Watches, Stories, and Gear: Private Label Bathyscaphes, BMW Goes Vantablack, and More

“Watches, Stories, and Gear” is a roundup of some of our favorite watch content on Worn & Wound, great stories from around the web, and cool gear that we’ve got our eye on.

This installment of “Watches, Stories, and Gear” is brought to you by the Windup Watch Shop.

Worn & Wound
Affordable Vintage: A Tale of Two Private Label Bathyscaphes

The great thing about private label watches is the value proposition they offer — they can sometimes be acquired for a fraction of the price of a watch with the original name on the dial, and they are often rarer as well. Lots of brands made private label watches, among them Blancpain. In this article, contributor Marc Sirinsky writes about two private label Bathyscaphes, and why you should keep an eye out for them.

Read the full story here

Worn & Wound
Affordable Vintage: My Journey to a Seiko Navigator Timer Ref. 6117-8000

The 6117-8000 was Seiko’s second GMT watch after their World Timer. The World Timer featured an internal rotating bezel displaying 24 time zones, but the 6117-8000 Navigator Timer was a decidedly less busy design that instead opted for a standard GMT layout built around the same 6117 movement. In this installment of “Affordable Vintage,” Worn & Wound contributor Jon Gaffney tells us why he fell in love with this nifty little timepiece and what makes it so special.

Read the full story here

The Verge
BMW Shows Off an X6 in Vantablack, the Blackest of Blacks

Vantablack, one of the darkest substances on Earth, has seen its fair share of use in watches, and now it’s making its way to cars. BMW worked with Surrey NanoSystems, the company that discovered Vantablack a few years back, to cover one of its new X6s in VBX2, a newer version of Vantablack that allows for some light reflection. So humans will be able to process some depth information, but in images, well…it looks like a black void with some headlights and windows.

Check out the full story here

Independent
Revisiting Quentin Tarantino’s Doomed, Violent and Quickly Forgotten Broadway Debut

Having just put out his 9th film, Quentin Tarantino is undeniably one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. He’s also a failed Broadway actor. That’s right; in 1998, the famed director took a starring role in a Broadway play, and it was a complete and total disaster.

Read the full story here

Macy’s
Massive Seiko Sale

Macy’s is currently running a promotion on top of a sale for some of their watches, and that means you can get some awesome Seiko timepieces for a really great price. For instance, there’s this great new SRPD23 “Samurai” available for just $336. Or this revamped SRPD25 “Monster” for just $336. Whatever your flavor, there’s a lot to choose from.

Hit up Macy’s to see the full range of watches