Zenith is one of the very few brands that has a real in-house tradition of early aviation watches. Louis Blériot crossed the Channel in 1909 with a Zenith watch on his wrist, and that piece has inspired a long series of classic pilot’s watches by the brand, all based on that original. Next year will…
The OutDoor Protect by Archimede is a tough sports watch, with a specially hardened stainless steel case, a 20 atm, 200-metre water resistance, brushed case finish, screw-down crown, and a version in which the entire dial is coated with luminescent paint. Luminescent dial and hands It’s the full lume dial that makes this piece different…
The Villeret Grande Date Jour Rétrograde by Blancpain was presented at Baselworld in 2018. It presents an interesting combination of features. In addition to the usual time indications, the watch has a retrograde day display, a big date, and both are adjusted by the brand’s patented under-lug correctors. This allows the case to be kept…
The Tom Ford 001 is the fashion brand’s first watch. It has a rectangular case, a quartz movement, and interchangeable strap. It is an attractive timepiece with a case that is curved when seen from the side, so that it rests nicely on the wrist. The case has integrated lugs with the strap simply sliding…
Italian company Locman signed a deal with Ducati early in 2017, and now the results have been launched, three limited-edition watches that have both brand logos on the dial. The Locman Ducati watches were presented during the Milan Furniture Show as part of the Fuorisalone events, at the brand’s flagship store at Via Manzoni 29,…
The Overseas by Vacheron Constantin has become an iconic sports watch, with an identity forged above all by its bezel that expresses an engineering style of design, with a hexagonal geometry based on a portion of the Maltese cross emblem. The black dial creates a tough and minimalist effect. The other notable feature of Overseas…
A graded dial adds an effect of three-dimensionality to the watch, giving a flat dial a domed effect, or enhancing a dial that is already profiled. I would have thought that there would be more, but in actual fact there are not so many graded dial watches on the market. Here is a selection in…
The Glycine Airman 46 Automatic GMT was presented in 2017, the latest version of what has become a classic model for the brand. It looks more like a diving watch than an aviator, with its 24-hour bezel and hour and minute hands with a shape normally seen on divers watches. It has some unusual features,…
Parnis is a Chinese company that makes a lot of watches that are directly inspired by famous brands, above all Panerai. They also make pilot’s watches, many inspired by IWC but in this case they are less obviously copies because the pilot’s genre exists in its own right. Leaving aside doubts as to the legality…
If ever there was a flash of genius, it was the Grande Seconde by Pierre Jaquet-Droz. Just why he created that incredibly modern pocket watch in 1784 remains a lost secret, but there is no doubt that it remains a masterpiece of design, with the eye captured by the oversize seconds hand, and the smaller…
H. Moser’s watches are generally expensive, made in gold. The Pioneer Centre Seconds was launched in 2017 in a steel version, and this year a new dial colour has been added to the series, Cosmic Green. It combines H. Moser’s typical graded sunburst dial with extreme minimalism and a new sports aesthetic – the case…
Epurato has an Italian sound, and the choice of name reflects the Italian origins of company Anonimo, founded by ex-Panerai staff who decided not to relocate when Richemont Group moved the brand from Florence to Switzerland in 1997. Later, Anonimo also changed ownership, and it is now a Swiss-owned brand based near Geneva. Epurato can…
The watch named “Esmeralda Tourbillon à Secret” is a one-off tribute by Girard-Perregaux to a watch built by Constant Girard-Perregaux, the brand’s founder. It is sumptuously decorated throughout, and has a tourbillon movement based on Constant’s innovative design in which the bridges were placed in view as decorative elements. It is “Secret” in that the…
It’s difficult to imagine what life was like in Glashütte in the 1960s when the town was behind the Iron Curtain and what had been several independent watch-making companies were working as the state-controlled organization VEB Glashütter Uhrenbetriebe or simply GUB. When you visit the museums in Berlin documenting those years you get a sense…
Blancpain gives the diving watch a genteel luxury look with the new Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Day Date 70s, which looks back to a 1970s version of the Bathyscaphe which had a graduated grey dial and a cushion-shaped case. The new version updates the dial colour, into a warm grey that harmonises well with the aged-look…
It’s always pleasant to see a watch brand experimenting with formats and trying out something different. The 756 Duochronograph by Sinn goes back a while, originally presented in 2003. The Sinn 756 and 757 Duochronograph watches are currently available in a few unlimited editions, and in particular the 756 II is still available as a…
Sinn are making some interesting watches. The Sinn 103 Sa B E pilot’s chronograph is unusual for the brand, in that it has a deep blue colour on dial and bezel. Also interesting is the curving sapphire watchglass that recalls the acrylic watchglasses that were once used on watches. It’s more complicated to make a…
Russell Crowe is selling a whole load of stuff. In the sale titled “The Art of Divorce,” he is getting rid of all sorts of things, many connected to his films such as the leather cuirass that he wore in The Gladiator, and lots of items linked to his wide-ranging interests. Many were collected during…
Sinn makes tough tool watches, and the Sinn 936 is no exception. It has a scratch-resistant case, magnetic protection and a water-resistance rating of 100 metres. It has the conventional bicompax chronograph layout, but the movement has been modified to give the chronograph minute subdial a 60-minute scale instead of the usual 30-minute scale. This…