When you’ve seen as many watches as I have, things can start to get a bit repetitive. Rolex this, Rolex that—it’s fine, but sometimes it’s nice to take a bit of a break and try something different. Who knows, if you do, you might find something you really love.

What should have been a momentous day for Bremont, the launch of both a watch with an actual piece of the Wright brothers’ Wright Flyer and the brand’s first in-house movement, turned sour after it was revealed that the calibre BWC/01 was not, after all, in-house. This is the story of how the Wright Flyer became the most controversial watch ever, and what that means not just for Bremont, but for the industry as well.

There are pros and cons of owning a vintage watch. The pros, you get a piece in period style and—perhaps just as important if not more—proportions, something that modern watchmaking just seems to have no time for anymore, even the reissue pieces. The cons, you’re looking after something built at a different time with different materials and different techniques, and that can be a whole undertaking in itself. But what if you could have the best of both worlds?

Little known and often overlooked, Grand Seiko has for years undercut Swiss quality with a collection of watches that have earned a loyal—if compact—following. For any one of the few people who have ever so happened to come across a Grand Seiko, the reaction is always the same: astonishment. The legend is true. But has it all been undone?

The search for the perfect watch is an endless one. It needs to be historically important, it needs to be aesthetically unique, it needs to demonstrate watchmaking excellence—and importantly it needs to offer good value as well. Some say the perfect watch doesn’t actually exist; here are three examples that get incredibly close.

Ever been lying in bed, sick, staring up at the ceiling? You notice all sorts of things. Perhaps there’s a cobweb blowing about, or a crack in the corner that looks like a cat. For Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens, he noticed something strange: the two pendulum clocks on his wall, regardless of how they were set, would always sync up with each other. There are two mysteries to be solved here: the first is why Huygens had two clocks in his bedroom in the first place, and the second is why the pendulums kept syncing up. The first remains a mystery and always will, but the second? It took 350 years, but the answer was finally found—and F.P. Journe has used that answer to make its watches even more impressive.

The chronograph. It’s both accessible and incredible, one of the most complicated mechanisms found in watchmaking and one of the most affordable. The fact that so many manufacturers have them in their collections is a testament to the popularity of the function, and whether we really use them or not, there’s no denying that they look pretty damn good. With that being said, here are five choice chronographs for five different budgets.

As much as we’d all love to have a £50,000 or even a £5,000 watch, not everyone is so lucky. But that doesn’t mean those with just a few hundred to spend need go without, not at all—in fact, there are many brands a smaller budget can afford to enjoy, and we’re going to be exploring as many as we can. To start, an Italian watchmaker that’s not Panerai: Unimatic.

Fifty years ago, three men travelled 238,855 miles—that’s the equivalent of ten times around the world—inside a capsule no bigger than a small hatchback, as part of a program that had been in development for less time than a new generation iPhone—all to set foot on the moon first. They say motorsport is dangerous; this was the most dangerous race the world had ever seen. Welcome to a special episode dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. It’s a little different; we hope you enjoy it.

It’s no secret that the price of watches is rising. Gone are the days when a Rolex Submariner cost just a few thousand; with every passing wave of new releases comes a little kick in the pants of the RRP, and there’s no sign of it slowing. Whilst this seems like a blow to the average enthusiast, it’s just one perspective on the industry—take a different view, and you might be pleasantly surprised.

The in-house movement seems to be the be-all and end-all of modern watchmaking. If you’re a watchmaker and you don’t got an in-house movement, you’re going to struggle. Some of the biggest brands in the world, who up until recently have made do with tickers of the bought-in variety, have had to invest huge sums into the design and development of their own movements to cater for the demands of the watch-buying public. And that’s because the in-house movement is understood to have been a staple of the watchmaking of old—the truth, however, is a little different.

Baselworld 2019 was an interesting event for a number of reasons, and not all them good. The big headline was the retraction of the Swatch Group, which left a lot of empty space in the display halls, followed by the disappointment in Rolex’s meagre turnout, with no big, exciting announcements made. Funny thing is that in amongst all the hubbub, Rolex quietly added a watch to its website that is unlike anything anyone ever expected—and that’s the watch we’ve got here today.

They say that something valuable is worth its weight in gold, and in watchmaking there’s a lot to be said about having some heft. So, given that—and despite having a fully integrated bracelet and costing a gasp-inducing £12,100—the Bulgari Octo Finissimo Automatic, at just 73 grams—less than the weight of a bag of Doritos—might just be, pound-for-pound, the very worst value watch in the world.

What is a watch? It’s a timekeeping device, primarily. Perhaps this statement is obvious to you, perhaps you think it’s something that doesn’t need clarifying—but yet when a watch can cost £250 or a quarter of a million, the obvious no longer seems quite so obvious. How can two watches that both quite simply tell the time have such a disparity in their prices?

The Yacht-Master was, once upon a time, Rolex’s least popular model. Reportedly a botched attempt to rejuvenate the Submariner line for a wealthier audience, it languished for decades at the bottom of the pile, unloved. But something has changed in recent years, something that has revitalised the Yacht-Master into a watch people actually want. Could the latest addition to the collection be the best yet?

When Audemars Piguet released the Royal Oak in 1972, everyone thought the watchmaker had gone mad. The watch was big, it was basic and it was expensive—and it sold by the bucket load. Patek Philippe got in on the action four years later with the Nautilus, and not wanting to be left out, Vacheron Constantin joined the club a year later, completing the 70s trifecta of steel sports watches from the top three. Today, such a watch will set you back from £17,000 and as much as £23,000—but is there something we’re missing that’s just as good for half the price?