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Skeleton & Openworked Watches · Page 40

1,031 articles · Page 40 of 43
Looking through Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak Double Balance Wheel Openworked Time+Tide
Aug 4, 2019

Looking through Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak Double Balance Wheel Openworked

Editor’s note: Make no bones about it, skeleton watches are not to everyone’s taste. Legibility is sometimes less clear than a watch with a solid dial, but this is because time telling is almost ancillary to the stunning exposé that the watch offers. A skeleton dial offers a view typically reserved for a watchmaker in … ContinuedThe post Looking through Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak Double Balance Wheel Openworked appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
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HANDS-ON: The Ulysse Nardin Executive Skeleton X in Carbonium Gold Time+Tide
Aug 3, 2019

HANDS-ON: The Ulysse Nardin Executive Skeleton X in Carbonium Gold

With a name that sounds like it comes straight from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it should come as no surprise that the watch looks more than a little out of this world.  First of all there’s the dial - or rather the lack of it. Because as you might guess with a name like “Skeleton … ContinuedThe post HANDS-ON: The Ulysse Nardin Executive Skeleton X in Carbonium Gold appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
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Hands-On: Chanel Boy.Friend Skeleton Watch SJX Watches
Aug 1, 2019

Hands-On: Chanel Boy.Friend Skeleton Watch

Chanel has been slowly but steadily building up its line of mechanical watches powered by high-end, in-house movements. Most notable is the Monsieur de Chanel jump hour, created with the help of respected independent watchmaker Romain Gauthier, who sold a minority stake in his company to Chanel several years ago. Mr Gauthier also had a hand in last year’s Boy.Friend Skeleton, a top of the line variant of Chanel’s fashionable rectangular watch. Fancy mechanics are usually the preserve of men’s watches, but the Boy.Friend Skeleton boasts an impressively thoughtful, open-worked movement, the Calibre 3. In fact, the design and details of the in-house movement show that it was conceived from the ground up with a particular aesthetic goal in mind. It’s the only way to create a skeleton movement that looks as coherent as this does. An especially beautiful detail are the gilded bevels on the outermost frame of the base plate and the sub-seconds, which emphasise the finish and shape of the movement. Chanel circles The Calibre 3 has been constructed to incorporate a series of repeating, interlocking circles, a favourite motif of Chanel’s chief watch designer, Arnaud Chastaingt. The motif starts with the bridges and base plate, which are all brass finish with a frosted surface coated in black amorphous diamond-like carbon (ADLC). A telling indication of the attention to detail put into its construction lies in how the bridges are constructed. Instead of being a sing...
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Hands-On: De Bethune DB28 Steel Wheels Blue “The Hour Glass” SJX Watches
Jul 24, 2019

Hands-On: De Bethune DB28 Steel Wheels Blue “The Hour Glass”

De Bethune is the latest amongst a number of watchmakers to take the covers off a commemorative edition to mark the 40th anniversary of Singapore watch retail powerhouse The Hour Glass. For the occasion, De Bethune has put together a variant of its signature DB28 with sprung lugs that’s entirely clad in brilliant, blued titanium. First unveiled in polished titanium in 2018, the Steel Wheels is essentially a DB28 wearing a little less. A partially open-worked dial – which is actually the delta-shaped barrel bridge – reveals its pair of skeletonised barrels and gears. While the original Steel Wheels captures the essence of De Bethune, combining its trademark design with the brand’s fundamental technical innovations, it was lacking a generous dose of blued titanium, a gorgeous, heat-treated alloy that is synonymous with the brand. Colour consistency That has now been rectified with the DB28 Steel Wheels Blue, arguably the purest – and bluest – distillation of the brand’s core values and technical achievements. It features an intense, mirror-polished, blued titanium case and dial that form a striking contrast against the exposed inner mechanics. Though blued titanium is also used by other brands today, De Bethune was amongst the first to mirror-polish its titanium cases and more crucially, started using heat treatment to blue titanium way back in 2006. An example of an early De Bethune using blued titanium, a DB25L from 2010 with a blued dial...
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The lovely bones - Bulgari’s Octo Finissimo Skeleton Titanium Blue Time+Tide
Jul 17, 2019

The lovely bones - Bulgari’s Octo Finissimo Skeleton Titanium Blue

Editor’s note: If you look at the profile of this Bulgari Octo Finissimo Skeleton Titanium Blue, there isn’t a lot to see. That’s because the watch is so darned thin! But the dial-side more than makes up for it, because Bulgari has cut the dial open, exposing all manner of goodness inside. Read on for … ContinuedThe post The lovely bones – Bulgari’s Octo Finissimo Skeleton Titanium Blue appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
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The 10 best skeleton dials from 2018 Time+Tide
Jul 9, 2019

The 10 best skeleton dials from 2018

Skeleton dials are interesting, not because they offer a garish look at something exposed but because they showcase the sheer level of complexity involved in modern watchmaking. Without searching for photos of the movement of your watch online, or doing a John Goldberger (and opening your million dollar Rolex 4113 with a cheese knife), the … ContinuedThe post The 10 best skeleton dials from 2018 appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
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Artisans de Genève Introduces the Daytona “La Barrichello” SJX Watches
Jun 25, 2019

Artisans de Genève Introduces the Daytona “La Barrichello”

Anyone who followed Formula 1 in the 1990s to the early 2000s would remember Rubens Barrichello as effective driver. Though the Brazilian did not win any championships, he notched up 11 wins and 68 podium finishes. Like many fellow Formula 1 drivers, Mr Barrichello likes watches and was once an Audemars Piguet ambassador; the Royal Oak Offshore Rubens Barrichello II of 2006 was one of the hottest watches of the era.  Unsurprisingly, Mr Barrichello is apparently a fan of the Rolex Daytona – arguably the auto racing watch – explaining his collaboration with Artisans de Genève, a Swiss outfit that specialises in customising Rolex watches. They gave his Rolex Daytona a makeover to create “La Barrichello”, a strikingly and heavily modified Cosmograph Daytona with an open-worked movement. Notably, Artisans de Genève just last year performed a similar custom job on a Daytona belonging to Juan-Pablo Montoya, another F1 driver who was active in the sport at the same time as Mr Barrichello. Both drivers’ skeletonised watches are novel in a good way; much of Artisans de Genève’s other creations are modern Daytonas modified to look like vintage “Paul Newman” Daytonas, which is arguably less interesting. Creative differences “La Barrichello” started out as the all-steel Daytona ref. 116520, which is the preceding generation of Daytona that was first introduced in 2000 before being replaced by the ref. 116500LN (distinguished by its ceramic bezel) in 2...
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INTRODUCING: The pure craziness of Panerai’s latest Luminor Tourbillon GMT 47mm Lo Scienziato PAM00768 Time+Tide
May 27, 2019

INTRODUCING: The pure craziness of Panerai’s latest Luminor Tourbillon GMT 47mm Lo Scienziato PAM00768

Panerai’s top-tier timepieces go by the name of Lo Scienziato - avant-garde evolutions of the brand’s classic case shapes that really let the watches’ technical side shine.  Of course, the technology is present in the movement: a skeletonised, three-dimensional offering that fills the 48mm case; the P.2005/T calibre boasts a central time and GMT, 24-hour … ContinuedThe post INTRODUCING: The pure craziness of Panerai’s latest Luminor Tourbillon GMT 47mm Lo Scienziato PAM00768 appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
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INTRODUCING: The Breguet Classique Tourbillon Extra-Flat Skeleton 5395 Time+Tide
May 17, 2019

INTRODUCING: The Breguet Classique Tourbillon Extra-Flat Skeleton 5395

Last year, Breguet introduced a stunningly simple, surprisingly asymmetrical addition to the Classique family, the Tourbillon Extra-Flat. This year, at Time to Move, they’ve premiered the next chapter. It’s still a Classique Tourbillon, but it’s been dramatically skeletonised. Meet the Breguet Classique Tourbillon Extra-Flat Skeleton 5395.  First things first – the fundamentals: 41mm across by … ContinuedThe post INTRODUCING: The Breguet Classique Tourbillon Extra-Flat Skeleton 5395 appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
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INTRODUCING: Jaquet Droz’s Grande Seconde Skelet-One Ceramic Time+Tide
Feb 14, 2019

INTRODUCING: Jaquet Droz’s Grande Seconde Skelet-One Ceramic

In the last few years, skeletonised watches have undergone a renaissance. Once overly designed and overwrought, at some point this distinctive genre segued from niche to very nice indeed. And Jaquet Droz’s Skelet-One is a great example of this new breed. Clean and simple, rather than ornate, is the name of the game for this … ContinuedThe post INTRODUCING: Jaquet Droz’s Grande Seconde Skelet-One Ceramic appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
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INTRODUCING: The Franck Muller Vanguard Grande Date Time+Tide
Dec 16, 2018

INTRODUCING: The Franck Muller Vanguard Grande Date

A few days ago, we introduced you to the opulent curves of Franck Muller’s Cintrée Curvex Grande Date, a curvaceously cased complicated chronograph with a big date and semi-skeletonised dial. Well, today we’ve got something just as Grande in the date department: the Franck Muller Vanguard Grande Date, with a dial that’s a little more … ContinuedThe post INTRODUCING: The Franck Muller Vanguard Grande Date appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
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IN-DEPTH: The Bulgari Octo Finissimo Skeleton Titanium Blue Time+Tide
Dec 1, 2018

IN-DEPTH: The Bulgari Octo Finissimo Skeleton Titanium Blue

The story in a second: So thin you can see through it. If you were to summarise Bulgari’s approach to design and modern-day watchmaking, the Octo would be the result. In less than a decade, the Italian manufacturer has turned a single striking case design into an entire collection, evolving with each new model, and … ContinuedThe post IN-DEPTH: The Bulgari Octo Finissimo Skeleton Titanium Blue appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
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VIDEO: Bare bones - the Rado HyperChrome Skeleton Automatic Chronograph Time+Tide
Nov 18, 2018

VIDEO: Bare bones - the Rado HyperChrome Skeleton Automatic Chronograph

For all that skeletonised watches are meant to be about reducing mass, the Rado HyperChrome Skeleton Automatic Chronograph is a watch with a lot of substance, and much of it ceramic. The case, middle, bezel and bracelet are all made from Rado’s signature material, and have been treated with a range of processes - keeping … ContinuedThe post VIDEO: Bare bones - the Rado HyperChrome Skeleton Automatic Chronograph appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
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Comments 5

  1. Karam
    The Greubel Forsey architecture mentioned here is genuinely impressive from a chronometry standpoint. Those openworked layouts don't come cheap in terms of manufacturing tolerances. Curious if the article touched on how skeleton designs affect COSC certification or if there's any measurable deviation penalty versus solid movement cases.
  2. Anonymous
    Skeleton watches always feel a bit theatrical to me, like you're paying extra just to see the gears spinning. That said, there's something genuinely beautiful about the hand-pierced pocket watches from the 18th century mentioned here. Modern ones feel like they're trying too hard.
  3. WatchHusk
    The AP Royal Oak Skeleton and Hublot Big Bang Tourbillon get all the press, but honestly if you want to appreciate openworked movements without the six-figure price tag, look at what the microbrands are doing. Brands like Nezumi Studios and Raven are exploring skeleton concepts with real craftsmanship and way more soul per dollar spent.
  4. Reece
    been looking at skeleton watches and wondering about the depreciation angle. AP Royal Oak holds value pretty well historically, but does the skeleton variant retain differently than the standard model? cost of ownership over 5 years must be brutal if you're paying sport watch prices for something you mainly wear on weekends.
  5. Ravi
    Is a skeleton watch actually worth it as a first watch versus something like a standard Submariner or Speedmaster. I love the look but some of the collector stuff seems way out of budget. Should I be patient and save or is there a good entry point.

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