Watches with power-reserve complications are the latest must-have trend; here are some of the best Sometimes, complicating things just a tad can be a good thing. A watch can give you the time with beautiful simplicity; but just as a well-judged pocket square brings a bit of flourish to your look, a little extra on the face of a watch adds interest and horological spice. A power reserve display – [...]
Give the gift of time this Christmas: the top new watches to declare your undying love to another human being The hot-list: our favourite new watches to buy your loved ones this Christmas. Tudor Pelagos LHD £3,020, tudorwatch.com If the “LHD” of the title – standing for “left-hand drive” – doesn’t give it away, the position of the winding crown should: Tudor’s latest diving watch is for the left-handed. Hence the crown is on the [...]
Gotta catch ‘em all: how extreme collectors hunt down the world’s rarest watches In a thankfully deserted café near the river in Battersea, my acquaintance extracts an unassuming plastic shopping bag from a rucksack. From inside it, he unfurls 12 wristwatches, laying each one gently on the table; were the sole waitress present paying us any attention, she might think it a rather suspicious scene – even more [...]
Wempe’s observatory celebrates its tenth birthday with three stunning new wristwatches October 3, 2016 Ten years ago, luxury watch and jewellery boutique Wempe acquired the legendary observatory in Glashütte, the German Mecca for watchmakers. It is there that Wempe produces its outstanding chronometers, and in celebration it has announced three stunning new wristwatches – two of which are limited edition – and its first in-house self-winding calibre. The new [...]
Back in Black: Make a statement with these stylish, laid-back and all-black wristwatches October 3, 2016 Sometimes you need something with a bit more impact. In wristwatch terms, that doesn’t have to mean bringing the bling – it can simply mean going all-black. It’s less formal than a straight steel watch, and rarely works with a suit; but in an increasingly casual working world, a black watch can make a pretty [...]
In the zone: Be on time wherever you happen to be with these exquisite world timers December 3, 2014 There are times – 8.30am, Monday morning, on the Northern Line, say – when the idea of a watch that fires lethal darts might seem rather appealing. And if we can land robots on comets and squeeze scores of mind-boggling complications into single wristwatches (see Patek Philippe’s anniversary mega-watch), one has to believe it’s possible. [...]
The black tie dress watch: From classic Omega to definitive Cartier October 28, 2014 I suspect I’m not alone in greeting invitations advising a black tie dress code – the season being just about to kick off – with a weary groan. It’s not that I particularly object to it as a style, so much as the imposition: on the few occasions one wheels out the tux, it feels [...]
Tudor is back: Heritage-inspired watches are on the rise September 23, 2014 I’m excited: Tudor is back. Who? Well, you’d be forgiven for asking, since the brand hasn’t been in British shops since early in the last decade. But it’s a name that carries clout in the watch world, for Tudor is the sibling brand of Rolex. Hans Wilsdorf, Rolex’s founder, set up Tudor between the [...]
Time flies: the best pilot’s chronographs July 29, 2014 Full Metal Jacket, Saving Private Ryan or Apocalypse Now? Pish and tush – as any 13-year-old boy ought to know, the greatest war movie ever made is Where Eagles Dare. In its fabulously mysterious opening scene, a camouflaged trimotor Junkers 52 flies low over the German Alps to deliver Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood to [...]
Dive into the past July 29, 2014 Squale is a name from one of the more obscure corners of the Swiss watch industry (the Italian-Swiss bit, as it happens), but the family-owned company has a rich tradition when it comes to making beautiful dive watches in the classic mould. But a recent collaboration with a British retailer has really brought out its [...]