Stowa Ikarus Klassik Sport

The new Ikarus Klassik Sport by Stowa looks sleek and modern with its light grey rhodium-plated, bead-blasted dial, minimalist dial design and brushed steel case, but it is in fact very close to the original Stowa Flieger Baumuster Type A, as can be seen from the photo of a watch made in about 1939 below.…

Zenith Pilot Type 20 Extra Special

Zenith is a symbol of continuity in watchmaking. Ever since its foundation in 1865 in Le Locle, it has been working at a factory at the same address. Its watches all have an in-house movement. This piece is based on their original pilot’s watch made for Louis Blériot in 1909. However, in addition to the…

Zenith

Company profile: Zenith was founded in 1865 in Le Locle by watchmaker Georges Favre-Jacot (born in 1843), and from then on it has been working at a factory at the same address. When he founded his company, Favre-Jacot was just 22, and he took a revolutionary step: instead of following the usual Swiss watchmaking system…

Hamilton Ventura Elvis 80

This watch by Hamilton is as cool as it was when worn by Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black, and even earlier when it was the personal watch of Elvis Presley. The King would have celebrated his 80th birthday on 8 January 2015, and this is the reason for this relaunched watch’s…

Hamilton

Company profile: Hamilton was founded in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1892. It followed three other companies on the same premises. The short-lived Adams & Perry watch company had operated from 1874 to 1876, succeeded by the Lancaster Watch Company founded in 1877. Lancaster was purchased by Abram Bitner in 1886, who founded the Keystone Standard Watch…

Slim d’Hermès Koma Kurabe

This limited-edition series, 12 watches, is part of the Slim project by Hermès. The dial depicts the Koma Kurabe horserace organized every year at Kamigamo Shrine in Kyoto, amidst the springtime cherry blossom. Each dial is made of Sèvres porcelain, hand-painted by Buzan Fukushima, a master of the Japanese Aka-e painting technique. Below, Buzan Fukushima at…

Slim d’Hermès

The Slim d’Hermès project began in 2012 and it represents a quest on the part of La Montre d’Hermès to pare a watch down to the essentials. Designed by creative director Philippe Delhotal, all the Slim watches feature a new typeface by Philippe Apeloig, a designer who had already worked for Hermès but who knew…

Hermès

Company profile: Someone who loves watches may be forgiven for paying less attention to a brand like Hermès that makes principally leather goods, perfumery and fashion garments. But in actual fact, Hermès makes beautiful watches, proving that quality in watchmaking is absolutely possible for a horizontally-diversified brand of this type – as is the case…

Jeanrichard Terrascope GMT

This is an attractive watch by Jeanrichard, with the 44-mm cushion-shaped case and bezel in contrasting bright and brushed steel, and the extra GMT hand for a second time zone outlined in blue and indicating the time on an inner 24-hour scale. The watch is available in three colour versions, with grey dial (as shown),…

Jeanrichard Terrascope Chrono Carbon

All-black. Murdered-out. Blacked out. Black PVD-coated. Carbon fibre. DLC. Batman’s favourite colour. There’s no doubt that all-black watches are still very much in fashion, even though in terms of legibility they are inherently impractical. Who cares, all they have to do is look good. An all-black watch was an obvious choice for Jeanrichard, the brand…

Jeanrichard

Company profile: Jeanrichard is named after Daniel Jeanrichard (1665-1741), one of the first watchmakers in the canton of Neuchâtel, who built his first watch in 1681, and went on to set up his own workshop. Some of his watches can still be seen in the Jeanrichard Museum in La Chaux-de-Fonds. He also helped develop the…

Harry Winston Histoire de Tourbillon 6

Histoire de Tourbillon is one of the most technical watch series by Harry Winston, and it may continue even beyond this piece, number 6 in the series. The other Harry Winston series that intrigues watch-lovers all over the world, Opus, will possibly see the latest Opus 14 launched before the end of the year (as…

Why the Breguet Tradition Chronographe Indépendant 7077 could represent the future of mechanical watches

The Breguet Tradition Indépendant Chronograph was undoubtedly one of the highlights of Baselworld 2015, an innovative piece in which the chronograph function is kept completely separate from the time functions by means of two movements, each with its own balance wheel, and separate power sources. The time functions are powered by a conventional mainspring barrel…

Harry Winston Project Z9

  The Project Z9 by Harry Winston belongs to the Project Z series of watches (in turn part of the Ocean collection), all technical and sporty, with certain instantly recognizable features such as the case in Zalium, a proprietary alloy of aluminium and zirconium, the three arches that in this piece are at the crown,…

Harry Winston Avenue Dual Time Automatic

  This piece by Harry Winston is a dual time zone watch with a very unusual design. Large and rectangular, it has a dial divided into two halves, the main time zone on the right, with analogue hour and minute hands, a day/night indicator, and a date window. On the left, there is the second…

Harry Winston Ocean Chronograph Automatic 36mm

  Presented this year (2015), the Harry Winston Ocean Chronograph Automatic 36mm is an unusual combination, both a jewellery watch, while also being a chronograph with mechanical movement, with a strap and water resistance approaching diving watch status. At first glance, it presents the features that mark a prestige women’s watch: fairly small, rose gold case,…

Harry Winston Art Deco

  A curious feature about diamonds is that when you see them in the flesh, they are extraordinarily beautiful and you immediately understand the reason for their fascination they hold for us humans, but in photographs, non of their magic appears. Particularly not in the computer-generated photographs that are often used by brands in their…

Ferdinand Berthoud

Company profile: Chronométrie Ferdinand Berthoud is a new brand owned by Chopard, whose Co-President Karl-Friedrich Scheufele acquired the right to use the name in 2006. Though part of Chopard, the new brand has an independent, dedicated team, and the watches will be distributed internationally through independent points of sale. Ferdinand Berthoud, clockmaker and scientist Ferdinand Berthoud…

Harry Winston Premier Lace 31mm

  This watch by Harry Winston combines a lot of the classical symbols for feminine grace in watches: white gold, mother-of-pearl, lace, diamonds, petite size. It has a dial in mother-of-pearl that has been meticulously open-worked so that it takes on a lacy appearance, contrasting against the sunburst black base. The relatively small 31 mm…