Velociphile is not one to mince words, but he really tears my beloved Big Bang (Hublot continues “their dull theme of apeing the Royal Oak albeit without nicely aligned bezel screws”) a new pooper. The most egregious offense? Calling a modified ETA movement an “in-house” piece.

My view is simple. The predominating IP in this design is from outside ETA/Valjoux. All the tricky side of it, the tolerancing, productionisation and so on was hard won by Valjoux a long time ago. Making it to drawing is easy peasy; simply substituting another material and upgrading with a few bushes and bits and bobs no great shakes. I have no evidence but would surmise Hublot still buy in the geartrain and possibly escapement from ETA. And, you can anglage and polish it till you can see your face think Lemania 2310 in Patek 5070 but it doesnt change its genes and the fact that Hublot had NO part in creating the base clever, super cheap and effective tractor. However, admittedly, what theyve done is at least one step - no lets be generous two steps - up from buying in a finished movement.

Velociphiles Journey into Watches

This is not an automatic watch, but it’s a pretty cheap and pretty nice-looking Invicta. I don’t like Invicta, personally, but that shouldn’t stop you from ponying up $89 for a pretty classy-looking watch.

Woot

Reader James sent me a link to Steel Cake watches, a new watch company in Brooklyn that makes beefy, larger quartz pieces for cheap. Their line-up includes a large, square chrono and an oversized military piece that don’t look like Chinese OEM knock offs, which makes me very happy. Besides, how can you go wrong for $125 a pop?

Welcome to Steel Cake

With 8- and 10-day watches growing more popular, here’s an excellent examination of what makes these “enduring” watches tick.

Endurance: A Brief History of the Long Power Reserve - TimeZone

Another great watchismo find.

This somewhat indistinguishable wristwatch has a very special feature, the hidden compartment containing a scroll on rollers under the dial and movement. By pushing a little release button at the bottom of the case, the watch opens up to reveal the notepaper rolls which can be adjusted by two roller knobs.

THE WATCHISMO TIMES: Secret Compartment Scroll Watch - 1920s Favre Leuba “Notora”

I’ve seen these things around but never really was interested. It’s an ana-digi watch from Omega that was quite popular a few years ago but is not kind of show its age. WatchReport has a, well, report:

Say Hi to the Omega Speedmaster X-33. Introduced in 1998, this is one amazing watch. Omega literally flight (and crash) tested it with NASA and military pilots, experimenting with several design iterations before settling on and shipping two commercial versions. It was designed for pilots and space flight, and is rated by NASA for the mission to Mars. Without a doubt, this is one of the coolest and most interesting analog-digital watches ever made.

The Omega Speedmaster X-33 - Watch Reviews, Information, and News