Watch Dandy

Two years can be a long time in the life of a product – long enough for it to go from controversial to comfortably accepted, or even loved, as its challenging elements become softened by familiarity. That’s certainly true for two of the watches introduced by Tudor in 2017, which attracted attention and controversy in equal measure. For the Black Bay Heritage S&G, it was a matter of aesthetics: the (then) courageous reintroduction of two-tone – a stylistic blast from the past that was either cool or cringe-making, depending on where you were during its previous heyday, the 1980s. The other was more than skin-deep: the Black Bay Chronograph [read Felix’s review here] is a mash-up of diver’s watch and chronograph – and purists don’t like hybrids (remember the howling that greeted the Porsche Cayenne when it made its debut in 2002?). The rotating bezel of the dive watch became a fixed bezel with a tachymeter scale and the square tip of the snowflake hour hand – so great for underwater visibility – conceals part of the chronograph minutes register between 2 and 4 o’clock (shock!). Skip ahead to 2019 (a world where genre-fluid watches have become almost as familiar…

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Editor’s note: It’s an tricky question, but the new Railmaster makes a compelling case for the ‘yes’ camp …  Yesterday, we showed you the Seamaster Railmaster, a modern incarnation of the classic professional model. But it wasn’t the only Railmaster released last year. No, there’s also this watch, the limited edition 60th anniversary commemorative watch that formed (along with the Speedmaster and the Seamaster) one part of the triumvirate of watches that makes up the 1957 Trilogy series. The version not included in the boxed set is limited to 3557 pieces, and, like the rest of the trilogy, is a near perfect facsimile of the original. In fact, you could argue it’s more than perfect, as it preserves the form and proportions of the original, but adds modern construction and movement quality into the mix. Speaking of form, this Railmaster is superb: 38mm case, with polished and brushed finishes, a 19mm bracelet, a solid link update of the original, and a solid caseback, concealing the thoroughly contemporary Master Chronometer 8806 movement (which is, as you’d expect, significantly more resistant to magnetism than the ’57 version). And then there’s the dial. Pared back to the essentials — printed Omega logo and…

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One of the most beautiful elements of the mechanical watch is it doesn’t rely on disposable units of lithium to function. If you keep moving, your watch will too. This forms a dependent partnership that for many collectors is a huge emotional attraction to the mechanical watch. The energy from your fingertips directly transfers power into the micro-mechanical marvel that keeps you on time. This was the reason I wanted to wear a mechanical watch on my first attempt at an ultramarathon. My brother had convinced me to run 100km along the stunning coastline between Apollo Bay and the Twelve Apostles, and while I was definitely taking my (ancient) Garmin Forerunner 910XT, I was also very tempted to wear my Seiko SRP777. This dive watch has been reliable on a few adventures (significantly further above sea level than below), and I while it did mysteriously stop ticking on a Mongolian mountain range once, it is still the watch I trust the most. On the morning of the run we rose at 3am to get on the trail by 4am. With only around 10 hours of daylight and our prediction of at least 15 hours to complete the distance, we started…

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