23,044 articles · 172 videos found · page 210 of 774
Quill & Pad
Have you seen the prices of high-end (and not so high-end) wristwatches? Crazy! None of us can afford the watches that we want, and the world economy is tanking. So in the middle of the coronavirus crisis why are we still publishing pointless stories about watches and why are you still reading them? Ian Skellern shares his theory here.
Quill & Pad
Elizabeth Doerr highlights five new watches by independent watchmakers that we would have seen for the first time at Watches & Wonders or Baselworld 2020, had these fairs run as scheduled in late April.
SJX Watches
Trade body Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH) just released its monthly export figures for Swiss watches – a proxy for the broader luxury watch market since Swiss timepieces dominate – and the February numbers are bleak. The month’s statistics illustrate two obvious trends that have shaped in the industry recently: the COVID-19 coronavirus is having a massive impact, and low-cost Swiss watches are being trounced by low-cost smartwatches. An Asian crisis, for now Compared with February last year, the value of exports globally declined by 9.2% – with export volume plunging 22.2% – but as the report notes darkly, the drop “does not yet fully reflect the actual situation in certain markets.” Unsurprisingly, the steepest declines were in the biggest Asian markets – China and Hong Kong – which suffered the worst period of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in the first two months of the year. The biggest fall was in Hong Kong, where exports fell 42% – the largest monthly decline in 20 years. The city imported just CHF143m of Swiss watches, compared to CHF246m for the same month last year. Exports to China fell 51.5% to CHF73m, from CHF151m for February 2019. February was merely an acceleration of a months-long decline. For the first three months of the year, exports to Hong Kong have fallen 33% compared to the same period last year, while exports to China are down 22%. Though exports to other large markets like the United States, Singapore, and Germa...
Quill & Pad
And we have a winner for our February 29 Leap Year competition: find out here how one lucky Quill & Pad reader will soon be receiving her new Gorilla Fastback GT Bandit!
Two Broke Watch Snobs
What many have been expecting has now been confirmed: BaselWorld 2020 is officially postponed. Read our take on the situation inside.
Hodinkee
A quartet of legendary watches from a modern legend in watchmaking.
SJX Watches
Backed by Chopard and taking the name of a noted 18th century French watchmaker, Ferdinand Berthoud made its debut in 2015 with the Chronomètre FB 1. Though unusual in style with an octagonal case, the FB 1 boasts an impressively constructed movement developed and manufactured by the same facility responsible for Chopard’s top-of-the-line L.U.C calibres; the project was the brainchild of Chopard co-president Karl-Friedrich Scheufele. At its core the FB 1 is an elaborate – and delightfully anachronistic – tribute to 18th century marine chronometers inside and out. The subject of four patents, the unusual calibre is very much antiquarian horology; it is constructed with pillar-style architecture and contains a chain-and-fusée, feeler-and-cone power reserve mechanism, and a large tourbillon with central seconds. Since the debut of the FB 1, there have been as many as ten subsequent variations – which is probably too many but it doesn’t diminish from the intrinsic, technical qualities of the watch – with one of the most recent being the Chronomètre FB 1 “Oeuvre d’Or” launched last year. Mechanically identical to the other iterations, the Oeuvre d’Or is distinguished by extra decoration, namely an engraved and grained gold dial as well as gold movement bridges engraved with a repeating pyramid motif. The Oeuvre d’Or FB 1.1-2 in white gold A tribute to marine chronometry Modern day Berthoud watches are inspired by the works of its 18th century namesak...
Quill & Pad
For the Michel Perchin Model #1, designer and brand owner Patrick Pinkston works with a well-versed goldsmith workshop in the United Kingdom that he describes as “literally fabricating one case at a time.” There, each 36 x 55 mm white gold case is hand-finished and engraved. What else makes this independently crafted timepiece notable? Nancy Olson has the full story.
Deployant
In this week's Throwback Sundays column, we take a look at six potential watches that you can consider buying using your angpow money.
Hodinkee
These cool special editions dropped under the radar, but you should know about them.
Quill & Pad
The Bovet Virtuoso IX combines a (double-face) flying tourbillon with two time zones, large date, an impressive power reserve of ten days, plus the brand's patented Amadeo convertible case. What more need we say?
Quill & Pad
Legacy Machine Thunderdome is a wild combination of understated mechanical beauty and extreme horological exploration developed in concert with Eric Coudray and Kari Voutilainen. Here, Joshua Munchow digs into the most interesting aspects of this latest superstar from MB&F;.
Hodinkee
Some people are just collectors through and through.
Deployant
We bring you the details and our thoughts on the new Genus GNS 1, winner of the GPHG Mechanical Exception Watch Prize 2019.
Hodinkee
Forget the hype and celebrate the top of the top.
Quill & Pad
GaryG loves independent watchmaking and independent watchmakers; one of his great joys as a collector is having the feeling that, in a small way, he is supporting their efforts. So he put some thought into why independent watchmakers struggle in a business sense and how they can remain relevant in changing market situations.
Quill & Pad
Blue has become a tradition of sorts these days in high-end stainless steel sports watches, yet Tutima's Patria is not a member of that club. While a few modest design changes could have very well made that an ambition, Tutima made the Patria more of an everyday dress watch. Here Martin Green explains why that is perfect.
Deployant
A legendary pilot's watch comes back as a re-issue. Here, we bring you the details and our thoughts on the Blancpain Air Command Chronograph.
Hodinkee
A few of our favorite, less conspicuous lots from auction season.
![Sotheby’s to Sell A. Lange & Söhne 1815 Service Watch in Steel [Withdrawn]](https://watchesbysjx.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/lange-1815-steel-service-watch-3.jpg)
SJX Watches
Long before the Odysseus “sport-elegant” watch, A. Lange & Söhne already had a serially produced timepiece in stainless steel. In the late 1990s, just as the brand was rapidly gaining traction as the preeminent German watchmaker – remember that it had only unveiled its wristwatch collection in 1994 – the company rolled out the fabled 1815 service watch. (NB: Sotheby’s has withdrawn the watch from the sale.) The rationale behind the watch was simple: a loaner for clients who had sent in their Lange wristwatch for servicing. Staying true to the exceptionally high standards the start-up brand had established for itself, the loaner was not a disposable or cut-rate watch. It was a time-only 1815 that was almost identical to the standard model – with the same highly finished movement and solid silver dial – except the case was steel while the dial was black with white markings, a colour not available on the regular production watch. Note the case back engraving. Photo – Sotheby’s Reputedly around 80-120 of these service watches were made. They were produced in small batches over a period, perhaps over a handful of years from the late 1990s to the early 2000s. The number might not seem like much, but with the company being relatively new at the time, the number of watches returned for servicing was presumably quite small. The movement in the service watch is finished to exactly the same level as that on a standard watch. Photo – Sotheby’s The 1815 serv...
Hodinkee
A radically simple version of one of watchmaking's most romantic complications.
SJX Watches
Here’s part II of highlights at Phillips’ Double Signed auction – you’ll find the first part here – including a lovely Audemars Piguet “Gobbi” chronograph with a green gold dial, as well as a gorgeous Patek Philippe Ref. 1463 “pink on pink” that’s more affordable than usual, for a reason. Lot 35 – Patek Philippe ref. 2499 in pink gold “Trucchi” The most valuable lot in the sale, with an estimate over 1.2m francs, is the Patek Philippe ref. 2499 third series in pink gold. It’s one of only six pink gold third series watches known; in fact, the total number of ref. 2499s in pink gold across all four series totals just 23. And this is the only one with the “Trucchi” signature on the dial, having been sold by the retailer in Naples that’s still in operation today. According to Phillips, it was sold by Trucchi to an Italian-American doctor in 1972, who then sold it to the consignor who sold the watch at auction in 1999 at Antiquorum in Geneva. It sold for almost 700,000 francs then, making it one of the most expensive watches in the world at the time. The watch is in exemplary condition, albeit with one quirk: the crystal is sapphire instead of PlexiGlas as is standard for the third series. Found only on fourth series ref. 2499s, the sapphire crystal and accompanying bezel was presumable installed by Patek Philippe in the 1980s according to Phillips, since the watch already had a sapphire crystal when it was sold in 1999. Lot 50 – Patek Phili...
SJX Watches
Phillips’ thematic auction this season is titled Double Signed: A Celebration of the Finest Partnerships Between Manufacturers and Retailers, with a catalogue composed of watches with retailer signatures mostly on the dial, but occasionally on the case back. Though a retailer signature in itself does not make a great watch, many watches in the sale are already superb watches, but made even more special by the retailer’s mark, like the Rolex GMT-Master ref. 6542 below. More broadly, Double Signed is more historically evocative than most other thematic auctions, because many of the retailers cited within represent a particular time and place that is long gone, even if the retailer remains in business. Examples include Serpico y Laino of Caracas, which no doubt prospered during Venezuela’s good times that are now long forgotten, or Le Palais Royal of Havana that was the island’s premiere retailer before the Communist revolution. Here’s part one of the roundup of highlights from the sale. (And part II is here.) Lot 11 – Vacheron Constantin tourbillon pocket watch ref. 92244 “Asprey” One of the most proper examples of haute horlogerie in the sale is this Vacheron Constantin pocket watch that contains an observatory-certified tourbillon movement from the 1940s, though the watch was only finished and sold in 1992. It’s believed that in the 1990s, Vacheron Constantin discovered a small number of tourbillon movements that had been tested and certified as chronomet...
Hodinkee
The famous clockmaker will discuss the world of independent horology.
Revolution
There are only a handful of brands who specialise in such items, one of which is Rapport, founded in 1898 by an ambitious 20-year-old watchmaker by the name of Maurice A. Rapport.
Revolution
In the 50th year of the automatic chronograph, Seiko celebrates with two 1960s-inspired chronographs slated for December release this year.
Hodinkee
The independent watchmakers will discuss designing and producing proprietary watch movements.
Quill & Pad
Sotheby’s justifiably described the tourbillon pocket watch No. 41000 as the most important watch made by A. Lange & Söhne. Nicknamed the Jahrhunderttourbillon ("tourbillon of the century") and introduced in 1900, it was until recently part of Sotheby’s bombastic Masterworks of Time auction. However, Sotheby's has removed the Jahrhunderttourbillon from the upcoming November auction and here Elizabeth Doerr reveals why.
Deployant
Collector Christian Kretschmar tells of his love story with his Audemars Piguet CODE 11.59 Self-Winding watch. Why he bought it, and why he has no regrets.
Hodinkee
Another Friday, another selection of great watches from around the web.
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