All posts tagged: box + papers

The Biggest Watch Trends of 2026, According to the Numbers

The Biggest Watch Trends of 2026, According to the Numbers

Published by Jenni Sidey

The openworked dial of TAG Heuer’s new Monaco Evergraph Going skeleto-mode is one way for watchmakers to make their pieces feel more luxurious. It’s a move I saw employed up and down the spectrum, from Patek Philippe’s new $190,000 Cubitus to TAG Heuer’s premo “Evergraph” Monaco, which clocks in at $25,000. Panerai, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Zenith, Hermès, Chopard, Chanel, and Cartier all got in on the action as well. Opening a dial now seems to be the go-to button watchmakers push when they want to take one of their icons and make it appeal to clients with deeper wallets. All that glitters is gold Speaking of brands finding ways to swim further upmarket: Gold was a massive winner at Watches and Wonders this year. In fact, would you believe there were more new gold watches on display than steel ones? That’s maybe the most shocking number to come out of all this—out of the 120+ pieces I compiled, 47 came in gold, while 46 of them were made out of steel. The data puts a fine point …

How Cartier Became the Defining Watchmaker of the 2020s

How Cartier Became the Defining Watchmaker of the 2020s

Published by Jenni Sidey

This is an edition of the newsletter Box + Papers, Cam Wolf’s weekly deep dive into the world of watches. Sign up here. As far as I’m concerned, Cartier is the most fascinating watch brand of the 2020s. Over the course of the decade, the Parisian jeweler has become the second-biggest watch manufacturer by revenue in Switzerland, according to Morgan Stanley’s annual industry report. The brand has been referred to as Gen Z’s Rolex, a crown I believe fits well. And it continues to have the same iron-clad grip on celebrities—including VVVVVVVIPs like Taylor Swift—that it’s held throughout its history. But what I find most compelling is what Cartier’s rise signals about the state of the industry. As collectors both new and seasoned began to pivot their interests from high-powered sport watches to more design-centric pieces, Cartier was ready and waiting for them with the most interesting catalog of weirdo-shaped tickers in existence. It’s a shift that the house’s chief marketing officer, Arnaud Carrez, saw coming in the middle of the last decade. Last week, …

The Best Watches of 2026 (So Far)

The Best Watches of 2026 (So Far)

Published by Jenni Sidey

I’ve been calling this steel Speedmaster the “Audi of Moonwatches.” It’s not on the high end, like one of Colman Domingo’s diamond-set gold versions, but it’s also several steps above your typical base model. This is the sensible luxury Speedy with a slightly upgraded dial. Rather than a single plane with contrasting sub-registers, this iteration’s dial uses two plates—black on top and white beneath it—to add depth. The effect really works for me, especially since it creates a “panda”-style dial, which wasn’t available on a modern Speedmaster before this model debuted in January. The Two for the Price of One Award: Dennison Dual Time “Shades” COREY CRAWFORD Dennison has made a name for itself on the strength and versatility of this Dual Time model. In 2025, the brand used it to fuse two different stones onto a single dial. Now, they’re opting for something much chiller. The new “Shades” collection leverages the two-faced dial with tonal hues of green, brown, and blue. The result is a trinity of really handsome and unique watches. Dennison has …

Inside the ‘Super Bowl of the Watch World’

Inside the ‘Super Bowl of the Watch World’

Published by Jenni Sidey

This is an edition of the newsletter Box + Papers, Cam Wolf’s weekly deep dive into the world of watches. Sign up here. The watch world is prone to finding hyperbole in anything. Check any auction result, and you’ll find records even Guinness wouldn’t be inventive enough to come up with, say, the highest-selling watch of such and such brand with this very particular detail that Gérald Genta once sneezed on. So, when I gathered with a group of dealers to discuss last week’s Original Miami Beach Antique Show, I made sure to clarify: This isn’t the most important vintage watch show in March, in Miami, or even just the United States, right? “It’s the most important show in the world as a dealer,” replied Mike Nouveau, the dealer and King of Watch TikTok. Adam Golden, the dealer behind Menta Watches, added, “It’s become the Super Bowl of the watch world,” he says. The show has grown into a destination not just to sell mid-tier pieces, but to put the best of the best on …

Meet the Watch Expert Catching Multimillion-Dollar Counterfeits

Meet the Watch Expert Catching Multimillion-Dollar Counterfeits

Published by Jenni Sidey

This is an edition of the newsletter Box + Papers, Cam Wolf’s weekly deep dive into the world of watches. It’s currently being manned by Jeremy Freed, watch writer extraordinaire, while Cam is on parental leave. Sign up here. The watch was beautifully made, but for $5.5 million, it ought to have been. That was the good news. The bad news? It was a fake. This was the gist of a report delivered recently by Jose Perez—better known online as @perezcope—to a client about his latest purchase, a seven-figure vintage chronograph from a well-known Swiss brand. “He was shocked, of course,” says Perez. “He’s a very wealthy individual, so $5.5 million is basically play money for him, but what hurt him was being scammed.” Jose Perez is one of the world’s foremost experts in vintage watch authentication—and certainly the most infamous. A watch nerd of the highest order, Perez presides over a digital directory of more than 100,000 vintage timepieces, each cataloged down to its smallest details, which he uses to authenticate watches for would-be …

How the ‘Neo-Vintage’ Era Became the Hottest Thing in Watches

How the ‘Neo-Vintage’ Era Became the Hottest Thing in Watches

Published by Jenni Sidey

Perhaps the best argument in favor of neo-vintage is its value, particularly for classic tool watches. With the vintage looks of their forebears, the reliability of modern movements, and prices well below those of their 21st-century descendants, these watches offer a best-of-both-worlds scenario. “A [1990s] Speedmaster still looks like a Speedmaster from the ’60s; a Submariner still looks like a Submariner from the ’60s. The sizes remain the same, the general layout and configuration remain the same, the only things that were really different from the earlier versions were some of the materials,” says James Lamdin, the founder of Analog:Shift and a longtime neo-vintage evangelist. These watches also use tritium lume on their dials instead of modern Super-LumiNova, which ages more like old-school radium, lending them the warm tones of a classic vintage watch. “For a lot of people, it’s that aging of the material, going from white to this warm yellow cream vibe, that gives each watch its unique character and an element of romance,” Lamdin says. Call it what you will—romance, patina, vibes—neo-vintage …

12 Deeply Underrated Watches That Belong on Every Collector’s Wishlist

12 Deeply Underrated Watches That Belong on Every Collector’s Wishlist

Published by Jenni Sidey

This is an edition of the newsletter Box + Papers, Cam Wolf’s weekly deep dive into the world of watches. It’s currently being manned by Jeremy Freed, watch writer extraordinaire, while Cam is on parental leave. Sign up here. The world of watches is a big place, and here at B+P, we’re dedicated to celebrating as much of it as possible. That said, most of the conversations we have about watches tend to focus on a fairly limited number of brands and models, give or take the odd conceptual art piece or celebrity-endorsed microbrand. Fair enough—for myriad reasons, some watches are inherently more interesting than others. But for someone setting out to buy a new timepiece, the watches that tend to dominate the conversations among collectors aren’t always attainable—both in terms of pricing and retail availability. That’s why I’m devoting this week’s edition of Box + Papers to some of the watches that I feel don’t get as many kudos as they deserve. To do this, I first had to establish a few parameters. Firstly, …

This 5 Watch Is a Marvel of Y2K Blob Design

This $195 Watch Is a Marvel of Y2K Blob Design

Published by Jenni Sidey

Distinguished by soft, fluid shapes and bright colors, blobjects would define cutting-edge design in the late ’90s and early aughts. Oakley Eye Jackets? Blobject. The VW New Beetle? Blobject. Translucent blue iMac G3? Peak blobject. The Big Tic wasn’t the only blobject watch (the Nike Triax and Oakley Time Bomb are other textbook examples), but its amorphous ana-digi design offered something unique. “The Big Tic captured a very specific late-’90s tech moment,” says Ryan White, senior creative director of Fossil Watches. “It captured the shift toward expressive, approachable technology. It turned time itself into a playful, animated experience rather than just aa function.” The Big Tic was one of Fossil’s most popular creations of the pre-smartwatch days, and was produced in dozens of variants—including collabs with blob-loving designers like Philippe Starck and Frank Gehry—many of which are still available on eBay. As part of a cohort that included the first camera phone, the first BlackBerry two-way pager, and the “Clamshell” Apple iBook G3—all of which also debuted in 1999—the Big Tic was also the product …

The Best Vintage Watches to Buy in 2026

The Best Vintage Watches to Buy in 2026

Published by Jenni Sidey

This is an edition of the newsletter Box + Papers, Cam Wolf’s weekly deep dive into the world of watches. It’s currently being manned by Jeremy Freed, watch writer extraordinaire, while Cam is on parental leave. Sign up here. While we never tire of talking about watches here at B+P, we like shopping for watches most of all. That’s why, when Chrono24’s 2025 Watch Market Review hit our inbox last week, we dropped everything to give it a read. As one of the world’s largest marketplaces for buying and selling secondhand watches, Chrono24’s annual data dump is a prime source of intel, particularly for anyone who considers browsing watch listings on the internet a legitimate hobby. (Which it absolutely is). Among Chrono24’s observations for 2025, dressy aesthetics outperformed sportier models, with rectangular watches like the Cartier Tank up nearly 10%, and gold-tinted champagne dials also gaining significant ground over more pedestrian options. Rolex sales are starting to correct for the frenzy of recent years, with a -3.3% drop in volume (a change that the platform …