EDITORIAL
This issue traces the strange geometry of modern watchmaking—from the absurd to the essential. We begin with The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Watch, a parable of collectors who can no longer read the very dials they worship. The Border Etched Into Every Balance Wheel confronts the 39% U.S. tariff that’s quietly redrawing the map of collecting. Between satire and substance, The Louis Moinet 1806 Chronomètre examines how “observatory certification” became luxury theatre, while How to Spot Genuine Hand-Finishing restores our faith in the human touch. We revisit A Rolex That Time Almost Forgot, and close with The Classifieds (But Not Really)—dispatches from independents still daring to be strange.
This is an issue about seeing clearly: what’s real, what’s ritual, and what we choose to believe when time itself becomes a performance.
— The Editor
U.S. Tariffs on Swiss Watches: The 39% Levy Reshaping American Collecting (2025)
In August 2025, the United States imposed a 39 percent tariff on Swiss watch imports, targeting an industry that represented CHF 4.4 billion in annual exports to America. The levy—among the highest e…
Louis Moinet 1806 Chronomètre d’Observatoire Review: Observatory Certification in 2025
Louis Moinet unveiled the 1806 Chronomètre d’Observatoire at Geneva Watch Days 2025: a titanium integrated bracelet watch priced at CHF 18,900, powered by caliber LM1806, and certified by the Geneva …
THE CLASSIFIEDS (BUT NOT REALLY) Vol. 4
You won’t find full specs here. You will find intent, posture, subtext. These are horological classifieds for new releases from independents — announcements, invitations, provocations — interpreted f…
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Watch*
He was a man of means, and of watches. Dozens of them, neatly arranged in mahogany drawers lined with suede. Skeletonized tourbillons that whirred like nervous insects, enamel moons swimming across a…
Rolex Air King: Complete Reference Guide and History (1945-2024)
The Rolex Air King is one of the most historically significant yet often overlooked models in the Rolex catalog. From its origins as a tribute to RAF pilots in 1945 through the legendary reference 55…
How to Identify Hand-Finished Watches: Five Signs of Genuine Craftsmanship
The watch industry has mastered the art of saying nothing with great conviction. “Hand-finished.” “Artisanal.” “Traditional.” Phrases deployed like tracer fire, meant to dazzle the inattentive before…
The next issue will be published on October 25, 2025.