Business & Industry
WatchPro
Beware of super-fakes warns F.P. Journe
F.P. Journe has issued a public warning about counterfeit versions of its watches, singling out the quartz-based Élégante, a model whose secondary-market prices have exploded from a ~$17,000 retail to six-figure auction results (Christie's Hong Kong hit $137,789), making it a prime super-fake target. The alert lands amid wider industry alarm: Watchfinder says one in ten watches offered to it is fake and 80% now need further inspection (up from 20%), while Wired recently walked a $500 counterfeit into Rolex's Bond Street boutique for servicing undetected. The takeaway for the trade: authentication rigor and seller reputation are becoming line items with real financial value in the pre-owned market.
Watches of Espionage
Watch Industry SITREP - August 2026
Watches of Espionage's August SITREP lands on the market signal buried in the crime blotter and celebrity spotting: Rolex's Chrono24 secondary-market share has slid to 30.5 percent from 44 percent in 2022, back to pre-pandemic levels, even as its 2022-launched CPO program books as a runaway success. The read for the trade is that Rolex is quietly recapturing pre-owned margin it used to cede to the grey market, meaning whether a buyer goes new off the waitlist or CPO, the Crown collects either way. The roundup also flags WIRED's super-clone experiment (a $500 fake passing a London boutique bracelet adjustment), a Doxa Sub 300 Beta "Frogger" with San Diego retailer Belmont Watches, and a 300-piece Blancpain Bathyscaphe 70th Anniversary at $18,300.
Revolution Watch
Geneva Watch Days 2026: The Complete Directory
Geneva Watch Days returns September 2 to 6, 2026, with a record 71 participating brands staging releases across boutiques, hotels and showrooms around the Rotonde du Mont-Blanc. The expanded roster (spanning historic maisons, independents and emerging names) underlines GWD's growing pull as a decentralized alternative to the calendar's bigger set-piece fairs.
Revolution Watch
Shohei Ohtani and Grand Seiko: A Natural Partnership
Grand Seiko is leaning hard into its Shohei Ohtani ambassadorship, tying the two-way superstar's Iwate Prefecture roots and kaizen work ethic to the brand's Studio Shizukuishi origins and steady-refinement design ethos. The pitch spans three watches: the SBGM221 Ohtani wore at his Dodgers signing, the White Birch (SLGH005, now evolving into the SLGH031), and the SLGB003 showcasing the newest Spring Drive. It's a shrewd play for the North American market, borrowing the credibility of a $700m athlete who wears understated Japanese watches rather than iced-out status pieces.
Auction & Market
Hodinkee
Bring a Loupe: A Hamilton Cross Country, A Heuer Titanium Quartz, A Movado Super Sub Sea Chronograph, And More
Hodinkee's What's Selling Where roundup spotlights a 1956 Hamilton Cross Country, a direct-read pseudo-GMT with a rotating dial marked for US time zones (34mm gold-plated, bid to $250 with an $800-1,000 estimate), a 1983 Heuer titanium-and-gold quartz ref. 825.213 (bid to $95 AUD in Perth), and a Movado Super Sub Sea chronograph ref. 206-705-502 (40.5mm, Zenith cal. 146 HP, Gay Frères bracelet). A grab-bag of auction picks aimed at the vintage-hunting crowd, heavy on oddball quartz and shared-conglomerate references, with the usual reminder that condition and service costs should factor into any bid.
Community & Culture
Fratello
The Other Seiko 6105 “Willard” Story
Fratello revisits the Seiko 6105 "Willard" through a non-Hollywood lens: Hawaiian lifeguard and big-wave legend Eddie Aikau, photographed wearing a cushion-case Seiko diver consistent with the 6105-8110 before his fatal 1978 Hokule'a voyage. The piece notes no factory record confirms the reference, situates Seiko as the affordable, rugged choice for period surfers and Tektite II aquanauts, and argues the 6105 spirit lives on via the Turtle SRPE93 and SLA033, while wishing for a truly affordable faithful reissue.
Time + Tide
I told Breguet how to fix the brand – then they invited me to tour their manufacture
Time+Tide's Andrew McUtchen, who once used an About 'Effing Time segment to tell Breguet how to fix itself, got invited by CEO Gregory Kissling to tour the manufacture and eat his words on two of three counts (historical rose engines and hand finishing already exist; communication was the real gap). The kicker is Kissling, an Omega alumnus, openly conceding the storytelling failure and framing the 250th-anniversary Paris-to-Paris tour and pieces like the 7725 as the correction: this is a brand-comms reset dressed as a factory visit.
WatchPro
GUEST COLUMN: Lucy Kapetanovic on turning a passion for watches into a career
In a WatchPro guest column, content creator and Cambridge RedBar chapter head Lucy Kapetanovic traces how an Instagram habit built during lockdown turned into a marketing role after she documented anOrdain's enamel dial-making in Glasgow. The takeaway for brands: the pipeline into watch industry jobs now runs through community-builders and storytellers, not just watchmakers, and independents courting enthusiasts are the ones hiring from that pool.
SJX Watches
Insight: The Keyless Works
SJX runs a deep technical explainer on the keyless works, tracing the dual-purpose winding-and-setting crown to Jean Adrien Philippe's 1845 patent and the precursors (Prest, Nicole, Breguet, LeCoultre) that came before Patek Philippe formalized the concept. It walks through the modern mechanism, three-position quick-set date implementations, and outliers like Rolex's Ring Command in the Sky-Dweller and Yacht-Master II. A reminder that the crown, the one part every owner touches, sits atop 180 years of engineering that even collectors mostly ignore.
WatchTime
Super-LumiNova Explained: Why Watches Glow in the Dark
WatchTime runs an explainer on luminous materials in watchmaking, tracing the arc from radium and tritium gas tubes (mb-microtec's Trigalight) to the nonradioactive Super-LumiNova pigments patented by Nemoto and produced in Switzerland via LumiNova AG. The piece shows how brands now push lume beyond hands and markers: Panerai's X1 compound on the Luminor PAM 01117, IWC's Ceralume glowing ceramic cases, Roger Dubuis's strap-embedded LumiSuperBiwiNova, and Bell & Ross's BR-X3 Night Vision. Useful context for anyone selling on lume performance as a differentiator, since "how bright and how long" has become a genuine marketing axis.</parameter> <parameter name="categories">[]
Fratello
Sunday Morning Showdown: Straum Expedition Vs. Laventure Marine Type 3
Fratello's Sunday Morning Showdown pits the newly released Straum Expedition, a bead-blasted Grade 5 titanium tool watch (38.2mm, La Joux-Perret G100, €2,100 ex. VAT on rubber) against the sold-out Laventure Marine Type 3, a Grade 23 titanium piece (38mm, acrylic crystal) that ran CHF 4,200. Nacho argues the Straum offers similar lume-dial, angular-titanium appeal at half the price with a bracelet and quick-release, while Jorg picks the Laventure on pure brand devotion. The commercial subtext: Straum is positioning a current, catalog-staple alternative to a hyped, secondary-market-only independent.
Watches of Espionage
W.O.E. YouTube: Watches of an Army Intelligence Officer
Watches of Espionage's latest YouTube episode (number 52) profiles Chris Costa, a former US Army Case Officer and now executive director of the International Spy Museum, on the watches he used across 35 years in intelligence work: a Seiko "Turtle" 6309 from his rifle platoon days and a Rolex Submariner he wore for most of his career. It's more content-machine fuel for W.O.E.'s tool-watch-meets-operator mythology, the storytelling engine that keeps Seiko and Rolex glowing in the enthusiast imagination without either brand lifting a finger.
Reviews
Time + Tide
Monta’s Oceanking shows us that sometimes the best dive watches aren’t the ones trying to be different
Time + Tide reviews Monta's Oceanking 60-minute with Date (40.5mm, 12mm thick, 300m WR, Sellita SW300-based M-22 movement regulated in-house to +/- 7 seconds, US$2,550) and concludes it succeeds by executing the dive-watch fundamentals rather than reinventing them. They single out the bracelet as the standout, praising its machining, quiet articulation, and tool-free on-the-fly micro-adjustment clasp. Notably, the review notes the piece is available to pre-order through the Time+Tide Studio in New York and its own shop, an in-house retail play worth flagging for the trade.
aBlogtoWatch
Ressence Type 11 Watch Is A Thematic Restart For The Innovative Horology Brand
aBlogtoWatch reviews the Ressence Type 11, framing it as the brand's true arrival: its first fully in-house movement, the caliber Werk RW-01 (4Hz, 60-hour reserve, two barrels), integrating the crownless ROCS 11.1 display in a 41mm x 11mm grade 5 titanium case that weighs just 49 grams with strap. They praise the thin, uncompromised integrated engine, the legibility and the clever ceramic-bead power reserve, while faulting the sticky strap, the flat titanium buckle's durability, and the fragility of the fold-out titanium winding handle. The trade-relevant detail: at $31,400 the Type 11 sits mid-range in the Ressence lineup, and the reviewer expects the RW-01 to eventually replace the modular movements in pricier Type 3, 5 and 7 models.
aBlogtoWatch
The Limited-Edition Bulova Shelby Racer Chronograph Watch Combines Bare-Metal Brilliance With American Racing Style
aBlogtoWatch went hands-on with the limited-edition Bulova Shelby Racer Chronograph, a 40.5mm mirror-polished tonneau piece with a full mirror dial, five-link bracelet with racing-stripe brushing, and the NP20 ultra-high-frequency (262,144 Hz) quartz movement, at $1,425 with a 9,999-piece run. They found it a dynamic, brash statement piece and fitting Shelby tribute, praising the smooth El Primero-like sweep and detailed 6 o'clock running seconds, but faulting the 9 o'clock chronograph minutes register's two-minute markings for making at-a-glance reading extremely difficult. Trade takeaway: Bulova is leaning hard into its high-frequency quartz and dramatic finishes as an enthusiast play at the sub-$1,500 tier.
Monochrome Watches
The Quantum Barracuda BAR1208B Could Be This Year’s Performance Bargain (Incl. Video)
Monochrome Watches reviews the Quantum Barracuda BAR1208B, a USD 299 dive watch running the automatic Miyota 8215, and calls it a genuine "performance bargain" despite a derivative design, praising the solid finishing, ceramic bezel insert and 200m water resistance while faulting the clasp's total lack of adjustability. For a trade reader, the tell is the scale behind the name: Quantum is a thirty-year-old outfit producing roughly 150,000 watches a year across 35-plus countries, not a fly-by-night microbrand, making its sub-$300 spec sheet a real pressure point for entry-level Swiss and microbrand dive offerings.
aBlogtoWatch
Hands-On With Chanel’s High-End Men’s J12 Golden Black Ceramic 42mm Watch
aBlogtoWatch went hands-on with Chanel's ref. H11060 J12 Golden Black 42mm, a 200m-water-resistant matte-black ceramic diver-style watch running the Kenissi-built COSC-certified Caliber 12.1 (a close sibling to Tudor's MT movements), priced at $12,150. They praise the case, comfort and cosmopolitan looks but fault the pricing hard: with only gold coatings and plated markers rather than solid gold, they argue the $3,800 premium over the 38mm Caliber 12.1 model (at $8,350) undercuts the watch's old stealth-hit competitiveness. The trade detail: the caseback reads "Limited Edition" yet Chanel discloses no run size and omits any limited-edition reference on its website.
Fratello
You Don’t Wanna Mess With The Black-Dial Certina DS-2 Powermatic 80 On A Steel Mesh Bracelet
Fratello's Lex Stolk reviews the black-dial Certina DS-2 Powermatic 80 on a mesh bracelet (40mm, 46mm lug-to-lug, 12.65mm, 200m water resistance, Powermatic 80 caliber, €1,095/US$1,130), calling it a rugged-yet-refined remake that punches above its weight at a fair price. He faults the mesh/link hybrid bracelet and its non-safety butterfly clasp as his least favorite aspect but praises the crisp case lines and the strong black lacquered dial. The trade takeaway: Certina is leaning hard into the retro-sports demand cycle with a sub-€1,100 vintage reissue that undercuts and pressures both microbrands and its own Swatch Group siblings.
New Releases
Monochrome Watches
The new L.Leroy Vox Temporis Tourbillon Minute Repeater, with Tact-Inspired Single-Hand Display
L.Leroy continues its high-complication revival with the Vox Temporis, a 43mm single-hand watch combining a minute repeater and flying tourbillon, its rotating dial inspired by an 1810 Leroy tact watch. Powered by the proprietary manual L601SQR calibre (321 components, 3Hz, 90-hour reserve) from Régence Production SA, it comes in titanium (CHF 265,000), red gold (CHF 290,000) and platinum (CHF 320,000), limited to 15 pieces total. The play here is positioning L.Leroy back in the seven-figure-adjacent conversation, betting collectors will pay Geneva grand-complication money for a name most rediscovered only via Only Watch 2023.
aBlogtoWatch
Perrelet Weekend Stone Dials Collection Expands With A Quartet Of New Watches
Perrelet, the brand best known for its rotating-dial Turbine line, is expanding its more restrained Weekend collection for 2026 with four new stone-dial models in turquoise, lapis lazuli, tiger's eye, and black onyx. Each runs the manufacture Caliber P-321 automatic (4Hz, 42-hour reserve, built by sibling company Soprod) in a 39mm x 9.6mm steel case with 50m water resistance, dauphine hands, a date at 3, a seven-link bracelet, and an extra leather strap. For a brand fighting the perception that it only does bold, the stone dials are a bid to stake ground in the crowded quiet-luxury dress-watch lane.
WatchTime
IWC Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Marks 140 Years of Mercedes-Benz
IWC marks Mercedes-Benz's 140th anniversary with the Big Pilot's Watch Perpetual Calendar ProSet 140 Years Mercedes-Benz, limited to 140 pieces at €40,900 (roughly $47,163). The 42mm steel case (100m water-resistant, black dial, gold appliques) houses Caliber 82665, built around the Perpetual Calendar ProSet debuted at Watches and Wonders this year, which adjusts forward and backward from a single crown position via a four-patent gear system, with a 60-hour power reserve and a caseback engraved with the 1926 Daimler-Benz merger logo. It extends a partnership that runs back to IWC's 2004 tie-up with Mercedes-AMG and its Formula One engineering role since 2013.
Fratello
An Artistic Homage To Venice: The Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Enamel “Turner Series”
Jaeger-LeCoultre's Métiers Rares atelier debuts the Reverso Tribute Enamel "Turner Series" at Venice's Homo Faber Biennial: four editions of 10 pieces each, whose 18K white gold case backs recreate J.M.W. Turner's Venetian paintings in grand feu enamel over roughly 80 hours of work per back. The slimmed 8.51mm case (down from 9.73mm on the 2024 Monet series) runs the hand-wound caliber 822 with a 42-hour reserve, on alligator with a white gold butterfly clasp; price on application. Homo Faber remains JLC's chosen stage for flexing the Métiers Rares craft that justifies its haute-horlogerie positioning, a lever few rivals can pull as convincingly.
Hodinkee
Seiko Prospex 1965 Heritage Diver's Watch HBC011
Seiko is releasing the Prospex 1965 Heritage Diver HBC011 in "Daytime Blue," the winner of a fan-selection campaign staged for the 62MAS's 60th anniversary, with three other proposed colorways left on the shelf. It runs on the 6R55 (72-hour reserve, 300m WR) in a 40mm steel case with the updated micro-adjust clasp, priced at $1,400 as a loosely limited edition of 4,500 pieces from October 2026. The real play here is engagement: Seiko turned a product launch into a public vote, banking goodwill (and pre-baked demand) before a single unit shipped.
Also at: Fratello
Fratello
The New Unimatic Impronte Collection Leaves A Permanent Imprint
Unimatic's new Impronte collection spans 10 references across five models in two executions (matte-black AEB on black NATO, aluminum-toned AEG on olive-drab NATO), all playing on imprint-inspired textures: raised bezels, debossed dials, and wrinkled case backs. The lineup runs from €650/$918 for the Modello Tre and Quattro up to €800/$918 for the Modello Uno GMT, each a limited edition of 250 pieces on the brand's site, with Seiko NH movements powering the standard range. For a micro-brand built on a minimalist template, Impronte is Unimatic squeezing 10 SKUs and a fresh texture story out of its existing base models: efficient product engineering that keeps the catalog feeling new without new tooling.
Hodinkee
Studio Underd0g 02Series "Mantis"
Studio Underd0g launches the 02Series "Mantis," its first limited edition on the Gen 2 platform, with a light-to-dark green full-lume sapphire-sandwich dial the brand calls its brightest ever. The 37.5mm steel case (11.5mm thick, 46mm lug-to-lug) runs the manual Sellita SW200-2 M with 63 hours of reserve; price is $1,200 (£875). Rather than a fixed cap, it sells via a 9-hour order window on September 1st (3pm–12am BST), with all orders placed in that window fulfilled, a distribution move that widens access to a brand whose limited drops routinely spike on the secondary market.
Monochrome Watches
Fears goes High-End with the Brunswick 39 Perpetual Calendar
Fears marks the 10th anniversary of its 2016 revival by moving into complications with the Brunswick 39 Perpetual Calendar: a 39mm cushion case (45.4mm lug-to-lug, 9.4mm thin, 50m WR), a Silver Mink frosted dial, and a Sellita SW300 base fitted with a modified Dubois Dépraz perpetual calendar module and 18k gold rotor. Non-limited, priced at GBP 26,950 domestically and CHF 24,500 / USD 28,500 for export, it comes on an ostrich strap with a SwissKubik winder, with bespoke platinum versions available through the Fears Custom Division. Commercially this is the British brand's clearest bid to climb into high-end territory, a big price leap that tests whether Fears has the brand equity to sell a five-figure QC.
Also at: Worn & Wound
Revolution Watch
Jacob & Co.’s Gem-Set Astronomia Four-Axis Tourbillon
Jacob & Co. has released three new gem-set versions of its Astronomia Four-Axis Tourbillon, swapping the earlier model's sculpted rose gold base for a field of faceted crystals in colorless, green or red, each limited to six pieces. The 47mm x 27mm case is water resistant to 30 meters and houses the Caliber JCAM54, with a self-leveling subdial, a triple-axis tourbillon that gains a fourth axis from the orbiting carrier, twin mainspring barrels and a high-frequency remontoir that recharges six times per second. For a brand born of hip-hop-era jewelry, the gem-set Astronomia is the purest expression of where Jacob & Co.'s hyperwatch strategy pays off: maximalist complication meets bejeweled scarcity, aimed squarely at collectors for whom timekeeping is beside the point.
WatchTime
Ressence: Type 7 Black and Cactus — Time in Motion
Ressence adds two colorways to its Type 7 GMT, the Type 7 Black and the Type 7 Cactus, both built on a 41mm Grade 5 titanium case with color-matched ceramic bezel, the oil-filled ROCS 7 orbital display, a 24-hour second-time-zone indication, and 50m water resistance. The modified ETA-based automatic runs at 28,800 vph with a 36-hour reserve, wound and set through the back; both ship on an integrated titanium bracelet and, for the first time, with matched rubber or leather strap options, priced at CHF 36,000 (about $44,570). For a brand that leans on its hands-free signature, extending the tool-oriented Type 7 into everyday colorways is a bid to broaden a famously niche audience without diluting the gimmick.
Monochrome Watches
The Hanhart MAD Preventor HD12, Launching a new 36mm Case
Hanhart shrinks its Preventor HD12 to a 36mm case (10.5mm thick, 43mm lug-to-lug, 150m water resistance) for a limited edition made with the British collector MAD, keeping the proprietary HD12 hardened steel rated up to 1,200 HV and a Black Forest green dial with cathedral hands. Inside is a Sellita SW200-1, regulated to 0/+8 seconds a day, with production capped at 200 pieces priced at EUR 1,140 on a strap and EUR 1,340 on the hardened steel bracelet.
Time + Tide
IWC takes us into the garage for its latest F1 release
IWC is releasing a new edition of the Pilot's Watch Chronograph 41 with its Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 partner, swapping the usual team blue for a vibrant purple dial and strap inspired by Singapore's Vanda Miss Joaquim orchid, with the blue relegated to the lume. It runs a lightweight titanium case, the column-wheel calibre 69385 with 46 hours of power reserve, and gets its official unveiling at the Singapore Grand Prix on October 11th. The move off the racing-team palette signals a bolder register for a collaboration that has, until now, played it safe on colour.
SJX Watches
Vacheron Constantin’s Adventures in the Animal Kingdom
Vacheron Constantin has unveiled Métiers d'Art Tribute to the Animal Kingdom, a set of six one-off concept watches (Papercroc, Woodenwings, Oraygami, Glassoctopus, Feathersnake, Tigerbroidery) showcasing rare crafts from gold embroidery and wood marquetry to glassblowing and origami. All share a 42mm pink or white gold case, the cal. 2460 G4/2 with hours/minutes/day/date, and are available at boutiques with price upon request. As unique pieces meant to flex the crafts programme, they signal which artisans Vacheron may tap for future commercial métiers d'art work.
Also at: Revolution Watch · Monochrome Watches · Fratello
Podcasts
aBlogtoWatch
ABlogtoWatch Weekly Podcast #236: Rolex Color Mosh Pits, Genta Goes Geneva, And Time At Wynn
Ariel, David, and Ripley recap the Time at Wynn event in Las Vegas and the case for more consumer-focused watch gatherings, then dig into vintage military watches, F.P. Journe hype, the Gerald Charles Masterlink Perpetual Calendar, and Rolex's colorful Oyster Perpetual 36 Jubilee dial.