The Daily Micro-Adjust

WatchPro

Tories pledge to axe tourist tax

Kemi Badenoch has pledged that a Conservative government would scrap the post-Brexit "tourist tax" and restore VAT-free shopping for overseas visitors, a policy the OBR reckons nets the Treasury £540 million a year but that retailers blame for a sharp profit slide (Beaverbrooks fell from £35m to £7m between 2021 and 2024; the top 11 luxury jewellers dropped from £180m to £155m). For UK watch and jewellery retailers like Pragnell and Berry's, this is the campaign they have been waging for years, and Badenoch's Bicester Village staging signals luxury retail finally has a mainstream political champion, even if the reform hinges on an election win.

WatchPro

UK consumer confidence falls as retail spending expectations weaken

UK consumer confidence slid in September after four straight months of gains, with economic expectations dropping to -34 (from -28) and retail spending expectations falling to +5 (from +8), per British Retail Consortium data. The decline was sharpest among women, and with energy bills climbing and the Budget looming, retailers face renewed caution on discretionary spending, a warning sign for the watch trade heading into the crucial fourth quarter.

aBlogtoWatch

Backes & Strauss Partners With Tennis Player Elina Avanesyan For An Upcoming Special Watch Collection

Backes & Strauss, the Franck Muller Group-owned London diamond-and-watch house, has signed tennis pro Elina Avanesyan on a partnership pinned to shared Armenian heritage, with Avanesyan fronting the diamond-set Piccadilly Mayfair 33 (the 33mm steel Mayfair 33 SP carries 121 diamonds totaling 1.13 carats and lists at CHF 12,500 / USD $15,500). The deal goes past ambassador optics: it will yield a dedicated "Elina for Backes & Strauss" collection, though designs, movements, pricing, and timing are still undisclosed. The commercial angle is repositioning diamond watchmaking as court-ready sport rather than evening-only luxury, a familiar play for a niche jeweler chasing relevance under a group parent.

WatchPro

Audemars Piguet transforms Hayward Gallery façade with Renée Levi artwork

Audemars Piguet Contemporary has co-commissioned "September," a two-panel painting by Swiss artist Renée Levi wrapping the façade of London's Hayward Gallery until 15 November, 2026, the first painting the program has commissioned. The play here is soft-power brand-building: AP keeps its name on a marquee South Bank cultural landmark and buys cultural credibility that no product campaign can, cementing contemporary art as its chosen prestige lane.

SJX Watches

Audemars Piguet Brings Padel to Singapore

Audemars Piguet is opening a Padel Pop-Up Club in Singapore from September 25-27, 2026 at New Bahru, its first local event tied to a padel push that began in May with a Qatar Airways Premier Padel Tour timekeeping deal and sponsorship of Agustín Tapia. Padel is the industry's new Greenfield: cheaper and less crowded than tennis or F1, with a younger audience, which is why Rolex (Arturo Coello) and Frederique Constant (Pro Padel League) are already staking claims. Whoever locks in the marquee players and tours early sets the terms before the sport saturates like everything else.

Worn & Wound

Edward R. Murrow’s Gold Bulova Chronograph Hits the Auction Block Next Month

Jones & Horan's fall auction, ending October 22, will sell a 14k gold Bulova chronograph owned by CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow, with provenance confirmed by a letter from his son Casey Murrow. The 38mm watch sits in a Swiss-made gold Spillman case that the house's specialist believes is the only one of its kind, and its unusual size and dial-only Bulova signing suggest a possible special order. Celebrity provenance plus a genuinely rare case is the kind of documented story that lets a mid-tier vintage name punch well above its usual auction weight.

SJX Watches

Interview: Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani and Vianney Halter

At Geneva Watch Days, Bulgari and Vianney Halter unveiled the Octo Finissimo x Vianney Halter, a "half Octo, half Vianney" dual-time piece built entirely in-house (unlike Bulgari's MB&F tie-up) and offered in rose gold and titanium. The constraint was deliberate: use the Finissimo base movement, no tourbillon, no half-million-dollar price tag, just a complication that reads instantly as both Octo and Antiqua. The commercial logic is candid on both sides: Bulgari, self-styled as "unstructured" rather than a traditional Swiss house, gets a differentiating story from an under-exposed name, while Halter widens his audience and builds pieces his own workshop could never make alone.

Worn & Wound

BA111OD’s Chapter 7 Skeleton Gets a Light and Airy Stainless Steel Build

Worn & Wound goes hands-on with BA111OD's new stainless steel Chapter 7 Skeleton, a 40mm (10.5mm thick) Geneva Observatory-certified chronometer powered by the Soprod P024-SQ, priced at $1,295 on rubber and $1,635 on bracelet. They praise it as a compelling budget alternative to skeletonized sport watches like the Zenith Defy and Girard-Perregaux Laureato, faulting only the rubber strap's length for smaller wrists. For a trade reader: the watch is available now with first deliveries expected this month, and notably still uses conventional spring bars rather than a quick-release system.

aBlogtoWatch

Traser P65 Tactical Mission Titanium Upgrades The Brand’s Original Watch

aBlogtoWatch went hands-on with the Traser P65 Tactical Mission Titanium, a grade 2 titanium revival of the brand's original P6500 Type 6 with tritium tubes, a Ronda 715 quartz movement, 200m water resistance and pricing from $695 ($860 on bracelet). They rate it among their all-time favorite Traser models for its compact heritage proportions, but fault the friction-pin bracelet and stamped clasp, and argue the premium titanium tier deserves a more elevated caliber than the Ronda 715.</parameter> <parameter name="categories">["field", "tool", "dive"]

Time + Tide

Seiko freshens up its Seiko 5 field GMT with two new colours

Seiko has added two new dial colours to its Seiko 5 Sports Field Series GMT: the HDB001 in dark olive green and the HDB002 in khaki beige, both on a five-link brushed steel bracelet. The 39.4mm steel case (13.6mm thick, 47.9mm lug-to-lug, 10 bar) runs the caller-GMT 4R34 automatic with a 41-hour reserve, and both are available now at £410. The affordable dual-time formula keeps Seiko competing at the entry point of the mechanical GMT market, where it effectively created a category in 2022.

Monochrome Watches

Value Proposition – Formex Takes its Field Watch to the Air with the New AirField Titanium Pilot’s Watch

Formex extends its titanium Field platform skyward with the AirField, a 40mm Grade 2 titanium pilot's watch (10.5mm thick, 48mm lug-to-lug, 150m WR) with an aviation-instrument dial in four colors and the new Sellita SW200-2 Power+ movement pushing reserve to 65 hours. Pre-orders open September 24, 2026 with deliveries from late October, priced at EUR 950/CHF 830 on nylon and EUR 1,075/CHF 970 with leather and the carbon-fibre deployant clasp. At sub-EUR 1,000 titanium with a 65-hour movement, Formex keeps hammering the value-per-spec pitch that has become its whole commercial identity.

Also at: Time + Tide · WatchTime · aBlogtoWatch

Hodinkee

Vacheron Constantin's 30th Anniversary Overseas Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin Limited Edition

Vacheron Constantin marks the Overseas collection's 30th anniversary with a limited-edition Overseas Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin in an azure blue lacquered dial, housed in a 41.5mm by 8.1mm white gold case running the 4.05mm-thick Caliber 1120 QP/1 (40-hour reserve, 2.75 Hz, Geneva Seal). It ships now on an 18K white gold bracelet with quick-swap white and denim-blue rubber straps, priced at $132,000 and capped at 200 numbered pieces. With the Overseas holding value on the secondary market and the reference undercutting AP's Royal Oak on both thickness and case material for roughly $6,000 more, Vacheron's "moment" continues at the integrated-bracelet top end.

Also at: Monochrome Watches · Fratello

Time + Tide

MB&F goes bananas with the Caran d’Ache GorillaSharpener

MB&F and Caran d'Ache have released the GorillaSharpener, a 150mm-tall pencil sharpener mounted on knuckle-walking gorilla limbs, designed by Maximilian Maertens to mark 15 years of the M.A.D.Gallery. Limited to 300 pieces in Alpine Frost blue and launched on World Gorilla Day, it runs CHF 850 + VAT (US$1,165/€925) with a portion supporting the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, sold exclusively through the MB&F eShop, M.A.D.Galleries, MB&F LABs and the New York MB&F Lounge. The object play is the point: MB&F keeps mining desk-toy collectibles as a lower-ticket, high-margin extension of the brand well beyond its watch buyers.

Also at: Watchonista

Fratello

A Personal Trip Down Memory Lane With The New Glashütte Original 70s Series

Glashütte Original has launched its 70s series, the successor to the Seventies Panorama Date, comprising three square 39mm steel three-handers (9.6mm thick, 43.7mm lug-to-lug) with a "hexagrid" dial texture, integrated 3 o'clock date, and the tool-free Groove Lock strap-change system. The permanent Tweed Amp (brown) and Stereo Panel (silver) run €13,200 on strap and €14,500 on bracelet, while the limited Vinyl Record (black, 500 pieces) is €16,400 with both bracelet and strap. All use the in-house automatic caliber 36-10/36-11 (28,800 vph, 100-hour reserve, silicon hairspring), and the watches are available now at boutiques and retail partners worldwide.

WatchPro

Wind Vintage and True North Watch Co create pastel-shade Vintage Rally Timer

Wind Vintage and True North Watch Co are back with a fourth collaboration: the Vintage Rally Timer IV "Dreamsicle," a $490 mechaquartz chronograph swapping the original's black-and-primary scheme for pastel orange, mauve, yellow, and green, limited to 1,986 pieces (a nod to Eric Wind's birth year). The 37mm x 13.8mm steel piece runs a Seiko VK63 movement and drops October 2, 2026 at 1pm ET on truenorthcollections.com, one per transaction, with a cut of revenue going to youth ministry work in Palm Beach County. The commercial tell here: a $390-turned-$490 mechaquartz that earned GQ, Kevin O'Leary, and a papal audience shows how far Wind's tastemaker brand equity can carry a modestly specced watch.

Hodinkee

The Longines Spirit Pilot And Spirit Pilot Flyback In Blue (Live Pics)

Longines has added a matte blue dial (with glossy blue ceramic bezel insert on the chronograph) to its Spirit Pilot and Spirit Pilot Flyback, swapping last year's gilt-style golden accents for a more contemporary look that runs alongside, rather than replaces, the existing editions. Specs are unchanged: the 39mm time-only model uses the COSC-certified automatic L888.4 (72-hour reserve), while the 39.5mm Flyback carries the manual column-wheel L792.4 (68-hour reserve). Not limited, available now: the Spirit Pilot is $2,700 on strap and $3,100 on bracelet, the Flyback $5,250 on strap and $5,550 on bracelet.

Also at: Time + Tide · Monochrome Watches · WatchTime

Fratello

The Makina Azazel_I Outgrows Local Time And Adds A GMT Complication

Filipino microbrand Makina has added a GMT complication to its futuristic Azazel_I, keeping the 40mm sandblasted steel case (12.2mm thick, 46mm lug-to-lug) and rotating-disc dial concept while integrating date and second-time-zone windows. It runs the flyer-style Miyota 9075 automatic GMT (28,800vph, 42-hour reserve) and is available now on Makina's website for US$990, just $90 above the time-only model, with import taxes included for US and Philippines buyers. At that price it undercuts most conventional microbrand GMTs, betting that a distinctive look can carry a saturated category.

Hodinkee

The Newly Revamped Breguet Marine 5517 Time-and-Date And 5527 Chronograph

Breguet has refreshed its Marine line, swapping in Breguet numerals and the finer "Quai de l'Horloge" guilloché from the brand's 250th anniversary, with new dials, casual rubber straps or case-matching bracelets, and the script Breguet logo. The 5517 time-and-date measures 40mm (caliber 777A, 55-hour reserve, 100m); the 5527 chronograph is 42.3mm with the 582QA flyback movement, now two subregisters and a 48-hour reserve. Cases come in white gold, rose gold, or titanium; 5517 pricing runs $26,400 to $80,300 and the chronograph $33,000 to $93,000, both available now and not limited.

Also at: Monochrome Watches · Watchonista · Time + Tide · WatchTime · Fratello