Hodinkee
My Watch Story: Pushing A Tool Watch To Its Limits, A First Generation Family Heirloom, An Artist's TAG Heuer Carrera, And More
Five video stories from HODINKEE readers.
697 articles · 2 videos found · page 4 of 24
Hodinkee
Five video stories from HODINKEE readers.
Deployant
At BaselWorld this year, Glashütte Original presents sophisticated masterpieces of the German art of engineering. Innovation and tradition, reliability and timeless aesthetics are again the core themes of this year’s new products of the Saxon manufactory.
Revolution
Revolution
Baume & Mercier CEO Alain Zimmermann speaks to us on the new pieces from the Clifton Collection at SIHH 2014 where we see extensions to the very well received line launched last year. Among the highlights, a Flying Tourbillon, Chronograph, Retrograde Date and new Ladies watches. Interviewed by Wei Koh. Read Revolution International Digital […]
Revolution
One of the advantages of the SIHH is of course that you see all you’d expect in terms of wonderful new watches. Some of the greatest pleasures, though, are the unexpected ones. During a walk through the Audemars Piguet booth I was captivated by a fantastic display of complicated pocket watches, and noticed a tall, […]
Hodinkee
Quincy Jones was an absolute king. He was a towering figure in the music industry, leaving an indelible stamp on popular culture through his producing, arranging, and film score work. From early collaborations with Count Basie, Ray Charles, and Frank Sinatra to producing one of the top-selling albums of all time (Thriller by Michael Jackson), not to mention We Are The World, he made the soundtrack for many of our lives. During a well-lived lifetime spanning 91 years, he was rewarded with accolades, including the entertainment industry grand slam 'EGOT' (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards). There were also plenty of watches and jewelry gifted and collected during his epic life and career. Now some of Quincy Jones' unique pieces are heading to auction at Christie's in Geneva this month. We got a sneak preview of some of the catalog, including these three pieces, that the family has consigned. A couple of them were gifts from notable celebrities to Jones. They all give a sense of some of the objects worn and cherished by one of the most important figures in entertainment history. Girard-Perregaux World Time Control Shadow 'Quincy Jones' Sized at 43mm in diameter with both a flyback chronograph and a worldtime complication, this Girard-Perregaux, dated from 2011, has a lot going on. The beefy case features a smooth black ceramic exterior, a titanium caseback, and an interior housing, in a size and style that's very representative of the era for the Swiss brand. The watch...
Monochrome
Picture a steel Rolex Submariner, sold in the summer of 1968 by a family jeweller in a small European town. The salesperson writes the shop’s name and the date on the papers, slips the receipt into the box, and hands it over. In 1985, a watchmaker replaces the worn bezel during a service and notes […]
Monochrome
Founded in 1976 by Mr Raymond Weil at the height of the quartz crisis with a mission to produce quality watches at affordable prices, the brand remains family-owned and is now in the hands of the third generation. With CEO Elie Bernheim at the helm, Raymond Weil is enjoying a revival thanks to the successful […]
Hodinkee
What We Know It seems as though Raymond Weil has been everywhere this year as the Geneva-based, family-owned independent brand celebrates its 50th anniversary. The company entered the integrated-bracelet sport watch realm in June with its A.R.T. collection, launching a lovely chronograph—The Fifty—featuring a vintage, new old stock Valjoux movement from the year the brand was born, 1976. But RW is marking another milestone this year. Today, on October 10th (also World Watch Day, btw), Raymond Weil himself would have turned 100 if he were still with us. A frequent and enthusiastic traveler, the brand is paying tribute to its founder with a limited-edition model, the Freelancer World-Traveller. The star of the show for this run of 260 pieces is, most certainly, the dial. It's a relief-rendered world map in the style of the Mercator projection, rendered in textured champagne, against a dark blue background, representing the oceans. Rather than the brand logo, Raymond Weil's signature sits at 6 o'clock and above the date window. The indexes are applied and surrounded by a 24-hour scale in blue for the evening and beige for the daytime. The outer ring of the dial features 24 world cities and their corresponding time zones. Turning the knurled bezel rotates the city ring to allow for shifting time zones or tracking. The local time display features tapering baton hands filled with Super-LumiNova, while the GMT hand, which can be manipulated by moving the screw-down cro...
WristBuzz
The latest GO x Meissen collab brings a hand-painted Jugatsu-zakura cherry blossom dial to the Senator family
Hodinkee
Challenging conventions is part of NORQAIN's DNA. For CEO Ben Küffer, that aim to "redefine what a Swiss mechanical sports watch could be" has been instrumental to the brand's success. For its latest release, the family-owned Swiss brand announced three new models in a first for the brand: grade 5 titanium. The Wild ONE Skeleton Titanium 39mm and 42mm reimagine the brand's signature sports watch, incorporating grade 5 titanium into the watch's top plate with the bottom retaining NORQAIN's signature NORTEQ carbon-fiber-composite.The result is a rich visual contrast and lightweight construction. "Titanium certainly has a future within NORQAIN," Küffer says, "but only where it adds something meaningful to the design and performance of the watch." Each possesses a distinct identity, with the 39mm—limited to 400 pieces—opting for a grey palette based on titanium's muted character, featuring light yellow dial accents and Super-LumiNova for technical performance and legibility. The 42mm, by contrast, opts for a slightly bolder coloring with mint green details for a bolder visual presence. Both are powered by the skeletonized in-house NK26/1 automatic movement, a COSC-certified chronometer with a 65-hour power reserve. The star of the new collection, however, is the all-new Wild ONE Meteorite Titanium 42mm. The Meteorite takes the brand's flagship watch and incorporates Grade 5 titanium and an anthracite iron meteorite dial, combining contemporary high-tech design with ancie...
Monochrome
German product designer Mark Braun created the Metro family in 2014. Inspired by metro map signage and graphics, Braun injected well-calibrated doses of colour and city chic into the brand’s established Bauhaus design language. The inaugural Metro Date Power Reserve also marked a milestone for the brand, as the first model to debut the Nomos Swing […]
Pequignet was founded in 1973 in Morteau, the historic heart of French watchmaking in the Jura mountains. In the early 2000s, the brand made a bold decision to become an integrated French manufacture and launched its first in-house Calibre Royal in 2011. The brand’s fortunes stabilised in 2021 when it joined Enowe Excellence, a family-owned […]
SJX Watches
From the Five Time Zone to the Astronomia and Bugatti, Jacob & Co. has evolved considerably over the past 20 years. On the latest episode of the SJX Podcast, SJX speaks with CEO Benjamin Arabov about the family-owned brand’s transformation and the mechanical ingenuity sometimes obscured by its celebrity clientele and gem-set watches. The conversation explores how ideas become watches, why smaller cases have opened the door to new collectors, and what makes partnerships with Bugatti and The Godfather work. We also discuss the origins of the brand’s celebrity following, the continued importance of retail partners, and Benjamin’s approach to building a business that can outlast its founder while preserving his creative ambition. Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
Monochrome
Born in 1976, Raymond Weil has been celebrating its 50th anniversary throughout 2026. Following the launch of The Fifty at Watches & Wonders, the Geneva-based, independent, family-owned brand continues the story with the Jubilee Chronograph. The Fifty was a 50-piece limited edition chronograph, powered by restored 1976 Valjoux movements, and housed in a 37mm case […]
Teddy Baldassarre Videos
Today, we're taking a look at the Mido Multifort TV big Date Día De Los Muertos special edition, made to commemorate Día De Los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, a traditional Mexican holiday that takes place at the beginning of November. It’s a celebration of family members who have passed on, and Mido is honoring this yea
Monochrome
Norqain, the independent, family-owned Swiss watch brand, has amassed a solid reputation for robust, action-oriented sports watches. CEO Ben Kuffer has relied on exceptional friends since he started the brand in 2018; one is Jean-Claude Biver, whose valuable input helped create the Wild One. Beefed up with components made from the brand’s proprietary Norteq carbon […]
Monochrome
Panerai‘s modern movement story began in 2005, when the company introduced the hand-wound P.2002, its first own calibre, combining a GMT function with an eight-day power reserve. In 2007, the brand expanded its calibre family, also introducing Panerai’s own interpretation of the tourbillon movement, the P.2005, with the tourbillon cage on an axis perpendicular to […]
Two Broke Watch Snobs
Rolex surprised us with the Perpetual Padellone, a new annual calendar and moonphase watch in the Perpetual 1908 family. And judging by some of the early reactions I’ve seen online, Rolex has already managed to piss a few people off. I think it looks fantastic.
Monochrome
Czapek launched the Promenade collection in 2024, an elegant line of compact, time-only dress watches that, in the words of CEO Xavier de Roquemaurel, serve as a “canvas for creative expression.” The latest addition to the family is the Promenade L’Écume des Jours, a tribute to the 1947 novel by French author Boris Vian, translated into […]
SJX Watches
Grand Seiko is marking 25 years of its hand-wind 9S movement with the Elegance Collection SBGW325, a throwback to one of the earliest Grand Seiko limited edition models. The SBGW325 is modelled on the SBGW003, a 2001 limited edition that debuted the first-ever manual-wind 9S movement. Today’s SBGW325 is equipped with the latest generation of the same movement family, the 9S64, while reviving the distinctive dial design sporting raised Arabic numerals. Initial thoughts Grand Seiko rolls out limited edition on a regular basis, so the various editions tend to blend into each other. The SBGW325 manages to stand out because the dial design is distinctive; Grand Seiko has no employed this design on another model aside from the original of 2001. For that reason alone this would be one of the most appealing Grand Seiko limited editions in recent memory. But it’s not just the styling. Although the design is unique in today’s catalogue, the SBGW325 is relatively no frills in terms of movement and materials. The case is compact and steel, while the movement is the time-only 9S64, which makes this quite affordable, further adding to its appeal. Arabic numerals The original SBGW003 combined a cream dial with raised gold Arabic numerals and blued steel hands, resulting in an unusual look for Grand Seiko even today. The new SBGW325 preserves the design but iterates on the colours: the dial is matte blue with raised silver numerals, while the “GS” emblem and seconds hand are gil...
Monochrome
In 2026, Panerai celebrates 100 years of its boutique in Piazza San Giovanni, Florence. Originally opened in 1926 as “Orologeria Svizzera”, the boutique became an important part of the Panerai family’s history, a place where watches were sold but also assembled and repaired. The preserved location, reopened to the public in 2001 following the renovation, […]
Monochrome
Recent releases from Union Glashütte have been largely about chronographs, from the latest Averin Chronograph with its white embossed tile-pattern dial to the Belisar Chronograph with its monochromatic look. Now, the Glashütte-based brand has something different in store with a new addition to its Seris family. Positioned as a more feminine collection, the Seris has […]
Deployant
Next at the Ferdinand Berthoud boutique in Geneva, I was presented with the latest FB 3 family - the FB 3SPC.4.1 in a ceramicised titanium case.
Monochrome
Gerald Charles, a brand founded by the late watch designer Gérald Genta in 2000 and backed by the Italian Zivani family, was revived by Federico Zivani after the designer’s death and reappeared in 2020 with an idiosyncratic Genta design from 2006. Known as the Maestro, the asymmetric baroque-style case is the backbone of the brand. […]
Hodinkee
This week on The Business of Watches, a visit with the folks running Armin Strom, a true original in the small but increasingly crowded field of independent watch brands. It takes its name and original inspiration from the eponymous Swiss watchmaker who was best known for his innovative and record-setting skeletonizing techniques on watches and dials. Childhood friends Serge Michel and Claude Greisler took over the brand in 2006. Michel, who controls the company, came from a family business background (in another field of business), while Greisler was a watchmaker and engineer. Twenty years on, Armin Strom is a true original in Swiss watchmaking, producing unique timepieces pushing the boundaries of contemporary horology from an atelier in Biel / Bienne, where most of the components are produced, decorated and finished for the brand's proprietary, in-house designed movements. Claude Greisler (left) and Serge Michel, the co-founders of Armin Strom. This week the brand launch a new version of its Dual Time GMT Resonance in a "manufacture blue edition" with a blue mainplate. The watch employs Armin Strom's unique take on the concept of resonance with dual oscillators kept in balance by its proprietary 'resonance clutch.' The story of the development of the brand's take on the concept is a key element in its journey and we explore and unpack that process in-depth in the episode. Currently making about 400 watches a year with a staff of about 55 people, Armin Strom is on...
Hodinkee
What We Know Gerald Charles, known for their Maestro cases, continues to evolve that idea at this year's Geneva Watch Days, but this is the first time they've offered something where every piece is genuinely unique. It's based on a Gérald Genta design from 2007 called the Sarawak, a diamond-and-ruby integrated-bracelet watch created for the Royal family of Sarawak—unknown to the public until 2024—and the direct ancestor of the Masterlink. It's impressive to see the brand continue to iterate on Genta's own designs, decades on. The case looks familiar—it's a classic Maestro, coming in as a square at 38mm x 38mm. The svelte dimensions continue inside: a profile just 7.99mm thin, aided by the 2.67mm movement. There are three colorways here—Golden Rose, Rhodium, and Golden Yellow. The dial is clearly the focal point here, bringing a new element to the Masterlink lineup. Each dial is individually hand-hammered by an artisan at Gerald Charles's atelier in Geneva. It's made of maillechort—also known as German silver or nickel silver, a copper-nickel-zinc alloy — and is typically used for movement bridges and plates rather than dials. It wasn't chosen because it's easy to work with—quite the opposite: it requires longer production times, wears tools faster, and results in a higher rejection rate. Since each dial is hammered by hand, no two are identical, and there are no applied indexes here, leaving the hundreds of small facets in full view. Inside is the ultra-th...
Worn & Wound
Christopher Ward has recently expanded their Trident family with the C60 Trident Biscay, set to replace the C65 Aquitaine. The UK-based watchmaker has pulled inspiration from two reference points: the skin divers of the 1960’s and the collection’s namesake, the Bay of Biscay – which, for anyone who struggles with geography like moi, is the body of water nestled between the northern coast of Spain and the western coast of France and not Biscayne Bay, which is a lagoon in Florida. The end result is the C60 Trident Biscay Automatic, C60 Trident Biscay GMT, and C60 Trident Biscay Bronze. The first in the collection is the C60 Trident Biscay Automatic, available in 39mm and 42mm stainless steel cases. It uses Christopher Ward’s Light-catcher case with a slim 11mm profile and box sapphire crystal. This particular model also includes a granular dial, minimal text, and applied Arabic numerals at 3, 6, 9, and 12 o’clock. The Automatic is available in black, sand/black, and black/red and has a price tag starting at $1,870. Next is the GMT, which also comes in 39mm and 42mm sizes. Here, Christopher Ward has added a fourth hand for tracking another time zone and a bi-directional aluminum bezel in two-tone color combinations. The framed date window replaces the 6 o’clock numeral, while the surface-hardened bezel has a hardness level of 250HV, which Christopher Ward says is 67% harder than untreated aluminum. The GMT is available in black/red and sand/blue, and is priced f...
Monochrome
One of Britain’s oldest family-run watch companies, first established in 1846 by Edwin Fear in Bristol, the Fears Watch Company ran for 130 years until it closed in 1976. In 2016, it was re-established by Edwin Fear’s great-great-great-grandson, Nicholas Bowman-Scargill. Until now, the brand has been a strong advocate of British watchmaking, offering distinctive, often […]
WristBuzz
Bell & Ross drops a 250-piece BR-X5 with a dial cut from a single slab of the 1906 Muonionalusta meteorite from northern Sweden. 41mm x 12.8mm steel, COSC-certified BR-CAL.323 (Kenissi) with 72-hour reserve. €8,900 on rubber, €9,400 on the integrated bracelet.
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