Blog Entries Archives

24th October 2016 / 2 Comments

An Interview With Melvin Hollenberg From WahaWatches

Back with a brand new article type for the blog, I will be interviewing a fellow blogger and vintage watch enthusiast Melvin Hollenberg. Melvin is the founder and owner of WahaWatches and is building a community that provides knowledgeable articles about owning, maintaining and collecting vintage watches.

I plan to do more interviews with other watch bloggers and passionate collectors, if you are interested in talking to me about an interview please email me, or contact me via Twitter.

But first on with the interview.

23rd April 2016 / 5 Comments

Rotary Ocean Avenger Quick Review

In an effort to bring more content to TickTalk I am starting a new alternative review style, quick reviews. These will not supplant the existing more in-depth versions but will offer me a chance to talk about some of my purchases that I would not have originally intended to review, either due to time or other commitments. I will try to keep them to about 600 words, and they are likely to contain more pictures than the normal reviews. So without further ado, the Rotary Ocean Avenger.

13th April 2016 / 1 Comment

Rotary Les Originales Tradition Review

Announced at Basel World this year, the Tradition family of watches is the Rotary Les Originales new signature collection. Taking design clues from their rich history and looking back at pieces from their heritage, the Les Originales Tradition range is an attempt to marry that history with a modern contemporary feel.

Presented in stainless steel, gold and rose gold, each is powered by an automatic Sellita movement, with double domed sapphire glass, a display case back and a sleek hidden crown. Earlier this week I had the opportunity to test drive the stainless steel variation (GS90161/32) to see if what Rotary had been aiming for had been achieved.

9th February 2016 / 7 Comments

Casio AE1200 Review (Casio Royale)

The Casio AE1200 is a watch that I have had my eye on for a little while, it is by no means an expensive watch and it has an excellent retro feel. The watch itself is popular not only for its price but for a more than passing resemblance to the Seiko G757 5020 Sports 100, now it is not an exact match but has the look and feel of this watch. So what is the appeal of the Sports 100, and why would watch enthusiasts want a similar watch? In one word, Bond. In 1983 the Sports 100 was the watch of choice for Roger Moore in the 13th James Bond movie Octopussy.

20th October 2015 / 0 Comments

Black Bough – Vintage Watches & More

Nestled in the bustling and artistic market town of Ludlow, tucked away in one of its narrow medieval lanes is the wonderful gem of a shop “Black Bough“. Setup by Adam Withington and Alex Barter in March 2011 and taking its name and inspiration from a Ezra Pound poem, the philosophy behind the shop is seeing beauty in everyday things.

Having had a chance to visit Ludlow and the shop I can say that it fulfills this philosophy immeasurably.

4th October 2015 / 3 Comments

Dreyfuss & Co 1946 Duo Timezone Review

Following up, slightly less hot on the heels of my last review (there are many in the pipeline) I have had an excellent opportunity to review a brand new 2015 watch from Dreyfuss & Co, first shown at Baselworld this year.

The 1946 Duo Timezone is part of the Series 1946 family, which were created to celebrate the marriage of Georgette and René’s first daughter Janine, in the Swiss Alps. This latest edition is an elegant dual time complication quartz dress watch, with sapphire glass presented in a stainless steel case.

18th July 2015 / 8 Comments

Vostok Komandirskie Review

This is the first watch review I have written, so if it is slightly hamfisted you shall have to forgive me. Having amassed a reasonable collection of watches, I thought it best to start reviewing some of them, both to help me look objectively at my collection and to help others should they consider purchasing any similar watches.

The subject of my first review will be a Russian made Vostok Komandirskie Model 811055. This watch was purchased new at the end of March 2015 from eBay and shipped direct from Russia to the UK. The seller on eBay was MoscowTimeSeller and the watch took two weeks to arrive (typical delivery time).

27th June 2015 / 0 Comments

Restoring And Repairing Affordable Watches

Affordable watches that require work especially ones that may not have a particularly high resale value can present a problem, you may find yourself in the situation of not being sure if your cash is better spent on a new watch. I have been in this situation recently with three watches, one was an Rotary quartz watch given to me in 1998, another was the best bargain eBay find I have had so far – a Citizen quartz watch for £1.20 – and the third was a pocket watch my father asked me to enquire about.

All of these watches required work of varying degrees (some found to be far worse than previously thought) and all presented different associated costs and decisions about the value of any repairs. I thought I would write a short blog post about these decisions and the reasons behind my choices and why cost is not always the primary deciding factor.

7th June 2015 / 0 Comments

Patek Philippe Grand Exhibition

To celebrate 175 years since Patek Philippe was founded, it is hosting a one-off event at the Saatchi Gallery in London, The Patek Philippe Grand Exhibition. The event only runs for twelve days (May 27th to June 7th) and is something that is unlikely to be repeated. The exhibition takes visitors through a well crafted and presented journey from company formation to its current crowning achievements in the form of its anniversary timepieces.

I had the opportunity to visit the exhibition last Sunday, dodging the rain and the crowds on the Kings Road my partner and I ducked into the Saatchi Gallery and we were warmly greeted by the Patek Philippe representatives. We handed in our coats and bags, were given free headphones made for the event to use with guide app and stepped through into the immaculately presented exhibition.

19th May 2015 / 0 Comments

Fashion & Designer Watches

If you look online or walk down your local high street you will see in almost all the big name jewellery stores a vast collection of fashion or designer watches. You will see watches from the likes of Armani, Michael Kors, Burberry, DKNY and more. These are presented at a premium price level, often to convey the brand’s value and prestige. This is not so different to the classic prestige watch brands, there is an element of brand value and you do pay for that. There is a however a striking difference, if we take a Rolex and Seiko in comparison we can see that they are both watch-making brands that can trace their history back to 1905 and 1881 respectively. Both of these companies develop, design and manufacture watches and movements and have a wealth of experience in doing so.

Category: Blog Entries (page 1 of 2)