HANDS-ON: Is the Bulgari Octo Finissimo blue dial in satin polished steel the best steel sports watch of 2020?
Editor’s note: We’ve had quite the flurry of Bulgari lately, mostly in celebration of the brand’s 2020 collection. And, increasingly, the pinion of the collection is emerging as this model right here. Make no mistake, it doesn’t rightly deserve to be. It’s a simple dial variation away from the black lacquer dial variation that the satin polished steel Octo Finissimo debuted with in January this year. But that’s the logical take. The emotional response, for the broader team, and not just me it seems – is very much centred around this lavish combination of rich blue dial, and the highly faceted and finished steel of its case and bracelet. Well, we all knew it was coming. There was no way that Bulgari was going to release the Octo Finissimo in satin polished steel, and not create a model with a blue dial. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – the Bulgari Octo Finissimo blue dial in satin polished steel is the best attempt by any watchmaker in recent memory of creating a genuine Patek Philippe Nautilus or Audemars Piguet Royal Oak competitor. Bulgari had to make this watch. And now that it’s here, the burning question on…
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For many of you reading, COVID-19 is the virus that will. Not. Go. Away. At first, for most, it was a bit of a quirky change of pace. Fun, even. A blur of Netflix, homemade Negronis and novelties like bare-knuckle fighting for toilet paper. But as it’s ground on, the darkness has subsumed many of us; we now just want it to be behind us, amirite? In Australia, we’re getting there. After 139 days of Stage 4, the most strict lockdown in the world by most reports, Melbourne, our home city is coming out – at 11.59 tonight. Sydney has been out for ages. We’re rejoining normality, whatever that will look like after so long away. So, it’s time to drop a story we’ve been sitting on for months. The idea for this post came up when we did a wristcheck in the Monday meeting on Zoom and – out of seven people – only two of us were actually wearing a watch. Given that we’re technically still in it, the question still very much has the sting of immediacy for the Time+Tide team. What place did our watches have in lockdown? GQ noted in a recent piece that in…
With the ongoing pandemic, everything and everyone has had to adopt new means and methods of connecting and gathering. Each month the Horological Society of New York – who recently visited Melbourne to give watchmaking classes – would have in-person lectures that take a deep dive into the fascinating world of horology and the watch industry as a whole. Back in September, the first-ever virtual lecture was held and featured none other than vintage watch collector and dealer Eric Ku. The idea driving the lecture was “Collecting Watches in the Time of COVID-19”, and, over the course of a little more than an hour, Eric dropped some serious wisdom on viewers such as myself. While I encourage you to watch the lecture in full (when made available to the public), here are four key takeaways I had from the brilliant discussion and its Q&A. Patek Philippe and Rolex are proof the boutique model isn’t going away – at least for the most powerful brands While Eric acknowledges it would take a crystal ball to predict the future with certainty, one thing he did mention that allows me to safely infer the above was when he outlined Patek Philippe’s online sales.…
For us, there was only one effective way to rate and review the luxurious Seiko Challenger diver, the $9995AUD Seiko Prospex SLA037J1, a re-creation of Seiko’s first dive watch, the 62MAS, launched in 1965. And that was to put it up against a brand nobody baulks at spending that kind of money for a diver: Omega with their Seamaster 300 Co-Axial vintage. Once put in the ring, we let them duke it out, spec for spec. And the verdict? I concluded that some will no doubt be attracted to what might be the very pinnacle of Seiko’s dive range, and an entirely new paradigm for quality within the brand collections. Others, of course, will consider that there are too many other options at that price point. Me, I’m in the former camp. The SLA037J1, limited to 1100 pieces, is the very realisation of 62MAS-inspired divers, and comes at the perfect size, under 40mm. The only issue I could muster is the Grand Seiko vibe it emanates. Surely that is pure bliss? Well, yes and no. The finish is so perfect in every sense, with the slight bevel at the end of a lug so pristine that I would compare it to…