Under the cuff: Our 5 favourite dress watches of 2019
Staples, all good watch collections need to have staple pieces. A versatile daily beater, a rugged weekend warrior, a lauded grail watch and, of course, a great dress watch. But what are the characteristics of a great dress watch? Well, for a start it needs to be slim so it will fit under a cuff easily — there’s no greater sin than wearing a monolithic timepiece that awkwardly sits atop the cuff of a shirt or suit jacket. Another requisite is a leather band, as very, very few dress watches can successfully pull off a matching metal bracelet. And finally, a great timepiece to wear with a suit has to have a beautiful dial — it doesn’t need to be overtly complicated, nor should it be overtly OTT; it just has to be aesthetically pleasing. With all this in mind, we thought we’d share with you five of the best dress watches of 2019. LONGINES MASTER COLLECTION The appeal of a blue-dialled watch has much to do with the way it pairs with almost any outfit. But it’s also about how its softer aesthetic compares to the starkness of some black or white dials. The Longines Master Collection nails this…
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As we float about in the liminal space between Christmas and the new year, it’s a great chance to reflect on the year that the watch world was in 2019. Andrew mentioned in his Letter from the Editor that 2019 could be defined by the hysterical focus on SSR (stainless steel Rolex), as well as similar watches from both Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet. As a result, this has certainly been a part of almost daily discussion in the Time+Tide office. It might be an eye-watering auction result, a watch listed for sale online at double retail, or a question we receive about what the next watch will be to “hold value”, but the fact that there is very strong demand in a very narrow section of watch collecting can’t be ignored. Andrew articulates the many reasons this is a problem for the watch-loving community, and rather than repeating him, I wanted to take a closer look at the three other areas that I found interesting in the watch industry this year. Watch Fairs vs. Watch Conferences Earlier this year I had the pleasure of attending the 4th Dubai Watch Week, which was maybe the first time the event hit scale.…
It pains me so to admit this, but oftentimes a story is only as good as the photos that accompany it — especially when you’re writing about something as intricate and nuanced as watches. A good snap of a timepiece is not only the glorious icing on a particularly wordy cake, it actually assists us scribes in helping to articulate different facets of a given wristwatch. In short, a good photo is crucial in this game. Luckily for us here at Time+Tide, our photographer is a chap named Jason … and he’s a bloody wonderful photographer. And when Deputy-Editor Nick Kenyon said he wanted me to pick my favourite watch photos from 2019 that Jason had taken, I did so with verve. Here they are.
In 2009, Rolex performed a miracle. Necromancy. A resurrection. Back from the dead was the oft-maligned sister brand of the Crown: Tudor watches. What followed in the seven years since was the most startling and effective rebrand the world of watches has ever seen. And thanks to an immense financial investment and influential vocal advocacy, underpinned by an excellent product, it looks likely Tudor’s star will continue to burn brighter still over the years to come. Watch collecting is not what it was. How could it be? Until 30 years ago the notion of “collecting” watches was as odd a pastime as collecting spanners – objects designed to be used, not fawned over. Now, everyone is looking for “the next big thing”, the double-red Submariner at a garage sale, the box-fresh Rolex Explorer II original stuffed in the back of your grandfather’s sock drawer. The problem is, it isn’t going to happen as often as it did, because we are, as a group of informed collectors, simply too aware to allow the collectibility of modern pieces to ever reach that of their forebears. Why? Because watches never used to be collectible. Sought-after models are sought after because they are scarce.…
Yes, the technology almost single-handedly destroyed the Swiss watch industry, but whether you want to admit it or not, quartz watches are brilliantly impressive, and they have been the main proponents in democratising timepieces as we know them today. Ever since the ingenious battery-powered Seiko Astron first burst onto the scene on December 25, 1969, the Japanese watchmaker has been at the forefront of the uber-accurate mechanisms. But, crucially, many watchmakers now employ the use of quartz power, and we thought we’d take a look at four of the best quartz watches of 2019. GRAND SEIKO SBGN009 Released to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first quartz watch, the SBGN009’s luscious blue dial has the kind of repeating pattern in the background that very few brands can pull off without it looking chintzy. Cue Grand Seiko, whose reputation for remarkable dial designs is now well entrenched. The colour-matched seconds hand, GMT hand, logo, and chapter ring provide true chromatic harmony with the two shades of blue on show. Limited to 2,019 pieces. Ref No: SBGN009 / Case size: 40mm / Case material: Steel / Movement: 9F86 / Price: $4000 UNIMATIC MODELLO TRE Every watch collector should make space for a…
I asked Jason, Time+Tide’s resident photographer, if he could tell me his favourite watch photos from 2019 that he had captured, without quite realising the sheer scope of the work that he had done this year. I soon found out. “Hey Jason, how many photos have you taken this year?” “How many have I edited, or how many have been published?” “No, how many times have you pressed the button on your camera?” “Oh, that’s a big number. Tens of thousands, easy.” So out of the tens of thousands of shutter clicks that happened since we last lapped the sun (these were my favourites), these are Jason’s favourites, in no particular order, for reasons he articulates below. Franck Muller Double Mystery Symmetry, colour and diamonds. So many diamonds. And such cute jewelled indices. Girard-Perregaux Laureato Chronograph I spent time over this shot (I hope it shows). Itʼs crisp where it should be crisp, smooth where it should be smooth. The light shines beautifully off the brushed metal. Itʼs everything I like in a watch shot. Seiko Prospex SRPD50K Black on black is one of my favourite styles of shooting: just catching edges, reflections and highlights to bring the watch out…