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Results for Snowflake Hands

3,923 articles · 407 videos found · page 93 of 145

Hands-On: Horage Lensman 1 Worn & Wound
Bremont s ENG300 calibers Eventually Apr 21, 2023

Hands-On: Horage Lensman 1

Horage is a bit of an oddity in the watch world. Most brands build for years and years to be able to produce even a simple three-hand movement, should they even choose to go that route, and they tend to demand a high price. Horage has been working on theirs since its inception and has maintained a goal of industrialization over high prices starting with the K1, which had a silicon escapement and a modular complication system back at launch. Though it didn’t get the attention it deserved initially, it did inevitably ascend the horology ranks and prove its viability, as the K1 serves as the basis of Bremont’s ENG300 calibers. Eventually, Horage added the micro-rotor wound K2, featured in the Supersede. Another rarity, in addition to being thin, as micro-rotors tend to be, the K2 also featured modular design allowing for complications without increasing the base movement’s thickness by much, as well as a silicon escapement, 72-hour power reserve, and within chronometer accuracy. Another movement that would be impressive coming from a large luxury group, let alone an independent brand like Horage. While neither are small feats, today we’re looking at a watch with a movement that is perhaps even more impressive. The Lensman 1 features the K-TOU caliber, which is Horage’s in-house, Swiss-made tourbillon. Yes, you read that right. And the watch, despite featuring such a rare and exotic complication, comes in at under $10k. There’s a lot more to the watch as well, whic...

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Hands On: Rolex Perpetual 1908 Refs. 52508 and 52509 SJX Watches
Rolex Perpetual 1908 Refs 52508 Apr 19, 2023

Hands On: Rolex Perpetual 1908 Refs. 52508 and 52509

One of the most compelling new releases at Watches & Wonders (W&W;) was the Rolex Perpetual 1908, brand’s most serious take on the dress watch in decades. Elegantly sized and surprisingly thin, the 1908 is equipped with the all-new, automatic cal. 7140. Perhaps the most significant debut from Rolex in recent years, the 1908 replaces the ill-fated Cellini. Named after the year Rolex was founded by Hans Wilsdorf, the 1908 is significant not so much for what it is – a dress watch with exceptional quality of manufacture  – but simply because it is the first new collection of watches from Rolex in decades. Importantly, the 1908 is the first model in the new Perpetual collection, which implies that Rolex will be introducing more watches like this in time to come. Initial thoughts In my view, the Cellini collection always felt underdeveloped. The models introduced in 2017 had potential, but they shared too much in common with their sportier siblings, both in terms of movements and dimensions, leaving them feeling too clunky to be an alternative to the entry-level dress watches from traditional haute horlogerie brands. The 1908, on the other hand, feels like a proper effort. Compared to the outgoing Cellini models, almost every detail has been tangibly upgraded to some degree. In the hand, the 1908 feels like a Rolex – the tactile feel of quality is quickly apparent. Despite being fairly svelte at 9.5 mm high, the case of the 1908 has the solidity of an Oyster case – th...

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Hands-On: History Repeats Itself with the Wolbrook X-15 Skindiver Worldtimer Worn & Wound
Vulcain Apr 17, 2023

Hands-On: History Repeats Itself with the Wolbrook X-15 Skindiver Worldtimer

Why start a watch brand from the ground up if you inherently have a keen eye for defunct brands with a legitimate history and product design substance that present-day enthusiasts can easily get behind. It’s a playbook we’ve seen exercised occasionally within the past decade, but in recent years, it seems like a go-to strategy implemented by those with incredible foresight, time and time again. I hope you don’t mistake this as complaining. As much as I love seeing a brand release something completely new and refreshing, I am overjoyed by seeing bygone brands properly getting resurrected. It’s a phenomenon we’ve seen with the likes of Aquastar, Vulcain, and Wolbrook Now what do these brands have in common? Well for starters, they were all revived around the same time frame, beginning in 2019 (Wolbrook). Brand heritage, as well as name recognition seems to be another trait at their core. For Aquastar, you have their charming divers famously worn by Jacques Cousteau and his crew during countless expeditions in the 1960s. With Vulcain, how could we not think of the Cricket and its historical ties to the United States presidency. And as for Wolbrook, well, you have a brand history that has a connection to the dawn of the space race, hypersonic rocket-powered jet testing and the first man to ever step on the moon, Neil Alden Armstrong. Wolbrook’s latest release is the X-15 Skindiver Worldtimer and is a tribute to one of the watches that Armstrong wore during his stor...

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Oris Adds Some Bling to the Aquis: Hands-On with the New Aquis Date Diamonds Worn & Wound
Oris Adds Some Bling Apr 11, 2023

Oris Adds Some Bling to the Aquis: Hands-On with the New Aquis Date Diamonds

At this point, I think we all have a fairly solid understanding of the appeal of a gold watch. The heft, the rarity, and the luster of gold all appeal to our reptile brains in ways that are almost innate. Zach Weiss broke it down here back in 2021, and in the nearly two years since that article was conceived, we’ve only grown more gold-curious as a team. But as much as we talk about a growing appreciation for gold, there’s another tangentially related segment of watchmaking that doesn’t get nearly the same level of attention, at least from enthusiasts. But a new watch from Oris made me rethink my relationship to these watches.  No, I’m not talking about watches with Muppet-clad date displays. I’m talking about diamonds, an entirely different level of opulence. In a modern context, watches that have been set with diamonds most frequently fall into one of two categories: watches marketed exclusively toward women, or the completely iced out custom jobs that you sometimes see on red carpets, music videos, and in New York City’s diamond district. With the new Aquis Date Diamonds, Oris is asking us to rethink the stone by incorporating them into a watch that’s truly sporty, and also by making them accessible.  Oris goes about this by using lab-grown, as opposed to mined, diamonds. Lab-grown diamonds have increased in popularity in recent years as manufacturing techniques have gotten better and better, delivering stones that are identical optically and chemically ...

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Hands-On with All the New Zenith Releases at Watches & Wonders Worn & Wound
Zenith Releases Apr 4, 2023

Hands-On with All the New Zenith Releases at Watches & Wonders

Zenith relaunched their Pilot this year, in one of the most closely watched releases of Watches & Wonders. It’s one of those watches that was just hard to know what to make of it until seeing it in the metal (or ceramic), but both Zach Kazan and Blake Buettner were surprised by it in different ways. Here are their thoughts on the new Pilot watches, as well as a pair of genuine sleepers: a Defy Revival Shadow in bead blasted titanium, and an all new Defy Skyline in full ceramic (including the bracelet).  Pilot Zach: What I found when I finally went hands-on with the Pilot watches at Watches & Wonders last week was a collection of aviation inspired watches that didn’t feel the need to hew too close to tradition, either Zenith’s or the genre of pilot watches more generally. These watches, actually, reminded me of my favorite vintage Defy references in a surprising way, in that they were weird and unexpected, but still worked and were fun to wear. This isn’t a typical pilot watch in the same way a Defy from the mid-70s isn’t a typical sports watch. Their sensibility is tweaked just a little, to the point where there are few direct comparisons you can make to other watches. I guess what I’m trying to say is that they’re original in a way that few watches in this category are anymore.  The chronograph is the standout, in my opinion, and if I had to choose, I’d take the one in steel. There are two things about this watch that I really love. First, the way the ac...

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Hands On with the Big Bang Integrated Tourbillon Full Blue Sapphire, the Most Audacious Sapphire Watch Hublot Has Made Worn & Wound
Hublot Has Made Apr 3, 2023

Hands On with the Big Bang Integrated Tourbillon Full Blue Sapphire, the Most Audacious Sapphire Watch Hublot Has Made

And now, readers, we’ve come to that portion of our Watches & Wonders coverage that I know at least two of you have been anxiously anticipating, Yes, it’s now an annual tradition I guess, where I will wax rhapsodically about a mind bending Hublot novelty fit for a modern version of an 18th century French king. I can’t really think of a better way to describe the Big Bang Integrated Tourbillon Full Blue Sapphire than to contextualize it with something commonly understood to be shorthand for over-the-top indulgence, but that’s what this watch is all about, in the best possible way. It’s a huge swing, which is exactly what I like to see from brands at Watches & Wonders. If I’m going to fly across an ocean and deal with travel delays at every step, I’d like to see things that I can only see in a presentation in the back of one of those enormous booths.  Last year I wrote about the Big Bang Tourbillon Automatic Purple Sapphire and characterized it as one of the best watches of last year’s Watches & Wonders because it succeeded at being compelling from a watchmaking perspective while also being completely outlandish in a way that Hublot is uniquely great at. It marked a point in my own appreciation for the brand where they rose above the level of a mere curiosity and reached a point where, in my opinion, they are deserving of the respect given to any other serious innovator in contemporary watchmaking.  This year they’re back with a sequel of sorts to last ye...

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Hands-On With the New Rolex Daytona Worn & Wound
Rolex Daytona Change Mar 30, 2023

Hands-On With the New Rolex Daytona

Change is hard, as they say. Particularly when the thing that requires it, wasn’t exactly broken in the first place. Rolex has found themselves in a near impossible situation of updating the near universally lauded 1165XX generation of the Daytona. A watch that’s recently found itself in a position it never really asked to be in, serving as the barometer of the second hand watch market and subsequently the subject of ire to many lamenting availability issues writ large at boutiques the world over. The watch itself, though? When considered at its initial MSRP upon introduction in 2016, which was $12,400 (or even its MSRP last year, which was $13,500), is pretty awesome. Not without fault, certainly, but a mighty fine chronograph to be sure and a total sweetheart on the wrist.  But of course, the Daytona was a rare bird to score at retail pricing, and judging it at aftermarket prices was a far murkier proposition. Still, there’s no doubting that this watch tapped into something deep, serving as the veritable poster child of the meteoric rise of the hype watch, and for good reason: it’s a great all around watch sitting on a load of heritage that includes some of the coolest figures of the past 50 years helping to inadvertently build the watch’s lore to unhealthy levels in today’s climate. While things have mercifully cooled off over the past 12 months, this is still largely the context in which Rolex is tasked with creating a new generation of Daytona, which they...

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