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…
In the vast range of watches, one of the things that you can choose is how many hands it has. From the serene simplicity of just a single hand to the complications with ten or more, here is a quick journey with a selection of watches in order of number of hands. This also reflects…
In my experience, one of the practical problems with many conventional chronographs – the ones with two or three subdials for minutes and hours, which often end up looking a bit like a gas meter – is that they are often partly obscured by the minute or hour hand. These hands are usually much larger…
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…
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,…
1. Top in auction results. How many of the ten watches attaining highest prices at auction are Patek Philippe? Nine! The top is the Henry Graves complication, which sold for $11 million in December 1999 at Sotheby’s. It is a pocket watch with 24 complications, commissioned by U.S. banker and watch collector Henry Graves: it…