2019 brings with it a number of anniversaries that may spawn some celebration watches, such as 50 years from the moon landing, 50 years since the first automatic chronograph, 50 years since the Seiko Astron, the first quartz wristwatch, and 50 years since the first Concorde flight. A. Lange & Söhne celebrated its own special…
A touch of genius from Hermès. Many of the 35 brands presented new moon phase displays in this 50th anniversary year of the first moon landing, and one of the most original watches of this type was Arceau l’Heure de la Lune by Hermès. In this piece, probably based on an original concept by La…
IWC’s new pilot’s watches include this Automatic, one of the purest pilot’s watches made by IWC in recent years. It is very close to the Mark 11 watches supplied to the RAF in the late 1940s. The major differences are the presence of a date window, different dial markings, and above all the introduction of…
Before analysing the deluge of watches presented recently at the Geneva show SIHH, here is a post on a watch by San Francisco-based start-up Linjer. Another start-up? Another would-be watch brand? But Linjer is an example of what is happening in the mechanical watch industry. Up until a few years ago, mechanical watches were by…
The big date complication makes the date easier to see at a glance. There are not many watches of this type in production. This article lists 12 examples in increasing price order.
The movie Mission Impossible – Fallout starring Tom Cruise has a one-second scene showing a stopwatch by CWC, a British brand whose brief history was mainly about the supply of watches to British military forces.
This year many brands have been taking a look back into their history and recreating something that they had already done in the past. These sort of watches have an instant appeal because they have characteristics that look vaguely familiar even if you don’t know the watch. It’s a trend similar to things that are…
The complete calendar watch, also known as full calendar or quantième complet, provides date, day, and month, and sometimes moon phase as well. But it doesn’t take into account the differing lengths of months, and neither the leap year cycle.
Open heart watches have an aperture on the dial showing the balance. It’s part of the romantic side of mechanical watches, comparing the balance with the heart of a human body. The list is in ascending price order.
An interview with Peter Speake-Marin on his new brand Stoic World, which has presented three watches hallmarked by good design and affordable prices.
Here is a selection of some of the most interesting new pilot’s watches launched for 2018. They are in ascending price order.
Stoic World is a new project by Peter Speake-Marin, and one of its first watches is this classic pilot’s watch, with a self-winding Seiko movement, and a 38 mm case with a 100-metre water resistance rating. All at an affordable price: $390.
We know that Gareth Southgate is having a considerable effect on waistcoat sales in the UK – up 35%, say Marks & Spencer, official suppliers to the England team. His sharply-styled navy blue suit, worn with just the waistcoat over a light blue shirt and a regimental tie in the England colours – has made…
What do watches have in common with sex? A semi-serious look at the different levels of watch sexiness, from the virtuous modesty of Rolex to the full-frontal nudity of Roger Dubuis.
A mechanical watch is a throwback to a different age, the age before electronics, when watchmakers were engaged in the struggle to turn a heap of metal into a machine that would vibrate at a constant frequency whatever the position, temperature and circumstances. Today a mechanical watch is itself a distinctive product. Even more so…
Mansfield Time, a young kickstarter company, makes a very eye-catching, large men’s watch named Automatica One, 43 mm in diameter with stainless steel case, which combines several themes. It has diving-watch water resistance, 200 metres, but its looks are those of a pilot’s watch. There is a lot of IWC, with the stubby sword-type hands,…
Berthet, French watchmaking company founded in 1888, celebrates its 130th anniversary this year. In addition to making its own watches, it supplies components to many other watch brands. The characteristics of its timepieces – hand-wound movements, original complications, in-house skeletonization, affordable prices – make Berthet a distinctive brand with a powerful identity. We had the…
Bubble is an important part of Corum‘s heritage and every year many new versions of this watch are issued. With their big domed sapphire watchglass, they are always large and bold. With a 52 mm case, over 20 mm thick, it’s not the discreet dress watch that slides under your shirt. More than most, it’s…
One of the absolute highlights of SIHH – and the entire world of watchmaking – in 2018, Révélation d’une Panthère by Cartier is not so much a watch as a performance. Above the hands and the dial, instead of the usual sapphire watchglass, there is a flat sapphire capsule containing 900 tiny gold beads, in…
Santos was the first pilot’s watch, possibly the first watch with a square case, the first watch with exposed screws on the bezel, and the first watch to have a leather strap.
The new Heritage Classic Chronograph watches by Louis Erard are exactly what their name says: classic chronographs. This family of watches has a sober, discreet design, with two subdials for the chronograph minutes and hours, and the choice of no running seconds, or a cross-form subdial for running seconds at 9 o’clock. The dial is…
The Bulova Aerojet 98A187 was recently advertised with a full-page ad in an Italian newspaper, with the price displayed as €279. It shows that price is no longer a massive problem for people looking for an automatic watch: it’s affordable for most, and from a big brand. The new Aerojet 98A187 is based on a…
Company profile: Berthet was founded by Joseph Berthet, son of a teacher, born in Savoie. He learnt watchmaking in Switzerland over the course of about 12 years before returning to Charmauvillers, close to the Swiss border, in 1877, setting up his own watchmaking workshop in 1888. He was joined by his brother and his three…
The Orbis Régulateur H43 by Berthet is a 43 mm watch with a hand-wound movement, modified in-house to provide the regulator function.
The Agilis by Berthet is based on a classic hand-wound movement that is modified in-house to create the retrograde minutes display at the top of the dial. Berthet perform an operation similar to that performed by Vincent Calabrese with his company Nouvelle Horlogerie Calabrese: they use standard ETA/Unitas movements and modify them to do something…
