Oris has found a novel and compelling way to celebrate the exchange between East and West without succumbing to the lame Eurocentrism and reductive new-year-celebration strategies deployed by so many Swiss watch brands. When West Meets East (and Offers a Watch) In the 21st century, mechanical watches are unnecessary, and the significance of watches has… Read more »
In 1932 Patek Philippe released the very simple, unadorned Calatrava wrist watch. Until the early 21st century, the word Calatrava only referred to that specific model from that specific brand. Today, however, you will find that journalists, chatty enthusiasts and especially vintage watch dealers use Calatrava to indicate almost any time-only or time-and-date dress watch… Read more »
The Birth Year Watch Concept The birth-year watch is a simple collecting archetype: you own a watch from the year you were born. Breaking down the underlying concept, however, reveals an unexpected complexity. Excuse my satirical lens, but I’ve been through the birth year watch journey three times. The technicality of the birth year watch… Read more »
I’ve been a Star Wars fan my entire life. When the babysitter canceled last minute, my parents took their toddler (me) to see Return of the Jedi. Star Wars is partially responsible for my watch collecting. It started with a Star Wars collaboration on Nixon’s Time Teller models featuring the designs traits from the iconic… Read more »
I suspect most people reading this article have heard about the Grammar of Design – Taro Tanaka’s 1962-drafted principles for designing Seiko watches so that they could compete visually when displayed next to their Swiss competitors in the Wako department store in Ginza. What might be less known is how many of Tanaka’s principles fundamentally… Read more »
I started 2020 with eight mostly sporty watches. I finish with only four mostly dressy watches. A year ago I could not have imagined what a transformation my collection would have gone through, and I don’t mean ending up with half as many. In fact, after purchasing another dozen or so watches in 2020, of… Read more »
Ok, I’ll be honest, “love” is too strong a word. If I’m honest, this article should be titled: “how I learned to stop hating and try to appreciate some types of quartz watches.”
In order for a watch to be legitimately considered New Old Stock it must, by definition, never have been sold at retail. If you’re buying something that’s labeled NOS, then you have to be the first individual consumer to have bought it. Period. If old stock is changing hands between retailers, or even being distributed… Read more »
In 1970, psychologist Richard L. Gregory hypothesized that the human brain uses “top-down processing” to generate what we perceive via our eyes. The theory argued that our backlog of visual experiences give shape to the images we perceive. By the 1990s, experiments had robustly backed up this theory, and psychologists now widely accept that what… Read more »
“When I first looked back at Earth from the Moon, I Cried.” – Alan Shepard The Skinny Omega Speedmaster Professional (Hesalite / Bracelet) Ref. 311.30.42.30.01.005 Movement, Calibre 1861 manual wind Case Size 42 x 48 x14.3mm Stainless Steel Caseback MSRP: $5,350 Omega Speedmaster Professional (Sapphire / Bracelet) Ref. 311.30.42.30.01.006 Case Size 42x48x13.7mm Movement, Calibre 1863… Read more »