Deployant
Rare Watches: Patek Philippe Ref. 5101
Watchscape of the Patek Philippe Ref. 5101 Tourbillon in a rectangular case with form movement in platinum. A gem of a rare watch.
Results for Faraday Cage (Antimagnetic Case)
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Deployant
Deployant
Vacheron Constantin Historique
This year’s novelties at SIHH 2010 finally made it to our shores. I attended an evening hosted by Vacheron Constantin…great food, wonderful company, and of course, fine watches. The Historique Ultra-Fine 1968 in a square case, and the Historique Ultra-fine 1955 in the round case. The watches are truly thin, the 1956’s hand wound movementRead More
Deployant
Lange Cabaret Tourbillon Launch
I have received clearance to release the information, so here are the pictures and information on the new, amazing piece from Lange. The tourbillon – cage size 10.4mm, the same dimension as for Lange 1 Tourbillon. In comparison the Pour le Merite and Tourbograph tourbillon cage measures 12.6mm. The tourbillon itself comprises of 84 parts,Read More
Hodinkee
Introducing: The Oris Social Club Edition II
What We Know As part of the brand's varied releases for Geneva Watch Days, Oris has announced the Social Club Edition II, a special creation sold exclusively online in partnership with the Oris Social Club. The group spans some 62 chapters all over the world, and the latest offering to the acolytes is a handsome expression of the Aquis Relief that incorporates a green nylon NATO-style strap. Measuring in at 43.5mm, the Social Club Edition II builds upon the standard Aquis Relief by complementing the steel bezel design with a frosted silver finish for the dial. Look a bit closer, and you'll see that there is an easter egg for the date, too, as the first-of-the-month position will feature an image of Oris' mascot, the Oris Bear. Flip the watch over, and you'll find a custom caseback showing the Oris factory in Holstein and "OSC | INT" to mark the club's international membership. The full specs are provided below, but the Oris Social Club Edition II is 13.1mm thick and 51mm lug to lug with 300 meters of water resistance protecting the Oris 733 movement within. The 733 is based on the Sellita SW 200-1 and is an automatic, Swiss-made movement that ticks at 4 Hz and offers a date, which, for this model, is at 6 o'clock. Perhaps most interesting – or perhaps I just like NATO straps – Oris has elected to fit lug adapters to the Aquis' proprietary lugs to enable the use of a green NATO strap. The Oris Social Club Edition II is not limited and will be available in Septembe...
SJX Watches
Striking Resemblance: The Piaget Polo Minute Repeater
More than a decade after unveiling its first in-house minute repeater, Piaget has revived the once-record-setting calibre in a familiar-looking guise. The new Polo Minute Repeater pairs the ultra-thin, micro-rotor cal. 1209P with the modern Polo case and a striking, partially open-worked guilloche dial. Initial thoughts The Polo Minute Repeater is a new watch, but it bears a striking resemblance to the Emperador Coussin of 2013. This isn’t that surprising, since the contemporary Polo — refreshed in 2016 — borrows significantly from the Emperador’s case design. But in this case the similarity is more than skin deep, since the Polo Minute Repeater shares the same movement as its predecessor: the cal. 1209P. This ultra-thin calibre was once the world’s thinnest minute repeater — a title it maintained for three years before the launch of the Bulgari BVL 362, based on a 1980s Gerald Genta calibre. The Polo is big but flat, measuring 48 mm wide but just 9.3 mm thick. The size is partly due to the movement construction, which spreads out the major component groups into two slim planes with the escapement, micro-rotor, and twin minute repeater hammers on on one level, and the racks and centripetal governor on top. This 2010s-era sizing is arguably out of step with current fads where small watches are all the rage, but the watch is elegant and evokes 1970s “jumbo” watches with its wide-but-flat profile. In any case, wearability is probably a moot point considering t...
Worn & Wound
Review: the DWC Terra
What happens when a watch goes viral? Well, besides the obvious – everyone sees them, everyone buys them, second hand prices go crazy – you know the deal. That’s exactly what happened with the DWC Terra – a unique take on the field watch by the small Indian brand, Delhi Watch Co. Military-inspired field watches out there have their charm, but they all tend to blend in. For good reason too – they’re built to a military specification that calls out for case size, dial markings, and beyond — generally sticking to a formula that makes sense when it needs to be as standard as a uniform. That’s where the DWC Terra takes a huge turn. It’s a field watch, but looks more like something that would be at home on the wrist of one of the deep space truckers in Alien than it does something that’d be worn down here on Earth. They stick to the classic field watch simplicity, but the package represents something new that we’ve never seen before in the watch world. Let’s take a closer look at this interesting, affordable, and unique take on the field watch. In case you missed it, this watch has a pretty fair amount of hype going around it. Sold out in a flash with Ticketmaster-style online queues that were thousands long, the Terra made a pretty big impact when it hit the market. DWC is short for Delhi Watch Company — a small brand based out of Delhi, India that focuses on watches with unique designs at a reasonable price point. The Terra hits both of those with eas...
Hodinkee
Bring a Loupe: A Hamilton Cross Country, A Heuer Titanium Quartz, A Movado Super Sub Sea Chronograph, And More
Welcome to August's end, everyone. I never know how to start these things—there's too much variety in most of our days, meaning that, short of borderline universal cultural experiences, it's hard to know what we'd all even know about. That said, I'd like to offer quick thanks: I've now lucked into writing Bring A Loupe for six months, and it's just tremendous fun, soup to nuts. Thanks for reading, and I look forward to working as hard as I can to not bore you for as long as I'm allowed. Also, boo to Dolly Parton's and Tim Curry's passing. Terrible plot twist. Scorekeeping last week's picks, the Hublot Orlinski's on hold, the Seiko Sportura sold for €1,350, the Breitling Tabarly for €760, and the Yema Tomahawk for £800. Strays I have failed to highlight fun skin divers over the last couple of weeks, so let me ameliorate that lack with this Dupont and this LIP. They share identical all-steel skin diver cases; the differences in their bezels are awfully minor, and the Dupont's got a bracelet, so maybe that's enough of a needle-mover. This Breguet Chronoscope pocketwatch in platinum's not in perfect condition—the dial's got a few spots—but it is also incredibly gorgeous, the design is fantastic, and Monaco Legend Group sold a silver version in 2023 for €16,000, so plan accordingly. I could be wrong, but it looks like this ultra-thin solid gold quartz Jaeger was made by other brands as well, among them Bulova (who called their version a Phantom) and Microma (appare...
SJX Watches
Anordain’s New Model 1 Combines Porcelain Dial and Custom Font
Best known for its affordable watches with fired enamel dials, Anordain is diversifying its offerings with the Model 1 Porcelain. Sporting a traditional porcelain dial, the new Model 1 showcases a brand-new, custom font that’s a twist on the traditional Breguet style, reflecting the brand’s focus on the finer details of design. Beyond a new design direction for the Scotland-based Anordain, the Model 1 is also represents a scaling up of its business. While the porcelain dial is made the old fashion way – painted by hand with a clay-based mixture – it can be produced at a higher rate than Anordain’s enamel dials, making the new Model 1 accessible both in terms of price and availability. Initial thoughts The Model 1 Porcelain is interesting from a business perspective. It underlines Anordain’s growth, as well as the brand’s strategy for dealing with its growth. Scaling up production sizeably while still preserving its speciality of traditional, artisanal-type dials is a prudent approach that maintains the brand’s identity. The Model 1 Porcelain, however, is not an industrial product. Rather, it retains the quirky character typical of Anordain’s watches. The watch is still typical Anordain with its clean design and thoughtful details. The dial and typography are appealing, especially with accents like the five-minute numerals and railway-like minute scale. The seemingly mismatched hands leave me with mixed feelings, but the whole is still attractive. The opti...
Hodinkee
Inside The Manufacture: Why Fam al Hut Is Pursuing Manufacture Status
This story is a special presentation from Hodinkee Japan, written and illustrated by Masaharu Wada, the Deputy Editor-in-Chief for Hodinkee Japan. For a young brand to revisit roughly 98 percent of the movement components in a GPHG-winning watch after receiving the award might ordinarily sound like cause for concern. But when I visited Fam al Hut's workshop in Taicang, Jiangsu Province, China, I came away feeling almost the opposite. More than anything else, that fact seemed to capture exactly where the brand stands today. A large industrial elevator takes you to the second floor, where the doors open onto a long central corridor. To the right, behind glass walls, designers and engineers gather around technical drawings. To the left is a production floor lined with five CNC machines and other machine tools. Farther inside are a prototyping room, a finishing department, a clean room for movement assembly, a quality-control room, a stockroom, and even a dedicated room housing a femtosecond laser machine. Not everything is made here. Cases and sapphire crystals, among other components, still come from outside suppliers. What Fam al Hut has built, however, is an environment in which it can control the design, prototyping, machining, assembly, testing, and continued development of its movements. For such a young independent brand, the scale of the operation was far beyond what I had expected. Fam al Hut was founded in 2024. The following year, its debut watch, the MARK 1 Möb...
Worn & Wound
Hands-On: the Bernhardt Captain
Bernhardt’s Captain collection is a new range of dress watches that I think loosely falls in the Calatrave-esque trend that has been emerging, most notably through a variety of Japanese indies and micros, over the last few years. As interest in chunky divers and sports watches appears to wane a bit, enthusiasts are (finally) willing to look at watches in other genres, and brands are delivering with a variety of takes on the dress watch format. This is a fundamentally good thing for the community, but it’s not easy to make a dress watch. It is, conversely, very easy to attempt to make a dress watch and actually make a regular old daily driver, the type of watch that most people who had any desire to wear any watch at all would have owned in the middle part of the 20th century. $749 Hands-On: the Bernhardt Captain Case Stainless steel Movement Miyota 9039 Dial Silver Lume None Lens Sapphire Strap leather Water Resistance 50 Dimensions 38 x 45mm Thickness 9.55mm Lug Width 20mm Crown Push/pull Warranty yes Price $749 A dress watch, to me, is a very specific thing. If it’s mechanical, it’s manually wound. It’s more likely to not have a seconds hand, and indices and other markings should be minimal. It obviously should be quite thin and relatively small in size, and if I were really being a snob about it, I’d insist it should be in a precious metal, but I’m not a snob and that’s ridiculous. It does speak, though, to the idea that when you use the word “d...
Hodinkee
Introducing: The Fears Brunswick 40.5 Jump Hour 'Ultimus'
What We Know Fears just announced the final chapter of its Brunswick Jump Hour collection, and this appropriately named Brunswick 40.5 Jump Hour 'Ultimus' might just be the collection's most interesting execution yet. Designed in collaboration with British watch content creator Andrew Morgan, the Ultimus takes the modern design cues from the Brunswick Jump Hour all the way to eleven, with a stark black-and-white sensibility in a very sleek "Phantom White" dial execution. The focal point is the new jump hour dial, and yes, it's very lumed. Rather than in typical Brunswick Jump Hour executions, which hide all inactive numerals, this dial execution uses sapphire to reveal the oversized hour disc beneath and leans into it as part of the design. A black outer ring holds minimal branding, and within are two luminous ceramic discs—the lower disc is for the rotating (and jumping) hours, and the other disc floats above, housing the printed minute track and the oversized black minute hand. That center lumed ceramic disc above is also connected to a frosted outer ring, which holds the printed minute numerals and offers a subtle peek at the inactive hour numerals on the rest of the dial. At twelve o'clock is a magnifier, which replaces the typical framed window we've seen on the other Brunswick Jump Hours to highlight the current hour and its numeral(s) in full. The steel case is unchanged in this edition, with a diameter of 40.5mm, a thickness of 12.8mm, and a lug-to-lug of 47mm. I...
Fratello
A Promising First Encounter With The Updated Aera D-1 Diver
Making a dive watch stand out today is genuinely tough. The archetype has been reinterpreted so many times that most releases blur together. The Aera D-1 Diver, however, managed to catch my attention with its less-is-more design philosophy. This modern diver uses fairly minimalist visual cues and combines them with a beautifully sculpted case. Add […] Visit A Promising First Encounter With The Updated Aera D-1 Diver to read the full article.
WatchRider
Citizen Garrison BM8560 vs TAG Heuer Autavia: An Affordable Pilot Watch Alternative?
I own both the Citizen Garrison and the TAG Heuer Autavia WBE5116.EB0173, and the difference between them goes far beyond price. The Citizen Garrison uses Citizen’s light-powered Eco-Drive movement and a remarkably light Super Titanium case, while the TAG Heuer Autavia is a Swiss automatic pilot watch with a COSC-certified Calibre 5 movement, a 42 mm steel case and a distinctive blue smoked dial. One is accessible and practical, designed for easy daily ownership. The other is a discontinued premium model with strong aviation heritage. That makes this an unusual but revealing comparison. Can an affordable Citizen Garrison provide the same wrist presence, legibility and everyday enjoyment as a significantly more expensive TAG Heuer Autavia? And how much do the Autavia’s automatic movement, finishing, heritage and premium positioning actually change the ownership experience? In this comparison, I will examine their design, comfort, materials, movements, readability and real-world value. For anyone searching for the best affordable pilot watches, or wondering whether an affordable pilot watch alternative can compete with a premium Swiss model, these two watches offer a fascinating answer. Case Size, Quality, and Comfort Both watches are very well made, but I sincerely prefer the Citizen’s case. The TAG Heuer Autavia has the solid construction and clean finishing expected from a premium Swiss watch. Its stainless-steel case feels substantial, and the transitions between i...
WatchRider
Citizen Imperial Battle AW1857-57W Brings the Dark Side to Eco-Drive
Officially known as the Citizen Imperial Battle AW1857-57W, the latest Star Wars collaboration goes straight for the franchise’s most recognizable hardware. The red-and-black metal dial uses original embossed artwork to turn the Death Star into a richly textured backdrop, while a swarm of TIE Fighters appears to fly above it. An applied Galactic Empire crest occupies 12 o’clock, and the date window sits at 3 o’clock without trying to compete with the miniature space battle. Citizen Imperial Battle AW1857-57W. Death Star detail, wearable hardware Citizen did not stop at decorating the dial. The angular, hexagonal 42 mm stainless-steel case is finished in dark gray ion plating and shaped to recall the six-sided solar panels of a TIE Fighter. A matching ion-plated steel bracelet mixes brushed surfaces with glossy central details and closes with a fold-over clasp and twin push buttons. A ring of oversized five-minute numerals around the crystal reinforces the industrial styling, with selected markings picked out in red. The watch looks almost architectural from the front, but a relatively conventional crown and three-link bracelet keep the construction familiar. The rear view continues the theme with an engraved Imperial crest, Star Wars branding and Lucasfilm licensing. It also confirms 10-bar water resistance, equivalent to 100 metres. A scratch-resistant sapphire crystal protects the elaborate dial, giving the watch specifications suited to regular wear rather than di...
Hodinkee
Bring a Loupe: A Limited Edition Inter Miami Tudor, A Jaeger 4ATM, A Longines Ultra-Chron Jumbo, And A Pair Of Tudor Rangers
Happy Friday, Ballers, and I hope everyone's buckled in for what looks to be some excellent football (and, if you were lucky enough to catch the England v Mexico match, you've already seen some of the best ever). Scorekeeping last week's picks, the Million "Sherpa Cousin" sells on Sunday the 12th, the 18k Omega Constellation ref 2648 sold for €4218 all-in, the Sarpaneva x Moomin went for $8,800, and the Vacheron Constantin 4111 with the 'washed' dial sold for €100,000. Strays It feels like Seiko 6139s are a sort of necessary step in early collecting. They're lovely vintage watches; there are lots of them out there, and, unless you're hankering for a flawless Resist-dialed Pogue, they're fairly reasonable. This week, Goodwill has a blue-dialed 6139-6005, and it's not only in very good shape but also early in the model run, which you can tell from the 'notch' case (the small cutout for the crown) and the early Z bracelet. Photo courtesy of Goodwill. If you're on the hunt for vintage steel-cased time-only beauties, this Jaeger-LeCoultre sure seems excellent, ditto this Favre-Leuba Daymatic, or this Movado with its bit of patina, and if those aren't quite your tune, there's this NOS Tissot, serviced in 2026, which, yes, is small (31mm), but I dare you to click that link and not get a little distracted by the watch's pristine condition. Rossini's auction on the 11th is chock-full of goodies, but the ones I kept returning to were this RAID edition Speedmaster (if this ...
Worn & Wound
Review: the Isotope OVNI Jumping Hour Founders Edition
They say good things come to those who wait. It’s almost a decade since Isotope launched their Rider Jumping Hour, and has introduced a variety of GMTs, dive watches, chronographs and dress watches since then, without revisiting one of my favorite complications. It feels like a couple of years ago that Isotope founder José Miranda began to tease the long awaited follow up to watch enthusiasts at events across the globe. Last August the OVNI Jumping Hour Founders Edition was finally unveiled to the world. The 150 Founders Edition watches sold out during the pre-order period, and now a production piece has landed on my desk. Since its inception, the OVNI has promised to be an other-worldly timepiece, from its name right through to its flying saucer form, and at first glance it hasn’t shied away from that aspiration. So, how easy is it to live with a UFO on your wrist? When talking about the OVNI, it makes sense to start with the case. Named OVNI (the Portuguese equivalent of Unidentified Flying Object is Objeto Voador Nãu Identificado), the body of the watch is designed to mimic the traditional flying saucer shape associated with UFOs throughout the years. Crafted from 904L stainless steel and given a brushed finish, the case is an oblate spheroid, slightly flatter on the back than the front. It resembles a perfect ball of steel that has been left out in the hot, hot sun. Smooth and organic, yet dense and alien. The lugs and crown are attached to the case rather than f...
Hodinkee
Bring a Loupe: A Million Valjoux 72, An 18k Gold Constellation, And A Sarpaneva Moomin
Happy Friday again, Ballers, and congrats to whoever snagged the Omega 2998-4 on Goodwill earlier this week. I'm fighting multiple aspects of my nature—as a midwesterner and a dad—to avoid making lame jokes about the heat, but fingers crossed, the fever's breaking, and it'll return to average temperatures sometime soon for all of us. Scorekeeping last week's picks, the Hamilton sold for $4,300, the Speedmaster Soyuz for €18,000, and the Universal Genève Rattrapante for GBP 4,250 . The Goldpfiel Vianney Halter sold, but the auction house hasn't listed the price online and hasn't responded to my email, so we'll all have to live with the mystery. Strays I mentioned Always Sunny last week, and now this week there's this exquisite Movado Ermeto with a caseback dedication—Dennis from Mac—that feels too good not to include. I figured it'd be fun to stir the pot last week and argue the Hamilton Model 21 as the Most Important American Watch in history. For whatever it's worth, the runner-up would've been the Bulova Accutron, and the purest expression of that watch is the Spaceview, of which there's a nice (though non-running) version available here, which auction lot also includes a Spaceman watch (also not working), and the Spaceman, for what it's worth, deserves more oddball attention. Photo courtesy of Seuyco. Here's an almost comically reserved but gorgeous Grand Seiko SBGW235, and, in the same auction, here's what sure seems to be a great example of an IWC 'Steril...
Hodinkee
Bring a Loupe: The Most Important American Watch Ever Made, A Vianney Halter Jump Hour, An Omega Soyuz, And More
Happy Friday, friends, and congrats on tackling another week. The days are now growing shorter (if you're north of the equator), and if you, like me, live in a state where fireworks are legal, best of luck for what will presumably be a very loud and long week. But before all that, let's take a moment and enjoy some watches. Scorekeeping last week's picks, the Dugena and Mulco chronographs don't sell till the 27th, but the Rolex 6241 sold for 2,000,000 CHF, the Patek 5960 for 34,000 CHF, the Excelsior Park Monte Carlo passed, the Longines for TKTK (emailed, price not updated), and the Tavannes for TKTK (sells 6/25). Strays For all the Movado heads, this pocket watch looks spectacular, and if that doesn't ring your cherries, here's a gold-plated dual-time that's almost intimidatingly beautiful. My urge to recommend no-name skin divers will apparently never abate, and this week's pick is this Altitude that looks fantastic and is unlikely to sell for more than a few hundred dollars. Speaking of excellent divers, here's a Lip Nautic Ski, and, sure, it's a quartz watch from the 1970s, so (some) headaches await (though the watch is currently running, according to the listing), but I'm lately unable to shake an intense fondness for these latter Piquerez super compressor cases with their huge bezel and recessed crowns. Lastly, this Ebel is perfect; please buy it, someone, so I can stop thinking and debating if I should pursue the thing. Before getting into the main watches, I'd lik...
Hodinkee
Breaking News: F.P. Journe Souscription Chronomètre à Résonance Achieves $13.9 Million - Becomes Fifth Most Expensive Wristwatch Ever Sold
It felt inevitable. Just over six months after an F.P. Journe narrowly missed joining a certain historic list of wristwatches dominated by Patek Philippe and Rolex with the $10.75 million sale of Francis Ford Coppola's personal FFC at Phillips New York (a record for the brand), one finally reached that rarified air. François-Paul Journe invented it. He made it. The market made it historic. The F.P. Journe Souscription Chronomètre à Résonance no. 007 is now the fifth-most expensive wristwatch ever sold and the third-most expensive watch sold not for charity. Arguably Journe's most important and emblematic model, a confluence of details made this example—which crossed the auction block on Saturday, June 13—the one to own, at least according to bidders. To the tune of almost $14 million, no less. In some ways, it seems the perfect cap to a wild shift in the market where, in less than a year, F.P. Journe has become more closely watched than other previously preferred blue-chip brands and references. And yet, the market is so hot that there were a number of remarkable results from the New York, Geneva, and Hong Kong auctions. Not for nothing, but a Patek Philippe 5004 is now a $5 million watch, not only blowing out the previous non-charity record ($1.5 million for Michael Ovitz's platinum example, which was sold last fall), but eclipsing the 5004T for OnlyWatch (which sold for $4 million, give or take, back in 2013). And the fresh-to-market pink gold, satin-cased Pate...
Worn & Wound
Introducing the Autodromo Group C Turbo Sport, the Brand’s First Ana-Digi Watch
Few innovations in automobile engines have been as impactful as the turbocharger, first brought to production cars in the 1960s and popularized in the United States largely thanks to the iconic turbodiesel 1978 Mercedes-Benz 300SD. With a telltale whistle accompanying that extra boost of power, the turbocharger soon became synonymous with motorsports and performance cars of the 1980s: the Audi Quatto’s breathy flutter, the 930 Porsche 911 Turbo’s heartpounding lag, and the Ford Sierra RS Cosworth’s European rally dominance all helped propel the decade into the “golden era” of turbocharged performance. With their latest release, motorsport-inspired watchmakers Autodromo are bringing another homage to a period of automotive innovation, this time highlighting the Group C “prototype” class of sports cars from the 1980s, many of which featured bold (and sometimes dangerous) turbocharged power. The basis of this new collection is their already-successful Group C digital watch, initially released in 2023, and the new Turbo Sport models draw inspiration from the analog tachometers of turbocharged ‘80s motorsports legends to create an ani-digi design that straddles the classic and modern eras of automotive and horological design. First, the dimensions: measuring in at 38.5mm in case diameter and 40mm lug-to-lug, the Group C Turbo Sport is compact, and sits fairly lightly on the wrist with a 11.4mm case thickness measurement. The case itself is anodized aluminum ...
WristBuzz
Oris Lou Gehrig Limited Edition Big Crown Pointer Date: The Iron Horse Gets His Watch
2,130 pieces, Yankee pinstripes on the dial, and a cause worth supporting, all wrapped around one of Oris's most iconic movements
Hodinkee
Introducing: The Tudor Black Bay Chrono 39 "Bumblebee"
What We Know There's a new Tudor chronograph in town, and guess what, it's smaller. After kicking off the format in 41mm back in 2017, Tudor has now downsized the brand's dive/drive chronograph design to a new 39mm case width. The new Tudor Black Bay Chrono 39 "Bumblebee" sports a bright and vivid yellow dial with black counters, giving the new reference (79310N) a link to the preceding Pink and Flamingo Blue versions of the Black Bay Chronograph. We can get to the dial in a moment, but for a smaller take on any Tudor, let's start with millimeters. The new Black Bay Chronograph 39 measures 39mm wide, 13.1mm thick, and 47mm lug-to-lug. Compare that to 41 x 14.4 x 49.9 of the current 41mm model, be it white, black, blue, black & gold, pink, or flamingo. Water resistance remains at 200m with screw-down crowns for the chronograph controls, and that bright yellow dial is framed by a fixed tachymeter scale rendered in black aluminum. On to the dial, which is colored a bright and punchy yellow as a nod to the brand's "Tiger" chronographs of the 1990s. The markers and hands have black surrounds, and the water resistance is shown in red (as it is on the Black Bay Chrono 39's larger counterparts). Tudor also notes that the snowflake hands have been redesigned to aid in chronograph legibility. While I have yet to measure more accurately, if you compare the reach of the hour hand toward the 60 marker on the running seconds subdial, it appears shorter than in the 41mm models. Tic...
Hodinkee
Hands-On: A Triple Review Of The Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Control Chronomètre Collection
We're a few months removed from Watches & Wonders, which gives us some clarity about what was buzz, what was hype, what fell off the wish lists, and what will be a long-term winner. It's looking like Jaeger-LeCoultre had one of the best releases of the fair with the Master Control Chronomètre series. The Master Control line has largely been a dressy take on traditional design cues for a brand people usually think of first for its Reverso. But now, JLC has shown that Master Control can do more. More than just a new case and bracelet, all watches are in-house chronometer-certified 4Hz, 70-hour power reserve movements (COSC does the certification) with a new High Precision Guarantee (HPG) seal, which supplants the former 1000 Hours Control. That new HPG seal means that the brand trials cased watches on four daily-wear specific issues—shocks, positions, altitude, and temperature—over three days, while guaranteeing eight traditional techniques of quality aesthetic finishing. The watches I photographed were brand new and wrapped in plastic, so you have to look past a bit of that to see the quality, but it certainly is there in person. Now with three models in steel and rose gold, with five SKUs (one watch only comes in steel and not gold), measuring 38mm by 8.4mm or 39mm or 9.2mm with 50m of water resistance, the new line brings a lot to the table. Inspired by the brand's Master Mariner Chronomètre line, launched in 1973 as their offering for an integrated bracelet (or adj...
SJX Watches
Highlights: Patek Philippe Complications at Phillips Hong Kong
Phillips’ spring auction season goes east for The Hong Kong Watch Auction: XXII on May 30 – 31. As usual, Phillips has put together a very strong lineup, and, as is often the case at watch auctions, Patek Philippe watches — both vintage and modern — have an outsized share of the catalogue. Lot 940 – Patek Philippe Bailey Banks & Biddle Triple Complication Patek Philippe produced this watch for Philadelphian jeweler Bailey Banks & Biddle around 1895, and it bears only the retailer’s name on the dial, which was not unusual. While the company came to a rather undignified end in the 21st century, it was once a manufacturing jeweller, medalist, and major Patek Philippe retailer. The dial is in rather rough condition by the standards of enamel dials, and while the dial may the most important thing to many wristwatch collectors, here the triple-complication movement is what matters. It features a minute repeater, chronograph, and perpetual calendar — which is presumably instantaneous. Note the lack of a minutes counter for the chronograph. While taken for granted on modern chronographs, most Patek Philippe triple complications did without it. In fact, the most common upgrade path for triple complications was a rattrapante, not minutes counter. The counterweighted pallet fork is also worth mention — this refinement disappeared as the Swiss lever matured and watchmakers realised a lighter pallet fork was better than a balanced one. The movement is fully functional, ...
SJX Watches
Hands On: FVF Genève FVF1 “Seven Poets”
FVF Genève founder Franc Vila has created a unique piece of his flagship tourbillon for a noted European collector of independent and complicated watches who goes by @thedeadwatchsociety on Instagram. The FVF1 Tourbillon “Seven Poets” is a romantic twist on the day complication that assigns a daily reading from one of seven historical poets. Initial thoughts Franc Vila is a man of many passions. His atelier in central Geneva is packed with art, and each piece has a story — I can’t think of anyone better to create a poetry-themed watch. Neither, it seems, could the lucky owner who commissioned the Seven Poets. The watch is fundamentally similar to the standard FVF1 C2 Tourbillon Superligero, with its 42.5 mm case, titanium monocoque construction, seven-sided day roller, and flying tourbillon architecture. Even in its basic configuration, the FVF1 is a distinctive offering that relaunched Mr Vila’s career after he parted ways with his eponymous brand. But the Seven Poets is anything but basic. Like the “Today” edition reviewed last year, the Seven Poets deviates from the norms of traditional watchmaking. Instead of indicating the day of the week, the day roller has been repurposed to feature the hand-engraved names of seven poets that are personally meaningful to the owner who commissioned the watch. I liked the conceptual, philosophical statement made by the “Today” edition, and the Seven Poets takes it one step further. This simple change to an indicat...
Hodinkee
Photo Report: Watch Spotting And Highlights From The Vancouver Timepiece Show
Held on the mountainous slope of Vancouver's North Shore, the Vancouver Timepiece Show offered its second-ever installment this past April. The event offers a true enthusiast-driven platform for a variety of value-driven brands and is part of a now three-show-strong portfolio for Canada's Timepiece Shows, spanning Vancouver, Toronto, and, later this month, Montreal for the first-ever appearance. Less than a week after the big show in Geneva ended, I hopped on a plane and flew to Vancouver for a very different type of watch show. Held in a bright and airy space in The Shipyards of North Van, the Vancouver show evolved this year, with fewer brands showing but attendance up by about 20%, to roughly 3,000 people over the weekend. A smaller, more casual show than the Toronto event held in September, the Vancouver Timepiece Show reflects the local watch scene while attracting brands and attendees from a much wider range. Scroll on for highlights from the brands at the show and a good handful of local watch-spotting. A pastel Halios Seaforth with the 12-hour bezel. Very Vancouver. Some Marathon wares glowing under UV light. The newly released Marathon CeraShell Navigator evolves a 40-year-old classic with a new case material that offers improved bezel performance, conventional springbars (vs. fixed), and a lighter weight on the wrist. Micromilspec continues to impress with versions of their multi-talented Milgraph, seen here as a special 75-piece version called "Proj...
Worn & Wound
Introducing the Lead Sponsors of Windup Watch Fair San Francisco 2026 and So Much More!
Set against the breezy waterfront backdrop of Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, Windup Watch Fair San Francisco returns to the Gateway Pavilion. As always, it’s free, open to all, and once again poised to transform The Bay into a hub for horological discovery for the weekend. Windup invites seasoned collectors and first-time enthusiasts alike to engage directly with brands, handle watches up close, and immerse themselves in a weekend that blends craftsmanship, community, and culture in a way few events can match. Windup Watch Fair San Francisco Friday, May 1 – Sunday, May 3, 2026 Gateway Pavilion at Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture San Francisco, CA Free and open to everyone. No registration necessary. With over 80 brands joining, we’d like to thank all of our sponsors, especially this year’s Lead Sponsors: Bremont, Brew, Christopher Ward, Frederique Constant, and Oris. Bremont After its introduction to Windup at last year’s NYC event, Bremont comes to San Francisco for the first time as a Lead Sponsor. Bremont brings a distinctly British sense of rugged precision with the Supernova 41mm Chronograph. Built with the brand’s aviation and military DNA in mind, the Supernova strikes a compelling balance between technical capability and refined design. Its compact 41mm case wears with versatility, while the chronograph functionality underscores Bremont’s commitment to utility-first watchmaking. Brew Brew has been a constant fixture at every Windup from d...
Monochrome
First Look - The New Bremont Altitude Chronograph Pulsograph Valjoux 23
Following CEO Davide Cerrato’s arrival in 2023, many Bremont fans feared that the strong aviation, tool-watch spirit of its founders, the English brothers, would be diluted. Released in 2025, the redesigned Altitude Collection, an evolution of the hyper-resilient Martin-Baker (MB) pilot watches with Trip-Tick cases, proved otherwise. In a move bound to win over collectors, Bremont […]
SJX Watches
Jacob & Co.’s Godfather II is a Cinematic Sequel
Jacob & Co. revisits a cinema classic with the Godfather II. A sequel to the acclaimed and extravagant Opera Godfather, the new model grounds the movement architecture while doubling down on the musical complication. Initial thoughts It is no secret that The Godfather trilogy is a personal favourite of jeweller and brand founder Jacob Arabo. He confessed his love for Francis Ford Coppola’s magnum opus when the Opera Godfather was first launched. A ticking music box, the timepiece played the famous Godfather Love Theme using a pin-barrel and comb system - a simple but reliable mechanism that sits at the heart of many music boxes. With this second model inspired by Mr Coppola’s saga, Jacob & Co. doubled down on the music box feature, adding a second tune that can be played in addition to the iconic theme. The second melody is the Godfather Waltz and the wearer can chose between either melody at the push of a button. While Jacob & Co. made a name for itself with opulent demonstrations of extravagant gemsetting, the Godfather II is unusually restrained, dialing back the flamboyance of the Opera Godfather without losing its musical virtuosity. The Art Deco-inspired case is a considered departure for Jacob & Co., a brand not typically associated with restraint. It suits the watch well, and suggests the manufacture is capable of more range than its catalogue suggests. The Godfather II is beloved by critics for portraying a grittier, more brutal reality of organised cr...
WatchAdvice
Reviewing The Ballon Bleu de Cartier: A Unique Take On Your Classic Round Watch
In a world of round watches, the Ballon Bleu de Cartier stands out thanks to its unique design, as only Cartier can! What We Love: The unique style that is very Cartier The great-looking dial that stands out on the wrist Ease of wearing at 36mm for a variety of wrist sizes What We Don’t: The double-folding friction clasp could be upgraded to a push button in this model While unisex, some with larger wrists will most probably need to upgrade to the 42mm The crown was slightly harder to access to change the time for me Overall Rating: 8.25 / 10 Value for Money: 8/10 Wearability: 9/10 Design: 8/10 Build Quality: 8/10 When people think of Cartier watches, the first thing that usually comes to mind is a maker of shapes. The brand has built much of its identity around distinctive case designs rather than traditional round watches, with icons such as the Santos, Tank, Tortue, Crash and Cloche, to name a few, all standing out as examples of Cartier doing things a little differently. That approach to design has long set the Maison apart from many other watchmakers who tend to lean more heavily on classic round cases. So when Cartier introduced the Cartier de Ballon Bleu in 2007, it represented something slightly different for the brand. On paper, it’s a round watch, which might sound straightforward enough, but as with most things Cartier, it’s not quite that simple. Rather than just producing a traditional circular case, Cartier added its own distinctive twist with the n...