Wine can be so much more than just an enjoyable drink. It can link us to times, people, and places. A traditional concept for so-called anniversary wines is to celebrate a milestone, perhaps a birthday or wedding or even anniversary, with a fine bottle from the vintage of the birthyear or anniversary year in question. With that in mind, Ken Gargett shares a few suggestions.
When Italians make Swiss watches, we are always in for a treat. Martin Green thinks this has something to do with many Italians being very passionate about mechanics and design being something of a religion there. Bulgari has been successfully blending these two main elements for decades, and at the virtual 2021 LVMH Watch Week the brand showed that it continues to excel at it. Here, Martin highlights five of his favorite new watches from the digital fair.
The new S4, the fourth iteration of Garrick’s S line of models, also represents a solid effort to add as much value as possible to the brand’s watches while making them more accessible to collectors at large. And don’t miss the artistic prowess visible through the case back!
Given GaryG’s musings on these pages about the relative roles of rarity and complication in driving the value of a watch, he thinks it appropriate to dedicate this “Behind the Lens” entry to a piece that is both complicated and limited in production: Patek Philippe’s Reference 5950A. What’s so special about this watch? Well, first of all it’s a split-seconds chronograph. What else?
Fans of Japanese whisky will be all too aware that the better offerings are extremely hard to find. Once a curiosity, then mainstream, and more recently highly awarded and much sought after (okay, now subject to a feeding frenzy), the stuff is as rare as an honest politician. So grab whatever you can whenever you can!
While 2019 brought subtle improvements for Rolex’s mainstay watch lines, a rocky 2020 brought uncertainty – first we weren’t sure Rolex would release anything at all given the pandemic, which was followed by widely talked about updates for four of the crown’s pillar collections. The new 2020 models saw subtle changes for improvement and perfection rather than anything revolutionary. And lots more color!
Vacheron Constantin has been producing timepieces uninterruptedly since 1755, and it often draws on that heritage for the models in the Historiques collection. A great example is 2017’s Historiques American 1921 Small Model, a terrific unisex wristwatch.
Out of all the “traditional” styles of hairsprings, the helical hairspring is Joshua Munchow’s favorite because it adds three-dimensionality to the watch. These oscillators are so rarely seen that if you are only aware of five watches with helical hairsprings you already know a significant portion of the modern watches using them. Here are Joshua’s favorite five.
‘The Watch Annual’ 2020 by Justin Hast and James Allen is a 172-page book featuring 72 watches from a large variety of price points and categories submitted by 40 contributors from 19 different countries. It is a book for watch lovers by watch lovers, coming from the so-called #watchfam. And it gives back. What’s not to like?
Increasing demand for timepieces, especially Rolexes, with the Omani emblem is understandable given the high quality, good condition, demonstrable provenance, and rarity of most of these watches, combined with the fact that they had often been presented to their first owners in the 1970s by Sultan Qaboos in person as a token of gratitude for services rendered. Colin Alexander Smith takes a very close look at the meaning behind these rare timepieces and in this updated version of the article debunks one theory behind the dial symbol.