Charlie Watts passed away on August 24, 2021, at the age of 80 after having been hospitalized for heart problems. He had been the beat-keeper for the Rolling Stones for half a century. Unlike his bandmates, the famed drummer of the Rolling Stones kept a low profile, and so identifying his watches wasn’t easy . . . but we managed to spot one.
When Rolex put the Sky-Dweller Caliber 9001 in a Rolesor case in 2017 (“Rolesor” is a Rolex term for stainless steel and gold) and dropped the price down to $14,400 Chris Malburg became a player. And, as he soon discovered, so were a goodly number of other Rolex admirers. Here is why he bought this watch and what happened then.
Until recently, George Cramer has exclusively collected watches from classic brands with long histories and traditional styles of watchmaking. But that all changed when he bought himself a Ressence Type 2 e-Crown. Here he explains why.
With its bronze case, deep red dial, and dark brown strap, the Bell & Ross BR 03-92 Diver Red Bronze captures the essence of the aesthetics of the best of 1970s design: dark richness. It’s also why Joshua Munchow loves it and thinks it may be his favorite BR 03-92 to date.
The Opus 5 by Felix Baumgartner/Urwerk for Harry Winston is one of the best of this series of exceptional timepieces. But, as this drawing by Urwerk designer Martin Frei from June of 2003 shows, one of the original ideas behind Urwerk’s Opus 5 was a digital display in a model christened with the working title “Time Bandit.” Check out this superb almost-was timepiece!
Humans have long had a fascination with the depths of the ocean, striving to go ever deeper, ever further, and ever faster by pushing the limits of the human body, technology, and advancing modern science. But like all things, we are often faced with limits. And the helium escape valve was invented to push one of those limits as watchmaker Ashton Tracy explains.
Omega and Fratello Watches came out with first #SpeedyTuesday Speedmaster edition back in 2017 and it sold out within few hours. Three years later, a second iteration of #SpeedyTuesday timepieces came to life. And this one sold out – all 2,012 pieces – in under two hours. And one of these 2,012 watches is in Łukasz Doskocz’s personal collection. Here he explains why.
A client once asked John Keil if there are any benefits to using automatic watch winders. The short answer is that he has two viewpoints on them. Click to learn the pros and cons as he sees them.
The “great lockdown of 2020” gifted us with something outstanding: from the depths of an anxiety-inducing existence arose an online exhibition called “The Persistence of Memory,” which can be described as an !online museum” honoring some of the most influential and important independent watchmakers of the modern era. Here Elizabeth Doerr speaks with its creator Michael Tay for an inside view on what this “exhibition” surveying 50 years of independent watchmaking is. And what it isn’t.
While the last 18 months have wreaked havoc on the big (and not so big) watch fairs – and everything else – there have been two rays of horological sunshine in the last couple of years: in November 2019 (just months before COVID-19 hit) the biannual Dubai Watch Week took place, which was bigger and better than ever. And then in August 2020 the inaugural Geneva Watch Days was held during a lull in the pandemic and it was superb. Here Ian Skellern explains why these two fairs have become his favorites.