This year’s G Presents Lover’s Collection set is the LOV-23A-7 which includes a G-Shock DW-5600 and Baby-G BGD-565. The watches adopt the white and blue colors and cloth bands of the first Lover’s Collection release from 1996. These limited edition watches have an angel and devil embroidered tag on the lower bands, red angel (BGD-565) […]
G-Central G-Shock Watch Fan Blog
Casio is going back to the MTG-B2000 series for the limited edition G-Shock MTG-B2000YR-1A, featuring a stainless steel bezel with a rainbow ion plating and a multi-colored carbon laminated bezel frame that gives the appearance of rainbow stripes on the sides of the watch. The front bezel also has etched markings inspired by the landscape […]
G-Central G-Shock Watch Fan Blog
Back in August we reported on the announcement that the inaugural British Watchmakers’ Day would be taking place in March 2024. The months are starting to count down and the event is just around the corner and tickets are now available to secure your attendance. Throughout the month of November tickets are exclusively available to Club Members of the British Alliance of Watch and Clock Makers and the general public can pick them up starting from the end of the month. It’s worth noting that all tickets are completely free!
Since the original announcement the event is now even bigger than before! Originally there were going to be 30 exhibitors and now there are 40+. The additional exhibitors include Bōken, Fink, Geckota, Harold Pinchbeck, Horological Underground, Marloe, Nite, Sinclair Harding and Thomas James.
They’ve joined the original line-up that consists of Accurist, Alkin, Arken, Backes & Strauss, Beaucroft, Brooklands, Christopher Ward, Clemence, Duckworth Prestex, Elliot Brown, Escudo, Farer, Fears, Great British Watch Company, Helicon, IOTA, Isotope, MHD, Mr. Jones, Nomadic, Omologato, Pinion, Pompeak, Roger W. Smith, Schofield, Shoreham, Sidereus, Studio Underdog, Tesouro, Vertex, William Wood and Zero West.
The event will be taking place on Saturday, 9 March 2024 at Lindley Hall (Royal Horticultural Halls) in Westminster – a throughly stunning venue. Pick up your tickets now by becoming a Club member, details on which can be found through the Alliance’s channels on their website or Instagram page @britishwatchmakers. This is the ultimate chance to meet the watchmakers behind your favourite watches (we’ll be there too!) and to purchase some event exclusive watches that won’t be available anywhere else.
More details at The Alliance of British Watch and Clock Makers.
Oracle Time
Like it or not Christmas is only two months away so it’s time to start thinking about presents and gifts. Oracle Time is kicking off the festive season by giving away a pair of Bower & Wilkins Forest Green Px7 S2e Headphones. Details for how to take part in the giveaway can be found at the bottom of the article. First though, let’s take a look at the gorgeous headphones that could be yours.
Off top, the Px7 S2e are the latest version of Bower & Wilkins’ core collection headphones. They take the key features of the Px7 S2 and evolve them, which is what the e in Px7 S2e stands for. What that means is fresh colourways as they’re now available in anthracite black, ocean blue, cloud grey and forest green. It’s the forest green version that is up for grabs and they look great with their luxurious memory foam earpads and cushioned headband.
Just like their predecessors they’re wireless over-ear noise cancelling headphones and the sound is provided by custom 40mm drivers. The careful angling of the drivers means they’re perfectly located to create a focussed and immersive experience, bringing every nuance of the track to the fore. What makes this latest generation of the headphones better than before is the combination with a 24-bit DSP processor from Bower & Wilkins’ Dx8 flagship model.
On top of that, the ambient noise-cancellation means you’ll be able to listen with crystal clarity in any environment. Noise cancellation works by having microphones that monitor surrounding ambient soundwaves which are then negated from the audio by playing the inverse soundwave. Plus, it works during phone calls too, making communication easier.
The Bower & Wilkins Forest Green Px7 S2e Headphones are priced at £379, making them the perfect gift for the music lover in your life. Of course, for one subscriber to the Oracle Time newsletter it will be completely free. Sign up to the newsletter using the form below before December 1st 2023 for your chance to win.
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Oracle Time
To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of G-Shock and the registration of a three-dimensional trademark for the shape of the first G-Shock (DW-5000), Casio Japan is giving away a DW-5600-shaped eraser with the purchase of select models online at casio.com/jp, while supplies last. A Casio ID is required, and the eraser will be automatically added to […]
G-Central G-Shock Watch Fan Blog
Fiji Rugby has partnered with G-Shock to release two limited edition GA-700 watches in New Zealand. The large analog-digital models come in black (GA700-1BFJR) or white (GA700-7AFJR) and feature the Fiji Rugby logo on the upper and lower band and a Polynesian-style pattern on the lower band. The watches have a list price of NZ$319 […]
G-Central G-Shock Watch Fan Blog
Haute horology and Halloween aren’t exactly a natural combination, but I must say a haunted tourbillon definitely sounds like the plot of an indy horror flick that your obscure film obsessed friend raves about. It’s also the subject of ArtyA’s new spooky season watches, the Purity Tourbillon Halloween Collection. A trio of skeletonised tourbillons in sapphire cases with orange and black colourways in keeping with Halloween.
The first of the three haunted watches is the Purity Tourbillon Halloween, which is the most traditional version with central hours and minutes and the skeletonised tourbillon offset at 9 o’clock. It looks great with its 46mm sapphire case and matching sapphire crown, allowing you to admire the movement from every angle. It takes 200 hours to carefully machine and polish each sapphire case by hand, creating an immaculate transparent finish.
As for the spooky aspect, that comes from the black architecture supporting the skeletonised movement paired with black hands that feature orange tips. Orange is used for the peripheral minute track markers and the stitching on the black leather strap. Black and orange are the signature colours of Halloween because of the spookiness of night and traditional pumpkin decorations. The ArtyA Purity Tourbillon Halloween is limited to 5 pieces and priced at CHF 130,000 (approx. £118,500).
Leaning even more on the pumpkin aesthetic is the Tiny Purity Tourbillon Halloween, which replaces the central time display with a subdial at 3 o’clock opposite the tourbillon. For the Halloween edition, they’ve made the scale of the subdial orange and have elongated it so that it’s pumpkin shaped. This leads to a strange phenomenon whereby the hour and minute hands are not centred within their subdial so the hour markers on the scale are all at bizarre angles. It’s actually fairly unsettling, which is appropriate for the season.
The movement here is the Tiny Purity Tourbillon, which has the same specs as the standard version at a reduced size that allows the watch to have a diameter of just 39mm. Like the other Purity Tourbillons, it has a 72-hour power reserve thanks to a double barrel system and a 4hz tourbillon. As with the standard version above, it’s limited to 5 pieces at CHF 130,000 (approx. £118,500).
Rounding out the collection is the Curvy Purity Tourbillon Halloween, which can be most simply described as the tonneau edition. The sapphire case measures 38.5mm x 43mm with the signature barrel shape of a tonneau case. The crown has also been moved from its traditional position at 3 o’clock to 12. This is largely due to the fact that ArtyA have essentially rotated the movement by 90 degrees to fit the new case. Instead of a horizontal configuration, the tourbillon and off-centre time display are now stacked vertically.
I actually like this configuration the most, especially with the Halloween pumpkin aesthetic of the hour and minute display. Located right beneath the crown of the watch, it looks like a pumpkin king with the architecture of the skeleton tourbillon below like a twisted ribcage. The Curvy Purity Toubillon is also limited to 5 pieces but at a slightly higher price of CHF 140,000 (approx. £127,500).
More details at ArtyA.
Oracle Time
From Rolex to Omega to Ulysse Nardin, anti-magnetism is something many a watchmaker likes to boast about, almost as much as water or shock resistance. It’s enough to make it obvious that magnets and watches have a toxic relationship, but it also might have you thinking: why?
The issue comes down to the balance spring. The flat coil of metal sets the pulse of the watch, oscillating back and forth to ensure the escapement regularly releases mainspring energy into the rest of the watch. It’s a necessarily delicate part, responsible for consistent timekeeping, but also the most likely to get an unhelpful dose of magnetism.
The most common problem is that when it gets magnetised and the coils close in, the metal can stick to itself. This effectively makes it shorter, which in turn makes it oscillate quicker and gain time. Just how big a problem this is depends on the level of magnetisation. A few minutes too close to your phone screen might not have too noticeable an impact; leaving it on a giant loudspeaker will have it running quicker than an Olympic sprinter.
In real terms, it can range from a relatively unnoticeable 15-20 seconds a day to gaining tens of minutes in an hour. If it’s particularly bad, the spring might even lock up, a narcissus unable to resist its own magnetism, stopping the watch completely. This is not good.
It’s not the only problem of course; magnetisation also screws with the spring’s temperature compensation so that a particularly hot or cold day can ruin its timekeeping, and with more complicated watches there are even more things that can go wrong. The balance spring is the most at-risk part of magnetisation but honestly, you don’t want any of your watch getting magnetised.
A simple watch demagnetizing tool.
The problem is that avoiding magnets is easier said than done. Sure, those in speakers and motors are relatively big, but tiny, rare-earth magnets are everywhere: phones, laptops, the front of your fridge, everywhere. Fortunately, fixing the issue is surprisingly easy. You don’t need to open the watch, just get yourself a cheap degausser online. Or, if you’re still hanging on to an old CRT monitor, you can use the degaussing function on that, holding your watch up to the screen. Fixed, sorted, disaster averted. Provided you didn’t miss a meeting or two before you noticed, obviously.
Either way, it’s annoying when it happens, especially if you’ve been losing time for days. Even if fixing the issue is straightforward, wouldn’t it be better if it never happened at all? That’s why watchmakers have been trying to head magnetism off at the pass for centuries.
Rolex Milgauss 116400
There are a few ways to combat magnetism. The old-school way is to include a soft iron inner shell. Patented way back in 1884 by C. K. Giles in Chicago, the inner case shields the more delicate components from magnetic interference. It was an inspired idea but one that, back when there were fewer magnets around, didn’t really impact much. It wasn’t until WWII and magnetising radar systems that anti-magnetic watches became a necessity for pilots, with the legendary Jaeger-LeCoultre and IWC Mk 11 commissioned by the Ministry of Defence in 1948.
Large Hadron Collider, image credit: CERN
That said, the most famous anti-magnetic watch in existence is the Rolex Milgauss. It’s in the name, after all, designed to withstand magnetic fields of 1,000 gauss. Developed in 1956 for CERN, the European particle and physics lab, it included a Faraday cage to protect itself. Incidentally, Rolex still works with CERN decades later, even if the Milgauss is a bit of an odd duck in its lineup these days.
Of course, the easiest way to deal with magnetism is to make sure your delicate parts can’t get magnetised in the first place. It’s a technique that Vacheron Constantin attempted as early as 1846 by using a palladium balance spring, though it didn’t build its first successful anti-magnetic pocket watch until 1915.
Rolex Milgauss brochure cover 1960
Nivarox advertisement from the 50s
The biggest leap in anti-magnetism in watchmaking was the introduction of Nivarox. A much more resistant nickel-iron alloy than steel in every way, it quickly replaced steel in even accessible watches. In fact, it’s still the main balance spring material you’ll come across, but it’s not perfect and can still be magnetised. Unlike silicon.
Silicon has a ton of chronometric benefits. It’s tougher, never requires lubrication and, while it’s not as easy to adjust, is lighter and harder than steel. It’s also completely anti-magnetic, a benefit that Ulysse Nardin made the most of in the 2001 edition of its phenomenal Freak, the first timepiece in the world to use a silicon balance spring.
It’s so good an alternative that Omega and other Swatch Group brands have embraced it entirely, as have Rolex, albeit a touch more tentatively. It’s expensive compared to Nivarox, so don’t expect to see it in every Sellita or Miyota though.
Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra 15,000 Gauss “Bumblebee”
All of this however might be overkill. The Rolex Milgauss is resistant to its namesake 1,000 gauss, while Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra is resistant to 15,000. It makes you think those levels of protection are necessary for everyday wear. They’re not. Five gauss is considered a safe level and unless you tend to store your watches in an MRI machine, all you’ll really need is something ISO 764 compliant, which is resistant to 60 gauss
Still, for some collectors there’s no such thing as too much protection. You’re going for a light swim? Best get an Ultra Deep or Deepsea Challenge, then. Over the top claims of elemental resistance are nothing new and, even if it’s fundamentally pointless, it’s still fun to say that your watch can survive an MRI machine. Just hope nobody asks why.
Oracle Time
Actor Josh Hutcherson wears a G-Shock DW-5600 watch while playing security guard Mike Schmidt in the movie Five Nights at Freddy’s. The movie is an adaptation of the video game of the same name about restaurant animatronic mascots like the ones Chuck E. Cheese used to have, but these happen to be supernatural and murderous. […]
G-Central G-Shock Watch Fan Blog
Selling your watch online has the air of the unknown about it. Most digital auction sites feel like minefields waiting to go off in your face and, if you’ve never sold a watch before, it’s hard to know where to even start. You might have an inkling of what a watch is worth; you might not. Either way, you need an expert like Watch Collecting to help you sell.
The most obvious route would be traditional auction houses, who have self-evident expertise. But you could be waiting months to go to sale, and there’s no guarantee that the right buyer will be in the room on the day. It could end up being a long wait for little reward. You need the accessibility and flexibility of an online auction, but with the expertise of an established seller. That means Watch Collecting.
Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711 Double Sealed, sold for £82,500
Despite being a relative newcomer to the world of fine watches, Watch Collecting hit the scene hard when it launched in 2021. In its first day, it sold £150,000 of watches and later that same month set a world record for a Double Sealed Patek Philippe 5711. And then the records just kept coming: £28,000 for a Snoopy Speedmaster, £64,200 for a lapis-dialled Rolex Submariner 16613 and £205,000 for a 6200 Submariner. Evidently, something struck a chord. The question is, what?
First is something formative to how Watch Collecting has approached the space – its experience in the field of online auctions. The company is actually the horological take on Collecting Cars, one of the most vibrant online automotive auctions in the world. Needless to say, it knows how to sell luxury and sell it well.
Rolex Submariner 6200, sold for £205,500
Apparently, the one thing it has learned more than anything else is that the whole process should be quick and easy, from start to finish. That’s why, shortly after contacting the brand to say that you have something to sell, it’ll reach out to discuss the kind of reserve you want to put on it. It’ll be a reserve that’s not based on anything as nebulous as prestige or what it could achieve, but reflective of actual market value.
This means importantly that its valuations are realistic. It’s all too easy to convince yourself that your precious watch, a timepiece that’s been with you for years if not decades, isn’t just valuable for its emotional attachments, but was a great, savvy investment too. That way lies not meeting your reserve and, in the end, not selling. Assuming there’s a reason behind selling your watch, that’s not ideal.
Omega Snoopy Speedmaster, sold for £28,000
Once you’ve agreed a reserve, the next step is to show the watch off at its best. No out-of-focus, poorly lit phone shots here. In fact, you don’t need to do anything. Watch Collecting works with a cohort of excellent freelance photographers who are well-versed in the delicate minutiae of shooting a watch. Trust us, it’s a hard skill to master.
Of course, a watch needs a description on top of some good images. All you need to do there is provide Watch Collecting’s team with as much information as you have. The more, the better, but even if you don’t have much, they can work on putting something together from the model reference. Either way, you get final approval so you can rest assured that your watch is being represented correctly and fairly.
Rolex Daytona 116506, sold for £68,900
Finally, it’s posted for sale. There are actually two different ways of going about it though, with different benefits. You can list it as Buy Now or Best Offer, which gives interested parties 14 days to either pay the full amount or make an offer. This gives you time to wait for offers to come in and counter-offer with potential buyers across the two weeks. If you have a specific figure in mind you want to get for your watch, this is a good way to go about it.
The other way is the auction route, with a twist: Watch Collecting does daily auctions. This short timeframe means that there’s a sense of urgency to the auction, that interested parties can’t um and ah over whether it’s the right watch for them. It encourages action and reaction, aiming to get the best possible price for your watch.
Patek Philippe Nautilus 5811, sold for £105,000
From start to finish, Watch Collecting offers a seamless approach to selling your watch, one that emphasises speed and ease. But if all those steps sound just a bit too much effort, it also offers a way of streamlining it further. Its Managed Service has two steps: send in your watch, wait for the money to roll in. That’s it. The watch is fully insured, and Watch Collecting will liaise with the buyer so you don’t have to, taking even the minute amount of worry that remains in the standard experience out.
So, next time you’re thinking about selling your watch but dreading the idea of researching it, shooting it, writing about it and all the other necessities that selling online involves, don’t worry about it. Just go to Watch Collecting and find out just how easy it can be.
More details at Watch Collecting.
Oracle Time