How We Got Here This weekend, race fans from around the world will tune in to watch the annual Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix. Formula 1 cars will reach speeds of over 200 mph as they race through the streets of this small principality, navigating tunnels and maneuvering through tight turns along the picturesque coast of the Alpes-Maritime. As part of the prestigious triple crown of motor racing, alongside the Indy 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Monaco has been hosting Grand Prix races since 1929 and joined the Formula 1 calendar in 1955. Renowned for its unique track layout with sharp corners ..read more

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What We Know This weekend marks the 80th Monaco Grand Prix and TAG Heuer is celebrating the occasion with three new skeletonized Monaco watches. Technically this isn't the first time TAG Heuer has made a skeletonized Monaco. In 2021, for Only Watch, the brand made the first ever open-dial in the history of the watch. The fully forged-carbon watch was essentially an homage to the original and highly collectible Dark Lord (a grail for many Heuer addicts), with the dial, the case, and even the hairspring all made from carbon composite. Then, last year, TAG Heuer released the Monaco "Riviera" Mon ..read more

Fun news from the world of vintage-effect dive watches today as modern-day Aquastar is back with another banger from the past, a re-creation of the brand's influential Model 60. Over the past few years, we've seen Aquastar launch an array of Deepstar re-creations, but the Model 60's design links directly with both the earliest days of Aquastar (and even Jean Richard) and the earliest evolutions of the skin diver format. This new Aquastar 60 is meant to be a direct re-creation of a third-generation Model 60, which dates back to 1960 and is part of a truly wonderful history that includes the e ..read more

The year 2021 feels like ages ago. In April of that year, Audemars Piguet, under the wonderfully maniacal vision of Francois Bennahmias, released a six-figure Royal Oak Concept tourbillon with a miniaturized sculpture of the popular Black Panther character planted at the center of the dial – and more design cues spilling onto the case. My description of the watch is quite pedestrian compared to the reaction it garnered from the watch community. And I understood where some of the outraged watch lovers were coming from, but some of that apoplexy missed the point of the watch and the soon-to-be ..read more

What We Know It's a big day for new releases from Breitling with a whole new line of aviator chronographs with the 42mm Classic AVI. Just like the big-brother 46mm Super AVI watches that were released in 2021, these new releases honor four legendary aircraft but now offer a more conventionally wearable size for those that appreciate the design but prefer a somewhat smaller watch. Classic AVI Chronograph Mosquito. Classic AVI Chronograph Curtiss Warhawk. The watches come in a few different colors as nods to their respective aircraft: blue dial with a steel bezel for the F4U Corsair; black dia ..read more

What We Know Sitting at the core of De Bethune's lineup, the DB28 has long represented a singular and very specific perspective on both watchmaking and watch design. Today, the quirky Swiss brand has announced the latest evolution of the DB28 format via the rather gorgeous DB28xs Starry Seas, which is essentially a DB28 in a smaller case. Complete with a beautiful hand-wound movement and a special dial execution, this "extra small" De Bethune seeks to port the brand's unique appeal into a more wearable and modern presence.  Starting with the case, the DB28xs Starry Seas measures 38.7mm w ..read more

When Hermès first released its new H08 collection in 2021, it was an immediate hit. Sure, it was yet another brand's take on the whole steel sport watch thing, but it felt like a very honest and totally Hermes take on it all. The shape was different, the numerals were designed in-house, and it featured an automatic movement from Vaucher, a manufacturer in Fleurier partly owned by Hermès.  At Watches & Wonders this year, Hermès introduced its first complication to the H08 collection, the H08 Monopusher Chronograph. It skillfully takes the design codes established in the H08's three-ha ..read more

Origin Story It was the busy week of Watches & Wonders and I had snuck off to a meeting at the hotel La Réserve to meet with a watchmaker who I had only seen before on Instagram. A nice Japanese businessman, a representative of his retail partner in Japan, ran ahead of me down a hallway waving at me to catch up before we walked into a room where a number of other Japanese men watched patiently, pressed up against the walls, as the watchmaker Yosuke Sekiguchi finished his meeting with a prospective client. The Yosuke Sekiguchi Primevère. Yosuke Sekiguchi, the Japan-born and Swiss-based wat ..read more

About five minutes into my Zoom interview with Davide Cerrato, he's the one asking me the questions, drilling me on what "Britishness" and "made in England" mean to me. He's been in this business way longer than me, and surely he can answer these questions more competently than me, but that's not Cerrato's style. Cerrato brings this singular sense of style everywhere he goes. He's probably best known for his tenure at Tudor, during which time the brand relaunched in the United States and introduced the Black Bay line. But he's not all business; he told me he'd pull up to Rolex HQ in Geneva in ..read more