Meteoroids are pieces of asteroids or comets in space. When a meteoroid enters the earth’s atmosphere and starts burning up, that’s a meteor. If you find a piece of that meteor on the ground, that’s a meteorite. And if you cut through the middle of that meteorite, you’ll probably see a super cool geometric pattern inside. In the early 2000’s, Rolex was the first brand to start putting meteorite dials in their watches. Since then, many other brands have started offering meteorite dials, even some sub-$1,000 brands like Invicta. Here’s our guide to all the meteorite dial luxury watches you sho ..read more

After postponing the 2023 edition due to concerns about financial transparency, the Only Watch 2024 charity auction is back on the calendar, scheduled for May 10, 2024. Of the over 60 original entries, 47 remain for the rescheduled event with a few notable departures. For instance, Audemars Piguet is still not participating in the event after withdrawing its black ceramic Royal Oak donation amid questions about the charity’s governance last year. Tudor is also a no-show, withdrawing its Prince Chronograph One Prototype in solid yellow gold. On the other hand, Patek Philippe will be there but ..read more

Omega and the Olympics go back nearly a century to 1932, when the Swiss watchmaker became the official timekeeper of the games. Today, the role involves 550 timekeepers and massive amounts of technology accurate up to the millionth of a second. That is quite the evolution when you consider Omega sent just one man supplied with 30 chronographs to the Los Angeles Olympics in 1932 during their first go-round as timekeeper. It’s a legacy that the brand observes biennially by adding special numbered edition watches to its catalog, complete with a bevy of Olympic-inspired design elements. The bran ..read more

It’s become a bit of a trope at this point: someone posts a picture of an old beat-up Rolex online, asks a group of watch nerds what to do to maintain it, and a chorus of comments says “Whatever you do, don’t send it to Rolex; they’ll replace everything!” I always chime in to say that Rolex Service Centers are actually perfectly friendly to vintage watches–they provide itemized work orders before they start, and they won’t polish the watch if you ask them not to. They do good work, and they’ll service any vintage Rolex they have parts for–but parts for watches from the 1960’s and earlier are ..read more

This century, the mechanical watch world has advanced greatly in terms of power reserves, magnetic resistance, and insanely complicated tourbillons. But arguably the horological domain with the most notable breakthroughs, since 2011 in particular, has been ultra-thin watches. Here we’ll give you a quick guide to the thinnest watch in each major category (spoiler alert: Bulgari dominates), and also provide a timeline of major thinness advancements. To put things in perspective, in 2011, the slimmest automatic tourbillon watch in the world was 10.4mm thick. By 2018, Bulgari had smashed that r ..read more

While we’ve already covered a slew of women’s watches released at Watches & Wonders from the likes of Rolex, Cartier, Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, and Tudor, it’s worth having a closer look at brands that primarily focus on watches for women. Some examples that come to mind are Hermès, Chanel, Van Cleef & Arpels, and Piaget. While these companies focus heavily on other luxury products such as fine jewelry, leather goods, and ready-to-wear, they all have some pretty serious watchmaking divisions within their hallowed halls too. From the outrageously opulent to the sleek sporty ..read more

Collectors often don’t think about it like this, but for most of history, the vast majority of Rolex dials (and watch dials in general) have been either silver, white, black, or champagne. Blue dials started to get somewhat common in the 1970’s, but all other colors have remained relatively rare overall. Purple Rolex dials are certainly unusual, but several kinds do exist. Some came from the factory purple, and others faded that way. In this article I’ll try to cover every known type of purple Rolex dial. Rolex Submariner Purple Dials Some Submariner Date models with blue dials made from abo ..read more

The Pelagos, Tudor’s titanium diver, has only been in production since 2012. Compared to other giants in the dive watch industry, such as the Rolex Submariner, Omega Seamaster, and Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, which have decades of production under their belts, that is just a mere blip on the radar. Still, the Pelagos has made a big impression on collectors with its refreshing approach to the traditional dive watch aesthetic. In this guide, we will cover everything you need to know about the collection, making our way through every Tudor Pelagos model in order of production. An Overview of the T ..read more

⬤ LIVE WATCHES & WONDERS 2024 LIVE UPDATES: Check back regularly for updated coverage. Although the big brands typically steal all the headlines during the first few days of Watches & Wonders, independent brands don’t shy away from flaunting their latest watches at the show either. The “indies” typically rely on top-notch innovations, impressive mechanics, creative designs, and/or impeccable handicrafts to stand out from the slew of new timepieces announced at the event. From the likes of H. Moser & Cie, Ulysse Nardin, Laurent Ferrier, and others, here are some new releases ..read more

Rolex files lots of patents, and sometimes they’re difficult to decipher. Often there is endless legalese and it’s unclear what’s even being patented or if it’s truly new. But design patents are a little bit less ambiguous, and Rolex has been granted some Swiss design patents with surprisingly clear images. Here are the five probable off-catalog 2024 Rolex models we could find in the Swiss patent database. White Gold Deepsea The yellow gold Deepsea was one of the new Rolex 2024 models revealed at Watches and Wonders. It has its own design patent, and there appears to be a patent for white go ..read more