Attractive in its beige-black livery, the Bell & Ross Military Beige BR V2-92 is functional, with a bidirectional rotating bezel in anodized aluminium that enables events to be timed and countdowns to be set. The hour and minute hands have central fields filled with SuperLuminova. The automatic is (to my eyes) marred by the date…
Welcome back, Guinand Unmistakably tough. Unmistakably pilot’s. The Starfighter Pilot Chronograph watch by Guinand has a lot of attractive features and a ton of aviation DNA, with links to Helmut Sinn and the long tradition of German watchmaking. Its name Starfighter is a connection to the watches by Heuer and other brands that were supplied to…
Aerowatch’s new timepieces for Baselworld 2019 include this attractive pilot’s watch, named Grande Mécanique Aviateur and part of the brand’s Renaissance collection. It is 43 mm in diameter with a narrow bezel and so it is a statement piece on the wrist, though it looks reasonably slim. The matt black dial provides a backdrop for…
Meccaniche Veloci (the name translates as “fast engineering”) was founded in Milan in 2006, and its first model QuattroValvole (four valves) became its leitmotif, with four subdials for four time zones. In 2016 the company moved to Geneva. Today it makes a few thousand watches per year, with in-house movements. Automotive inspiration The Quattrovalvole CarboNero…
The Khaki Field Murph Auto is the watch that provides indirect confirmation for one of the most surprising claims made by Hamilton: that the appearances of their branded watches in films are not the classic product placements, because they don’t actually pay for them. They are simply approached by the producers by virtue of their…
Baume Iconic is the first automatic watch by the new brand Baume. All the other watches in Baume’s first collection are quartz. One of Baume’s unique selling point is the use of recycled materials, in particular aluminium for the watch case, and a strap made from recycled PET plastic. The Miyota 82D7 movement is made…
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…
