Great name, and a perfect description of this product. The Write Time by Anura Rafael is a tourbillon watch housed in a conical sapphire crystal case, that can be converted into a fountain pen. It recalls the days when watchmakers strived to create curious objects for the enjoyment of their wealthy patrons, people like Pierre…
The SevenFriday S3/01 was designed to look like something under a car bonnet. The large case, 47 x 51 mm, has a black rubber surround that suggests a car tyre, and the black silicone strap has red stitching that evokes seatbelts. Openworked dial The dial is deconstructed, with stubby hour and minute hands projecting from…
This watch by Montblanc is interesting for many reasons. There are a few other watches that measure time to a precision of 1000th of a second, but the Montblanc TimeWalker Chronograph 1000 Limited Edition 18 is probably the watch with the clearest display. Its movement reveals the heritage of Minerva and its traditional manufacturing unit…
Mido is a Swatch Group company that makes watches at accessible prices. The Multifort Escape is a watch that has a lot of pilot’s watch features, such as the simple dial layout with Arabic numerals, hands with SuperLuminova, and large conical crown, but it has other elements that give it extra character, for example the…
Montblanc’s entry-level 2017 sports watch has a 100 metres water resistance that makes it an all-weather watch, and a unidirectional rotating bezel that can be used for taking approximate times, or for keeping track of a second time zone. But while many sports watches this year have a diving watch inspiration (such as the Baume…
With the Luminor Submersible 1950 3 Days Automatic Oro Rosso PAM00684, Panerai translates the Submersible aesthetic into solid gold and reduces the case size to 42 mm. This watch is the luxury version of the PAM00682, costing €25,900 and with a lower water resistance rating – 100 metres. It’s more of a luxury sports watch…
Panerai have progressively developed the look of their watches into an image of strength and toughness. The dial is unmistakable, legible by night and day, and with the new moderate 42 mm case size, the watch is practical and wearable for everyday life as well as for use underwater, and suitable for all those Panerai…
Archimede has presented a new dress watch, Klassik 36 BIC. Dress watches are usually a male accessory; the Klassik 36 BIC is 36 mm in diameter and so is ideal for women, or for men with smaller wrists, though in actual fact it looks fine on just about anyone, and 36 mm was the classic…
The Royal Air Force celebrates its centenary on 1 April 2018, and Bremont have anticipated this occasion with the two Airco pilot’s watches. Bremont Airco Mach 1/BK Bremont has its own distinctive style and the Airco Mach 1/BK, which is closest to the classic Type A pilot’s watch, has several features that give it its…
Regatta chronographs are relatively rare, but this year there are a few new watches designed specifically to provide the countdown function. Panerai has committed considerable resources to the 2017 America’s Cup, with partnership deals with the defending Team Oracle USA and to the Softbank Team Japan. Bremont was partner to Team Oracle for the World…
The IWC Portugieser Chronograph Classic, reference 3903, is exactly that, a classic. The Portugieser Chronograph has been in IWC’s collection from 1996, when it was the Portuguese Rattrapante; the Portuguese Chronograph was introduced in 1998. From the start, it had Arabic numerals and vertically-arranged subdials. In 2013, the watch acquired the combined minutes and hour…
This flyback chronograph is one of the three official watches that Panerai have launched for the 2017 America’s Cup. It was my intention to include this watch in a post about the best regatta countdown watches, in which Panerai already appears with the Luminor 1950 Regatta Oracle team USA 3 Days Chrono Flyback Automatic Titanio…
A lot is going on at Seiko. Even though the Grand Seiko brand was launched in 1960, for 50 years it remained something of a secret, with watches only available locally. It was launched internationally in 2010, and the first Seiko boutique outside Japan will open on 21 June 2017, on Brompton Road in London.…
Vacheron Constantin has redesigned one of its legends, the Traditionnelle Chronograph Perpetual Calendar, giving it a new movement, Calibre 1142 QP. It is available in two versions, platinum and pink gold, and it is surprisingly large at 43 mm in diameter, 12.94 mm thick. The price is also large, around $150,000 for the platinum version.…
Often, when one brand buys another, the brand that has been absorbed gradually disappears from sight, such as the case of Bulgari and its purchase of Gerald Genta and Daniel Roth in 2000. Today, the two smaller brands have been entirely integrated into Bulgari, and there is no mention of the independent designers on the…
Hamilton’s Intra-Matic 68 Auto Chrono is closely based on their 1968 Chronograph B, as you can see from the two images below. The main difference is size. The 1968 Chronograph B was 36 mm in diameter, normal for men’s watches at that time, while the new Intra-Matic 68 is 42 mm in diameter, reflecting today’s…
The Avenger Hurricane Military by Breitling is truly super-tough in its looks, and its gigantic 50 mm case requires a bodybuilt wrist to wear it. I’m always a bit suspicious about unfit people wearing camouflage trousers, who make me think “Hey, come on, who are you kidding?” with the same sort of annoyance that I…
Hamilton created the Khaki Air Race watch to celebrate their sponsorship of the Red Bull Air Race World Championship, for which they are official timer from this year, 2017. It doesn’t have any of the traditional pilot’s watch features, but the visual design has a lot in common with Panerai, for example the Radiomir 1940…
Cvstos spells things out. Definitely Cvstos and not Custos, and Regata, not regatta, because Regata is the original Medieval Latin word for a boat race. The Sealiner Chrono Regata, presented in 2016, was designed specifically for timing the complex series of manoeuvres leading up to the start of a regatta. Everything about this watch is…
You couldn’t exactly call them a popular theme in watches, but there have been several watches on a butterfly theme this year. Butterflies have all sorts of symbolic meanings, such as their short life which contrasts with the sense of eternity provided by a watch (Rabindranath Tagore , “The butterfly counts not months but moments,…