Between the Essence and Field, Formex have pretty much nailed the everyday wearer. They’re the kind of watches you can wear anywhere at any time, stripped back and uncomplicated but impressively built for the money. All of that still very much applies to the shiny new Formex Stratos UTC, but with one caveat: those three little letters at the end.

While it’s not as common as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), Coordinated Universal Time is to all intents and purposes, the same thing. It’s linked directly to the Earth’s rotation speed and International Atomic Time, so technically it’s a bit more accurate, but given the overlap, GMT and UTC watch functionally offer the same thing, namely a second time zone.

So, how have Formex approached the quintessential travellers’ complication? After all, complications really aren’t their thing. Well for one, they’ve not strayed far from their wheelhouse; instead they’ve worked with the modular maestros at Dubois-Depraz – the same manufacture that built the recent Perpetual Calendar module for Breitling – to create the most satisfying second time zone function I’ve ever used.

Part of the Formex Stratos UTC’s user-focused functionality is that it doesn’t fall into the usual discourse of ‘true’ vs ‘office’ GMT. The crown doesn’t move the GMT hand. Hell, it doesn’t affect the second time zone function at all, it’s simply for winding and setting local time. Instead, the UTC hand is moved using the chronograph-style pushers flanking the crown. The top pusher moves it anti-clockwise and the bottom pusher does the opposite.

I won’t put a number on just how long I was playing with those pushers, flicking the UTC hand backwards and forwards hour by hour. It’s a perfectly normal amount, honestly. While I didn’t instantly leave the country wearing the Stratos, it does make jumping across timezones in either direction incredibly easy to adjust for. And if that weren’t enough, there’s also a separate, if more subtle pusher to quickly change the six o’clock date subdial on the left-hand side of the Formex Stratos UTC. Any problems you have setting a travellers’ watch, the Stratos solves.

Formex aren’t the only brand to use this kind of system of course; Porsche Design looped in Dubois-Depraz for something similar. But paired with the rest of the watch, this might be the best dual timezone watch of the year – and at this price point, there’s no real competition.

A good part of that is the usefulness of the complication of course, but the rest is entirely down to that typical Formex build quality. We’ve shot their Field and Essence in the past, so I was expecting good things from the Stratos, and despite the greater number of moving parts, it’s every bit as solid. The bidirectional bezel is a little slidey but for something designed to move easily that’s about right, and the rest of the case is the good kind of chunky.

It’s punchy without being too big in either it’s 41mm diameter or 12mm height. It won’t be slipping under too many shirtsleeves, but it feels great on the wrist. The Stratos doesn’t slack on case finishing either, with plenty of brushed, sand-blasted and mirror- polished surfaces across the board.

Plenty of attention has been shown to the dial. A brushed outer ring and central dial with a grained minute track and date subdial give the Stratos a much more interesting look than any of Formex’s dials, save their stone pieces. Practically, the different finishes help with readability – as do the funky stylised 12, three, six and nine. Paired with some orange highlights on the UTC hand and its 24-hour scale, along with the UTC lettering and day/night indicator (that porthole at nine o’clock in case you were wondering), it’s clean, clear and cool.

We have the blue version here which I reckon is the best looking, but it also comes in black and green too. It’s available on four different straps, brown with white stitching, plain black, or black with orange stitching to match those highlights. This being Formex though, you want the bracelet. It’s as solidly built as the case, which is saying a lot.

Now onto brass tacks. Formex are an accessible watchmaker through and through. But, while the Field, their entry-level will set you back £890, the Stratos is considerably more at £3,320. That seems like a wince-inducing hike, but context is everything and for a superb, novel approach to the quintessential travellers’ watch – especially one this good- looking – I’d stack the Stratos against pretty much anything else in that price range.

Bottom line: do I like it? Yes, definitely. Will I buy it? If I was in the market for a GMT, I’d be hard-pressed not to.

More details at Formex.

I’m sure everyone reading this is wondering when we’ll be doing our collaborative follow-up to the Christopher Ward Shoreline. Don’t worry, news on that in due course – but for now, the collabs don’t stop coming, the latest of which is a particularly lovely number from our friends over at Fratello: the Fratello x Czapek & Cie Promenade Transparencies Viridian Green.

Green is apparently this pair’s colour as Fratello and Czapek & Cie’s first collaboration was on the gorgeous Antarctique Passage de Drake, with it’s gorgeous, scaled dial and integrated bracelet. While the colour here is the same Viridian Green though, that’s the only similarity.

For one, the dial, the focal point of the Antarctique has been removed almost completely. Almost, because the sapphire covering the open movement has been given a green tint, allowing a look at the micro-rotor movement underneath like through water. It’s a novel twist on the elegant, 38mm Promenade case, which is certainly home to some of Czapek’s more novel dials.

Perhaps most unusually, the smokiness of the dial emanates from the small seconds subdial at 4 o’clock. We’ve seen gradients from 6 o’clock before, but not this. It’s not ground-breaking, but it is a fun twist on fumé, drawing the eye to a particular focal point.

The movement underneath all that green smoke is Czapek’s signature SXH5 movement, the in-house calibre inside a good chunk of their stable these days. That means a 60-hour power reserve, 4 Hz frequency and a platinum micro-rotor, unusually made from recycled precious metal. It’s finished to the degree you’d expect from a proper prestige watch – enough that you can see why you’d want to open up the dial.

Speaking of prestige, we’re used to seeing most collabs fall into the accessible category, but Czapek & Cie are anything but. So, it shouldn’t come as too big a surprise that the Fratello x Czapek & Cie Promenade Transparencies Viridian Green will set you back EUR 32,000 (approximately £26,500) for one of the 50 pieces. It’s a pretty steep amount but then this is a gorgeous collab that fans of Czapek & Cie will undoubtedly leap on.

More details at Fratello.

In case you haven’t heard – which I would find personally insulting – for the last few months, we here at Oracle Time have been running our own annual awards. They’re the first and only watch awards shortlisted and voted for by our readers, meaning that the results aren’t down to us. We didn’t get a panel of our industry cronies to decide between them, we didn’t sell the categories to our favourite advertisers, nothing like that, just horological democracy at work.

There are ten categories, running the gamut from dive watches to haute horology, and everything in-between. You may even be able to guess some of the winners from the eight-watch shortlists we’ve been promoting over the past few months – so don’t forget to let us know how many you got right. More importantly, this is the first time we’ll be revealing the results of the completely open Readers’ Choice award – the de facto Oracle Time Watch of the Year 2024.

So, now that the votes have been counted (far more than last year, might I add) let’s take a look at this year’s winners of the Oracle Time Watch Awards.

Best Dive Watch | Christopher Ward C60 Trident Lumiere

When we reviewed Christopher Ward’s latest diver back in August, we knew it would be a serious contender for dive watch of the year. It’s a watch that takes the concept of lightness and runs with it in different directions. There’s the dial, which not only has one of the most eye-catching orange colourings we’ve come across – even in the orange obsessed sub-genre of diving watches – but has solid Globolight indexes. This is the same sort of material Christopher Ward use on their ‘Glow’ watches, so it almost goes without saying that it’s incredibly bright. Then there’s the case, which is light in a very different way, in full titanium.

Less obvious refinements include the newly svelte thickness, which thanks to a new Sellita SW300 movement, slims things down to just 10.85mm, meaning it sits better on the wrist than ever before. It also ups the power reserve to a more-than-respectable 56 hours. All of that, plus professional diving specs for £1,985 makes this a no-brainer for the Best Dive Watch of 2024.

More details at Christopher Ward.

Best Chronograph | Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch Professional White

It seems to be a trend this year for serious watchmakers to update their classic models in favour of anything too risky and while that’s likely to generate fewer headlines, I’m entirely in favour of it. Sure, it makes my job a little less interesting, but the pure, clean simplicity of a Speedmaster with a white lacquer dial makes up for it.

Let’s not beat around the bush here, this is nothing dramatic. It was initially teased by Daniel Craig, which was likely the reason for some of the hype around the new watch more than the watch itself. Still, the pristine white takes the high-contrast, ultra-legible formula that took the Speedmaster to the moon and gives it a refresh.

Old school Speedy-heads are still catered to, too, with some welcome historical touches – the DON bezel and Alaska Project colourway key among them – and a gorgeously finished manual-wind movement. It’s not as authentic as the Moonwatch Professional, but it might be the best Speedmaster of the year, if not a good deal longer.

More details at Omega.

Best Accessible Watch | Tissot PRX Powermatic 80 40mm Gradient

We didn’t call this the perfect summer wearer for no reason. The PRX is one of those scant handful of modern watches that you could actually call iconic and, while a lot of that is largely drawn from the 1970s archives of Gerald Genta, it’s Tissot’s accessible twist on the formula that has made this particular integrated bracelet sports watch a firm favourite.

This time the Swatch Group brand has upped the ante with a gorgeous gradient dial. Rather than the more traditional fume, where the lighter part is in the centre and the darker at the periphery of the dial, the split is between top and bottom, going from pale and icy to almost purple. It still has that signature, Royal Oakadjacent Tapisserie finish, too.

We can imagine in the New Year that Tissot will flex similar designs across the horological rainbow, but for now, with a price tag of £640, this makes for one of the coolest accessible watches around right now – and the winner for 2024.

More details at Tissot.

Best Dress Watch | Vacheron Constantin Patrimony Moonphase Retrograde

The vintage-inspired wave ever crashes, with brands moving away from those core decades of the 1960s and ‘70s to the ‘50s and ‘80s instead, the former of which is firmly in Vacheron’s wheelhouse. In fact, they have a collection dedicated to clean ‘50s style in the Patrimony. It was a collection that was the prestige watchmaker’s focus for 2024 and, while I personally loved the base automatic Patrimony, the new moonphase model evidently struck a chord with our readers.

It’s not hard to appreciate why this is a winner. The Patrimony Moonphase has its titular complication at six o’clock as per usual, but rather than a full circle it’s an arch instead. It works the same as a standard moonphase – marked out to a precise 29 ½ days – but the shape echoes the unusual retrograde date across the top half of the dial. The result is something that looks like a dual retrograde without actually being one.

Pair the novel layout with the ‘50s dress watch refinement of golden pearl minute markers, elegant, elongated hour markers and a silky, silvery dial and you have an absolutely stunning dress watch, as suited for 2024 as it is 1954.

More details at Vacheron Constantin.

Best Travel Complication | Longines Spirit Zulu Time Titanium

When the Spirit Zulu Time was launched back in 2022 – and to a lesser extent, the time-and-date version from the year before – I didn’t realise quite how fantastic the reception would be. Longines weren’t best known for pilots’ watches and the ‘pilots inspired’ nature of the Spirit could have felt like they were jumping on the aviation bandwagon – if it weren’t so confidently done. Instead, it has become their best received watch in years.

The Spirit Zulu Time Titanium doesn’t reinvent the wheel. Instead, it adds the quality-of-life upgrade that is lightweight titanium, making that comparatively chunky case a joy to wear on a daily basis. The darker metal also works nicely with the gilt black and gold dial, which could have been stripped off everyone’s favourite Prince of retro, the Black Bay and given a cockpit-focused facelift.

It perhaps doesn’t expand the collection in the same way as the new flyback chrono that it was released alongside does, but for my money – and apparently, a lot of yours – this fills a GMT shaped hole I didn’t know I had.

More details at Longines.

Best Field/Pilot’s Watch | IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Top Gun Mojave Desert

IWC got ahead of the coloured ceramic curve when they released the Mojave a few years back (you know, discounting Rado) and the sandy colour has been a mainstay of their collection ever since. Sure, they’ve dabbled in crisp white, forest green and other military-adjacent combinations, but the aptly named desert ceramic is hard to beat.

Of all watches, this is the one that should have always been draped in the Mojave colours. For one, it’s the Top Gun; both the ceramic and watch itself are inspired by the legendary silver screen pilots’ academy. Here though, it’s the 41mm version rather than the previous Lake Tahoe and Woodland Green versions, making it much more wearable for those of us not determined to strap it over a flight suit.

The pushers and crown that you might assume are titanium are, in fact, ceratanium. I won’t give you too much applause if you guess what two materials that’s a contraction of. Either way, the contrasting dark grey rounds off a watch of stoney neutral tones – which is fitting, given that ceramic and ceratanium are rock hard.

More details at IWC.

Best Microbrand Watch | Beaubleu Seconde Française

Part watch, part Art Deco orrery, French brand Beaubleu’s debut effort nails that sweet spot between a quirkiness just shy of pretension and excellent, elegant wearability. It perhaps doesn’t come as a surprise that founder Nicolas Ducoudert isn’t a watch designer by trade – at least exclusively. His background is in cars and more nebulous luxury products, meaning he comes at Beaubleu with fresh eyes. And it shows.

The key to the Seconde Française (or French Second if you didn’t pass year 9 French) is its trio of hands. All three are unique, oversized circles with the tip of a hand protruding from the balloon edge to accurately point out the time. While the hours and minutes are firmly secured in the centre however, the second hand drifts around the circumference of the enamel dial. Essentially, it’s a mystery watch rendered in that particular French je ne sais quoi and, more importantly, sans Cartier pricing.

Indeed, what makes Beaubleu a worthy 2024 award winner isn’t necessarily the overall design of the Seconde Française (although that helps) but it’s surprisingly accessible price tag of £1,065 (ex. VAT & customs).

More details at Beaubleu.

Best Integrated Sports Watch | Czapek & Cie Antarctique Green Meteor

Gone are the days when integrated sports watches were what you launched when you’d run out of ideas. And thank God for that, those days sucked. But the success stories from the movement are still around, the Czapek & Cie Antarctique being key among them. Sure, it’s a little dressier and a good deal less industrial than most of the competition, but it’s still very much a sports watch – if one for the more well-heeled of sportspeople out there.

There have been numerous interpretations of the Antarctique since its inception, including the scaled Passage de Drake that in my mind made it a modern classic. But this year, the brand revealed their limited-edition Green Meteor and it’s an absolute stunner. The dark, mineral hue and its clear Widmanstätten pattern (the cross-hatching on a meteor, for your next quiz night) brought together in the otherwise rigid and flawlessly machined case make for an absolutely gorgeous prestige proposition.

It’s a small thing too, but for me what really makes this watch one of my favourites of 2024 – and something I’m glad has received the recognition it deserves – is that red-tipped second hand. Sometimes that’s all it really takes.

More details at Czapek & Cie.

Best High Complication | Jaeger-LeCoultre Duometre Heliotourbillon Perpetual

Fittingly for the Best High Complication of 2024, Jaeger-LeCoultre’s annual slice of insanity, launched at Watches & Wonders, reads like the wishlist of a master watchmaker prone to hyperbole. The headliner is the Heliotourbillon, a tri-axis take on the classic gravity-defying cage that spins like a top at nine o’clock, given plenty of room to breathe with a dial cut-out.

That should probably be enough. It’s certainly the flashiest part of the watch. But then there’s the fact that, despite taking up a ton of energy, that Heliotourbillon doesn’t impact the power reserve of the main watch. That’s because the Duometre actually has two barrels, one for timekeeping, one for complications.

If a whole barrel for a tourbillon seems overkill, that’s because it is. This particular beast also includes a perpetual calendar and moon phase. Because of course it does, the thing has a grand total of 655 components. Pure insanity.

More details at Jaeger-LeCoultre.

Readers’ Choice 2024 | IWC Portugieser Eternal Calendar

And here we are, finally, your choice for Watch of the Year 2024: the IWC Portugieser Eternal Calendar. I have to admit, I find some thematic harmony in the idea of a calendar watch being crowned our Watch of the Year, but as with all of these awards, it wasn’t me that decided this – or even a panel of judges – but our readers who, it seems, have impeccable taste.

We actually interviewed Professor Brian Cox, he of BBC space documentary fame, and he was as enamoured by the Eternal Calendar. Given just how impressive a timepiece it is, I’m not surprised. I’m pretty enamoured too.

First off, it’s a secular calendar. To explain what that means, you need to know how the Gregorian calendar works. It’s not just a leap year every three years, but every three years except centennials unless divisible by 400. That means your poxy perpetual calendar will go out of whack every couple of centuries or so. Not so this, which includes an extra wheel that turns over the course of centuries. It’s an incredible achievement that very few watchmakers have ever been able to put into production. I did say production, meaning I’m not counting Furlan Marri’s insane one-off.

So, it’s the most accurate calendar watch out there. But the Eternal is also the most accurate moon phase ever built, knocking specialist Andreas Strehler off the top spot he’s held for decades. It’s accurate for 45 million years, which turns ‘you only look after it for the next generation’ into ‘you look after it until Star Trek Next Generation is a reality’.

More details at IWC.

It might come as a surprise to learn that Horage is now 15 years old. Sure, that’s not the greatest length of time, but given how many watch labels have come and gone in that time, it almost makes them part of the old guard. And yet, despite a decade-and-a-half of horological disruption under their belt, there’s still something of the plucky underdog about them, as shown by launches like the Horage Omnium K2.

Granted, part of that is due to a relaunch in 2015, but it’s more thanks to their approach to watchmaking. I mean, did you see their Revolution 3 MicroReg? The thing’s nuts. Throw in tourbillons priced to not just move but put most watchmakers to shame and you have the kind of cool, disruptive brand Moser & Cie still wish they were.

If that all makes you think that their latest would continue the cutting-edge trend though, think again. The new Omnium isn’t some ludicrous chronometric experiment or accessible flex. It’s just a really, really nice watch. Because sometimes – most of the time in fact – that’s just what you need.

The Omnium as a model has some history to Horage. It was their debut timepiece back in 2009 and it was their relaunch model in 2015. It’s a larger part of their DNA than  affordable tourbillons, which is saying something, and is by far their most wearable watch – especially in this new, downsized version.

Previous Omnia were sized to 40mm, which was pretty svelte even for a dress watch back in 2009. But in keeping with the times, the 2024 edition has shrunk to 37mm. I am more than happy with the change. This is essentially Horage’s take on a classic dress watch, so smaller is better, but I’m glad they avoided that 36mm zone that would lump it in with the raft of Rolex Oyster Perpetual contenders. That 1mm extra does a lot of heavy lifting on the wrist and, with the incredibly slim bezel opening up the dial, it still has plenty of wrist presence.

The colourway here is called Frost Fire, which is one of those typically Swiss names that sounds like a 10-year-old’s made-up superhero. I can see where they’re coming from, with the combination of sleek silver dial and red solid lume numerals, but those sporty Arabic numerals aren’t too bright and the silver is a little too straightforward to be considered frosty.

Naming conventions aside, it’s a good look. I love pops of colour and those monobloc numerals against the layered dial add just enough personality to find that balance between fun and wearability. The handset is also fantastic, diamond cut, faceted and skeletonised. Adding to that adage of devil in the details, the sapphire crystal is also faceted, which is much, much harder to do than it sounds, turning a practical necessity into a design feature.

Horage make visually killer movements and the latest K2 microrotor in the new Omnium is no exception. Blacked out plates with both cotes de Geneve and the brand’s signature grid embellishment, contrasting with gold lettering and microrotor and brass wheels… in my sometimes humble opinion is one of the best-looking movements around. Sure, there are plenty of insanely high-end calibres out there traditionally finished across every screw, but the K2 microrotor is just cool. It also has the specs to match, with COSC certification, a long weekend-proof 72-hour power reserve, and the silicon hairspring that you’d usually only find among the big watchmaking groups with the infrastructure to make them. All in all, a lot to love.

If the Frost Fire doesn’t do it for you, there are other options on the new Omnium. The other dial colours are dubbed Midnight Bleu and Pink Perfection, dark blue with white numerals and a pink-on-pink number that’s perhaps not the easiest to read. More importantly however – given that the silver and red is the obviously tasteful choice – is the case options.

Rather than just having a curated range of different dial and metal combinations, Horage lets you choose the case material you want. That means you can pick any dial and decide if you want steel, yellow gold or platinum (except for Pink Perfection in yellow gold, which is saving you from yourself if that’s what you were after). And it’s the same price across the board, meaning if you want any of them in steel, it’s CHF 4,590, CHF 11,990 for platinum, and CHF 14,990 for yellow gold. There is a slight discount for the precious metals, but only for the first five days and they’re not exactly impulse buys.

Inside, all the new Omnium models are the same and they all come on the same strap, so it’s up to you how much you want to pay for precious metal. You can even pay a smidge more to upgrade the plated gold buckle to solid yellow gold if that kind of thing really matters to you. I would just get the steel, but then I’m pretty basic. Give me a cool movement and a splash of colour and I’m happy.

At that base price of CHF 4,590, or just under the £4,500 mark, this is a seriously competitive watch. It needs to be, given the competition from big boys like Rolex and Omega at that level. But specs-wise and style-wise, the new Omnium is a solid contender. Not bad for 15 years’ work.

More details at Horage.

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Beaucroft Seeker Teal

Cambridge is known for many things: beautiful architecture, river punting, and grooming the next generation of aristocratic elites. What it’s not particularly known for is watches. While we don’t really have a watchmaking hub like some countries, our own Glashütte, let’s say, Cambridge is most definitely not one. But like Bristol is to Fears and Henley-on-Thames is to Bremont, the legendary university city does have a brand to call its own: Beaucroft.

Beaucroft Founders; Matt Herd and Karim Faisali

The brainchild of Matt Herd and Karim Faisali, Beaucroft’s whole vibe is daily wearers with a British twist. That’s a summary that you’ve almost certainly heard before, that fine balance of elegance and practicality, treading the thin stainless-steel line between dressy and beater. But for our money, Beaucroft manage it better than most.

Beaucroft Signature Midnight Blue

In the large part, that’s because Beaucroft lean more on the elegant side of the equation. Minimal indexes, dots instead of a minute track, slim hands, it all adds up to a set of dials that are clean, clear and classical. That does mean that there aren’t dramatic differences from one model to another; the Signature and Senate models are almost identical, just with matte vs sunray brushed finishes and slightly different crowns. The Seeker also hovers around the same idea, but with more ornate leaf-shaped hands, slightly different cardinal markers and a smaller, 37mm size.

I’d argue though that offering a few riffs on the same idea is no bad thing; smaller watch labels have been scuppered more times than I care to dwell on due to overstretching what they could and should do. Staying close to a core identity throughout the collection is harder than it sounds – but thankfully that identity also includes colour.

Beaucroft Senate

So, you like green? How about mint, forest, emerald or seafoam? Or deep blue, midnight blue, a darker midnight blue or teal? Or if you fancy something a little more classical (though I’m not sure why you would when that mint green exists) there’s the requisite white, slate grey or salmon. British  brands love colour and while Beaucroft aren’t quite as out-there with it as someone like Farer, they’re nailing that quintessentially British flavour.

Beaucroft Element Sunset Orange

All of that brings us to the big news for Beaucroft: the shiny new Element Collection. If the Seeker was taking the Signature concept in a more traditional direction, the Element is the opposite. Gone are the minute dots, replaced by a minute track with numerals. The slim indexes have been replaced with chunkier, indexes across the board, half-covered in blue lume with a double to pick out 12 o’clock. The crown has been overhauled to something much more modern and, perhaps most importantly, it’s now on a bracelet. It’s not the retro Milanese number they’ve used before, but a proper, three-link version.

While all of these individually are small changes, they all add up to a much beefier, more modern watch. It’s still very much a Beaucroft, with its layered dial, but now plays host to an even greater array of gradient colours than before. Two blues (ocean and sky), two greens (forest and one we’ll get onto shortly) and a pure black run the usual gamut of Beaucroft colours. Then there’s a gorgeous burnt orange that’s expanding the brand’s rainbow repertoire into the kind of territory I’m obsessed with.

Beaucroft Element G & T

The model I previously alluded to is the same sort of mint green Beaucroft have played with before, but with a special edition twist. Ideally a twist of lemon, as it celebrates the watch brand’s ongoing, five-year partnership with the Cambridge Gin Lab. I can’t say for certain if you get a bottle of gin with it, but they’d be missing a trick otherwise. I can say from experience that most watch lovers like a drink to discuss horology over, and British horology demands a G&T.

Beaucroft Element Obsidian Black

What I’ve not touched on yet is accessibility. Beaucroft is British; British watches outside of Roger Smith, Struthers and the proper horologists tends to mean accessible. Well, the Senate will set you back £395, while the Signature and Seeker with their sunray brushed dials are a little pricier at £425. The Element is £599. That might seem like a jump, but bear in mind that’s on the bracelet, it encompasses more actual watchmaking than Beaucroft’s other models and still has an automatic movement – the ubiquitous Miyota 9039.

Yes, the Element is more expensive than other collections, but I think we can all agree that for £600, it’s still eminently affordable and, perhaps more importantly, represents Beaucroft’s most confident watch yet. All they’re missing now is a yellow dial.

More details at Beaucroft.

Most watchmakers leverage their ambassadors for big, flashy campaigns, shouting about the newest watch in their collection in a tightly marketed flurry of pomp and ceremony. Then there’s Daniel Craig. The former 007 has recently swapped sharp suits for slouchy cool, but his wristwear game is still on point. While he’s no longer the consummate superspy, he’s been clandestinely showing snapshots, not just of his own collection of Omegas, but upcoming watches even our counterintelligence operatives can’t dig up.

We first saw it happen with this year’s white lacquered Speedmaster, a crisp, tasteful refresh of the classic Moonwatch. But the under-the-radar flexes don’t stop there. While at the Olympics, Craig was spotted with a completely new Seamaster 300M on his wrist. The proportions and distinctive bezel made the collection obvious, but the black, metallic dial was entirely unknown.

Well, now we can shed some light on that particular piece of information. Craig was wearing one half of a two-piece new run of models that mixes up the usual ceramic look of modern Seamasters. Craig’s was the half in black, both bezel and dial in black aluminium with those signature engraved waves that we know (and some of us love) on the dial. The one we have here though it a bit more of a departure – and arguably the more interesting.

Titanium in the first instance might sound like a bit of a downgrade from ceramic and, well, it is. It’s not as hardwearing or high-tech by a stuntman’s death-defying leap. But it is more practical on something that’s designed to take some serious knocks, as it’s not only more lightweight, but it’s a lot less brittle. It’ll scratch but it won’t shatter or chip. Which is key for a diving bezel mounted on a steel case.

Perhaps more importantly, the new pieces take the metallic bezel directly from the coolest Bond watch in years that didn’t have an embedded laser, the Seamaster Diver 300M 007 Edition from No Time to Die. Say what you want about the film, the wrist game in it, heading back to military heritage style, was beyond reproach.

Drop the military colours and NATO strap of that watch and you land somewhere near this new edition. The new 300M has a similar 42mm silhouette with its generally unused helium escape valve, but in monochromatic silver case, bezel, dial and strap. The dial is so pared back that it’s even dropped the collection’s famous wavy engraving, and the result is one of Omega’s cleanest, sleekest divers for a long, long time.

On the wrist it sits like a host of other Seamaster Diver 300M models. The lighter bezel’s not noticeably different, but the less busy dial does give the look a bit more impact in a tone-on-tone cool sort of way. I love monochrome watches almost as much as I paradoxically love bi-colour for that 1970s retro style and this version of the Diver 300M ticks all the boxes.

That’s doubly true of the strap, which is a work of art. The insanely comfortable mesh ensemble has that ‘shark-proof’ chainmail construction but pairs it with reinforced holes for a pin buckle deployant clasp combo for easy adjustment.

This isn’t the first time it’s been done – again, it’s taken directly from the Bond watch – but as we had the limited edition on the NATO, it’s the first time I’ve personally tried this kind of strap on. I’m sold, wholeheartedly.

Inside, the watch is Omega business as usual with the Co-Axial Master Chronometer calibre 8806. The magnetic resistant, George Daniels descendent has a weekend-proof 55-hour power reserve and is tested well beyond what COSC would ever do. It’s also nicely finished, which you can see through the exhibition caseback, even if this is one of the times I’d have thematically preferred a solid caseback instead. Military heritage style and all that.

Of the two pieces in this new metal bezel collection, I prefer this version over Craig’s. At a glance, it’s harder to tell the difference between his and the previous ceramic version (even if in the metal it’s quite easy), and dropping those waves gives the all-silver version its own, stripped back personality.

As for its place in the wider Seamaster Diver 300M collection, this one is priced at £6,100, compared to £5,600 for the normal, ceramic version. That’s an unexpected increase on what can at best be called a lateral move. Granted, that bracelet requires a lot more effort to create than the usual three-link number I’m comparing it against, but that still feels like the price went in the wrong direction. Still, if you want the best-looking Diver 300M in Omega’s collection, it just looks like you’re going to need to pay out – because that’s definitely what this watch is.

More details at Omega.

A cool, wearable automatic watch doesn’t need to cost the world. Or even a fraction of it. Price as much as anything else is a fundamental reason to buy a particular model or from a particular brand. But whereas in previous years we might have opted to showcase the most expensive watches ever sold, there’s been a dramatic shift in watches as a whole. That shift is towards one thing above anything else: value. I won’t say the days of flashy, big-ticket timepieces are gone, but it’s now worth taking a serious look at some of the best automatic watches under £1,000.

I will also say that the accessible end of the spectrum is quite possibly the most exciting. Don’t expect many metiers d’art dials, manufacture movements or cutting-edge materials here; who needs that when you’ve got a cool watch that you love to wear and doesn’t cost the world? You can’t (or more accurately shouldn’t) wear your solid gold Rolex Deep Sea all the time. So, from colourful future classics to mind-boggling specs-for-price ratios, here are the best accessible watches for under £1,000. Oh, and while there are plenty of quartz pieces playing in this particular kiddie pool, we’re looking strictly at mechanical. Because of course we are.

White suits, blue water and plenty of neon pink, what’s not to love about Miami Vice? For once that rose-tinted obsession with nostalgia’s actually pretty damn fun. Who’d opt for an ode to the 1950s when you can have the cocaine-drenched ‘80s, intimidating moustaches and a white Ferrari Testarossa? HTD have taken that theme and gone with it, at least in the dial colour, with the HTD Hesagraph Miami Vice.

The focal point of the new watch is, of course, that dial. It’s pink. Very, very pink. There have been a fair few pink watches over the past couple of years and I’ve been here for them all. This though is next level. HTD have used what they call ‘triple colour laying technology’ to give it its depth and brightness. What precisely that technology is it’s hard to say, but one can assume it’s three layers of colour on top of one another. Either way, it’s one of the loveliest shades of disco pink I’ve worn, right on the border between femininely pastel and a punkier, electric colour.

While you might instantly expect a sleek tricompax chronograph to also include a tachymeter, that’s not for HTD. Like previous versions of the Hesagraph the bezel is instead plain steel. It works as well here as it does with the more stripped-back, utilitarian tool watches in their line- up, but for a different reason. Not only does it leave the pink to do its job, but the polished metal has a glitzy, reflective look that ties into the whole Miami Vice of it.

For a brand labelling themselves as the Horological Tools Department however, there are a couple of oversights that I’m surprised made it to production. The first is readability. The steel indexes are nice and clear, largely because they’re three-dimensional. The white numerals and minute tracks though are hard to read in direct light and downright unreadable in anything less. They just blend into the pink enough to strain your eyes. You can still tell where the hands are pointing, but it feels like an oversight.

It’s a shame as I’d have loved to see a version of this with some more neon brightness, perhaps green or blue to contrast with the pink and really hammer home that ‘80s disco feel. It’s not as if there’s no colour palette to draw from there. It might have made it a bit more divisive than solid pink, but with only 150 of these available, I’m sure it would have made at least 150 people very happy.

Then there are the lugs. The case is 39mm in diameter, but the Hesagraph Miami Vice is proof positive that you should always look at lug size, which here is 48mm. That’s a substantial increase on the wrist, but that’d be fine if they were curved. Instead, they’re straight, meaning that on my wrist there’s a distinct ‘box’ shape where other watches would follow my wrist. It’s not deal-breaking by any stretch, it’s still comfortable, it just doesn’t look as slick as it could.

That’s where the gripes end, however. Looks-wise it’s a beauty and not just for the pink. The combination of playful colour and tool watch shape – including the impeccably machined bracelet – add up to the kind of go-anywhere, do-anything watch that’s in vogue at the moment. Even the sapphire crystal is lovely, with its U-box curve, sitting right off the bezel. It’s practical and fun in equal measure.

It feels mechanically great too, with exceptionally satisfying pump chronograph pushers thanks to the SW510 M Elaborè inside. It’s a classic manual-wind chronograph perfect for smaller-sized cases. You’ll more normally see the SW510 in bi-compax numbers, but it works just as well here, especially with its 58-hour power reserve. As this is the Elaborè version, we can assume that the finishing is exceptional for a third-party movement, but as it’s a solid caseback and I don’t regularly pop them off if I can help it, I can’t say for sure.

So, what’s the bottom line with this disco-drenched chrono? I’ve liked previous versions of the Hesagraph and I like this one about as much. It’s less practical than variations such as the Pure Speed and Canoli which draw their vintage racing colourways from, well, vintage racing. As a flash of statement colour though, it’s hard to beat. At €2,500 (approx. £2,067), it’s exactly the same price as previous Hesagraphs too and it’s good to see HTD maintaining that price point – although right now you can get it for 10% off, which is always pleasant.

It’s not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but for a solid chronograph with this much personality, it’s about right. I’d like to see something between this and HTD’s uber-accessible Tennis series (which will set you back just €690), but if you’re looking to channel your inner Don Johnson, this is for you.

More details at HTD.

At this point, I likely don’t need to tell you about Toledano & Chan. Your friend that’s really into architecture has already complained about how the brutalist watches got snapped up way too quickly. However, Phillip Toledano, better known on Instagram as @misterenthusiast, has been a tour de force of the collecting and creative worlds long before he committed his name to a dial. A conceptual artist, designer and multi-hyphenate renaissance man, we sat down to talk about his latest projects, watch collecting and his ongoing obsession with history.

What was the last watch you bought?

Well, I guess there’s one arriving tomorrow, but probably the one worth mentioning more is a Daniel Roth Extra Plat oh, early 1990s. I’m really into early Daniel Roth. I just think the designs are really beautiful. I know that people are kind of obsessed by Breguet, but for me this is kind of in that style, yet more interesting because of the genius of the dial. It also has this unique shape.

Whenever you create something, it’s an opportunity to say something new and with that case design, that’s exactly what Roth did. I can’t help but love that combination of traditional, amazing Breguet style surrounded by the unexpected. I also don’t believe Louis Vuitton will do anything quite this interesting with the brand, so now seemed like a good time to get one for myself.

Daniel Roth Extra Plat, image credit: Loupe This

Do you collect anything outside of watches?

Well, I collected cars for a long time, but these days I feel like I’d prefer to sell the cars I own and put all that money into totally stupid watches. The reason’s simple: I’m just lazy. It used to be tough to get up crazy early and go to where I kept my cars in New Jersey, which is like a 20 minute drive away from where I live. I’d have to get up at six to go over to the garage, then go drive to meet people. Now I’m just such a loafer, entering the geezer era, you know. I just can’t be bothered. At least I can keep my watches nice and close – and get them stolen.

Fortunately, most of the watches I collect aren’t on anyone’s list of shit to steal. It’s just weird stuff that, you know, is odd. It’s not Rolex or Patek. That’s a good reason to collect obscure stuff. Although I do find that most of the stuff collectors say is obscure or undervalued just equates to ‘nobody gives a shit about this watch that I happen to like!’ But that’s the glorious thing about watches; there are endless rabbit holes to fall down. With cars, there are far fewer – and they’re a lot more expensive!

Toledano & Chan B1 Lapis Lazuli

What other than a watch is at the top of your wishlist?

Regular bowel movements? Like I said, geezer era. The closest I have is a matcha latte in the morning; it really pulls the pin on that grenade.

What is a recent find or discovery?

Other than an unusual mole? Well, I just fell in love with jumpsuits. I recently got one off eBay, but now I’m always looking for jumpsuits. For me, a jumpsuit is the ultimate in min-max. I feel like guys are all about putting in the least effort for the maximum amount of style. All the watch sausage parties I go to, there’s always a guy with his wife where she’s dressed up to the nines and he’ll be in a polo shirt with beige trousers. A jumpsuit though is the ultimate style-to-effort ratio.

What inspires you?

That’s the world’s worst question because, as an artist everything inspires me! Which incidentally is the world’s worst answer. But more specifically, surprise inspires me, and envy inspires me. Especially creatively, I feel like there’s nothing better and worse simultaneously than seeing something that you wish you’d thought of, and then being upset you didn’t think of it. It motivates you to think of more things, to try and one-up the competition. And it is a competition.

What’s a book, podcast or album that’s changed the way you think?

Oh god, well I’ve been reading these books about Henry VIII and it changed the way I thought about him. I had this weird notion of Henry, that he was sort of this cool king, even though I know he killed two of his wives and sort of took on the Pope, you know. The more I read though the more I realised he was a psychopath, basically. He was off his rocker, mental, not a cool person at all.

The reason being he fell off his horse and was unconscious for like, six hours. That kind of concussion can change your personality entirely, make you crazier. It made me draw all these parallels to Donald Trump. I wonder if he had a jousting accident. Or more likely beaned in the head by ricocheting golf balls more than once.

Maurizio Catalan

Who is a celebrity or person of note that you admire?

Maurizio Cattelan. He’s an artist that got famous creating this amazingly lifelike replica of Pope John Paul II being hit by a meteorite. He’s like the most incredible prankster in the art world. He’s a genius. At an art fair a few years ago, he taped a banana to the wall and put it up for sale. He just likes to fuck with people.

It’s not just a silly prank though; he’s audacious in a very clever way. People think a middle finger is audacity, but it’s not. Audacity requires a level of understanding and genius to do right. To genuinely subvert expectations, you need to know what you’re doing and it’s a very tricky, very binary proposition because it’s either right on or just stupid.

Citroen DS Convertible, image credit: Iconic Auctioneers

What’s your ideal long weekend?

Well. Honestly, I feel like at this point I’ve been an artist for so long that there’s not much difference between week and weekend. But if I were to have a few days away, I know where I’d go. I’ve lived in America so long that I really miss Europe. In case you’ve not noticed, I’m a history nerd, so I’d love to just go hang around some medieval village in Europe, going to the café and just being there.

It’s super boring shit actually, but I’d just be pottering round this ancient place with like 100 inhabitants. Then I’d take a drive – because I’d obviously have a Citroen DS Convertible at my disposal – and go find a vintage Rolex at a flea market for 10 bucks. Then I’d celebrate with a brisk matcha latte and have an immediate… never mind.

What would we always find in your fridge?

You know what? A Granny Smith apple. I’m a massive Granny Smith fiend. I can’t get enough of them.

What is a rule or mantra you live by?

I guess it would be creative brutality. I’m a conceptual artist, but it applies to everything, even having a watch brand. The thing is, people think of ideas as precious but they’re not. I find that often people hold onto their ideas, but the thing about ideas is that you have to be comfortable slaughtering them, so that you can get to the next one, which is always better.

I was trained in ideas in advertising, and advertising is a very brutal environment for ideas because you have to have a lot of them and a lot of them get crushed and bludgeoned immediately. So, you get used to powering and churning through many, many, many ideas until you get to one that works. When you can learn that, teach yourself to not hold onto the things that are bad, you can recognise when things could be better. And things can always be better.

What does the year ahead look like for you?

Well, I’m going to be relaunching Viva Bastarda, which is a clothing line I started. More Toledano & Chan watches of course – we recently built an insane meteorite piece for Phillips’ charity auction. I also have a new book coming out on the art side. I’ve actually been working with AI recently, as I’ve become deeply interested in the way AI has kind of redefined our relationship to the image. Because of AI, everything is true and nothing is true. So, my new book is around the idea of invented history, historical surrealism. It’s called We Are a War and it’s a reimagined lost role of film from the D-Day landing parties, specifically Robert Crapper who’s a very famous photographer.

It’s really interesting because we’re at a point in history where we’re soon not going to know what’s real and what’s not. How do we know what’s true? And particularly with the American elections coming up, that’s going to be really significant. Photography as truth has existed for maybe 150 years, which is nothing in the context of human history. We’ve had this very, very, very brief experience of image as truth. And now we might not have it any more. I’m not really worried, but I am curious about how it’s going to work moving forwards.

By the time they have over 30 horological patents under their belt, you would assume that a watchmaker would be spoken of in the same breath as the modern independent greats, like F. P. Journe or Philippe Dufour. And yet despite working for Patek Philippe, Ulysse Nardin, and Girard-Perregaux over the years, you may well not have heard of Stéphane von Gunten.

Last year, Stéphane launched Haute-Rive, a shiny new independent watchmaker and the first with the master horologist and inventor at the helm. As alluded to, the fifth-generation watchmaker had been working quietly behind the scenes for decades, but it took the impetus of Covid for him to make the big leap. But before we get into his modern watches, it’s worth looking at his horological past – and one watch, in particular.

Irénée Aubry’s Montre du Pape (Pope’s Watch)

It’s pretty common for the Pope to receive gifts. There’s a reason the last Pope had a Lamborghini and it’s not because he’s an adrenaline-fuelled hype beast. In 1888, to mark the jubilee of Pope Leo XIII, that gift came in the form of a gorgeous gold pocket watch. Nothing too unusual there – except that the power reserve was a staggering 40 days. That’s well over a month of power on a single wind. The maker of that watch was Stéphane’s ancestor, Irénée Aubry.

Irénée Aubry’s Hebdomas 8 day Pocket Watch

Power reserve is actually something that Stéphane has pushed throughout his career, no matter what brand he’s working for at the time. No multi-axis tourbillons, no complex chiming arrays, just that one, incredibly useful aspect of a timepiece’s spec sheet. And it’s that aspect that Haute-Rive is built around. The brand’s debut watch says it all, the phenomenal Honoris I.

On the surface, the Honoris I is an aesthetically elegant timepiece in the vein of other independent watchmakers. It comes with a grand feu enamel dial in a gold case, sized at a large-but-wearable 42.5mm. And yet there’s more going on than a glance can take in. For one, while the six o’clock tourbillon, the central gear bridge and the so-called ‘wheel of time’ at 12 o’clock are all visible, they’re not visibly connected. This means that while the elements are on top, the real work is happening underneath that enamel.

It’s a similar concept to something like MB&F’s Legacy Machines, just a bit more subtle. The thing is, while that over-and-under of components defines the look of the watch, it’s what you can’t see that defines what it actually is. You see, while his ancestor may have managed a watch with a 40-day power reserve,  Stéphane has achieved 41, around 1,000 hours. And in a single-barrelled wristwatch at that.

To get there, the mainspring is 3m long. That’s a single, 3-metre-long piece of metal that’s been curled into a spring that can fit in one small section of a none-too-large watch. While it sounds simple, there’s a reason it’s not been done before. So how do you fit that kind of thing in a wristwatch? By turning the mainplate into the barrel. Obviously.

As if upsetting the entire architecture of a watch wasn’t enough, anything with a power reserve this long likely needs a winding system more substantial than a standard crown. For one, that’s a lot of twisting a tiny component; for another, it would put a lot of force on the crown’s stem as you approach the upper power limit. So, Stéphane took a different approach and commandeered the bezel.

As you’ve likely noticed, the bezel is grooved with grips, allowing you to easily turn it counter clockwise to wind the mainspring. It’s still a fair amount of winding of course, you’re funnelling a lot of energy in, but it’s far superior to the crown, and you can keep an eye on how much you’ve wound it on the back of the watch. And hey, you only need to do it once a month – with a 10-day safety buffer.

For many watchmakers, power reserve is a nice thing to have; a selling point but not exactly a headline-grabbing one. A few hours here or there is more an afterthought than a core idea. Stéphane on the other had has used Haute-Rive to completely change the architecture of a traditional timepiece, specifically to put power reserve at the metaphorical and literal heart of the watch.

Haute-Rive is of course a brand that won’t have many collections in the future and won’t produce hundreds of watches. But if the Honoris I is anything to go by, he might just be one of the most low-key exciting independents around – and if you didn’t know about him before, you do now. You’re welcome.

More details at Haute-Rive.

Back in 2017, Louis Vuitton launched their Tambour Moon Flying Tourbillon, a skeletonised masterpiece of Poincon de Geneve finishing and lavish house details. A couple of years later, they introduced the Tambour Spin Time Air, a strange amalgamation of spinning cubic indexes and sapphire crystal. Even early last year, they released a pair of flying tourbillons in green and yellow sapphire cases, again skeletonised, again completely off the horological deep end.

Louis Vuitton LV1 Worldtimer (1988)

So, in that context, why was Louis Vuitton’s most restrained timepiece to date their most important? I’m leading with these insane bits of watch, but that wasn’t Louis Vuitton’s first foray into watchmaking. That came back in the 1980s with the LV1. In keeping with the brand’s jetsetter reputation – can you be a proper jet-setter without some Louis Vuitton luggage? – they opted for a slick worldtimer. It’s a bit of a rarity these days and they don’t go for a huge amount, but compared to the later pieces, it was a class act.

Louis Vuitton Tambour Twenty based on the original Tambour which was released in 2002 (2022)

The Tambours of old on the other hand were what I’d consider novelties. Not in the ‘new this year’ sort of way, but in the way that meant they weren’t what you’d consider a collection of watches in the traditional sense. Sure, they all shared the drum-shaped case from which they took their name, but they were disparate, eclectic and never really had an identity.

They were branded of course, with plenty of LV paraphernalia across the board, but if anything, that shot the watches in the proverbial foot more than helped. It made Louis Vuitton seem like a fashion house throwing the kitchen sink on your wrist in the hopes it would stick and, if they wanted to be regarded in the same breath as Hermes and Chanel are these days, something needed to change.

Louis Vuitton Tambour Sketch

That change came with Jean Arnault. If you know the name, it’ll most likely be for two reasons: he’s the son of LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault and brother of Frédéric Arnault, who until relatively recently was CEO of TAG Heuer. Needless to say, they’re a family that knows watches, and Jean himself is an avid aficionado of haute horology. And so it was his self- imposed mandate as director of watches at LVMH to make sure the LV in that formula could live up to the watchmaking task.

Of course, when it came to watchmaking as a craft, he had a lot to work with. Louis Vuitton acquired Fabrique du Temps way back in 2011 and over the last decade-and-change has turned it into a fully integrated development house. Pretty much anything a watchmaker should be able to do, they can do – and then some. So, all Arnault really needed to do was channel that talent into something approaching a serious collection – the 2023 Tambour.

Louis Vuitton Tambour Automatic 40mm Platinum, £18,100

Looking at the launch line-up of the revamped, 2023 Tambour, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Arnault is particularly taken by independent watchmaking. The less-is-more approach, the obsession with finishing, the classical nuances across the board make the new Tambour feel like a watch designed for collectors. Gone are the skeletonised dials and bright colours. Gone is the old LV logo splashed across everything. Instead, everything is clean, crisp and perfectly balanced in that drum-round case.

They are, of course, luxury sports watches, which even last year was a saturated market. But while it’s impossible to escape the spectre of Gerald Genta about these things, I’d argue that there was no other way to approach the Tambour. It’s not like the original design actually has lugs; an integrated bracelet is the only thing to do and by maintaining those more classical sensibilities instead of tired, flat planes and industrial finishing, it skirts the pitfall of Royal Oak and Nautilus association.

Louis Vuitton Tambour Automatic 40mm Caseback

All the same, it was a very safe collection. It’s priced high of course. It was never going to be cheap, with Louis Vuitton leveraging the downright stunning finishing of La Fabrique du Temps; seriously, look at that movement and tell me it’s not an absolute beauty. But after years of misfires, safety was what the brand needed. But something else was needed. After all, one good collection doesn’t make a watch brand.

Louis Vuitton Escale Platinum, £34,000

That next step came in the form of the Escale, which took a much more classical approach to a time-only watch. Gone was the drum-shaped Tambour case in favour of something much more traditional. Traditional as in, it actually had lugs. Those lugs are big and bolted to the side of the case, but they’re there and that means classical leather straps. It’s also a central seconds as opposed to the new Tambour’s small seconds, with bead minute markers that feel like they’d be at home on a Vacheron Constantin Patrimony. There are still some aesthetic swings, like the big hour markers at 12, three, six and nine o’clock, and the faceted, grippy crown, but otherwise it’s as straight-forward a dress watch as Louis Vuitton can make.

Between the Tambour and the Escale, Louis Vuitton’s offering a pair of handsome core collections and while I personally think the new Tambour nailed the aesthetic slightly more than the Escale, the latter is by no means a misfire. Far from it. The new colours are more than welcome and the meteorite edition is excellent. And if that were all Louis Vuitton were doing, it would warrant them being taken seriously. But it’s not.

Louis Vuitton Escale, £25,100

I mentioned previously Jean Arnault’s love of independent watchmaking. Well, that’s manifested in two ways outside of Louis Vuitton’s own watches, firstly in Daniel Roth. Roth is a name that makes serious collector’s fawn, a savant of independent watch design whose name has been passed from one watch group to another before landing at Louis Vuitton. Last year, they launched the first new Daniel Roth watch, using the brand’s signature case shape and three-scale timekeeping at six o’clock. It was incredibly faithful and the souscription limited edition pieces in yellow gold sold out fast.

It’s not hard to see why; the attention to detail was magnificent and Le Fabrique du Temps did an enviable job of imitating the master watchmaker to a tee. If you ever get a chance to see a Daniel Roth in the metal, do it – which has become a bit more likely this year with a non-limited (though still limited annual production) rose gold edition. It’s a grail watch in the truest sense and shows not only that the minds behind Louis Vuitton understand independent watchmaking, but that they have the horological chops to make it happen.

Daniel Roth Tourbilon Rose Gold

The Daniel Roth launch wasn’t quiet, but what was a lot more under the radar was Louis Vuitton’s Independent Watchmaking Prize. That’s right, alongside re-introducing a legendary name and completely revamping their own watch offering, Louis Vuitton has also been highlighting the good and great of indie watchmakers, the Mercury Music prize of horology.

It’s a bold move, to be honest. This isn’t like they’re trying to court these watchmakers; it’s acknowledging that they’re fantastic at what they do. Better than Louis Vuitton, in all honesty, and better than Daniel Roth in some cases. There’s no cynical marketing reason why one of the biggest luxury companies in the world would do something like this – except of course, for Arnault’s personal love of the craft.

Louis Vuitton Tambour Automatic 40mm Rose Gold, £51,500

That all brings me back to the Tambour and Escale. Sure, it’s hard to think of Louis Vuitton in the same thought as independent watchmaking. This isn’t F. P. Journe or Philippe Dufour. This is a luxury fashion company that loves trunks and travel. But the approach to both new collections has been that of an aficionado more than a brand, the kind of watches a collector of haute horology, not an LV monogram addict, would want from their watches. They could have just stamped said monogram on a third-party watch. That likely would have worked well enough in the vein of Armani watches. If you build it they will come. But ‘they’ aren’t Jean Arnault and while this may be one of the priciest passion projects in history, a project of passion it is.

More details at Louis Vuitton.

This week we hosted our second exclusive membership event and, even if I say so myself, it was a knock-out. Held at Grand Seiko’s phenomenal Bond Street boutique, it was a night of Japanese watches and Japanese whisky.

It was many readers’ first opportunity to try on the stunning European Exclusive editions, with their stunningly detailed dials inspired by Japanese ponds. Trust me, you cannot even begin to understand the intricacies and delicacies of these watches without seeing them in the metal and examining the way light plays across the facets of their dials. And thanks to the intimate setting of the Grand Seiko boutique everyone had a chance to admire them up close, along with a raft of other incredible timepieces.

In addition to the fabulous watches of Grand Seiko, the House of Suntory made an appearance to host a tasting of their three core expressions: Hibiki, Yamazaki and Hakushu. I’m sure some of you that didn’t make it are as envious of that as the watches. Being guided through the rich flavour profiles of exclusive bottles such as the 100th anniversary Yamazaki Mizunara 18 Years Old with its subtle spices and underlying woody tones was sublime.

It wasn’t all trying on and tasting however. We also chatted to ambassadors from both brands about the nuances of Japanese craftmanship, the difference with how we do things in Europe and the importance of nature to both brands. For example, with the European Exclusive watches, which were the highlight of the evening, the way the subtle engraving reflects the waves as wind ripples across the surface of the water.

Thank you to everyone that made it and for those of you that didn’t, we hope to see you at the next one! As a reminder, invitation to Oracle Time Membership events is only available to members.

Sign up to our membership and get access to event invites like this in the future aswell as a host of other benefits.

When it was launched back at Watches & Wonders 2024, the Zenith Defy Extreme Diver not only hammered home Zenith’s long-overlooked diving heritage, but proved itself to be one of the most genuinely interesting dive watches of the year. Sure, the ‘Plongeur’ revival grabbed headlines, but its modernised version was the real success. So, it’s no surprise that less than a year later, Zenith is extending the Defy Extreme Diver with a handsome, silver-white dial.

The Defy Extreme Diver is extreme by name, extreme by nature. On the surface is has all those dramatic angles and multi-faceted design touches that have made the collection what it is, backed-up by serious diving specs. It’s big, at 42.5mm of lightweight titanium, and solid, able to keep time 600 metres underwater. Paired with a unidirectional rotating bezel in hardwearing ceramic and you have an eye-catching watch that ticks all those professional necessities.

Granted the design is, as the name suggests, a touch extreme in its many, many facets. But honestly, the more brands out there doing their own things, the better. If you prefer your divers a little more retrained, there are plenty of other options elsewhere. Too many, some might say. None of that is new of course, I’m just describing Zenith’s Defy Extreme Diver from earlier in the year. So what here is new? Nothing more than the dial. Given just how dramatic a personality shift the new dial gives it though, it’s a change worth talking about.

The dial in question is a bright, silvery white engraved with the same four-pointed star emblem that defines the perennially cool Defy Skyline. It’s sunburst engraving emanates from the Zenith logo and, in a touch that every watchmaker should follow suit on, the date at 3 o’clock is perfectly colour matched to the dial. It’s eye-catching in the best possible way.

That said, a diver needs to be seen underwater as well as above. To that end, there’s plenty of Super-LumiNova across the dial, in three different colours no less. While it’s all the same in the light, in the dark you get blue, green and yellow split across the hours, minutes and seconds to easily distinguish one from the other.

Like the rest of the collection, the Zenith Defy Extreme Diver is powered by the El Primero calibre 3620-SC, a hyper-accurate high-frequency number that, despite the energy output, still has a 60-hour power reserve. That’s performance it should stick too even in harsh environments thanks to its paramagnetic components – read silicon.

Rounding things off, the Defy Extreme Diver comes on three different straps: the matching titanium bracelet, a chunky KFM rubber number with a Cordura-effect texture and, for the true professionals, an extra-long number meant to strap over a wetsuit. That last is also made from recycled fishing nets, which is thematically satisfying.

After most of a year with no more news from the collection, it’s good to see Zenith really hammering home their flagship diver. While I’d still like to see more colours of that Plongeur – imagine it in yellow or light blue, vintage Longines Comet sort of colours – the Defy Extreme Diver is a diver like few others. In a world of Submariner and Fifty Fathoms homages, that alone is enough to make it stand out. It’s a good thing that it has far, far more going for it besides.

More details at Zenith.

Independent watchmaking is still very much in its ascendency. I’m not about to say that the big marquee groups – LMVH, Richemont, and Swatch – aren’t still killing it with numbers and sheer visibility, but more and more individual horological maestros are making their presence felt. Kudoke is very aesthetic, in a very German way.

As with all independent brands, Kudoke has a face: that of Stefan Kudoke. And it’s a frustratingly youthful face at that. This is a man who has already achieved some impressive credentials in the watchmaking world, working for Breguet, Blancpain and Omega, and at just 22, earning a Master Craftsman Certificate. In Germany, that’s no small thing. He’s a stark counterpoint to that classic image of a little old man machining dials in the Alpine winter.

Kudoke 1

And yet, Kudoke is still very much along those lines, at least insofar as production goes. Stefan doesn’t have the fancy manufactures of Glashütte, nor does he simply buy in everything he needs ready to go. Instead, he does the watchmaking equivalent of working from home, working at the proverbial kitchen table in a pared-back workshop based in Weifa, a small town in east Germany. It’s a much humbler approach than he would have been used to at Omega.

Humble though might be the most apt word for Kudoke as a brand. Take one look at the Kudoke 1, their perennial flagship with its nine o’clock small seconds and beautifully machined… everything. There are distinct Saxon flavours going on and while the comparison to Lange might be a bit too obvious, it’s still apt. The Kudoke 1 embodies that distinctly German balance of elegance and understatement – albeit a bit more on the elegant side.

Kudoke 2

The main difference is that, while the quality is very much on par with the most prestigious German watchmaker, the prices are not. Just over £12,500 isn’t cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but when you get a solid gold case, a manufacture movement and painfully perfect finishing across the board, that number starts to feel like a serious value proposition.

Following the initial Kudoke 1, the brand only consolidated that bang for your buck with the day- night indicating Kudoke 2, the stunning triple retrograde Kudoke 3 and a wonderfully accessible Louis Erard Regulateur. They all share the same sensibilities, albeit with a bit more colour on that last, collaborative effort. But all of those models across the board actually comprise one half of what Kudoke can do, labelled Handwerk meaning, simply, handwork. The other side of the brand is very, very different: Kunstwerk.

Le Régulateur Louis Erard x Kudoke

Kunstwerk translates to work of art, so you might think you know what to expect here. Plenty of metier d’art techniques, perhaps some enamelling or even a cheeky bit of marquetry these days, all very low-key gorgeous and sehr Deutsche. What you probably weren’t expecting was a three-dimensional octopus breaking its way out of the dial like a Kraken rum advert.

Kudoke KudOktopus

The KudOktopus is just one design in a pantheon of gorgeous engravings, but its sculptural nature is very much the way Kudoke have embraced their artistic side. Showing hints of the manufacture movement underneath, it’s not just worryingly lifelike at the front, but those tentacles continue to grasp the movement on the caseback, too. While I never expected to utter the phrase ‘exceptionally rendered suckers’, I guess I have to, because they are weirdly stunning.

There’s normally a premium for this kind of attention to detail and beyond next-level finishing. And while the tourbillon-equipped editions are indeed pricey, the automatics come in at under £8,000. It’s not like these are mass-produced; they’re special rarities that have hours upon hours of labour lavished on them. Kudoke could ask for a chunk of change more and the KudOktopus would still feel undervalued.

Kudoke Real Skeleton

Like I said at the beginning, independent watchmaking is still very much on the rise. But it’s reassuring that, where the Journes and Dufours of the world still claim insane, headline-grabbing valuations, there are brands out there not just making great watches, but doing so at a fair price, not driven by hype. Between their classic Saxon looks on one side and their sculptural engravings on the other, Kudoke might just be Germany’s best kept watchmaking secret.

More details at Kudoke.

I probably don’t need to tell you who Andy Warhol is. The godfather of Pop Art and kingmaker of Cambell’s Soup is one of the most influential figures in any media. Vivid, colourful prints and a mass-produced approach to find art firmly entered him into the creative hall of Fame. His intense, eclectic selection of watches inducted him into the horological collectors’ club. Now, Piaget is leaning on that creative heritage with the new Piaget Andy Warhol Clou de Paris.

Andy Warhol & Yves Piaget

Piaget isn’t the only brand that Warhol wore. He’s perhaps best known for his Cartier prints, but the artist owned no less than seven Piaget watches of various sizes, shapes and calibres. Yet there was one that he became inextricably linked with: the Black Tie Watch of 1972. So, when Piaget revived the rounded square, dress watch design in 2014, it quickly became known as the Warhol watch. The latest version though makes that name official.

As of this month, Piaget have partnered with the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts to officially rename the timepiece the Andy Warhol Watch. It’s a small thing, but to make the name official is a stamp of approval from the people that know Andy’s legacy best. It also comes with a shiny new interpretation that might be the loveliest yet.

Piaget Black Tie Watch of 1972

The Andy Warhol Clou de Paris watch combines that rounded square of a cushion case – 45mm across of white gold – with the titular hobnail engraving pattern. Not on the dial mind you, but the bezel. The double row of engraving takes the place of some of the collection’s signature tiers and it looks magnificent. The dial on the other hand has been mainly left to its own devices, which makes sense; that blue meteorite is stunning enough that you wouldn’t want to interrupt it, except with slim indexes for readability’s sake.

Previous versions of the watch have used plenty of stone dials. Even before stone was in vogue, this was one of the few collections you could be guaranteed a slice of lapis of malachite. The meteorite is in a similar vein (pun intended) but with a much more modern, metallic hue. That combined with the Clous de Paris make this one of the more wearable in the collection.

The Andy Warhol Watch is powered by the 501P1 calibre automatic movement, a slim, 4hz number with a 40-hour power reserve, the perfect kind of movement for a dress watch like this.

I’ve always loved the Black Tie Watch as a kind of horological curio, something I’d be very unlikely to pick up myself but appreciate nonetheless. This version however I could certainly be tempted by.  The new Clous de Paris bezel and blue dial make for a much more modern watch and a much more wearable one at that. Sure, it’s (eye-wateringly) pricey at £55,500, but as dress watches go this is one of the more creative – which is certainly fitting. The only downside is that it doesn’t come with a pop art print. With a price like that, it probably should.

More details at Piaget.

Scandinavia is a fascinating part of the world, wild and untamed and yet home to some of the most stylish and well regarded designers of all time. It’s a unique melting pot of rugged Nordic influences and classy minimalism that you won’t find anywhere else. What’s more, all of these diverse elements find a wonderful place in horology – even though it’s not quite so well known as the watchmaking regions of Germany or France. From subtle dress watches, daily beaters and practical tool watches, you can find them all from across Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland. So without further ado, here are some of our favourite Scandinavian watch brands that you should know about.

Von Doren

Von Doren Il Tempo Gigante Automatisk Kronograf

From accessible flashes of summer ready colour to chunky, exceptional chronographs, Von Doren runs the full gamut of watches. As is the case with many a modern watch brand, founder Øyvind VonDoren Asbjørnsen was originally inspired by an heirloom Swiss timepiece handed down from his father. Far from an homage brand however, there’s something decidedly Norwegian about Von Doren, from their Art Nouveau inspirations to the stories their watches tell.

While the Runde is a handsome, colourful watch, for our money the ultra-cool, ultra-macho and ultra-retro Il Tempo Gigante is Von Doren’s opus. Inspired by Norwegian stop-motion film, 1975’s The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix, it’s every bit the throwback racing chronograph in a funky colourway of brown, black and yellow. It’s not your typical streamlined Scandi chic watch for sure, but it’s very much something only Von Doren could build.

More details at Von Doren.

GoS Watches

GoS Watches Sarek Rissa No1

Think of typical Scandinavian landscapes, the tundra, the glaciers, the Northern Lights, and you’ll see precisely where GoS Watches get their unique aesthetic. The Swedish brand is the brainchild of master watchmaker Patrick Sjögren, and smith and knifemaker Johan Gustafsson, who decided to pool their skills for a deeply Scandinavian brand.

From Gustafsson comes the copious use of Damascus steel across cases and some dials – albeit supplied these days by bladesmith Conny Persson; from Sjögren the kind of immaculate, nature-inspired finishing that would make Grand Seiko fans hot under the collar. The Norrsken, with its gorgeous wavy dial and even more gorgeous colours, is about as beautiful a Nordic watch as you can find.

More details at GoS.

Bravur Watches

Bravur Grand Tour La Corsa Rosa IV

There has always been some cross-over between cycling and watches, but no brand has encapsulated cycling culture quite as succinctly as Sweden’s Bravur Watches. After all, what watchmaker also produces a snappy line of cycling clothes? But while the jerseys and bib shorts are pared-back in a performance-oriented way, the watches are not.

Case in point, the Grand Tour La Corsa Rosa IV. A fabulous mix of tarmac grey (with a similarly inspired texture to it) and various shades of pink ranging from pale to hot, the watch is an homage to the Maglia Rosa, the leader’s jersey in the Giro d’Italia. It’s a showstopper, but there are also more subtle touches that show Bravur’s love of the sport. Look at the 13 on the minute track, for example. Not only would it not normally be there, but it’s upside-down, a reference to how the number 13 rider wears it to ward off bad luck. See? Nobody does cycling and watches like Bravur.

More details at Bravur.

Sarpaneva

Sarpaneva Supermoon

Sarpaneva’s angry moon looking like it’s been pulled right out of Georges Méliès’ imagination has become an icon of independent watchmaking. It’s just one part of the brand’s modern approach to high watchmaking, but it’s by far the most visible, especially when combined with the intensely skeletonised dials, unique case shapes and playful approach to lume. There’s a lot going on and that moon is the lynchpin of it all.

The brand’s Supermoon, as the name suggests, amps that up to the next level. The twin moon display at six o’clock has more character than most watchmakers can fit on an entire dial, a tribute to the brand’s earlier 2008 Korona K3. Apparently, this specific moon is an ode to Finnish spirit, though from personal experience most Finns I’ve met have been far, far happier than this melancholic orb. It is however everything Sarpaneva stands for.

More details at Sarpaneva.

REC Watches

REC Watches The Habu Limited Edition

Danish brand REC have carved out a historical niche for themselves with one spectacular inclusion: pieces of actual historical machines. If that sounds familiar, it’s something the wider watch industry has embraced in recent years but none to quite the same extent as REC. Their limited collection includes salvaged metal from cars, motorbikes, aircraft and pretty much anything that can move on its own steam.

We’re not just talking vintage here, either. The Habu, REC’s latest, is made from an SR-71 Blackbird, a legendary long-range reconnaissance aircraft that’s as much space craft as plane. The watch dial is made from the aircraft’s inner engine nacelle exhaust ejectors – and if you know what those are, REC as a brand probably get you very excited. Set in a titanium case inspired by the Blackbird’s aerodynamic form, it’s a statement watch in more ways than one.

More details at REC.

JS Watch Company

JS Watch Company 101 38mm

Hailing from Reykjavik and priding themselves on being one of the smallest watchmakers around, JS Watch Company nonetheless count the likes of Mads Mikkelsen, Ben Stiller, Ed Sheeran and Jude Law among their fans. That’s a big following for a small Icelandic watchmaker, but JS Watch Company offer the kind of watches that have purists fawning, with coin-edge bezels and the overwhelming choice of black or white dials.

Movements are Swiss workhorse numbers finished to the highest standards, which while a bit of a departure from those classical aesthetics, means they’re more affordable than they look. Take the 101 38mm as an example. The Goldilocks sizing, clean numerals (Roman or Arabic) and Breguet hands look like absolute stunners, with a price tag well under the £2,000 mark. With three generations of watchmaking heritage channelled into each and every watch, that’s pretty impressive.

More details at JS Watch Company.

Arcanaut

Arcanaut Fordite Nebulous Eye

Doing weird things with weird materials is the name of the game at Arcanaut. The Denmark-based but pan-Scandinavian brand’s collections embrace intriguing composites and colourful fordite (made from car industry paint run-off) dials, colours aplenty and a tongue-in-cheek approach to high-end watchmaking.

The Experimental Collection lives up to its name, with incredible lume dials and casebacks. The Bonehead, as an example, involves injecting a chunk of aluminium foam used in the aerospace industry with resin, then attaching the result to a solid block of lume. This isn’t experimental in the structured, lab-based sense but in the ‘just do it and see what works’ approach. And it’s hard not to love Arcanaut for that.

More details at Arcanaut.

Micromilspec

Micromilspec Milgraph

Until recently you would have had a hard time coming across a Micromilspec watch; they were the purview of military squadrons and regiments, the sort that you’d only see with black bars scrawled across their names. Now however, the brand is opening up a bit more with production watches available to civilians.

That watch is, specifically, the Milgraph. Channelling the brand’s years of custom military watches into one piece, its multifaceted design, quirky scales of various shapes and sizes, and a lightweight titanium case all combine to create a unique looking piece with a serious specs sheet. It’s a good sign of things to come and I’m looking forward to seeing what the Oslo-based brand does next.

More details at Micromilspec.

Bruvik

Bruvik Fjord N2.0

There are more integrated bracelet sports watches these days than ever before – including when they were at their initial height in the 1970s – so it takes a solid design for one to really stand out. Bruvik has three. If you want something a bit more elegant, there’s the Senja with it’s cool tessellating bezel. If you want a no-holds-barred twist on what the Bulgari Octo’s putting down, there’s the Fjord N2.0, which combines a GMT with a funky spider web/spacetime pattern across the dial.

Then there’s the Arctic Ocean, which yes, uses a strap, but one that’s about as integrated into the case as you can get. The latest edition also reveals the inner workings of the automatic movement, bordered by scales you’d expect to see on instrument panels as much as a watch. Of the three, I’m all about the Senja, but honestly, there’s something for everyone here.

More details at Bruvik.

Båge & Söner

Båge & Söner Brew Baby

Yes, these are alarm clocks and yes, I’m aware that an alarm clock is not a watch. But bear with me on this because not only are they small, portable timekeepers, but Båge & Söner borrow plenty from the world of actual horology. The dial looks like its ripped straight from a colourful dress watch, and the rounded corners of the square shape give the whole thing the kind of retro good looks that deserves a place next to your bed.

The Brew Baby variation is particularly cool, a combination of warm browns and golds that has the kind of sepia-tinted nostalgia of a valve amp. Oh, and speaking of audio, Båge & Söner’s alarm clocks start off quiet and ramp up, so no horrifically rude awakenings.

More details at Båge & Söner.

Sjöö Sandström

Sjöö Sandström Landsort 459m

No-nonsense cool is the name of the game with a brand I’m always going to try and avoid pronouncing out loud. They hit that sweet spot of quality and accessibility that make one of these streamlined flashes of Scandi design a flawless everyday wearer. The Royal collection – and the upper end Royal Capital version – offers the kind of versatility that means you don’t need to puzzle out what watch to strap on for the day.

That all said, there are some more specialist pieces in Sjöö Sandström’s line-up. The UTC Skydiver does what it says on the tin, offering an ani-digi display fit for the literal jet-set. My favourite outlier however is the Landsort 459m. Named after the Landsort deep and sharing a name with an idyllic Swedish island, its charming asymmetrical silhouette makes it fall into the realms of a much more wearable Ploprof, with plenty of water resistance to boot. If you’re wondering why 459, that’s the deepest ravine in the Baltic sea. If you need anything more than that, you’re braver than I.

More details at Sjöö Sandström.

Halda

Halda Race Pilot

While they have since created the ultra-classical Henning XO, a 40mm solid gold, pocket watch-inspired slice of haute horological finishing, I’d argue that it’s a bit of an outlier. That’s because the rest of their collection riffs off the same concept: a smartwatch paired with an analogue watch in a swap-in-swap-out outer case. Traditional it is not. Dubbed the Race Pilot – or Trackmaster/Space Discovery depending on which variation you opt for – the watch includes both a mechanical module in various levels of ultra-modern performance looks and what is essentially a racing computer.

Fittingly for a racing watch, the mechanical movement is from Zenith, while the smart module will track all your stats on the track. In an era of redundant ‘racing’ chronographs, this might be the only real racing watch around. It also very much looks the part, and I can’t understate how satisfying the modules are to pop in and pop out. It’s overengineered and I love it.

More details at Halda.

“The difference between a madman and me is that I am not mad.” It’s not too much of a surprise Salvador Dali had to come up with a pithy response around his ‘paranoiac-critical method’. The idea of deliberately causing hallucinations for your art smacks of more than a little madness. He wanted to allow his brain to form links between things that the rational mind would not conceive, deliriously associating disparate objects or concepts.

If that all sounds a bit much, this was surrealism and surrealism revelled in the strange. For them, dropping mescaline was a perfectly fitting way to create art – and it worked. In 1931, the results of Dali’s method presented themselves in one of the most famous works of art ever created: The Persistence of Memory.

The Persistence of Memory

Even if you don’t know the name, you know the painting, with its melting clocks. As a work, it’s easy to extrapolate themes from, perceptions of time, the surrealist collapse of established order or, in the artists own words, a camembert melting in the sun. No matter your own interpretation, it’s a fascinating piece and one that has inspired generations of creatives from its home at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

So, why does this all matter? Other than the link between surrealism and watches that The Persistence of Memory represents, of course. Well, that’s because one watch brand has decided to interpret the ambiguous work very, very literally: Exaequo. Exaequo does one thing and one thing only, a physical interpretation of Dali’s melting watches dubbed, intuitively, the Melting Watch. This isn’t just ‘inspired’ by surrealism; the case has been rendered to that it looks like a round watch that’s been pinched in the middle, squashed into some approximation of a figure of eight. There’s nothing else quite like it on the market – and the dial takes things even further.

Exaequo has opted for Roman numerals, with the numbers themselves expanding into their space between the railway minute track and the lower, stepped down centre of the dial. That means they go from, larger at 12 and six o’clock to tiny and cramped at three o’clock and nine. Even that railway minute track around the edge of the two-level dial fits in a show of serious dedication to that surrealist theme.

The Melting Watch is available in a few colourways. Firstly, the case is available in steel or gold PVD. The gold is definitely a striking option, but I only really like PVD on a sports watch personally. Sure, it’s unique, but the Melting Watch is ostensibly a dress piece, so a proper gold case wouldn’t risk damage. It would however jump the price up hugely and accessibility, as we’ll get onto, is a good part of Exaequo.

Dial-wise you’re looking at the usual suspects: black, silver, blue and green, with a funky yellow dial rounding things off with a twist. The green version has gold numerals in the PVD case, silver numerals in the steel, but the rest are the same between models. It’s a solid selection, but I would have liked to see it with Arabic numerals as an option. After all, the watches in The Persistence of Memory have them, and that’s a large part of the inspiration here.

Obviously, this isn’t the first weirdly asymmetrical watch to ever be built; the Cartier Crash is a grail watch that most collectors would drop more than mescaline for. But where that haute horology rarity often achieves eye-watering auction prices, Exaequo offers their slice of surrealist madness for a fraction of the price – fitting given the name translates to ‘on equal footing.’

That’s largely due to the movement more than anything else, which is an ever-reliable quartz number, the Ronda 751-1. Sure, I’d like to see something like this with an automatic, but given the unique case shape, that’s easier said than done. Quartz can be smaller and slimmer at this price point, making sure that the curvaceous case doesn’t balloon to a weirdly inflated size.

This isn’t high watchmaking, far from it in fact. The stainless-steel version will set you back CHF 520, around £465, with the PVD version a tiny increase on that. But for the artistically inclined this is a fantastic, accessible and inspired take on surrealism made real. If someone told me that someone was going to create a melting watch based on Dali, I’d have probably called him a madman. The difference, it turns out, is that he’s not mad. Here’s hoping that not-madness extends to automatics in the future.

More details at Exaequo.

Sometimes there can be a bit of a disconnect between what watch collectors in a general sense think a watch should be and what the professionals actually using those watches need. That disconnect comes in myriad forms, but the one that stands out the most is a grudge match that’s been happening since the late 1970s: quartz vs automatic.

Automatic is, of course, the more prestigious of the two, purely mechanical and theoretically eternal – with a bit of servicing, of course. But the problem is, they’re simply less accurate and less reliable than their battery-powered siblings – which is why you often find that watches squarely aimed at professionals use quartz. After all, when accurate timekeeping is more important than resale value, there’s no competition between the two.

ProTek Official USMC Series, quartz (PT1016D)

It’s no surprise therefore that ProTek, who have been unashamedly building watches for the military, have thus far relied almost entirely on quartz movements. Unlike other brands, for them it’s never been about cost (quartz being markedly cheaper than mechanical), otherwise they would have settled for standard lume instead of the intense H3 gas tubes they’ve made their name with. Instead, it’s always been about building the best tool for the job – even when (or especially) when those jobs are off the books.

ProTek Automatic Carbon Composite USMC Dive Series (PT1212)

The thing is, if you make watches for a certain sub-set of professionals that do the job and look good doing it, you’re going to get other people interested, especially when those same characteristics make for a solid overall diving watch. And while the United States Marine Corps likely still want the tactical benefits of quartz, for collectors who simply love the intensely rugged aesthetic of ProTek’s USMC collection, an automatic movement would seal the deal. So, that’s what the brand has done.

The new USMC Automatic collection does what it says on the tin. It has the same gloriously chunky 42mm case in lightweight carbon composite; it has the same ratcheting unidirectional diving bezel with absurdly large grips and the same 300m water resistance, tested for once in water as well as air pressure. In short, it still looks and feels like the kind of Expendables-level hardware a spec ops unit needs.

ProTek’s Pro-Glo illumination system

It even houses ProTek’s signature Pro-Glo illumination system, which we’ve covered previously. For a quick recap though, their watches use tritium gas tubes which glow under their own steam – no need to charge them – for 25 years. Oh and they’re 100x brighter than conventional lume.

The only difference between the previous models and these is that the reliable Japanese quartz movement has been replaced by a reliable Japanese automatic, swapping the Miyota for a Seiko. If you want reliability and accuracy at an accessible level, you shop Japanese and the workhorse Seiko in the new USMC Automatic models is a watchmaking staple for a reason. It’s also one of the most ubiquitous – and therefore easily serviced and repaired – movements around, just in case the worst happens.

ProTek Stainless Steel Automatic 2200 Series

While the use of an automatic means that you will need to sync watches before a mission, it also means you won’t be left high and dry because you forgot to put in a battery – and means that both the superb Pro-Glo Illumination System and the movement are completely autonomous.

Of course, if the USMC watch is a bit too militaristic for you, ProTek has also updated their more style-conscious Series 2200, which offer a steel case and more colourful options for more everyday wear. The ethos is the same, offering a new autonomous movement to collectors put off by quartz, just in a more casual package.

ProTek Automatic Carbon Composite USMC Dive Series (PT1212)

So, what about price? Well, as I mentioned previously, automatic movements are generally more expensive than quartz, often by orders of magnitude. Here, not so much. The previous price for the quartz-equipped USMC Dive model was $495 (approx. £380), which for a watch with a carbon case, unique design ethos and tritium gas tubes is downright insane, regardless of movement. The automatic? That’ll set you back just $200 more.

Pair that uber-accessible price tag with some eye-catching new dials – the red in particular pops like nothing else in ProTek’s range – and you have a new heavy-hitter in sheer value. Yes, anyone taking their watch on a night mission will likely still opt for the original quartz USMC pieces, but for those of us that prefer the long-lasting autonomy and, yes, prestige of an automatic watch, the new collection absolutely nails it.

More details at ProTek Watches.