1,498 articles · 152 videos found · page 21 of 55
Monochrome
10 years ago, a young architect named Michiel Holthinrichs had the idea to create watches… But not like every other young indie watchmaker. What made it unique? The Ornament 1 was the world’s first 3D-printed stainless steel watch. And it certainly had a design of its own, inspired by Michiel’s previous career. The specially-commissioned watch […]
Fratello
Is there such a thing as a best rotor? A pragmatic watchmaker might say a heavy central one that winds the mainspring the most efficiently is the best. A collector of traditional watches with similar movements might say that nothing beats a solid micro-rotor. And I know people with a deep fondness for technical watchmaking […] Visit How Do You Like Your Rotor - Central, Micro, Or Peripheral? And What About A Hammer? to read the full article.
Fratello
When Porsche Design invited me to visit the opening of its new Timepieces Manufaktur, I was immediately intrigued. Having visited the relatively small old workshop in Solothurn before, a big new facility inevitably implies lofty ambitions. What is the German carmaker/Swiss watchmaker up to? As your intrepid reporter, I made it my mission to find […] Visit Visiting Porsche Design’s New Manufaktur And Discovering What It Means For The Brand’s Future to read the full article.
Monochrome
As you might remember, Louis Vuitton and De Bethune recently introduced the third chapter in LV’s ongoing journey through independent watchmaking, the LVDB-03 Louis Varius Project, following the LVRR-01 Chronographe à Sonnerie made with Rexhep Rexhepi, founder of Atelier Akrivia, and the LVKV-02 GMR 6 made with Finnish-born watchmaker Kari Voutilainen. While we were expecting to […]
Worn & Wound
We live in a (watch) world where brand names reign supreme and terms like “in-house” carry a lot of weight. However, I find it much more interesting when a watchmaker is willing to peel back the curtain and highlight the great minds and hands that go into crafting the watches we love. Recently, Nomos gave us one of those unique opportunities to sit down with the man behind the design of one of its core collections: the Metro. The Metro first came into the Nomos catalog back in 2014. At the time, it made waves thanks to its debut of the brand’s proprietary swing escapement system, which was developed over seven years with the Fraunhofer Institute and TU Dresden. The structure notably features a tempered blue balance spring and offers superior precision, efficiency, and compactness with a thickness of approximately 3.2mm, which perfectly lends itself to Nomos’ sleek and effortless timepieces. While perhaps considered secondary at its initial introduction, the form of the new collection was given just as much attention as the function. In typical Nomos fashion, the caliber was housed in a modern and minimalist design echoing the tenets of German watchmaking but with a twist. This creation was the brainchild of industrial designer Mark Braun. The project marks Braun’s first and only foray into the watch space. The artist has worked in nearly every medium under the sun from furniture to kitchenware and birdhouses to shaving kits, light fixtures, jewelry, calligraphy p...
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Worn & Wound
Having none myself, I’m always a bit impressed when it comes to those who have artistic talent – and that goes doubly for those who can appreciate the everyday beauty around them. This is especially true when those two virtues combine to form a beautiful little timepiece, like the Altmann × Isotope Osaka Cloisonné Enamel, a new collaboration between English watchmaker Isotope and designer, illustrator, and typographer Björn Altmann. The first, and perhaps only, thing you will notice about this watch is its dial, which is based on a municipal manhole cover featuring Osaka Castle. Now, you may be asking yourself, why Japanese manhole covers? I can assure you that you are not alone in that. Apparently, after a Wikipedia deep dive, it is something of an urban art form and a show of civic pride throughout Japan. In fact, more than 15 million manhole covers across the country feature some sort of carved, imprinted, or painted design. This was a niche interest of Isotope founder José Miranda, which eventually led Miranda to Björn Altmann’s book Manhole Covers of the World. This, in turn, led to this collaboration you see before you today. The intricacy of the dial does not stop with its source material. The dial itself is made in grand feu cloisonné enamel, using fine silver wires and multiple rounds of firing to build out the design and color. The process took close to a year to develop, and in the end only five dials were successfully completed, which helps explain ...
Quill & Pad
On one path stands Blancpain, a brand wrapped in the romance of antiquity and contemporary defiance. On the other path stands Jaeger-LeCoultre, the intellectual powerhouse frequently revered as the watchmaker of watchmakers. Which do you choose? The post Clash of the Titans: A Comprehensive Guide to Blancpain vs. Jaeger-LeCoultre appeared first on Quill & Pad.
Monochrome
Japanese culture is full of superbly interesting and ancient crafts, which every now and then find their way into a watch. Some of the best-known examples are Urushi lacquering, Washi paper, and Arita porcelain, but there are dozens of other crafts deeply embedded in the country’s history and tradition. Japanese independent watchmaker and AHCI-member Daizoh […]
SJX Watches
Independent watchmaker Marco Lang has just unveiled the Seven Spheres, a wristwatch containing a multi-axis central tourbillon. Diversifying away from his conservative style, the Dresden-based watchmaker presents an ambitious and dynamic mechanical sculpture that tells time. Inspired by the ideas of both Ptolemy and Carl Sagan, Mr Lang has achieved a rare feat with the Seven Spheres, building a watch that is both technically imaginative and artistically crafted. Initial thoughts We are seldom treated to multi-axis tourbillons, so Marco Lang’s entry to this niche and ambitious category is most welcome. The Seven Spheres is the his first tourbillon since leaving Lang & Heyne in 2019, and demonstrates the full breadth of his technical skill. The theme of seven spheres was inspired by the geocentric universe model theorised by Ptolemy in the first century. The astronomer’s theory was built around having the Earth as the centre of the universe, orbited by seven planets. Inspired by this obsolete theory, Mr Lang created the Seven Spheres, which places the regulating organ inside seven turning rings, which comprise the complex multi-axis tourbillon cage. The movement with its central multi-axis tourbillon vaguely resembles Vianney Halter’s Deep Space Tourbillon. However, the Seven Sphere’s architecture is even more interesting than that of the Deep Space, since the central tourbillon appears to be suspended in mid air. The Seven Spheres is one of the most complex multi-...
Monochrome
Following the sudden and surprising departure of Antoine Pin in January, after being at the head of TAG Heuer for just over a year, the Swiss watchmaker owned by French luxury powerhouse LVMH has just announced the appointment of a new CEO – after several shakups, following the departure from this role in 2013 of […]
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Monochrome
Otsuka Lotec… The Japanese brand (or should we call it an atelier) that makes some noise in the global watch collecting community, despite being unavailable outside of Japan – which might partially explain its popularity. A true JDM sensation, Otsuka Lotec is the brainchild of Jiro Katayama, a car designer turned self-taught, independent watchmaker, specialised […]
Monochrome
Junghans is better known for its Bauhaus-inspired pieces, such as the Max Bill series, but the German watchmaker has also ventured into the pilots’ and sports territories. With the new Aquaris series, the brand expands its Sport collection by adding four new references: the Aquaris Diver with green or orange accents, and the more lifestyle-oriented […]
Time+Tide
Depancel, a French watchmaker specializing in automotive-inspired timepieces, has partnered with DAMS Lucas Oil for the 2026 season.The post The Depancel Série RO1 x DAMS Lucas Oil Limited Edition brings a twist to an iconic look appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Worn & Wound
It’s a fair assumption that if you’re the kind of enthusiast that’s interested in independent watchmaking, the allure of something a little different isn’t lost on you. The independent watch space is a wildly diverse one that’s full of outsider artisans, but even in a field of outsiders, English watchmaker James Lamb is something of an anomaly. Lamb’s watches genuinely don’t look like anything else on the market. While they’re all time-only affairs, they feature an offset sub-dial layout that frees up the outer portion of the dial to be used as a decorative space. With his Origin Series, Lamb applies strikingly colorful enamel work to the outer dial section. With his latest release, the Linea Edition, Lamb has collaborated with one of the UK’s most respected ornamental engravers, Joanne Ryall, to create a line of watches with beautifully hand-engraved titanium and gold outer dials. While the dials are showstopping displays of handcraft, Lamb’s watches also feature completely handmade cases (read: no CNC machines used), which he crafts out of Argentium silver. Lamb’s case designs are robust and understated; they do a fabulous job of grounding the watch’s bold dial designs, but the craftsmanship that goes into them is something serious horology enthusiasts fawn over. For Lamb, a self-proclaimed watch industry isolationist, doing things like crafting his cases entirely by hand is kind of the whole point of making watches. Lamb deliberately avoids...
Monochrome
When you think about Kurono Tokyo, the side-brand of Japanese independent watchmaker Hajime Asaoka, you should picture something compact and elegant in your mind. Watches often focus on traditional crafts, with restrained cases and classically Japanese. The sportiest models the brand has ever created were mid-century-styled chronographs. Well, this is about to change as Hajime […]
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Monochrome
The audacity of Horologer Ming as a watch designer and an independent watchmaker isn’t to be demonstrated anymore… Over its short life, the brand has managed to create a strong identity, yet it never ceases to evolve. Since its debut in 2017, the collective led by designer and photographer Ming Thein has built an impressive […]
SJX Watches
The dinner in Basel had reached the stage where the porcelain was being cleared, but the tension at the table remained heavier than the silverware. Dr Eugen Gschwind, a man who wore his erudition as comfortably as his tailored suits, watched his guest with the predator’s patience that had defined his four decades of collecting. Across from him sat George Daniels, the English horologist and watchmaker who had single-handedly dragged the concept of the handmade watch out of the grave of history. Daniels was brilliant, notoriously opinionated, and, according to some, firmly convinced that he was the spiritual reincarnation of Abraham-Louis Breguet. François-Paul Journe´s 3/84 pocketwatch, Dr Gscwind´s first commission. Image SJX composite – F.P. Journe Gschwind liked Daniels. He championed the Englishman’s genius, yet remained too dogmatic to ever buy his work. He had famously toasted Daniels at a society dinner as the ‘greatest living watchmaker,’ only to follow it with the dry, smiling addendum: ‘But only the second-best watchmaker who ever lived.’ Tonight, however, was not about jests. It was the culmination of a long-simmering technical argument. For years, Gschwind had chided Daniels about his reliance on the 15-second remontoir d’égalité. To Daniels, this mechanism, which rewound a secondary spring every quarter-minute to smooth out the torque of the mainspring, was the ultimate solution to the problem of isochronism. Gschwind viewed it was a compro...
SJX Watches
Independent watchmaker Armin Strom has upgraded its flagship complication with a precious stone dial. The Mirrored Force Resonance Ruby is a five-piece limited edition with a dial cut from natural ruby. Initial thoughts Armin Strom is arguably the second-most prominent watchmaker (after F.P. Journe) to successfully bring “resonance” watches to market. We extensively covered the subject of coupled oscillator watches recently, which examines Armin Strom’s unique approach to achieving this mysterious effect. Within this narrow niche, Armin Strom’s Mirrored Force series is certainly the broadest collection of resonance watches on the market, with multiple movements and many variations exploiting the almost magic coupling between two sprung balances. This new limited edition employs the familiar in-house caliber ARF21, which connects the two hairspring by a long, swivelling blade spring - dubbed the Resonance Clutch Spring. While the movement is certainly well known, this particular iteration of the watch is quite surprising: a thin slice of natural ruby serves as the dial, with all the imperfections and liveliness of a natural mineral. Using a ruby dial is not only aesthetically appealing but poetic for a mechanical watch. The jewels serving as bearings inside every movement are synthetic rubies - a fancy sort of industrial mineral glass. The uneven bright pink and violet shades of the Mirrored Force Resonance Ruby’s dial assure us there is nothing artificial...
Monochrome
German indie watchmaker Stefan Kudoke expands the HANDwerk collection with the Kudoke 3 Nocturne, keeping the core concept intact but changing its expression, much like the Nocturne edition of the Kudoke 2. This new variant builds on the Kudoke 3, previously available in various executions, including Sky Blue, salmon, and the Flakes edition with the […]
Monochrome
Chronoswiss was founded in 1983 by German watchmaker Gerd Rüdiger Lang and was sold in early 2012 to Swiss entrepreneurs Oliver and Eva Ebstein, who transferred operations to Lucerne, Switzerland. Known for reviving the regulator layout, Lang’s neoclassical design language, characterised by oversized onion crowns, knurled bezels, guilloché dials and Breguet-inspired features, was modernised by […]
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Deployant
The return of a legend. Henri Grandjean, now re-established as an independent watchmaker with a new triple axis tourbillon which they call the Magician.
Teddy Baldassarre
To many watch enthusiasts today, Nivada Grenchen is a boutique watchmaker that seemed to pop up out of nowhere several years ago and quickly found itself in the neo-vintage price-to-value conversation, alongside a handful of other start-up microbrands. But in actuality, the brand turns 100 years old this year, and its retro-stylish, mostly tool-oriented watches are not merely following a trend of evoking a fondly remembered era of watch design; they are actually modern remakes of watches that the brand released decades ago. [toc-section heading="Nivada Grenchen History & Highlights"] Watchmaker Jacob Schneider established the workshop that became the Nivada brand in 1926, in the Swiss town of Grenchen (its Swiss-German name; the French-Swiss call it “Granges”). Unlike many of its contemporaries, which were still focusing on high-luxury timepieces, Nivada Grenchen put its emphasis from the start on practical, reliable tool watches, quickly gaining acclaim for its developments in this area. Schneider’s company also was among the first to merge traditional Swiss watchmaking techniques with emerging industrial technologies. Starting in the 1930s, Nivada Grenchen became one of the first Swiss watchmaking companies to mass produce watches with automatic movements - an invention that had only been around since John Harwood patented the first one in 1923. Nivada Grenchen (the “Grenchen” was officially added to the brand name after litigation by Movado, which was conc...
Monochrome
Hamilton is often referred to as the watchmaker of cinema, which is no surprise since Hamilton watches have appeared in more than 500 films. Recently, the brand has expanded its reach into video games, where immersion and character development are equally important. Hamilton Far Cry 6, Death Stranding 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops […]
Monochrome
Since founding Sarpaneva Watches in Helsinki, the independent Finnish watchmaker Stepan Sarpaneva has consistently explored an approach shaped by the Nordic visual universe, mechanical honesty and a powerful sense of narrative. Best known for his Korona case design and expressive moon displays, Sarpaneva has built a recognisable catalogue which offers a combination of traditional watchmaking […]
Teddy Baldassarre
Breitling announced today that it has become the Official Watch Partner of British luxury carmaker Aston Martin and the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One racing team. The multi-year global partnership, which marks the Swiss watchmaker’s return to the high-octane world of F1 motorsports after many decades, kicks off with a wristwatch milestone: the Breitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph 43 Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team, which is no less than the first timepiece in the iconic Navitimer series with a case made of lightweight titanium. The two world-renowned companies have some ties throughout their prestigious histories. Breitling, while it has not been as visible in the racing world over the years as brands like Rolex and TAG Heuer, was an early contributor to motorsport timing. In 1907, Léon Breitling, who had founded his eponymous watchmaking firm in 1884, invented a device called the “Vitesse” (French for “speed”), a mechanical chronograph capable of measuring speeds up to 250 miles per hour. Its utility and precision spurred the Swiss police to adopt it for speed enforcement, which led to the world’s first speeding tickets. Just six years later, in 1913, Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford drove their hand-built automobile to a defining victory up the treacherous Aston Hill, giving their company a name and kicking off a long tradition of making cars built for both performance and luxury. The paths of the Swiss high-horology house and the British marque cr...
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