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Not many brands have the same depth of history as Breguet. It is one of the oldest watchmaking brands surviving today, established in 1775 by Abraham-Louis Breguet. Raman Kalra reflects on why the brand hasn't kept up with its peers and what they can do to bounce back.
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If you need a change from the carpeted floors and the luxurious, calm, Gallican atmosphere of European fairs, Hong Kong’s Clock and Watch Fair (HKCWF) may well be just the right thing. Marton Radkai will be heading to that event for the second time to see what timekeepers the Asian market have in store ando to find out more about the trials, tribulations and trends of the industry there and globally.
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Relive the comedy of errors from the day that almost ended Tim's career in watches. Fortunately, it all worked out in the end.
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Martin Green has a passion for dress watches, so HYT has always been an interesting brand for him to write about, but not one he could see himself owning. The T1 has changed that.
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In recent years, several factors have come together resulting in the exponential rise of microbrand watches. This new microbrand wave is one of the biggest developments in the broader watch market. I would mention here that not all microbrands are equal. There are many watches out there that, to be honest, are not worth your time. However, some microbrands are getting it right as Raman Kalra highlights here.
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The latest addition to join the Ming family as part of the brand’s Special Projects Cave is the 20.01 Series 3. If you’re partial to one-off dials, this could be your ticket. Its USP is a dial made entirely from borosilicate crystal.
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While reflecting on the various limited edition Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshores, Alexey Kutkovoy realized something that had escaped him: there are not many ROO versions of the original 'The Beast' design. In fact, there are very few. You can count them on one hand.
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The Spaceone Jumping Hour is a watch that began as an idea between friends which morphed into a plucky little Kickstarter project and ended up with a new brand that has already released two watches that have redefined what a small brand can create for truly reasonable amounts of money.
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For many people, anchovies are one of those foods to be avoided like the plague. But for Ken Gargett anchovies are not a love-it-or-hate it food. Rather, they are a love-it-or-you-have-not-discovered-how-good-they-can-be food. A lunch of a freshly baked loaf of hot, crusty bread smothered in good quality anchovies is just magic. Here he takes you on an aquatic journey through the culinary aspects of this small fish.
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Launched in 2008, the De Bethune Dream Watch series is a standalone collection offering just a single model at any given time. The Dream Watch 5 featured here was customized by Swizz Beatz.
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When Rolex put the Sky-Dweller Caliber 9001 in a Rolesor case in 2017 (“Rolesor” is a Rolex term for stainless steel and gold) and dropped the price down to $14,400 Chris Malburg became a player. And, as he soon discovered, so were a goodly number of other Rolex admirers. Here is why he bought this watch and what happened then.
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For a watch to qualify as a COSC certified chronometer, the movement not the cased watch) has to be precise to -4 sec to +6 sec per day and that’s more than precise enough for most brands. But Ferdinand Berthoud is not most brands.
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The first full month of the second half of 2024 continues to show the market in decline. The WatchCharts Overall Market Index lost 0.8% in July, worse than the performance in June.
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Ken Gargett describes the Taittinger Comtes 2013 as a champagne that dances. Citrus and grapefruit pith, florals, brioche, stonefruits, a hint of ginger and mixed spices. A beautifully elegant champagne with immaculate balance and intensity, which lingers long after first impressions.
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Not everyone wants to own an iconic watch. Some want to stand out for their individuality or even go under the radar. Ramon Kalra shares his thoughts on collections from some of the largest watch brands that he doesn't feel get as much attention as they deserve.
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Many think that Louis Vuitton's first watch was the Tambour, which was launched in 2002. However the brand actually began with a watch collection called Monterey in the 1980s. The Monterey I, an unusual worldtime watch designed by Gae Aulenti with date and moon phase, was soon followed by the ceramic-encased Monterey II that added an alarm function.
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You can like everything, but you can’t buy – or keep – everything! Inevitably, the choices involved lead at times to regrets; for GaryG, along with many of his pals, the sadness is much more often about pieces they sold too soon or failed to buy rather than pieces they were sorry about buying in the first place. Here's a story of shoulda, woulda, coulda.
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The Czapek Place Vendôme Complicité has a stunning movement while maintaining the design language of the Place Vendôme. This may seem trivial to some but for a brand that has always had a strong design culture, designing a movement around the desired appearance is still quite impressive.
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Tim Mosso explores the renewed rivalry between luxury watch titans Omega and Breitling. Once an also-ran, Breitling has been rehabilitated in the marketplace and offers competitive watches in all classes. As Rolex has moved upmarket, Omega and its Speedmaster have been left in possession of the mid-market field.
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Gary Getz (aka GaryG) was interviewed recently for The Horology Club of Hong Kong. In these two videos, Gary explain how he got into watch collecting and shares some of his favorite watches and why they are special to him.
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Rolex had never called out to Joshua Munchow as a watch that he must have or that would be the pinnacle of his collection. He thinks that this is because of the downsides to it being the most widely known watch brand in the world: forgeries and overexposure abound. So what is it about 2015's Rolex Day-Date 40 that turned him into a convert? Read on to find out.
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MB&F; movement constructor for LM Perpetual,Stephen McDonnell’s focus was split between ease of use, durability, and packaging. Ease of use comes in the form of an independent corrector for each of the day, date, month, and leap year. Unlike most perpetual calendars, the MB&F; LM Perpetual has a permanent freestanding button for advancing each display; no separate tool is required.
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Patek Philippe surprised Joshua Munchow with the 2019 launch of the Weekly Calendar, a new dress watch in stainless steel and the brand's first steel-encased production model since the 1970s. The 5212A Calatrava Weekly Calendar is a mix of modern technology, classic style, and a couple of unique touches that help it stand out from Patek Philippe’s typical offerings, making it one of his favorite watches from the Genevan giant in quite a while.
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Non-vintage champagnes were consider second tier to their vintage superstars, but that's now changed. Ken Gargett takes a look at the history of non-vintage champages and shares some of his favorites.
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One of Martin Green's favorite complications is the perpetual calendar, aka QP. While he knows that an annual calendar can do almost the same for a lot less, he is still mesmerized by the human ingenuity of being able to a miniature mechanical device that can even deal with leap years.
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Omega and Fratello Watches came out with their first #SpeedyTuesday Speedmaster edition back in 2017 and it sold out within few hours. Three years later, a second iteration of #SpeedyTuesday timepieces came to life. And this one sold out – all 2,012 pieces – in under two hours. And one of these 2,012 watches is in Łukasz Doskocz's personal collection. Here he explains why.
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The Etheral Twin Orbital Tourbillon is, in many ways, a landmark model for Cyrus, marking the start of a new chapter.
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Tim Mosso is like most collectors of luxury watches; he's bought, owned, and sold many brands and models of watch. Here Tim discusses the deeper reasoning behind the decision to sell each of his watches.
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There is one wine producer that has taken on almost mythical status in recent years: Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. And one of its wines, Romanée-Conti, stands out above all others. Many wine lovers, perhaps most, consider it to be the very best wine in the world. Ken Gargett is one of them.
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General everyday contact with magnets isn’t going to cause your beloved wristwatch any real harm, but overdoses of magnetism may still present a problem, causing erratic timing and even stoppage altogether. Watchmaker Ashton Tracy explains what to do.
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