When the 5960/1A was first announced back in 2014, people went crazy. An automatic annual calendar flyback chronograph from Patek Philippe in a stainless steel case with a steel bracelet and a high-contrast white, black, and red dial? Yeah, there was a lot to be excited about. Now, the watch gets a make-over with a reverse dial configuration with an inky black base. No question, this is going to be one of the coolest high-end sport watches you'll be able to find anywhere. Period.

A watch with a silicon balance spring for under $1,000.

A meditation teacher of mine once said, "You know, the mind can be very weird," and as it turns out, so can matter. Big in science news last week was the story, as reported for Nature and Scientific American by Elizabeth Gibney, that a new form of matter has been created. So-called "time crystals" aren't a video game power up or a sci-fi plot device – they're a bizarre state of matter which shows a crystal structure not in space, but over time. The newly created time crystals are a development of an idea from 2012, and are slightly less improbable than the original concept. However, as researcher Norman Yao, who is an author on both of the papers reported on, said, "It's less weird than the first idea, but it's still fricking weird."

This week, the selected watches all share one common characteristic: they were made in the late 1960s-early 1970s, just before the quartz crisis. They were not marketed as luxury products, just solid wristwatches for everyday wear. You will discover the Zenith El Primero A3817, with its striking tri-color dial and automatic chronograph caliber – and we also have an unusual high-beat, chronometer-certified Ulysse Nardin. And of course, our roundup wouldn't be complete without a couple of dive watches, namely the Movado Super Sub Sea and the Bulova Oceanographer Automatic. This is your Bring A Loupe for March 17, 2017.

After years of teasing a smartwatch alternative, Montblanc instead delivers a luxurious take on the genre.

Earlier today, we received some fresh details concerning Phillips’ next themed sale - the fourth since the auction house formed a partnership with consulting firm Bacs & Russo. The first themed sale, which took place in 2015, centered around the Day-Date. This time, Phillips will concentrate on Heuer.

In anticipation of Baselworld this year, Hamilton has released a new automatic chronograph, the Intra-Matic 68. It's a throwback to the vintage chronographs produced by the maker in the 1960s, specifically the Chrono-Matic, that are so popular with collectors today. With a few modern updates, the Intra-Matic 68 is a fresh new take on an old standby.

When Lotus test driver John Parramint was promoted and asked to test drive the Elan and the Europa, two of the British manufacturer’s most emblematic sports cars, his reaction was to go out and pick up a chronograph with a tachymeter bezel – not as a reward to himself, but to help him test the cars' speedometers. He purchased a Heuer Autavia Ref. 2446C, then a budget-friendly option – now, almost 50 years later, he's selling it at auction and might get back more than 100 times what he paid for it.

MCT is a watchmaker known for thinking outside the box. Sometimes far outside the box. The new Dodekal One D110 presents a completely new take on a hybrid mechanical/digital display for the hours while drawing on the aesthetic codes of previous MCT watches too. This is one that definitely begs for a closer look.

We don't do this often – make a public call to arms for the watch collecting community – but when there is a wrong that needs to be righted, we must use the voice that you've given us to help. So, I deeply encourage you to read on and share this story with as many people as you can.

This week's issue of the New Yorker magazine features one of the best pieces of horological writing we've seen in a very long time. Novelist and all-around man of letters Gary Shteyngart penned an extensive tale of his falling in love with watches against the background of current political turmoil – and it's an excellent look at why and how we love these little antiquated machines. HODINKEE gets more than a passing nod, along with many of our friends in the watch community.

This week we’ve narrowed our focus a bit, shining a light on the formal and functional watches of the 1960s and 70s. Each watch was manufactured with a specific purpose in mind, whether to add a touch of mature class to your wrist, to let you easily read the time under water, or to pioneer a quartz movement in a distinctly 70s case. As an added bonus, there's a Rolex Oyster Perpetual reference 1002 from 1966 that has retained its papers (and good looks) for half a century – no small feat. Read on for more details.  

Subjecting watches to magnetic fields is a dangerous endeavor, but a new display in Bienne shows only the strongest survivors.

Though atomic clock accuracy is available to anyone with a smart phone, high accuracy quartz watches still have their fans. Here's the latest from Longines.

TAG Heuer has just unveiled its second smartwatch, and this time it's officially "Swiss Made." The new electronic watch's finally assembly is tackled in TAG's La Chaux-de-Fonds workshop, qualifying it for the official designation, and it also introduces a new modular concept that hopes to eliminate the issue of obsolescence that plagues smartwatches, no matter the maker.

Fossil is serious about the smartwatch market. From the company's acquisition of wearables maker Misfit back in 2015 to its recent announcement that it would double smartwatch production in 2017, it's been scaling up for some time now. Today the company makes its next big move, committing to take all of its touchscreen smartwatches, past and present, to the new Android Wear 2.0 operating system.

Because we had the rare occurrence of its co-creator, Robert-Jan Broer of Fratello Watches, being in New York City, I thought it'd be fun to get him on camera to talk about how this watch came to be.

Auction season is starting soon, and the next sale at Watches Of Knightsbridge is fast approaching. While it is shorter than the previous sale ("only" 335 lots), it does not lack in interesting pieces, keeping in line with the house's focus of offering more accessible pieces at auction. From the March 18 catalog I've selected five chronographs with a high estimate below $5,000 that all have seductive 1970s looks. Besides the French Lip and Yema, you'll also find an overlooked Zenith El Primero reference A787, a Fortis Marinemaster reference 8001, and a square Favre-Leuba reference 31013. Get ready to discover some funky designs and unexpected colors.