4,409 articles · 693 videos found · page 45 of 171
Quill & Pad
If you’re like GaryG, you’ve been spending some time during the current pandemic-driven lockdown monitoring online watch publications, including Quill & Pad, and you’ve likely seen at least a few comments in response to posts that go something like this, “How in the world can you possibly be focused on something like watches at such a terrible time?” Well, Gary is here to tell you.
Revolution
Quill & Pad
"The watch industry today would be nothing without women," Elizabeth Doerr notes as the majority of watchmaker benches in watch factories are “manned” by women. Women were also responsible for the very first wristwatches; the world's first doctorate in horology went to a woman (Dr. Rebecca Struthers); and the now-safe lume glowing on your watch came about thanks to the dangerous (and deadly) work of both Marie Curie and the Radium Girls.
Hodinkee
Celebrating the harmony of Grand Seiko watches during a particularly meaningful anniversary.
Hodinkee
Episode 115 is all about craft, passion, and generosity.
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Quill & Pad
One of the advantages of writing about watches is visiting the brands. And while we do our best to share these treasured experiences with you as best as we can, nothing can replace the pleasure and joy of experiencing things for yourself. Happily, Jaeger-LeCoultre is now offering Atelier d’Antoine masterclasses, manufacture visits, and discovery workshops not only to journalists but also to watch aficionados. Here's how you can get in on the fun!
Quill & Pad
The 2020 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève is scheduled to begin at 6:30 pm Central European Time on Thursday the 12th of November. Follow the big night on Quill & Pad and let us know your thoughts on the winners (and losers) in the comments.
SJX Watches
Taking place this weekend as a live auction with only cameras, telephones, and online bidding, Retrospective: 2000 – 2020 is a thematic sale that happens the day after Phillips’ Geneva watch auction. The second sale curated with Blackbird, both the publisher of a watch magazine as well as the agent for Ferrari in Hong Kong, Retrospective: 2000 – 2020 is self explanatory: contemporary wristwatches produced in the past 20 years. The 95 lots that make up the sale are a selection of the important, interesting, and intriguing from the last two decades, including obvious candidates like the Rolex Daytona and Patek Philippe ref. 5970. And the sale also includes notable watches that usually go under the radar, like the Breguet Classique Chronometrie 7727 with magnetic balance pivots (which is possibly the most accurate Swiss-made mechanical watch of the 21st century). The Breguet Classique Chronometrie 7727 (lot 258) Importantly, the line up also encompasses a diverse selection of independent watchmaking, reflecting the rise of these niche watchmakers. Here’s a roundup of highlights from independent watchmakers, which include the Philippe Dufour Simplicity 20th Anniversary and the ultra-rare Opus Eleven. The selection includes the worthy Seiko Credor Eichi II and Lange 1 25th Anniversary. Neither comes from an independent watchmaker, but both are as close as it gets for establishment brands. Lot 206 – Philippe Dufour Simplicity 20th Anniversary No. 00/20 Philippe Dufour...
Deployant
The reissue of the Hanhart 417 ES marks the return of a legend among wristwatches. More than 60 years ago, its historic model served as the first pilot’s chronograph for the German armed forces. Today it combines the best design of the history with modern production techniques. The result a robust chronograph with an excitingRead More
Quill & Pad
With concept cars, it is typical for most of the features on the prototype to be weeded out once the design is optimized for manufacturing. The electronical-mechanical Ressence Type 2 is the complete opposite, Joshua Munchow says, as it has retained pretty much every single thing the concept watch of 2018 offered and has only improved in function. Is the Ressence Type 2 the future of mechanical watches?
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Quill & Pad
To the extent that new enthusiasts represent the future of the watch market, is it possible that their enthusiasm for the past will prove highly damaging, or even lethal, to the industry’s future? GaryG shares his thoughts on the subject here.
Quill & Pad
Elizabeth Doerr recently had the pleasure of celebrating with Nomos all that the city of Glashütte has accomplished in 175 years. The star of the informative day for her, though, was the set of three celebratory versions of the Lambda in a new (and very appropriate for this year) stainless steel case.
SJX Watches
They were once the horological elite, credited with magical powers. The precision timers who tuned the watches for the observatory trials in the 1960s and 1970s are now a dwindling band in the twilight of their lives. In those days, when mechanical precision rather than mechanical complication determined the value of a watch, precision timing was a post-graduate discipline that took a lifetime to master. Before he died last October in his 90th year, one old timer, François Mercier of Le Locle, described what he had to do to win prizes for his employers, initially Ulysse Nardin and then the hairspring spring manufacturer Spiraux Réunis. First, he had to identify the most faultless spring, calculate and shape the terminal curve, pin it up to the staff of a previously poised balance wheel. Then he would shift balance screws by hundredths of a millimetre, adjust forces and inertia in micrograms, to move a fraction of a second closer to the unattainable goal of a true and constant time. An overcoil hairspring in a contemporary Voutilainen Vingt-8 Temperature compensation The biggest challenge was to compensate for the effects of temperature changes on the steel alloy springs of old. As the temperature rose, the spring would lose its elasticity and beat more slowly. Such springs needed a compensation balance made of two metals each having a different coefficient of expansion. Rising temperatures would cause the cut ends of the balance rim to curl inwards, thereby increasing...
Quill & Pad
With the new Alfred Helwig Tourbillon 1920 – Limited Edition, Glashütte Original once again nods to the history of the invention of the flying tourbillon. Featuring an "invisible" example of the flying tourbillon, this timepiece pays tribute to one of the most illustrious figures of Glashütte's 175-year history. And its seeming simplicity is mesmerizing to author Sabine Zwettler.
Two Broke Watch Snobs
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SJX Watches
The demise of chronometry competitions last year – when the final edition of Concours International de Chronométrie took place – finally killed the dangerous heresy that a watch is a practical instrument that should be trusted to show the correct time. With the elimination of the last scientific and independent assessment of a watch’s worth, the cult of haute horlogerie comes into its own, reinforcing its definition of a watch as an emotional product born of passion, tradition and prestige. Trials to see who can produce the most precise, accurate and reliable watch originated in Geneva in 1879, when the head of its observatory, Professor Emile Plantamour, devised a testing routine that rated watches in the various positions and temperatures encountered in everyday wear. Observatories soon became the influencers of the pocket-watch age, determining the legitimacy and worth of luxury timepieces. American magnates like James Ward Packard, Henry Graves Jr and Pierpont Morgan secured the most highly rated pieces. A Longines split-seconds chronograph pocket watch that was tested at the Neuchatel Observatory in 1968; this particular example once belong to Jean Pitallier, the former president of the French Cycling Federation (FFC) Despite the advent of wristwatches, the Neuchatel Observatory kept the competitions alive until 1968 when Japanese entrants swept the board. In 1972, deputation of Swiss watch brand executive petitioned the Neuchâtel government minister Ren...
Quill & Pad
Joshua Munchow talks about steel here, the metal that made the world! Watch cases and other movement components are commonly made from certain stainless steels, 304 and 316L being the most frequent. It also happens that some brands hold exclusive rights to use specific alloys in the production of its watches. Here's what you should know about steel.
Quill & Pad
The short documentary film 'Time Piece' features two of the world's best living watchmakers, Philippe Dufour and Vianney Halter, and provides excellent insight into what makes the watches by these masters so special.
Deployant
We take a look and review the Kudoke 2, a sublime and interesting timepiece from German independent watchmaker Stefan Kudoke.
Hodinkee
The Swatch Group is upbeat about the next six months, but the FH sees a slow recovery from "an unparalleled shock."
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Hodinkee
Harwood, Daniels, and Smith are honored.
Hodinkee
Welcome to Bizarro World.
Hodinkee
"Übung macht den Meister." ("Practice makes perfect.")
Hodinkee
Switzerland shipped 1.3 million fewer watches to market this May than in May 2019.
Quill & Pad
The Bohematic Graphic Sutnar is an homage to Ladislav Sutnar, the most significant artistic figure in Czechoslovakia's interwar period of modernism. Sutnar was chosen as the historical figure to launch this brand-new micro brand and its first line. However, the Graphic Sutnar watch bears not only the name of the world-renowned artist, but also his unique font for the numerals. Find out what all that means right here!
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