Category: Watch for Sale

Watch for Sale,Replica watches for sale, cheap watches for sale,fake watches for sale,

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5935A World Time Flyback Chronograph

Look, I get it, a new Nautilus is a big deal and earlier this week Patek Philippe announced several new examples into the lineup and people are champing at the bit to share their thoughts on the new 5811 and its siblings. As for me, I’m simply thrilled to get to write about what I see as two of the best watches in the recent announcement, the grandly complicated 5204G and the wildly cool 5935G. You can have my spot in the Nautilus line because, if we’re talking about my own joyfully hypothetical buying power, I’m looking for something a bit more interesting. Interesting…and complicated, as this article will focus on two new references from Patek Philippe, the 5204G Split-Seconds Chronograph Perpetual Calendar and the 5935A World Time Flyback Chronograph. Do you remember that “Justification For Higher Education” poster with the big house and the supercars? You could just use a photo of either of these two watches if cars aren’t your thing. Cars are my thing, among many things. Maybe I should have been a doctor, after all.
Starting with the 5204G-001, it is essentially a white gold version of the existing 5204R, which was originally launched 10 years ago, in 2012, but was recently updated with a grey dial in 2021. This new version matches its white precious metal case with an olive green sunburst dial that continues the legacy of QP chronographs like the 2499 and the 5270 by offering the combination and then taking things a step further by featuring a split-seconds function for the chronograph (which is controlled via the button set into the crown). All of that grand complication is powered by the manually-wound CHR 29-535 PS Q and it is tucked inside a case that is only 40mm wide and 14.3mm thick. When you blend the sizing with the less formal dial coloring, the white gold, and the continued inclusion of luminous hands and markers, you get a very soft-spoken, almost unassuming, execution of what is a very (VERY) hardcore piece of watchmaking.

As soon as I started to look over the images of the new 5204G, I found that its general vibe reminded me of another very Grand Complication from Patek, the 5004. Retired in 2011, while the 5004 was made in several different versions over its 15-year life cycle, Patek commemorated the end of production for these Split-Second QP Chronographs by creating fifty examples in steel with gorgeous creamy dials and black dial furniture (I love when Patek does black markers and hands). As the 5204 came into being a year after the 5004 was retired, maybe the new 5204G is one step closer to seeing some version made in steel. While this 5204G is not specifically limited, it’s worth noting that Patek was only producing around twelve 5004s a year back in 2011. Like its rose gold sibling, 5204G has the sort of price that you write on a piece of paper and slide across a table. I suppose the digital equivalence would be for me to omit the price from this sentence and tell you that I’ve included it at the bottom of the article.
If only I were a rich guy – because holy moly – do I like the 5935A. As an extension of my fascination with travel watches, I love the romance of a world timer, especially those of a Cottier-derived nature (I wrote a bit about it here, and more about it in Watches: A Guide by Hodinkee). I know, I know. It’s only full-hour time zones but the idea of the whole world on your wrist has a very old-world charm to it and the new 5935 only amplifies that charm by mixing a steel case with a stunning dial and a special movement. Let’s start with the movement, as it’s the first time that the CH 28-520 HU has been used in a steel watch. You might remember previous and precious outings for this caliber by way of the blue- or green-accented 5930G, and the CH 28-520 HU is notable for its combination of both a traditional world timer (showing instantaneous time and an indication of day/night in 24 time zones) along with a 30-minute flyback chronograph.

For the 5935A, the combination is so well done, especially in terms of how lightly the chronograph treads on an already complicated dial. The sizing is good, too, with the 5935A measuring 41mm wide and 12.75mm thick while housing an automatic movement with two rather useful complications. Then we get to the dial, which is described by Patek Philippe as rose gilt with a carbon motif and charcoal grey accents. Did I mention that I love when Patek Philippe uses black dial furniture? I did, but feel free to add charcoal to that list – the first-gen 5270, the final 5004, Briggs Cunningham’s frankly jaw-dropping 1526. The mix of the rosey dial, the dark and legible markings, and that carbon-effect center finishing, I just love it.

Interestingly, Patek says that the carbon motif is in reference to the ref. 6007 LE from 2020, but let’s not forget 2017’s 5208T-010 for Only Watch (and yes, I had to google that reference), or the unique 5004T (thank you for that one, Ben). With the 5935A carrying a price tag of $63,870, what can I say? A fella can dream, and hope that my meager GME holdings shoot for one of Jupiter’s moons. I’m afraid our own moon simply won’t cut it anymore.

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TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 200 Solargraph 40 DLC Carbon Black

TAG Heuer released a slew of new models for Watches & Wonders, including a Superdiver Aquaracer with a Kinnesi movement (more on that later). Their most compelling release may be the most accessible in the solar powered Tag Heuer Aquaracer Pro 200 Solargraph. This is an all-black affair with a trick carbon bezel, efficient solar movement, and trim case dimensions. It also utilizes the best parts of the new Aquaracer design language, with ridged dial and no cyclops. There’s a lot of watch packed into this 40mm, black DLC frame.
TAG Heuer is splitting their Aquaracer family into two different categories, one geared for diving, and one for the outdoors (though they still have perfectly adequate depth ratings). The Solargraph falls into that latter category, relying on sunlight (or any light, really) to charge its battery-less movement, the TH50-00, that was developed by La Joux-Perret for TAG Heuer. This is the first time the brand has used a solar powered movement, and it makes a good deal of sense here. The Tag Heuer Aquaracer Pro 200 Solargraph movement needs just a couple of minutes in the light to properly charge for a day, and about 20 hours worth for a full charge, which will last 6 months. With any regular use this watch should remain in usable condition, assuming you spend any time at all around a light source. This movement also keeps the case ultra wearable and light, which is a welcome move for a watch geared toward outdoor use, whatever that might entail. The steel case is PVD black, hosting a black dial with white hands and hour markers for crisp contrast. There’s not much in the way of color, save for the light blue seconds hand and hour plots. The bezel is carbon with ribbons of lume appearing organically throughout. It’s a great touch on an otherwise straightforward watch and provides a great deal of visual personality in both light and dark settings. A black rubber strap ties everything together and wears quite comfortably, though I reckon all manner of fabric or nylon straps would really sing on this one. We’ll find out once we get our hands on a sample to put through its paces. Outdoors, of course. As for the great re-positioning of the Aquaracer family, I look forward to seeing how both this Tag Heuer Aquaracer Pro 200 Solargraph watch and the Superdiver lay the groundwork for more fleshed out collections of watches. The name will still throw you for a loop, but if we get more general use, simply built outdoor watches like this, I’m all for it.

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Richard Mille RM 88 Automatic Tourbillon Smile

Richard Mille has unveiled its latest technical, creative and forward-minded timepiece: the RM 88 Automatic Tourbillon Smiley. The watch, which took three years to develop, celebrates the iconographic Smiley illustration, drawn by Franklin Loufrani over 50 years ago.

The time-teller is decorated with myriad happy micro-sculptures crafted by Olivier Kuhn, including a blossoming flower, warm sunrays, a delectable-looking pineapple, a thriving cactus, a pink flamingo and a bright rainbow. Inside the watch’s white ATX ceramic case, each gold miniature is strategically placed around the central Smiley motif and applicquéd atop an auxiliary baseplate. Notably, the striking Smiley motif, which is micro-blasted and painted yellow gold, is situated above the detailed landscape from atop the motion-work bridge, which features polished anglage and drawn edges.

On the mechanical side, the watch is equipped with the new CRMT7 calibre, a skeletonized automatic tourbillon movement with hour, minute and function displays. The design’s bridges, made of grade 5 titanium, are coated with a complex double PBD coating in black and gold, a finish that also appears on the back of the baseplate. Outside, the crown bears the signature Smiley icon and the caseband appears in red gold.

The RM 88 Automatic Tourbillon Smiley is limited to only 50 units. Take a look at the imaginative timepiece in the gallery above, and learn more on Richard Mille’s website.
Richard Mille RM 88 Tourbillon Smiley. Only $1.2 Million USD. The new Richard Mille RM 88 Automatic Tourbillon Smiley, with its three-dimensional aesthetics and splendid colors, takes on the vivid quality of a waking dream. A playfully colorful, poetic, and lively creation limited to 50 watches.
The playful timepiece is limited to only 50 units. Richard Mille has unveiled its latest technical, creative and forward-minded timepiece: the RM 88 Automatic Tourbillon Smiley. The watch, which took three years to develop, celebrates the iconographic Smiley illustration, drawn by Franklin Loufrani over 50 years ago.
In keeping with watchmaking tradition, all finishing operations on the RM 88 Smiley are carried out by hand. In a manner similar to that of a car’s gearbox, the function indicator allows one to see the winding and hand-setting positions as the crown is pulled out. The active position is indicated via a hand at 3 o’clock.

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Bell and Ross BR V3-94

Several years ago when I first began to really indulge my interest in watches, Bell & Ross was one of the first brands outside the household names that I became aware of. I can distinctly remember walking into a Tourneau and seeing the Bell & Ross display prominently featured to my right immediately as I entered. Under the glass I saw a bunch of square watches that looked like some combination of a children’s toy, an aircraft instrument, and avant-garde design objects. I was so new to watches at the time that I even remember having an intrinsic understanding, from the watches and marketing materials alone, that Bell & Ross was surely some manner of historic watch brand that must be an insider’s secret.

Hey, I was new. I definitely hadn’t discovered Worn & Wound or any other watch related websites by this point, and was probably taking my cues mostly from StyleForum and advertisements in glossy magazines. Bell and Ross BR V3-94, of course, is not a historical watch brand. They were founded in 1992 by Bruno Belamich and Carlos A. Rosillo, and eventually gained traction with their BR series of square cased watches with circular dials, made to look like gauges on the instrument clusters you’d find in an airplane. Bell & Ross sought out opportunities to bolster their reputation as an aviator’s brand, and became the official supplier of watches to the French space program and the French Air Force.
Bell & Ross is the product of a somewhat simpler time in watch enthusiasm, right before the blogs hit, and Instagram became essential. They predate a lot of snobbery that is now associated with the luxury watch world, and I’ve been around just long enough to look back on peak Bell & Ross with some nostalgia. This has always been a design forward brand with an emphasis on storytelling, and jabs at some perceived lack of authenticity are misdirected, in my opinion. Bell & Ross never set out to fake anything, but they’ve always cultivated a very specific identity.

I like authenticity, but I also read fiction, and I don’t demand that every watch have an origin story that’s centuries old. I do, however, insist that watches be well thought out, made with integrity, wearable, and aesthetically pleasing, so that’s how I came to the Bell and Ross BR V3-94 Black Steel, an imposing chronograph that’s definitely not square – but also kind of is. Let’s get into it.
The Black Steel is part of the Bell & Ross “Vintage” collection, which forgoes the instrument style square cases for traditional shapes that register as “normal” watches. These aren’t the kinds of watches that necessarily jump right out at you when you walk into Tourneau for the first time, but they are perhaps the type of watches that possess a certain refined elegance that will stand the test of time, and could never be considered a fad.

While other watches in the Vintage collection have proportions that you could reasonably associate with actual vintage watches, the Black Steel, unfortunately, does not. The BR V1 (a simple time and date range) and the BR V2 (a midsize platform hosting a range of complications) come in with cases measuring 38.5mm and 41mm respectively, which are modern enough sizes but take a vintage inspired case and dial design well enough. At 43mm, the BR V3-94 is decidedly oversized, and the case looks blown up from every angle.
The shape is interesting, and wearing it over the last week or so, it gradually dawned on me that it shares a certain boxiness with modern Rolex “Super Case” sports watches, with wide, squared off lugs that give the watch an almost cushion case-like impact. I’m not someone who derides the 114060 Submariner – I’ve owned that watch and it wears much more comfortably than its somewhat severe appearance would have you believe. But the Black Steel is a full three millimeters larger in diameter. That makes a real difference in how it feels on the wrist, and in its visual impression.

The Black Steel measures about 13mm tall and 49mm lug to lug. It’s long and flat, and Bell & Ross has done a nice job making a big case feel svelte with a few clever tricks. First, the endlinks of the bracelet do not extend beyond the tips of the lugs, meaning the Black Steel wears a true 49mm lug to lug. In fact, these end links are integrated into the case (B&R sells a leather strap that mounts directly to it, Pelagos style). Secondly, the caseback is nestled closely into the midcase and doesn’t protrude from the bottom, so the watch wears close to the wrist. While the Bell and Ross BR V3-94 Black Steel is big, it’s not bulky in the way a dive watch of this size would be if it were rated to some extreme level of water resistance. The Black Steel gets by with only going 100 meters deep.
Finishing is nice but not extraordinary. The case sides are polished and the tops of the lugs have been given a brushed satin finish. This further links the watch to Rolex in my mind, even though this is a fairly standard application of finishing techniques for a watch like this. The bezel has a 60 minute counter and rotates crisply in both directions, 120 clicks for a full trip around the dial. Again, nothing extraordinary here, and that’s perfectly fine. It’s functional and felt reliable in my testing, but it’s not a notably outstanding bezel action.

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HYT Supernova Blue Moon Runner

Recently, I published a story (it happens). The comments, at least some of them, expressed frustration over a couple of things (it happens). The two things in question were the spate of very expensive watches recently on the site, and the other was at the frequency with which prices were reported as “available on request.” This tends to happen in the context of limited edition high complications and I am not entirely sure why the brands insist on the piece of theater that is price on request, except that perhaps it keeps them from committing to a market-specific price for a piece whose actual cost might vary by thousands of dollars, depending on whether or not there has been a FOREX hiccup.
Now, within that domain are watches that I like to call “hyperwatches” which have some analogies to so-called hypercars. They’re not just expensive – they are also, often, willfully complex, far beyond any demands of the practical and they are there to show what can be done with persistence, imagination, and often, a willingness to deploy technology previously unheard of in watchmaking (the entire Harry Winston Opus series was,more or less, hyperwatches).
HYT got a lot of early adopters amongst those who both love high complications but also don’t want to see another gal at the ball in the same dress. But it ran into technical issues as its watches went out into the world, and the company went bankrupt in 2021. However, unlike many high-concept hyperwatch companies whose demise proved final, HYT rose from its ashes under new management, with a new CEO: Davide Cerrato, formerly head of watch design at Tudor and Montblanc. HYT’s first watch under Cerrato was the Hastroid, and the company’s latest watch continues the themes of spacecraft and space exploration, and science fiction, with the recently introduced HYT Supernova Blue Moon Runner.
The HYT Supernova Blue Moon Runner uses the same basic technology found in every HYT watch. The capillary tube contains two fluids, one colored and one clear. The two fluids are immiscible – that is to say, they are composed of substances that naturally repel each other and don’t mix, like oil and water. The two fluids are propelled by a bellows system, in which one bellows expands while the other contracts to draw the fluid around the tube. The walls of the tube are extremely thin – less than a quarter of the diameter of a human hair, according to HYT. The expansion and contraction of the bellows are controlled by a cam and lever system.
The whole system won’t work unless the entire bellows and capillary system is perfectly hermetically sealed, and HYT says that the airtightness of the system is 10,000 times greater than that of a diver’s watch (whose seals do allow the ingress and egress of atmospheric gasses, albeit extremely slowly). The “fluidic modules” as HYT calls them, are permanently sealed.
Fluids also expand and contract with temperature changes and since a watch has to be expected to tolerate a wide range of ambient temperatures on and off the wrist, you need some sort of system for protecting the fluidic modules from malfunctioning if the fluid expands and contracts. To cope with this, one of the bellows has an internal thermal compensation system, which expands or contracts as the temperature changes in order to maintain the correct fluid pressure and position of the boundary between the two fluids. The cam and lever system must operate with extreme precision – an elapsed time of one minute equals an advance of the fluid by precisely 1.5 microns, so there is very little margin for error. It takes 12 hours for the fluid to advance once around the dial, and at the end of each 12-hour period the two bellows are instantly reset to their original positions and the cycle begins again. Minutes are read off an outer track on the inner flange of the dial. Two rotating disks, placed concentrically around the moonphase display at the center, let you read off the date and month from their position adjacent to an indicator at six o’clock.
The most dramatic feature of the watch, however, is the central hemispheric moonphase display, which actually manages to upstage the fluidic retrograde hour display (not an easy trick to pull off). I don’t know how many moonphase displays I’ve looked at over the last few decades, but it’s a lot – the moonphase is a lovely thing when done in the traditional fashion but there are a lot of ways to skin a cat, and playing around with moonphase display variations is something watchmakers enjoy, given the chance.
The moonphase display consists of the central hemisphere for the Moon and the aperture which shows how much of the Moon is illuminated. It’s straightforward to read and, in principle, no different from any other aperture-based moonphase display, but the execution’s unlike anything else I’ve ever seen and it gives the watch a visual impact that almost makes you forget the microfluidics, which for the first time at HYT are in the nature of a supporting cast rather than a featured player. HYT has also made excellent use of Super-LumiNova – including on the Moon hemisphere itself (which, like the moonphase aperture and its curved supporting bridge, is made of titanium).
This is partly a hyperwatch in terms of price (which is not on request, at CHF 100,000) and in terms of number made (a limited edition of 27 pieces). But mostly it’s an example of the hyperwatch as an act of imaginative mechanical design, and it’s in the same general category as watches by, say, MB&F. The price is not particularly of interest in most cases with this sort of thing, except maybe anthropologically, any more than price is relevant in evaluating a work of art as art, albeit it’s very difficult beyond a certain point to avoid conflating price with overall perceived value. HODINKEE’s former managing editor, Dakota Gardner, once wrote a story for us entitled “I Can’t Afford Any Of These Watches, And That’s Just Fine,” in which he made the perennially valid point that possession, or the potential for possession, is not the same thing as appreciation and is, in fact, irrelevant to connoisseurship. He wrote, “In my case, a watch could cost $10,000 or $100,000, and I will buy neither. So at that point, the watch becomes something beyond a commodity to be purchased. It becomes that which can be appreciated.”
In the several decades I’ve written about watches I’ve seen more watches that I can’t afford than not, and I’ve had a few bonfire of the vanities moments but those have largely been confined to dramatic disconnects in price and actual horological content as prices have gone up, often in what are essentially commodity watches. Hyperwatches, on the other hand, are a ton of fun to read about and look at, and occasionally even see in person, and what we get out of them, for the most part, is not what a dragon gets out of sitting on its gold (and I have never forgotten that Thorin, the dwarf in The Hobbit, says that despite their wealth dragons usually can’t tell a good piece of work from a bad one). What we get out of them, instead, is a horological world that’s more fun.

The HYT Supernova Blue Moon Runner: case sandblasted grey and blue titanium with titanium crown, domed sapphire crystal with AR coating. 48.00mm x 52.30mm x 21.80mm including the crystal; water-resistance, 50 meters. Movement, HYT caliber 601-MO, running at 28,800 vph in 43 jewels with a 72-hour power reserve. Microfluidic double bellows system for the retrograde hour indication; date and month on two rotating disks; minutes on the inner dial flange; hemispherical moonphase with titanium aperture. Black rubber strap with titanium buckle; price, CHF 120,000. Limited edition of 27 pieces, worldwide.

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Rolex Sea-Dweller 126600-0002 Replica

For decades, the Rolex Sea-Dweller maintained a 40mm diameter. However, that all changed in 2017 when the brand introduced the reference 126600. As the latest edition of its famed deep saturation diver, the Rolex Sea-Dweller 126600 is complete with a 43mm case, integration to the cal. 3235 Perpetual movement, a Cyclops magnification lens on the dial, and the return of the bright red ‘Sea-Dweller’ logo on the dial.

The Rolex Sea-Dweller 126600 represents the latest in Rolex innovation and it is perfectly on-trend with current watch tastes. Known as the bigger and more capable sibling to the iconic Submariner dive watch, it’s no wonder why so many loyal Rolex customers have their eye on this absolute stunner. Read on to learn more about the latest example of the stainless steel Rolex Sea-Dweller and find out how to get one on your wrist.

In the weeks leading up to Baselworld 2017, the speculation as to what Rolex would be releasing was rife. With astute watch collectors quickly pointing out that 2017 marked 50 years of the Rolex Sea-Dweller, the community braced for an anniversary edition.

We all know — and love — that Rolex celebrates iconic anniversaries, and more often than not it’s a sophisticated touch here and there. Think back to the Rolex Submariner (ref 16610LV), where we saw a green bezel, or the more recent Rolex Day-Date 40 (60th anniversary Edition), with a stunning green dial. For all that, they’re instantly recognisable: Rolex are subtle — one of their core strengths is to design and manufacture timeless wristwatches. A Submariner from 1970 looks just as good as a current production Submariner, and that’s because Rolex doesn’t do rapid change. They move to the beat of their own drum. So, when the doors to the fair opened, attendees (myself included) swarmed to the Rolex booth, fighting to get the first glimpse of exactly what this would be. Glistening in the window sat the brand new 50th Anniversary Sea-Dweller. Since that initial exciting glimpse, I’ve managed to spend a bit more time with the new Rolex Sea-Dweller reference 126600, which replaces the short-lived reference 116600, known to many as the ‘SD4K’.

Logic says this is a tool watch, built with deep sea divers in mind. Emotion says this is equally for the die-hard desk divers (which includes yours truly). It’s the perfect watch for someone who’s picked up a Submariner, or SD4K, and craved a little more wrist presence, both in size and weight. The same wearer who loves the sound the Cerachrom bezel makes, as they turn it around, all 120 clicks. The wearer who lives for the sound the oyster class makes, as you shut the Fliplock.

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Chopard Mille Miglia 2022 Race Edition

There are plenty of watches tied to auto racing, with big brands acting as sponsors to big racing teams and making splashes with special editions. Chopard has taken a drastically different tack from some of its high-profile counterparts in the racing watch space. For some time now, the brand has focused its racing partnerships on two historic races: the Grand Prix de Monaco Historique and the Mille Miglia, the latter of which acts as the name for the brand’s line of sports watches. The Mille Miglia is a legendary 1,000-mile Italian road race (fine, it’s technically 1,005 miles), originally run from 1927 to 1957 as a true road race, and since 1977 as a celebration of classic cars taken at a slightly more leisurely pace. The race runs a round trip from Brescia to Rome and back, and is limited to models that actually entered one of the original races held from 1927 to 1957 — meaning it’s chock full of beautiful vintage automobiles. For 2022, in celebration of the 40th running of the modern Mille Miglia, the brand has released a pair of limited-edition Chopard Mille Miglia 2022 Race Edition watches, offered in stainless steel or two-tone stainless steel and ethical 18k rose gold.
Like prior years’ editions, the Chopard Mille Miglia 2022 Race Edition watches feature a 44mm case with a well-proportioned 13.79mm thickness. While it won’t wear small, it’s a thinner profile than most automatic chronographs, which means it might be a surprise on the wrist. The case’s design is straightforward, which allows the dial to do the talking. On both the stainless steel and the two-tone model, the case is brushed throughout, save for the crown, pushers, and bezel (which are all rendered in ethical 18k rose gold on the two-tone model). The screw-down crown, nestled neatly in the guards, features a steering wheel motif, while the piston pushers have a crisscross knurling. The crown looks designed to be easily gripped and helps to ensure 100m of water resistance. The bezel features a single groove around its side and a decidedly slim ceramic insert in blue with white demarcations inspired by midcentury Italian road signs. The slender bezel is sure to make known the 44mm diameter, though the short, wide lugs may offer some relief. On the reverse, the screw-down caseback features a polished Mille Miglia motif on a frosted background, surrounded by text including the course’s route, “Brescia > Roma > Brescia,” and limited-edition numbering.
Beneath the domed sapphire crystal, Chopard has updated the dial from last year’s Race Edition. The dial is driven by legibility, evidenced by the large hands and indices, along with the contrasting finishes. Surrounding the circular-brushed, silver-gray dial is a sloped chapter ring with five-minute numbering and hashes at each minute plus quarter-minute markings, sure to aid in to-the-second timing. The applied hour markers feature blue CVD-treated markers filled with Super-LumiNova; their design and color are mirrored by the large minute and hour hands. The dial features three subdials as dictated by the 7750 movement: a 30-minute counter at 12, a 12-hour counter at 6, and a running seconds at 9. The two chronograph counters feature partial radial grooving with a red-tipped hand matching the central chronograph hand in a nod to Mille Miglia Red (which, by the way, is a color used by General Motors on the Corvette). The running seconds contrasts those with a solid blued hand and a fully grooved surface. The dial is rounded out by a magnified 3 o’clock date (with the cyclops on the sapphire’s underside) and the Mille Miglia logo.
The Chopard Mille Miglia 2022 Race Edition is powered by a Swiss automatic chronograph movement. It’s not specified by the brand which automatic chronograph caliber this is but given the specs and dial layout, along with the brand’s use of ETA calibers in other models, the good money is on it being an ETA 7750. As specified by Chopard, the movement provides a power reserve of 48 hours and runs at 28,800 bph for a smooth sweep. Chopard has gone the extra step to have the movement chronometer-certified by COSC. While a chronograph is the obvious choice for any racing watch, the modern Mille Miglia is run as a regularity race, where the object is to complete each segment in a specific time at a specific average speed. Although the race officials use GPS, pressure pads, and timekeeping staff to track progress, it won’t hurt teams to have a chronometer-certified chronograph along for the ride to keep their own time. Completing the package, this year’s Race Edition is fitted with a racing strap with a brown leather topside and blue rubber backing with a tread pattern taken from 1960s Dunlop racing tires.
While Chopard may be receiving more acclaim these days for its beautiful Alpine Eagle collection, sleeping on the Mille Miglia is a rookie mistake. Chopard’s interest in motorsports is as deep as it is sincere: as in years past, Chopard Co-president Karl-Friedrich Scheufele will take part in the race in his family’s 1955 Mercedes Benz 300 SL, this year with his daughter Caroline-Marie at his side. The Chopard Mille Miglia 2022 Race Edition is a racing watch from a brand that loves racing, as well as a classic chronograph with an approachable design that commemorates an epic Italian tradition. While 1,000 pieces of the stainless steel Race Edition will be produced, just 250 of the two-tone steel and ethical 18K rose gold model will be made.

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Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Air Command

The Blancpain Air Command was originally produced by Blancpain in the 1950s, and was supposedly intended for use by the US Air Force, the US Navy having already adopted the 50 Fathoms diver’s watch. The Air Command was a flyback chronograph, constructed somewhat along the lines of the Type 20 spec, and supposedly 12 watches were made and offered to USAF pilots through Blancpain’s US distributor, Allen Tornek. It’s now an extremely rare grail watch for vintage Blancpain collectors – they’ve appeared at auction very rarely. One is coming up at Phillips Hong Kong later this month, with an estimate of $50-100,000; and prior to that, another one (not the same watch) hammered in 2016, also at Phillips (in the 88 Epic Stainless Steel Chronograph auction) for CHF 100,000. 
The lot notes for both watches are pretty much the same in the essentials. The catalogue essay for the 2016 auction reads, ” … scholars have asserted that it was never serially manufactured or commercialized,” and then continues, “Like many other Swiss manufacturers, Blancpain was hit by the quartz crisis and … had to sell many of its assets, including some unfinished watches. With only a handful of specimens of this mythical model known to have survived, it is hard to determine what the exact specifications of the Air Command are.”
It then goes on to say, “However, as some of the Air commands have Blancpain-signed movements, it is possible that examples like the one presented here have only been assembled and fitted with a Valjoux 222 after the sell-off of the cases, dials, bezels and pushers and hands.” While the origins of the original Air Command seem to be destined to remain a mystery (albeit if we had records from the era, many passionate collectors would doubtless be deprived of the pleasure of arguing with each other) it was a handsome flyback chronograph, with classic mid-century instrument-timepiece good looks, and Blancpain has in terms of cosmetics, stayed very close to the original.  Indeed, from the dial side, at first glance it would be difficult to distinguish one from the other. The new-for-2019 model is very slightly larger than the original (42mm, vs. 42.50 for the new model). The Arabics are larger in the new model (as is the crown), the word “Flyback” is present in a very subdued fashion on the new guy, and of course, the difference in chronograph pusher positioning gives away the newer movement. The new model has no running seconds, with a 12 hour counter where there was a running seconds on the original; but taken as a whole, it’s a pretty faithful reproduction, right down to the elongated 3-minute markers in the 30 minute register. The new watch, however, has a very different movement from the flyback Valjoux caliber 222 in the vintage model. It uses the Blancpain caliber F388B – this is a column-wheel controlled, flyback automatic chronograph with vertical clutch, and which runs at 5 hertz, or 36,000 vph, giving the chronograph a 1/10 of a second resolution. 
If you’re going to do an homage to a vintage model this is a great way to do it. What a lot of us love about vintage watches is, yes, the nostalgia they can evoke, but of course functionally vintage watches are generally inferior to their modern counterparts, especially with the advances in materials technology, lubricants, gaskets and seals, and movement design which the last ten or fifteen years have brought us. The overwhelming tendency from a design standpoint, from modern brands, seems to be to use ecru Super-LumiNova (somewhat ironically, it turns out that “ecru” actually means “raw” or “unbleached”) in an effort to reproduce the look of yellowed radium or tritium paint, but as Jason Heaton mentioned in one of his stories for us, you don’t necessarily have to see this as an attempt to drape oneself in borrowed glory – at this point, and despite the fact that “fauxtina” is a term that seems to be here to stay, you can as easily look at it as just another color choice if you want. 

While the new  Blancpain Air Command really succeeds in general of capturing the charm of the original vintage model, the one other niggle I can see folks having with it is the propeller-shaped rotor. This is the sort of thing that tends to come across as either an annoying bit of kitsch, or a harmless bit of fun, depending on who you are (and maybe on which side of the bed you got out of this morning). Propeller-shaped winding rotors on aviation-themed watches are, like ecru lume, present in large enough numbers that I personally don’t object to them as much as I did even a few years ago (perhaps this is just a sign of age-related resignation, but I can’t manage to rouse much outrage about it). The rotor in the Air Command is reasonably well done, anyhow, and the rather sober brushed finish the red gold has been given, is pleasantly harmonious with the style in which the rest of the movement has been finished. A propeller on a watch whose design originated in the 1950s is a bit of an anachronism, as by the early 1950s most air forces were falling over themselves trying to switch as fast as possible to jet aircraft, but it’s still a handsome looking rotor.

All praise, incidentally, to Blancpain for omitting a date window – normally I don’t mind them but a date guichet would have been jarringly out of place on this watch (ditto for sticking to a two-register design). Overall, this is a very respectful as well as faithful homage to one of the most interesting, to say nothing of mysterious, vintage Blancpain watches, and the use of modern materials and a modern movement adds significantly to the appeal. These will be produced in slightly larger numbers than the very few surviving vintage  Blancpain Air Command watches – Blancpain is offering this watch as a 500 piece limited edition.

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Blancpain Bathyscaphe Quantième Complet Phases de Lune

Expanding on a dive watch collection — especially one with such a rich history as the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms — is a challenge at the best of times. Do you stick to classic tool watch roots? Do you step outside the box with a complication or design with more commercial appeal? Do you start toying with unorthodox case materials? There are a lot of ways to go here, and as we’ve seen year after year, the results can be fantastic, just as easily as they can be questionable. We’ve seen Blancpain take some interesting approaches with the Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe collection recently, including the blue ceramic-cased flyback chronograph Ocean Commitment II, but for 2018 we were presented with a couple of very unexpected dive watches from the longstanding brand. The most curious is the complete calendar moonphase (Quantième Complet Phase de Lune, per the brand), taking the classic 43mm satin-brushed Bathyscaphe case, and fitting it with a very vintage-y dressy-feeling triple calendar moonphase complication. It’s weird, it’s confusing, it’s the first and only diver with this complication, but it also makes the mind roam to the much-loved phrase: “That’s so crazy, it just might work!” Will it? Let’s find out.
Of the many details about this latest release, its case design is the least altered when compared to prior Bathyscaphe watches. Entirely brushed in finish, as would be expected of a proper tool watch, the only noteworthy change to the 43mm steel case of the Complete Calendar Moonphase is the addition of a pair of corrector pushers located on the case barrel around the 2 and 4 o’clock position. On one hand, the idea of adding pushers to a 300m dive watch sounds a little sketchy, but in practice we don’t suspect they will cause any issues with water resistance. For one, these will not (we can say will not, and not just might not) engage in serious diving, and flyback chronograph variants of the Bathyscaphe already use non screw-down pushers, at this depth rating, so there’s really nothing to be concerned about here.
Here’s where we get to the good stuff, as there’s a lot going on on the Complete Calendar Moonphase dial. Compared to a conventional 3-hand Bathyscaphe diver, the slate grey sun-brushed dial is definitely a little busy, though it kind of works. Blancpain stuck with the traditional triple calendar moonphase configuration, with the day and week near 12, a pointer date indication, and a large moonphase indication at 6 o’clock. This is a configuration the brand has been using for some time now in the Villeret, though to make it work in the Bathyscaphe is a relocation of its pointer date track. Rather than having this indication at the outer perimeter of the dial, it has been moved inbound of its hour indices. This helps ensure that its minute track is free of clutter when its timing bezel is in use.
As we’ve mentioned, this is a complication the brand has been using for quite some time, and the caliber 6654.P is by no means a new addition to the brand’s repertoire. That said, it’s a well-executed caliber, good for a power reserve of 72 hours, and fitted with a blackened 18k gold decorated rotor. A minor tweak was required to relocate its corrector pushers to the side of its case (rather than between the lugs, as we see in the Villeret line), but otherwise this is a case of grab a caliber from the shelf and find it a new home.
The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe is one of those watches that quickly reminds its wearer that case diameter spec is not a good benchmark of how a watch will be on the wrist. At 43mm across, I wasn’t expecting it to be quite as chunky on the wrist; however (thankfully), it still wasn’t overpowering. The piece was launched on bracelet, NATO, and a sailcloth canvas, the latter of which has consistently proven very comfortable. Its bezel action is as expected from one of the most well-respected dive watch manufacturers out there, and the same can be said for its brightly glowing Super-LumiNova indices.
Spending some time with the Complete Calendar Moonphase, to be frank it took some time for me to warm up to it. Aesthetically, it’s a mighty sharp looking piece, and I’m a fan of how well executed the calendar complication was integrated into a dive watch. At its root, the hangup is entirely the melding of a dress watch complication and a tool watch case. That said, I soon realised how foolish the hangup was. Crossing design codes is something I’ve often encouraged in other categories, and once again acknowledging that this new Replica Blancpain is not meant as a pure tool watch per se … where’s the real harm, right? It’s a sharp-looking watch, it has practical complications, and it’s built to Blancpain’s exacting standards. This is certainly worth a second look if you’re in the market for an out-of-the-ordinary diver from a legacy brand.

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Bell & Ross BR 03-92 Radio Compass

Sometimes we wonder if Bell & Ross is ever going to run out of flight instrument panel displays to transpose. Since its debut in 2010, Bell & Ross’ ‘Flight Instruments’ series has co-opted everything from radar screens to altimeters on the watches’ dials. In fact, if you had lined the watches up in an aircraft’s cockpit, we’d imagine that even trained pilots would have had second takes, as the timepieces really look like they belong among the legit aviation gauges.
But back to our initial thought. The answer to that, we suppose, is not yet. Now, we don’t claim to be experts on aeronautical equipment, but if the new BR 03-92 Radio Compass is anything to go by, we believe that Bell & Ross’ cache of in-flight design inspirations is far from exhausted.

Similar to earlier ‘Flight Instruments’ models like the BR 01 Climb that depicts the variometer (an instrument that shows the rate of an aircraft’s climb and descent) and the BR 01 Heading Indicator that recalls an aircraft’s gyrocompass that shows where the plane is, well, heading, the BR 03-92 Radio Compass depicts yet another essential flight instrument display that aviation-illiterate watch lovers like us are unaware of.
As the name suggests, the BR 03-92 Radio Compass portrays a plane’s onboard radio receiver on its dial. A vital navigation tool, the radio compass employs radio waves to pinpoint the position and direction of an aircraft via beacons on the ground, guiding pilots on their course. The radio compass is particularly useful in situations where there is low visibility, such as during night flights or flights in heavy fog and rain.

On the BR 03-92 Radio Compass, the instrument is portrayed with a stylised bright orange hour hand and a yellow minute hand (with the letters ‘H’ and ‘M’ included for good measure), accompanied by a green seconds hand. To complete the look, the neon-coloured hands are framed by Arabic numerals in tool watch-style ‘isonorm’ font and five-minute interval markers.
Clad in a 42mm by 42mm matte black ceramic case with black dial and black rubber strap, the watch’s raven-sheathed getup definitely appears like a full-fledged member of the popular ‘Flight Instruments’ family. Though it is essentially a time-and-date-only automatic watch, the BR 03-92 Radio Compass, like the rest of its ‘Flight Instruments’ brethren, injects a bit of fun and context into what would have been a regular ticker. Admittedly, the concept is rather kitschy, but there isn’t an aviation-inspired collection that is quite as novel, intentional and expansive as the ‘Flight Instruments’ collection.