Latest watch news · Page 11

What We Know Straum has launched a new take on their integrated bracelet sports watch this week, shifting the focus from evoking nature to getting out and exploring. Fittingly named, the Expedition is the first watch in a new collection which Straum is calling "Built For". This will stand as a second pillar in the brand's offering, alongside the "Inspired By" collection, under which umbrella all the brand's previous releases fall. The most obvious visual cue that something here has changed is the redesigned dial, which swaps the deeply textured, colorful approach of previous Straum releases for a much more utilitarian vocabulary. With bright orange accents, huge amounts of lume, and subtly grained but largely flat dials, the emphasis is less on pure aesthetic appeal and more on legibility and practicality. The same approach has been taken with the case, which has been redesigned, but again, in largely subtle ways. The Grade 5 titanium case — which measures 38.2mm across, 45.7mm lug-to-lug, and is 11mm thick — has been reworked with broader case flanks, a stepped bezel, and a significantly enlarged screw-down crown meant to be usable in the cold or with gloves on. All together, the Expedition is decidedly new, but still clearly and recognizably a Straum. By default, the new watch comes fitted with a black FKM strap, though a new fully Grade 5 titanium case is also available for a modest upcharge, and since the watch uses Straum's strap system, any pre-existing straps an...

Bvlgari’s Aluminium collection is one of their most disruptive collections, but does the cult classic still hold up? Let’s find out! What We Love: Highly wearable Unconventional, fun design Accessible relative to the catalogue What We Don’t: Underdeveloped movement Round lugs get caught under sleeves Can a cult classic become a flagship piece? Overall Rating: 7.5/10 Value for Money: 7/10 Wearability: 8/10 Design: 8/10 Build Quality:7/10 ‘Accessibility’ and ‘Bvlgari’ aren’t two terms that usually go hand-in-hand. This is mostly by design; the Italo-Swiss brand is mostly known for its extreme luxuries, combining the very best of the jewellery and watchmaking industries to do so. This often leads to designs of equally high ambition and extravagance, such as the Octo Finissimo’s record-breaking history or the inspired silhouette of its Diva’s Dream collection. But for as ostentatious as Bvlgari’s average price tag can be, the brand also offers its signature disruption at a relatively accessible price point. Through the Bvlgari Aluminium, a collection assembled from a medley of design cues from watches past, the brand proposes a sporty timepiece that is neither built nor designed like anything else. Not only does the line look like it was frozen in time, but its combination of aluminium and rubber is an experiment in materials unlike anything else on the market. But does the watch’s uniqueness still stand on its own, even when surrounded by a sea of h...

It’s somewhat hard to believe (well, hard for me to believe, anyway) but 2026 marks the ninth year of Ming. If you had told me in the earliest days of the brand in 2017 that less than a decade later they’d factor in as one of the more important independent watch brands of their era, I’m not sure how I’d have reacted. For me, the early days were a tough sell. Ming had trouble meeting demand for their watches in those first years, which can be a good problem to have of course, but can also lead to all kinds of issues with would-be customers as the expectations game gets played out in public. They’ve solved for that largely with smart planning, and a release strategy that sees a mix of accessible pieces with more haute horlogerie oriented fare, all with a design language that is immediately recognizable and all their own.  To celebrate their ninth anniversary, Ming has introduced 57.05 Comet, a watch that features a worldtimer, one of the brand’s favorite complications, in an interesting new way. It’s also the latest watch in their fifth-generation design language, which incorporates a genuinely unique take on their own flying blade lugs, twisted with deep Art Deco tropes.  According to Ming, the 57.05 takes its name from the de Havilland Comet, which aviation enthusiasts will recognize right away as the world’s first commercial jet airliner. The watch, like many worldtimers, is meant as both a useful aid to travelers and an ode of sorts to a more romantic e...

What We Know Maison Alcée jumped headlong into the watch community consciousness in 2023, winning the GPHG 'Audacity Prize' in recognition of the brand's unique do-it-yourself, high horology, clock-building kits. Championed by Ben, who served on the GPHG jury that year, the French husband-and-wife team of Alcée and Benoit Montfort went on to craft a highly successful LE collaboration with Hodinkee (with lume!) that quickly sold out. Now Alcée and Benoit are back with another collaboration that takes their clock-making kit to the next level. Collaborating with MB&F;, who have long supported Maison Alcée by showcasing and selling their work at their Mad Gallery locations, the Maison Alcée x MB&F; Nostromo leans hard into the well-established alien aesthetic the Geneva-based creative force is known for.  Adding to the intrigue is that this clock was designed by MB&F;'s Creative Designer, Maximilian Maertens. He's the young German who is slowly and purposefully starting to take the lead on some of MB&F;'s pieces, as Max Büsser begins to step back and give up a bit of creative control over the collective brand project he founded more than two decades ago.  So what makes this Maison Alcée kit interesting and different? It's certainly expressive of the MB&F; design language, with the arched base legs or feet giving it an extraterrestrial personality. Maertens says he's a fan of and inspired by the late Swiss artist H.R. Giger (check out the wild Giger Museum in Gruyères if y...

Luminox is honoring its partnership with Force Blue by releasing a new Pacific Diver reference designed around the pair's shared mission to protect and rehabilitate the world's oceans. Luminox has a long history of working with branches of the US Military since their founding in 1989, but their relationship with Force Blue is a bit different. To better understand their mission and get a first look at a new watch built around the partnership, I hopped on a plane down to Miami with fins and mask in hand, ready to dive with the team. Many brands claim working relationships with military outfits, each with varying degrees of formality. Whether it's a licensed relationship to use military trademarks, or even individual service members using their personal watches, the link between a brand and the act of service can be difficult to judge at a glance. For Luminox, that connection was baked in from the get-go. In 1992, founder Barry Cohen worked with Assistant Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E;) Officer Nick North to develop a watch specifically for the Navy SEALs using their tritium tube-based Luminox Light Technology (LLT). The Navy SEAL watch was the first stone in what would become a broad foundation of work with special forces and law enforcement groups worldwide. It's a foundation that Mondain would continue to lean on after acquiring a stake in the brand in 2006 and full ownership in 2016. Today, Luminox maintains a licensing relationship with the US Navy SEA...

The Atelier Wen Inflection collection (2025) marked an important step up for the brand, with its complex, fully curved case, an integrated bracelet made almost entirely from tantalum, high-end dials, and a customised movement supplied by Girard-Perregaux. For Geneva Watch Days 2026, Atelier Wen has partnered with New York-based creative studio Massena LAB on a […]

Truth be told, the original Atelier Wen Inflection already felt like a statement. A young brand executing an integrated-bracelet sports watch in 99.9% pure tantalum, pairing it with grand feu enamel, and backing it with a customized Girard-Perregaux movement was ambitious. Now comes the Inflection Shuò, a collaboration with New York-based Massena Lab that elevates […] Visit Tantalizing Tantalum: The Atelier Wen × Massena Lab Inflection Shuò to read the full article.

This week on The Business of Watches, we're getting a preview and history lesson of Geneva Watch Days. Born in the dark days of the pandemic in 2020, it was a new kind of watch industry gathering that prioritized access and community over exclusivity. Jean-Christophe Babin, the former Chief Executive Officer of Bulgari, has been there from the beginning. He tells us why Geneva Watch Days started and why it's still needed. We discuss what to expect at this year's event and what the future of watch industry events might bring.  Jean-Christophe Babin.Photo courtesy LVMH With some 71 brands exhibiting, GWD has more marques than that other big watch show in Geneva that happens each spring, but it's very different in tone and feel. Using a 'decentralized' concept, brands pay fees based on their size and revenue and the show allows for plenty of smaller, boutique brands to show off their wares.  Open to the general public, it certainly isn't as glitzy nor as pricey an event as some others. Babin says the entire budget of GWD is likely less than the cost of staging and running a major booth at Watches and Wonders.  A veteran who has served as the head of LVMH's watch unit as well as the CEO of TAG Heuer, Babin has seen the industry through a myriad of cycles, giving him a unique perspective on where the watch sector has been and where it's going.   There's plenty of watch business and strategy to discuss, and we hope you enjoy the conversation. Be sure to leave any thoughts o...

With the introduction of its BR-01 model in 2005, Bell & Ross took flight with its graphic, cockpit-inspired design language, translated into the brand’s signature circle-within-a-square geometry.  In 2019, the brand ventured into less military, more urban terrain with its BR-05, a luxury integrated sports watch. As with the transition from the BR-01 to the […]

When it comes to watches, “weird, wonderful, and complicated” rarely mix well with “value,” which makes Xeric such a fun anomaly of a brand. Not afraid of odd-shaped cases, wild colors, and unique ways of telling time, Xeric has forged a catalog unlike any other brand’s. You won’t find vintage divers or Calatrava-esque dress watches among its offerings, or much else that could be considered “on trend.” You will find, however, wandering hours, upside-down movements, jump hours, and retrograde displays, mostly under $2,000, with many under $1,000. The post Introducing the Xeric x Worn & Wound Sector Limited Editions appeared first on Worn & Wound.

Worldtimers are among the most practical complications for frequent travellers, yet they have, apart from a few high-end, complex watches, one persistent limitation: daylight saving time. Twice a year, depending on where you are, the neat logic of a conventional worldtime display becomes… not so neat anymore. The new 57.05 Comet by indie watchmaker Ming […]

Ahead of Geneva Watch Days, Ming has introduced the 57.05 Comet, a DST-compatible worldtimer with a clever two-piece bezel. The Comet also upholds the long tradition of worldtimers with decorative dials, in this case with a dynamic interference pattern that changes throughout the day. Initial thoughts There are few complications that embody jet-set optimism like the Cottier-style worldtimer, with its noble ambition to create a unified view of the time everywhere on Earth. This inspiration is ever-present in the 57.05 Comet, which takes its name from the world’s first passenger jet, the de Havilland Comet. Interestingly, the worldtime format was partially obsolete even before Cottier came up with his ingenious display in 1931, due to adoption of what we now call Daylight Saving Time (DST) in several Western countries around 1918. I’ve always resented the fact that DST significantly reduces the effectiveness of one of the most elegant complications in watchmaking. Some brands have proposed solutions to this issue, but often the result is overly complex or visually cluttered. Ming’s solution is so intuitive it seems obvious in retrospect, with a two-piece bezel that moves DST observers 15 degrees counterclockwise in the summer to align with the correct hour. Summer mode is indicated by a cut-out in the mobile section of the bezel that reveals a (slightly) luminous red indicator. To be clear, it’s not a perfect solution, since different countries begin and end DST obse...

Jack Mason has slowly been updating its collection over the past two years. In addition to refining its designs, the Texan brand has significantly improved the quality of its offerings. As a result, JM now has a concise but varied catalog of watches that are great for daily wear. After updating the existing collection with […] Visit Choosin’ Texas With The New Jack Mason Canton Day-Date to read the full article.

What We Know It feels like Ming has another hit on its hands here. The new 57.05 "Comet" immediately looked like a cool watch before I even looked at the press release, but once you dig into the specifics, it's pretty impressive, with all the usual Ming flair to boot. That means, yes, there's a pretty cool dial (that has a touch of vintage inspiration). There's an intensely stylized case. There's lume used aplenty (and creatively), and yes, there's innovation in a new patent-pending daylight saving time (DST) world time adjustment system. Let's start from the outside and work our way in. The 316L stainless steel case measures 40mm by 10.3mm with a 47.8mm lug-to-lug. This is a part of Ming's 57 Series design language, so it's got triple-stepped lugs (requiring nine individual components for the lug construction). The next step is the world time bezel. That's where the magic really starts. With a normal 24-hour world time display, you can get by just fine. Yes, not all DST adjustments happen at the same time (if they happen at all), but adjusting for any of them is a problem. Ming has arranged all cities with DST on the outer bezel; non-DST cities are on the inner bezel. You can rotate the outer bezel one click (15º) to move only the DST cities forward by one hour against the 24-hour scale. The bezel will stay fixed in either position, but if you're trying to figure out whether or not DST is engaged or not, you can just look at the small aperture between eight and nine on t...

Bell & Ross introduces a new BR-X5 featuring a meteorite dial, the BR-CAL.323 movement and the collection's distinctive multi-component 41 mm case.

Just ahead of Geneva Watch Days, MB&F; has teamed up with Maison Alcée to release a wonderful build-it-yourself mechanical desk clock. Celebrating the 15th anniversary of MB&F;’s M.A.D. Gallery, the two brands have collaborated on Nostromo, an alien-like creature that reflects MB&F;’s passion for extraterrestrial design and Maison Alcée’s dexterity in producing DIY desk clock […]

Organizers of The Escapement, a planned gathering aimed at attracting thousands of watch collectors and enthusiasts, featuring major independent brands and scheduled for November in Abu Dhabi, canceled the event due to corporate travel restrictions related to the ongoing military conflict in the Middle East. They say they will now stage the three-day show in Las Vegas in February, 2027.  Neeshu Hajra, a U.S.-based luxury event-planning executive who is among the shareholders of the group organizing the event, said some watch brands and executives would have been unable to attend the show at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi due to travel policies affected by the ongoing war in the region. The Escapement will now hold its inaugural event next year at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas from February 5 to 7. "Our decision was mainly made due to corporate travel policies that affected certain brands and the ability to come.  Ultimately,  because this is our inaugural edition, we want to make sure that we have the strongest showing and the best surface area for success," Hajra said in an interview. "The community experience in its totality, both leading up to the event and on site, led us to really believe in Vegas," he added. Biver watches is one of the many brands expected to exhibit at The Escapement.  The event's cancellation and rescheduling underscore the challenges and disruptions to global business and the watch industry amid military conflicts in the Middle East and Ukrai...

Well, you never know what you’ll find when opening an email from Ming. This time, it’s the new 57.05 Comet, a stirring take on a worldtimer with a couple of party tricks up its sleeve. While I haven’t seen this watch in the metal, I’ve certainly spent enough time with the brand’s other offerings to […] Visit Streaking Through The Heavens With The New Ming 57.05 Comet to read the full article.

Last year marked the 60th anniversary of the first-ever dive watch created by Seiko, the now-emblematic 62MAS model. Still a great source of inspiration for the brand, its clean and purposeful design has been modernised to be the basis for the creation of the contemporary yet retro-inspired Prospex 1965 Heritage Diver 300m. Last year, the […]

There’s nothing conventional at Urwerk, and hardly any watch feels classic. Even the watch with the most traditional display of the time, the UR-10 SpaceMeter, remains some sort of a horological UFO for the wrist. And when you move from the wrist to the pocket, the brand becomes even more expressive, as exemplified by the extraordinary […]

A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece arguing for taking your steel sports Rolex off its bracelet, and I meant every word. Straps and NATOs genuinely change what these watches feel like to wear, and I still stand behind that. But a good argument deserves a good counterpoint. After all, modern Rolex bracelets are […] Visit The Case For Keeping Your Rolex On The Bracelet to read the full article.

Ming's 9th-anniversary piece: a 40mm x 10.33mm worldtimer with a patented two-bezel trick that lets you push DST cities forward one hour with a single 15-degree click, without moving Tokyo or Dubai. 200 pieces, CHF 6,950 on leather. Pre-orders open 27 August, 1pm GMT. Ming 57.05 Comet worldtimer: 40mm x 10.33mm, patented two-bezel DST mechanism, Sellita for Ming 330.M2, 200 pieces, from CHF 6,950 (~€7,400).