The “good ol’ days” aren’t over yet – at least in the world of mechanical watches, where the appreciation of traditions and the creation of lasting values are as essential as the balance wheel and the escapement. Here, Sabine Zwettler takes a look at five of her favorite modern retro-styled watches from Blancpain, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Panerai, Breitling, and Seiko.
Colin Alexander Smith never set out to collect watches; in fact, he suspects that deep down he aspires to being a one-watch guy. He has only bought himself a new watch on two occasions in his life. Nevertheless, through a combination of new and used purchases, gifts, hand-me-downs, and inherited pieces, Colin has managed to accumulate a selection of watches that rather neatly spans eight consecutive decades of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Find out what is behind each of these watches remaining in Colin’s collection right here.
Japanese watch giant Seiko once again draws upon its many years of experience in the discipline of diver’s watches to reboot a timepiece from 1968 for a new generation. The two Seiko Prospex 1968 Diver’s Modern Re-Interpretation Save the Ocean limited edition timepieces are real dive watches made for professional divers and pioneering adventurers, manufactured to weather the most extreme situations under water.
As Joshua Munchow swiped through posts on Instagram one day last year, he was stopped in his tracks, toothbrush dangling from his gaping mouth, eyes wide, and one singular thought running through his head as he stared at his phone: Grand Seiko doesn’t make movements like this. This is an avant-garde tourbillon movement with a constant force escapement and incredible, exposed mechanics! What in the world . . .?! Meet the T0.
Seiko has always made it a point to deliver bang for your buck. And in recent years, the brand has been realigning its different collections with the aim of offering collectors exciting products in every price category. For the Presage, this means that there are now two tiers to the collection: Prestige and Basic. Martin Green takes us through a number of models from 2020.
Featuring watches in the price segment from 3,500 to 10,000 Swiss francs, the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève’s Petite Aiguille category is extremely competitive. High quality and a little something extra are, or should be, a given; but here we are looking for a lot of something extra. The great thing about this category is that these are all very wearable, affordable, and accessible watches. So how did our panel do in choosing a winner?
Sabine Zwettler dives back through time to have a closer look at five vintage-style diver’s watches. With their robustness and air of discovery and adventure, diver’s watches leave a striking impression on the wrist – whether on dry land or in the water.
These two limited editions made to celebrate 60 years of Grand Seiko are fairly different on the surface, but both achieve similar success of representing the sub-brand’s aesthetic and legacy. With possibly two very different customers for each watch, Grand Seiko also utilizes guiding principles to speak to both that are rooted in Japanese aesthetic conventions as Joshua Munchow explains.
The Grand Seiko Nature of Time is a collection of four watches celebrating the Japanese system of dividing the year into 24 small seasons called sekki. Two of the watches have stainless steel cases and are powered by a mechanical high-beat caliber, while the other two are housed in titanium and run on Spring Drive Caliber 9R65. And let’s have a look at those ‘seasoned’ dials!
After a week on the wrist, Chris Malburg had some issues with Grand Seiko’s Blue Snowflake Reference SBGA407. Even so, he pulled the trigger. Here Chris explains how he fixed those issues and why it just might deserve a place in your collection too.