Grokking mechanics to some degree was fundamental to achieving the horological high, “the quieter form of fascination.” Promoting this state of mind, I will argue, should be at the heart of the Swiss watch industry. I believe this message to the industry is implicit in Lederer’s philosophy.
This was Panerai’s strategy in 2025, and the result is an update to the core 44mm Luminor Marina, the exact model that sits at the center of the expansive Panerai catalog. For the Rolex-heads out there, this update is like when the Crown gently updates the Submariner. The main difference is that when Panerai does the equivalent, watch journalists don’t start running down the halls of Watches and Wonders waving their hands yelling to their video team, “Roll the cameras now!”
I wore my Panerai Submersible to ride the Ducati XDiavel V4 thinking it’d be fun, maybe a little clever, but what I didn’t see coming was the deeper synergy between these two products.
With it’s new ambassador, a cat named Choupette, Hublot is showing all of us how to loosen up and playfully embrace loud luxury.
It’s a dress watch, full stop. Yes, mine is rated to 50m of water resistance (previous versions were marked at 30m, much to the chagrin of forum-dwellers who like to bitch about nothing remotely important), but it has, and will always have, a leather strap, so it’s not for swimming or showering or anything wet. It’s just 10mm tall, elegantly appointed, and the ever-present leather strap goes great with dressy attire. Again, this is a dress watch, and even the lovely sales-dude in Milan said so.
If you’re browsing hands-on reviews and considering this watch, I hope you’ll side with me in declaring this Oris 473 as decidedly not following a trend, but Going It’s Own Way, as the Oris creed dictates.
So how does one come to decide which of the many recreations of mil-spec field watches to get? Unless you’re a connoisseur of some specific model or era—which would seem to lead one to vintage anyways—I had found it quite daunting to know where to begin.
The movements in the Fury models I tested ran well within COSC specifications (-4 to +6 sec/day). Bremont tests in-house using its own H1 chronometer protocols, which differ from COSC in that the movements are tested inside the watch they’ll ship in. This is conceivably a better standard, as the actual context of the movement is being tested as well, not to mention there’s no need for regulation after installation into the case as there is with COSC. The crown and setting of the watch felt as good as you would hope for in the price point. This is definitely a quality timepiece.
Can falling deeply in love, like never before, with one watch cause us to fall out of love with our other watches?
Originally a Swiss watch company, Zodiac issued the Sea Wolf in 1953, tying Blancpain and beating Rolex with the first commercial release of a dive watch. Zodiac puttered out during the Quartz Crisis, but in 2001 Fossil Watches bought the Zodiac name and prepared for a relaunch. The revived Zodiac released the first modern Sea Wolf in 2015. Fossil owns and operates Swiss Technology Productions (STP), which builds the ETA/Sellita-equivalent movements used in the modern Super Sea Wolf