Monochrome
Independent watchmaking brand Bianchet, founded by Rodolfo and Emmanuelle Festa Bianchet in the Neuchâtel Canton, has built an identity around skeleton tourbillon watches and a design language that merges technicality with modern aesthetics. Until now, the brand has expressed its vision exclusively through tonneau-shaped cases. Just ahead of Watches and Wonders 2026, where the brand […]
Monochrome
David Candaux, a native of the Vallée de Joux with experience at Jaeger-LeCoultre and collaborations as a concepteur horloger for renowned brands, launched his own brand in 2017 with the DC1. The watch that followed, the DC6, established his signature: a bassinet-shaped case, a 30° inclined flying tourbillon, and the patented “Magic Crown” at 6 […]
Monochrome
Andreas Strehler is one of the most accomplished independent watchmakers. He is known for sophisticated creations such as the Sauterelle à Lune Exacte and the Trans-Axial Tourbillon, and his work has long been associated with complex mechanics and meticulous execution. With the launch of the Strehler brand three years ago, he aimed to make watches […]
Monochrome
A watch like this is not one for doing things halfway. The Jacob & Co. Billionaire Double Tourbillon Angel Cut is exactly what the name suggests. It is a large watch fully set with diamonds and is hard to ignore once it is on the wrist. Since its debut in 2015, the Billionaire line has […]
Time+Tide
Continuing to push for material innovation in the watch industry, ArtyA brings us a case made from an underutilised stone. The post ArtyA pushes case material boundaries with the new Purity Moissanite Curvy Tourbillon appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Monochrome
ArtyA is an independent Geneva-based brand founded by Yvan Arpa in 2009, best known for turning unconventional, often shocking materials, into fully wearable watches. The brand’s latest excursion in the vast jungle of materials involves moissanite, an extremely hard silicon carbide with a bright, highly dispersive surface often used as a diamond alternative in jewellery. […]
Monochrome
Collaborations between Louis Erard and Alain Silberstein are easy to spot by now, and the new Smile-Day Blue and Tourbillon Régulateur Blue fit right in. Over the past few years, the duo has worked across regulators, tourbillons, and more playful complications, always built around Silberstein’s mix of bold colours and simple geometric shapes. It is […]
Monochrome
I’ve always been a big fan of watches that have something moving on the dial, other than the smooth and consistent running of hour, minute and second hands. Whether it’s a dial-mounted balance wheel, a tourbillon escapement or even a winding rotor, I just love to see some type of action that goes beyond pure […]
Time+Tide
CIGA design celebrates the Chinese New Year of the Horse, with a diamond-encrusted, tourbillon-powered limited editionThe post CIGA design celebrates the Year of the Horse with a new limited edition Central Tourbillon appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Fratello
One of the things I’ve learned over the years is that ArtyA watches tend to reward the experience of seeing them in person. Photographs rarely tell us the full story. The brand’s fascination with unusual materials and unconventional case designs often produces pieces that behave very differently in person. Rest assured, the new Purity Moissanite […] Visit ArtyA’s Curvy Tourbillon Gets A Cosmic Twist In Moissanite to read the full article.
Monochrome
The name Marco Lang should be familiar to the most seasoned of our readers, for an obvious reason. The man is one of the most revered German watchmakers and one of the founders of the brand Lang & Heyne, with Mirko Heyne. Having left the manufacture in 2019, Marco Lang created his own brand back […]
SJX Watches
Independent watchmaker Marco Lang has just unveiled the Seven Spheres, a wristwatch containing a multi-axis central tourbillon. Diversifying away from his conservative style, the Dresden-based watchmaker presents an ambitious and dynamic mechanical sculpture that tells time. Inspired by the ideas of both Ptolemy and Carl Sagan, Mr Lang has achieved a rare feat with the Seven Spheres, building a watch that is both technically imaginative and artistically crafted. Initial thoughts We are seldom treated to multi-axis tourbillons, so Marco Lang’s entry to this niche and ambitious category is most welcome. The Seven Spheres is the his first tourbillon since leaving Lang & Heyne in 2019, and demonstrates the full breadth of his technical skill. The theme of seven spheres was inspired by the geocentric universe model theorised by Ptolemy in the first century. The astronomer’s theory was built around having the Earth as the centre of the universe, orbited by seven planets. Inspired by this obsolete theory, Mr Lang created the Seven Spheres, which places the regulating organ inside seven turning rings, which comprise the complex multi-axis tourbillon cage. The movement with its central multi-axis tourbillon vaguely resembles Vianney Halter’s Deep Space Tourbillon. However, the Seven Sphere’s architecture is even more interesting than that of the Deep Space, since the central tourbillon appears to be suspended in mid air. The Seven Spheres is one of the most complex multi-...
Deployant
Girard-Perregaux releases the new GP9530 incorporates a minute repeater intertwined with an automatic openworked tourbillon with flying bridges.
Worn & Wound
And just like that, it’s Super Watch Season. Every year we see a handful of watches that come to market that exist for the purpose of displaying the absolute pinnacle of what a brand can accomplish. Think of ultra complicated watches from Vacheron Constantin released in recent years, or pieces from Greubel Forsey focused on extravagant hand finishing and machining. The new release from Girard-Perregaux feels like a member of this rare category. The new Minute Repeater Flying Bridges combines a tourbillon and a minute repeater with GP’s famous “Three Bridges” movement architecture. The highlight here, beyond the rarity of a repeater, is that the new Calibre GP9530 is a self-winding movement (via a micro-rotor), which is exceedingly rare among chiming watches and, to a lesser extent, tourbillons. Girard-Perregaux has a long history in chiming watches that dates back to the 1820s, and the Minute Repeater Flying Bridges is fashioned as a tribute to those earliest repeaters, while being unapologetically contemporary in its design. Certainly part of that tribute is in the craftsmanship itself, and in the use of the most modern technology available to create the best chiming mechanism possible. To that end, the movement has been radically skeletonized not only for aesthetic reasons but to prioritize resonance. According to the brand, every technical choice made in the development of the new watch was made in the name of optimizing the sound of the chime. For a repeat...
Monochrome
Few timepieces showcase the technical sophistication of traditional watchmaking as clearly as minute repeaters. The new Girard-Perregaux Minute Repeater Flying Bridges introduces this complication with its demanding mechanism, combined with a tourbillon and an automatic micro-rotor winding system. The watch is built around the brand’s recognisable Three Bridges architecture, presented in a modern openworked interpretation […]
SJX Watches
Girard-Perregaux (GP) is starting the year with an ambitious new calibre inside the Minute Repeater Flying Bridges, the in-house GP9530. Also equipped with a tourbillon, the symmetrical, skeleton movement is a micro-rotor automatic, making for an exciting pairing of complications. Notably, even during GP’s heyday as a manufacture, it depended on specialists for its repeater movements. The GP9530 is the brand’s first in-house minuter repeating calibre (though it does borrow from an earlier striking movement created with the help of a complications specialist). The strikework is exposed on the dial, while the reverse reveals the winding mechanism under circular bridges. Initial thoughts In the past couple of years GP has been slowly making a comeback, after a few slow years, as a serious and motivated manufacture. The comeback started with the release of the reworked constant-force escapement and accelerated with last year’s unveiling of the workhorse GP4800 and the GP9620 skeleton tourbillon. This is in some ways a return to form. Historically GP was a powerhouse in this respect, making complicated movements under its own name as well as supplying movements, both complex and simple, to other high-end brands. At that time, however, GP still did source repeater movements from the likes of Christophe Claret. In time, the evolution of the industry reduced the need for such outsourced movements, and the marquee’s lustre dulled. The Minute Repeater Flying Bridges and its ...
Worn & Wound
Otsuka Lotec has emerged as one of the most exciting Japanese independent brands, a corner of the enthusiast world that is greatly expanding at the moment. Otsuka Lotec has found a niche with (mostly) affordable watches with a steampunk aesthetic, with lots of exposed gearing and an overtly mechanical look and feel. I’m an owner of the No. 5 Kai, and it’s one of the most satisfying watches in my collection – there’s really nothing else quite like it, at least under $10,000. Prior to this week, the latest release from the brand was an ultra high end complicated piece with a tourbillon and chiming mechanism with a retail price soaring into the low six figures, but they’ve returned to earth with the all new No. 8, which once again combines complications unexpectedly and gives the wearer a unique view of the mechanism inside. Like the haute horlogerie adjacent No. 9 linked above, the No. 8 features a square case fashioned from stainless steel. Time is read via a jumping hour display on the left side of the dial, and a retrograde minute display on the right (there is also a running seconds indicator at roughly the 12:00 position). Figuring out how to read the time when you first encounter a watch like this is part of the fun, but once you grasp what’s going on, it’s quite intuitive. The current hour and minute are easy to see at a glance if you look for the red indicators that correspond to each. A video posted on Otsuka Lotec’s YouTube channel makes the drama...
SJX Watches
Each year I find it surprisingly difficult to crystalise what I want to see from Watches & Wonders – perhaps I find it hard to hope for things I know will never come. Sometimes dreams aren’t logistically possible. For example, a compact Spring Drive chronograph probably isn’t reasonable given Grand Seiko already has its hands full scaling production of another new Spring Drive movement. At other times, imagination is bound by brand strategy: Cartier could easily steal the show with a quartz Crash Must priced along the same lines as a Tank Must – but never will. But I believe that the following watches, which I’d like to see from Patek Philippe, Grand Seiko and Credor, and Tudor are plausible enough to hope for. The following images were created without the use of generative AI. Patek Philippe In 2023, Patek Philippe launched the ref. 5316/50P, a minute repeating tourbillon with retrograde perpetual calendar and smoked sapphire dial. It remains among the brand’s best complicated offerings, other than the ref. 6301p, at least in my view. Last year Patek Philippe followed up with the ref. 6159G, which featured a smoked sapphire dial and the same perpetual calendar on a more pedestrian base movement. But if there is one reference more deserving of the smoked sapphire treatment than any other, it is the ref. 5236p in-line perpetual calendar, as imagined below in platinum. In 2021, Patek Philippe revived the historic in-line perpetual calendar, which is strongly asso...
Time+Tide
Both Jamie and Borna have ended up buying cars that have a unique connection to the world of watches (and they're not Bugatti Tourbillons).The post You know you’ve got a problem when your obsession with watches influences your car purchasing decisions appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Quill & Pad
In my experience, few things in high-end watchmaking catch the eye like the tourbillon. Its hypnotic motion is mesmerising, turning timekeeping into a visual performance. The post The Dancing Cage: 10 Best Tourbillon Watches appeared first on Quill & Pad.
SJX Watches
H. Moser & Cie. dips its toes into ceramic for the first time with the Streamliner Tourbillon Concept Ceramic, a bold watch that blends an original design with the high-tech proprieties of ceramic. Despite being a variation of a well-known model at its core, the new Streamliner is unexpectedly different and appealing, especially with a hand-finished ceramic bracelet, an unusual feature even in its segment. Initial thoughts The use of ceramic materials in watches is no longer a novelty. The inert and hard material is appealing for its near-invulnerability to scratches and high tech feel. Ceramics are typically employed for either for aesthetic or technical purposes, but usually for watch cases, while ceramic bracelets are almost exclusively the preserve of large brands that can afford working with the hard-to-machine material. Though still a niche brand, H. Moser & Cie.’s bestselling Streamliner is dressed entirely in ceramic, with a ceramic case paired with a ceramic bracelet. An all-ceramic bracelet is a rare sight from a brand of Moser’s scale. The matte, brushed finish of the ceramic exterior is at the opposite end of the colour spectrum compared with the bright red yet minimalist dial, giving this the signature Moser look. The granular, glossy finish of the fired enamel dial contrast and complements the matte, stealthy sheen of ceramic. The watch is paradoxical in some ways. Pairing Moser’s first ceramic case and bracelet with a tourbillon is somewhat incong...
Deployant
Moser releases their first ever watch with a ceramic case, and they chose to launch this on the Streamliner Tourbillon Concept.
Monochrome
Since its invention by Abraham-Louis Breguet in 1801, the tourbillon has remained one of the most mesmerising mechanisms in watchmaking. Often regarded as a complication in its own right, despite not actually indicating anything most of the time, it is a very complex and extremely precise testament to the maker’s abilities, whoever it is. Rotating […]
Monochrome
The tourbillon… is it a visual stunt or a useful component? If you chose to put one in a watch to do the work it was designed to do, you might as well keep it hidden. If the purpose is to mesmerise the onlooker with its rhythmic ballet, make it big, make it seen, so […]
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