Teddy Baldassarre
Nodus Watches Review: Enthusiast-Driven, Purpose-Built
Uncompromising independent watchmaking engineered in Los Angeles.More
Results for Swiss vs Japanese Watchmaking
4,970 articles · 18 videos found · page 60 of 167
Teddy Baldassarre
Monochrome
Introducing - The World’s Smallest & Lightest Triple-Axis Tourbillon, The Peacock Tai Chi Curved Guilloche
Founded in 1957, Liaoning-based watch manufacturer Peacock certainly has a strong track record, being one of the backbones of industrial watchmaking in the region. And in recent years, as it approaches its 70th anniversary, Peacock is demonstrating that Chinese watchmaking is no longer what it used to be. We’re not talking about entry-level automatic movements […]
Hodinkee
The Business of Watches Podcast: Bangalore Watch Company Co-Founder And CEO Nirupesh Joshi
This week on The Business of Watches, we feature a boutique brand and its CEO from a country that has the watch industry abuzz. Nirupesh Joshi is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Bangalore Watch Company, based in Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore), India. Mercy Amalraj and Nirupesh Joshi. Founded in 2018, the company has slowly established itself as a purveyor of premium watchmaking, with models that don't rely on classic tropes about the country to tell their story. Former tech industry executives Joshi and his wife, Mercy Amalraj, are building a brand that aims to express India's modern spirit as the country becomes an increasingly significant economic and cultural player on the world stage. India has a rich watchmaking history, with brands like HMT and Titan producing watches in large volumes to serve its fast-growing population of over 1 billion people. But BWC is seeking a different client, one that's more seasoned in watches, and is seeking a brand that innovates and competes with other marques from around the world to tell its own unique stories. BWC has grown to about 15 staff members, including watchmakers repatriated from other brands, and has opened a boutique in its home city and produces around 2,000 watches per year, assembled in India using components made both in-country and from suppliers around the world. The company recently raised capital from investors, and Joshi tells us how BWC plans to bring its watches to a wider, global audience. Custo...
Hodinkee
Introducing: Atelier de Chronométrie's New Chronograph Caliber Is A Stunning Return To The Past
What We Know If you're following artisanal watchmaking with all the flash and hype of the independent space, you're forgiven for missing Barcelona-based Atelier de Chronométrie. Their watches don't often show up on social media, largely because they are entirely bespoke, one-off commissions based on the various architectures they offer. But we've been covering them since 2016, and the product (and potentially their clients' tastes) has gotten better and better. Outstanding, in fact. That's how I'd frame their new AdC16, the company's first two-counter chronograph. If you don't like the design, that's fine—you can customize it however you like—but top-down, movement-to-specs, the watch is really attractive to a vintage lover like myself. Atelier de Chronométrie allows customization of the case and dial, as well as finishing on the movement (a variation of which they are going to share soon, based on this movement), but in this case, they've made a really nice, compact, 36mm Calatrava-style case that is reminiscent (with the dial) of a Vacheron Constantin 4072. The case is two-tone yellow gold and steel and has a black galvanic gilt-style dial (though not actually done the original way, as the press release states; more likely pad-printed), with yellow gold applied markers and hands. The kicker is really the movement. The base design is the venerable Valjoux 23, but they've redesigned the shape of several bridges and levers while trying to keep the entire gear train fe...
Fratello
Hands-On With The DUG Purist Typ 1 And Typ 2
One of the most common complaints in the watch community concerns current pricing. Indeed, the COVID-19 period affected the prices of luxury items. Meet Deutsche Uhrenmanufaktur Glashütte GmbH, or DUG, which claims to bring the traditional craftsmanship of Glashütte watchmaking without charging the traditional high prices. This is a bold claim, so let’s find out […] Visit Hands-On With The DUG Purist Typ 1 And Typ 2 to read the full article.
Teddy Baldassarre
Favre-Leuba Watches: Reviewing the Historic Watchmaker's Current Collection
How the heritage Swiss brand's centuries-long history has informed its contemporary collectionMore
Monochrome
First Look - The Omega Seamaster Diver 300M James Bond and Spectre Collection
For over 30 years, Omega and James Bond have shared a strong connection, with the Swiss watchmaker appearing in every Bond film, on the wrist of the secret agent since GoldenEye in 1995. Countless movie-featured watches and numerous special editions have been created, the latest dating to 2022 for the franchise’s 60th anniversary, but all […]
Monochrome
First Look - Armin Strom Applies the Midas Touch to the New Tribute³ Au750
Armin Strom has conquered the indie watchmaking scene with its combination of mechanical inventiveness and striking asymmetric displays. As a fully integrated manufacture, Armin Strom can bring its wildest mechanical dreams to life, including its groundbreaking mastery of resonance. Knowing that not everyone can invest in its hyper-complex Resonance and Masterpiece models, Armin Strom created […]
Monochrome
First Look - Three New Interpretations of the Norqain Wild One in Titanium
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 […]
SJX Watches
In-Depth: 200 Odd Years of Hacking Tourbillons
Conventional wisdom holds that stopping a tourbillon for precise time setting — “hacking” in watchmaking parlance — is a difficult endeavor given the constant rotation of the cage. The hacking tourbillon wristwatch didn’t arrive until 2008, courtesy of the A. Lange & Söhne Cabaret. In fact, hacking of any sort remained a rarity until the last few decades — ironic, since the primary function of the seconds hand has arguably evolved from a way to assess accuracy into an indicator that a watch is running. Some brands are still in the process of adding stop-seconds features to their basic calibres, and hacking remains scarcer still in wristwatch tourbillons, appearing with regularity only in the last two decades. But building for the waistcoat pocket, historical watchmakers have been stopping tourbillons for almost as long as they’ve been building them, and developed a number of solutions for this problem along the way, each stopping the tourbillon, or merely the seconds, in a different way. Breguet – stopping the seconds without stopping the watch Almost 225 years ago to the year, the French Ministry of the Interior granted Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747 – 1823) a patent for his most famous creation, the tourbillon, a clever way to improve a watch’s marks during accuracy testing. For a mechanical watch to keep the same time across all vertical positions, the “balance complete” — comprised of the balance, staff, roller, collet and balance spring — mu...
Hodinkee
The Business of Watches Podcast: Formex CEO And Head Of Product Development At Dexel Raphael Granito
Formex holds a unique place in the Swiss watch industry. Born in the early 2000s, it featured a proprietary case suspension system and designs that reflected the origin of its name, 'forme extrême' (extreme shapes in French). However, the recession spurred by the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 dealt the brand a near-fatal blow, and it entered a period of relative dormancy. Then, in 2016, a group backed by one of its suppliers, Dexel, a Swiss component maker specializing in bracelets, clasps, and cases, as well as dials through its subsidiary Cadranor, took over Formex. Raphael Granito, now in his mid-thirties, is part of the family business behind Dexel and led the takeover and revival of the Formex marque. He has steered the brand's development ever since, and a decade later, Formex is leveraging Dexel's manufacturing savoir-faire and R&D; to produce innovative, approachable-priced Swiss-made watches. The brand's evolution culminated recently with the Aria, a high-end integrated-bracelet titanium sport watch with an ultra-thin, micro-rotor manufacture movement designed by Horage, priced below CHF 6,000. That's a significant step up compared to the CHF 1,800 average price point for its watches. Granito outlines how the brand has grown and connected with more customers, operating mainly outside the traditional retail structure. Still a family business, he hired his best friend from university to lead marketing and sales efforts. Formex has distinguished itself by offe...
Monochrome
Introducing - Moritz Grossmann Injects a Contemporary Air into the Benu Power Reserve
Bearing the name of one of the founding fathers of 19th-century German watchmaking, Moritz Grossmann is today an independent high-end Glashütte watch manufacture producing low-volume, hand-finished pieces. Marking the bicentennial of the founder’s birth, Moritz Grossmann presents two more contemporary, dark-themed versions of the elegant Benu Power Reserve. The Benu was the first watch to […]
Hodinkee
Business News: Gallet’s Return Heralds Renewed Battle For Mid-Tier Priced Watch Segment
Backed by Breitling's House of Brands group, Gallet's return was hotly anticipated and closely scrutinized. Priced between $2,900 for a three-hand Flying Officer model with date and about $6,700 for the vintage-inspired 'Classics' models, replete with Breitling B09 hand-wound calibers, the revived brand's pricing at Breitling boutiques is certainly aggressive. Gallet's rebirth and price-category decision mark the most high-profile and ambitious attempt by the Swiss watch industry to reclaim a space it once owned but has largely ceded in recent years to so-called 'boutique' or micro-brands that have filled the gap left by traditional Swiss brands moving upscale.Over the past decade, brands have climbed the value-category ladder even higher, making fewer watches at higher prices. The so-called mid-tier premium—or luxury watches with an MSRP between $2,000 and $5,000—was once dominated by Swiss brands from Omega to Breitling to TAG Heuer and Jaeger-LeCoultre. And while TAG Heuer still produces plenty of watches in the category, including the solar-powered quartz Formula 1, much of its development and marketing resources have been focused on new pricier versions of classic chronographs housed in titanium or other lightweight materials including the highly innovative, but eye-wateringly expensive, Monaco 'Evergraph' retailing at more than $28,000. Several of the new Gallet watches are available on a steel bracelet that is the same used on some Breitling models. Photo Cre...
Teddy Baldassarre Videos
Dive Watches that You Can Wear with Anything
So, what is the charm of a dive watch in modern watchmaking? You probably aren’t taking your watch 200 meters underwater, but knowing it could handle it gives you a certain peace of mind, and that robustness makes dive watches incredibly compelling everyday watches. The problem is that not every dive watch works everyw
Hodinkee
Introducing: The Nomos Club Sport Neomatik Worldtimer Dark (Live Pics)
What We Know Nomos Glasshütte's Club Sport Neomatik Worldtimer quickly became a fan favorite among several Hodinkee editors after its early 2025 debut, and it also became a commercial winner for the brand. Since then, Nomos, known for its unique, Bauhaus-influenced contemporary designs paired with German watchmaking and value for money, has released a series of limited-edition colorways to complement its permanent collection, which includes blue, silver, and white dial options. Today, things are getting a bit darker for the Club Sport Worldtimer and a little brighter too. With more lume in more places and a deep noir dial, the new Club Sport Worldtimer Dark joins the Nomos permanent collection. The headline is that the lume now appears on the city ring and the home time indicator, not just on the hands and number indexes as on previous iterations. The blue glow of the newly lumed locations are offset by a dark 'enamel black' dial. There's still a Nomos signature splash of color, though, with blue and red outlining the home indicator subdial, and reminding us that this is a travel watch. The stainless steel case remains 40mm in diameter and a svelte 9.9mm thick, keeping this approachable-priced model among the thinnest world timers on the market. It also uses the same Nomos-manufactured movement (DUW 3202), featuring the brand's 'swing system' escapement developed in-house with help from the local university in Glashütte. The Nomos world timer tracks 24 time zon...
Fratello
Channeling Autumn: The Newest Oris × Cervo Volante Big Crown Pointer Date
Oris and Cervo Volante, a Swiss producer of high-quality leather goods, have released several collaborations in the past few years. For their latest one, the two brands created a 40mm Oris Big Crown Pointer Date with a beautiful burgundy gradient dial and a dark brown Cervo Volante strap made from sustainable deer leather. The watch […] Visit Channeling Autumn: The Newest Oris × Cervo Volante Big Crown Pointer Date to read the full article.
Monochrome
Introducing - Konstantin Chaykin Brings the Atomic Heart Twins to Life
Konstantin Chaykin has steadily brought unexpected cultural references in his Wristmon series, both international and from his home country, into watchmaking, converting the dial into a small stage for artistic characters. The new editions come from the world of video games. The Twins are among the most recognisable characters in Mundfish’s Atomic Heart, a first-person […]
Monochrome
Introducing - The Baume & Mercier Riviera Chronograph for the Gran Premio Storico d’Italia
Baume & Mercier has been appointed the Official Timekeeper of the 2026 Gran Premio Storico d’Italia. This new partnership brings the Swiss watchmaker to the motorsport event at the Mugello Circuit. Taking place October 2 to 4, the event focuses on celebrating Italy’s automotive heritage, bringing iconic cars and some of the most daring drivers […]
Worn & Wound
Understanding the Poetry of Time Through Buci’s Founder and Its Newest Collection: Nouvelle
Nousseima Baraket founded Buci in 2022 with a Kickstarter campaign that funded her first collection aptly and simply named “Garde-temps” or “timepiece.” Baraket is of African and French origins, with her parents hailing from Tunisia and raising her and her siblings in the French watchmaking region of Franche-Comte, located on the northwest border with Switzerland. The name Buci comes from a street in an artistic area of Paris, a city Baraket later lived in and used as a source of motivation and inspiration to create her own watch brand (but more on that later). In addition, her North African roots also help lay the foundation for the literary-inspired watches she’d create. “My parents grew up in a farming community in an area known for its olive trees,” Baraket shares, “Neither of my parents went to school. So, for me and my siblings, education was very important. My mother would take us to the library every week and encourage us to read. As I got older, I would also go to museums to learn about authors and poets. So, poetry and literature were always very important to me.” Watches were also a big part of Baraket’s life. “Growing up in this part of France on the Swiss border, watchmaking was all around us. In my family, we began to give watches as gifts for birthdays or special occasions, and a lot of my friends went on to work at watch companies in the area.” Still, it wasn’t until Baraket was working in Paris and wanted to make a watch purchase ...
Monochrome
Introducing - Buci Opens a New Chapter with the Singular Nouvelle Collection
Founded in 2022 by Nousseïma Baraket, Buci approaches watchmaking through the written word, taking ideas from books, poetry and different forms of writing. Its debut Garde-Temps collection established this identity, followed by collaborations with seconde/seconde/ and Revolution Watch magazine. With Nouvelle, its second collection, Buci turns to the short story, using the passage of time […]
Worn & Wound
Hands-On: BA111OD’s Chapter 7 Skeleton Gets a Light and Airy Stainless Steel Build
I had heard the name but was not aware of the unforgettable spelling until I got a sample of my first BA111OD watch, the latest addition to the brand’s catalog: the Chapter 7 Skeleton. While BA111OD traces its roots back deep into the history of watchmaking, its modern incarnation has taken shape over the past seven years with several different chapters. One of the biggest evolutions we have seen in the brand’s contemporary catalog is in its movements. While early chapters got flack for keeping costs accessible with Chinese calibers, Chapter 3 incorporated the first Swiss caliber into the Swiss-based Maison’s lineup in 2022. The brand’s next installment, Chapter 4, continued to build on this trajectory with the BA111OD caliber BA.01. This movement was notably developed in collaboration with watchmaker Olivier Mory whose La Chaux de Fonds workshop has given rise to movements for brands across the industry, from Louis Erard to Yema. Then, BA111OD’s Chapter 5 went on to introduce the Maison’s first automatic chronograph thanks to the ETA Valjoux 7750. Next, Chapter Delta entered the lineup with a major shakeup thanks to another movement co-created with Olivier Mory, this time featuring a unique hypocycloidal mechanism. Instead of a standard central rotating hand, a satellite hour wheel rolls around a fixed central wheel. This creates a deltoid path where the hour dot naturally slows down and speeds up during its rotation cycle. Here, traditional circular minutes c...
Monochrome
First Look - Frederique Constant x French Foreign Legion, Two Limited Editions to Celebrate the Elite Unit
Founded in Geneva in 1988, Frederique Constant is now a globally respected name in watchmaking, offering classic designs at reasonable prices, with a growing portfolio of complications developed and assembled at its Plan-les-Ouates manufacture. Part of the Citizen Group since 2016, the brand was created by Peter Stas, who left his native Netherlands for Switzerland, […]
Monochrome
Introducing - Grönefeld Unveils the 1941 Quadrivium, The Brother’s new Remontoire Tourbillon Watch
Grönefeld, the Dutch independent watchmaking atelier created by Tim and Bart Grönefled, a.k.a. The Horological Brothers, should need little introduction by now. The duo gained recognition from their peers and collectors with their GTM-06, One Hertz and Parallax Tourbillon models, all celebrated watches that introduced several signature design elements and functions, such as movements with […]
Monochrome
First Look - The New Ulysse Nardin Freak One Blue Enamel and Freak One Guilloché
With Rolf Schynder at the helm, Ulysse Nardin released an unorthodox timepiece in 2001 that smashed conventions and rewrote watchmaking in one fell swoop. With no dial, no hands and no crown, the Freak, master watchmaker Dr Ludwig Oechslin’s renegade watch, indicated time with its linear gear train featured on the dial. The Freak also […]
SJX Watches
Hands On: Blancpain Lady B
The charming and compact Lady B extends Blancpain’s collection of elegant ladies watches while upholding the brand’s longstanding commitment to mechanical calibres. At just 19 mm in size and almost spherical in form, the Lady B contains an upmarket automatic movement that transcends the quartz-powered norms for this segment of watchmaking. Initial thoughts The Lady B is the spiritual successor to the Ladybird Bullet, which introduced the world’s smallest round mechanical movement when it debuted 70 years ago under the leadership of Betty Fiechter, the first woman to lead a major Swiss watch brand. The “round” qualifier is important because the smallest mechanical movement — then, as now — was the Jaeger-LeCoultre cal. 101, which is still in production but in extremely limited numbers, and reserved for high jewellery collections. The Lady B (left) with the original Ladybird Bullet from 1956 The Lady B is larger than the vintage Bullet, but at just 19 mm it’s still small enough that the size is the main point of intrigue. The watch is almost spherical being 13 mm thick, but rather than feeling too thick this aspect gives the watch a charming bead-like feel similar to the original Bullet. The spherical feel is completed by the absence of conventional lugs; the Lady B instead features a pass-through channel for a selection of interchangeable straps. This hypothetically allows multiple Lady B’s to be “stacked” on the same strap for a jewellery-like look, b...
Worn & Wound
Grand Seiko Introduces the SBGW325 ‘Arabic Blue’ Limited Edition
On the surface, the new Grand Seiko SBGW325 ‘Arabic Blue’ Limited Edition is almost aggressively normal. This is a 37mm dress watch that is part of a well established line for the Japanese brand with a tried and true 9S64 manually wound movement. Grand Seiko has made a bunch of these over the years in an endless series of dial variants, often in limited editions made for specific regions, tied to ADs, or to highlight different aspects of Japanese culture. So why does the SBGW325 feel almost confrontational in its boldness? The answer lies right there in the name of the watch. It is so incredibly rare for Grand Seiko to use Arabic numerals on their watch dials, that a watch built around them feels like it’s from another planet, or an alternate reality. For that reason, I think the SBGW325 is probably destined to be some kind of cult classic. This isn’t a judgment based on the success of the visual design of the watch (though I do quite like it), but more a comment on how the Grand Seiko community will seize on this reference as a special thing and hang to it, probably for years. Mark my words: there will be collectors who miss out on this watch, and forlornly make “WTB” posts on Reddit and elsewhere in search of one well into the 2030s. Let’s see if I’m right. You can set your reminders on your smart phone to DM me in October 2033 to check my work. For now, let’s take a closer look at the SBGW325, which becomes available through Grand Seiko channels ne...
Teddy Baldassarre Videos
A Watch Jaeger-LeCoultre Was Missing
Few brands can match the watchmaking credentials of Jaeger-LeCoultre. This nearly 200 year old manufacture has been a powerhouse of movement production for generations, creating more than 1,400 calibers throughout its history. While icons like the Reverso understandably carry much of the brand’s modern identity, there
SJX Watches
Insight: Screw-Down Showdown
Mechanical movements attract most of the technical interest in watchmaking, but considerable engineering also goes into keeping them dry. For an everyday watch, the waterproof construction of the case and crown is central to its reliability, yet the way these components keep water out is often misunderstood. Screw-down crowns and case backs are widely regarded as the best way to seal a watch. But the choice is not always straightforward. On a hand-wound watch, for example, a screw-down crown must be unscrewed and tightened regularly, adding an extra step to winding and potentially compromising the threads. The Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch, on the other hand, features a conventional crown and is rated to 50 m. Even so, some owners remain wary of exposing it to more than an occasional splash. So the question is, how much protection can a conventional crown provide, and what does a screw-down construction add? To understand the distinction, we take a closer look at the crown, its tube and the gaskets that form the seal. As a disclaimer, this discussion concerns modern watches with seals in good condition; vintage watches and those long overdue for service should be checked for waterproofness prior to contact with water. A common misconception The actual waterproofness of a joint relates to the uniformity of the seal pressure. In this case, “waterproofness” is used broadly as the ability of a mechanical joint to keep water from seeping in under normal functioning conditions...
Worn & Wound
Moser Dips Its Toe Back in the Digital Realm with the New Limited Edition Streamliner Off-Grid
Moser has long been a brand who’s unafraid to experiment and test boundaries, creating many designs that have elicited conversation or even debate. Now, the brand is making waves with a new digital timepiece. Here, a skeletonized dial reveals an architecture that combines digital technology with traditional watchmaking in the new Limited Edition Streamliner Off-Grid. Moser first experimented with a hybrid analog/digital timepiece last year with the Streamliner Alpine Mechanics Edition. The model features a sober black dial evoking the same vibe as the brand’s trademark Vantablack, but instead of the innovative coating, this black backdrop reveals a digital display at 6 o’clock. Appearing to hover above is the classic analog component in Moser’s typical blue fume. The model was released as a part of the brand’s collaboration with Alpine Motorsports and marked a world first as a timepiece engineered specifically for the needs of a Formula 1 crew, helping them communicate faster, shave off those crucial fractions of a second, and overall streamline operations (pun intended) through the capabilities of the digital display. Now, we get the next evolution of this hybrid style design. While Moser is certainly no stranger to rather out-there designs, the brand does have its own distinct design language, and even with this digital timepiece, we still see those stylistic signatures come through. At the base is, once again, the brand’s iconic Streamliner case with its ple...
Hodinkee
Introducing: The H. Moser & Cie. Off-Grid (Live Pics)
What We Know Last year, I wrote about Moser's interesting play in its ongoing partnership with Formula 1 team Alpine Motorsports, when it introduced a pair of Streamliners, including its first ana-digi effort in the Streamliner Mechanics Edition. Developed with Sequent, a Swiss watch brand focused on producing its own self-charging smartwatches, Moser revealed this (not self-charging) new Streamliner as a connected watch for the Alpine mechanics team. For the general public, Moser released a 500-piece run of the Mechanics Edition watch. That edition was evidently successful enough for Moser to follow up with two new references of this ana-digi Streamliner, in a collection called the Off-Grid. And yes, the irony is not lost on me that any of Moser's mechanical creations are, in principle, way more "off-grid" than a watch you need to recharge. Moser leans into that kind of stuff, and it wouldn't be surprising to me if this was at least partially tongue-in-cheek. But I digress. The Streamliner silhouette on these new Off-Grid watches, with a diameter of 42.6mm and height of 14.4mm, certainly should feel familiar at this point. The diameter seems intimidating, but there is a very compact lug-to-lug fit here, given that there are no lugs to really speak of; rather, the strap attaches directly to the case (see how it looks on my 6.5" wrist). There are two versions here, both in steel—one with a blue PVD coating and one with black. The blue PVD version, which feels much more in...