The new Santos by Cartier
Santos was the first pilot’s watch, possibly the first watch with a square case, the first watch with exposed screws on the bezel, and the first watch to have a leather strap.
Louis Erard Heritage Classic Chronograph
The new Heritage Classic Chronograph watches by Louis Erard are exactly what their name says: classic chronographs. This family of watches has a sober, discreet design, with two subdials for the chronograph minutes and hours, and the choice of no running seconds, or a cross-form subdial for running seconds at 9 o’clock. The dial is…
Bulova Aerojet 98A187
The Bulova Aerojet 98A187 was recently advertised with a full-page ad in an Italian newspaper, with the price displayed as €279. It shows that price is no longer a massive problem for people looking for an automatic watch: it’s affordable for most, and from a big brand. The new Aerojet 98A187 is based on a…
Berthet company profile
Company profile: Berthet was founded by Joseph Berthet, son of a teacher, born in Savoie. He learnt watchmaking in Switzerland over the course of about 12 years before returning to Charmauvillers, close to the Swiss border, in 1877, setting up his own watchmaking workshop in 1888. He was joined by his brother and his three…
Berthet Orbis Régulateur
The Orbis Régulateur H43 by Berthet is a 43 mm watch with a hand-wound movement, modified in-house to provide the regulator function.
Berthet Agilis reference H43RETRO with retrograde minutes
The Agilis by Berthet is based on a classic hand-wound movement that is modified in-house to create the retrograde minutes display at the top of the dial. Berthet perform an operation similar to that performed by Vincent Calabrese with his company Nouvelle Horlogerie Calabrese: they use standard ETA/Unitas movements and modify them to do something…
Berthet Vintage Aviateur H46
The watch named Vintage, reference H46, by Berthet is in the early aviator style, with large luminescent Art Deco style numerals, a hand-wound movement, and an attractive price.
Berthet Arte Noir Skeleton watch
Arte Noir by Berthet is a skeleton watch, 42.5 mm in diameter and 11.9 mm thick, with a hand-wound 6498 movement that is skeletonized in-house, to a design by house engineers Gérard and William Berthet. The watchmakers use a range of techniques to remove parts of the bridges, including CNC micro-machining, laser cutting and micro-cutting…
TW Steel Ace Spitfire
The Ace Spitfire is a new collection by Dutch brand TW Steel. It is a chronograph with the brand’s usual big and bold design style, and a Sellita SW510 movement.
Top five dress watches under €2,000
What is a dress watch? A watch that can be worn with a dinner jacket or other formal wear. Today, celebrities do what they like with the classic black tie format, but the rules still exist, and you can look good even with a suit that complies with the most rigorous standards. It’s as if…
Filippo Loreti Review. Milano Black Red Automatic
This Filippo Loreti review describes the Milano Black Red Automatic by Filippo Loreti. It is a watch with a self-winding Miyota movement, and an Italian-inspired design that gives it unique looks. At the price of €489, it is a readily accessible timepiece, with a lot of details that make it a pleasure to wear. It…
Stowa Flieger Verus 40
The Flieger Verus 40 by Stowa is a stunning new interpretation of the Type A pilot’s watch pattern, proof that the application of good design can transform even the simplest format into an attractive and striking piece. How have the Stowa designers achieved this subtle transformation? By increasing the scale of the markings. They are a…
Aerowatch Les Grandes Classiques Gent Automatic
The Gent Automatic by Aerowatch has a sort of distinction and refinement that I would associate with the “gentleman” concept that has been used by a number of brands recently. Even though it is a very moderate 39 mm in diameter, and so in terms of size it could be worn by both men and…
Ball Engineer III Starlight
The Ball Engineer III Starlight is a sports watch with a dial featuring large, blocky numerals that look a bit contrived, but there is a good reason for this square-geometry design. The numerals are built of micro gas tubes to provide unparalleled night-time visibility, far better than the usual luminescent paint. There are also gas…
Vacheron Constantin FiftySix Automatic
With the FiftySix collection, Vacheron Constantin is reaching out to a wider section of the public than its previous audience of super-wealthy customers. The FIftySix Automatic is now the entry-level piece in Vacheron Constantin’s range, available in steel at a price of €11,800. So it’s still a very expensive watch, but Vacheron Constantin is a…
A. Lange & Söhne Saxonia Thin
The Saxonia Thin has been part of the A. Lange & Söhne collection since 2011, and since then a number of different versions have been introduced. This year’s piece is a 39-millimetre watch, just 6.2 mm thick. Its size makes it accessible to both men and women, and the aventurine glass dial, deep blue strewn…
A. Lange & Söhne Triple Split
Right at the top of the great Ancient Egyptian pyramids, at the top of millions of ton of stone, there was originally a pyramidion, a miniature version of the entire pyramid forming the very apex, a single piece of granite or limestone a metre or two high covered in gold leaf. And, in the most…
Top 5 twisted dial watches
12 o’clock at 12 o’clock? Boring! Let’s try something else. There are several watches in which the dial is twisted with respect to the usual arrangement. Here is a selection in ascending price order. Let me know if I’ve missed some! Longines Avigation Watch Type A-7 1935 – €2,960 The Avigation Watch Type A-7 1935…
Tissot Everytime Swissmatic
Style is automatic, say Tissot in their promotional video for the Swissmatic. This new watch is the Swatch Group’s response to the risk posed by the waves of cheap mechanical watches arriving from Asia. It has a unisex, minimalist design, a mechanical movement visible through a sapphire caseback, and those two words that have a…
Zenith Pilot Type 20 Extra Special 40 mm
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…