Latest watch news · Page 1660

William Cowper’s poem, The Solitude of Alexander Selkirk, popularized the phrase “the monarch of all I survey”. And in some ways, the world’s most legendary balls, which the iconic Parisian jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels has seen fit to pay tribute to with a series of exceptional watches, are each expressions of one individual’s remaking of […]

A new world-time watch from iwc, inspired by its highly coveted historical mark timepieces The enforced passivity of modern air travel has probably been responsible for more fantasies of actually sitting in the cockpit of a high-performance fighter jet than The Right Stuff, Top Gun and all of the Iron Eagle movies put together. But for […]

The rotonde de cartier annual calendar is a robust and practical addition to the brand’s collection Thirty days hath September, April, June and November,” goeth the doggerel verse, reminding us of the irregularity of the Gregorian calendar - a verse which also serves to remind owners of mechanical watches with simple calendars that for five […]

The governor is one of the most critical components in a chiming watch. It’s responsible for setting the tempo at which the watch chimes and ensuring that it’s neither too fast nor too slow. If the hammer and gongs are the orchestra, the governor is the conductor. Ideally, the governor of a repeater does its […]

It’s the queen of complications and really understanding it is a lifetime study - but you gotta start somewhere. REVOLUTION brings you a brief introduction to some of the inside secrets of watchmaking’s most romantic complication The minute repeater is both the most sophisticated of complications and the most atavistic - sophisticated, in that it requires enormous […]

FOUR DECADES OF THE REMARKABLE ROYAL OAK FROM AUDEMARS PIGUET There are certainly watches made in larger numbers, but there are few more instantly recognizable than the Royal Oak, from Audemars Piguet. Forty years since its 1972 introduction, the Royal Oak has become not only the watch associated by enthusiasts with the small Le Brassus-based […]

A. lange & Söhne’s saxonia thin is the manufacture’s slimmest watch to date In what must count as one of the biggest comebacks since the mechanical wristwatch reinvented itself in the post-quartz era as a luxury necessity, the thin dress watch - once driven underground and nearly into extinction by the dinosaurian dimensions toward which […]

Words by owner of watch. Photograph taken by me, by a window table in a restaurant in Dempsey Hill, Singapore. I bought this a few years ago while I was visiting Europe and Curtis Thomson advised me to visit the watchmaker Jean Baptiste Viot since France was my last stop. I tried to read upRead More

Glashutte Original is one of the few truly self sustaining watchmakers in the industry. The value addition and self reliance was born out of neccessity, when they operated as GUB during the GDR times. And continued to the modern GO re-founded by Pfeiffer in the early 1990s. For BaselWorld 2012, GO announced a very complicatedRead More

A. Lange & Sohne has been producing beautiful watches since 1845, with a 40+ year gap, when Glashutte was under GDR rule, where no luxury timepieces were manufactured. As many know, the company was revived in 1990, and started production in 1994. But sometimes, the old pieces are still as beautiful, and here is aRead More

Francois Paul Journe. A talented watchmaker. I had the pleasure of meeting with FP way back when he was yet a nobody…and had just made his first tourbillon remontoir d’egalité. The original looked like it was made in his garage, and indeed it was. But recently, I had the pleasure of spending a week withRead More

Watchmaking companies do not often make interesting mechanical watches for ladies. Precious few do. Amongst them some do justice for the ladies…I count Lange, JLC, and Parmigiani amongst the few. I show today, a beautiful piece in the current Parmigiani collection…the Kalpa Donna The bezel is still studded with diamonds, for some bling…we gotta haveRead More

A series of portraits I took, with the intention to create a set for an exhibition. Master watchmakers are the soul of the industry, I wanted to capture some of that powerful character which makes them enigmatic to the watch collecting public. These are great genii who know how to work with their hands. Today,Read More

I was encouraged with the response to my post on the Parmigiani watches on tools, so today I decided to dig into my archives and offer some photographs of Langes on tools. These photographs appear in my book: “A, Lange & Sohne: The Pour le Merite Collection” available here. Today, I show the magnificent LangeRead More

I recently mentioned that I am very proud to be writing and doing the photography for the Parmigiani blog, today I highlight the first article appeared on the blog On 8 August and featuring the Parmigiani Tonda Annual Calendar. So today’s post will redirect you to the article in the Parmigiani blog. Please click hereRead More

Omega recently added some watches to their collection which are homages to the watches that made the brand in the early years. Today’s watch is the Museum collection no 10, issued in 2010 as a replica of the 1938 chronograph. I am not so sure about the name Omega has chosen for this watch…replica soundsRead More

I have shown the amazing Urwerk UR-110 ST before…I have a piece in titanium on loan from the factory (thanks Yacine, Felix, Martin). And I thought to do some partial macros to show the beautifully sculputured watch. The watch is rather slim, as shown previously…see my SIHH report, but somehow Urwerk found enough space withinRead More

I earlier featured the Gronefeld brothers and their amazing work here. But today, I dig a bit deeper, and show some extreme macros. All these images are magnified to the full frame size of the Hasselblad H3d-39, whose sensor is 48mmx36mm, and will stand upsizing to prints which can cover a wall 3m in widthRead More

The Vietnamese market is a slippery one, for many foreign businesses. I have personal experiences of mis-adventures, but particularly so for the high end horology business. One of the few independent watchmakers who have made inroads into this former Communist market is Peter Speake-Marin. I continue focussing on Peter today, with his interesting, and quiteRead More

Peter Speake-Marin…one of the few English watchmakers living and working in Switzerland. I have known Peter for perhaps 10 years, since he was starting out as an independent watchmaker. He cut his teeth in Renaud et Papi and at one of the great London vintage retailer’s restoration atelier. He was recently in Singapore to showcaseRead More

The Gronefeld brothers in Holland are one of the secrets of high end horology. Independents, they were both trained in the stables of Renaud et Papi. And have been making their own watches, as well as contracting for others from their little workshop in The Netherlands. I had the opportunity to meet them several timesRead More

When Breguet announced the Double Tourbillon in , I was skeptical. Skeptical because it sounded more like a showoff watch than one which has true horological significance and beauty. But recently, I was reacquainted with the 5347, and came away quite impressed. Breguet Classique Double Tourbillon Ref. 5347 The watch features a double tourbillon, eachRead More

Introducing Movements of Asia. A home grown Singapore brand. Designed by Sean Wai…a tactiturn architect turned watch brand do-it-all in Singapore, assembled in Singapore with Chinese parts. I first came to know Sean from his other hobby company…Soul Bikes. The only titanium bicycle frame brand to be based in Singapore. The frames are completely designedRead More