Watch Dandy

Stick a fork in Basel, she’s done. LVMH has just announced they’re following Rolex and Patek to Geneva in April of 2021. And I choose those words carefully. Of all the ways you could announce the death of Basel, a sausage has to be in the story. Because, overpriced snags sold daily in the concourse outside Hall 1 came to symbolise all that was wrong with the way the fair, and the city, conducted itself when the watch folks came to town. Have you heard of extortion? If Basel and Baselworld didn’t invent it, they certainly perfected the art. But here’s the controversial part. I actually like Basel sausages. Quite a lot actually. And I partook, every year. At least once a day during the fair, sometimes twice, I’d emerge blinking in the light reflecting off that cheese grater thing and I’d stand in a line to receive a veal sausage on a piece of dry brown bread. I’d chew it down, with lashings of mustard and sauce, and then pour a beer down the neck, take an unsteady breath, straighten my tie and go back in and get to work. Job done. So this announcement is laced with sadness…

The post LVMH is out, Basel is dead, so here’s the three things I won’t miss and the one tasty grilled treat that I will… appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.

Miracle of miracles, it’s a Friday Wind Down that is not another miserable news bulletin about a global pandemic that is coming for our lives and our toilet paper! This week, a brace of new watches were released. And what a sweet thing that is. Normality! The good news continues. We’ve just finished production on a video that was filmed ‘PC’ (Pre-COVID) in January, in Dubai, which also recaps new watches. By the brand on fire, Zenith. So, in other words, it’s a Friday Wind Down, much more like those that have come before it over the years. One of these new releases, in particular, has helped draw people out of a dark place … By being the most lurid, colourful and provocative watch of 2020. It can almost certainly lay claim to being the most lurid, colourful and provocative watch of all time, for the brand that produced it. Breitling have dredged this sparkling, technicolour gem out from amidst their usual more uniform heritage models — it is a faithful rendition of a model from 1957. A fact that many on the ‘Gram remain oblivious to. But hey, what fun would the internet be if commenters were actually well researched? There…

The post FRIDAY WIND DOWN: What, there’ve been some watches released? I beg your pardon? appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.

When it rains it drips. And in April 2020, at a time when we need it most – our kingdom for some new watches to write about! – it drips technicolour divers, classic chronos and two absolute blue beauties. Seriously. Like blue dialled watches? Prepare yourself. In a case of simply weird timing, just a couple of days after the news that Rolex, Patek Philippe, Chanel, Tudor and Chopard have all permanently ditched Baselworld, we have witnessed a brace of new 2020 novelties. We’ve picked the great from the good, the rainbows from the duller skies and the blue in the beautiful for this Time+Tide edit. No matter what you think of them, you can’t deny, it’s good to see this cloudburst of creativity in dark times. IWC Portugieser Chronograph Truly an icon of the IWC stable, the Portugieser Chronograph may well be one of the cleanest-looking chronos that money can buy. But there’s always been a gripe with the regular ‘Gieser chrono … it’s relied on movements made by third-party outfits like Valjoux and Sellita. Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing; however, when you’re spending five figures on a watch that bears the Schaffhausen firm’s name on the dial,…

The post Our 4 picks from the new IWC, Breitling, Bell & Ross and Montblanc 2020 releases appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.