The first “nice watch” I ever bought for myself was a Nomos Tangente. I wanted something to wear for my wedding, and Nomos looked cool. The design felt familiar in that 2010s millennial-minimalism sort of way, without the vapidness.

Nomos Glashütte says it makes 95% of its own movements. You don’t get to that by polishing a few bridges, so when I visited Glashütte, Germany, last year, I was excited to see what that actually looks like.

Nomos has about 300 employees, most of whom work across three buildings in Saxony: (1) manufacturing; (2) watchmaking; and (3) admin.1 Its in-house production breaks down neatly across the two facilities:

1. Manufacturing in Schlottwitz

   • About 10 minutes outside Glashütte in rural Saxony, where Nomos makes the components for its movements

2. Watchmaking in Glashütte

   • In the Chronometrie building on a hilltop above Glashütte, where watchmakers assemble and test movements

This division is a useful way to think about what a watch company is. I’ve visited many “workshops,” from the Vallée de Joux to Old Town Geneva to Chicago, and these can more or less replicate (2), the watchmaking in Glashütte. Each workshop has its own flair—perhaps an emphasis on high-end finishing or perfect anglage, but the bones are there.

There are far fewer factories manufacturing their own parts. This is typically reserved for the outskirts of Geneva, or industrial towns like La Chaux-de-Fonds or Bienne, where all those CNC machines aren’t a nuisance to the rest of us quietly minding our own business.

What Nomos outsources: Case, dial, hands, strap, buckles (i.e., the habillage, or exterior components).

The manufacturing in (1) is certainly less sexy. It turns raw steel or brass into tiny components. But turn a few knobs, and you can see how they might just as well be making medical supplies or self-driving somethings.

Walk around both Nomos facilities, and it takes fewer people to do the manufacturing. More machines, more robots, less to romanticize. This isn’t the way Ferdinand A. Lange was doing it in this valley in 1845. There aren’t any white coats hunched over a watchmaker’s bench turning screws or assembling movements.

But this is also the hard part. It’s why Nomos, founded in 1990, didn’t introduce its own in-house Alpha movement until 2005, and its own Swing System escapement until 2015. Today, Nomos produces about 20,000 watches per year.2

While visiting Saxony, I toured both the manufacturing site in Schlottwitz and the watchmaking in Glashütte on a misty, gray fall day.

Part I: Manufacturing in Schlottwitz

Nomos opened its Schlottwitz facility in 2017, a rural village about 10 miles north of Glashütte’s center on a sparsely populated two-lane road.

This is where metal is shaped into all the components that go into an in-house Nomos movement—gears, wheels, pinions, whatchamacallits.

Raw materials. Nomos has an entire room with five of these turning machines, which spin raw steel or brass rods (above) into watch components. Different tools, lathes, or drills are used to make various parts. While they can eventually spit out metal pieces that look something like a gear or pinion, they’re still far from ready to be assembled into a movement.

For example, those first machines make wheels, but they don’t have any teeth when they come out—those are applied by this second machine (above), which requires human operation since it’s a more delicate process. Here’s what the wheels look like before and after:

Machining. Nomos has a few latest-and-greatest CNC machines that can operate for days at a time without human intervention. Newer 5-axis machines have three linear axes and two rotation axes, allowing them to cut a part from five sides. This means they can cut multi-sided geometries in a single setup, removing the need for human operators to manually stop, recalibrate, and reposition parts.3

But Nomos doesn’t get rid of its older 3-axis machines. They’re still used for simpler cuts—think cutting holes from a mainplate on a single plane.

This machinery is the most substantial investment for many watch companies: a modern 5-axis machine can easily run into the mid-six figures.4 For Nomos to make just movement parts for its 20k watches/year, it has a room of a dozen or so CNC machines. And it’s not even making the larger external parts like cases.

When Rolex CEO Jean-Frederic Dufour said Rolex invests CHF 100m annually in its machinery, this is the kind of thing he meant.

Each machine has hundreds of tools inside and can machine the mainplates for any of Nomos’ in-house calibers, getting them ready for the next step of assembly.

Quality Control. Alongside component production, there’s also QC. For example, the machine below has a tray that shakes components around. A camera above can detect and analyze size down to the micron and instruct that robotic arm, blurred in motion below, which ones to pick up for the next step of assembly:

The next robot can then take those rubies and add them to the machined three-quarter plates:

This is basically machines doing the easier parts of assembly so the human hands down in Glashütte can assemble the more delicate components.

Finishing

The final step in Schlottwitz. Finishing happens in another room. Finishing can be practical or aesthetic, applied by machine or human. For example, here’s perlage being applied by a machine:

And here’s a woman applying the sunburst pattern to the ratchet and crown wheels by hand. She applies a dab of paste to the machine, and then places the wheel on the chuck. She then slowly applies the exact amount of pressure to get the perfect finish.

Part II: Watchmaking in Glasütte

Silver ore was found in the Ore Mountains in the 15th century, and nearby Glashütte became an early mining town. By the mid-1800s, the deposits had been largely depleted, and the local economy was struggling. In 1845, Ferdinand Adolph Lange brought watchmaking to Glashütte. Like the Swiss valleys known for watchmaking, its natural isolation helped foster a specialized economy that thrived until World War II. East Germany nationalized watch manufacturing after the War, stunting its growth until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

Even today, the town of Glashütte is really just the confluence of two roads in a valley. At their intersection, watchmakers: Lange, Glashütte Original, and SUG, a casemaker for many brands. Ten in all. Nomos’ administrative offices are in the old train station.

Nomos’ watchmaking sits in the Chronometrie building, a 15-minute hike up a long and winding road to the top of Glashütte. The Chronometrie building was repurposed during the GDR era, before Nomos acquired it in 2000. Today, it’s where assembly and final checks happen for every Nomos.

Pre-assembly

After all the parts have been produced in Schlottwitz, movements are ready for assembly. First comes the pre-assembly room, where movements start to come together. Mainspring barrels are installed, date wheels are added, and wheels are riveted—the exact functions change depending on whatever’s needed that day:

Swing System

In the next room, watchmakers test and assemble the components for Nomos’ Swing System. Introduced in 2015, this is its own version of the Swiss lever escapement. When Nomos launched in the 1990s, it used an outsourced ETA/Peseux 7001 (from Swatch Group), but with its own customizations inspired by Glashütte watchmaking. In 2005, Nomos officially became a manufacture with the introduction of its Alpha caliber. While the Alpha shares dimensions and structure with the 7001, it didn’t use any major ETA parts—Nomos made its own plates, bridges, and gears. But Nomos still sourced its escapement from the monopoly Nivarox, also owned by Swatch Group.

That changed with the introduction of its Swing System, making Nomos a truly independent movement manufacture. This is when its new calibers began carrying the designation DUW, or Deutsche Uhrenwerke (Germany watch movements), denoting them as made in Germany.

Making your own escapement also means doing all the little things. Below, a watchmaker is making shellac, the natural resin used as an adhesive to attach pallets to the fork. It requires stretching the sticky shellac into long, thin strings, and then cutting those into tiny pieces to be used in escapement assembly:

This woman is using a machine that rotates the balance wheels while a macro lens calculates their weight, so they can be balanced during hairspring assembly. While they all look the same to the naked eye, they have slight differences that need to be adjusted for. After testing, she places each wheel in a different category by weight, as indicated by the numbers below those blue trays:

Final assembly

After pre-assembly and escapement assembly, the movements are ready for final assembly. This is where a movement comes to life for the first time, with the mainspring, gears, and escapement all coming together to give it its first tick.

It’s also where robots and watchmakers work together most noticeably. A human watchmaker starts the process, putting together parts from a tray. Then it’s handed off to a robot, which applies the perfect amount of lubrication, also providing QC measurements to make sure everything is right. The caliber then goes back to the human watchmaker for final adjustments.

After a movement leaves this room, it’s ready for its hands, dial, and case.

Nomos sources the dials and other external components from third-party suppliers.5 They’re brought to Glashütte, where watchmakers assemble the final watches.

Goodbye from Glashütte

All Nomos employees are given a Tangente when they start, which becomes theirs after six months of employment. I saw a lot of Tangentes while walking around, but also almost every other Nomos model on the wrists of watchmakers, machinists, and engineers.

Nomos is impressive because it did the hard part, the part that’s not all sexy designs and stone dials. It slowly, methodically laddered up from outsourced movements to customizations to its own calibers, before finally developing its own escapement. While its designs are consistently, sometimes frustratingly Bauhaus, last year’s Club Sport Worldtimer feels like the first time it’s successfully adapted its distinct aesthetic to a modern sports watch that feels different while still being totally Nomos.

Nomos is, I hope, what some of the latest generation of “microbrands” aspire to. Not just making trendy watches that look fun at a watch fair, but building something truly separate from and independent of the legacy manufacturers.

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More from Glashütte:

Ten years later, he still owns slightly more than half of the 50 or 60 Heuers that were on his kitchen table while filming that episode. Jeff registered on eBay in 1998 and he’s been collecting watches ever since.

We talk about his “checklist era” of collecting and upgrading his collection; the personal Heuer grails he’s chasing that no one else is; why community grails like Chronomatics and Seafarers are strong while so many other vintage tool watches have gone soft; an assessment of Heuer collecting over the last few years; what he’d buy if he had $5,000 or $10,000; the TAG Heuer divers that kept the company alive; the $500 S/eL his daughter wears; the Breguet, Audemars Piguet, Piaget, Sinn, and other watches that Jeff also enjoys.

We close with some advice: Know when to sell your watches. “The only way I could have never sold a watch might be if I’d never made a mistake in buying a watch,” Jeff says.

Thanks to Jeff for joining the Unpolished Watches Podcast.

• Podcast episodes are published on Fridays. Listen here, and subscribe to get future episodes in your feed: Spotify / Apple / RSS.

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Show Notes

• OntheDash.com; Jeff on Instagram

• Jeff Stein’s Talking Watches from 2016

• Absolutely Everything About the Heuer Autavia “Viceroy” Chronograph, On the Dash

• Guide to TAG Heuer Dive Watches, On the Dash

• Berneron Mirage at LoupeThis

• New TAG Heuer Monza Flyback, On the Dash

• Sinn EZM1, Unpolished

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Unpolished Store: shop.unpolishedwatches.com to shop our collection of Canvas and leather straps. Everything has been restocked for the fall.

• Pick up a 3 Canvas Strap Bundle for $169, a 10% off the single-strap price ($157 member price!)

• Shop the new Textured Taupe, made of high-quality Epsom leather.

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To celebrate the end of summer, all straps in the Unpolished Store have been restocked and are 10% off through Tuesday, Sept. 8:

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You can always become a paid subscriber for $8/mo or $80/yr:

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The Newsletter

If you’re looking for something to read this Labor Day, here are some of the most popular posts from the summer:

• The boomer watch is on sale. But is anyone buying it?

• What dealers can’t sell right now, from simple Lange to Credor

• The only watch you can’t dress up, my review after spending a month with the Hamilton Khaki Field 250

• 6 (potential) future classics from 2006, the year that just turned “vintage”

• Smaller watch, worse movement? Comparing 8 integrated bracelet watches, 3 approaches to the movement, and 2 brands that do it well

• The most Sinn of all Sinns, on the neovintage EZM1 (surprised how much love this one got!)

• 10 new watches I’d actually buy at retail, because usually you should buy pre-owned, but sometimes you shouldn’t

• 10 Takes, the mid-summer grab bag

You can always find the entire archive online here.

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Also make sure you’re subscribed to the Unpolished Watches Podcast wherever you listen to audio. It’ll be published on most Fridays through the fall, with every couple also being a video episode on YouTube. I don’t always send out an email when episodes go up!

👉 Listen on Substack, or subscribe to get episodes in your feed: Spotify / Apple / RSS. Also watch on YouTube:

Thanks for reading, and have a good Labor Day.

-Tony

The newest strap in the Unpolished Store is Textured Taupe, made from Epsom leather. Lightweight, durable, and resistant to scratches and moisture, it’s famously used by luxury houses for all kinds of leather bags and leather goods.

Available in 18, 19, and 20mm at a special launch price of $100 through Labor Day (+ members still get 10% off!):

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Thanks for the feedback on Thursday’s Gallet coverage. I’ve decided to open it up to all subscribers—read it here:

I went to the Breitling Boutique on Michigan Ave yesterday hoping to see the Gallet Classics, which I haven’t seen in person, but learned they won’t be carrying Gallet—kind of surprising, I thought.

Up and Down

I visited Dresden and Glashütte for the first time last year. The Up/Down format is in shop windows everywhere. Not just A. Lange & Söhne, but also more affordable pocket watches from when East German watchmaking was nationalized after the War.

I love when a design feels so tied to a specific place. The Lange 1815 Up/Down is based on a 19th-century Lange patent for power reserve—Auf/Ab tells you whether it’s wound or empty. It’s a bit quirky, at least for a German, with off-center subdials at 4 and 8 o’clock—a running seconds and power-reserve indicator.

Glashütte watchmaking is the charming underdog to the north of Switzerland, and the Up/Down captures its no-nonsense essence with a simple power reserve.

In the catalog since 1997, the Up/Down sits somewhere between the Saxonia Thin and the Lange 1. Not the entry-level, but thinner and more wearable than anything above it. A solid entry point, and still captivating enough for collectors to hunt rare, special, or early Up/Downs.

Lange introduced a limited-edition 1815 Up/Down pair this weekend. Blue dial with white subdials, 37.5mm white or rose gold case, limited to 300 in each metal. They look great. A limited edition, yes, but a pretty big one by Lange standards.1 I’ve already seen a couple get delivered.

• The new pair is ~$45k from what I’ve heard. A first-gen blue dial—the one collectors want—trades around that, up from $30k just a year ago.

• The limited editions adapt elements of previous models.

Reference Table:

First Generation 1815 Up/Down

The first-generation 1815 Up/Down is 35.9x7.9mm (43mm lug-to-lug), basically the perfect size for a dress watch. Same diameter as the three-hand 1815, only 0.5mm thicker to add the power-reserve gearing.

• Case: Traditional Lange three-part case with polished bezel, brushed midcase, and notched lugs (interestingly, the midcase on the pink gold is polished, not brushed)

• Dial: Railway outer track with Saxon floral at the cardinal markers; those bold numerals that look stamped by a Glashütte typewriter. Gangreserve floats around the power-reserve indicator.

• Movement: L942.1, with 48-hour power reserve. I’ll quote Walt Odets, because his review, while not even glowingly positive, is one of the reasons I appreciate the Up/Down:

  “While much of the beauty of the Lange derives from its traditional materials and appearance, the adherence to tradition limits what this watch could have been…The Up/Down is essentially a miniaturized replica of a 19th century German pocket watch.

  The Lange Up/Down is its own kind of quirky, old-new masterpiece. It is not, however, a contribution to furthering the technical development of the mechanical watch.”

• His entire technical breakdown is worth a read. Three-quarter plate, German silver, gold chatons, hand-engraved balance cock, with a differential gearing to drive the power reserve indicator. “If traditional German charm is to your taste,” it’s hard to beat the 1815, he writes, but adds that the Chopard caliber 1.96, Patek caliber 240, or Lange’s automatics are more technically impressive.

The first-gen models are mostly the same, except the platinum and yellow gold have blued hour and minute hands, while the white and rose have gold hands matching the case. I like the traditional look of Lange’s blue steel hands on the argenté dial, even if the Blue Up/Down is more “collectible.”

A curious detail

The 1815 Up/Down is typically seen with Lange’s standard silver dial, which has a flat, slightly textured surface. However, there seems to be another variant. A friend of mine recently bought a first-gen yellow, and when it arrived, he was surprised to find the center portion had a circular-grained pattern. Hardly noticeable until you get up close. I don’t think they’re any more valuable, but it’s an interesting detail to note (although I can imagine dealers marketing these as “rare two-tone dials!” in the future). Part of the fun of collecting, especially this era, when there’s plenty to learn:

Integrated bracelet

Like many early Langes, the 1815 Up/Down was also offered with an integrated Wellendorff bracelet

• 251.021 (Yellow gold): Last sold at auction in 2024 ($22,680), cataloged as the second known example. People pay crazy prices for anything Wellendorff now, so who knows what it’d sell for.

• 251.025 (Platinum): Documented in collector-maintained databases, but I haven’t seen one sell publicly. Let me know if you’ve seen even a picture of one!

Walter Lange Edition

In 2006, Lange introduced a limited-edition Up/Down trio in white, pink, and yellow gold as a tribute to Walter A. Lange:

• Key differences: 37.5mm, hinged caseback with Lange’s signature engraved, and gold rings surrounding the subdials.

• Limited to 50 pieces in each metal.

• These have become more popular with collectors recently—market discussion below.

Second Generation

Bigger case, better movement

Lange discontinued the first-gen 1815 Up/Down in 2008 and introduced the second-gen in 2013 with an updated case, dial, and movement:

• Case: 39x8.7mm, stepped bezel

• Dial: Larger subdials, removed Gangreserve

• Movement: Caliber L051.2 with 72-hour power reserve, exposed ratchet wheel and click spring (hidden under three-quarter plate in first gen)

I prefer the smaller size of the first gen, and also don’t love the larger second-gen subdials that gobble up the 5 and 7 numerals. But the updated movement is technically and aesthetically better. Catalog notes:

• 2013: Lange introduced the second-gen Up/Down in yellow gold (234.021), white (234.026), and pink gold (234.032), each priced around $30k. All with silver dial and blued hands.

• 2026: Pink and white remain in the catalog, MSRP: $39,600

• Yellow gold was discontinued in the early 2020s.

Retailer Editions

Lange has also made a few limited-edition 1815 Up/Downs for retailers using the second-gen 39mm format:

Cellini 40th Anniversary: New York retailer Cellini was a long-time Lange partner. For its 40th anniversary in 2017, Lange released an 1815 Up/Down in white gold with a white lacquer dial—a first. Limited to 40 numbered pieces, the “40” on the subdial is also in red.

75 Years of Suarez: A 2018 special edition in pink gold for Spanish retailer Suarez, with an engraved hinged caseback. Limited to 20 numbered pieces.

Wempe Edition: A limited-edition pair for retailer Wempe in 2019 with a blue dial and contrasting white subdials. White and pink gold, 25 pieces each.

Back to the 2026 Editions

That brings us to the 2026 limited edition 1815 Up/Down pair: 37.5mm, “panda-style” dial with blue dial and contrasting subdials, same L051.2 movement as the 39mm. Details:

• It takes the 37.5mm Walter Lange case and pairs it with the blue dial from the Wempe editions.

• Limited to 300 each.

• I’m curious how the large subdials work in the smaller case, a combo we haven’t seen before. Reserving judgment until I see them in person!

• Price is on request, but I’ve heard it’s around $45k, a sensible ~10% over the standard editions.

2026 Market Update

The Lange market has been super hot, so I spoke to Vivek of Tahoma Watches about the 1815 Up/Down market. He’s sold a handful recently:

Read more

Gallet introduced the Flying Officer in 1939, a chronograph with a world-time indicator, rotating bezel, and waterproof case—all novel for the time.

The cities on the world timer might seem unusual—small towns like Djask and Dakar alongside familiar metropolises like New York or London.

In those early days of intercontinental flight, you couldn’t just fly directly from one far-flung destination to another. Pilots had to hopscotch through sometimes obscure outposts, making multiple refueling stops to get across the world. For example, KLM, Air France, and Britain’s Imperial Airways all had routes connecting Europe to Asia running through Djask, a small port town on the Gulf of Oman.

This is the origin of the Gallet Flying Officer, with its indicators dictated by specific, real-world practicality.

Today, Gallet officially relaunches under Breitling’s House of Brands, after its acquisition by Breitling and Partners Group was first reported in February 2025. It’s introducing four collections, but calls the Flying Officer the “blueprint” for its relaunch.

The new Flying Officer has been upsized to 40mm (15mm thick), and Gallet says:

“The rotating bezel has been entirely reconsidered around 24 contemporary destinations, pairing major international gateways with more remote points of exploration to reflect how travel has evolved.”

That original specificity is long gone—instead, the world timer has become a moodboard for “wanderlust.”

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Wanderlust

Gallet’s relaunch is all about wanderlust. From its press release:

“Wanderlust is more than the urge to travel. It’s the instinct to break free from the ordinary, leave the noise behind, and chase what lies beyond.”

Gallet is positioned as a sibling brand of Breitling, with the four new collections to be sold via “select Breitling boutiques now featuring dedicated safari-inspired Gallet corners, inviting visitors into the brand’s world of escape, exploration, and adventure.”

The German wanderlust is a strong desire or impulse to travel. 160 million posts on Instagram have the hashtag #wanderlust, many of those from the late Obama years when millennials like me were Eat-Pray-Loving our way across Spain or Thailand or Colombia or whatever “affordable” destination an entry-level gig at Accenture could bankroll.1

It’s a strange place for Gallet to end up, since its actual history is anything but vague.

Founded in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1826, Gallet & Co. became known for its chronographs with very specific use cases: the Navigator for navigating; Yachting for yachters; Decimal for engineers and scientists; Filmeter for Hollywood; Medigraph for doctors; even basketball and football timers.

The Wright Brothers used a stopwatch known as The Sun, manufactured by Gallet, to time their first flights at Kitty Hawk in 1903. “The Sun” was a New York importer’s trademark, and the design was a horse timer Gallet had been selling since the 1890s.

Gallet’s distribution was focused in the United States, likely thanks to the efforts of Leon Gallet and Jules Racine. As wristwatches began to replace pocket watches in the 1930s, Gallet took advantage.

In 1938, it introduced the MultiChron Clamshell (my favorite Gallet), which used a primitive waterproof case design with four screws in the caseback to seal it against moisture. A year later came the Flying Officer. Earlier world timers from fancy brands like Patek Philippe used Louis Cottier’s intricate system. By contrast, the Flying Officer was practical and affordable, a tool for actual use by pilots and navigators.

An early Flying Officer was given to Harry S. Truman, who later became President of the United States and dropped two atomic bombs.

Meanwhile, Gallet entered its golden age with the rest of the Swiss industry, producing an endless variety of chronographs for the world’s growing middle class that enjoyed driving, yachting, flying, and other leisurely endeavors.

Gallet eventually became a victim of the Quartz and Currency Crisis, with the brand falling out of the Gallet family by 1994, going into private ownership and remaining largely dormant until its 2025 acquisition by private equity firm Partners Group and Breitling.

Today, Gallet enthusiasm is small compared to even Universal Genève, with a center of gravity in the U.S. given the historical link.

The new Gallet watches are “Manufactured by Breitling,” benefiting from Breitling’s “after-sales service and global distribution.”

This does not include Breitling movements, except for the 200th anniversary Gallet Classics (more below). Instead, Gallet relies on Sellita: the core chronographs are based on the Sellita SW510, while the Flying Officer Automatic is based on the SW200.

This may be a point of contention for some, but it’s historically honest. Vintage Gallet chronographs used outsourced calibers from Landeron, Venus, Valjoux, and, famously, Excelsior Park. Here’s the pricing:

• Flying Officer Automatic: $2,900 (strap) / $3,100 (bracelet)

• Flying Officer Chronograph, Multichron Pilot & Sport: $4,400 (strap) / $4,600 (bracelet)

• Gallet Classics (Yachting, 45, Silverlight): $6,700 USD (strap only)

It’s a competitive segment, and growth is slow. The chronograph prices put Gallet at the top band of Sellita users—smaller brands like Baltic, Hanhart, Christopher Ward, and Furlan Marri offer cheaper SW510 alternatives. Gallet comes in slightly below Norqain, which may be the best comp. Meanwhile, Longines offers a range of COSC-certified chronographs below $4,000.

For another couple grand, you can graduate to a Tudor Black Bay Chrono, which uses a Breitling-descended caliber, while “Breitling-made” Gallet runs a Sellita.

The problem: Gallet is a niche brand, but has chosen the broadest possible marketing and design codes, which means it’s taking on every competitor in the most crowded segment of the market.

Perhaps Gallet can become a true competitor to Longines, or more accessible than Tudor and its steady march upmarket. But it’s not there with this launch collection.

Let’s get specific

All those old Gallet chronographs answered a very specific question for doctors, pilots, engineers, or just rich lawyers with a boat.

But wanderlust isn’t a specific question—it’s a feeling, and feelings don’t lend themselves to precise answers. Let’s start by looking at the core collections:

(1) The Flying Officer

I’ve seen the Flying Officer in person. It’s a chunky: 40x15mm (47.5mm lug-to-lug), though I suppose not overly imposing for someone with larger wrists.

It’s offered with a black or trendy Tiffany-adjacent blue dial with that “reconsidered” world timer around the periphery. The simple design takes after second-gen vintage Flying Officers from the 60s, with no tachymeter or telemeter scales.

The bezel is highly polished, making it much shinier than the old Flying Officers. A pilot friend of mine wore a Flying Officer sample in the weeks leading up to this release, so I asked for his impressions. He told me:

“From a practical perspective, it’s too shiny, it leans too far away from the tool watch aesthetic.”

However, he called it a sharp watch, saying he’s glad Breitling has brought a new pilot’s watch to the market. He’ll have a full video with his thoughts on his YouTube, PilotWatchGouge.2

The Flying Officer is big, brash, and thick—closer to a 2006 sensibility of what a luxury watch should be than 2026. Instagrammable destinations like Dubai, Nairobi, and even Angkor Wat dot the dial, moving from #wanderlust to the world timer.

The Flying Officer might not be for me, the limp-wristed enthusiast, or my pilot friend, but Breitling is betting that the fat middle of consumers might be intrigued enough to take a safari to the corner of their local Breitling boutique.

(2) Flying Officer Automatic

There’s also a time-and-date Flying Officer Automatic, which doesn’t have a direct ancestor. Historically, Gallet mostly made chronographs, so I get the need to reinterpret its back catalog into a modern three-hander. But simply removing the chronograph shows a relative lack of imagination.

Gallet says the orange dial is “inspired by the patina of an aged Flying Officer,” and serves as the color palette of the entire brand relaunch.

Patina, repackaged as a Pantone.

(3) The Multichron Pilot 42. Gallet calls it “a go-anywhere, do-anything watch with a rugged, textured dial and the ability to track a second timezone.” GADA, that overused phrase born on Reddit and forums, elevated to press-release lingo. I expected all the watches to be super-sized, and the core collection is, even if the Multichron Pilot is a somewhat compact 42mm (11.3mm thick and 45.6mm lug-to-lug).

(4) The Multichron Sport 41 will wear bigger. A familiar three-register chronograph measuring 41x 13.9mm thick (49mm lug-to-lug), offered with a black or blue dial. It’s the only model without a historical analog. To me, it’s also the closest of the bunch to a Breitling, mixing elements that feel familiar from the Top Time or Classic AVI. Squint and it’s a Longines.

Across the Multichron, the design and color palette play it safe—relying on retro, unapologetically masculine tool-watch tropes like bright orange accents as a shortcut for establishing its credentials.

Gallet is being positioned as a sibling brand of Breitling, and it’d be hard to mistake it as anything but that.

Keep it Classic

Let’s get to the watches I like.

Alongside the core collection, there are three special-edition Gallet Classics. Unlike the others, they use Breitling’s hand-wound caliber B09. They’re also smaller: 38x12.5mm (46mm lug-to-lug). Even the GALLET wordmark at 12 o’clock has been shrunk down.

• Price: $6,700

I’ve talked to a few enthusiasts who were consulted on these, and it shows. The dimensions slip under the Tudor Black Bay 39 Chrono, as does the price (strap only vs. bracelet, but still). The lugs have a slight bevel, inspired by old Gallet cases like this one.

The models are interesting and even unexpected:

• The Yachting Big Eye is a reference to the vintage models of the same name, some of the best in Gallet’s entire back catalog.

• The Tribute to Multichron 45 references a rare vintage Gallet powered by a Landeron movement.

• Gallet says the Tribute to Silverlight is inspired by the vintage Navigator, though it lacks the additional navigator hand (basically a compass), which would’ve been a cool touch.

Sure, I would’ve loved to see these in 36mm, but we always knew that’d be asking for a lot from Breitling’s House of Brands.

While I like the execution of all three, that’s not to say I want Gallet to be entirely a heritage brand that reissues small(er) manually-wound dress chronographs for the finicky enthusiast set. That’s not a viable business, and isn’t what sells at Fifth Avenue or airport boutiques.

Gallet relies on a familiar blend of heritage meets adventure. The relaunch has some similarities with Bremont’s rebrand under CEO Davide Cerrato, also framed around the amorphous idea of adventure. So many of the brands in this segment—Bremont, Longines, Tudor, Norqain, and now Gallet—sell watches off that same sense of exploration.

Gallet is niche enough that I thought it could build around something else. Think about the way Nomos sells design or Sinn sells engineering. Gallet could’ve sold the specificity of its catalog—it made watches for doctors, engineers, cinematographers, navigators, and referees.

Asking the right questions

Those old Gallet chronographs were good because they were specific. The Flying Officer was a clever bit of 1930s engineering, hacked out of a rotating bezel. Eventually, the world caught up—the GMT hand, then quartz, then the phone in your pocket.

But specificity itself isn’t obsolete. Just last week, Ming introduced a world timer with an ingenious solution for tracking Daylight Saving Time, a real problem that didn’t have a mechanical answer. Somebody is still asking the kind of question Gallet used to ask.

Gallet spent its first 150 years making instruments for those who knew where they wanted to go, or what they wanted to measure. Now, it makes watches for wanderlust.

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Let me know what you think about the Gallet relaunch in the comments!

Unpolished Store End-of-Summer Sale: Straps will be restocked for fall in the next week, so everything currently in the Store is marked down at least 10%:

• Canvas Straps are $59

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AnOrdain released a new Model 1 Porcelain this week: white porcelain dial, blue numerals by designer Kia Tasbihgou, 38mm case. Lovely watch for $3,000.

A lot of the focus was on the Glasgow brand’s process for making porcelain dials, and how it allows them to produce more than the vitreous enamel dials that made it so popular. From AnOrdain’s press release:

• 7 enamelers produce 50 enamel dials per month

• 1 ceramic specialist makes 30-40 porcelain dials per month

  • About 300 porcelain dials are actually produced/month, but AnOrdain’s rejection rate can be 90%+

I’ve been wearing around a Model 1 Porcelain sample for a couple weeks, and it’s easy to see how. AnOrdain makes its porcelain dials by firing actual clay (not ceramic sheets). There are a few noticeable bumps on the dial, though you’ve gotta catch it at the right angle. Any blemishes are less noticeable than the black Porcelain I tried last year. Perhaps AnOrdain’s gotten better at making porcelain dials because I might’ve assumed white would show more texture.

Feeling crafty

“Just because it’s hard or expensive for you to do doesn’t mean your customer should care or pay for it,” collector & commentator Andy Green said on this week’s podcast. If another brand can make the same thing more cheaply, that’s a you problem.

“If there’s a direct competitor that’s doing volume and it’s cheaper, then that’s something for you to navigate and figure out how to find a different value proposition.”

“Craft” is everywhere right now, including watches. Watchmakers and brands are trying to figure out what they can actually do that the AI or robots can’t, just like programmers, lawyers, accountants. So we hear about hand-finished inner angles, hand-hammered cases, hand-polished hands.

But, as Felix Scholz adds in our pod: “The guys that are selling mass volume don’t need to talk about how unique their watches are. Rolex could write a press release saying every watch has been touched by a hundred hands, but they don’t need to because they’re selling them.”

Craft is narrative, no better or worse than any other story we tell ourselves to justify a purchase.

What are you waiting for?

AnOrdain focuses on craft as much as any brand. It’s in the tagline—old crafts, new hands.1

I’ve been on the waitlist for one of AnOrdain’s vitreous enamel dials since 2024 (build slot coming in 2028!). With its new porcelain dials, AnOrdain’s managed to solve a business problem—supply naturally limited by production—and sell it as mastering a new craft. Feeding two birds with one scone.

For the last two weeks, I’ve been wearing around this Porcelain Model 1. It’s a different process, different material, different makers. But the dial looks just as good as the enamel.

Part of that’s the numerals, the best AnOrdain’s come up with yet. Tasbihgou’s design is clearly inspired by Breguet. Not a copy, but you can see where they came from. Same swelling stroke, same wandering tails.

It all makes me wonder why I’m still waiting until 2028.

Sure, I can tell myself the story about craft—AnOrdain mastering enamel and bringing it to their in-house Glasgow workshop. That they can only make 50 dials a month. And credit where it’s due, AnOrdain’s queue isn’t manufactured by artificial scarcity.

But that’s only part of it. Part of what I want is the waitlist. That other people also want it.

The waitlist isn’t just a byproduct of the craft, it’s part of the product itself.

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RELATED READING:

Back in January, I asked 13 people—an Olympian, Formula 1 lead, founders, collectors, and makers like Berneron and Büsser—to help me find the line between making and marketing.

The Roundup

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It’s almost the end of summer. Before we head back to school and a few of you lucky folks head to Geneva Watch Days, I decided it was time for a Mid-Year Awards Show. I called up Andy Green and Felix Scholz of the O.T.: The Podcast to talk about the releases we’ve seen so far in 2026.

We start by discussing trends: The rise of “economy gold,” the second generation of microbrands, outer space is back in a big way, and our most worn watches of the year.

Then, we give out some fun awards: Best Watch Under $2,000; the Discourse Award, for generating the most posts per unit of watch actually produced; the Beige Award for most boring release; Best Release of the Year (overall); Most Likely to be a Grail in 20 Years; and the ‘Big Dog’ Award.

We also talk plenty about Chanel Blue and the Best Blue Award, craft, value, and if it’s okay to take five years to “develop” a color.

What will be a grail in 2046?

We closed the episode with a question that turned out to be two questions. I asked Felix and Andy to name the watch from 2026 they think will be a grail twenty years from now, and they immediately answered different prompts.

Felix went predictive: His pick was the Jubilee motif Oyster Perpetual, and his reasoning had nothing to do with whether he wants one. It’s about how the catalog will read in 2046: Rolex made a weird dial for a single year, 20 years ago, and then never again. It’s the kind of thing collectors love.

Andy went personal: The watch he still expects to want in 20 years, the Chopard L.U.C 1860 Areuse Blue. It’s not that the latest L.U.C will be breaking auction records in 20 years, he just likes it. We talk about the new Alpine Eagle XPS “Mountain Glow,” but Andy’s pick for 2046 is the L.U.C 1860—something about it feels more certain as a future classic. He held it back from his Best Release of the Year list to save it for this question.

My pick was somewhere between the two: The Daniel Roth Extra Plat Skeleton. Production is genuinely limited, and each one is numbered, which means we might have a good idea how many were actually made in 20 years. Daniel Roth, Gérald Genta, and La Fabrique du Temps will also likely be the last watchmaking projects from legendary watchmakers Enrico Barbasini and Michel Navas. It’s the kind of thing we only grow to appreciate as the years pass, especially their connection to Genta himself and the first generation of indies.

Podcast episodes are published on Fridays. Listen here, and subscribe to get future episodes in your feed: Spotify / Apple / RSS. Also watch on YouTube:

Show Notes

• OT: The Podcast on Apple Podcasts; on Substack

• Watches mentioned include: the Sinn U1, Earthen Ceramic, Andy's Rolex Land-Dweller (in for service), TAG Heuer Formula 1 Solargraph, Buzz Aldrin’s Speedmaster; Kiwame Tokyo Sakura, Anoma, Raymond Weil A.R.T, Hamilton Khaki Field 250, Blue Chanel J12, Cartier Privé collection; Naoya Hida x Zenith GFJ, Grand Seiko Ushio diver UFA, IWC Ingenieur 35 in Pool Blue, Chopard 1860 Areuse Blue, Daniel Roth Extra Plat Skeleton, titanium IWC Perpetual Calendar, and more.

END-OF-SUMMER SALE!

Head to the Unpolished Store to shop our selection of Canvas and Leather Straps. We’ll be restocking for fall in the next week, so everything currently in the store is marked down at least 10%:

• Canvas Straps are $59

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Thanks for listening, and let us know your award winners for the first half of 2026.

• Check out the latest Unpolished Podcast with Wesley Smith of Standard H. We discuss t-shirts and how to make a good one. Then we get into watches: what bugs us about the Lange Saxonia Annual Calendar; how to fix IWC; loud rotors; a TAG Heuer Carrera we’ve both owned; and the spec sheet-ification of watches. Listen here on Substack, here on Apple Podcasts, or here on Spotify:

🎧 Podcasts will continue to be posted every other Friday, so make sure to subscribe to the “Unpolished Watches” feed wherever you listen to pods.

The Ref is a weekly story about a sometimes-forgotten watch or moment in history. Today: The future classics of 2006. Previous editions:

• The Steel Lange That Was Never For Sale | Ref. 01

• A Very American Way to Lose an Industry | Ref. 06

• The Most Badass Watch You Can Buy | Ref. 07

If 20 years is the vintage line, 2006 just crossed it.

“Vintage” is mostly another way to say “old” to make us feel better about the obscene sums these things can cost. But it does mean something—that an object has survived a generation of use, abuse, and trends, graduating from the shabbier “used” or “pre-owned” to something with enduring quality and style. Vintage commonly refers to objects 20–100 years old (100+ earns you “antique”).

It’s an elastic definition, stretching as each generation ages and becomes nostalgic for its own past. With 2006 now 20 years behind us, it’s creeping into vintage territory, or at least the even more nebulous “neo-vintage.”

2006 is the year The Departed won the Oscar for Best Picture; Carrie Underwood won the Grammy for Best New Artist; MB&F had launched but hadn’t yet released its first Horological Machine; Twitter just went live; the iPhone would come a year later. I was in high school, and I remember when we all got on facebook.com and started posting on each other’s walls during computer class.

The 2006 GPHG nominees tell you everything you need to know about the watches:

Everything was big, complicated, skeletonized, or carbon-fibered. Hublot had just introduced the world to the Big Bang. For the Reverso’s 75th anniversary, Jaeger-LeCoultre released the Complication Triptyque, the first watch with three faces.

Twenty years is also just long enough to find out how wrong a room full of collectors was. Let’s look at a few future classics released in (or around) 2006.

Patek Philippe Annual Calendar Chronograph 5960P

The year 2006 was also the 30th anniversary of the Nautilus. To celebrate, Patek Philippe held a special launch event for the new Nautilus collection in October, introducing the refs. 5711, 5712 (moonphase), 5980 (chronograph), and 5800 (38mm).

But those weren’t what everyone wanted.

That was the Annual Calendar Chronograph Ref. 5960P. Patek Philippe’s first in-house automatic chronograph. It’s 40.5x13mm—big and sporty and unlike anything Patek Philippe had ever made. It came a year after Patek Philippe’s first in-house chronograph, the darling split-seconds 5959.

The 5960P won Timezone’s Watch of the Year. Vertical clutch, all the counters in a single subdial at 6 o’clock. This was before Hodinkee, ABTW, and all those other blogs, when the forums were how information pinged across modems.

I’ve mentioned before that the steel 5960A—which would come along to replace the platinum in 2014—is already a modern sleeper for some, the forgotten sports watch behind the Nautilus and Aquanaut.

This is how the price chart for most of these 2000s watches looks, and the 5960P is no different:

You can find dozens on the market at any given time. Right now:

• 1916 Company has a full set listed for $67k;

• Analog Shift has a 5960P for $60k.

Those are probably top of the market, and you can certainly go dumpster diving on C24 and find one for less.

The 5960P is exactly the kind of Patek Philippe people aren’t paying up for right now. It’s beefy—not thin like the 3940 or 3970 or 5711—but that’s what makes it very 2006.

H. Moser Perpetual 1

H. Moser & Cie. relaunched in late 2005, after Dr. Jürgen Lange and Roger Nicholas Balsiger, Heinrich Moser’s great-great-grandson, founded Moser Schaffhausen in 2002. There were three watches: the Monard (three-hander), Mayu (small seconds), and Perpetual 1.

The Perpetual 1 was the breakthrough. Independent watchmaker Andreas Strehler helped develop Moser’s early watches, and his penchant for hidden complexity is on full display with the QP.

It’s minimal: that tiny hand indicates the month by pointing at the hour markers; a leap year wheel is visible through the display caseback. The calendar can be adjusted forwards and backwards, a technical trick some other brands are just now getting around to, 20 years later.

The Perpetual 1 (ref. 341.501) won the GPHG Complication Award in 2006.

The Meylan family acquired Moser in 2012—Edouard Meylan has said the company was a “mess financially” when they took over. The Meylans reduced headcount from 75 to 30 employees, sold machines, and stopped producing movements that were either unreliable or unsustainable.

During these early years, Moser was producing just 1,000–1,200 movements a year, mainly focused on its simpler models. The Perpetual 1 would’ve been a fraction of its output, mostly limited to gold, platinum, and palladium. Moser used the original perpetual calendar cal. HMC341 until 2016.

Collectors always love firsts, and as Moser continues to grow, there’s a world in which we’ll refer to pre-Meylan Moser the same way we talk about pre-Vendome Panerai or Roth-era Breguet. Not necessarily because the watches are better—early indies are often unreliable—but because they’re the foundation of something bigger.

More cataloging of these early years is needed to understand what’s what, but prices are still reasonable:

Read more

Today’s Collector Conversation is with Wesley Smith, founder of Standard H, an automotive-inspired clothing brand. Wesley has worked in fashion and menswear for 30 years, and he’s also a big watch enthusiast.

During his recent visit to Chicago, we sat down to talk about both. First, we get nerdy about t-shirts. The simplest garment there is, but dozens of decisions go into making one, whether it’s from Uniqlo, Buck Mason, or Standard H. How can you tell if it’s a good t-shirt? Besides his own, what’s Wesley’s favorite?

Then we talk watches. What bugs us about the Lange Saxonia Annual Calendar; how to fix IWC; loud rotors; a TAG Heuer Carrera we’ve both owned; the spec sheet-ification of watches; the problem with most midsize watches; and more. The first ~20 minutes are clothing talk, then we get into watches.

We’ll continue publishing podcasts every other Friday. Subscribe to get future episodes in your feed: Spotify / Apple / RSS.

Show Notes

• Standard H website; on Instagram

• Standard H Avant t-shirt

• Real Review: Lange Saxonia Annual Calendar

• TAG Heuer CS3111 Carrera Re-edition from 1996

• My TAG Heuer Carrera ‘Glassbox’ Week on the Wrist

• Barrelhand

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• In today’s email: Why there's nowhere to try on a Royal Oak; Bulgari built its own movement while everyone else went shopping; Nobody's made a real midsize flagship, and Piaget should; Seiko is making more money than Richemont's watch division.

• I’m still working my way through Watch Brothers London’s guide to Saatchi and Vintage Collection Patek Philippe, but it’s worth the time.

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1/ All these events are good, but where can I try on a Royal Oak (or Alpine Eagle)?

There are SO many events this fall, it seems like my entire IG feed is either AI or someone promoting something they’ll be doing somewhere. To list a few:

I’m probably missing some local shows. Many of these have popped up even since I published the Great Big Watch Calendar earlier this year.

It’s obvious to point out that in-person is the new luxury, and that’s especially the case with watches, physical objects that need to be held to be understood. Brands want to meet customers IRL, and it’s also a way for us creators/influencers to try to make some $$.

And community is an excellent thing, but I also wonder if watches are uniquely good at delivering it. Like, you could also go to church or play intramural softball or something. Is the watch a ticket, or is it the main attraction?

Separate but related, two recent interactions:

• A subscriber reached out because they were visiting Chicago for the weekend from a small (but lovely!) Midwest town and asked for tips on where to try on a Royal Oak. Good question, sadly without a good answer. The closest AP boutique is 718 miles away.

• I was going back and forth with another local enthusiast about the Chopard XPS Alpine Eagle “Mountain Glow.” How does it wear?, they wondered. It’s hard to explain because it’s 41mm, but the effective lug-to-lug is longer since the first bracelet link doesn’t articulate. Sadly, the closest Chopard Boutique is 523 miles away.

Look, if you’re traveling from flyover country to pay your respects at Journe, I get it’s part of the experience to make the pilgrimage to Miami or L.A., explain your unrivaled passion for Mssr. Journe, get spat on, and head home. But for pretty much every other brand, asking someone to travel just to try on your watches is a lot. (Especially when another watch newsletter is nailing complaints about retailers to the door like the 95 Theses once you do walk into those ADs.)

Right now, some brands would rather parachute in for a pop-up. It generates content from collectors and influencers, and maybe that’s all that matters. But it comes out of the marketing budget, and I’d be careful not to mistake all that content for actually getting to know a local collector base.

2/ A midsize postscript

In last week’s piece, I unfortunately forgot to include the new Bulgari Octo Finissimo 37 (it’s since been added). It may be the most instructive example of a larger point I wanted to convey. While many brands (IWC, Parmigiani, AP, Vacheron) looked to existing movements to power their midsize offerings, some didn’t. Rolex, Moser, Bulgari, all took time to build their own. It’s no coincidence these are also the ones that were “late” to the party.

Taking the time to develop your own movement instead of hopping on a trend and quickly finding a caliber to match is worthy of praise. For years we asked, where is the smaller Bulgari Octo Finissimo?? The watch is cool but the 40 wears like a gladiator’s cuff.

We finally got the answer this year, and it was worth the wait.

Despite dropping the diameter to 37 (and the movement itself is 5mm smaller!), Bulgari actually managed to increase the power reserve from 60 to 72 hours (both run at 3 Hz). In his article for 1916 Company, points out this was done by increasing the height of the mainspring to improve torque. Further:

“In the BVF 100 [the movement in the OF 37], the ratchet wheel is made of spring steel, and clipped into position. This reduces the thickness of the ratchet wheel and allows a taller mainspring without an increase in thickness overall, which contributes to the longer power reserve.”

There’s also the price: $16,600 in bead-blasted titanium, comfortably below offerings from Moser, AP, Vacheron, and others. Bulgari knows its place and is owning it.

The Finissimo 37 is still a bit wide for me, but I wouldn’t be mad if that new Minute Repeater 37 chimed in my backswing.

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3/ Give me a ‘flagship’ midsize watch

Last week’s study also showed that there’s a wide-open lane for a true flagship midsize integrated bracelet.

What I mean: Beyond the direct comps like the Royal Oak 37 vs. 41 (or Overseas 34.5 vs. 41), some brands offer a “flagship” with specs and finishing above and beyond: the Audemars Piguet RO Jumbo 16202 or Vacheron Ultra-thin Overseas 2500V. Elsewhere:

• The closest midsize flagship is probably Vacheron Constantin’s 222 at 37mm, but not quite. You could also argue the Land-Dweller 36 is the best expression of the current model, since, as commenters pointed out last week, Rolex could’ve used the extra mms in the 40 to beef up power reserve.

• One most notable exception: Patek Philippe’s 5610/1P, the 38mm Nautilus 50th Anniversary using the caliber 240. But that was also limited to 2,000 pieces and about as obtainable as a direct answer from ChatGPT (Patek also offered the 5810/1G as a companion in 41mm).

No brand has had the conviction to invest in a true midsize flagship, instead sizing down mainly as a hedge. One that I think is well-equipped to deliver: Piaget.

The modern Polo79 is technically 38mm, but that thing’s an absolute gold brick. The vintage Polo was 34mm, quartz, and slim as an AmEx.

Piaget is all about elegance and ultra-thin, and leaning into that for a refined 36mm Polo79 could bring its modern watches into the collector conversation (under $100k would also be nice). They could even do it in the old rectangular shape.

4/ Seiko and Citizen 📈

Here’s my semi-regular reminder to pay more attention to Seiko and Citizen. Seiko published some financials last week: it’s estimated to sell ~$1.5b of watches this year, up 33% over last year.

Enthusiasts complain about price increases, but the business is working: It’s going to make 2x the profit of Richemont’s watch division, and the stock is up 4x over the past year.

While the Swiss have spent the past decade making their watches harder to buy and calling it desirability, Seiko’s selling watches simply by being available. After all, there’s a reason 11 of the 14 best sellers on Teddy’s website are Seikos.

Citizen Group is no different. And maybe it’s the last gasp of summer, but I’ve been into cheap watches recently. I briefly saw the new Citizen Promaster Dive at Windup Chicago, so just requested a sample. It’s the first time I’ve ever requested anything from Citizen.

Any talk of a slowdown in watches is really myopically focused on a few of the mid-luxury European brands.

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5/ Microsnobbery is in

And old-fashioned snobbery is out, according to the Washington Post:

“Every snob, I’ve noticed, seems to come paired with a reverse snob: someone equally certain of their superiority, but convinced that theirs is about authenticity, not status.”

Taste has become democratic, and everything is acceptable, so everyone invents their own standards of exclusion instead of subscribing to some handed-down truth.

This happens in watches all the time.

Read more

Just think about all the midsize time-telling integrated bracelets we’ve gotten over the past few years:

• Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF 36 (2022)

• Vacheron Constantin Overseas 34.5 (2023)

• Rolex Land-Dweller (36 w/ 40mm in 2025);

• IWC Ingenieur 35 (2025);

• H. Moser Streamliner 34 (2026);

• Girard-Perregaux Laureato Fifty 36 (2026)

• Bulgari Octo Finissimo 37 (2026)

Audemars Piguet and Patek Philippe have long offered a range of sizes for the Royal Oak and Nautilus. We could name others, down to the ubiquitous Tissot PRX.

These midsizers are often advertised—and priced—as the sized-down equivalent of their big brothers. For example, the Vacheron Constantin Overseas 41mm is $29,200 and the 34.5mm is $26,600.

But are they really the same? Salim () recently noted the discrepancy between Overseas movements:

• 41mm (cal. 5100): Geneva Seal, 60-hour power reserve

• 34.5mm (cal. 1088/1): non-Geneva Seal, 40-hour power reserve

The caliber 1088 is compact and industrial, based on a Richemont-owned ValFleurier movement. In addition to better performance, the larger caliber 5100 shows the hallmarks of high-end industrial finishing and architecture:

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Similarities: Both have a soft iron casing ring to increase anti-magnetism. Both movements are index-regulated: the cal. 1088 has an Etachron-style regulator, while the cal. 5100’s regulator is built and finished to meet the Geneva Seal.

Finishing: The cal. 5100 has twin barrels; a more complex bridge architecture with wide, polished anglage; mirror-polished screw and jewel sinks, along with polished screws. In contrast, the ValFleurier cal. 1088 has a simpler layout with narrower bevels and unpolished countersinks. The cal. 5100’s Geneva stripes are crisp and broad, giving the entire movement more of a glow:

Movements are just one part of a watch, and with integrated bracelets, fit and finish of the case and bracelet are also important. We want the design, the vibe, the tie to Gerald Genta (or whoever).1 But movements still matter.

Many of you know my penchant for smaller watches, so I get asked about these a lot. Many/most brands didn’t start taking midsize watches seriously again until a few years ago. That meant finding external or shared suppliers—Vaucher and ValFleurier appear a few times below—for movements to fit these slimmed-down dimensions.

And that means trade-offs.

Take Audemars Piguet: When AP updated the Royal Oak in 2022, it chose the calibers 5800/5900 for the midsize. They’re based on Vaucher movements, the same used by the Parmigiani Tonda PF 36. But they were chosen for their thinness—just 3.9mm—compared to the AP caliber 3120 (4.26mm) in the previous generation. Thinness is more important than some blind obligation to “in-house,” so it’s a reasonable trade-off.

But does the price follow? The Royal Oak 37 is 95% the price of the 41. The Overseas, Tonda PF, and Ingenieur are ~90% of their full-size counterparts. The Streamliner 34 costs exactly the same as the Streamliner 40. One brand charges 93% and gives you the exact same caliber—no compromise. You can probably guess which one wears that Crown.

But that’s just one percentage. The other one is harder to put a number on: How much watch are you actually getting?

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DIFFERENT MOVEMENT, REAL DOWNGRADE

Vacheron Constantin Overseas

41mm ($29,200) vs. 34.5mm ($26,600; 91% of full-size price): As discussed, the Overseas 41 features the top-line cal. 5100, the only movement in our survey with the Geneva Seal—an external set of requirements largely related to finishing and available to watches made in Geneva. The cal. 1088 is serviceable, but it’s a clear step down from the cal. 5100.

IWC Ingenieur

A performance compromise

Read more

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In the Field

The “field watch” is my favorite kind of watch. It’s not a complication like a chronograph. Unlike dive watches, there’s no generally accepted ISO definition. It’s based on the old military-spec watches for forces in the field, foot soldiers far greater in number than divers or pilots—matte dial, hacking seconds, Arabic numerals.

The field watch is, frankly, kinda boring.

There’s often an inverse relationship between price and execution. Timex manages a better field watch than Patek Philippe. The most expensive field watches ever sold at auction are far cheaper than record-breaking divers or chronographs. A handful of Rolexes with mountaineering provenance have reached six figures—or a rare white “albino” Explorer—but that’s about it.

I recently talked about a few of my favorite field watches from Rolex, Hamilton, and IWC on the YouTube channel—

But when I think field watches, I think Hamilton. On July 4, I wrote about the rise and fall of the American watch industry. While the Swiss industry began to dominate in the early 20th century, Hamilton still produced more than 1 million timepieces for the American military during World War II, from wristwatches to marine chronometers. After the War, it continued to make simple mil-spec watches for the many troops fighting the many conflicts of the new global superpower.

But the Swiss franc enjoyed a low exchange rate post-WWII until 1973, making its watch exports very competitive.

Hamilton shut down its Lancaster, Pa. manufacturer in 1969, then Swatch Group (SSIH) acquired the brand in 1974. The Swiss conglomerate introduced the Khaki Field collection for civilians in the 1980s—33mm watches inspired by those mid-century military-issued watches.

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What Hamilton kept

It’s odd that Hamilton’s never really produced a 36mm Khaki Field, which I’d argue is the Perfect Size for a field watch. The standard Khaki Field Mechanical measures 38mm, but has a lug-to-lug that spans the length of a dachshund.

On the rare occasion Hamilton has made a 36mm Khaki Field, I’ve scooped it up, and that Engineered Garments limited edition is my favorite modern Khaki Field.

That is, until this year’s Hamilton Khaki Field Mechanical 250, a special edition to mark the U.S.’s 250th anniversary. The 250 comes in two flavors:

• A limited edition of 1,776 that comes with an extra leather NATO strap and watch roll; and

• A non-limited edition that doesn’t come with those extras but is otherwise the same. It’ll be produced just for 2026.

Both are $725, and you can still buy the non-limited version at retailers or online.

The 250 is based on the Hamilton FAPD 5101, which was produced for one glorious month, September 1970—the same month Ford introduced the Pinto—and issued to navigators in the U.S. Air Force.

The FAPD 5101 was basically a souped-up version of Hamilton’s existing military-issued watches (built to spec MIL-W-46374). It’s a larger 36mm parkerized case that’s dull and corrosion-resistant; fixed lugs; an acrylic domed crystal; hacking movement adjusted to better accuracy than those other mil-specs—these were for high-flying navigators, after all, not your average infantryman.

Specs: Hamilton faithfully recreated all these features in the 250: 36mm (46mm lug-to-lug), 10.2mm thick, 100m water resistance (an improvement over the standard 50m), 18mm lugs, delivered on a soft cotton-canvas NATO strap with leather keepers. Hamilton’s 80-hour caliber H50 is inside, and there’s even a dust cover in a nod to the original.

The matte case mimics parkerization, the faux-aged lume works, and the syringe hands have a more dramatic taper than the standard Khaki Field.

The biggest difference compared to the original FAPD is the Hamilton wordmark at 12 o’clock, of course not on the old military watches. Hamilton uses a period-appropriate italic font that’s more squared-off than its modern logo. A solid choice, but man I would’ve loved to see Hamilton have the cojones to eschew a logo altogether or put it down at 6 o’clock.

No doubt about it, this is a watch for enthusiasts. Hamilton takes just a couple of liberties from the original:

• Lug width: The 250 is 18mm, while the original FAPD was 16mm. It’s a fine choice—the 18mm width already feels slightly narrow with the long lugs.

• Seconds hand: The other thing that stands out is the large lollipop counter-balance on the seconds hand. It’s bigger than the original, and the only component that really feels like Hamilton took from the standard 38mm Khaki and slapped into the 250.

On the Wrist

I borrowed a friend’s Khaki Field 250 for the better part of a month, and found myself reaching for it all the time. It’s the perfect summer watch. I swam, ran, biked, and generally galavanted around with it.

There’s no screw-down crown, which any Redditor would scream at you is the Khaki Field’s original sin, but I find manually-wound movements and screw-down crowns fundamentally at odds with all that screwing/ unscrewing.

The boxed, domed, acrylic (plastic) crystal is perfect for the 250. The biggest flaw of modern Khakis is the flat sapphire crystal, which makes a vintage-inspired tool feel unmistakably modern. In some of my photos, you can even see the scuffs that accumulate on the crystal, easily buffed out with toothpaste or Polywatch. A domed crystal also adds something to the overall shape that I think makes most watches better. It feels more organic, sloping naturally instead of ending abruptly.

The cotton strap is softer and more comfy than any NATO—this is why I sell a cotton canvas in the Unpolished Store, and if Hamilton sold this material as a two-piece strap, I’d have some competition—and doesn’t tilt too far into military cosplay for me in the way NATOs do. It’s not as long, so there’s no tail to tuck into the keeper. I found the limited-edition leather NATO unwearable, obscuring the lovely, compact dimensions of the 250.

The fixed bars are a practical mark against the 250, but that’s also the point. Hamilton was right to include them, and plenty of custom makers can make straps for fixed bars.

Will I buy it? $725 for the platonic ideal of a field watch isn’t a big ask in 2026. That said, I already have, by my count, 6 field watches, one of which is another Hamilton, so I need another one like the Dodgers needed Tarik Skubal.

Nothing to add

Most Swiss watches today trade on luxury and heritage. We call some of them “tool watches,” but that’s mostly a reference to a long-gone history of actually using them to do something.

The field watch is different. You can dress up a diver or chronograph in gold or diamonds and it still kinda works. But dress up a field watch too much, and it becomes something else, too fancy to really be for the field.

That’s why the Khaki Field 250 works. Hamilton didn’t add anything—it went back to September 1970 and took away what worked back then.

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Let me know if you enjoyed this review, and which watches you’d like to see next. Thanks to my friend Dan for letting me borrow his 250 for the better part of a month.

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• tony[at]unpolishedwatches.com

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• My favorite, tap the heart or leave a comment ❤️

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John says his collecting philosophy is that “a collection should tell a story. He’s got a different approach to acquisition—he buys watches, usually mid-century chronographs, in pairs. He looks to pair the steel tool watch with its dressier counterpart.

We talk about what you learn that you might not otherwise by hunting pairs; why John loves these boomer chronographs; how he’s seen watch collecting evolve over 30+ years; what he thinks about all these little dress watches; and a whole lot more. John’s from my hometown of Indianapolis, so it was a pleasure to have him on to talk watches.

Subscribe to the podcast to get future episodes in your feed: Spotify / Apple / RSS

I’m going to continue publishing these shorter ‘collector conversations’ in between full podcast episodes—let me know if you’re enjoying them, and what other topics you’d like to see covered.

Show Notes

• John Cote on Instagram

• The Boomer Watch Is On Sale, Unpolished

• American Pocket Watches: A Primer For The Wristwatch Collector, John’s article on Hodinkee

• A Very American Way to Lose an Industry, Unpolished

• NAWCC Forums

• John’s Wittnauer chronograph pair—he wore the black dial when we chatted:

“The art we keep will stay in the canon; the art we discard will be lost to history. A tiny proportion of the art we inherit will be treasured and valued, and a bit more will find a good home elsewhere, perhaps slowly accumulating historical value even if it loses cultural cachet. But most of it will probably acquire signs of physical deterioration and neglect.”

This applies to watches, too, and it’s one reason to be thoughtful about what we collect. Because the stuff we don’t keep, the stuff we overlook or simply miss, that’s what’s lost.

In today’s letter: The most impressive dive watch ever made is 40 years old, sub-$10k, and I sure hope it isn’t forgotten. (Also, if you squint, you can find its DNA in a modern Moser.)

ICYMI

🎁 Unpolished Members get: (1) Welcome Care Package; (2) 10% off the Unpolished Store; (3) $50 off Watchcheck, + 2 newsletters/week, comments, and Q&As. Find info on all your benefits HERE.

Porsche Design created some of the most innovative watches in the world in the 1980s and 90s. Today, it’s basically caught in the middle of making watches for (1) Porsche guys to match to their cars (mostly corny), or (2) watch guys who are nostalgic for those 80s-90s watches (sometimes corny).

Chris, aka , recently put together an excellently researched piece on the history of Porsche Design.

It starts with a bit of myth busting, always fun—dubious origin dates, model names, founder stories. But beyond any myth, Porsche Design’s contribution to watches is very real. Read his whole piece.

It’s easy to undervalue Porsche Design because it was a design studio—not watchmakers, manufacturers, or craftspeople. It didn’t exactly do anything first, even though it was successful with early commercialization of titanium and blacked-out watches. As Chris writes:

“It wasn’t production control Porsche Design was seeking. It was creative control.”

This is why its 20-year partnership with IWC, from 1978 through 1997, represented its creative peak. IWC provided the production and watchmaking. Günter Blümlein, at the helm, was a commercial genius with an eye for creative talent.

To me, this is best illustrated with one watch: the Ocean 2000. I haven’t found a decent guide detailing the evolution of dials, bracelets, and design so here it is.

💸 There are also a few on the market right now, featured at the end for paid subscribers.

The Ocean 2000; or, how is the most innovative diver ever made 40 years old?

The IWC / Porsche Design Ocean 2000 was officially introduced to the public at 1983’s Basel Fair. However, a Porsche Design press release announced it in 1981, and PD sold it through its own channels for a couple of years.

The Ocean 2000 was originally built to meet German Navy (Bund) specs, and these military-issued examples are particularly collectible—distinguished by a flat sapphire crystal, black bezel, and orange hand.

Specs: They’re impressive: 2,000 meters of water resistance at 42mm diameter and only ~11mm thick.1 Push-to-turn bezel. Titanium case and bracelet, a case shape that’s UFO-meets-pebble, but a stark design to remind you it’s German. Fluid and futuristic in a Disney World Tomorrowland sort of way.

Modern comps: I can’t think of a modern watch that matches these specs in an equally compact package?

The Ocean 2000’s bracelet is unmistakable. A few weeks ago, I put a question to followers: What’s the most recognizable watch bracelet ever?

I expected about five answers (three of them being Rolex bracelets), and I was mostly right, but one answer with multiple responses surprised me: The Ocean 2000.2

That hidden-lug, integrated bracelet design, with the bead-blasted titanium wrapping around your wrist like an armadillo giving you a hug.

This bracelet was also one of the Ocean 2000’s weak points and underwent multiple redesigns, resulting in four distinct styles—more on those below.

First, let’s look at the Ocean 2000’s evolution—

Ref. 3500 (Early 80s)

• ‘Porsche Design’ only. The earliest examples, produced in the early 80s before IWC officially introduced the Ocean 2000 as part of its own lineup.

• Script: When IWC added the Ocean 2000 to its lineup, it featured script IWC, International Watch Co., Schaffhausen at 12 o’clock (the “Fadenscrift”), and Porsche Design at 6 o’clock.

• Bracelet: Geometry 1 or 2 (more below)

• Collector’s tip: The market doesn’t always get that those early Porsche Design-only Ocean 2000s are rare and only made for a couple of years, so sometimes you can scoop one up for the same price as a later example. Because of the clean look and history, I think these Porsche Design-only Ocean 2000s should get higher prices.

Ref. 3504 (mid-80s to Early 90s)

• Dial: IWC / Porsche Design dual branding lockup at 12.

• Bracelet: Geo 2/3 (service swaps can also muddy these timelines)

Ref. 3524 (1990s)

• Dial: Inverted Porsche Design by IWC branding (don’t you love the jostling of corporate egos in the dial evolution??).

• Bracelet: Geo 3/4

Lume note: The Ocean 2000 uses tritium lume until the very latest ref. 3524s, which use Luminova. That means most dials are signed T Swiss Made T, and Swiss Made can tip you off to a service dial. I see a lot of bezels with relumed triangles.

Ocean 500: The mid-size option

• Introduced shortly after the Ocean 2000, the Ocean 500 (refs. 3502/ 3503) is the 34mm counterpart, with its lesser water resistance also in the name. Still pretty impressive for a midsize diver. Dial variants follow the same general pattern as the Ocean 2000. There’s also a two-tone version that’s pretty ugly in a 90s TAG Heuer kinda way.

• It’s the one I want! While the Ocean 2000 has a sleek look, the bracelet means it wears larger—I’ve tried on a few, and I’d bet the effective lug-to-lug is 50mm+.

The Ocean Grails

In 1985, IWC began experimenting with a new titanium blackening process called TiCon and produced a few Ocean 2000s and 500s with this process. It quickly realized the thin coating would wear off and it couldn’t be easily reapplied. Super rare watches today.

Know your Ocean bracelets

On the Ocean 2000, bracelet evolution is almost as important as the watch itself:

• Geometry 1 (Early 3500): One push pin in the center, with links held together by a spring-loaded pin. A paperclip could be used to remove links.

  • Problem: These spring-loaded pins wore down or corroded over time.

• Geo 2: Held together by two metal pins. A special claw tool was provided to remove links, but still had the same durability problem as Geo 1. Introduced 1984.

  • Fun fact: Lothar Schmidt is listed as the inventor on the patent for this design. Schmidt would go on to acquire Sinn in 1994.3

• Geo 3 (Ref. 3504): Solid pins. The full set came with a special tool to remove links, but other tools can be used today. Introduced 1991.

• Geo 4 (ref. 3524): Same pin system as Geo 3, but the gaps between links are smaller. Introduced 1997.

Straps, too: The Ocean 2000 could also be delivered on a Velcro strap with a special titanium end link. IWC forums suggest these end links can still be bought directly from IWC, but I’m not 100% sure.

Collector’s tip: In a service, IWC can change older Geo 1-2 bracelets to the latest Geo 4, but it requires swapping out the entire midcase. This seems to typically require a trip to Switzerland, which means more $$$. It’s the classic collector dilemma: Do you prioritize originality or practicality?

The End of Porsche Design and IWC

The very success of Porsche Design watches like the Ocean 2000 proved to be the undoing of its collaboration with IWC. Georges Kern, CEO of IWC, later said in a 2002 interview:

“[Porsche Design by IWC was] overshadowing the IWC brand and had reached a dangerous proportion.”

By the 1990s, “Porsche Design by IWC” had a hierarchy problem—the licensed name meant more than the manufacturer’s own. Porsche Design was 20% of IWC’s production. You can see it on the dials: IWC is up top in early refs, then a shared lockup, then by IWC is demoted to 6 o’clock in the final ref. 3524.

The Eterna Epilogue

Porsche Design also wanted more control. The Porsche family bought Eterna in 1995 to build its own in-house manufacture as the IWC partnership was winding down. It’s an odd, intriguing epilogue to IWC–Porsche Design. I’d mostly written this era off, but in that article Chris says he has a deep fondness for Eterna–PD as a clean expression of the original ethos at accessible prices. The ref. 6501.10 is the obvious successor to the Ocean 2000:

Both of them wanted more control, even though the partnership that made them both worth remembering was built on the opposite—each doing the one thing it did best and outsourcing the rest. That’s been the trajectory of the entire industry over the past few decades: everyone reaching for control over manufacturing, marketing, boutiques.

Today, some of the watches that remind me most of the old Porsche Design–IWC approach come from microbrands like Ming with uncompromising designers who mostly outsource the making. (Some are really marketing departments that market themselves as designers, but that’s another letter).

The Ocean 2000 showed how a real, military-issued diver didn’t have to look like a Milsub. It’s titanium, minimal, rated to 2000m, and still one coherent idea. Since the split, neither IWC nor Porsche Design has made anything half as interesting as the Ocean 2000.

A modern Moser footnote: I recently spent about a week wearing around the new H. Moser Streamliner 34. It’s one of the better renditions of the we’ve-gotta-do-a-sports watch—different enough that it’s not a Genta rehash. The shape and bracelet already reminded of the Porsche Design Ocean 2000, perhaps with a sprinkle of the Ebel Wave. Then, Justin Hast mentioned that a designer who worked at IWC in the 1990s works at Moser today. It’d certainly make sense, and there are only so many watch designers (and watch companies) in Schaffhausen.

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The Ocean 2000 Market Right Now

Here are 5 Ocean 2000s and 500s for sale right now:

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A few months ago, I ran a piece about what vintage dealers can’t sell right now. It’s one of the more popular newsletters this year, so here’s Part 2.

I asked a few more dealers the simple question: “What are some watches you’ve had listed for a while that no one’s paying attention to?”

Here’s what they said.

Geneva-based dealer Robin Mann said that his focus, vintage Rolex, has been slower, but that doesn’t mean it’s time to go deal hunting.

“It’s the optimal time to buy, but it’s easy to get lured into lower numbers and try to snag a deal,” Robin said. “The reality is that the best examples have largely held their value and still move reasonably quickly.”

🎁 Unpolished Members get: (1) Welcome Care Package; (2) 10% off the Unpolished Store; (3) $50 off Watchcheck, + 2 newsletters/week, and all comments, Q&As. Find info on all your benefits HERE.

Mike Nouveau agreed. He told me that more affordable 1970s Cartier watches tend to move faster than earlier Paris-made Tanks from the 1950s or 60s. People come to him asking for the most accessible Cartier and can be surprised when a pre-70s Tank costs $15k+. Most Tanks kinda look the same, so it can be hard to convey the rarity and handmade quality compared to the Swiss-made watches of the 70s and later. (In 1972, the separate branches of Cartier London, New York, and Paris began to consolidate under a single umbrella, centralizing production in Switzerland and scaling up operations.)

Nobody Wants a Simple Lange

“Lange gets a lot of love for the Lange 1 and its more complicated models, but its entry-level pieces get less attention,” says Evan Jarzynski of Ticking Time Homme. He mentioned the old three-hand 215, 216, and 219 Saxonia series, in production from 2007–2024. “I’ve had two for sale over the past year, and both sat for months despite being priced attractively relative to the market.”

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Pratt (1938–2009) was a British watchmaker, known in collecting circles for his work with Urban Jürgensen in the 1980s and 90s, his friendship with George Daniels, The Oval, or the reconstruction of Harrison’s H4 chronometer. He was one of the finest watchmakers of his generation, completely committed to the craft of watch and clockmaking.

Mary Pratt grew up surrounded by her father’s work. Like any kid, she says she didn’t fully understand the magnitude of his work at the time, even if the watches and clocks in their home always seemed interesting.

Nowadays, she runs a production company in New York. But a few years ago, she began to discover and document her father’s work in earnest. Now, there’s a Wikipedia page for Derek Pratt. But for the more personal stories, Mary started a newsletter, The Watchmaker’s Daughter—covering his love of bicycles, weather vanes, or their shared affection for Swatch.

Pratt was a historian of the craft—fluent in the techniques of Breguet, Harrison, or Tompion—and intent on carrying forward the tradition. Horology is overly or at least improperly used today, but Pratt was a true horologist, dedicated to the measurement of time, and the design, construction, and preservation of timekeepers.

Pratt has become especially known for his work with Urban Jürgensen, where he was technical director from 1982–2005. He became particularly well-regarded for the guilloché dials he made, crafted with antique engine-turning machines.

When his workshop was cleared out after he died, drawers full of discarded dials were found. While they appeared perfect, close-up inspection revealed the smallest of errors that had caused Pratt to reject them.

But his dial work was just the surface.

The Oval pocket watch for Urban Jürgensen was Pratt’s masterpiece, which sold for $4.2m in 2024. He began work on the pocket watch in 1982, endeavoring to complete it all—case, dial, movement—by hand. The Oval movement features a tourbillon, detent escapement with remontoir (incorporated into the tourbillon cage, a first), thermometer, and moonphase. It wasn’t ultimately finished until 2005 by Kari Voutilainen.

Perhaps because of his mechanical inclination, Pratt also appreciated other quirky inventions: his Wankel-engine Mazda, Dursley Pedersen bicycles, or water clocks.

I recently caught up with Mary to talk about her father, his watchmaking, and what it’s like growing up when your dad has a standing Sunday morning phone call with George Daniels.

Excerpts from our conversation below.

The Ref is a weekly story about a sometimes-forgotten watch or moment in history. Previous editions:

• The Steel Lange That Was Never For Sale | Ref. 01

• A Very American Way to Lose an Industry | Ref. 06

• The Most Badass Watch You Can Buy | Ref. 07

On clocks in the house

“I never had any aspirations to become a watchmaker, but exposure to watches, craftsmanship, and antiques definitely shaped me and my interests. I was surrounded by clocks and watches growing up.

On the hour, the whole house would ring. When I was young, my dad did a fair amount of clock repair. His first workshop was a room in our apartment, and the whole house was filled with clocks he was working on or monitoring for accuracy.

It was a great education for my eye from a very young age. It gave me a curiosity about all kinds of beautiful objects, not just watches and clocks.”

On Derek’s friendship with George Daniels

“[Pratt and Daniels] had their Sunday morning phone calls, which were famous in the horology world. They spoke every Sunday morning for years. To me, these are just childhood memories. They’d send each other faxes of sketches. George could come across a bit gruff on the phone. Once he called, we’d see my dad two hours later, if we were lucky.

I remember meeting George Daniels, and he was rather intimidating. Gravelly voice, very serious, always dressed in the best tweed, everything tailored.

My dad had a nice, calm voice, a pleasant demeanor talking to George. They probably talked about horology 99% of the time, and the rest of it was cars, motorcycles, and bikes. He was in his element, and genuinely loved talking shop.

On the day I was sworn into the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, [clockmaker] Andrew King told me a story about how he and Daniels were visiting Derek. Derek spotted my sister and me across the footbridge, and went to say hello to us. Daniels was not too pleased about this—probably thinking something like who’s more important than I am.”

On Derek’s work with Urban Jürgensen

In the 1980s and 90s, he was very actively engaged with Urban Jürgensen as technical director. These were some of his most productive years and innovative years. He hand-built movements with hundreds of components. It’s where he developed his remontoir that used a Reuleaux triangle, a shape he’d long been fascinated by.

On other clocks she remembers

There was this medieval clockmaker, Liechti, that made simple, ornamental iron clocks with floral embellishments. He was quite fond of them, charmed by them. I remember these distinctly as a child!

On her relationship with her dad’s work

The fact that he was so respected by his peers—as a child I just knew him as my dad. As I grew older, it’s been amazing to realize the level of respect he was shown and continues to have in the arena of independent watchmakers, the incredible refinement in his craft. He always strived for absolute perfection and went to great lengths to get there.

His guilloché work stands out. It cost him a lot of time and energy, but it’s something he really valued. The level of perfection—and the number of pieces he rejected—is just staggering.

Find Mary at The Watchmaker’s Daughter.

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Further reading:

• Derek Pratt: The Forgotten Watchmaker, A Collected Man

• The Greatest Unknown Watchmaker—Derek Pratt, SJX

• Inside Derek Pratt’s Oval Pocket Watch, Phillips

• Remembering Derek Pratt, British Horological Institute

• Derek Pratt, The Complete Horologist, British Horological Institute

• Derek Pratt, Wikipedia

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• tony[at]unpolishedwatches.com

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• Leave a comment or tap the heart if you enjoyed this post

In today’s newsletter: The latest episode of the Unpolished Podcast with David Concannon; an interview with a Rolex sales associate on what it’s really like to sell Rolex; Lorier watches are back and I talked to Worn & Wound about its acquisition; Tudor just did the best creator partnership I’ve ever seen; and Mark Cho wants to know your ideal watch size.

He’s Been to the Titanic 5 Times | Unpolished Podcast

David Concannon is today’s guest on the Unpolished Podcast. Find it below, or wherever you listen to podcasts. It’ll also be on YouTube shortly (Amtrak WiFi not ideal for uploading a 56-minute episode).

David is an explorer, attorney, writer, and watch collector. He’s been on five dives to the Titanic, and led the expedition that recovered the Apollo engines that launched men to the Moon. He’s a member of The Explorers Club, the society that counts famous astronauts and mountaineers among its members.

As part of his membership, he works with Rolex on the Explorers Club Grant, which puts Rolex watches into the field. We talk about that program, what it’s like working closely with Rolex, his first watch, pairing watches with his expeditions, and a whole lot more.

It’s an awesome discussion, and I hope you enjoy it.

Subscribe to get future episodes in your feed: Spotify / Apple / RSS:

The Roundup

A fashion journalist interviews an anonymous Rolex sales associate, behind Lorier’s acquisition, the best watch brand-creator partnership I’ve seen, and what’s your ideal watch size?

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I’m excited to be joined by David Concannon. He’s also an accomplished attorney with 30+ years of experience, and has a hell of a watch collection.

As part of his work with the Explorers Club, he works with Rolex on its Explorers Club Grant, which puts watches in the field. We talk about that program and what it’s like working closely with Rolex.

We discuss his first Submariner, collecting watches, what watch he plans to take on his next expedition, and a whole lot more.

Subscribe to the podcast to get future episodes in your feed: Spotify / Apple / RSS

For those of you listening on audio, the Unpolished Podcast is also now published as video on our YouTube channel HERE.

Show Notes:

• David Concannon on Substack

• Relics of Apollo, Part 1, 2, 3 (David Concannon)

• Rolex GMT-Master recall ad (Hodinkee)

• Early Rolex Le Mans ad (Ad Patina)

• The Explorers Club

• Rolex Explorers Club Grant

• Carl Spencer’s Rolex Sea-Dweller (Hodinkee)

Subscribers also get (1) 10% off in the Unpolished Store, (2) $50 off a service at Watchcheck, and (3) access to all comments and Q&As.

Last fall, I was having dinner at a Thai place on the Lower East Side, and stopped to compliment a 1016 I thought I saw on someone’s wrist. As I began my sentence, I looked down and realized the guy was actually wearing a Lorier Falcon. For $500, it was tough to beat.

Lorier is beloved by a certain segment of enthusiasts for its well-made homages to the past that aren’t too on-the-nose, many priced around 500 bucks.

But Lorier had its problems, the biggest one being that it was always sold out. Lorier had been curiously quiet over the past few months. Then in June, news leaked that it’d been acquired by Worn & Wound, and the official announcement came earlier this week. Husband-and-wife founders Lauren and Lorenzo Ortega remain partial owners, and Lorenzo is staying on as Creative Director.

I’ve met Lorenzo and Lauren Ortega a couple of times. I appreciate their design sense, their steadfast commitment to Hesalite crystals, even if this put me in the minority (and this is one of the changes to its revamped lineup of watches).

Following its acquisition by Worn & Wound, Lorier is re-releasing its core collection of watches, with pre-orders opening on Monday July 27 at 1pm. Learn more on Lorier’s website.

The Astra, Falcon, Neptune, and Hyperion will all be available. They start at $699, with the Hyperion GMT at $799. A slight bump in prices, but Worn & Wound says it’s made refinements to materials and construction. As we get into in our conversation below, that also means a change in crystals.

A few weeks ago, I spoke with Worn & Wound co-founder Blake Malin about the acquisition. Our conversation, below.

Unpolished (U): Why Lorier, and why now?

Blake Malin (BM): We’ve been working with Lorier for years now. We released our first limited edition with them in 2020. We were catching up at Windup New York last year, and they’d said they were looking for an exit or a strategic partner to scale the business beyond where they were. We weren’t proactively looking for a business to acquire. But given our relationship, we were able to work something out that made sense for everybody.

We think Lorier’s an incredible brand. Our audience is really over the moon with them. When you go to Windup, obviously every booth is pretty busy, but some booths are pretty ravenous—I think about Brew or Christopher Ward. Lauren and Lorenzo are one of those teams that the community has a very close relationship with. It’s something we’ve admired for a long time, so it was really exciting to hear it was something we could be involved in.

U: Is there something that makes you confident this will be a good fit, or that you could grow the brand together?

Anytime you get into business with anybody, it’s kind of like a marriage. We already like them a lot, so strictly from a personality fit, it made sense.

From the brand perspective: the challenge Lorier had faced historically is keeping inventory and ironing out logistics to supply the watches their customers demanded. Over the last 10–15 years, Worn & Wound has developed a set of skills, from logistics to customer service to warehousing, shipping, marketing, and communication. So it presented a perfect opportunity to take this brand that has a ravenous fan base demanding more watches and pair it with an organization that can really be helpful in scaling the business to meet that demand.

Q: What’s the vision for the brand going forward?

The plan for the brand is to do more of the same as what they were already doing. We’re not looking to change it. They have such a strong brand to begin with. The products are great, and they have a really great community. We just want to do more of it. We want to iron out the pipeline of inventory to make sure there aren’t long periods when they’re sold out of everything and provide more opportunities for people to buy their watches.

For the relaunch, we’ll have four of their core watches: the Falcon, Astra, Hyperion, and Neptune. Those will all be re-released with minor changes. Little tweaks to improve the case or the materials. Not radical departures from what they’ve done in the past.

Q: Anything big in the pipeline you want to tease? New models?

Right now we’re just trying to meet demand, releasing the core models people have been asking for.

We’re actually moving away from acrylic crystals to sapphire. I don’t know if the community will be torn on it, but I think it’s going to be a material improvement.

U: I do love brands that still use acrylic, and I’d always appreciated Lorier using it. One of the first times I ever talked to Lorenzo was for a story about sapphire and acrylic crystals.

I’ve been in the same boat. I love acrylic crystals. It’s challenging—some people who buy them don’t know how to maintain them or what to expect, and it can create education issues. And with sapphire crystals, a lot of manufacturers have gotten so good at replicating the acrylic look. So that’s what we’re going for. But we’ll see—I’m sure some diehards will wish it was still acrylic.

Q: Anything you’ve learned about taking over a brand like this that you hadn’t expected?

We’ve taken over the customer service aspects for the brand since the acquisition, and getting that ramped up—their audience, their customers have a very close, very personal relationship with them.

Observing a lot of these micro brands from afar—a Brew or Baltic or Autodromo—I assumed it was a very different relationship to what we have with our customers in the Windup Shop. But it’s clear there’s a deep and meaningful relationship with their customers. A big part of their fandom of the brand is the people behind it. So the depth of that relationship was a little bit more than I even anticipated.

Q: Favorite Lorier watch?

Other than the limited editions, I have the Hydra Zulu. It’s one of the few watches that mixes traditional lume color with a creamy faux-lume color. That’s probably my favorite one.

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• 2026 GPHG nominees are out. One of the fun things is the “leaks” of future releases for the rest of the year as brands have to submit to be considered for awards. A couple I spotted from Toledano & Chan and Christopher Ward, above. Gotta admit, I kinda dig the CW Loco Classic even though it’s obviously very Breguet. The Toledano & Chan gets that zebra look through a clever play with finishes, mixing polished and frosted titanium.

  Watchlist: A couple quick picks from eBay. Links below for paid subs only.

  • Harvard clamshell chronograph, for those of you who “went to college in Cambridge”. Uneven dial patina, but sharp case. Clamshell cases are the first real waterproof chronographs—most associated with Gallet, but used by a bunch of brands. They’re smaller, maybe 35mm if measuring for an MLB roster, but a solid chunk of 1940s steel:

  • An exotic Zodiac Sea Wolf, one of my favorite eBay searches. Also little watches—pretty much any 36mm diver watches wear small—but slept on as one of the original divers:

    Watchlist links for paid members only. Upgrade for $8/mo or $80/year:

• Worn and Wound officially announced its acquisition of Lorier, which we covered a few weeks ago. I’ve already talked to founder Blake Malin about it, and will have more later this week.

• A fun game to add to your daily Wordle routine: Analog Watch—read three clocks as fast as you can.

New to Unpolished? Start here:

Stern Dials and the Supplier Shortcut

The Ref is a weekly story about a sometimes-forgotten watch or moment in history. Today: One big order shows how a supplier’s stamp matters far less than the brand’s brief.

In the late 1970s, Cartier placed an order for 150,000 dials to Stern Frères. The order was for its breakout Must de Cartier collection, the affordable, mostly quartz watches that helped revive Cartier.

At the time, this was 10x Stern’s entire annual production capacity. Its production and workforce had been decimated by the twin quartz and currency crises of the 70s.

With all that going on, it was the kind of order Stern couldn’t refuse. So it said yes, and quickly spun up an entire new facility in Gaillard, France, outside of Geneva.

There’s this oft-repeated advice to collect suppliers. It’s something I’ve even repeated before. The Swiss industry has historically been an établissage system, where a central brand brings together parts from external suppliers and artisans. So if you know the name of Patek Philippe’s case or dial makers, you can get Patek quality without Patek prices, or so the thinking goes.

But that advice isn’t exactly right; at least, not always.

For most of the 20th century, Stern Frères was the most famous dialmaker, and one of the most important suppliers, in Switzerland. It made dials for Patek Philippe 1518s, Rolex Day-Dates, cloisoinné enamels for several brands. It’s the supplier family that became so important it acquired Patek Philippe in 1932. The fourth generation still runs the show today.

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