Maurice Lacroix

Tudor is finding it very hard to have a bad year. The reinvigoration of its Black Bay line has pushed it to the forefront of the watch industry, a well-deserved outcome. The brand has brought on celebrity ambassadors, from David Beckham to Lady Gaga, and this year added to that list with Jay Chou. The brand also doubled down on the consumers’ thirst for vintage timepieces with the new Tudor Black Bay Fi y-Eight. The piece pays tribute to the brand’s first divers’ watches, released in 1958, with a case sizing that’s true to the old. While 39mm might have once seemed large, it constitutes a whole new novelty in this day and age. But hey, we’re not complaining. It’s hard to criticise a watch like the Fi y-Eight a er consumers made it clear that they wanted vintage-inspired timepieces to mimic the actual sizes back then. Other elements such as the snowflake hands, the large winding crown, gold touches all lend a touch of classic to the watch, exactly what vintage enthusiasts asked for. Most impo antly, the watch is home to Tudor’s newest in-house movement, the MT5402. When the Aikon collection was released a few years back, the consensus from watch enthusiasts was that people loved the design of the collection. But they were unwilling to shell out money for an all-qua z collection. This year, Maurice Lacroix showed that feedback would always be taken seriously as it launched the Aikon Automatic and Aikon Chronograph. The Aikon Automatic for gents is our choice for the brand’s highlight. It’s a clean cut watch with many facets and a guilloched dial that will appeal to watch enthusiasts. While we’ve o en commented that the “vintage-inspired” trend can be an exercise in patience, we concede that some brands do it be er than others. One example is Longines. The brand’s Heritage collection has for years comprised re-issued or redesigned pieces. Thanks to the trend making headlines, Longines’ extensive collection of “vintage-inspired” timepieces is ge ing the limelight it deserves.

This year, Longines carries on that Heritage line with an excellent adaptation of an old piece. The Longines Legend Diver takes cues from a ‘60s piece without making the watch feel dated. The black rubber Milanese strap is perhaps our favourite element of the watch, a functional yet stylish manner of keeping it all black alongside the black PVD-finished steel case. It’s nice to see that while function is all impo ant in diving, Longines hasn’t replaced the internal bi-directional turning bezel with a modern one, a li le tribute to the limitations that past divers were faced with. In case that didn’t sink in: no, please do not dive with this watch.