SIHH (19-23 January 2015) is the first major watch show of the year, and even though it includes just 16 brands, all part of the Richemont group, it provides some indications on trends and developments in the watch industry. The brands exhibiting at SIHH were A. Lange & Söhne, Audemars Piguet, Baume & Mercier, Cartier,…
The “Astral” theme was particularly strong at Jaeger-LeCoultre at SIHH in January, and the Duomètre Unique Travel Time was one of several watches in the show (others were by Montblanc and Greubel Forsey) featurinig a view of the earth from space. As if to underline that the stars and the planets harbour the origins of…
Not long now to SIHH, the watch fair grouping 16 brands, starting on 19 January in Geneva. It’s the first watch show of the year and so provides an indication of the latest trends. Some of the things that visitors will be wondering include the effects that the recent Swiss franc currency variation will have…
This article on the best minute repeater watches 2014 looks at timepieces that tell the time by chimes as well as by the usual hour and minute hands. They are complicated and very expensive. They are nearly always limited editions because, even though the luxury market continues to thrive and the number of millionaires in…
Apart from gold, silver, steel, titanium, aluminium, mother-of-pearl and precious stones, some watch brands feature materials that on the face of it don’t seem to have much to do with watchmaking. Usually the strange materials are included to provide a new talking-point and a theme that can be used for marketing the watch. Often the…
Asteroids are about 4.6 billion years old, and so incorporating a piece of asteroid (or meteorite) into an object designed to measure time is an interesting contrast. They date back to the formation of the solar system, and only very rarely reach the earth, because most burn in the atmosphere during their descent. Though many…
Caars, washing machines, electric drills and so forth have to comply with certain rules and regulations before they are put onto the market. For watches, this is not the case. For some categories, such as diver’s and pilot’s watches, there are some standards, but a brand can decide whether to comply or not. The only…
This watch is an indication of the increasing attention dedicated to mechanical movements with complications for women. In fact, the Rendez-Vous Ivy Minute Repeater is the first minute repeater in Jaeger-LeCoultre’s collection for women, and it was was presented at a “sound lab” at SalonQP in London, 6-8 November, in which customers were introduced to…
For those who like watches with more than just the date, the Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Calendar and the Montblanc Star Quantième Complet could be an interesting choice. They fill the gap between watches with just a date window and perpetual calendar watches that start at a much higher price. Both these models have the date shown…
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…
This article on the best perpetual calendar watches 2015 look at these challenging timepieces, which require a lot of movement development. A lot of information has to be displayed, and at certain moments, a lot of energy has to be available to change several indications at once. For example, at midnight on 31st December, day,…
Pulsometer chronograph watches (sometimes they are called pulsimeter chronographs) were once more common than they are today. They were used by doctors for taking a patient’s pulse. A pulsometer chronograph is a normal chronograph with an extra scale around the edge of the dial: all you do is start the chronograph, count 30 pulse beats,…
Jaeger-LeCoultre has a remarkable heritage of pieces that have achieved fame rivalling that of the company name. “Reverso” for many years was even more familiar than Jaeger-LeCoultre. The story is by now familiar: the invention of a watch with a case that could be reversed to protect the watchglass, specifically for British colonial army polo…