The Collector's Corner - The Breguet Chronograph 3230 and 3237
Welcome back to our Collector's Corner series about watches from the 1980s and 1990s, and outline why we think they're cool and why they deserve your attention! A few weeks ago, we examined the first Valjoux-7750 powered split-seconds chronograph - the legendary IWC Pilot's Watch Doppelchronograph 3711. This time around, we will take a look at another chronograph gem from the opposite end of the sporty-dressy spectrum. That watch is the Breguet Chronograph 3230/3237, one of the first references designed by post-quartz crisis Breguet, a company with a grand and storied history but one that had lost direction due to numerous changes in its ownership. Though Breguet needs no introduction, of course, I will give you a short recap of the company's history before we dive into an absolute gem of a watch that has managed to stay under the radar until now, the handsome and important 3230 (or later 3237).The name Abraham-Louis Breguet is one that even novice WIS-in-making are sure to encounter e

Spotted - Jason Momoa, Star of Aquaman, Wearing Cartier Tank Louis Cartier XL
Actor Jason Momoa is best known to audiences worldwide for playing the superhero Aquaman in the DC universe films Aquaman?and Justice League, and the character of Khal Drogo in the first season of HBO's Game of Thrones. So in terms of watches, what could fit the wrist of this big guy…?Momoa is over 6 feet tall (1.82m) and weighs approximately 100 kilograms, so in terms of watches, you would expect him to be wearing XXL timepieces such as an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore, a Hublot Big Bang or a 44mm Panerai Luminor But you'd be wrong.Lilakoi Moon and Jason Momoa attend the cocktail at Fendi Couture Fall Winter 2019/2020 on July 4, 2019 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Daniele Venturelli/Daniele Venturelli/ Getty Images for Fendi)Surprisingly, he wears a timepiece which is the polar opposite of the abovementioned watches, from the famed jewellery Maison and watchmaker Cartier. I knew that Momoa wears a Cartier, but I had been unsuccessful in identifying the watch until now. After bro

Omega and the PloProf Research Programme - Innovation in Professional Dive watches (incl. Pioneering use of 904L Steel for Watches) - Monochrome Watches
By the early 1940s, Emile Gagnan and Jacques-Yves Cousteau’s Aqualung - the first commercially successful self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (a.k.a Scuba)-? had become a worldwide phenomenon. Along with the growing popularity of recreational diving, the needs of military and professional divers underscored the paramount importance of reliable sub-aquatic instruments. The first modern dive watches appeared in the early 1950s with the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, the Zodiac Sea Wolf or the Submariner. Developed in 1953, the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms is often regarded as the archetype of the dive watch: a robust, highly legible watch, water-resistant to great depths (91 meters, in this instance) and equipped with a unidirectional rotating bezel to time dives.The development of deep-sea saturation divingHowever, the development of deep-sea saturation diving soon made even higher performing tools necessary – quite simply because professional dive watches had to adapt to t

SIHH 2015 - Hands-on with the Rotonde de Cartier Grand Complication Calibre 9406MC (live photos & specs) - Monochrome Watches
Alongside the consumer oriented watches, Cartier has another field of mastering: extremely complicated watches. Just take a look at the Astrontourbillon Skeleton,?the Tank MC Skeleton, the bunch of Tourbillon, minute repeaters or perpetual calendars in the catalog. We’re far from a simple – but?highly cool – Tank or Santos. For the 2015 edition of the SIHH, Cartier comes with something truly spectacular, mixing 3 of the main complications – tourbillon, minute repeater and Perpetual calendar – in a very slim movement. Here is the?Rotonde de Cartier Grand Complication Calibre 9406MC.What we have here is haute horlogerie at its finest. Not only three of the main complications are brought together in the Rotonde de Cartier, but to the package is added a?skeletonized dial, an automatic winding ?mechanism into?a slim – 5.49mm – movement (which is, considering the level of complexity, impressive). The Rotonde de Cartier Grand Complication Calibre 9406

The Affordable But Greatly Executed Orient Bambino 38 (Price)
The Bambino has been one of the best-selling collections of Japanese watchmaker Orient for years. Introduced a few weeks ago, the new versions of the model stand out with their more compact case – 38.4mm versus 40.5mm previously. We had been quite intrigued by the looks and specs of this automatic dress watch retailing at just EUR 275. So we thought we would ask for a model to review And, without making too much noise, it's typically a watch that looks and feels far more expensive than what it actually costs!You'll often hear the concept of “value proposition” when talking about accessible watches. It's a bit of a complex term, as for instance the Seamaster 300M Diver Master Chronometer can be considered one when looking at everything it offers considering its price. The notion of price is relative, of course, but in the context of truly affordable mechanical watches, serious alternatives are basically worst-kept secrets. Seiko with the past-generation 5 Series and th