Latest watch news · Page 38

Hype around Swatch is not new. The “Second Watch,” launched in 1983 as a fun and affordable accessory you could wear to match your daily outfits, was never meant to be a lifelong heirloom investment. It was always about the heat of the moment. The colorful plastic Swatch caused a massive cultural and commercial “uproar” […] Visit Pondering Swatch’s Relevance: Is Adrenaline-Fueled Hype Enough To Remain A Player In The Watch Game? to read the full article.

For years, Formex has been associated with robust, technically minded watches focused on ergonomics, innovative materials and practical engineering. The Essence, Reef, and Stratos collections built the Biel-based independent brand’s reputation as a maker of high-value sports watches with distinctive technical solutions, including the patented Case Suspension System and advanced clasp mechanisms. With the new […]

As a small brand, Formex has consistently pushed the boundaries of affordable watchmaking. By using new materials, integrating innovations, and simply creating a great, varied collection of watches, the young Swiss brand has stood out in recent years. With the new Aria Manufacture Chronometer, Formex unveils a new milestone for the company. It marks a […] Visit Formex Enters The Arena Of Integrated-Bracelet Watches With Its Aria Manufacture Chronometer to read the full article.

Formex has formally introduced what is likely to be at or near the top of many of our “Watch of the Year” lists when 2026 is all said and done. Long a brand synonymous with squeezing an absolutely insane amount of value from every dollar spent, the new Aria is Formex’s most ambitious watch to date, by a wide margin. We got a look at the Aria during Watches & Wonders week while Formex exhibited at Chronopolis, and then again at Windup San Francisco a few weeks later, and we remain impressed with what the brand has accomplished. This is a big step forward for them on a number of fronts.  The Aria is an integrated bracelet sports watch that is also ultra-thin and uses the brand’s first manufacture movement. It makes sense, I think, to start with the case and bracelet, because they are immediately striking to hold and wear when you first experience the watch. The Aria is 40mm in diameter and crafted from titanium, with a tapered bracelet that has meticulously hand finished elements throughout. The total case height comes to just 6.9mm, and a close examination of the case, bracelet, and how they are integrated to one another reveals an intense attention to detail on the part of Formex and their design team. The Aria seems to understand what makes an integrated bracelet sports watch really work, which is a continuity of form from the case to the bracelet, and all the way to the clasp. They are integrated in the truest sense of the word, with matching finishes and tight ...

Formex takes its innovations to the next level, introducing an exclusive manufacture micro-rotor movement in an ultra-thin titanium case

Jérôme Biard is good at keeping secrets. As chief executive of Roventa-Henex (Roventa), he needs to be. The historic manufacture in the sleepy Swiss village of Tavannes builds watches for dozens of watch brands — some are internet-native ‘micro-brands’ while others are historic names with 19th-century roots. Naturally, few of the firm’s customers choose to reveal this arrangement, preferring the unstated implication of in-house expertise. We went inside this secretive manufacture to see a different side of the Swiss watch industry. Roventa-Henex CEO Jérôme Biard in his office in Tavannes. A short history of Roventa-Henex To better understand Roventa, it’s worth examining the history of watchmaking in Tavannes, a small village in the canton of Bern just 16 km from Biel/Bienne. Watchmaking came to Tavannes relatively late — in the 1860s — nearly two centuries after the first Swiss watches were made. Despite its late start, Tavannes quickly became a major centre of industrial watchmaking in the 1890s when Henri Sandoz — with the backing of two prominent families from La Chaux-de-Fonds — opened an industrialised factory based on the American model of production, complete with the latest American machine tools. By 1905, Tavannes Watch Co.’s factory employed more than 600 workers, making it Switzerland’s third-largest watch factory after Longines and Omega. By 1914 its staff had doubled, and the factory was producing more than 3,000 watches per day. Tav...

Swiss brand Albishorn is known for their rather daring mission of recreating vintage watches that never existed; a goal that seems confusing until you see their wide swathe of “imaginary vintage” offerings, each of which draws from iconic timepieces of the past while forging their own new identities. It’s an exercise in parallel history with an added touch of impossibility, and it’s what makes Albishorn watches a category of their own. Carrying on that hypothetical tradition is the new Type X-Graph, which borrows elements from the legendary Type 20 design, while adding features that were simply not possible in the era that Type 20 pieces were being built.  Rather than taking a Type 20 silhouette and cramming new features in, Albishorn has taken to imagining what a predecessor “Type 10” may have looked like instead. Calling it a “missing link” in the history of the Type 20, the Type X-Graph is, of course, a pilot chronograph, with stylings from the late 1940s to pre-date the Type 20’s 1950s introduction. A monopusher military chronograph design, the Type X-Graph measures in at 39mm (a first hint of the modern innovations that remind us that it’s of an imagined history) in case diameter, and 20mm in case thickness. The lug width is a democratic 20mm, with the final lug-to-lug measurement coming in at a wearable 47.7mm, and kept slim by the 12mm thickness. But that’s just the boring stuff; the visuals and functionality of the X-Graph are what make it st...

Hockey first, now football. After earlier NHL and NHLPA editions, as well as the recent refresh of the Adventure lineup, Norqain presents the new Adventure Chrono Swiss Football National Team Limited Edition. Unlike many sports-team watches that stop at a logo or a few colours, this one was actually developed with input from several members […]

PDW's latest Special Projects watch pairs the historic Monnin case with a regulated Seiko NH38 and French assembly—all for $649.

What We Know We've featured a lot of Albishorn on Hodinkee recently, and for good reason. It's a fan-favorite brand, and, as our former head of limited editions said, it's hard to find someone who knows how to handle the technical side of watches, the design side, and pricing, all so well. The new Type X-Graph is no exception. If you want more info on the design inspiration behind the brand, you can read one of my previous stories here. But while other launches trend more vintage, this one feels a bit more modern. The Rolex "Zerograph" inspiration is obvious, with the slightly smaller dial and oversized bezel (that overhangs the case). This time, the dial pushes the look into modernity, with a semi-translucent fumé grey dial that lets you catch small glimpses of the skeletonized ALB04 M movement. But at the same time, Alibshorn was able to maintain the pebbled texture of some of their other dials. It's not a fully smoked sapphire like a Patek 5316 or a Lange Lumen, but at the price, it strikes a balance between creativity and affordability. Add the green-emission Super-LumiNova on the PVD-coated bi-directionally rotating steel bezel, and it's a cool monochrome finish. You'll notice that the watch is a chronograph with a 30-minute counter at the lower left and running seconds at the right, but right above the logo is the chronograph running indicator. It switches from red while running to white when stopped. The design of this is patented as part of the brand's modificatio...

Back in 2020, Zenith released the Chronomaster Revival Liberty, a North American exclusive limited edition that is still one of the most popular of the A384 reissues we’ve seen. In fact, you could probably make a case that the early success of this particular A384 revival laid the groundwork for all that came after (and there have been many of these A384s released in the last six years). The original Liberty, with its red and white chronograph seconds hand and subtle blue fumé dial, was an attractive watch regardless of whether you saw it as part of a patriotic exercise. So it’s no surprise that Zenith has gone back to the well with the new Chronomaster Revival Liberty II. Coming as it does in the year of America’s 250th anniversary, the brand is leaning a bit harder into the connection Zenith has always had to the United States with this release.  Part of the conceit of the Chronomaster Revival Liberty II is that Zenith’s founder, George Favre-Jacot, was inspired by the watchmaking industry in America in the way he built the Zenith brand. In the middle part of the 19th century, the Swiss watch industry worked largely on an éstablissage system, which meant individual components were to be produced separately before final assembly. When Favre-Jacot visited the United States as a young man, he encountered a much more industrialized and efficient way of making a watch, which served as a model for the early days of Zenith.  To that end, the Chronomaster Revival Lib...

Moser releases a new chronograph in their Endeavour lineup using the Agengraphe movement with flyback chronograph, dual time and date.

Following the Maxigraph, the Marinagraph, the Thundergraph, the original Type 10 Chronograph and the later cream-dial Type 10 Officer, the young Albishorn brand returns to its fictional military aviation universe with the new Type X-Graph. Once again, founder Sébastien Chaulmontet and designer Fabien Collioud explore the idea of a watch that never existed but could […]

Specialising in affordable, “imaginary vintage” chronographs, Albishorn has added a twist to its military-inspired Type 10. At a distance, the Type X-Graph resembles yet another pilot’s chronograph with a black, textured dial, but up close it reveals a translucent polycarbonate dial that provides a peek at the skeletonised base plate of the movement. Inspired by 1930s acrylic-covered timepieces, the polycarbonate dial is in a gradient-grey tint, giving it a darker finish towards the edges. While the movement is mechanically identical to its predecessor, the calibre has been skeletonised to maximise the “X-ray” effect. Initial thoughts At first glance, the X-Graph appears little different from its predecessors, but up close it is noticeably more interesting. It’s essentially a twist on a skeleton watch – it’s clearly a no-frills, military-style watch, but with a see-through dial that reveals the open-worked movement. The X-Ray is still “imaginary vintage”, but with more imagination, underlining Albishorn founder Sebastien Chaulmontet’s unique take on watches that combines a historical perspective and  unusual twists. This is born from his keen interest in vintage chronographs – he wrote a book on the subject – while also being head of research and development at Sellita (Albishorn is a side project, akin to a hobby). The brand’s catalogue now encompasses many variations of the single-button chronograph, but the X-Graph stands out as one of the m...

In 2019, Zenith celebrated the 50th anniversary of the El Primero, the world’s first automatic chronograph movement. Zenith’s high-frequency, integrated automatic chronograph movement was fitted inside three inaugural watches, including the A384, a bold tonneau-shaped case with a two-tone dial that reflected the design language of the period. As the United States gets ready to celebrate […]

What We Know Today, Zenith introduces two new takes on its distinctive tonneau-shaped A384 chronograph, a modern revival of the model from the late sixties. The new Chronomaster Revival Liberty II is a sequel to the Chronomaster Revival Liberty from 2020, which paired a distinctive red and white striped chronograph seconds hand with a blue dial and white subdials. For the Revival Liberty II, two models are introduced: a stainless steel variant in a run of 250 pieces, and a forged carbon edition in 25 pieces. The theming, as you might guess from the name, focuses on the 250th anniversary of the United States in these US-exclusive editions. Both editions feature that red and white striped chronograph seconds hand (13 stripes for the original 13 colonies). These follow-ups to the original take the blue and white scheme and invert it, with this new dial featuring a white lacquered base with contrasting blue subdials and tachymeter. "250" on the tachymeter scale is highlighted in red in light of the anniversary. The forged carbon edition offers a much more contemporary look, with swirls of silver and black in the ultralight case, pushers, and crown, and paired with a blue textile-embossed rubber strap. The steel version comes with two strap options—a ladder bracelet in stainless steel, as well as a rubber strap for a bit of extra versatility. The case dimensions remain identical to all other A384 revival editions, with a 37mm diameter and 12.6mm thickness. The movement inside...

Are Citizen watches any good? See how models like the Promaster Diver, Nighthawk, and NY0040 prove Citizen’s value through durability, comfort, and low upkeep.

This weekend, together with our friends at Reijersen Juweliers, a retailer based in the city of Oudewater and specialising in many of our favourite independent brands and rare limited editions, we’ll be hosting the annual “Taste of Time” event. For the third edition of this show, which focuses on independent watchmaking, Reijersen will be teaming […]

Everything you need to know about the three updated Chronomat models from Breitling to get you up to speed.

First teased more than two years ago, the Barrelhand Monolith makes its official debut. An impressive sophomore effort from San Francisco-based mechanical engineer Karel Bachand, the Monolith was designed — and rigorously tested — to accompany the next generation of manned spaceflight missions. Initial thoughts I tend to look at astronaut-oriented watches with a degree of scepticism. For one thing, many modern mechanical watches are inherently capable of performing well enough in space, especially within the pressurised, temperature-controlled conditions of a spacecraft or space station. Today’s astronauts often travel with numerous personal watches, either for sentimental reasons or to boost future resale value. For another, the demands placed on astronauts make electronic multi-function watches superior to their mechanical counterparts. Almost as soon as such watches were developed, astronauts adopted them enthusiastically, which is why the Timex Datalink was flight qualified by NASA in the 1990s. The European Space Agency (ESA) even patented a set of purpose-built functions devised by astronaut Jean-François Clervoy. These functions were brought to life by the Omega Speedmaster Skywalker X-33. But mechanical watches still have a place in the unforgiving vacuum of space, where massive temperature fluctuations and unpredictable levels of radiation wreak havoc on batteries and LCD displays. These are the conditions for which the Monolith was developed, and the maker...

There are tool watches, and then there are watches that make conventional tool watches look almost quaint. The Barrelhand Monolith belongs in the latter category. This timepiece took six years to develop. Aerospace engineering, additive manufacturing, and advanced materials science were used to create not simply a “space-inspired” watch but an actual instrument for modern […] Visit Blastoff For The Space-Going Barrelhand Monolith — A Next-Generation Mission-Grade Space Watch to read the full article.