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Rebellion. What a name for a watch. And true to its name, this is indeed a rebellious watch. Manually wound. Six barrels. 1000 hours of power reserve. To wind the watch, one releases a lever, and the entire bezel pivots at 6 o’clock, and operating the lever winds the watch. Cool. Two chains, one onRead More
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December 20, 0900 CET Lange announces the replacement for the 11 year old Datograph with a new and improved Datograph. I attended the launch event in Dresden, and managed to spend a full morning with the watch, photographing, examining, pondering. Here are the exclusive live photographs and my personal impressions. Reinventing classics is an activityRead More
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The Lange Richard Lange Pour le Merite is one of the 4 watches within the Lange collection which carry the fusee and chain mechanism. This particular example is owned by a good friend of mine. And I had the pleasure to photograph this watch under very dim conditions of a Michelin starred restaurant in Dresden…theRead More
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I have been following the career of the illustrious Finnish watchmaker, Kari Voutilainen for a while. He makes interesting pieces, quite well finished. Take for example the decimal repeater…where instead of striking the quarters and minutes, the watch actually strikes the same way as we read the time…in tens of minutes, then minutes. Brilliant. HisRead More
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On the occassion for the launch of my book in Tokyo, Lange hosted a Press Conference in the beautiful restaurant right in the middle of town, just a stone’s throw from Nihombashi. The restaurant, San Pau is the branch of the famed 3 Star Michelin restaurant in Spain, and in Japan it too garnered twoRead More
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Jerome DeWitt is an intriguing gentleman. Hailing as a direct descendent of Napoleon Bonaparte, he is a brilliant mind…always inquisitive, always exploring, always brimming with new ideas. It is no surprise that his watches are also similar in ilk. Today, I feature his Twenty-8, a spectacular watch, certainly, inspired by the art deco buildings ofRead More
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Max Busser has always been a controversial figure…from the time he initiated and helmed the Opus project for Harry Winston and to the 4 Horological Machines he has created under his own brand name, I see Max as the leader in the field of pushing watches into the realm of horological art. I can alwaysRead More
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As promised on Friday, here are the high resolution photographs of what was to me, the highlight of the show. The historically important Esmeralda, a wonderfully decorated, beautifully restored pocket watch tourbillon with three golden bridges. Historically important Girard Perregaux Pocket Watch with Three Golden Bridges And to give a flavour and spice to theRead More
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Girard Perregaux is one of the Grande Dames of horology…and this year, they celebrate their 220th anniversary. They are showcasing 220 years of watchmaking history and expertise in a travelling exhibition. I will cover the event and exhibition today, and next week, will present you with high resolution photographs of two of the most outstandingRead More
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Urwerk – their principals Felix Baumgartner and Martin Frei, is one of the independent watchmakers to watch (pun intended). Their creations are always interesting…pieces of contemporary horology: with interesting techniques, pushing the envelope with the use and adaptation of industrial coatings on watchmaking. And Felix and Martin, and their PR Supremo Yasine have always beenRead More
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I was invited to view a very exclusive mobile phone…with built in pocket watch with a tourbillon, crafted in titanium. A lot of thought has gone into this phone…though the mobile technology is not really state of the art, the completeness of the thinking behind the idea is amazing. Built like a clamshell phone…vaguely familiarRead More
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Glashutte Original’s factory is almost right next door to Lange’s at Altenberger Strasse in Glashutte. The brands do share some common origins, both pointing to Ferdinand Aldophe Lange. Amongst the watches GO produces, some are very nice, but none nicer to my eyes than the Pano Retro Graph…a beautiful movement… The movement is nicely laidRead More
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with apologies to Mussorgsky On the occassion of Lange bringing the entire Pour le Merite collection to Singapore and doing an exhibition of the watches at L’Atelier by The Hour Glass at ION Orchard, I also launched my book…as most of you regular readers would know by now. I also took the opportunity to doRead More
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posted on Timezone.com Lange Forum on July 12 I was reminded my M…yes, as in Bond’s boss…me being the intrepid 00P…:-) that I have not yet reported on Lektion Zwei. My apologies, as the last few weeks have been busy with the book that I have had to push back on other activities. The bookRead More
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I photographed the Moser Perpetual 1 some time ago…the photographs appear here. As a followup, this is a detailed look at the movement, showing the salient features of the quite excellent finish: Zooming in on the escapement: The entire esacapement, can be unscrewed at the ends of the bridge, and removed. Moser provides service centersRead More
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Today’s feature is the special watch produced by Lange for the Kidz Horizon auction scheduled for 27 August 2011 in Singapore. Please go here to read the Lange press release, and about Duncan Wang and Kidz Horizon. I photographed the press release photographs, and here I release a few more photographs from the same session.Read More
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Max Bussser is an unusual talent in watchmaking. Not a watchmaker by trade, but makes watches for a living…His imagination is wonderful…almost child like, but always totally rooted in true business sense, however fantastical the idea. MB&F; HM4 Flying Panda for Only Watch 2011 In support of Only Watch 2011, he came up with theRead More
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The De Bethune DB28…amazingly beautiful watch. The design is quite unique…the case is in the design language established by De Bethune. The watch shown is rose gold. The lugs, which are mobile and able to pivot to follow the shape of the wrists and its movements is a contrasting hue of flame treated blued titanium.Read More
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Property of a good friend… The Patek Philippe Annual Calendar Chronograph. Inhouse chronograph after years of using Lemania, PP decided on their own. I quite like the grey dial and platinum case. But remain ambivalent on the red markers on the dial. The case is quite beautiful. Activating of the chrono seems a bit onRead More
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Continuing on the series on affordable watches. This watch was a minor sensation at www.timezone some years ago (um…13-14 years ago…) and achieved a cult status there. I have owned this piece for almost that long…quite a nice watch, Unitas movement, decently finished. Beautiful dial, with raised printed Arabic numerals with quite strong superluminova. IRead More
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Some readers have written to tell me that the watches I feature are almost always very expensive, as they usually are top range luxury timepieces. Though I understand you, my dear readers, enjoy the super watches…like readers of car magazines enjoy seeing photographs and tests on supercars, you would also like some more down toRead More
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Apologies for falling slightly behind on my postings. I was in Dresden for the final review of my book last week, and some blip with blogger.com caused the Friday post to disappear. But today, I go back one of my favourites…the Spring Drive… The bezel is in sapphire. Long before Rolex or anyone else startedRead More
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The latest iteration of The Freak…with Rolf’s signature on the plate attached to the dial at 6. The plate releases the lock on the bezel, which also serves as device to set the time. The watch is amazing in simplicity…no crown…set the hands by turning the bezel. Wind the watch by turning the rear bezel.Read More
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Just pictures of the piece unique Minute Repeater from Kari Voutilainen. This piece was an entry to the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève Complicated Watch catagory.
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Lange hosted a very special event in Singapore, a series of 3, all interlinked together. Some of you may already have heard of the Lange Akademie. This was started and headed by the beautiful Joanna Lange (yes, she recently wedded Benjamin Lange, who is the son of Walter Lange) in 2008. And have been trainingRead More
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I am quite fascinated by the world of the Grand Seiko. Here is a real atypical watch manufacturer. Hard core to the bone…and yet not manufacturing at the traditional heart of watchmaking in Switzerland. Their superb factory and workshops, especially the Micro Artisans Studio in Shiojiri, where I visited some years ago, make wonderful products.Read More
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On Monday I showed the beautiful rose gold final version of the Jaeger LeCoultre Gyro Tourbillon. Today is another, arguably even more interesting, and certainly more complicated JLC timepiece. The aptly named Grande Tradition Grand Complication. The dial is an amazingly beautiful blue, engraved with the stars and firmament, the flying tourbillon makes its wayRead More
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Jaeger LeCoultre has been pushing the envelope of high horology for some time. With the Gyrotourbillon announced in 2004. The original series is produced in a platinum case, and I had the opportunity to photograph and view the final run of 30 pieces in rose gold. The Gyrotourbillon has grown more beautiful in its newRead More
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The engraving department within A. Lange & Sohne is perhaps rather famous. Every watch produced carries a hand engraved balance cock. These bear the signatures of the engravers, and can be recognised by them with a quick examination. But equally interesting, and arguably perhaps more so, are the engraving and enameling work done for theRead More
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I wrote about Laurent Ferrier’s Gallet Tourbillon before. See this post for the earlier post. I caught up with Laurent and his crew in Geneva during the recent GTE where he was showing a peek-a-boo dial…which features a fan shaped opening on the dial which opens to reveal a favourite picture…painted by no other thanRead More
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