Category: News

Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, A Streetcar Named Desire, Guys and Dolls… Marlon Brando’s filmography is a crash course in fantastic cinema. His portrayal of Kurtz in Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam War masterpiece is as captivating as he is insane. At the same time, it proved to be a major moment for watches in cinema because the Rolex GMT-Master Ref. 1675 he wore has become legendary, and now its up for auction again.

The watch in question is unlike any other GMT-Master in the world for a number of reasons. First and foremost, Marlon Brando hand-engraved his name into the caseback, proving beyond all doubt the watch’s providence. He also had it customised to reflect the austere character of Kurtz by putting it on a sombre black strap instead of a bracelet and replacing the characteristic day/night GMT bezel with a steel ring.

Combined with the black dial and hyper legible hour markers, these adjustments make the watch instantly recognisable and give it a tactical appearance. It almost looks like a GMT-Master x Explorer hybrid. Oddly, the fact that the watch has become so famous is almost against Brando’s wishes. The director and set staff asked him not to wear it but Brando refused, reportedly telling them that if people noticed his watch, then he’d failed as an actor.

In terms of the watch’s auction history, the watch was thought to be lost until it suddenly emerged in 2019 at a Phillips auction. It had been in the family of Marlon Brando’s adopted daughter Petra until then. At that auction it was sold for $1,952,000 to a collector called Mohammed Zaman. Now, the watch is being sold again, this time by Christie’s as part of a wider private collection sale of Mr Zaman’s watches. It has an estimate of CHF 1,000,000 – 2,000,000.

While Marlon Brando’s Apocalypse Now Rolex GMT-Master Ref. 1675 is the headline grabber, there are plenty of other watches that watch enthusiasts will be excited by at the auction. A Philippe Dufour Grande et Petite Sonnerie with an estimate of CHF 4,000,000 – 6,000,000 million. A George Daniels Anniversary No. 00 and a Rolex 6062, both with million+ estimates too.

The auction, titled “Passion for Time, a Historically Important and Valuable Private Collection” is set to take place on November 6th in Geneva. Although, this isn’t the only landmark private collection auction in November and we’ll have details of another soon. Keep an eye out for that.

More details at Christie’s.

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Another day, another landmark anniversary for Seiko to celebrate. This time it’s the Prospex Landmaster that’s in the limelight, Seiko’s original compass field watch. In the modern Prospex range, the Landmaster has been somewhat superseded by the Tortoise, a compass bezel version of the Turtle diver and a watch that recently received a really cool European exclusive ‘Silfra’ edition. However, now the Landmaster is back in the range thanks to the new Seiko Prospex Landmaster 30th Anniversary Limited Edition SLA071.

In terms of its design, it pays homage to the archival models from the 1990s (am I the only one shocked that a 30-year anniversary refers to 1993?). It has a large 42mm diameter case made from titanium using Seiko’s super hard coating for increased scratch resistance on top of what is already a very hard and lightweight material. In terms of the shape, it’s kind of like a sharper 1968 Diver, a round shape but with more pointed lugs and pronounced crown guards.

The most important part of the watch is the bezel, which features a highly detailed compass scale. While the Tortoise features just the cardinal points, the Landmaster includes the mid-point directions of NE, SE, SW and NW, as well as including numerical bearings in intervals of 15°.

You can read the full details on how to use your watch as a compass here, but in brief, you can align the hour hand with the sun and the half-way point between the hour hand and 12 o’clock is south. Using the bezel lets you keep record more easily and take more precise bearings.

As for the dial, it’s a relatively understated affair with a gradient blue pattern and large lumed indexes. The colours are inspired by the tops of mountains where the light blue of ice meets the darker blue of the high atmosphere. As the cherry on top the Seiko logo and seconds hands are a golden yellow colour which to my eye gives the whole piece a fitting retro vibe akin to retro-style Alpinists.

Inside, the Seiko Prospex Landmaster 30th Anniversary Limited Edition houses the 8L35 automatic movement with 50-hour power reserve. It’s a solid time and date calibre with date window at 3 o’clock. Sadly there’s no exhibition caseback to see the movement but instead is a solid titanium back with limited edition number.

There are 1,000 pieces available from select boutiques and the Seiko webstore. At £2,400 it doesn’t really fit into the whole Seiko being accessible narrative, but I don’t think that’s a huge issue in this particular instance. A limited edition reintroduction of an older model for its anniversary is much more a collectors’ item than a daily beater, so it can afford to be a little pricier.

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‘Tis almost the party season and, along with updating your dinner jacket and reminding yourself how to tie a bow tie, that means finding a dress watch to match. While there’s certainly no shortage of them around – the archetype’s relatively unchanged since the 20s – most recent ones we’ve covered have been a little ornate or colourful, like Etien’s T02 or Garrick’s S5 Moon Phase. For pure, sleek elegance however, you could do a lot worse than the new Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Moon in pink gold & blue.

The new Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Moon is classical watchmaking in the most traditional sense, a svelte, gold number perfectly suited to glamorous, champagne soaked evenings. That pink gold is perfectly paired with a gradient blue dial. It’s lovely and a relatively subtle gradient, ranging from midnight blue on the periphery to just a couple touches lighter at the middle and in lower light you’re not going to see a big change.

To match the case, the slim, sharp, elegant indexes and handset are in the same pink gold. The focal point however is the moon phase at 6 o’clock, a mirror-polished disc with a golden moon and stars. There are a good number of moon phase indicators these days – with more to come, most likely – but this is one of the best-looking out there. I’m happy that this year Jaeger-LeCoultre have stepped back from their whole celestial theme, but this just goes to show how well they do it.

The moon phase also doubles as a peripheral date indicator thanks to the central hand, making it a rare small date subdial. It condenses the watch’s only non-time indicators into one, keeping things as svelte as possible.

At 39mm of rose gold it’s slightly larger than you might expect for a dress watch, which typically wear a lot smaller than your everyday beaters; 36-38mm are pretty standard for the genre. But there’s a reason for the roomier dial as a good chunk of it is taken up by the eponymous moon phase at 6 o’clock. That said, it’s also incredibly thin at just 9.3mm, perfect for slipping under a shirtsleeve, exactly what you want for a more formal piece.

Inside is the Calibre 925, Jaeger-LeCoultre’s latest-generation automatic movement. That means 70-hours of power reserve and the kind of finishing you’d expect from a watchmaker like Jaeger-LeCoultre.

While you might not want to invest too much in a daily wearer that’s going to go through the bumps and knocks of everyday life, a dress watch is different. Sure, there are accessible dress watches, but it’s the kind of timepiece you want to make a show of – and £22,000 is definitely a show. With its innate elegance and mix of pink gold and gradient blue, you could do a lot worse than the Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Moon.

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Casio will be opening the virtual G-Shock Store in the metaverse on October 6. The store will be hosted on the social virtual reality platform VRChat, and Casio is the first watch company to open a “world” (virtual space) there. The virtual “My G-Shock” watch customization service will allow users to create their own personalized […]

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Indonesian martial artist and actor Iko Uwais wears a G-Shock GX-56 watch while playing the villain Rahmat in the action movie Expend4bles. The watch appears to be the blackout GX-56BB-1 with an inverted LCD display. Iko Uwais is best known for his role in the 2011 film The Raid and has appeared in a total […]

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Compared to iconic and classic G-Shock series like the DW-5600 and DW-6900, the Mudmaster is a relative newcomer yet also one of G-Shock’s most recognizable and popular series. It is arguably the most successful of the Master of G series of professionals-use watches. The Frogman and Rangeman are also championed, but the Mudmaster has included […]

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When we covered IWC’s latest white ceramic, Lake Tahoe pilots watch, we slightly bemoaned the fact that a perpetual calendar was antithetical to the utilitarian nature of a pilots’ watch. And yet IWC themselves definitely haven’t got the memo as they’ve gone one step further with the Big Pilot’s Watch 43 Tourbillon Markus Bühler.

There is some background to make sense of this new edition. Back in the mid-2000s, the watch world was creating some weird and wonderful creations in the higher echelons of horology. One watchmaker that longed to try his hand was Markus Bühler who, in 2003, built a prototype watch for IWC with a turbine small seconds on the front, a nod to its pilot sensibilities.

It was a cool piece and, when it was built into a tiny 12-piece limited edition in 2008, became a grail level pilots piece. Incredibly rare, equally cool and built around a workhorse Unitas movement, that it never went into full production seems like a long-missed opportunity – one that now IWC is retreading, this time with extra watchmaking.

Looks-wise, the new watch is very similar to the original, which makes sense. The Big Pilot itself has remained pretty much unchanged since its inception, so the last decade-and-a-half haven’t done much to alter that oversized, utilitarian aesthetic. Really what has changed here is the mechanics.

Previously, due to the necessity for a Unitas movement (that was a stipulation Markus Bühler was given when designing it), there wasn’t much chance for experimentation outside that workhorse framework. Now though, IWC are using their in-house 82905 calibre, still using the turbine small seconds but this time built on top of a flying 60-second tourbillon.

Because of that, the turbine itself is made from titanium to limit the weight of the tourbillon cage its built into. Fun fact: the whole tourbillon assembly weighs just 0.663 grams. On top of that the movement has an 80-hour power reserve and thanks to the Pellaton winding system, incredibly efficient automatic capabilities. It’s a big step up from an old Unitas.

Otherwise, it’s the Big Pilot we all know and love. 43mm of stainless steel case, wearing larger with that oversized crown, and a typical, militaristic pilots watch display, it’s aesthetically a tried and tested aviation formula. Though let’s be honest, a flying tourbillon isn’t exactly something you expect to see in a watch built for minimalism and crash landings. Though I guess you’d have bigger issues than timekeeping if the latter happens.

The Big Pilot’s Watch 43 Tourbillon Markus Bühler isn’t cool simply because of the turbine, or the fact that it has a flying tourbillon. It’s a nod to a 2008 limited edition very few collectors will have ever come across and even fewer would have ever seen in the metal. I haven’t, it was far before my time. And because of that I love that IWC have dusted it off and given it a revamp.

Would I have preferred a basic small seconds? Probably, yes, but it’s still painfully cool. And hey, with 51 pieces available, it’s a hell of a lot easier to get hold of than the original. But then, most things are.

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G-Shock and Converse Japan are collaborating on a special shoe release to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of G-Shock. The All Star Hi G-Shock sneaker has a blackout style with G-Shock logos on the tongue, side of the sole, and the React 2.0 insole. The All Star logo patch on the ankle has a “40” in […]

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North of the border in Scotland, wizards are at work in the anOrdain workshop creating some of the most interesting and intricate enamel dials outside of Switzerland and Japan. However, the delicacy with which enamel needs approaching means their release slate isn’t exactly going to challenge the likes of Seiko. In fact, their last major new launch was over a year ago with the Model 2 MKII Field Watch. Fortunately, the wait for a new watch is always worth it. Don’t believe me? Check out the beauty that is the new anOrdain Model 3 Method.

This is by their own admission the most ambitious project they’ve ever brought to market and took four years of careful development. It features a carved wooden style texture over which their signature Grand Feu enamel is applied. Developing the wooden texture involved collaborating with the well-known artisanal woodworkers at Studio Method (hence the watch’s name) who have previously worked with clients such as Hermès, Burberry and Vacheron Constantin.

The facetted, concave undulations of the dial mean the surface area is virtually double that of a flat dial. Which means that during the difficult firing process in the creation of enamel, there are a lot more opportunities for it to fail. I can only imagine the attention to detail and care it takes to create a smooth layer of enamel with a consistent colour across such a complex shape. But the results are undeniable. In Aqua blue or Lichen green, it is fantastic.

Those are the two colourways that are available. The Aqua blue is a rich azure colour with silver baton indexes and blued steel hands. Less traditional is the Lichen green, which is a particularly pale shade of sage green – a very popular colour at the moment – with purple hour markers and purple hands.

Zooming out from the dials, the case is pretty nice too, a 39mm diameter piece in stainless steel with a polished bezel. It’s relatively slim as well at a thickness of 10.5mm with wire lugs. As for the strap attached to those lugs, there are several options including black, brown, teal and ochre leather straps, a grey suede number and kid.

Inside the Model 3 Method is housed the Sellita SW300 automatic movement, an automatic movement with 42-hour power reserve. It’s a solid movement and no complaints here since it means that the watch is pretty incredible value. Both colourways are priced at £3,500 + VAT, which is frankly mad considering the amount of effort and work that goes into every timepiece. One thing’s for sure, by the time your name gets to the top of the waiting list, anOrdain may well have announced their next watch.

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G-Shock is releasing the MTG-B3000-1A in October 2023, starting in Japan (MTG-B3000-1AJF) with a tax-included price of 132,000 yen. This model is somewhat reminiscent of the MTG-B1000-1A. It is the second MTG-B3000 model in silver and the second with a resin band, which results in a lighter weight of 111 grams (versus 148 grams with […]

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