Watches, Stories, & Gear: Linde Werdelin’s New Auction Platform, Prepping for Turkey Day, and a Porsche from a Galaxy Far, Far Away

“Watches, Stories, and Gear” is a roundup of our favorite content, watch or otherwise, from around the internet. Here, we support other creators, explore interesting content that inspires us, and put a spotlight on causes we believe in. Oh, and any gear we happen to be digging on this week. We love gear.

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A Porsche 964 on Tatooine

In what is quite simply one of the coolest Porsche restomod projects we’ve seen, for your viewing pleasure this week we present the Porsche 964 C4 Cab Art Car ROCS Tatooine by Rocs Motorsports. The idea is simple: a Porsche 964, but Star Wars. This mod perfectly captures the grimy and grounded realness of Tatooine, the home planet of the Skywalker family. It’s appropriately ramshackle and the level of detail is fairly astounding. One such detail is a specific watch by our friends at Autodromo, a white Group C that appears to have been through an adventure or two of its own. Check it via the Rocs Motorsports website, which has a ton of detail on the project. 

Best Made Sold Back to its Founder 

Best Made Company, the iconic apparel and hard goods brand, was sold to Duluth Trading five years ago, and many fans of the brand felt the direction they’ve been heading since the sale was not where they wanted to go. Much of that sensibility is probably due to the widespread admiration for Best Made founder Peter Buchanan-Smith. Without him, the project just didn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense. Now, in a surprising development, Best Made has been sold back to Buchanan-Smith. For now, the Best Made website just features a message from the founder and returning owner, but this is something worth keeping an eye on for longtime Best Made acolytes. 

Gem Setting with One of the Best in the Game 

If you’re a watch fan (we figure you are if you’re here on a Saturday) you’re almost certainly accustomed to browsing websites selling things you could never dream of actually obtaining, but find a unique pleasure in simply drooling over them. A Collected Man is one of our favorite places to do that – they sell perhaps one of the most carefully curated collections of pre-owned, independent watches in the world, and they have a ton of great editorial content to go along with it. A recent piece by Kwan Ann Tan is a perfect example, as she spends some time with Pierre Salanitro, one of the world’s foremost experts in the art and craft of gem setting. Gem set watches are a niche within a niche, and certainly not to everyone’s taste, but as you’ll understand upon reading Tan’s piece, it’s a real skill, and the degree of difficulty here is on par with any other in watchmaking. 

Linde Werdelin Launches an Auction Platform 

Linde Werdelin is one of our favorite independent brands from the original wave of young, disruptive watchmakers that changed the way many looked at the hobby. They’ve always made interesting watches that were worthy of discussion, and have now embarked on a new project that is possibly the first of its kind in the industry. They’ve started their own auction platform, with a unique Oktopus Monster going under the hammer in a little more than a week’s time. Auctions, of course, are nothing new, but a brand putting their own pieces up for public sale in this way certainly is, and it could be an intriguing way for a Linde Werdelin (or any brand) to get some immediate feedback on the interest in their pieces from their most dedicated clients. Head over to the Linde Werdelin website for more information. 

Tumblr is (Still) Not Dead

Remember Tumblr? The early blogging platform had a real moment in the days before modern social media completely took over our lives. Over the years, the platform has lost many users, but a hardcore group of longtime (and some new) users remain, even after many prognosticators have repeatedly said the platform was doomed. The Verge has an interesting piece this week on how Tumblr is finding itself once again by digging into niches inhabited by people who are looking for an alternative to algorithm focused doomscrolling of platforms like Instagram and Twitter X. Proof, perhaps, that every internet sensation gets a second (and third) life. 

Eater Gets You Ready for Thanksgiving

This is our final WSG column before Thanksgiving, perhaps the biggest day of calorie intake for Americans besides Super Bowl Sunday. Eater, of course, has all kinds of content to get you ready for the big day, including a defense of using oysters in your stuffing. There’s also a helpful guide to setting the holiday table, and, most critically, a holiday cocktail guide from Punch, Eater’s sister publication. If hearing “All I Want for Christmas is You” on repeat everywhere you go since Halloween doesn’t get you in the holiday spirit, hopefully browsing Eater this weekend can.