The History of the Chronograph Ask three different watch collectors who produced the world’s first automatic chronograph, and you’ll receive three different answers. Some will insist it was Zenith, who announced their El Primero movement in January of 1969. This marked the first automatic chronograph announced
OMEGA Watches & Apollo 13 The gripping story of the Apollo 13 mission is not just a historic moment in American space exploration. It’s also an abiding testament to man’s endurance, ingenuity, and courage. During those crucial moments of the Apollo 13 flight, the crew relied
It only took five years for the Carrera Panamericana to establish itself as one of the world’s most exciting and deadly races. From 1950 to 1954, the Carrera Panamericana was a border-to-border road race along the new Pan-American Highway, which covered 2,170 miles from Mexico’s northern
The sport of motor racing and the watch industry has a deep and longstanding history together. Motorsports are dependent on highly accurate timekeeping to track each driver’s performance behind the wheel. The relationship between racing and watches all began at a time when drivers depended
For those of you who don’t live in New York City, the Metropolitan Museum of Art recently exhibited a collection of antique clocks and watches titled The Luxury of Time: European Clocks and Watches. Don’t worry if you missed it; we had one of our correspondents
In the early 1600’s, a man named Matteo Ricci traveled to the court of Chinese Emperor Wanli. Ricci had mastered the emperor’s native language, Mandarin, and brought him many gifts, including two lavish mechanical clocks that chimed on the hour. His intention was to convert
Every watch has a story. And in working with pre-owned watches, we at Crown & Caliber hear quite a few of them. What we hear about less often, though, is the story of the watch owner – and as we’ve recently discovered, they too have
Regardless of its position in the market today, the Longines of old was really something, and there's little dispute about the fact that the company has made some really great watches. It was one of the first to introduce a true pilot's watch in early decades
This story of ours was originally featured over on the Huckberry Journal. Legend has is it that Alberto Santos-Dumont–one of the first men to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft–was enjoying a drink with his friend and watchmaker Louis Cartier in 1906 when he first commented on
We previously covered the origins of the dive watch in Part One, but, despite its beginnings, when exactly did the dive watch truly enter into the public consciousness, not only as a tool watch for divers, but as a lasting fashion accessory? The post-war period
