Robbie and Watches

Reviews and photos from beautiful timepieces

Welcome to Robbie & Watches. when I started this project my idea was to learn about watches in general but I ended up falling for photography and horology, not a bad combination. Please ask me any questions about any watch (not only the ones featured here) I will try do my best to help. I hope you enjoy this site as much as I do.

More pictures here

About

Why watches?

What fascinates you? For me, it’s watches and photography (mostly watches), that feeling of taking an incredible picture of a truly unique object brings me great satisfaction.
I have seen many watch blogs and I am sure that almost all of them have a different view on the watch industry, here is my position:
I love all kinds of watches, people seem fixated with Pateks, AP, Vacherons . One day I hope to have the privilege to review incredible brands like these but it wouldn't make me love watches more than I do now, this blog is not to show off how much I spend on watches or what is a good/bad watch, this site is about what an average Joe thinks about a mid range/high end pieces and hopefully take a beautiful photo of it. I hope you can relate and enjoy this little project.
Roberto
P.S: all pictures are my own

Contact

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"Time is what we want most but what we use worst"

William Penn

Latest Reviews

Mechanical and well designed – The Apostle from VSTELLE

Simplicity in design has its weight in gold and we usually miss on that. We nerds tend to have a watch for diving, one for travelling and a chronograph to time racing laps, but the truth is that we just used them to read the time. In the pursuit of excellence sometimes we lose sight of what really matters, we start looking for complications and brand prestige, by the end wearability and design are left behind. This is why I enjoyed the newest watch from VSTELLE: the Apostle.

16 minutes ago

Straight from the future – Desanders Concept V

We can all agree that in the world of complications, chronographs in their mechanical form are the hardest one to achieve. There are several reasons and from the beginning of the watchmaking history, mechanical chronograph movements have been supplied by third parties, even brands like Rolex only started offering its Daytona with an in-house movement from the 2000 onwards. The main reason is because the R&D is costly and difficult to get it right. On the other side, mechanica

3 days ago

Art on the wrist – The Supernatural from MD Watches Studio

There are watches who look like nothing else and I am not referring to shapes or complications but in terms of design. About a year ago, I saw what it was one of the coolest looking watches on Instagram, it was bold, different and then I saw its different models, I couldn’t believe that they were the same watch. For me this last point was key to pursuit this review, I wanted to understand how much a watch can change when the dial changes. After a long time, we are lucky to ha

5 days ago

Pink shades and slim cases – Nivari Eden

With mass production, the pursuit for well built object has been lost somehow. The speed to stock and sell in large quantities, has become the flag for many watch brands or at least those ones in lower price brackets. That said, it is very refreshing when you start seeing that machine tolerances are getting better and the final product has a similar quality that could be found in high end watches a decade ago. Nivari is a German brand, that has launched his first model: the E

Nov 2

The right way to honour a culture – The Klasik:Hitam from Waktu Horology

Part of the fun of loving watches is that you get to learn about the main inspiration of a brand when they are creating a timepiece. I would say it can go any direction and not because they are not interesting, but because sometimes it can have a very strong feeling to the founder that fails to connect with the audience. There are other times when the story is so far from the watch itself that it feels fabricated, but let’s not be negative because sometimes, it is special. Wa

Oct 30

Flying high – the new Yema Flygraph Pilot

Everyone has a vision on how a pilot watch should look like. To some people it is all about utility, legibility and heritage and for others, is about that golden era of traveling, something more elegant. In my eyes, if could merge these two thoughts together, we will have a winner, and I believe that the new Yema Flygraph Pilot could hit the mark very well. If we look at all the characteristics described, Yema is a brand that could easily tick all of them. The French brand is

Oct 28

Pushing the boundaries – The Urban from Monro Adventure

Let’s face it, no one needs more than one watch. This noble quest for a one-watch collection is surreal for us nerds but, that doesn’t mean that the appeal disappears, it is something that we always try to find. I am not saying that the new Urban from Monro Adventure is this type of watch, but it does makes you wonder why we are always on the hunt for a new piece. To achieve this ethos (or at least come close), a watch needs to be versatile, well sized and of course good look

Oct 23

A great re-interpretation of a classic – The MiliFortic M111 B – Uhr

There is no easy way to remake a classic design, especially if is functional. There are plenty of designs out there which are very hard to stay away from and even if you do as a watch brand, there are no guarantees that people would want the real deal, there is no winning with us nerds. Pilot watches are probably the hardest category to play around with, not only because they have been done a long time ago but because their functionality is something that cannot be messed wit

Oct 22

Bold with great looks and no excuses – The Revolution Camo from Infantry Co

There are watches that make no apologies. Those who dare to create something different will always bring a hard emotion from us watch nerds, and that emotion can be negative or positive. When it comes to pilot watches, there is no denying that size is key, not because brands want to make a statement but because legibility equals performance. In other words, to read the time at a glance is a must. The other side of the pilot watch is based on style, the look that these watches

Oct 20

Simple, effective and good looking – The W10 Pilot watch from Namoki

Simplicity has its own form of appreciation and the best way to find it in my opinion is inside military inspired watches. The main reason for this approach is that military watches are usually forward looking, they use the best technology available at that time, and they try to avoid any ornamental details. Take a quick look at pilot watches from WWII, they are purpose driven and most of the times, you cannot find clutter on the dial like dates, moonphases, or another type o

Oct 19

What is it with skeleton watches? – The Aerial Prism from Wishdoit

There is something special about skeletonized watches. It ticks us watch nerds in the right way, and the main reason is that we get to see the inner movements of our hobby, how everything works even if we do not fully understand the concept. The main issue with skeletonized movements is that they need to be done within a certain amount of high quality, is not easy as taking out the dial and let the inner parts shine, it is more complicated than that. Bridges, leavers and bala

Oct 16

On the hunt for the affordable mechanical chronograph – The Wancher Chronograph

Microbrands for better or for worst are here to stay. For a consumer it is good to see options, but it can also be daunting when it comes a time to choose. One thing is undeniable, the gap between entry level watches from established brands and those from not so well known, it’s getting blurrier. As an example, long gone are the days when Hamilton or Tissot were not challenged by the spec sheet that watches from Japan, China and UK have to offer. Sure, they might not have the

Oct 16

New designs are not easy to find – the Rocket from Ember Watch Company

We always complain that plenty objects, especially when it comes to watches, they all look very similar. This is mainly because watches have become more of an accessory and not a need, a personal touch that helps to express how you feel or what you like. One of my favourite categories in watches is the field watch and mainly because they are simple in nature, no complication and no nonsense, the purest form of functionality. That said, there are two side on each coin and beca

Oct 15

A new way to undertand Field watches – The MUS+06 from Maven Watches

The fact that everything is being done in a minimalistic way in terms of design, sometimes even for me, it is getting a bit too much....

Oct 12

A tool watch that does it all – The Nimrod by Abinger

Simplicity has its own art form and to me, a well design object must be a representation to that. I always try to apply this ethos in my...

Oct 8

A Racing Bull with style – the Richurus Bullhead Chrono RS3

There is something special about vintage watches. Maybe is the fact that there was a bit more manual intervention, or perhaps the sizing...

Oct 7

Analogue and digital love – The Infantry Revolution Dual Timer

It is hard to imagine a watch that can do it all, but it can still be affordable, exciting and goodlooking. These are a lot of boxes to tick and the right time when a quartz module can come in handy to keep the price down. We all love ana-digital watches, they have become a thing in the last few years, but they have been around for longer than that. We all remember the Seiko SNJ025 Tuna, or how many people remember it: The Arnie. It was popularized by Schwarzenegger in the m

Oct 7