Latest watch news · Page 1266

It's been a pretty big week for watches.

The second of a two part story detailing Michael Jordan's watch collection, including Rolex, Richard Mille, Urwerk and IWC Big Pilot models.The post The watches of Michael Jordan, part 2, including IWC, Richard Mille, Urwerk and more appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

Since Louis Vuitton acquired complications specialist La Fabrique du Temps (LFDT) in 2012, the trunk maker has made impressive strides in its haute horlogerie. The newly launched Tambour Curve Flying Tourbillon Poinçon de Genève encapsulates Louis Vuitton’s complicated watchmaking – confident, modern styling combined with a first-rate calibre. Granted, the Tambour Curve is pricey – US$250,000 pricey – but it is clearly catered for a specific consumer. That buyer wants an ultra-high end, contemporary, and slightly sporty watch, the type of watch found in the segment dominated by Richard Mille and Hublot. But Louis Vuitton has executed the Tambour Curve extremely well, creating an appealing – and importantly, cohesively designed – wristwatch that is more than just looks. The LV 108 movement inside was developed and made by LFDT, which is led by veteran watchmakers Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini, both of whom I hold in very high regard. Louis Vuitton long-term strategy in developing its watchmaking – essentially do it well and expensively – is demonstrated by the quality of the Tambour Curve. The brand could have gotten away with building a so-so watch, just because it is Louis Vuitton. But it didn’t, and the Tambour Curve exhibits a notable level of attention to detail in styling and craft. CarboStratum The Tambour Curve is a big watch with a streamlined, rounded form that is almost organic. Not only is the case round, its flanks are concave, whil...

When I first got wind of the newly-opened watchmaking school in Cambodia, I was surprised. And when I found out the school was a world-class institution fully equipped with brand-new, top-of-the-line equipment and staffed by veteran instructors from Switzerland, with local students studying for free – I was sceptical. I am ashamed to admit, I was wrong. There is a world-class watchmaking school in Phnom Penh, one with ambitions that go well beyond merely training technicians to overhaul watches. Freshly set up and filled with the very best equipment – including brand-new, full-spec Schaublin lathes and the latest Leica microscopes – the Prince Horology Vocational Training Center is a no-expense-spared project that’s likely the most impressive watchmaking academy outside of Switzerland. And another classroom, with the micro-mechanics machine shop at the back Backed by a local real estate conglomerate, the school will conduct a two-year programme similar to the de facto industry standard, the 3,000-hour course offered by Swiss academy WOSTEP (short for Watchmakers of Switzerland Training and Educational Program). Both theoretical and practical, the school’s syllabus encompasses the theoretical, for instance lessons on the history and culture of watchmaking, as well as benchwork, including machining, micro-mechanics, and production of components like the winding stem and balance staff. At the same time, because the school is the brainchild of timepiece co...

Cancelled because of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, Watches & Wonders (W&W;) was due to take place in Geneva but will now go online starting April 25, 2020 at 12:00 pm CET (or 6:00 am in New York, 6:00 pm in Hong Kong and Singapore), where most of the year’s new watches will be revealed. Once known as SIHH, W&W; was meant to take place in the Palexpo convention centre in Geneva. Now the 30 brands that would have taken part in the event will be presenting their wares on a brand-new W&W; website, a project that has been completed in barely a month. Amongst the exhibiting brands are A. Lange & Söhne, Cartier, Hermes, IWC and Panerai, as well as independent brands like Ressence and H. Moser & Cie. Three cheers for a long, long time ago, when W&W; was actually real The virtual fair will showcase most of the year’s new launches, accompanied by videos, articles and other content. And the April 25 opening is just part one of W&W;, with the second part slated to arrive in summer 2020, where additional products will be launch, along with “strategic e-commerce partnerships”. Ambitious as it is, being the first large-scale virtual “fair”, this may be the first and final instalment of W&W;, given that Rolex, Patek Philippe, Chopard and Chanel have withdrawn from Baselworld and will be joining the new, as-yet unnamed fair in Geneva in April next year that will substitute W&W;. The virtual W&W; will go live on April 25 at Watchesandwonders.com. You’ll find all of the new la...

The show is trading the Geneva Palexpo for your laptop – and it's coming soon!

How a tiny coronavirus is pushing an age-old watch industry into serious transformation within the last few months.

Mario Jutronic’s marine-themed microbrand Marnaut is a breath of fresh ocean air. It was beginning to seem impossible that a retro-flavoured dive watch could bring anything new to the table, but one glimpse at a Marnaut dial and you must admit they’ve found a way. Having spent a large portion of his youth snorkelling around … ContinuedThe post MICRO MONDAYS: Introducing Marnaut, the sub-$1k 300m dive watch with the sea urchin dot-pattern dial appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

The Breguet Classique 7337 and 7337 take the brand's historic "DNA" and upgrades that with new guilloche and blue dials. But what's that got to do with Joshua Munchow's nose? You'll learn the answer to that here.

What was Baselworld like in 1979? Just ask Joe.

Losing track of the date during the lockdown? Here are a few calendar watches that you can consider, in this week's Throwback Sundays column!

Is collecting mechanical watches meaningful? I’ve thought about this existential question quite a bit. Recently I was fortunate to spend some time chatting with Leonid Khankin, President and Creative Director for the brand Ernst Benz. Leonid has a deep understanding of the watch industry. Our discussion is worthy of a separate article. But at one … ContinuedThe post OPINION: 3 reasons why collecting watches is meaningful, even in a crisis appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

The Geneva Seal is very old, having been proposed on November 6, 1886 by the Grand Council of the Republic and Canton of Geneva as a way to certify a level of quality for which the canton was becoming known. Every piece produced with the Geneva Seal is equally outstanding, so let's have a look at what goes into attaining this coveted hallmark.

It’s no secret that GaryG is a big fan of Vianney Halter and his work. He strongly believes that one of the defining moments of his development as a watch collector was taking the plunge and buying one of Halter's landmark Antiquas in pink gold. But how do two of these rare watches look side by side under the unforgiving lens of GaryG's camera? Find out here!

At SIHH in 2019, Cartier released something very special, and oddly, it was powered by stock standard quartz. The Cartier Santos-Dumont was met with a standing ovation, not just because it was remarkably faithful to some of the earliest watch designs from Cartier, but it was also slim and relatively affordable thanks to that humble … ContinuedThe post INTRODUCING: The new Cartier Santos-Dumont XL gets a mechanical upgrade and adds just 0.2mm in thickness appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

After Seiko's press "leak" earlier this year, watch fans were able to catch a glimpse at what sort of direction the brand might be taking in 2020. One of the watches we saw in the moderately affordable space was the Seiko SPB149, another recreation of the classic 62MAS.

For anyone reading this in April 2020, you’ll agree that it’s a strange time to be alive. Somehow, we have already seen three months of 2020, a point that has felt both incredibly fast and agonisingly slow to pass. As the interconnected health and economic crises continue to unfold around the world, the news cycle … ContinuedThe post Nick’s 5 favourite new watches from the first quarter of 2020, including Audemars Piguet, Bulgari and H. Moser & Cie appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

The watch is priced at US$6,990. It's got a nice dial, a fun complication and is rather good looking. Considering its approach, the brand might be going for a more accessible 'Van Cleef & Arpels' Poetic collection. At 40mm, the watch is large for most ladies' wrists, especially for the Asian market.

The turn of the century gave us Y2K hysteria, the first use of the Euro as currency and the Spring Drive movement. That’s right, in 1999 we saw one of the most remarkable innovations in watchmaking of the last half-century, with the release of the first-ever Spring Drive powered watch, the Seiko SBWA001. This is … ContinuedThe post Hunting (and catching) the epic and rare Seiko SBWA001 from 1999, the first-ever Spring Drive watch appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

The German watch manufacturer Sinn is a well-known brand for creating aviation watches. Sinn was founded in 1961 by a flight instructor and pilot, Helmut Sinn. The brand has quite an aviation history, including securing the rights and design plans from Breitling during the Quartz era, to their iconic Navitimer timepiece. With these plans, Sinn produced an inexpensive and a reliable equivalent to the Navitimer – the Sinn 903.  What many people may not know is that Sinn has also got quite a reputable collection of diving watches, made from some of the highest tech materials. Sinn was also one of the first companies in the watchmaking industry to produce diving watches in compliance with European diving equipment standards, while also being the first to test and certify the watches for resistance to pressure and fogging.  We have our hands on Sinn’s U1 Phantom. The Phantom edition is part of Sinn’s diving watch U1 collection. These are robust timepieces made to endure some of the most extreme conditions. The U1 collection is known as the “diving watch made of German submarine steel” and can be taken diving to a depth of 1000m. The U1 does come in several limited edition and special versions, with the U1 Phantom being one of them.  The U1 Phantom is exclusive to Define Watches only, making it even more special . It features much of the same characteristics as the standard U1 model, with the variances coming in the form of materials and appearance changes.  Much l...

A tall man with a grave face who is always stylishly dressed, Auro Montanari is better known as John Goldberger, the pseudonym under which he has published over a dozen scholarly books dedicated to watches. Auro is best characterised as someone with diverse and deep interests, making him a truly interesting individual. So speaking with Auro is always a pleasure, which is something Phillips specialist Tiffany To recently managed to do. At home, stylishly. Photo – Auro Montanari Now at home in Bologna, a wealthy industrial hub that’s home to Lamborghini, Auro is putting the finishing touches to Time to Race, a near-500 page tome covering the watches worn by auto-racing champions of the mid-20th century, an era when drivers wore watches as a necessity, and not because they were brand ambassadors. Auro’s desktop with Time to Race in progress. Photo – Auro Montanari Highlights from Time to Race. Photo – Auro Montanari In a three-part interview, Auro discusses the upcoming book – “I love cars, I love watches, and I put them together and blend everything” – as well as his varied life. Though Auro is a industrial-control software entrepreneur by profession, his interests have taken him around the world in a hunt for watches, and he also lived the Californian dream for a spell in the 1980s. Auro, circa 1982. Photo – Auro Montanari The white gold ref. 3450. Photo – Auro Montanari He describes the years spent in Venice Beach, during which he chanced upon a whi...

The watches Breguet has created using the exquisitely rare and beautiful cameo carving technique for its Cammea collection should remain heirlooms for the ages. Elizabeth Doerr explains why.

Luxury watch brands and groups are stepping up to the plate and doing some real good in regard to the current COVID-19 pandemic. Here Elizabeth Doerr highlights five initiatives.

The love-or-hate option with a heart of steel and gold.

An interview about space, spies, sports, and superb watchmaking.