The Fourth Wheel, Issue 126

Leaked Harrods Tudor Black Bay limited edition confirmed, plus the best 20 watches of the last three months

Hello and welcome back to The Fourth Wheel, the weekly watch newsletter that isn’t going to talk about how advertising gets placed, or editorial independence, or who said what about whose so-called high-quality movements¹. In a radical break with the norm, this week’s newsletter is going to be about actual watches, most of which you could even have a realistic chance of actually buying. I’ve been feeling a little bit too inside-baseball for a couple of weeks, and somewhat detached from the reason we’re all here: we are strangely fond of mechanical timekeeping and the incredible variety of forms that it can take. I’ve picked out 20 watches from the last three months that I’m impressed by, and six that leave me cold.

Advance warning: there are a lot of images here, so to get the full experience you’ll need to open this in a browser or the Substack app. Blame the system!

I’ve also found space for Thierry Stern’s hubris, a leaked Tudor, and Louis Theroux. Enjoy!

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The Fourth Wheel is a reader-supported publication with no advertising, sponsorship or commercial partnerships to influence its content. It is made possible by the generous support of its readers: if you think watch journalism could do with a voice that exists outside of the usual media dynamic, please consider taking out a paid subscription. You can start with a free trial!

Here’s a little taste of what you might have missed recently:

My Take On The Patek Philippe Cubitus
The Truth About Water Resistance
Everything I Learned About Hairsprings By Visiting Minerva
Hall’s Gastronomy of Watchmaking
Hodinkee: Up, Down and Sideways

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New ‘Harrods’ Tudor Black Bay Leak Confirmed

This watch popped up on Instagram for me last week (thanks @pandlwatchcollection) and is lurking on Reddit, but I haven’t seen anyone else notice it yet. So this is almost a Fourth Wheel exclusive!

Tudor has confirmed to me that the watch is real. My understanding is that there is not going to be a public announcement. I don’t know if that’s because of the recent stories concerning Harrods’ previous owner Mohammed al Fayed or just because Tudor doesn’t want to overly promote a numbered limited edition that I strongly suspect is already sold out. The caseback engraving shows that just 175 pieces are being made, each individually numbered.

You can tell from the images that it is a METAS-certified Master Chronometer. It appears to be a full size 41mm Black Bay, with the don’t-call-it-Jubilee five-link bracelet. Unusually for Tudor it has a gold bezel but a steel bracelet; the brand has not done an S&G version of the Black Bay diver with the five-link bracelet, but you can get a two-tone bracelet on the BB31/34/36mm.

The dial is ‘Harrods’ green, with a black bezel, and in contrast to the standard 41mm Black Bay, the depth notation is ‘feet first’, a nod to the British nature of the limited edition, one assumes. There is also a tiny ‘H’ stencilled onto the lollipop head of the seconds hand. The watch comes with a dark green fabric strap - I expect the usual Julien Faure textile strap from Tudor - which I really covet for my old-style Harrods Black Bay.

The watch is not listed on Harrods’ website, or Tudor’s, and at the time of writing I have no information on price or availability. The existing Black Bay S&G, with the Oyster-style bracelet, is £5,160 so I would expect for this the exclusivity cancels out the smaller volume of gold and it’s somewhere around the five grand mark. Given the highly limited run, by Tudor’s standards, I suspect that if you haven’t already had a call, you’re too late, but who knows.

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The 20 Best Watches Of The Last Three Months

You are going to disagree with me so hard.

Right out of the gate I’m going to get my caveats in. ‘Best’ in this context is a horrible word. These are 20 watches I’ve seen and liked, because I think they’re a success in some way or other, or simply because I like them. They’re not in any particular order. Some of them might be bad value, but I’ve fallen for their design; some are mechanically excellent but others are just a lot of fun. These aren’t hands-on reviews; unless stated, I haven’t handled these watches and won’t be making judgements about their finishing, build quality or wearing experience other than where I already know enough from handling related models. Some of these are watches you’ve seen all of Instagram fall for; others I think have been overlooked. At the end, I’ve picked out six from the same period that didn’t quite hit the mark in some way - by the same token, I’m not saying these are bad watches. They just don’t do it for me either on conceptual, aesthetic or financial levels. If you want a clickbaity reason to go past the paywall, one of them is the latest Lange 1, which I know will confound a lot of you.

I’ve also tried to gloss over watches I’ve already talked about in previous issues - for instance, if you want to know what I think of the Patek Philippe Cubitus, go back and read last week’s newsletter where I give it a detailed assessment.

The Fourth Wheel, Issue 125

Laurent Ferrier Classic Auto Sandstone

Sometimes it doesn’t take much to change your sense of a brand’s trajectory or momentum. I’m not saying that with one new dial colour Laurent Ferrier has shot to the front of the pack, seizing the crown from Rexhep Rexhepi or whomsoever is king of your particular affections, but it’s a step in the right direction. As Mark Kauzlarich wrote for Hodinkee, “Is Laurent Ferrier back, or was it just here all along and we needed a reminder?”. He also points out that it’s on the expensive side, at CHF 50,000 in stainless steel, and it would be nice if more than 20 were being made. But with Laurent Ferrier things will always be expensive and limited, so I can’t lose too much sleep over it.

Arcanaut ARC II - Bonehead

Something had always nagged at me about Arcanaut’s ARC II design, and until I spoke to co-founder James Thompson this week I wasn’t sure what it was. Now I’ve realised it’s the featureless, smooth lines of the case. This model, which debosses/extrudes (whichever way you want to look at it) certain parts of the case to give it an outlined, panelled effect, just seemed to click for me; that interruption to the shape is what I needed. It also helps that James clued me in to the dial’s construction - everything hits cleaner when you hear the origin story straight from the creator. It’s made from slices of something called duocel, an aviation-grade aluminium foam, filled with resin and laid over a disc of solid lume. He describes the effect as like bone marrow - hence the name - or sunlight through a rosebush. Nothing boneheaded about that.

Frederique Constant Classic Moonphase Date Malachite Ltd Ed.

Everyone and the family dog has got round to expressing their love for this watch on Instagram so, yes, I’m pretty late to the party. What happened to these entry-level, mass-market brands? Louis Erard had a Queer-Eye-worthy makeover; Raymond Weil wins a GPHG, now Frederique Constant lets its hair down in an extremely satisfying way… what next? I tell you what, I saw a Maurice Lacroix Aikon that I didn’t dislike a couple of weeks ago, and no-one is more surprised to hear me say that than me. It’s Tom Wambsgans beating the Roy family to the prize; Leicester City winning the league… Somehow, there is a quiet revolution of once-dull brands taking place. Received wisdom is that this market segment is halfway to the abattoir, but if it is going down, it’s not without a fight.

Albishorn x Massena LAB Maxigraph

I saw the Maxigraph up close in London a couple of weeks ago, and it helped me decide that I liked it personally as well as finding it interesting professionally (so many watches are only the latter, even all-time greats). The dish-like profile of the bezel means I reckon it wears larger than its 39mm would suggest, and I’d be interested to try out alternative straps (bright red is probably not daily-driver material) but I am a sucker for this particular flavour of instrumentation-inspired retro design, and I don’t think it’s outrageously expensive at a whisker under $5,000 for an unusual chronograph.

Grand Seiko SLGW005

I am such an uneducated heathen in the ways of Grand Seiko - and this is having spent a week in Japan visiting the brand, to say nothing of a decade-plus of writing about it - that the heritage revivals all look more or less the same to me. Happily, I like the way they look, so this situation is highly agreeable. The SLGW005 is a revival of the 45GS from 1968, the follow-up to the more famous 44GS from ‘67 that established the grammar of design, etc etc, and I don’t feel so bad about my opening remark when I read that the greatest aesthetic difference between the two was a reduction in case diameter of 0.5mm. The bigger deal was the introduction of the high-beat 5Hz movement, something I will always seek out where I can get it, and the revived version’s proportions, at 38.8mm x 10.4mm are also slap bang in the sweet spot. It’s not trendy, it’s not going to break the internet when you post it, but it is a damn fine watch.

Christopher Ward Trident C60 Lumiere

I’m getting bored of hearing myself say it but this is the best version of the Trident Christopher Ward has made, I shall hear no argument about it. You can keep your Bel Cantos - yes, I said it - I’d wear this much more happily.

Ralph Lauren Polo Sport

Hold your fire! Ok, I mean, if you must, let me have it. I’m burning my credibility with some of you, I know. But I’m just going to be honest: I like this watch. I like it in spite of its 42mm diameter - truth be told, I wear 41-43mm watches quite a bit and they’re just fine on me, even though I think this would probably be a better design at 40mm. But RL knows its market and - hint hint - it’s a country where things tend to be bigger. The case does look a bit shiny and cheap, and I am well aware, abundantly aware, painfully aware that you are paying a lot for the Ralph Lauren name (it’s £1,790) with a bog-standard Sellita inside. My brain knows all that. My stupid self knows it and says ‘I don’t care, it does what I want a frivolous summer holiday watch to do and that’s that.’ This, for me, occupies the same mental space as the TAG Heuer x Kith Formula 1: a bright, silly, objectively overpriced but enjoyable watch. Haters are referred to the Thierry Stern school of client relations.

Fiona Kruger Face Of Tasaki

I wrote in Issue 121 about how much I liked this so I won’t repeat myself. Suffice to say that if I am recommending a mother-of-pearl dial, it must be something special.