Revolution
Biel/Bienne (Switzerland), January 14, 2013 – The Swatch Group Ltd. in Biel/Bienne has acquired 100% of the shares of the US company HW Holdings Inc., owner of Harry Winston Inc. The $750 million deal sees the jeweller and watchmaker selling its watches-to-necklaces division to Swatch Group Ltd. The sale doesn’t include diamond mining operations of […]
Revolution
Coast Guard, this is motor-vessel Bonsai, we have a missing diver in the water. Repeat, missing diver.” I scanned the choppy water as we motored in increasing arcs, realizing the near-impossibility of spotting a person in the 7ft (2m) swells. I’d rehearsed this scenario in my head a hundred times, but nothing could prepare me […]
Revolution
In the immortal words of Harry Callahan, I know what you’re thinkin’ - but before you sniff, say to yourself, “For God’s sake, man, I know what a tourbillon is, don’t insult my intelligence,” and turn the page, lend me your ear, I prithee - I’m going somewhere with this. Most discussions of the tourbillon […]
Revolution
Despite the hyperbole that sometimes accompanies news from the watch world, the truth is this: the hairspring and balance got together in 1660, Mudge made his first lever-escapement watch in 1755, and, with respect to repeaters, Barlow and Quare (both Englishmen) applied for patents for repeating watches in the late 17th century. Breguet developed the […]
Revolution
Carole Forestier-Kasapi, director of fine watchmaking at Cartier has been an industry trailblazer since her tenure at Ulysse Nardin. Having overseen the high profile ID concept watch project, Forestier-Kasapi has addressed some of haute horology’s nagging issues namely- lubrication and energy loss in geared movements. Since production of the exemplary Cartier Astrotourbillon and the Rotonde […]
Revolution
Revolution
The minute repeater is both the most sophisticated of complications and the most atavistic - sophisticated, in that it requires enormous care and skill to make one that works at all, much less one that works well and sounds good; atavistic, in that it brings us back to the very earliest attempts to make mechanical […]
Revolution
Just 3 days ago, on the eve of the 190th anniversary, Jaeger-LeCoultre invited watch lovers worldwide to the largest Jaeger-LeCoultre boutique in the world. The No. 7 Place Vendome flagship was not only ground zero for the anniversary festivities but fitting site for the unveiling of a horological first- the new Duometre Unique Travel Time […]
Revolution
Let’s imagine that Charles Darwin was set loose upon the Huguenot-peopled valleys and mountains of La Chaux-de-Fonds, Le Locle, Le Sentier, Le Brassus, Fleurier and all the parts of Switzerland where silent, stoic men and women sublimate their inner passion into those angelic, refined machines that tell the time. It’s likely that he would arrive at […]
Revolution
“I’ve heard tell what you imagine sometimes comes true” – Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Of all the complicated watches I’ve owned or worn - despite the varying claims of their makers that their dual oscillators, tourbillons, double tourbillons, resonance, triple tourbillons, constant-force mechanism, chain and fusée, ultra-light honeycomb baseplates and so on, […]
Revolution
The year of the Nautilus was 1976. Out in the wider world, the space race had recently culminated in the joint Apollo-Soyuz mission that saw a US Apollo craft dock with the Soviet Soyuz 19 in space - an extended act of diplomacy. The Cold War was at the uneasy stage of hiatus known as détente. The Concorde took its […]
Revolution
Anchoring the corner of fashionable Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré and quiet Rue Boissy d’Anglas, and a block away from Place de la Concorde and the Tuileries Garden, sits Hermès’ hulking Paris emporium and headquarters. The impressive flagship houses not only the gorgeous Hermès boutique and offices, but also a new Émile Hermès Museum, which features […]
Revolution
Azimuth recently collaborated with notable Singapore Jazz maestro Jeremy Monteiro to produce a unique limited edition Azimuth Round-1 Back In Time J.M. “35” timepiece for auction; the proceeds from the sale go towards Very Special Arts Singapore, a charity whose goals include giving those with disabilities access to the arts for social and rehabilitative reasons. […]
Revolution
The beginning of a journey takes but one step. In an age of square and round watches, the industry gripped in the throes of the quartz crisis was trying to outcompete itself on a battlefield of watch straps and materials. Standing above the fray and towards even more risk was a company near the brink, […]
Revolution
I was recently a part of Time in Motion; An Hermes event held at the School of Arts Singapore- Part launch of the new collection of luxury timepieces, part celebration of a horology milestone, the event served to solidify the marquee’s status as a fledgling 100 year watchmaker. Amidst an evening of ballet and motion […]
Revolution
With November 9th (Skyfall’s release date) around the corner and gentlemen worldwide engaging in ardent debates (we imagine) over Her Royal Majesty’s choice of timepiece for the British Navy and Special Air Services, we have been hard at work to uncover definitive information on the diver’s watch wars. The two traditional camps have always been […]
Revolution
We don’t think about magnetic fields often and though they are thoroughly pervasive in our high technology environments, we tend to think of magnets as these little buttons of fun used to “hover and drag” metal cars across table tops. It’s time we grow out of childish notions and understand that magnetic fields are generated […]
Revolution
Many watch enthusiasts accept without question the apex of the Perpetual Calendar complication as the peak of the complicated movement food chain. Quite simply, the perpetual calendar algorithm is a mathematical calculation that would prove mentally incalculable save for the intellectual prime of the human race. Defined, a perpetual calendar calculates a 400 year cycle […]
Revolution
Hidden in plain sight” might be more appropriate. It’s news to no one who loves fine watchmaking that, thanks to many factors, the prices of mechanical watches have been steadily climbing over the last few years, with - apparently - no end in sight. That’s made things a little tougher for die-hard horological enthusiasts who […]
Revolution
It has the distinct honour of having one of the first immediately recognisable watch case shapes out there- I am talking about the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak of course; but what few people know (and could learn more) about this horological icon is that the Royal Oak pulled Audemars Piguet from the brink of bankruptcy. […]
Revolution
The Advanced Fighter Weapons School In the 1970s, the Swiss mechanical watch industry was almost wiped out by an electronic threat called quartz technology, which instantly democratized accuracy in the form of cheap, Japanese-made watches. But ultimately, in the clash between soulless battery-operated machines and those handcrafted by human artisans, the mechanical watch won out, […]
Revolution
With all that he’s achieved on the movement front: the world’s lightest mechanical watch movements (tourbillons, no less, created with I-beam aluminum-lithium bridges), the first carbon-nanofiber and titanium baseplates, the first movement designed after the steel trellis frame of a Ducati motorcycle, the first movement with an orthorhombic-titanium-aluminide baseplate, inspired by the honeycomb inner structure […]
Revolution
It’s an uncanny thing about every new Piaget creation, how they all instantly seem to just belong. Even when it comes to the most novel of novelties from the brand, look away for a scant minute and once you turn your attention back to them, it’s hard to imagine a time when they weren’t a […]
Revolution
Though Panerai has developed an enormous number of different models and complications in recent years, the basic morphology of its watches hasn’t changed at all. Essentially, all Panerai models (and we think this is quite remarkable) are derived from only two designs. These, of course, are the Luminor and Radiomir cases; the Radiomir is the […]
Revolution
The watches produced by Jaquet Droz since the name was relaunched by the Swatch Group in 2001 have for the last 11 years been notable mostly for extremely beautiful high-art dials (using everything from extremely exotic enameling techniques, such as pailloneé, to rare minerals like meteorite) and for very distinctive implementations of classic complications. (We […]
Revolution
A Conversation with Vartan Sirmakes, Co-founder of Franck Muller It is impossible to examine the rise of Franck Muller Watchland as one of the most technically creative, fully integrated and totally verticalized manufactures in Swiss watchmaking without tapping into the brilliant mind of the brand’s co-founder, Vartan Sirmakes. Sirmakes got his start with a case-manufacturing […]
Revolution
Revolution
The Girard-perregaux 1966 Minute Repeater Is A (literally) Striking Timepiece That Puts Us Back In Touch With The Manufacture’s Horological Prowess Nomenclature aside, the Girard-Perregaux 1966 collection was actually only launched in 2006. It’s something that escapes most journalists, especially in the context of the numerous and impressive pieces that have emerged in the round, […]
Revolution
Take A Cue From The French Emperor’s Foremost Selection To be a leader, in whatever field and whether born or bred, one requires just as much fortitude as he does the respective skill and acumen. It’s not just about possessing the intellect to make the right choices for yourself and, more importantly, those following you; […]
Revolution
MB&F;’S NEW LEGACY MACHINE NO. 1 “These are the days of miracle and wonder” - Paul Simon, ‘The Boy in the Bubble’ The only thing about the Legacy Machine No. 1 that concerns Maximilian Büsser, really, is the fact that it’s vintage-looking, just when the wave of vintage-looking watches is at its peak. What if […]
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