Two Broke Watch Snobs
The Affordable Luxury Brand Frederique Constant Finally Made a Solar Watch
Frederique Constant's first solar-powered watch lands in the Moneta dress line, shipping on both a leather strap and bracelet.
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Two Broke Watch Snobs
Frederique Constant's first solar-powered watch lands in the Moneta dress line, shipping on both a leather strap and bracelet.
Monochrome
In recent years, Parmigiani Fleurier has increasingly focused on restrained, architecturally refined watchmaking, whether through the minimalist elegance of the Tonda PF collection or highly artisanal creations such as the Armoriale and the Maison’s objets d’art. Still, Parmigiani Fleurier’s modern identity is nothing without remembering its foundation, rooted in Michel Parmigiani’s lifelong work as a […]
Fratello
Another Friday, another list. After finding alternatives to some of the industry’s biggest icons over the past few months, we decided to switch things up. In the past week, some of the Fratello team members had a nice discussion about forgotten watches from the 1980s, so we thought, “Why not make that into a nice […] Visit Fratello’s Top 5 Iconic Watches From The 1980s to read the full article.
Monochrome
Ever since Favre Leuba has been relaunched at Geneva Watch Days 2024, the brand has been going back to its archives and giving old favourites a fresh spin. Unveiled at this event was the Deep Blue collection that hosted two watches: the Deep Blue Revival (39mm) and Deep Blue Renaissance (40mm). This comeback collection was […]
Fratello
Zenith marks the 250th anniversary of the United States with the release of the Chronomaster Revival Liberty II. This launch follows the original North American exclusive from several years ago. The new model strengthens the historical link between the Swiss manufacture and American industrial history. Zenith founder Georges Favre-Jacot famously visited the United States in […] Visit Zenith Introduces The Chronomaster Revival Liberty II to read the full article.
Fratello
Hype around Swatch is not new. The “Second Watch,” launched in 1983 as a fun and affordable accessory you could wear to match your daily outfits, was never meant to be a lifelong heirloom investment. It was always about the heat of the moment. The colorful plastic Swatch caused a massive cultural and commercial “uproar” […] Visit Pondering Swatch’s Relevance: Is Adrenaline-Fueled Hype Enough To Remain A Player In The Watch Game? to read the full article.
Monochrome
For years, Formex has been associated with robust, technically minded watches focused on ergonomics, innovative materials and practical engineering. The Essence, Reef, and Stratos collections built the Biel-based independent brand’s reputation as a maker of high-value sports watches with distinctive technical solutions, including the patented Case Suspension System and advanced clasp mechanisms. With the new […]
Fratello
As a small brand, Formex has consistently pushed the boundaries of affordable watchmaking. By using new materials, integrating innovations, and simply creating a great, varied collection of watches, the young Swiss brand has stood out in recent years. With the new Aria Manufacture Chronometer, Formex unveils a new milestone for the company. It marks a […] Visit Formex Enters The Arena Of Integrated-Bracelet Watches With Its Aria Manufacture Chronometer to read the full article.
Time+Tide
Formex takes its innovations to the next level, introducing an exclusive manufacture micro-rotor movement in an ultra-thin titanium case
Worn & Wound
Swiss brand Albishorn is known for their rather daring mission of recreating vintage watches that never existed; a goal that seems confusing until you see their wide swathe of “imaginary vintage” offerings, each of which draws from iconic timepieces of the past while forging their own new identities. It’s an exercise in parallel history with an added touch of impossibility, and it’s what makes Albishorn watches a category of their own. Carrying on that hypothetical tradition is the new Type X-Graph, which borrows elements from the legendary Type 20 design, while adding features that were simply not possible in the era that Type 20 pieces were being built. Rather than taking a Type 20 silhouette and cramming new features in, Albishorn has taken to imagining what a predecessor “Type 10” may have looked like instead. Calling it a “missing link” in the history of the Type 20, the Type X-Graph is, of course, a pilot chronograph, with stylings from the late 1940s to pre-date the Type 20’s 1950s introduction. A monopusher military chronograph design, the Type X-Graph measures in at 39mm (a first hint of the modern innovations that remind us that it’s of an imagined history) in case diameter, and 20mm in case thickness. The lug width is a democratic 20mm, with the final lug-to-lug measurement coming in at a wearable 47.7mm, and kept slim by the 12mm thickness. But that’s just the boring stuff; the visuals and functionality of the X-Graph are what make it st...
Monochrome
Hockey first, now football. After earlier NHL and NHLPA editions, as well as the recent refresh of the Adventure lineup, Norqain presents the new Adventure Chrono Swiss Football National Team Limited Edition. Unlike many sports-team watches that stop at a logo or a few colours, this one was actually developed with input from several members […]
Two Broke Watch Snobs
PDW's latest Special Projects watch pairs the historic Monnin case with a regulated Seiko NH38 and French assembly—all for $649.
Worn & Wound
Back in 2020, Zenith released the Chronomaster Revival Liberty, a North American exclusive limited edition that is still one of the most popular of the A384 reissues we’ve seen. In fact, you could probably make a case that the early success of this particular A384 revival laid the groundwork for all that came after (and there have been many of these A384s released in the last six years). The original Liberty, with its red and white chronograph seconds hand and subtle blue fumé dial, was an attractive watch regardless of whether you saw it as part of a patriotic exercise. So it’s no surprise that Zenith has gone back to the well with the new Chronomaster Revival Liberty II. Coming as it does in the year of America’s 250th anniversary, the brand is leaning a bit harder into the connection Zenith has always had to the United States with this release. Part of the conceit of the Chronomaster Revival Liberty II is that Zenith’s founder, George Favre-Jacot, was inspired by the watchmaking industry in America in the way he built the Zenith brand. In the middle part of the 19th century, the Swiss watch industry worked largely on an éstablissage system, which meant individual components were to be produced separately before final assembly. When Favre-Jacot visited the United States as a young man, he encountered a much more industrialized and efficient way of making a watch, which served as a model for the early days of Zenith. To that end, the Chronomaster Revival Lib...
Monochrome
Following the Maxigraph, the Marinagraph, the Thundergraph, the original Type 10 Chronograph and the later cream-dial Type 10 Officer, the young Albishorn brand returns to its fictional military aviation universe with the new Type X-Graph. Once again, founder Sébastien Chaulmontet and designer Fabien Collioud explore the idea of a watch that never existed but could […]
Monochrome
In 2019, Zenith celebrated the 50th anniversary of the El Primero, the world’s first automatic chronograph movement. Zenith’s high-frequency, integrated automatic chronograph movement was fitted inside three inaugural watches, including the A384, a bold tonneau-shaped case with a two-tone dial that reflected the design language of the period. As the United States gets ready to celebrate […]
Monochrome
This weekend, together with our friends at Reijersen Juweliers, a retailer based in the city of Oudewater and specialising in many of our favourite independent brands and rare limited editions, we’ll be hosting the annual “Taste of Time” event. For the third edition of this show, which focuses on independent watchmaking, Reijersen will be teaming […]
Time+Tide
Everything you need to know about the three updated Chronomat models from Breitling to get you up to speed.
SJX Watches
First teased more than two years ago, the Barrelhand Monolith makes its official debut. An impressive sophomore effort from San Francisco-based mechanical engineer Karel Bachand, the Monolith was designed — and rigorously tested — to accompany the next generation of manned spaceflight missions. Initial thoughts I tend to look at astronaut-oriented watches with a degree of scepticism. For one thing, many modern mechanical watches are inherently capable of performing well enough in space, especially within the pressurised, temperature-controlled conditions of a spacecraft or space station. Today’s astronauts often travel with numerous personal watches, either for sentimental reasons or to boost future resale value. For another, the demands placed on astronauts make electronic multi-function watches superior to their mechanical counterparts. Almost as soon as such watches were developed, astronauts adopted them enthusiastically, which is why the Timex Datalink was flight qualified by NASA in the 1990s. The European Space Agency (ESA) even patented a set of purpose-built functions devised by astronaut Jean-François Clervoy. These functions were brought to life by the Omega Speedmaster Skywalker X-33. But mechanical watches still have a place in the unforgiving vacuum of space, where massive temperature fluctuations and unpredictable levels of radiation wreak havoc on batteries and LCD displays. These are the conditions for which the Monolith was developed, and the maker...
Fratello
There are tool watches, and then there are watches that make conventional tool watches look almost quaint. The Barrelhand Monolith belongs in the latter category. This timepiece took six years to develop. Aerospace engineering, additive manufacturing, and advanced materials science were used to create not simply a “space-inspired” watch but an actual instrument for modern […] Visit Blastoff For The Space-Going Barrelhand Monolith — A Next-Generation Mission-Grade Space Watch to read the full article.
Hodinkee
After six years in development, Barrelhand is formally launching the Monolith, a watch that represents a new generation of the tool watch genre built explicitly for the space age. Watches have played an important role in the history of human space travel, but few have actually been designed and engineered to meet ISO aerospace standards, NASA material guidance, and EVA/IVA testing protocols consistent with the needs of a crewed deep-space mission. The Monolith represents exactly that, with Barrelhand going to great lengths to meet a standard that tool watches are rarely held to these days. At the dawn of the Apollo program, with five years of learning from the Gemini program under their belt, NASA issued a memorandum outlining the need for a standard flight-crew wrist watch. The story that follows is a widely known part of watch lore, with Omega's Speedmaster ultimately earning the coveted "Flight Qualified" status, and thus a spot on every crewed flight of the Apollo program from 1968 to 1972. The testing protocols developed by NASA put a handful of commercially available watches through a battery of tests that included exposure to extreme temperature, pressure, and shock, and while none would ace the testing, the Speedmaster came out the other end in arguably the best shape. It's important to note that none of the watches selected by NASA's Procurement and Contracts Division were built with these tests in mind. The Speedmaster and the Daytona were both built with automot...
Monochrome
Oris first launched the Artelier Calibre 113 in 2017 as a dressy watch, alongside the brand’s divers and pilot pieces and this movement’s variants, the Calibre 111, the GMT Calibre 114, the Calibre 112 with moon phase and, of course, the base version, the Calibre 110. Powered by the powerful Calibre 113, this Artelier model […]
Fratello
After the dust had settled from Watches and Wonders 2026, fans and critics agreed that Tudor had a relatively quiet showing. The Monarch, of course, was the big release to celebrate 100 years of Tudor. On top of that, we got a series of updates and new versions of already existing models. While less surprising, […] Visit Considering What “Tudor Blue” Means With The Newest Black Bay 54 to read the full article.
Hodinkee
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...
Monochrome
The Lange 1 is, without a doubt, one of the most emblematic watches ever to be produced in Germany, and in particular in the little town of Glashütte. But when mentioning the name Lange 1, we too often refer to a single model, the classic 38.5mm version that was presented in 1994 (when the brand […]
Two Broke Watch Snobs
Seiko adds two limited edition Prospex dive watches to its 145th anniversary lineup: the heritage-inspired HBC005 and the Samurai-based HBB001.
Hodinkee
This week on The Business of Watches, we're in La Chaux-de-Fonds to speak to Pascal Béchu, who heads not one, but two Swiss watchmaking brands, Angelus and Arnold & Son. Pascal Béchu, the CEO of Angelus and Arnold & Son They're both specialized, low-production, high-horology watchmakers, with very different back stories. While Angelus is a historic Swiss brand known for its repeaters, chronographs, and long power reserve movements, Arnold & Son celebrates the work and innovation of one of history's most important (British) watchmakers, John Arnold. While quite different in their product and strategies, the two brands share the same parent company in Japan's Citizen Group, and both work closely with movement maker La Joux-Perret, with whom they share manufacturing and office space in La Chaux-de-Fonds. Pascal Béchu is in charge of both marques. He talks about the history and the future for both brands, some recent successes in the form of celebrity clients for Arnold & Son, and a GPHG prize for Angelus. He also discusses prices and the impact the strong Swiss franc and the soaring price of precious metals are having on corporate strategy and planning. And a quick bit of housekeeping, this conversation was recorded just before Watches & Wonders and the new novelties launched by both brands, including the Angelus 'Tinkler' quarter repeater, so these new watches are not discussed on the podcast. But first, we round up the latest business news with the most recent ...
Hodinkee
The Horological Society of New York's award-winning classes are on the road again! HSNY is visiting St. Louis on July 18 and 19, 2026, hosted by RedBar St. Louis. At HSNY's Horological Education classes, students discover what actually makes a watch tick under the guidance of HSNY's staff of professional watchmakers. Students work on a mechanical watch movement, studying the gear train, winding and setting mechanisms, and escapement. The weekend half-day classes cover everything taught during the individual evening classes held in New York. Enrollment is now open for the classes, and we look forward to seeing you there! HODINKEE is a sponsor of the Horological Society of New York.
Monochrome
It’s refreshing to come across a serious master watchmaker who knows how to have fun. Konstantin Chaykin, the Russian indie watchmaker, knows how to inject humour into his creations, including the anthropomorphic face of his smiling ThinKing, the world’s thinnest mechanical watch with a profile of just 1.65mm. His popular menagerie of Wristmons (wrist monsters) […]
Two Broke Watch Snobs
We reviewed the Imperial Oceanguard GMT and Steinhart Ocean 39 GMT hands-on to see which affordable Rolex GMT-Master II alternative is easier to live with.Gemini is AI and can make mistakes.
Fratello
After last year’s limited-edition ALD watches, Dennison and Collectability are back with another collaboration. Designer Emmanuel Gueit and Patek Philippe specialist John Reardon unveil four watches featuring a new asymmetric design. The Oblique Enigma features a stepped dial, just like last year’s ALD editions. The Oblique Vector features a sunburst dial enhanced by subtle printing […] Visit A Hands-On Introduction To The Limited-Edition Oblique Collection By Dennison And Collectability to read the full article.
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