This Week in Watches: August 8, 2020 — Retro Edition
Welcome back to This Week In Watches for August 8, 2020 the Retro Edition. I’ve been on vacation for a couple weeks, but I’m back and ready to share the news.
Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Sedna Gold Blue
The new Blancpain Fifty Fathomas Bathyscaphe Sedna Gold Blue is a watch that blends a retro case design with modern touches. It’s hard to dislike this clean looking model, but I just can’t pull of the 43mm case. If you can, though, this Sedna Gold piece adds a new blue dial and comes on either a nylon or sail-canvas 23mm strap. The brand’s caliber 1315 automatic works away inside the 300 meter diver. The price of entry for feeling blue is €22,660. More information can be found on the Blancpain site.
Glashütte Original SeaQ in Blue
Well, perhaps retro shouldn’t have been the theme today because we’re seeing a lot of blue so far. It was only a couple of months back that we saw new gold and two-tone Glashütte SeaQ models. Now, we have blue-dialed variants in steel to complement the collection. In my eyes, the SeaQ looks like it has a skin diver case like so many 60’s watches (and the new Seiko SPB14x series — themselves retro pieces as well). That case was used on inexpensive watches that makes the €8,580 starting price a bit tough to swallow. However, I think that this blue color actually turns the corner for me on this 39.5mm diameter 200m diver. You’ll find the in-house 39-11 caliber automatic inside and can choose a bracelet, rubber or nylon strap. If you want to up the bling factor, you can choose to pony up at least €15,400 for a model with a diamond and sapphire set bezel. Giddy up! Hit the Glashütte site for additional details.
Bamford London GMT
Bamford is a pretty damn polarizing brand and I’m admittedly not always on board with all their work. In the case of the retro inspired London Heritage GMT, though, I think it’s a good looking watch. With a steel 40mm cushion case, 11.2mm thickness, and an Oyster style bracelet, these pieces use the Sellita SW330-1 automatic. What’s new here on these rotating internal 24-hour bezel watches is the color scheme. A red and blue “Pepsi” motif comes into play and you can choose either red (Night Owl) or blue (Heritage) for the top half of the bezel. With a sapphire crystal and 100 meters of water resistance, these watches are consistent with a lot of micro brand pieces. At £1,100 there’s a bit of a Bamford name premium, but it’s still approachable. Visit Bamford London for more.
Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Kingsman Knife
Does 1907 count as retro enough? I hope so because the Jaeger_leCoultre Master Ultra Thin Kingsman Knife watch takes its inspiration from a pocket watch from that year. This newest piece, however, has been made in an edition of 100 in support of the upcoming Kingsmen film called The King’s Man. This €29,000 stunner is a 40mm pink gold watch with the hand-wound 849 caliber. The thickness is a wafer thin 4.25mm. A brown alligator strap compliments this beautiful watch. Mr. Porter has this watch on pre-order exclusively through September 6th and remaining pieces will find their way to JLC boutiques. I don’t normally head for film tie-in watches, but this one is a stunner.
Longines Avigation Watch Type A-7 1935
And for our final retro entry, we have the new Longines Avigation Watch Type A-7 1935. This watch was inspired by a piece ordered by the US Air Force back in 1935 and features a shifted dial allowed for easy reading on the arm of a pilot. The 41mm stainless watch contains an ETA-based automatic chronograph with monopusher. Unfortunately, a date on a white background interrupts the matte black dial with aged lume numerals. If this watch looks familiar, a 49mm version was on sale back in 2012. This one is far more wearable. Pricing is €3,280 and more information is available on the Longines site.
That’s all for now — enjoy your weekend!
