“IT TAKES A licking but keeps on ticking.” The catchphrase popularised by Timex in its television commercials in the 1960s has justifiably endured. A reminder that, in life, success isn’t determined by failure but how one pushes on in spite of setbacks, the advertising slogan-turned-life lesson has also been adopted by luxury watch brands obsessed with pushing the envelope with high-performance timepieces that can, as Timex appropriately described, “take a licking”.
The incongruity of putting a watch that costs tens or hundreds of thousands through extreme conditions isn’t lost on collectors. It isn’t that affluent aficionados are too fussed about scratches and dings. In fact, away from punishing field and laboratory tests, these watches
