Watch Dandy

OK, let’s dispense with any hype and get down to it. Sixty per cent of watches are sold on a bracelet and this is a fact that Hublot are finally set to take advantage of with the Hublot Big Bang Integral, a new collection, freshly launched at the LVMH fair in Dubai in early January. But first, if we’ve set a tone of #realtalk, let’s address a glaring contradiction. Doesn’t the very concept of a Hublot Big Bang with a metal bracelet jar with the original vision for the Big Bang? Which was to demonstrate the ‘Art of Fusion’ by attaching a rubber strap to a precious-metal case? A quarter of a century later, the model has grown into such an entity in its own right that it can now evolve without letting the original concept down in any way, opening the way for the Hublot Big Bang Integral. A Hublot Big Bang with a metal bracelet was always going to happen, regardless of the popularity of the original version. However the reason for the long wait (this single component has taken no less than three years of exhaustive research and development) is telling. Because it couldn’t just be any…

The post How could a humble watch bracelet win a watch fair? The Hublot Big Bang Integral just did exactly that, but why? How? appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.

Most of you reading this will have already heard of Gary Getz, or, as he goes by on his Instagram nom de guerre, GaryG (@garyg_1). But if for some reason you haven’t stumbled across his ‘gram page or heard of him at a horological gathering, believe me when I say, the man hath some nice watches. In fact, it’s probably easier to think of Getz’s collection of timepieces as an assortment of some of the most revered and sought-after grail watches on the planet. A judge at last year’s Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, and a regular columnist for Quill & Pad, Getz recently wrote about his experience of purchasing and taking possession of one of 2019’s most talked about and contentious timepieces — the A. Lange & Söhne Odysseus. To say that Getz has performed a deep dive on Lange’s first steel sports watch is perhaps a bit of an understatement, and he’s accompanied his words with myriad excellent photos chronicling the process of unboxing, adjusting links and wearing the steely timepiece. It’s a great read, and if you’re still on the fence about the Germanic integrated sports watch, this article goes a fair way to answering questions and…

The post RECOMMENDED READING: First impressions from an A. Lange & Söhne Odysseus owner appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.

It’s Thursday, and that can mean only one thing — it’s time for Nicholas Kenyon & James Robinson to engage in another jousting of words over a watch-related point of contention. In this week’s office argument, the two pontificate whether or not it’s OK to wear dive watches on leather straps. James Robinson – The For Argument I don’t think there can really be any debate on this matter — dive watches look great on leather bands … and that’s the end of it. The argument that “they shouldn’t be worn on leather because that defeats the purpose of them” is completely redundant. I guarantee you that 99.9 per cent of dive watch owners around the globe have never, ever used their fit-for-purpose tool watch in its intended environment. That’s why innumerable different examples of amphibious timepieces these days are sold on leather bands directly from the watchmaker, because they know, just as well as I, that dive watches are, more than anything else, just an aesthetic. People just like the way they look, and that’s completely fine, and if someone wants to pair their 5513 with a tan brown leather band, who among us has the authority to tell them otherwise?…

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Editor’s note: The serpent is a central part of Bulgari’s iconography, and has been for the last eight decades since it first entwined women’s wrists in the 1940s. While the design has refined over years, shedding old aesthetics in favour of a newer expression of the same feminine elegance, its power as a symbol of Italian sophistication has never wavered. As a part of the “Watch & Act!” World Watch Auction that is currently offering an 18k yellow gold Serpenti Tubogas kindly donated by Bulgari, we wanted to take a look back at the history of the ophidian-inspired collection, which is an undisputed icon in the history of the Roman luxury house. For most of us today, snakes evoke a mixture of fascination and fear – but since ancient times they have been a mythological symbol for countless cultures and civilisations. Although, in the Christian tradition, a serpent represented the devil in the Garden of Eden, snakes mostly had positive associations. For Native Americans, Mayans and Aztecs, Persians, Chinese, Hindus, Africans and Australian First Nation tribes, they represented, variously, power, wisdom, eternity, fertility, sexual desire, protection, and a direct link to ancestral spirits. Unsurprisingly, then, since humans first adorned their…

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