Here we are for the mid-July edition of Watching the Web, where Patrick or I get to point out interesting watch related articles that we have run across on the net, and highlight the most popular articles from our own site as well. This week, ABTW featured the exact type of watch that made me into a fan of high end watches, Worn and Wound has a nice watch from the other end of the price spectrum, and Wound for Life has an article on the benefits of silicon (in your watches). From our own pages, the Mark Carson Ka La GMT, Patrick’s Historical review of the watches of Jacques Cousteau, and an older article on Ingersoll watches were all popular.
As an engineer, mechanical watches with clean, exposed movements really make me drool. Not full skeletons, but watches like the Manufacture Royale 1770 Voltige, reviewed over at A Blog to Watch. There is just something amazing about the precision of these tiny machines, working for a really simple task, so beautifully presented.
Of course with everything that goes into a watch like the Manufacture Royale 1770 Voltige, comes a price that is way out of my reach, hence the appreciation for quality micro-brand timepieces, such as the TWCO Air Controller. Worn and Wound has a write up on this piece, a diver-pilot hybrid with a Miyota automatic movement selling for around $750 without VAT.
For my last external link, Wound for Life discusses the advantages of silicon for watch parts, especially for the hairspring. I am not in line to pick up an Omega, but with the advances in material science and manufacturing, I would not be surprised to see these new materials make it into sub-$1,000 watches in the near future.
Partick’s preview of the Mark Carson Ka La GMT was our most popular watch review over the last week. This watch out of Hawaii mixed a few visual cues, but did a good job of balancing the 12-hour markings for the conventional handset and the 24 hour markings for the GMT.
Last weekend, Patrick took a departure from the Video Rewind series and posted a Historical Horology article on the watches of Jacques Cousteau and his crew. Keeping with the diver theme, during the week we pointed you toward a post on EDC about affordable dive watches, which was also a popular read.
Lastly, an older article about the Ingersoll brand made its way into the top posts of the week, perhaps spurred by a sale at ToM on the watches (ends July 18, noon Pacific). Regardless the reason, Ingersoll makes attractive watches that are well built, and my Arkansas Cream is still in regular rotation on my wrist.
Finally, a reminder that John Biggs’ latest book, Marie Antionette’s Watch, is available as an ebook for purchase through the net, or you can buy a paperback from Amazon.
We are at mid way through July, so it is time to remind you to enter our give-away, this time a watch that I really like, the Rossling & Co. Super Slim quartz watch with a small second hand. You can check out my hands on review, then head over to the contest page and get your entry in.
We also want to put the call out for wrist shots of our reader’s favorite (or at least favorite of the moment) watches. Put together an email of your wrist shot and tell us a little about the watch and why you love it. If you happened to be introduced to it through our site (or won it through a give-away), even better. Just make sure the image is a JPEG and at least 800 pixels wide.
With that, I will wrap up this edition of Watching the Web. As always, if there’s something you think we should be covering, feel free to drop us a line. If you bring something up that we end up writing about, we’ll be sure to tip our hats (electronically, if not literally) in your general direction.
