Gear Patrol | Spirit of Adventure, Passion for Gear

Drivers have their day

We approach track time like a fluffy white cat to Fancy Feast. That is, we lick our chops… which is exactly what happened in sunny Las Vegas on Superbowl weekend in the all-new 2013 Lexus GS and LFA supercar. With a bevy of Lexus staff and race car driver extraordinaire, Scott Pruett, we availed ourselves [...]

Canon, Cantons and Continentals

Sunday, 12:24pm | A hundred miles. It doesn’t sound like that much. Maybe a long round-trip commute or a weekend ride up to the grandparents. But take that same distance, move it 3,800 miles, and my, how things can change. If you’ve ever looked into great driving roads than you’ve undoubtedly heard that Europe is [...]

Blessed by the God of the Sea

In the 1960s, scuba diving’s popularity was booming, thanks almost entirely to one man: Jacques-Yves Cousteau. It was Cousteau who, along with Emile Gagnan invented the Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus (SCUBA) known as the Aqua-Lung. It was also Cousteau, whose French-accented voiceovers and globetrotting adventures on his TV series fascinated households worldwide. And as if [...]

Here’s a quick mental exercise for you. Imagine you were faced with a fight, in which you knew your opponent was bigger, stronger, more experienced, and had access to the best facilities, trainers, and coaches money could buy. Would you step into the ring? It’s a terrible analogy, but those kind of Rocky odds are [...]

Part trade show, part soiree, all business

Every year, 18 of the major Swiss watch manufacturers pack up their suitcases, shut down their ateliers and head to Geneva to participate in one of their biggest events of the year, the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH). Part trade show, part intimate soiree and all business, SIHH has, for the past 20 [...]

Peer into the future, without the crystal ball

We kicked off 2012 by visiting not-so-beautiful Las Vegas to attend CES, with the hope of getting a head start on the exciting new products that will launch over the coming year. While we’ll continue to highlight gadgets revealed there on a regular basis, one of the best parts about being on the ground at [...]

8 second showdown

Going into its sixth year, the Professional Bull Riders descended on the Big Apple earlier this month, and with it an abundance of leather, flannel and denim in tow. But the rough-and-ready horde didn’t come here to talk style, but instead demonstrated the brutally tough sport of professional bull riding. Kicking off a 10 month, [...]

All cylinders firing

Good news: we were on the ground at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show (aka North American International Auto Show). Bad news: our luggage wasn’t. Trying to put together any editorial on an auto show without photography can be, well, a challenge and the last time we checked, our court-room sketching skills weren’t really up to [...]

Further, farther, faster

Adventure filmmakers big and small have more tools than ever for producing their work in the wilderness, thanks in part to the continuous improvements of camera equipment and filmmaking technology. Of course, the vision wouldn’t be anything without the dedicated creativity put forth by the storytellers — the writers, directors, cinematographers, editors, and producers. Lastly, [...]

This article is Volume 2 in our special Icons series for Timekeeping, written by our guru Jason Heaton. In case you missed it, be sure to catch our first Icons article, Volume 1: Super Compressor Dive Watch. 1970 was a year of great ups and downs for the mechanical chronograph. The vaunted Omega Speedmaster helped [...]

When most people think of a dive watch, the first thing that comes to mind is the prototypical ratcheting bezel, with its chunky flutings and bold markers. But there was another style of diver that emerged in the early days of recreational diving and found great popularity – the Super Compressor. To be clear, the [...]

Noel Nomad

The person who coined the phrase “getting there is half the fun”, clearly never had to travel by air, train, bus, or car during the holiday season. No amount of planning can ever guarantee a smooth journey, but having the “right tools for the job”, as they say, will go a long way towards making [...]

Wheel Good

Better than a necktie, a misshapen fruitcake and a smothering of grandma’s kisses all at once is a gift for our inner gearhead. From bike to motorcycle to car gifts, the editors at Gear Patrol have whittled down our monumental list of coveted wheel-related items for your giving and/or receiving pleasure. And regardless of what’s [...]

Vorsprung durch Technik

Ask the average guy where the best watches in the world are made and he will undoubtedly say, “Switzerland.” After all, most of the recognizable brands like Jaeger-LeCoultre, Vacheron Constantin, Rolex and Patek Philippe hail from that neutral Alpine nation. It is partly the neutrality of Switzerland that has allowed these great names of horology [...]

On holiday, off grid

No matter the destination or pursuit, there’s one unpredictable constant that entwines throughout the spirit of adventure — the ever-changing natural elements. Rather than limiting your lifestyle or altering your approach, we’ve compiled this list of 10 critical items that belong in your outdoor gear arsenal. Some you may be familiar with, some you may [...]