Interview with CIGA Design on the Full Hollow skeleton watch
An interview with Mike from CIGA Design UK on the Full Hollow mechanical skeleton watch, which combines award-winning design with accessible pricing.
Code 41 X41
Are Code 41 watches any good? The brand invests a lot into social media advertising, and proclaims its X41 watch as “Swiss watchmaking 2.0”. But is the X41 really Swiss, and is it worth its €5,500 price tag?
Hands-on review of the Xiaomi CIGA Design Full Hollow affordable skeleton watch
The Xiaomi CIGA Design Full Hollow is one of the first Chinese mechanical skeleton watches with a cool, contemporary look.
Watches and sex
What do watches have in common with sex? A semi-serious look at the different levels of watch sexiness, from the virtuous modesty of Rolex to the full-frontal nudity of Roger Dubuis.
Berthet Arte Noir Skeleton watch
Arte Noir by Berthet is a skeleton watch, 42.5 mm in diameter and 11.9 mm thick, with a hand-wound 6498 movement that is skeletonized in-house, to a design by house engineers Gérard and William Berthet. The watchmakers use a range of techniques to remove parts of the bridges, including CNC micro-machining, laser cutting and micro-cutting…
Roger Dubuis Excalibur Spider Carbon
Roger Dubuis has launched a partnership deal with Pirelli, the tyre company that sponsors Milan football club F.C. Internazionale, with its black and blue livery (click here to read about the Excalibur Spider Pirelli). The Roger Dubuis Excalibur Spider Carbon seems to have been designed to keep the other Milanese team – A.C. Milan –…
Manufacture Royale ADN
ADN by Manufacture Royale is a tourbillon watch with a contemporary look and an interesting display. The name is the French version of DNA. The principal display at the top of the dial shows local time, by means of a disc with a window that jumps from one hour to the next – the hour…
Zenith Chronomaster El Primero Full Open
The Zenith Chronomaster El Primero Full Open, launched in 2017, is a direct reflection of Jean-Claude Biver’s influence on the brand that he currently directs. He specifically wanted to open up the dial completely. The Chronomaster was previously available with an entirely solid dial, and a version with a half-open dial revealing just the balance…
Girard-Perregaux Laureato Skeleton
Girard-Perregaux’s CEO Antonio Calce says that Laureato will be fundamental to the brand’s future. There’s no doubt that this sports watch is perfectly in tune with contemporary style, and it has distinctive looks, with its shaped integrated bracelet and octagonal bezel. It may have suffered, over the years, its similarity to other watches designed in…
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Tourbillon Extra-Thin Openworked
The surprising thing about a skeletonized watch, such as the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Tourbillon Extra-Thin Openworked, is how little space the movement actually takes up. In this piece, the tourbillon takes up the bottom quarter of the case, the mainspring is at the top, and the wheels of the movement are all concentrated on…
Rotonde De Cartier Skeleton Mysterious Hour Watch
One of the features of Cartier’s high-end watches is skeletonization, with bridges in the form of giant Roman numerals. In this piece, presented as a preview of the brand’s new products to be launched at the watch fair SIHH which starts on 16 January 2017, Cartier combines its signature skeletonization with another of its specialities,…
Clé de Cartier Automatic Skeleton, calibre 9612 MC
Cartier introduced their Clé de Cartier model in 2015, an interesting concept in which the crown has been completely rethought to make pulling it out easier. Instead of the difficulty of using fingernails to pull out the usual circular crown, everything is made easier with the rectangular crown of the Clé watch. You simply turn…
Bulgari Serpenti Incantati Tourbillon
There are artists, archistars and fashion designers, all individuals who are accustomed to being in the limelight. The watch industry is traditionally different in that most brands don’t highlight a head designer. All the attention is on the brand. Exceptions include Christian Knoop at IWC, Sara Sandmeier at Baume & Mercier, and Carole Forestier-Kasapi, director…
Bulgari Octo Finissimo Skeleton
The Octo Finissimo Skeleton by Bulgari is slim and modern, with its sleek black movement finished in black DLC and rich in contrasts provided by steel, gold and rubies. The hand-wound BVL 128SK movement is just 2.35 mm thick, hand wound, with seconds, minutes and hours, and power reserve indicator. This is a useful indication…
Girard-Perregaux 1966 Skeleton
The 1966 Skeleton by Girard-Perregaux is one of the watches celebrating the company’s 225th anniversary. The case in pink gold, 38 mm in diameter and 9.27 thick, is perfectly dimensioned for the 1966 movement which is 30 mm in diameter. Notable features of the exposed movement are the balance at 12 o’clock, the rhodium-plated gear…
Zenith El Primero Tourbillon Skeleton
This is a limited edition of Zenith’s El Primero chronograph, with an open dial revealing parts of the movement. Colours have been given a minimalist treatment, with everything in shades of grey except for the touches of red on the chronograph hands. The sense of depth on the dial is enhanced by the moulded letters…
Romain Jerome Skylab 48 Speed Metal Skull
Skulls are a big thing in fashion and Romain Jerome has added a skeleton skull watch to its range, with 12 colour versions. You could say that there is one for each month, but there is no real significance to the colours: CEO and creative director Manuel Emch simply chose his favourites from the possible…
Clé de Cartier Automatic Skeleton
Clé de Cartier was one of the brand’s most interesting innovations at the SIHH watch fair in January 2015, with a crown that is easy to pull out and operate because of its rectangular shape. While a small circular crown requires robust fingernails to pull it out, with the Clé de Cartier, you just have…
Romain Jerome Skylab 48
Romain Jerome’s first skeleton piece Skylab was launched in 2014, a piece with horizontal bridges inspired by the space station (MB&F’s watch HM6 Space Pirate, on the other hand, was inspired by an imaginary Japanese manga space station). This year, it is presented in a larger 48 mm version, but with a slimmer case. The…
Piaget Emperador Coussin 1270S ultra-thin tourbillon automatic skeleton
This watch is intriguing at first glance, with its off-centred hour and minute hands, the absence of the usual dial markings, and the slewed figure-of-eight that encloses the automatic winding rotor and the tourbillon. But where Piaget are excelling in their latest watches is in the crystalline clarity of the engineering, and their ability to…