Maen, Reiser and Batavi provide honest, fun luxury sports watches
The luxury sports watch, preferably with an integrated design, has exploded in recent years. Both in contenders and in sales, as more and more brands enter this hotter-than-hot segment of the market. Regular faces and newcomers all want a piece of the action, and this leads to surprising new options to choose from. Today we're looking at three such watches on the more affordable side of the spectrum. And chauvinistic as we are sometimes, we've gone for three brands with Dutch ties to show you there are still plenty of fun watches to be found if you're willing to look beyond the usual suspects. Here are the new Maen Manhattan 37, the Reiser Alpen Skeleton and the Batavi Architect Tony Purple. ?Why so serious?We've said it time and time again: watches, to us, should be fun. They should bring joy to the owner, and an experience to remember for a long time if possible. I'm sure most of us remember the feeling of first seeing a watch, then hunting it down or waiting for it to be available,

Hands-On - Ulysse Nardin Executive Moonstruck Worldtimer (Live Pics, Specs & Price)
Ulysse Nardin’s history is deeply linked to Marine chronometers, yet there’s another speciality, rather forgotten, that the manufacture masters (and which is not that far from Marine watches), the astronomical watches. Some may recall the mid-1980s Trilogy –?Astrolabium Galileo Galilei (introduced in 1985), Planetarium Copernicus (introduced in 1988) and Tellurium Johannes Kepler (introduced in 1992). This year, UN introduces yet another astronomical watch, the?Moonstruck Worldtimer, combining the movements of the moon and sun in relation to the Earth, as well as a map of the tides and (novelty) a world-time display. You say complex, we say exciting.In a strictly literal definition, there are in fact many astronomical watches on the market… as long as you consider a moon-phase display enough to warrant this definition. Thus, with a watchmaking approach in mind, the concept of an astronomical watch relates to a timepiece with several indications, which can includ

Introducing: New Steel-and-Gold Omega Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch
While mostly known as a stainless steel watch, the Omega Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch has been seen in multiple precious metals over the years, including recent Moonshine, Canopus or Sedna gold alloys. With two-tone watches somehow making a comeback in the past few years, it’s without much surprise that Omega releases today a new duo of bicolor, steel-and-gold Speedmaster Moonwatch models, using the brand’s proprietary Sedna (pink) and Moonshine (yellow) alloys next to classic steel, as well as several gold-toned accents on the dial.Technically speaking, nothing new to report. We’re here looking at classic Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch models. If you want to know everything there’s to know about the current generation Moonwatch, we invite you to take a closer look at this 2021 extended review here or look at the recent white dial version. In a nutshell, these new two-tone models rely on the updated version of this iconic model with a 42mm asymmetrical

Cousteau and the Timepieces of the Calypso team - Part 3 - Monochrome Watches
Yesterday we introduced?you to the history of diver watches and the crucial role that Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his team played in the development of diver watches (see here). The second installment?focussed?on?the diver watches that were actually used by Jacques-Yves Cousteau and is team in the 1960’s (click here), and now we’re going to show you the watches that they used in the 1970’s and 1980’s. We’re still talking about proper tool watches, although the first ‘luxury’ watches are appearing as well.?During the 1970's the watches that Cousteau and his divers wore, and which can be identified from the documentaries, were mainly from the brands Omega, Doxa and . The ultra professional Seamaster 600 and 1000 plus the Marine Chronometer, which can ben seen on the wrist of the commander himself, the Doxa 300 Sub and the Doxa T-graph and last but not least, various Submarines (ref.5512/5513) and a few Sea-Dwellers.Let’s Talk about Watches&#

Review Vacheron Constantin Patrimony Moon Phase Retrograde Date
Adapting the Biblical phrase to the watchmaking sphere, it is true to say that watch lovers do not live by novelties alone. There are plenty of models out there that deserve to be admired, time after time. One of these belongs to Vacheron Constantin‘s understated yet elegant Patrimony family inspired by slim men’s wristwatches of the 1950s. The Patrimony Moon Phase and Retrograde Date appeared in 2017, a simpler model that was somewhat eclipsed by the astronomical watch Celestia with double-digit complications and the Grande Sonnerie Symphonia. Fitted with a retrograde date and a moon phase indication, the complications were not jaw-dropping, but the overall appeal and discreet elegance of the watch have given it the kind of sticking power you need to become a classic.As Brice explained in his review, the Moon Phase and Retrograde Date was a descendant of the Retrograde Day-Date with the same case, same base movement and the replacement of the day indication with a moon pha