Latest watch news · Page 1623

There are really two basic possible questions about any watch: what is it, and why is it?  (The third question –how much is it? –need not concern us here as we recline in distant Olympian splendor, contemplating watches as objects of aesthetic reverie and intellectual amusement, rather than as consumer goods.  The answer is usually […]

The distinctive asymmetrical “bullhead” case design is back! But in a futuristic new interpretation using a high tech carbon composite pioneered in Formula One. The Carrera CMC Concept Chronograph is TAG Heuer’s latest achievement in avant-garde timekeeping. Powered by TAG Heuer’s own in-house chronograph movement, the iconic motor-sports inspired Carrera takes the Carrera Mikrogirder and encases the […]

It’s been so difficult to keep quiet about this watch. I met the RJ-Romain Jerome Spacecraft last summer at Agenhor during my week under the tutelege of Jean-Marc Wiederrecht and his talented cadre of watchmakers. Needless to say I was completely enamored with it. However, I was compelled to wait five months to be able […]

Richard Mille has always been one of the more pioneering watchmakers of our generation. One would assume that his last creation with full sapphire case might have been a little hard to top but last week, he announced his mainstay RM 011 flyback chronograph in silicon nitride, a material commonly associated with automobiles and not […]

This year 2012 makes it 100 years ago that Cartier introduced the Model A Mystery clock, a small table clock with 8 days movement. so perfect timing for the King of Mystery timepieces, to release some new and exiting developments. Since the time that the first Mystery clock was made, by clock maker Maurice Coüet […]

Cartier is not a brand I normally cover during SIHH. But recently, as recent as a few years ago, they started to get serious about haute horology, with the appointment of Carole Forestier-Kasapi, the brand has taken leaps and bounds to cover the high end watchmaking scene. Cartier is a juggernaut. A powerhouse. Their boothRead More

In the center of the small town of Glashütte, which has been a center of watchmaking since 1845, there is a museum –the “German Watch Museum Glashütte” –which contains treasures out of all proportion to the size of the city that is its home. The building was opened in 1881, in order to house a watchmaking […]

Time is asymmetrical (at least, to us poor mortals who must perforce follow its apparently irreversible arrow) so why shouldn’t a watch be asymmetrical too?  In 1972, Vacheron Constantin introduced a watch with a lozenge shaped, asymmetrical case that combined old-school codes of slimness and simplicity with a jazzy, modern silhouette that became a major […]

The first A Lange & Söhne Singapore boutique has been (soft opening) in business at the prestigious ION Orchard mall for around 3 months now, aiming to please the loyal Asian Lange fans. To celebrate the expaded presence of the brand in Singapore, the boutique will have its official grand opening at the end of […]

Jaeger LeCoultre’s offerings this SIHH produced some of the interesting highlights of the show for me. The latest Gyrotourbillon 2 was unveilled…but only 2 pieces were made…one on the showcase, and the other on CEO Jerome Lambert’s wrists. SIHH 2013: JLC Perpetual Calendar with Cylindrical Tourbillon So, its a series of facelifts which drew theRead More

According to an LVMH release and as part of a management reshuffle, Jean-Christophe Babin, CEO of LVMH watch brand TAG Heuer will move over to jewellery brand Bulgari. The move was triggered when Louis Vuitton chief Jordi Constants quit in December over health problems and Michael Burke left his Bulgari post to head Maison de […]

Glashütte Original celebrates women in all their facets with a completely new collection of feminine timepieces. The dazzling models in the “Pavonina” collection are as impressive and seductive as the contemporary, confident women for whom they were created. Pavonina – from the Latin for peacock, pavoninus, evokes luminous bursts of colour and glittering beauty. The […]

It’s a major event for Glashütte Original –the launch of a new collection of ladies’ watches.  The collection debuted here in Berlin, during the Berlinale Film Festival, of which Glashütte Original is a major sponsor.  It’s a world-class film festival (spotted on my flight over: Ethan Hawke, his hair a shock of bleached blonde for his […]

The iconic piece Lange showed this SIHH2013 is the Grande Complication. Modelled after and inspired by the 42500 Grande Complication Pocket watch, this magnificent piece is the lastest salvo fired by the little manufacture in Glashutte. Report from SIHH. A. Lange & Söhne Grande Complication   A Grand Complication…typically this is a concoction of 4Read More

German watchmakers Glashütte Original and the Berlin International Film Festival have extended their current partnership agreement by a further three years, through 2016. Glashütte Original has served as Co-Partner since the 61st Berlinale in 2011, celebrating and supporting the art of filmmaking and Berlin’s largest cultural event. The 62nd Berlinale saw the German watchmaker enhance […]

Lange’s new movement crop this year included the new 1815 Up/Down As I mentioned in Tuesday’s post, Lange introduced several new movements this year. The superb and magnificent 1815 Rattrapante Perpetual Calendar, the new Grande Complication, and today I feature a refreshed 1815 Up/Down. This is a reissue of an old favourite…the original 1815 Up/Down…whichRead More

SIHH 2013 came and went in a blur…this was one of my busiest SIHH in my 12 odd years of attending yet. And one of the most interesting for my friends at Lange. Big, big crop of new watches. Grande Complication, 1815 Perpetual Rattrapante, 1815 Up Down, Lange 1 Lumen, amongst other new case/dial combinations.Read More

SIHH is the time where Panerai collectors early await for the news of the latest Panerai watches. The last few years have been very exciting for hard core collectors, with models like PAM00372 that is inspired from the vintage 6152/1, PAM00382 in bronze material that started the craze for bronze watches and the PAM00399 which […]

If you have read Jack Forster’s brilliant report on this year’s IWC Ingenieur collection unveiled at SIHH 2013, you must be as excited as I am. Personally, Visiting the surreal IWC booth itself was an unforgettable experience. with one Formula 1 car at one side of the booth floor and a racing car engine on another. With IWC Ingenieur watches being displayed on pumping engine […]

During the same week as the SIHH, the GenevaTimeExhibition, the show for the independents brands, was held in the centre of Geneva. Besides Hautlence, brands like Moser & Cie, Cabestan, Heritage and Speake-Marin were among the 34 exhibitors. The location was really cool and looked in fact, like an old former hydroelectric station. http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a65/Pasha_1950/GTEbuilding.jpg http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a65/Pasha_1950/InsideGTEbuiding.jpg […]

Cartier has always had a very strong collection of ladies- and jewellery watches. And despite the impressive developments in the Fine Watchmaking mens collection, the 2013 pieces presented at the SIHH in Geneva, has quite some lookers. What immediately caught my eye was this little Tortue on satin strap. http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a65/Pasha_1950/TortueDiamantClosed.jpg When closed, it looks like […]

Although the really big news in complications from the Offshore family of watches this year was the Royal Oak Offshore Grande Complication, we were really captivated by another introduction as well: the Royal Oak Offshore Perpetual Calendar Chronograph.  Like the Grande Comp, it’s a clever play against the preconception of the Offshore as a pure, […]

The communication issued by The Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) said that the response to the recently completed Annual Geneva watch fair has been overwhelmingly positive and it is another record fair “which for the first time ever is expected to post exports in excess of CHF 20 billion”. This year’s SIHH held at […]

Piaget’s justly famed for both its ultra-thin movements and for its extremely high level of gem-setting mastery (handled, unusually in an industry that out-sources a great deal of its sertissage to third party contractors, in-house) and this year, they showed a dazzling combination of both.  Feast your eyes, brief mortals, on the Piaget Altiplano Gem Set Skeleton […]