In GaryG’s 30 years of “serious” participation in the watch hobby, he has met few, if any, more interesting individuals than William Massena Rohr, founder and leader of Massena Lab, and Luca Soprana, an independent complications specialist. Here, Gary reviews (and photographs) the Old School watch collaboration between Soprana and Massena Lab.
George Cramer looks across more than one hundred years of evolution of what may well be called the world’s first pilot’s wristwatch: the Cartier Santos-Dumont.
The Schwarz-Etienne Roma Synergy by Kari Voutilainen for Oster Jewelers. has a design as sharp as the name is exhausting. Two variations — both steel — exist in the form of eight 39mm examples and eight in 42mm.
Having relocated to Deeside, Scotland, Colin Alexander Smith fulfilled a lifelong ambition of fly fishing on local rivers and fisheries. For some insights into fly fishing in Scotland, he talked to Alastair Peake who, with his twin brother Will, runs the aptly named Twin Peakes Fly Fishing.
Which Rolex models will be most sought after by collectors in the future? That’s not a trick question. And Watchbox’s director of media Tim Mosso and global head of trading Mike Manjos are here to answer it for you in the second episode of Watchbox’s new video series “Around the Crown,” which is dedicated to future classics from the Rolex catalog.
When GaryG recently took a good look at the current state of his watch collection, he was surprised by the large proportion of dark-dialed pieces in the mix. He has enjoyed – and photographed – each of three of these watches a great deal, but it isn’t until recently that he pulled them together in one place for side-by-side shooting and direct comparison. The results (and the watches) are simply stunning.
The Arnold & Son True Beat Tourbillon Escapement (TBTE) embodies two of the Swiss watch industry’s greatest talents: craftsmanship and AstroTurf. Beautifully built but tenuously tied to an historical dead guy, the True Beat is a triumph on substance. With essentially no history but outstanding modern credentials, this tourbillon proves that talent alone can yield a great watch.
Quentin R. Bufogle could go on and on about the Zenith Chronomaster Tribute to Charles Vermot’s stunningly beautiful, metallic blue dial, silicon escapement (visible via the open heart feature), COSC chronometer certification and that it’s one of the last truly great Chronomasters, but that would be missing the point, i.e. how Charles Vermot saved Zenith.
In the annals of A. Lange & Söhne history, the Double Split was one of the most widely celebrated releases. It introduced the idea of a split-second and split-minute chronograph allowing the wearer to time at least two events lasting up to an hour. The Triple Split is the inevitable progression of it, adding a split-hour function to allow timing two multi-hour events up to 12 hours.
In no particular order, here are 15 watches from 2023 that Ian Skellern would love to own (if somebody else was paying) and one that he hopes to buy for himself.