Latest watch news · Page 11

Ebel, once one of the most successful and top-selling Swiss watch brands, which has fallen into relative obscurity under the ownership of Movado Group, is being sold to a consortium of high-profile buyers, including François-Paul Journe and Chanel, who plan to revive the Ebel marque with hopes of returning it to its former glory.  Vintage Ebel chronographs. Photo courtesy of Phillips; credit: James Kong.  Movado Group, Inc. says it entered into a binding agreement to sell a 95% interest in the Ebel brand for $66.5 million to a strategic buyer group led by Geneva-based Montres Journe SA, with the participation of French luxury house Chanel and Pierre Jacques, a long-time industry executive. Jacques, who previously headed De Bethune for more than a decade, will take over as CEO of Ebel while Movado, with shares publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange, which purchased the brand from LVMH in 2004, will retain a 5% stake in the business when the deal is completed, the parties said in a statement. The agreement underscores the growing business interest in reviving faded luxury Swiss watch brands once revered by watch consumers. Breitling paid more than CHF 60 million to acquire the Universal Genève brand and archives and relaunched it as a high-end luxury marque earlier this year. Ebel was once a major player in the industry, thriving during the quartz crisis era of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s under Pierre-Alain Blum, a third-generation leader of the family-owned busi...

This story has been republished from our friends at Hodinkee Australia. What We Know Under the stewardship of CEO Davide Cerrato, we’ve seen a revitalised Bremont experiment with all sorts of things—jumping hours pieces, meteorite dials, space watches—as well as ceramic cases, especially for its Supermarine dive watch. In 2024, they launched their first full-ceramic watch, the Supermarine 500 Black Ceramic, following up with a Jungle Green ceramic limited edition built to take on the tropics. Now, the British brand has debuted a Deep Blue ceramic Supermarine 500 that’s ready for the depths. While this new colored ceramic Supermarine is a follow-up to the Jungle Green, quite a lot has changed in the Supermarine lineup since its launch, including an upgraded movement with an improved power reserve. It also now sports a wave pattern on the dial rendered in black, which provides good contrast against the white Super-LumiNova (with blue emission), and brings some added texture and depth to the dial. The blue ceramic case measures the same dimensions as the rest of the Supermarine 500 lineup at 43mm across with a thickness of 13mm. It’s rated to 500 meters and also features a helium escape valve on the left side of the case that’s finished in a color-matched blue. The bezel insert is ceramic - it's laser-engraved with embossed numerals - yet both the bezel ring and the crown are titanium, not that you'd immediately clock it. Bremont has nailed the color-matching acro...

I might have been running the editorial activities of this magazine for over 12 years now, and even after having written close to 4,000 articles, I’m glad that I can still be amazed by what the watch industry can produce. Today is one of those days. Why…? Simply look at the photos, and I’m sure […]

The Metro gets a cool new look, but the real story is what's happening inside the case. The Nomos Metro Ice Blue arrives with a striking new dial color and an upgraded mechanical caliber, refreshing one of Nomos's most design-forward collections.

Welcome to Friday, Baller. We're in busy times, what with the weather changing, and, at least in the States, we're enjoying an embarrassment of riches movie-wise, with a new Sorkin movie just having opened and two incredible new movies—The Only Living Pickpocket In New York and You Can See Everything premiering next Friday. I, for one, am already stocking up on popcorn. Scorekeeping last week's picks, the Lucien Piccard Telephone and the Mappin and Webb watches remain available, while the Omega Admiralty and JLC Master Mariner have both sold. Strays I don't know if "understated bling" is a thing or not, but if such a category exists, it is absolutely where this Piaget Protocole in white gold from Rare Birds belongs. If Seiko's announcement of its newest panda chronograph whetted your appetite, here's an awfully great vintage Wittnauer two-register chronograph on auction from Loupe This, which, no, isn't as cute and lacks ears for pushers, but is still a great watch. Should you, after reading more down below about Abercrombie & Fitch watches, find yourself in the market for a vintage alarm watch from the brand, look no further. Photo courtesy of Rarebirds. Vintage lesser-known great-looking diver? Absolutely. Interesting vintage Rolex Prince? Why not. On the one hand, I've never seen any LeCoultre chronograph configured like this one. On the other hand: everything appears correct—signed dial and movement, appropriate wear, etc.—so who knows. Finally, for those who wan...

An important part of the recent history of American watchmaking, Timex has long been known for making reliable and accessible watches. As explained by our editor Erik, the brand survived and effectively embraced the quartz crisis of the 1970s and 1980s, becoming one of the biggest and most popular brands in the world. By 1982, it […]

On Monday evening in Los Angeles, Omega celebrated Global James Bond Day with a launch party for the latest collection of Seamaster Diver 300Ms to join the Omega x James Bond Universe–including their first Spectre-themed watches ever. With CEO Raynald Aeschlimann on-hand and surrounded by a collection of iconic props from the Bond films (including Agent Primo’s bionic eyeball from No Time To Die), Omega displayed some of these new Bond references publicly for the first time. At the core of the new collection are a pair of non-limited steel models, a James Bond Edition (ref. 210.30.42.20.03.004) and a Spectre Edition (ref. 210.30.42.20.01.023). Omega will also offer a duo of limited edition models rendered in platinum-gold: the Bond-themed ref. 210.83.42.20.03.001 and the Spectre-themed ref. 210.83.42.20.01.001. The limited edition watches will be sold exclusively in sets that include one of the limited edition Bond or Spectre watches and a numbered example (1-77) of the corresponding non-limited steel model. The numbered editions of the steel models get their own reference numbers, but don’t differ from the non-limited watches in any meaningful way. So, while the collection technically boasts six new references, it’s really only four new watches. Got it?  All of the watches in the new series share the familiar 42mm case diameter with the current production model Seamaster 300M, but the new models are a hair thicker at 14.23 mm. While fans that have been holding ou...

For Sept, I travelled in Switzerland, France and Germany before returning to Singapore. Join me for my champagne and wine adventure.

The cult Swiss watchmaker leaves Movado Group after decades, heading into new hands with serious horological credentials behind them. Chanel and F.P. Journe have acquired a 95% stake in Ebel from Movado Group in a $66.5M deal, with Pierre Jacques named as incoming CEO.

With the massive rise in interest in independent brands over the past few years, it seems like it's basically impossible to even begin to meet with watchmakers these days, let alone have a meaningful conversation with them or see their watches. I have to field the question "How do I meet ___" at least once a week. No matter the answer, it requires some effort. But what if I told you that you could walk into a room and see Rexhep Rexhepi chatting with Max Büsser, right next to Kari Voutilainen, who is looking at Jean-Claude Biver's watch while Jean Arnault looks at Trilobe. All while Rémy Cools, Theo Auffret, Gaël Petermann, and Florian Bédat are chatting at a table nearby, their watches in hand. That's IAMWATCH in Singapore, and it's happening again from November 12 to 15 at the Singapore Edition. Kari Voutilainen and Jean-Claude Biver. I was there two years ago at the first iteration of what I will say is one of the most "me" watch fairs ever made; you can see my 2024 Photo Report here for a sense of the event. I love the people of the watchmaking as much as I love the watches—maybe even more because I can't afford most of the big-name independents, but I can enjoy talking to them and learning from them all the same. The Hour Glass, one of the world's largest retailers, is also putting it on, and it's run by long-time avowed independent watchmaking acolyte and Managing Director Michael Tay. Proof of how stacked this event is comes from the list of names I'm going to...

Baltic is marking its role as Official Timekeeper of The Rift with a new version of its sporty, rugged Hermétique, inspired by the colours of southern Iceland’s dramatic landscape. Held at the junction of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates, The Rift brings nearly 900 cyclists onto volcanic trails where terrain and weather become […]

CIGA Design is a Shenzhen-based watch brand that has been producing watches since 2016. I’d say the turning point came in 2021, when the brand’s Blue Planet won the Challenge Watch Prize at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG). Since then, CIGA Design has built a solid model palette across its Aventur, Everest, Zodiac, […] Visit Hands-On: The CIGA Design Hunter Tourbillon In Blue to read the full article.

After the recent European Cricket Special Edition, Rado once again turns to cricket for its latest Captain Cook collaboration, working with Australian Cameron Green on a watch that brings several elements of the sport into its design. The watch keeps the familiar Captain Cook construction but wears a green-and-gold colour scheme and comes with a […]

Another Friday, another list! Following this week’s new Bond releases from Omega, we’re looking at the best watches worn by the world-famous spy. James Bond has worn plenty of watches on screen over the decades, but some have aged much better than others. A few played significant roles in the films, while others barely registered. […] Visit The Top 5 Bond Watches Of All Time to read the full article.

Angelus continues to revive its historical stopwatch designs with the new Chronographe Tachymètre, a trio of compact monopusher watches that follows last year’s Chronographe Télémètre. The new watches share the same case and hand-wound A5000 calibre as their predecessors, but replace the telemeter scale with a tachymeter designed to measure speed – more on the […]

What We Know Angelus has dropped the curtain on three new limited-edition watches built on the same platform as the fan-favorite (and GPHG-winning) Chronographe Télémètre, only not quite. With this trio of novelties — appropriately dubbed the Chronographe Tachymètre — Angelus has dropped the telemeter scale, replacing it with a tachymeter, and bringing with it a slightly sportier look than we've come to expect from Angelus's most compact modern offering. The new model follows up a limited-edition take on the idea of a Chronographe Télémètre released in collaboration with Monochrome Watches earlier this year. But where that watch featured a double-tracked tachymeter and a decidedly vintage aesthetic, these new watches offer a decidedly different take on the concept, leaning into the look of midcentury racing watches. Here, that means you have the same bi-register chronograph layout, but with a single-track tachymeter and subdials finished in contrasting colors. Like the Chronographe Télémètre that preceded it, the new Chronographe Tachymètre is offered in three configurations, with two of those in steel cases and the other in yellow gold. The yellow gold offering — which is limited to 15 pieces — is fitted with a yellow-gold-tone dial with green (really, a very dark grey with a greenish hue) accents. The stainless steel watches are offered with either a salmon dial with grey accents or a grey dial with blue accents. These watches come in editions of 30 an...

The House of Brands is looking to restore Gallet and Universal Genéve to their former glory; Kari Voutilainen and Alex Rosenfield relaunched Urban Jürgensen; and now Chanel and F.P. Journe will look to revitalise another cult classic watchmaker: Ebel.   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Pierre Jacques (@pierre_jacques1) Earlier today, … Continued

In a recent announcement by the Movado Group, Ebel is set to be acquired by a strategic buyer group led by Montres Journe SA, with the participation of Chanel (partial owner of F.P. Journe) and industry veteran and ex-CEO of De Bethune, Pierre Jacques. The latter will serve as Chief Executive Officer of Ebel. The […]

The Clifton 10870 and 10872 with ice-blue dials are two new limited editions in Baume & Mercier’s collection. The 39mm three-hand automatic features a date at 6 o’clock, and the 40mm perpetual calendar adds day, month, leap-year cycle, and moonphase indicators. Both creations use the five-day Baumatic movement and feature a light blue dial with […] Visit Do The Baume & Mercier Clifton 10870 And Perpetual Calendar 10872 Break The Ice? to read the full article.

On the latest episode of the SJX Podcast, SJX returns from London and Milan with impressions of two very different demonstrations of watchmaking’s biggest names at work. Rolex’s “Four Seasons” Daytona auction broke the record for the biggest charity watch auction in history, raising nearly US$50 million, but a longer run-up might possibly have pushed the result even higher. In Milan, Patek Philippe unveiled the ref. 5978P, pairing an instantaneous perpetual calendar with its manually wound chronograph. The exhibition’s Rare Handcrafts and Italian-market limited editions also offer plenty to debate, from remarkable pocket watches to a Ferrari-red minute repeater. Finally, we discuss highlights from Marteau & Co’s fourth online auction, which runs from October 8-15th. Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.  

Yesterday Marteau & Co kicked off its fourth sale, The Encore, comprising primarily pièce unique watches from independent watchmakers, which is the founding theme of the online-only auctioneer. Beyond its focus on indies, the auctioneer sets itself apart with its “maker’s fee”, which rewards the maker of the timepiece with 3% of the hammer price for each watch sold Conceived to allow watchmakers to reap the rewards when their products appreciate, this fee is also known as the artist’s resale right, or droit de suite, a concept that’s been codified into law across Europe for fine art. Marteau & Co’s approach is the first instance of its application in watchmaking, and seems successful so far. Lot 9 – Yosuke Sekiguchi Primevere “Interprétation du Japon” pièce unique Yosuke Sekiguchi is Swiss independent watchmaker, born in Japan and trained in France, who cut his teeth at La Joux-Perret and Christophe Claret before pivoting to restoration work in 2016. Around that time he transformed an orphaned Jules Jürgensen pocket watch movement dating to 1871, casing it into a wristwatch, which inspired the Primevère. We covered the prototype of this watch in depth when it debuted in 2021, and shot another (this time in rose gold with a black enamel) earlier this year, but this stainless steel confirmation with a red enamel sub-dial – a look inspired by the Japanese flag – is perhaps the best looking configuration we’ve seen. Beyond its striking looks, this...

I take the new Raymond Weil Millésime Jubilee hands-on to see how the bi-compax anniversary edition compares with the existing Tri-Compax Chronograph! What We Love: Bi-compax layout gives the signature Millésime sector dial more room to shine The model retains the exceptional wearability of the Millésime chronographs Carries defining traits of “The Fifty” into a more accessible format What We Don’t: No date display for those who may prefer the added practicality No steel bracelet option! 12.9mm thickness may be substantial for those who prefer slimmer chronograph proportions. Overall Rating: 9/10 Value for Money: 9/10 Wearability: 9/10 Design: 8.8/10 Build Quality: 9/10 Raymond Weil, like many other watchmakers, went through some turbulent times during the COVID-19 era. However, as is often the case, periods of adversity can inspire some of the most creative and important work. This was certainly the case with Raymond Weil, as it was during this period that the Millésime collection was born. While the collection was introduced in 2023, its development and design began a few years earlier. The brand wanted to create a new expression of its watchmaking identity, bringing together its history with accessible contemporary watchmaking. The word “Millésime” literally translates to “vintage” or “vintage year” in French, directly reflecting the collection’s inspiration from watches produced between the 1930s and 1960s. View this post on Instagram A pos...