We are back this week with more vintage watches and the line-up including Omegas, Longines, and even a watch from Rolex. All your favorite vintage brands are in one easy-to-find spot. Let's dig in, shall we?

1960s Gold-Plated Omega Seamaster Ref. 14762

Here we have a 1960s Omega Seamaster reference 14762. This classic watch from the beloved brand boasts a gold-plated case, which adds a little something extra to the traditionally sporty watch. This Seamaster is powered by the automatic caliber 562 and features a beautiful pie pan dial. You can read more about it here. 

A 1973 Rolex 'Red' Submariner Ref. 1680

The Rolex 'Red' Submariner reference 1680 has quickly become a vintage cult classic. The example we have here has a Mark V dial with gorgeous creme brulee patina on the indexes and hands. The more important part of this watch though is the Submariner written in red, which is only seen on models from 1969-1974. We love the 1680 for its versatility and cool-factor. You can read more here. 

1960s Longines Chronograph 30CH Ref. 7413

The Longines Chronograph 30CH reference 7413 is a great little watch that boasts a robust movement coveted by many vintage collectors. The caliber 30CH stemmed from the prolific caliber 13-ZN and could be found in many chronograph wristwatches from Longines in the 1960s. The example we have here has a stainless steel case and boasts a gorgeous silvered dial with red and blue scales at the perimeter. You can read more about this chronograph here. 

The Full Set

In addition to the above highlights, we also have a 1960s Longines Conquest Automatic reference 9004, a 1960s Wittnauer "Skin Diver" reference 4000, and a 1970s Longines Admiral Automatic reference 2330. You can shop the entire collection in the HODINKEE Shop. 

Last week, Angelo Bonati said arrivederci to Panerai after 21 years with the firm, 18 of them as the CEO. 

Bonati was head of sales of Cartier in Italy in 1997 when Richemont Chairman Johann Rupert selected him as Panerai's first sales director. Rupert's Vendôme Luxury Group (now called the Richemont Group) had just acquired the watch and instruments division of Officine Panerai, the small, obscure Florence-based watchmaker and former supplier of timing instruments to the Italian Navy.

Bonati was the first Panerai employee of the Vendôme/Richemont era. He became CEO of the brand in 2000. On April 1 of this year, he retired, handing over the Panerai reins to Jean-Marc Pontroué, formerly CEO of Roger Dubuis.

At the SIHH in Geneva in January, I met with Bonati and asked him about the early days of Panerai under Richemont.

Love It Or Hate It

"At the beginning, we had nothing. We had a watch, Luminor Marina," Bonati recalled. Franco Cologni, head of Cartier in Italy, was a close advisor to Panerai and Bonati and served as chairman of the new company. "So, with this watch, we started to think what we [should] do." 

They had two options, Bonati says. One was to go for a quick hit: invest a lot in advertising, pump up production, "make money and then say ciao," Bonati said. The other option was "to follow one dream: The dream was to establish a brand starting from Luminor Marina Panerai. That's what we did."

I was alone, no assistant, nothing. Sometimes I was thinking, 'What am I doing here?'

Bonati wrote a three-page strategic plan to reach sales of 25,000 watches in three years by marketing the Panerai name and history with its links to the Italian military. "But it was a dream, because we had nothing yet," he says. 

"I started in February 1997. At that time, I was alone, in one office, one chair, one computer, a benjamin ficus tree, one window, one door. No assistant. Nothing. Sometimes I was thinking, 'What am I doing here?' I started to work on everything: the guarantee, the assortment, everything."

He kept a Panerai Luminor watch on the desk of his small office and occasionally he would gaze at it. The watch was huge, with a case diameter of 44 mm. "The movement was the 6497 from ETA, not well finished. Don't forget, at that time, ETA used this movement for training purposes, not for sales, because it was an old 16 ligne movement for pocket watches." 

"There was something that called me every time from this watch," Bonati says. "I said to myself, 'People will either love or hate this watch.'" He knew there would be no middle ground; that when he showed people this wristwatch, the reaction would be, as he put it, "'That's fantastic!' or 'That's bullshit!' That was the scenario I had in front of me." 

An Instant Hit

He and Cologni decided to do a test in the Italian market. "We produced 1,000 watches. And I went on the streets with my suitcase to visit the dealers I knew." Many were clients from his Cartier years. "I told them, 'This [watch] represents a train. If you want to jump on the train, maybe you can have success; you can make money. Or maybe you make nothing; you lose money.' But the money to buy 30 watches, at that time, was nothing," he says. "Two Cartier watches with diamonds was enough to cover this. 

"Certain people followed me, certain others not. They said, 'But, Angelo, you are crazy. No, no, I don't want this. It's too big, too heavy.'"

"OK, you don't jump on the train. You stay in town."

Some retailers said, 'Angelo, you are crazy. No, no, I don't want this. It's too big, too heavy.'

"Finally, in November 1997, we started to ship the 1,000 watches. In 10 days, the phone turned from gray to red. Because the people who ordered this watch, who believed in the train, started to sell it. They sold out the 30 pieces in one week, two weeks. The people continued to call me, 'Angelo, I need 200, 300 pieces.'"

"No, no, no, come on," Bonati says, conveying the shock he felt at the time, and bursting into a fit of laughter.  

He told them he could not supply them with watches until July of the next year. They were incredulous. 

"Why July next year?"

"Honestly, because I have to produce the watches!" Bonati told them. And he burst out laughing again, recalling it. 

I asked him if the reaction to the first watches surprised him or if he expected it.

"In my dream, I expected this. But in the rational part of my mind, I was surprised." He paused. "But you know, if you don't dream, you don't realize. To realize something, you need to dream at the beginning. Otherwise, how can you fix the final act? You need to have a vision, to dream."

At SIHH 1998, everybody came to visit me. 'Can we touch, can we see, can we have?' I said to myself, 'This is not possible.'

Soon he started selling to markets outside Italy. "I took my magic suitcase, I start touring around the world, to open points of sale." 

In the spring of 1998, Panerai made its first appearance at SIHH. "We reproduced the tower of a submarine in the middle of the salon here. The people went crazy. Journalists and dealers were lining up to visit me." He had a little sales room in the Cartier booth. "I was the guru, Ali Baba. Because everybody came and said 'Ah, can we touch, can we see, can we have?' I kept saying to myself, 'This is crazy. Not possible.'"

Panerai fever was on. In 1998, Panerai produced about 6,000 watches, Bonati says. To promote his baby brand, Bonati had urged his retailers to put watches in their store windows. "The problem was, as soon as we shipped the watch [to a dealer], the watch was sold. For two years, we never had watches in the windows." 

The Super-Bonus

In 1998, Bonati decided to reward the dealers who took a chance on the now runaway Panerai train.

"At the beginning, when we took the stock from Officine Panerai, we found 60 movements from Rolex, 16 lignes. But they were not in good shape, because they were dusty, etc. And people asked me 'We have to throw these away? What do you want us to do with them?'"

He told them, "No. It's Rolex. Give them to me."

These were new old stock Rolex 618 movements from World War II. Bonati had them cleaned and put into platinum cases and created Panerai's first special collection: PAM 21, a replica of the 3646 watch made by Rolex for Panerai between 1940 and 1944. The watches were ready for the Christmas 1998 selling season. 

"I called my clients," Bonati says. "'This time I have not a train, I have a super-bonus for you. I have one watch in platinum to sell you, not more, because it is part of 60 watches that we are producing in platinum." The price of the watch was about 38 million Italian lira, equivalent to about 23,000 euros today. 

 "Some people said, 'No, no, I don't want this.'  

"Some others said, 'OK, if you send it, you also have to send 10 Luminor Marinas.' I told them, 'No, I won't give you 10 Luminor Marinas! I'll give you just this watch! This is a bonus!'"

"So, again, when this watch landed in the shops, it sold out. And the amount of money we made was more than the amount we paid for the acquisition of Panerai. In one shot, we paid for the acquisition of Panerai with one watch, 60 pieces." (In 2012, Rupert told financial analysts "Our single most profitable venture is probably Panerai, where we paid less than $1 million.")

"We started to grow," Bonati says. Panerai became the hottest brand in the watch world. The independent website Paneristi.com started in 2000. By 2002, global demand far exceeded Panerai's annual production of 30,000 pieces. Orders placed at the 2002 SIHH exhibition took two years to fill. Panerai, crowed Cologni at the time, was "hot, hot, hot!" 

By then, nobody was calling Bonati crazy anymore. 

Quick Take

The HydroConquest is Longines's contemporary dive watch offering, and while it's nothing revolutionary, it is solidly built and affordable. Prices start at around $1,275, and for that you get a 300-meter water resistant case, a sapphire crystal with multiple layers of antireflective coating, the obligatory ISO 6425 compliant unidirectional rotating bezel, and a very nice double folding clasp bracelet with diver's extension. There's been a general update to HydroConquest this year (accompanied by a slight price bump). This fresh-from-Baselworld limited edition is the U.S. market only version of the refresh.

Initial Thoughts

The HydroConquest watches were introduced by Longines all the way back in 2007, as part of a larger rollout of the Sport Collection, which at the time consisted of four families. We had the Conquest and HydroConquest, which are both still with us, and there were also two other families: Grand Vitesse, and Admiral, both of which are no longer in Longines's catalog. (My impression back then was that the company was evaluating the market for contemporary-styled Longines sports watches. You might say they were, you know...testing the waters.) The big news for this year's update is the addition of a ceramic bezel, as well as the introduction of new dial colors and new NATO-style rubber straps.

The USA-centric elements are fairly restrained – the numeral 50 on the ceramic bezel is in Super-LumiNova (in honor of the 50 states) and there's a small "USA" between the four and five o'clock hour markers. There's also an "Exclusive Edition USA" engraving on the caseback. All watches come with the standard HydroConquest stainless steel bracelet, and the aforementioned NATO straps (in blue, grey, or black). The movement is the Longines caliber L688.2, which is a re-tuned version of the ETA 2892 – the ETA A31.L01. While the stock 2892 is a 28,000 vph caliber with a 42 hour power reserve, caliber A31.L01 runs at a slightly slower rate of 25,200 vph and has a longer power reserve of 65 hours. Prices start at $1,800 for the blue bezel and dial model, and $2,100 for the grey or black PVD models.

The Basics

Brand: Longines
Model: HydroConquest 

Diameter: 41mm
Case Material: Stainless steel/steel with grey or black PVD
Dial Color: Sunburst black, grey, or blue
Indexes: Arabic numerals and dot hour markers
Lume: Copious amounts of Super-LumiNova
Water Resistance: 300m
Strap/Bracelet: Steel bracelet with double folding clasp and integrated diver's extension; black, grey and blue rubber NATO straps

The Movement

Caliber: Longines L888.2 (ETA A31.L01, base 2892)
Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds, date
Diameter: 25.94mm (11.5 lignes)
Power Reserve: 64 hours
Winding: Automatic and manual
Frequency: 3.5 Hz (25,200 vph)
Jewels: 21

Pricing & Availability

Price: $1,800 to $2,100
Availability: May 2018
Limited Edition: 1000 pieces

For a closer look at the HydroConquest collection, visit Longines.com.

On March 20, two days before the Baselworld fair opened, the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH) issued Swiss watch export sales data for February. The numbers were excellent overall; for some markets, ridiculously so. 

Watch exports to Hong Kong, Switzerland's top market, were up 36% in value versus 2017. The long-suffering U.S. market (#2) was up 26%, the biggest monthly jump in six years, according to the FH. China (#3) was up 22%. Moving down the top 30 list, #11 South Korea was up 30%, #12 Qatar up 126%, #17 Turkey up 93%, #24 India up 83%.

Clearly, 2018 was off to a roaring start for the Swiss. For the first two months of the year, total export value was up 12.8% compared to the same period a year ago, to 3.31 billion Swiss francs ($3.45 billion). Of the top 30 markets, only four were down (all in Europe: UK, Italy, Spain and Austria). Two were flat. Of the 24 markets that were up, 11 had jumps of more than 20%; 16 were up by double-digits.

The February data suggested that the recovery that began in 2017, when exports rose 2.7% in value, was gaining steam after last year's strong holiday season. 

Normally, such good news would mean that Swiss watch firms would be popping champagne corks at Baselworld. That was certainly the case at the SIHH show in January. But SIHH only offers a view of the very top of the luxury segment of the Swiss watch world. (The HH in SIHH stands for haute horlogèrie, after all.) 

A few [Swiss] brands are benefitting, making it big. But most brands are struggling.

Baselworld is different. Exhibitors there span the Swiss production spectrum, from movement-makers ETA and Ronda, to affordably priced Swiss-made watches, like tritium-tube-illuminated Traser ($200 to $1,000 in the U.S.), to top-of-the-market brands like Breguet. At Baselworld, unlike SIHH, the mood was not euphoric.  

That's because the recovery for Swiss watch sales in Greater China and elsewhere in Asia is not lifting all Swiss-watch boats. Interviews with a variety of Swiss watch executives at Baselworld make it clear that, to a great extent, the rich watch brands are getting richer, while others are falling behind.

The Bigger Do Better

At the show, I asked Yves Vulcan, owner and CEO of Darwel S.A., the official public relations arm of Baselworld's Swiss watch exhibitors, if the recovery was real. "This is a hard question to answer," he said. "It depends on the brand. The big groups and the big brands do well. The rest don't."

Thomas Morf, a Swiss industry veteran who has been CEO of three watch brands, currently Favre-Leuba, said the same thing. "A few brands are benefitting [from the recovery], making it big," Morf said. "But most brands are struggling."

The clearest evidence of that was the dramatic drop in the number of Swiss watch exhibitors at the show: 90 fewer this year than last, down to 130 from 220. Vulcan fears that there will be even fewer next year.

"It's an indication of how fragile the industry is, a sign of the weakness of some brands" says Gustavo Calzadilla, the long-time (21 years) president of Tutima USA, distributor of Tutima Glashütte watches. 

The watch industry is consolidating, says Sascha Moeri, CEO of Carl F. Bucherer. "Small independent brands don't have enough money to invest." It's not just the cost of Baselworld. It's the increasing cost of competing in a rapidly changing watch business, he says. "It's R&D, it IT, it's digital and e-commerce." These investments cost millions of dollars, Moeri says. "Investment in technology will determine the winners and losers in the future. In five to 10 years, we will not talk about online and offline." Those brands that do not have the resources to compete will not survive, he says. 

Lower Opening Price Points

What's more, the farther down the price pyramid one goes, the tougher business is. The sweet spot in the current recovery is the haut de gamme segment, roughly defined as $10,000 and up, executives and retailers say. Rolex, Patek Philippe, Cartier, Audemars Piguet, Richard Mille – these brands are booming, sources say. 

Business is recovering in the $5,000 to $10,000 segment, too, but not as at the top of the market. Meanwhile, the $1,000 to $5,000 segment remains tough for most Swiss brands, except in Asia. (In China, that segment has been helped by the government's anti-corruption campaign. Longines, for example, is surging in China. A Swatch Group source says that the brand has now surpassed Cartier as Switzerland's third largest brand globally in terms of revenue, after Rolex and Omega.)

"There is a lot of competition in this [$1,000 to $5,000] range," says Bell & Ross CEO Carlos Rosillo. In the U.S., for example, that segment is dominated by TAG Heuer. For most other brands in that segment here, the recovery has yet to arrive.  

In fact, that mid-priced segment is about to become even more competitive. Brands like Breitling, IWC and Panerai, which years ago competed in the under-$5,000 market, but moved upmarket for a variety of reasons (in-house movements, COSC-certified movements, price inflation during the China boom) are heading back down market with new watches priced below $5,000. These more affordable Breitling Colts, IWC Fliegers, and Panerai Luminors are part of a trend to introduce more rational pricing after the excesses of the 2010-2014 China boom. 

Meanwhile, Swiss (and German) brands with core product priced from $1,000 to $5,000 are doing the same thing. For example, the opening price point for a Tudor men's watch is $1,850 for automatic models on a bracelet in the new 1926 collection introduced at Baselworld. Ditto for Tutima Glashütte. Its Saxon One M watch sells for $1,850 on a bracelet; $1,550 on a leather strap. "We're trying to present a price category that we haven't been in for a number of years," says Calzadilla. 

Strategic Shifts

Movado Group International, which reported its fiscal year earnings on March 29, offers a glimpse of what it's like for Swiss brands at even lower price points. 

MGI, based in Paramus, NJ, designs and markets 11 brands globally; it owns four and has licensing deals with the others. It reported a 2.8% increase in net sales to $568 million for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2018, and adjusted net income of $46.5 million, up from $37.1 the previous year. Considering that MGI competes in two embattled market segments – the lower end of the Swiss range with its Movado brand, and the fashion-watch segment with its licensed brands – the results were pretty good, according to financial analysts (even if the top line was bolstered by the acquisition of the Olivia Burton fashion brand last July).

The overall [U.S.] watch market continues to be challenging and unpredictable.

One disappointment was the performance of Movado, the group's top brand. MGI does not break out sales by brand, but Movado Group Chairman and CEO Efraim Grinberg told financial analysts in an earnings call that Movado brand sales were down "mid single digits" for the fourth quarter in its U.S. wholesale division. "The sales decreases reflected the overall [U.S.] watch market, which continues to be challenging and unpredictable, as well as declining traffic in malls, jewelry chain stores and traditional department stores," MGI said in a 10K filing on March 29.  

Grinberg's strategy for a Movado-brand recovery is to emphasize e-commerce and China. "We expect our Movado brand and entire portfolio to benefit from our increased focus on our digital platform as our omni-channel business remains a priority for us," Grinberg told the financial analysts. He added, "For the year, we saw strong growth of our Movado brand in China and we'll continue to make investments to grow China into an important business for Movado." (MGI's digital push is a big reason it pulled out of the Baselworld fair this year. In a footnote in the 10K filing, the company said it made the decision "in light of the changing retail landscape and growing importance of digital marketing and online sales.")

Red-Hot Rolex

Also still waiting for the Swiss recovery is much of the U.S. market -- despite the anomalous 26% jump in exports here in February. As we've noted previously, Swiss watch exports to the U.S. dropped in 2015, 2016 and 2017 (and were down again in January). 

Asked at Baselworld for his take on the state of the U.S. market, Ulrich Wohn, co-founder of the William Alexander Group sales agency, and a former CEO of TAG Heuer North America, offered a succinct two-sentence summary: "If you are a Rolex dealer, you are happy. Everybody else is hurting."

Investment in technology will determine winners and losers in the future. Small independent brands don't have enough money to invest.

Other Americans at Baselworld agreed with the observation. Sure, it's an oversimplification: Patek Philippe and a few other high-luxury brands are going great guns in the U.S. But the recovery is mostly confined to a few brands at the top of the market, American watch executives say. Rolex USA, described by one dealer as "red hot," had a record year in 2017, according to Rolex dealers at Baselworld. That came as no surprise in light of the well-known product shortages Rolex experienced last December.

While mighty Rolex and Patek may be immune to the swirl of forces forces affecting the U.S. market (smartwatches, brick-and-mortar retailer woes, e-commerce challenges, gray-market competition, etc.), most brands are not. Some Swiss watch executives realize that the U.S. has become the crucible for changes underway in the watch world, and are paying closer attention to it. Two years ago, Bell & Ross's Rosillo named himself CEO of his U.S. subsidiary and spent months here in order to better understand the complexities of the diverse U.S. market. In January of this year, Thomas Meier, CEO of the Swatch Group's German brand, Glashütte Original, did the same thing. "The U.S. market is very important to us," Meier told me at Baselworld. "That's the reason I took direct responsibility for this market. I will be in charge directly with the people there. We will see how this will develop." 

Yet, with Swiss watch sales picking up globally, the travails of the lagging U.S. market are not likely top-of-mind for most Swiss watch executives. America is an important market, as Meier says, Switzerland's second largest, after all. But viewed another way - i.e., regionally - its importance diminishes. For the first two months of the year, Asia accounted for 55% of the value of Swiss watch exports. North America accounted for 9%.

Apparently Spring has sprung – despite this somewhat dismal weather – and we thought it would be fun to kick off the season with a meet-up at Todd Snyder's New York City flagship store on Madison Square Park. There will be great vintage watches and tons of accessories for you to peruse, and plenty of Scotch for you to sip on. The event will take place on Tuesday, April 17, from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM. 

Please RSVP to rsvp@hodinkee.com if you are interested in attending. We hope to see you there!

What: Watches & Scotches with HODINKEE and Todd Snyder
Where: Todd Snyder Madison Park, 25 E 26th St, New York City 10010
When: Tuesday, April 17, from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
RSVP to rsvp@hodinkee.com

At Baselworld 2018 there were many highlights, including, but not limited to, the uptick in ladies' tool watches, the Rainbow Daytona, and more solid, consumer-friendly pieces than ever. But one of the biggest surprises to me was my strange affinity for the Hublot Big Bang Tourbillon 5 Days Sapphire. While this watch is may be one of the more ridiculous pieces of our time (I mean, who actually needs this watch?) I couldn't help but respect it, and here's why.

Let's get it out of the way: Hublot is not for everyone. In fact, Hublot isn't for a lot of people (especially me, typically) but you have to give the brand credit for always pushing boundaries, whether it's related to aesthetics, mechanics, or materials. Stephen covered the highlight of this year's new collection – the Big Bang Unico Red, the very first watch with a red ceramic case – in a First Take video, but the watch that really did it for me was the Big Bang Tourbillon Power Reserve 5 Days Sapphire. You might say it's a little bit different.

This watch is the latest iteration of the Big Bang Power Reserve Tourbillon 5 Days, it's just the first time the watch has been rendered in sapphire crystal, a material concept first explored by Hulbot back in 2016. The original Big Bang Sapphire made a name for itself by being the second "clear" watch to hit the luxury timepiece market. It was Richard Mille who first debuted a clear watch with the RM56-02 Tourbillon Sapphire (a development from the 2012 RM 056) using polished sapphire crystal. 

The case of this watch measures 45mm across and 14.25mm thick, which is on the larger side, but this is Hublot after all. The entire case is made from plates of sapphire that are first cut from solid blocks and then milled and polished down to the correct shapes. This houses a skeletonized resin dial with a rhodium-plated brass handset and oversized luminous Arabic numerals, combining for a harmonious look.

The movement powering this watch is the caliber HUB6016, which is an in-house, manually wound tourbillon with a massive 115-hour power reserve. In case you're keeping track, that's actually 4.79 days, not a full five, but I'll give Hublot the five hours and two-and-a-half minutes here. This is not a new movement, but rather a variation on the one used in the previous Big Bang Tourbillon 5 Days models (such as the Magic Gold version). However, this time the main plate, with its concentric circle bridges, is made of acrylic, continuing the transparent theme throughout. It's really cool to see this caliber in this different way – it's already a striking design as is, and making it in an unorthodox material really takes things to the next level. 

The real reason I love this watch though is because of how it looks on the wrist. I don't know what it is exactly, but I dig it. I think it has something to do with the fact that clear watches are reminiscent of my pre-teen Swatch years. Or maybe it has to do with the juxtaposition between the high and low of a clear watch and the price tag, which ain't low at all ($148,000 to be exact). Whatever it is, I can't help but dream of being someone with not a financial care in the world where I could just drop a serious chunk of change on a Hublot made out of sapphire crystal. 

While I know many of you will balk at this watch, and at my recent foray into oversized blingy watches (just can't help myself), I think it's important to re-state that watches should be FUN and that's exactly what this watch is...'cept with a tourbillon. 

The Hublot Big Bang Tourbillon Power Reserve 5 Days Sapphire is limited to a series of 99 pieces and is priced at $148,000. There is also a version with a diamond-set bezel available for $190,000, also limited to 99 pieces. For more about this watch, visit Hublot online. 

The Horological Society of New York's award-winning classes are on the road again! Classes will be held in Silicon Valley, California, over the weekend of May 5-6, hosted by Stephen Silver Jewelry. And the very next weekend, May 12-13, HSNY heads to Dallas, Texas, for classes hosted by Timeless Luxury Watches.

At HSNY's Horological Education classes, students discover what actually makes a watch tick. The hands-on classes are taught by HSNY's staff of professional watchmakers. Students work on a mechanical watch movement, studying the gear train, winding and setting mechanisms, and escapement. The weekend half-day classes cover everything taught during the individual evening classes held in New York.

Enrollment is now open for the Dallas and Silicon Valley classes, and we look forward to seeing you there!

HODINKEE is a sponsor of the Horological Society of New York.

Quick Take

This watch is definitely not the usual sort of thing you'd see coming out of Switzerland and Germany – and that's for good reason. The "Birdie" Surf Watch is a collaboration between two Los Angeles brands, the Weiss Watch Company and Birdwell Beach Britches, a surf wear brand that's been based in Southern California since 1961. The base is Weiss's 42mm field watch, which has a steel case and utilizes a hand-wound movement that's assembled in Los Angeles too. However, the usual dial and hands have been amped up with Birdwell's mascot Birdie. He stands in the center of the dial, with his two hands pointing to the hours and minutes, while off to the side is a sub-dial that uses a spinning wave to display the seconds. The "Birdie" Surf Watch is available in two colors, white and red, and only 10 numbered pieces will be made of each.

Initial Thoughts

This is a watch with a very specific audience. If you grew up surfing in Southern California, are a die-hard Birdwell fan, or just have some nostalgia for that 1960s beach bum lifestyle, it could be a fun weekend wearer. The nod to the iconic Mickey Mouse watches of yore is a nice one too. That said, this is one of those cases where if the watch isn't for you, it definitely isn't for you. Nobody is likely to be lukewarm with this watch.

The Basics

Brand: Weiss and Birdwell Beach Britches
Model: "Birdie" Surf Watch

Diameter: 42mm
Thickness: 12.8mm
Case Material: Stainless steel
Dial Color: White or red with "Birdie" motif
Indexes: Arabic numerals
Water Resistance: 100 meters
Strap/Bracelet: Striped nylon NATO strap

The Movement

Caliber: Weiss Caliber 1003
Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds
Power Reserve: 46 hours
Winding: Manual
Frequency: 3Hz (21,600 vph)
Additional Details: Some components made in Los Angeles; movement assembled in Los Angeles; hacking seconds

Pricing & Availability

Price: $2,199
Availability: Later this spring on the Birdwell website and at Birdwell's flagship store in Manhattan Beach, California
Limited Edition: 10 pieces each with white and red dial

For more click here.

Quick Take

The Longines Master Collection launched in 2005, and it's essentially the modern counterpart to the company's very successful Heritage Collection: a wide range of traditionally styled (but not vintage inspired, except incidentally) watches with a variety of complications. Complications in the Master Collection thus far have included automatic chronographs, power reserve displays, complete calendar chronographs with moonphase, and even a watch with a double retrograde date and second time zone display, with retrograde small seconds, day/night display, and moonphase, believe it or not. The new annual calendar is a first for Longines, and it's also an extremely affordable foray from the company into the world of more sophisticated calendar complications.

Initial Thoughts

This was quite a surprise; an annual calendar from Longines represents a new level of technical sophistication for the brand, and at $2425, it's the most affordable annual calendar on the market by a very respectable margin. At launch, there will be several different variations available. Three will have a stamped "barleycorn" pattern dial – one is black with Roman numerals and the other two are white, with either Arabic numerals or diamond indexes. The fourth will be a model with a sunray blue dial. Hands are either blued steel, or rhodium plated.

We were immediately impressed by the simplicity and clarity of the design. The annual calendar display is straightforward: the month, and the day of the week are shown in two windows at 3:00, with no attempt made to do anything more than provide information in a clear and straightforward fashion. You could if you wanted, take exception to the rather diffident legend "Annual Calendar" at the bottom of the dial, but the watch (and its price) are such a big accomplishment for Longines, I really don't have it in me to complain. 

The movement is Longines caliber L897.2, which is based on the ETA A31.L81 (this in turn is a variation on the venerable 2892-A2). The L897.2 runs at a rather unusual frequency: 25,200 vph, or 3.5 Hz. The annual calendar complication of course sits between a standard calendar and the perpetual calendar, and will correctly display the first of the month, after last day of any month with either 30 or 31 days. Manual correction is necessary only once per year, at the end of February. 

The annual calendar in wristwatches is a surprisingly recent development; they did not appear until Patek introduced the reference 5035, in 1996 and needless to say, that was not what you'd call a democratically priced wristwatch (and ironically, it actually had a higher parts count than Patek's contemporary perpetual calendar movements). The current version of the 5035 is the reference 5146G, which is a $41,390 wristwatch. While the movement of the Longines Annual Calendar isn't adorned with fine hand finishing (and of course, it's vastly different from the Patek in many other respects as well) one should not expect that in a complicated, sub $3K watch in any case and c'mon, it's a freakin' $2,425 annual calendar.  

At this price, and with its emphasis on classic design cues and proportions, this ought to be a big commercial hit for Longines and as well, it injects an extra shot in the arm of horological street cred into the Master Collection, which has been a bit eclipsed lately by Longines' very successful Heritage lineup. A great way to get into a technically and historically meaningful complication without breaking the bank.

The Basics

Brand: Longines
Model: Master Collection Annual Calendar

Diameter: 40mm
Case Material: Stainless steel
Dial Color: Black or white stamped barleycorn pattern or sunray blue
Lume: None
Water Resistance: 30 meters
Strap/Bracelet: Black, brown, or blue alligator; also available with stainless steel bracelet

The Movement

Caliber: L897.2
Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds, month, date (annual calendar)
Diameter: 11 1/2'''
Power Reserve: 64 hours
Winding: Automatic with manual winding
Frequency: 3.5 Hz (25,200 vph)
Jewels: 21

Pricing & Availability

Price: $2,425
Availability: Fall 2018

For more on the Master Collection Annual Calendar, visit longines.com.

Vacheron Constantin has been flexing much of its creative muscle in its Overseas collection lately, and we've seen not only a revamp of the entire Overseas design in general, but also the introduction of client-friendly elements such as the quick-change bracelet/strap system that rolled out at SIHH 2016, as well as the introduction of a new series of movements (the 5xxx series). The Overseas Chronograph has been available in several solid-color versions (white, blue, and brown) and there is also a rather fetching stainless steel model with a pink gold bezel that has a very pleasant, 222 throwback vibe, if you like that sort of thing. However, the monotone dial treatments do make the Overseas Chronograph fall slightly on the elegant side of the sport-elegant divide, and this new version is noticeably racier.

The Overseas Chronograph stands out from the rest of the collection, thanks to its size; it's a large watch, at 42.5mm x 13.7mm, with screw-down chronograph pushers. This reverse panda version also stands out from the other Overseas watches, but it stands out from the other Overseas chronographs as well – with this dial treatment, it becomes a far more different watch than you'd expect from a relatively straightforward cosmetic change, and seems very assertive in its identity as both a sophisticated design object, and a piece of modern technical watchmaking.

As with pretty much everything we get from Vacheron, execution is impeccable. There's a particular kind of quality Vacheron watches have – or, I should say, more precisely, that the kind of quality they have says something about the firm. With companies that produce high grade watches, once you get past the "wow, that's good" phase, you start to notice how the quality of the watch expresses a kind of company philosophy; with Lange, for instance, you get a sense of absolute correctness to form and enormous, pervasive dignity; with Rolex, you get a sense of fanatically ubiquitous precision that can seem almost intimidating.

Vacheron's stock-in-trade when it comes to quality is a slightly less immediately apparent approach; at its best, the company seems to be after a certain kind of understatement, rather than a knock-your-socks-off immediacy. The degree of attention to detail you want from an haute horlogerie product is there, of course (and in spades) but it's very characteristically Genevan – an expression of sincerity in craft, rather than a desire to draw attention per se.

The Overseas collection as it currently stands, is built around three calibers. These are the ultra-thin caliber 1120 (which is used in the Ultra-Thin Perpetual, as well as the Overseas Ultra-Thin) the selfwinding caliber 2460 (which is based on the 2007 caliber 2450, which, at the time it was introduced in 2007, was Vacheron's second in-house automatic movement, after the 2005 caliber 2457) and finally, the caliber 5000 series of movements, which launched along with the new Overseas collection in 2016. The caliber 5000 series includes a time-and-date variant, a dual time variant, and of course, the self-winding chronograph caliber 5200, which was rolled out in 2016 along with the rest of the revamped Overseas watches.

Generally speaking, modern self-winding chronograph movements don't give an impression of fineness, which is scarcely surprising when you consider that by and large, they are built for durability and dependability first, as they're going to go into watches that are expected to be able to take a little rough-and-tumble wrist time. Practically speaking as well, it's pretty difficult to slim down an automatic chronograph. They're generally built on three levels: there's the mainplate, which carries the basic timekeeping train; above that, there are the chronograph works; above that, there's the automatic winding system. This is probably a major part of the reason that, while there is something of an arms race going on in extra-flat watchmaking, extra-flat chronograph design has been essentially static for many years. F. Piguet (now Manufacture Blancpain) came out with the caliber 1185 and its automatic counterpart, the 1186, in 1987 and at 25.6mm x 5.5mm, the 1186 has been the thinnest full-rotor chronograph movement ever since. (Vacheron at one time used their version of the 1186 in the Overseas line, as the Vacheron caliber 1137, but has discontinued its use).

Vacheron's caliber 5200 is a column wheel, vertical clutch design, 30.60mm x 6.60mm (for comparison, the battle-tested, scarred-but-unbroken stalwart known as the Valjoux/ETA 7750 is 30mm x 7.9mm). As is inevitably the case with automatic movements in general, and automatic chronograph movements in particular, there is a little bit less scope for the expression of the movement finisher's art than you would find in a hand-wound movement, but there are, nonetheless, in the caliber 5200, a number of delightful details.

One of these, of course, is the presence of the famous Poinçon de Geneva, or Geneva Hallmark, which in one form or another has been an important standard of quality for watches made in the City and Canton of Geneva, ever since the first enabling statute, which authorized inspection for compliance by the Geneva Watchmaking School, in 1886. The stipulations for the Hallmark have undergone a number of changes over the years (for one thing, inspection is now under the authority of a different entity, known as Timelab) but thanks to its longevity, it still carries a lot of emotional weight and historical resonance, and it's lovely to see some of the very traditional features of Genevan watchmaking in this movement, like the beautifully formed and finished balance spring stud carrier.

One of the most charming details is the column wheel, with the central Maltese cross inside the pillars. On closer examination you can see that all edges of the tops of the pillars, as well as the edges of the Maltese Cross, have been beveled and polished; totally unnecessary from a functional perspective, and, because of that, all the more pleasant to see.

One feature of the Overseas Chronograph is that, like some other Overseas models, there is some degree of antimagnetic shielding, in the form of a soft iron ring; the antimagnetic rating is a very respectable 25,000 A/m (amperes per meter). While the level of protection is not what you'd get with a soft iron dial and full enclosure, the latter are not necessary to achieve a lesser level of still-useful shielding – soft iron (also known as mu metal) is a nickel-iron alloy that works by providing a preferred pathway for magnetic field lines, so the movement ring will tend to direct a magnetic field away from susceptible movement parts. (The international standard for antimagnetic watches, ISO 764, specifies a minimum of 4,800 A/m).

A lot of how you respond to the Overseas depends, I think, on how comfortable you are with the use of the Maltese cross as a design motif; you see it reflected in the bezel, and the movement, and of course in the bracelet. I've always found it acceptable; I think it works in the bracelet very well as an abstract design element and in any case, I don't think it particularly reads as a Maltese cross. The Overseas Chronograph has the same quick-change strap/bracelet system as we've seen in the rest of the 2016 refresh to the line. 

The bracelet is very well made, but it's nice to have the option to easily switch it for the very comfortable rubber strap as well, which you can do in seconds, and without any special tools. The only downside to the system is that you're pretty much restricted to OEM straps, and the bracelet – however, given the fact that this is a watch where aesthetic continuity between the watch itself, and the bracelet or strap, is so much a part of the design, I don't see that as a great handicap. 

Lume on the hands and dials of Vacheron Constantin watches is a bit unusual – you find it in the Quai de L'Ile, Fifty Six, and Overseas collections only – but of course, it's perfectly logical in a sports chronograph, and, with the Overseas Chronograph, you get to have the somewhat rare experience of seeing a Vacheron Constantin watch with glow-in-the-dark dial markers and hands.

There are a plethora of automatic chronograph watches (thank you, Valjoux 7750) but there are not terribly many automatic chronographs from haute horlogerie end of the spectrum. Over at Patek Philippe, we have the ref. 5968A Aquanaut Chronograph, at $43,770; Audemars Piguet has the Royal Oak Chronograph at $24,300 in steel, which uses the AP caliber 2385 (F. Piguet 1185 base) and A. Lange & Söhne maintains an Augustan aloofness from the whole automatic chronograph genre altogether. There are a few automatic chronographs from other higher end firms, including Bregeut, Blancpain, and Jaeger LeCoultre, but in terms of in-house, self-winding chronographs with haut de gamme finish, it's not a crowded field.

The Overseas Chronograph is a great looking watch and on the wrist it has real visual punch. The only potential downside is the size – but I should qualify that by saying that it gives the impression of being bigger than it should be, not in absolute terms, but rather, in the context of Vacheron in particular. At 42.5mm x 13.70mm, it's not excessively large at all by comparison with most self-winding sports chronographs; I just have a sense with Vacheron that overall (high complications and grand comps aside) that their watches seem more Vacheron when they're more thin than not. However once you wear the Overseas Chronograph for a while, you sort of forget about that and just enjoy the watch for what it is – a very refined, but still visually dynamic, example of the art of the automatic chronograph.

In steel, the Vacheron Constantin Overseas Chronograph is $30,300, with Vacheron's in-house caliber 5200; in case you're wondering, with a gold bezel and steel case the price is the same; in full gold, on a strap, we go up to $46,600. Take a gander at the entire Overseas Collection at Vacheron-Constantin.com.

Before the doors had even opened on the first day of Baselworld 2018, we got word that Patek Philippe would be adding a new model to the existing collection of ref. 5270 perpetual calendar chronographs: a 5270P with a salmon dial. Ben told you all about the watch as soon as we had the details and even gave some context for the particular dial tint. But at the time, we hadn't yet seen the watch in the metal, so with that in mind and with a few weeks of perspective, I thought I'd share some additional thoughts on one of the most-talked-about watches of this year's show.

As far as the basics are concerned, this is still the 5270 we're talking about. The watch is 41mm across and 12.4mm thick, and for this model the case is rendered in brightly polished platinum. Everything about the case feels very traditional (except maybe the size) and the lugs have a distinctive faceted motif that I quite like. The watch comes on a brown alligator strap with a platinum Patek-branded folding buckle. So far, nothing too shocking.

The movement is also probably familiar to you by now. It's the caliber CH 29-535 PS Q, which combines a chronograph with a perpetual calendar featuring a day/night indicator, leap year indicator, and moonphase display. The finish is excellent and very traditional in nature. It might not be quite as immediately eye-catching as what you'd see on a Datograph, but it's elegant and impeccable. One of my favorite things about this movement (the first such caliber that's truly in-house from Patek) is the use of two windows to show day/night and the leap year, instead of extra hands nested inside the chronograph registers. Sure, that solution makes for a slightly cleaner dial but it impedes legibility in a way I find off-putting. 

This is the first time the 5270 is being made in platinum, but it's really the dial that is the star here. It's a slightly metallic salmon color, and there are old-school Arabic numerals from 10 to 2, and applied markers at the other hours. All of the hour markers are a soft black color, with the hands matching too. This last bit is one of my favorite touches on this watch. It makes the whole package feel extremely contemporary, despite the vintage inspiration and precedent. You'll also notice that there is no "chin" down at the bottom of the dial, with the tachymeter track bending around the date numerals. Instead, the numerals just cut into the track as they did on the ref. 5970. 

Ben noted in his original story that the 5270 has been made with a salmon dial before, but this was the white gold model (the 5270G) and it was made in very limited quantities in 2015, to celebrate Patek's Grand Exhibition in London – you can see it in Talking Watches With Ahmed Rahman. Also, that dial featured stick markers and white gold hands instead of the black Arabic numerals and black hands seen here. As an aside, there is another new 5270, the 5270/1R, which is rose gold with a black dial and matching rose gold bracelet. It appears that these are the only two models still being produced, with the others now discontinued (white gold, and a non-bracelet rose gold option with a light dial).

On the wrist, I've got to admit that the 5270 wears extremely well for its size. This is a big watch for Patek Philippe, no doubt, but those curved lugs are spot on, and the way the case sits on the wrist is thoughtfully considered. I always expect the 5270 to feel clunky when I see it off the wrist, but then the moment the strap is closed I remember why so many people love this watch. It's still too big for me as a daily wearer, but that's just a question of personal taste. The contrast between the platinum case and the salmon dial is even stronger once you put the watch on though, and I'm really into it.

Now, to be totally honest, I'm not typically a big fan of the 5270. There, I said it. To me, it just doesn't hold a candle to the Patek perpetual calendar chronographs of yesteryear. And I'm not on some weird nostalgia kick here, either. I just don't think the design is as tight, the increased size seems undisciplined, and the details can read as unwieldy. Thank goodness the "chin" is gone on this model or I wouldn't even be writing this story.

All of that said, this is my favorite version of the 5270 by a long shot. The dial color is spot on and the choice of black Arabic numerals and black hands takes things to the next level. While I'll always wish this watch was a little more like the ref. 3970, overall Patek Philippe has done a great job making an existing watch feel new and special again.

The Patek Philippe ref. 5270P with a salmon dial is not a limited edition, though we do expect it to be tough to get. It is priced at $187,110 and will be available later this year. For more, visit Patek Philippe online.

If you have been following along with the Showtime show Billions, you may have noticed quite the watch reference in last night's episode. Now in its third season, the series focuses on the lives of hedge funder Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis) and U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhoades Jr. (Paul Giamatti), mortal enemies whose lives are very intertwined. Both are morally corrupt, in opposing industries, and can't seem to get away from one another. It makes for great TV, but even if you're not a fan, I suggest scanning Episode 4, "Hell of a Ride," for a very special watch spotting. 

At one point in the episode, Taylor, an Axe Capital Intern, walks into the Wempe Fifth Avenue boutique asking for a particular watch – a Patek Philippe ref. 5270R to be exact. The salesman obliges and shows them the perpetual calendar chronograph which Taylor purchases on the spot (no negotiating). You can watch the full episode on Showtime or brush up on you 5270 knowledge with Stephen's hands-on with the 5270P salmon dial released at Baselworld this year. 

As an added bonus, Wempe shared a little behind-the-scenes look at the shooting that took place in the store a few months ago. Not how you're typically used to seeing Wempe, is it?

Quick Take

The Reverso has, over the decades, lent itself to a number of decorative techniques, and has been an especially useful canvas for the production of enamel miniatures. These new limited editions are an homage to the well-known Swiss artist, Ferdinand Hodler (on the 100th anniversary of his death, in 1918) who rose from a fairly miserable, hardscrabble start in life – his father, a carpenter, died along with two of Hodler's siblings, of tuberculosis, when Hodler was only eight– to become one of Switzerland's most respected artists. Hodler produced a very wide range of works, but he's perhaps best known in his homeland for his landscapes, three of which provided the inspiration for the enamel miniature paintings on these Reversos.

Initial Thoughts

The Hodler Reversos are part of a long lineage of enamel-decorated Reverso watches; the reversible case lends itself readily to engraving and enameling – one well-known example is a Reverso which belonged to General Douglas McArthur, which carries an engraved monogram filled with black enamel.  The Hodler Reversos combine two decorative techniques: guilloché engraving on the dial (as well as further hand-applied engraving on the reverse side of the watch) and enameling. On the dial side, translucent enamel is applied over the engraving (the combination of guilloché and enamel is known as flinqué) and on the reverse, three different landscape paintings by Hodler have been reproduced in miniature.

The three paintings were all produced in the period between 1904 and 1918, and depict Lake Geneva and Lake Thun (Lake Thun is several miles south of Bern, with the town of Thun at one end of the lake and Interlaken at the other). Hodler was fascinated by symmetry and the two lakes, with the sky reflected in their waters, both appeared in several of his landscape paintings. The quality of the enamel work in these watches looks quite fantastic – matching the extremely delicate gradations of color in Hodler's original works in fired enamel is the sort of thing that taxes an enamelist's talents to the limit and the results are very charming – and all the more so for being reproduced on a surface a tiny fraction of the size of the original artwork.

These are limited editions of a total of 24 watches; they'll be produced in three groups of eight watches. One will be based on Hodler's Lake Thun With Symmetric Reflections Before Sunrise (1904) one on Lake Thun, Symmetric Reflection (1909) and one on his Lake Geneva With Mont Blanc In The Morning Light (1918).

The Basics

Brand: Jaeger-LeCoultre
Model: Reverso Métiers Rares Tribute To Ferdinand Hodler
Dimensions: 45.5mm x 27.4mm
Thickness: 9.73mm
Case Material: White gold
Dial: Guilloché with sky blue, green, or light grey translucent enamel overlay
Indexes: Applied
Strap/Bracelet: Black crocodile strap

The Movement

Caliber: 822A/2
Functions: Hours and minutes
Power Reserve: 38 hours
Winding: Manually-wound
Frequency: 3 Hz (21,600 vph)
Jewels: 19

Pricing & Availability

Price: On request
Availability: Boutique only
Limited Edition: Eight pieces in each of three colors (24 pieces total)

See the full collection of Reverso watches at Jaeger-LeCoultre.com.

To indulge in a feeble joke, making watches based on instruments that were used by belligerents in a major war is always going to be something of a minefield. War is something everyone deplores (well, mostly everyone) and yet not only do we seem to keep getting into them, we also celebrate many aspects of war; it brings out both the very best and the very worst in human nature. Watches and clocks are as essential to the waging of war as they are to making peacetime a well-regulated and profitable enterprise, and participate in the dual character of military conflict. Such instruments, made for war, make it much easier for us to do each other in efficiently, which is rather ghastly, but as is so often the case with precision instruments made to serve a specific, critical purpose, they also, you know, look cool.

Which brings us to the Breitling Navitimer Super 8. The raison d'être of this watch is to pay homage to a Breitling timing device made for the purpose of raining down death from above upon one's foes: the ref. 637 stopwatch. This particular reference was made in several different versions, and specifically for bombardiers – as the advert says, "stopwatch for bombardment planes." 

You'll notice that the advertisement also mentions "with backwards running," and according to Breitling: The Book (from which the illustration comes) these stopwatches could be used for either elapsed interval timing, or as countdown stopwatches. The latter was essential for accurate bombing runs. Precision high altitude bombing was a critical competency for both sides during World War II and enormous effort went into developing bombsights capable of a high degree of accuracy, against both stationary and moving targets. Many bombsights required the bombardier to look up the time it would take for a bomb to fall to earth from a given altitude, input the time into the stopwatch, and when the timer – used in conjunction with a bombsight – ran out, the bombsight's crosshairs would be placed at the correct "range angle" which was used to determine how far away from the target the bombs needed to be dropped.

Later in the war, bombsights like America's top-secret, gyro-stabilized Norden would completely computerize the process, making lookup tables and the use of countdown stopwatches unnecessary.

The Big 8 is, of course, not a stopwatch (neither countdown nor conventional) but it does duplicate the size, placement of the crown, and bezel of the ref. 637 and you can use the red triangle (also a feature of the original) for elapsed timing purposes. 

It's a behemoth – the bezel is 50mm, edge to edge, which is pretty close to the distance across my entire wrist. 

I've always felt that if you're a potential customer for this kind of watch, you know it, and if you're not, well by golly you know that too. This is not a mass-appeal timepiece, nor is it meant to be; complaining that it's impractically large is sort of like being upset with a Mercedes G-Wagon SUV for not being a Prius. Sure, it's lighter on the wrist than you'd expect from its appearance – the case for the green dial version is titanium (there is a black-dialed version as well, with a steel case) – but that's almost irrelevant; this watch is all about duplicating the almost brutalist heft and stolidly purpose-driven design of the original, not providing slip-under-the-cuff, pairs-with-a-suit-or-jeans versatility. 

In terms of fidelity to the original, one quite nice feature of the Big 8 is the seconds hand, which duplicates the anachronistically ornate center hand of one of the original 637 models.

The ref. 637 was one of those mechanical devices that inherited a design language that didn't necessarily see ornamentation and precision as mutually exclusive (combining the two is a very old habit in watchmaking – the movement of John Harrison's H4 marine chronometer is awash in foliate extravagance) and I'd actually have loved to see the font of the numerals on the original reproduced as well. However, it's probably insufficiently hairy-chested for modern tastes and the dial design in the Big 8 does connect with the rest of the new Navitimer collection.

If you're wondering how it pairs with a jacket and button-down shirt, it doesn't. However, rules were made to be broken – if you're one of the Gianni Agnellis of the world (the late Fiat boss was famous for wearing his watches on the outside of his shirt cuff) maybe you can get away with it. It takes a certain confident disregard for other people's opinions to pull off that degree of transgressiveness, but as Melville wrote, "everyone knows that in most people’s estimation, to do anything coolly is to do it genteelly." Jump into your favorite Charvet shirt and Rubinacci blazer (and maybe a pair of monogrammed velvet slippers for good measure) strap on this Jolly Green Giant, and go paint the town pink – if you can. 

Full specs are in our Introducing story right here (including info on the chronometer-certified caliber B-20) and you can check out more info on the Super 8  by visiting Breitling online.

The word "iconic" might be the most overused adjective in watches. And following closely behind it in the hackneyed department is the story that begins something like, "Iconic is an overused word, but so-and-so's vaunted such-and-such is a true icon that stands up to naysayers and deserves the title." I've definitely written that before (sorry), but I'm going to spare you the tedium today. The Cartier Santos is one hell of a watch and its design integrity, build quality, and thoughtfulness speak for themselves. No "iconic" required.

When I first saw that Cartier would be relaunching the Santos collection at SIHH 2018, I'll admit I wasn't out-of-my-mind excited. The Santos always seemed like a fine watch to me, but not a watch worth a raised pulse. However, every day is a school day, and sitting down to look at the new collection that first morning of the show, I realized that this go-around, the Santos was something different. It is now something truly lust-worthy and I needed to spend some time with one of these watches ASAP. Luckily the kind people at Cartier North America decided to oblige my appeal, and I was able to wear a Santos around New York City for a week ahead of its launch in San Francisco earlier this month.

Over A Century Of Santos

As many of you are probably aware, the Santos is generally accepted as the first watch designed for the wrist from the beginning. In the late nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, people were strapping pocket watches to their wrists or fitting old movements into modified cases with straps, but the Santos was, from idea to initial execution, a wristwatch.

In 1904, Louis Cartier made a special watch for his friend Alberto Santos-Dumont, a Brazilian aviator who needed a timekeeper he could check without taking his hands off the controls of his early aircraft (Santos-Dumont flew lighter-than-air ships extensively before getting into airplanes, in 1906). Cartier obliged, making Santos-Dumont a little gold watch with exposed screws and a square profile. It's not exactly what you think of when you hear "pilot's watch," but it's as real-deal as it gets in the history of flight. (If you want to read more about this, check out Volume 1 of the HODINKEE Magazine, where my good friend Jason Heaton lays out the entire history of the pilot's watch, including the early influence of the Santos.)

A few years later, around 1911, Cartier put the aptly-named Santos into production, selling a refined version of the square watch at its flagship boutique in Paris. Remember, this is still half a decade before the Tank was to be invented, so lest there be any arguments about which influenced which, know that the Santos had the lead by a long shot. In case you're wondering, these early Santos models were produced in partnership with Le Coultre, who was able to create the tiny hand-wound movements needed.

Over the ensuing decades, Cartier made dozens, if not hundreds, of variations on the theme. The defining characteristics of the watch have always been the square dial with Roman numerals, the square case, and the screws in the bezel. Other traits such as the crown guards and the bracelet came much later, but now it's hard to imagine the Santos without them.

Speaking of which, the Santos bracelet might be as recognizable as the watch itself. In 1978, Cartier created what we can think of as the first modern Santos. This watch was a two-tone steel and yellow gold model, with a polished yellow gold bezel and a new bracelet that echoed the screw motif of the bezel, only with yellow gold screws punctuating the steel bracelet links. At the time, this was one of the more affordable watches from Cartier and it's hard to imagine the louche 1980s aesthetic of broad-shouldered pinstripe suits, pastel foulard neckties, and Gucci loafers without the Santos there to finish the look.

Most recently, there was the Santos 100 collection. Launched in 2004 to commemorate the centennial anniversary of Louis Cartier making a wristwatch for his pioneering friend, it's a watch that very much speaks to the trends of the early 2000s in watchmaking: it's large, it's more overtly masculine, and it's about making a statement. For many fans of the old Santos, the Santos 100 spoke just a little too loudly, despite trying to say the same things as its predecessors. The Santos 100 remained the Santos in the Cartier collection for over a decade – until now.

Old Watch, New Life

As you can see, the Santos has a pretty robust history and relatively fixed design codes. Reinventing something like this and balancing the respect for its past, and the desire to make it feel fresh, is tough stuff indeed. But Cartier really swung for the fences in a way that might make Hank Aaron blush. They weren't afraid to throw things out, bring new ideas to the table, and create a Santos that feels right for today.

Along with the modern watch comes a modern marketing strategy too. It's easy to forget in our little watch-world bubble that most watches are not bought by "watch people." Most watches are bought by human beings who want something nice to put on their wrists; they want to buy into a brand image or a lifestyle; they want to communicate something by wearing a Cartier Santos instead of a generic whosie-whatsit. Building a particular image around the product, whether it's by hosting a non-traditional launch event in San Francisco, or signing up Jake Gyllenhaal as a brand ambassador, is no less important commercially than creating a good product from the start.

"Cartier is a maison of paradoxes, you know, of tensions," said Arnaud Carrez, International Marketing and Communications Director of Cartier at the Santos launch event in San Francisco earlier this month. "There is always a balance to be found and Santos is exactly this. It's taking a classic of the maison and finding contemporary narration around the watch. That's what we always need to find. We have amazing icons, but we need to express them in the contemporary, relevant manner." 

Deciding to debut the watch in San Francisco at a three-day event that felt more like the TED Conference than a watch launch says a lot already. Instead of flutes of champagne and hushed conversations there was a juice bar in a repurposed pier building and panel discussions about creativity and art featuring the likes of actor Idris Elba, chef Alice Waters, and designer and artist Es Devlin. The evening festivities included a concert from Hot Chip, Phoenix, and Jamie XX. Like I said – not your usual luxury Swiss watch event (believe me, I wish this was the norm).

"We think people are a bit bored with the usual events, all looking exactly the same" Carrez noted. "We knew what we built in needed to be unique. We have substance, we have content, and the ideas of being bold and being fearless resonates very well here in San Francisco. We said, 'let's build content beyond the product' and create something that connects with other communities." Continuing, Carrez emphasized the role that marketing and positioning plays in a launch like this. "It's a subtle exercise, but one that is very exciting. Santos is about a whole universe, about a spirit. We need to capitalize on that. We need to build something that is totally different than what you typically find in a watch launch and I think we've done it. We want to push boundaries – we don't like routine."

The New Santos

The new Santos isn't a watch, but rather a collection of watches. There are 12 models in all, split between two sizes (medium and large). Two of the 12 are special skeletonized verions in the larger size, and we'll mostly be ignoring those as they're a different beast entirely. The key traits, however, are shared across all the models and the collection really does feel like a unified family with just enough variety for different tastes.

I chose to spend my time with the medium Santos in stainless steel, thinking it the purest expression of the watch overall.

The Case And Dial

Looking at the Santos, you'll notice right off the bat that this isn't the same watch you've seen before. The case still has the general square shape, but it's a lot curvier this time around. The medium model measure 35.1mm x 41.9mm (while the larger comes in at 39.8mm x 47.5mm), but it's a little hard to get a sense of exactly what these dimensions mean when we're used to talking about round watches. I did a little experiment, trying the watch on alongside round watches of various sizes, and, in my totally subjective and non-scientific opinion, I'd say the medium wears similarly to a 39mm watch while the large wears more like a 42mm watch.

The curves come through most clearly in the new shape of the lugs and how they seem to effortlessly flow into the crown guards. There's a shapeliness to the new Santos case, and the right side in particular looks like undulating waves rendered in steel. The use of brushed finishes along the top and sides accentuates the softness, while a slim bevel at the edge adds necessary definition. The case is just 8.83mm thick, so it's extremely slim and integrates nicely with the bracelet (more on that in a bit).

The biggest change to the case, however, is the bezel. It's still square, sure, but it's no longer a perfect rounded square shape simply screwed on top of the case. At the top and bottom it now extends a bit and slopes down to between the lugs. The idea here is that it makes the bracelet or strap feel more integrated, and it's a raging success. To me, it completely changes the look of the watch for the better. My only complaint is that the bezel is brightly polished, which makes it both a scratch and dust magnet as well as a nightmare to photograph for Instagram (hey, this is a 21st-century watch we're talking about here – I stand by this being a legitimate problem).

The dial, on the other hand, is pure classicism. The silvered finish doesn't have any fancy guilloché going on and the dark black Roman numerals and railroad minutes track are complemented by the blued steel hands you're used to seeing from Cartier. The medium model does not have a date (yes!), while the large model has a small window at six o'clock in place of the numeral (less yes!). 

The Movement

The movement definitely isn't something Cartier wants you to be too worried about with the Santos, and I'd tend to agree with them. However, that doesn't mean they've skimped out. 

Powering both the medium and large versions of the Santos is the caliber 1847 MC. This is an in-house movement that measures 25.6mm across, runs in 23 jewels, beats at 4 Hz, and has a 42-hour power reserve. It's a modern workhorse automatic with simple decoration, and a Cartier-signed rotor (not that you can see it through the solid caseback). The caliber also makes use of nickel phosphorous components that make it extra resistant to magnetism, plus it's covered with a paramagnetic alloy inside the case. Cartier doesn't provide an exact gauss measurement, but does say that the Santos is "effectively resistant to the powerful magnetic fields a watch may be exposed to in everyday life." That's good enough for me. And, no fear, there are date and no date versions of the 1847 MC, so you're not going to get a dead crown position on the medium model.

As an aside, the skeleton versions of the Santos do not use an 1847 MC base, but rather the 9619 MC. It's a completely different movement that utilizes an atypical bridge structure to display the typical Cartier Roman numerals.

The Bracelet (And Strap)

To me, the bracelet is everything for the Santos. It's a lot of look, but in the best way possible. There's something so unabashed and shamelessly indulgent about the Santos bracelet, and while I can't quite put my finger on why, I'm into it.

The bracelet on this Santos is solid stainless steel with matching steel screws. The links are angular, but not sharp, with brushed surfaces and polished edges that echo the lines of the case. The entire thing tapers gently from the case to the hidden clasp at the back, though it never gets too narrow or delicate. I love that the screws are seemingly random in orientation. I'm a pretty Type-A person (I know, big surprise), but this bit of wabi-sabi is much needed (it also prevented me from being able to obsess over whether each was exactly in place at all times).

When the Santos showed up on my desk, the bracelet was too big for my wrist. But, no fear, I didn't have to make a trip uptown to have it sized. Cartier's patent-pending SmartLink system meant I could make the adjustment myself. Basically, you push a button on the bottom of a link and a pin will partially pop out, letting you slide the link out. The pins don't come all the way out, so you can't lose them (smart one, Cartier), but you can make the adjustment with a toothpick or any other soft, pointed object you have lying around. I'd emphasize soft here, as it would be easy to scratch the heck out of the bracelet quickly if you used something sharp or too hard.

If you want to swap out the bracelet altogether – though I don't know why you'd ever want to do that – that's easy too. Another patent-pending system, this one called QuickSwitch, lets you push a tab between the lugs, and then simply slide the bracelet or strap out of place. You can do with with your fingernail. Together, QuickSwitch and SmartLink remind me a lot of what Apple did with the steel bracelet for the very first Apple Watch, and it's good to see watchmakers paying attention. It's easy to be jaded about these things, but let's remember that most customers don't know what a springbar tool even is, and something like this make a huge difference in terms of customer enjoyment.

Adding one more nice touch to things, Cartier lets you pick your strap color when you buy the Santos. Most models come natively on the bracelet (though you can opt out for some of the solid gold models) and then you choose a strap from a variety of leathers to go with your new watch instead of having to take a pre-selected option. My only gripe with the new strap system is that it means you can't use normal straps on the Santos at all. There's no springbar system, only the proprietary QuickSwitch connector. Luckily Cartier makes very nice straps in a variety of colors and styles, otherwise this could be a real issue.

On The Wrist

Strapping on the Santos, I couldn't help but crack a smile. There's something really charming about its intentionally bold look. I said it earlier, but this is a watch that apologizes for nothing. It's something people are going to notice, but not in a blinged-out-dinner-plate kind of way. The Santos doesn't look quite like any other watch, and people are going to want to know what it is. It's a design that looks good from 10 feet away but rewards closer admiration.

After a day or two, I really settled into wearing the Santos. It stopped having the feeling of a vintage throw-back and just felt right. The way I know a watch is really good is if, during my review time with it, I look down at my wrist to check the time and don't even notice I'm wearing something different. The Santos felt perfectly at home on my wrist, and the bracelet and case proved extremely well balanced and comfortable over the course of a full day. I could definitely see myself wearing this watch regularly.

Cartier's straps are perfectly nice – better than most, in fact – and the new QuickSwitch system makes changing them in and out as easy as can be. However, for me, the Santos is a bracelet watch. With the new bezel, it actually looks like a fully integrated bracelet unless you really scrutinize it, and I kind of treated the watch like that while I was reviewing it. To be honest, I put the strap on for the sake of due diligence, and then put the bracelet right back in place.

One of the best things about the QuickSwitch and SmartLink systems is that they make the Santos a perfect sharing watch. When it was announced at SIHH, I got a text from my wife asking if I'd seen it yet and what I thought. That's not an everyday occurrence, people. Once I had one in the apartment, there was no way I was keeping it off her wrist. Luckily, I had the bracelet sized to her wrist in five minutes, she wore it out to dinner one night, and then I got it ready for another day at the office in less time than it took me to walk our dog.

The medium vs. large debate is, in most cases, a personal one. That's true here to an extent, but the lack of a date on the medium model makes it a better design in my opinion. Also, the proportions of the Santos work much better in a smaller size. The large actually looks like a blown up version of the smaller watch rather than something that was meant to be that size from the beginning. It's not bad by any means, but I'll take the medium all day over the large.

Competition

At $6,250 in stainless steel, with both the bracelet and a strap of your choosing, the Santos presents pretty great value in my opinion. There are plenty of watches in the $8,000 to $10,000 price range that don't exhibit this level of finish, quality, and attention to detail, not to mention the watch's overall handsome look. However, there are a lot of great stainless steel watches under $6,500 and you're spoiled for choice if that's what you're looking for. I could list options for days, but I've tried to distill out three here that I think compete with the Santos in three particular ways.

NOMOS Glashütte Tetra Neomatik 39

Okay, so this watch has basically two things in common with the Santos: It's square and it has an automatic movement inside. Other than that they're pretty different. The Santos is much curvier and has a more industrial-chic quality to it, while the NOMOS Glashütte Tetra Neomatik 39 is all clean lines and sharp angles. However, there just aren't that many square watches out there. The little pops of color on the dial (especially the gold "neomatik" at 12 o'clock) and the stepped lugs add some real depth to this otherwise clean-as-can-be watch. So, if you're looking for something square but the Santos doesn't quite do it for you, the Tetra could be a viable alternative.

$3,860; nomos-glashuette.com

Rolex Oyster Perpetual 39

This might not be the most obvious comparison here, but stay with me. What I think makes the Santos so successful is that it's a mid-sized watch that shows just the time, and looks great on either a robust bracelet or a strap of basically any style. The basic Oyster Perpetual does exactly the same thing, despite being round instead of square. Everything about this watch is purpose-driven and there's nothing here that you don't absolutely need. There are a few color options, but I've totally fallen for the new white option quietly unveiled at Baselworld – it's a soft white, not a bright white, and it's the one to go for. I'm also partial to the 36mm size ($5,400), but I know that the 39mm is the most crowd-pleasing.

$5,700; rolex.com

Cartier Tank Américaine

As far as I'm concerned, the greatest competition the Santos faces is from within its own family. The stainless steel Tank Américaine was one of my favorite watches of 2017 (if not my outright favorite) and I still think it's a straight stunner. If you want a non-round watch from Cartier, this and the new Santos are the two contenders for daily wear. The Tank is a bit more refined and low-key, while the Santos isn't afraid to rev its engine a little. Both feature automatic movements, both are available without the date, and both are quintessential Cartier through and through. Between these two you really can't lose.

$5,100 (medium), $5,750 (large); cartier.com

Final Thoughts

The Cartier Santos is that rare watch that balances familiarity and ingenuity. It's a watch that you can be comfortable with from the get-go, while still catching yourself staring at it for a little too long throughout the day. Although I didn't think I was a Santos guy before spending a week with the latest iteration, the watch won me over and I now firmly believe that it can stand side-by-side with the best of Cartier's modern watches. It's not a design for everyone, but that's part of the charm. If you're at all intrigued, I highly recommend you give the new Santos a closer look.

Breathing new life into a design that everyone thinks they already know might be difficult work, but with the Santos Cartier has done what they do best: executed subtle but important improvements, kept the the classics as they should be, and made it all look effortless in the process.

The Cartier Santos is available now worldwide. Prices start at $6,250 for the medium size in stainless steel with both the steel bracelet and a strap of your choice. The large 18k rose gold model seen here is priced at $37,000 while the medium two-tone model is priced at $9,100.

For more, visit Cartier online.

Back in February, when we announced the HODINKEE Shop’s partnership with Hamilton, we launched with a single watch that we felt was perfect for the HODINKEE audience: the hand-wound Khaki Field Mechanical. As you may recall, they didn’t last long. In fact, within a few days, we were sold out.

Today, we're proud to announce that a new version of this great-looking, affordable watch has just hit our inventory, this time with a new dial color and strap pairing. The new Khaki Field comes complete with brushed steel case, Swiss-made, hand-wound movement, and that clean dial design we love, but with a new brown dial that's almost "tropical" in color and a durable beige textile strap. Priced at just $475, this is a fantastic option for both budding and established watch collectors.

The Hamilton Khaki Field Mechanical is a back-to-basics example of what a great, casual sport watch with military inspiration should be. Take, for example, the 38mm x 9.5mm case, whose vintage-inspired dimensions make for a comfortable wearing experience while looking great on a wrist of any size. Hamilton has really nailed the Khaki Field Mechanical design by including great nods to vintage watches too. These include fully drilled lugs and a large crown that makes winding the movement and setting the time a breeze. Hamilton has also eschewed a date window (surely a popular move with our audience), designing this watch with a clean aesthetic in mind. As a nod to its military origins, the dial has hour tracks for both standard and military time.

As we said in our post announcing the black dial variation, this is the kind of watch that Ben would have rushed home to write about in the early days of HODINKEE. It’s that rare product that combines great, compelling design with a value proposition that is tough to argue with. It just might be the best new watch money can buy south of $500.

The new Khaki Field Mechanical is available exclusively in the HODINKEE Shop. For more information and to purchase yours, click here.

Quick Take

IWC has just announced a new, e-commerce only version of its Pilot's Watch Chronograph, and it's a very interesting one indeed – the design is an almost exact reproduction of the much-loved original ref. 3706 pilot's chronograph, from 1994. This in turn was based on the famous 1993 Double Chronograph, with its Richard Habring-designed split seconds complication (a highly modified Valjoux 7750). The 3706 came in both a stainless steel case, and a ceramic case (we looked at the history behind the ceramic version, ref. 3705, right here). 

This is sure to be a much-discussed new chronograph from IWC, and in that light, it's quite intriguing how it's been launched, and is being offered. It will not be available at IWC boutiques; instead, this timepiece is currently available exclusively on IWC's own e-commerce platform. And perhaps most fascinating was the announcement – there was no standard press release; instead, it was officially announced on the Instagram of IWC CEO Chris Grainger-Herr. The IWC site says that this period of exclusivity will last until October. 

Initial Thoughts

The IWC Pilot's Chronograph has been in company's product lineup since 1993, in one form or another, and since then, it's appeared in a very wide range of models, with the hands and arrangement of the date display changing noticeably from one reference to the next. With this new model, IWC's returned to many, if not most, of the design elements of the original. The position of the date indications and subregisters are identical, but the thing that ought to really make IWC fans sit up and take notice is the return of the Mark 11 style hands. And, as with the original, there's a soft iron antimagnetic inner case. There are some significant differences between this model and the original 3705 – the two most notable are the concentric circles stamped on the subdials of the new reference (the 3705 had none) and the size. IWC 3705/6 was 39mm in diameter, and the new model is 43mm in diameter. 

Of course, one other difference is the lume – the new model has beige lume on the markers and hands, which replicates the appearance of aged tritium on the original references 3705/6. 

It's pretty remarkable that that yesterday's launch happened in such a soft way – especially considering the amount of buzz this is liable to generate. IWC broke with the usual industry practice; there was no conventional press release announcing its arrival. The whole launch consisted of an announcement on social media. It may prove to have been a smart move, though. I am writing this post right now, after all.

The Basics

Brand: IWC
Model: Pilot's Watch Chronograph
Reference Number: IW377724

Diameter: 43mm
Thickness: 15.3mm
Case Material: Stainless steel
Dial Color: Black
Indexes: Arabic numerals
Lume: Yes, on hands and cardinal markers
Water Resistance: 60 meters
Strap/Bracelet: Green fabric strap

The Movement

Caliber: IWC 79320 (Valjoux 7750 base)
Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds, day, date, chronograph
Power Reserve: 44 hours
Winding: Automatic
Frequency: 4 Hz (28,800 vph)
Jewels: 25 jewels

Pricing & Availability

Price: $4,950
Availability: Immediately, but only via IWC's own e-commerce platform until October.

The two major watch shows of the year – SIHH and Baselworld – are now both firmly behind us, which means that we know most of the new watches that are going to be making their ways into boutique cases and onto wrists in 2018. We've told you about the watches we'd wear everyday, the watches that haunt our dreams, and even the things that caught us off-guard. We thought it would be worthwhile though to circle back, with this little bit of additional perspective, and to think about what watch we're recommend to someone looking to pick up his or her first fine timepiece. Luckily, this year we're spoiled for choice.

Cara Barrett – Tudor Black Bay 32

It's not often that I have the opportunity to suggest an actual ladies' watch for one of these round-ups, but I am thrilled to say that things are different this year. With the rise in dedicated tool watches in smaller sizes, I can honestly say that the Tudor Black Bay 32 is a great starter watch for the slight of wrist and can be yours for $2,750 on a bracelet and $2,425 on one of Tudor's awesome fabric straps. This watch is exactly the same as the Black Bay 36 released two years ago (and last year's BB41) but in a smaller 32mm case size. It offers versatility, an automatic movement, and a price point that doesn't suffer from the pink tax.

$2,425 (strap), $2,750 (bracelet); tudorwatch.com

Jon Bues – Baume & Mercier Clifton Baumatic

In the 12 years or so that I've been writing about watches, the Clifton Baumatic might be the most exciting timepiece to come from Baume & Mercier. Among the Baumatic’s many desirable features are its lengthy power reserve (120 hours), its antimagnetic movement (to 1,500 gauss), its chronometer rating (to within -4/+6 seconds per day), and its extended service cycle, which Baume & Mercier says is greater than five years. All of these are attributes that watch collectors have been conditioned to expect from watches costing much more than the Clifton Baumatic, which sits at $2,990. The movement at the heart of the Clifton Baumatic is the caliber BM12-1975A, a movement whose base was developed by Richemont at the group level for use in a range of the group’s marques.

$2,990 ; baume-et-mercier.com

Jack Forster – Seiko Presage SJE073 Limited Edition

The Seiko Presage SJE073 is the Presage that Presage fans have been waiting for. The only downside to the Presage models in general is that they’ve been a bit on the thick side, and for the SJE073, Seiko has introduced a new, slimmer movement that brings the case thickness down to just 9.8mm. It’s a little more expensive than usual for Presage, however, you get Grand Seiko level “Zaratsu” case polishing and a gorgeous dial and handset, and it’s a first watch that could be, as a first watch should be, the last watch you’d ever need as well. The only potential gotcha is that it’s a limited edition, but again, as a first time owner, that just makes it more special. 

$2,200; seiko-presage.com

James Stacey – Certina DS PH200M

While this is one I didn't get to see for myself at Baselworld, if it's good enough for Jason Heaton, you had best believe it's good enough for me. For anyone with a taste for classic dive watch design, the Certina DS PH200M would make an excellent starter watch. 42.8 mm wide in steel with a date at three, 200 meters water resistance, and a vintage-effect acrylic crystal, the DS PH200M rocks the Swatch Group's Powermatic 80 movement (the one with an 80-hour power reserve). Priced at an all-too-reasonable CHF 695, Certina even throws in a NATO for days at the beach and a Pelican-style hard case for storage. As Certina is not sold in America, those stateside should consider calling the old country, making use of any duty-free opportunities, or, you know, trying the internet. 

CHF 695; certina.com

Stephen Pulvirent – Oris Divers Sixty-Five Bronze Bezel

It's hard for me to call this a "new" watch, since it's really a variation on something well-know, and generally, well-loved, but I'm doing it anyway. The Oris Divers Sixty-Five Bronze Bezel is, surprise, exactly what it sounds like: the Divers Sixty-Five dive watch with a bezel made of bronze. The two-tone look is super subtle though, and I actually think it adds a great extra touch to an already outstanding watch. To me, the 36mm version of this watch on a steel bracelet is one of the best buys in all of watchmaking at just a hair over $2,000, and if you want to forgo the bracelet you can get that a hair under $2,000. This is a go-anywhere, do-anything watch that you know you'll be able to be proud of even if your collection grows into the stratosphere.

From $1,975; oris.ch

Next week we will be in Los Angeles with Panerai to celebrate the brand's latest collections of watches, and we would love for you to join us. On April 24, we will be visiting the Panerai boutique in Costa Mesa, while the next night, April 25, we will be at Panerai Beverley Hills. We will be joined both nights by Giovanni Carestia, President of Panerai North America, who, along with HODINKEE managing editor Stephen Pulvirent, will discuss the Panerai Luminor Due collection and the year's other SIHH novelties. There will be watches, there will be cocktails, and there will be good people. What more could you ask for, really?

Space is limited for both nights, so please RSVP here to reserve a spot for either. See you soon! 

Alright, spoiler alert: I love this watch. When I settled down at the dramatically lit conference table somewhere deep inside Omega's booth at Baselworld a few weeks ago, I wasn't expecting to see this. However, once it was out, I had a hard time focusing on anything else. This version of the Seamaster Olympic Games is a reasonably sized watch, executed in a totally superlative way that is at once classic in its looks and extremely modern in its technology. It basically ticks all the boxes.

Before I get too deep into this particular model, it's important to know that it comes as kind of the cherry on top of an already great collection of pieces that Omega released during the lead-up to the Winter Olympic Games, hosted at Pyeongchang, South Korea, back in February. First we were shown a quintet of sporty models that recalled the colors of the five Olympic rings. These were all steel and featured black and white dials with Arabic numerals and luminous hands. Adding to the lineup, Omega introduced three dressier versions in yellow, white, and rose gold, a reference to the gold, silver, and bronze medals that would be handed out at the Games. These have white enamel dials and subtle leaf hands to complement the more precious cases.

The watch we have in front of us is basically one of those dressier versions of the Seamaster Olympic Games, just on steroids (though, like the Olympic Committee, we do not condone the use of performance enhancing drugs). The case is still a great size at 39.5mm across and 11.98mm thick, but it's rendered in solid 950 platinum instead of gold or steel. When you pick it up off a tray, there's no question this is platinum – the watch has some serious heft. The sides and fronts of the lugs are brushed, while the bezel and facets on the lugs are polished, so you get a good bit of contrast too. 

While I'm always a fan of platinum, I'm absolutely crazy about black enamel. The hard-fired black enamel dial on this watch is easily one of the best I've seen on a modern watch, full stop. Like, ever. The black is rich and glossy, looking almost wet as it catches the light, and the silvery white logos and minute markers can look either like they're fading into the background or jumping out at you, depending on the angle. Applied at the hours are traditional, arrow-shaped markers made of 18k white gold, and they help show off the dial's domed shape too. Naturally, the white gold hands are radiused to match the curvature of the dial. Fun note: The vintage style "Ω " above the Omega logo at 12 o'clock is actually made of platinum too and is transfer printed onto the dial. This is a totally unnecessary, indulgent detail, and a great synecdoche for this watch overall.

While so far everything feels pretty old-school about this watch (other than the modern size), the movement is state-of-the-art: the in-house Omega caliber 8807. This movement is automatic, utilizes a co-axial escapement, and is a METAS-certified Master Chronometer. It also runs at 3.5 Hz, in 35 jewels, and is resistant to up to 15,000 gauss of magnetism (in no small part due to the silicon balance spring). And as one last technical flourish, the balance is free sprung too. The finishing is exactly what you'd expect on one of Omega's movement. It's thorough, but not over-the-top. There are broad waves on the plates and bridges, blackened screws, barrel, and balance wheel, and both the balance bridge and winding rotor are 18k Sedna gold.

I'm normally someone firmly entrenched in the "make the movement fit the case" camp, but I'm willing to make an exception here. The sapphire caseback does fill the rear of the watch and you'll notice that the spacer between the movement and the case's edges is engraved with "Official Timkeeper" and the names of all the Olympic host cities where Omega had this role. It is, of course, made of platinum too, and it seems to make sense in a watch like this. Lest your forget, this is an Olympics watch after all.

Putting this watch on my wrist was definitely a highlight of Baselworld 2018. It wears extremely well, even feeling smaller than the 39.5mm x 11.98mm dimensions would suggest. Sure, these are not quite vintage watch dimensions, but it's an easy to wear, moderate size that I think a lot of people would really enjoy. This is a watch that looks perfectly nice from a few feet away and will pair nicely with lots of different styles of clothes – however, it's when you get up close that it becomes a showstopper. The closer you look and the more you sort of play with the watch, the more you enjoy the way everything comes together in a cohesive way. Sure, each detail is good on its own, but it's the way they work together that leaves me wishing this was on my wrist many mornings.

To me, this watch represents the best of Omega past and present (in a way not dissimilar from that of its cousin the Seamaster 1948 watches). It isn't afraid to draw on the brand's rich past for styling cues, but it's also not a watch that's living in a prior decade. The movement inside offers customers a ton of value for money, even in a rather expensive Omega like this. The whole package is smart and works together to create something that really sings of connoisseurship all the way through. In platinum and enamel, this watch is indulgent, superlative, and just flat out awesome.

The Omega Omega Seamaster Olympic Games in platinum with a black enamel dial is priced at $37,800 and is a limited edition of 100 pieces. It is available now. For more, visit Omega online.