From cameras to cars, the West has often looked to the Land of the Rising Sun for innovation. And Japan's mammoth watchmaking industry is no exception. Heck, even the Japanese whisky industry...
You'd be forgiven for thinking that it's only in the last 10 years that watches got smart. Calorie tracking, GPS, wifi-enabled poo emojis... it's been a period of rapid wristed development. But...
Its square case is instantly recognisable, its name will forever be associated with one of the Kings of Cool – Steve McQueen – and it certainly doesn’t look 50 years old. The...
Fake watches are big business. The replica watch market is estimated at around $1bn a year - roughly a twentieth of the legitimate Swiss watch industry. According to some reports, as many...
Watch jargon can be confusing, especially when all you want to do is find something that suits your own personal style, doesn’t completely rinse your savings account and isn’t so prone to...
You’ve scrimped, you’ve saved, you've sold your grandma and now you’ve got a sizeable amount to spend on a watch. Bearing in mind this is the kind of money you could splurge...
It is instantly recognisable, ridiculously robust and versatile enough to wear with everything from joggers to dinner jackets. It is the watch every man wishes was in his wardrobe as well as...
Plundering the past isn’t a new thing for watch brands; however, recently it seems we’ve reached 'heritage' saturation. Going to the Baselworld or SIHH watch fairs is like walking into a horological...
Those who were working in the watch industry in the winter of 1969 probably remember December 25 with a shudder of fear. It was on that day Seiko unveiled its Astron –...
Time is your most precious gift, or so says every sickly sweet inspirational quote on Facebook. But turns out there may be some truth to the cheese-on-toast adage. You just need to...
Do you wear a modern mechanical wristwatch? If so, your pride and joy probably benefits from a clear caseback, perfect for answering those detractors arguing that the words ‘modern’ and ‘mechanical wristwatch’...
The origin myth of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak is as legendary as its design. It’s 1971, and the Swiss watch industry is feeling a little hot under the collar; the Japanese...
Things weren’t looking so great for the watch industry at the beginning of the 1930s. The export business declined dramatically between 1929-1932 thanks to the devastating effects of the Great Depression. For...
There’s a longstanding belief that watches under £200 are sub-par. It’s simply not true. While Swiss timepieces boast painstaking craftsmanship - and with it, painful price tags - affordable tickers shouldn’t be...
Audemars Piguet
It was a classic case of having too much work and not enough time to do it that led to Jules-Louis Audemars teaming up with Edward Piguet. Audemars hired Piguet to...
Pilot's watches might strike you as an incredibly specific subgenre. In fact, they were arguably the first watches altogether - for men, at least. In 1904, Louis Cartier designed what became known as...
Generally speaking, a decent watch costs a lot more than the clothes on your back. Sure, £500 is a considerable sum to drop on your wrist, and while that budget could deck...
Look at the wrists around a typical boardroom table, and chances are the watches strapped to them are one of the following: Rolex Submariner, Omega Seamaster, or Panerai anything. All three of them...
Wood may seem a strange material from which to craft a watch. Okay, it is strange - barking, if you'll allow us a terrible pun. There aren't many luxury Swiss watchmakers polishing...
When Swatch hit the big three-O in March 2013, the fashion-watch phenomenon commandeered an entire floor of the Baselworld trade fair, filling it with every single one of their 5,000-or-so watches. Something...
For years watchmakers were the masters of hype in menswear. Witness the droves of watch fanatics who’d make the pilgrimage to Baselworld every year just to catch a glimpse of a new...
“You get what you pay for,” is always used to justify spending more. Whether it’s cars, meals or winter coats, there is an inherent belief that the more noughts on the price...
Android Wear had a shaky start in the smartwatch game, with watches coming up short against competitors like Apple, Fitbit and Samsung in size, style, and spec. But a recent re-branding to...
There once was a time when a gentleman’s daily ritual involved the winding of his watch. Whether in the morning before leaving for work or in the evening after removing it for...
It's overstating things just slightly to claim that it's your watch which says the most about you, as at least one brand's campaign has. What about, you know, your personality? Or your...
Not all wrists are made the same. Nor are tastes. So, despite round cases' near monopoly on the men's watch market, it's good to know there are myriad other shapes on offer...
Few things are tracked as fastidiously as fitness. From beats-per-minute to miles-per-minute, winning, it seems, is all in metrics these days. But you needn’t be a mathlete to compete with the fitness...
Baselworld. It may sound like a theme park dedicated to the northwestern Swiss city most famous for hosting Art Basel, but it’s far more exciting than that. At least for people who...
Thought the Brexit debate was bad? Try asking the watch world to choose between quartz and mechanical. The former boasts increased accuracy and cheaper maintenance costs. The latter is a product of...
Buying a watch is a complicated business. And that's not a reference to the bewildering array of styles and price points on offer. Because in the world of timepieces, complication means something...
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
