Timeless Stories

  So it turns out there are a lot of dive watch enthusiasts out there!  And more importantly a lot of dive watch enthusiasts who like the idea of owning something with a little more individuality.  After my piece last week about some of the lesser known brands from the 60's and 70's that rivalled Rolex and Omega I was inundated with requests for more information about those pieces from Marc Nicolet, Enicar Sherpa and Elgin. I was, of course, happy to oblige. As a result of those enquiries I...

  You can barely say the words “dive watch” without following it with the words Submariner and Seamaster. Rolex and Omega are so synonymous with the genre that it’s hard to judge any other brand or model without referring to the two Swiss giants. Let’s be clear, they’ve earned their status and they build dive watches of supreme quality. Furthermore it’s arguable they’ve established the design ethos of the whole dive watch industry and set the standards by which others need to be judged. But… ...

  It’s great to be in the know isn’t it? To be ahead of the game and privy to what’s hot and what’s not. I’ve always felt that way about the Tudor brand to be honest.    I’m fully aware that a lot of people know the brand, of course they do, but I’ve always suspected that for many people Tudor is perceived as nothing more than a poor man’s Rolex. In other words they simply don’t know quite how good these watches are. This became apparent to me the first time I ever put a Tudor Ranger on my...

  It’s a legend, there can be no doubt. You can keep your Mariana Trench and high altitude test pilot watches, the Omega Speedmaster Calibre 321 went into space! It doesn’t get anymore challenging than that.  Ask any serious watch collector to mention a famous movement and it’s a fair bet the Cal 321 is on that list. So much so that Omega has recently relaunched this groundbreaking specification in a special edition (for that read $59k) watch last year and now, at last, in a new steel edition...

  Whilst they say confidence is often the best accessory, and I’m not one to argue with fashionistas of the world, I have to say for me accessories can provide almost as much joy to an avid watch collector as the watches themselves. A simple change of strap for instance can turn a watch from something James Bond might wear to the ambassadors party into a piece that wouldn’t be out of place on the wrist of an seafaring adventurer…James Bond for instance!   What’s more the watch industry is fa...

We’ve all been there haven’t we? The mental gymnastics required to justify the purchase of another watch, mostly in a desperate plea to a sensible other half. Regular visitors to my site will know it doesn't take much to convince me to part with my hard earned cash in return for a vintage timepiece. However over the last few years, more than ever, the idea of buying a vintage watch as an investment piece, has grown ever more relevant. If there is one thing we’ve all learned in the last decade...

So, it turns out I might well be cool! I know, who knew? I learned that startling fact this week during the course of two searches I did on google which might be of interest to the watch enthusiast. (I did lots of searches you might be interested in but it’s not pertinent to this article!)  The first was in response to the sale earlier this month at an online auction of a Rolex Daytona Paul Newman. It sold for £500,000, a record for a purely online auction. I was just interested to look a...

You would imagine I’m coming at this from one side only. I’m a vintage watch fanatic so naturally it wins every time right? Perhaps a case of having a position and finding the evidence to support it (Brexit anyone!)? Well maybe.

Many people thought the introduction of watches like the Apple Watch might well spell another period of doom and disaster for the Swiss watch industry but if anything the last three years has taught us is that it has learned well from the lessons of the past and is now far more resilient than it was in the late 1970’s and the early/mid 1980’s. Much of this ongoing success is born through the industries relentless marketing and investment in R&D to fine tune their products and produce ever...

I’m a huge fan of vintage watches. This will be a fact lost on absolutely no one. There is an elegance, style and sophistication to a timepiece from the golden era of the 1950’s and 1960’s (dare I say even the 1970’s) that is hard to replicate in a new watch that can never bear the same heritage for obvious reasons. But here’s a question I struggle to answer, are vintage watches cool?

How does it make you feel? On any given day a watch can make me feel completely different and in love with a particular aspect of horology. That’s why I collect. And those feelings can change over time, something that is reflected in my collection.  Add in the uniqueness of a vintage collection and, in my opinion you have a manifestation of taste, appreciation and function it’s hard to match in any other part of life.

I’ve never been asked to go to the moon. In fact I’ve never even been asked to go into space. I realise these two facts might not surprise you. I imagine either endeavour would be a challenge, not least to the people who would be tasked with getting me there in the first place.