5 Iconic Vintage Mid-Century Chronograph Watches. In the years following WWII, the Jet Age, the Space Race and motor racing assailed the public consciousness.
Planes, rockets and fast cars drove technological innovation, but they also exemplified the human spirit in an era when people were looking to move beyond the war’s milieu austére. Where time was a factor in the development and functions of these machines, a special watch, the chronograph, which could record time-related data, became the tool of choice for pioneers. Pushing boundaries required more than just a way to record basic times, and soon the chronograph was rethought, and redeveloped into a specialized tool. Throughout the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, dials and bezels became more functional, movements became more evolved and the chronograph watch traveled to places and performed functions no other timekeeping complication had gone or done before. 1952: Breitling Navitimer 1957: Omega Speedmaster 1962: Heuer Autavia 1969: Zenith El Primero 1971: Heuer “McQueen” Monaco.
10 Best Minimalist Watches. If there were a global ranking for tired clichés, “less is more” would probably be right near the top.
In the world of watch design, however, it still rings true. Tasteful minimalism can bring out the best elements of a watch, instead of burying them in a sea of unnecessary detail; its very nature makes a watch more comfortable to wear, and more versatile in the styles it’s paired with. Above all, a well-executed minimalist watch is an artful accent, rather than a flashy main course. With that in mind, here are our picks for ten of the best.
Eone Bradley. Tudor Unveils New Black Bay Fifty-Eight "Navy Blue" Diver. Since the introduction of the wildly popular vintage-sized Black Bay Fifty-Eight diver in 2018, the Tudor brand faithful have been waiting for the marque to explore the new, more compact iteration of the modern classic Black Bay Fifty-Eight diver in more variations.
These hopes have been answered for 2020, as the Fifty-Eight line has just added a new model inspired by the classic Tudor Submariner “Blue Snowflake” of the late ‘60s and ‘70s, as made famous by the French navy. The new Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight “Navy Blue” feels like a perfect storm of every element in the current luxury watch zeitgeist, with a modest size, vintage-inspired design pedigree, deep blue color scheme, and a remarkably reasonable price point. The First Analog FROGMAN From G-SHOCK Is A Big Leap Forward. It’s easy to believe that the analog age is nearing its end, if it hasn’t already.
Smart technology has become so ubiquitous, in fact, that wearing an old-school wristwatch can sometimes make the wearer seem, well, old. But some of the oldest designs are actually the smartest — so if the fact that G-SHOCK’s new GWF-A1000 is the first FROGMAN watch with an analog display seems like a nod to the past, know that it’s actually a leap into the future. Find out more about what makes the FROGMAN GWF-A1000 so unique below. Exclusive Hands-On With New Yema Watch Superman 63. When you say Superman, most of the population see handsome Clark Kent dashing to the bathroom to don his cape.
When I hear it, I see a vintage divers‘ watch by French brand Yema. Today, Yema hits us with a re-edition of the 1963 OG with the shiny bakelite-like bezel. Enjoy it with us in an exclusive hands-on review. Months ago, I heard from the Yema communications team that a vintage-inspired skin diver was in the works. I instantly thought about early Yema Superman watches with framed lumed indexes big enough to drown in.
Unboxing Yema Superman 63. Hamilton BeLOWZERO Watch Featured In Nolan's New Movie Tenet. Hamilton is no stranger to Hollywood super productions.
The brand with American Spirit and Swiss Precision has been on the wrists of the silver screen stars for decades. 2020 brings us yet another collaboration by British film director Christopher Nolan and Hamilton. The movie is Tenet, and the watch is the Khaki Navy BeLOWZERO. Many of us remember Agent Jay and Kay in the 1997 sci-fi comedy Men In Black (played by Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones) sporting the quirky/futuristic-looking Hamilton Ventura watches. Who can blame them? Louis Erard X Alain Silberstein Excellence Regulator Limited Edition Watch Review. Louis Erard and Alain Silberstein’s collaboration on this Excellence Regulator was welcome news last year for anyone who is a longtime fan of the iconic designer/watchmaker as well as for new collectors who took a liking to the colorful geometric design housed in a classic regulator.
A fun piece that is actually wearable, I’m a big fan of the Excellence Regulator in large part because it nails the balance between expressiveness and restraint. Louis Erard and Alain Silberstein avoid falling into the “novelty trap” and have created a limited edition piece that distills the designer’s best style in a thin case with modern finishes and refinement. I spent time with the black PVD stainless steel model with black dial, but there is also a stainless steel case model with white dial. Each is limited to just 178 pieces. Alain Silberstein. Hands-On: MVMT Minimal Sport Watch. By my estimate, the Minimal Sport is the first major watch collection created and debuted by LA-based watchmaker MVMT after the company’s acquisition by U.S.
-based Movado Group in 2018. Movado paid over $100 million for the company for its large customer base, slick social media-focused marketing, and ability to effectively reach young consumers in areas most traditional watchmakers struggle with. MVMT released its first mechanical watch with the Arc Automatic (aBlogtoWatch review here), but it was planned and designed prior to the Movado acquisition, as far as I am aware. While not a watch enthusiast’s timepiece, given its basic nature and entry-level price point, the important thing about a product like the Minimal Sport is that it is the type of sports watch a lot of younger buyers are going to be first introduced to. Even though the MVMT brand is big on portraying an active, traveling lifestyle, its watches haven’t been designed as sports watches, per se — until now.
Images. Hands-On: Longines HydroConquest All-Black Ceramic Watch. While they’ve grown in popularity and aren’t quite as rare as they once were, ceramic watches are still uncommon and pretty costly, all things considered.
I first handled this Longines HydroConquest All-Black Ceramic watch back in 2019 at Couture in Las Vegas, and I felt the execution was largely satisfying and worthy of a brand that has access to the Swatch Group’s resources. Over a year out since its release, it still gives off that feeling of stealthy luxury as soon as I put it on the wrist. It’s hard not to draw comparisons to the Omega Seamaster 300M in black ceramic/titanium, as both are aesthetically similar offerings from the Swatch Group, albeit at two very different price points, with the Longines being something like 60% less than the $8,100 Omega. TAG Heuer Announces Limited Edition TAG Heuer X Fragment Design Heuer 02 Chronograph Inspired By Classic ‘70s Autavia Models. The late ‘60s and early ‘70s were a golden age for chronograph design from TAG Heuer (then known simply as Heuer).
The advent of the legendary Caliber 11 automatic chronograph movement led to the development of a wide variety of unique forms from the brand, ranging from the emblematic square Monaco to the tonneau cased Montreal, but none were as widely produced as the classic “Viceroy” Heuer Autavia. The “Viceroy” Autavia helped to save the brand from financial ruin thanks to a promotional partnership with Viceroy cigarettes, and over the years the tonneau case, bulky bezel, and blazing red highlights have made the watch a style icon in its own right. Borrowed Time: Ball Watch Engineer Master II Diver Worldtime. We’re all just beginning to emerge from an extended and seemingly interminable period of locked-down isolation.
We’ve been sheltered in our homes and, for those of us still reporting on the global watch industry, keeping in touch with our peers and colleagues, across the U.S. and around the world, remotely — and perhaps more often than before. One might think that a world-time watch — one that allows you to discern the time in another of the world’s 24 major time zones with a simple twist of the city-ring bezel — would be the ideal timepiece for such an extended work-from-home scenario. And, in the absence of a watch that actually can test you for coronavirus, one would be right. Fortunately, I had such a watch for an extended review period: the Ball Engineer Master II Diver Worldtime. The watch’s steel case clocks in at wrist-friendly 42 mm in diameter, with brushed finished surfaces and gently curving lugs. Vintage Eye for the Modern Guy: Seiko 5 Sports Loses Its Divers' Bezel. This Sunday we are back and now taking a look at one of the most popular brands we cover in this series, Japanese fan-favorite Seiko.
Recently, Seiko unveiled the new dive-bezel-less Seiko 5 Sports, the latest update to the modern Seiko 5 Sports line since its initial release in 2019. To recap, the Seiko 5 Sports was first released by the brand in 1968 (vintage model pictured above), following the release of the original Seiko 5 in 1963. H. Moser & Cie Venturer Concept Arctic Blue Watch Masters A Color & Helps Revalidate 'Minimalism'
The word “minimalist” in the context of discussing watches has sadly reached the point of near irrelevance — relegated to a catchall term referring to the congeries of soulless copycats and lazily empty blank canvasses that unfortunately get coupled together with actual minimalist-design timepieces into one giant, uninspired mass of mediocrity. In reality, when many of us dismiss something as “too minimalist, not for me” (especially when it comes with a hefty price tag), we actually mean it’s too bland, austere, plain, derivative, uninspired, or just plain boring. But still, “minimalist” hasn’t been totally reduced to just a threadbare platitude yet — it does get justice every now and then.
H. Moser & Cie, specifically its “Concept” line, does minimalism right. Need I remind you of the Endeavour Perpetual Moon Concept in Vantablack? I tried to capture how the dial looks in the metal in these photos, and I believe I largely succeeded. I believe this is the largest case size that H. H. Casio G-Shock Introduces First-Ever Analog Frogman Watch. When it comes to the G-Shock “Master of G” series of high-end, purpose-specific references (Mudmaster, Rangeman, etc.) the conversation simply can’t be had without a mention of the iconic Frogman, which kicked off the sub-collection and has been there from the very beginning when it was introduced in 1993.
New for 2020, Casio has introduced its first-ever analog Frogman — a full-fledged, ISO-6425-rated connected dive watch that introduces an entirely new suite of functionality (while shaving off one very key feature) to yield a watch that deftly continues the long traditions of the Frogman’s impressive capability. The new Frogman (ref. GWF-A1000 – where “A” most likely stands for Analog) is not designed to replace, but rather to complement the current digital Frogman (ref. GWF-D1000 — where “D” stands for Digital), which was introduced in 2016.
Specifications. Bulova Oceanographer Snorkel 666 Feet — The Return Of The Devil Diver. There are several divers from the ’60s and ’70s that are still charming today. Think of the Doxa Sub 300, the Longines Skin Diver, or the Bulova Oceanographer, for example. These are fantastic vintage pieces that are sturdy and rugged vintage tool watches. There’s something else they all have in common too — they all have re-editions. Before the Rolex Milgauss, This Unassuming Watch Pioneered Anti-Magnetism. Welcome to Watches You Should Know, a biweekly column highlighting important or little-known watches with interesting backstories and unexpected influence. Why Do So Many Seiko Watches Have Crazy Nicknames? Jaeger-LeCoultre Introduces Updated Master Control Memovox Watches With New Functionality. This Watch Is Not an Omega Speedmaster. So How Did It End Up on the Moon? MINUS-8 Diver: A bold perspective on dive watches. Watch Band, Dial, Bezel Size Guide.
Almost every watch comes with a relatively similar makeup – a band, a case, a crown. Seiko Prospex 'King Turtle' Ceramic Bezel SRPE05 & SRPE07 Watch Review. Now available from Japan’s Seiko watches is a newly upgraded version of the Prospex “Turtle,” which now includes some even harder-to-resist features and which some people refer to as the “King Turtle.” The right blend for this generation of Prospex Turtle watches is both an attractive, textured dial (in a few forms) as well as being paired with a ceramic bezel — the first for this collection, I believe. Crafter Blue Swiss Automatic Dive Watch with luminous markers, and a dome sapphire crystal #HOSS001B-R. Raketa Revives A Classic Piece Of Antarctic Exploration History With The New Limited-Edition Polar Watch.
Timex's Awesome, Affordable Vintage Remake Gets an Automatic Movement. 15 Best Dive Watches Under $1000. Updated February, 2019: This post has been updated with new picks for 2019. Prices and links have also been updated. Reality check: your watch doesn’t need to be submersible to 300 meters. Hell, Ahmed Gabr’s scuba diving record is 318 meters, and if you really think you’re in the running to beat it, odds are you’re using an actual diving computer, not an $8,000 Rolex Submariner. To stand firmly by that argument, though, would be missing the point. We love dive watches because they’re overkill. Want proof? Citizen Promaster Diver Cheap, reliable and handsome.
Water Resistance: 200m Seiko SKX007 Seiko’s cheap dive watches have a cult-like following (see the Blue Lagoon, another great diver for under $1,000) for good reason: it’s hard to find a better value for the money for just a couple hundred dollars. In-Depth: The Watches Of James Bond (And Why They Matter) - HODINKEE. The Value Proposition: The Cult Classic Casio G-Shock GA2100 1-A-1 'CasiOak' - HODINKEE. Introducing: Oris Carysfort Reef Limited Edition (Live Pics And Pricing) - HODINKEE. Military Watches: Dirty Dozen. Caleuche.
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