Latest watch news · Page 731

Few brands have the ability to surprise quite like Urwerk, but it makes sense that such an unconventional watch brand would be the one most likely to leave us all scratching our heads in wonder and confusion (in the best way possible, of course). Their latest creation, the Spacetime Blade, is based on a design that made its debut last year ahead of the scuttled Only Watch auction. The clock, outfitted with a series light bulbs lit by Nixie tubes, provides pretty much all the timing information you could want, and plenty you didn’t know you needed, all in a very Urwerk way.  What we have here is a glass blade that stands 1.7 meters tall and weighs 20 kilograms. It’s an imposing, large object, made up of a total of 1,446 components. It stands on a large bronze crown that’s been polished and buffed to Urwerk’s preferred level of patina, and provides a base to a large glass dome that protects a series of vertically aligned Nixie bulbs, eight in total.  Each bulb contains a total of ten steel cathodes that allow it to illuminate any digit, 0 through 9. The glass is blown by hand and the electrical elements are meticulously assembled by hand as well, using tweezers, in each of the bulbs. According to Urwerk, each bulb consists of 88 parts.  Once the blade is assembled and the whole thing is turned on, it’s capable of displaying a variety of information via the Nixie bulbs. The Spacetime Blade has several different modes, and can read the time in hours, minutes, and ...

Last year, the bold and ultra-modern SpaceOne Jumping Hour emerged from the visionary mind of Théo Auffret, a young Parisian independent watchmaker celebrated for crafting intricate timepieces like the Tourbillon Grand Sport and Guillaume Laidet, the man spearheading the revival of Nivada, Excelsior Park and Vulcain. And it’s now time for the duo to present its […]

One of my absolute favorite discoveries at last year’s Watches & Wonders wasn’t even at Watches & Wonders, but at a presentation at the Beau Rivage hotel by Guillaume Laidet and Théo Auffret. Their new brand, now known as SpaceOne, was launching, and the watch they presented, a spaceship shaped bit of imagination with an impressive jump hour complication designed by Auffret, kind of blew me away. As a sci-fi nerd, I’m an easy mark for this kind of thing, admittedly, but even taking the futuristic, space stuff out of it, I was just incredibly excited to see this kind of purely imaginative watchmaking happening at such an accessible price point. It struck me at the time as being part of a wave of somewhat gonzo watch designs that take their cues from the highest of high horology, but bring the barrier to entry way down.  One year later, SpeceOne has released their follow up, a watch that I think in many ways is even more impressive than the Jump Hour. The Tellurium continues down the cosmological path set forth by the debut (and the brand name) with an astronomical complication that heretofore would be hard to imagine in a watch retailing for just under 3,000 EUR. This watch, in addition to telling the time and featuring a calendar with the date and month, tracks the moon’s orbit around the earth and the earth’s orbit around the sun via the heliocentric tellurium that is the core of the watch.  This is an admittedly more simple version of a planetarium watch tha...

Founded last year by a pair of Frenchmen, entrepreneur Guillaume Laidet and independent watchmaker Theo Auffret, SpaceOne fashions itself as a maker of modular complications assembled in Paris that are make accessible thanks to Swiss movements and external components sourced elsewhere. Its second creation, the Tellurium, is an affordable – but heavily simplified – heliocentric tellurium watch priced at just €2,999, or about US$3,250. Initial thoughts A tellurium is a kind of orrery, a mechanical model of the solar system, which shows the planets’ positions relative to the Sun. Traditional orrery are kinetic sculptures driven by complex gearings and usually large format, desk clock size or larger. The Richard Mille Planetarium-Tellurium of 2007, for instance, was the size of a small table. There have been wristwatch-size versions of orrery, most famously Ulysse Nardin’s pair of the Tellurium Johannes Kepler and Planetarium Copernicus, which were faithful miniaturisation of orreries and conceived with scientific accuracy in mind but were priced accordingly. The SpaceOne Tellurium is a heavily diluted of the same. It shows only the Sun, Earth and Moon, each with minimal motion. The Earth, for instance, does not rotate on its own axis. Rather than being a miniaturised true orrery, this is an heavily simplified representation presented with sci-fi style. This simplified approach brings with it the inconvenience of a non quickset calendar. So setting the calendar from...

It looks like a joke, and it sounds like one too, but it’s a serious piece of wrist equipment. The name Orfina Golden Flame Double Automatic Twin Special sounds like a headline from a cheap tabloid - a watch you couldn’t take seriously today. But looking at it closely, there are so many distinct details […] Visit #TBT Orfina Golden Flame Double Automatic Twin Special Ref. 6938 to read the full article.

Here's our first event in Singapore after COVID-19 and for the year 2024! We had the pleasure of partnering up with Ba111od Watches along with their CEO Thomas Baillod for a whimsical evening with our esteemed guest.

Independent watchmaker Hautlence, which made its debut 20 years ago in Neuchatel, has always been known for its modern approach to watchmaking with creative designs, exposed mechanics and innovative ways of displaying time. Now a sister company of H. Moser & Cie, the brand made a comeback a few months ago with modernized, streamlined aesthetics […]

Launched in 1963, the Seiko Sportsmatic 5 was Seiko’s and Japan’s first automatic day-date watch. With its solid water and shock-resistant stainless case and bracelet, practical functions, automatic movement and accessible price, the Seiko 5 became an instant best-seller among young people. Following Seiko’s participation in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, exports of the Seiko 5 […]

Australia's sporting colours really suit this latest take on the Captain Cook High-Tech Ceramic Skeleton.The post The Rado Captain Cook High-Tech Ceramic Skeleton gets a green and gold Aussie update appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

The Japanese watchmaker has introduced a new series within the Seiko 5 family, which pays homage to the past but somehow feels very natural in the present. Seiko is one of those few brands for which an enthusiast can buy a very humble automatic watch. Or a mechanical marvel with very tight tolerances that competes […] Visit Hot Take: Seiko Introduces Three New Seiko 5 SNXS Series Celebrating Its Heritage to read the full article.

The H. Moser & Cie. Concept series, distinguished by the sheer elegance of minimalistic yet very elaborately finished dials, expands to include a watch in a sporty Pioneer case. The result is beautifully controversial, perhaps as intended by the brand, for the athletic, almost brutal, and adventure-ready case gets paired with a very funky-coloured dial. […]

Ambrose Bierce published Fantastic Fables back in 1899. It is a bundle of short fairy tales, most of which are absurd and feature an ironic plot twist. This unique combination reminds me of our behavior as watch lovers. Just as Bierce wrote about a woman who shot her man dead to prevent him from leaving […] Visit Fantastic Fables: Are We Fooling Ourselves To Justify Liking Watches? to read the full article.

A lightsaber, wielded by Force-sensitive characters in Star Wars, is a luminescent laser sword powered by a kyber crystal. Shaped like a lightsaber, Urwerk’s SpaceTime Blade cuts through all timekeeping mechanisms with its unique display and countless timings related to our planet delivered via glowing orange Nixie bulbs. Marking its reentry into our atmosphere, Urwerk’s […]

In production for decades and one of Seiko’s most affordable mechanical watches, the SNX series has been updated and refined to create the Seiko 5 Sports SNXS Series. According to Seiko, the SNXS was inspired by “EDC”, short for “everyday carry”, a catchall phrase for useful items that can be carried on your person. Consequently, the SNXS is concise, practical, and very accessible. Available in three distinct dial variants, black, blue, and ivory, the SNXS  features a clean dial made more interesting with an orange seconds hand, patina lume, and a contrast-colour flange. The case is an evolution of the historical SNX design and matched with a steel bracelet. And like most Seiko 5 models, the SNXS has an automatic movement with a day-date function. Initial Thoughts It is safe to say that Seiko has a dominant position in the sub-US$500 segment, with the Seiko 5 leading the way. They are robust and reliable, so much so Seiko is something of the gateway drug to the world mechanical watches. Although simple in execution, the fit and finish of Seiko 5 in general is impressive for the price point. The Seiko 5 is available in a myriad of flavours, from the Seiko 5 Sports Bruce Lee Edition to the Seiko 5 Sports Street Fighter V. The SNXS Series, however, adopts a different spirit with its low key and vintage-inspired aesthetic. The design is simple but detailed nicely with contrast finishing on the case surfaces. It does without a sport bezel, though the baton hands and ...

HYT Watches burst onto the independent watchmaking scene in 2012 with a captivating concept, a truly unique vision and an idea that somehow was antinomic of a mechanical watch; displaying time with fluids. To achieve this, the brand imagined a high-tech micro-fluidic module driven by a mechanical movement. The idea is to use two immiscible […]

Arnold & Son likes to walk to its own beat. For their latest watch, the Longitude, the opposite is the case. It's a sports watch with an integrated bracelet, and yes, it even comes with a green dial.

Welcome to a fresh new episode of Fratello Talks. Today, RJ and Lex join Nacho for a varied chat centered around the topic of things that make a watch worthwhile. From waitlists to limited editions and even watches for special occasions, added value is not really a matter of price. Does a reasonable wait add […] Visit Fratello Talks: Waitlists, Limited Editions, And Things That Make A Watch Worthwhile to read the full article.

Doxa finally release a small wrist-friendly model of their iconic diver, with a brand new dial colour to boot.The post The SUB 200T is classic Doxa flavour in a smaller and more affordable package appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

Today’s Brellum Duobox Triple Calendar Moonphase Chronometer brings heaps of functionality in a classy, relatively affordable package. We’ve covered the brand extensively here on Fratello and have come to enjoy the thoughtful touches and high-value quotient. Yes, today’s piece is a dressier affair, but it’s nicely executed. Brellum continues to roll out the hits with […] Visit Hands-On With The Brellum Duobox Triple Calendar Moonphase Chronometer to read the full article.

May is around the corner, and with it, a fresh set of grads ready to take on the world. A thoughtful graduation gift can be a particularly memorable token, and what better way to celebrate than with a special watch or accessory? In this Chronicle, we consider five fantastic gifts that a graduate would be thrilled to receive. As always, the Windup Watch Shop Team is available for consultations and to answer any questions you have. Congrats grads! May is around the corner, and with it, a fresh set of grads ready to take on the world. A thoughtful graduation gift can be a particularly memorable token, and what better way to celebrate than with a special watch or accessory? In this Chronicle, we consider five fantastic gifts that a graduate would be thrilled to receive. As always, the Windup Watch Shop Team is available for consultations and to answer any questions you have. Congrats grads! The post Five Great Gifts for New Grads appeared first on Worn & Wound.

It is often warned, within the watch enthusiast community, that pre-owned (especially bordering on vintage) watch collecting is a monster all its own - sitting at the end of booby-trapped temple, with spring-loaded spike walls and perilous pits waiting to consume another person tempted by the pretty shiny things inside. And yet, occasionally you manage to traverse the ledge, dodge the poison barbs, and slide under the closing stone door, grabbing your fedora in the nick of time. Sometimes things just go right, but giving yourself the space to be vigilant always helps. Does anyone else hear a John Williams score in their head? Just me? Like many a watch collector before me, I’ve been yearning for an Omega Speedmaster since I first found out about its heroic travels. It went to the moon, I believe. I dunno, you’ll have to double check me on that. Anyway, I would take almost weekly trips to the AD just to try it on. Each visit went the same way. I’d approach the Omega counter, point to the Speedmaster Professional, and say “you know which one.” Sapphire sandwich because I love marveling at the movement. My AD would stand there while I carefully inspected it. As I did the week before, and the one before that. I’d tell him, “you can go help the guy over there if you need to,” knowing damn well he can’t leave me alone with the watch, but it made me feel better to say it to establish that I am, yet again, not ready to buy it. We’d chitchat, I’d leave, and ...

Doxa has just announced the new Doxa SUB 200T, one of their most iconic designs in a more compact 39mm case. Read more on TBWS!

In 2015, Ferdinand Berthoud, a brand with a historical name resurrected by Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, Chopard’s co-president, unveiled the Chronomètre Ferdinand Berthoud FB1. Since then, we’ve witnessed the successful launch of numerous references in the FB1, FB2, and FB3 collections. These releases have showcased groundbreaking engineering innovations and distinguished themselves with their exceptional design, setting them […]

Predicting what we'll see from Rolex, Tudor, Patek, and what else we're excited about from the Swiss watch industry's biggest annual trade show.

Plus a Breitling Premier Datora and a limited Panerai Mare Nostrum.

The word “cult” gets thrown around a lot when discussing Doxa. Their dive watches have a decidedly niche appeal and fans of the brand really love them in a way that sometimes goes beyond casual appreciation. This is a fundamentally good thing for the community whether you’re part of the Doxa cult or not, as inevitably some of that enthusiasm and goodwill spills over into the rest of the hobby. What’s interesting though is that as time passes and Doxa grows, the cult objects have become more mainstream. That’s exemplified perfectly in the new Sub 200T, a more accessible version of the brand’s signature (and perhaps strangest) watch.  The Sub 200T is one of those watches that, once you see it, you’re kind of surprised hadn’t existed until now. The Sub 200T takes the signature case lines and design language of the Sub 300 and shrinks everything down into a more wearable, casual, package. We get the same cushion style case, multi-scale bezel, small dial opening, and even the beads of rice bracelet in a footprint measuring 39mm in diameter and 41.5mm lug to lug (and 10.7mm tall). That’s down from 42.5mm in the Sub 300, so there should be a meaningful difference in how these watches wear.  Beyond the smaller package, Doxa is seemingly trying to cast a wider net in who this watch appeals to by going absolutely full tilt on color options. You can have the Sub 200T in any signature Doxa color you like, plus a new dark green option they’ve dubbed Sea Emerald. A...