Topic
Watch History
Rolex introduced the Submariner in 1953 with a rotating bezel for tracking dive time, and its outline is still the default shape of a dive watch. Omega launched the Speedmaster in 1957 as a racing chronograph, and NASA qualified it for crewed flight in 1965, four years before it went to the Moon. Cartier designed the Tank in 1917 and sold it from 1919. Gérald Genta's Royal Oak for Audemars Piguet in 1972 and Nautilus for Patek Philippe in 1976 defined the luxury steel sports watch. Seiko's SKX007 became the affordable diver a generation learned on, and Casio's DW-5000C started the G-Shock line in 1983. Tudor brought back old design cues with the Black Bay in 2012. Watch History also covers the quartz crisis of the 1970s and early 1980s, which nearly finished the Swiss industry until the Swatch arrived in 1983. Each story covers reference numbers, movements and production changes, plus what to check before buying one new or vintage.
Stories
Watches4 min read
Cartier Santos, the Square Watch Built for a Man in the Sky
A Brazilian aviator could not check a pocket watch with both hands on the controls. Louis Cartier gave him a square one for the wrist.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Watches4 min read
Casio G-Shock DW-5000C and the Watch That Wouldn't Break
A Casio designer threw prototypes out a bathroom window for two years. The answer came from a rubber ball in a Tokyo park.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
WatchesFeature4 min read
Rolex Submariner History: From Tool Watch to Icon
How a 1953 dive instrument rated to 100 meters became the most imitated wristwatch on earth, one reference at a time.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Watches4 min read
Cartier Tank: The Rectangle That Outlived Its War
Louis Cartier looked at a Renault tank and drew a wristwatch. Six were made in 1919. A century later it is still the shape of quiet money.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Watches4 min read
Omega Seamaster 300M and the Watch That Remade James Bond
A costume designer looked at a 1993 dive watch with a blue wave dial and decided a Royal Navy commander would wear it. Thirty years later he still does.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Watches4 min read
Seiko SKX007: The Dive Watch Everybody Started With
From 1996 to 2019 Seiko sold a real ISO 6425 diver for the price of a decent pair of boots. Then it stopped, and the internet panicked.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Watches5 min read
How to Buy Your First Mechanical Watch Without Getting Burned
Any quartz will keep better time than your first automatic. How to choose one anyway, size it properly and buy it from someone honest.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Watches4 min read
Omega Speedmaster Professional: The Moonwatch Story
A 1957 racing chronograph survived eleven brutal NASA tests, rode Gemini into orbit and became the first watch worn on the Moon.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Watches4 min read
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak: Gerald Genta's Steel Gamble
In 1972 a small Swiss house priced a steel watch above gold ones and bet its future on an octagon full of exposed screws.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Watches4 min read
Patek Philippe Nautilus: How a Porthole Became a Grail
Gerald Genta drew it in 1974, Patek launched it in steel in 1976, and in 2021 the company killed its most wanted watch on purpose.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Watches4 min read
Tudor Black Bay: How Rolex's Sister Brand Found Its Voice
In 2012 Tudor raided its own 1950s archive, put a burgundy bezel on a modern diver and stopped being the watch your uncle called a cheap Rolex.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Watches4 min read
Grand Seiko Spring Drive and the Art of Zaratsu Polish
One engineer spent decades trying to make a mainspring obey a quartz crystal. He died a year before the first one went on sale.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Watches4 min read
Swatch and the Quartz Crisis: How Plastic Saved the Swiss Watch
Between 1970 and 1984 the Swiss watch industry lost about 60,000 jobs. The fix was a 51-part plastic watch launched in Zurich in 1983.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
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