1,707 articles · 46 videos found · page 17 of 59
Quill & Pad
Joshua Munchow talks about steel here, the metal that made the world! Watch cases and other movement components are commonly made from certain stainless steels, 304 and 316L being the most frequent. It also happens that some brands hold exclusive rights to use specific alloys in the production of its watches. Here's what you should know about steel.
Worn & Wound
The recent history of dive watches is all about going deeper and deeper beneath the ocean’s surface. Recent releases (and major technological advancements) from Rolex and Omega underscore the continuing interest on the part of brands, collectors, and, we assume, pro divers in maximizing depth ratings, whether for practical purposes or bragging rights. The watches that come out of the research and development around extreme depth resistance have a certain appeal even if you don’t have a particular desire to even get them wet – they are technological marvels, and often compelling design objects with an offbeat aesthetic appeal. Now, Oris is getting in on the act, with a new member of the Aquis family that goes deeper than any before it, the AquisPro 4000m. The headline here is right in the name of the watch: this is an Aquis that is rated to an impressive 4,000 meters of water resistance. While not as robust as Omega’s Ultra Deep which is rated to 6,000 meters, or the truly incomprehensible Deepsea Challenge diver by Rolex that goes to 11,000 meters, this Aquis handily beats other divers in the Aquis family, which are typically rated to 300 meters. It does so with an oversized, multi piece titanium case measuring 49.5mm in diameter and a little over 23mm thick. I don’t know if there’s an obscure Swiss law that says any dive watch rated over a certain depth rating needs to have some kind of ocean themed dial design, but we get one with the AquisPro 4000m in the ...
Worn & Wound
One of my favorite things about working in the watch industry is the capacity this strange little world still has to surprise. Just when you think you’ve seen everything, you’re reminded that you most definitely have not, and in fact you might just be scratching the surface. I love getting press releases about watches I don’t expect, particularly when they come from brands that I thought I knew and understood. Enter: Maurice Lacroix. If you know Maurice Lacroix at all, you probably know them as the brand behind the Aikon, an integrated bracelet sports watch that bears a certain resemblance to another much more sought after and much more expensive watch with a similar footprint. The Aikon, though, has proven to be a worthy blank canvas for many of Maurice Lacroix’s most interesting ideas over the years, and a new version, an update of a design first seen in 2021, takes that to a new level. The Aikon Urban Tribe Skeleton is lie no other Aikon before it, except the Aikon Urban Tribe, which featured a similar series of engravings along the case walls and throughout the bracelet. The Urban Tribe’s calling card (for both the 2021 version and this new reference) is the elaborate case engraving. It’s unusual enough to see a well known Swiss brand dabble in engraved cases to begin with, and it’s even more unusual for those engravings to seemingly live in the world of tribal tattoos and similar motifs. But that’s not all – these designs are inspired by urban arch...
Worn & Wound
Mr. Jones, the brand whose slogan is “The Most Unique British Watches,” continues to update their eclectic collection with mechanical versions of their most popular and talked about quartz watches. Back in April, we told you about the mechanical release of “A Perfectly Useless Afternoon,” a watch that told time via a display that brings one of the laziest activities imaginable – floating aimlessly in a pool – into fluid motion on the wrist. That design is a perfect example of the Mr. Jones ethos, which is to use a watch dial as a blank canvas to tell a story in a highly specific way, and to get people talking. Their watches, while certainly not to every taste, are undeniably full of ideas, and remarkably creative in a way that most watches simply aren’t, as the brand isn’t inspired by traditional watchmaking. The newest watch in their mechanical collection actually does take an idea that has existed in watchmaking for just about as long as the practice has existed, the memento mori, and puts a uniquely Mr. Jones spin on it. “The Accurate” doesn’t use traditional memento mori iconography, but it is, as the brand says, the most accurate watch ever made. The Mr. Jones collection is full of visual puns, and The Accurate is a good example. The words “remember you will die” appear spread across the hour and minute hands, such that whenever you read the time, you get a not-so-subtle reminder of your own mortality. This, of course, is the point of a mem...
SJX Watches
The watchmaking arm of vintage Porsche rebuilder Singer, Singer Reimagined has just taken the covers off the 1969 collection, a pair of watches that reimagine (no pun intended) the brand’s trademark central chronograph, the 1969 Chronograph and the simpler 1969 Timer. Like the brand’s prior models, the 1969 duo are vintage inspired and share the familiar cushion-shaped case and inventive Agenhor movement. But they are now smaller and more wearable, and in a first for the brand, are fitted to a matching bracelet. Initial thoughts In choosing 1969 as the inspiration for the brand’s latest series of watches, founder Marco Borraccino has selected a platform that allowed him both a historical connection to the past and an aesthetic palette from which to draw. The idea is particularly clever for a young brand with no heritage of its own. Choosing instead to focus on the industry-wide heritage for the brand’s most central complication is something of a sideways masterstroke. Pleasingly, the brand communication has refrained from laying it on too thick in this regard, so we can enjoy the pieces for what they are without the story getting in the way of the facts. To me, these two pieces are a welcome addition to the catalogue. I’m never one to ignore an uptick in wearability and this certainly offers it. Achieving this without sacrificing any of the brand’s aesthetic cues is a job well done. While there is a massive drop-off in functionality from the Chronograph to the ...
Time+Tide
“Full set: box and papers.” If you’re buying a pre-owned watch, the inclusion of these extras that came with the original purchase will usually mean you have to pay more. The box and papers are a sign of the watch’s legitimacy. So when you buy a watch (new or second-hand), you make an effort to … ContinuedThe post Boxing clever: New report shows the market for fancy watch packaging is set to boom appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Revolution
Hodinkee
Evolving the brand's original design to create an affordable, lightweight, and distinctive take on the GMT.
Quill & Pad
Joshua Munchow talks about steel here, the metal that made the world! Watch cases and other movement components are commonly made from certain stainless steels, 304 and 316L being the most frequent. It also happens that some brands hold exclusive rights to use specific alloys in the production of its watches. Here's what you should know about steel.
Hodinkee
The futurists at Ressence find an ingenious use for tiny ceramic balls.
Quill & Pad
Launched in 2000, the Chronomètre à Résonance was the first wristwatch with a resonance mechanism and it catapulted F.P. Journe into the major leagues. This latest model in celebration of its 20th anniversary is an entirely new piece based on the resonance phenomenon that now incorporates a larger single mainspring (the original had two mainsprings) with a differential driving the two going trains and a pair of remontoire d’égalité escapements.
Quill & Pad
Joshua Munchow talks about steel here, the metal that made the world! Watch cases and other movement components are commonly made from certain stainless steels, 304 and 316L being the most frequent. It also happens that some brands hold exclusive rights to use specific alloys in the production of its watches. Here's what you should know about steel.
Revolution
Revolution
Revolution
Hodinkee
What We Know In 1932, a 36-year-old woman took a massive gamble early in her career at Blancpain. Betty Fiechter, who had worked for the brand since she was 16, faced a dilemma after the sudden death of the brand's owner, Frederic-Emile Blancpain. Together with commercial director Andre Leal, she helped secure loans to buy the company, even navigating the need to rename the manufacture because the Swiss government prevented anyone but someone with that name from using Blancpain. Fiechter would eventually mentor her nephew, Jean-Jacques Fiechter, and together they would inaugurate two of the brand's most successful icons: the Fifty Fathoms and the Ladybird. The original Ladybird Bullet The launch of the Ladybird in 1956 was a big deal, not just because a woman led a manufacturer in an era when women couldn't even vote in Switzerland. Inside the original Ladybird "Bullet" was the R55, the smallest round mechanical movement, and one with extra durability, with a fifth wheel to limit the force on the escapement and a shock protector on the balance wheel. It remains the smallest round mechanical movement to this day. To honor that watch, Fiechter, and the 70th anniversary of the Ladybird, Blancpain is releasing a new Lady B (for bullet, I'm sure, but also Betty and, according to the brand, bijou or "jewel") with very tiny dimensions. The watch measures a tiny 19mm by 13.2mm in either stainless steel or 18k red gold, with a total volume of only 2.9 cm³. Despite its size, it has...
Time+Tide
Melbourne welcomes Swiss material masters Rado to its retail district with an all-new boutique at 298 Collins Street
Monochrome
In many cases, particularly with in-house calibres, movements are the star of the show. Finishing, complexity and technology like silicon components and new escapement designs easily steal the limelight through exhibition case backs, but dials remain the centrepiece and what you see most of the time. Even in the mid-range segment where calibres are off-the-shelf […]
Monochrome
Cyma’s history begins in the 1860s, with the establishment of the Tavannes Watch company in the Swiss Jura, laying the foundation for a manufacture that would become an important name in Swiss watchmaking, even though the Cyma name was only registered in 1903. By the 1920s, the company had grown into one of Europe’s major […]
Monochrome
You might have heard of diamonds as endstones on the balance staff and the escapement, but putting them onto the balance wheel? Now, if you were to think of one watchmaker to do it, though, it would be Jacob & Co, never shy about challenging the conventions of high watchmaking. The new Brilliant Flying Tourbillon […]
Hodinkee
What We Know Alpina, the value-driven, adventure and outdoor Swiss watch brand, is chasing the sun (and artificial light) with some of its new releases. The brand is now, across more models, utilizing solar quartz movements manufactured by La Joux-Perret, the Swiss movement maker majority-owned by Japan's Citizen Group, which also controls Frederique Constant and Alpina. Solarmetre quartz movements are now available in both the updated Startimer Pilot and Alpiner Extreme models. Solar quartz is a natural fit for Alpina, bringing more reliability, accuracy, convenience, thinness, and value to its lineup. Both Solarmetre quartz models are priced at $1,495, offering an aggressively priced entry point into the brand with a movement also found in LVMH-owned watch brands, including TAG Heuer. The AL-140 caliber, solar quartz by La Joux-Perret, runs for up to 10 months in total darkness after a full charge, boosting the grab-and-go appeal. The shift to solar quartz (both model lines remain available in mechanical automatic versions as well) makes these pieces more practical while shaving millimeters from the case measurements and significant dollars from the price. Let's start with the solar Pilot Startimer. The new look for the pilot watch model was unveiled at Watches and Wonders this year, and now, amid the slew of releases for Geneva Watch Days, Alpina is giving us the Startimer Pilot Solarmetre. Available in three versions: two steel-cased models and one in sand-colo...
Time+Tide
Czapek celebrated its new flagship at Quai des Bergues 27 by releasing two limited editions during Geneva Watch Days 2026. The Quai des Bergues Midnight in Geneva pairs a 40.5mm steel case with a dark blue aventurine dial and Czapek’s seven-day, manually wound Calibre SXH1. The Place Vendôme Complicité Glacier Blue places its open-worked double-escapement … Continued
WristBuzz
More mineral magic from the Swiss brand, straight off the show floor at WWG26
Monochrome
The Big Crown Pointer Date has been a staple in the Oris collection since 1938 and is one of the most recognisable designs in Swiss watchmaking. For Geneva Watch Days 2026, Oris reimagines its signature model in a compact 29mm case, creating a more delicate and decorative expression for smaller wrists while carefully preserving the […]
Worn & Wound
It was nearly a year and a half ago that Breitling announced its acquisition of the long defunct Swiss watch brand Gallet. Since then, we’ve been waiting for an official comeback, and now it’s finally here in the year of the Maison’s 200th anniversary. Today marks the beginning of a new era of the historic watchmaker. In the 1800s when Gallet was first founded, La Chaus-de-Fonds was a global hub for watchmaking, giving rise to several legendary brands, including Breitling as well as Heuer, Zenith, and Girard-Perregaux. The period coincided with the Industrial Revolution, which trickled into the field of watchmaking, transforming it from a bespoke craft for the elite to an increasingly accessible craft thanks to growing mass production. The democratization of the watch opened doors for timekeepers to serve as more than a status symbol but a tool for adventurers in the realms of aviation, racing, and sailing. Gallet’s watches went on to time the Wright Brothers’ first powered flight, helped pilots track the time in world cities during the earliest intercontinental flights, and commemorated racing champion Rex Mays’ victory at the Springfield Mile. Gallet continues this lineage while bringing it into the modern era thanks to the technical expertise of Breitling. From the movements powering the models down to details like interchangeable quick release straps, Breitling has revived Gallet with contemporary upgrades while maintaining the original essence of the brand...
WristBuzz
The historic Swiss name relaunches in 2026 with four purpose-built collections, manufactured by Breitling and aimed squarely at the modern adventurer
Fratello
Gallet is returning to the watch industry in 2026, exactly 200 years after its founding in La Chaux-de-Fonds. The historic Swiss name returns as a sibling brand to Breitling, which will manufacture the new watches and provide the infrastructure behind them. The relaunch centers on four collections — Flying Officer, Multichron Pilot, Multichron Sport, and […] Visit Gallet Returns For Its 200th Anniversary With Four New Watch Collections to read the full article.
Monochrome
Akhor, an independent Swiss watch brand spearheaded by Anissa Bader, made its debut one year ago at Geneva Watch Days. Unlike many newcomers to the scene, Akhor benefits from Bader’s ties to Clamax, a watch component and micromechanics manufacturer based in Geneva. The inaugural watch was the poetic Le Temps en Equilibre, based on a […]
Hodinkee
This week on The Business of Watches, a visit with the folks running Armin Strom, a true original in the small but increasingly crowded field of independent watch brands. It takes its name and original inspiration from the eponymous Swiss watchmaker who was best known for his innovative and record-setting skeletonizing techniques on watches and dials. Childhood friends Serge Michel and Claude Greisler took over the brand in 2006. Michel, who controls the company, came from a family business background (in another field of business), while Greisler was a watchmaker and engineer. Twenty years on, Armin Strom is a true original in Swiss watchmaking, producing unique timepieces pushing the boundaries of contemporary horology from an atelier in Biel / Bienne, where most of the components are produced, decorated and finished for the brand's proprietary, in-house designed movements. Claude Greisler (left) and Serge Michel, the co-founders of Armin Strom. This week the brand launch a new version of its Dual Time GMT Resonance in a "manufacture blue edition" with a blue mainplate. The watch employs Armin Strom's unique take on the concept of resonance with dual oscillators kept in balance by its proprietary 'resonance clutch.' The story of the development of the brand's take on the concept is a key element in its journey and we explore and unpack that process in-depth in the episode. Currently making about 400 watches a year with a staff of about 55 people, Armin Strom is on...
Fratello
Tudor just unveiled its new Northflag watch. The name isn’t new, as the brand initially launched this explorer’s model in 2015, just before Baselworld. I clearly recall that launch, which featured Tudor bringing Land Rover Defenders into a dark Swiss forest (ensuring safety) to reveal the watches inside an adventurous tipi tent setup. The Tudor […] Visit A New Adventure With A Familiar Name: The New Tudor Northflag GMT to read the full article.
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