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Results for Vallée de Joux

28,193 articles · 2,530 videos found · page 9 of 1025

De Bethune Introduces the DW5 Cempasúchil SJX Watches
De Bethune Introduces Oct 15, 2020

De Bethune Introduces the DW5 Cempasúchil

Already a well-established tradition at De Bethune, the unusual use of metal alloys along with elaborate engraving defines the Maestri’Art DW5 Cempasúchil, a unique watch created for Salón Internacional Alta Relojería México (SIAR), the country’s leading luxury-watch fair that takes place October 20-22. The Cempasúchil is a unique piece that’s the latest instalment in the Dream Watch 5 (DW5) series that started out as a sleek creation resembling a metallic seashell. More recently, the DW5 has more recently been used as a blank canvas for heavily decorative engraving, something the Cempasúchil takes that to the extreme. The titanium case of the Cempasúchil is heat blued and inlaid with gold in various colours, forming an intricate yet cartoonish motif inspired by the Mexican festival of Día de Muertos, or Day of the Dead. And that explains the model name, which is also a type of marigold also known as flor de los muertos, or “flower of the dead”. Cempasúchil front And back Initial thoughts Done by De Bethune’s go-to engraver, the quality of the work on the Cempasúchil is unmistakably high quality. And the multi-coloured gold inlay elevates the work to another level entirely. And the exuberant, whimsical of multiple calavera, or decorated skulls, is very much in keeping with the spirit of the Day of the Dead, a celebration of the departed rather than a sad occasion. But the combination of the DW5 and the motif doesn’t gel. Traditionally seamless,...

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Up Close: De Bethune DB28XP SJX Watches
De Bethune DB28XP Despite being only Jul 16, 2020

Up Close: De Bethune DB28XP

Despite being only 18 years old, De Bethune has managed to create a surprisingly large number of unique and emblematic case designs, along with a slew of complications and movement innovations. But its signature case design is probably the DB28, a large, thin watch with a pair of sprung, pivoted lugs. For the 10th anniversary of the DB28, De Bethune has slimmed it down to create the DB28XP. Significantly thinner and slightly more wearable, the DB28XP is still instantly recognisable for what it is. Dial detail of the DB28XP Starry Sky Initial thoughts The DB28XP is a smartly conceived watch because it manages to capture everything that made the DB28 special, except in a thinner case that feels more refined and is clearly more elegant. The original DB28 wasn’t excessively thick, but the DB28XP is substantially thinner, thin enough it feels a little like a sci-fi dress watch. The DB28XP wears sleek and light, with the “floating” lugs hugging the wrist comfortably, while the aesthetic is clearly quintessential De Bethune, which means polished or heat-blued titanium. And though it’s slimmer than the original, the DB28XP is still executed to the same level of quality, down to the smallest of details. The teeth of the barrel ratchet wheel of the movement are polished, for instance, while the hands are either polished titanium or pink gold, depending in the version. The original DB28 (top) and the DB28XP But the DB28XP is a little fancier than the original in design, with...

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Up Close: Vacheron Constantin Cornes de Vache 1955 in Steel SJX Watches
Vacheron Constantin Cornes de Vache 1955 Apr 1, 2020

Up Close: Vacheron Constantin Cornes de Vache 1955 in Steel

As modern, high-end chronographs go, the Vacheron Constantin Historiques Cornes de Vache 1955 is one of the most desirable, being a beautifully executed remake that’s faithful to the vintage original, while powered by an upgraded version of a well-regarded movement. The latest version of the Cornes de Vache 1955 has a steel case, making it even more unusual amongst high-end chronographs, which are almost always found in precious metal cases. As a result, the Cornes de Vache is now significantly more accessible – while retaining the retro design and excellent movement – at least by the standards of such watches. Cornes de vache French for “cow horns”, Cornes de Vache comes from the shape of the lugs, a slight variation on the better-known “teardrop” lugs. The inspiration for the watch is the ref. 6087, the brand’s first water-resistant and anti-magnetic chronograph that was in production from 1955 to the mid-1960s – and featured the very same “cow horn” lugs. Made in yellow or pink gold as well as platinum, the ref. 6087 is rare – only 36 pieces were produced over a decade or so. A vintage ref. 6087 “Cornes de Vache” in yellow gold that sold for 106,250 Swiss francs at Phillips in 2015. Photo – Phillips Like the vintage original, the modern-day Cornes de Vache was initially only available in precious metals: first in platinum, followed by pink gold, with the steel model only making its debut last year. It is worth noting that steel is used s...

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Hands-On: De Bethune DB28GS Grand Bleu SJX Watches
De Bethune DB28GS Grand Bleu Like Mar 3, 2020

Hands-On: De Bethune DB28GS Grand Bleu

Like the bizarre-looking, ultra-deep sea creatures that produce bioluminescent light, De Bethune’s DB28GS Grand Bleu boasts its very own, self-contained light source – hardly surprising given what De Bethune is all about. Since its inception in 2002, De Bethune has expanded its aesthetic and technical language, going from relatively classical, Breguet-inspired watches to timepieces that are at the cutting edge of modern horology. Most of its contemporary watches feature far-flung, otherworldly designs, a house style that no doubt made it challenging to ensure the Grand Bleu conforms to the ISO 6425 dive-watch specification. The resulting Grand Bleu is perhaps one of the most extravagant and extraordinary dive watches ever – this video shows the illumination in action. Though De Bethune dabbled in oversized sports watches well over a decade ago, starting with the DB24 Super Sport of 2007, the Grand Bleu is evolved from the more recent DB28GS launched in 2015. While the DB28GS was already a hardcore sports watch with a high-tech movement, the Grand Bleu takes it further -or mor eacccurately, deeper. It combines a brand-new case with a new movement equipped with a mechanical dynamo that powers a set of tiny LED lamps. The more sedate DB28 Grand Sport A new case The Grand Bleu is a large 44 mm, and rated to 100 m. At 12.8 mm high, it is thicker than most De Bethune watches but still slim for a dive watch. But the highlight of the case are the spring-loaded, open-wor...

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Hands-On: De Bethune Dream Watch 5 in Rose Gold SJX Watches
De Bethune Dream Watch 5 Jan 27, 2020

Hands-On: De Bethune Dream Watch 5 in Rose Gold

De Bethune’s brand of watchmaking has spawned many avant-garde watches, ranging from the Urwerk collaboration for Only Watch to the East Asian-inspired Maestri Art. But its most outstanding sculptural creation is unquestionably the Dream Watch 5, an extraterrestrial seashell that tells the time. Originally launched in 2014 in mirror-polished titanium, the original Dream Watch 5 was extremely expensive, but also tiny, having the proportions of a lady’s watch. Fortunately, it was later enlarged to its current size of just under 60 mm at its widest, from crown to pointed tip, though it remains just as expensive. The Dream Watch was then iterated into several one-off examples, with the most incredible being the Dream Watch 5 in heat-blued meteorite; its extraordinary nature matched by the US$450,000 price tag. The Dream Watch 5 in meteorite More recently, a custom version of the Dream Watch 5 in 18k rose gold was delivered last year. Even though the design is exactly the same as the other variants, the rose gold specimen has a distinctly more classical look that dials back on the sci-fi feel. Like the other versions of the watch, the Dream Watch 5 in rose gold is entirely mirror polished, but also accented by an insert of polished, heat-blued titanium on the case back that extends to the crown, which is also made of the same material and then topped with a 1 carat ruby. Despite its aesthetics, the Dream Watch 5 is actually functionally simple: it indicates the hours and m...

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Visiting The De Bethune Manufacture In The Swiss Mountains (Video): Is It A Spaceship? Quill & Pad
De Bethune Manufacture Jan 8, 2020

Visiting The De Bethune Manufacture In The Swiss Mountains (Video): Is It A Spaceship?

De Bethune is one of the most avant-garde watch brands on the planet. Knowing that, did you ever wonder what its factory looks like? Is it much different from other watch factories? What do this brand’s technicians do differently than others? How do they get the watches to look like that? And the most burning question: does the factory look like a spaceship? These questions and more get answered here.

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Hands-On: F.P. Journe Octa Réserve de Marche Prototype SJX Watches
F.P. Journe Octa Réserve de Marche Dec 2, 2019

Hands-On: F.P. Journe Octa Réserve de Marche Prototype

As has become tradition, a good part of Phillips’ upcoming New York watch auction is a memorabilia sale of sorts, including watches owned by Marlon Brando, golfer Jack Nicklaus, and astronaut John Glenn, as well as the Urwerk worn by Robert Downey Jr. while playing Iron Man in Avengers: Endgame. The auction also includes a piece of historical horological memorabilia: an F.P. Journe Octa Réserve de Marche prototype. The prototype is largely identical to the later, serially produced version of the watch – the case is platinum and the dial, yellow gold – but is marked as a prototype on the case back, and also bears the various traits unique to early watches made by Francois-Paul Journe. The cal. 1300 Launched in 2002 and discontinued in 2014, the Octa Réserve de Marche was the brand’s first entry-level wristwatch, powered by an automatic movement, the cal. 1300. Originally conceived to have an eight-day power reserve – hence “Octa” – the movement instead has a power reserve of 120 hours, or about five days. Reputedly constructed with a gear train borrowed from a robust and well-known hand-wind movement plus an extra-large mainspring, the cal. 1300 was the base calibre for the entire Octa line. Although a variety of complications were added on top, ranging from the Octa Chronograph to the annual calendar of the Octa Calendrier, all versions of the movement had identical height of 5.7mm regardless of function. The slimness and smart construction did come at th...

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Hands-On: Urwerk x De Bethune Moon Satellite for Only Watch 2019 SJX Watches
De Bethune Moon Satellite Nov 1, 2019

Hands-On: Urwerk x De Bethune Moon Satellite for Only Watch 2019

The collaboration between Urwerk and De Bethune for the upcoming Only Watch is pretty straightforward: an Urwerk wandering hours time display module mounted on a De Bethune base movement, and housed in a De Bethune case. But it works, and the Moon Satellite is one of the coolest watches of the charity auction. Conceptually the Moon Satellite is similar to the Arpal One made for the last Only Watch. Long and sleek, the Arpal One was a collaboration between Urwerk and Laurent Ferrier that looked good, but with an enormous case – it was 60.8m long – that was much too large. The Moon Satellite, on the other hand, is just right. That’s because the case is derived from De Bethune DB28, which is a large watch but one with a smallish footprint and sprung, pivoted lugs that allow it to hug the wrist. The Moon Satellite is slightly larger than a DB28, but almost the same on the wrist. Entirely in mirror polished titanium, the case looks like a helmet for a warrior robot. Its shape is asymmetric – angular on the lower half and rounded at the top – in order to accommodate the time display. It’s reminiscent of a helmet, but instantly recognisable as coming from Urwerk, having the U-shaped crystal first found on the Urwerk UR-103 and now on the UR-105. Coincidentally, both Urwerk and De Bethune position the crowns on most of their watches at 12 o’clock, and so there it is. Though it has a similar shape to the standard Urwerk crown, the Moon Satellite crown is flat, so tha...

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Hands-On: De Bethune DB28 Yellow Tones SJX Watches
De Bethune DB28 Yellow Tones Even Oct 29, 2019

Hands-On: De Bethune DB28 Yellow Tones

Even amongst avant-garde watchmakers, De Bethune stands out for its substance – aesthetic and material innovation matched by technical ingenuity. At its core, the brand has reimagined the most fundamental aspects of mechanical timekeeping, from the barrel to the hairspring, while pushing the boundaries of traditional complications, be it the moon phase, tourbillon or chronograph. But arguably its most distinctive innovation is an aesthetic one, which has come to define the brand no less – heat-blued titanium. The brand has used the alloy for more than 15 years across various parts of the watch, even making almost a whole watch out of it. But now De Bethune has a twist on the theme, resulting in the DB28 Yellow Tones in brilliant golden titanium. Fiery yellow Though the colour of the new DB28 is striking, it is by no means loud, as the amber shade of yellow isn’t the same as yellow gold and doesn’t pass off as such. In fact, it looks more like fresh brass than gold. The colour was achieved through thermal oxidisation of the surface, essentially the same process as that used for blued titanium (and also the same for blued steel). The yellow surface, just like the blue, is the result of an oxide that forms on the surface of titanium when it is heated to a certain temperature. But amber yellow tone in this case was created by heating it at a lower temperature than used for blued titanium. Titanium undergoes different stages of oxidation when heated, and yellow is o...

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INTRODUCING: The Vacheron Constantin Historiques Cornes de Vache 1955 in steel  Time+Tide
Vacheron Constantin Historiques Cornes de Vache Sep 5, 2019

INTRODUCING: The Vacheron Constantin Historiques Cornes de Vache 1955 in steel 

Over the years I’ve seen a lot of new chronographs. Some are impressive, and many are ordinary. But few are as hands-down gorgeous as the Vacheron Constantin Cornes de Vache that I first saw at Watches and Wonders in 2015.  With its classical proportions and comely, cow-horn-shaped lugs it was a love-at-first sight affair. However, the … ContinuedThe post INTRODUCING: The Vacheron Constantin Historiques Cornes de Vache 1955 in steel  appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

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Hands-On: De Bethune DB28 Steel Wheels Blue “The Hour Glass” SJX Watches
De Bethune DB28 Steel Wheels Blue Jul 24, 2019

Hands-On: De Bethune DB28 Steel Wheels Blue “The Hour Glass”

De Bethune is the latest amongst a number of watchmakers to take the covers off a commemorative edition to mark the 40th anniversary of Singapore watch retail powerhouse The Hour Glass. For the occasion, De Bethune has put together a variant of its signature DB28 with sprung lugs that’s entirely clad in brilliant, blued titanium. First unveiled in polished titanium in 2018, the Steel Wheels is essentially a DB28 wearing a little less. A partially open-worked dial – which is actually the delta-shaped barrel bridge – reveals its pair of skeletonised barrels and gears. While the original Steel Wheels captures the essence of De Bethune, combining its trademark design with the brand’s fundamental technical innovations, it was lacking a generous dose of blued titanium, a gorgeous, heat-treated alloy that is synonymous with the brand. Colour consistency That has now been rectified with the DB28 Steel Wheels Blue, arguably the purest – and bluest – distillation of the brand’s core values and technical achievements. It features an intense, mirror-polished, blued titanium case and dial that form a striking contrast against the exposed inner mechanics. Though blued titanium is also used by other brands today, De Bethune was amongst the first to mirror-polish its titanium cases and more crucially, started using heat treatment to blue titanium way back in 2006. An example of an early De Bethune using blued titanium, a DB25L from 2010 with a blued dial...

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