Le Locle is the name of the town where Tissot was founded and works, and it is also the name of one of the brand’s watch collections. It now includes the Tissot Le Locle Automatic Lady, a watch that combines traditionally female characteristics such as the slender Roman numerals and mother-of-pearl dial with a relatively…
Tissot themselves call this “the hottest new trend,” in other words, pocket watches. Perhaps they are right; as far as I can see, it’s a trend restricted to those people who wear Victorian-looking gear and sport dark bushy beards. Anyway, this piece is a simplified version of the Tissot Bridgeport Mechanical Skeleton, with flutes around…
The Le Locle Regulateur by Tissot is a classical watch in every way. The “regulateur” was a clock installed in workshops in the 18th and 19th centuries to check the accuracy of the pocket watches that were being made. The regulator typically had a single minute hand referencing a chapter ring around the outside of…
Tissot makes a version of its T-Race MotoGP Automatic every year, and this year’s is very similar to the 2015 edition. The major difference is in the seconds scale at the outer edge of the dial, re-worked to provide a complete, uninterrupted sequence of one-fifth seconds, enabling readings to be taken to the maximum precision…
The Tissot Heritage 1936 has a beautiful movement, the ETA Unitas 6498, but it takes some effort to see it. This watch is a new version of a 1936 Tissot (scroll down to see an advert illustrating the watch 80 years ago), and so it has some elements of those pioneering days of wristwatches. At that…
This is a watch that looks good. I love the integration between the strap and the case, and the complexity of case and bezel, in steel components assembled with visible screws, and a black PVD-finish titanium case middle. The dial continues the same tough-looking technical theme, in sapphire, skeletonized to reveal parts of the movement…
Company profile: Pierre Dubois comes from a family that has been involved in watchmaking for four generations. Dubois-Dépraz was founded by Marcel Dépraz in 1901, and today the company, run by Pierre’s two brothers Jean-Philippe and Pascal, make some of the most interesting complications on the market, nearly always for other watch companies. Pierre Dubois…
The Slim d’Hermès Manufacture extends the Slim range introduced by Hermès in 2015. It is a 39.5 mm watch for women, with a whole range of strap colours, and smooth or diamond-set bezel. In the version shown, the watch has an opaline dial, and a bezel set with 66 diamonds. The movement is the H1950…
The Royal Retro movement used in watches by Pierre DeRoche gives the dial extra animated interest, with each second hand moving through a ten-second period before flicking back to zero and leaving the next to ship our fragile craft through the sea of time. In this piece, this delicate show is joined by a skull…
Lots of pocket watches this year. Perhaps Hermès know something that other people don’t about this sector of the market? Are lots of people going to be going around with fobs and chains? Are waistcoats also going to be coming back? In actual fact theSlim d’Hermès Pocket Panthère isn’t going to change the situation all…
Italian brand GaGà Milano runs great parties. Their design studio, masterminded by Ruben Tomella, is in Crema, a sleepy town just south of Milan; their watches are made in Switzerland. Gagà Milano Carbon 48 mm is a new series of fashion-influenced watches with case in carbon fibre featuring the brand’s hallmark splayed lugs and top-mounted…
Robert Dallet (1923-painted big cats and made many scarf designs for Hermès in the 19980s. In January this year, Hermès was involved in the foundation of the Robert Dallet Initiative for Wild Cat Conservation, which operates with Panthera to help protect these endangered species. Dallet first saw a tiger in a Paris zoo, and this…
Usually you see vintage pocket watches hanging in watch repair and antique shops. Before 1910, all watches were pocket watches: wristwatches were made popular by soldiers in the First World War. Today, many brands still have a few pocket watches in their collection, such as this piece by Hermès, Pocket Plein Cuir. It combines a…
The three watches in the Arceau Pocket La Promenade de Platon by Hermès are all one-off pieces, made using three techniques: enamel, engraving, and three-dimensional engraving with added layers of gold. They are based on a scarf design by Annie Faivre on this year’s theme “Nature at full gallop.” The subject is philosopher Plato riding…
It seems that Hermès is doing everything right. Its watches incorporate its exquisite leather craftsmanship. The brand gives its own names to its mechanical movements, justifiably, because it owns a 25% share of movement manufacturer Vaucher. It uses its vast design resources to create some interesting case and dial designs. And it is using its…
At Baselworld, Philippe Delhotal, Creative Director of La Montre Hermès, said that 2016 is all about the consolidation of the Slim collection launched commercially in 2015. The Slim d’Hermès Email grand feu is a development of the Slim d’Hermès, and it is a 100-piece limited edition designed for collectors. Its dial design has the same…
The True Open Heart by Rado combines light high-tech ceramic, used for the case and bracelet, with a dial made from a wafer-thin – 0.6mm – layer of mother-of-pearl, revealing a glimpse of the movement as well as the ever-changing colours produced by this natural material. This year the trend identified for Rado by future…
Punctual for the 2016 European football championships in Paris, Hublot presents its limited edition Big Bang Unico Retrograde Chronograph Euro2016, “Official Licensed Watch” of UEFA Euro 2016. It is a limited edition of 100 pieces, already on sale. This watch also marks Hublot’s tenth anniversary of involvement in football, which began in 2006 when the…
Hamilton is Interstellar, Bell & Ross goes HyperStellar. In this new version of the BR-X1 chronograph, Bell & Ross suggest the space theme principally by the colour combination, blue and grey. The BR-X1 HyperStellar has a 45 mm case in titanium, with a protective insert for the bezel in blue anodized aluminium. Its water resistance…
This chronograph watch, like the three-hand Bell & Ross BR 03-92 AeroGT, is linked to the Bell & Ross AeroGT concept car, designed by the brand’s creative director Bruno Belamich and his team. Bell & Ross BR 03-94 AeroGT chronograph The BR 03-94 AeroGT chronograph has a very technical look, with chronograph hands all in…