When you think about the home of watchmaking, the first thing that comes to mind is likely Geneva or the Vallée de Joux, and maybe even Glashütte or Shizukuishi. Down Under, the sun is shining when most of the watchmaking industry is asleep; coming across an École d'horlogerie de Genève school watch at the local flea market is effectively impossible, and visiting a manufacture doesn’t mean driving down the road: it means cruising at 30,000ft for at least 12 hours.
But despite the tyranny of distance, the same passion that forms the foundation of the watch industry is exactly the same as it is anywhere in the world. This, more than anything, is why we’ve brought Hodinkee to Australia and New Zealand.
So after a truly non-stop few months – which included launching our website, flying to Watches & Wonders in Geneva, growing the team, and then diving headfirst into this magazine – we couldn't be prouder to bring you the first-ever print edition of Hodinkee Australia & New Zealand.
Being the inaugural issue, we've themed it around the idea of firsts, and once you start thumbing through the pages, you'll find them everywhere. There's Reuben Schoots, the first Australian to build a watch by the George Daniels method, working alone out of a Canberra garage; Mark Webber, the first and still only Australian to win a Formula 1 Grand Prix and the FIA World Endurance Championship; Sam Kerr, the only footballer to have won Golden Boots in three different leagues on three different continents; and Mike Horn, the first adventurer to circle the globe along the equator without a motor in sight.
Naturally, that thread runs through the watches we’ve chosen to feature, too. We celebrate 100 years of the Rolex Oyster, the first truly water-resistant watch case; we get hands-on with Vacheron Constantin's first non-limited titanium tool watch, the Overseas Dual Time Cardinal Points; and lose ourselves in A. Lange & Söhne's latest luminous triumph, the Lange 1 Tourbillon Perpetual Lumen.
Further into the magazine you'll find pop star and Commonwealth Games medallist Cody Simpson opening his watch box to share his Omega collection, the quiet revival of the pocket watch as a true collecting category, an unflinching investigation into the state of watch repair in Australia, and plenty of other fascinating stories written by our team and contributors – all of which explore the people, objects and ideas shaping watchmaking, design, sport and collecting from this side of the planet.
One inaugural issue, three collectible covers (choose your favourite, or pick up the set), 23 stories, and 156 pages. We hope you enjoy the read as much as we enjoyed putting it together. It's been such a pleasure to see it out in the world, whether that's been on shelves at newsstands, in the hands of fellow watch enthusiasts as they enjoy their morning coffee in the city, or seeing the office team make multiple journeys to the post office each day to send off magazines as online orders roll in. Thank you so much for your support - you make this all real.
Hodinkee Australia & New Zealand Vol. 1 is available now, with three different cover stars: A. Lange & Söhne, Rolex and Vacheron Constantin editions. Order your favourite cover online here, or from newsagents around the country.
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