Bill Yao's Tornek-Rayville is launching the CISO M38 today Friday 05 Sep. In a nutshell, it's an homage to the Seiko MACVSOG Seiko watches (6619-8060 and variants), using modern hackable and handwinding NH36 movements, along with sapphire instead of acrylic crystals. IIRC, they're also a little bit bigger, with a case size of 37 instead of 36mm. Their site is currently down for maintenance, but check in on it later today if you're interested.

More information here…

Tornek-Rayville launching a new watch today

I am withholding the name of the watchmaker at this time, but need to get this off my chest, and warn my fellow horophiles.

I was following a Kickstarter campaign from a watchmaker in Singapore and was closely following their launch. I ended up not buying the watch, and that was that – or so I thought. Now, weeks later, they sent me an email that included a blurry image of a five page FedEx bill for tariffs and linked their paypal account to it requesting reimbursement of the tariffs they…

Sketchy email from a watch vendor in Singapore requesting reimbursement for FedEx fees.

What do you guys think of this new release? It should become available sometime next month. I think they're gorgeous – particularly the mechanical Speedtimer (first one on the left in the picture below). When I was a kid, my favorite cars were the 240/280zx series. As usual, I think these Seikos are a little overpriced, so I'm planning to get a used one later on.

[ATTACH…

Beautiful new Datsun 240 inspired Seiko trio

It looks like a Type I in desert tan.

Interesting color palette:

Turtle shaped case
Mechanical movement

I like the new dials. They also have drilled lugs. They wont replace my Master Marina Militare, though.

Full lume dial, DLC coating.
CHF 4,150

More info on Hodinkee Introducing: The Oris Hölstein Edition 2025

Yeah, it's quartz, has tritium mini baton indices, and a sloped 12 hour 2nd time zone bezel, but what do you guys think about that dial? I think it's going to be a Navigator variant.

Yeah, it's quartz, has tritium mini baton indices, and a sloped 12 hour 2nd time zone bezel, but what do you guys think about that dial? I think it's going to be a Navigator variant.

AFAIK, Rolex and Skeleton Concepts had no agreement in place. People would typically send in their Subs and Daytonas for modification.

In a nutshell, there was never really a "relationship" like a partnership. Skeleton Concept was doing its own thing by customizing Rolex watches, and Rolex eventually put its foot down legally to protect its name and reputation. It's a…

French Court Rules Against Rolex Customizer Skeleton Concept