The Agilis by Berthet is based on a classic hand-wound movement that is modified in-house to create the retrograde minutes display at the top of the dial. Berthet perform an operation similar to that performed by Vincent Calabrese with his company Nouvelle Horlogerie Calabrese: they use standard ETA/Unitas movements and modify them to do something…
The Villeret Grande Date Jour Rétrograde by Blancpain was presented at Baselworld in 2018. It presents an interesting combination of features. In addition to the usual time indications, the watch has a retrograde day display, a big date, and both are adjusted by the brand’s patented under-lug correctors. This allows the case to be kept…
Hautlence is dedicated to making watches that tell time in a different way, as in this piece, Vortex Bronze. The Vortex was first presented in 2015 in a titanium case, and at SIHH 2017, Hautlence presented a new edition of 8 pieces in bronze. It has the same innovative HL2.0 movement, and similar case architecture.…
The Patrimony Moon Phase and Retrograde Date is classically beautiful and very expensive, a perfect example of Vacheron Constantin’s traditional watchmaking brilliance. The two versions, white gold and pink gold, give you the choice between a more discreet or a more colourful timepiece. The principal features of the watch are the retrograde date on the…
The Tourbillon Rétrograde Chronograph is the highest-priced watch in the new Da Vinci collection by IWC, and it includes three complications: tourbillon, chronograph and retrograde date. It is powered by the new in-house 89900 calibre, self-winding, running at 28,800 vibrations per hour, 4 Hertz. It has some significant technical features. Advanced materials in the 89900…
The Royal Retro movement used in watches by Pierre DeRoche gives the dial extra animated interest, with each second hand moving through a ten-second period before flicking back to zero and leaving the next to ship our fragile craft through the sea of time. In this piece, this delicate show is joined by a skull…
Hautlence introduced its HLQ calibre – which, like the brand’s very first HL movement, had jumping hours on the left and retrograde minutes on the right, but with the addition of a date window at the bottom of the dial – in 2009, and the HLQ calibre saw the light in 2013. In 2015, two…
This complex and beautiful piece by Blancpain combines a lavish amount of bling with intricate mother-of-pearl crafting and an unusual mechanical movement featuring two retrograde functions, for hours and seconds, and a day-night indicator. It’s a combination that would seem to suit the variegated tastes of women for watches, and it mirrors what other brands…
Longines has a massive catalogue of watches, but there is one series in particular that I find very original. The Longines Master Collection Retrograde was presented in 2011, and its combination of classical finish and the relatively rare retrograde display give these watches a Breguet-like prestige far beyond their price tag. The numerous blued hands…
Jean d’Eve is a brand based in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, with a history running back to 1888. I think that the brand has been owned, along with two other Swiss brands Sultana and Buler, by Hong Kong company Free Town Watch Products Ltd., since 1992. Sectora II Automatic Black Jean d’Eve first presented Sectora in 1981,…
Cartier presented some very original watches at SIHH in January 2014, and the Rotonde de Cartier Day and Night represents an unusual treatment of the moon phase. Usually, moon phase watches have a circular disc with two moons on it, which rotates behind an opening in the dial with two semicircular shapes, so that in…