Vintage is back! This week’s round-up features a number of classic models as well as some more uncommon ones.
A new version of the El Primero, for a new kind of watch club.
Cartier is a brand that doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but instead gradually evolves their designs over decades, refining and purifying their core look with each year that goes by. For their latest collection, released at SIHH 2019, the focus was the Cartier Santos-Dumont, a dress watch that is both classically sized and slim, offering one of the most refined pieces of Cartier design we have seen in recent years. The new Cartier Santos-Dumont is available in two sizes (38mm x 27.5mm for the small model, and 43.5mm x 31.4mm for the large model) and both have managed to stay rakishly slender at 7.3mm. This is made possible by the high-autonomy quartz movement (with a strong battery life of six years), which not only keeps the watch well under the cuff, but also makes it available at a price point that is pretty uncommon for Cartier. Inevitably, there will be some who won’t have their pulse quickened by mention of the word quartz, but for others looking for access to an icon not just in the Cartier archives but the history of watch design, it is now easier than ever. In terms of design, the Santos-Dumont is distinctly Cartier with a…
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Mexico City’s Salon Internacional Alta Relojería (SIAR) is Latin America’s most important annual watch fair. As such, this major horological event has become an opportunity for brands to release special editions celebrating Mexico and its culture. Among the watches presented in 2019 are two Louis Moinet pieces, the “Only Mexico” and “Metropolis Mexico”. Louis Moinet […]
Editor’s note: I think most people reading this fully appreciate just how dire things were in the 1970s as a result of the notorious “quartz crisis”. Myriad Swiss watchmakers seemed to just disappear overnight, succumbing to a battery-powered onslaught led by Seiko, who inundated the wristwatch market with inexpensive, accurate timepieces. It was an interesting time in horology to say the least, and perhaps one of the most fascinating things about the quartz crisis, looking back at it now, is studying how the established Swiss marques dealt with the problem and tried to keep their proverbial heads above water. Cartier, in particular, were quite innovative in their solution to the crisis – create a range of inexpensive timepieces to pay tribute to its most popular timepiece, the Tank, but use more economical materials to produce it. The result was the Must de Cartier Tank, and a range of wristwatches that went a fair way to saving Cartier from a particularly calamitous era in watchmaking. Writing for troisanneaux.com, George Cramer chronicles the history of Must de Cartier, and if you’ve got the time, hit this link – it’s definitely worth a read.
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Two young Belgian watchmakers got to know each other at the watchmaking school of Namur. After one of their long midnight conversations about watches, they decided to start their own brand (I’m sure you can picture the scene). By 8 o’clock in the morning, the first sketches were ready. Now that watch has become a […]
On the face of it, Blancpain’s elegant Villeret Quantième Complet 8 Jours — or, if you don’t parlez vous, Complete Calendar 8 Days — is exactly the sort of thing you’d expect from the dressier family of one of Switzerland’s old marques. But once you get past the numerous traditional points — the day/month apertures, the smiling moon, that idiosyncratic waving pointer date and double-stepped case — you’ll find a watch that’s much more modern than it first appears. The great thing about this Blancpain is that the innovations are very under-the-radar, and made with the wearer in mind. The calendar complications are all adjusted via ingenious under-lug correctors, which can be manipulated with your fingernail. This means you don’t need to worry about unsightly micro-adjusters on the otherwise smooth profile, or indeed losing the special tool needed to adjust them. Additionally, the calendar complications are secured, which is quite a big deal, as with many more complex calendar watches, if you manually adjust the functions when they are in the process of changing (typically around midnight), you risk doing serious damage. That Blancpain has circumvented this issue is smart, and just the sort of not-so-flashy watchmaking that shows they have…
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To say there was quite a bit of controversy when Rolex unveiled the two-tone Sea-Dweller ref. 126603 at this year’s Baselworld is, at the very least, an understatement. In fact, there was nothing short of a litany of disparaging comments, which varied greatly in context, and ranged from questioning the two-tone Sea Dweller’s validity as a proper dive watch, to whether or not Rolex had completely taken leave of their senses. Keyboard warriors and vocal detractors aside though, and more than six months on from the notorious reveal, has the Rolex Sea-Dweller been an unmitigated failure, devoid of appreciation or desirability? Of course not … in fact, rather unsurprisingly, Rolex has got another hit on their hands, with the figurative queue for the new TTSD at most authorised dealers stretching well into 2020. And putting aside all the nonsense about “it’s not a real diver’s watch!”, it’s pretty easy to understand why it has quickly garnered a popular following. For a start, the Sea-Dweller’s hefty 43mm case size, for some, makes it a much more compelling proposition compared to the daintier proportions of its smaller sibling, the Submariner. And previously, if you wanted a two-tone steel and yellow gold dive…
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A full roster of Grand Seiko’s finest, and a crowd of serious enthusiasts, made for a most memorable evening.
Vintage-inspired watches are all the rage these days with military and dive watches usually grabbing the spotlight. Tissot has been around since the early 1850s and knows a thing or two about vintage watches. The brand’s Heritage collection is full of throwbacks, celebrating milestones in both engineering and design. For instance, the Visodate line looks […]