Quill & Pad
David Oscarson’s use of guilloche and fired enamel to create the exquisite designs on his pens is his well-established hallmark, and over two decades he has brought compelling and often thought-provoking topics to pictorial life with clarity and artistic flair. His latest collection features sea turtles all the way down, providing us with just a whiff of the bygone summer.
Quill & Pad
The GPHG Diver's category contains watches linked to the field of diving, whose functions, materials, and design are suited to this activity. Diver's watches are fairly straightforward and the most successful ones tend look very much alike. However most of our panelists selected a winner from the outfield that looked very different to the norm.
Quill & Pad
Based on the most popular releases of 2017, it is possible that the almighty tourbillon may about to be usurped by something new and rather old at the same time: the chronograph. In this installment of Joshua Munchow's “Here’s Why” series, he explores why the chronograph could be the new tourbillon.
Quill & Pad
For a die-hard shoe aficionado, the Berluti moniker probably resonates the same way that Franck Muller’s name does for a WIS: overpriced, under-crafted, and something that clueless wanabees might buy. But Berluti, like Franck Muller, was a game changer. As much as What Makes Me Tick wouldn’t be caught dead wearing a Franck Muller on his wrist, Berluti is for him one of the greatest shoe brands ever.
Quill & Pad
Ever wondered what the inside of a Rolex Submariner looks like, then (sensibly) thought better of trying to find out? Well, wonder no more. The Watches TV has teamed up with The Naked Watchmaker, Peter Speake, to take a modern Rolex Submariner completely apart – diving right into the heart of this famous diver’s watch.
Quill & Pad
The Breguet Classique Double Tourbillon 5345 Quai de l’Horloge features two separate tourbillons – but that isn’t all: the hour wheel moves a plate that makes a rotation once every twelve hours, taking the hour hand (and everything else on the dial) with it. The open movement on the dial side puts everything beautifully on display. But possibly it's the hand-engraved case back, a poetic story in itself, that is Elizabeth Doerr's favorite detail of this new watch.
Quill & Pad
Parisian haute couture house Dior currently has three watches in the running at the 2020 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, two of which are based on the magnificent Grand Bal concept. Elizabeth Doerr takes a quick look at them.
Quill & Pad
In the Waipara region, North Canterbury, in the southern part of New Zealand's South Island there is a cult winery called Pyramid Valley that Ken Gargett has visited a few times. Today he tastes several 2018 wines from the place with the picturesque vineyard names and shares his opinion with us.
Quill & Pad
Is the universal attraction of a chronograph found in the ability to control part of the timekeeping yourself using the often-dynamic-looking extra dials and hands? For the GPHG, at any rate, this is an important category with, as usual, a very strong lineup. So how is our panel leaning when it comes to picking a winner? Find out here.
Quill & Pad
The Mechanical Exception category features men’s or ladies’ watches with a special mechanism such as an innovative or sophisticated display, an automaton, a belt-driven movement, a striking or other acoustic function, or any other original and/or exceptional horological concept. And we surely have an intriguing set of finalists in the Mechanical Exception category this year: everything from a tumbling triple-axis tourbillon to an electronically controlled hybrid timepiece to a paper-thin mechanical watch and an automaton minutely replicating a 16-cylinder engine. And even more!
Quill & Pad
Our friends at The Watches TV had a chance to see the Hermès watches for 2020 – and they (and we) were in luck to also hear from La Montre Hermès CEO Laurent Dordet. Host Marc André Deschoux goes through the new Hermès pieces one by one, beginning with the 2020 L’Heure de la Lune, the first version of which launched in 2019, which he thinks is "A super-hot watch.” Things go seriously wacky from there.
Quill & Pad
Adding a few diamonds to a watch: how hard can that be? As it turns out, stone setting is a lot more difficult than many appreciate. Diamond-setting watches requires the expertise and craftsmanship of about half a dozen highly skilled craftspeople, each a master of their craft.
Quill & Pad
With concept cars, it is typical for most of the features on the prototype to be weeded out once the design is optimized for manufacturing. The electronical-mechanical Ressence Type 2 is the complete opposite, Joshua Munchow says, as it has retained pretty much every single thing the concept watch of 2018 offered and has only improved in function. Is the Ressence Type 2 the future of mechanical watches?
Quill & Pad
To the extent that new enthusiasts represent the future of the watch market, is it possible that their enthusiasm for the past will prove highly damaging, or even lethal, to the industry’s future? GaryG shares his thoughts on the subject here.
Quill & Pad
The Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Mariner Memovox doesn’t just sound as good below water as it does above, it sounds even better! While many of the recent Memovox models have been unashamedly contemporized, the Polaris Mariner Memovox is a relatively faithful tribute to the original 1965 Polaris. And it sounds as charming as the original, but better in every way.
Quill & Pad
Ulysse Nardin offers the Blast in five different case versions, and each of these case materials has great impact on the look of the individual watch. In most watches, ceramic cases provide an edgy feel that Martin Green thinks often makes them look better than their metal-encased siblings. Not so with the Blast, he feels. Check out all of his thoughts on this new watch here.
Quill & Pad
The GPHG Calendar and Astronomy category emphasizes astronomical and/or calendar complications included in men’s watches. Sorry, ladies' watches, you don't seem to count here. The six nominated watches cover quite a wide gamut of styles, complications, and price categories. And our panelists' picks for winner cover a rather wide gamut as well.
Quill & Pad
The Paulin Watches Neo is fully designed and assembled in Scotland. The dial – the most important part of this watch – was also handmade in Scotland. And those are not the only great things about the affordable, reliable, and well-designed Neo.
Quill & Pad
In the GPHG Chronometry category, we find mechanical watches that contain at least one tourbillon, and/or a special escapement, and/or another development improving precision timekeeping. What we don't find, though, is much hard data regarding precision like timing test results or in most cases even a second hand. Precision watches without a second hand? Despite that, our panel predicts a clear winner.
Quill & Pad
The Watches TV visited Vacheron Constantin’s Geneva boutique to talk with the brand’s style and heritage director Christian Selmoni, who provided the story of the new Overseas Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin Skeleton, which you can watch in this aesthetic five-minute video.
Quill & Pad
French independent watchmaker Theo Auffret has called Paris his professional home for many of the last eight years. His debut watch, the Tourbillon à Paris, is both testament to his watchmaking philosophy and a fine example of French tradition in practice.
Quill & Pad
I'm all for evolution, especially continual evolution in watchmaking. However, from time to time we need revolution as well as evolution, and the former is severely lacking. While MB&F;'s Legacy Machine Perpetual looks to all intents and purposes like one of the least radical timepieces created in the brand's ten-year history, make no mistake: it is revolution, not evolution.
Quill & Pad
When Piaget introduced the manual wind Caliber 9P at the 1957 Basel Fair, at only 2 mm in height, it was considered an impossibility. Three years later, in 1960, Piaget stunned the watch world once again with Caliber 12P, an automatic movement that broke world records for its svelteness. What does that have to do with a vintage watch Martin Green saw? Find out here.
Quill & Pad
Elizabeth Doerr recently had the pleasure of celebrating with Nomos all that the city of Glashütte has accomplished in 175 years. The star of the informative day for her, though, was the set of three celebratory versions of the Lambda in a new (and very appropriate for this year) stainless steel case.
Quill & Pad
Both the Chronoswiss SkelTec and the new Opus chronograph show that Chronoswiss is on track to continuing the innovation begun with 1995's Opus chronograph. Anders Modig takes a dive into contemporary skeletonization with two brand-new models by the brand, including two reboots of the original Opus.
Quill & Pad
Another champagne from 2008, you ask? Yes, Ken Gargett resoundedly replies: he says 2008 will go down as the greatest year of the champagne century despite a plethora of fine years since the turn of the millennium, and he is here to tell us all about it.
Quill & Pad
The Iconic category emphasizes men’s or women’s watches from a brand’s emblematic collection, meaning one that has had a lasting influence on watchmaking and its history as well as having been on the market for more than 20 years. Our panelists have mixed feelings about the Iconic category and are (nearly) split down the middle on picking a favorite.
Quill & Pad
In perusing the names of the 2020 jury of the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, two distinct things became obvious to former jury member Elizabeth Doerr: that the entire jury is based in Switzerland and that it is far less diverse than it has been over the last decade. Here she breaks down why that is and provides some commentary and background on the new members.
Quill & Pad
The two new Bulgari Aluminium models look a lot like their predecessors, which makes you realize how timeless the design is. They don't even look retro, highlighting the timeless quality of the original design. And the good news is that they are relatively affordable compared to other watches in Bulgari's collection. What else do these watches have going for them?
Quill & Pad
The GPHG foundation describes the Men’s Complication watches as remarkable in terms of their mechanical creativity and complexity. But many of our panelists are scratching their heads as the perennial question "is a tourbillon a complication?" comes up yet again.
Question, suggestion, or just want to say hi? Drop a note.