325 articles · 24 videos found · page 8 of 12
Revolution
Once again, the global editors of Revolution weigh in on the best timepieces of the year, as well as the personalities that shaped the watch industry.
Revolution
The new UR-111, which walks back a few of the linear displays in order to emphasise linear minutes on a rotating cylinder and interlocking seconds.
Revolution
Revolution
The series continues with the UR-105 Bronze Guardian Lions with the engraved artwork of our in-house master engraver, Johnny “King Nerd” Dowell.
Revolution
Once again, the global editors of Revolution weigh in on the best timepieces of the year, as well as the personalities that shaped the watch industry.
Revolution
Revolution
Revolution
Revolution
Last year in my article ‘Coloured Dials! The World Between Black & White‘ I ended my post in saying something that I would not be surprised if the watch industry in general, would bring us more colour at Baselworld 2015. And indeed Baselworld presented some color this year, but the brand where I did not […]
Revolution
With the 210 series Felix Baumgartner and Martin Frei created another timepiece that was more in line with their earlier more symmetrical creations, like the 103 , 201 & 202 and of course with the newest 105m, that our own Suzanne Wong wrote about here. For a long time I thought that strapping off an […]
Revolution
It’s hard to believe that the UR-103 was released over 10 years ago. Yes - for those of you still mired in denial about how terrifyingly fast the last decade has gone by - it was 2003 when we first saw the shield-shaped watch with four conical hour satellites. As a testament to how forward-looking […]
Monochrome
Independent watchmaking has always been a crucible of creativity and doing things off the beaten path, and that’s exactly the reason why we love the genre so much. From industry legends and trailblazers such as Daniel Roth, Urwerk and MB&F;, to the newest generation of stars, the indie watchmaking scene is truly unique. And while […]
As has become the tradition, we always record the panels that occur throughout each of the Windup Watch Fairs. This fantastic, original content is great to revisit for those who had the chance to be there, and is now available to everyone who didn’t have the opportunity to be there in person. These panels are free to attend at the time of their recording, so in the spirit of Windup-an event that puts an emphasis on approachability-it’s only fitting that the content from the show is freely shared as well. We present it here in this roundup in the order that they happened at the fair, starting on Friday and on through Sunday! Diving into the New Oris Divers Date We’re honored that Oris chose to debut its new Divers Date at Windup this year. Worn & Wound’s Managing Editor, Zach Kazan, was joined by Oris Co-CEO Rolf Studer to discuss the significance of this global launch. ______________________________________________________ Openwork Podcast Live: Elements of Design We recorded a joint podcast between the Worn & Wound team and our friend at Collective Horology. Our special guests, Martin Frei of URWERK and Jonathan Ferrer of Brew Watch Co., discussed their particular approaches to designs of their watches. ______________________________________________________ 65 Years of Squale Worn & Wound contributor Griffin Bartsch was joined on stage by Andrea Maggi, CEO of Squale, with special guest: TGV, founder of The Urban Gentry. Together, they discussed the illustrio...
SJX Watches
On the evening of August 29, 2024 in Geneva we’ll have Felix Baumgartner of Urwerk and Rexhep Rexhepi of Akrivia on a panel moderated by our founder SJX, and hosted by Phillips at its downtown Geneva office. The two eminent watchmakers will be discussing the topic: “What is Soul in Independent Watchmaking?” The panel is taking place outside Geneva Watch Days so we can’t promise any new watch launches, but there will be interesting and engaging conversation, and a few drinks. If you’re interested in attending, drop us a line via our website contact form.
SJX Watches
Singapore retailer The Hour Glass is staging IAMWATCH over four days in October 2024. The event is conceived as a gathering for watch enthusiasts with notable independent watchmakers in attendance, including Felix Baumgartner of Urwerk, Florian Bédat and Gaël Petermann, Kari Voutilainen, Raúl Pagès, and Rexhep Rexhepi of Akrivia. IAMWATCH will serve as a platform for face-to-face engagement between watch enthusiasts and noted industry personalities like Aurel Bacs, Jean Arnault, Maximilian Büsser, and Pierre Biver, providing enthusiasts opportunities to connect and learn. The event includes presentations, lectures, and fireside chats with more than 40 industry insiders. IAMWATCH will be held at the Singapore Edition hotel. Admission is free and open to the public daily October 18-20, from 11 am-8 pm, however, registration is required and it can be done online at Iamwatch.com.
Worn & Wound
It’s hard not to love Max Büsser. Anyone who has met the man in person will tell you that he is a fount of enthusiasm and creativity. The watches he creates are otherworldly and fun and, like ‘em or not, his watches have helped to - alongside brands like Urwerk and watchmakers like Vianney Halter - push independent watch design to new and interesting directions in a big way. One of last year’s big releases from MB&F; (alongside the UFO-like HM11) was the HM8 Mark 2, which was initially released in June to plenty of fanfare. At the time, the watch was available in two configurations - one in white, and a limited edition of 33 in a wonderful British Racing Green. That limited edition is now long gone, and in its place, MB&F; has announced a new limited release of the HM8 Mark 2, this time in blue. For those who may have missed it last summer, the HM8 Mark 2 is an automotive-inspired watch and an evolution of, you guessed it, the HM8 that was first released in 2016. Max Büsser - who has said time and again that he wanted to design cars long before he was interested in watches - has tapped into his affection for automobiles and racing as inspiration for a number of watches and clocks over the years, to great success. The HM8 Mark 2, and the HM8 before it, pull from this history. Racing and watches have always been linked. The simple reality is that racing without timing doesn’t really work and so, for as long as there have been cars, watchmakers have been ...
SJX Watches
Best known for its Urwerk-inspired Project 1, Barrelhand is now working on the Monolith, a watch for astronauts featuring novel innovations, including an air-tight crown that can be adjusted in space or underwater. Described as a “professional grade EVA [extravehicular activity] tool watch compatible with current and next generation xEMU spacesuits”, the Monolith is a work in progress, however, a bit of it has just landed on the Moon. The case back of each Monolith will carry a “Memory Disc”, a nickel-alloy plate with 1,000 pages worth of micro-engraving. A permanent, analogue physical storage medium, it’s a time capsule of sorts. A single Memory Disc has just landed on the Moon as part of the payload on the IM-1 mission carried by the Nova-C lunar lander, nicknamed “Odysseus”, launched by Intuitive Machines, a privately-funded space exploration enterprise that has contracts with NASA to deliver cargo to the Moon. Alongside the Memory Disc, IM-1 also carried an artwork by Jeff Koons as well as a space camera, all of which will remain on the Moon (at least for now). Initial thoughts The Monolith is an interesting proposition as according to Karel Bachand, Barrelhand’s founder, the watch is developed to pass the “EVA tests originally outlined for the Apollo missions… [and] we have full documents outlining the criteria and corresponding tests it needs to pass.” Although detailed specifications of the watch are not yet available – they will be when th...
Worn & Wound
Last week marked the 6th edition of Dubai Watch Week, an educational forum and brand exhibition situated in the heart of Dubai’s Financial Center. This is not a commercial event (no watches are sold by the exhibiting brands) but rather an event put on for the community, featuring masterclass sessions around the craft, open forums from watchmakers, and even debates between collectors and media personalities. This year offered a selection of new release announcements and incredible talks to take in (along with some truly epic watch spotting along the way), and we also took the opportunity to take in a bit more of the surrounding region with a few dives, a trip to the world’s tallest building, and even some Formula 1 racing down the coast in Abu Dhabi for good measure. Dubai Watch Week is organized by Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons, the largest watch retailer in the region, offering everything from Rolex and AP, to Urwerk and MB&F;, many of whom are represented in the fair. The grounds of the fair are open to the public and free to attend (though registration is required), with a strong presence from the local enthusiasts communities and their families. Meeting members of the Dubai Watch Club, as well as some enthusiasts passing through the region to take in the fair (including several from our own W&W;+ Slack channel) was among the highlights of my time in Dubai. The fair itself was split into two sections, with an indoor hall surrounded by an outdoor pathway upon which some of th...
Revolution
At Urwerk’s atelier, Jeremiah Chan, Deputy Digital Editor, got to know the back story of the iconic UR-102 in detail. As you might be aware, the UR-102 is inspired by the Sputnik satellite, and this unconventional timepiece played a fundamental role in launching Urwerk to success, along with paving the way for futuristic independent watchmaking. […]
Revolution
Wei speaks one-on-one with Felix Baumgartner, a panelist from our Legends of Independent Watchmaking Horological Symposium at Geneva Watch Days 2022, to look back at the highs and the lows of the last 25 years of URWERK. Felix, a master watchmaker, co-founded URWERK with designer Martin Frei in 1997 and the duo have been upending […]
Time+Tide
When modern watch lovers think of the wandering hours complication, most would immediately think of Urwerk that has largely focused on the complication since the brand’s founding in 1997. As a result, we associate the style of wandering hours with a future-forward nature – and I cannot fault this sort of thinking. There is something … ContinuedThe post The AP Starwheel is not new, but is the new take better than the OG? appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
SJX Watches
A young company founded just two years ago, Genus is all about exotic expressions of time. Though the brand is young, Genus cofounder Sébastien Billières is an industry veteran, having established a workshop that specialises in producing complicated movements for major brands exactly a decade ago. The brand made its debut with the GNS1 – essentially a time-only watch made ultra complicated by virtue of its unique time display – a snaking procession of pointers travelling in a figure of eight that create a dynamic tension unlike anything else. Genus has now taken the concept further with the GNS Dragon, which layers a miniature sculpture over the original in the form of a segmented gold dragon. Initial thoughts The rise of independent watchmakers with atypical time displays started two decades ago – personified by brands like Urwerk – so Genus is rather late to the game, but it still made an impressive entrance. The original GNS1 was a fresh perspective in a crowded arena, the very sort of diversity that makes this hobby fun. And the GNS1 is a serious watch in terms of quality and construction – it also did win the Mechanical Exception award at the 2019 GPHG. While the focal point is the intriguing time display, the movement finishing is excellent; not quite artisanal haute horlogerie like Akrivia, for instance, but nevertheless done by hand and done well, particularly in the genre of avant-garde watches. Made of solid 18k gold, the bridges have wide, polish...
SJX Watches
A watch brand founded by in San Francisco by a young mechanical engineer, Barrelhand’s first wristwatch is the Project 1. Inspired by Urwerk, the hand-wound Project 1 tells the time unconventionally via jumping hours and linear minutes. And it is made up of components produced with cost-effective 3D printing, resulting in a retail price of US$30,000 – reasonably accessible as such things go. Initial thoughts I first encountered the work of Barrelhand founder Karel Bachand in 2014, when he created a replica of the Urwerk UR-202 in 3D-printed plastic. He’s spent the intervening years developing his own wristwatch, and the result is impressive, especially in its conception and smart engineering. The time display is inventive, particularly the linear minutes that’s driven by a large rotating disc resembling a vinyl record. Though the jumping hours is more ordinary, it is driven by an extra-large Maltese cross gear instead of a conventional lever-and-star-wheel set up, making it adjustable forwards and backwards (though it will not jump as instantaneously due to how the Maltese cross gear works). And the techniques used to produce many of the parts are unusual, probably reflecting Mr Bachand mechanical engineering background. The large steel lugs, for example, are produced via binder jet 3D printing. The Project 1 doesn’t have the refinement of visually-similar Swiss watches – many of its surfaces are only modestly finished – but it costs substantially less, so ...
Quill & Pad
The Barrelhand P1 is designed to highlight its mechanisms and futuristic technology and it does that very well. From the visible cam plate mechanism to the metal binder jet components, it’s obvious that this is not a dainty watch even if the proportions keep it within the standards of large avant-garde watches like Urwerk and MB&F;. Joshua Munchow takes a closer look.
SJX Watches
Thirty-three year old Rexhep Rexhepi is a rising star in independent watchmaking who practices his craft from a workshop in Geneva’s Old Town. But he was born almost a continent away in Kosovo, having left his birthplace as a young teenager as a consequence of the Yugoslav Wars. The Singapore-based retailer of Rexhep’s brand, Akrivia, recently debuted a documentary on Rexhep’s life and work. It’s the latest instalment in The Lives of Artists, a series of short films on a handful of notable watchmakers and creative personalities. Other subjects of the film series include contemporary artist Daniel Arsham, architect Sir David Adjaye, as well as Felix Baumgartner and Martin Frei of Urwerk. The subsequent instalments will debut one a week until mid-June 2020. You can watch Rexhep’s film below, while the other films can be in the The Lives of Artists playlist.
SJX Watches
Self-taught Russian clock- and watchmaker Konstantin Chaykin, who has built notably complex timepieces, is ironically best known for the Joker, a relatively simple watch. The Joker is powered by an ETA 2814 base movement with an in-house module of just 61 parts that drives the novel time display: two sub-dials, positioned like eyes in a face, for hours respectively minutes, and a moon phase at six o’clock resembling a smiling mouth – the funny face of time. When first unveiled the inaugural Joker in steel at Baselworld 2017, the 99-piece limited edition sold out quickly. The watch also enjoyed critical acclaim; the subsequent Joker Clown won the Audacity Prize at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Geneve 2018. Konstantin notes he was particularly surprised how eagerly the love-or-hate design was embraced by collectors of high-end watches. So his extended the Joker concept to the top-end of the price spectrum, with the limited edition Joker automaton developed with fellow independent watchmaker Svend Andersen. And then Konstantin recently revealed he was participating in charity auction Only Watch 2019 – alongside peers like Akrivia, F.P. Journe, Urwerk and De Bethune – which piqued my interest, so I reached out to Konstantin to find out more. The Joker automaton by Andersen and Chaykin Inspiration strikes As Luc Pettavino, the founder of Only Watch, was planning the 2019 event, he approached Konstantin to suggest a straightforward variant of the origin...
Revolution
On this episode of the Revolution Watch Podcast, Urwerk’s Felix Baumgartner walks us through the creation of the brand and its extraordinary timepieces.
Time+Tide
Johnny Dowell has been on the watch world’s radar for some time (heck, we interviewed him here), having worked with Urwerk and others on some pretty spectacular production pieces, as well as numerous custom jobs. But, perhaps unsurprisingly, Johnny’s career in engraving didn’t start with watches - he went through the far more traditional route … ContinuedThe post RECOMMENDED READING: Chatting to engraving royalty with King Nerd appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Revolution
Johnny shares how he became an engraver, what attracted him to watches and what eventually led him to collaborate with Revolution to create unique URWERK timepieces.
Deployant
The story of the US-based Barrelhand Project 1 begins as it should, with one student's Swiss-born muse- the ever incredible Urwerk UR-202.
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