The second edition of Watches Of Italy, held on 25 and 26 September 2021 in Tortona, can be considered a notable success and a welcome step towards normality after two difficult years. The event was underscored by a positive atmosphere, reinforced by the notable quality of the watches on show, and facilitated by the seamless…
The second edition of Watches Of Italy, held in Tortona on 25 and 26 September 2021, showcased the notable energy and creativity of Italy’s brands and microbrands. Here is our selection of 15 highlights at Watches Of Italy, in ascending price order. 1. Fumagazzi Spritz For Fumagazzi, watches are a constant source of entertainment, and…
Geneva Watch Days 2021 was the second edition of the event, held in Geneva from 30 August to 3 September 2021. About 20 brands exhibited in a number of hotels, manufactures and boutiques. Baselworld also organized a contemporaneous pop-up with another ten brands. Here we present ten watches at Geneva Watch Days 2021 that caught…
Raketa is Russian for “space rocket”, and the company adopted the name in 1961 in honour of Yuri Gagarin’s epic flight. But the origins of the brand go back much further, to 1721 when Peter the Great founded the “Imperial Peterhof Factory” in St. Petersburg, dedicated to carvings made in semi-precious stones. In fact this…
It takes courage to abandon a career in finance and start out in high-end watchmaking. Emmanuelle and Rodolfo Festa Bianchet did precisely that: after selling Rodolfo’s company, they decided to design a limited-edition sporty, lightweight tourbillon watch in a tonneau case. The development process took four years, starting in 2017. While they knew exactly the…
For those who remember Urwerk’s large, dramatic watches such as the UR-105 T-Rex, the new UR 100 is quite an eye-opener, because it is very wearable. I met Felix Baumgartner at Geneva Watch Days (30 August-3 September 2021), and he said rather surprisingly, “This is our first watch”, reflecting its moderate size (41 mm wide,…
Pilot’s watches are instantly recognizable, with hallmarks including a reference triangle at 12 o’clock, black or dark dial, luminescent coating on hands and indices, and a large crown that can be manoeuvred even when wearing pilot’s gloves. Today there are many ways of interpreting the pilot’s watch, from versions that are virtually re-editions of traditional…
On 14 September 2021, MB&F presented the latest version of the Legacy Machine Perpetual, with the famous perpetual calendar movement designed by Stephen McDonnell. It is a 25-piece edition in palladium, a metal more expensive than gold and very hard to craft. The watch is in verdeaux (grey-blue) colour, with the same pushers previously seen…
What do you need to launch a new watch brand? A great watch concept, but above all, a good story. Watches by Riskers, which were present at the Baselworld pop-up at Geneva Watch Days in August 2021, tell a lot of great stories. Each design is linked to a hero and bravery, and to a…
Ikepod is a brand making distinctive design-oriented pebble-shaped watches. Their latest piece, presented at the Baselworld pop-up show during the Geneva Watch Days from 30 August to 3 September, is Seapod, a diving watch with 200 metres water resistance and a unidirectional rotating bezel. It was designed by Fabrice Gonet, and it has a Miyota…
This brand with an unpronounceable name was present at the Baselworld pop-up show in Geneva from 30 August to 3 September 2021. More than a watch, BA1110D is a business model devised by the company founder and CEO Thomas Baillod (which explains the brand name). He himself explains the concept. “During my two decades’ work…
“Forget all the pictures you have in mind of the old Baselworld. We have changed everything”. We spoke to Michel Loris-Melikoff, managing director of Baselworld, at the pop-up event held at a venue named IceBergues in Geneva, featuring ten watch brands. After the cancellation of the 2020 and 2021 Baselworld shows, organizers MCH Group are…
Without doubt, my most intense experience at Geneva Watch Days 2021 was with Ferdinand Berthoud. “Go ahead, try it”, said my host Jonathan as I sat drooling over the magnificent Chronomètre FB 2RE, which won the Chronometry prize at last year’s GPHG awards. I hesitated, in consideration of the fact that the timepiece costs much…
Mechanical watches for women are rare objects, and purpose-designed women’s mechanical watches are even rarer. All too often they are simply men’s watches scaled down and dressed up with gemstones. Tortue Lady by Claude Meylan, a brand based in Vallée de Joux (Switzerland) specializing in skeleton watches, is a beautiful and intelligent timepiece for women.…