Maybe it’s because I originally bought one of these in 1997 with a bonus from work, but I’ve had a bit of a soft spot for them since. And, as they’re a very long way from Patek money, why not start collecting them? The TAG Heuer F1 series was part of the Swiss fightback against... Continue Reading →
Even if you turn right when you climb aboard and aren’t allowed more than 100ml of anything, there’s still a romance to flying. Originally made for wartime pilots and observers where precise navigation was a very important thing indeed, fliegers are part of watchmaking heritage. And plenty of makers want to claim a whiff of... Continue Reading →
Give a watchnerd the keys to Marty McFly’s De Lorean and you’d have a whole different film. Instead of all that faffing about with the Johnny-B-Goode-meets-Eddie-van-Halen thing, they’d set the dials to 1963 and start beating down the door of their nearest Rolex dealer to stock up on Paul Newman Daytonas. Originally, the ref. 6239... Continue Reading →
Chances are, as you read this, you’re no more than 3 metres away from a Casio F-91. It’s still the first watch for generations of children, the choice of half the British Army’s regiments (and practically standard issue for military training) and you’ll find them abandoned in office drawers, forgotten in bags, Blu-tacked to the... Continue Reading →
I knew I wanted a Submariner and a Lotus Elan by the time I was 10. If you were a kid in the 1970s, you’ll remember the Rothmans ad. You could stand, looking up at the billboard, and see the driver’s Sub just visible under his shirt cuff as he changed gear in his Lotus,... Continue Reading →
Watches, perhaps because they are so much more personal than almost any other artefact, have a knack of telling stories that bring the past vividly into the present. Here's one of them... In the gathering darkness of the evening of September 28th 1944, a group of 12 German Kampfschwimmer (military frogmen) slipped into the Waal... Continue Reading →
241 years ago today, John Harrison, one of Britain's finest clockmakers died. He left behind designs for a clock that makes the accuracy of that quartz watch on your wrist look pretty average. Chances are, your quartz will be be reasonably sharp. Probably just +/- 15 seconds a month. Not shabby, given the low price of a... Continue Reading →
Today will pass in most people's diaries with never a thought for the man behind so many elements of the watch on their wrist. Abraham Louis Breguet was born 270 years ago today in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Automatic winding, tourbillons, gong-repeaters, more accurate escapements, better hairsprings, shock-absorbing escapements, lubrication-free escapements... Breguet was responsible for either inventing or... Continue Reading →
How a rare, early Heuer 2447S turned up in a regional UK electrical goods auction.
Fancy owning a little piece of horological history? Well, you could head over to Geneva’s Patek Philippe Museum museum with your jemmy, a striped shirt and a ‘swag’ bag and quietly remove their Rieussec Seconds Chronograph. Feeling even braver? How about the earliest chronograph yet discovered? The Louis Moinet, in St. Blaise in Switzerland? Sadly,... Continue Reading →
MMC Musings 