The Polaris collection by Jaeger-LeCoultre was big news at SIHH, and the new Polaris Memovox is an important part of this new series of watches. They are all significant in that they mark a new departure for the brand, accessible sports watches. The new Memovox is visually based on the 1968 Memovox Polaris reference E859,…
To give it its complete name, L’Astronomo Luminor 1950 Tourbillon Moon Phases Equation of Time GMT by Panerai is a new version of L’Astronomo presented in 2010. That watch combined a tourbillon, calendar, equation of time, and sunrise and sunset times. The new version adds moon phases and a GMT hand. The most innovative feature…
This article is about the new Luminor Marina Logo 3 Days Acciaio by Panerai, presented at SIHH in January 2018. Like the Panerai Luminor Base Logo 3 Days Acciaio that I wrote about in the previous post, this watch provides all the fascination of the Panerai Luminor case and dial at a comparatively accessible price…
The new Luminor presented by Panerai at SIHH in January 2018 is good news for two reasons. It has a new hand-wound calibre with a 3-day power reserve, replacing the ETA 6497 used up until now. Panerai now doesn’t make any watches with ETA movements. This is good performance for the brand, whose first in-house…
The 1858 Geosphere by Montblanc is part of the celebrations of the 160th anniversary of Minerva, the watchmaking company in Villeret purchased by Richemont Group and assigned to Montblanc in 2007. The name of the collection, 1858, is a reference to the year in which Minerva was founded. The 1858 Geosphere is an interesting watch,…
The 1858 collection by Montblanc is developing very nicely, with its pilot’s inspired automatics and chronographs, and its creative use of colours and materials. The most striking piece shown by Montblanc at SIHH was this gigantic 1858 Pocket Watch Limited Edition 100, a 60mm watch, 20.8 mm thick. The two still photos provided by Montblanc…
IWC Schaffhausen is celebrating its 150th anniversary with this interesting watch, IWC Tribute to Pallweber, based on pieces in their historic collection. In addition to three wristwatch variants, it is also available as a pocket watch. They are all limited editions. Both the new Tribute to Pallweber and the original pocket watches that were made…
Mechanical watches with digital displays are rarer than most, and they have a long history. This year at SIHH, IWC celebrates its 150th anniversary with the “Tribute to Pallweber” edition. Last year, 2017, François-Paul Journe presented the third edition in the Vagabondage Series, named simply Vagabondage III. Digital displays, the problem is energy management The…
With the Altiplano Ultimate Automatic 910P, Piaget have decided to take back their record for the world’s thinnest automatic watch. It was theirs previously, and then in 2017 they lost it to Italian upstarts Bulgari who weighed in at 5.15 mm. The Piaget 910P does much better at just 4.3 mm thick, and it took…
Élégante is a quartz watch, but unlike any quartz watch seen before. It has a mechanical motion detector, visible on the dial through a small window, so that if you put the watch down, the hands stop moving after 30 minutes. But the electronic movement still keeps track of time. When you put it back…
Which was the best watch at SIHH 2018? Looking at the photo below, it may seem surprising to see a watch like this amongst the top watches at the Salon Internationale de la Haute Horlogerie. It has a classical dial and it doesn’t do anything revolutionary. But, when I was looking at the 1815 “Homage…
Skydance is a women’s watch by the brand Louis Moinet presented on occasion of the Geneva show SIHH. In addition to the Richemont Group brands – Panerai, Cartier, Piaget, Van Cleef & Arpels, Vacheron Constantin, IWC and so forth – SIHH also presents some smaller, artisanal brands. LVMH brands Hublot, Zenith and Tag Heuer are…
It feels a bit strange writing about the Wancher Storm Jet chronograph on 14 January 2018, the day before the start of SIHH, the show in Geneva that presents new watches by many of the world’s most prestigious brands, names such as Cartier, Panerai, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Piaget, Audemars Piguet, Parmigiani Fleurier and so forth. But one…
The Strela Cosmos CO42LAB is a reproduction watch made by the Strela company which operates in Munich, Germany, founded by Russian-born engineer Juri Levenberg. It assembles watches with Russian-made movements, and they offer the chance to buy a watch with an interesting hand-wound cam-controlled chronograph movement visible through the caseback, at an attractive price: €745.…
The Zeppelin 7060-4, part of the LZ 129 Hindenburg Ed. 1 series, is an unusual watch, with classical looks and enough quirkiness to set it apart from most others. In addition, it has an interesting price, by virtue of the Japanese-made self-winding Miyota movement. Dial design Where you would normally see the numeral 12, there…
Vincent Calabrese is a watchmaker who can create movements in the shape of letters, starting from the straight line of his classic Golden Bridge, to the Cs, Hs, Ys and so forth of his spatial watches (read more about Calabrese and his company NHC here). So it comes as no surprise to find that he…
Zeppelin is one of the brands made by Point Tec, a company founded by Wilhelm Birk in 1987. It is based in the village of Ismaning, not far from Munich. Point Tec makes about 150,000 watches per year, making them one of the largest watch manufacturers in Germany. They are proud of their German origin,…
Using a “big date” to celebrate an anniversary is not original (I think that Glashütte Original has done this before and probably a few other brands as well) but it is appropriate in Mido’s case, founded on 11 November 1918. So this is the centenary year. The Commander Big Date is an attractive, dressy watch…
I was interested to see a rather unsubtle example of product placement involving a watch in the BBC series Sherlock. In series 2, episode 2, The Hounds of Baskerville, Benedict Cumberbatch checks his watch just before entering the military site. It doesn’t play any part in the plot. The watch is “The Sherlock Watch” by…
Vincent Calabrese, born in Naples, has been a watchmaker for most of his life. His career includes many inventions, collaborations with brands such as Corum and Blancpain, the foundation of his Academy, and a new watchmaking project with several interesting and accessible timepieces. In this short interview, VIncent talks about the origins of the Golden…