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Hands-On: The Vacheron Constantin FiftySix Complete Calendar In Pink Gold
A closer look at one of the latest complete calendar wristwatches from Vacheron Constantin.
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Hodinkee
A closer look at one of the latest complete calendar wristwatches from Vacheron Constantin.
Time+Tide
Normally in these hands-on reviews I leave the sticky question of the price until the end. But this time around I’m putting it front and centre. This Montblanc Heritage Automatic has an Australian RRP of $3410. And for that amount of coin, you get a lot of watch. The steel case is well-sized - 40mm … ContinuedThe post HANDS-ON: The Montblanc Heritage Automatic appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Hodinkee
George Bamford strikes out on his own.
Hodinkee
One of the world's most elegant superwatches.
SJX Watches
Singapore retailer The Hour Glass kicked off its 40th anniversary limited editions with the all-platinum Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Chronograph, now followed by a pair of watches from leading independent watchmakers, De Bethune and Urwerk. The Singapore retailer is getting a three-piece limited edition based on the current UR-105, but one that’s also a throwback to the brand’s early creations. In aged bronze and titanium, The UR-105 “The Hour Glass” similar to the UR-105 CT Bronze unveiled earlier this year, but streamlined and sans the sprung lid over the front – a simplification of the design that’s also an improvement. Appropriate enough for a retailer that’s been selling Urwerk for 15 years, the commemorative edition features elements borrowed from Urwerk models over the years, creating a watch that’s a nostalgic reminder of the brand’s foundational watches from the early 2000s. UR-103 reborn The UR-105 was launched in 2014 as the successor to the UR-103, first launched in 2003. The bestselling Urwerk to date and arguably the brand’s signature watch, the UR-103 was the watch that made Urwerk a champion of avant-garde mechanical watchmaking. A nod to that milestone watch, the commemorative UR-105 features a U-shaped sapphire crystal, just as it was on the UR-103.03. While the very first version of the watch, the UR-103.01, featuring a narrow, curved window for the time, the UR-103.03 of 2005 expanded the view with a far larger cry...
SJX Watches
De Bethune is the latest amongst a number of watchmakers to take the covers off a commemorative edition to mark the 40th anniversary of Singapore watch retail powerhouse The Hour Glass. For the occasion, De Bethune has put together a variant of its signature DB28 with sprung lugs that’s entirely clad in brilliant, blued titanium. First unveiled in polished titanium in 2018, the Steel Wheels is essentially a DB28 wearing a little less. A partially open-worked dial – which is actually the delta-shaped barrel bridge – reveals its pair of skeletonised barrels and gears. While the original Steel Wheels captures the essence of De Bethune, combining its trademark design with the brand’s fundamental technical innovations, it was lacking a generous dose of blued titanium, a gorgeous, heat-treated alloy that is synonymous with the brand. Colour consistency That has now been rectified with the DB28 Steel Wheels Blue, arguably the purest – and bluest – distillation of the brand’s core values and technical achievements. It features an intense, mirror-polished, blued titanium case and dial that form a striking contrast against the exposed inner mechanics. Though blued titanium is also used by other brands today, De Bethune was amongst the first to mirror-polish its titanium cases and more crucially, started using heat treatment to blue titanium way back in 2006. An example of an early De Bethune using blued titanium, a DB25L from 2010 with a blued dial...
Time+Tide
For as long as time has been indicated with hands on a dial, horologists have been hunting for different ways to communicate time. Contemporarily, this pursuit has taken some weird and wonderful forms, resulting in a few very clever feats of engineering to tell you what time it is. For those who are tired of … ContinuedThe post Look Mum, no hands – the best watches without hands in 2018 appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Hodinkee
A classic design that blends military ruggedness with easy-wearing versatility.
SJX Watches
Those unfamiliar with the world of ultra-bling Rolex watches must wonder – who are they catered to? Dictators? Drug dealers? Nightclub owners? Instagram influencers? But the answer is actually something more common. All of us inevitably know someone like this: the middle-aged man usually in athletic wear by Louis Vuitton and Gucci, and whose idea of formal wear is an embroidered velvet suit from Dolce & Gabbana that resembles curtains from a chateau. He’ll probably drive a super car that is “stickered”, either the whole car wrapped in a matte, metallic finish, or worse, “stickered” with flames and stripes on the sides. Then this gentleman will probably be wearing a watch like this. And if he isn’t, he will really want one. It’s easy to poke fun but the nattily dressed gent is enjoying himself and who can fault that? And so it is with this watch, which has certain, look-at-me appeal that is just calling out to be enjoyed. This is the new and uncommon Daytona ref. 116578SACO with an orange sapphire-set bezel. Cosmograph Daytona ref. 116578SACO Each year Rolex unveils a handful of bejewelled watches that are shown to the press and public at Baselworld – last year’s was the Daytona “rainbow” and this year had the Day-Date “rainbow” – while also releasing a smaller number of gem-set models on the quiet, which are usually only shown to retailers. This year’s hush-hush launches included the GMT-Master II “SARU” in Everose gold, but als...
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This is better than Disneyland.
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Nineteen (ish) grams of carbon nanotube cool.
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A trio of high-tech watches in bright, light ceramic.
SJX Watches
Contemporary Patek Philippe pocket watches are uncommon, and Rare Handcrafts examples – all of which are unique one-offs – are even more scarce. More objet d’art than portable timekeeper, only a handful are made each year. Sold at Sotheby’s late last year for almost US$290,000, the Rare Handcrafts ref. 982/159G “Japanese Cherry” pocket watch is a particularly delicate example of Patek Philippe’s enamelling. Rare Handcrafts pocket watches are often figurative or detailed in the extreme. This year’s line-up of pocket watches feature decorations that include a leopard, several landscapes, and a miniature of Vermeer’s The Wine Glass. The “Japanese Cherry”, on the other hand, takes a difference approach to its art; the decoration is simple yet vivid in colour and form. Unveiled in 2015, the “Japanese Cherry” watch was arguably the most important piece of the Rare Handcrafts collection that year, because the Japanese cherry motif formed the cover of the year’s catalogue. It’s a Lépine pocket watch, with the crown and sub-seconds arranged in a line (as opposed to a hunter movement that has them at right angles to each other). A plant synonymous with the country, the Japanese cherry produces the cherry blossom, or sakura, a cultural icon of Japan. On the watch branches of the cherry tree are depicted against a pale beige background. The branches are hand engraved in relief, with the individual cherries being bright red fired enamel with a g...
SJX Watches
While it’s a new brand that just made its debut, Genus is founded on the watchmaking talent of an industry insider who has spent a lifetime working on complications. Its first watch is the GNS 1 that tells the time with an ultra-exotic complication with the minutes travelling across the dial like a train. Conceptually the GNS 1 harks back to the burst of creativity that started in the early 2000s, when watchmakers went all out with imaginative complications to display the hours and minutes. This was the heyday of the Harry Winston Opus series and the birth of brands like MB&F; and Urwerk. The brand Genus was founded by entrepreneur Catherine Henry and Sébastien Billières, founder of GMTI, a specialist watchmaking workshop. The son of a watchmaker, Mr Billières started his career at Roger Dubuis in 1999, followed by a stint at Urwerk. In 2011, he set up GMTI, which specialises in primarily in assembly and servicing of complicated movements for major watch brands. Now staffed by 25 watchmakers, GMTI’s repertoire is diverse, ranging from tourbillon movements bearing the Poinçon de Genève, or Geneva Seal, to time-only movements produced on an industrial scale. Telling the time According to Mr Billières, the GNS 1 is the realisation of his long-held ambition of creating his own watch, after spending his career doing it for others. The GNS 1 is essentially an exceptionally avant-garde display of the hours and minutes. Even when static the face is impressive...
Hodinkee
A look inside a suite of classic high complications.
Time+Tide
In yet another flash of creativity and marketing cunning, H. Moser & Cie have lit up watch lovers all over the world by sending out one of their watches - the Pioneer Centre Seconds Funky Blue Black Edition - on a tour with no road map. And absolutely no guarantee of whose couch it will be crashing … ContinuedThe post Will this stunning Moser land in your hands on its #pioneertour? If you know watch people, there’s a chance … appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Hodinkee
A new watch marks a new partnership between Bugatti and Jacob & Co.
Time+Tide
Dan Henry is a pretty great little watch brand - the brainchild of a Brazilian watch collector who is dedicated to making affordable modern versions of classic designs. And while other brands go down this path of well-priced retro nostalgia, too often it comes across as inauthentic pastiche. But this isn’t an accusation you can … ContinuedThe post HANDS-ON: The Dan Henry 1962 Racing Chronograph is perfectly pitched (and priced) nostalgia appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Hodinkee
A watch inspired by the most exciting decade of Formula 1.
Time+Tide
Architectural is a word that gets thrown around a lot in watch writing, and when you look at a watch like this Franck Muller Gravity Skeleton you can see why. The clear, expansive view provided allows the wearer to look down at a tiny, and industrious city, busily whirring away. And if we continue the … ContinuedThe post HANDS-ON: The Franck Muller Gravity Skeleton appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Hodinkee
Thin, crisp, and not a hint of "fauxtina."
Time+Tide
When you look at Jaeger-LeCoultre’s core offerings from their Reverso and Master Collection lines it’s easy to see why the brand has something of a reputation for straight, sober watchmaking. But don’t forget that Jaeger-LeCoultre is also capable of absolute top-shelf high-complication, high-jewellery pieces like this (frankly astonishing) Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Grande Tradition Tourbillon Zodiaque. So what … ContinuedThe post HANDS-ON: Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Master Grande Tradition Tourbillon Zodiaque appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
SJX Watches
Launched two years ago with a steel case, the BR 03-92 Diver took the signature aviation inspired design of Bell & Ross (B&R;) into the sea. It was a proper dive watch that combined the iconic square case with a 300m depth rating and a rotating bezel. At Baselworld this year, B&R; unveiled two new iterations of the BR 03-92 Diver, with cases in bronze and matte black ceramic respectively. Though fundamentally identical, each is drastically different from the other in look and feel. The road to the deep But first a quick recap of B&R;’s past dive watches. Though the brand is today best known for its military aviation watches, B&R; got its start making watches (which were essentially rebadged Sinn timepieces) for professionals in various spheres, from bomb disposal engineers to deep sea divers. One of its earliest dive watches was the Hydromax (also known as the Hydro Challenger) of 1997. It was a compact, round watch with a quartz movement boasting a ludicrous depth rating of 11,100m, thanks to a case filled with transparent fluorinated oil that was incompressible. A decade later, the brand was producing its own watches and unveiled the BR 02, a tonneau-shaped dive watch with a 1000m depth rating, internal rotating bezel and helium escape valve. Then came the BR 03-92 in 2017, the most logical expression of a dive watch for a brand driven largely by military-inspired design. Crucially, bona fide square watch cases are inherently more difficult to seal against ...
SJX Watches
Every year Chanel debuts a handful of timekeeping objects that are sleekly monochromatic yet lavishly constructed of precious materials like gold and rock crystal. They are beautiful, expensive, and the sort of object that would look at home in a US$100m penthouse. And because there are enough such penthouses to go around, these objets d’art inevitably find owners every year. Last year’s collection of objects included the Monsieur de Chanel Chronosphere, a clock within a glass globe supported by blackened-bronze lions, which was a five-piece limited edition. But the collection also included the one of a kind Monsieur de Chanel Pocket Watch suspended in a jewelled stand, an object that is simultaneously discreet and extravagant. Photo – Chanel Although the pocket watch and its stand retail for almost US$800,000, it is discreet to a fault. All of the materials within are precious, but the entire object is almost monochromatic. The pocket watch can be removed and carried, but is more likely to function as the ultimate desk clock. Standing about 25cm, or 10in, high, the stand is polished 18k white gold and panelled in glossy obsidian, a black, volcanic rock. And while it does not look the part, the sculpted lion is also 18k gold, but coated entirely in smooth, black Hyceram, a composite of ceramic and polymer. The diamonds within the stand are substantial, but subtle – the lion’s paw rests on a 18k gold sphere covered in baguette diamonds. The big ca...
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A new heritage piece honoring Zenith's lesser-known 1969 El Primero.
Hodinkee
A one-of-one titanium and tantalum sports watch from Vacheron Constantin – do you think it's worthy of production?
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A new tourbillon from Andreas Strehler is the latest incarnation of his unique constant force mechanism.
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Orient is back with a bite.
Revolution
TAG Heuer launches number two of five special Monaco watches, very appropriately, at the 2019 24 Hours of Le Mans, in marking the watch’s 50th anniversary.
Time+Tide
Casio’s G-Shock has a reputation - and a well-deserved one, I might add - for being one of the toughest watches ever made. Way back in 1983, Kikuo Ibe, the man behind the watch, decreed that the watch needed to meet some pretty tough criteria: a 10-year battery life, water resistance of 10 bar, and … ContinuedThe post HANDS-ON: Full metal jacket – the Casio G-Shock GMW-B5000V appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
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