Latest watch news · Page 1639

Beauty of the DeBethune DB25T I had the opportunity to view and photograph the magnificent DB25T again… Truly a magnificent piece, beautifully conceived, finished. Jaw drapping beautiful. The dial, hand flamed titanium to achieve the deep blue…nothign short of amazing. And the second morte complication is nicely emphasized with the large sweep seconds making itsRead More

Urwerk watches lend themselves to my work very well. The movements and time display system is 3 dimensionsl, with beautiful angles and curves. And they are quite a work of art. This issue, I focus on one of their newer watches. The Urwerk U-110 nwo with a new gold bezel…known as the Golden Shield. ComfortableRead More

Ludovic Ballouard: innovative genius? Ludovic Ballouard is a funny, quirky fellow. His humour extends to the location of his show during the SIHH – the Hotel du Midi – with its quirky furniture in the lobby and large, loud sculptures, to the watches he makes. Formerly working at Francois Paul Journe, Ludovic was formerly inRead More

The Booths at the SIHH get more and more amazing each year. This year is no different. As with last year, I took some time to go around to photograph the booths. Here is a selection I omit the largest display – the one by Cartier, because it is spread across several booths…in fact itRead More

  Greubel Forsey’s continued exploration of the tourbillon is a fascinating one. Incline double tourbillons, quadruple tourbillons, inventions with tourbillons, secrets with tourbillon, and now a GMT with a 3 dimensional rotating globe with an incline double tourbillon. So they take their wonderful 24 incline tourbillon, moved things around a bit, so as to createRead More

SIHH 2012: Audemars Piguet Audemars Piguet celebrates the 40th Anniversary of the Royal Oak with beautiful re-issues. Has it been 40 years since Gerald Genta had this brilliant idea of putting a octagonal bezel in a stylized tonneau case? Indeed it has been, and yet, the Royal Oak looks as fresh today as it didRead More

  Laurent Ferrier is a very small firm based in Geneva. They practically burst into the scene with a ultra classical watch featuring a tourbillon and immaculate finishing in 2010. That was the Galet Tourbillon. They added a peek-a-boo style dial to the Galet in 2011. And this year, they introduced the Micro Rotor –Read More

  2012 might be the year of the re-issue. For JLC, the strategy is not different. They reissued and revised the Master Control series with aplomb. And reissued some Reversos…but do note that JLC might perhaps be seen as leading this trend, having started the 1931 Reverso re-edition in SIHH 2011. However, in addition toRead More

SIHH 2012: Vacheron Constantin. The rise of the new Malte and the continuing saga of the Metiers d’Art. 2012 seems to be the year of the reissue. Many brands reworked their classic offerings and modernized their collection. This was seen in JLC with their 1930s Reverso (yes that started in SIHH 2011), AP with theRead More

What to get your significant other for Valentines? How about the magnificent Lange Saxonia? OK, so perhaps not possible for this Valentine’s as the watch is not yet available in the stores…but its a nice excuse to introduce this beautiful piece. Of course, I am assuming your Valentine is a lady…if it happens to beRead More

  This year’s SIHH lacks real horological punch. Yes, there were many beautiful timepieces being shown, but no horologically exciting developments. Many were revisions of golden oldies. Audemars Piguet celebrated their 40th anniversary of their Royal Oak and showed many new and very beautiful pieces. Vacheron Constantin revised their Malte line, making them even moreRead More

Following up on last Friday’s remarks using DeBethune’s remarkable DB25T as an example, today’s post I use the same combination on the Voutilainen Vingt8 (28). Also photographed in L’Atelier by The Hour Glass using my usual set-up. I have featured the Vingt-8 before. As I described earlier, this is a magnificent watch. As mentioned inRead More

Following up on my walkabout impressions of the quite remarkable Leica S2, here are some photographs I made in L’Atelier by The Hour Glass using my usual set-up. I have featured the Db25T before, it is a remarkable watch. I particularly love the jumping seconds hand, and the beautiful Caliber 2109 with the magnificent bridgeRead More

Up close and personal with the Girard Perregaux Esmeralda, pocket watch with three golden bridges. I reported on the remake of the famous Tourbillon with 3 golden bridges pocket watch some time ago during the exhibition of the GP treasures in Singapore. What I did not say then, was I was privillaged to be allowedRead More

Roger Dubuis Excalibur Skeleton Double Tourbillon. Interesting watch. I was commissioned to photograph this watch for Revolution Magazine. The final approved photographs appeared in Revolution Asia 28. The electronic version is available for free download of Revolution magazine issue 28 here. I photographed the watch with my trusty Hasselblad H3D-39 with the HC 4/120 macro.Read More

Store Visit: Malmaison by The Hour Glass: Emporium Extronaire The Malmaison by The Hour Glass is not quite new…in fact, it opened its doors just after SIH 2011…almost a year ago. But the store continues to amaze me. This is a veritable temple of luxury, conceived and created by Hour Glass’s intrepid Executive Director MichaelRead More

I’d like to present some of the watches made by Moser. The Perpetual 1, which I have covered before in a bit detail is still one of the most outstanding perpetual calendars in production. Seen on here on the wrist of my good friend Eddie Also available with a fancy dial…rose gold case Also, aRead More

Parmigiani Fleurier Pershing Tourbillon One of the watches which caught my jaded eyes last year (2011) was the Parmigiani Fleurier Pershing Tourbillon with open work dial. Beautifully finished, fully in-house production (movement, dial, case, finishing all done within the company) Parmigiani is an amazing company. Started by watchmaking genius Michel Parmigiani some 30 years agoRead More

Independent Watchmaking Salon in Hong Kong March of the Independents It is no secret that I am an ardent admirer of independent watchmakers. I was one of the first to invest in Philippe Dufour, by purchasing and writing about him. As early as 1999, I wrote an early article which appeared in The Business TimesRead More

Rebellion. What a name for a watch. And true to its name, this is indeed a rebellious watch. Manually wound. Six barrels. 1000 hours of power reserve. To wind the watch, one releases a lever, and the entire bezel pivots at 6 o’clock, and operating the lever winds the watch. Cool. Two chains, one onRead More

December 20, 0900 CET Lange announces the replacement for the 11 year old Datograph with a new and improved Datograph. I attended the launch event in Dresden, and managed to spend a full morning with the watch, photographing, examining, pondering. Here are the exclusive live photographs and my personal impressions. Reinventing classics is an activityRead More

The Lange Richard Lange Pour le Merite is one of the 4 watches within the Lange collection which carry the fusee and chain mechanism. This particular example is owned by a good friend of mine. And I had the pleasure to photograph this watch under very dim conditions of a Michelin starred restaurant in Dresden…theRead More

I have been following the career of the illustrious Finnish watchmaker, Kari Voutilainen for a while. He makes interesting pieces, quite well finished. Take for example the decimal repeater…where instead of striking the quarters and minutes, the watch actually strikes the same way as we read the time…in tens of minutes, then minutes. Brilliant. HisRead More

On the occassion for the launch of my book in Tokyo, Lange hosted a Press Conference in the beautiful restaurant right in the middle of town, just a stone’s throw from Nihombashi. The restaurant, San Pau is the branch of the famed 3 Star Michelin restaurant in Spain, and in Japan it too garnered twoRead More

Jerome DeWitt is an intriguing gentleman. Hailing as a direct descendent of Napoleon Bonaparte, he is a brilliant mind…always inquisitive, always exploring, always brimming with new ideas. It is no surprise that his watches are also similar in ilk. Today, I feature his Twenty-8, a spectacular watch, certainly, inspired by the art deco buildings ofRead More

Max Busser has always been a controversial figure…from the time he initiated and helmed the Opus project for Harry Winston and to the 4 Horological Machines he has created under his own brand name, I see Max as the leader in the field of pushing watches into the realm of horological art. I can alwaysRead More

As promised on Friday, here are the high resolution photographs of what was to me, the highlight of the show. The historically important Esmeralda, a wonderfully decorated, beautifully restored pocket watch tourbillon with three golden bridges. Historically important Girard Perregaux Pocket Watch with Three Golden Bridges And to give a flavour and spice to theRead More