The Chanel Mademoiselle J12 was – in my opinion – one of the highlights of Baselworld 2017. In a high-tech ceramic case, the dial has a jaunty illustration of Mademoiselle Coco Chanel, on a sapphire glass disc, with her arms acting as hour and minute hands. The graphic design and the seamless execution give this…
Archimede have introduced a new, slim pilot’s watch. The Pilot HW 42 has a hand-wound movement (Sellita SW 215), whose thickness of 3.35 mm enables a case size of just 8.6 mm. This compares to the 9.9 mm of the brand’s automatic Pilot’s 42. Display caseback The watch has a sapphire crystal caseback that reveals…
The chronograph is the most common watch complication, but the basic design has remained substantially the same for almost a century. Every year, watch brands produce new chronograph models, all with two pushers for start/stop and reset. The field is wide open for innovation, but not many companies are investing into research. No pushers, just…
The Milano San Babila by Italian brand TerraCieloMare (TCM) is a watch that illustrates two important trends: extending the range to women, and the colour green. The watch has a 38mm case making it a unisex piece, and the green colour of the dial is a nice match to the bezel in marine bronze, which…
This interview by Henry Neuteboom was originally published on the luxos.com website in 2017. Carole Forestier-Kasapi has worked on some of the brand’s revolutionary new watches such as the Panthère Joueuse, Astrotourbillon, and the Astrocalendaire. “I like challenges and we can always improve something,” says Carole, “I strongly believe that we can always push boundaries…
The earliest pilot’s watches were often pocket watches adapted for a strap by welding wire loop lugs to the case. Oris recently discovered a watch of this type dating back to the 1910s, and for 2017 it is presenting a new edition of this piece from a century ago. Early design style, modern materials While…
Raymond Weil creates some watches dedicated to musicians, and the Maestro Buddy Holly has one of the coolest small seconds hands that I’ve seen in a while. The counterweight in the form of Buddy Holly’s glasses is a lovely touch. The watch is nice for its understated approach. Apart from the Buddy Holly signature below…
A dominant trend at Baselworld 2017 is the effort by brands large and small to provide a lower entry-level price. Low-cost movements by companies such as Ronda with the Mecano make automatic watches even more attractive at the lower end of the market. This year, Tudor have created a new mechanical watch for women starting…
The new Teutonia Sport I by Mühle-Glashütte is the sports version of the Teutonia family, and so it joins the vast sector of automotive-inspired watchs. The touches of red on dial and strap provide an immediate identification with motor sports, reinforced by the technical-looking strap texture and the nice red piston-ring groove on the pushers.…
At Baselworld 2017, Eberhard & Co. celebrate their 130th anniversary with a new version of their classic Chrono 4 with four counters in a row. The counters display minutes, hours, 24 hours and small-seconds, with date at 12 o’clock. It’s a very unusual chronograph, launched originally in 2001. The arrangement was patented by Eberhard and…
In the Cat’s Eye collection, Girard-Perregaux speaks exclusively to women, with watches featuring diamond-setting and horizontal or vertical oval cases. The new Cat’s Eye Celestial has a mother-of-pearl dial with a radial guilloché finish, and a large moon phase display with a deep blue aventurine night sky. The large moon disc is almost 9 mm…
Georg by Lang & Heyne is a tribute to classical German watchmaking, but the display caseback reveals an in-house calibre with some very contemporary characteristics. Lang & Heyne, a company based in Dresden Lang & Heyne was founded in Dresden in 2001 by Marco Lang (born in 1971) and Mirko Heyne. Mirko left in 2003…
The new Girard-Perregaux 1966 WW.TC – World-Wide Time Control – presented at SIHH in January 2017, changes everything with respect to the previous version. The chronograph function has been removed, and the second crown at 9 o’clock, absent in the 2013 version, has been reintroduced and provides a distinctive look to the watch. The dial…
Occasionally you see a watch that does something completely different. This is the area of “nouvelle horlogerie,” and Dōdekal One D110 by MCT, Manufacture Contemporaine du Temps, is the perfect example. The watch has a large digital hours display right at the centre, with the looks of the classic luminous digit that was a feature…
For Cartier, one of the themes of the year 2017 is the mystery clock, a concept that they have now transferred to watches. The Rotonde De Cartier Skeleton Mysterious Hour Watch sets the hour and minute hands floating in space; the Rotonde de Cartier Minute Repeater Mysterious Double Tourbillon instead showcases the tourbillon which rotates…
The Panthère Joueuse by Cartier is a lovely concept, superbly executed in terms of both jewellery and movement. A panther cub in diamonds, with two emerald eyes and touches of black in lacquer, rotates around the dial, the paw indicating the minutes. It is chasing after a ball, a single diamond, that marks the hours.…
Baume & Mercier have presented two chronographs with Valjoux 7750 movements as part of the Clifton Shelby Cobra collection. While the brand’s primary focus is on reference 10344, with a flyback chronograph, 10342 and 10343 are also two attractive watches, with a far more accessible price at 3,900 Swiss francs, €4,100, US $4,450. Consistent design…
The Baume & Mercier Shelby Cobra Limited Edition reference M0A10344 is a flyback chronograph and a tribute to the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupé car. It’s a good-looking piece, undoubtedly the most distinctive watch in Baume & Mercier’s 2017 collection. Like previous versions of the flyback chronograph in the Capeland series, this watch is fairly expensive…
The Clifton Club by Baume & Mercier is one of a relatively new breed, sports watches with the connotations of a diver’s watch, but intended for everyday use (click here for the Top Ten Sports Watches). Baume & Mercier have recently shown a great deal of attention to sociological aspects, with watches designed specifically as…
The Audemars Piguet Perpetual Calendar has been an important part of the Royal Oak collection for many years, and this version in black ceramic continues its development. Initially a 39mm watch, the Perpetual Calendar was increased in size to 41 mm in 2012. Likewise, its self-winding calibre 5134 is also based on its predecessor, calibre…