Ulysse Nardin North Sea Minute Repeater

Ulysse Nardin North Sea Minute Repeater

There are some brands that make a few watch models that make me think, but do you really need to do that? Such as erotic watches – often made to commission with two people doing things with animation in a personalized position – for which apparently there is an incessant demand. And then there are…

Speake-Marin Crazy Skulls

Speake-Marin Crazy Skulls

The Speake-Marin Crazy Skulls is a surprising watch, enormously ambitious, because it combines two of the most complex complications of all, the tourbillon and the minute repeater, with an animated dial that tells a story of love and death. There are a lot of design ideas here. It’s a notable achievement for a brand founded…

Greubel Forsey Grande Sonnerie

Watch fair SIHH in Geneva is approaching – it starts on 16 January – and some of the exhibiting brands have presented their previews. Greubel Forsey’s big news is the Greubel Forsey Grande Sonnerie. They’ve been working on it for eleven years in total secrecy, and the result is a watch with 935 parts, in…

Chopard L.U.C Full Strike

Chopard L.U.C Full Strike

Chopard are on a roll. The Ferdinand Berthoud FB1 Chronometer recently won the top prize at the 2016 “watch Oscars” GPHG (Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève). Ferdinand Berthoud is a brand wholly owned by Chopard, created to celebrate the work of the like-named 18th-century watchmaker. At the 2016 Middle East Watch of the Year Prize,…

Bulgari Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater

Bulgari confirms its position as a major player in the watchmaking industry with the Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater. It follows on from other record-setting pieces, such as the 2014 Octo Finissimo Tourbillon and this year’s ultra-thin flying tourbillon. The Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater is the thinnest minute repeater in the world, with a case thickness…

Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime Ref. 6300

Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime Ref. 6300

This is the production version of the Grandmaster Chime 5175 that Patek Philippe presented for its 175th anniversary in 2014. That piece was a limited edition of seven pieces, six sold to collectors, and one that will one day be on show at the Patek Philippe Museum. The version presented this year is not a…

Christophe Claret Allegro

Christophe Claret is a tireless inventor. His watches always have something a little different, or a lot different. They could be considered as couture watches, made in small series, at high prices. Allegro is interesting because it looks like a chronograph, with pushers at 2 o’clock and 4 o’clock, and two subdials, but in fact…

Parmigiani Fleurier Toric Tecnica Carpe

This is a remarkable watch, a one-off piece by Parmigiani Fleurier that combines beautiful decorative techniques with a movement combining a minute repeater, a chronograph, a tourbillon and a perpetual calendar. Just one made. The artistic side, with the white gold sculpted carp on a grande feu enamelled dial, is a tribute to sculptor and…

IWC Portugieser Grande Complication

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…

Jaquet Droz, a watch or a biology lesson?

Jaquet Droz watches often have a large dial with time indications on two decentred dials and a lot of blank space around them where there is nothing going on, as in the Grande Seconde Quantième Ivory Enamel. In other models, they have the same type of decentred dial, and a lot of space around it…

Jaeger-LeCoultre Rendez-Vous Ivy Minute Repeater

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…

An ultra-thin tourbillon by Jaeger-LeCoultre

The wealth of watches presented by Jaeger-LeCoultre this year at SIHH almost defies belief. One model after another, with many technical innovations, and a whole series of fine jewellery watches in the Hybris Artistica collection. But it was the Master Ultra Thin Minute Repeater Flying Tourbillon that really caught my attention, and not just for…