Watch Dandy

Hands-On: The Seiko Prospex SNJ025 Aka The 2019 ‘Arnie’

A time-machine that will have you asking, “Should I get to the choppa?”

Weekend watch spotting with JR

Weekend watch spotting Weekends in Melbourne can mean several things: overpriced brunches with mates after a boozy night out on the town, hikes up the Dandenong Ranges’ unendingly popular “1000 steps”, day trips to the Peninsula Hot Springs and, if you’re a watch enthusiast, donning that special timepiece in your collection that wouldn’t dare see the light of day between Monday and Friday. For this Saturday and Sunday, I wore my ’66 Rolex GMT-Master ref.1675 “Pepsi” and went out in search of what other like-minded individuals had decided to attach to their wrist, and this is what I found out in the wild: Riley’s Rolex GMT-Master II Ref. 116710LN Riley always had his eyes set on Rolex’s gorgeous GMT-Master II Ref. 116710LN, and much like our fictitious “Clairvoyant Collector”, he had an inkling at the beginning of 2019 that Rolex may well discontinue the “Green Arrow”, as it housed the older Calibre 3186 movement, which had since been superseded by the Calibre 3285, first released in the Rolex GMT-Master Ref. 126710 BLRO “Pepsi” back in 2018. Riley frantically contacted Authorised Dealers across the country, keen on securing the Oystersteel Professional model before it was too late. But alas — much to the surprise of,…

The post Weekend watch spotting with JR appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.

Why the Universal Genève Polerouter was the game-changing dial from the 1950s

Some watches take the world by storm the moment they are released. Some, however, take a little while longer to be appreciated. The true significance of the Universal Genève Polerouter, first released in 1954, and its subsequent offshoots are still in the process of being properly recognised. Not only was it the first really significant design to exit the pen of Gérald Genta (who would go on to design the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and the Patek Philippe Nautilus before overhauling Bulgari’s product offering and launching his own brand), it was a trailblazer upon its release. And still, to this day, the Polerouter is often cited as the inspiration for many modern watch designs. With so much going for it, it’s not hard to see why. The first thing that is likely to strike you about the Polerouter are those graceful bombé lugs that look like the slinkier, sexier cousin of the lugs you’d expect to find on an Omega Speedmaster (a watch that would not hit the shelves until the Universal Genève had been on the market for the best part of three years). What is less immediately apparent about those lugs, however, is the space between them. Although…

The post Why the Universal Genève Polerouter was the game-changing dial from the 1950s appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.

Independent Watchmaking – Machiel Hulsman, the Dutchman who Builds his own Tourbillon from Scratch

It takes a certain man to wear a tourbillon watch. A tourbillon says: I know what I’m doing. It differentiates you from let’s say the more common watches. But what exactly does it say about a man who decides to make his own? Completely from scratch? Without much useful education? Without CNC machines? Without Switzerland […]

Ice, ice, baby: Ronaldo just wore the most expensive Rolex ever made

Making the right choice for your left wrist is never easy. But at least your options are generally curtailed by the size of your budget. That isn’t a problem for soccer deity Cristiano Ronaldo. That’s because the Juventus superstar is satanically rich. According to Forbes magazine, Ronaldo was soccer’s highest-earning player of the last decade, pocketing a colossal 548 million pounds ($A1.033 billion) during the 2010s. How do you tackle the stern challenge of spending all this loot? Well, Ronaldo was recently spotted at the 14th Dubai International Sports Conference wearing the Rolex GMT-Master II Ice (ref. 116769TBR), a timepiece made with 18k white gold and 30 carats of diamonds. It’s the most expensive watch that Rolex has ever offered to the public. The price tag: a cool $US485,350 (a touch under $700,000 Aussie dollars). The reason for the hefty price is largely due to the fact that every square inch is smothered with a shit-ton of diamonds. The 18k white gold case and lugs are festooned with 79 round diamonds. The bezel (18k white gold too) is studded with baguette-cut diamonds, while the dial gleams with ripples of smaller honeycomb-set diamonds. More — yep, you guessed it — diamonds are…

The post Ice, ice, baby: Ronaldo just wore the most expensive Rolex ever made appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.

In The Shop – Introducing: The Cooper Strap Collection

An assortment of new straps with a back-to-basics appeal.

The story of the Rolex with 9 lives, twice

Editor’s note: Rolex is probably the strongest watch brand on the planet, but as well as their worldwide fame and popularity, they make incredibly reliable and robust wristwatches. One key part of their success at consistently producing hard-wearing watches is the quality control at their factory, ensuring that every timepiece that leaves the building has met their strict standards. As a result, it’s an incredibly rare moment when a Rolex is found with any mistakes, but that is exactly what happened when an Air-King popped up with a very unusual dial. It’s a modern-day escape from Alcatraz, where the escapee is a defect on a watch that makes it to market, and Alcatraz is the Rolex manufacture. That, I suspect, is flattering Alcatraz. Because, the fact that a modern Rolex with a defect you can actually see even exists is unthinkable to the point of immediately being suspected as a hoax. But here it is. Not only does a ‘double nine’ Rolex Air-King 116900 — with a nine where the ‘3’ numeral should be — allegedly exist in the wild, it’s been captured by Watchfinder & Co., who used the occasion to do a proper exposition on just how extraordinary that fact…

The post The story of the Rolex with 9 lives, twice appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.

Review – Grand Seiko Elegance GMT SBGM221

Precision, perfect execution and beauty are very real concerns in Japanese craftsmanship and Grand Seiko’s mission, ever since its creation in 1960, is to live up to these demanding principles. Precision and superlative execution are easy to gauge in Grand Seiko’s repertoire, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder and not everybody warms […]