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It has always surprised Martin Green that mechanical movements running at a high frequency have never become more popular. Chopard joined this exclusive club in 2012 with the L.U.C 8HF and now releases a follow-up with the Alpine Eagle Cadence 8HF, which also boasts an 8 Hz escapement.
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The Marchesi di Grésy estate is now one of Barbaresco's most highly regarded, if not the region's greatest - for many, Barbaresco's first - Grand Cru, even if not officially designated as such.
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Lang 1943 is not a homage, it stands its own ground and can best be summarized as a beautiful tool. The first thing that the team at Lang 1943 got right was the proportions. A diameter of 39mm is spot on, particularly when the thickness is just 8.40 mm. This results in a timepiece that is comfortable to wear, large enough to be easy to read, but not overly bulky that it hinders movements.
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The Patek Philippe Calatrava Reference 6007A marked a physical and spiritual shift for the brand and may be one of the most un-Calatrava Calatravas of recent memory. Joshua Munchow takes a look at what made this model an outlier and also why it simultaneously didn't come from left field.
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Oskar Pascal is the brainchild of a pair of Swedish brothers who were neither previously involved in the watch industry nor are they watchmakers. The engineer and designer have created a cleanly designed chronograph housed within the world's first watch case in ZR01, an amorphous alloy based on zirconium, one of the hardest metals in the world and even used by NASA. And then there are the Pods!
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When Tim and Bart Grönefeld showed Ian Skellern their prototype 1941 Grönograaf during Watches & Wonders 2022, he loved it. But he didn’t think it would win “Best Chronograph” 2022 at the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève because he thought that prize would go to the then-soon-to-be-released MB&F; LM Sequential EVO. Ian has since changed his mind, and here's why.
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In early 2023, Hublot introduced the Big Bang Tourbillon Automatic Yellow Neon Saxem, featuring a case made of a mysterious and rather impressive-looking crystal called Saxem. It looked like an addition to the brand's extensive line of sapphire watches. But as a retired laser physicist, I wondered: what material was behind that name? Perhaps a special kind of synthetic sapphire?
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Here Elizabeth Doerr highlights three new watches of 2021 by independent watchmakers with eye-catching dials that really caught her own eye.
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For CHF 4,950, the Ming 37.05 Series 2 is a thoroughly thought-out design, a generous dose of original character, and a fun execution on one of the industry's oldest complications: the moon phase. Unfortunately, it quickly sold out.
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Martin Green thinks that the Maurice Lacroix Aikon Skeleton 39mm is sized perfectly. And to see the skeletonized movement and (nearly) all its parts, the way they interact and work, is captivating.
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Big brands are now making beautiful, reliable, and relatively accurate “traditional” mechanical watches, but the handcrafted work many of us value is disappearing. Highly skilled watchmakers and artisans are rare and expensive: there just aren’t enough of them available to churn out the large quantity of nice watches now being sold. And why bother when nobody seems to have noticed?
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“So marvelous, so delicate was the bouquet, it seemed an impertinence to go further and taste this miraculous liquid; and yet, on the palate it almost made one regret the waste of time the moments spent in taking in the perfume.” Ken Gargett didn't write that, but he feels the same way about the fabulous wines of Burgundy. Find out here why this is the golden age for this region.
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For those not familiar with what was a monumental shift in the tectonic plates of the world of wine, the Judgement of Paris is a legendary moment when the spotlight’s glare revealed that it was entirely possible to make great wine outside France.
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If John Keil was to recommend a brand-new functional diver’s watch to a friend who was looking to spend within a certain price range, these would be his suggestions. Or, more specifically, here is what he would purchase himself in a variety of price categories.
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Wandering hours has become an essential part of Urwerk's DNA. Unlike any other brand out there, they have explored, lived through, and lost sleep over wandering hours. Over the years, Urwerk have introduced different varieties of this way of displaying time, of which the UR-120 is one of the most spectacular.
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The first Black Tot Day was in 1970, the last day on which sailors in the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy were issued their daily rum rations (“tots”). Pusser's has taken the exact recipe used by the Royal Navy when it discontinued the daily ration on July 31, 1970 and used it to make its rums, the only producer in the world to do so. Here, Ken Gargett fills us in on everything tot - he luckily doesn't go "sipping the admiral," though.
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Timepiece repairs can be expensive and often take a long time, so you generally want to avoid damaging a watch. Here John Keil lists five common things you may not be aware of that can damage a watch and how to prevent them.
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The United States celebrated several historic milestones in 2019, and Nancy Olson shares these events – which includes both trains and the moon – commemorated by four luxury writing instruments.
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By auctioning off unique pieces explicitly made for Only Watch, Luc Pettavino has given the brands a platform to go all in and all out. Many brands seize this opportunity to take their work to an even higher level, while collectors lust over the opportunity to own a unique watch from their favorite brands. Here are Martin Green’s Top Ten, and the last one, which is his absolute favorite!
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The history of commissioned timepieces is a long and colorful one, but collector group commissions are perhaps a more recent phenomenon. GaryG recently met with Adam Eisendrath of San Francisco-based collectors 49 Crowns to learn more about the club and to check out two customized watches commissioned from Swiss-based Finnish independent Torsti Laine.
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So far in 2023, GaryG has traveled to Switzerland twice: once for the Watches and Wonders week, and again in June for a very special event. Here he focuses on the independents, starting with a sequential journey through his first trip.
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Some people understand the benefits, limitations, and mechanics of duty-free shopping for a luxury watch at an airport: they know a deal when they see one. For these savvy individuals, shopping at the airport can and does make economic sense – sometimes. In this article Chris Malburg explains watch shopping at airports for the rest of us.
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Pol was the first champagne Ken Gargett ever tried – a sneak swig under the kitchen table from a bottle at one of my parents’ dinner parties. And he particularly loves the Sir Winston Churchill.
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The Richard Mille RM UP-01 Ferrari is a stunning feat for two main reasons: it is the thinnest mechanical watch in the world and it meets some extreme requirements for shock and water resistance all while being only 1.75 mm in height. Here Joshua Munchow takes a deep dive.
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Not many brands first present a complex minute repeater only to then distill it back to its essentials to power a three-handed, time-only watch. But that's what Tutima has done with the charming Patria Small Second.
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The Hermès H08 in blue titanium is a very welcome and pleasing addition to the Hermès watch collection and one that Martin Green would wear with pleasure on vacation – or anywhere for that matter. Here he explains why.
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Has history been rewritten? An early Gérald Genta design made for IWC – regrettably never put into production – suggests so. On June 22, 2022 the not-yet-seen sketch was auctioned by Sotheby’s.
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Some think that a rapidly soaring price is proof of a watch bubble. They could be right. Or not. Financial bubbles are tough to identify when they’re forming. They’re even more difficult to declare finished as prices collapse. Financial expert Chris Malburg shares a few tips about recognizing and navigating a watch bubble, especially if you feel the need to buy during it.
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In this last of the four-part series, we look at Only Watch 2023 Lots 49-62. While there are many fantastic watches here, Ian Skellern particularly likes the imaginative story of Lot 51, the Richard MilleTalisman Origine and the space-age design of Lot 60, the Urwerk Space-Time Blade.
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In this first of a short series called “History of Ferrari Watches,” Elizabeth Doerr takes a look into the Panerai collaboration, which took place between 2005 and 2010. Start your engines!
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