Latest watch news · Page 2086

Hidden in plain sight” might be more appropriate. It’s news to no one who loves fine watchmaking that, thanks to many factors, the prices of mechanical watches have been steadily climbing over the last few years, with - apparently - no end in sight. That’s made things a little tougher for die-hard horological enthusiasts who […]

It has the distinct honour of having one of the first immediately recognisable watch case shapes out there- I am talking about the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak of course; but what few people know (and could learn more) about this horological icon is that the Royal Oak pulled Audemars Piguet from the brink of bankruptcy. […]

The Advanced Fighter Weapons School In the 1970s, the Swiss mechanical watch industry was almost wiped out by an electronic threat called quartz technology, which instantly democratized accuracy in the form of cheap, Japanese-made watches. But ultimately, in the clash between soulless battery-operated machines and those handcrafted by human artisans, the mechanical watch won out, […]

Presenting the Harry Winston Historie de Tourbillon 1, the first in a series of watches which in the maison's mind are the landmarks of the tourbillon.

With all that he’s achieved on the movement front: the world’s lightest mechanical watch movements (tourbillons, no less, created with I-beam aluminum-lithium bridges), the first carbon-nanofiber and titanium baseplates, the first movement designed after the steel trellis frame of a Ducati motorcycle, the first movement with an orthorhombic-titanium-aluminide baseplate, inspired by the honeycomb inner structure […]

It’s an uncanny thing about every new Piaget creation, how they all instantly seem to just belong. Even when it comes to the most novel of novelties from the brand, look away for a scant minute and once you turn your attention back to them, it’s hard to imagine a time when they weren’t a […]

Though Panerai has developed an enormous number of different models and complications in recent years, the basic morphology of its watches hasn’t changed at all. Essentially, all Panerai models (and we think this is quite remarkable) are derived from only two designs. These, of course, are the Luminor and Radiomir cases; the Radiomir is the […]

The watches produced by Jaquet Droz since the name was relaunched by the Swatch Group in 2001 have for the last 11 years been notable mostly for extremely beautiful high-art dials (using everything from extremely exotic enameling techniques, such as pailloneé, to rare minerals like meteorite) and for very distinctive implementations of classic complications. (We […]

A Conversation with Vartan Sirmakes, Co-founder of Franck Muller It is impossible to examine the rise of Franck Muller Watchland as one of the most technically creative, fully integrated and totally verticalized manufactures in Swiss watchmaking without tapping into the brilliant mind of the brand’s co-founder, Vartan Sirmakes. Sirmakes got his start with a case-manufacturing […]

The Girard-perregaux 1966 Minute Repeater Is A (literally) Striking Timepiece That Puts Us Back In Touch With The Manufacture’s Horological Prowess Nomenclature aside, the Girard-Perregaux 1966 collection was actually only launched in 2006. It’s something that escapes most journalists, especially in the context of the numerous and impressive pieces that have emerged in the round, […]

Take A Cue From The French Emperor’s Foremost Selection To be a leader, in whatever field and whether born or bred, one requires just as much fortitude as he does the respective skill and acumen. It’s not just about possessing the intellect to make the right choices for yourself and, more importantly, those following you; […]

MB&F;’S NEW LEGACY MACHINE NO. 1 “These are the days of miracle and wonder” - Paul Simon, ‘The Boy in the Bubble’ The only thing about the Legacy Machine No. 1 that concerns Maximilian Büsser, really, is the fact that it’s vintage-looking, just when the wave of vintage-looking watches is at its peak. What if […]

The Louis Moinet Vertalis Tourbillon “Red Stromatolite” Whatever your spiritual beliefs, there is near-universal agreement that the spirit is but a brief tenant in the body, and even today, to live out one’s biblical assurance of threescore and ten years is to consider oneself relatively lucky. We unhappy mortals, therefore, are like to surround ourselves […]

New Watch Brands Have Been A Little Scarce Of Late, So We Were All A Tad Excited To Hear About Hyt And Its New Mechanically-powered Liquid Time Display For about a decade now, watchmakers have been looking at different ways to indicate time using systems such as orbiting satellites (URWERK), rubber belts (Claret), jumping chains […]

Bvlgari’s New Papillon Voyageur, A Continuation Of Its Rich Daniel Roth Inheritance, Flaps Its Wings And Shrinks The World The most poetic and seductive image to arise from Edward Lorenz’s work on chaos theory is that of a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil, leading to a tornado touching down in Texas. In any sensible […]

A minute repeater is a percussion instrument. A series of (most frequently two, sometimes three or four) hammers strike gongs that have each been tuned to produce a certain note, composing a melody that can be translated into a report of the time by those initiated into the discipline of repeating watches. Its matched hammers […]

A quarter-mile offshore and 80 feet below the surfaceof Lake Superior, my friend, Chris, and I found the Madeira’s pilothouse - standing upright, its compass binnacle still intact, belying the violence of the ship’s demise. The rest of the wreck is strewn over an acre of lakebed - twisted bollards, winches torn free and the […]

The Rotonde De Cartier Minute Repeater Flying Tourbillon Cartier has, over its 108-year history with the men’s wristwatch, occasionally produced some visually and aurally arousing timepieces. One such watch, a magnificent yellow-gold Tortue minute repeater from the 1920s, was proudly on display during the brand’s Time Art exhibition in Singapore, which traced its history in […]

Today I feature Opus 7, a collaboration with Andreas Strahler. The Opus Project by Harry Winston is a remarkable initiative. Started some 12 years ago, now we are at edition Opus 12…the project uses the considerable resources of the Harry Winston company in cooperation with master watchmakers to create interesting and very innovative designs, marketedRead More

My interview with Hamdi Chatti, the vice president of Louis Vuitton Watches, was one of the most interesting of the 2012 Basel fair. The main topic of conversation related to this: I strongly believe that in the years ahead, the strongest and most established brands will only become stronger and continue to gain market share. […]

Vacheron Constantin’s tonneau-shaped watch, the Malte, celebrates 100 years with two new models It’s been a century since Vacheron Constantin introduced its first tonneau-shaped wristwatch - which was probably among the first series-produced wristwatches ever made, as 100 years ago, in 1912, the wristwatch was still very much a novelty, tonneau or otherwise. The tonneau shape […]

The Rise Of Patek Philippine’s Nautilus The year of the Nautilus was 1976. Out in the wider world, the space race had recently culminated in the joint Apollo-Soyuz mission that saw a US Apollo craft dock with the Soviet Soyuz 19 in space - an extended act of diplomacy. The Cold War was at the uneasy stage of hiatus known […]

Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Grande Reverso Blue Enamel sings the blues like no lady ever has The color blue has often been associated with the most iconoclastic work of the 20th century’s cultural contributors. “Rhapsody in Blue” established George Gershwin’s reputation as one of America’s seminal composers. “Blue Train”, John Coltrane’s 32-bar form masterpiece and also the name […]

I am trying to learn how to Dougie. For those of you who are not as sentiently tapped into the zeitgeist of rap culture, this is a dance that involves you moving from side to side whilst rolling your shoulders, ironically enough, kind of like Axl Rose. This is important for me because I like […]

Many brands claim their minute repeaters sound the best. But who can tell the difference? Who has access to several such watches at the same time? We’ve gathered, recorded and ranked five of them, On paper, and also on video EDITOR’S NOTE: The judging of minute repeaters, as our intrepid contributor David Chokron states below, […]

REVOLUTION PUTS ERIC GIROUD (OWNER AND DESIGNER, THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS) AND JEAN-MARC WIEDERRECHT (FOUNDER AND WATCHMAKER, AGENHOR) UNDER THE LOUPE FOR SOME QUALITY Q&A; Eric Giroud and Jean-Marc Wiederrecht are no strangers to each other, having collaborated on projects such as the gem-clad Harry Winston Opus 9 and MB&F;’s Horological Machines. Together or apart, the […]