Category: Reviews

Legacy Flight Hours Review

Remember analog car odometers? Back in the day, everything from cassette recorders to pedometers used tumbling counters. In TV and movies, whenever an airplane faced impending doom, there’d be a close-up of the digital altimeter counting down. Never mind that the first two numbers are actually ascending, the Pavlovian response is clear: the passengers are all going to crash and die. Trying to set the time on the Legacy Flight Hours left me with a similar sense of foreboding . . .

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BALL Engineer Hydrocarbon Original

BALL fancies itself the G-SHOCK of mechanical watches. They reckon their timepieces are ideal for hurricanes hunters, big wave surfers, aviators piloting the world’s fastest airplane and first responders rescuing daredevils in daunting conditions. The BALL Engineer Hydrocarbon Original has a relatively simple mission: provide an affordable alternative to the Rolex Submariner. Mission accomplished? On one level, no . . .

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Seiko C359-5000 Review

The Seiko C359-5000 takes us back to the late ’70’s. Hamilton’s Pulsar – the hugely expensive “touch to operate” watch that launched digital timekeeping – had been cut off at the knees by hundreds of cheap imitators. Seiko took the digital ball, put it on an LCD screen and ran with it, creating dozens of variations on the theme. None so cool as the C359-5000. None so important to me . . .

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Wrist view of the Nomos Neomatik 41 Update

NOMOS Neomatik 41 Update

To say five grand is a crowded price point in the world of luxury watches is like saying the Bundesautobahn 565 is a bit busy. Buyers can choose from roughly a bazillion great watches: OMEGA, Grand Seiko, Oris, Tudor and on and on and on.  Fresh off the Watches & Wonders online trade fair, the NOMOS Neomatik 41 jumps into the fray with a thoroughly modern-looking and fashionable watch imbued with Glashütte’s credentials for proper mechanical timepieces. Worth it?

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Lüm-Tec Combat B49 24H Review

Before I received my first Lüm-Tec, I was picking up what they were putting down. Aside from Lüm-Tec’s personalized attention and veterans’ discounts, I couldn’t resist their unique design language and luminous technology. I signed-up for two more watches on pre-order. The Lüm-Tec Combat B49 24H was delivered a week or so ahead of its estimated July release. I received #38 of the limited run of 500. Unfortunately . . .

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