FRIDAY WIND DOWN: Sorry, it's short this week, I'm thirsty …
Some Friday Wind Downs are long, some have a point, and others are just the last thing standing between me and a cold, cold beer. That’s a dangerous place to be at the best of times — in Australia we talk about “murdering” a beer, we don’t mess around — but after a week like this, it’s truly ill-advised. Why? Because I’m excited! In just over three hours, we’ll be hitting the button on a video project with Audemars Piguet that is one of the most significant and substantial of my time in watches. It stars collector and watch dealer Eric Ku, as well as Head of Complications at Audemars Piguet, Michael Friedman, and what is vying to be my favourite watch release of the year, the glorious [Re]master01 Selfwinding Chronograph by Audemars Piguet. I want to get a few pre-games in before the drop, so, if you’ll excuse me … Hope to join you watching it all over again in an hour and a half! Between now and then, enjoy the most popular stories of the week. TAG shows off its elegant new racer TAG Heuer has just unveiled the new Carrera Elegant collection, adding another feather to the Carrera…
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Editor’s note: We published this story at the height of Stranger Things mania, but it’s just as fun to check in on anytime for ’80s kids like me. Well, fun? Depends how well you deal with the flashbacks… The ’80s were Nerd City, peppered with popped polo shirts and pie-crust collars, Slime, The Breakfast Club, pommes noisettes, Pop Rocks candy and brine shrimp pets masquerading as Sea-Monkey kits. Against this neon, fad-filled haze emerges the ’80s saving graces – the best pop music in history and watches that either embraced new technology or new money. Here’s 11 (see what we did there) watches we’d be happy to see in season two. Swatch Watch – 1983 The simple plastic quartz Swatch flipped the way we looked at watches on its head, bringing a sense of play to the fore, and decreeing them style consumables. It was a democratic move away from Swiss watches predicated on careful craftsmanship to be cherished for a lifetime. Swatch meant there was a colour and design for every personality. Casio G-Shock (DW-5000C) – 1983 The durability of the game-changing Casio G-Shock managed to avoid a prohibitive price bracket while earning cult cool status. Its engineer, Kikuo Ibe,…
Unimatic’s tough Italian exterior gets the touch of Japanese designer Mihara Yasuhiro in a marriage of crisp white Cerakote™ and extreme minimalism. Unimatic, based in Milan, has a strong reputation for their no-nonsense tough 40mm tool watches, with their bold cases and stubby-perfect 49mm lug-to-lug length. With the Unimatic x Mihara Yasuhiro they have managed to bridge the divide between horology and Hypebeast. This is their second collaborative project this year, with the previous project being the instantly sold out Unimatic x Massena Lab neo-vintage version of this same U1. This time they’re back with a focus on purity, both in terms of aesthetic and shade, cranking the minimalist Unimatic design language up a notch – or a calm downturn, depending on your point of view. One thing is certain, in a world of lookalike vintage divers, this is a super-fresh ticket to a proper summer watch, not just in name but in nature, disguising what is a solid 300m Goldilocks-sized diver. Apparently stealth no longer comes only in black or grey, as a crisp white case can conceal a bulletproof tool watch. Upon closer inspection you will recognise the Unimatic language of the dial – highly legible round applied…
Every now and then you’ll come across something that makes you think, “Why doesn’t everyone do this?” This was what came to mind when I was considering the Rado Captain Cook with interchangeable straps, which offers a pretty practical solution to the limited versatility of a watch that only comes with one bracelet or strap. In this expression of the Rado Captain Cook, you are getting everything you would expect to in a piece from the collection, and a little more, so let’s take a closer look. After all, a different strap is almost as good as a new watch. The case The 42mm stainless steel case is based on the first Captain Cook dive watches from the 1960s, which were released in response to the boom in enthusiasm for scuba diving, and the need to accurately time these underwater adventures. While the original vintage references were produced in smaller case sizes, the modern 42mm case maintains similar proportions and holds true to the original inspiration. The flattened surfaces of the lugs have been finished with a high polish that nicely reflects the light and adds to the feeling of integration with the three-link bracelet that is also polished on…