Results for Swiss vs Japanese Watchmaking

Watchmaking Grandmasters Pick Budget Timepieces

Nicole Kidman joins Omega for a celebration of 100 years of women’s watchmaking

Omega opened a brand new exhibition at Milan’s Triennale Design Museum this week entitled Her Time, highlighting over 100 years of the brand’s rich history in women’s horology. This is the first time that Omega has put together such a collection of historical timepieces for women, surprising even the most ardent Omega fans, including its […]

Watchmaking gods? Lunch with Philippe Dufour and Stephen Forsey.

A report on the Naissance d’une Montre project following a lunch meeting with Philippe Dufour and Stephen Forsey with Christie's and Sincere Fine Watches in Singapore.

Roger Dubuis Shares Insights from a Lifetime of Watchmaking (Video)

In many ways, the Hommage collection, centrepiece range this year for Roger Dubuis, was all about celebrating the roots of the company. Suitably decorated, the Roger Dubuis stand at SIHH featured life-size watchmakers, each holding a bell jar containing a watch from the Hommage Collection. These represented watchmakers from the past who, in large and […]

Grandmasters of watchmaking: Roger Smith

Then comes the modest Englishman. A devout follower of the late great George Daniels, Roger Smith is committed to make the entire watch, by hand, just as they did a hundred or more years ago. Rather elusive, as he is domicile in Isle of Man, but an effable gentleman. As he knew I had aRead More

Accuracy Vs. Precision: Understanding Watch Performance

[Backdrop] A. Lange & Söhne Sax-O-Mat Perpetual Calendar, Adjusted To Positions, Temperature, And Isochronism When it comes to performance in watches, the single most important element to the owner is generally “accuracy,” and by that, is usually meant the ability of a watch to keep time as measured against a certain reliable external standard. Internet […]

Icons of watchmaking: The Lange 1

The ICON: Lange 1. Just a simple picture…perfection does not need improvement… Or elaboration.

Titans of Watchmaking: Leaders of the New Horological Golden Age

First Look: Ralph Lauren Fine Watchmaking SIHH 2013

To be a fan of Ralph Lauren is to adopt the namesake designer’s vision of life and living- stylish, elegant and refined. What few know is that Ralph Lauren designs and produces homewares as well, his is a brand which truly permeates every aspect of your life should you let it; so when they announced […]

First Look: SIHH 2013 Fine Watchmaking And Metiers D’Art Masterpieces From Cartier

Highlights from the Cartier Presentation at the SIHH 2013. Cartier’s Mystery Tourbillon –in the grand tradition of the famous mystery clocks.  It’s actually a double tourbillon –the sapphire mystery disk carries the inner tourbillon carriage.   The lovely Double Jumping Second Time Zone.  Regulator style hands; two jumping hour indications for home and local time; […]

Business News: Audemars Piguet, Girard-Perregaux, And Richemont-Backed FHH To Offer Public Online Training And Education Classes As Watchmakers Face Headwinds

The general public can now take courses and learn about watchmaking from Swiss-based industry group.

Introducing – Frosted Silver and Copper Dials for the Glashütte Original Senator Excellence Panorama Date Moon Phase

Glashütte Original’s Senator collection is populated with classical watches that evoke the grand Saxon watchmaking traditions of the 19th century. A slight evolution of the somewhat august Senator range, a sub-collection known as the Senator Excellence, was released in tandem with the brand’s calibre 36 in 2016. The Panorama Date Moon Phase appeared in 2018, […]

MICRO MONDAYS: Charlie Paris introduces the Alliance 68H and Phase de Lune

Over the past 10 years, French brands have been making real waves in the horological world. The country has seen a resurgence of fine watchmaking that comes in all shapes and forms. You’ve probably have heard of Baltic, Serica and Yema, but have you heard of Charlie Paris? Based in – yes, you guessed it … ContinuedThe post MICRO MONDAYS: Charlie Paris introduces the Alliance 68H and Phase de Lune appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

The Certina DS+ is a shapeshifting innovation that lets you switch watch cases with zero fuss

Certina have always had a way of flying under the radar for a myriad of reasons, but this new concept from the Swiss brand has marked them out as utterly unique among their peers. The concept of a modular wristwatch has been around for a little while, occasionally cropping up with microbrands and other Kickstarter … ContinuedThe post The Certina DS+ is a shapeshifting innovation that lets you switch watch cases with zero fuss appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

First Look – The Montblanc 1858 Unveiled Minerva Chronograph, A Warm New Face for Minerva’s Reversed Marvel

Minerva, founded as H. & C. Robert in 1858 in the Swiss Jura village of Villeret and renamed Minerva SA in 1929, remains one of the great guardians of traditional chronograph craftsmanship. Its first chronograph movement, the Calibre 19-9, debuted in 1908, and for over 165 years, its workshops have produced some of the finest […]

First Look – Celebrating its Tenth Anniversary, the Bovet 19Thirty Receives a Refreshingly Modern Face

Bovet, the historic Swiss brand founded in 1822, was revived by Pascal Raffy in 2001 as a temple of haute horlogerie. Since then, the brand has become synonymous with high-end complications decorated with lavish artistic flourishes. One of the more ‘straightforward’ collections in Bovet’s universe is the 19Thirty, a time-only model with a unique and […]

De Bethune Turns to Swizz Beatz for Kind of Two GMT

The third iteration of De Bethune’s swivelling, double-faced watch is the Kind of Two GMT “Season 3” conceived in collaboration with American rapper and watch enthusiast Swizz Beatz. Powered by the hand-wound DB2517 movement, the watch indicates one time zone on the front and another on the reverse, with both sides able to be worn face up thanks to patented, pivoting “floating” lugs. Initial thoughts The Kind of Two series employs a useful reversible case, cleverly using the “floating” lug construction of the DB28 to create a double-faced watch. Here one dial is traditional with blued steel hands, and the other an open-worked face revealing the movement that also has a regulator-style display for the second time zone. The clever approach with a unique movement is typical De Bethune, although this loses some novelty as the third double-faced watch in the De Bethune line-up. The Kind of Two GMT is definitely one of the most elaborate two time zone watches on the market, but at over US$200,000, it is pricey for a GMT, even by the standards of independent watchmaking (Voutilainen’s GMT, for instance, costs less). Two-faced The “Season 3” edition adopts a restrained palette of black and gold with blue accents. The 43.3 mm by 11.4 mm case is titanium and zirconium, with blued steel hands and a blue-and-black guilloche dial centre on the front showing local time. Notably, this dial includes a jumping seconds that is driven by a secondary escapement visible on ...

First Look – The Chronofixe Asterix Is a Punch in the Face For Romans (Numerals, that is)

Chronofixe is a French brand created in the mid-19th century in Les Rasses, a small French village near the Swiss Border, just a few kilometres from La Chaux-de-Fonds. Despite the name falling into proverbial oblivion, it was relatively big at some point, with up to 200 workers. Among other watches, it is known for producing […]

Introducing – The Union Glashütte 1893 Johannes Dürrstein Edition Moon Phase in Rose Gold

In 1893, Johannes Dürrstein, a distributor for A. Lange & Söhne, founded his own watchmaking business, which eventually evolved into what we now know as Union Glashütte. Today, the Swatch Group-owned brand is famous for keeping the traditions and aesthetics of Saxon watchmaking, offering a range of competitively priced models across seven collections. The 1893 […]

First Look – The Rose Gold & Steel Union Glashütte Belisar Chronograph Moon Phase

German entrepreneur Johannes Dürrstein opened a manufacture in Glashütte in 1893 to produce quality Glashütte watches at significantly lower prices than other manufacturers in town. Closed in 1933 and acquired by Swatch Group in 2000, Union Glashütte is proud of its Saxon watchmaking heritage and sticks to the founder’s policy of competitive prices. One of […]

Editorial: All the Fuss Over a “Franken” Omega Speedmaster

Earlier this week, leading Swiss-German newspapers Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) published a lengthy story about the possible fraud behind the record-setting sale of an Omega Speedmaster ref. 2915-1 at Phillips in 2021. Mystifying at the time, the CHF3.12 million result was a huge number that far exceeded past records for that particular Speedmaster. As NZZ revealed in its story, the Speedmaster in question was a “Franken” watch pieced together from assorted vintage components – and some fake parts – and it was purchased by Omega itself, on the advice of its then museum head. The allegations are that the then museum head was in cahoots with the seller of the watch. Omega has gone to the police with this, and also released a statement, noting in part, “Omega and Phillips were the joint victims of organised criminal activity involving the selling of this specific watch by auction.” The Omega Museum, which fortunately has enough correct and legitimate vintage Speedmasters on display. Image – Omega Both Omega and Phillips should have done more due diligence, but it appears a few bad actors were diligent in allegedly defrauding Omega. For more on the matter, Dutch watch publication Fratello published an excellent examination of the happenings. The alleged fraud has been covered widely in the mass media, from Bloomberg to Fortune, ironically the same publications that last year touted the success and value-appreciation of the Speedmaster. Mountains and molehills The ...

In-Depth: How Vacheron Constantin Is Keeping Two Classic Movements From Vanishing Off The Face Of The Earth

Modern movement design is more reliable than ever. But does that mean the dumbing down of watchmaking, as well?

Face-Off: Seiko Credor Eichi II 7R14 vs. Grand Seiko Spring Drive 9R02

When it comes to finely-finished, time-only movements, the ultimate Seiko offerings are the Credor Eichi II and Grand Seiko Spring Drive 20th Anniversary. The Japanese equivalent of watches like the Akrivia Chronometre Contemporain and Philippe Dufour Simplicity, the pair are the work of the Micro Artist Studio and finished to the same magnificent level, broadly speaking. (The Grand Seiko 8 Day is of the same quality, but it is a much larger and more complex watch.) Because the movements, the 7R14 in the Eichi II and 9R02 in Grand Seiko SBGZ001 and SBGZ003, are fundamentally identical, comparing the finer details of the two – an enlightened, obsessive nitpicking – makes for some interesting conclusions. The 7R14 in the Eichi II (left) and the 9R02 of the Grand Seiko SBGZ001 The sampled are both finished examples that were purchased in stores, and not prototypes, so both are representative of their respective model and movement. Though both were made in the Seiko-Epson’s Micro Artist Studio, probably by the very same craftsmen, the Eichi II was produced in 2015, while the Grand Seiko SBGZ001 dates to 2019, which is the year of its launch, and is the property of Mark Cho, founder of menswear retailer The Armoury. Same but different Both movements share the same architecture and layout, with the key functional difference being the power reserve, in both duration and display. The Eichi II’s 7R14 has a single barrel and a 60-hour power reserve, indicated on a fan-sha...

Swiza Introduces Three New Collections, Including the Automatic Kretos

As a true Swiss manufacture of table and alarm clocks, Swiza has been around for 113 years, but the new part of the company, focusing on manufacturing knives and watches, has only been operating for a couple of years.

Introducing: The Awake Sơn Mài Fragments In Three Mesmeric Colors

The Awake Sơn Mài Fragments collection brings together the ancient Japanese art of Raden (inlaying of shell), traditional Vietnamese lacquer, and Swiss watchmaking. The dials comprise hand-laid mother-of-pearl fragments sealed beneath layers of natural lacquer. Offered in three limited editions (Green, Blue, and Pink), these watches showcase Awake’s mission to make metiers d’art available in […] Visit Introducing: The Awake Sơn Mài Fragments In Three Mesmeric Colors to read the full article.