Jack Forster

1 week ago | the1916company.com | Jack Forster

The caliber DUW 6101 – it’s smarter than it looks, and it looked pretty smart to begin with. Every once in a while in this business, you get a reminder that not only don’t you know everything, but you have actually missed something you should have noticed the first time around. So it is with me and the NOMOS caliber DUW 6101, which can be found unostentatiously going about its business inside a number of NOMOS watches since it was first introduced back in 2018.

1 week ago | the1916company.com | Jack Forster

A dark take on a classic Zenith design. “Defy” sounds like a name that might have come out of some serious focus grouping at a modern watch brand (it raises so many questions. What is being defied? And by whom?) but the original name and the original design at Zenith goes all the way back to 1969, when Zenith debuted a watch whose design and specs earned it the name, “coffre-fort” or bank vault.

1 week ago | the1916company.com | Jack Forster

Everything old is new again, again. The dive watch is obsolete, and has been for many years – that is, it’s obsolete as a primary instrument for recreational and professional divers, both of whom rely on digital dive computers. However, dive watches have gone on to have a very robust second life as backups to digital dive computers, and also as robust daily d(r)ivers which continue to appeal on the strength of their tough guy, no-nonsense vibe.

1 week ago | the1916company.com | Jack Forster

Is a Fifty in 38mm the Fifty Fathoms you’ve been waiting for? The first Blancpain Fifty Fathoms I can remember seeing and wanting was the 50th Anniversary model, which was launched in 2003 in a 40.3mm steel case, and with, for the first time, a sapphire bezel; I thought it was a spectacularly beautiful watch and like many first loves it set my tastes in stone for the Fifty Fathoms ever after.

1 week ago | the1916company.com | Jack Forster

Everyone’s favorite analog digital watch, now has an open sapphire case, and it’s almost a completely different watch. The original Amida Digitrend was very much the product of its time. Originally released at Basel in 1976, the original Digitrend was an attempt to offer an entry level mechanical analog to the then-more expensive LED quartz watches like the Bulova Computron, which was released the same year.