Watch Dandy

It’s Monday in July in 2020, folks, and that means two certainties for yours truly – the first of five full weeks stuck in lockdown, and a chance to focus on another independent watchmaker. That’s right, it’s MICRO MONDAYS, and today we’re taking a closer look at a brand that is already well known in the watch world – Spinnaker. The Hong Kong-based watchmaker creates cost-effective timepieces with a strong emphasis on yachting and nautical inspiration, hence their name and logo. All of the timepieces are hewn from hardwearing 316L steel, and Spinnaker sources all its movements from third-party Japanese manufacturers such as Seiko, Miyota and Hattori. A large and diverse array of timepieces has enabled the brand to amass a good following in the community, and thanks to borrowing archetypal stylistic cues and traits from some more well-known watches, the Hong Kong firm has also been able to cater to a pretty large audience. In fact, for quite a few budding enthusiasts, a Spinnaker may well be their first decent watch. But with such a breadth of different collections, traversing Spinnaker’s website, which is how you purchase one of their watches, can be a little daunting. So, we’ve trawled…

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Audemars Piguet have been slowly but surely unveiling some quietly inspired new releases in 2020. First came the bite-the-back-of-your-hand beautiful [Re]master01 Selfwinding Chronograph, then came a diminutive new Royal Oak 34mm. More recently, AP saw fit to bestow its much-lauded Royal Oak Jumbo Extra-Thin with two new models – the dazzling Diamond Indexes In Platinum (15206PT) and Rose Gold (15207OR). Now the Le Brassus outfit has set its sights on its ever-popular Royal Oak Offshore and, boy oh boy, have they turned the wick up. What Audemars Piguet have done is release three entirely new iterations … and quite a lot has changed. For even the most laymen of watch enthusiasts, the dials of these new ROOs are instantly recognisable as being very different indeed. For a start, they’ve been given a smoked fumé treatment in three distinct colours – blue, green and grey, which have also been stamped with AP’s “Méga Tapisserie” pattern. The other BIG talking point is the bulbous exploded Arabic numerals that line the edge of these funky new dials. This is a big aesthetic departure from ROOs of the past, and it proves to be a compelling new look. The cases of the opulent diver’s…

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Editor’s note: Let’s not sugar coat this one. Parenting is a total and utter shitshow in a COVID-19 lockdown. And Melbourne, the home of Time+Tide, is back in it. FOR THE NEXT SIX WEEKS. We can leave our houses for one of only four reasons. And going to your local watch retailer to check out the new TAG Heuer Chronosport collection is not one of them. We’ll put the violins away, but for hands-on parents, this has an impact on the wrist. Because daily care of children, especially small ones, requires an elite beater. The home schooling. The endless catering requests. The hourly pulling apart of fights and scraps. This is my choice.  Full disclosure. This G-Shock was a gift from the brand to show their support for a passion project I’ve launched called The Father Hood. Thank you Phil. The ‘Hood’s all about supporting isolated and new dads and inspiring future dads. If you’re new to fatherhood, it may come in handy. It’s also brutally real about #dadlife. Which is why the G-Shock is really the perfect watch gift for this stage of life. No drop from a bench while attached to a soft toy (the kids like to…

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