MoT's WDF

I'm starting a thread to share knowledge about the availability of watch magazines as part of a collection. Here's the criteria that I try to follow:
1. Preferably free. The free ones tend to come from vendors, so be careful of criteria #2. I have a couple of recommendations for ones that I think are worth paying for.
2. Has interesting watch related content, but shouldn't just be a pure catalogue of a vendor's watches for a season. I can recommend some vendor catalogues that are interspersed with information about their movements, manufacturing techniques, company history, etc. No hard and fast rules, just some are more recommended that others.
3. My focus is on printed material, not downloadable PDFs. If someone else wants to list out links to good online material, then be my guest. Personally, online magazines fit in a weird place between online articles which there are plenty on every topic imaginable, and product listings, which are already on the vendor's website. I'm interested in collecting a set of something tangible - advanced apologies to the environment for all the trees that sacrifice themselves.
4. Available on a semi-regular basis. Not one-offs, we looking for collections here. Normally from annually to quarterly and in-between is the norm.
5. I'm excluding monthly store bought magazines. I'm okay if someone else wants to post about them, but I don't want to get on that train myself. Most are dying out. They lag the release news so much that I find its better subscribing to online news sources. I highly recommend watchville (https://watchville.com/) as a useful aggregator of watch news - they have good dedicated Android app which I use (I assume an IOS is also available).
6. Available to order online preferably. I appreciate some are only obtainable from ADs (although some ADs might post them to you if you're a known good customer), but it's great when you just sign-up and they send you regularly (instead of having to remember annually to check each site and sign-up). Kudos to Christopher Ward for getting this right.

All the above "criteria" are flexible - it's just what I look for. In this thread I'm more interested in being inclusive. I'll post about the magazines I collect, and you can post about any you find interesting - rules be dammed.

Also, hopefully we can also be a useful place for trading (not selling) back copies if you have spares, or have read them and want to swap issues.

In each of my posts I'll try to give examples of magazines I've gotten, why they're good, how to get them, release frequency, quality of writing, quality of photos/presentation, interesting content, paper, shipping material, etc.

Rolex (The Rolex Magazine)
- A very high quality magazine. Thick glossy pages. Very professional as you'd expect from the king of watch marketing.
- Free
- Only available from ADs directly, no online sign-up. If you have a good relationship with a Rolex AD they might send you copies. The problem is, like the watches themselves, the editions headlining a popular watch are very difficult to get.
- About 140 pages
- Very good photography. Word count is less than most magazines, but solid content. Each issue is very focused on one topic (i.e. a particular watch)
- I'm unsure of the frequency; I suspect they're normally twice a year, but I haven't seen a new one in at least a year now. Not sure they've stopped, or are just paused for the pandemic.

- Spares
I have spares for 4, 5, 7 and 8 and missing 1-3 and 6. Let me know if you want to swap.

Omega (Omega Lifetime)

- Again a very high quality magazine. Thick glossy pages, not as substantial as the Rolex ones, but more substantial content-wise.
- Free
- Again, only available from ADs directly, no online sign-up. Again, if the cover page is popular, e.g. James Bond or Moon/Space relate, those issues can be harder to get. However I find these generally more available than Rolex magazines (perhaps because I have more Omega ADs locally). Omega ADs are pretty open to handing these out.
- About 100 pages
- More topics covered, and more articles than the Rolex one. I think this is gold standard for a free magazine. More "lifestyle" stuff than usual in a vendor's magazine, but overall they are a great read. As we know, Omega leans heavily on certain connections such as space exploration, so the magazines have a lot of historical articles. As you'd expect, great photography.
- Frequency is twice a year, although there are exceptions to this.

- Spares
I have spares for 20 (Ocean), 21 (Pioneer), 22 (No Time to DIe), and and missing everything from 15 and before. Let me know if you want to swap.

Christopher Ward (Loupe)

- A good magazine that's super easy to get. Non-gloss, but quality pages/print.
- Free
- CW ship this internationally, direct to your door. For free. This a no-brainer. Go and sign-up today:
https://www.christopherward.com/on/dema ... Loupe-Show
- About 50 pages
- More about new product releases, and more newsy (partly due to frequency). Less long-form, but they actually branch out and talk about icons from other brands which is pretty cool.
- Frequency is quarterly, so although it's not as thick as others, you get it more often..

- Spares
I have spares for 12-20 and missing everything from 11 and before. Let me know if you want to swap.

Christopher Ward's magazine Loupe would fit most of your criteria. It's free and it contains content that's not all just ads for CW watches.

Hodinkee

- Seriously premium glossy magazine. It's the Rolls Royce of these magazines. If you can get over the Hodinkee thing, it really is very good.
- Paid. Normally $38 (including shipping), but if you subscribe you get new editions as they come out for $32. The nice thing is that if you want to collect all the back issues, they're still all available for order. And there's a discount if you order 3 or more back issues to take them down to $32. I bought 1-3 to see if I liked them, then got the rest in another order so avoided the higher price. $32 isn't cheap for a magazine, but I feel a whole less guilty about buying magazines than watches. And unlike watches, I don't feel the need to keep culling the collection.
Current/Past issues: https://www.hodinkee.com/magazine/
Subscription for new releases: https://shop.hodinkee.com/pages/subscri ... e-magazine
- About 150 pages
- Lots of long-form articles. Definitely leans on the lifestyle stuff as there's usually articles about cars, architecture, places to go, etc. But about two-thirds is watch content. Extremely well researched and written. Photos are outstanding. You get what you pay for here. If you like watch magazines, I think these are worth treating yourself with.
- Frequency is 3 times a year (I think).

Now (from Tide & Time)

- Solid magazine with non-gloss paper. A good and relatively inexpensive magazine.
- Australia based magazine, so you have to factor in shipping to the US. I think about $30 each total, but if you buy both back issues available then I think shipping is reduced.
https://marketplace.timeandtidewatches.com/s/magazines
- about 100 pages
- More of a store bought magazine feel to this one. About a third of each magazine is dedicated to a listing of the best watches of the last year. Shorter articles, but nicely written. Better than free magazines, but for the price (to get them to the US), Hodinkee is better in my opinion. If you've collected and read all the magazines above, this a good next option.
- Frequency is 1 per year, usually available November/December.

I don't have any other recent annual vendor catalogues, so I can't really comment. But I'd love to hear which ones you think are good. In the past I've found the following to be better than just a stock set of product listings, so I'll be keeping my eye out for them and will report back if I manage to snag any.
- Oris
- Sinn
- Tudor
I've also heard that the A. Lange & Söhne catalogue is exceptional, but I don't think there is an AD around here.

Boourns wrote: ↑Fri Mar 12, 2021 4:12 pm Christopher Ward's magazine Loupe would fit most of your criteria. It's free and it contains content that's not all just ads for CW watches.

Sorry, beat you to it

Pretty sure CH Premier is a AD for Lange. I tried on a $50k watch when I bought my trilogy.

Stretch44 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 12, 2021 8:52 pm Pretty sure CH Premier is a AD for Lange. I tried on a $50k watch when I bought my trilogy.

It looks really good on you. For real.

Damn right it does! Too bad I'll never own one.

Landed_Alien wrote: ↑Fri Mar 12, 2021 4:15 pm PXL_20210311_185755630_r.jpg

Now (from Tide & Time)

- Solid magazine with non-gloss paper. A good and relatively inexpensive magazine.
- Australia based magazine, so you have to factor in shipping to the US. I think about $30 each total, but if you buy both back issues available then I think shipping is reduced.
https://marketplace.timeandtidewatches.com/s/magazines
- about 100 pages
- More of a store bought magazine feel to this one. About a third of each magazine is dedicated to a listing of the best watches of the last year. Shorter articles, but nicely written. Better than free magazines, but for the price (to get them to the US), Hodinkee is better in my opinion. If you've collected and read all the magazines above, this a good next option.
- Frequency is 1 per year, usually available November/December.

Nothing to add other than that's my new grail on the cover.

Stretch44 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 12, 2021 8:58 pm Damn right it does! Too bad I'll never own one.

Wow, it looks amazing on you. Go on, you should buy it. Definitely. You deserve it. And then I can borrow it sometimes

ManOnTime wrote: ↑Fri Mar 12, 2021 9:49 pm Nothing to add other than that's my new grail on the cover.

"Octo Finissimo Automatic watch with mechanical manufacture movement, automatic winding, platinum micro rotor and small seconds. BVL 138 caliber, 40 mm extra-thin satin-polished stainless steel case (6.40 mm thick), transparent case back, polished stainless steel screw-down crown set with ceramic insert, blue lacquered dial with sunburst finishing, integrated satin-polished stainless steel bracelet with folding clasp. Water-resistant up to 100 meters."

You could totally rock this Matt. I'll let Santa know what a good boy you've been this year.