Issue 213: The Best Of The Fourth Wheel (Part 1)
Plus: four hot new watches leaked via the GPHG, and a new podcast episode from The Watch Enquiry featuring Davide Cerrato
Hello and welcome back to The Fourth Wheel, the weekly watch newsletter that is looking back - I mean, this is the watch industry, after all. I have been writing this newsletter for a reasonably long time now - just over four years - and a lot of you will perhaps never have flicked back through its earlier pages. So I thought I’d save you the trouble on this, the auspicious 213th issue. There’s fun stuff, serious stuff, rants and bad jokes, deep dives, real journalism and so much more.
I’ve also got some new news, as they say: four watches that have slipped loose the earthly bonds of the PR and marketing department to live a limbo-like existence on the GPHG longlist. Not yet released, but there for the world to see - a real Schroedinger’s press release. Or something. New watches from Bulgari, Moser, Toledano & Chan and Christopher Ward.
And finally, a new podcast! Details below…
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Here’s a little taste of what you might have missed recently:
Live From London Watch Week
At the start of June, Tim Barber and I hosted a few panel discussions and interviews at London Watch Week 2026. One of the reasons for doing it, apart from the fact that we like LWW’s vibe and want to support start-up events on home turf, was that it would give us a chance to record some new podcast material while the long-awaited series two becomes, er, even longer-awaited.
There are going to be three episodes in this mini-series, which we are releasing over the next few weeks. It starts with my conversation with Bremont CEO Davide Cerrato, a wide-ranging discussion about the brand, its direction of travel, his relationship with owner Bill Ackman and so on.
Cerrato hinted at something ‘very British’ on the horizon, which would have been an allusion to yesterday’s announcement of the Stephen Hawking Edition Supernova. You can listen to the whole thing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever else you gets your pods.
GPHG Longlist: Spot The Leak
Not, as one brand founder suggested when I chatted to him about his leaked watch, a game best played by octogenarians, but a mildly diverting exercise I amuse myself with every year whereby the GPHG longlist is announced and invariably includes a number of watches that haven’t been officially launched yet.
One I’ve got explicit permission to talk about - not that I need it, but I was being polite because I knew about the existence of this watch ages and ages ago, so wanted to respect the fact that the brand took me into its trust in the first place - is the Toledano & Chan b/1.3 D. That’s D for Dazzle, as in World War One era naval camouflage. Quite fun, isn’t it? It’ll be officially communicated on - what a constructed world we live in, what a performance - in October.
Elsewhere I spotted a very slightly different version (different dial colour, I think that’s it) of Bulgari’s Octo Roma Grand Sonnerie that I don’t think has been released yet, and a new H. Moser & Cie Endeavour Minute Repeater Cylindrical Tourbillon ‘Cosmic Rain’. Phew.
And last but not least, I almost missed it: the Christopher Ward Loco Classic. Wow. Honestly, for under five grand? This is going to go far. Is it an imitation of something far more expensive? Perhaps, but I think that’s not really the point. The dial is ceramic, not enamel; the baseplate beneath is varnished with mother-of-pearl, not hand-hammered, so in a way CW has found ways to evoke the aesthetic of an MB&F or Breguet without incurring the cost, but the fact I’m even putting those three brands in the same sentence is praise enough. Totally unbranded too, I like that.
The Best Of The Fourth Wheel
As I wrote up top, I have never done this before and that, frankly, felt like a huge mistake. I have written, at a conservative estimate, getting on for 500,000 words on this website, and while I would never invite you to confuse quantity with quality, in my completely unbiased opinion most of it is pretty great. That is a lot of content just out there gathering digital motes of dust1.
To make it manageable, and, yes, to cover the fact I am having one week’s holiday, I am splitting the list into two parts. This issue will cover the best articles from Issue 1 to Issue 100, with the best from 101-200 next week. Anything published in the last 12 weeks, you’re just going to have to find it yourself, or wait for me to do this again in a year’s time.
For the next two weeks only I will be removing the paywalls on these linked articles; there is also no paywall on this week’s newsletter. If you like what you see, you know what to do.
The OAK Collection, remember that? By Issue 77 we would realise that it was nothing but fluff for a big sale (which flopped), but there was something weird about it from the off.
Space marketing (in a pre-Barrelhand, pre-Bremont-IWC-Fortis-Artemis-etc world).
“Investing” in watches.
The first AMA, and a longer section on the history of ultra-thin watches.
My favourite watch names. A good counterpoint to last week’s rant about N3W5, and prompted by Issue 14, in which I made fun of the Speake-Marin Ripples.
Visiting Cartier London’s archives.
The first of many rants about watch media.
The second, of many, rants about watch media - specifically, why Perezcope is not like other journalists (for good and bad).
A deep dive on the Audemars Piguet RD4 Universelle
My musings on what a good watch review should contain. Please don’t write in if subsequent reviews have drifted from the path of righteousness.
One of my favourite issues of all time: a detailed and entirely objective analysis of the facial expressions of moonphase moons. If you read only one link here, I honestly think this is a strong contender.
Should we boycott watches from Russia, I asked. This came out in 2023 and is in fact a subject I might return to quite soon. I wonder how my feelings might have changed.
The Omega-Phillips scandal, as it broke.
The best, aka maddest Swatch watches ever made, plus - yes - another impassioned rant about the watch media.
The Only Watch Scandal, as it broke - which I continued to cover for the next two weeks. This was probably the first real journalism TFW contained - conceived as a weekly dose of opinion and analysis, rather than news-gathering. But I spoke to the key parties, and had the most up to date account of a fast-moving story which was for several months the only conversation in town. Am I wrong to say we could do with another good scandal?
Only Watch, pt.2
Only Watch, pt.3. There was in fact a follow-up to this story in issues 95 and 103, but if you read these three you get the bulk of it.
A history of ultra-lightweight watches.
An interview with Jean-Claude Biver. The first interview TFW ever carried, in which I vainly tried to get across just how much of the call he spent shouting at the top of his voice.
A manifesto for British Watchmaking. Some of what I suggested has come to pass. Some is no longer relevant. But some could still be useful.
There you have it: the best 20 from my first 100 newsletters. Enjoy!
And Finally…
Thank you for reading - I wanted to find time to say something about Swatch’s anti-flipping MoonSwatch with its entrance exam but the clock has run out. It shows that another way is possible, doesn’t it? Even if you find the humour a bit suffocating, it’s better than scrums outside shopping malls.
See you next week,
Chris
e-motes?
Don't tell me "Part 1" means you're going to take another week off and post another list next week? Jeez. 🤣
This is awesome! 10 hour flight tomorrow and I’m going to pound through this unread archive of gold!! Love ur writing Chris.
Ok part deux: would I be a fool to put a deposit on an LM101 with CW dropping the mic again ? And likely upping the game on each successive release!
Please, expansive answer. Yes, price of LM is about a years worth of salary for me. But dreamt about for years and now almost maybe going to make it happen. Admire/man crush for Max and brand for a decade now. Versus - “Christopher Ward” the flat out most shite name in watchmaking (a failed t shirt maker who dabbled in DTC watches and then quit industry, ug!) and a brand whose best work apes more pricey watches with original (expensive to create) designs.
BUT I suspect in another year or 2, CW will be making something indistinguishable from a true MB&F. Just think of the jumps in last 2 years! Yes, also see Arnold and Son x Breguet in this release .. Ffs 🤦♂️
Ok - long answer please. 🙏