Seiko is taking great strides to make the now emancipated brand Grand Seiko an entity of its own, and now there is not one Grand Seiko line but three: Heritage, Elegance and Sport. Truth to be told, Heritage and Elegance are very similar, but since the Elegance Collection aims at a more refined segment the watches […]
RGM Watch Co. is truly an anomaly in the industry, designing and manufacturing ground-up movements, dials and cases in a country that’s long abandoned such horological endeavours. The days of great American brands like Hamilton, Waltham and Ingersoll are long gone, but RGM brought traditional watchmaking back in the 1990s, setting up shop in Mount […]
We’ve discussed the surge of microbrands on many occasions, appreciating their innovative styling at accessible price points. Dive watches, however, can be a tough nut to crack with well-established players like Seiko, Hamilton and Tissot offering affordable, competitive options at retailers worldwide. In fact, the market seems flooded with divers from just about every major […]
Seiko’s core Prospex diver, known as the ‘Turtle’, is a rock-solid watch that’s a well-deserved fan favourite. And it’s easy to see why. It’s a compelling mix of classic, conservative dive watch style and idiosyncratic design that’s downright charming. It’s also quite a versatile platform, as numerous colour combinations, and dials demonstrate. If the blacked-out Ninja Turtle and blue-textured dials of the Save the Ocean editions weren’t enough to convince you, I present the Seiko Prospex SRPC44, colloquially known as the Golden Turtle. Before we get to what it’s like to wear this (very) gold watch on the wrist, let’s cover off a few of the core specifications of the Turtle. It clocks in at a very solid 45mm across (according to Seiko’s website), and 13.4mm tall. The crystal is Hardlex, Seiko’s proprietary tough mineral crystal. The band is an accordion-style diver in silicon, with gold-tone buckle and a metal keeper. The movement is the 4R36, which has hacking, hand-winding a date and a day. All good stuff. The case is rated to 200 metres and the relevant sections of the dial and hands are coated with enough Lumibrite to keep you up at night. So that’s the nuts and…
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Everyone knows the Breitling Navitimer. Like, literally everyone. That’s because it has one of the most recognisable dial/bezel configurations in the business. That doesn’t mean it’s the easiest to read but it definitely stands out in a crowd. Launched in 1952, this legendary watch – designed specifically for pilots – has seen many, many variations […]
The latest “experimental collection” unveiled by Ferdinand Berthoud during Baselworld 2019 unites the findings of two pivotal scientific minds of the Enlightenment. Closer in nature to an instrument than a watch, two limited editions of 10 pieces celebrate the genius of pioneers Ferdinand Berthoud and Jean-Charles de Borda, men whose discoveries and quest for chronometric […]
UNDONE is a true case study in bespoke. A microbrand to be sure, but one that’s continuing to offer intriguing, customizable mechanical watches at affordable prices. We recently reviewed its Aqua dive watch and customization for that piece was pretty impressive. Multiple case finishes, bezels, over two dozen dial options, with or without date, over […]
In 2014, with the launch of its first Octo Finissimo (hand-wound) models, Bulgari rewrote the rules of skinny. Until then, an ultra-thin watch was defined by discreet styling, a round case, precious metal – in short, the ultimate dress watch. Then along came Octo Finissimo, with its shape-shifting trick of looking both supermodel-skinny and swaggeringly muscular. Shamelessly modern! A sports-deluxe ultra-thin watch! Made of titanium! Jump to the 2017 version – the world’s thinnest automatic watch (until Piaget snatched the record back a year later). This time the entire thing was done in sandblasted titanium – case, dial, bracelet and clasp – the chromatic unity bringing even greater strength to the design. Then, last year, rhodium-plated and sandblasted steel, and sandblasted pink gold – the former with an almost icy-white tone, the latter smashing any prejudice we may have felt towards all-gold watches. Flashy? No sir. And this year, ceramic. Sandblasted. Deep, matt black. The Stealth Bomber Octo Finissimo. Black shrinks any object visually and the deep matt black of the Octo Finissimo’s sandblasted surface shrinks it even more. Except that it doesn’t. That shape-shifting trick again. The strong angles of its stepped bezel and lugs radiate confidence and swagger.…
The post HANDS-ON: Blacked-out – the Bulgari Octo Finissimo Automatic ceramic appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.
As you may already know, Seiko is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its Spring Drive technology this year. To mark what is in fact quite a momentous occasion, Grand Seiko debuted two new hand-wound Spring Drive movements and a total of four different watches at Baselworld. We recently spent some hands-on time with three of […]
Girard-Perregaux is using the Laureato collection as its battering ram to break into the kingdom of the “luxury sports watch”. Suffice it to say that there are only 25 different models in the Bridges family, 44 models in the 1966 collection… and nearly 75 Laureato watches. And let’s keep in mind that the modern version […]