I Wouldn't Mind Rockin' This Time Piece

Tissot PRS 516 

This is a contemporary take on a racing-inspired Tissot from the 1960s. Tissot Swiss chronographs come in a wide variety of styles, some with automatic movements and a clear caseback to show them off, some with quartz. 44mm, starting at $625 and up.

(AutoBlog.com)

For The GT-R Owner Who Has Everything

Nissan Commemorates GT-R With Watch That Costs More Than a GT-R

If you're in Japan, you can custom order a Grand Seiko chronograph inspired by the Italdesign GT-R50 today. Starting price? $178,000.

(Road&Track.com)

I'd Rock This Time Piece

Nixon Sentry Chrono Leather 42 - $250

I’ve been a Nixon fan since the early 2000s, as they’ve been building stylish but inexpensive and quality timepieces for all that time. They were also featured heavily in action sports magazines that I loved back then, and advertising does work. In any case, as their target market has aged, they’ve started providing more adult designs, like this one. The Sentry Chrono is part of their “Speedster” collection of watches.

Check out the Sentry Chrono on Nixon.com.

(Jalopnik.com)

The Only Ford GT I Can Afford

Can't get a Ford GT? You can at least get a Ford GT watch 

GT owners can get a special version to match their cars. 

(AutoBlog.com)

A Priceless Time Piece Has A New Owner

Paul Newman's Rolex Daytona Sets World Record at Auction, Sells for $17.8M 

The Rolex Cosmograph Daytona wristwatch was given to Newman by his wife, actress Joanne Woodward

(NBCLosAngeles.com)

I'd Buy This One From The List

These are the World’s Most Expensive Watches

8. Hublot Big Bang | $5 Million

• If you appreciate bling and have a spare $5 million, you may want to consider purchasing a diamond Hublot Big Bang watch. Featuring 1280 diamonds with at least three carats each, this glitzy timepiece is a lesson in luxury. Every stone on the watch was even cut by the same New York jeweller with over 40 years experience to ensure they each bear the same cut signature.

Complete list (TheTrendSpotter.net)

The Selling Importance Of Brand Names

The $170,000 Breitling in the Bentley Bentayga, and other cobranding stories

Clocks were an ego play, mostly – a subtle early marketing tool for carmakers. In its early phaetons, Cadillac offered as an option dashboard timepieces by the Waltham Watch Company, the preeminent U.S. watchmaker of the day. But brand collaboration expressly for marketing purposes really took hold after World War II. Consider: On May 27, 2016, at the opulent Concorso d'Eleganza, on Italy's Lake Como, a 1948 Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport Cabriolet sold a cool $1.3 million. A sum like that fetches a car with impeccable provenance, needless to say. But the value of this particular example rose significantly because of one-off coachwork by Franay as well as a plush interior and bespoke fitted luggage, both in red leather with white piping and, importantly, both designed and fabricated by Hermes. So the association of Talbot-Lago with two other big names – Franay and Hermes – served to increase the prestige and value of an already prestigious and valuable car.

"That car is worth significantly more as a result of the brand collaboration," says Ian Kelleher, chief marketing officer of RM Sotheby. "You're looking really at one of the finest examples of the bespoke automotive tradition."

The Marketing Genius of Jack Heuer

If it's true that automotive brand collaborations began largely for practical reasons, it's equally the case that they evolved quickly for marketing purposes. The theory goes that the cross-pollination of two brands burnishes the marketing image of both, while at the same time making each one more desirable to customers. Heuer is perhaps the first timepiece brand that comes to mind today in association with cars, though Breitling and its association with Bentley, can't be ignored.

For this we can credit Jack Heuer himself, who invented the modern notion of car-watch cobranding. From the 1930s through the 1980s, Heuer made dashboard chronographs for use in road rallies – and, honestly, also as mechanical eye candy for drivers and passengers alike. We would be remiss if we failed to mention the marketing play that Heuer made when he delivered a bunch of watches to the set of the movie Le Mans. Steve McQueen selected a Heuer Monaco, and the rest is history. Reaching back a bit further in history, Kelleher cites the Waltham watch option in the Cadillac V18 Phaeton of the 1930s, which offered a tony Waltham timepiece as an option. Without that precedent, he says, Jack Heuer may not have had the notion that turned out to be a stroke of genius. After the Heuer-Le Mans-McQueen marketing juggernaut, utility as a raison d'etre of automotive cobranding disappeared.

"Now it's all about marketing," Kelleher says. "Branding and marketing in today's world is even more important given the plethora of choices that the consumer has. Any opportunity that manufacturers have to enhance the view of their product by association with another high-quality, luxury brand, they are wise to take it."

(AutoBlog.com)

For The Discerning McLaren Owner

McLaren and Richard Mille unveil new RM 50-03 Split-seconds chronograph priced at $1 million

(4WheelNews.com)

For The Discerning Car Owner

Top 5 of the Most Ridiculous Car Items on Sale

Porsche 918 Spyder Luggage Set

Most of us like to go on road trips. And of course, common sense will tell us that we always travel with a luggage. But how would you feel if you would own a luxury car, say a Porsche 918 Spyder and go on a road trip with a luggage in your trunk worth more than a thousand bucks?

Apparently, Porsche had a brilliant idea by offering 918 Spyder owners the chance to own a matching five-piece luggage set worth $19,700.

Made out of leather, Alcantara and carbon fiber, this five-piece luggage set has a right to its price. However, you can already buy a decent car for that price, why spend it on overpriced luggage? C’mon Porsche, you can do better.

Hublot Ferrari Watch

Last on our list is another one of Ferrari’s ridiculous promotional efforts: a $300,000 watch. An addition to Ferrari’s stock of backpacks, cologne, cufflinks, wallets and more is a $300,000 Hublot watch.

They tapped the Switch watchmaker to make a watch that costs more than an actual Ferrari supercar. How about we trade this watch for a house and lot? Does that sound more practical? I guess avid Ferrari fans are not the practical kind.
 

Complete list (4WheelNews.com)

I'd Rock These

Look Sophisticated AF In One Of The 18 Best Men’s Watches Under $500

Skagen ‘Hagen’ Round Bracelet Watch

Skagen will always be a trusted name in the luxury watch world, and this ‘Hagen’ watch is no exception. If your style is simple and minimalistic, this is the watch for you. It’s got all the basics of a top-quality watch (stainless steel band and mineral crystal face), without the bulk of a classic timepiece.

Nixon ‘The 51-30 Chromo’ Watch

Here’s the deal with this five-star Nixon: It’s big. Reviewers praise this watch for elevated style and high-class look, but warn you shouldn’t invest if you can’t handle the sheer size of it.

This one’s perfect for guys with bigger wrists and even bigger style. Stainless steel means it will survive anything you throw its way, and the mineral crystal face is scratch-resistant.

Complete list (BroBible.com)

Apple Still Made It Even After It Failed Miserably For The Competition

My God-Awful Year With the Apple Watch

I bought the Apple Watch a year ago. I stopped wearing it two months ago, and I’m not sure if I’ll ever wear it again. That’s because it doesn’t really do anything that anyone needs, and even when it does, it doesn’t always work like it’s supposed to.

With an iPhone, everyone knows how to use it, assuming they have access to fingers. With Apple’s wrist-time-box, I still find myself lost every time I grab hold, even if it’s just trying to recreate the steps to something I did earlier. Which mostly results in me just giving up trying to do anything at all. For its solid aesthetic design, the Watch is not at all intuitive.

If you did somehow manage to figure out how to do something on the watch, there’s literally no comfortable way to actually use it. You’re constantly changing your grip style because none of them ever feel right. What I settled on is placing a thumb on the bottom left corner of the watch to stabilize it and then I use the left side of my index finger to twirl the knob and hit the crown. Other times I just use my finger tip to spin the crown. Or a thumb only method sort of works. With reasonably sized phones, your thumb can reach anything on the screen just by holding the phone in your hand. One grip, done. But with the small size of the screen on the watch and because it’s attached to your wrist, you’re always awkwardly trying to make things half-work with multiple finger dancing grips and none of them ever feel right. And yes, I’m aware that I also look like a total tool when using it (no matter the grip).

(Gizmodo.com)   

Did You Know - Rolex Edition

10 things every Rolex owner should know

5. Technology Is A Watchmaker's Best Friend

The philosophy at Rolex seems to be very pragmatic, if a human does it better, then let a human do it, if a machine does it better, then let a machine do it. In fact the reason more watchmakers don't use machines is two-fold. First of all machines are huge investments and in many instances keeping people around to do it is less expensive. Second, they don't have the production demands that Rolex does. In fact, Rolex is fortunate to have the ability to equip its facilities with robotic help where needed.

The epicenter of Rolex's automation prowess is the master supply room. Massive columns of parts are attended to by robotic servants that store and retrieve trays with parts or complete watches. A watchmaker needing parts must simply place an order with the system, and it is delivered on a series of conveyer systems to them in about 6-8 minutes.

Robotic arms populate the Rolex manufacture locations when it mostly comes to repetitive or highly detailed tasks that require consistency. Many Rolex parts are given an initial machine polish by a robot, but amazingly they are hand-finishing and polished as well. The fact is that while modern technology is a huge part of the "Rolex manufacturing machine," robotic equipment is there to assist what is a very real, human watch making operation.

6. Fort Knox Has Nothing On Rolex

It isn't surprising that Rolex is keen on security. At their foundry for example, I was given a bar to carry around that weighed in at just over $1,000,000 worth of Everose gold. There is a lot more of that, as well as valuable completed watches that need safekeeping. Rolex employs a series of extremely meticulous security checks and they had a James Bond-style safe that is located a few floors underground.

I noticed that rank and file watch assembly employees have an interesting system on their desks that required their ID badge be docked at all times after being identified with a fingerprint scan. Everything is scanned and cataloged. In fact, each Rolex watch movement has a unique serial number that is photographed and matched with a case that also has a different unique serial number. In the future when the watch is serviced, a watchmaker can learn everything there is to know about it.

Accessing the Rolex safe requires entering a bank vault door and passing an iris scanner that identifies you via your eyes. When Rolex parts move from location to location, they are transported in highly discreet unmarked (and likely heavily armored) trucks. Rolex is very serious about their safety, and for a really good reason since it is often said (in truth) that Rolex watches are just as good as money.

Complete list (BusinessInsider.com)