Time and again, dive watches prove themselves to be a popular style of watch, as do military watches. While there are some brands that can tie themselves at some point in their heritage to a military diving unit, finding a current production watch that’s in use by a naval unit is a decidedly rarer thing. That is, until the Mühle-Glashütte Kampfschwimmer became available.
When you think tritium-equipped watches, there are likely a few brands that jump immediately to mind. That aside, what sort of watch do you picture in your head when you read the words “tritium watch”? Probably something that’s at least sport-oriented, if not outright “tacti-cool”. As you should be well aware, that’s not the only choice we have. You can definitely have a very refined look, along with tritium illumination, as the Ball Fireman Storm Chaser Pro proves.
When it comes to the watches that JeanRichard is producing, I’ve been pleasantly surprised, as I noted in my earlier review of the Terrascope (link). While it might be tempting to think of the lineup as boring due to the similar case designs, I think it instead speaks to a cohesive brand language. With the JeanRichard Aeroscope Chronograph, we’ve got some more variety injected in.
Christopher Ward is a watchmaker that gets a fair bit of space on our pages. Not because they pay us, or advertise on the site, but because they make really nice watches and sells them at affordable price points. I have one, a friend of mine has one, and I am pretty sure Patrick has one. But all of these have someone else’s watch movement ticking away beneath the attractive design. Well, CW just changed the equation. The C9 Harrison 5 Day Automatic houses the brand’s first in-house movement, boasting a (you guessed it) 5 day power reserve.
Gustafsson & Sjögren, GoS Watches, is a wee boutique brand out of Scandinavia that is manufacturing some really beautiful watches, most of them featuring Damascus Steel. Thought the original method of making this steel has been lost to history, modern metallurgy has created beautiful and intricate blades by forge welding and twisting iron bars of differing composition. GoS has been using this material for their watches for some time, and the results are quite striking. Starting this month, the brand is offering a “gentleman’s folding knife” to complement their watches.
Romaine Jerome is one of those far out there watch brands that somehow keeps creating crazy watches that I like. I can’t pinpoint exactly what I like about them, since some of the designs are pretty silly, but I like them none the less. Just launched is the Steampunk Auto Colours variations, a take on the previous steampunk watch done up in, you guessed it, bright colors.
Touch of Modern, a web site that I like to browse and where we point readers from time to time is running a limited time sale of Swiss dive watches from Squale Watches. The watches range from the basic diver, the Atmos, to a vintage Tiger from the 70s/80s that has been rebuilt housing an ETA 2892 movement, new hands, new gaskets, and a new rubber strap.
Steinhart is a brand that gets a lot of mention when one is looking for a value brand in Swiss watches. Most of their offerings are well made and attractive, and come at price points that are reachable for the average beginning collector, or someone looking to step up from a quartz watch. A new watch from the firm, the Marine Chronograh, fits nicely in that mold.
OK, maybe not a car or plane per se, but the Dashboard Series of watches from the Italian brand CT Scuderia it is bit of mash up between the ground transport styling that defines the brand and the iconic styling of the Flieger B-style, all in an attractive and very masculine watch. CT Scuderia was nice enough to loan me one of their watches for a bit, and I really did not want to send it back to them. I opted for what I thought was a bolder look, the black IP case with the black and white dial.
Well, not exactly. Fans of Leica cameras now have another object to drool over, this one from a collaboration with a small boutique Swiss watchmaker, Valbray, the EL1. Valbray has been making their Oculus Chronograph which uses a unique iris diaphragm to hide the chronograph functions from view when not in use. There are several variations on the watch already in production, all in limited numbers, and all with variations on colors and materials.
