Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Memovox Boutique Edition, photo Johann Sauty

Top 5 alarm watches

The alarm could possibly be the oldest watch complication. Some of the earliest clocks used in monasteries didn’t have hands at all, but just a striking mechanism to mark the time for prayers. Today, it is one of the loneliest watch categories. If you’re interested in an alarm watch, you have a limited choice. The…

Tudor Heritage Advisor Cognac

Tudor Heritage Advisor Cognac

New for 2016 is the colour, a sort of reddish brown described as cognac. The Tudor Heritage Advisor Cognac is a version of Tudor’s alarm watch introduced in 1957: today the case, in titanium and steel with differentiated polished and satin finish, is 42 mm in diameter, as compared with the 34 mm of the…

Alpina Seastrong Diver 300 Automatic

Top ten diving watches under €3,000

A diving watch offers a series of technical characteristics that make them suitable for use underwater up to their rated depth. These comprise water resistance, with each watch tested in water under pressure, a unidirectional rotating bezel on which the first fifteen minutes are marked minute by minute for increased precision at decompression stops, hour…

Bradley by Eone

The Bradley by Eone

The Bradley is a quartz watch originally designed for blind people, but that is winning success with normal-sighted people as well for its unusual looks. It has a tactile front face with a ball bearing in a central groove indicating minutes. Another ball bearing rotating around a groove on the side of the case indicates…

Montblanc 1858 Chronograph Tachymeter Limited Edition

Montblanc 1858 Chronograph Tachymeter Limited Edition

The incorporation of Minerva, a watchmaking company founded in Villeret in 1858, into Montblanc has added a lot of depth to the brand’s range of products. At Villeret, it’s all about traditional watchmaking, using traditional machine tools. The watches emerging from Villeret are priced much higher than those made at Montblanc’s other manufacturing unit in…

Montblanc 1858 Automatic Dual Time

Montblanc 1858 Automatic Dual Time

The Montblanc 1858 Automatic Dual Time, one of the three new watches presented in the 1858 collection available from April 2017, continues the brand’s smart marketing technique, offering watches with standard movements and simple complications at an attractive price. Coupled with good design and the world-wide familiarity of the Montblanc brand name, this is presumably…

Montblanc 1858 Automatic

Montblanc 1858 Automatic

1858, because in 2007, the Richemont Group purchased Minerva and assigned it to Montblanc. Minerva is a historical brand founded in 1858, and it developed a reputation for fine movements and in particular for chronographs. The 1858 collection was presented in October 2015 with two timepieces with a distinctly early pilot’s watch appearance, based on…

Breguet Tradition Dame 7038

Watch brands are now presenting previews of their new products for 2017, which will be fully presented during the two upcoming shows, SIHH in Geneva in January, and Baselworld in March. Breguet’s preview is dedicated to women, a new version of the Tradition Dame, at a very feminine size of 37 mm but with a…

Laurent Ferrier Galet Traveller Boréal

The Galet Traveller Boréal by Laurent Ferrier is an interesting example of how a watch can develop new characteristics on the basis of customer demands. In this case, a client asked the brand for a Traveller timepiece, but with lots of SuperLuminova. The design of the hour indications was inspired by car dashboard instruments and…

Ulysse Nardin Diver Chronograph Artemis Racing

Ulysse Nardin Diver Chronograph Artemis Racing

The Ulysse Nardin Diver Chronograph Artemis Racing celebrates the brand’s partnership with America’s Cup team Artemis Racing, and it gets some good stuff from the deal. The Artemis Racing logo is very effective and it appears on one of the metal elements on the rubber strap, and on the 30-minute chronograph at 9 o’clock. There…

Calibre de Cartier Diver

Calibre de Cartier Diver Blue

A few brands have a watch that seems to be totally different to the house style, such as the Type XX/XXI/XXII pilot’s watches by Breguet, and the Cartier Calibre de Cartier Diver. Cartier is a watch and jewellery brand, and even its non-jewellery watches have a dressy, showy appeal. A diver’s watch on the other…

Laurent Ferrier

Laurent Ferrier Galet Traveller Globe Night Blue

The Laurent Ferrier Galet Traveller Globe Night Blue offers a good reason for creating a watch with the on-trend blue dial colour. In this piece, the view of the dial depicts the earth as seen from space, with deep blue oceans and tiny specks of gold representing the lights of the cities. The craftsmanship used…

Seiko Presage Chronograph SRQ019J1

Top five vertical clutch chronographs

Chronographs with column wheel and vertical clutch have some significant benefits with respect to those with horizontal clutch or with cam chronograph movements. There is virtually no extra energy absorption when the chronoograph is running, and in some vertical clutch chronographs, the balance wheel amplitude actually increases slightly. You can leave the chronograph running all…

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Double Balance Wheel Openworked

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Double Balance Wheel Openworked

The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Double Balance Wheel Openworked is a beautiful and innovative watch, with the new Calibre 3132 featuring a double balance wheel on a single staff. The watch has all the habitual Audemars Piguet refinement, with hand-finished skeletonization, and wheels with gold-plated surfaces and circular graining. The deep grey, gun-metal treatment of…

Steinhart Aviation Dual Time Premium

Top 10 three-hand watches under €1,000 2016

A mechanical watch is always something of a luxury, but there are some objects out there that enable you to discover the pleasure of co-habiting with something that can live at least as long as you will, that has its own tiny beating heart, and that will never need a new battery. Here are some…

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Chronograph

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Chronograph

The Royal Oak is a true legend in watchmaking, from its design – created by Gérald Genta in one night (the story goes), inspired by an old-fashioned diving helmet attached to a diving suit with screws – to its name, taken from a series of eight Royal Navy warships, in turn named after an old…

Cartier

Company profile: Cartier was founded in Paris in 1847 by Louis-François Cartier, who took over the jewellery workshop where he had trained, and specialized in jewellery and fashion accessories. Business went well, and he became the favourite jeweller amongst the French aristocracy. His son Alfred became a partner in 1872, and was running the shop…

Piaget Polo S

Piaget’s Polo has a long history. It was released in 1979, a watch in solid gold with a distinctive appearance provided by the stripes that continued from the bracelet over the dial. New Polo S and its distinctive case The new Polo S is very different, because it is in steel, and has a totally…

Oris Altimeter Rega Limited Edition

Oris Altimeter Rega Limited Edition

The Oris Altimeter Rega Limited Edition is one of the very few pilot’s watches to have a specialist pilot’s function. Breva also make a watch with an altimeter, the Génie 02, but it has a slightly higher price tag: $132,000, against which the Oris watch compares very favourably at 3,950 Swiss francs. The Oris Altimeter…