Tom Austin

Tom Austin is a British watch journalist and Digital Editor at Time+Tide Watches. He writes extensively about the global watch industry, covering new releases, hands-on reviews, independent watchmaking, collecting and watch culture, alongside producing photography and voiceover content for Time+Tide.

Tom discovered watches at the young age of around 5, fascinated by a digital Super Mario Bros watch that was devastatingly lost on a Spanish holiday. Clearly scarred for life, Tom has spent the last 30 years attempting to recover from that tragedy by becoming a lifelong watch collector and enthusiast.

Tom’s taste has since matured from 90s plastic cartoon watches and now favours steel sports watches with a bit more refinement. With a background in engineering and business management, Tom finds watches are a fun escape from all that stuff.

My favourite watch: Like picking a favourite song, it’s almost impossible for me, but I guess it’s whatever I get drawn to most when opening the box, and usually that tends to be my Rolex GMT Master II 116710BLNR. On my wrist during some of the most memorable parts of my adult life, it’s the one I couldn’t do without.

My Finale watch: A black dial Rolex Daytona 6240. I’m a guy who loves details and nuances which make a particular piece rare and collectable. For me, nothing beats 4-digit Rolex Cosmographs and Daytonas for this. I also love that Rolex could barely give these away back in the day; it makes me smile.