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Results for Watches and Wonders Geneva

34,686 articles · 4,160 videos found · page 1200 of 1295

The Story Behind Maurice de Mauriac’s Watch Honoring Stan Smith, The Tennis Champion Some People Think Is A Shoe Quill & Pad
Dec 21, 2019

The Story Behind Maurice de Mauriac’s Watch Honoring Stan Smith, The Tennis Champion Some People Think Is A Shoe

“Nice shoes you’ve got there!” Miguel Seabra was walking down Church Road with Maurice de Mauriac founder Daniel Dreifuss and his youngest son Leo when they heard someone behind them praise Daniel’s Stan Smith Adidas footwear. They turned around to find it was Stan Smith himself, the American tennis champion from the 1970s after whom the famous sneakers are named. And that’s how the plans for the new Stan Smith Signature Watch all started!

Cheap thrills: 3 top chronographs for under a grand Time+Tide
Dec 20, 2019

Cheap thrills: 3 top chronographs for under a grand

Chronographs are, to this day, one of the most useful complications you can find on a wrist watch. They’re just so practical -  whether you’re timing your next run, daily commute or next lap time around the Phillip Island Grand Prix track, a chronograph has got you covered. Thing is, though, because of its complexity, … ContinuedThe post Cheap thrills: 3 top chronographs for under a grand appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

Editorial: Marco Lang on Being a (Newly) Independent Watchmaker SJX Watches
Dec 20, 2019

Editorial: Marco Lang on Being a (Newly) Independent Watchmaker

The label “independent watchmaking” does not come from watchmakers themselves. Rather, it is an attempt by collectors, and also journalists, to distinguish smaller watch manufacturers from larger luxury companies. The phrase usually refers to brands or makers that share certain qualities: being niche as opposed to mainstream; having highly creative products made in small quantities; often founded by watchmakers with high horological competence, who are also rather non-commercial, while possessing the idealistic philosophy of an artist. From this, the important question arises for the watch collector – are resulting timepieces fundamentally more valuable, particularly when compared to watches from big brands that are produced by the thousands and boosted by heavy marketing? That can only be answered by the collector. The watchmaker, on the other hand, has to balance the pros and cons of being an independent. Marco Lang in his workshop, located within his home. Photo – Marco Lang Going independent Starting up an independent watch brand is quite different from building a more conventional watch company. A watchmaker probably starts with a good idea and from that, builds a very unusual watch. He would like the world to know about his idea, so scrapes together all his savings – maybe even he savings of friends and family – and then exhibits his creation at a fair. The more business-minded watchmakers might think of market studies or analyse the competition. But some...

Breaking News: ETA Movement Sales Halted by Swiss Authorities SJX Watches
Dec 19, 2019

Breaking News: ETA Movement Sales Halted by Swiss Authorities

News last weekend that Switzerland’s competition regulator, COMCO, also widely known by its German acronym Weko, was weighing a ban on ETA movement sales to third-party brands caused a major stir in the watch industry – and a terse, lengthy response from Swatch Group, ETA’s parent and Switzerland’s biggest watchmaking conglomerate. The move was ostensibly to allow alternatives to ETA – once Switzerland’s dominant supplier of mechanical movements – to develop. According to the Swatch Group, the ban was entirely without merit, especially given the fact that ETA was no longer the biggest supplier of movements to the industry. That title now belongs to Sellita, which supplied a million movements in 2019, compared to half the number for ETA. Now COMCO has formalised the year-long ban in an announcement that puts in place a “temporary suspension of the supply of [ETA] mechanical movements to customers”. The ban will be in force until COMCO makes its final decision by the summer of 2020. The ban, however, allows ETA to sell its movements to existing clients that are small- and medium-sized watch brands, defined as having less than 250 employees, which will probably be of little consolation to ETA. According to a Swatch Group spokesman quoted by Reuters, the majority of ETA’s movement sales are to companies with more than 250 employees, and as a result, ETA foresees it won’t be able to sell any movements next year. According to the statement, the ban is foun...

Zenith Defy El Primero 21 Carbon Review WatchAdvice
Zenith Defy El Primero 21 Dec 19, 2019

Zenith Defy El Primero 21 Carbon Review

The fifth rendition of the Zenith Defy El Primero 21 sees the brand giving the model a complete carbon look. After the black ceramic and rose gold versions were released in 2018 along with the titanium and black ceramic in 2017, Zenith introduced the Defy El Primero 21 Carbon edition during this year’s Baselworld. The Defy collection is leading Zenith into the future with the brand’s innovative watchmaking being utilized in their latest models. We had a chance to review the Inventor and Classic models from the Defy collection, which were surely eye-catching pieces, to say the least. (You can find the reviews to Inventor and Defy Classic here ). Make no mistake, however; the Defy El Primero 21 Carbon is just as pleasing to look at, even if everything seems as if it’s trying to blend in with its camo-style appearance.       The beauty of using carbon fibre is that due to the nature of the material and how the alternating layers of carbon fibres are always randomly arranged, each individual piece will be unique. As carbon fibre is used for the faceted case, round bezel, crown, chronograph pushers and buckle head, each of these pieces will vary in aesthetic appearance from one watch to another. This makes the watch that you buy a truly unique piece. The carbon fibre case and the round bezel is what gets your attention first in this piece. As said earlier, the way the carbon fibre is patterned gives off a subtle camouflage appearance. After wearing the Defy El Primer...

Recommended Watching: Roger W. Smith Explains History of the Mechanical Watch SJX Watches
Roger W. Smith Dec 18, 2019

Recommended Watching: Roger W. Smith Explains History of the Mechanical Watch

Just over two weeks ago the annual George Daniels lecture took place at the City University of London, an institution supported by the late watchmaker’s charitable trust. This year’s speaker at the sold-out event was none other than Roger W. Smith, protege and successor to Daniels. Just over an hour long, including questions, the lecture is erudite, accessible and packed with nerdy trivia, like the fact that a movement running at 28,800 beats per hour will make 252,288,000 vibrations per year. Roger explained the history and rationale behind the mechanical watch, and how watchmakers are working to improve it even today. That naturally led into the lubrication-free co-axial escapement invented by Daniels (pictured above), which Roger delves into in a satisfyingly detailed manner, like comparing the sliding friction of a lever escapement against the tangential impulse of the co-axial. Fortunately, the entire proceedings were recorded and are now available online:  

Hands-On: Panerai Radiomir 8 Days 45mm PAM 992 SJX Watches
Panerai Radiomir 8 Days 45mm Dec 17, 2019

Hands-On: Panerai Radiomir 8 Days 45mm PAM 992

Panerai has gently eased itself towards a focus on more civilian sports watches, as opposed to retro-navy diver instrument remakes, since chief executive Jean-Marc Pontroué took the helm in 2018. So its most recent releases this year include the extra-thin Luminor Due in titanium, along with commemorative editions for the America’s Cup yacht race. But Panerai is still keeping one eye on its Marina Militare heritage, exemplified by the pair of Radiomir watches unveiled last month, the most interesting of which is the Radiomir 8 Days 45mm (PAM00992). It has a vintage-esque style – not really a one for one remake – combined with an in-house, eight-day movement and a relatively accessible price of US$8,500. Most unusually, the steel case has a faux aged finish that Panerai is trying for the first time. Marina Militare The new Radiomir is not a remake of a vintage Panerai, but rather it’s a mix-and-match of various elements, including the engraved logo and “8 Giorni” emblem at three. Traditionalists might find it impure, but that was essentially the founding formula for the modern Panerai company. The result is a good-looking watch that approximates the look of a vintage Panerai while offering modern conveniences like a long power reserve. Even though it’s a large watch – the case is 45mm – it’s smallish by Panerai standards, since the military-style Panerai watches are usually 47mm. But it is big enough to look like a Panerai, and it wears well for a 45mm...

Jaeger-LeCoultre Introduces the Atmos Transparente SJX Watches
Jaeger-LeCoultre Introduces Dec 17, 2019

Jaeger-LeCoultre Introduces the Atmos Transparente

As crucial to Jaeger-LeCoultre’s identity as the swivelling Reverso wristwatch, the Atmos clock remains a unique and intriguing invention almost a century after its invention – a clock that runs on air. Having been offered in a variety of iterations over the years, including several by industrial designer Marc Newson, the latest is the Atmos Transparente, a clean, modernist reinterpretation of a longstanding model in the line-up. Despite being synonymous with Jaeger-LeCoultre, the Atmos was actually invented by someone else, who was inspired by a much older idea. Clocks wound by changes in atmospheric temperature were invented sometime in the 17th century, but remained largely experimental until French engineer Jean-Léon Reutter invented the Atmos in 1928. His idea was actually an evolution on the 400-day clock, which is regulated by an exceptionally slow pendulum and need only be wound once a year. The magic of air The genius of Reutter’s invention was a sealed metal bellows containing mercury, which expanded and contracted with changes in temperature, thus winding the clock’s mainspring. Despite its novelty, Reutter’s clock met with little commercial success – early Atmos clocks marked “J.L. Reutter” are rare but not especially valuable – leading him to sell the idea to LeCoultre in 1935 (and two years later the company joined forces with Edmond Jaeger to form Jaeger-LeCoultre). The company refined his concept, with the key improvement being the repl...

Book Review: ‘Patek Philippe In America: Marketing The World’s Foremost Watch’ By John Reardon Quill & Pad
Patek Philippe Dec 16, 2019

Book Review: ‘Patek Philippe In America: Marketing The World’s Foremost Watch’ By John Reardon

This richly illustrated coffee table book weighing close to two kilograms is both an invaluable reference tool and a fascinating read. The chapters do not scrimp in detailed information, expert opinion, and rich historical illustrations: even the book’s structure points are a pure joy to read or simply thumb through. Elizabeth would recommend it heartily for anyone with even a passing interest in the subject and here's why.

Hermès Introduces a Duo in Delicate Wood Marquetry SJX Watches
Hermes did Dec 16, 2019

Hermès Introduces a Duo in Delicate Wood Marquetry

In its usual tasteful yet quirky style, Hermès has unveiled a pair of wristwatches featuring dials decorated in wood marquetry,  tiny pieces of exotic woods assembled like a puzzle to form striking, abstract motifs; last year Hermes did the same in leather. Created by a young French marquetry artist, the dials start with a line drawing on tracing paper, which is then digitised and scaled down to the size of the dial. The reduced drawing is then printed out and cut into its component parts with a scalpel, forming the pattern for cutting. Each piece is then glued to a thin slice of exotic wood that is then cut with a small electric fret saw. The resulting bits of wood are then assembled with a tweezer, and occasional gentle hammering, before the dials are sanded and varnished, making them seem like an unbroken whole. Monochromatic yet intriguing enough to make you look twice, the Arceau Astrologie Nouvelle reproduces the pattern from the silk scarf of the same name. The original Astrologie scarf featured a classical star chart, but in 2012 designer Cyrille Diatkine reinterpreted the motif – nouvelle is French for “new” – breaking it up into alternating and inverted segments. The Astrologie Nouvelle motif has been recreated using tulipwood, a wood that can vary in colour from white to dark blue according to Hermès, resulting in the contrasting colours of the dial. Its case is 41mm and 18k white gold, containing the H1837 automatic made by Vaucher, a movement maker...

Marnaut Introduces the Seascape 200 “Super Compressor” Diver SJX Watches
Longines unveiled Dec 16, 2019

Marnaut Introduces the Seascape 200 “Super Compressor” Diver

A retro-inspired dive watch that’s been popular since Longines unveiled the first Legend Diver in 2007, the “Super Compressor” is characterised by two crowns, one for the winding and setting, and the other to rotate the inner bezel. The latest brand to get on the “Super Compressor” bandwagon is Marnaut, which just launched the Seascape 200 on crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. Founded by a Croatian watch enthusiast with an eye for detail, Marnaut’s design is centred on a simple but distinctive feature – circular, applied markers radiating outwards on the dial – 34 markers in total – inspired by the shell of a sea urchin. The rest of the dial is typical of retro-style dive watches, with large hands and an inner elapsed time bezel with a vintage-inspired serif font. And that is complemented by the perforated rubber strap modelled on vintage “tropic” bands. The steel case is a compact 40mm in diameter, but somewhat thick at 13mm high. As is convention for a “Super Compressor” the crown at four is for winding and setting, while the crown at two rotates the bezel. But the “Super Compressor” nickname has nothing to do with the crowns – Super-Compressor (as well as Compressor) was a type of water-resistant watch case patented by defunct case maker E. Piquerez SA (EPSA), which had a unique sprung, screw-down case back that sealed tighter against the watch case with growing atmospheric pressure as depth increased. Like all crowdfunded watches at thi...

Business News: Swiss Authorities Weigh ETA Sales Ban SJX Watches
Dec 15, 2019

Business News: Swiss Authorities Weigh ETA Sales Ban

According to Swiss newspaper Schweiz am Wochenende (via Reuters), Switzerland’s Competition Commission, a federal body that oversees competition and antitrust matters, is considering an outright ban of movements sales by ETA to third parties, in other words brands outside of the Swatch Group, starting January 2020. Also known as COMCO, or its German acronym WEKO, the agency is expected to deliver a verdict on December 19 . No explicit reason was cited for the potential ban, but it was implied that a recent COMCO report on the industry structure of the movement business is the reason. It is possible that COMCO believes the number of alternatives to ETA is sufficient that the watch industry would be better served over the long term by forcing watch brands to switch away from ETA. COMCO has long tussled with Switzerland’s biggest movement maker, in a dispute that began 17 years ago, when ETA announced it would gradually halt sales of ebauches, or movement blanks, to brands not owned by its parent company, Swatch Group. Because ETA was, and still is, Switzerland’s largest movement, reputedly producing some five million movements a year, its decision was regarded by COMCO as anticompetitive. And the wider Swatch Group – which is the country’s largest watchmaking conglomerate – produces perhaps a third of the components needed for watch movements in the entire industry. In the subsequent years ETA and COMCO reached various agreements over movement supply, with the l...

VIDEO: Is this the most important TAG Heuer Monaco? Time+Tide
TAG Heuer Monaco? It’s been Dec 14, 2019

VIDEO: Is this the most important TAG Heuer Monaco?

It’s been a big year for the TAG Heuer Monaco as it celebrated 50 years of production from when it was first released in 1969. The brand has released a number of limited editions this year in celebration; however, they arguably saved the most important release till last with the new TAG Heuer Monaco Heuer … ContinuedThe post VIDEO: Is this the most important TAG Heuer Monaco? appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.