Revolution
A New Flight of the Imagination: MB&F; Legacy Machine Split Escapement x Eddie Jaquet
Max Büsser partners with engraver Eddie Jacquet on a special edition of MB&F;’s most technical timepiece – the Legacy Machine Split Escapement.
Results for Swiss Lever Escapement
1,738 articles · 37 videos found · page 9 of 60
Revolution
SJX Watches
MB&F; Introduces the LM Split Escapement ‘Eddy Jaquet’
Conceived as an imagined, 19th-century take on MB&F;’s uber-modern, sci-fi inspired Horological Machines, the Legacy Machines (LM) draw inspiration from the aesthetic of the era – and the works of Jules Verne – to create a steampunk-meets-classical-watchmaking timepiece. Now the spirit of the LM have been made tangible with the LM Split Escapement ‘Eddy Jaquet’. The series is limited to just eight watches in red gold, each featuring a dial depicting a scene from Verne’s novels, rendered in minute detail with the hand engraving of Eddy Jaquet, a Swiss artisan who has worked with an array of watchmakers but perhaps best known for his work on Voutilainen watches. Initial thoughts The new LM Split Escapement (SE) is a departure from the typical MB&F; watch, which usually emphasises technical aspects, like movement construction or finishing, or case design and materials (and occasionally collaborations with contemporary artists). Instead the new LM SE is all about artisanal craft, something that is familiar territory for independent watchmakers like Voutilainen but novel for MB&F;. Though such artistically decorated timepieces are not a traditional strength of MB&F;, the result is an attractive watch. The engraving is impressively done, and avoids appearing monochromatic thanks to its depth. The intricate, pictorial engraving also complements the style of the LM, making the whole greater than the sum of the parts. In fact, it can be argued that the original LM SE w...
SJX Watches
Business News: Swiss Watch Exports Moderate Decline While China Powers Ahead
Having just published its monthly report on Swiss watch exports, the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH) has delivered numbers that back up what many industry insiders have been saying: China is the only bright spot in watch retail. The FH report for July 2020 indicated a moderating decline in the value of Swiss watch exports, which fell 17% for the month, half the decline in June. The biggest declines in volumes were suffered by cheaper watches, with watches priced at under CHF200 (at export value) falling by 41.5%. The number for watches priced over CHF3,000 was 11.1%. But the key takeaway was the continued recovery in China. Exports to China rose 59.1%, the second straight month of growth in the world’s largest market for Swiss watch exports. The second-largest market of the United States saw exports dip 0.6%, while the fall in exports to Hong Kong – once the world’s largest market – continued their plunge, falling 42.9% for the month.
Time+Tide
RECOMMENDED READING: Apple sold nearly 10 million more watches than the entire Swiss watch industry in 2019
A few years back, I remember interviewing Jean-Claude Biver and asking how he thought smartwatches would impact the traditional watch industry. Biver insisted the innovation was positive, saying that he believed smartwatches “will bring the attention of young people back to the wrist”. In other words, they would persuade a new generation to start wearing … ContinuedThe post RECOMMENDED READING: Apple sold nearly 10 million more watches than the entire Swiss watch industry in 2019 appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Quill & Pad
Swiss Newcomer Norqain Introduces (Relatively) Affordable Independence 20 With Upmarket Movement
Sabine Zwettler likes the flair of Norqain, a young, innovative brand bringing a fresh impulse by respecting the traditional values of the industry in general and Swiss codes in particular. She finds reading the time on this brand-new watch's unusual green dial with its charming scratches a real pleasure. What do you think?
Time+Tide
MICRO MONDAYS: Meet CODE41 and their X41 AeroCarbon, this is a Swiss brand with big ambitions
When you think of microbrands, a clear picture starts to form in your mind pretty quickly. A vintage-inspired diver, powered by a Japanese NH35 movement, perhaps? Not only is this formula wildly successful, it’s become somewhat of a trope. Its popularity is justified, and it’s a wonderful way to bring fresh blood into the watchmaking … ContinuedThe post MICRO MONDAYS: Meet CODE41 and their X41 AeroCarbon, this is a Swiss brand with big ambitions appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
SJX Watches
H. Moser & Cie. Introduces the Pioneer Centre Seconds Swiss Mad Red
H. Moser & Cie. debuted its inaugural sporty watch in 2015 with the Pioneer Centre Seconds (and followed up recently with the even more sporty Streamliner). Now Pioneer Centre Seconds Swiss Mad Red with a red fumé dial joins the line up. Both the colour and name are inspired by the original Swiss Mad watch of 2017, which took its colours from the Swiss national flag. Initial thoughts As is typical of Moser’s fumé finish, the dial is immediately gripping. The graduated, smoked finish results in a colour that varies in shade depending on lighting and perspective, which adds a lot of visual appeal. Though graduated-colour dials were not invented by Moser, it has become synonymous with the brand. Moser has presented fumé dials in green and many shades of blue, but bold red finish is perhaps the most enticing to date. Although the Pioneer is technically a sports watch, the elegant styling of the dial does not translate well onto such the large, almost-43 mm case, which definitely wears and looks large on the wrist. I would have preferred a case of say, 38 mm, large enough to be a sports watch, while still complimenting the dial. Minimalism While the colour is striking, the watch itself is minimalist and no-frills in the usual Moser style, displaying only the time without any superfluous elements on the dial. Still, the dial manages to incorporate several details that add to the appeal, including faceted markers, open-worked hands, and luminous dots on the flange. De...
Time+Tide
What is ‘Revenge Spending’ and will it save the Swiss watch industry?
You’ve screwed up. Big time. Worse still, your partner has found out and they mad as all hell. To get their own back, said partner embarks on a demented spending spree on your joint credit card in order to punish you for your (latest) transgression. That’s what most people think “revenge spending” means. But they’re … ContinuedThe post What is ‘Revenge Spending’ and will it save the Swiss watch industry? appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
SJX Watches
Business News: Baselworld to be Replaced by Swiss Watch Week
With Baselworld all but finished in name – with the COVID-19 pandemic having served as the catalyst for its demise – its organiser has already lined up a potential replacement, according to Swiss newspaper Handelzeitung. Events company MCH Group, which owns Baselworld and Art Basel, registered the trademark “Swiss Watch Week” in late January 2020, perhaps an indication its management already knew that Baselworld was untenable. Departing Basel, the city that the namesake watch fair had called home for decades is seen as crucial to escape the baggage and bad publicity that has dogged Baselworld. A good part of the criticism levelled at the fair concerns the opportunistic pricing imposed by restaurants, hotels, and other accommodation during the fair. The result was a slow burn that culminated in the end of Baselworld. A scene never to be seen again – the halls of Messe Basel packed with watch brands. Photo – Baselworld Once the world’s largest watch and jewellery fair, Baselworld was hit by a gradually accelerating string of departures, starting in 2018 with industry giant Swatch Group – owner of brands like Omega, Longines, and Tissot – citing the exorbitant cost of exhibiting and other city-related expenses. Swatch was followed by Seiko and others in 2019. But the fatal blow arrived in April 2020, when the fair’s biggest exhibitors – Rolex, Patek Philippe, Chanel, Chopard, and Tudor – pulled out and announced a move to a new, yet-to-be-named fair in...
Time+Tide
Coronavirus projected to wipe out 60 ‘Swiss Made’ watch brands, while downturn surpasses Quartz Crisis and GFC
Coronavirus has surpassed all previous crisis’ in terms of its negative impact on the Swiss watchmaking industry, with a 25 per cent downturn anticipated for 2020, according to a report by Bank Vontobel. This is worse than the Quartz Crisis, which saw a 15 per cent decline, and the 22 per cent downturn in the … ContinuedThe post Coronavirus projected to wipe out 60 ‘Swiss Made’ watch brands, while downturn surpasses Quartz Crisis and GFC appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Time+Tide
HANDS-ON: The TAG Heuer Connected generation 3 is the Swiss and Silicon Valley doing what they do best, together
Certain expertise has always been found in specific parts of the world, creating hubs of creativity and technical innovation. So what would happen if you put the watchmaking nous of La Chaux-de-Fonds and the tech capability of Silicon Valley together into a watch? You get the TAG Heuer Connected watch, generation 3. The first generation … ContinuedThe post HANDS-ON: The TAG Heuer Connected generation 3 is the Swiss and Silicon Valley doing what they do best, together appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
SJX Watches
Business News: Swiss Watch Exports Forecast to Drop 25% in 2020
Swiss private bank Vontobel has just published its highly-regarded annual report on the luxury watch industry – the news for 2020 is grim. Put together by a team led by managing director Rene Weber, the Vontobel Luxury Goods Shop predicts a 25% fall in Swiss watch exports in 2020 – the biggest drop in 50 years as a result of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. A proxy for the global luxury watch market, Swiss watch exports declined 22% during the 2008 financial crisis, and recovered swiftly the year after. But during the financial crisis there were no store or factory closures, and no halt to international travel. Since mid-March most watch brands, including giants Rolex and Patek Philippe, have shut their factories, or introduced short-time work, with between 60-70% of employees at Swatch Group working reduced hours. File photo of the Rolex factory in Bienne that’s gone quiet for now. Photo – Rolex At the peak of the pandemic in China, when practically the entire country was in lockdown, Vontobel estimated February sales fell 80%, something it expects will be repeated throughout the rest of the world. And even e-commerce is not enough to alleviate the situation substantially, because of logistical challenges. The report notes that as of mid-March,”the Swiss watch industry has come to an almost global standstill.” Unsurprisingly, the bank expects the pandemic to result in a steeper fall and slower recovery for the Swiss watch industry. The bank expects a s...
SJX Watches
Business News: Swiss Watch Exports to Hong Kong Post Biggest Fall in 20 Years
Trade body Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH) just released its monthly export figures for Swiss watches – a proxy for the broader luxury watch market since Swiss timepieces dominate – and the February numbers are bleak. The month’s statistics illustrate two obvious trends that have shaped in the industry recently: the COVID-19 coronavirus is having a massive impact, and low-cost Swiss watches are being trounced by low-cost smartwatches. An Asian crisis, for now Compared with February last year, the value of exports globally declined by 9.2% – with export volume plunging 22.2% – but as the report notes darkly, the drop “does not yet fully reflect the actual situation in certain markets.” Unsurprisingly, the steepest declines were in the biggest Asian markets – China and Hong Kong – which suffered the worst period of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in the first two months of the year. The biggest fall was in Hong Kong, where exports fell 42% – the largest monthly decline in 20 years. The city imported just CHF143m of Swiss watches, compared to CHF246m for the same month last year. Exports to China fell 51.5% to CHF73m, from CHF151m for February 2019. February was merely an acceleration of a months-long decline. For the first three months of the year, exports to Hong Kong have fallen 33% compared to the same period last year, while exports to China are down 22%. Though exports to other large markets like the United States, Singapore, and Germa...
Time+Tide
BUSINESS NEWS: Swiss watch exports unaffected by Coronavirus outbreak yet, according to FHH
While the Coronavirus outbreak certainly offers a number of reasons for the watch industry at large to be concerned, its effects haven’t been severely felt yet. According to recent data from the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH), the first month of 2020 has seen strong watch sales, with a 9.4 per cent increase in … ContinuedThe post BUSINESS NEWS: Swiss watch exports unaffected by Coronavirus outbreak yet, according to FHH appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
SJX Watches
Recommended Reading: The Swiss Cryptography Machine Maker Owned by the CIA
Switzerland has a well-earned reputation for producing high-quality machinery and engineering, mostly produced by small and medium-sized businesses making equipment like machine tools, printing presses, and lifts. For the same reasons, Switzerland boasts world-class watch companies, most of which share the same prowess in manufacturing and engineering. As it happens, a Swiss company was an industry leader in cryptography machines for several decades in the late 20th century. Founded by a Swede in Switzerland, Crypto AG sold mechanical encoding devices to some 120 countries, including Iran, India, and the Vatican. Although digital cryptography has now rendered cryptography hardware obsolete, such machines were once crucial to international diplomacy, intelligence, and espionage. Crypto AG was a key producer of these machines, helped by the fact that Switzerland is a neutral country. But a recent investigation by the The Washington Post and German public television network Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF) have revealed that since 1970, Crypto AG was secretly owned by the CIA and Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany’s federal intelligence service. The news has since spiralled into a scandal in Switzerland – where neutrality has been a national policy since the 19th century – with the government setting up an inquiry to investigate just how much former officials knew. Building in backdoors According to the Post, Crypto AG founder Boris Hagelin had once hoped to pas...
SJX Watches
Business News: Swiss Authorities Weigh ETA Sales Ban
According to Swiss newspaper Schweiz am Wochenende (via Reuters), Switzerland’s Competition Commission, a federal body that oversees competition and antitrust matters, is considering an outright ban of movements sales by ETA to third parties, in other words brands outside of the Swatch Group, starting January 2020. Also known as COMCO, or its German acronym WEKO, the agency is expected to deliver a verdict on December 19 . No explicit reason was cited for the potential ban, but it was implied that a recent COMCO report on the industry structure of the movement business is the reason. It is possible that COMCO believes the number of alternatives to ETA is sufficient that the watch industry would be better served over the long term by forcing watch brands to switch away from ETA. COMCO has long tussled with Switzerland’s biggest movement maker, in a dispute that began 17 years ago, when ETA announced it would gradually halt sales of ebauches, or movement blanks, to brands not owned by its parent company, Swatch Group. Because ETA was, and still is, Switzerland’s largest movement, reputedly producing some five million movements a year, its decision was regarded by COMCO as anticompetitive. And the wider Swatch Group – which is the country’s largest watchmaking conglomerate – produces perhaps a third of the components needed for watch movements in the entire industry. In the subsequent years ETA and COMCO reached various agreements over movement supply, with the l...
Hodinkee
Business News: Hong Kong Crisis Batters Swiss Watch Exports
Turmoil there knocked five points off global Swiss watch growth in October.
SJX Watches
Business News: Swiss Watch Exports to Hong Kong Plunge 30% in October
The latest figures from trade body Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH) show a massive fall in Swiss watch exports to Hong Kong, a statistic that is proxy for sales of luxury watches. According to the FH numbers for the month of October 2019, exports to Hong Kong fell 29.7% to 191.3m Swiss francs. This comes after a more measured, 4.6% drop in September. Exports to Hong Hong have now fallen below those to China, which rose 10.8% to 218.4m francs. Enjoying a 11.2% rise to 227.5m francs is the United States, which was the largest market for Swiss watches in October. For the year to date, Hong Kong remains the world’s largest market for Swiss watches, though the gap between it and the second-placed United States is falling. Hong Kong imported 2.26 billion francs of Swiss watches in the year to date – a fall of 8.8% compared to the same period las year – compared to 1.97 billion francs for the United States. Pedder Street in Hong Kong’s Central business district, ordinarily a shopping paradise. Photo – Hong Kong Tourism Board The drop in watch exports to the city confirm industry talk that the luxury goods has been hard hit by the six months of protests that have roiled Hong Kong. Shops located in the worst affected areas can only stay open for a fraction of a business day, or not at all on some days. Several executives from both watch brands and retailers in the territory have cited consecutive, month-on-month drops in store sales that reach into the double d...
Hodinkee
Business News: Hong Kong In Swiss-Watch Recession (Again)
With Swiss exports there down for six consecutive months, the U.S. is poised to become Switzerland's top export market.
Revolution
The Holy Trinity, Part 2: The Rule Breakers of the Swiss Watch Industry
In Part 2 of our series on the watch industry’s greatest leaders, we look at three individuals who have transformed the landscape of Swiss watchmaking.
Time+Tide
RECOMMENDED READING: It might be the biggest, but the Apple Watch hasn’t crushed the Swiss
Fun fact: Last year the Apple Watch shipped 22.5 million units. In the same period, the Swiss watch industry exported 23.7 million watches. Scary stuff if you’re a Swiss watch brand. Especially scary if your business is rooted in quartz watches - the market sector that’s being most aggressively eroded by the Apple onslaught. This … ContinuedThe post RECOMMENDED READING: It might be the biggest, but the Apple Watch hasn’t crushed the Swiss appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Revolution
Only Watch - Why Big Swiss Brands Continue to Make One-Offs for a Charity Auction
In a conversation with founder Luc Pettavino, REVOLUTION learns why the Swiss watchmaking community continues to be inspired to create unique pieces for the Only Watch auction.
Revolution
Introducing the MB&F; LM Split Escapement Titanium Green
MB&F; extends the LM Split Escapement timepiece with the addition of a Grade 5 titanium green dial variation.
Time+Tide
Why are Swiss watches considered the best?
This is something we get asked a lot. And not just by newcomers to the industry. To some minds, it instantly sticks out like a sore thumb that the Swiss products are regarded as sacrosanct and that the wares of all other nations should fall in line behind the masters. But to others, it just … ContinuedThe post Why are Swiss watches considered the best? appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Deployant
New: Hands on with the MB&F; LM Split Escapement Titanium Green
The MB&F; adds to the LM Split Escapement collection with 33 pieces in grade 5 titanium case and a a sun-ray, green CVD dial..
Revolution
The Holy Trinity? Three of the Most Important Men in the Swiss Watch Industry
Revolution co-founder Wei Koh profiles three of the most important men in the Swiss watch industry: Thierry Stern, Jean-Frédéric Dufour and Jérôme Lambert.
Time+Tide
LIST: The budget list - 5 great new Swiss mechanical watches from brands you’ve heard of that cost less than $1500
A Swiss watch is a near-universally recognised symbol for quality, precision and tradition. And while that’s all well and good, there’s another thing that fine Swiss watches tend to be synonymous with - and that’s high sticker prices. And broadly speaking that perception is true - I constantly find myself uttering phrases like “this $60,000 … ContinuedThe post LIST: The budget list – 5 great new Swiss mechanical watches from brands you’ve heard of that cost less than $1500 appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Deployant
Spot the Watch: Kim Jong-Un and his Swiss watch
Spot the Watch: Kim Jong-Un and his Swiss watch. What did he wear to the recent peace talks with South Korea? Perhaps his early Swiss education led him to select a design icon: the Movado Moderna.
Revolution
Talking’ Tockr - New Texas-Based Brand Creates Swiss Watches Inspired by Aviation
New Austin, TX-based Tockr offers Swiss Made watches inspired by aviation, with a unique, rotary engine-inspired design, along with a very attractive aviation chronograph.
Deployant
New Release with Hands-On: MB&F; LM Split Escapement
Introducing the new MB&F; LM Split Escapement (LM SE) with live photographs and hands on commentary and analysis of this release.