Sometimes it’s hard to be a Rolex. Especially an Oyster Perpetual 39. Oh sure, demand exceeds supply. But the delivery delay’s nothing compared to the waiting list for the OP 39’s blingier brethren. Holy Grail models like the stainless steel Daytona might as well be made of unobtanium. FTS. The white-faced Rolex OP 39 is the only Rolex worth owning, bar none.
“There are things that rise above themselves to assume iconic stature,” Betty Cornfeld and Owen Edwards write. “These things are simple, ageless, yet mythic things that possess quintessence.” In their book by that name, the authors posit that the Steinway piano, Oreo cookie and Stetson hat qualify as quintessential. Add the Dufrane Barton Springs 656 Diverto that list . . .
There are a lot of ways to tell time. For accuracy, nothing beats an iPhone. If you don’t care about accuracy, there are plenty of stylish one, two and three-handed watches without indices that’ll give you the temporal gist. But if you want to keep jazz time, there’s only one choice: the Oris Art Blakey Limited Edition watch. Here’s the legendary drummer in action . . .
The other day, Google paid $2.1b for Fitbit. The prospect of a Google Fibit got lots of press, most of it dismissive. For good reason. Google’s Wear OS software – powering a range of non-Apple smart watches – is a kludgy disaster. Their Snapdragon Wear 3100 chip delivers sub-par performance. The user interface sucks. The real problem with Google’s wearables strategy? The “do no harm” company is determined to beat Apple at their own game. Wrong answer . . .
Bezels are incredibly useful devices. Twist the ring until the arrow’s on the current or desired end time and you’re good to go (for events lasting an hour or less). Aesthetically, the big ass bezels dominating today’s “sport” watches scream DIVE! DIVE! DIVE! The French-made Yema Navygraf shows us how an everyday dive watch should be done. Was done? That too . . .
According to Forbes, the Grand Seiko Godzilla watch has “a number of elements in honor of the legendary creature. The prominent rays on the dial emanating from the center and shooting outward symbolize the heat ray beam that shoots from Godzilla’s mouth. The angular shape of the titanium case symbolizes the size and strength of the monster, while the red-and-black sharkskin strap recreates the rough texture of its skin.” WTF?
In 1964, DOXA Watches sent divers into Switzerland’s Lake Neuchatel armed with a rainbow of brightly colored watches. Their goal: find the best hue for underwater visibility. Three years later, the watchmaker released the legendary orange SUB. If horological heritage is your bag, buy a latter day DOXA. If not, consider the Seiko Diver Automatic Orange Dial Men’s Watch. Now why would anyone want to do that?
