Hodinkee
Auctions: Rare And Unique White Gold Cartier Wristwatch Fetches Record $3.4 Million At Hong Kong Auction
Sotheby's reclaimed the title for most expensive Cartier wristwatch at auction when a unique white-gold Cheich, commissioned in 2010 for collector Giorgio Seragnoli, sold for about $3.4 million in Hong Kong after a nine-minute bidding war, eclipsing the $2 million London Crash from May. A London Midi Pebble in the same sale set its own record at roughly $494,000, but the fireworks came before the gavel: Sotheby's withdrew a Maxi Pebble lot after discovering it shared a case serial number with a watch bound for Monaco Legend's October sale. The matching-serial mystery, now headed for disassembly and archival digging, is a reminder that a red-hot vintage Cartier market is running ahead of the provenance homework needed to sustain it.
Business & Industry
WatchPro
Pride & Pinion will be renamed Nico Leonard Watches
Nico Leonard van der Horst is rebranding his pre-owned dealer Pride & Pinion as Nico Leonard Watches, incorporated in December 2025, betting that his expletive-heavy YouTube and Instagram fame moves more metal than a neutral shop name. The move (his second rename after WatchNI) is a straight play to fuse the influencer and the inventory: the platform currently lists around 150 watches from under £1,000 to £297,020, with additional physical stores planned for undisclosed locations. Worth noting the timing, given Pride & Pinion Limited's net assets have slid to £116,379 from a 2023 peak above £250,000.
SJX Watches
F.P. Journe Supports Brain Research with Unique Chronomètre Furtif
F.P. Journe has made a unique version of its tungsten-carbide Chronomètre Furtif, the CF ICM, to be auctioned at Christie's Geneva on September 29, 2026, with all proceeds going to the Paris Brain Institute (ICM). The watch is largely identical to the standard CF (42mm, cal. 1522 with power reserve and moon phase) but adds a discreet ICM logo at three o'clock and a case back engraving. Coming after a two-decade donor relationship worth roughly €2 million, the sale is a reminder that Journe's charitable pieces double as a barometer of just how far demand for the brand has run: a 2016 ICM Centigraphe hammered at about US$136,000, a figure that now looks quaint.
WatchPro
97,000 tonnes of gold is sitting in people’s watch and jewellery boxes
A new Watch & Jewellery Initiative 2030 report estimates 97,000 tonnes of gold and 790,000 tonnes of silver are already locked in consumer watch and jewellery boxes, more than most active mines will produce this decade, with recycled gold cutting emissions by up to 99.8%. With virgin gold and silver prices squeezing margins and the industry sourcing 40% of annual global gold supply, the pitch is commercial as much as green: circularity, take-back and resale could trim value-chain emissions 20% to 30% while easing raw-material exposure. Note that roughly half of luxury watch owners admit to owning a piece they never wear, a dormant resource base brands and retailers are being nudged to reclaim.
aBlogtoWatch
Grinding Gears: The Watch Industry Seems To Have Forgotten How To Treat People
aBlogtoWatch's latest "Grinding Gears" op-ed argues the watch industry has stopped courting the people who actually buy the products: brands have cranked up their release cadence (even Rolex now does mid-year launches) while gutting the media access, boutique warmth, and rich movement storytelling that once justified the prices. The commercial subtext is hard to miss, with warehouses full of unsold inventory and the MoonSwatch cited as proof of how starved buyers are for something approachable and involving.
Auction & Market
Hodinkee
Bring a Loupe: An Omega Suverän, A Universal Genève Cabriolet, A Vacheron Constantin Overseas, And A Vintage Zenith Chronograph
Hodinkee's What's Selling Where rounds up a spread of vintage and neo-vintage picks: a black-dialed Omega Suverän ref. 2400 (30T2, 35mm steel) tied to Sweden's WWII defense-funding scheme, estimated at €1,800 at a Danish auction on the 24th; a 2008 Universal Genève Cabriolet (UG101 microrotor, 35mm) estimated at 1,800-2,200 CHF; and a 35mm Vacheron Constantin Overseas ref. 42050 with box and papers at $11,000 from Singapore's Trib2ka. Also flagged: a vintage Zenith ref. 1305 HU chronograph (cal. 146 DP, 37mm steel), plus assorted Heuer, JLC Memovox, and Carrera lots.
Community & Culture
SJX Watches
Complicated Collectors: Lord Sandberg
SJX's Complicated Collectors series turns to the Sandberg Collection, the 423-piece horological trove assembled by former HSBC chairman Baron Michael Sandberg and dispersed at Antiquorum in 2001. Spanning 17th- to 19th-century Swiss, French, English, Chinese-market and Islamic-influenced pieces (Piguet & Capt, Breguet, Bovet, Rochat), it stands as a portrait of an older collecting era of enamelled automata and musical complications, a pointed contrast to today's appetite for independents and limited series-produced editions on display at Sotheby's Hong Kong.
Fratello
Shadow Icons: The Underappreciated References — Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore
Fratello's "Shadow Icons" column makes the case for the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore, the 1993 Emmanuel Gueit design ("The Beast") long overshadowed by Genta's original Royal Oak, tracing it from ref. 25721ST through the in-house caliber 4404 that arrived in 2021. The current 42mm chronographs span steel, titanium, and ceramic, with the black-ceramic ref. 26238CE listed at CHF 75,700 and the writer favoring the titanium ref. 26238TI at CHF 40,600. It's a reminder that the Offshore, once the Formula 1 grid's chrono of choice, remains a distinct commercial pillar for AP even as the Royal Oak hogs the spotlight.
Worn & Wound
Watches, Stories, & Gear: Watches on the Runway, A Second Look at Bremont, and Lancaster Watch Weekend
Worn & Wound's weekly roundup spans J. Press styling vintage Wind Vintage pieces (Rolex, JLC, Heuer, Universal Genève, Tudor, Dunhill) on the NYFW runway, a favorable second look at Bremont's Terra Nova line via Zach Kazan's review of the 35mm Jumping Hour models, and a preview of Lancaster Watch Weekend (Sept 25-27) featuring RGM, Czapek, Grand Seiko, Bell & Ross, J.N. Shapiro, and others. The Bremont thread is the commercially telling bit: a year after a rebrand that landed badly with press and collectors, CEO Davide Cerrato's "trust the process" plea is starting to look vindicated as the collection reads more coherent.
Monochrome Watches
The ABCs of Time – The History of American Watchmaking
Monochrome runs a long history piece on American watchmaking, tracing the "American system" of mass-producing interchangeable parts from Aaron Dennison and the Waltham Watch Company through Ingersoll's Dollar Watch, the Disney-saving Mickey Mouse watch, Hamilton's railroad and Hollywood legacy, Elgin, and Bulova. It is a survey of the industry that democratized the pocket watch, notable mostly as context for how deep the American brands' back catalogs run.
Watches of Espionage
W.O.E. YouTube: Marathon - A Military Watch Brand You Need to Know
Watches of Espionage devoted episode 53 of its YouTube channel to Marathon, the Canadian maker with 85-plus years of military history that still supplies issued dive, aviation, and field watches to Naval Special Warfare, Army Special Forces, and Air Force PJs. The video also teases the forthcoming Marathon x W.O.E. collaboration, the first watch W.O.E. has produced. For a media brand with W.O.E.'s reach into the military and enthusiast community, moving from content to product is a logical monetization play, and Marathon's issued-watch pedigree makes it the on-brand partner to do it with.
Time + Tide
Henry Cavill on Longines, his ultimate 3-watch collection, and clean versus busy dials
Time+Tide's Zach Blass sits down with Longines ambassador Henry Cavill to walk through his personal collection: an Ultra-Chron Carbon daily driver, the Spirit Zulu Time 1925 as sentimental favourite, and a rose gold Master Collection GMT as his desert-island dress watch. The video, which also touches on the new Master Collection novelties and Cavill's clean-over-complicated dial philosophy, is classic ambassador content built to humanise the relationship and remind buyers that Longines' heritage line has genuine enthusiast credibility.
Reviews
Time + Tide
Simplicity is best with the Jaeger-LeCoultre time and date Master Control Chronometre
Time + Tide's Russell Sheldrake names the time-and-date Master Control Chronometre his pick of Jaeger-LeCoultre's three new integrated-bracelet launches, praising the 38mm case (8.4mm thick, calibre 899, 70-hour reserve) as a masterclass in restraint, though he faults the 50m water resistance and wishes for 100m. The trade detail: this line debuts JLC's new HPG (High Precision Guarantee) Seal, COSC chronometer certification plus in-house simulated-wear testing, which the brand plans to roll out across the catalogue next year. Priced at £12,700 in steel and £47,000 in rose gold, available now.
aBlogtoWatch
Luminox Pacific Diver Official Force Blue Watch Brings The Mission To The Wrist
aBlogtoWatch went hands-on with the Luminox Pacific Diver Official Force Blue, a $795 dive quartz (44mm steel case, Carbonox bezel, Ronda 515 movement, 200m water resistance) built with the marine-conservation group Force Blue and dressed in its blue-and-yellow colorway. They call it a handsome, subtly branded tribute and praise the switch to an easily adjustable wave-style rubber strap with extender, while faulting the triple-perforation strap detail as aesthetically too busy. For the trade, this is Luminox extending a since-2022 partnership into its most direct collaboration yet, pairing a mid-price tool diver with an ocean-conservation story.
aBlogtoWatch
The Baume & Mercier Riviera 73 Watch Is Slimmer, Cleaner, And More Faithful To The Original
aBlogtoWatch reviews the new Baume & Mercier Riviera 73, a 39mm, 7.65mm-thick quartz (ETA F06.115) integrated-bracelet sports watch that leans back toward the 1973 original at $1,950. They praise the slim proportions, crisp 12-sided bezel finishing and pared-back dial, but fault the unframed 3 o'clock date window and note the hidden butterfly clasp will divide buyers in a micro-adjust era. The trade takeaway: B&M is positioning the Riviera as an approachable entry point into the sports-watch arms race just as the brand transitions to new ownership.
aBlogtoWatch
Citizen L Rainell Eco-Drive Ladies’ Teardrop Watch Review
aBlogtoWatch reviews the Citizen L Rainell Eco-Drive (ref. EM1202-50P), a gold-toned, teardrop-shaped ladies' watch at $595, and finds it genuinely original and elegant, praising the legible dial and Citizen's light-powered E031 movement while faulting the Cartier-derived crown cabochon and the absence of Citizen's Super Titanium. The trade takeaway: they note Citizen sees women's-watch buyers lagging men in Super Titanium adoption, a segmentation the brand is betting will shift, and that the Rainell (now roughly seven US variants plus a smaller 20mm version) has become one of Citizen L's most popular models.
Hodinkee
The Straum Expedition
Hodinkee goes hands-on with the Straum Expedition, the launch of the Norwegian brand's "Built For" line, and calls it one of the best adventure-ready watches in recent memory, praising the refined Grade 5 titanium case (39.5mm x 45.7mm x 11mm), legible field-style sector dial, and improved proportions over the Jan Mayen. Reviewer Mark Kauzlarich's pick is the "Titanium Gray" (a bare bead-blasted titanium dial) over the "White Lume," whose black "6" sits too close to the rehaut; a 200-piece "Midnight Blue" limited edition rounds out the pre-order options. For the trade: this marks Straum's serious pivot from "Inspired By" collectibles toward genuine tool watches, betting its enthusiast goodwill on function.
Worn & Wound
The Stowa Fieldwatch Terra
Worn & Wound reviews the Stowa Fieldwatch Terra, a 38mm (46.9mm lug-to-lug), 11.5mm-thick PVD-coated steel field watch with 200m water resistance, a textured green dial, dual white-and-red SuperLuminova, and a Sellita SW 200 automatic, priced under $1,000. They praise the case detailing, clean no-text dial, and the multi-colored lume ("knocked this one out of the park"), while faulting the short-lived lume glow and the bulky stock elastic strap whose slide buckle stacks the thick fabric into a noticeable bump under the wrist. The trade takeaway: Stowa keeps most of its lineup around the $1,000 mark, positioning the Sellita movement as a premium-but-accessible spec that lets the brand stretch beyond its signature Pilot line without breaking price discipline.
aBlogtoWatch
Oliver Gallaugher Deep Space Blue Watch Review: Getting Lost In The Details
aBlogtoWatch reviews the Oliver Gallaugher Deep Space Blue, a 38mm (8.8mm thick, 44mm lug-to-lug) 904L steel dress piece with a diagonally brushed lacquered blue dial, customizable engraved rhodium "stars," and the Swiss LTM5000-G manual movement from Le Temps Manufacture (the shop behind Berneron and Byrne). They conclude it looks and feels genuinely upscale with thoroughly thought-out design, praising the dial depth and balanced lume while faulting only the too-thin crown; it's limited to 10 pieces at £9,600. For the trade: a 2023 British indie is pricing a 10-piece run north of £9,000 and sourcing from the same high-end movement house feeding Berneron and the new Polerouter, a notable positioning bet for a two-year-old brand.
New Releases
Fratello
Harnessing Nature: The Awake Sơn Mài Frosted Leaf Blood Moon, Storm, And Lagoon
Awake (a Fitwell partner) extends its Sơn Mài Frosted Leaf line with three new hand-lacquered dials, Blood Moon, Storm, and Lagoon, housed in the redesigned 38 × 44.75mm steel case (11.5mm thick, 100m water resistance) and running the automatic La Joux-Perret G101 with a 68-hour reserve. Each dial takes roughly 15 hours of handwork layering Vietnamese lacquer over silver leaf and pigments; the models join the regular catalog but are capped at 100 pieces per year each. Priced at €2,820 including taxes and worldwide shipping, with deliveries beginning the last week of September 2026 via Awake's website.
Time + Tide
New releases from Blancpain, Czapek, Grand Seiko and more
Time + Tide's weekly roundup catalogs a stacked release cycle: Rolex debuts an annual calender, the Perpetual "Padellone," that carries an official nickname for the first time; Blancpain unveils the Lady B built around one of the smallest mechanical movements to date; and Grand Seiko brings back Arabic numerals after 25 years with the Elegance SBGW325. The list also spans Czapek, Studio Underd0g, MB&F, Audemars Piguet's Serena Williams Royal Oak, IWC's 50th-anniversary Ingenieur, Christopher Ward, Nivada Grenchen and more, a signal of just how compressed the fall launch calendar has become.
Worn & Wound
The Apiar Carbon1.0 OG
Apiar, the UK 3D-printing specialist, has released the Carbon1.0 OG, which it bills as the first commercially available watch made with Composite-Based Additive Manufacturing: a 3D-printed carbon-fibre outer case over a Grade 23 titanium inner case, with a CNC-machined anodized aluminum dial and a La Joux-Perret G101 automatic (68-hour reserve). The 40.5mm case is 9.2mm thick with 50m water resistance, priced at $1,800 standard or $2,080 for the "Additive Upgrade" with a British-made Alcantara strap, 3D-printed titanium buckle, and "Impossible" nylon travel case. For an industry increasingly betting materials science is the next frontier now that chronometry is a solved problem, Apiar is planting a flag on additive manufacturing at accessible micro-brand pricing.
Fratello
IFL Watches And Spinnaker Team Up For The Colorful Spence Underwater Dancers
IFL Watches and Spinnaker have released the Spence Underwater Dancers, a hand-painted, fully luminous manta ray dial on the Indigo Blue Spence 300 Automatic (40mm steel, 300m, Miyota 9039) timed to World Manta Ray Day. The first batch of 100 is available now at €990/$950/£790, with a made-to-order second batch opening for pre-order September 21, 2026 (contingent on 100 orders, delivery May 2027). The collab-and-cause playbook keeps IFL's Dubai studio spinning out limited runs across a widening roster of affordable-watch partners.
Monochrome Watches
Pennsylvania-Based RGM Revives the E.F. Bowman Name with the Model 501-EFB
RGM is reviving the E.F. Bowman name with the Model 501-EFB, a 39mm American-made steel dress watch with a Grand Feu enamel dial inspired by a 1920s Patek Philippe pocket watch made for Ezra F. Bowman & Sons, powered by the Schwarz Etienne ASE 200 micro-rotor (86-hour reserve, solid-gold RGM plaque). Priced at USD 16,950 in steel (gold and platinum on request), it debuts September 25, 2026, at Lancaster Watch Weekend. The play is heritage-as-moat: Roland Murphy attended the Bowman Technical School, so RGM is monetizing a genuine local lineage that no marketing budget can manufacture.
WatchTime
Parmigiani Fleurier Introduces the Tonda PF Skeleton in an Expressive Color Combination
Parmigiani Fleurier has released the Tonda PF Skeleton Rose Gold Milano Blue, a 40mm 18-karat rose-gold piece (8.5mm thick, 100m water resistant) pairing an integrated rose-gold bracelet with the skeletonized, Milano Blue-finished PF777 caliber and its 60-hour power reserve. Limited to 30 pieces at $117,100, it slots the house's most expressive color play into its quietest, most collector-courted line, a bid to keep the ultra-thin integrated-bracelet segment feeling fresh at the top end.
Monochrome Watches
Inspired by a Cult French Novel, Czapek Unveils the Promenade L’Ecume des Jours
Czapek adds the Promenade L'Écume des Jours, a Boris Vian-inspired 38mm steel dress watch with a blue Grand Feu waterdrop enamel dial (by Donzé Cadrans), a métiers d'art water-lily seconds display and a mother-of-pearl "pianocktail" keyboard ring (both by MD'Art), running the in-house automatic calibre SXH5.1 with platinum micro-rotor and 60-hour reserve. Limited to 18 pieces on a dark blue nubuck strap (steel Milanese mesh optional), priced at CHF 26,800 / EUR 28,800 / USD 37,700 excluding taxes. It signals Czapek's continued push to position the Promenade line as a high-margin artistic-dial platform rather than a plain time-only entry point.
WatchPro
Girard-Perregaux gets racy with Williams F1 Laureato watches
Girard-Perregaux is kicking off its partnership with the Atlassian Williams Formula 1 team with two steel Laureato Williams Editions, both 42mm: a three-hand automatic (GP1800 movement, £12,800) and a chronograph (GP3300, £16,500), each with electric-blue Clous de Paris dials and red accents inspired by the 2026 Williams FW48. Shipping starts October 19th. The deal is another F1 tie-up in a market where brands increasingly rent motorsport heritage to sell integrated-bracelet sports watches, though MD Marc Michel-Amadry insists the Laureato "is not a sports watch."
Podcasts
aBlogtoWatch
ABlogtoWatch Weekly Podcast #239: Carpeted Hublots, Bulgari Dazzles, And Apple Is Listening
Rick, Ariel, David, and Ripley of aBlogtoWatch Weekly #239 cover Formex manufacturer Dexel, the Bulgari Octo Finissimo Dazzle, Hublot's rubber-coated Big Bang Original Soft Touch (plus the Nico Leonard and Christopher Ward drama), Apple Watch's new always-listening transcription tech, watch-media-and-auction-house dynamics, and Louis Vuitton's Tambour Spin Time collection, making it worth a listen for trade watchers tracking material experiments, smartwatch encroachment, and industry politics.