The Hamilton Ventura was introduced on 3 January 1957, and so this year, 2017, Hamilton is commemorating the 60th anniversary of this distinctive triangular watch. It was designed by Richard Arbib and it was the first electrical, battery-powered watch in the world. It was initially named the Hamilton Electric 500 before becoming the Ventura. In…
At first sight the task of encapsulating the enormous distances of space into the restricted space of a watch seems impossible. But that is what the Hamilton ODC X-03 sets out to achieve. It depicts the view from the porthole of an imaginary spacecraft as it approaches a three-lobe space station in orbit above the…
The Longines Master Collection comprises some of the best-selling watches in the world, helping Longines maintain its place as fourth top-selling Swiss watch brand after Rolex, Omega and Cartier. The top seller by Longines is a watch in the Master collection, which was launched in 2005 and has all the characteristics required for good sales:…
Walter von Känel, born in 1941 and president of Longines since 1988, doesn’t have a computer in his office. He doesn’t have a smartphone. But he knows everyone in his company, and through his team of assistants, he knows every model in the vast Longines collection. More importantly, he knows how many are sold, and…
The Rush by Egard is currently available as a kickstarter campaign with delivery in December 2017. It celebrates Mixed Martial Arts athlete Georges St. Pierre, and its early-bird price is $465, which will become $1,200 as normal retail price. The watch has an unusual design, with a shaped case and rotating discs for the time…
A split-seconds chronograph, or a “Chronographe à rattrapante,” makes it possible to take intermediate chronograph readings while continuing to time a longer event. In a watch with the conventional arrangement of pushers, you start the chronograph by pressing the pusher at 2 o’clock, and the two chronograph seconds hands start moving around the dial, perfectly…
The Longines Heritage 1945 is an expression of the undying popularity of revival watches: Longines in particular seems to have an inexhaustible archive of vintage timepieces from which to select its re-editions. This piece is delightful for its light copper-hued dial with brushed finish, and an appearance hallmarked by the sense of space created by…
The Seiko Presage Cocktail Time was originally launched in 2010. Its name reflects the fact that the watches are based on a partnership with mixologist Shinobu Ishigaki, who runs the Ishinohana Bar in Tokyo. A new series of watches was launched in 2017, with two basic designs, a three-hand watch with date window, close to…
The Grand Seiko Spring Drive 8-Day Power Reserve is a beautiful watch with Seiko’s innovative spring drive system, three mainspring barrels providing an eight-day power reserve, and superb finish by Seiko’s highest-end manufacturing unit, the Micro Artist Studio. It was introduced in 2016 as an 8-piece limited edition in platinum, and then in rose gold…
These three watches are recreations of the first Grand Seiko dating back to 1960. They are in steel, yellow gold and platinum, and their size – 38 mm in diameter, and about 11 mm thick – makes them superb dress watches – at least the steel and platinum versions. There is only one problem: price.…
2017 is the 15th anniversary of the Seamaster Aqua Terra, and, in addition to the restyled 3-hand Seamaster, Omega is introducing a new Seamaster Aqua Terra Worldtimer, in a limited 87-piece platinum edition. As a world time watch, it comes as quite a surprise considering Omega’s pilasters of diving watches, 3-handers and chronographs. Case and…
The new Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra 150M is a fine all-purpose watch, now with Omega’s Master Chronometer certification by METAS that expresses the brand’s objective of progressively extending its anti-magnetic properties to the whole range, and a new design. The watch has been given a symmetrical feel by moving the date window from 3 to…
World timer watches have a 24-hour ring that makes one revolution in 24 hours, and a cities ring that can be adjusted from the crown or using a pusher in order to set the time zone corresponding to the hour and minute hands. At this point, at a glance you can see the time, and…
The TAG Heuer Autavia is a lovely re-edition of a racing driver’s chronograph first introduced in 1962, with design by Jack Heuer. The historic version chosen for the re-edition was selected by online readers from a selection of 16 vintage models, a piece originally worn by F1 driver Jochen Rindt. The new version has a…
The Ball Trainmaster Worldtime is one of the cheapest world time watches in existence, and it offers a lot of interesting features. The dial highlights the logo “Official RR standard” which dates back to the brand’s history. The company was founded in Cleveland, Ohio in 1891, by Webb C. Ball, a railroad “time inspector,” but…
In 2017, Jaquet Droz gave its principal watch design, the Grande Seconde, one of the most popular complications of the year, the moon phase display in the Grande Seconde Moon. It is a so-called astronomical moon phase, exact to one day’s discrepancy every 122 years. By way of comparison, the traditional mechanism based on a…
Glashütte Original‘s Calibre 37 integrated chronograph presented in 2014 was very classical, with Roman numerals and blued hands, in platinum and red gold variants. In 2017, a stainless steel version of the Senator Chronograph Panorama Date has been introduced, with younger looks provided by the extensive use on blue SuperLuminova on the hands and hour…
In 2016 Glashütte Original presented its new Calibre 36 movement with 100 hours power reserve and a bayonet mounting system. This year at Baselworld the brand presented a perpetual calendar watch in red gold and steel, the Glashütte Original Senator Excellence Perpetual Calendar, that extends the family of watches using this new movement. Spacious dial…
The Grande Seconde Quantième Satin-Brushed by Jaquet Droz is yet another model based on the Grande Seconde watch that Pierre Jaquet-Droz created in 1784, towards the end of his life. That piece had just hours and minutes above, and seconds on the larger subdial below. This new version is more modern in design, and combines…
The Frederique Constant WorldTimer has been around since 2012, and it is now available in several dial variants, all with the same in-house movement. This latter characteristic makes this world time watch an attractive proposition, especially when considering the price. The version presented in March 2017 has a sort of hygge look with its rose-gold-plated…