Quill & Pad
Rolex, Patek Philippe, Chanel, Chopard and Tudor have just announced leaving Baselworld to create a new watch show in Geneva with the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie's Watches & Wonders. The show will be held in early April 2021 at Geneva's Palexpo. This is going to be one interesting year full of new thoughts and ideas. Get out the popcorn!
Quill & Pad
The success of Le Labo can be boiled down to a single scent: Santal 33. It touches everything that Le Labo stands for. When you put a touch of Santal 33 on it smells refreshing yet familiar, and Martin Green explains why here.
Quill & Pad
Joshua Munchow's love for Chinchilla Red petrified wood in combination with red gold might make some believe that he puts it well above the other models in Jaquet Droz's Loving Butterfly Automaton line, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. He adores the opal dials too because they look like interstellar explosions. What else makes them so unique?
Quill & Pad
When they hear the name Fabergé, most people immediately think of the Imperial Easter eggs. This is logical because even today the breathtaking craftsmanship and detailed execution of these objets d’art are the stuff of legends.
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If you’re like GaryG, you’ve been spending some time during the current pandemic-driven lockdown monitoring online watch publications, including Quill & Pad, and you’ve likely seen at least a few comments in response to posts that go something like this, “How in the world can you possibly be focused on something like watches at such a terrible time?” Well, Gary is here to tell you.
Quill & Pad
With the two big Swiss fairs’ very existences hanging in the precipice thanks to past mistakes and the global pandemic COVID-19, and with no inkling of a clear way forward, Elizabeth Doerr looks at the turbulent first three months of 2020 and shares how brand managers are reacting to the 'new normal.'
Quill & Pad
Colin Alexander Smith highlights the fact that both electric guitars and watches share the timeless debate over whether to restore an item showing its age or to preserve it “as is.” And John Mayer is mixed up in both; but how?
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Despite their resilient nature, modern tool watches show no lack of subtle details and sparkle with refinement as these three brand-new pieces prove. Here, Sabine Zwettler introduces a trio of instrument watches by Bell & Ross, Breitling, and Panerai.
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The Parmigiani Tonda 1950 Double Rainbow Flying Tourbillon pleases the heart and the eye with its complex and well-finished movement, but Martin Green thinks that it also tantalizes with its unique design and innovative use of colored gemstones.
Quill & Pad
Main Ridge Estate has been considered as producing not only some of the Mornington Peninsula’s best Pinot and Chardonnay, but some of the best anywhere in Australia, pretty much from day one. Small quantities of its wines do manage to make their way to international markets, but you’ll need to search for them. Ken Gargett explains why you might want to do just that.
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For those unaware of the work of clockmaker Eric Freitas, Joshua Munchow describes his aesthetics as a combination of the styles of Guillermo Del Toro, Tim Burton, Salvador Dalí, and the entire production design of Jim Henson’s 'The Dark Crystal' if they were combined into an intense mechanical wall clock. Who wouldn't want to have a look at this?
Quill & Pad
In the old, pre-COVID-19 watch world, the far-too-prevalent low standard of press material supplied by brands to journalists was amply counterbalanced by the sheer number of journalists and collectors around the world supplying lots of hands-on, third-party information, opinion, and photography. Now that's gone, so it’s time for brand marketing and communication teams to lift their games. Ian Skellern shares three easy ways how.
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To my longtime friends in the watch hobby, and perhaps to regular readers here as well, the mention of my name may conjure up a number of connotations: patron of the independents, fan of A. Lange & Söhne, admirer of Patek Philippe grand complications, and longtime customer of Jaeger-LeCoultre, among other characterizations more or less favorable. But vintage?
Quill & Pad
Martin Green highlights three new watches that we would have seen for the first time at Watches & Wonders 2020 had the fair run: the new Montblanc Heritage Monopusher Chronograph, the Cartier Santos-Dumont XL, and Roger Dubuis's Excalibur Twofold that introduces a new material to watchmaking: LumiSuperBiwiNova.
Quill & Pad
Are you ready for fine high horology with a bit of glamour? Here are two of the more affordable and elegantly sporty models from two of watchmaking’s finest brands: Audemars Piguet and Patek Philippe.
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As just about every watch event has been canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic, Elizabeth Doerr highlights five new watches for women here that we would have seen for the first time at Watches & Wonders 2020.
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It seems a bit ironic to Ken Gargett that, as the world goes into an unprecedented lockdown to deal with the novel coronavirus pandemic, he reviews a wine, the Yalumba The Caley Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz 2014, which celebrates one of the most peripatetic members of the wine industry. Yet here we are.
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Martin Green relishes discovering an exquisite watch in peace and quiet with plenty of time; it's a luxury he appreciates. All the more so in a quiet comfortable salon on the first floor of the Jaeger-LeCoultre boutique at Place Vendôme, Paris, with a Duomètre Sphérotourbillon Blue.
Quill & Pad
Ikepod has recently launched its second Kickstarter campaign with a new collection, the Megapod. Focusing on a three-hand dial with modern minimalistic details, the Megapod feels very much the descendent of the original Megapode collection and definitely fulfills the requirements for a solid, high-quality mechanical watch featuring incredible design at an affordable price.
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"Dear Mr. Babin, I’m speaking as a fan, but you are sure making it difficult. It gives me no pleasure to take shots at you like this, but if you keep standing up and saying these things, I’ll keep rebutting you," Ian Skellern begins his second open letter on this subject . . .
Quill & Pad
These are tough times. People around the world are fighting for their lives against the novel coronavirus, and far too many have already lost the battle. However, as GaryG explains, as with many other challenges in life, there is one sure-fire solution to lift the spirits: watches!
Quill & Pad
Have you seen the prices of high-end (and not so high-end) wristwatches? Crazy! None of us can afford the watches that we want, and the world economy is tanking. So in the middle of the coronavirus crisis why are we still publishing pointless stories about watches and why are you still reading them? Ian Skellern shares his theory here.
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Swedish boutique brand GoS may be inspired by Viking aesthetics and Scandinavian northern lights, but the appeal of its timepieces to the watch collecting community is global. And now the first of only five GoS Skadi models, named for the Norse goddess of winter, is on its way to its happy owner in the USA. What makes this watch so special? Anders Modig reports.
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New Zealand native Steve Smith has partnered with Brian Sheth to create a new operation: Smith & Sheth Cru. Ken Gargett believes this young winery co-founded by Smith, a highly decorated and experienced winemaker, could well take its place among the world’s exciting emerging wineries.
Quill & Pad
The history of the world time complication is intimately connected to Patek Philippe. Due to its pedigree, this brand is often considered to offer the ultimate in world time watches. And when Patek Philippe introduced the 5231J World Timer at Baselworld in 2019, many applauded the continuation of the tradition since it’s a perennial favorite. Joshua Munchow explains what makes this model so special.
Quill & Pad
In its simplest form, the equation of time is defined as the difference between the time displayed by the position of the sun (as by a sundial) and the time displayed by any modern clock or watch. But that's just the beginning; watchmaker Ashton Tracy explains more.
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Over the last few years, we have published an unusually high number of articles about drummers, the timekeepers in nearly every musical band or group. It kind of stands to reason that drummers would particularly like watches – even if they can’t (or shouldn’t!) wear them while playing – as both fields have extreme time-keeping functionality. Elizabeth Doerr highlights a few of these stories right here.
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The year 2019 was one of subtle improvements in Rolex’s mainstay Oyster Perpetual collection. Elizabeth Doerr highlights the seven main new Rolex models introduced in 2019, plus a few surprise variations.
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From his perfect perch in Geneva, Marc André Deschoux of The Watches TV discusses in depth the effects of the current COVID-19 crisis as it affects the watch world.
Quill & Pad
The Naked Watchmaker (TNW), aka Peter Speake-Marin, does a series of deconstructions of a broad selection of modern Breguet watches and movements, starting with the Classique 5177, a relatively simple (for Breguet) three-hand dress watch with date. Here Ian shares a few details that The Naked Watchmaker didn't reveal.
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