The Legacy Machine 2 from MB&F was first launched in 2013 and has been released in red gold, white gold, and platinum. Today MB&F announced the latest iteration of the Legacy Machine 2: a grade 5 titanium-cased limited edition with a blue-green dial, in just 18 pieces.  

If you are a British GQ reader, you may have noticed something shiny on the wrist of cover boy Ed Sheeran this month – a Patek Philippe reference 5524G Calatrava Pilot. And not just any reference 5524G, but Sheeran's own 5524G. While this watch did not receive the highest of praise when it was released at Baselworld in 2015 (at least not by me), it clearly is appealing to some and in fact has a waiting list the world over.

For those in the know, Habring² is one of the more interesting watchmaking outfits of the last decade. Husband and wife duo Richard and Maria Habring create relatively under-the-radar watches in Austria, with interesting complications like split-seconds chronographs and jumping seconds mechanisms. This is high taste level stuff. The couple's latest creation, the Erwin, has an in-house movement and a jumping seconds mechanism, a first for the brand, and, just a few months after the watch's release, U.S. distributor Martin Pulli gives us a great new aesthetic option with the Erwin Scientific Dial.

If you've been following along for the past few months, you have probably heard about IWC re-inventing the Da Vinci collection as its big release at SIHH. Based on the original Da Vinci, first produced in 1986, this new series reflects the old case design but with a heavy focus on ladies' pieces like the new Automatic Moon Phase 36 that you see here. It's a new direction for the collection (and the brands) and one that is very much worth paying attention to.

This week we have two amazing Universal Genève Compax watches featured, both the reference 22410, which we love for its large waterproof case. And when it comes with a futuristic looking dial, it gets even better, which explains why one example was sold in a flash for just over $50,000. We also have a gorgeous Rolex Sea-Dweller reference 1665 and a patinated Heuer Autavia reference 2446 with big sub-registers and dauphine hands. This is your Bring A Loupe for February 17, 2017.

I thought this was just a crazy-beautiful watch and I wanted to look closer. What I found was so much more interesting – and complicated – than I could have guessed.

If you think you have a pretty good idea who the average Rolex customer is, chances are you do. A survey of 8,000 U.K. residents revealed absolutely nothing new regarding the profile of Rolex owners.

If you thought you loved Laurent Ferrier solely for his incredibly refined timepieces, be prepared to love him even more. Ferrier, who spent time at Patek Philippe before opening his own independent manufacture, continues to stun and amaze us with his beautiful creations like this year's Galet Tourbillon with open dial and Montre École. But something that you may or may not know is that Ferrier used to race cars. Like, serious cars. In fact, he raced the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1979...and came in third place. Yeah, this guy is seriously cool.

The 19th century was something of a golden age for the evolution of classical precision timekeeping – it was born, eventually flourished, and then gradually declined.

This week is a good one. We have a diverse selection of watches, as usual, with brands like Rolex, Gallet, and Cartier all represented, and styles ranging from your cool rough-and-tumble tool watches to classic gold watches with bright stone dials (and full gold bracelets). But these aren't your run-of-the-mill selections and each has something special to offer. Read on to see the full selection.

An unusual pilot's watch that will slowly (bur surely) grow on you.

We all know that when it comes to space exploration the Omega Speedmaster is the watch. It was flown on countless important missions, including Apollo 11, the first to put men on the moon, and beat out watches from Rolex, Longines, and others to become the official NASA choice. In fact, it's still the choice of astronauts today. But in 2003 Breitling gifted a few dozen aviation pioneers with special commemorative chronographs and we've found that of Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo astronaut Wally Schirra for sale online.

Forget men's watches and women's watches. These are watches any couple can enjoy together.

The Jaquet Droz Charming Bird wristwatch is as far from the world of useful, utilitarian tool watches as it is possible for a watch to be. In fact, it's barely a wristwatch at all – in architecture, you'd call something like this a "folly." A building is called a folly when it's either purely decorative, with a form that suggests a practical function, or when it's simply extremely decorative. The thrill you get out of the Charming Bird watch, on the assumption that you find this sort of thing thrilling to begin with – whimsy leaves a lot of people cold – is the same you get out of watching an especially good magic trick. It's a piece of mechanical sleight of hand that, unlike actual stage magic, is more fun the more you know about how it works.

For just over $1,000, this new collection of British-designed automatics really delivers.

Very rarely do you hear about watches being sold on a government website. Yet, the Italian Ministry of Defense made a spectacular announcement last September when it revealed that it would auction 40 pieces of the military-issued Breitling reference 817, all in one single lot. This was a very exciting news on many accounts, and not only for vintage Breitling enthusiasts. The Breitling reference 817 is an extremely elusive chronograph, manufactured in 1975 for the helicopter pilots of the Italian Army. One can only imagine the small size of the overall production, and the even smaller number of surviving pieces, with fewer than 40 having been accounted for, up until now. A couple of months after the auction, it is now time to think about what effect these "new" Breitlings, all suddenly reaching the market at once, have on the vintage market and the value of this historic military chronograph.

Incredible value and incredible craftsmanship.

If you missed the HSNY on its last trip out west, you'll want to get your tickets quick.