“Accessible” and “High-End” are not words that usually go well together… Quality usually comes at a price. A case made by a master watchmaker, a guilloché dial and a hand-decorated movement are often signs of a 5-digit price tag. Enjoying the taste of independent watchmaking, the exclusivity and the craftsmanship require deep pockets. A sad […]
Let me start this review with an admission: I thought the Big Crown was going to turf many of its current models in 2020. The Milgauss, for example, is well past due for an evolution from its current form, if it remains at all. Likewise, the Air-King – which stylistically borrowed heavily from a set of dash clocks made for a land speed record car that Rolex no longer has any affiliation with – was also rumoured to be disappearing for good. In my opinion, though, the model that was most ready for a reboot was the divisive Explorer II Ref.216570. Here is a watch that has been in production for one year shy of a decade and, until recently, hasn’t exactly been a fan favourite. In fact, before stainless steel professional models escalated in value, the Explorer II, in either the black or white dial, was readily available from your local AD. I should know – I used to work for one. Why was it never as desirable as something like a Submariner or Daytona? Well, the large 42mm case size has been off-putting for many, considering that its predecessor, the Ref. 16570, was a more agreeable 40mm. Then…
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The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak is one of the most well-known watches in the world, but there are some references within the family that remain relatively undiscovered. While they are extremely rare, Royal Oaks with stone dials are as beautiful as you would imagine from the Le Brassus-based brand, with lapis lazuli and various other textured hard stones used in recent decades. Audemars Piguet have added to this legacy of exotic dials with the brand new Royal Oak “Jumbo” Extra-Thin, available in platinum and rose gold with a black onyx dial and diamond indexes. The new Audemars Piguet Royal Oak “Jumbo”, in its ultra-thin case, measures just 39mm in diameter and only 8.1mm tall — well and truly living up to its slimline name. This lithe presence on the wrist is allowed by the Audemars Piguet automatic caliber 2121, which is only 3.05mm thick, pretty impressive for an automatic movement that offers 40 hours of power reserve. The reference in platinum is reminiscent of the ref. 14700BC Royal Oak from 1991, with black dial and diamond markers cased in 36mm of white gold, however the newly released rose gold looks suitably differentiated. These watches are special, not only because they are…
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Sinn is a brand that is stealthily emerging from the shadows. The Frankfurt-based manufacturer favours slow incremental changes to their product line, making their watches better every year, but never reinventing the wheel as they go about it. This year, the new collection has looked to improve on a few older references, as well as introduce something a little bit different from the robust utilitarian watches we are used to seeing from Sinn. Made up of eight new watches across three different collections, it’s clear Sinn has chosen to focus their attention on quality over quantity in 2020, a decision that the cult of enthusiasts who follow the brand will no doubt be delighted by. Let’s take a closer look at what they have on offer. Sinn U series dive watches, made from submarine steel, and now in a practical smaller size If there’s one memorable quirky fact about Sinn as a brand it’s that their impressive diving watches are produced in the same special steel used in the hulls of submarines. This steel was developed by the large engineering firm ThyssenKrupp to be used in the non-nuclear submarines of the German navy, and has the material benefits of being…
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Editor’s note: On the brink of bringing you some of Seiko’s new novelties via our second ‘Home Delivery Watch Fair – Basel Edition’ over on YouTube, we cast our mind back to two things. Firstly, the 2019 collection, which is captured here in a video, and in the pics below. What stood out to me was how each of these watches has had major line extensions in 2020. The point was made in this article that Seiko is increasingly codifying its collections year on year. There is ongoing proof of that, as just about every era and style presented here now has 2020 variants in the mix. Secondly, we cast our mind back to Basel, and what we – in the moment of filming this video – thought would continue, unabated, for the term of our natural lives. Watch fairs. We might have had an inkling Basel was evolving. But rapidly imploding was not on the horizon. What a difference 12 months makes. You can get a pretty good sense of the overarching themes of Baselworld by listening to the chatter in the halls, press centre and even the sausage cart outside. And, along with smaller crowd sizes and uncertain futures, one…
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