40,819 articles · 5,813 videos found · page 1243 of 1555
Quill & Pad
The tiny, delicate, nearly impossible-to-create hairspring is the one of the biggest advances for modern scientific technology there is. Here Joshua Munchow takes a dive into the muscle of the beating heart of most mechanical watches: the hairspring.
Teddy Baldassarre
Looking at the watch market as it exists today, one will notice that the most popular styles, even on the luxury end, have their roots in “tool watches” aimed at a particular audience of users: professional and recreational divers, pilots and aviation hobbyists, competitive racing drivers and motorsport enthusiasts, military operators and outdoorsy weekend warriors. Nearly all of these styles trace their origins back to the early to mid-20th Century - an era in which, around the same time, many watchmakers were developing another style of tool watch, one that we really don’t see as much anymore because so many of its elements have been absorbed into the mainstream, incorporated into sport watches and dress watches alike: a watch targeting engineers and scientists who plied their trade around magnetic fields. Here are six of the most important watches from this now-rare genre and a bit of historical information about what each of them contributed. 1930: Tissot Antimagnetique The need for a watch that could withstand the ill effects of magnetic fields was felt as early as the 1920s, when the use of electricity in homes as well as businesses became more widespread. One of the first watchmakers to respond was Tissot, founded in 1850 in the Swiss town of Le Locle. In 1930, Tissot released to the market the aptly named Antimagnetique, the first wristwatch with a magnetism-resistant movement. Tissot accomplished this feat by using the non-magnetic metal palladium for v...
SJX Watches
After having postponed itself in the wake of questions about its propriety and transparency, Only Watch has just announced its return, with the 10th instalment of the charity auction taking place on May 10, 2024. This happens after the organisation published its audited financial statements covering the last three years as well as revamping its governance. Majority of brands that were slated to take part in last year’s event are returning for the 2024 auction – 48 out of the 62 watches have remained – with the most notable departures being Audemars Piguet and Tudor. Crucially, the most significant brands will return for this year’s Only Watch, namely those who will contribute watches with six- or seven-figure values. The most important is naturally Patek Philippe, which is believe to have an all-new wristwatch in the works, and not the Minute Repeater Alarm ref. 1938P made for last year’s event. The Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime ref. 6300A in steel that sold for CHF31 million in 2019, making the most valuable wristwatch ever sold at auction In addition, F.P. Journe, Rexhep Rexhepi, Richard Mille, as well as all LVMH brands, including Louis Vuitton, Hublot, TAG Heuer, Bulgari, and Zenith, are also participating. This means that the brands that matter in terms of value are still there. For example, just Patek Philippe and F.P. Journe alone should raise a healthy eight figure sum – with Patek Philippe accounting for at least US$15-25 million, or about two-third...
Fratello
Another Friday, another Top 5! We continue our search for some of the best pre-owned watches currently available. With list prices for new watches soaring, we have dedicated this series of articles to finding pre-owned watches worth your attention. There are so many great watches available for great prices. In this seventh installment, we have […] Visit Fratello’s Top 5 Pre-Owned Sleeper Watches: Part 7 - Featuring Breguet, Omega, IWC, And More to read the full article.
WatchAdvice
What We Love: Indigo blue is stunning to look atThe ceramic Bracelet is well-executedFeels like a toy on the wrist but in a great way What We Don’t: Ceramic is resistant to scratches but has the potential to chipThe date wheel can blend into the movement at timesTaking links on/off to adjust the watch will be challenging Overall Rating: 8.75/10 Value for Money: 9/10Wearability: 8.5/10Design: 9/10Build Quality: 8.5/10 When I think of Hublot, one of the first things that comes to my mind is the Big Bang, followed by the Hybrid rubber strap they pioneered back in 1980, which the brand is famous for. So, when I got the chance to test out the Big Bang in Blue Indigo Ceramic, I was excited because I got to try out a watch that doesn’t look like a Hublot but is still very much a Hublot. Big Bang was first released in 2005, which paved the way for the brand and its collections, such as Classic Fusion and Spirit of Big Bang, and has now evolved into highly complicated timepieces and material experimentation. Fifteen years later, in 2020, Hublot introduced its first-ever integrated Big Bang, and in 2022, released during watches and wonders, the world saw four unique Big Bang Ceramic monochrome colourways. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Chamath Gamage (@champsg) Blue Indigo, Sky-blue, Sand Beige and Jungle green represent the elements of water, earth and wood. An indigo blue from the Majorelle Garden, the streets of Chefchaouen in Morocco, and the Blue City of...
Time+Tide
An unexpected return for Snoopy, and Omega doubles down on their pursuit of perfection.The post Black Snoopy MoonSwatch unveiled, Omega announces new chronometric certification lab appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Time+Tide
A watch auction hosted inside of a cave? Surely not. Well, do not be so sure because this is 100% actually happening next week in Geneva. Dubbed by Sotheby’s as the ‘Rough Diamonds’ auction, the sale will be hosted underground at the wine cellar La Corne à Vin (47 bis Rue de Lausanne, Geneva) on … ContinuedThe post Sotheby’s is hosting a ‘Rough Diamonds’ watch auction soon in Geneva INSIDE A CAVE appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Worn & Wound
Watches & Wonders hasn’t started yet, but I think we can safely identify the first honest to goodness trend: brands exhibiting at the show announcing new watches ahead of the big event. We saw it last week with Czapek, and now H. Moser is following suit with what I think can be fairly described as a Watches & Wonders apéritif. The Swiss indie has just announced a pair of watches in their Pioneer line in two distinct shades of green. One is a long awaited new entry in the Pioneer’s 40mm case, and the other is the latest example of Moser’s signature “Concept” dial. First up is the Pioneer Centre Seconds Concept Citrus Green. If you’re unfamiliar with Moser’s Concept dials, they are devoid of markings and visible branding on the dial, and a showcase for whatever color, texture, or design Moser is interested in showcasing for a given watch. It’s a design principle that has become Moser’s signature, and while it’s certainly not for everyone, fans of the brand admire their commitment to showing off what are often vibrant colors and letting a stripped down aesthetic speak for itself. The Citrus Green colorway has a dramatic green fumé effect, with the shade at the center appearing yellow while growing to a darker green shade as we move to the perimeter. This reference is in the larger 42.8mm steel Pioneer case, which is water resistant to 120 meters. The Streamliner notwithstanding, the Pioneer is the closest thing Moser makes to a true sports watch, and...
Worn & Wound
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 ...
Monochrome
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 […]
SJX Watches
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...
Fratello
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.
Deployant
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.
Fratello
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.
Fratello
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.
Fratello
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.
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 ...
Hodinkee
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.
Hodinkee
Limited to 999 pieces, you can now get yours in the Hodinkee Shop.
Deployant
The next M.A.D. 1 is released in collaboration with avant-garde pop artist Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, with his signature bright colours.
Quill & Pad
Panerai watches are unique. There is no denying that they are beautiful and have that Italian design flair. But Raman Kalra thinks that Panerai needs to move with the timer and he has an idea of how Panerai could do that.
Two Broke Watch Snobs
The C63 Valour is accurate to +/- 10 seconds a year with its ETA G10.212 AD COSC movement. It has been tested rigorously over 13 days and at 3 different temperatures and 4 separate humidity levels to ensure its thermal compensation abilities and consistency. On top of that, the movement neatly displays running seconds at 6 o’clock, a 30-minute register at 10 o’clock, and a 1/10th seconds counter at 2 o’clock.
Deployant
Kudoke releases another special edition of their Green World K3 watch. Here are the details of the Kudoke K3 Grüner Wald Sonderedition II.
Once again we are heading to the biggest watch event of the year, Watches & Wonders. Today our Head of Content, Kat Shoulders, goes through what’s going to be in her photography carry kit during the exhibition. Nailing down the perfect bag for these trips can be grueling as we are constantly on the go and need a quick and light kit to keep things moving. This episode was made possible by our friends at Nomatic. They have graciously lent Kat the new Luma Camera Pack 18L for her travels during Watches & Wonders. If you’ve listened to Kat’s podcast Changing Gears or watched previous episodes of Time to Pack, you know Kat’s been a long time fan of Nomatic. The new Luma collection is both stylish AND functional and keeps all the favorite bits everyone has come to love from Nomatic’s photography line. Get all the details on Kat’s packing style and her professional tools, along with her very own gear hacks and tricks of the trade. We hope that Time to Pack will continue to be that kind of content you didn’t even know you needed-watch-based content that delves into travel gear and packing in rich and robust ways. Enjoy! The post Time to Pack: What’s In My Watches & Wonders Photography Bag appeared first on Worn & Wound.
SJX Watches
London-based Bamford Watch Department’s latest is the B80 Limited Edition, a collaboration with Ace Jewelers of Amsterdam. In keeping with Bamford’s vintage-with-a-twist house style, the B80 boasts a “ghost” dial with a gradient finish and numerals inspired by historical military watches. The 39 mm titanium case has a black finished that’s been treated to appear aged. Initial Thoughts There is something about all-black watches that makes them cool. Part of it is the no-nonsense, military-instrument look they evoke. Black-coated watches, at least most of them, suffer from a major drawback - coatings wear off in time, resulting in a worn look that is more often than not unappealing. But here the wear has been done in advance for a fuss-free watch. According to the duo behind the B80, this is a “tool” watch conceived according to the notion “if [the watch is] too perfect, fix it”. Bamford, a company that got its start by modifying Rolex watches, often with vintage inspired styling and black-coated cases, is perhaps poking fun at its roots with the worn-out PVD finish of the B80. Even the dial features a “smoked” patina along with hands and indices with aged lume, thereby creating a “vintage” watch. But as with most Bamford watches – the brand now mostly makes original watches under its own name – the B80 is affordable and imbued with a spirit of fun. The back, for instance, is engraved with “You’re Ace”, and the watch is delivered with a...
Time+Tide
Want to catch up ahead of the fair? Take a look at our YouTube playlist with 23 videos that we published during Watches & Wonders 2023.The post Previously On: Our entire Watches & Wonders Geneva 2023 YouTube playlist appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Worn & Wound
Last year marked the 70th anniversary of Blancpain’s iconic Fifty Fathoms dive watch, and to celebrate they launched three new watches in three acts. Act One was a contemporary take on the Fifty Fathoms in stainless steel, Act Two was a high-tech modern piece geared toward pro divers in titanium, and Act Three was a historical MIL-SPEC interpretation in 9K Bronze-Gold. Despite the critical acclaim, collectors seemed to have been left wanting. There has been an appetite for a contemporary sub 45mm diameter, non-limited-edition version of the Fifty Fathoms for many years, and for 2024 Blancpain is finally making it happen with new 42mm-diameter Fifty Fathoms Automatic models in the permanent collection. They will be offered in both red gold and corrosion resistant grade 23 titanium. The latter is like grade 5 but has lower oxygen, nitrogen, and iron content. It also has better ductility and fracture toughness, which, according to Blancpain, makes it excellent in saltwater environments. Powering these new Fifty Fathoms is the in-house Blancpain Caliber 1315 automatic movement. Its construction includes three series-coupled barrels that can provide a class leading five days of power-reserve. It is elaborately decorated, at least compared to most divers, and has an 18K red gold oscillating weight sporting an NAC coating, whose design is inspired by the rotor of the original 1953 Fifty Fathoms. All of this, of course, is visible through the screw-down sapphire display back. Th...
Monochrome
Released about a year ago, the Jazzmaster Performer collection was Hamilton’s answer for a range of all-rounder, go-anywhere do-anything modern sporty watches. Mostly known for its connection with cinema and its successful vintage/military-inspired watches, the Performer was of a different breed. Sportier, more dynamic, more modern overall and yet sleek, it made a good impression […]
Hodinkee
We made the Top Five!
Time+Tide
Vaer just added eight new R1 Chronograph models to the range. We take a closer look at two of them.The post Vaer debuts two new sporty mechaquartz chronographs appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
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