Welcome To '80s Week!

The 1980s have been a punchline since…well, the 1990s. And it's easy to see why: From music and fashion to, yes, watches, the cultural artifacts that emerged in those years have a highly specific and instantly recognizable style that dated itself upon arrival. But the further we get from the '80s, the better the watches look – and the more important the decade becomes to horological history, as we grasp the full measure of its influence. This is, after all, the era that gave us Swatch. G-Shock. Hublot. A calculator watch that, however corny, anticipated functionality decades ahead of its time. In the 1980s, Jean-Claude Biver resurrected Blancpain. Gerd-R Lang launched a boutique line featuring exhibition casebacks. Alain Silberstein showed how one designer's unique creative vision could define a brand, even in a business known for its conservatism. Meanwhile, a burgeoning genre called hip-hop turned watches into status symbols for a new generation. Tom Selleck wore the Rolex GMT-Master in Magnum P.I ., a show that could've aired at no other moment. And Back to the Future ruled the world with a plot revolving around clocks, watches, and time-travel. The Rolex GMT-Master Ref. 16750 – the same reference worn by Tom Selleck on Magnum P.I. This week, we'll tell many of those stories – with a few additional surprises along the way. We'll get the party started by revealing our favorite watches of the decade, which we love without shame or irony. Because if there's one thing the '80s taught us, it's not to take watches, or ourselves, too seriously.A five-day celebration of an unfairly maligned, chronically misunderstood, and frankly fantastic decade in watchmaking.