Watch Dandy

This weekend we were lucky enough to be visited by the fantastic team from the Horological Society of New York, who were in Australia offering watchmaking classes to a few very passionate Melburnians. It was an evening that also celebrated the incredible generosity of the watch community at large, which was shown through the recent Time+Tide Watch & Act! Auction to raise money for those affected by the devastating bushfires over this summer. A number of watch manufacturers, media outlets and even private collectors offered pieces for auction, which were enthusiastically bid on by watch lovers from around the world (32 countries to be exact) and would tally up to an incredible AUD$220K that would support both fire services and impacted communities. To thank those who donated watches, as well as those who placed bids, there was a gathering at Time+Tide Headquarters that would also offer one lucky attendee a ticket to the sold-out HSNY watchmaking class. It was a night of flowing drinks and conversation. And, unsurprisingly, there were some special watches in the room, and we managed to capture a few below.

The post Weekend Watch Spotting – Very rare Rolex spotted in the HSNY Edition appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.

Aldis Hodge and I are in an Uber, in Sydney. I am in the front seat. Aldis is in the back, with his sketch-book out, trying to work on a watch design that is due to his CAD engineer yesterday. The driver is driving. Very, very badly. He starts talking about his history with various drugs while making erratic lane changes. 10 grams of cannabis a week. Amphetamines. Cocaine, “that stuff is so good it’s evil!” While he talks, he pumps on the accelerator, then takes his foot off altogether. The speed surges up and down, up and down. Nauseating waves. “But I’m clean now…” he says, before shouting “most of the time!” I glance back at Aldis with wide eyes. His sketch book is now back in his bag and he is looking at the ceiling. Please just get us to our destination alive. Please just get us to our destination alive. Please just get us to our destination alive. I really need to see the second series of City on a Hill. Aldis really needs to shoot it. My daughter has a birthday coming up. The AD just called and my root beer is waiting for me back…

The post Long read: A week in Sydney with Aldis Hodge – Hollywood’s only watchmaker Pt 1 appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.

The email from Nick Kenyon arrived in response to one of my article submissions. I’ll paraphrase here: “We were talking about whether mentions of watches in popular music has an impact on demand … do you think there is some data somewhere you could use to look at that question?” My immediate reaction had two parts. First, just happiness at what a fascinating topic this is. And second: unending gratitude for the generosity of the “home office” in sharing this story idea with me. I’d wager there are very few watch enthusiasts whose Instagram streams did not contain a reference to Drake’s recent post about an emerald-flooded Patek Philippe Nautilus 5726. Last month GQ dubbed the musician John Mayer the “Watch World’s Most Influential Collector”. It is enough to make one wonder if the connection between music and horology has ever been stronger. But let’s kick it ol’ skool for a paragraph. It’s 1986. MTV is five years old and actually playing music videos. I’ve bought a rectangular piece of plastic with two holes and a tiny window. It contains polyester “tape” coated in ferric oxide and cobalt. This material has been magnetised in order to store an unprecedented album:…

The post Are rappers the real horological tastemakers of the world? appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.

Editor’s note: As we’re sure most of you reading this are already aware, Baselworld 2020 is officially dead. Yes, despite the perplexing decision from officials to say that the world’s biggest watch fair had been “postponed” to the end of January 2021, it has, like so many other trade shows this year, fallen victim to the rampant contagion that is COVID-19 aka Coronavirus. But, things haven’t exactly been brilliant for the watch fair of late anyway, and some are even speculating that this latest tribulation could be the final nail in Basel’s coffin. After attending last year’s event, Sandra Lane gave her impressions on the state of Baselworld, and it’s definitely worth a read.  It’s now 10 days since Baselworld 2019 ended – but it feels like yesterday. Or half a lifetime ago. That’s what a week of viewing hundreds of new watches through a haze of severe jet lag, industrial quantities of caffeine and minimal sleep does to you. But with time comes recovery, and with that comes perspective. So now seems like a good moment to look back on what was always going to be one of the most keenly anticipated Baselworlds in the fair’s century-plus existence. Keenly anticipated…

The post Coronavirus may have killed Baselworld 2020 … but was it on the way out already? appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.

Clive Cussler, famed novelist and maritime explorer, died on February 24, aged 88. The writer was a larger-than-life character, and his series of novels featuring the renegade adventurer, underwater explorer and treasure hunter Dirk Pitt, such as Raise the Titanic! and Sahara, captivated a generation of avid readers. Cussler’s novels also brought many people’s attention to DOXA watches, as both the prolific fictional protagonist and Cussler himself always wore an orange DOXA watch. Twenty-two years ago, CBS News interviewed the novelist, which tracked his history as an amateur writing enthusiast, right up to the time that his novels and movies were being consumed by millions of people. In addition, and in classic Cussler fashion, the start of the short interview starts on New York’s East River, with the novelist searching for a sunken submarine. It’s a great interview, and if you’ve got the time, we definitely recommend you watch it.

The post RECOMMENDED WATCHING: An interview with Clive Cussler appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.