Category: News

It’s not an understatement to say that 1945 was a pretty significant year in human history, bringing to a close World War Two. That turbulent time saw some of the most rapid development in technology in all areas of life including horology. In particular the creation of the Dirty Dozen popularised the concept of the field watch, a robust and accurate timepiece designed to take a beating in the field. Paying tribute to this history is the Vario 1945 D12 Field Watch.

The new military design pays tribute in a number of ways, including right there in the watch’s name: 1945 a reference to the year and D12 literally being an abbreviation of Dirty Dozen. However, more important than that are the aesthetic similarities, which are particularly apparent on the Raven Black edition with its black dial, railway minute track and small seconds subdial. The other three colourways are less traditional but equally cool in Army Green, Sand Beige and Shadow Grey.

As for the case, it’s a 37mm diameter piece in stainless steel with a combination of polished and brushed surfaces across the flanks and flat bezel. The crown is positioned at 4 o’clock so that it avoids digging into your wrist during strenuous activity. And while it’s no dive watch, 100m water resistance will keep it ticking in any weather or following the occasional dip in a large puddle at the bottom of a trench.

Interestingly, there’s a choice of three casebacks that you can give the 1945 D12 Field Watch. The first, standard caseback is a solid steel piece with an engraving of a World War Two soldier silhouetted in the outline of a modern soldier. The second option is a solid caseback with a custom engraving for an extra £40 and lastly there’s a sapphire exhibition caseback for £25 that reveals the movement housed inside.

That movement is the Miyota 82S5, an automatic calibre with 42-hour power reserve and -20/+40 seconds per day accuracy. It’s a solid enough movement and with Côtes de Genève it looks nice through the exhibition caseback if you choose that option. Crucially, it also helps the watch to remain incredibly accessible with the standard model costing just £306.

The Vario 1945 D12 Field Watch manages to ride the line between being a faithful tribute to the Dirty Dozen while also introducing some interesting colourways. I particularly like the Shadow Grey edition, it reminds me of the Airain Type 20 Furtivé which is one of my favourite watches of the entire year. It really feels like the 1945 D12 is punching dramatically above its weight.

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Casio America is now accepting pre-orders (at $65 each) for the G-Shock book written by Ariel Adams and published by Rizzoli, with an estimated ship date of October 10. It is also available for pre-orders on Amazon for a little less, with a release date of September 26. The book is highly anticipated and expected […]

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The Tokyo Yakult Swallows are releasing another limited edition G-Shock collaboration for 2023 which will be sold by lottery in Japan. The watch is a tricolor DW-6900 in white, blue, and red and features the team logo on the face. The lottery application period is from September 25, 10:30, to September 28, 23:59, and the […]

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Diving watches is such a broad category that despite being a watchmaking niche itself, it is full of other niches. Off the top of my head I could name skin divers, desk divers and professional divers – each of which add a specific spin to the dive watch formula. However, perhaps the most rapidly growing dive watch niche is that of the deep diver. Dive watches with 3,000m+ water resistance ratings.

While these depths were once the exclusive province of high end brands like Rolex, today there are many more brands capable of reaching these deeps and of those brands, the one offering the best value is Oceaneva with the Deep Marine Explorer III.

Oceaneva are an American brand that aims to bring high value watches to customers for accessible prices and with the Deep Marine Explorer III, they certainly do that. The watch has a 42mm diameter case made from brushed stainless steel with an incredible 3,000m water resistance rating. Now, water resistance ratings can be a deceptive metric because it often refers to a test that involves no water and in which the watch is static.

For the Oceaneva Deep Explorer III, they wanted to show that they’re serious about its water resistance and so to test it, they challenged it to face the real depths by strapping it to the side of a submersible and send it into the deep. With the addition of actual water and movement, the way we consider water resistance needs to change. In the real world a watch needs a much higher water resistance rating than the depth it’s actually meant to be used at. The Oceaneva Deep Marine Explorer III reached a true depth of 2,150m and returned to the surface in perfect working condition.

That is beyond impressive for a watch that costs just £2,220 or, in the current sale, just £807. To put that into context, the RALFTECH The Beast, which also has 3,000m water resistance is roughly £6,000. If you were to consider a handful of deep diver’s depth per cost, the Oceaneva comes out on top with approximately 1.5m/£ value (jumping to 3m/£ in the sale). The Oris AquisPro comes in at next best value at 1m/£ and the RALFTECH, Omega Ultra-Deep and Rolex Deep Sea Challenge all share a value of 0.5m/£. So the Oceaneva really does offer the most bang for your buck when it comes to swimming and deep diving.

Rounding out the watch is classic dive watch display that’s available in a wide verity of colours and styles. There’s black, blue, brown, navy, green, grey and white, all created in mother-of-pearl for a swirling, scintillating pattern. Those dial variants are also matched by a couple of case options like black IP plating or golden bi-colour.

Inside, the Oceaneva Deep Explorer III houses the Swiss Sellita SW200-1 automatic movement with 38-hour power reserve. It’s an absolute staple of the industry and a real workhorse. The SW200-1 was actually updated with an improved power reserve fairly recently so I wonder if once the existing stock has run out we’ll see Oceaneva adopt the new version, which would increase the value of the watch yet further. It’s an exciting time to be exploring the deeps with Oceaneva on your wrist.

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The Hamilton Khaki Field is certainly one of the brand’s most popular watches and quite possibly one of the most popular field watches on the market. Now, a new sub collection has been launched that embraces the Khaki Field’s most adventurous side by adding a compass bezel to help you orientate yourself no matter how far off the beaten path you go. This is the new Hamilton Khaki Field Expedition.

There are eight references of the Khaki Field Expedition being produced but technically those are four of the same design produced at two different sizes. And even then, two of those four designs are the same but presented on strap and bracelet. So really, when you condense it down, there are just three denoted by different colour dials.

That’s not to say that the different sizes don’t have a big impact on the watch though because they really do. The first set are 37mm in diameter while the second are a whole 4mm larger at 41mm. That’s a pretty substantial difference but both feel appropriate for the watch.

At 41mm it really fits into that tool watch aesthetic, designed to be big, a little macho and easy to read with broad displays and high legibility. The smaller version feels more like a field watch, still hyper legible but small enough that it doesn’t impede the movement of the wrist and is less likely to bump or scrape into things.

In terms of the case’s design, it has a long, relatively shallow curve from lug to lug giving it a round shape that’s emphasised by the circular bezel. That bezel is what really makes the Expedition stand out from the other Khaki Field watches, since it has a compass scale and pronounced notches at the cardinal points. I could sit here and explain how using your watch as a compass works but fortunately we already wrote an entire article about that. The only thing that that article doesn’t cover is the fact when a watch has a compass bezel, you can rotate the bezel to record your bearing for more precise navigation.

It might just be me but I think compass bezels look awesome too, they really put the tool in the name “tool watch”. The other aspect of the Khaki Field Expedition that looks great is the dial. It’s a pretty understated design with large Arabic numerals, arrow shaped hands coated with SuperLuminova and short bar indexes for the hour and minute scale. As I mentioned earlier, there are three colours available, black, white and blue. It’s the black version that’s available on strap or bracelet while the others are strap only.

However, what makes the Khaki Field in any of its versions an absolutely killer watch is the movement housed inside and the Expedition is no different. It houses the Hamilton H-10, an automatic movement with an anti-magnetic Nivachron hairspring and an incredible 80-hour power reserve. And that’s in a watch that costs just £965 on leather strap or £1,035 on steel bracelet. In a world where a basic Sellita powered watch can go for three times that much, Hamilton continue to be industry leaders in value.

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Watchmaking has two very distinct sides. On the one hand you have mechanical watches that speak to our nostalgia and wonderment at clockwork and beautifully crafted machines. On the other hand, you have those watches that seek to be as scientifically accurate and precise as possible by any means and embrace the capabilities of electricity and digital mechanisms. That leads us to the Citizen Tsuki-Yomi A-T, the world’s first light powered analogue moonphase regulated by atomic timekeeping.

Now, there sure are a lot of words in “light powered analogue moonphase regulated by atomic timekeeping” but what it essentially comes down to is that Citizen have created a new moonphase eco-drive movement. Eco-drive is their term of a quartz movement that has its battery charged by light, making it one of their most reliable, accurate and sustainable types of calibre. Where the atomic timekeeping comes in is that the movement, called the Eco-Drive Cal. H874, is equipped with a multi-band radio receiver that picks up signals emitted from atomic clocks (the world’s most accurate timekeeping devices) around the world to ensure constant accuracy.

What’s more, the use of these radio signals means that the Citizen Tsuki-Yomi A-T knows where in the world you are. Which means it will automatically adjust to the local time zone without any manual alteration. It will even adjust the moonphase when you hop between the northern and southern hemispheres since the phases look different once you cross the equator. Since we’ve already talked about the movement so much, let’s wrap this up by mentioning that it has a power reserve of 2.5 years without additional light charging and an accuracy of +/-15 seconds per month without signal reception. The fact that those are worst case scenario stats is pretty impressive showing it still operates to a high degree without its main systems in place.

Let’s zoom out now and talk about the structure and aesthetics of the watch. The case is 43mm in diameter and is made from Citizen’s Super Titanium material, which is titanium that has undergone a Duratect surface-hardening treatment. It has a round design with a gentle sloping bezel and facetted lugs. At 43mm it’s obviously pretty large but that’s offset by the light weight of the titanium.

As for the dial, there are actually three versions of the Tsuki-Yomi A-T, one in grey, one in blue and one in red. Those colours are apt because the background of the dial is an image of the moon. So you have the regular moon in grey and then the famous blue moon and blood moon as the three variations. Beyond that, the dial features the actual moonphase indicator at 6 o’clock, a day/night indicator at 9, a date at 4 and a combined days of the week, power reserve and hemisphere indicator at 12 o’clock.

The more I look at this watch, the more I like it. I know that in the introduction I set out that it’s often mechanical watches that capture our imagination more so than quartz one but this watch bucks that trend. The way it depicts the moon as accurately as possible is in the spirit of scientific research and space travel. People have always yearned for the moon and the Tsuki-Yomi A-T brings it to your wrist with the utmost precision. All for just £595.

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The upcoming G-Shock Ninja Series is another series that is inspired by Japanese culture, which usually include a trio of limited edition watches that are made in Japan. An image of the GA-2100NNJ-8AJR case back shows that it is made in Japan, and the DW-5600NNJ-2JR and DW-6900NNJ-1JR are also reportedly made there. Also noteworthy is […]

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The G-Shock Caution Yellow Series includes five matte black models with bold yellow accents. This is the sort of (more conventional) color series that we used to see more of in the past, and Casio has done a nice job of including some popular and affordable base models along with some more recent and advanced […]

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Lewis Hamilton needs no introduction. He is a 7-time F1 world champion, a British hero and a friend of Oracle Time (we had the pleasure of sitting down with him to talk watches near the start of the 2022 season). Now, in his continuing partnership with IWC he has released another watch, the Portugieser Tourbillon Rétrograde Chronograph Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton edition IWCs are always a bit crazy and the new Portugieser is no different. It features a 43.5mm diameter case made from platinum, the rarest and most prestigious precious metal on Earth. It has a beautiful circular shape that leads into a large 3 o’clock crown flanked by integrated button pushers that operate the chronograph complication.

Speaking of the chronograph, we see that the dial has a vertically stacked bi-compax display. Although it’s not a traditional bi-compax display because instead of having two separate subdials for the chronograph hour and minute counters, those two scales have been superimposed atop each other on the subdial at 12 o’clock. At 6 o’clock, instead of a second chronograph subdial is the tourbillon, rotating at a rate of once per minute and functioning as the watch’s seconds indication.

Completing the display is a retrograde date display at 9 o’clock which is balanced at 3 by the IWC logo and Lewis Hamilton’s panther eyes logo. All of these functions are presented against the backdrop of an absolutely gorgeous teal dial. Oh, and the hour markers around the periphery of the dial are inset diamonds just in case the platinum wasn’t quite luxe enough for you.

Powering the Portugieser Tourbillon Rétrograde Chronograph is the IWC Calibre 89900, an automatic movement with 68-hour power reserve. It’s a serious bit of kit equipped with a silicone pallet lever and escape wheel, which are both coated with a Diamond Shell coating for reduced friction.

On top of that, it has a stop tourbillion, which is functionally the same as stop seconds meaning that when you’re setting the time, the tourbillon comes to a complete halt so that you can set the watch with extreme precision. That’s a pretty basic quality of life aspect in many watches but it seems much more impressive on a tourbillon with its multiple axes of rotation. You can also view the movement through the exhibition caseback.

I love the duality of this watch. It’s incredibly luxurious with its materials and refined aesthetic and yet at its heart it’s a sporty chronograph and is powered by an incredible engine. In many respects it’s like Hamilton himself, an expert racer who is known for his style and love of jewellery. As a further dedication to Hamilton, the Portugieser Tourbillon Rétrograde Chronograph is limited to 44 pieces, based on the number he has always raced under. As for price, it’s a cool £143,000.

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Sometimes, to move forwards, you have to look back. For the first time in more than eighteen months, Danish independent watchmaker Arcanaut has announced a new collection. Since its previous limited edition D’Arc Matter model made waves with its slate composite dial, that original provides inspiration for the new, fittingly called the Arcanaut D’Arc Matter Colours Collection.

There are four watches in the new collection and they are the cutely named Badger Blue, Gamma Green, Hornet Yellow, and Pongo Orange models. These colourful updates to the original model employ a new handset and four proprietary shades of lume that were developed with RC Tritec, the brand’s Swiss-based Super-LumiNova supplier. You quite literally won’t see these specific colours anywhere else in the watch industry.

The blue and the green lumes both emit a true-to-shade glow when the lights get low, but the yellow model glows an almost toxic shade of pale green for an unexpected and achingly cool nighttime surprise. Of the four lumes, the orange was the hardest to get right, with glow strengths of anything approaching red historically poor.

While the orange remains the weakest emission in the dark, it’s definitely my personal favourite. Regardless, all four models in the Arcanaut D’Arc Matter Colours Collection come in hand-finished 40.52mm cases made from stainless steel with a sweeping tonneau-esque shape. The cases are water resistant to 100 meters and are manufactured in Denmark. The casebacks are closed and decorated with a periodic-table-inspired graphic and behind them beats a Soprod A10 automatic calibre with 42-hour power reserve.

We should also mention the dial, which are based on the original Arc II and made from Arcanaut’s special composite material. It’s produced by taking Scandinavian slate and feeding it through an industrial coffee grinder, the result of which is then bonded with an ultra-clear binding agent to create this unique slate powder texture. It makes for a cool, dark backdrop that really lets the new lume and coloured strips shine.

Eight strap colours are available (Void Blue, Fett Green, Replicant White, Axe Red, Rex Brown, Kakarot Orange, Bondi Blue, and Black) and can be selected after purchase. Anyone taking part in the pre-sale will also receive an exclusive Arcanaut care package comprising a cap, a t-shirt, a Black Badger UV torch, and a spare strap of the customer’s choosing.

Each D’Arc Matter Colours model will have a limited production of just 25 pieces each in 2023. The brand will put 60% of that allocation up for pre-sale (available to existing sign-ups of the D’Arc Matter mailing list and anyone who has signed up for one of the model-specific mailing lists live on the website right now), ensuring at least 10 of each piece will go on general release at 7pm CEST September 30th following general pre-sale opening at 7pm CEST on September 23rd.

The first ten sales (across all colours and platforms, including the brand’s US retailer Collective Horology) during the pre-sale process will also receive a lume-filled “Clocktopus” signet ring in sterling silver. Everyone who partakes in the pre-sale will also be entered into a raffle to win one version of the signet ring in 18-karat gold (and if you buy more than one watch, you will be entered more than once in the raffle). A fun, colourful take on a Danish brand’s signature collection. What’s there not to love?

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