2,209 articles · 14 videos found · page 28 of 75
Two Broke Watch Snobs
The Bulova Lunar Pilot chronograph is a watch that has plagued my mind for such a long time, I figured it was time to get my thoughts down and share them with the community. Close to a year ago, I pulled the trigger and purchased it from a small family jeweler selling the watch well below MSRP.
Revolution
Revolution
Revolution’s editors pick holiday watches for each other - in secret.
Revolution
Extraordinary moment. A watch that transmits all the achievements of Berthoud as the father of French marine chronometer in a brilliantly contemporary timepiece. Karl-Friedrich Scheufele has revived the mythology of one of horology’s most mythical names with beautiful modern eloquence. Karl-Friedrich Scheufele is better known as the head honcho of Chopard timepieces, but he has […]
Revolution
“Precision and Splendor: Clocks and Watches at the Frick Collection” is an exhibit at New York’s Frick Collection of a stunning group of priceless clocks and watches, many from the collection of Winthrop K. Edey, who bequeathed his collection of clocks and watches –which includes remarkable timepieces dating all the way back to the Renaissance […]
Hodinkee
Two months ago, I spent a Friday lunch eating a sandwich called the Crazy Poulet at Notos Bar Restaurant in Le Sentier with Mark Schmid, who is a sort of jack-of-all-trades in the marketing and communications department at Audemars Piguet. Schmid has quickly become someone I'd consider a friend, whom I appreciate for our candid conversations, his willingness (and frequency) to correct my confusion between l'accent aigu and l'accent grave in articles, and, more recently, his gastronomic suggestions. I'm sure this story will require a few more corrections from Mark, for which I apologize (mostly to him) in advance, but I wanted to share a recent experience that illustrates why I love Switzerland's Vallée de Joux, past and present. Le Sentier, pictured back in 2022 on the author's first trip to Switzerland. The town, now home to the headquarters of Jaeger-LeCoultre, was the hometown of Samuel-Olivier Meylan, the first watchmaker in the valley who began crafting timepieces around 1743 and set the stage for what is arguably the most important geographic location in watchmaking. "People ask me what I'd want to do if I didn't work at Hodinkee," I said. "Sometimes I say that I wish I could be the head of the tourism bureau for the Vallée de Joux." "Well, maybe you could be our advocate in New York," he said. "But if you came back here on a Thursday night at 4 o'clock, this place would be full. You'd hear watchmakers talking about all the things they were up to at AP, JLC, Blancp...
Hodinkee
What We Know Just in time for the hot and humid summer ahead, Doxa has just unveiled a new generation of its distinctive, cushion-cased dive-watch-slash-chronograph with the new Sub 200 T.Graph II. The best part? It's no longer a limited edition, but rather a permanent offering for the brand. Oh, and thankfully, it's priced less than that previous 300-piece LE. At a quick glance, nothing seems to have changed on Doxa's tribute to its 1969 design, and you'd be sort of correct. The dial layout, with two subdials at 3 and 9 o'clock, along with an oversized arrowhead chronograph seconds hand, remains the same in this new generation. But the main changes here are sure to make almost everyone happy: a slight reduction in diameter and case thickness. While the previous Sub 200 T.Graph measured at 43mm in diameter with a thickness of 15.15mm, the steel case on the Sub 200 T.Graph II measures 42mm in diameter and 14.6mm in thickness. Rather than the new old stock Valjoux 7734 chronograph caliber that the limited edition housed, this new T.Graph II uses a contemporary automatic Sellita SW510 chronograph caliber, with a slightly higher 56-hour power reserve and a much higher beat rate of 28,800 VpH. New to the Sub 200 T.Graph II is also another dial color, Caribbean (Doxa's name for blue), which is a familiar livery within the brand's other models but never before offered on a T.Graph. The dark, slightly dusty navy dial joins the three other colorways found in the original design: ...
Hodinkee
What We Know It's been a while since we've heard from Autodromo. The motorsports-inspired boutique brand is a longtime favorite of many here at Hodinkee. Heck, we did a pretty cool LE with them back in 2023, featuring a special-edition series of Group B Chronographs. That same year, the brand unveiled its Group C, a watch that captured the spirit of digital '80s watches rather nicely. Today, Autodromo is launching its first totally new model since then. Meet the Autodromo Group C Turbo Sport, a fresh take on the practical analog-digital (ana-digi) watches like the Tissot Two Timer, the Heuer Manhattan Chronosplit GMT, and, of course, Breitling's Aerospace and Pluton that once adorned wrists behind the wheel and at the track a couple of decades back. The case is 38.5 millimeters in diameter and made from anodized aluminum – that's the alloy that your BMX bike parts used to be made from back in the day – or at least mine were. The new Group C Turbo comes in three anodized aluminum flavors, clear, grey, and gold. Each has a stainless steel caseback and features a grid dial that's meant to evoke the tachymeter instruments of the Group C Turbo racing era that ran from the early 1980s until about 1993, and was defined by European endurance events including the 24 hours of Le Mans. The Group C cars of the era that inspired these watches featured clean lines, ground effects that delivered high downforce, and turbochargers, offering outsized horsepower that demanded physi...
Monochrome
If there’s one epicentre of watchmaking outside of Switzerland that can measure itself with Le Locle or the Vallée du Joux, it’s Glashütte. This small region in the far east of Germany was once known for its rich iron ore deposits and very active mining culture. But as deposits ran dry and prosperity dwindled, people […]
Monochrome
If there’s one epicentre of watchmaking outside of Switzerland that can measure itself with Le Locle or the Vallée du Joux, it’s Glashütte. This small region in the far east of Germany was once known for its rich iron ore deposits and very active mining culture. But as deposits ran dry and prosperity dwindled, people […]
Monochrome
Designed in 1978 by Henri d’Origny, the acclaimed artistic director of Hermès who defined le gout Hermès, the elegantly asymmetrical Arceau echoes the brand’s longstanding equestrian ties with its stirrup-shaped lugs. The latest Arceau Cavalier en Formes is an amalgamation of the collection’s strengths, combining a highly sophisticated tourbillon and minute repeater complication with a […]
Monochrome
Just a stone’s throw north of Neuchâtel, Switzerland and crossing the border into France, you will stumble upon a town called Morteau. Much like Le Locle and the Vallée de Joux are for the Swiss, Morteau is the heart of French mechanical watchmaking. It is here that you will find the Pequignet manufacture, a company […]
WristBuzz
The Le Locle manufacture launches a new collaboration program, and its first partner is the most talked-about independent in Japan
Hodinkee
It's been some time since we visited Philippe Dufour's workshop—at least officially. I'm not sure if my colleagues have stopped in before, which wouldn't surprise me. Once you know Dufour, stopping by his workshop in Le Solliat becomes much more informal. But until two weeks ago, I actually hadn't stepped foot inside the old building that was once his kids' schoolhouse and that has become his workshop. Back in 2013, Ben stopped by during the "Road to Basel" series, but a lot has changed since then. Or has it? Despite being a watchmaker for over 59 years now, all Philippe Dufour seems to want to do is make watches. And where better to do it than the famed "Valley of Complications"? When we last left him, Ben noted that he had just delivered the last of his Simplicities, after about 200 watches. "He will never make another," said Ben, and that Dufour was working on a more complicated follow-up. Well, since then, he certainly has delivered more Simplicities, including one with an aventurine dial that was auctioned for charity, and there are still more watches on the bench. And it's not just him at the workshop; his daughter Danièla is also working away as well. Tools on the display cases inside Philippe Dufour's workshop and a selection of pocket watches In 2022, I traveled to Switzerland and the Vallée de Joux for the first time to research and photograph a story on the watchmaker Charles-Henri Meylan. I immediately fell in love with the place. The three-dimensiona...
Monochrome
Last year, Louis Erard entered the integrated sports watch segment with the 2340 collection, a sharply designed and relatively accessible proposition built in titanium and steel, with a nicely executed integrated bracelet. Named after the postal code of Le Noirmont, the brand’s home in the Swiss Jura, the 2340 marked a departure from the regulator […]
Monochrome
David Candaux, born and raised in Le Solliat, in the Vallée de Joux, belongs to a lineage of watchmakers. Yet his work consistently merges classical craftsmanship with highly personal engineering and design solutions. After years at Jaeger-LeCoultre, where he contributed to some of the manufacture’s most ambitious projects, and later collaborations with some of the […]
Deployant
We were in Le Solliat, up in the Valée de Joux last November, and met up with David Candaux. Here is our hands on comprehensive review of the DC12 MaveriK.
Hodinkee
What We Know Bradley Taylor, a Canadian independent watchmaker working out of a 1,000-square-foot workshop in North Vancouver, has released the Ardea, his third watch and first with an in-house movement. Taylor, a rising talent in the space, trained in Le Locle under Henrik Korpela, earned a Patek Philippe Level II service certification in Geneva, and produced two sold-out series before beginning work on the Ardea in late 2023. The Ardea is offered in stainless steel or platinum 950 and measures 37.8mm in diameter with a 46.4mm lug-to-lug and a thickness of 10.9mm, including the crystals. The sapphire caseback is very slightly domed for wrist comfort, and the watch is rated to 5 ATM. The dial is 925 sterling silver, engine-turned on a rose engine that Taylor estimates is roughly 120 years old, and he restored it over three months. The pattern is a 36-scallop rosette with a progressive phase shift between each concentric pass, producing a characterful swirling texture. After the engraving, the dial is depletion-gilded, a silversmithing process that involves repeated heating and acid treatment until the dial's surface is pure silver. It is then sealed with Zapon lacquer. The text and markings are pad-printed on a Tampoprint machine that Taylor also restored himself. The applied numerals are machined from solid platinum and hand-polished to a spherical shape. The dial lettering and wordmark were designed by Ian Brignell, a Toronto typographer whose work includes the Paramou...
Monochrome
The second-oldest name in watchmaking history, Favre Leuba’s origins go back to 1737, when Abraham Favre was recorded as a watchmaker in Le Locle. Following a global relaunch in 2024 under the leadership of CEO Patrik P. Hoffmann, Favre Leuba’s modern revival focuses on precision-driven timepieces that honour the brand’s extensive archives while meeting contemporary […]
Hodinkee
The Le Locle-based manufacture marks a milestone of its flagship collection with what might be the most ambitious Freak yet.
Hodinkee
The reintroduction of the Calibre 135 headlines a focused set of new releases from the Le Locle-based manufacture.
Monochrome
At the start of the year, an illustrious historic name returned to the world of watchmaking: Henri Grandjean. Once renowned for its highly precise chronometers and intricate pocket watches, Henri Grandjean was a master watchmaker from Le Locle, Switzerland. His work is on display in some of the best watchmaking museums around the world, including […]
Fratello
Le Locle is a special watchmaking town in Switzerland. Treviso in Italy is special too. It’s the home of Pinarello, a manufacturer of high-performance race bikes. And that’s a very successful brand. No fewer than 15 Tour de France titles were won on a Pinarello, for instance. The Tissot Pinarello Special Edition is a watch […] Visit Introducing: The Tissot Pinarello Special Edition - An Asymmetric, Race-Bike-Inspired, Carbon-Cased Watch to read the full article.
Monochrome
Angelus is a historical Swiss watch brand founded in 1891 in Le Locle by Albert and Gustav Stolz, known for technically ambitious and award-winning chronographs, multi-complication watches and even chiming models. After a long period of dormancy following the quartz crisis, the brand was revived in 2011. Tapping into its rich archive, Angelus has gathered […]
Teddy Baldassarre
Before we get into my review of the Oris Big Crown Pointer Date Bullseye, let's get some context about the brand out of the way. Oris traces its foundation to 1904, when two natives of the Swiss watchmaking town of Le Locle, Paul Cattin and Georges Christian, opened their watch factory in the German-speaking Swiss town of Hölstein. Cattin and Christian named their company “Oris” after the Orisbach tributary, a brook near the factory.A maker of pocket watches and, by 1925, the increasingly popular wristwatches, Oris enjoyed a long period of growth and expansion throughout the following decades and even made its own movements. Losing its independence during the consolidation years of the Quartz Crisis, Oris regained it in the 1980s, when a management buyout transformed the company and solidified its mission to make only mechanical watches going forward. Today, Oris is well established as a staple for value-conscious collectors of Swiss-made watches. While much of its modern output is devoted to sport-oriented timepieces, like the popular Aquis and Divers (formerly Divers Sixty-Five) diving watches, the brand’s most recognizable and emblematic collection is the Big Crown Pointer Date, which has been a mainstay of the brand’s portfolio - and in constant production - since 1938. It was the first watch with a date indication displayed via a central hand on an outer scale, and it took the other part of its model name from its signature design element - an oversiz...
Hodinkee
From Dakar to Le Mans, WRC to Formula 1, to road safety and spinal cord research, Jean Todt's collection of watches reflects the remarkable and multifaceted passions that have defined his life.
Monochrome
Geneva-based independent brand Akhor presented its inaugural Le Temps en Équilibre collection in 2025, built around a patented dual-disc display system, and it was immediately recognised for its innovative dial concept and proprietary movement. The new Lumière Blanche editions expand the concept with a new artistic direction, where white becomes the central design element. The […]
Teddy Baldassarre
In honor of Tudor's 100th Anniversary, we are visiting the brand in Le Locle for something that's never been seen before: a look behind the curtain to see the entire supply chain that supports the production of a Tudor watch. Here we will get a look at how everything from the movement, the dial, the case, and the brace
Fratello
Oldies but goldies. Reverso watches from the 1930s comprise Jaeger-LeCoultre’s fifth capsule collection of The Collectibles. As you can see, this time, the focus is squarely on the brand’s iconic model, the reversible Reverso, originally launched in 1931. All eight watches were fully authenticated and restored in the brand’s restoration workshop in Le Sentier, Switzerland. […] Visit Introducing: Eight Curated Reverso Watches From The 1930s to read the full article.
Worn & Wound
Few other watchmakers enjoyed as much success and cachet as Heuer, especially during the fervent 1960s and 1970s. Not only had it launched one of the world’s first automatic chronographs, but it pushed the envelope on modern design with midcentury-cool chronographs like the uniquely square Monaco. Heuer was riding high on the glamor of Grand Prix: the Heuer shield was as indelible to the backdrops of Monza and Le Mans as Ferrari, Porsche, and McLaren themselves as the official timekeeper of Formula One. But, inevitably, the quartz revolution came for Heuer. Jack Heuer was the third-generation CEO of the company that bore his name, and he had been a savvy marketer, personally hawking chronographs to drivers like Jo Siffert and Nikki Lauda. By the 1980s, however, he found himself backed into a corner, and in 1982, he was forced to sell the company to Piaget and Lemania-a humiliating low point in his life, as he recounted in his autobiography. Yet, before he departed, he gave Heuer one saving grace. In 1979, he commissioned Heuer’s first dive watch, the Professional Series. At a trade show Jack had overheard a brief conversation about the unreliability of existing dive watches, and he aimed to emulate Rolex’s success with the Submariner and Sea-Dweller. (Incidentally, Rolex owned half of Heuer’s stock market shares, and nearly took over the company around this time.) Photo by Blake Rong Heuer had spent the decade building an electronic timing division, which b...
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