Riding $20k+ bikes isn’t enough, these top cyclists wear Richard Mille on race day
Mark Cavendish is arguably the greatest cycling sprinter of the modern era. But despite having a little less speed in his legs than he once did, his change of teams to Deceuninck–Quick-Step has sparked much excitement among cycling fans. As both a cycling nerd and watch enthusiast, today I got even more excited when I saw his Instagram story during a training ride with new teammate Julian Alaphilippe. Why? Because they were both wearing their Richard Milles. Alaphilippe came to our attention late last year during the delayed edition of the 2020 Tour de France, when he was spotted cruising along mid-race with a AUD$168,000 RM 67-02 on his wrist. Like Richard Mille himself, Alaphilippe is a Frenchman and one of the more recent athletes to join the select group of RM-wearing sportsmen. Mark Cavendish has been a part of the Richard Mille stable for a number of years now, a well suited athlete to wear such a technically advanced and robustly built watch while racing. Cavendish will begin his 15th season at the highest level of cycling, and has one of the most impressive race resumes on the planet. The 35-year-old has 30 Tour de France stage wins to…
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Many, many people out there view the ubiquitous Rolex Submariner as the forefather of all amphibious timepieces. And they’re dead wrong. In fact, the first truly fit-for-purpose dive watch was made by one of the oldest Swiss watchmakers in the game – Blancpain. The story of the world’s first dive watch is an interesting one, and it all started with a man nicknamed “The French James Bond”. Captain Robert “Bob” Maloubier was a French national who, at the beginning of 1940, enlisted in Winston Churchill’s secretive Special Operations Executive. SOE was an organisation that focused on espionage and unorthodox combat tactics in occupied Europe during the Second World War. Maloubier would become one of the firm’s foremost spies and, after parachuting into occupied France, he was responsible for spying on and sabotaging the Nazi war machine as well as supporting the French Resistance. At the close of WW2, Maloubier would enlist in the Marine Nationale (French Navy), and it was during his time at “Le Royale” that he and fellow compatriot, Lieutenant Claude Riffaud, would establish the French military’s combat diving corps, more commonly known as the “French Frogmen”. In the course of their training and clandestine missions, it became…
If you’re a regular reader of Time+Tide, you’re likely to sit somewhere on the scale of watch addiction. From unrelenting curiosity to full-blown collecting mania, you should know that you aren’t alone in your unquenchable thirst for that next addition to the collection. And what better way to start the year than by getting a new watch? Especially a vintage one. Here, we are taking a look at several vintage pieces on eBay that are currently available and all offer different elements of watch-collecting intrigue. If you’ve never bought a vintage watch before, let alone a vintage watch online, it can definitely seem like an intimidating morass of questionable authenticity and watches you might think are NQR. Recently, however, eBay has taken a big step to making this potential minefield of hunting and gathering more approachable by offering their Authenticity Guarantee on watch sales $2000US and over. This means that when an eligible watch is sold, it will be sent to eBay’s third-party verifier, who will issue it with an authenticity report card, before sending it on to the buyer. That means more time searching for your next dream watch, without worrying you might stumble across something that is less…
At the turn of the millennium, Hugh Grant was the man. In 1994, he won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA for his performance in Four Weddings and a Funeral and, in 1995, Empire magazine proclaimed him to be one of the “100 Sexiest Stars” in film history. Grant’s breakout role was in Four Weddings and a Funeral and he continued winning hearts with his very English brand of twinkle-eyed, floppy-haired, bumbling charm in Notting Hill (1999), Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001) and Love Actually (2003). But for all his middle-class faux modesty, the watches that Grant wears on screen are about as alpha-male as they come and appear to reflect his personal taste. Let’s take a closer look. Panerai Ref. OP 6560 Luminor Marina – Bridget Jones’s Diary, 2001 Bridget Jones’s Diary is one of the most famous romcoms of the last two decades, and Grant (playing the caddish Daniel Cleaver) was out there flexing on everyone with a stainless-steel Panerai on a bracelet. While it’s tough to get a perfect look at the watch, the camera does linger while he helps Renée Zellweger get dressed for a Tarts and Vicars costume party, and you can see the beefy cushion…