China is often viewed as the world’s manufacturer. Everything from your iPhone, your kids’ toys to the space heater in the garage likely come from Chinese factories. The Middle Kingdom has simply mastered mass production at often the lowest cost, but overall quality can vary widely. Made in China is often associated with “cheap” in […]
Seven watches to help you spring forward.
Keeping the legendary institution on time.
When we see something repeatedly, over time, our brains quickly form habits that enable us to infer what we are seeing, bypassing the need to analyse every bit of information. That’s why we can make perfect sense of a paragraph made up of words that are missing their vowels, and why we can read the time on an analogue watch display that has no hour or minute markers. It’s also what makes Franck Muller’s Crazy Hours watch one of the most delightful pieces in contemporary watchmaking. In the first instant the dial appears perfectly normal, with a series of numerals arranged around its circumference. Half a second later, we realise that it’s anything but normal: the usual position of the numerals is completely jumbled. It’s a visual teaser – sense and nonsense – and a brain teaser, playing with how we habitually read time in a natural, clockwise sequence. Since Franck Muller invented the Crazy Hours complication in 2003 it has (unsurprisingly) become an emblem of the brand that bears his name – just as emblematic as the Cintrée Curvex case that houses these colourful limited-edition models. There can be few objects of any kind that combine grown-up glamour and…
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Vintage is hot these days. This is clearly the largest trend in watchmaking of the last few years and brands continue to dig into their archives to breathe new life into past glories. Among the cool recent re-editions is the Milus Snow Star, a retro remake channelling the spirit of a 1940s model designed for […]
Next Thursday, March 19, at Oscar Hunt Tailors in the Melbourne CBD, we will hold an event called Dive Watch Fundamentals. This is at the request of Oscar Hunt, who, like many, noticed that dive watches are featuring more than ever on men’s wrists in the most formal of places. For example, the Oscars. So, the idea was hatched: “Could your team come and talk to us about dive watches?” Rather than an unrestricted lecture, we thought what might be interesting would be a quick history breakdown of the main brands in the game. Which watch brands are part of the dive watch story? Dive Watch Fundamentals is all about learning the basics on offer from each brand. As well as the design tropes and functions that typify dive watches. Crown guards. Bi-directional bezels. Helium release valves. Water resistance. Legibility. Lume. By the end of this event with a difference, you will know it all. We’ll be doing a brand-by-brand breakdown, including all the icons — the Rolex Submariner, the Omega Seamaster, the DOXA SUB 300, Panerai’s distinctive designs — explaining the role they have played in the development of arguably the most popular style of men’s wristwatches on the planet. …
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What we’re looking at today might simply be a new dial colour, but it made quite a lot of noise when we introduced it a couple of weeks ago. Multiple reactions here and on our Instagram account made us realize that a dial colour can make a hell of a difference on a watch. So […]
The art advisor’s incredible eye turned a family connection into a focused, brilliant collection.
Jaquet Droz releases another interpretation of its automaton, “Loving Butterfly,” this time with a dial made from a rare form of prehistoric petrified wood, a warm autumnal stage for the fascinating performance that takes place under the sapphire crystal. Honouring Jaquet Droz’s spellbinding automata of the past, a mechanism allows the wings of the butterfly […]
Speed over space.