Last year, Certina presented this watch as a quartz chronograph; this year it is available as an automatic. Large and sporty at 46 mm diameter, it nonetheless feels very comfortable on the wrist. It is made in three versions, steel and black PVD, rose gold PVD, and a very attractive all-black version with green highlights.…
This watch is intriguing at first glance, with its off-centred hour and minute hands, the absence of the usual dial markings, and the slewed figure-of-eight that encloses the automatic winding rotor and the tourbillon. But where Piaget are excelling in their latest watches is in the crystalline clarity of the engineering, and their ability to…
Company profile: TW Steel is a brand based in the Netherlands, founded in 2005 by Jordy Cobelens, CEO (he was just 22 at the date of foundation), with Ton Cobelens (Jordy’s father) as Chief Design Officer, their initial inspiration was watches with a powerful identity provided by the simple design, crown locking device and above…
TW Steel is a cheerful and optimistic brand from Beverwijk in the Netherlands, launched ten years ago by Jordy Cobelens (CEO) and Ton Cobelens (Chief Design Officer, Jordy’s father) when they saw the opportunity to create oversized watches. They produced four “canteen models” in 2005, and sales were excellent, with the TW1 the best seller.…
Company profile: The company was founded by Georges Édouard Piaget in La Côte-aux-Fées, a small village in the Swiss part of the Jura, in 1874. From his workshop on the family farn, Georges began making movements that he supplied to other brands – typical of the “cottage industry” delocalized production that was a characteristic of…
Captain Robert Maloubier’s champion handlebar moustache made him immediately recognizable. He was also pivotal in creating another face you wouldn’t forget: the diver’s watch. In the early 1950s he worked with Blancpain on a watch suitable for divers, and the result was the Fifty Fathoms. Other watches for use underwater had been made previous to…
Montegrappa is an Italian company, based in Bassano del Grappa, that makes principally pens, but also a few watches. These include this piece “Chaos,” with the automatic mechanical movement ETA 2824. The Chaos watch is large, 54 x 43 mm, with a case in silver or gold with a skull and serpents motif suggesting a…
Company profile: Laco was founded as Lacher & Co. in 1925 in Pforzheim, Germany, by Frieda Lacher and Ludwig Hummel, and they immediately specialized in watches with Swiss-made movements mounted into their own cases. Hummel left the company in 1936 and Erich Lacher took his place, changing the company name to Erich Lacher Uhrenfabrik, and…
Company profile: Mühle-Glashütte has roots far in the past, but it has been making watches from relatively recently, since 1994. It was founded in Glashütte, Germany, in 1869 by Robert Mühle, as a company supplying measuring instruments to the many clock and watchmakers already operating in the town. Mühle had trained as an apprentice at…
This watch was presented at Baselworld 2015, and it is based on the military aviation observation watches (Beobachter = observer) made by Mühle-Glashütte and other brands from the 1930s. The Terrasport I Beobachter is the second type of observation watch by the brand (the other is the even simpler watch such as the Terrasport I…
Company profile: Baume & Mercier was founded in 1830, making it the seventh oldest Swiss watchmaking brand. It was initiated by brothers Louis-Victor and Célestin Baume, who opened a watch dealership in Les Bois, in the Jura region. They later began making their own watches, and during the second half of the 19th century grew…
A moon phase watch is not unusual, there are lots. What is unusual about the Jaeger-LeCoultre Rendez-Vous Moon is that the moon phase has as an extraordinary degree of accuracy. A normal moon phase watch approximates the actual average duration of the lunar month, 29.530587981 days, to 29.5 days, by means of a wheel with 59 teeth…
During the Fuorisalone events accompanying Salone del Mobile (the Furniture Show), from 14 to 19 April 2015, Officine Panerai exhibited its watches but above all a full-sized prototype of the manned torpedoes that were piloted underwater by Italian Navy divers, wearing Panerai wristwatches and depth gauges. This exhibition was held at Spazio Rossana Orlandi, in…
Laco, a German brand running back to 1925 and based in Pforzheim, made B-Uhr type pilot’s watches during the Second World War, and so this year the company is celebrating its 90th anniversary. As part of the celebrations, it has presented the Original Laco Aviator watch, reference 861929. It is described as a “Replika” watch…
This piece was presented at SIHH in 2014, and it is now available in boutiques in its red gold version. The Blancpain Villeret One Minute Flying Tourbillon 12 Days is a good example of Blancpain’s combination of traditional watchmaking and contemporary technology, with the anti-magnetic characteristics offered by the silicon balance spring and pallet fork…
Jean d’Eve is a brand based in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, with a history running back to 1888. I think that the brand has been owned, along with two other Swiss brands Sultana and Buler, by Hong Kong company Free Town Watch Products Ltd., since 1992. Sectora II Automatic Black Jean d’Eve first presented Sectora in 1981,…
Nord Zeitmaschine is the company owned by independent watchmaker Daniel Nebel. It’s a small company, the smallest possible: Daniel Nebel (born in 1971)works on his own at his base in Büsserach, near Basel in northern Switzerland (hence the name; “Nord” also incorporates his initials DN), making everything except for watchglasses and the base movements. He makes…
Company profile: Jehan-Jacques Blancpain set up his first workshop on the upper floor of his house at Villeret in 1735, and this date makes the company the world’s oldest watchmaking brand. His business was successful and he was followed by his heirs. His great-grandson Frédéric-Louis Blancpain transformed the traditional crafts workshop into an industrial concern.…
L-Evolution is the name that Blancpain gives to its most advanced models, with modular case construction and some unusual movement features. The Tourbillon Carrousel, with its calibre 2322V2 movement, has a modern and sporty look, but it’s not as glacial and frosty as it looks from the press-release renderings. When you have it on the wrist,…
It was probably one of the most eagerly awaited returns in watchmaking this year. After their tangle with Swatch Group, we were all waiting to see what the new Tiffany watch collection, CT60, would look like. It was unveiled on 2 April 2015 with a series of very classical designs. Expectations were high because Tiffany…