Watches You Should Know

The Daytona is one of Rolex’s most popular models, but there was a time when Rolex dealers could hardly give them away.

Bell & Ross's square-cased BR 01 may not be for everyone, but it's become a modern classic. Here's its story.

The EZM 1 is emblematic of the function-first approach that’s won German brand Sinn its dedicated fans.

Debate over the first automatic chronograph made is heated. But the Zenith El Primero is arguably still the best automatic chronograph over 50 years later.

The Longines Lindbergh Hour Angle watch was the original Global Positioning System.

Bronze wasn't always a staple of the watch industry — in fact, the first bronze watch ever just might surprise you.

No timepiece better represents Grand Seiko's technical and aesthetic prowess better than the Snowflake.

The Tank is one of the most elegant and iconic watches ever made, but it owes its significance to more than a just great design.

The man who created the famous Porsche 911 also gave the world its first all-black watch, which still looks sleek and modern 50 years later.

The innovative Cartier Santos was the first pilot’s watch.

The Angelus Chronodato is the progenitor of the triple-calendar chronograph, a classic watch style originating in the mid-20th century.

The Zodiac Sea Wolf is the forgotten dive watch that, in 1953, introduced the world’s most popular watch genre along with luminaries Rolex and Blancpain.

When the Straight Edge movement gained ground in the 1980s, its adherents quickly adopted an affordable watch whose symbol matched their ideology.

The Bulova Accutron Spaceview, replete with incredible accuracy and a space-age look, represented a technological milestone that foreshadowed quartz watches.

The Benrus Sky Chief was used by pilots for navigation in the 1940s, when commercial aviation was young and cockpits were a lot more analog.

The Rado DiaStar is a watch that pioneered ceramics in watchmaking decades before its use came into vogue.

When the IDF’s Shayetet 13 needed a badass dive watch for special ops, it was the Eterna Super Kon-Tiki that delivered.

When Omega made one of the earliest tourbillon wristwatches in the ’40s, they didn’t know what it would later mean to the watch industry.

The Hamilton Ventura was technically and aesthetically ahead of its time in 1957 when it became the first-ever battery-powered wristwatch.

Silicon is the future of the mechanical watch industry, and it was first used in the avant-garde and revolutionary Freak by Ulysse Nardin.