Latest watch news · Page 237

Last week, Swiss tradition threw off its tie and experimented in a number of exciting ways.

The inaugural watch by haute Swiss independent Berneron, the Mirage 38, had a markedly poetic design. With a free-flowing case shape, twisting hands, and a distorted dial, it would be easy to consider it as a design of pure aesthetics. Looks deceived, however, as the form was driven by a movement concept that rejected the standard circular shape, allowing for a large barrel, and thus a 72-hour power reserve in a small and thin body. Nevertheless, the outcome was undoubtedly one of whimsy, where evocative design outweighed pure function, if there was a clever horological backing. Often, brands, especially young ones, stick to a theme to carve a niche for themselves within a crowded industry, but that’s not the approach of Berneron. For the brand’s second model, announced just before Geneva Watch Days, whimsy is nowhere in sight. Instead, the brand made a sharp turn into practicality and legibility, if through a decidedly haute lens. Titled the Quantième Annuel, it has a design that verges on the traditional, especially compared to the Mirage. The first model within their “quantième” collection, which will house their complicated pieces, the QA is an annual calendar jump hour with a design driven by logic in terms of how it is read, the movement architecture, and how it is set. The flow of the dial is meant to be top to bottom, left to right. Following that order, time is read hour, minute, second, and the day, date, and month. The hour is digital, as it is a jump ...

Echo/Neutra has been carving out its little corner of the watch world since 2018. The brand’s founders, Nicola Callegaro and Cristiano Quaglia, blend Italian design sensibilities with Swiss-made execution, and the catalog has steadily grown from vintage-inspired field watches to elegant titanium dress pieces. The new Averau 42, however, is a different beast altogether. It’s […] Visit Introducing: The Echo/Neutra Averau 42 - Ceramic Meets Titanium In A Tool-Ready Package to read the full article.

One of the real highlights of being involved in our Windup events year to year is getting to know brand owners and founders, and periodically getting a little peek at what’s to come. More and more often, brands come to our events not just with watches in their current catalog, but with early samples of watches they’re planning for the future to show prospective customers, members of the media, and the Worn & Wound team. I won’t lie: it’s a nice perk of being on the inside. A few months ago during the Chicago show, the team at echo/neutra pulled some really exciting stuff out of a bag that was not quite ready for prying eyes. The new Averau42 collection, which at launch consists of a pair of watches combining titanium and ceramic construction, is an exciting next step for a brand that we’ve been interested in for some time.  The heart of these watches is what echo/neutra calls the TiFrame construction. This is an idea we’ve seen a handful of times from other brands, usually bigger brands, in the recent past. These watches are made with an internal titanium case, or frame, that protects the movement and offers tensile strength that ceramic and other alternative materials lack. The outer layer is black ceramic, which provides a virtually scratch proof surface and a moody aesthetic vibe for these watches that fits in nicely with the design codes the brand has established over the past several years. This type of construction, in addition to making the most of the ...

A car show can be combined with watches better than anything else and when you throw Hampton Court Palace into the mix, can it get better?The post Rare cars, rare watches, and in the grounds of a royal palace appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

Punchy pink product pops, punctuating performer's "Play" premiere.

Located in the southwest of Germany in Baden-Württemburg, Pforzheim is built at the confluence of three rivers. In the eighteenth century, the city became a hub of jewelry making, with watchmaking experiencing a pronounced revival in the early twentieth century, resulting in Pforzheim’s nickname of the “Goldstadt,” or “Golden City.” Founded by Frieda Lacher and Ludwig Hummel in 1925, Lacher & Co., today known as Laco Uhrenmanufaktur GmbH, played a significant role in this expansion of German watchmaking. Their aim was simple - produce watches of quality and reliability. The pair split a few years later, with Hummel remaining with the watch production side. While many German watchmakers relied on Swiss movements, Hummel chose a different direction. He founded Deutsche Uhren Roh Werke (Durowe) in 1933, dedicated to the manufacture of movements to become independent from Swiss calibers. Located in the southwest of Germany in Baden-Württemburg, Pforzheim is built at the confluence of three rivers. In the eighteenth century, the city became a hub of jewelry making, with watchmaking experiencing a pronounced revival in the early twentieth century, resulting in Pforzheim’s nickname of the “Goldstadt,” or “Golden City.” Founded by Frieda Lacher and Ludwig Hummel in 1925, Lacher & Co., today known as Laco Uhrenmanufaktur GmbH, played a significant role in this expansion of German watchmaking. Their aim was simple - produce watches of quality and reliabilit...

Sometimes big news comes in a small package.

The Hong Kong Clock and Watch Fair has closed its doors, so it's time to examine the facts and figures, highlights, trends, and what this might mean for the future of an industry that has been doing considerable head-scratching lately.

We were invited by the Czech Embassy of Singapore to participate in a glass blowing activity at local maker's studio Tombalek.

MeisterSinger is well known for its single-handed collections with popular lines like ?01 & ?03 and Neo with their classic styling and accessible prices. The latest Pangaea Aventurine model takes the best of the above collections and adds a starry nighttime vibe and a stylised, classic needle-shaped hand (the latter from the 365 series). The […]

You could qualify a town with just 929 inhabitants as sleepy. Villeret, in the Swiss canton of Bern, is indeed quiet. It’s stuck between two mountain ridges in the Jura, and apart from a pizzeria that serves Dutch beer instead of Swiss for some reason, the isolated place looks pretty much timeless. Still, time plays […] Visit Experiencing The Ultra-Limited And Complicated Montblanc 1858 Cylindrical Tourbillon Geosphere Around The World In 80 Days Limited Edition – Chapter Three In Villeret to read the full article.

The BB58 is almost perfect, except for one crucial detail - but here's how to fix it.The post The minor upgrade that sealed the deal on the Tudor Black Bay 58 for me appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

There were few brands as hot as Panerai in the 2000s, and now the brand is revisiting its glory days with the Luminor Marina Militare 44 mm PAM05218. Visually, the PAM05218 a faithful remake of the Luminor ref. 5218-202/A of 1993, a “Pre-Vendome” model that became one of the most desirable watches of the 2000s. The watch retains the same design and many of the details, including the “non matching” hands, but has been upgraded with modern amenities, including a diamond-like carbon (DLC) coating for the case and a three-day movement. Initial thoughts Enthusiasts who were in the hobby in the 2000s will remember the frenzy around Panerai, which was probably the fastest growing brand during the period. Many models sold over retail, sometimes for multiples. The “vintage” models like the Luminor ref. 5218-202/A were even more valuable; it cost a healthy, mid-five figures at the time. In fact, the ref. 5218-202/A cost more than an F.P. Journe Resonance at the time. In retrospect, most of it was comical yet also seems familiar given the happenings in recent years. Times have changed, but the PAM05218 is essentially unchanged from the original – which is great for those who appreciate the functional, stark design of Panerai’s core models. I like those designs, and I like the PAM05218. If there’s one Panerai in the current catalogue I would buy, it is this one. At a distance, the PAM05218 is indistinguishable from the original, but up close it is clearly a new watc...

Exactly one year ago, Rolex, with the help of author Nicholas Foulkes and publisher Wallpaper, took us by surprise when releasing the first-ever Crown-authorised book, The History of the Oyster Perpetual Submariner Watch. While such initiatives have been done on multiple occasions by other brands, a historical book receiving the stamp of approval of Rolex […]

Bulgari collaborates with Korean-born, Japan-based artist Lee Ufan on an eye-catching Octo Finissimo with a hand-filled titanium case.The post Bulgari & Lee Ufan scratch out a new look for the Octo Finissimo (live pics) appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

Citizen marks 30 years of its up-market The Citizen collection with two limited-edition watches featuring washi paper dials inspired by Japanese nature. Both use solar-powered quartz movements accurate to ±5 seconds per year, housed in titanium cases treated with ultra-hard Duratect coatings. Initial Thoughts Citizen’s somewhat clumsily named The Citizen sub-brand is 30 years old but little known outside Japan and enthusiast circles. Most The Citizen watches are distinguishable by an eagle crest on the dial, as well as their obvious quality. While the line has since grown to include mechanical watches, which are quite good, it remains a quartz-first brand – which is good as its quartz offerings are excellent and amongst the most advanced in the world. While often compared to the Grand Seiko cal. 9F models, The Citizen’s quartz offerings have more functions, and thus have more in common with the three-hand Seiko Astron 3X models, or Casio’s premium G-Shocks. These share solar charging, a perpetual calendar, and a power saving made which pauses the hands to save energy while not in use, like F.P. Journe’s Elegante. But unlike GPS-reliant Astrons and G-Shocks, Citizen’s high end quartz movements are fully autonomous, and accurate to within five seconds per year with a maximum deviation of two seconds per month during normal use. More important still, The Citizen’s traditionally styled offerings are much easier on the eyes than any G-Shock or modern Astron, stri...

Another Friday, another top 5. During and after last week’s Geneva Watch Days (GWD), we covered plenty of exciting releases here on Fratello. Some of the watches that always grab our attention during GWD are the crazy collaborations. Last year, we saw the incredible collaborative effort of Studio Underd0g and H. Moser & Cie. that […] Visit Fratello’s Top 5 Recent Watch Collaborations to read the full article.

If there were a concise guide to the latest trends in watchmaking, it would likely feature compact unisex case sizes, vibrant colours and stone dials. Bang on trend, Audemars Piguet’s latest trilogy of compact 38mm Code 11.59 Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon models flaunts vibrant-coloured stone dials sourced from around the world. As part of the brand’s […]

The world of horology is an emotional parallel universe where those who love watches can make them their livelihood. Now, it seems that watch brands, organizations, and media have realized that this universe can only continue to exist if the knowledge and appreciation of it continue to grow and evolve. Marc André Deschoux, who started […] Visit Get Ready For MACH: A Place To Showcase Horological Heritage, Transmit Know-How, And Raise Awareness to read the full article.

While the industry resumes normal operations following Geneva Watch Days, we’re taking a quick detour to the Italy to see what Ondřej Berkus has been up to. The Deadbeat Seconds 2.0 is the latest delivery from the self-taught watchmaker and is a good example of how far his watchmaking has come in recent years. As the name suggests, the DS 2.0 is the second watch Mr Berkus has made in this style, but like all of his creations, the two are remarkably different in execution. Initial thoughts There’s a reassuring degree of predictability to the luxury watch industry. It’s a conservative industry built on tradition, which reinforces unspoken norms about what counts as a high end watch. The result is conformity; most watchmakers march to a similar beat and stick to their respective niches. This uniformity helps customers understand the products, but as a consequence many of the products can be criticised as homogenous and impersonal. In contrast, the watchmaking of Ondřej Berkus is refreshingly human. He has no formal website, and conducts business via Instagram. He does not release collections, and no two pieces are entirely alike; each watch is created in dialogue with a collector. A self-taught watchmaker, Mr Berkus manages to pull this off thanks in part to his distinctive approach to finishing. While most contemporary independent watchmakers focus on simple movements executed to a high level, Mr Berkus flips the script, and strives to deliver watches that are unique...

Most recently, in our ongoing series of events at the Windup Watch Shop’s Brooklyn Showroom, we partnered with Paulin to celebrate the launch of their first dive watch: the Mara. The Scottish brand’s latest release is a rugged, spec-heavy timepiece built for daily adventures and more demanding expeditions. Paulin chose our showroom for its laid-back atmosphere, reputation within the NYC watch community, and its ability to host both hands-on watch time and intimate Q&As;-an opportunity they fully embraced. The evening began with the public unveiling of the Mara, a 300-meter diver in stainless steel measuring 39.7mm across. Its robust case features lugs that angle inward for a distinctive stance, while the playful, geometric hour markers give the dial a unique personality. The Mara comes in blue or black, each paired with a domed sapphire bezel-bright blue for the former, a ghostly grey for the latter. Both drew plenty of admiration from attendees. The room was set with imagery from Scotland’s beaches, Land Rovers, and underwater scenes, complemented by a Bruichladdich whisky tasting station. Guests mingled with Paulin designer Katie Muir and Jason Heaton-diver, journalist, podcaster (The Grey NATO), author (The Tusker Novels), and Explorers Club member-who had field-tested the Mara on Scotland’s rugged shores and starred in the watch’s launch campaign. After plenty of whisky and watch talk, Jason sat down with Worn & Wound’s Head of Partnerships, Kyle Sna...

If he had already spent years working for some of the biggest names in the watch industry, Sylvain Berneron truly made a name for himself on the independent watchmaking scene in 2023 with the launch of the first watch under his own brand. The unapologetically elegant and original Mirage – a shaped watch with an […]

Almost as soon as Grand Seiko released the SLGW002 and SLGW003 at Watches & Wonders 2024, we started to wonder what this new class of manually wound dress watch from one of our favorite brands might look like in different variants. This seemed like a natural platform for expansion, and we figured it was just a matter of time before we saw some alternative dial options and new metals. In the year and a half or so since Grand Seiko introduced these watches, and the 9SA4 caliber powering them, things have been quiet on the manually wound dress watch front. That is, until this week, when we finally got a peek at the new SLGW007, Grand Seiko’s first new launch with this case and movement since the big debut at Watches & Wonders last year.  While the most obvious update on the surface here is certainly the new dark blue dial, it’s actually the case itself that really has my interest. The SLGW003, you’ll recall, was crafted from Grand Seiko’s Brilliant Hard Titanium. This is a very cool material, for sure, but has a niche appeal in a classically styled dress watch like this thanks to its ultra light weight and the associations we all have with titanium and tool watches. The SLGW007 is in stainless steel, and I’m incredibly curious to see how this might change the character of the watch on the wrist. One would certainly expect it to be a bit heavier, but I imagine the finishing will also have a slightly different, perhaps more traditional look to it, at least in the con...

Enamel over hand‑guilloché pairs with miniature grand feu enamel horse art.The post Jaeger‑LeCoultre brings Xu Beihong’s horses to the Reverso in enamel appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.