Business & Industry
WatchPro
Secondary market sales for Rolex, alone, could top $10 billion this year
WatchPro reports that secondary-market sales of Rolex alone could top $10 billion this year, a figure that underscores how the pre-owned channel has become a market unto itself. For dealers and platforms, it is a reminder that the resale economy now rivals the primary business in scale, and that whoever controls Rolex liquidity controls the room.
Time + Tide
The secondary market is back on the rise, at least $1M+ lots are
Everywatch's bi-annual report pegs H1 secondary-market sold value at US$10.5B, up 37.2% year over year, but the growth is concentrated at the top: 73 lots cleared US$1M at auction (nearly 3x last year), three went above US$10M, and F.P. Journe sales jumped 196.9% to US$201.6M. Volume still belongs to Rolex (US$4.31B) and Patek (US$1.5B), and with average time-to-sell slipping from 39 to 43 days, the headline number masks softness beneath the eight-figure trophies.
Auction & Market
Hodinkee
Bring a Loupe: A Wittnauer 235T, A Cleto Munari "Sotsy," A Blancpain Technisub, And An Eberhard Contograf
Hodinkee's What's Selling Where rounds up four vintage lots: a Wittnauer 235T chronograph (Valjoux 72, 36mm, one of the models NASA actually evaluated), bid to $400 and closing the 8th; a Cleto Munari "Sotsy" designed by Sottsass in 18k gold, full set at $28,000 from Relojes Vintage Mexico; a "No Rad" Blancpain Fifty Fathoms co-signed by Technisub, estimated €17,000-20,000 and hammering August 7; and a rare Eberhard Contograf, 38mm steel with the in-house column-wheel cal 310/82. The takeaway: 1960s "boomer" chronographs have cooled since their frothy peak, making Wittnauers gettable under $3,000 again.
Worn & Wound
EBay Finds: A Great Full Set From Hamilton, Plus Vintage Watches from Omega, Bulova, and More
Worn & Wound's biweekly eBay Finds column rounds up vintage listings spotted by editor Christoph McNeil, including a 1964 Hamilton Thin-O-Matic Masterpiece with full box and papers, an Omega Dow Chemical presentation piece, a caliber 214 Accutron, a 1969 Glycine Airman, an integrated-bracelet Omega Seamaster, and a Bulova 666ft "Surfboard" chrono-diver. It's affiliate-adjacent content that keeps the vintage-curious coming back every two weeks, the kind of low-cost, high-engagement editorial that anchors an enthusiast site's audience.
Community & Culture
SJX Watches
In Depth: Breguet’s Pendule à Trois Roues
SJX goes deep on Breguet's pendule à trois roues, the three-wheel precision pendulum clock A-L Breguet sealed in an Académie envelope in 1788 and produced in fewer than a dozen examples over roughly 23 years. The piece traces the surviving originals: no. 173 (gifted to Laplace, sold at Antiquorum in 1997 for CHF927,500), the two-piece Swiss series made with Samuel Roy & Fils (one now in the British Museum), and no. 3583, the clock Breguet kept for himself, now at the MIH. A scholarly reminder that Breguet's archival provenance remains the ultimate asset class in horology, and the brand's historical mythology is worth more than most modern complications.
Watches of Espionage
Watch Industry SITREP - July 2026
Watches of Espionage's July 2026 SITREP rounds up the month's wrist-spotting and watch-adjacent news: Iraqi PM Ali al-Zaidi wearing a $645k-plus Patek 5104 at the White House even as Operation Dawn Strike seized Rolexes from Iraqi officials, Buzz Aldrin's dive-heavy collection crossing the block at Sotheby's, the Royal Navy First Sea Lord's SBS Omega Seamaster GMT, and a Milan mugging over a sub-$500 Seiko. On the commercial side it flags Trump's disclosed $4.7M in watch royalties (0.21% of his 2025 income, from a likely passive deal) and covers the new Doxa Sub 300 Ti5 Clive Cussler Limited Edition, a grade 5 titanium diver limited to 300 pieces at $3,390.
Fratello
How A Smiths Dash Clock Helped A Pioneering Pilot Traverse The World
A humble Smiths dash clock at Auckland's MOTAT museum, donated in 2017 alongside pioneering aviator Jean Batten's flying cap, planisphere, and logbooks, gets its due as the instrument that helped her navigate record-breaking 1930s solo flights. Made by Smith & Sons of London with large Arabic numerals and a segmented seconds sub-dial at 6 o'clock, it was central to her dead-reckoning navigation across oceans without GPS or radar. A reminder that the aviation-instrument heritage brands love to invoke was, once, a matter of survival rather than marketing.
Monochrome Watches
The ABCs of Time – The History and Evolution of Shock Resistance in Watches
Monochrome's latest ABCs of Time explainer traces shock resistance from Breguet's 1790 pare-chute through Incabloc's 1934 debut to modern in-house systems like Rolex's Paraflex, plus Seiko's Diashock, Citizen's Parashock and case-level solutions from Bremont, IWC and Casio's G-Shock. It's a reminder that Incabloc, once printed on dials as a quality mark and shipping 36 million units a year by the 1970s, remains the industry gold standard even as the majors chase proprietary alternatives.
Revolution Watch
The Bravest Watch in History: F.P. Journe’s Chronomètre à Résonance
An F.P. Journe Chronomètre à Résonance "Souscription, No. 007," made around 2000 and entirely by Journe's hand, sold for USD 13,922,000 at Phillips New York in June 2026, becoming the most expensive watch ever sold by an independent watchmaker and the priciest 21st-century watch at auction. The record confirms Journe's blue-chip status: with turnover estimated by Morgan Stanley at over CHF 100 million on fewer than 2,000 watches a year, his earliest handmade Souscription pieces are now the market's ultimate trophy, and No. 007's two-tone platinum and pink gold configuration (one of only two so cased) makes it nearly impossible to replace.
Fratello
Sunday Morning Showdown: Hamilton Khaki Navy Scuba Auto Vs. Mido Ocean Star 200
Fratello's Sunday Morning Showdown pits two sub-€1,000 Swatch Group divers against each other: Hamilton's revamped Khaki Navy Scuba Auto (€895, new wave-pattern dial, round markers, 100m, 12.95mm thick, 50mm lug-to-lug, H-10 movement) versus Mido's new entry-level Ocean Star 200 (€950, 41mm, 11.7mm thick, 200m, Caliber 80, day-date). The piece is really a reminder of how much internal overlap Swatch Group has stacked up in the affordable-diver bracket, with Certina, Mido, Hamilton, and Tissot all fishing the same €1,500-and-under pond with near-identical designs.
Fratello
The Caravelle Sea Hunter Vs. The Seiko SKX And SRPE93 “Turtle”
Fratello pits the new US$375 Caravelle by Bulova Sea Hunter, a 39mm Miyota 8215 reissue of a 1969 Devil Diver, against the discontinued Seiko SKX173 and the SRPE93 "Turtle" as the affordable gateway diver. The commercial catch: Citizen-owned Caravelle can match the SKX on price and history, but its narrow distribution (Bulova's site, Amazon, Kay Jewelers, Windup Watch Shop) is nowhere near the ubiquity that made the SKX a default first watch.</parameter> <parameter name="categories">["dive", "vintage"]
aBlogtoWatch
Your Watches Deserve A Second Look: A Practical Guide To Getting Your Watches Serviced And Back On The Wrist
This is a sponsored explainer from Watch Repair Professionals, a US mail-in repair outfit pitching free insured shipping labels and no-obligation estimates before any work begins. The company claims 300,000-plus completed jobs, 150-plus years of combined bench experience, and a one-year warranty on repairs. The commercial subtext: as collections age and local watchmakers thin out, nationwide mail-in servicing is the growth channel, and content like this is how those operators fish for owners sitting on drawers full of dead watches.
Reviews
Monochrome Watches
XBAND, the health tracker to wear with your own watch
Monochrome Watches went hands-on with XBAND, a health tracker tucked into a quick-release rubber-strap clasp that fits any 20mm watch, now launching on Kickstarter from $279 for early birds. Reviewer Frank Geelen praises it as a "lovely" alternative to a Whoop or Hume band because you skip the extra black strap, finding its app as complete as his Oura Ring, but faults the 24/7 wear requirement (a problem if you don't sleep in your watch) and the need to swap the clasp every time you rotate watches. Worth flagging for trade readers: it's a disclosed sponsored post, and the pitch is explicitly aimed at collectors who won't tolerate a second wrist-strap.
aBlogtoWatch
Watch Review: Is The Accutron Tuning Fork Spaceview 314 The Beginning Of The New Era Of Battery-Powered Luxury Watches?
aBlogtoWatch reviews the Accutron Tuning Fork Spaceview 314, powered by the Made-in-Japan caliber Y230, a serially produced electronic tuning-fork movement running at 360Hz with roughly two seconds per day accuracy. They praise it as a compelling, largely hand-built revival (debuting in a 39mm titanium and steel case plus a smaller 37mm 18k gold version) and a potential start to a "high-end electronic" collector segment, but fault Accutron for badly under-explaining the tech on its website and for plasticky, occasionally burred movement components that undercut the luxury view. Their trade-relevant read: Citizen Group spent over a decade and serious money to reindustrialize tuning-fork manufacturing, betting these "dumb electronic" pieces can win collectors the way mechanicals do.
Monochrome Watches
Bell & Ross Goes Avant-Garde with the Architectural BR-X3 Micro-Rotor (Incl. Video)
Monochrome Watches reviews the Bell & Ross BR-X3 Micro-Rotor, a 40mm x 9mm steel dial-less piece built around the Concepto-developed micro-rotor Cal. BR-390 with its grid-like architectural bridges, limited to 99 pieces at EUR 22,000. Reviewer Robin Nooy finds it "refreshing" and genuinely a proper Bell & Ross despite dropping the aviation DNA, brushing off legibility concerns (no markers, no seconds) since the movement grid makes setting to full hours easy. The trade takeaway: it's a deliberate signal that Bell & Ross can play in the avant-garde, design-led lane rather than leaning only on its flight-instrument identity.
aBlogtoWatch
Watch Review: The Marinemaster Finally Gets Great With Seiko Marinemaster 1968 HBF001 & HBF002
aBlogtoWatch reviews Seiko's new Marinemaster 1968 Heritage duo, the black HBF001 ($3,600) and JAMSTEC blue HBF002 ($3,900), and concludes Seiko has finally fixed the range's long-standing gripes: a tool-free micro-adjust clasp, a slimmer 14.1mm case (down from the SBDX001's chunkier profile), and Grand Seiko-grade Zaratsu-style finishing. Their main fault is weight, the 42.6mm steel head wears past 200 grams even with links removed, which the reviewer calls barely within his limit of wearability, but he judges the watches to look far more expensive than typical Seiko divers.
New Releases
Fratello
Up, Up, And Away With The RGM Model 151 Snoopy Flying Ace
RGM has entered the Snoopy watch fray with the Model 151 Flying Ace, a 38.5mm piece in 316L steel or CP-2 (Grade 2) titanium, offered in two dial variants: a grand feu enamel version (10.6mm thick, US$8,950 in steel / US$9,950 in titanium) and a printed light-blue matte-dial version (9.9mm, US$3,950 / US$4,950). Both run a decorated Sellita SW300 (28,800 vph, 56-hour reserve) with a Peanuts-inscribed case back, and the enamel model is billed as likely the first time the aviator has been rendered in grand feu. For the small Mount Joy, Pennsylvania maker, licensing an American comic-strip icon and pairing it with American-made cases is a canny way to court a broader, character-collector audience across two very different price tiers.
Time + Tide
Papar Cenote Diver: Utilitarian Brutalist Whimsy
Papar Watch Co, the Mexico-founded, husband-and-wife brand now operating out of the Berkshire Mountains, has released the Cenote Diver: a 40mm grade 2 titanium dive watch (47mm lug-to-lug, 10.9mm thick, 60 grams) with a squared octagonal brutalist case, 200m water resistance, and a rotating sandwich dial whose base plate shifts the marker colour through the day. Powered by the Miyota 9015 and offered in natural titanium (matte blue bezel) or rose gold PVD (black bezel), it's out now at US$995, limited to 100 numbered pieces per colour. A second act after the Anillo GMT, the Cenote is a bet that collector appetite for bold, non-conformist indie divers is the surest way into a crowded field.
Time + Tide
Cartier brings its Santos de Cartier Chronograph down to a more favourable “Large” size
Cartier has reissued the Santos de Cartier Chronograph in a smaller case, dropping from the XL (43.3mm) to 39.8mm wide, 47.5mm lug-to-lug and 11.6mm thick, with conventional pushers flanking the crown, 100m water resistance and the automatic 1904-CH MC column-wheel movement (47-hour reserve). It comes in steel, two-tone and yellow gold with Cartier's SmartLink and quick-change bracelet systems. The downsizing is the commercially telling move: Cartier is riding the shrinking-case trend to widen the Santos chrono's audience, available now at £12,600 (steel), £15,700 (two-tone) and £63,000 (gold).
WatchTime
Doxa Brings Grade 5 Titanium Back to the SUB 300 for Clive Cussler Edition
Doxa marks what would have been Clive Cussler's 95th birthday with the SUB 300 Ti5, a Grade 5 titanium version of the 1967 diver with a two-layer titanium dial, 42.5mm by 45mm tonneau case, 300m water resistance and a COSC-certified Sellita SW200-1. Originally planned at 95 pieces, demand pushed the run to 300 numbered watches at $3,390, with proceeds supporting Cussler's NUMA shipwreck nonprofit. The bump from 95 to 300 tells you the Cussler/Dirk Pitt tie-in still moves metal, and Doxa reintroducing titanium to a now steel-heavy lineup hedges toward the premium end.
Monochrome Watches
The Green, Europe-Only Seiko Prospex 1965 Heritage Diver HBC010
Seiko has launched the Prospex 1965 Heritage Diver HBC010, a Europe-only limited edition of 1,400 pieces in dark green with gold-coloured accents, inspired by Austria's Lake Hallstatt. Built on the 2024-updated 62MAS recreation, it runs the 3-day Calibre 6R55, measures 40mm with 300m water resistance, and ships on a steel bracelet with diving-extension clasp plus a black silicone strap, priced at EUR 1,650.
Also at: Fratello
Hodinkee
The Laps Arche Collection
Laps, the Paris microbrand founded in 2015 by Antonin Mercier, marks its tenth anniversary with the Arche, its first automatic and the opening of a new Studio line separate from its quartz Prima range. The 37.5mm x 9.8mm 316L steel watch has individually machined arch-shaped lugs, an Art Deco dial with a 4 o'clock date, and runs the Miyota 9015 (42-hour reserve, 5 ATM); it comes in Serie 01 (matte, green and ivory) and Serie 02 (enamel, black and blue), assembled in Paris and priced under $1,000. The move plants Laps firmly in the Baltic and Serica school of Paris design watchmaking, trading its loud graphic quartz identity for the more restrained, condensed offering that increasingly defines the city's microbrand scene.
Worn & Wound
TAG Heuer Introduces a New Glassbox Carrera in Partnership with Team Ikuzawa and Bamford
TAG Heuer has dropped a three-way collaboration: a Glassbox Carrera Chronograph with Team Ikuzawa and design input from Bamford, following up a 2023 Ikuzawa release now moved onto the newer 39mm Glassbox platform. The white Clous de Paris dial leans into Ikuzawa's red-and-white racing colorway, runs the 80-hour TH20-10, and ships on a steel bracelet plus a white-and-red strap. Limited to 150 pieces at $10,500, it's another swing at the collab-heavy motorsport playbook that keeps TAG's Carrera in the enthusiast conversation.
Time + Tide
Baltic finally answers calls for a date-equipped Aquascaphe MK2
Baltic has added date-equipped references to its Aquascaphe MK2 diver, slotting a 6 o'clock date window run by the Miyota 9015 while keeping the slim 12.9mm profile and 200m water resistance intact. The new models come in 37mm and 39.5mm, on Rubber Classic FKM straps or steel bracelets, priced at €655 (rubber) and €720 (bracelet); the no-date versions with the Miyota 9039 stay in the catalogue. Answering a common collector request without cannibalizing the existing range is a tidy way for Baltic to widen the funnel at the accessible end of the micro-independent dive segment.
Monochrome Watches
The Glashütte Original SeaQ “Northern Tide” Limited Editions for North America
Glashütte Original is giving the North American market its own SeaQ: two "Northern Tide" limited editions in a turquoise dégradé dial, based on the 39.5mm SeaQ (200m, calibre 39-11, 40-hour reserve) and 43.2mm SeaQ Panorama Date (300m, calibre 36-13, 100-hour reserve). Each is capped at 100 pieces, ships with a bracelet plus synthetic strap, and lands at USD 13,000 and USD 15,500 respectively through US, Canadian and Mexican boutiques and retailers from July 2026. A regional exclusive is a smart play in a market where GO still fights for mindshare against its Swiss peers.
Also at: Time + Tide · aBlogtoWatch · WatchTime
WatchTime
Nomos Glashütte Brings a Fresh Shade of Green to the Tangente neomatik 38 Update
Nomos Glashütte adds a forest-green dial to the Tangente Neomatik 38 Update, a 38.5mm steel piece running the ultra-thin in-house DUW 6101 automatic (3.6mm) with the brand's patented ring-date display, for a total case thickness of 7.4mm. It ships on a black Horween shell cordovan strap at $4,790 with a sapphire caseback or $4,400 closed. A characteristically restrained line extension for a brand that has made expressive-but-tasteful colorways a reliable traffic driver.
Fratello
H. Moser & Cie. Introduces The Fascinating Endeavour Cosmic Rain
H. Moser & Cie. has launched the Endeavour Minute Repeater Cylindrical Tourbillon Skeleton Cosmic Rain, a 20-piece limited edition housing the skeletonized hand-wound HMC 909 (415 components) in a 40 x 14.4mm titanium case, with the minute repeater's hammers and gongs relocated to the side of the case, a flying tourbillon with cylindrical hairspring, and a domed aventurine dial inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Price is CHF 378,350 before taxes. At a run of 20 pieces and nearly CHF 400k, this is Moser flexing its haute horlogerie credentials, the sort of ultra-scarce grand-complication play that keeps an independent's brand equity punching above its production numbers.
SJX Watches
Doxa Streamlines the “Army” Diver for Hodinkee
Doxa and Hodinkee have shrunk the "Army" diver, based on a 1969 watch for Switzerland's landlocked commando divers, down to a wearable 39mm (10.7mm thick), rated to 200m and running the Sellita SW200-1. It's a 250-piece limited edition at US$2,000, sold through Watches of Switzerland stores in the US and Europe. At that price Doxa stays in its sweet spot against micro-brand rivals running the identical movement, leaning on the provenance they can't match.
Monochrome Watches
Mido’s Multifort 8 One Crown is Back in Black PVD
Mido rolls out an all-black PVD version of the Multifort 8 One Crown for summer 2026, a 40mm integrated sports watch with a tonneau case, octagonal bezel, 9.9mm thickness, 44.86mm lug-to-lug and 100m water resistance, running the Powermatic 80 (21,600vph, 80-hour reserve, Nivachron hairspring). It ships on an integrated black rubber strap with quick-release and retails for EUR 1,100 / CHF 920. For a Swatch Group value player, the black-out treatment is a cheap way to extend a young reference and keep the 1970s integrated-sports demand feeding a sub-EUR 1,200 slot most rivals can't touch.
SJX Watches
The Citizen’s Latest Gets Indigo Washi Paper Dial
Citizen adds an indigo-dyed washi paper dial to The Citizen line with the Eco-Drive 50th Anniversary Edition (ref. AQ4090-08A): a 40mm Super Titanium case with Duratect coating, sapphire crystal, 100m water resistance, and the cal. A060 quartz movement rated to five seconds per year with perpetual calendar and an 18-month power-save reserve. The paper comes from Hidakawashi in Kochi and is dyed via tsutsumaki shibori by Watanabe's in Tokushima, with each dial unique. Limited to 200 pieces at US$3,000 before taxes, available at Citizen boutiques and retailers starting August 2026.
Podcasts
SJX Watches
SJX Podcast: Horological Heatwave
Episode 48 of the SJX Podcast rounds up standout summer-ready releases from the first half of 2026 across nearly every price tier, from affordable picks by Kollokium, Baltic, and Seiko to higher-end pieces from Tudor, Hermès, Grand Seiko, Vacheron Constantin, and Laurent Ferrier, capped by the Greubel Forsey Balancier 3 against a quartet of gem-set Rolex Daytonas.