Results for Geneva Seal (Poinçon de Genève)

Are We Celebrating the Watchmaker to the Point of Ignoring the Designer?

Watchmakers are veritable rockstars but how many can actually name the designer of their watch? Can you name another designer beyond Gerald Genta?

Spot the Watch: David Beckham and how to tone down a yellow gold Rolex Yacht-Master

In this edition of Spot the Watch, David Beckham shows how wearing a watch on a different strap can give it a completely different look.

VIDEO: “I Don’t Wanna Drive My Grandfather’s Car”

Guido Terreni, watch boss at Bulgari and Wei Koh discuss modern watch design and the Bvlgari-Revolution Octo Finissimo Limited Edition.

9 Reasons to Enjoy Sinn

Sinn is probably one of the most underrated tool watch makers around and Deployant is sharing 9 mindblowing reasons why they provide good value.

Four Sides to the Story

As the centenary of rectangular dress watches approaches, and with Jaeger-LeCoultre celebrating the 85th anniversary of its seminal Reverso this year, Revolution celebrates a timeless timepiece genre – and its ultra-stylish wearers from yesteryear.

Still time to go the the World’s largest Hublot Pop Up store

Visit the world's largest Hublot Pop up Store: Still on at Ngee Ann City in Singapore till 26th August.

Throwback Sundays: Six Tribute Watches to SG50

A short guide for a SG50 watch, with pieces from Jaeger LeCoultre, Hublot, Montblanc, Orient, Ball, and Longines.

Hublot Red Dot Bang Limited Editions to celebrate Singapore’s 50th Birthday – With Pricing

The Hublot Red Dot Bang Limited Editions celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Singapore and the 10th anniversary of the Big Bang

Join Tudor USA Brand Manager Russell Kelly to Raise Funds for Every Mother Counts

On March 1, Tudor USA Brand Manager Russell Kelley will run the Kilimanjaro Marathon alongside Christy Turlington Burns, ultramarathoners Scott and Jenny Jurek, and a team of friends and supporters of Every Mother Counts. Every 2 minutes, a woman dies in childbirth, and nearly all of these deaths are preventable. Every Mother Counts is a […]

Rolex Partners With 70th Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race (Video)

How to reinvent the pocket watch: Hublot Masterpiece 03

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Poetic Traveller: Here and There with the Van Cleef & Arpels Heure d’ici & Heure d’ailleurs (Video)

For all its prosaic utility, the second-time-zone complication is a remarkably romantic function. On the surface, it is what it is: an indication of the time in a different location in the world, which allows for convenient reference when traveling. For frequent travelers, however, the second-time-zone function carries an additional emotional charge: it is an […]

SIHH 2014: The return of the king – Homage to Roger Dubuis

sihh tourbillon double tourbillon chronograph column wheel 2014

“Why The Breitling Emergency Is Not A Toy…” Another Opinion. (VIDEO)

We had a look at Brian Jones’s Breitling Emergency in a previous article. Today, we hear from another pilot, this time Jacques Bothelin, Leader of the Breitling Jet Team, who offers his opinion on why the Breitling Emergency is a serious professional tool, with particular emphasis on the new features of the recently launched 2013 […]

“Why The Breitling Emergency Is Not A Toy…” with Brian Jones. (VIDEO)

A Quick Guide to Patek Philippe’s Minute Repeaters

BREAKING NEWS: Jérôme Lambert To Depart Jaeger-LeCoultre And Take Montblanc Top Job In July 2013

The news that Jérôme Lambert, current CEO of 180-year-old Swiss house of high watchmaking Jaeger-LeCoultre, will be heading up product-diverse Montblanc as of 1 July 2013 was released today, taking the industry by surprise. Speculation about the future leadership of the Hamburg-headquartered Montblanc had been been gradually heating up since early 2012, but this is […]

Bell & Ross: From The Cockpit To The Wrist.

A NEW TRIO AND A REVISED INSTRUMENTATION PANEL In 2013, Bell & Ross is enhancing the AVIATION collection with three new instruments directly inspired by the cockpit, – AIRSPEED, FLIGHT COMPASS and CLIMB. These three new models -BR 01 AIRSPEED, BR01 Flight Compass and BR01 CLIMB- are each available in limited editions of 999 pieces. […]

Max Bill by Junghans; Watch Design Brought Back to its Essence

Junghans is a brand that most people know from their clocks and radio-controlled watches. In both categories the  brand has made quite a name for itself, often combining innovative design with the latest technical developments. But what Junghans decisively gave a place in watchmaking history is its collaboration with architect/designer Max Bill. As an apprentice […]

Pavonina – a brilliant tribute to women

Glashütte Original celebrates women in all their facets with a completely new collection of feminine timepieces. The dazzling models in the “Pavonina” collection are as impressive and seductive as the contemporary, confident women for whom they were created. Pavonina – from the Latin for peacock, pavoninus, evokes luminous bursts of colour and glittering beauty. The […]

To be continued … Glashütte Original extends partnership with the Berlin International Film Festival to 2016

German watchmakers Glashütte Original and the Berlin International Film Festival have extended their current partnership agreement by a further three years, through 2016. Glashütte Original has served as Co-Partner since the 61st Berlinale in 2011, celebrating and supporting the art of filmmaking and Berlin’s largest cultural event. The 62nd Berlinale saw the German watchmaker enhance […]

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, The Strange Case of IWC Schaffhausen’s SIHH 2013’s Ingenieur.

If you have read Jack Forster’s brilliant report on this year’s IWC Ingenieur collection unveiled at SIHH 2013, you must be as excited as I am. Personally, Visiting the surreal IWC booth itself was an unforgettable experience. with one Formula 1 car at one side of the booth floor and a racing car engine on another. With IWC Ingenieur watches being displayed on pumping engine […]

First Look – Certina Doubles Down with the New DS Super PH2000M Sea Turtle Consverancy (Incl. Video)

Certina has a very long legacy in keeping watches safe from the effects of shocks and water, dating back to the Double Security system introduced in 1959. This has remained a key element in the brand’s watches, which it expanded last year with the DS Concept Extreme Shock Resistance system. Doubling down on this legacy, […]

Happenings: The Patek Philippe Museum Celebrates 50 Years Of The Nautilus With A Special Museum Exhibition

If you have ever been through Geneva but missed visiting the Patek Philippe Museum, you have missed the full horological experience. We should be thankful to the recently departed Mr. Philippe Stern, who passed away earlier this week, for leaving a legacy that extends not just to the work he did at Patek Philippe (of which his family has been caretakers of for generations) but also for providing a beautiful and robust celebration of watchmaking history through the Patek Philippe Museum. The space on Rue des Vieux-Grenadiers houses some of the most historically significant watches, not only from the storied brand's past but also from the broader history of watchmaking in Switzerland and abroad. And from June 2026 to early 2027, the museum is celebrating the 50th anniversary of one of their most important, influential, and coveted models: the Nautilus. Photo courtesy Patek Philippe. I've been to the museum a number of times, and the Nautilus has never taken a particularly prominent place in any display. With hundreds, if not thousands, of Patek Philippe watches on display, many of them unique, many of them complicated or artistically oriented, the Nautilus is truly only a small part of the brand's history. But it's also been the avenue through which the brand has reached its broadest audience, and the watch has made a massive impact on popular culture at large. So it's a watch worth celebrating. Patek is doing so in the way that feels most "them," with a very historically mi...

Industry News – The EPHJ 2026, Where the Future of Watchmaking Takes Shape Behind The Scenes

Every June, Geneva becomes the meeting point for the world of high precision. Held annually at Palexpo (June 16 to 19, for the 2026 edition), the EPHJ trade show brings together more than 20,000 visitors and over 800 exhibitors from the watchmaking, jewellery, microtechnology and medical technology sectors, making it the largest high-precision industry exhibition […]

Obituary: Philippe Stern, Pivotal Leader of Patek Philippe

Philippe Stern, who served as general director and later president of Patek Philippe from 1977 to 2009, died yesterday at the age of 88. Under his stewardship, the Geneva manufacture was transformed from a small, workshop-scattered operation into the global benchmark for fine watchmaking, a position it holds to this day. He was the third generation of the Stern family to lead the company. His grandfather Charles, alongside his brother Jean, had acquired Patek Philippe from insolvency in 1932 from their position as the firm’s trusted dial supplier. His father Henri had built the company’s modern international distribution network and established the Henri Stern Watch Agency in New York, laying the commercial foundations on which Philippe would build. Father and son, Henri and Philippe Stern. Image – Patek Philippe Philippe Stern became managing director in 1977, at the height of the quartz crisis. The timing could not have been more demanding. Swiss watch industry employment was collapsing, from roughly 90,000 workers to a fraction of that figure within a few years, as electronic timekeeping rendered the mechanical watch commercially marginal almost overnight. Many established manufacturers collapsed, merged, or abandoned mechanical production entirely. Stern’s response defined his presidency. He kept the tooling, retained his engineers, and committed Patek Philippe irrevocably to mechanical watchmaking at the precise moment the industry consensus ran in the opposit...

Introducing – The New ArtyA Purity Tourbillon Sport Editions

Artya is known for not shying away from creativity, boldness and boundary-pushing designs, and proves this once more with its latest release. Following earlier models like the Purity Tourbillon, Purity Stairway to Heaven and Purity Central Tourbillon housed in the brand’s signature sapphire cases, the Geneva-based manufacture now introduces the Purity Tourbillon Sport Edition, a limited […]

In-Depth: Patek Philippe Calibre 89

In 1989, Geneva’s storied watchmaker unveiled the most complicated watch ever made – the Patek Philippe Calibre 89. The genesis of the Calibre 89 arguably started almost a century before with a watch made in Besançon, the historical heart of French watchmaking. In 1977, the Association Française des Amateurs d’Horlogerie Ancienne (AFAHA) published the first issue of its journal Horlogerie Ancienne. The watch on the cover was the Leroy 01. The caption on the inside front page read, “Montre Leroy 01, la plus compliquée du monde” – “The most complicated watch in the world”. Inside, on page 15, a short article made the case: the Leroy 01, completed in 1904 by the Parisian firm of Louis Leroy for the Portuguese collector António Augusto de Carvalho Monteiro, held a title that no other timepiece had successfully disputed. In Geneva, the claim was noted. The first issue of Horlogerie Ancienne of 1977. Image – SJX composite/AFAHA Two years later, in early June 1979, Philippe Stern was at his desk in Patek Philippe’s offices on the rue du Rhône when Max Studer, the firm’s technical director, came in for what the records describe as a routine meeting. The 150th anniversary of the manufacture was a decade away. Among the ideas being considered to celebrate the occasion was a reproduction of the Henry Graves Jr. Supercomplication, the watch Patek had built in 1932, with its twenty-four complications, that had served as the benchmark of mechanical ambition ev...

Auctions: Previewing New York's Spring Auction Season At Phillips, Sotheby's, And Christie's

Auction season can be exhausting. I can barely believe that we do this twice a year. We often only have the time and energy to cover the main show in Geneva, with a few thousand lots offered between four auction houses just last month. But after Geneva and Hong Kong (which comes before Geneva for some houses and after for others), the circus comes to New York, and this year we're going to take a gander at the watches on offer in the city. Most auction houses don't drop their catalogs until after Geneva is over. That prevents people from holding their bids because they're doing the "distracted boyfriend meme" and looking at future watches. That keeps them from going all-in in Geneva, which isn't what the auction houses want. They want your bids now and later. Well, later is here, and I hope you have some cash left over. Weirdly, I'm getting a sense of déjà vu; there are a few familiar-looking watches. So let's go ahead and take a look. Phillips It was a banner weekend for Phillips in Hong Kong with a pretty fantastic $51.5 million sale, backed by the $10.2 million sale of the first series rose gold Patek 2499, which became the most expensive wristwatch ever sold in Asia. That is one of three mega Pateks Phillips was offering this season, which is rounded out by an incredibly clean and honest 1518. I know the record result means that that should be the watch to pick, all things being equal, but I still like a watch that looks basically untouched. Photo courtesy Phillips. P...

Industry News – Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier Unveils the VMF 5500, ts Upgraded Micro-Rotor Movement

As the EPHJ Geneva trade fair, the major annual gathering dedicated to precision industries, including watchmaking, medtech and high-tech manufacturing, approaches (from 16 – 19 June), several suppliers exhibiting at the show have started unveiling their latest developments. Among them is Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier, a movement maker well known to regular readers of MONOCHROME Watches, […]