Patek Philippe’s collection of watches made to celebrate their 175th anniversary this year includes a very complicated watch, which includes some world firsts. It is the the Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime, reference 5175R-001, in rose gold, Patek Philippe’s most complicated wristwatch with 1,366 components, and one of the most complex in the world, in a…
I leave it on in the rain and while I’m washing the dishes, I take it off for a shower, five-a-side football, and when I’m painting the walls of the house. Gully, a street artist and friend of the brand Jeanrichard, keeps his watch on while he’s working, and so one day “he found that…
The Chopard L.U.C. 1963 Chronograph (reference 161964-5001) is one of the entries in the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, and this limited-edition piece was presented at Baselworld 2014. It’s an attractive watch, with a 42-mm-diameter case, 11.5 mm in thickness, in pink gold with silver dial, and chunky Roman numerals. A sporty touch is added…
You have the chance of winning a Girard-Perregaux Vintage 1945 XXL Petite Seconde worth CHF 10,450. Just vote for your favourite watch amongst the 72 watches pre-selected for the 2014 GPHG competition. The winner will be drawn and announced on 31 October during the GPHG prize-giving ceremony held at the Grand Théâtre de Genève. Remember…
What happens in a thousandth of a second? Usain Bolt runs 1.2 centimetres, a cheetah runs 3 centimetres, an Airbus 380 flies 33 centimetres, the earth moves about 30 metres on its course around the sun. Light travels 300 kilometres in a thousandth of a second, and that is the very top end of the…
This post follows yesterday’s piece on hundredth-second watches: I remembered that in 2012 Breguet presented its Classique Chronométrie 7727 which is visually unusual because it has a very small subdial with a silicon hand that rotates once a second, and so in theory could display fractions of a second, at least tenths or twentieths. In…
TAG Heuer Mikrograph 1/100th of a second chronograph Not many mechanical watches are capable of meausuring time to the nearest hundredth of a second. The brand with the longest history in this area is TAG Heuer, who presented their TAG Heuer Mikrograph 1/100th of a second chronograph, reference CAR5041.FC8178, in January 2011. This piece separates…
In this ingenious watch named Surya, by Frédéric Jouvenot, the time is indicated not by hands, but by petals. At noon, all the petals are green; every hour, a petal changes to a dark grey, until midnight when they are all grey, and the cycle begins again. Minutes are shown by an indicator rotating on…
This article on the best fashion watches looks at what could be considered as a form of brand extension: as a fashion brand grows, the name spreads from garments to kidswear, accessories, perfumes, cosmetics, and watches. Often the watches are more about style than content, and most have quartz movements. But there is an interesting…
Aerowatch is a Swiss brand founded in 1910, presently making models with mechanical and quartz movements. Their latest product is a very good-looking moon phase watch that has something of the classic Breguet-type looks, with blued hands, silver-finish dial with guilloché work in the central part, and Roman numerals. This vintage look is intentional, as…
The Bugatti Veyron costs about $1.9 million, and so the co-branded watch made by Parmigiani Fleurier has to have an adequate price. The Bugatti Super Sport by Parmigiani Fleurier is priced at 285,000 Swiss francs before tax, and it is now available in a limited-edition red gold version. Just 30 pieces, available from now up…
There are trends in the watch business, rather like in fashion, except that in watches the season is yearly while in fashion there are two major seasons each year. In a way this is quite surprising, considering the long development time for watches, but one of the features that emerged at the two big shows…
The F.P. Journe Centigraphe Souverain is a 100th of a second chronograph, with one hand that makes a revolution every second. The chronograph display has three dials, one for one second, one for 20 seconds, and one for ten minutes. For each, a tachymeter scale is marked inside the time scale, so on the one-second dial,…
It’s a familiar type of watch. Black dial, white numbers, large size, lots of SuperLuminova, Pilot’s watches were originally designed to be easily legible in an aircraft cockpit, and so simplicity was essential. Today, pilots have all sorts of electronic equipment to help them, but even so, the pilot’s watch is great for everyday use…
This is a bit late, I know, but I wanted to post this watch, because I think it was the most original and attractive of the 2014 World Cup commemorative watches. In bright Brazilian colours, I would imagine that Brazilian customers will not be flocking to buy this piece – they would prefer to forget…
In 1929, Jaeger-LeCoultre created the Calibre 101, specially to fit the diminutive jewellery watches that were all the rage at that time. This tiny rectangular movement has 98 parts, and it measures 14 x 4.8 x 3.4 mm. It weighs a gram, and it is manually-wound, with 33 hours power reserve. Its rectangular shape makes…
Lowell is an Italian brand based in Modena, founded in 1972 and making a range of clocks and watches. Their most recent range is named OLMO (Orologi Lowell Modena, but the Italian word “olmo” also means elm), designed for maximum eco-sensitivity, with cases entirely in wood, straps in recycled fabric, and movements made in natural…
This watch, presented at Watches & Wonders currently running in Hong Kong, is of course perfect for the Chinese market with its dragon motif, but Cartier has in fact been utilizing Chinese motifs from the late 19th century. The Pasha de Cartier 42 mm Skeleton Dragon Motif watch is a splendid sight, interweaving diamond-set bands…
The people at IWC certainly know how to keep a secret. Forever IWC Schaffhausen has been a men’s brand. The news that they are making watches for women, announced today, 29 September 2014, comes as much as a surprise as George Clooney getting married to Amal Alamuddin at just about the same time. Up until…
During the 19th century, Hamilton, founded in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was “The Watch of Railroad Accuracy”, and two new watches in the RailRoad collection are based on pocket watch designs from that era. The brand now combines powerful links to its American origins with Swiss movements. Its watches are made in Bienne, Switzerland, and it is…