Get ready for Watchfest 5 in Sydney + the Patek Philippe Cubitus has finally dropped!
Jamie WeissIt used to be that March/April was the big fair season for the watch industry – and for the most part, it still is, as that’s when Watches and Wonders takes place. However, since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve seen more and more smaller watch fairs pop up around the world, offering compelling regional alternatives to the big “Geneva Watch Week” at the end of Q1. Right now, it seems as if we find ourselves amid another October/November fair season: we’ve just had the first Milano Watch Week, IAMWATCH is currently underway in Singapore, Worn & Wound Windup and WatchTime are both about to kick off in New York… And of course, we’ve got the British Watchmakers’ Weekender held by Time+Time at the end of November to look forward to as well.
But what about Australia, I hear you ask? Well, don’t fret: the fifth edition of Watchfest is also part of this international fair season. Running from November 1st to 16th in Sydney, Watchfest is Australia’s largest watch and horology convention, run by the watch community, for the watch community. Last year’s edition was a great success, so we’re looking forward to this year’s show.
The festivities will kick off in style with an opening night gala at the Omega boutique on Friday 1st, followed by a day-long exhibition at the State Library of New South Wales on Saturday 2nd. Thursday the 7th will see Watchfest’s famous “watch crawl” make its grand return – it’s like a pub crawl, just for watches, with enthusiasts going from boutique to boutique through Sydney’s CBD.
Participating brands this year will include Longines, Nivada Grenchen, Omega, Oris, Panerai, Roger Dubuis, Studio Underd0g, TAG Heuer, Zenith and both Seiko and Grand Seiko. Tickets are free this year too, made possible thanks to Watchfest’s friends and long-term supporters to make the fair accessible to everyone in the Sydney/Australian watch community. Naturally, Time+Tide will be at the fair too, so come say g’day and check out some cool watches with us.
You can register for Watchfest 2024 here. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and we’ll see you at Watchfest soon!
Jamie and the Time+Tide Team
Watch meme of the week: you never actually own a Patek Philippe
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Patek’s first new watch collection in 25 years, the Cubitus, was inevitably going to dominate the horological news cycle this week… As well as the horological meme cycle. I thought this one was better than most, as it hints at a truth about the Cubitus: most of the people who are complaining about its design are not in the market for a Patek anyway.
Wrist shot of the week: hip to be square
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Photographer, style icon, and friend of Time+Tide (and occasional Time+Tide contributor) Kristian Haagen has shared what we reckon are the best photos of the new Patek Philippe Cubitus collection yet, giving us a peek at their casebacks and the clasp on the platinum model’s fabric strap, too. Renders are fine and all, but nothing beats a bona fide wrist shot.
Time+Tide Shop pick of the week: Tissot Chemin des Tourelles Skeleton
Named after the street in Le Locle where Tissot’s factory is located, the Chemin Des Tourelles Skeleton is one of the most affordable genuinely skeletonised watches on the market. This classically proportioned Tissot takes the Swatch Group’s ubiquitous Powermatic 80 movement and exposes it in the traditional sense, flanking the opened-up movement with a hobnail-finished ring for a touch of class.
Discover the Tissot Chemin des Tourelles Skeleton in the Time+Tide Shop, either online or in our Melbourne Discovery Studio. Price: A$1,535/US$1,050
Our favourite Time+Tide coverage of the week
The new Patek Philippe Cubitus is finally here
It’s been teased, leaked, and hinted at for a long time now, but the Patek Philippe Cubitus collection is officially here and we can finally talk about it with a degree of certainty. A third sports watch in the Patek catalogue, this new line offers something slightly different from the ever-present Nautilus or Aquanaut, but with a few very familiar traits that help anchor it in the brand’s canon. Russell has the scoop here.
How did watches evolve into wristwatches?
It’s a good week when one of Buffy’s exceptional in-depth articles is published, and their latest is particularly interesting. It sets the record straight on the often-glossed-over history of how timepieces made the leap from clocks and pocket watches to proper wristwatches. Set aside a few minutes and dive into this great education piece here.
Would the Bulgari Octo Chiming Watches have been banned in medieval Rome?
Not every watchmaker, or watch enthusiast for that matter, is musically-minded. For most, the appreciation of a minute repeater lies in its technical prowess, the history behind the complication, or the pretty sounds it emits. Well, with the aid of Swiss conductor Lorenzo Viotti, Bulgari has made quite an unconventional twist on that last point, crafting a trio of watches that chime the so-called “devil’s interval”. Watch Andrew chat with Lorenzo about the creation of these ultra-complicated watches above, or read our full review here.