Latest watch news · Page 58

The prism-display jump-hour gets a blacked-out treatment and some much-needed low-light legibility. The Amida Digitrend OSII Black adds lume and an all-dark look to one of the most unconventional watch designs of the 1970s. Here's what changed.

Jaeger-LeCoultre have finally entered the integrated bracelet watch space, but has the long wait been worth it? Let’s find out! What We Love: That bracelet – perfection! Elegantly reinterpreted design language Surprisingly value-driven for Jaeger-LeCoultre What We Don’t: Lacking embellishments on the dial & bezel No lume – an interesting choice… Is Jaeger-LeCoultre late to the party? Overall Rating: 9.25/10 Value for Money: 9.5/10 Wearability: 10/10 Design: 8/10 Build Quality: 9.5/10 The integrated bracelet sports watch is emblematic of the current watch landscape. Bridging the gap between utility and jewellery, it has become the go-to design language for brands at every price point. From entry-level and middle-market players like Tissot and Raymond Weil, all the way to the upper echelons of Audemars Piguet and Vacheron Constantin, the integrated bracelet design has emerged as the industry’s defining modern silhouette. Conversely, Jaeger-LeCoultre’s identity is rooted in tradition and historical inspiration. Flagship models like the Reverso and Master Control draw upon the brand’s early Art Deco influences, using them as the foundation for their designs. Cementing its reputation as the ‘watchmaker’s watchmaker’, this steadfast commitment to horological heritage has earned the brand a devoted following among enthusiasts worldwide. But reliance on heritage is a double-edged sword. Many collectors have long argued that Jaeger-LeCoultre’s greatest c...

When you think about it, silk is an absolutely fascinating material. Dating back thousands of years to Neolithic China, the labor-intensive process has produced one of the finest, softest materials produced by man. But what is it about that process that makes silk so unique and rare that people pay thousands of dollars for, say, a silk scarf? Well, to be honest, it’s probably not what you expected. You see, silk begins with silkworms being fed a diet of mulberry leaves. When they’re ready to enter their metamorphosis, the worms begin secreting a filamentous protein for their cocoon, which is then harvested, softened, spooled, and ultimately made into the fiber we consider a luxury. Pretty gross neat, huh? Well, it seems Seiko thinks so, too. The brand’s latest additions to the Presage Classic Series are inspired by Tomioka silk, a premium variety produced around the Tomioka Silk Mill in Gunma Prefecture. And while this is not the first time Seiko has used the Presage platform to honor Japanese craft, this might be one of the collection’s prettiest releases (in my humble opinion).  Looking first at the Tomioka Silk Promotion Organization Limited Edition, it’s easy to see the inspiration (and namesake for this particular reference) at first glance. Its white dial is finished with a pearl-like coating, while the rose gold-colored case and dark brown leather strap are inspired by the brick facade of the mill. The three additional models use the same silk-inspired di...

What We Know Amida keeps finding new ways to update and reinvent the classic Digitrend driving watch. When we last heard from the brand, they had fashioned a model inspired by the NASA space shuttle missions, a timepiece that demonstrated the range of design and development possibilities of the Digitrend format, which first debuted in the pre-shuttle era way back in 1976 at Basel.  Now, it seems, Amida has seen the light. Or rather, it's seen the way to add luminescence material to an open-worked version of the digital jump hour timepiece with the Digitrend OSII Black. Featuring an open sapphire hood showing the DLC-coated workings of the movement and Amida's in-house developed jump hour module, the new model uses an LRD or 'light reflecting display' utilizing prismatic technology that illuminates the digital numerals via Super-LumiNova, for the first time.  The Digitrend has never been a watch for everyone. It's quirky, and its time-reading display is unusual, to say the least. But the addition of lume certainly adds to its functionality and represents a welcome upgrade for this new edition that is limited to 150 pieces and goes on sale today on Amida's website.  The brand and co-founder Matthieu Allègre say the ongoing improvements, revisions, and tweaks to the Digitrend model line shouldn't be seen as merely more refined or robust versions of the original. Rather, they're designing and producing the model as it would have evolved had the original brand not been am...

I don’t really have a ton of evidence to support this, but I have a vague sense that clocks are maybe about to have a moment. There seem to be some signs. There’s the Audemars Piguet x Swatch collaboration, which, for all the ink spilled about the disaster of a rollout, has the potential (still!) to be a big pop culture moment this year, and I have a feeling many future owners of the Royal Pop will use it as a desk clock in some fashion. There was the recent launch of a new Horological Machine from MB&F; which is, basically, a big robot clock. Earlier this year, a real highlight of the Louis Vuitton slate was a clock made in partnership with L’Epée (also a collaborator on the MB&F;). It just seems like an unusual amount of clock activity, coupled with a similarly unusual amount of interest in said clocks.  That leads me to one of the more unexpected and interesting things I’ve seen from Timex in a bit, the new Waterbury America 250 Table Clock. Part of a series of releases commemorating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the clock draws on classic pocket watch design language and is a pretty attractive hunk of stainless steel that I think would look good on many a desk, whether it belongs to a watch lover or not.  The clock case is a mix of brushed and polished steel, with star accents along the caseband and a guilloche engraving with a gold tone emblem on the retractable lid. A button on the side of the case releases the lid ...

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When Amida returned in 2024, it brought back one of the most distinctive watch designs of the 1970s. The Digitrend, originally launched in 1976, stood apart from conventional watches with its horizontal digital display viewed through a prism, giving it the appearance of a futuristic LED watch. The concept was faithfully revived in 2025 by […]

Watches & Wonders, the world’s most important luxury watch fair, will return in 2027 from April 5-11 in its traditional venue of Palexpo, the cavernous exhibition complex beside Geneva’s airport. The event takes place over a week, with Monday to Thursday being invite-only days open to members of the trade, while Friday and the weekend are ticketed public days. All of the major luxury brands will return for the fair, including Rolex, Patek Philippe, Tudor, and Chanel, alongside a range of independent marques. But 2027 will also see new exhibitors, including Breitling, Gallet and Universal Genève, the trio that make up the House of Brands, the entity set up to contain the three brands led by Georges Kern. Notably, niche Italian jeweller Damiani will also exhibit at W&W; 2027, joining giants like Cartier, Bulgari, and Van Cleef & Arpels.  

The Amida Digitrend is one of those out-of-the-box watches that always gets me. The combination of its unconventional shape, prism display, and jump-hour complication makes it unlike any other watch. That was already true of the 1976 original Amida Digitrend. Designer Matthieu Allègre and Depancel founder Clément Meynier relaunched the Digitrend in 2024 and tried […] Visit Get “Tunnel Vision” With The New Amida Digitrend OSII Black to read the full article.

Amida unveils the next step in their Digitrend collection with the new OSII Black, inspired to be an evolution of the OSII concept in 1976.

As the summer begins, next year’s Watches & Wonders (and the larger trade show agenda) is beginning to take shape. News broke this morning that Watches & Wonders will be adding several new brands to their show, which is slated for April 5-11 in Geneva, and will once again be held at Palexpo. The big story is that House of Brands, the new group fronted by Georges Kern including Breitling, Universal Geneve, and Gallet, will have space at Watches & Wonders 2027. Breitling has never participated in Watches & Wonders, but for as long as the show has existed, the brand has held parallel events in Geneva or events timed just before the show itself. Now they will be in the thick of it, along with their two sibling brands in a newly formed luxury group, each sitting at different ends of the market. We covered Universal Geneve’s return here. Gallet, to this point, has not made any announcements as far as products or availability, but they are expected to sit at a price point a tier below Breitling.  The Breitling news comes a week after the surprise announcement of an entirely new show to be held in Basel next year. The new fair, Basilia, is set to debut in April and is a product of MCH Group and Informa Markets. According to a press release, Basilia expects to attract more than 400 exhibitors, including “manufacturers, designers, brands, retailers, wholesalers, distributors and sourcing specialists from around the world.” No word yet on any specific brands that have signed...

Whether you are a seasoned collector or just starting with a watch or two, storing your watches quickly becomes a matter of serious consideration. Should you get a safe at home, store your watches in an external safe, or hide them around the house, perhaps? The options are plentiful, but the implications can be serious […] Visit Your Sock Drawer Is Not Secure — Should Your Next Watch Purchase Be A Safe? to read the full article.

Independent watchmaker Vincent Deprez first attracted attention with his Tourbillon Classique Souscription Edition, a remarkably accomplished debut that showcased a fully hand-finished tourbillon movement and his ability to manufacture most of the watch himself using traditional methods. Trained at Vacheron Constantin and later active in restoration at Patek Philippe, the Geneva-based French watchmaker now expands […]

One of the largest watch group holdouts is heading to Watches and Wonders in 2027 as Breitling's House of Brands will join the world's premier luxury watch fair for the first time. Scheduled to take place April 5 to 11 in Geneva at Palexpo, with supplementary programs and exhibitions including the In The City events that debuted at the most recent edition, brands including Breitling, Gallet, Universal Genève and Italy's Damiani will exhibit alongside founding partners Rolex, Patek Philippe and Richemont brands, among others, according to a statement from the non-profit Watches and Wonders Foundation. The inclusion of the House of Brands group marks a significant addition for Watches and Wonders, underscoring its position as the most important annual gathering of Swiss and international luxury watchmakers, retailers, media, and the public each spring. The announcement follows news that Basel will return to the watch fair schedule with a new watch and jewelry show called Basilia that will follow during the same month, and leaves Swatch Group as the only major Swiss watchmaking conglomerate not participating in Watches and Wonders.  "The arrival of these new names represents an important milestone in the evolution of Watches and Wonders Geneva, and reflects the desire of major watchmaking Maisons to unite around a shared vision," Watches and Wonders organizers said in a prepared statement.  A record 65 brands participated in the event in 2026, including, for the first time...

Few modern moon-phase watches place the lunar display at the centre of the experience quite like Arnold & Son’s Perpetual Moon. Since its introduction over 10 years ago, the collection has served as a showcase for the brand’s fascination with astronomy, with numerous variants released. Now, Arnold & Son revisits this signature model with three […]

Grand Seiko is back with another hand-engraved masterpiece, and this SBGZ011 'Majestic Waterfall' may be the best one yet.

Welcome back to another episode of Fratello On Air! This week, we talk about car watches, a curious subgenre within our hobby. Sure, the automobile industry is massive and has an equally huge fan base, but collaborations between watch and car brands often misfire. This draws us into a conversation about what we think of […] Visit Fratello On Air: The Curious Case Of Car Watches to read the full article.

Swiss watch exports have been volatile for some time. Sluggish, oscillating between highs and lows, they reflect a global environment marked by uncertainty – not least because China, once the engine and Eldorado of the industry, has slowed down significantly. In this context, some analysts – armed with Excel spreadsheets, demographic curves and rising purchasing […]

Every year, I get excited to pick my favorite summer watches. It allows me to choose ones that are a bit more colorful and wild than the watches I would normally consider for a list of favorites. The idea is simple: the Fratello editors pick their favorite summer watch in five price brackets, ranging from […] Visit The Best Summer Watches: Jorg’s Picks From Traska, Aquastar, Nomos, Zenith, And Rolex (Again) to read the full article.

Seiko’s Presage series has long been the brand’s standard-bearer for affordable dress watches, and the latest Presage Classic Series ‘Tomioka Silk’ celebrates Japan’s 19th-century silk industry, which earned a UNESCO World Heritage designation in 2014. With an easy-wearing 38 mm case and an enthusiast-oriented no-date format, the ‘Tomioka Silk’ collection spans four colourways including an on-trend pistachio green flavour dubbed wakatake-iro. The embossed dial pattern results in a silk-like texture shimmer Initial thoughts Seiko’s Presage Classic Series has been treating watch collectors to a tour of historical Japanese hand crafts, with dials made from materials like Arita porcelain and urushi lacquer. The ‘Tomioka Silk’ collection toes a similar line, but uses a clever optical illusion to simulate the shimmer of the region’s famous silk more convincingly than past editions. While real silk dials do exist, they are understandably uncommon. Seiko’s time-tested approach to textile-textured dials involves embossing a metal dial with a pattern that, at arm’s length, resembles the source material, such as linen, or in this case, Tomioka silk. HCC002 Most watch brands would call this concentric multi-lobed motif ‘guilloche‘, but Seiko correctly avoids this term, choosing instead to emphasise the silk-like visual presentation of the stamped pattern. The dial quality is quite good for the price, which barely breaks four figures. I understand Seiko’...

Chanel christened its watch collection for the year “Coco Game”, a theme that informs the pixellated video game motifs found on some watches and also the flagship creation that is the endgame as such things go. The Chessboard is self descriptive, but it is much more than an 8×8 board with 32 chess pieces. A one-off creation that is already sold, the Chessboard is impressive by the numbers alone: 1.5 kg of gold, 110 carats of diamonds, and a retail price of over US$4 million. But where is the watch you might ask? There are two: each of the queens is actually a pendant watch with a tiny dial on its base, and the set is delivered with a single chain for the winner to wear a pendant watch. The queen takes the form of Coco Chanel dressed in the brand’s signature tweed suit Initial thoughts I’ve always been a fan of Chanel’s impossibly extravagant objet d’art, which in past years have ranged from a musical automaton clock to a planetarium-clock. This year’s one-off creation trumps them all in scale, complexity, decoration, and of course price. In tangible terms, the Chessboard is clearly a trophy for the home or office, or a game board for a wealthy chess fan. Ridiculously lavish board games and toys have a long history — jewellers like Faberge and Cartier made such items in times past. In fact, some of Faberge’s fabled Imperial Easter Eggs contained surprises that were actually tiny toys. The Chessboard, however, is distinctively 21st century in both material...

We've had a fantastic response to our happy hour series, which we launched this year, and we're keeping the momentum going into the summer! The next installment will take place at Grotta Local on Thursday, June 25. Located a few blocks away from our office, it's a Hodinkee staff favorite. We'll have the entire restaurant and bar for some great drinks, food, and watches.  Our Editor-in-Chief, James Stacey, will be there, along with members of the Hodinkee team. Whether you've been to several of our events or this is your first, we'd love to have you! It's a great, casual way to get to know members of the Hodinkee team and the watch community here in New York City. Date:Thursday, June 25, 2026, 4:30 - 6:30 PM Location:Grotta Local177 Mulberry StreetNew York, NY 10012 Click here to RSVP. 

Citizen is one of those brands that conjures a certain image in the mind of a watch collector as soon as you utter the brand name. The watches, for the most part, are pretty ubiquitous, and the brand name is easily recognized by most people who have ever shopped for a watch at a department store, or noticed an advertisement in a magazine. Which is to say, they are huge, and make watches that are largely appealing to a broad swath of the public, which in turn means that many of them are affordable or at least accessible. But it would be a mistake to diminish Citizen as simply a brand that produces affordable mall watches. Their size means that not only do they play a significant role in the mass market and enthusiast watch spaces, but that they have the resources to operate at the higher end as well.  My favorite example of this, by far, is Citizen’s “The Citizen” line of watches. We’ve covered these many times before (I reviewed one here), and while they are somewhat awkwardly named, they do a great job of distilling with I think Citizen really is at their best, marrying competent manufacturing, their own Eco-Drive technology, and some cultural references to Japan that actually make sense in the context of the watch and how it works.  As part of the brand’s ongoing celebration of the 50th anniversary of Eco-Drive, Citizen has just announced a new limited edition version of The Citizen, reference AQ4094-58L. It follows the format of many of the previous iteratio...

Saturday 20th June saw the return of the WatchIt! Fair to the heart of the Midlands in the UK. Here's how it went down.