The Blancpain Quantième Perpétuel 8 Jours, a perpetual calendar watch that keeps track of everything from seconds through to leap years, was presented in 2014, and it is now available in Blancpain boutiques. It has the exceptional power reserve of 192 hours, the eight days of its name, and it has another user-friendly characteristic: the…
This watch, sold online by French brand Charlie Watch, provides an idea of what the minimum price of an automatic watch could be. It has a calibre 9015 Miyota automatic movement made by Japanese company Citizen providing 42 hours power reserve, visible through the sapphire caseback. The case is in 316L steel, 40 mm in…
These women’s watches by Junghans are not just quartz watches: they are absolutely accurate, and provide perpetual calendar functions, because they are capable of receiving time signals. They are powered by sunlight, which filters through the mother-of-pearl dial, down to solar cells underneath, and so they have a power reserve of up to 21 months.…
The Ulysse Anchor Tourbillon is a remarkable watch incorporating bi-stable blade technology, similar in principle to the Girard-Perregaux Constant Escapement L.M. Ulysse Nardin became part of the Kering Group in August 2014 and so it is now in the same family as Girard-Perregaux and Jeanrichard. This piece was preceded by the prototype presented last year,…
Company profile: The history of watchmaking includes many brilliant inventors, but no-one contributed more to the craft than Abraham-Louis Breguet. Some of his innovations are routinely referred to using his name – the Breguet overcoil, Breguet hands – and others, such as the tourbillon, shock protection, and the gong in repeater watches, are a fundamental…
2015 is an important year for Breguet, and one of the anniversary pieces is the Marine Chronographe celebrating the 200th anniversary of Abraham-Louis Breguet’s appointment as chronometer-supplier to the French Royal Navy by King Louis XVIII. This watch is a limited edition of 200 pieces, with platinum case. Case and dial The platinum case…
The 1950s style of this piece is generated by the rectangular format – which, according to de Grisogono founder and designer Fawaz Gruosi, was inspired by a cigarette case – and the style of the numerals. It’s a brilliant touch just having the central six numerals visible on the rectangular dial, as if the 11,…
I particularly liked the presentation of this watch by de Grisogono at Baselworld. I think it was Michel Nieto (Head of Commercial and Watches at de Grisogono) talking, and he said, ”Fawaz Gruosi said that he wanted to launch the company in the men’s segment. So he said, ‘I want to start with something extremely…
Company profile: Christophe Claret was born in Lyon, France, in 1962, and studied watchmaking at the Geneva School of Watchmaking. He continued his studies by working with Roger Dubuis, opened a vintage restoration workshop back in Lyon, and began making his own watches. In 1987, at Baselworld, Rolf Schnyder, Swiss industrialist who had just purchased…
It’s amazing how you just have to introduce some Ancient Rome, and a watch immediately reminds you of Versace or Bulgari. Motifs such as Roman capital letters (AVENTICVM instead of AVENTICUM) and the meander pattern are so powerful that they give anything a hallmark of classicism. The watch Aventicum was designed to highlight the…
Christophe Claret is a tireless inventor. His watches always have something a little different, or a lot different. They could be considered as couture watches, made in small series, at high prices. Allegro is interesting because it looks like a chronograph, with pushers at 2 o’clock and 4 o’clock, and two subdials, but in fact…
The Golden Bridge is one of the most famous models by Corum, and this year, 2015, marks the 35th anniversary. Back in 1980 it was the first in-line or baguette movement, based on a design developed from 1975 to 1977 by Vincent Calabrese, young watchmaker from Naples, who had patented it as Horlogerie Spatiale, but,…
This chronograph version of the 12-sided Admiral’s Cup was already part of the Corum collection, introduced in 2012, but this year it has seen the reintroduction of the nautical pennant hour markers that the brand are now reaffirming as an important part of their identity. Case and dial The watch is a midsize piece, with…
With this collection, Corum demonstrated their desire to move into a price area different to that of most of their history: from 1,800 to 3,000 Swiss francs. These women’s watches also mark the return of the nautical pennants that have been so important for the brand. The Admiral’s Cup Legend Lady is made in two…
This is a deliciously quirky watch that was invented by Severin Wunderman in 2000, the same year that he purchased the brand Corum. He had probably seen the Rolex Deesea Special, an experimental watch with a thick domed watchglass to resist the pressure at the bottom of the Marianas Trench, about 11,000 metres down, and…
Company profile: Corum was founded in 1955 by René Bannwart, who had already acquired experience working at a number of Swiss manufacturers. His uncle Gaston Ries had owned a watchmaking workshop in the Swiss town of La Chaux-de-Fonds since 1924, and together they decided to transform this business into a watch brand. The name they…
The AC-One 45 Bois is a new development of the Admiral’s Cup collection by Corum, and its distinctive feature is the teak used for the dial, with the vertical joint lines reminiscent of classic yachts. The large 45mm case has the twelve-sided Admiral’s Cup shape, but overall it has a tougher look created by rugged…