Results for Plan-les-Ouates

Revolution Awards 2025: Best Astronomical Watch - Vacheron Constantin Les Cabinotiers Solaria Ultra Grande Complication La Première

The latest Vacheron Constantin Les Cabinotiers watches celebrate art, science and myth

First Look – Vacheron Constantin Releases Unique Les Cabinotiers Pieces for its 270th Anniversary

When it comes to complications, Vacheron Constantin is a veritable Titan in the arena and has earned its rightful place in the pantheon of high complications. Celebrating its grand 270th anniversary this year, Vacheron has outdone itself in 2025. Following the release of the world’s most complicated pocket watch last year, Vacheron Constantin has pulled […]

Introducing the Vacheron Constantin Les Cabinotiers Temporis Duo Grand Complication Openface

A Closer Look: Vacheron Constantin Les Cabinotiers Solaria Ultra Grand Complication

A Closer Look: Vacheron Constantin Les Cabinotiers Le Temps Divin ‘Ode to the Four Guardians’

The Vacheron Constantin Les Cabinotiers The Berkley Grand Complication, The World’s Most Complicated Watch

Nine One-Off Vacheron Constantin Les Cabinotiers pieces blend Artistry and Mechanics

Cartier’s Les Rééditions: The Tank Cintrée in Platinum

Introducing the Richard Mille RM 60-01 Les Voiles De St Barth

In a wonderful philanthropic gesture, Richard Mille is donating the proceeds from one of its latest limited releases to good causes in St Barths.

Introducing Vacheron Constantin’s New Les Cabinotiers Singing Birds

The famed watchmaker celebrates its 265th anniversary with a set of watches dedicated to the classic craft of enameling.

Revolution Awards 2017: Best Complication – Vacheron Constantin Les Cabinotiers Celestia Astronomical Grand Complication

Once again, the global editors of Revolution weigh in on the best timepieces of the year, as well as the personalities that shaped the watch industry.

Highlights: Metiers d’Art at Phillips Hong Kong

With the Geneva sales over, the auction season now moves to Hong Kong, where Phillips is staging a pair of sales: Toki, a theme sale dedicated to watches related to Japan, and the traditional The Hong Kong Watch Auction: XIX. Taking place over three days from November 22-24, the sales total 346 lots, including a notable line-up of metiers d’art timepieces decorated with artisanal techniques. They range from an enamelled Bulgari Serpenti to a Vacheron Constantin Les Masques quartet. We round up metiers d’art highlights from the two sales. The catalogues with online bidding for Toki and HKWA XIX. TOKI Lot 65 – Patek Philippe Rare Handcrafts “Kimono” Ref. 5077P-097 Patek Philippe’s annual Rare Handcrafts offerings are often centred on several themes, and in 2013, resulting in several models with Japanese motifs, including this Calatrava ref. 5077P with a cloisonné enamel dial. The technique of enamelling is well known: a mixture of silica sand, metal oxides for colour, and oil is painted on a surface before being baked in an oven at temperatures exceeding 800°C. to melt the paste to form enamel. Cloisonné adds an additional layer of complexity by employing gold wires to form the motif, with the enamel painted into the cells form by the wires. Here the wires form a cherry blossom motif typical of traditional kimono fabric. According to Phillips, only four examples were produced with this dial, with the present watch being the first to emerge at auction. This wat...

The Wonderfully Artistic in Christie’s Hong Kong

Having explored the best of independent watchmaking, we now pivot to the artisanal masterpieces at Christie’s Hong Kong sale on November 26, ranging from a 1950s cloisonné Omega by Nelly Richard to a Patek Philippe Dome Clock. Amongst the more esoteric is the Vacheron Constantin Métiers d’Art “Les Masques”, the quartet of timepieces each featuring a miniature sculpture replicating tribal masks in Geneva’s Barbier-Mueller Museum.  The auction on November 26 is made up of two parts, starting with Important Watches (lots 2201-2343) at 1 pm  – the catalogue is available here. It will be followed by the OAK Collection (lots 2501-2639) at 6:30 pm – see the full catalogue here. Lots 2224-2227: Vacheron Constantin Métiers d’Art “Les Masques” set One of Vacheron Constantin’s most distinctive Metiers d’Art creations, “Les Masques” is a literal description of the watches – each contains a miniature sculpture that deftly reproduces tribal masks from around the world that are part of the primitive art collection in the renowned Barbier-Mueller Museum. Each of the three years from 2007 to 2009 saw the launch of a “Les Masques” set made up of four watches, with each watch representing one of the four continents of Asia, Oceania, Africa, and the Americas. This present set is from 2009 and depicts masks from Gabon, Mexico, Indonesia, and China.  The masks were micro-sculptures of 18k gold that were intricately engraved and coloured by hand, and then...

Year in Review: The Best Watches of 2021

A trend that has been repeating across industries during 2021 also transformed the luxury-watch business during the year – an insatiable demand for watches and supply perennially falling short. Although there were new launches throughout the year – which kept enthusiasts continually entertained – the “novelties” for 2021 were mostly not the sort typical of the go-go years. New products was arguably less exciting than business would imply, largely because new watches take several years to develop and the uptick in business became seemingly overnight. Many high-profile new launches were predictable variations of familiar models. A seemingly familiar variation but actually something entirely new and one of the top watches of 2021 Nevertheless, there were standouts. Here are a dozen of the year’s best watches picked by our editors (or even owned by some of them, but alas not the Vermeer). Led by a magnificent art-complication, the list includes several technical highlights – from an impressive time-only movement from Patek Philippe to Richard Mille’s ingenious winding mechanism – and of course a few affordable watches on the list. All-in-one Vacheron Constantin Les Cabinotiers Westminster Sonnerie – Tribute to Johannes Vermeer: “This pocket watch is the epitome of high-end horology, blending both art and engineering. While the base movement within is derived from the mega-complicated Ref. 57260 pocket watch, the Vermeer’s movement has arguably been cl...

Louis Erard Introduces the Regulator by Alain Silberstein (With Live Photos)

Louis Erard has been around for some 90 years, but for much of that time the brand produced watches for other labels. A decade ago, shortly after new owners took over, Louis Erard began to move slightly upmarket with mechanical watches featuring proprietary modules. But most of its designs were plain or derivative. And so Louis Erard could have been just another brand making mostly anonymous looking watches. But recently Louis Erard recruited the talented Manuel Emch – best known for reviving Jaquet Droz and then running RJ-Romain Jerome until 2017 – as an advisor and suddenly things have brightened up – literally. Louis Erard has just announced the Alain Silberstein Regulator, a surprisingly affordable wristwatch created by the watch designer famed for his whimsical, Bauhaus-inspired style – captured here in photos taken by a Swiss collector for SJX (scroll to the bottom to read my thoughts on the watch after seeing them shortly after this was published). Since Mr Silberstein’s eponymous company went bust in 2012, he has created watches for MB&F; and RJ-Romain Jerome. Despite the diversity of the brands he has worked with, Mr Silberstein versatile yet distinctive style manages to ease into each brand’s house style. Illustrating the magic of Mr Silberstein’s creativity, the new watch is based on one of Louis Erard’s signature models, the Excellence Regulator, which is ordinarily available with a grained or guilloche silver dial featuring Roman numera...

Introducing: Louis Vuitton Unity Time Object

What We Know For the last ten years, Louis Vuitton has worked with UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, to support humanitarian and developmental aid for children worldwide. To mark the tenth anniversary of the partnership, the house is releasing a one-of-a-kind time object—a soccer ball reimagined as a clock—to be auctioned exclusively at Sotheby's from June 9 to 18, with the hammer price going directly to UNICEF. The piece brings together La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton, the Swiss movement maker L'Épée 1839, and the house's trunkmaking heritage, all in the shape of a soccer ball, timed perfectly ahead of this year's World Cup. With Louis Vuitton's F1 partnership now in its second year, the brand has been planting its flag deeper in the world of sport. Having a soccer ball serve as the vessel for this milestone feels like a natural extension of that direction, and there's something fitting about the spherical choice of form to commemorate this occasion. At the center of the piece, time is told through a sculpted golden steel dome that forms the upper half of the clock. Two rotating cylinders handle the work: one tracks the hours, the other the minutes. The minute track is engraved with Louis Vuitton's Monogram motif and flowers, and the top of the cylinder carries the "Louis Vuitton Paris" signature. Moving outward, the hour and minute apertures are rimmed with diamonds—144 white for the hours, 120 black for the minutes, totaling 1.03 carats. Inside, L'...

First Look – A Fusion of History and Modernity, the Louis Moinet 1816 Tourbillon Chronograph

Louis Moinet (1768-1853) wanted an accurate instrument to track celestial motions and built the Compteur de Tierces in 1815-1816. Endowed with a start, stop and reset function and a balance wheel beating at an impressive high frequency of 30Hz, his novel stopwatch could time events to the 60th of a second. Considered one of the precursors […]

Hands On: Louis Vuitton x De Bethune LVDB-03 Louis Varius Project

Following collaborations with Rexhep Rexhepi and Kari Voutilainen, Louis Vuittion turns to De Bethune’s Denis Flageollet for its biggest independent collaboration to date, both literally and figuratively. The release spans two timekeepers - the first is the LVDB-03 GMT Louis Varius, a heat-blued titanium wristwatch that can be wound and set by the LVDB-03 Sympathique Louis Varius, an ambitious métiers d’art Sympathique clock. Initial thoughts Having worked on Sympathique clocks for Breguet during his spell at Techniques Horlogères Appliquées (THA) in the 1990s, Mr Flageollet revisits the concept on his own terms. De Bethune is one of the few independent brands with its own clockmaking workshop, which is a testament to Mr Flageollet’s experience gained at THA. The Sympathique clock is finely wrought, with several charming artistic flourishes embodying De Bethune’s house style with a generous use of blued titanium. While this Sympathique arguably is a historical tribute rather than state-of-the art, it is nonetheless easier to use than its antecedents, with a simplified docking process that doesn’t require the watch’s strap to be removed. In terms of usability, this Sympathique is arguably the most advanced to date; moreover, both clocks can be paired with any of the watches in the series, an interchangeability underlining the precision of make that was absent in historical Sympathique clocks. Denis Flageollet at the launch event in Tokyo. The massive ornam...

Louis Vuitton Flexes their Watchmaking Skills with a Flurry of LVMH Watch Week Novelties

Fashion houses are often only as strong as consumers’ nostalgia for their heyday. As more time passes between a brand’s peak and its current incarnation, the connection to what it once represented can become increasingly tenuous. In some cases, that link barely holds at all. Balenciaga is a perfect example of a brand that leaned so heavily on its laurels that it fell on its ass. Thankfully, that isn’t the case with Louis Vuitton. The maison’s durability has come from its ability to evolve without losing sight of what made it relevant in the first place. Marc Jacobs is often credited with bringing Louis Vuitton into a modern context when he launched its first ready-to-wear collection in 1998, but the throughline has always been consistent: an emphasis on craftsmanship, materials, and design rooted in the principles established by Louis Vuitton in 1854. That same approach is clearly evident at this year’s LVMH Watch Week, where each release shows that the label is heavily invested in expanding Louis Vuitton’s legacy of craftsmanship into everything under the label’s umbrella. First up, we have the Escale Worldtime, which returns this year in a platinum case with a dial ring featuring 24 hand-painted city flags, each impressively applied at La Fabrique du Temps, the watch manufacture owned by Louis Vuitton that has been the catalyst for much of the brand’s advancement in watchmaking under their own name in recent years. If you are more interested in the Flying...

Louis Vuitton Elevates the Escale Minute Repeater

Louis Vuitton sharpens its haute horlogerie credentials with the Escale Minute Repeater, a chiming complication paired with a jump hour and retrograde minutes display. Built around La Fabrique du Temps’s proven minute repeater calibre, the watch trades the previous Escale minute repeater’s world time function for a cleaner, more focused dial dominated by grey flammé guilloché. The result puts Louis Vuitton in direct competition with established players in complicated watchmaking, and comes complete with a discreet repeater slide hidden within the signature trunk-inspired lugs. Initial thoughts On the back of a strong 2025, Louis Vuittion doubles down on haute horlogerie, now in a more traditional case than last year’s Tambour. While the brand still offers the quartz Tambour Street Diver for just a few thousand dollars, Louis Vuittion’s ambitions clearly lie in the high-end. After years of strategic acquisitions and investments, the brand has the industrial base to compete and the know-how to do things its own way. The Escale Minute Repeater is the embodiment of Louis Vuitton’s ambitions, and is competitive with other minute repeaters from established haute horlogerie brands thanks to its modern movement and tasteful details. In short, it shows the brand understands the tastes of the day, and, more importantly, how to deliver a compelling package that leans into Louis Vuitton’s unique legacy and brand DNA. Furthermore, the minute repeater is something of a s...

Louis Vuitton’s Escale Dons Turquoise and Malachite

Louis Vuitton expands the Escale line with a pair of limited editions featuring turquoise and malachite stone dials – and unusually, matching stone mid-cases. By integrating the case band in the same material as the dial, the brand elevates the familiar Escale silhouette into something more sculptural, while retaining the signature riveted form inspired by its historic trunks. The result is one of the more distinctive takes on the current stone-dial trend. The platinum-and-titanium construction allows for a double-walled case with a stone ring on the outside, giving the watch proper water resistance, while the larger 40 mm case creates space for colour and texture to shine. With only 30 pieces in each colourway, the editions reinforce Louis Vuitton’s ambition in high-end watchmaking. Initial thoughts This year has been a strong one for Louis Vuitton, an ambitious trunk maker seeking to prove itself as a serious watchmaker. It certainly has the industrial means to accomplish that through its control of Geneva-based La Fabrique du Temps and what is clearly a deep bench of design talent. The latest pair of Escales takes the stone dial trend to its logical next step: stone cases. Thanks to the upscale construction, it avoids the trap of feeling gimmicky, unlike, say, the Tissot Rockwatch. The quality is outstanding which helps rationalise the steep price tag. The distinctive construction of the Escale case makes it an almost ideal platform for the stone case band, so it is...

Introducing – The Micromechanical Embroidery Dial of the Fil d’Or Louis Erard x Wire Art

There’s no stopping Manuel Emch’s relentless drive to democratise watchmaking by producing highly original content and métiers d’art dials, thanks to collaborations with designers, artists, studios and artisans for Louis Erard. The latest collaboration is a surprising marriage of traditional embroidery executed with a machine designed to bond microcircuits reprogrammed by Wire Art, Switzerland, to […]

Louis Erard Makes Hand Engraving Affordable

Louis Erard’s niche is making either watchmakers or techniques affordable – the Gravée Main is hand engraving priced accessibly. The watch is entirely engraved by hand, across the bezel, case, crown, and buckle, with a classical leaf motif by Maksym Shavlak, a watchmaker and engraver from Ukraine. The resulting look is a blend of Gothic and Baroque, but the underlying watch retains the usual dimensions and movement of Louis Erard, while the dial is glossy black lacquer that evokes fired enamel. Initial thoughts I appreciate Louis Erard’s consistent focus on making interesting names or techniques affordable; its recent Damascus steel regulator being an example. Some micro-brands or one-man shops do the same for slightly less, particularly for certain decorative techniques, but without the finesse of Louis Erard. A good deal of credit for this goes to Manuel Emch, who oversees Louis Erard and lends his eye to the brand’s creations. The Gravée Main sits squarely in the sweet spot where Louis Erard excels. Admittedly, the ornate look is not for everyone, some might even find it tacky. But I like it; the look is appealing and the execution shows attention to detail. The tone-on-tone lacquered dial is a smart complement to the elaborate case. And that attention to detail is also evident in the engraving, which continues onto both the crown and buckle, which are sometimes overlooked. Price-wise the Gravée Main is pricier than the typical Louis Erard limited edition, bu...

Louis Erard & Konstantin Chaykin Bid Farewell to the Time Eater with a Tourbillon

Having collaborated on several iterations of the affordable “Time Eater” regulator, Louis Erard and Konstantin Chaykin now close the chapter on the model with something more complicated. The Time Eater Tourbillon Louis Erard x Konstantin Chaykin tells the time regulator style – retaining the trademark “eyeball” hours from the Russian independent’s Wristmon series – but inside the “mouth” is a one-minute tourbillon. At CHF19,900, the Time Eater Tourbillon is pricier than the earlier time-only models, but still relatively accessible as such things go, thanks to a no-frills, but Swiss, tourbillon movement inside. Initial thoughts I liked the original Time Eater regulator because the design captures the Konstantin Chaykin style but makes it affordable at about a fifth of the price of a Wristmon. The Time Eater Tourbillon is less affordable, but still priced a little less than a Wristmon, so it is still a value proposition. More broadly, it’s a good thing that Louis Erard and Konstantin Chaykin are ending the Time Eater series. After three time-only regulator launches and this tourbillon, the concept has probably reached an optimal point of just enough and not overexploited. Rolling eye whimsy The Time Eater Tourbillon will be available in two variants: a green-accented model as pictured here that’s limited to 78 pieces, and one in blue that’s limited to 28. The former will be available from Louis Erard and its retailers, while the latter will only be so...

Introducing – The New Louis Vuitton Tambour High-End Yellow Gold Onyx & Platinum Rainbow

The drum-shaped Tambour watch of 2002, Louis Vuitton’s first foray into high-end watchmaking, underwent a sea change in 2023 to become a player in the luxury sports watch sector. Equipped with an integrated bracelet and slimmed down, the new Tambour has appeared in sporty stainless steel and luxurious gold cases. Alongside the release of the […]

Louis Vuitton Surprises with Tambour Convergence

Louis Vuitton starts 2025 with a surprise, the Tambour Convergence. Modelled on traditional “digital” pocket watches, the Convergence indicates the time with discs visible in a pair of small windows at the top of the face. The unusual design, coupled with the compact, 37 mm case gives the Convergence an elegant, vintage-inspired aesthetic atypical of Louis Vuitton. Equally notable is the newly-developed in-house calibre inside, the LFT MA01.01. The movement is of a family of movements that will underpin Louis Vuitton’s timepieces going forward; variants of the movement are also found in the new Tambour Taiko Spin Time. Initial thoughts The Convergence is unexpected because it isn’t typical of Louis Vuitton. The vintage-inspired styling and proportions are almost antithesis of the brand’s conventional look, which was historically colourful and modern. Even though such territory is relatively new to Louis Vuitton, the Convergence is executed well. The design has intrinsic appeal, and shows off good proportions and details. The Convergence demonstrates the refined style of the redesigned Tambour case, which barely resembles the chunky original that was often thick and paired with narrow lugs. While I myself liked the quirk look of the original Tambour, the revamped model is undoubtedly more elegant and consequently will have a wider appeal. The Convergence debuts in pink gold The Convergence does well in almost all respects – fit, finish, design, and dimensions ...

The Louis Vuitton Watch Prize 2025 is Open

Now returning for the second year, the Louis Vuitton Watch Prize for Independent Creatives is a biennial contest that offers recognition, mentorship, and financial support for independent watchmakers.  Announced in 2023, the first edition of the prize drew more than 1,000 submissions from all around the world. In January 2024, Raúl Pagès (pictured above) was awarded the inaugural prize for his Régulateur à détente RP1. The RP1 movement The contest was conceived to recognise and support emerging talents in the independent watchmaking space, and is open to any independent watchmaker, regardless of age, location, or background. The content continues into its second edition with the same rules and format. Judging will be done according to five criteria, “Design & Aesthetics, Creativity & Audacity, Technical Innovation, Details & Finishings, and Complexity”. The judging process takes place over several months, in stages. The applications will be first be reviewed by a team at La Fabrique du Temps that includes Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini, the manufacture’s founders. The candidates will then be whittled down by a committee of experts to a shortlist of 20 semi-finalists that will be revealed in July 2025. And in November 2025 the committee will select five finalists, as well as nominate a number from its own ranks to serve as jury members. The finalists will present their work to the jury in February 2026, where the winner will be decided. The actual prize is ...

Fast Cars, Street Racing, Las Vegas and the TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph in Pink

On November 24th, the weekend before Thanksgiving, the Las Vegas strip comes alive with the Formula One World Championship. Street circuits have a different vibe to them than the purpose-built racetracks. Especially in Vegas, the parties and excitement are next level. High rollers are comped with luxury suites, as they watch the drivers navigate the myriads of casinos at high speed on the notoriously traffic jammed streets of the Vegas strip. Enter TAG Heuer, with a pink Monaco chronograph in a DLC-coated titanium case. In my opinion, it is a perfect symbolic watch for Vegas night street racing – delivering the big wrist presence energy.  Last month Formula One and LVMH signed a ten-year partnership deal worth a billion dollars. TAG Heuer, owned by LVMH, is already a sponsor of the Red Bull Racing team and the Monaco GP. With Rolex now no longer a sponsor, TAG Heuer could possibly become the face of Formula One beginning next season. You can already see the presence of LVMH’s core luxury brands at the races, with bottles of Moët on the podium and monogrammed Louis Vuitton trophy cases. Having established that LVMH has beaucoup bucks, let’s move on to discussing the Monaco chronograph. If you remove the pink elements from this Monaco, it is a serious and technical piece. But the pink makes it more fun and commands the spotlight. I may as well be describing the Formula One drivers.  TAG Heuer has a similar watch in their current catalog with blue and yellow accents,...

Introducing the Louis Erard 2300 Sport Chronograph

When I think of Louis Erard, two things tend to spring to mind: regulators and collaborations. As a brand, they have mastered each of these, and they have contributed to some of my favorite releases in recent years (the brand’s whimsical collaborations with Alain Silberstein spring to mind as a high watermark). The consequence of this success is it can be easy to ignore the other things Louis Erard does well. With the new Louis Erard 2300 Sport Chronograph, the brand is trying to remind us. When compared with mother-of-pearl dialed regulators, this latest trio of limited edition sports watches - each of which will be available in a “99-piece limited edition numbered in multiples of 3” - is a more down-the-middle release than we’re used to seeing from Louis Erard. But as one might expect from the brand, a closer look will reveal Louis Erard’s signature touch. On its surface, the 2300 Sport Chronograph is a fairly by-the-number Valjoux 7750-powered sports chronograph, with a large case (44mm across, 52.4mm lug-to-lug, and 15mm thick in well-finished Grade 5 Titanium) reminiscent of straight-lug Speedies and Carreras, a black ceramic bezel, and the very familiar 6-9-12 layout with day and date that most often accompanies the iconic movement. But the signature Louis Erard touch is there and, as with so many of their other watches, the magic here comes with the dial. When you take a moment to step back and think about it, chronograph dials - with their multiple ...