5,031 articles · 36 videos found · page 62 of 169
Monochrome
Watchmaking enthusiasts know MeisterSinger and the foundational idea behind its creations: time does not always need to be read to the nearest second. Two of the Münster-based brand’s long-standing models, the No03 and the Perigraph, now come as special editions that pair the signature single-hand display with a cool new dial colour. Both watches are […]
Deployant
Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe, A. Lange & Sohne. All excellent, but they are the genesis to independent watchmaking. Daryll tells his collector journey.
Fratello
These days, “finishing” is a buzzword. Talk to fans of high horology, and you will most likely hear terms like “anglage,” “black polish,” and “perlage.” It seems like everything is about finishing nowadays, which made a master watchmaker tell me that decorating every last piece of a movement is not the essence of watchmaking. He […] Visit Does Finishing Make A Watch Movement Work Well, Or Is It Just A Beautifying Trick? to read the full article.
Fratello
The watch world doesn’t always embrace those who push creative boundaries. Over the past two decades, however, enthusiasts have become increasingly receptive to watchmakers who challenge conventional ideas. MB&F;, Urwerk, De Bethune, and Greubel Forsey have repeatedly demonstrated what happens when imagination drives the watchmaking process. The resurgence of shaped watches over the past five […] Visit The Toledano & Chan B/1 Dazzle Confuses The Eye And Steals The Show to read the full article.
Fratello
Apiar launches its first sports watch, the Carbon1.0 OG. Utilizing a novel construction process known as Composite-Based Additive Manufacturing (CBAM), the UK-based brand introduces a fresh approach to carbon-composite watchmaking. The watch features a 40.5mm carbon-fiber outer case surrounding a 38mm Grade 23 titanium core. This hybrid structure allows Apiar to pursue ambitious openworked forms […] Visit Not A Carbon Copy: Introducing The Apiar Carbon1.0 OG Sports Watch to read the full article.
Monochrome
Breaking the rules or pushing back boundaries is critical for the survival of the watchmaking industry. The majority of today’s watches are rooted in the past, yet forget to see what’s needed for today or even the future. There are brands, however, that do things a bit differently for the sake of creativity or innovation. […]
Two Broke Watch Snobs
Luminox revisits its P-38 Lightning military watch with a stealthy new design, Swiss quartz GMT movement, and a few questions worth asking.
Time+Tide
Universal Genève is back, and it’s sitting right at the top of the House of Brands pyramid. In Episode 3 of House of Brands, Russell Sheldrake goes behind the relaunch of one of watchmaking’s most creative names. He talks to Georges Kern, the man who built the group, and to Gregory Bruttin, the general manager … Continued
SJX Watches
Today marks the second annual World Watch Day, celebrated on October 10 in a clever nod to the familiar “10:10” depiction of watch hands. This year’s theme, “Time as Living Heritage”, puts the people of Sainte-Croix at the centre of the occasion. A training course at Association Mec-Art Marking the event, our founder SJX participated in a round-table discussion about preserving and passing on the skills of both watchmaking and mechanical art. The panel included De Bethune co-founder Denis Flageollet and automaton maker François Junod, who helped establish the Association Mec-Art, watchmaker Vianney Halter, The 1916 Company’s Tim Mosso, and Karin Alexandrian of the Musée des Arts et Métiers. Europa Star’s Pierre Maillard moderated the conversation. Denis Flageollet of De Bethune co-founded the Association Mec-Art in 2016 with automaton-makers François Junod and Nicolas Court The organisers, Association Mec-Art and the Musée de la Mécanique d’Art et du Patrimoine de Sainte-Croix (MuMAPS), work to safeguard the traditions explored in our earlier story on the unique skills being preserved in Sainte-Croix. These extend beyond watches to music boxes, mechanical singing birds, and automata. Mec-Art helps keep the skills alive through creative projects and practical courses, while MuMAPS is the local museum dedicated to mechanical art and the town’s heritage. The shared challenge is to ensure that future generations can still make and repair these objects, ...
Monochrome
An important part of the recent history of American watchmaking, Timex has long been known for making reliable and accessible watches. As explained by our editor Erik, the brand survived and effectively embraced the quartz crisis of the 1970s and 1980s, becoming one of the biggest and most popular brands in the world. By 1982, it […]
WristBuzz
The cult Swiss watchmaker leaves Movado Group after decades, heading into new hands with serious horological credentials behind them.
SJX Watches
On the latest episode of the SJX Podcast, SJX returns from London and Milan with impressions of two very different demonstrations of watchmaking’s biggest names at work. Rolex’s “Four Seasons” Daytona auction broke the record for the biggest charity watch auction in history, raising nearly US$50 million, but a longer run-up might possibly have pushed the result even higher. In Milan, Patek Philippe unveiled the ref. 5978P, pairing an instantaneous perpetual calendar with its manually wound chronograph. The exhibition’s Rare Handcrafts and Italian-market limited editions also offer plenty to debate, from remarkable pocket watches to a Ferrari-red minute repeater. Finally, we discuss highlights from Marteau & Co’s fourth online auction, which runs from October 8-15th. Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
Hodinkee
This story has been republished from our friends at Hodinkee Australia. What We Know Toledano & Chan, the horological design collaboration between artist and collector Phil Toledano and watch designer Alfred Chan, is back with their latest brutalist architecture-inspired watch, the Oshinobi. This one throws a new concept into the mix: concealment. O-shinobi is a Japanese term used to describe a person of high rank traveling incognito, which should give you a hint at how this Toledano & Chan watch works. It’s a secret watch, fitted with a horizontally sliding cover that reveals an organically shaped and concave dial set with two carats of snow-set diamonds. To fly even further under the radar, the crown is hidden, accessible from the underside of the case at 12 o’clock. The inspiration for the Oshinobi's dial and crystal shape also comes from this idea of concealment, inspired by natural geodes that look like any other rock until they’re cracked open to reveal a world of crystals festooning the inside. The result is this architecturally aggressive bracelet shape that hides an organically shaped, irregularly diamond-studded secret inside. Phil, Jamie, and I sat down over the weekend to talk about the Oshinobi, and he tells me that he’s long been fascinated with vintage secret watches that conceal their dials. Hearing conversations in the watch community about safety concerns about traversing cities with flashy watches, he sees the Oshinobi as the antidote. Phil Toled...
Hodinkee
What We Know For all the conversations about what to do when a dial is damaged, possibly fit for restoration, or a watch needs some repair, I don't recall many examples of watches with dials that come pre-repaired. That's essentially what Arsène Lippens has launched: a watch inspired by the Japanese craft of Sashiko, which artfully patches and repairs textiles (largely denim) to extend their lives and turn them into something beautiful. In collaboration with Pey van der Wel, a Dutch artist who runs SASHIKODENIM, the brand's new limited edition of 10 pieces is the second in its "Threads of Time" series celebrating textile crafts. The watch is a relatively straightforward release as an entire package: a 37.5mm by 9.9mm 316L stainless steel case housing a manually wound Sellita SW210-1b movement with a 48-hour power reserve. The case is water-resistant to 50 meters, with a solid caseback and a box dome anti-reflective crystal on the front side. The thickness largely comes from the depth required for the dial, which is the star of the show. The dial is made of denim, with 12 individual hour markers hand-stitched one thread wide through the dial, with a cross-hatch at 3, 6, 9, and 12. Of course, none of these dials are the same, and you could argue that some, including the one shown here, might not be perfectly aligned to the hour marker. But so be it. The watch celebrates a centuries-old handcraft and its beautifully imperfect nature. Of course, the watch comes with a denim s...
Hodinkee
Challenging conventions is part of NORQAIN's DNA. For CEO Ben Küffer, that aim to "redefine what a Swiss mechanical sports watch could be" has been instrumental to the brand's success. For its latest release, the family-owned Swiss brand announced three new models in a first for the brand: grade 5 titanium. The Wild ONE Skeleton Titanium 39mm and 42mm reimagine the brand's signature sports watch, incorporating grade 5 titanium into the watch's top plate with the bottom retaining NORQAIN's signature NORTEQ carbon-fiber-composite.The result is a rich visual contrast and lightweight construction. "Titanium certainly has a future within NORQAIN," Küffer says, "but only where it adds something meaningful to the design and performance of the watch." Each possesses a distinct identity, with the 39mm—limited to 400 pieces—opting for a grey palette based on titanium's muted character, featuring light yellow dial accents and Super-LumiNova for technical performance and legibility. The 42mm, by contrast, opts for a slightly bolder coloring with mint green details for a bolder visual presence. Both are powered by the skeletonized in-house NK26/1 automatic movement, a COSC-certified chronometer with a 65-hour power reserve. The star of the new collection, however, is the all-new Wild ONE Meteorite Titanium 42mm. The Meteorite takes the brand's flagship watch and incorporates Grade 5 titanium and an anthracite iron meteorite dial, combining contemporary high-tech design with ancie...
SJX Watches
In a surprise move, a consortium led by Montres Journe and comprising Chanel and Pierre Jacques, the former chief executive of De Bethune, has acquired Ebel from its longtime American owners, the Movado Group. According to the deal announcement, the consortium is buying 95% of Ebel for US$66.5 million, with the remaining shares to be retained by Movado. The three-party consortium evidently brings different skills to the table, including the financial firepower of Chanel, the watchmaking know-how of François-Paul Journe, and the operational and managerial expertise of Mr Jacques. Movado, on the other hand, might be relieved to have unloaded Ebel, which it unsuccessfully tried to revive over its two decades of ownership. From left: François-Paul Journe, Efraim Grinberg of Movado, Frédéric Grangié of Chanel, and Pierre Jacques. Image – Pierre Jacques Once a high flying brand that was one of the biggest in Switzerland during its 1980s and 1990s heyday, Ebel was famous for its Sport Classique, often nicknamed “wave”, which featured integrated bracelets resembling a wave. Launched in 1977, the model launched Ebel into the stratosphere, with its workforce growing 15 times and revenue reaching nine figures. Ebel was led during this time by Pierre-Alain Blum, grandson of its founders and a shrewd marketer. In the year just after the Quartz Crisis, Ebel was a luxury giant. Amongst the indicators of Ebel’s success and scale during this period: Cartier turned to Ebel to p...
Hodinkee
What We Know Last year, Glashütte Original released a trio of porcelain-dial watches as part of its collaboration with Meissen, Europe's oldest porcelain manufacturer, dating back to 1710. Today, the two historic German houses are partnering again, this time to release a new porcelain-dial watch inspired by Jugatsu-zakura, a Japanese cherry blossom that flowers intermittently during the colder months. The "Cherry Blossom" Senator Meissen retains all of the original collaboration's specs: It measures 40mm wide and 10.2mm thick, is set in red gold, and features an exhibition sapphire crystal caseback. It also comes on a dark blue Louisiana alligator leather strap with a red-gold pin buckle. The dial is made of a thin slice of white porcelain that acts as a canvas for the hand-painted layers, which are fired at 900° Celsius between each layer to achieve maximum depth and intensity. Glashütte Original's lettering and Meissen's crossed swords logo are hand-painted near the center, but besides that, the dial has a blank format. The exclusion of any hour markers, numerals, or indices allows the cherry blossom motif, with its slender branches that extend upward and delicate, pale-pink flowers, to shine—punctuated only by solid-gold hour and minute hands. Powered by Glashütte Original's in-house automatic Caliber 36-16, the watch offers 100 hours of power reserve and operates at 4 Hz. The movement also features a silicon balance spring and a stop-seconds mechanism. (aka hacki...
Monochrome
Pequignet was founded in 1973 in Morteau, the historic heart of French watchmaking in the Jura mountains. In the early 2000s, the brand made a bold decision to become an integrated French manufacture and launched its first in-house Calibre Royal in 2011. The brand’s fortunes stabilised in 2021 when it joined Enowe Excellence, a family-owned […]
Worn & Wound
In 2022, the inaugural TimeForArt auction took place in partnership with Phillips, marking the first and only benefit watch auction to support contemporary art and artists. In its opening year, it raised $1.2 million for the Swiss Institute’s exhibitions, public programs, education initiatives, and community engagement. Its next edition returns this December as part of The New York Watch Auction XV, now featuring a whopping 25 watch brands up from the original 17, including Zenith with a unique Defy Chronograph. For this special edition going toward a worthy cause, Zenith has once again teamed up with USM Modular Furniture. The pair first collaborated in 2025 on four ultra colorful Defy Chronograph models inspired by the timeless and playful design language of the distinctive furniture. Here, the watchmaker drew on the brand’s patented USM Haller modular system and married it with the architecture of the Defy Chronograph. For the upcoming charity auction, the duo continues to use the model as the canvas, but this time, they take a more subtle and subdued approach to the design.The foundation remains the same with the Defy Chronograph’s compact 37mm stainless-steel case, octagonal geometry, fourteen-sided bezel, and the stainless-steel “ladder” bracelet. Like we saw in the original collaboration, there are small easter eggs throughout, like the tip of the chronograph seconds hand that’s fitted with a miniature USM Haller ball joint and provides a subtle link bac...
Teddy Baldassarre
Uncompromising independent watchmaking engineered in Los Angeles.More
Monochrome
Founded in 1957, Liaoning-based watch manufacturer Peacock certainly has a strong track record, being one of the backbones of industrial watchmaking in the region. And in recent years, as it approaches its 70th anniversary, Peacock is demonstrating that Chinese watchmaking is no longer what it used to be. We’re not talking about entry-level automatic movements […]
Hodinkee
This week on The Business of Watches, we feature a boutique brand and its CEO from a country that has the watch industry abuzz. Nirupesh Joshi is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Bangalore Watch Company, based in Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore), India. Mercy Amalraj and Nirupesh Joshi. Founded in 2018, the company has slowly established itself as a purveyor of premium watchmaking, with models that don't rely on classic tropes about the country to tell their story. Former tech industry executives Joshi and his wife, Mercy Amalraj, are building a brand that aims to express India's modern spirit as the country becomes an increasingly significant economic and cultural player on the world stage. India has a rich watchmaking history, with brands like HMT and Titan producing watches in large volumes to serve its fast-growing population of over 1 billion people. But BWC is seeking a different client, one that's more seasoned in watches, and is seeking a brand that innovates and competes with other marques from around the world to tell its own unique stories. BWC has grown to about 15 staff members, including watchmakers repatriated from other brands, and has opened a boutique in its home city and produces around 2,000 watches per year, assembled in India using components made both in-country and from suppliers around the world. The company recently raised capital from investors, and Joshi tells us how BWC plans to bring its watches to a wider, global audience. Custo...
Hodinkee
What We Know If you're following artisanal watchmaking with all the flash and hype of the independent space, you're forgiven for missing Barcelona-based Atelier de Chronométrie. Their watches don't often show up on social media, largely because they are entirely bespoke, one-off commissions based on the various architectures they offer. But we've been covering them since 2016, and the product (and potentially their clients' tastes) has gotten better and better. Outstanding, in fact. That's how I'd frame their new AdC16, the company's first two-counter chronograph. If you don't like the design, that's fine—you can customize it however you like—but top-down, movement-to-specs, the watch is really attractive to a vintage lover like myself. Atelier de Chronométrie allows customization of the case and dial, as well as finishing on the movement (a variation of which they are going to share soon, based on this movement), but in this case, they've made a really nice, compact, 36mm Calatrava-style case that is reminiscent (with the dial) of a Vacheron Constantin 4072. The case is two-tone yellow gold and steel and has a black galvanic gilt-style dial (though not actually done the original way, as the press release states; more likely pad-printed), with yellow gold applied markers and hands. The kicker is really the movement. The base design is the venerable Valjoux 23, but they've redesigned the shape of several bridges and levers while trying to keep the entire gear train fe...
Fratello
One of the most common complaints in the watch community concerns current pricing. Indeed, the COVID-19 period affected the prices of luxury items. Meet Deutsche Uhrenmanufaktur Glashütte GmbH, or DUG, which claims to bring the traditional craftsmanship of Glashütte watchmaking without charging the traditional high prices. This is a bold claim, so let’s find out […] Visit Hands-On With The DUG Purist Typ 1 And Typ 2 to read the full article.
Teddy Baldassarre
How the heritage Swiss brand's centuries-long history has informed its contemporary collectionMore
Monochrome
For over 30 years, Omega and James Bond have shared a strong connection, with the Swiss watchmaker appearing in every Bond film, on the wrist of the secret agent since GoldenEye in 1995. Countless movie-featured watches and numerous special editions have been created, the latest dating to 2022 for the franchise’s 60th anniversary, but all […]
Monochrome
Armin Strom has conquered the indie watchmaking scene with its combination of mechanical inventiveness and striking asymmetric displays. As a fully integrated manufacture, Armin Strom can bring its wildest mechanical dreams to life, including its groundbreaking mastery of resonance. Knowing that not everyone can invest in its hyper-complex Resonance and Masterpiece models, Armin Strom created […]
Monochrome
Norqain, the independent, family-owned Swiss watch brand, has amassed a solid reputation for robust, action-oriented sports watches. CEO Ben Kuffer has relied on exceptional friends since he started the brand in 2018; one is Jean-Claude Biver, whose valuable input helped create the Wild One. Beefed up with components made from the brand’s proprietary Norteq carbon […]
SJX Watches
Conventional wisdom holds that stopping a tourbillon for precise time setting — “hacking” in watchmaking parlance — is a difficult endeavor given the constant rotation of the cage. The hacking tourbillon wristwatch didn’t arrive until 2008, courtesy of the A. Lange & Söhne Cabaret. In fact, hacking of any sort remained a rarity until the last few decades — ironic, since the primary function of the seconds hand has arguably evolved from a way to assess accuracy into an indicator that a watch is running. Some brands are still in the process of adding stop-seconds features to their basic calibres, and hacking remains scarcer still in wristwatch tourbillons, appearing with regularity only in the last two decades. But building for the waistcoat pocket, historical watchmakers have been stopping tourbillons for almost as long as they’ve been building them, and developed a number of solutions for this problem along the way, each stopping the tourbillon, or merely the seconds, in a different way. Breguet – stopping the seconds without stopping the watch Almost 225 years ago to the year, the French Ministry of the Interior granted Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747 – 1823) a patent for his most famous creation, the tourbillon, a clever way to improve a watch’s marks during accuracy testing. For a mechanical watch to keep the same time across all vertical positions, the “balance complete” — comprised of the balance, staff, roller, collet and balance spring — mu...
Hodinkee
Formex holds a unique place in the Swiss watch industry. Born in the early 2000s, it featured a proprietary case suspension system and designs that reflected the origin of its name, 'forme extrême' (extreme shapes in French). However, the recession spurred by the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 dealt the brand a near-fatal blow, and it entered a period of relative dormancy. Then, in 2016, a group backed by one of its suppliers, Dexel, a Swiss component maker specializing in bracelets, clasps, and cases, as well as dials through its subsidiary Cadranor, took over Formex. Raphael Granito, now in his mid-thirties, is part of the family business behind Dexel and led the takeover and revival of the Formex marque. He has steered the brand's development ever since, and a decade later, Formex is leveraging Dexel's manufacturing savoir-faire and R&D; to produce innovative, approachable-priced Swiss-made watches. The brand's evolution culminated recently with the Aria, a high-end integrated-bracelet titanium sport watch with an ultra-thin, micro-rotor manufacture movement designed by Horage, priced below CHF 6,000. That's a significant step up compared to the CHF 1,800 average price point for its watches. Granito outlines how the brand has grown and connected with more customers, operating mainly outside the traditional retail structure. Still a family business, he hired his best friend from university to lead marketing and sales efforts. Formex has distinguished itself by offe...
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