Watches Blog Wrist Watch Reviews

You are not a real watch guy unless you own a RolexC you hear this comment pretty often in our community. Up to a certain extent I can agree with this. Rolex?is the only brand everybody knows regardless of their country, status, annual?income, gender etc. you name it. For over a 110 years (the company was established in 1905) Rolex has been a leader in the world of watches with lots of innovations and patents and is able to make people literally run to their booth at the annual BaselWorld exhibition to be among the first to see whats new.?This week's TBT is about the famous Rolex GMT-Master 1675.Rolex GMT-Master 1675We all know the story how PanAm commissioned Rolex to make them a watch tha [...]

Welcome to This Week in Watches for June 13, 2020, the Innovative Edition. Weve got quite the smattering for you this week.Omega De Ville Tourbillon Numbered EditionThis weeks first watch happens to be innovative and expensive. The 43mm Omega De Ville Tourbillon Numbered Edition is the first-ever Master Chronometer manual wind central tourbillon. Honestly, Id bet there are a lot of firsts in there, but this watch is robust enough to withstand a magnetic field of 15,000 gauss. Appropriately, the watch is beautifully finished with a Sedna gold case and Canipus white gold. Interestingly, this new alloy is extremely bright and tarnish resistant. Caliber 2640 is viewable from the front and more f [...]

Available as per january 2006 and will cost you about 1900 Euro. The official Seiko site on this watch can be found here.Thanks Gadget.nl. Otherwise, I still would be able to tell people I liked Seiko for being innovative (Seiko Spring Drive). ??Btw, also via Gadget.nl, this clock that can bring you your voicemail messages [...]

This is the day that I have been waiting for, for a long time. And I know that many of your Speedmaster fans out there have been waiting for this as well. That day that Omega announces that they will bring their famous column-wheel caliber 321 chronograph movement back in production. Today is the day my friends, on this 2nd Speedy Tuesday of 2019. This is big, it is a historical moment for Speedmaster enthusiasts, I would say.It is the reason that we are having a Speedy Tuesday event in Bienne today, at the headquarters of Omega, to witness the re-introduction of the caliber 321 movement. Even better, our Speedy Tuesday readers who got selected from tons of registrations are able to see the [...]

One of the most popular models of recent yearsC the Bvlgari Octo Finissimo Minute RepeaterC gets treated to a new case in sandblasted rose gold. The result? A bonafide showstopper both technically and aesthetically.The Octo Finissimo range from Bvlgari is refusing to rest on its laurels. It seems crazy to doubt that there is yet more to come from this impressively persistent manufacture, following a run of award-winning releases. There are many brands able to cause a stylistic stir. There are fewer, but still plenty of brands pushing the envelope on a technical front. Rarer still are brands combining the two with as much seamless grace as Bvlgari. Although still better-known to the wider wor [...]

The Group Stage is in the books. Its time for the head-to-head contests to begin. Over the next two weeks, we will run two quarter-final match-ups each weekend. One on Saturday; one on Sunday. Our intrepid warriors made it through blood baths of their own making, but now they need your help to fight another day. Only one man can progress from each quarter-final to the next stage. The choice of who receives that honor rests with you. Will it be the Snoopy III or the ST1? You decideWith three Quarter-Finals in play, the sharp end of the competition is, well, sharpening.?It looks likely that the Final Four will comprise the Omega Speedmaster Silver Snoopy Award 2015, the Tintin (having taken a [...]

Last year around the same time, during Geneva Watch Days, Bvlgari re-introduced its Aluminium watch. Or should we say that the Bvlgari Diagono from 1998 got something of a facelift? When we first encountered this range in the (very lightweight) metal, we werent sure the industry had been crying out for it. But after a short period on the wrist, our tunes almost universally changed. Aluminium is not the first material one thinks of when it comes to luxury watchmaking, but it certainly makes for an interesting experience on the wrist.Last years GWD was the last time Fratello hit the road as a team. Next week (August 30th) sees the 2021 edition of the decentralized fair. Crazily, it will be the [...]

Wow, this is all happening so fast. When we started the competition, we had 96 watches. Now were at the stage when the last 16 will be scythed in half to leave just eight remaining. At that point, the writers will have but one watch each remaining. So today, for the very last time, the watches that started out in the preliminaries together will go head-to-head for the division champion crown. Where will your votes fall?Were at the sharp end now. Jorg has two left, as does Balazs. We need you to pick your favorite in this quick-fire round. Tomorrow we will have the last two standing from Gerard and RJs groups before Mike and Tomas step into the fray, followed finally by Ben and Bert. The quar [...]

In 2021, Omega updated the iconic Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch with the caliber 3861 movement. A very good reason to update our Speedmaster Buyers Guide as well!This guide dates all the way back to 2014, and since then, a lot happened. Not only did we have our own way with Omega and the two Speedmaster Speedy Tuesday watches (in 2017 and 2018), Omega also introduced a number of interesting Speedmaster watches to the collection. What about the Speedmaster Calibre 321 from 2020, or the new Moonwatch Master Chronometer models in gold? Time for us to update this Speedmaster Buyers Guide.In this Speedmaster Buyers Guide, we give you an overview of the most important references of the Speedm [...]

Well, what a wild ride that turned out to be In the wake of our largest, most ambitious, and certainly most exciting adventure of 2020, I thought it would be fun to look back on the Fratello �� Oris Big Crown Bronze Pointer Date Limited Edition project and enjoy some of the positive feedback we received from our satisfied customers that, by purchasing one of the 250 pieces in the Fratello shop, became part of the ever-expanding Fratello family.Its truly humbling to hear how our efforts brought a little bit of joy to so many wrists. After such a positive experience, you can expect more of the same from Fratello in 2021. We have several projects keyed-up for release this year, and were keeping [...]

Its time for This Week in Watches for September 5, 2020 the new edition. There are more things to life than Rolex, so lets take a look at what else dropped.Grand Seiko 60th Anniversary L.E. SBGR321Our first new watch this week comes from Grand Seiko. GS is celebrating its 60th Anniversary this year and continues to roll out new models under the theme. The 40mm SBGR321 comes in titanium and is powered by the 9S65 automatic. 2,500 pieces of this blue-dialed watch will be made and are available in October. Grand Seiko calls out the sunrise and how it radiates into their Japanese studios.Im not sure we need a story all the time because the blue dial looks lovely. That trend continues on the disp [...]

Since 2012 Bvlgari broke seven world records with its Octo watches. What better way to celebrate a decade of records with another one? Enter record number eight. The 2022 Bvlgari Octo Finissimo Ultra is the world's thinnest mechanical watch with a height of just 1.8mm it's the same height as a 20 euro cent coin, but it will cost you 400,000. Will this record ever be broken? Bvlgari thinks it's an absolute record that will probably never be beaten. Let's find out if there's a solid or a wafer thin argument behind that bold claim.It all started ten years ago when Bvlgari decided to take on Piaget in the ultra-flat watch department. It paid off. The brand scored no less than seven world record [...]

Its This Week in Watches for October 12, 2019 and theres loads of news to share.Hi there, watch lovers and welcome to This Week in Watches.? Weve got quite a bit of news this week so lets quit the chit-chat and get into it.Seiko Prospex LX Line Limited EditionSeiko brought us two new LX divers that will come out in November.? Fitted with calibre 5R65 Spring Drive movements, each of the watches will be made in limited editions of just 200 pieces each.? First up is the reference SNR041J1 with what Seiko is calling a violet gold Ceramet bezel and brown dial.? The watch features a titanium bracelet.? Next up is the reference SNR043J1 which contains a platinum Ceramet bezel and black dial.? The c [...]

1858 refers to the founding year of Minerva, a watch company that was located in Villeret, Switzerland. A brand that struggled through its last years of existence, but also a brand with a lot of watchmaking history. If you put some effort into it, you will find for example ? the most beautiful chronograph watches that were made by Minerva.About 10 years ago,?the Minerva brand was sold to Richemont Group, who also owns Montblanc. Montblanc, well-known for their writing instruments, was ready for the next step in horologie as well. Haute horlogerie, to be precise. What better way to have an awesome kickstart if you can depend on movements and watchmaking knowledge from a company like Minerva? [...]

On the 1st of July (2010), a prominent member of the Panerai community (Paneristi) introduced a limited edition Panerai PAM 360 model, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Paneristi Home Base, www.paneristi.com. A limited edition of 300 pieces only, which is far less than most Panerai production numbers, would be available for members of the Paneristi community. Moderators of the Paneristi community designed the concept of the watch pictured below. A 44mm Panerai Luminor in PVD, painted patina dial, the OP logo on the dial and an inscription engraved in the case back.Indeed, a great looking wristwatch by Panerai, although I would have preferred DLC and white hour markers instead of pai [...]

Yesterday and today, Grand Seikos and Seikos Media Experience is taking place. Digitally, of course. Where this is used to be a separate journey to Japan, and a fully packed congress room in Basel, were now following Grand Seiko and Seiko on our screens.The same will apply for Watches Wonders and Time To Move, but it is the way it is. Nevertheless, Grand Seiko had a +1 hour presentation on their new global strategy and new watches for 2021. Remember the 2019 24 Seasons collection? Meet the four new GMT 24 Seasons watches of the Grand Seiko Heritage collection.24 Seasons Grand Seiko GMT24 seasons? We have four Correct. But in Japan, they experience each season (Spring, Summer, Autumn, and W [...]

In this Sunday morning column, two of our writers go head-to-head in an epic showdown for the ages. Strong opinions and hysterical hyperbole are welcome (so feel free to join in with the fun in the comments section below). And don't forget to let us know which watches you'd like to see torn to shreds/effusively exalted next week. We'll try and feature as many of our readers' choices as we can. This week we take to the waves, but stay above them for once. The Rolex Yacht-Master II and the Panerai Luminor Luna Rossa Regatta Chrono Flyback are approaching the start line, but firstLast week, the battle wed been waiting for took place. To be quite frank, it wasnt the gritty tussle for which Id ho [...]

Longines is one of those brands that perform very well when it comes to new watches, but also has its share of collectors of their vintage collection. With over 180 years of history, there are definitely some very interesting Longines timepieces to consider. Both from their actual catalog as well as from their past. Nowadays, Longines is part of the Swatch Group and is positioned somewhere between Omega and Tissot. Also based on some watch market data we have, we identified that watch consumers also positions this brand between Omega and Tissot and noticed an increased interest in Longines over the past few quarters.An interesting trend, as I also see a decline in interest in a number of wat [...]

King's Day is like the 4th of July in the US, but brighter and bigger in the hearts of the Dutch people. Me, I'm Norwegian, but I'll eat my hat if I dont put on something orange this week. This is easily the biggest event that takes place not just in Amsterdam but throughout all of the Netherlands. Be prepared for towns, cities, canals, streets, and parks filled with celebration. We kick it off with our ORANGE King's Day Special ORANGE is the color, and spring is in the air. And if you're just Dutch by proxy like me in my editor's role, join in anyway. I mean, what better way to cheer yourself up than with a madly bright pop of juicy orange? Spring might not have warmed up everywhere yet, b [...]

There are a few brands out there which have a huge group of collectors. These brands are significant not only in the watch world but often in another area of life like sports or science. I think Heuer needs no introduction. Even for a non-WIS the name (TAG) Heuer rings the bell. Early Heuer vintage models are pretty sought-after. In this article we will get to know one of their classic yet affordable versions and its?modern counterpart.Heuer 73473S Versus Autodromo PrototipoThe Heuer 73473 was released in the early 1970s (probably around 1971) same time many iconic car racing and races inspired Heuers like the Carrera. This however has a plain dial with only Heuer' and Swiss' written on it. [...]