Author: admin

It was just the other week that we took a look at the vintage inspired designs of Vario and as part of that we briefly mentioned the upcoming launch of the Versa Dual Time. However, we didn’t have much time to dwell on the cool, accessible collection so now let’s dive into them in a little more detail.

The influence behind these watches is clearly apparent. They’re based on early 20th century watches like the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso with rectangular designs and Art Deco styling. When it comes to that rectangular case, the Versa is 40mm x 26mm x 12mm and is made from stainless steel. And, like the Reverso, the Versa has a reversible design that allows you to flip over the watch to reveal a second face displaying a second time zone, hence the name Dual Time.

Interestingly, while the Reverso flips on a vertical axis, the Versa rotates on a horizontal axis going end over end. This is made possible by having and external case that’s separate from the main body of the watch allowing the body to rotate between its two modes. Naturally, the advantage of this is that you get two dials for your money and can choose between them to match your mood or outfit.

There are a couple of dial combinations available although the current pre-orders are specifically for the silver/black and gunmetal/white editions. Both of which are available in limited quantities of 400, although this is only the first batch and more may be made available in the future. I’d like to see the colourful blue, red and green editions make a return as they’re currently sold out.

In terms of layout, one of the two dials has an inner railway minute track with Arabic numerals and hour markers around the outside. The other dial is even more refined with just a peripheral railway track for both hours and minutes. To be honest, both sides look great.

Housed inside is a Ronda Slimtech quartz movement to ensure high degrees of reliability regardless of which orientation you use the watch. In fact, in an amazing example of work smarter, not harder, the watch actually contains two of these movements, one for each face rather than having a single double sided movement. It means you can set each dial totally independently, which is what allows it to function as a dual time model.

Both of the versions available for pre-order are priced at £346. If you’re looking for accessible Art Deco design, look no further. They’re classically elegant, provide great utility and versatile. Naturally I’d prefer them to be mechanical but who knows, maybe in the future Vario will take the plunge and the Versa Dual Time will take its place alongside their flagship models like the automatic 1918 Trench.

​Oracle Time 

Read More 

Since being founded back in 1995, eBay has transformed online selling. The online marketplace revolutionised digital shopping allowing anyone anywhere to bid on or buy pretty much anything – from stamps to mobile phones to, of course, watches.

The only issue really was making sure that what you thought you were buying was what eventually arrived in the mail. In many ways it was the wild west. It only takes a few bad actors to break trust and when you’re the go-to site for 140 million people, no net was tight enough to catch them all. Needless to say, it took some serious faith to purchase a vintage Omega or a Rolex on the site, especially if you didn’t know your stuff.

At the same time, the likes of Watchbox and Watchfinder, grew quickly to become trusted intermediaries for watch collectors. Being much smaller companies, and a tad more niche, they were able to foster a level of expertise that bred trust. They even issued warranties in case there were any issues.

In short, eBay saw the need to move with the times. But how to change things for the better? Have every luxury watch on eBay purchased on the site checked to see if it was the real deal? Well, they now do exactly that.

In 2021, the company brought their Authenticity Guarantee programme first launched in the US across the pond to the UK. Which, as the name suggests, is designed to build trust into the platform. This means, when a watch is bought over the incredibly accessible price point of £1,500, it’s sent to be vetted and verified by international repair and authentication giant Stoll & Co in London. They check everything from the dial and caseback to end links and reference number to make sure everything’s in order, even checking the item matches its seller description. As exhaustive a checklist as any specialist auction house. To put it simply, what this means is that you can rest assured that, if you purchase a luxury watch on eBay, you’re covered.

And it’s not just buyers who are protected, but sellers too. It’s not uncommon for a watch seller, professional or otherwise, to send out a watch only to have the buyer change their mind, whether for valid reasons or not. In the past damaged, fake or clandestinely altered versions often replaced the original watch sent across. Fortunately, eBay’s Authentication Guarantee goes both ways and the same watch has to go through eBay’s vetting with Stoll & Co’s when returned. If anyone’s going to spot any issues, it’s the guys that already know the watch in painstaking detail.

Of course, in general there aren’t the sort of headline grabbers as you’ll find from rare and vintage auctions, but more than respectable all the same. In fact, a Patek Philippe Aquanaut Blue Anniversary Men’s White Gold 2019, which sold for £93,000 was expertly authenticated through the programme. Putting that much trust in an online marketplace even a few years back would have been unthinkable. That’s not an outlier either; eBay’s seen most of its recent growth in the £5,000+ arena, when you start getting to some serious collectors’ items.

Perhaps more interesting for the everyday collector however is its £1,500 starting price. As with any marketplace it depends on what seller’s are offering, so often the weirder and wonderful pieces are more rare to find, but vintage and neovintage pieces, alongside modern automatic watches will be. The accessible threshold for the programme makes it feel less like a pay-to-play enterprise and more like a genuine shift in how watches are sold online, especially since the service comes at no additional cost to the buyer or seller.

Right now, there are over 100,000 watches globally for sale on eBay under the Authenticity Guarantee, running the length and breadth of the horological spectrum. Granted you’re still unlikely to find a Roger Smith on there, but finally you can buy yourself a quirky Rolex without the kind of luck that warrants buying a lottery ticket. As the value and numbers both go up – and the trust of both buyers and sellers with it – eBay’s proving that the wild west of watches has been well and truly tamed.

So, what does this mean for the future? Well, eBay sits in a unique place. Their online competitors are still firmly entrenched and more power to them. But they do tend to add the kind of premiums that they used to be able to justify with warranties. eBay offers it for free. Their IRL competitors on the other hand simply can’t offer the numbers and variety that eBay can. Time will obviously tell, but it feels very much like the future of buying and selling watches online is eBay’s for the taking.

More details at eBay.

​Oracle Time 

Read More 

Back when Swatch announced the Mission to Moonshine Gold we were a little disappointed that the watch wasn’t a little more exciting considering how revolutionary the original launch of the collection had been. However, despite a lacklustre release, Swatch haven’t abandoned the Moonshine Gold edition and now we have another edition called the MoonSwatch Moonshine Gold Strawberry Moon of June SO33M102-107. I was actually shocked to learn that this isn’t the second iteration but the third as there was a floral edition last month that slipped completely under the radar – people speculated that there would be monthly launches following the full moon and now that seems to be the case.

For the strawberry, there have been minimal changes from the March edition with the only noticeable difference being the addition of a strawberry print to the seconds hand. It’s a reference to the “Strawberry Moon”, which is apparently what American farmers call the full moon in June. It links to the fact that all the golden seconds hands of the Moonshine models are produced under a full moon. So presumably this batch was made last month on June 3rd under the actual Strawberry Moon. Although it might be slightly confusing that it was released to coincide with the July full moon.

The Omega x Swatch MoonSwatch Moonshine Gold Strawberry Moon of June is priced at £250 and is strictly available from select Swatch boutiques. You know the drill by now, it means queuing up at an ungodly hour only to find out that they’re out of stock. In the UK, if you still want to try your luck, the Oxford Street store in London and the Trafford Centre in Manchester are the places to go. But if you really want one you can always pay a few extra bucks online.

More details at Swatch.

​Oracle Time 

Read More 

As much as I try not to be judgemental, first impressions do matter, so when a watch arrives on my desk for a review my first impression is usually coloured by the packaging it arrives in. When a brand goes above and beyond to make the event of receiving a watch exciting, it piques my interest. So, when the Van Brauge New Yorker crossed my desk with its retro style map of a New York box jacket, large case and commemorative owner’s medallion, you can say that my interest was thoroughly piqued.

Of course, in realistic terms you’re never going to buy a watch just because it has unusual packaging, it’s simply a nice bonus. What actually matters is the watch itself. The New Yorker is, as its name implies, is a watch dedicated to the Art Deco history of New York. It’s a design theme that’s popped up a surprising number of times recently through brands like Hesili and Bremoir.

A common element of these Art Deco watches is the sector pattern dial. What that means is the hour scale takes the form of a distinct ring with alternating numerals and indexes that appear to section off each portion of the scale. The New Yorker uses Roman numerals, which I find enhances the Art Deco aesthetic due to their geometric shapes. The model I have here is the silver edition, so it has a double curved silver dial with vertical brushed finishing in the centre and circular brushing on the hour ring. I really like the combination of finishes because it catches the light in satisfying ways. Although, as I move the watch in the light, there is something that bugs me slightly.

The hour markers are very green due to the modern C3 SuperLumiNova, which feels at odds with the retro display. It’s definitely a minor issue and one that ultimately comes down to personal taste, but my preference would be for a little more cohesion in colour, perhaps through the use of beige lume to work alongside the vintage aesthetic, instead of against it. But again, it’s a minor point and the Art Deco styling of the dial does capture that early 20th century New York vibe.

Zooming out from the dial to consider the case, the Van Brauge New Yorker has a very nice construction. It’s 38mm with a thickness of 10.4mm, meaning it’s very svelte with vintage-style proportions. It feels great to hold and wear, sitting close to the wrist with that thinness. The vintage styling continues with the double curved, box sapphire crystal that protects the dial.

So far I’ve mostly been talking about the Art Deco and New York vibe of the watch, but there hasn’t been anything concrete beyond the packaging to tie this watch to that iconic city. That all changes when you turn the watch over and discover through the exhibition caseback (which has a notably wide opening for viewing the calibre housed inside) that the rotor has been shaped and engraved to look like the Empire State Building.

At first I thought it was a bit on the nose to have such an obvious icon of the city as the rotor but then I saw the motion that it has as it rotates and I instantly fell in love with it. The way it has been machined means that the body of the building acts as the bridge connecting the centre of the movement to the peripheral weight in the manner of a conventional rotor. However, it creates this kind of illusion where it appears that it’s an actual peripheral rotor, with the Empire State Building floating over the movement.

The movement itself is the modified calibre VB – 24A automatic, which is based on the top grade Sellita SW300. The modifications include the custom rotor as described above, as well as the introduction of an anti-shock rubber ring that suspends the movement within the case to protect it. As with all 38-hour power reserve Sellita movements, I wish the reserve was a bit longer but that’s more a criticism directed at Sellita, not the New Yorker.

I started this article with my first impressions of the packaging and now, having had time to explore the many aspects of this watch, we come to my final impressions. On a conceptual level the Van Brauge New Yorker combines an unlikely mixture of international influences: the design is inspired by America, the movement is Swiss and Van Brauge are based in Britain. But ultimately I think that adds to the charm and story of the piece and does nothing to take away from what is a cool, vintage-styled watch. It’s also great value at £2,200 in a limited edition of just 75 pieces, making it fairly exclusive at the same time.

​Oracle Time 

Read More 

It will be a while before I can look at a Boldr without becoming sad that the incredibly fun Pokémon collection is an Asian exclusive. Come on Boldr, let me buy a Pikachu! However, something we can buy are the new watches in the Boldr summer collection, which consists of the Venture Field Medic Lagoon Blue, Venture Rally SRW and Venture Fuel Blue.

All three watches have 38mm cases in titanium with the signature tonneau shape of the Venture. At that size in titanium, they’re incredibly lightweight and durable, which is perfect for their tool and field watch design. I know plenty of people who prefer some weight in their watches but if you’re out and about, staying active all day, then a lighter watch makes a dramatic difference. It’s worth noting that the three cases aren’t completely identical. One version, the Rally SRW, has a black PVD coating and the Fuel Blue is the only non-chronograph so it has its crown in a different position to the other two.

It’s the same story when it comes to the dials. They’re broadly similar with some key differences. First is the Field Medic Lagoon Blue, based on the original Field Medic model that was released during the 2020 pandemic. It’s designed for use by frontline doctors and features pulsometer and asthmometer scales which allow you to use the chronograph function to calculate the pulse and respiration rate of a patient. For the summer edition, it now has light blue chronograph counters, which is where the name Lagoon Blue comes from.

Second up is the Venture Fuel Blue which is the time and date model sans chronograph. The reason it’s called Fuel Blue is pretty obvious as the entire dial and NATO bracelet are in a colour called petrol blue. Although the bigger mystery is why a blue-green tone is named after petrol in the first place – nobody knows the answer, although it’s speculated to be related to paraffin. It’s the most understated of the summer watches as it’s the only single colour reference.

Lastly we have the Venture Rally SRW, which is actually a watch made in collaboration with Boldr’s brand ambassador Daniel Wells, an Australian rally driver. The watch’s name features the initials of Danial’s firstborn daughter, Sophie Rose Wells. It’s also no accident that the watch is being launched now as it follows in the wake of Danial’s near-fatal crash last year and is a sign of support celebrating his commitment to recovery and growth. The watch itself has a black dial with light blue and grey accents across the chronograph hand, counters and tachymeter.

Beneath the surface of the trio are two movements. The chronograph models both use the Seiko SII VK64 meca-quartz movement while the time-and-date model houses the Seiko SII NH35A automatic. It would be nice to see a fully mechanical chronograph join the collection at some point, but the Seiko meca-quartz is great if you’re strictly looking at quartz. And the NH35A is solid with its 41-hour power reserve and great value.

When it comes to value, the Field Medic Lagoon Blue is £241, as is the Rally SRW. The Fuel Blue is slightly higher at £273. Of the three, I like the Field Medic the most, the combination of the pale grey and blue looks good, and its scales make it the more unusual of the three. But any of them make for a great summer watch, accessible, colourful and ready for adventures with their titanium cases.

​Oracle Time 

Read More 

Campfire Audio Trifecta “Astral Plane”, $3,375 (approx. £2,800)

Campfire Audio produce handcrafted earphones for discerning audiophiles. This is the latest edition of the Trifecta, which features earphones made from clear nylon tinted blue that reveal the three internal, gold-plated, 10mm ADLC diaphragm dynamic drivers. The triangular configuration creates a performance enhancing acoustically tuned chamber to create a surprisingly rich and massive sound from such a small piece of technology. Limited to 333 pieces

Available at Campfire Audio.

Bang & Olufsen Beosystem 72-23 Nordic Dawn, £550,000

The Bang & Olufsen limited edition Beosystem 72-23 Nordic Dawn is designed to connect music listeners from 1972 to 2023, hence the 72-23 designation. It achieves this by combining a traditional vinyl music system with digital streaming. It comes with a pair of Beolab 28 speakers, a Beosound Core, Beolab Transmitter units, Beogram 4000c and dedicated birch storage cabinet. It has a light, rosy colourway inspired by Scandinavian sunrises. Limited to 100 pieces,

Available at Bang & Olufsen.

Sonos Era 300, £449

The Sonos Era 300 is Sonos’ latest generation of smart speaker designed for spatial audio. What that means is it houses six drivers that direct sound right, left, forward and up, creating the impression of a multi-directional system with a single compact speaker. Multiple Era 300s can also be paired together to create a genuine surround sound experience. In order to achieve this depth of sound and quality Sonos collaborated with Dolby Atmos.

Available at Sonos.

Riverside HiFi

Imagine being able to walk into your home and pressing one button on a touch panel or on your mobile device to control your audio/visual equipment, air-con/heating, lighting, blinds, CCTV and more. Riverside HiFi have over three decades of experience making dreams like this a reality. Whether you’d like a stereo system, home cinema room or your tv hidden in a cabinet that only appears when you turn it on. They also work with client’s interior designers in all areas and can offer a full installation service along with home surveys.

Available at Riverside HiFi.

Qobuz

Qobuz are a music steaming platform available on desktop and mobile dedicated to curating a complete audio experience for audiophiles. As  such, in addition to producing their own music- centred magazine, they utilise the highest quality  audio files possible for the 100 million+ songs they have available, so that you can listen to them the way the artists and recording engineers intended. Plus, with their download purchases system, you can own still own your music collection and tailor it to your preferences. From £10.83/month,.

Available at Qobuz.

​Oracle Time 

Read More 

It’s getting tricky to start an article about a new Farer watch without talking about how colourful and British they are. Fortunately, Farer are clearly cognizant of the plight of watch journalists and have given us something new to talk about with the Palmer GMT, one of their most minimalist designs to date. In their own words, it’s ‘almost Bauhaus’.

To be honest with you, I’ve been trying to wrap my head around the idea of a watch being ‘almost Bauhaus’ for a while now and the conclusion that I’ve reached is that it’s actually an incredibly accurate way of describing the watch. Individually, the elements of the watch have nothing to do with Bauhaus but they’re all adjacent to Bauhaus concepts.

Take the colour palette for example, the Palmer GMT has a white dial, a teal GMT scale and an orange minute scale. Each of those colours is a variation on the signature colours of Bauhaus, which are yellow, blue and red. It might be a stretch to call white a variation of yellow but if you make it pale enough then it will eventually become white, so it almost works – hence almost Bauhaus. The same thing can be seen in the shape language being used. The signature shapes of Bauhaus are the triangle, circle and square and the Palmer GMT is circular with baton indexes and triangular seconds and GMT hands. Again, not a perfect match but close enough that the correlation can be seen.

In terms of the watch’s structure, it has a 39.5mm diameter case made from stainless steel with a round crown featuring Farer’s logo in bronze. It’s a design you’ll be familiar with if you know the lovely Lander Midnight GMT, Which makes sense as both watches are technically part of the same collection. Although with the differences in the dials they feel more like cousins than siblings.

Under the surface is housed the SW330-2 Top Grade automatic movement. Between the Incabloc anti-shock system and the 56-hour power reserve it’s a really solid calibre and one that’s well suited to extended periods of travel, which is the GMT specialty. In fact, the watch is named after a famous historical traveller and explorer Edward Henry Palmer, who was known for his exploits in the Middle East during the late 1800s.

The Farer Palmer GMT is a limited edition of just 150 pieces, at a price of £1,225. At that price and availability, I wouldn’t be surprised if it sold out quickly. The minimalist angle is different enough from traditional Farer designs to make it interesting to existing Farer fans while also appealing to collectors who aren’t ready to take the plunge into the glorious colour wheel of Farer’s other watches. It’s a tried and tested methodology, it’s why their naturally subtle models like the Endeavour are constantly sold out.

​Oracle Time 

Read More 

Everyone says that the watch industry moves slowly and while that’s true to a certain extent, there’s no stopping the relentless march of trends and what’s popular among collectors. A trend I’m noticing in 2023 is the proliferation of titanium watches. It makes sense, titanium is the perfect material for wristwatches being both lightweight and durable. The latest watch to be reimagined in the robust metal is the Oceaneva Deep Marine Explorer II Titanium.

What makes the Deep Marine Explorer II a great watch regardless of the material it’s produced in is its value for money. This is a watch with 1,250m water resistance for less than £500. If you’re serious about swimming with your watch but can’t justify the cost of an Omega Planet Ocean or Sea-Dweller then the Deep Marine Explorer II Titanium is a serious proposition – especially as the titanium makes it much more wearable and corrosion resistant.

Aesthetically it keeps pace with the watches of Omega and Rolex too, which is no accident as it’s inspired by the iconic dive watches of the 20th century. The brushed titanium looks good, as does the broad bezel, smooth lugs and crown guards. In terms of size, it’s 42mm in diameter, which is standard for dive watches as it allows the watch to feature a strong, water-resistant construction and a thick bezel while also having a wide dial for legibility. Plus, the Oceaneva Deep Marine Explorer II Titanium is lightweight, so it’s easy to wear for most people.

Speaking of the dial, there are multiple versions to choose from – 16 to be specific. It sees the return of fan favourites from the existing stainless-steel model such as the blue-black gradient, Mother of Pearl, full green, yellow, and an opaline silver with two-tone bezel in black and blue. Whichever colourway is your favourite, it comes with lume filled hour markers in hyper legible circle, rectangle and triangle shapes. The different shapes are designed so that you can still read the time in the dark even if the watch is at an odd angle.

Picking a favourite colourway is difficult. The two-tone bezels are nice, but I personally prefer them on GMT watches rather than divers. I think I would have to say the yellow as it’s the most vibrant of the bunch and I tend to consider it a good colour for diving watches as it contrasts with the water. That’s the same reason orange is popular on professional dive watches like the Doxa Sub 300.

Beneath the surface of the Oceaneva Deep Marine Explorer II Titanium is the Sellita SW200-1. It’s an automatic movement with a power reserve of 38-hours and a calibre that’s used in more watches than I can count. A real staple of the watch industry, although it could probably use a spruced-up power reserve.

The Oceaneva Deep Marine Explorer II Titanium is limited to 1,000 pieces per colourway. Which is celebrated through the “Limited Edition” inscription on the flange opposite “Helium Escape Valve”. As for price, it’s available for pre-order now at $499 (approx. £390), which is absolutely insane value for a titanium watch with 1,250m water resistance.

​Oracle Time 

Read More 

There has been a real renaissance in British watchmaking over the past decade with many British brands reaching wider audiences than ever before. Studio Underd0g and Christopher Ward are having great success in the region of popular, accessible watchmaking. When it comes to haute horology and luxury, bespoke timepieces though, you need to be looking at Garrick, who have just launched the latest generation of their Regulator watch from 2018, the new Garrick Regulator MK2.

At the outset, it’s important to note that Garrick work on a made to order basis. What this means is that they produce less than 80 watches per year but each and every one is developed and built in-house to the customers’ specifications. In short, Garrick watches are almost entirely customisable, and the customer can choose from a huge range of finishes, dials and colours, making the watches pictured here the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what the Garrick Regulator MK2 can actually look like.

Naturally, some of the core aspects of the watch are set in stone, such as the 42mm stainless steel case. The case itself has a smooth, round shape that flows naturally into relatively long lugs. At 3 o’clock there’s an oversize crown with pronounced grip in what’s known as an onion crown style, a nod to Garrick’s love of British nautical heritage. Completing the design of the case is the sapphire crystal with AR coating that protects the dial.

Then we get to the dial, which, as the name of the watch suggests, has a regulator display with hours, minutes and seconds each having separate indicators. The hours are on a subdial at 3 o’clock, the minutes are central, and the seconds are off set at 10 o’clock. Regulator watches were designed to replace the concept of a master clock, that being a very accurate clock that all other timepieces in a house or workshop would be regulated from.

It reminds me of a puzzle about a man who was trying to set the time on the clocks in each room of his house, moving from room to room. He set them all to 2 o’clock but when he put all the clocks in the same room afterwards, they each showed a different time. How could he set each of the clocks in their respective rooms but make sure they all tell the exact same time? The solution was for him to buy a wristwatch that he could carry with him to each room and check the clocks in relation to that instead. The Garrick Regulator MK2 would’ve saved him a lot of trouble.

However, there’s more to this dial than the regulator time indicators because at 6 o’clock is an open-heart aperture that reveals the Garrick Trinity balance. It’s the beating heart of the watch, adding an impressive visual element to the piece. It’s also part of the wider UT-G02 automatic movement with 45-hour power reserve and accuracy of +/- 5 seconds per day.

So, the case, the display and the movement are the core features of the Garrick Regulator MK2 but beyond that almost everything is customisable. Perhaps the most obvious aspect of this is the dial, which can be virtually any colour from black to green to crimson. There’s also a variety of finishes available such as guilloché waves or frosted. Similarly, the hands can be polished, grained or heat-blued. In fact, even the finishing on the movement can be customised with gold, silver, rhodium or black frosted designs. In short, the Regulator MK2 is a complete chameleon with any number of these bespoke elements totally changing the character of the watch. And with so few being produced, chances are high that yours will be unique.

All that leaves is the price, which can differ depending on your custom choices with the frosted dial variant at £11,994 and the guilloché engine turned dial at £13,194. Considering the amount of high quality, in house finishing and bespoke elements, that’s a pretty reasonable price. If I were to order one, I think it would be the green guilloché with polished finishes for a vibrant aesthetic – got to lean into that British brightness.

​Oracle Time 

Read More