Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph Limited Edition LeBron James Watch
Funny how the watch world has the power to bring people together. Things that would never normally happen, occur because of horology. Take for instance famous American basketball player LeBron James traveling to the small Swiss town of Le Brassus. Never mind that he donned a watchmaker's white coat (if they had one long enough for him). I don't even think basketball is shown on television in Switzerland, and yet there he is in the idyllic Swiss mountains with Audemars Piguet.It isn't news that LeBron James has been an Audemars Piguet brand ambassador, but just last week Audemars Piguet decided to unveil the official LeBron James limited edition Royal Oak Offshore watch (which I debuted on Forbes right here). Still, the entire situation is remarkably impressive, especially for LeBron. Think about it, global luxury watch maker Audemars Piguet choose an athlete in an American sport to be one of the faces of their brand. American athletes don't exactly have a reputation for being well dign

Watch What-If IWC Big Pilot Top Gun Miramar
"Watch What-If" is a special column on aBlogtoReadwatches-dealer that asks the playful question "what if an iconic watch you know and love was offered in a different style?" The idea embraces a good timepiece's core design and has fun by offering new colors and material concepts to stimulate your senses. These ideas may be provocative, artistic, or just plain silly. This is about fun, Photoshop, and the celebration of wrist watch design and experimentation. The original design we work off will always be at the bottom of the article. The designs are brought to life by Beau Hudspeth who does the artwork and concepting after he and I choose the models and styles to focus on. These special design experiments are extremely time consuming and labor intensive but we hope you enjoy the results. Ideas and comments are more than welcome. Enough response may even lead to a round two of design of the same watch - so please comment below. You are also encouraged to suggest watches that make it into

Back to the Planet Ocean, except this time it's Liquidmetal
For 4 years up until last year I happily wore the previous version Planet Ocean on my wrist. It was a great watch, a design I admired, a watch I assumed would be my grail when it first came out in 2005. To me it had everything, seamaster history, a great design, quality finish and was comfortable to wear. In tribute here it isThen for some reason Rolex consumed the WIS in me and I went on to own and flip every version of the Submariner- ND, SD, date and the Sub C. After buying the Explorer 2 (which I confess to being my favourite watch) the Sub C just wasn't getting any wrist time. The Sub C is far too nice a watch not to be worn and there was no way I could afford to have an object of such value sit in a box, so I decided to flip it. Once I mad e that decision my mind turned immediately to the Planet Ocean. No other watch was in the picture. I went to the Omega dealor and tried on the new 8500 coax PO however I realised that I wouldn't be able to live with the thickness of it so my th

Two special Speedies
The sandstorms in Dubai over the last couple of days have meant that any SLR action outside of the house is a no-no but even with my iPhone camera, my two LE Speedies look so damn good. I've been wearing these two in rotation this week, and everywhere I go I can see people eye-balling them. I've had a fair few questions about both of these beauties, as well as one offer to buy the Apollo 11 LE (which was politely refused), and it just makes we wonder why Omega doesn't do more white dial Speedies? Copper

Patek stainless steel type?
I read an article Patek Philippe Nautilus vs Audemars Piguet Royal Oak. by Fratello Watches. The article states that the stainless steel used for the Nautilus and Royal Oak is a scratch magnet. Also the article states that different kind of stainless steel is being used compared to other brand's sports watches...What type of stainless steel does Patek use? 316L? I assume they aren't using 904L, which Rolex uses. Why doesn't Patek use the higher quality stainless steel, especially in a sports watch that is supposed to take a beating?