Today on Speedy Tuesday, well return to a watch weve reviewed before, the Omega?Speedmaster Apollo XI 35th Anniversary limited edition. Why is that? First off, selfishly, I get to spend time with one whenever I visit my parents because my father owns the watch you see here. But more importantly, and more germane to events over the last month, this model strikes me as a really great companion piece to the recently released #SpeedyTuesday edition. I say this simply because todays subject is, to date, Omegas only Speedmaster Professional done in panda guise thats been offered globally. Introductions aside, lets enroll in a refresher course on a beloved limited edition.The Speedmaster Apollo XI ...
I am a huge fan of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Extra-Thin, or as it was called before 2012, the ‘Jumbo . It was actually one of the watches that sparked my interest in mechanical watches in the mid 1990s. Today, I talk you through the new reference 15202BA.OO.1240BA.01, the yellow gold Royal Oak Extra-Thin in yellow gold to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the first model in this precious metal.Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Extra-ThinYou all know the story. Gerald Genta designed the Royal Oak for Audemars Piguet, based on the port holes of the HMS Royal Oak vessels. The name Royal Oak originated from the sacred tree that hid King Charles II of England and protected him from his pursue...
Although you ll find Breitling not very often covered on this – and other – websites, they are still highly in demand according to the numbers we showed you last week. The Navitimer is our favorite Breitling model and comes in many variations. One of the models that looks a tad bit different from the others is thisBreitling Navitimer 01 Blacksteel. Let s have a look.Breitling Navitimer 01 BlacksteelJust recently I had a Navitimer in my hands from someone who was visiting our office. A Breitling Navitimer with an automatic B23 calibre (based on Valjoux 7753), probably from around 2011 or 2012. How different is the look of this Breitling Navitimer 01 Blacksteel compared to the Valj...
Silence. Its the sound of the Daytona 6265 Big Red upon opening the safe deposit box and its sadly the noise, or lack thereof, that this highly finished chronograph creates 99% of the time. In the roughly 20 years since giving way to automatic followers, the formerly unwanted manual wind Cosmographs have become icons C valuable icons. In its least expensive form, get ready to cough up somewhere in the range of $35,000 for a correct example. Whether that rates as a lot of money or not depends on your situation, but lets agree that its a significant sum for a watch and for me, it makes for an infrequent wear. On #TBT today, Ill try to unravel some of the mythos of the Daytona and whether this...
The SIHH 2017 is over and we re left with mixed feelings. If all SIHH brands knew how to make us smile like A. Lange & S?hne seems to be able to do every year, there wouldn t be any issues. This year, A. Lange & S?hne showed their 1815 Annual Calendar watch, and it immediately became the talk of the exhibition.Walter LangeIt was a bit of an awkward moment, when A. Lange & S?hne gave their presentation on all the new timepieces they have for us (and you) in store. Just a few moments before, we received the message that Walter Lange (92) passed away the day before. He spent his entire life dedicated to watches and was the man who helped building up A. Lange & S?hne after German...
How often do you need to explain your love for watches? I ve noticed that I don t mind explaining why I like watches so much, or explaining what I am exactly doing all day as a watch journalist. It is understandable because – believe it or not – not everyone is into watches or even familiar with mechanical watches. A lot of people are also unaware of the fact that there is an entire industry around watchmaking: e.g.?watch magazines, websites, market places, collectors meetings, auctions and so on. For many people a watch is just that, a watch. So I do not mind talking about what I do and explain it a bit.During our Speedmaster collector s meeting last year in Dsseldorf. A collec...
Some of you may know that I like to crunch numbers, talk statistics and discuss the watch market. Chrono24 is the largest watch market place in the world, and shows us some statistics in the wonderful infographic. Amongst others, it shows the Top 15 of brands with the highest demand in 2016 on their website. A website that received well over 200,000,000 clicks last year on the offered 300,000 watches. Definitely a relevant source for the (pre-owned) watch market. Without further ado, have a look!Most Popular Watches Of 2016Go here for the original article on Chrono24 Magazine?with even more interesting statistics on brands and models....
This year, Roger Dubuis showed us a couple of new pieces. But one of the pieces that we liked best, is this?Excalibur Spider Pirelli. That s right, Pirelli. A partnership with the sole sponsor of Formula 1. It isn t just a ‘container partnership, but Roger Dubuis is actually using the rubber of F1 tyres. Used rubber, that they plucked from the circuit.?Roger Dubuis?Excalibur Spider PirelliNot sure whether some staff members of either Pirelli or Roger Dubuis will do the plucking of tyre parts themselves on the F1 circuit of Monaco, but fact is that they exactly seem to know which tyre they have been using for the straps. Each strap will have a code that matches the product code (like a...
A new year means a new Watch Strap Review. Our 26th installment of the series brings us a company from the USA.Worn & WoundThese guys are definitely not newcomers to the game and they have a wonderful site and a super cool shop. Their selection is pretty versatile from watch rolls to tools, belts, watches and of course straps. After a lengthy procedure and a parcel that spent more than its fair share of time with customs, it finally reached my German office towards the end of last year. Inside, I found a good few straps for our next review. The straps were mainly 18mm and 20mm in various colors and designs and I managed to match every strap to a watch in my collection. Therefore I like t...
We are always looking forward to the SIHH presentation by Theodore Diehl, who works for Richard Mille. He is a great talker, and author, and today he presented us the Richard Mille RM 50-03 McLAREN F1 timepiece. Richard Mille is known for his brilliant technical timepieces, but with this 40 grams tourbillon split seconds chronograph things got just more brilliant.Richard Mille RM 50-03 McLAREN F1Aside from the 980.000 Swiss Francs (excluding 8% sales tax that is) price tag, this Richard Mille is not for everyone. It is a highly complicated and technical looking timepiece, that doesn t tick everyone s boxes, but it is definitely an impressive watch whether you are into these type of things or...
H. MOSER & CIE. HONOURS ARTISAN WATCHMAKING WITH THE HERITAGE TOURBILLONWith the Heritage Tourbillon, H. Moser & Cie. pays tribute to exceptional artisan watchmaking.This exceptional timepiece links tradition and modernity, two elements which coexist in all creations by H. Moser & Cie. The Heritage Tourbillon is a salute?to watchmaking past and present. It is the distillation of H. Moser & Cie. s 187 years of watchmaking expertise.Heritage Tourbillon: Reference 8802-0400, 5N red gold model, pocket watch-type case, blue alligator leather strap, limited edition of 10 pieces.H. MOSER & CIE. HERITAGE PERPETUAL MOON: POETIC CLASSICISMWith the Heritage Perpetual Moon, H. Moser ...
The Girard-Perregaux Laureato is back. Of course, there was an introduction last year as well, but this year we see that GP is offering a full range of these 1970s marvels. Sizes 34mm, 42mm and a tourbillon in a whopping 45mm are being presented at the SIHH 2017. We have a look at the one we like best, the 42mm Girard-Perregaux Laureato.Girard-Perregaux LaureatoI won t lie to you, the price is a bit steep in my humble opinion (10.370 Swiss Francs excluding 8% Swiss sales tax), but this watch surely is one of the neat surprises here at SIHH. That is, if you fancy those 1970s Genta-like designes pieces. The Laureato was introduced originally in the mid-1970s?and was in the collection for a lon...
Yesterday (about an hour ago), we read that Eugene Cernan, the Last Man on the Moon, passed way age 82. Eugene Cernan was in space three times, with Gemini 9A, Apollo 10 and Apollo 17. Apollo 17 being the last Apollo mission in 1972. Two Speedmaster watches were commemorating that particular mission. One in 2002, with which you received his Last Man on the Moon book, and the later 2012 edition with the coin dial.We wrote about that last watch in 2013 already, but thought it would be appropriate to publish it once more. We also recommend you to watch Last Man on the Moon, a beautiful documentary (Netflix offers it in some countries) about that trip.Speedmaster Professional311.30.42.30.99.002I...
SIHH 2017 started and to be able to give you quick previews, we created our SIHH page, where you can have a look at the wristshots and other photos we take during this salon in Geneva.You can either click this page or refresh this particular post every now and then.(since the feed is grabbed from our Instagram account, you ll also come across older posts! Sorry for the inconvenience)[wdi_feed id=2″]...
One of my personal favorite wrist watches, ever, is the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak. I have owned a couple of them and ended up with the reference 15202 ‘Jumbo . One of the models I had and still love till this day, is their Royal Oak Chronograph. This year, Audemars Piguet is actually celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Royal Oak Chronograph.1997 – 2017 Audemars Piguet Royal Oak ChronographWhat started out as the 39mm Royal Oak Chronograph reference?25860, is today their reference?26331. In 2012, just a few years after the introduced reference 26300, Audemars Piguet did something drastically. They increased the case diameter up to 41mm and did some small changes to the dial. O...
Not Swiss Made but still 100% Swiss – Holy Cow!The Swiss Mad Watch is unique, symbolic, and irreverent, but most importantly, 100% Swiss and proud of it. With the Swiss Made label for watchmaking revised from January 1st, 2017, to require 60% of components in a watch to be of Swiss origin, H. Moser & Cie. has soundly critiqued the shortcomings of this inadequate label and stands up for true independent Swiss watchmakers. For the Schaffhausen-based Manufacture, whose creations are over 95% Swiss, this label is too lenient, providing no guarantee, creating confusion and encouraging abuses of the system. For these reasons, H. Moser & Cie. has decided to remove the Swiss Made label...
Divers Sixty-Five Green DialRumor has it that Oris is performing well this year in terms of sales. It is not that strange, as they hit home run last year with the Oris Divers Sixty-Five in 40mm (we reviewed it here). Another important aspect is of course the price segment in which Oris operates. Where a lot of Swatch Group and Richemont Group brands left the < 2000 Euro market, Oris does offer a lot of bang for the buck still. This year, they not only showed us the new 42mm versions of the Divers Sixty-Five, they now also introduced the Divers Sixty-Five green dial version, in 42mm.Oris Divers Sixty-Five – Milking It?Oris has a couple of Divers Sixty-Five models in their collection ...
Last week when I came home after a few weeks of traveling and opened one of the smaller cupboards that I hardly use, a little gecko fell on the floor and didnt move at all. When I picked it up from the carpet, I noticed that it must have been caught between the door and the doorpost because it was completely dried out to the bone.I felt bad, since I had never realized that I shared my apartment with this little gecko that?probably has protected me from many mosquitos during the night. ?However, it turned him into this beautiful skeleton.But also when talking watches, skeletons can often be very attractive, especially when theyre stripped down to the bare minimum. The quite busy looking class...
Speedmaster Alaska ProjectThe project name Alaska has little to do with the state, besides its name. Omega used code words for a lot of their projects. This was done not to wake-up other watch companies. You should know that the watchmaking community is not that big, people go to the same bars and restaurants and might overhear certain ‘confidential stuff. Especially in the 1960s?when Omega was working closely with NASA, they did not want to wake up employees from other watch manufactures for example. Omega often used city, country or state names for secret projects.Alaska ProjectThe Alaska Project actually begins by NASA engineer James H. Ragan. We already mentioned Mr Ragan in our s...
Jeff Kingston visits the Ecole Technique at the Vallee de Joux in Le Sentier, one of five watchmaking schools in Switzerland. What does it take to become a watchmaker?What is the curriculum? We get a guided tour through the Watchmaking School and see some of the different stages of the 3 year curriculum that the students follow to become trained as watchmakers, qualified to work for a watch company. Enjoy this special look behind the scene from the watchmaking school Ecole Technique.This video is blocked because you did not accept marketing cookies. Change cookie settings...
