Watch 101

METAS Certification: What It Takes To Be A Master Chronometer

There are several well known international standards in watchmaking, but METAS Master C...

Latest Posts

First Class: The Patek Philippe 5110 World Timer

A Watch A Week

First Class: The Patek Philippe 5110 World Timer

Breitling Announces Partnership With NFL, Launches 34 New Team-Specific Chronomats

Watch Reviews

Breitling Announces Partnership With NFL, Launches 34 New Team-Specific Chronoma...

Introducing The Alpina Heritage Automatic, An Instant Classic At Geneva Watch Days

Watch Reviews

Introducing The Alpina Heritage Automatic, An Instant Classic At Geneva Watch Da...

Watch Reviews

Heritage Brand Favre Leuba Returns With New Collection Featuring 22 New Models I...

Editorial | The 1916 Company

Watch 101

METAS Certification: What It Takes To Be A Master Chronometer

METAS Certification: What It Takes To Be A Master Chronometer

There are several well known international standards in watchmaking, but METAS Master Chronometer standards might be the most strict ever...

Yellow Gold, Once Passé, Is Now The Go-To Gold For Fine Watchmaking

Yellow Gold, Once Passé, Is Now The Go-To Gold For Fine Watchmaking

How Yellow Gold Watches Made A Comeback At the end of 2023, the New York Times ran a story by veteran watch journalist Roberta Naas on th...

Defining The Dress Watch When No One’s Dressing Up

Defining The Dress Watch When No One’s Dressing Up

The dress watch will always be with us – but will we always think of it as a dress watch? One of the things about writing about watches (...

Faces Of Time: An Introduction To Materials Used In The Art Of The Dial

Faces Of Time: An Introduction To Materials Used In The Art Of The Dia...

Beauty is more than skin deep, but it’s not a bad place to start. It is a truism in the watch business that to sell a watch, all yo...

The Ultimate Guide to Summer Watch Straps: Surviving the Sweat, Stink, and Rash

The Ultimate Guide to Summer Watch Straps: Surviving the Sweat, Stink,...

Beat the heat with the best straps for summer’s sweaty woes. I am a sweaty man. This is probably not the way my wife would like me ...

F.P. Journe Complications: The Centigraphe Souverain

F.P. Journe Complications: The Centigraphe Souverain

One of Journe’s most sophisticated complications is also one of his most enigmatic. The Centigraphe Souverain was not Journe’...

De Bethune Innovations: The Triple Pare-Chute Antishock System

De Bethune Innovations: The Triple Pare-Chute Antishock System

How De Bethune makes a star out of an unsung hero of watchmaking. The antishock system is something most watch enthusiasts can go a lifet...

F.P. Journe Complications: The Tourbillon Souverain

F.P. Journe Complications: The Tourbillon Souverain

A look at why the remontoir and tourbillon are an ultra-rare match made in heaven. Welcome to the second installment in our technical ser...

Watch Reviews

Breitling Announces Partnership With NFL, Launches 34 New Team-Specific Chronomats

Breitling Announces Partnership With NFL, Launches 34 New Team-Specifi...

Show your loyalty with Breitling’s latest limited editions. Today’s the start of the fall football season, and just in time f...

Introducing The Alpina Heritage Automatic, An Instant Classic At Geneva Watch Days

Introducing The Alpina Heritage Automatic, An Instant Classic At Genev...

“What this country needs is a really good five cent cigar.” – Thomas Wilson, 1916 The life of a watch enthusiast can be a psy...

Heritage Brand Favre Leuba Returns With New Collection Featuring 22 Ne...

The relaunch of the brand features contemporary models, as well as heritage inspired timepieces. If you’re a student of vintage wat...

Introducing The Breitling 140th Anniversary Perpetual Calendar Chronograph Collection

Introducing The Breitling 140th Anniversary Perpetual Calendar Chronog...

Breitling’s celebrating its 140th Anniversary, and at Geneva Watch Days, it’s just announced its very first in-house perpetua...

Introducing The De Bethune DB28xs Aérolite, With Meteorite ‘Random Guilloché’ Dial

Introducing The De Bethune DB28xs Aérolite, With Meteorite ‘Rand...

For one of its Geneva Watch Days debuts, De Bethune presents a watch with a dramatically different meteorite dial. Meteorite dials, for a...

Introducing The Ressence Type 3 BB2, Black On Black

Introducing The Ressence Type 3 BB2, Black On Black

The latest Ressence oil-filled orbital timepiece has just launched at Geneva Watch Days, in an all-black case. Ressence has developed a p...

Introducing The New Daniel Roth Tourbillon In Rose Gold

Introducing The New Daniel Roth Tourbillon In Rose Gold

The second version of Daniel Roth’s modern classic launches at Geneva Watch Days in a modern classic metal. Last January, Daniel Ro...

Introducing The New Tudor Black Bay Chronograph ‘Tudor Blue’

Introducing The New Tudor Black Bay Chronograph ‘Tudor Blue̵...

The latest version of the Black Bay Chronograph comes in a new blue colorway, with a tachymetric bezel. Tudor launched the Black Bay Chro...

A Watch A Week

First Class: The Patek Philippe 5110 World Timer

First Class: The Patek Philippe 5110 World Timer

A modern milestone in the evolution of a signature complication. There are any number of watches which use some form of the world time co...

Ocean Ready: The Tudor Black Bay 58 Bronze

Ocean Ready: The Tudor Black Bay 58 Bronze

Want patina but not a green wrist? The Tudor Black Bay Bronze has you covered. I would say “everybody loves patina” but like ...

The Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Grand Tradition Grande Complication ‘Céleste’

The Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Grand Tradition Grande Complication ‘...

A high water mark for complicated watchmaking from the watchmaker’s watchmaker. The Master Grand Tradition Grande Complication Céle...

Royal Purple: The Hublot Big Bang Automatic Tourbillon Purple Sapphire

Royal Purple: The Hublot Big Bang Automatic Tourbillon Purple Sapphire

“If you want to make a statement, wear purple.” – Baron Davis Every color has a life of its own – entire books have been writ...

The MING 20.01 Series 2, Featuring The Agengraphe Caliber

The MING 20.01 Series 2, Featuring The Agengraphe Caliber

Because sometimes chronograph design isn’t about why, it’s about why not. Since MING launched its first watch in 2017 – the n...

The Omega Speedmaster Tokyo 2020 Olympics Collection

The Omega Speedmaster Tokyo 2020 Olympics Collection

The legendary Olympics rings, as seen through the lens of the legendary Omega Speedmaster Professional. The logo for the Olympics is one ...

The Tudor Black Bay GMT With White Opaline Dial

The Tudor Black Bay GMT With White Opaline Dial

A pragmatically beautiful example of what may be the world’s most useful complication. The Tudor Black Bay GMT has been with us now...

The Omega Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch Caliber 321 Platinum

The Omega Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch Caliber 321 Platinum

Proof that sometimes, they really do make ’em like they used to. Watches based on classic models from a brand’s back catalog ...

Auction News

First Class: Aristocratic Complications Coming Up At Phillips New York Watch Auction X

First Class: Aristocratic Complications Coming Up At Phillips New York...

Back to anything but basic. I don’t know if it’s an actual trend, or just an artefact of the degree to which some watches bec...

Upsets, Surprises, And Business As Usual At Only Watch 2024

Upsets, Surprises, And Business As Usual At Only Watch 2024

You pays your money and you takes your chances. The 10th edition of Only Watch, the biennial auction to benefit research into therapies a...

Elton John’s Peachtree Road Auction is Set to ‘Crash’ this February.

Elton John’s Peachtree Road Auction is Set to ‘Crash’ this February.

Elton John will auction off 31 timepieces this Fall in a collection that can only be described as quintessential Elton. Elton John is arg...

Phillips Ends The Year On A High Note

Phillips Ends The Year On A High Note

But a solid gold G-SHOCK was the breakout star of the show. “It is with great pleasure that The 1916 Company introduces our newest ...

The Watchmaking World Has A New “Big Three”

The Watchmaking World Has A New “Big Three”

And they’re not brands, they’re watchmakers. One of the oldest tropes in fine watchmaking is that there is – or was – a ̶...

Freddie Mercury’s Plastic Seiko Hits £15k at Auction

Freddie Mercury’s Plastic Seiko Hits £15k at Auction

And there’s still 48 hours to go… If reports are to be believed, Apple — who, as much as we may not like to recognize or admi...

Rexhep Rexhepi for Only Watch 2023

Rexhep Rexhepi for Only Watch 2023

The Akrivia founder unveils his third Only Watch submission. Few watchmakers have garnered as much attention in recent years as Rexhep Re...

How Much Would You Pay For Freddie Mercury’s Plastic Seiko?

How Much Would You Pay For Freddie Mercury’s Plastic Seiko?

A prime example of a niche Seiko with unmatched provenance is blowing its estimate out of the water. It’s been a bit of a quiet summer in...

Buying Guides

Zulu Time: A Non-Pilot’s Guide To The Pilot’s Watch

Zulu Time: A Non-Pilot’s Guide To The Pilot’s Watch

The evolution of the pilot’s watch tells the story of the evolution of flight itself. The pilot’s watch, along with the diver...

The Tudor Pelagos: A Guide To Tudor’s Technical Diver And Its Variants

The Tudor Pelagos: A Guide To Tudor’s Technical Diver And Its Va...

Tudor’s saturation diver, diversified. The Tudor Pelagos was first released by Tudor in 2012, and it represents Tudor’s appro...

Summer Whites: Thoughts On All-White Watch Design

Summer Whites: Thoughts On All-White Watch Design

“Renoir said once that nothing was so difficult, and at the same time so exciting, to paint, as white on white.” – Ambroise V...

Avoiding Watch Buyer’s Remorse

Avoiding Watch Buyer’s Remorse

When amassing your watch collection, buyer’s remorse is essentially inevitable, but there are a few watches out there that will nev...

A Guide to Loving Gold

A Guide to Loving Gold

From Rolex to Omega and all the alloys in between. “This is gold, Mr. Bond. All my life, I’ve been in love with its color… its brilliance...

Stop Wearing Stainless Steel

Stop Wearing Stainless Steel

As the end of summer approaches, allow me to offer some belated advice. This summer has been, in a word, hot. Very, very hot. In fact, it...

The Rolex Yacht-Master II: No Yacht Required

The Rolex Yacht-Master II: No Yacht Required

Secrets of the second most complicated Rolex. Rolex as a rule, does not make complicated watches, or at least it doesn’t make any w...

Who Says A Summer Watch Has To Be A Sports Watch?

Who Says A Summer Watch Has To Be A Sports Watch?

Because life’s not always a beach. The minute that Memorial Day rolls around (at least here in the United States) watch writers imm...

Collector Conversations

Collector Conversation Rewind with Tanmay

Collector Conversation Rewind with Tanmay

“When I gaze at a watch, I want it to inspire how I live my life.” – Tanmay Manohar Horology is a journey we all embark...

2023 Collector Conversations: A Year in Review

2023 Collector Conversations: A Year in Review

Collecting is exciting, but our community of collectors makes it even better. Working at The 1916 Company exposes you to some of the most...

Collecting with Shawn Stockman

Collecting with Shawn Stockman

Grammy Award Winner and entrepreneur, Shawn Stockman on watches, guitars and collecting ideologies. One universal truth about collecting ...

Collecting Together <br> with Alex Assouline

Collecting Together
with Alex Assouline

Crafting a watch collection can be a lot like making a coffee table book. Both weave a narrative not by including everything but through ...

Collecting Together with Josh Wright

Collecting Together with Josh Wright

For those with a passion for well-made things, the obsession lies not only in how an object is made but why it came to be made that way. ...

Collecting Together with Gauthier Borsarello

Collecting Together with Gauthier Borsarello

Put ten collectors in a room and ask them why they collect and you’ll get ten very different answers. Some spend their lives searching fo...

Collecting Together with Shahendra Ohneswere

Collecting Together with Shahendra Ohneswere

If you don’t yet know Shahendra Ohneswere, you certainly know his work. As Senior Vice President of Content Development & Co-Head of ...

Collector Conversation: Michael Strahan & Marc Lasry

Collector Conversation: Michael Strahan & Marc Lasry

Maybe you collected Matchbox cars, comic books, action figures or baseball cards when you were a kid. Maybe you displayed them in your ro...

Featured

What Lies Beneath: Who And What You Might Meet If You Use Your Overspec’d Dive Watch In Its Natural Habitat

What Lies Beneath: Who And What You Might Meet If You Use Your Overspe...

And remember, handsome is as handsome does. The question of depth ratings and exactly what they mean has preoccupied watch enthusiasts fo...

Recommended Reading: The Art Of Engine Turning, With Revolution And Roger Smith

Recommended Reading: The Art Of Engine Turning, With Revolution And Ro...

Real engine turning is time and labor intensive, but results can’t be achieved any other way. Guilloché patterns can be seen on wat...

The Timeless Legacy of Omega and the Olympics

The Timeless Legacy of Omega and the Olympics

As the Paris Olympics are upon us, Omega continues to shape the games with its timing perfection. Some things just go together. These con...

Wild, Wacky, and Weird Dive Watches of the Summer

Wild, Wacky, and Weird Dive Watches of the Summer

Exploring the most eccentric dive watches of the summer, where quirky designs meet aquatic adventure. My tenth-grade chemistry teacher us...

It’s Almost Time For The Olympics. Can Your Reflexes Measure Up To Your Chronograph?

It’s Almost Time For The Olympics. Can Your Reflexes Measure Up ...

“It’s all in the reflexes.” Jack Burton, Big Trouble In Little China We all find different ways of amusing ourselves wh...

Father’s Day Stories From The 1916 Company

Father’s Day Stories From The 1916 Company

As this Father’s Day has come and gone, the 1916 Team reflect on stories about Dad’s and watches. My dad wasn’t a “watc...

Watch Spotting at the NBA Finals: Jayson Tatum and His Richard Mille 07-01 Memphis Design

Watch Spotting at the NBA Finals: Jayson Tatum and His Richard Mille 0...

Spotting a Richard Mille on the wrist of an NBA star is not headline news, but Jayson Tatum’s unconventional watch choice of the RM...

Recommended Reading: The Philosophies Of Stephen McDonnell, At A Collected Man

Recommended Reading: The Philosophies Of Stephen McDonnell, At A Colle...

The watchmaker behind two of MB&F’s most complicated watches talks process, innovation, and the benefits of relative obscurity....

History of Time

Understanding The World Time Watch

Understanding The World Time Watch

A tale as old as time zones. The world time watch, like the diver’s watch, and the pilot’s watch, is a product of the industr...

Speedmasters Without the Moonshot: Uncovering the Overlooked Speedmasters

Speedmasters Without the Moonshot: Uncovering the Overlooked Speedmast...

Venturing beyond the lunar-legend reveals a fascinating array of remarkable non-Moonwatch variants that deserve attention. It’s 1998 and ...

Independent’s Day: Five Independent Watches That Were Really Revolutionary

Independent’s Day: Five Independent Watches That Were Really Rev...

I only regret, that I have but one watch budget to blow for my collection. It is on the day on which Americans celebrate Independence day...

It’s Tourbillon Day – Here’s Your Guide To Breguet’s Invention, And Why It’s Still Going Strong After 200 Years

It’s Tourbillon Day – Here’s Your Guide To Breguet’...

It’s the 224th anniversary of Breguet’s patent. Happy Tourbillon Day, to those who celebrate! If you’re so inclined, to...

Winding Up a Legacy: George Daniels and the Exquisite Art of the Escapement

Winding Up a Legacy: George Daniels and the Exquisite Art of the Escap...

A story of how George Daniels’ innovative approach to watchmaking and his pioneering work on the escapement ignited a passion for t...

I Love the 90s, Part II

I Love the 90s, Part II

A unique design language takes hold. This is the second in a multi-part series on the lasting impact of the 1990s on the watch industry a...

I Love the 90s, and You Should Too

I Love the 90s, and You Should Too

An Underappreciated Era Revisited: Part I This is the first in a multi-part series on the lasting impact of the 1990s on the watch indust...

The Art Of Invention: How De Bethune Builds The Future Of Watchmaking

The Art Of Invention: How De Bethune Builds The Future Of Watchmaking

At De Bethune, technical innovation and horological art go hand-in-hand. There is a natural tendency when you look at watches, to think o...

Industry News

MING, J.N. Shapiro, Fleming Announce Formation Of Alternative Horological Alliance

MING, J.N. Shapiro, Fleming Announce Formation Of Alternative Horologi...

The AHA, announced at Geneva Watch Days 2024, is launching with a tantalum bracelet. Independent watchmaking brands are the darlings of t...

Generations: A Timeline Of F.P. Journe

Generations: A Timeline Of F.P. Journe

The 1916 Company Presents A Dynamic Exhibition Of Journe’s Most Significant Timepieces The 1916 Company is proud to present a colle...

Grand Seiko’s New Manhattan Flagship Is The Latest New NYC Horological Landmark

Grand Seiko’s New Manhattan Flagship Is The Latest New NYC Horol...

The Grand Seiko Flagship is the latest of a series of new boutiques, including Citizen and Chanel. For those of us who have been long-tim...

Raúl Pagès Is The Winner Of The First Louis Vuitton Watch Prize For Independent Creatives

Raúl Pagès Is The Winner Of The First Louis Vuitton Watch Prize For In...

The mechanical purist’s pick was the jury’s choice as well. A charming mechanical automaton in the shape of a bee. A time-onl...

The Blancpain x Swatch Fifty Fathoms Scuba: Diving Into the Rising Tide of its Stormy Journey

The Blancpain x Swatch Fifty Fathoms Scuba: Diving Into the Rising Tid...

The Ocean of Storms is set to rescue the much hyped collaboration. Have you ever tasted food that is neither bad nor good? You put it in ...

A Delayed Reaction to the Return of Universal Genève

A Delayed Reaction to the Return of Universal Genève

Breitling’s revival of Universal Genève may hinge on one model: The Polerouter. The dust has settled, and reality has set in. By now, eve...

Striking Design + Brilliant Watch Pairings

Striking Design + Brilliant Watch Pairings

At the beginning of December, we hosted our first initiative under the umbrella of The 1916 Company, partnering with Eleonor Picciotto an...

The 1916 Company Launches Jewelry Exhibition with Contemporary Designers

The 1916 Company Launches Jewelry Exhibition with Contemporary Designe...

The 1916 Company and Eleonor Picciotto will showcase collections by Suzanne Syz, Alexandra Rosier, Selim Mouzannar, and Elie Top. The 191...

Press Room

The 1916 Company App

The 1916 Company App

Experience the New App by The 1916 Company The same exceptional collecting experience you enjoyed with the WatchBox mobile app is now ele...

The 1916 Company Opens TUDOR Boutique in Denver, Colorado

The 1916 Company Opens TUDOR Boutique in Denver, Colorado

Hyde Park Jewelers, now The 1916 Company, celebrates the opening of a new mono-brand TUDOR Boutique in the exclusive Cherry Creek Shoppin...

The 1916 Company, Leader in Collectible Watches and Fine Jewelry, Announces Roadmap for Continued Growth

The 1916 Company, Leader in Collectible Watches and Fine Jewelry, Anno...

Leadership appointments and forthcoming retail expansion unveiled. The 1916 Company, launched in late 2023 by merging WatchBox, Govberg, ...

GENERATIONS: A Timeline of F.P. Journe by The 1916 Company

GENERATIONS: A Timeline of F.P. Journe by The 1916 Company

The 1916 Company launches traveling exhibition in Miami with more than 60 rare and collectible F.P. Journe watches. The 1916 Company is p...

Introducing The 1916 Company

Introducing The 1916 Company

The 1916 Company ushers in a new era for watch & jewelry enthusiasts, uniting WatchBox, Govberg, Radcliffe, and Hyde Park Jewelers. T...

WatchBox China Inaugurates Shanghai Collector’s Lounge and Salon

WatchBox China Inaugurates Shanghai Collector’s Lounge and Salon

Collectors unite to celebrate WatchBox’s official opening in mainland China alongside first public viewing of the De Bethune DB28xs Starr...

Milestone: WatchBox Crosses 150 Million Views on YouTube

Milestone: WatchBox Crosses 150 Million Views on YouTube

Tim Mosso, architect of the ultimate watch review video library, tops 100 million views on WatchBox Reviews channel WatchBox, the world’s...

Andy Zhang Appointed CEO of WatchBox China

Andy Zhang Appointed CEO of WatchBox China

Collector turned watch industry executive to lead WatchBox expansion in mainland China. WatchBox is pleased to announce the appointment o...

Our Editors

Jack Forster

Greg Gentile

Emily Smith

Justin Mastine-Frost

Caroline Kallman Joffe

Tim Mosso

Alp Sever

Todd Searle

Olivier Müller