Of all the public and personal anecdotes I could use to illustrate the singular standing the Mercedes S-Class sedan has in the public mind, I think this one is the most amusing: It was 1989 or thereabouts and my father was looking for a new car. In those long-ago days there was a unique niche of dea…

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The name Sébastien Chaulmontet may not ring any bells, but if you have a watch with a SW300 movement, you already own something bearing his touch. The wiry guy in thick-rimmed glasses walking up to my table at a Zürich café looks more like a lawyer than a passionate watch collector and marketing director of Sellita1. In his spare time he collects mostly Angelus and Longines timepieces, but he’s interested in odd complications, or prototypes that never made the market. He also holds 4 patents related to the venerable Valjoux/ETA 7750 movement; while working on those, he had this idea of creating “Imaginary Vintage” watches that aren’t simple reissues of old designs, instead something that could have been purpose-made in the 40s or 50s. From his home office he can see the Albis mountain range, with its highest elevation being... the Albishorn. That’s the company name taken care of, then.

Looking at the watch on my wrist, all of this tracks. The case design heavily references the elusive Rolex Zerograph flyback chronographs, and the watch face is a mix between a Breguet Type XX and a 1944 Rolex-Panerai that Albishorn calls “California Ghost”. Looking at the arrangement one would be tempted to think of some heavy modification to the base 7750 movement, but if you note that the crown is nestling in the unusual 10:30 position, you realize that the minute counter and the running seconds are in the standard 9 and 12h positions, just rotated through 125° so that they are inline at the bottom. Sébastien explains: “We did a lot of work to shrink it down to from 7.9 to 5.7mm - you don’t lose thickness just by omitting the 12h counter. This is why it’s not automatic. But we increased the power reserve from 48 to 65 hours!” I must have furled my brow because he assured me that despite the patented monopusher complication, any watchmaker familiar with the base movement should be able to service it. Albishorn sells the watches with a 2-year limited warranty, and they will ship the bespoke parts2 to anywhere in the world. There’s not much sense in sending it back to Switzerland from the USA for a simple ‘clean and oil’ service anyway.

So what is the story of this one? It was inspired by the 1952 Swiss expeditions to Mount Everest - the primary objectives of which included exploring access to the South Col, conquering the intricate Khumbu Icefall, and potentially advancing to the South Col. They came very close; mountaineer Raymond Lambert and sherpa Tenzing Norgay had set a new altitude record of 8,595 metres when they faced the impossible choice of summit (and die) or retreat (and, perhaps, try again). Following this near-success in the spring, they resolved to make another attempt after the summer monsoon. However, they didn’t settle the schedule until June so the second team arrived too late, facing harsh winter conditions, and was forced to abort. The following year, New Zealand climber Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay used the experiences gained by the Swiss teams (and some of the provisions they left behind) to make a successful summit push. The Swiss would have to wait 4 more years to plant their own flag on the mountain.

Pictures of the 1952 expedition are extremely rare but if you look at the Brits’ photos from the following year, you’ll notice cylindrical containers with an intricate logo of a Swiss cross and rope on them - this is engraved on the caseback. That logo belongs to the Zürich-based “La Fondation Suisse pour la Recherche Alpine”, the Swiss Foundation for Alpine Research. Since 1939, they had organized expeditions to the Himalaya and this was their logo. Until José Perez (of Perezcope fame) pieced together the story, nobody had any idea how Rolex Daytonas from the 70s came to existence with this “mystery cross” on their casebacks. The most credible theory is that the Foundation ordered them for the 20th anniversary of the successful expedition.

Not a bad starting point for a homage then, 70 years on. The Thundergraph’s iridescent petroleum-blue dial is intricately detailed; as I turn it into the sun to appreciate the color, Sébastien explains that he uses a dial maker in Neuchâtel who gold-plates the polished brass base, then applies one coat of blue, then diamond cuts the subdial edges, gold plates it AGAIN so the angles are shiny, then applies coats of clear lacquer that create depth. A loupe or a microscope is necessary to see that the gold finish on the applied indexes and hands is brushed - and they have beige Super-Luminova filling. The subdial hands also have a luminous lollipop at their tips. It is a lume monster as I find out later that evening. The subdials have an azurage finish, this creates the optical illusion of concentric circles but it is actually a spiral with a beginning and an end.

Despite the expedition-ready looks, it wears like an everyday watch. Case diameter is 39mm across with a 42.5mm bidirectional bezel, and thanks to all that mechanical development, it is only 12mm thick. From the manufacturer it comes on a nice petrol-blue leather strap (a tan suede strap is included in the box) and there’s an option for a bespoke steel link bracelet. As I keep finding out, it can live very nicely on an olive NATO or a yellow sailcloth strap as well. The blue strap complements the dial, while the yellow or tan ones complement the crown. We talk with Sébastien for some time about the chronograph pushers, his point is that mechanically they should be made with the least resistance, just to be easy on the parts that have to slide on each other; I chide my Tudor’s MT5813 a bit, which feels like you’re breaking a hamster’s ribs every time you start it. (Try an IWC Doppelchrono sometime, it’s worse, and the Piguet Omega Broad Arrow was worst of all! — jb) The Thundergraph Himalaya is better by contrast, starting and stopping feel the same, with a definite take-up point. The 3rd push (the reset, which has the most subassemblies to actuate) feels the stiffest, but still not as rough as the Tudor.

So you get:

• a story

• a 100% Swiss designed and made, COSC-certified chronometer with hacking seconds, two straps, 330ft/10bar waterproofing

• a soft travel case in a presentation box.

The watch is CHF3,650 (ex. VAT), if you’re the traveler type, I’d recommend picking it up in person, or at least in Switzerland, so you only pay the 8% tax on it. I think you get exceptional value for your money. Albishorn has other watches as well; the sister model to the Thundergraph is called the Khumbu, it is light apple green, matched to a vintage Land Rover Defender color. Their “Air” line has one novel complication - a chronograph “telltale” like fighter plane instrument clocks had - it shows black if the chrono is reset to zero, red when running, and white when stopped. The reason for this is that in high G-load situations you want to be darned sure that it was you who started the clock, not an errant shock. The newest of their offerings are the “Water” line of watches that are a combination skin diver/regatta timer - with another patented complication that stops the regatta timer at the end of the 10 minute countdown. You’ll pay an extra CHF300 for the Air and Water watches because on those even the bezel gets luminous indexes.

Sébastien Chaulmontet might not be a household name, but if you enjoy Swiss watches, his should be a name in your household. This watch might do well there, too.

”It’s the best bike in the world,” my Eaglerider rep told me. “So that’s nice.” My exaggerated sense of middle-class politeness prevented me from replying with,

“Well, it might be the best bike in the world; that’s up for debate. What is not up for debate is what the R1300GS is not, namely: the…

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Greetings and welcome to a comprehensive look at a car that is unlikely to be seen on US roads anytime soon. Sri Lanka knows it as the Atto 1, a name it also bears in Australia and a few other Asian markets, while it is also yclept Dolphin Surf in Europe, and Seagull in its native land, so quite a lot of identities for one small car. The Atto 1 is the e…

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Meet the quickest Harley-Davidson streetbike in history. Until the Pan America arrived, no road-legal Harley had ever offered anything close to 150 horsepower. On its debut, a standard height PanAm “Special” hit 120mph trap speed for Cycle World; that was a jacked-up, wire-spoke-wheeled ADV with a big windshield and Michelin Scorcher Adventure semi-knob…

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The meaning of “luxury car” is hardly any less controversial than the meaning of “sports car”. Maybe more so, because once upon a time there really was an accepted definition of “sports car”, and it boiled down to “MG TD”.

“Luxury car”, by contrast, is a phrase that just sort of oozed into regular use. Biddle and Cunningham mentioned the phrase in post-…

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Everyone, please give a warm welcome to Adam 12 who is here to give us a look into what the pop stars call “island lyfe, yo” — jb

Travel gives us the opportunity to see how others live, work, play, adapt, and adopt products for their needs. When diving in Cayman Brac with my son we took the last day before leaving to look around the island. When inquirin…

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I come to praise the IONIQ 6 N, not to bury it. There is not a single field of human endeavor that is not improved when creative people strike out in a new direction, even if that new direction proves to bear no useful fruit. Okay, I suppose maybe the field of “nuclear reactor safety” shouldn’t uplift its rules-breakers and iconoclasts too, but everywh…

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So recently your author was driving to a car show on a Saturday, in Eldridge, Iowa. It was faily mild for early summer, but by the time I’d seen all the cars, and wandered back to the XTS, it was a little warm so I decided to turn on the A/C.

And it blew warm air. But hey, it’s hot, it just started, it’ll be OK.

It wasn’t. Crap.

So I ran a couple errands. On the way home I turned it on again, just for the hell of it. And it blew cold! Oh gee, it must have been just a fluke it’s fine now.

It wasn’t.

That evening I went to my folks’ because Dad was cooking. And when I drove home that night about 10 PM, I turned on the A/C. And it blew warm air again.

OK. F this. I’m done. So I scheduled it at McLaughlin. Glad I got the extended warranty! And so Monday before last I dropped it off in the morning and got the keys to this brand new Optiq.

Funny thing, at first I thought it was a Lyriq. I’d sat in a Lyriq at the regional auto show last March, and just assumed. From the front it looks like one, and the overall shape is similar. And the interior seemed exactly the same.

It wasn’t til I got done at the office and walked out to the car at the end of the day that I noticed it said “Optiq” on the tailgate. Oops.

Anyway, it is VERY different than an XTS or final gen CTS. It’s really swoopy and futuristic. As I piloted it out of McLaughlin and onto John Deere Road, I felt like I was driving the time machine from Back to the Future.

And yep it’s electric. I have no interest in ever owning an electric vehicle, but I liked this car a lot more than I thought I would. It isn’t a big ponderous, ill-handling mess—though it is, at 5200 pounds, about 1200 lb fatter than my much roomier, much Broughamier 2019 XTS.

It’s not a big vehicle, and the handling was pretty nice. It is of course very quiet. And yes, I know that it’s an EV so duh it’s quiet.

But even beyond that, it seemed surprisingly silent. I suspect it has a crapload of sound insulation.

And the entire instument panel is a single touchscreen. So 8 years from now, if it decides to roll over and die, you’re screwed. No redundant controls, other than the HVAC buttons along the bottom of the dash. Only a couple other minor buttons are in evidence, off to the left of the steering wheel.

The stereo was nice. And though I don’t like it enough to subscribe myself, I enjoyed the XM radio too, mostly sticking to the 60s 70s and 80s channels. It’s kind of surreal driving this swoopy thing and listening to “A Little Bit Me” by the Monkees at the same time.

And despite being a smaller, narrower vehicle than my XTS, it seemed a little sluggish. Nothing terrible. Nothing like Paul Niedermeyer going up a 30% grade in a 1960s Microbus he insists has sufficient power. But a few times, yeah, I wished it had a little more oomph. I wonder what this thing would be like with the 3.6L V6? I bet they’d sell a hell of a lot more of them!

The interior, while super futuristic, also seemed, at least to me, to have a little bit of that 1950s Motorama “dream car” vibe. I liked the color combo too, black with a black and white “tuxedo” interior, with additional royal blue accents on the instrument panel and door panels.

One interesting thing: I later picked up an Optiq color chart and, believe it or not, a navy blue leather interior is available. It almost makes me want to get one. You know, if it was a sedan. And had a V6. Ha!

But it was a pleasant vehicle, seemed pretty well assembled, and the interior, while lacking the usual Caddy wood trim and chrome bits, still seemed sufficiently “Cadillacy” to me. It doesn’t have cheap vibes coming off of it. It did have an annoying lane departure nanny that would buzz your seat. I quickly hated it. It would sometimes even do it if I was totally in my lane, but the road was curving. Fortunately I figured out how to turn it off—it’s one of those 2-3 buttons to the left of the steering wheel.

At any rate, it was a pretty nice vehicle, and I enjoyed it.

I’m still not buying an EV though! And I got the XTS back this past Friday, all washed and detailed and 100% functional again. Smithers, another lime rickey!

“The future is already here,” wrote William Gibson many years ago, “it’s just unevenly distributed.” In the case of Ford’s F-150 pickup truck, this is literally true: some models got updates for 2026 and others did not. The XLT 2.7 was one of the variants that didn’t get hit with the new-features stick. Luck…

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What is this, Crossover Reports? We’re reviewed a RAV4 and a Rogue while Jonny Lieberman is reviewing Aston Martins! Which is just how the ball bounces, I guess — but since most of us are more likely to buy a “cute-ute” than we are to lease an Arabian Mustang, maybe the review mix makes sense.

This time, we have a entry-level version of Mazda’s CX-50 in …

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Seventeen years ago, I permanently crippled my autowriting “career” by telling the reader that

Our passenger laps with Flying Lizard driver Patrick Long only served to confirm what we learned driving the new Panamera Turbo around Road America ourselves: this is the Corvette of luxury…

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In another life I worked for a premium automotive lifestyle brand that liked to do print-magazine features on used/old/vintage/whatever cars. We had a young fellow who would go out and source the vehicles. Sometimes he couldn’t get the car we wanted and so we’d have to change the focus of the article — oh yeah, it turns out the Citation X-11, not the Pa…

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The final quarter of 2025 was a tumultuous time in my laboratory. A business group based in another building south of mine had 4 brand new test benches sitting in storage. Each of them takes up about 150-200sqft before allowances for walking around them. The management of this group decided the best course of action was to clear out floor space in MY lab, and activate those benches here ASAP because they had super important testing to run. Before you ask dear reader; no, I won’t be running these new machines, and as of today (March 30, 2026) they still aren’t fully commissioned and operating.

Anyhow, the first action items were to move out and scrap some old equipment we truthfully weren’t using anymore. Then we moved some other test stands that I was still running over to an area once occupied by a scrapped machine. After moving some cabinets around, the four fancy new machines had their floorspace. (It’s true this story has nothing to do with the smallest Cadillac available right now, but if none of it happened I wouldn’t be able to bring you a review on this 4 year old company pool car so please bear with me.) It was at that point we started to hear rumblings of moving those still operational and fairly popular machines out of our lab and into the assembly plant where most of the parts I tested in them were made. After the electricians finished connecting them to 220v in their new area, we were told a semi truck will be arriving the next morning to take them away.

Where was away, you ask? The small agri-industrial town of Greensburg, Indiana. My Lab Management suggested having their lab techs come up to Michigan so together we could run a super-hot test that Product Management was huffing about. That way, once the benches got moved down to Indiana, they’d know how to use them and could continue running tests as needed. “We don’t have enough time for that,” was the response from Product Management. The next morning, a semi truck backed up to the loading dock, my bosses and I wheeled the machines into the trailer and strapped them in, I emptied my spare parts cabinets into a giant plastic tote, and we waved them goodbye. I asked my boss, “I’m gonna have to go down there, aren’t I?”

More than an entire week later, on a Friday morning around 10am, the benches were finally set up and powered on in Greensburg. That’s when they realized what these Product Managers, who can’t even use a screwdriver, had stuck them with, and begged for assistance. HR booked me a hotel. I was to keep my food receipts so my manager could pay me back and then fill out an expense report as his own, and I would get a credit card for gas. Plus… the keys to a pool car. Monday morning, after HR finally found the correct gas card and matching PIN, I walked outside and brushed the snow off a black 2022 (I think, could be a 21) Cadillac XT4.

Driving through Ohio for the first time in over two years, I had the cruise control set to 70-something mph. The steering wheel had buttons on it for adaptive cruise control, and the dash showed me graphical indications of the selected following distance as I pressed the buttons, but it didn’t actually seem to do any adapting on any setting. With the distance set to the longest setting, speed set to higher than the car ahead, this particular Caddy simply kept creeping closer and closer without adapting. To confirm this issue, I once let it get very close to the car ahead of me before canceling cruise and moving over to pass; the adaptive cruise simply didn’t work, but I saw nothing more than a washer fluid level warning in all the 4 days I drove the car. No matter, I prefer standard cruise control anyway. By accident, I figured out that the little rocker knob on the right wheel spoke has 2 positions at each end. Tapping shortly changed my speed by 1mph as standard, but pressing the rocker fully and holding for a fraction of a second jumped the cruise setting by 5mph for passing, and the same settings applied in the other direction slowed the car down the same respective amounts. At first it was a nuisance because it surprised me at an inopportune moment, but once I figured out the function I really enjoyed and used it constantly.

The powertrain had no issue bumping me up that 5 or even 10mph on short notice, either. During my drive I honestly thought it had the 2.7L truck engine. However, Wikipedia says the XT4 has a 2.0L LSY turbo I-4 *with* AFM coupled to a 9T50 transmission. Stated power output is only 237hp and 258lbft, but it makes that torque from 1500 all the way to 4000 rpm. That little 2.0 and 9 speed combo really works well together, pulling the 3900lb unit around with authority you’d not expect from the numbers alone. It really is surprisingly quick. Interstate passing is trivial up to… uh… speeds, and woe to any teenager in a pickup truck who tries to beat an attentively driven AWD XT4 across an intersection.

On the other hand, It doesn’t sound amazing and fuel economy was not great. I think I only averaged 23 or 24mpg on my way south. I do tend to drive 3-7mph faster than average traffic around me, but since I’m an hourly employee I wasn’t really trying to make time either. All that awaited me was a lonely hotel room away from my wife in a town with nothing happening the first week of December.

One saving grace of this otherwise mind numbing drive was the XT4’s solidly nice stereo and pretty reliable Android Auto. An electro-magnetic charging pad in the center console kept my S25 topped up, but it’s out of sight so I left my phone in the car at least 6 times in 4 days, including every stop for gas. One other saving grace was the very comfortable heated seat. My lower back did start to get sore as I approached Cincinnati, but I can’t name a vehicle off the top of my head where that doesn’t happen after 4.5hrs.

My Spotify playlist continued shuffling from everything between Wu Tang and Three 6 Mafia, to Metallica and Alice in Chains, to D-Train, to Anri, and even some Eddie Rabbitt. All the songs came through loud and clear, with strong but clean bass, clean mids, and clear vocals, but like many other stereos cymbal crashes would often be too sharp at higher volumes. Despite the comfy seat and good hi-fi, though, the overall interior vibe wasn’t very inspiring. It feels very much like you’re sunken inside of a tank as opposed to piloting a small premium crossover (more on this later). The full black leather and plastics only add to that feeling, and almost spill into claustrophobic despite actually being quite roomy. This car would feel much more pleasant with some tan/brown tones to counter the void inside.

The IN3 bypass around Greensburg on the west side is a huge road obviously less than 5 years old, and the road out to the industrial area where I found my assembly plant was freshly repaved as well. Of course not every road has seen investment recently, but that was no problem for the Cadillac. This car does indeed ride as the badge suggests (or once suggested depending on whom you ask). Interior noise is well managed, too. Handsfree phone calls were the best they’ve ever been at highway speeds, and although the stereo can get loud it doesn’t need to be. When spiritedly taking entry/exit ramps or gunning to make a yellow-arrow left before being stuck at another 4 minute light, though… I think an Escalade would feel more corner-confident.

The XT4 doesn’t lack grip, but the spring softness that makes it ride so well isn’t very well controlled when you add lateral loading. It heaves over around turns and dives under braking, which only enforces the notion this is a car for comfort and not speed despite its peppy motor. And that’s fine, but why does it feel like a ‘75 Eldo if small crossover shaped? I wonder if the Eldorado would actually turn better… My wife’s 2018 Compass is a Miata compared to this thing; slower but has a way more spirited chassis and 900lbs less weight. I didn’t think twice before hustling the Compass around Waterford Hills when I got a lucky spot for parade laps (seriously, Jack has a video1). The XT4? It would just stay parked in the grass paddock.

Greensburg got snow that week. More snow earlier in the winter than anyone could remember since forever ago. Schools closed but we still went to work, and my Cadillac didn’t seem to mind. It’s only equipped with all season tires, so lateral grip and stopping was done with caution but it wasn’t an issue to accelerate thanks to the AWD system. Eventually my modus operandi was to turn off traction control and lock in the AWD which allowed maximum safe fun but also the easiest driveability due to the computers chilling out a bit. I even had snow covered and hard-packed roads for my way home on a sunny Thursday morning.

Google Maps decided the best way home was via I74 toward Indy, but then getting off and noodling along various county and state routes to the north until I returned to a highway somewhere east of Indy. The route zig-zagged through the bucolic scenes of snow covered fields, old barns, old tractors and old trucks. Driving down them in a small black Cadillac made me feel slightly conspicuous, like I would easily be mistaken for some conglomerate head’s wife or some pansy2 corporate drone interfering with the rural way of life. In a way, the latter was half true. My 2-tone blue/grey ‘00 Chevy 2500 would’ve blended in much better, but I was thankful to have the stability of the Cad’s AWD on miles long stretches of unplowed and untreated roads at 45-50mph. I only saw 3 or 4 other vehicles along that leg, anyway.

Storage space is on par for the class, I think. I came back with more stuff than I left with but the only thing that was slightly awkward was a set of Nissan S13 side skirts I picked up for a friend, but with the rear seats folded they did indeed fit diagonally.

Other than its formfactor, drivetrain layout, and cylinder count, the XT4 does feel like a junior Cadillac, and a huge leap over its Cheby badged progenitor. It absolutely devours long highway miles, has the power, comfortable seats, smooth ride, quiet cabin, and good stereo you expect from the shield and crest (just shield now I guess?), but it does lack the sense of occasion, or swagger if you will, the marque once held. Nor does it inspire any thrill around corners. This pool car hasn’t had any issues but it’s still relatively new so I can’t truly speak to long term reliability.

A quick AutoTempest search says examples with similar miles (I think the car I drove is over 50k now) are between $15-25k. For me, that’s a ton of money I would rather spend on 25 year old pickups and sedans. When compared to what these things cost new, though? If one is shopping for a small but nice crossover, I’d say it’s worth a test drive and inspection. It’s a nice car.

Good: acceleration, seat, stereo, cabin noise, ride, poor weather confidence

Meh: steering and handling, mpg, styling inside and out, generally boring

Welcome our own Peter Collins, who thinks I made the wrong choice in my used-Lexus forays…

Is that even a question?

In which, oh best beloved, we learn to do “Lexus on a budget” the right way.

It is cruel to mock the afflicted, is it not? Christianity hints that this a road we shouldn’t take, but sometimes, just sometimes we must don the boots and be ready…

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Call it the Season of Affordable Whites. Last week, the Commander and I drove a 2025 Toyota Corolla around West Texas and New Mexico — but in the five days before heading to El Paso, we put some serious mileage on a 2025 Audi Q3 45 S-Line Premium. How serious? 1,959 miles in 120-ish hours, going from Mid-Ohio down to Hilton Head and back with plenty of …

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Did you know that you can buy an American-made sedan that offers 169 horsepower, more than 40mpg in normal driving, plenty of room for a quartet of adults, an acceptable suite of electronic intrusions, a decent stereo, plus generally admirable fit and finish for… $23,460 including delivery? There are a few drawbacks, w…

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