Results for WWI Trench Watch

HANDS-ON: The Dan Henry 1975 is a diver that’s playful yet refined and costs under $300

While the last few releases from Dan Henry have focused on the post-WWI era of military chronographs, the micro-turned-major brand return to a more lighthearted spirit with their most “modern” watch so far - the Dan Henry 1975. While the concept of a diving watch rose throughout the 1950s and was popularised in the 1960s, … ContinuedThe post HANDS-ON: The Dan Henry 1975 is a diver that’s playful yet refined and costs under $300 appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

WATCHES & WONDERS: Hublot hit a purple patch and release a brand new case shape

Editor’s Note: Watches & Wonders means a bombardment of fresh releases, so we’re offering a quick overview of each brand’s new novelties – touching on each new reference or collection and their headlining points. Stay tuned throughout the week for deeper coverage, some of which will include live pics and our hands-on perspective. But for … ContinuedThe post WATCHES & WONDERS: Hublot hit a purple patch and release a brand new case shape appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

Phillips to auction Rolex Deep Sea Special – and my own encounter with a real monster of the deep

Early November will see Phillips auction a very unusual, and not made for public, Rolex Deep Sea Special. This watch was based on the experimental Rolex that rode the outside of the Trieste bathyscaphe that, in January 1960, dove to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, some 10,900 metres deep. Following the successful dive and … ContinuedThe post Phillips to auction Rolex Deep Sea Special – and my own encounter with a real monster of the deep appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

MICRO MONDAYS: The William Wood Triumph collection is a set of chronographs ready to catch fire

William Wood is known for their well built and accessibly priced timepieces, all of which are inspired by fire rescue and the brave people who put their lives on the line every day. We’ve covered the full backstory of the brand and its name before, but just to recap: William Wood was the name of … ContinuedThe post MICRO MONDAYS: The William Wood Triumph collection is a set of chronographs ready to catch fire appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

Business News: Swatch Group Sales Plunge on Pandemic Closures

Swiss watchmaking conglomerate Swatch Group just announced its half-year 2020 results and unsurprisingly, it took a huge hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the group, which owns brands like Omega and Longines, had a good start in January with an operating margin of 17.3% – with the watch and jewellery brands performing a bit better than movement- and component-production division – the lockdown progressively imposed across the world since February severely impacted sales, leading to a steep declines in revenue and half-year operating loss, a first for the group. Group sales for the first half plunged 43.4% at constant exchange rates from a year earlier, resulting in an operating loss of CHF327m, compared to a profit of CHF547m for the same period in 2019. Most of the drop in sales was attributed to the lockdowns in most countries, resulting in widespread store closures. The Swatch Group saw up to 80% of both its own boutiques and third-party retailers close, meaning it had to rely on partially “partially feasible” e-commerce. And even after lockdowns were lifted, the group permanently vacated some of its retail space, as evidenced by disputes with its former landlord in Hong Kong, which has sued the Swatch Group for several million in allegedly unpaid rent. Due to its swiftly-streamlining retail network, the group’s employee count was trimmed by 6.5% since December 2019 to approximately 33,700 employees. This was also confirmed by anecdotal evidence fro...

Business News: Swatch Group Annual Profit Falls with Hong Kong Slowdown

Hong Kong’s political unrest has resulted in the first fall in annual profits at the Swatch Group since 2018. The world’s biggest watchmaking group, which owns brands like Omega and Longines, just announced its 2019 results, showing declines in both sales and profits. Net profit fell 13.7%, while sales declined 1.8% at constant exchange rates, or 2.7% at current rates, to 8.24 billion francs. The drops in profit and sales were primarily due to a drastic contraction of its business in Hong Kong – a city with a population of just 7.4 million – where Swatch Group owns over 90 retail stores, largely catering to shoppers from the China. Sales in Hong Kong for the second half of 2019 fell by 200 million francs. While Hong Kong was the key driver of the decline, it was not the only one. The luxury watch business in general is suffering from anaemic growth, which is also evidenced by the watch division results at diversified luxury groups like LVMH and Kering. On a more positive note, Swatch Group has managed to fulfil its stated aims of reducing operating expenditure and thinning inventory. Operating expenses dipped about 6%, while operating cash flow rose 30% in 2019. And after several consecutive years of growth, the group’s inventories declined by 1% in 2019, to a still-substantial 6.85 billion francs at cost. It’ll be a slow 2020… With Swatch Group predicting the situation in Hong Kong will continue to be “challenging” in 2020, it is in a weaker positio...

Swatch Introduces the Big Bold Jelly

One of the iconic Swatch watches from its 1980s heyday was the Jelly Fish (ref. GZ010), which was unveiled in 1983, the same year Swatch itself was launched. A quartz movement entirely exposed in a clear plastic case – accented with brightly coloured hands – the Jelly Fish was a bestseller that encapsulated what Swatch was all about: no-frills but fun watchmaking. The Jelly Fish remained in production, in one form or another – there was even a COSC-certified chronometer limited edition (GK124) in 1990 – for over two decades. Now the spirit of the Jelly Fish returns as the Big Bold Jelly, essentially the same idea but in a larger watch case. The Big Bold Jelly features a quartz movement inside a Big Bold case, just like the recent limited editions created in collaboration with fashion label A Bathing Ape (BAPE). The case is a large 47mm in diameter, with the crown unusually positioned at two o’clock. But just as with the original Jelly Fish, the case is clear plastic, while the band is translucent silicone. And the hands are rendered in bright colours – red, yellow and blue – with a bit more colour provided by the gilded wheels within the movement. Key facts and price Big Bold Jelly Ref. SO27E100 Diameter: 47mm Height: 11.75mm Material: Clear plastic Water resistance: 30m Movement: Quartz Functions: Hours, minutes, and seconds Strap: Silicone with aluminium pin buckle Availability: At Swatch stores Price: US$110 For more information, visit Swatch.co...

Swatch Inaugurates New Headquarters in Biel

A long snaking building that stretches some 240m, the new Swatch headquarters in Biel, or Bienne in French, is the culmination of five years of work. Selling about 9.5m watches a year for about 450m Swiss francs of revenue, according to Swiss bank Vontobel, Swatch was the foundational company of its parent, the aptly named Swatch Group, which also owns Omega and Longines. Like many of its parent company’s recent projects, the Swatch building was designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, the 2014 Pritzker Prize winner who is best known for his works of wood or paper, as well as his temporary structures for humanitarian aid. Its new home is covered in a honeycomb timber grid that incorporates windows, nine balconies and solar panels. Visible from the inside is the Swatch logo, derived from the Swiss cross, incorporated into some of the grid’s cells. And hidden within the structure is a network of wires and cables for telecommunications, electricity and the like. The Swatch headquarters, with the Omega building at the far left The Swatch building ends in La Cite du Temps, which sits in front of the Omega factory and headquarters Shigeru Ban, Nayla Hayek, and Nick Hayek Jr at the opening ceremony on October 3, 2019 The glass-walled Swatch store in front of the new headquarters With the new headquarters in the background Light, flexible and sustainable, the timber beams used for the outer structure number some 4,600, all precisely cut to fit with join with each other per...

BUSINESS NEWS: Why the Swatch Group has millions of watches sitting in warehouses

The Swatch Group have published their 2019 Half-Year Report, revealing some interesting information. The group has reported an increase in their inventory levels, which include components, movements and watches, to a total of 7.1 billion Swiss francs (up 2.6 per cent from 2018). More broadly, the group, which owns brands such as Tissot, Longines and … ContinuedThe post BUSINESS NEWS: Why the Swatch Group has millions of watches sitting in warehouses appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

Omega now rules the deep seas with the Seamaster Planet Ocean Ultra Deep Professional

Big news overnight from the house of Omega – they can now claim the lofty (well, the opposite actually) title of deepest diving watch ever. Just how deep are we talking here? How about 10,928 metres? That’s the depth Victor Vescovo took his submersible, Limiting Factor into the Mariana Trench. And on that sub, was the Omega … ContinuedThe post Omega now rules the deep seas with the Seamaster Planet Ocean Ultra Deep Professional appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

Swatch Group-Audemars Piguet Collaboration Creates Non-Magnetic Balance Spring

The Swatch Group announced on 29 August the creation of a revolutionary balance spring with exceptional paramagnetic characteristics. This balance spring is made from a new non-magnetic compensating alloy called Nivachron™ which the Swatch Group developed in collaboration with Audemars Piguet.

Swatch Sistem51 Review: Should You Keep The Receipt?

The first time that I was introduced to a Swatch Sistem51 was in a marketing email from Hodinkee announcing their collaboration with Swatch. The Swatch Sistem51 cost $150, which piqued my interest immediately. It was only a fraction of the cost of anything else that Hodinkee offered (besides a magazine).

Press release: Swatch launches Spring-Summer 2018 collection

Swatch introduces its Spring-Summer 2018 collection, which dives into the Swiss watchmaker’s DNA. Spring and summer are all about the great outdoors, and Swatch takes the party from the garden to the street before heading to the beach.

Rare Watches: Voyage to the bottom of the sea: Part 1: Rolex Deep Special

We get hands-on with the Rolex Deep Sea Special. Very rare hands-on with the first watch ever to have been to bottom of the Mariana Trench.

The AP X Swatch Royal Pop: The Royal Oak Gets Swatch-ified With Eight New Pocket Watches

The duo plays to their strengths with a fleet of Bioceramic pocket watches packed with a new movement and endless styling possibilities. More

Thomas’s Watches And Wonders 2026 Favorites: Conservative Classics Catch My Gaze

As Fratello writers, my colleagues and I always have this article in the back of our minds as we work our way through the Watches and Wonders peak workload. We all know that sooner rather than later, Head of Content Nacho will schedule a Watches and Wonders 2026 favorites article for each of us, so […] Visit Thomas’s Watches And Wonders 2026 Favorites: Conservative Classics Catch My Gaze to read the full article.

Serica Watches Review: The French Brand With The Silent Dials

A look at Serica watches, the French microbrand that has gained a reputation with newer collectors and enthusiasts alike.

Swatch Drops Four Jellyfish-Themed Affordable Dive Watches at $155

The Swatch Scubaqua returns with four new affordable dive watches at $155, including two with built-in Swatch Pay at no added cost.

Rolex at Watches and Wonders 2026: Daytona Enamel, Jubilee Gold Day-Date , Centenary Oyster Perpetual, and the Return of Yatch-Master II

Trilobe’s new Paris manufacture is a new chapter for French independent watchmaking

Trilobe has just made its most consequential move yet: the opening of a full manufacture in the heart of the Opéra district of Paris.The post Trilobe’s new Paris manufacture is a new chapter for French independent watchmaking appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

AI Designed My Custom Swatch Watch

Announced last year, Swatch’s AI-DADA platform is now live, enabling customers to design and build their own custom Swatch with a design that will never be repeated. With a low entry price and quick turnaround, I took the platform for a spin. Why AI Swatch has been a design-oriented brand since its debut in 1983. Not only has Swatch produced a dizzying array of original designs of its own, over the years the brand has collaborated with celebrated artists and leading institutions to democratise access to wearable art. About a decade ago, Swatch’s world-class logistics infrastructure enabled it to offer customised watches via an online configurator that enabled customers to mix and match different elements from a pre-selected range of options. That was quickly followed by the ability to generate a custom-printed design, by dragging a Swatch template over a selection of human-created patterns and designs. The AI-DADA system, launched earlier this year, builds on this basis in way that only Swatch could pull off. The system leverages an undisclosed large language model (LLM) to generate a custom design based on a user’s 300-character prompt. The result is a made-to-order Swatch of the customer’s own design, delivered in as few as five days. What’s more, the cost is little more than an off-the-shelf model, at just US$195. With little to lose, I took the plunge. AI-DADA Swatch watches are powered by standard quartz movements in the typical New Gent case size. Three str...

Swatch Group Responds to Morgan Stanley Report in Open Letter

Business News: Swatch Group Publishes Open Letter To Morgan Stanley Management Saying Longines Is Profitable And Tissot Sales Grew

Swatch takes aim at the numbers and methods of the widely read Morgan Stanley 'Swiss Watcher' industry report.

Masterpieces of Modernism: Swatch Debuts Guggenheim Collaboration

Having previously collaborated with almost every major art museum in the world, from MoMA to the Louvre, Swatch has licensed four masterpieces of 20th-century art from the Guggenheim, including works on display in New York and Venice. Accessibly priced, non-limited and available online, the Swatch x Guggenheim collection brings works from Monet, Degas, Klee, and Pollock to a wrist near you. Initial thoughts Painted dials have a long history in watchmaking, but the difficult nature of the work meant that for most of history they remained out of reach for all but the wealthiest clientele. While hand-painted dials are vanishingly rare and breathtakingly expensive, modern production methods mean that legendary masterpieces can now be easily scaled down and mass produced. Swatch was a pioneer in this regard, introducing its first artist collaboration with Kiki Picasso in 1985, just two years after the company launched its revolutionary plastic watch. The Picasso collaboration was the first of many, and since then there’s hardly a major art museum that hasn’t licensed selected works to Swatch. The works selected for this collaboration come from two different Guggenheim collections. Three of them are famously on display at the Guggenheim New York, while the fourth may be seen at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. The odd-looking double-length seconds hand is an homage to this transatlantic duality. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. Functionally, the four quar...

New release alert: Swatch Year of the Horse

Swatch releases a special edition to celebrate the Year of the Horse with a special art piece in collaboration with Chinese artist Yu Wenjie.