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Results for Mechanical vs Quartz

2,052 articles · 452 videos found · page 54 of 84

Inside the Armin Strom Dual Time GMT Resonance First Edition Worn & Wound
Armin Strom Dual Time GMT Resonance Sep 6, 2024

Inside the Armin Strom Dual Time GMT Resonance First Edition

Moving from meeting to meeting at Geneva Watch Days, it’s easy to get lost in the opulent, luxurious novelties. But when you meet with Armin Strom, you’re brought back to a kind of pure watch nerdery that transcends the luxurious surroundings of shows like this. Armin Strom, even while producing watches that I think are objectively great looking, is all about mechanical innovation. There isn’t a watch in their collection that doesn’t have a novel mechanical trick up its sleeve. The Gravity Equal Force that Zach looked at recently is a great example. It has all the aesthetic and design trappings of what we think of as today’s modern high end indie watchmaking, but the real appeal lies in the watchmaking itself. It’s an important distinction that most enthusiasts understand intrinsically – some watches and brands just have a laser focus on engineering, and that’s sort of what sets Armin Strom apart.  The brand’s big Geneva Watch Days release is, simply put, a showstopper, and perhaps the most fascinating watch of the week. It’s certainly a significant horological accomplishment. The Dual Time GMT Resonance First Edition takes Armin Strom’s already unique take on the resonance concept and shrinks it down to an almost impossible to believe size in a watch that takes a completely novel approach to timekeeping and provides a great deal of practical functionality to make it downright approachable. It also just happens to be a stunning piece of horological a...

First Look – The Impressive Louis Moinet Speed of Sound, With Vintage Valjoux 88 Inside Monochrome
Louis Moinet Sep 4, 2024

First Look – The Impressive Louis Moinet Speed of Sound, With Vintage Valjoux 88 Inside

With Jean-Marie Schaller at the helm, Louis Moinet navigates the seas of haute horlogerie with a distinctive style marked by its impressively staged mechanical movements, exotic materials and flamboyant styling. Louis Moinet’s latest port of call will appeal to fans of the legendary Valjoux 88 calibre, brought back to life onboard the Speed of Sound. […]

First Look – The New & Elegant Black-Gold Vacheron Constantin Fiftysix Self-Winding Monochrome
Vacheron Constantin Fiftysix Self-Winding Sep 3, 2024

First Look – The New & Elegant Black-Gold Vacheron Constantin Fiftysix Self-Winding

To attract and cultivate a new generation of watch enthusiasts who are still young but may develop a passion for collecting fine mechanical timepieces, Vacheron Constantin launched a new entry-level collection in 2018. Inspired by the design of the Reference 6073 introduced by the brand in 1956, the collection was aptly named Fiftysix, capturing the […]

Introducing – The New and Upgraded Christopher Ward C60 Trident Lumière Monochrome
Christopher Ward C60 Trident Lumière Founded Sep 3, 2024

Introducing – The New and Upgraded Christopher Ward C60 Trident Lumière

Founded in 2004, Christopher Ward is the UK’s leading mechanical watchmaker, combining English design with Swiss movements. To avoid the markups of premium Swiss watches, Christopher Ward shuns the usual trappings of marketing, celebrity endorsements and third-party retailers. One of the first fully online watch brands, CW’s watches offer great value for the money. The […]

First Look – The New Grand Seiko Heritage Hi-Beat “Icefall” 37mm SBGH347 Monochrome
Grand Seiko Heritage Hi-Beat “Icefall” 37mm Sep 2, 2024

First Look – The New Grand Seiko Heritage Hi-Beat “Icefall” 37mm SBGH347

While Grand Seiko is celebrating this year the 20th anniversary of its first Spring Drive calibre, the 9R released in 2004, there’s another series of movements that’s equally important, the 9S series, which is all about mechanical calibres. First presented in 1998 and still the cornerstone of the collection, the calibre 9S found its way […]

Introducing – The Maurice Lacroix Aikon Automatic & Chronograph Now in Titanium Monochrome
Maurice Lacroix Aikon Automatic & Chronograph Aug 30, 2024

Introducing – The Maurice Lacroix Aikon Automatic & Chronograph Now in Titanium

Maurice Lacroix entered the heavily contested luxury sports watch market quite some time ago, with the introduction of a mechanical Aikon back in 2018 already. Since then, it’s come in many colours and materials, and in different styles. From robust divers to chronographs, and from colourful summer watches to creatively complex renditions, it’s pretty much […]

Grand Seiko Celebrates a Big Spring Drive Anniversary with a Pair of Limited Editions Worn & Wound
Grand Seiko Celebrates Aug 30, 2024

Grand Seiko Celebrates a Big Spring Drive Anniversary with a Pair of Limited Editions

How long would it take you to invent an entirely new kind of watch movement? Five years? Ten years? If your answer was 27 years, you’d be on the right track. That’s how long it took the Spring Drive movement to go from idea to reality at Seiko. Initially conceived of by Yoshikazu Akahane in the 1970s, the development of the Spring Drive movement grew out of efforts to solve problems endemic to early quartz movements, though the project would not bear fruit until Baselworld 1999 when the first trio of Spring Drive watches was released to the public (something Akahane would, tragically, not live to see). Five years later, Spring Drive would finally reach Grand Seiko with the introduction of the 9R series of movements in 2004. 20 years later, the 9R series of Spring Drive calibers remain a core pillar of the Grand Seiko catalog, and GS is ready to celebrate that anniversary with the introduction of two profoundly autumnal limited editions. Each of these limited releases is powered by a Grand Seiko 9R series movement and each is inspired by the fiery red tones found throughout the Hotaka mountain range come fall. First up, we have the SBGY035, driven by a hand-wound Caliber 9R31 Spring Drive movement. Similar in execution and design to the popular SBGY007 Omiwatari, this thin dress watch claims inspiration from the vibrant leaves that coat the landscape of Hotaka each fall. An ombré finish made up of deep red tones is paired with a textured dial, and is accented by sparin...

Introducing: The Ressence Type 3 BB2 In Nearly All-Black Attire Fratello
Ressence Type 3 BB2 Aug 29, 2024

Introducing: The Ressence Type 3 BB2 In Nearly All-Black Attire

In January 2022, Ressence introduced the Type 3 BBB, a “Black, Black, Black” version of its oil-filled mechanical watch. My colleague Dave dubbed it “the brand’s best model yet.” However, Ressence limited the production of the watch to that year only. If you were looking for an all-black Ressence Type 3 after that, you were […] Visit Introducing: The Ressence Type 3 BB2 In Nearly All-Black Attire to read the full article.

Urwerk’s Legendary EMC is Back in a Limited Edition Inspired by the SR-71 Blackbird Worn & Wound
Urwerk s Legendary EMC Aug 21, 2024

Urwerk’s Legendary EMC is Back in a Limited Edition Inspired by the SR-71 Blackbird

Ahead of Geneva Watch Days next week, Urwerk has unveiled what will surely be in the running for “Watch of the Year” talk when 2024 comes to a close. The EMC SR-71 is a new variation of one of the independent brand’s most discussed and honored timepieces. The original EMC, introduced ten years ago, is a former winner of the GPHG prizes in both the “Mechanical Exception” and “Innovation” categories. Even within the strange world of Urwerk, the EMC is an oddity, so it’s always exciting to see them return to this platform with a new variant.  EMC stands for Electronic Mechanical Control, a term that seems to contradict itself but actually does a fantastic job of describing exactly what this watch does. What you need to know about how this watch operates is that the traditional time telling functions (hours, minutes, seconds, and power reserve) all operate mechanically. But integrated into the movement is an optical sensor linked to the balance that, on demand, can record the rate at which it is oscillating. Using light and an integrated circuit, the movement will tell you the delta between the timing rate of the mechanical movement and a reference oscillator (a 16,000,000 Hz mega-quartz oscillator in this case). Pressing a button on the side of the case activates a meter at roughly 10:00, telling you how fast or slow your watch is running. What’s more, the watch is equipped with a timing adjustment screw on the caseback that can be accessed by the owner wit...

Back To Basics: Watch Hands-The Most Underestimated Element In Watch Design? Fratello
Aug 10, 2024

Back To Basics: Watch Hands-The Most Underestimated Element In Watch Design?

Watch hands are not just literally at the core of any watch’s design. They are the functional heart of a watch, the final parts turning a complex mechanical chain into a time-telling device. As the primary point of focus when looking at a watch, they determine much of its looks. At the same time, they […] Visit Back To Basics: Watch Hands-The Most Underestimated Element In Watch Design? to read the full article.

Review: the Furlan Marri Disco Volante Worn & Wound
Furlan Marri Disco Volante Things have Aug 9, 2024

Review: the Furlan Marri Disco Volante

Things have changed an awful lot since the last time I reviewed a watch by Furlan Marri. That was all the way back in March 2021, and it was their debut release. It’s worth pointing out that at the time, the brand had virtually no public footprint, and I had to be somewhat cajoled into taking the assignment. But the humble, meca-quartz chronograph that put them on the map was genuinely impressive in the way it conveyed vintage watch design codes in an affordable package that, somehow, felt premium. I remember thinking that for the price Furlan Marri was asking for that watch (a pre-order deal of $330) you’d be hard pressed to find anything with better finishing or a more coherent point of view about what it’s trying to accomplish.  Just a few years later, and Furlan Marri is in a very different position. It happened fast. Those meca-quartz chronos hit the market and were an immediate sensation, getting the thumbs up from John Goldberger and other notable collectors. It put an immediate heir of legitimacy around Furlan Marri, something that the best small brands get eventually, but not typically with such speed. When your debut watch, a battery powered homage that costs a few hundred dollars, is selling for many times its retail price on the secondary market, heads start turning rather quickly.  $2780 Review: the Furlan Marri Disco Volante Case Stainless steel Movement Peseux 7001 Dial Celeste (blue/white), Verde (green/cream) Lume Yes Lens Sapphire Strap Leather Wa...

Insight: The Geometric Efficiency of Escapements SJX Watches
Aug 5, 2024

Insight: The Geometric Efficiency of Escapements

Mechanical escapements remain the most fascinating and enticing field of horological study even in the 21st century. At its core, an escapement has a simple purpose: restore lost energy to the oscillating organ while regulating the discharge speed of the going train – thus allowing for time measurement. Straightforward as the concept is, executing an escapement well is a completely different affair. The escapement is perhaps the element of the mechanical movement that has undergone the most iterations since its invention. The reason is simple: escapements were, and remain, imperfect systems. In fact, the escapement is often the least efficient aspect of a mechanical movement in terms of energy transfer. That’s why watchmakers and engineers have devised innumerable variants in the search of the ideal escapement.  Explaining escapement efficiency In physics the efficiency of a system is the proportion of useful work done relative to the total work done by said system. The result, measured as a percentage, speaks to the energy conserved within the system. For example, an 80% efficiency means that 20% of the total available energy is lost, with the remaining 80% usefully conserved.  That said, an efficient escapement isn’t necessarily chronometrically-potent, since there are more criteria, apart from energy conservation, which reflect in a movement’s accuracy. The way in which escapement parts impulse to the balance, the proximity of the equilibrium point and the deg...

Hands-On With The New Echo/Neutra Cortina 1956 Coppa D’Oro Delle Dolomiti Fratello
Aug 1, 2024

Hands-On With The New Echo/Neutra Cortina 1956 Coppa D’Oro Delle Dolomiti

Today, I’m looking at a watch that pays tribute to the Coppa d’Oro car race. There are a few alternate hobbies and interests that seem to complement watch collecting. Perhaps none come as close as the fascination with cars. It’s the similarity that they are mechanical objects with the sole original purpose of being useful […] Visit Hands-On With The New Echo/Neutra Cortina 1956 Coppa D’Oro Delle Dolomiti to read the full article.

Video – A Closer Look at Laurent Ferrier’s Natural Escapement and the Micro-Rotor Movement Monochrome
Laurent Ferrier Jul 17, 2024

Video – A Closer Look at Laurent Ferrier’s Natural Escapement and the Micro-Rotor Movement

Today, for our latest in-depth video, we’re going technical. This is what MONOCHROME is all about, after all. Sharing the knowledge behind fine horology and understanding how our beloved mechanical watches actually work. Today’s topic is one dear to our hearts, as it combines everything we love in fine watchmaking: high-end finishing, mechanical ingenuity, profound […]

First Look – The Bold New Burgundy Dial of the Christiaan Van der Klaauw Ariadne Monochrome
Christiaan van der Klaauw Ariadne Dutch watchmaker Christ... Jul 17, 2024

First Look – The Bold New Burgundy Dial of the Christiaan Van der Klaauw Ariadne

Dutch watchmaker Christiaan van der Klaauw started producing astronomical complications in 1974 and earned worldwide acclaim following his creation, in 1999, of the smallest mechanical planetarium in the world with real-time orbits of the planets in the confined dimensions of a wristwatch. Ten years later, in 2009, Christiaan van der Klaauw handed over the reins […]