Watch Dandy

The meteoric resurrection of DOXA over the last 18 months has been both exciting and heartwarming to witness. What started out as a strong showing at Baselworld 2019 (think solid gold SUB 200T and SUB 200) has been followed by a succession of compelling offerings that neatly bridge the gap between heritage and contemporary watchmaking. And now we have a new Sub 300. And there is quite a story here. This watch drastically dials down the tool watch vibes and sees DOXA honing in on the hotter than ever steel sports watch market. It is more wearable, more refined, has a specced up movement and it has its eyes on the wrists of not just vintage or retro watch lovers already turned on to Doxa and its dive watch legacy, but also the luxury watch buyer in general. Now, though, DOXA is, like so many other brands out there, looking to its past for future inspiration, but with a host of modern twists, and slick refinements. Enter the all-new SUB 300 – a vintage-inspired diver that looks like it’s been pinched right off Dirk Pitt’s wrist, circa-1970s, thrown in the trunk of a time-travelling DeLorean and dropped off at our…

The post HANDS-ON: The new DOXA SUB 300 is slimmer, COSC-certified and more refined than its tool watch origins appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.

This year, TAG Heuer are celebrating more than a decade and a half of timing partnership with the celebrated NTT IndyCar Series, and are releasing a new special edition watch to mark the occasion. The TAG Heuer Formula 1 Indy 500 Special Edition was designed in close collaboration with the IndyCar team, and has a number of design cues that pay specific tribute to the legendary motorsports event. For anyone that has a soft spot for this race, it’s going to be a constant wrist-worn reminder. For those unfamiliar with the Indianapolis 500 race, it does what it says on the tin. It’s held in Indiana, and it is a gruelling 500-mile race that has been running for more than a century, attracting some of the largest sporting crowds on earth. Known among fans as “The Brickyard”, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway circuit serves as direct inspiration for this latest TAG Heuer release. Early in its life, at the beginning of the 20th century, the entire track was paved with bricks, which were chosen for their relative safety as a driving surface. Over the years, the bricks have been covered with more modern asphalt, but the start/finish line of the racetrack…

The post INTRODUCING: The TAG Heuer Formula 1 Indy 500 Special Edition is a circle of blacktop for your wrist appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.

Watching Andrew in the Virtual Baselworld 2020 recap I had a deep understanding of the distracted description of the glacial blue degradè dial of the Sixties pieces from Glashütte Original. Today I’m quietly drawn to something that is so far removed from my vintage diver tool-tastes that I am genuinely surprised. Glashütte Original is the independent child in the Swatch Group family, left to their own devices in the German mountains, with the result being a superb range of classic Germanic horology infused with a strong identity and in-house production. Their fascinating mix of strictly traditional watchmaking, in their Senator series, stretching to Haute Horlogerie with tourbillons juxtaposed with their Sixties and Seventies ranges. The latter two are recognisable by their aforementioned dazzling degradè dials with colours even the boldest of us would shy away from – then falling in love with after a closer look. In between what is a majority of quite dressy references, we have their only vintage diver, one of the categories du jour. The SeaQ is a picture-perfect version of their Spezimatic from 1969 in its pure tool form. A quietly confident skin diver in an all-brushed guise, with classic square lug openings and delicate bevels…

The post INTRODUCING: The Glashütte Original SeaQ – a 39.5mm dive watch with a diamond bezel? Sorry, what? appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.