The Speedmaster is now a very large family, with a lot of variants introduced over the years. The Speedmaster ’57 that Omega presented at Baselworld 2015, due to reach the market in August-September 2015, has a lot of the vintage looks of the original – the smooth tachymeter bezel, pushers without crown guards, the dramatically…
The Speedmaster Moonwatch “White Side of the Moon”is the third watch by Omega to have a case entirely in ceramic. It completes the series of the ceramic “Dark” and “Grey” Side of the Moon released in 2013 and 2014 respectively. Case, dial and pushers are in white zirconium oxide ceramic; the polished white ceramic bezel…
For those who like classical-appearance watches and can’t afford a Breguet, this piece by Tissot presented at Baselworld 2015 will be very interesting. Tissot already has a few Bridgeport chronographs in its range, featuring the usual three subdials on a classical face with Roman numerals and fluted bezel, but they are a combination of modern…
Not many watches have been on the moon. Not many watches have saved lives. Not many watches feature one of the world’s favourite dogs. This piece has all three and so its attraction is obvious at first sight. It was issued to mark the 45th anniversary of the Silver Snoopy Award given to Omega for…
Last year, Certina presented this watch as a quartz chronograph; this year it is available as an automatic. Large and sporty at 46 mm diameter, it nonetheless feels very comfortable on the wrist. It is made in three versions, steel and black PVD, rose gold PVD, and a very attractive all-black version with green highlights.…
It was probably one of the most eagerly awaited returns in watchmaking this year. After their tangle with Swatch Group, we were all waiting to see what the new Tiffany watch collection, CT60, would look like. It was unveiled on 2 April 2015 with a series of very classical designs. Expectations were high because Tiffany…
This watch was plastered over the trams in Basel during Baselworld 2015, but Michael Kors wasn’t exhibiting there, and since then there hasn’t been much information at all about the watch, either online or from the Michael Kors PR offices. As far as I can ascertain, the Jetmaster (MK9011) is Michael Kors’ first automatic watch,…
This was introduced in 1998 and soon became the most popular Portuguese (now Portugieser) model, with its functional chronograph function, reliable movement, and moderate case size at 40.9 mm diameter and 12.3 mm thickness making it accessible to most men and many women. Movement The calibre 79350 automatic movement runs at 28,800 vph (4 Hertz)…
The IWC Yacht Club was a three-hander watch until 2010, when the Portugieser Yacht Club Chronograph was presented. The 2015 version has been modified to a degree, above all in some design touches. Most importantly, the case diameter has been reduced from 45.4 to 43.5 millimetres. It is intended as a watch for yachtsmen and…
This watch is one of the two new products in this year’s Portugieser collection by IWC Schaffhausen (the other is the Portugieser Annual Calendar). It is the outcome of a lot of design thought, with the most important information – time functions, date and month, chronograph time – displayed as clearly as possible in the…
As you can see from a comparison (above, the 2015 version on the left, the 2010 version on the right), the new reference IW3776 presented at SIHH in January by IWC Schaffhausen is not all that different from the previous version. The movement is the same 79091 calibre used in the 2010 Reference IW3774. The…
Panerai’s watches reflect the brand’s maritime heritage, and also their Italian origins. One of the hallmarks of Italy and Italians is their design flair, and their brilliance at designing wide open spaces – vast cathedrals, gigantic piazzas – in which the real beauty comes from the sense of space and the way in which that…
“Mare Nostrum,” our sea, was the name used proudly by the Ancient Romans for the Mediterranean Sea, and later by Mussolini’s regime. This watch, presented at SIHH in January 2015, is based on a timepiece made for Mussolini’s Royal Italian Navy in 1943, a chronograph for deck officers in turn derived from an earlier 1924…
Louis Moinet is at its tenth anniversary, while also celebrating the 200th anniversary of a remarkable chronograph invented by Louis Moinet in 1815. The historical piece was an incredible watch far ahead of its time, running at a frequency of 216,000 vibrations per hour (most watches today run at 28,800 vph) and capable of measuring 1/60…
This year at Baselworld, Breguet presented an exceptional series of pieces, with four innovative men’s watches and some fine women’s jewellery pieces. The men’s watches comprised the preview piece, the Tradition Automatique Seconde Rétrograde 7097 and the piece reviewed here, the Breguet Tradition Chronographe Indépendant 7077. The 7077 chronograph does a lot of things differently with…
This watch has had a long development. It began in around 2006 from a concept by two young watchmakers, Johnny Girardin and Franck Orny, who were inspired by Transformers-type robots and wanted to create a watch that would change appearance and function. Metamorphosis I, presented in 2010, had a teardrop shape, and a transformation process…
This watch is a limited edition version of the Montblanc Heritage Chronométrie ExoTourbillon Minute Chronograph, basically the same watch, but with a sapphire caseback decorated with a drawing of the São Gabriel, the ship that Vasco da Gama used for his pioneering voyage to India in 1497. In addition, the upper part of the dial…
This is a good example of Montblanc’s push to make complication watches more accessible. €38,000 sounds a lot, but for this sort of watch is an extraordinarily low price when compared to most tourbillons, particularly considering that it features the ExoTourbillon, a Montblanc exclusive rather different from the normal tourbillon, and a monopusher chronograph, with…
This is a watch that demonstrates the depth of Jaeger-LeCoultre, whose range includes superb classical models, dress watches, jewellery watches, sports watches, and super-technical pieces such as this. The Master Compressor Extreme LAB 2 was originally launched in 2010, and this year a new version has been presented, with blue highlights instead of red, a…
This is a quartz watch, which was demonstrated enthusiastically by Hamilton CEO Sylvain Dolla at one of the brand’s customary pre-Baselworld presentations. It has some interesting features that only quartz can provide. It was designed in cooperation with aerobatic pilot Nicolas Ivanoff and has something of the classic pilot’s watch looks, black dial, large numerals, plus a…