The L.U.C XPS 1860 by Chopard is a slim dress watch in two versions, in rose gold and steel. Their basic design is very similar, with differences in dial finish and movement. It celebrates the L.U.C 1860 launched 20 years ago, the first watch made by the Chopard Manufacture with an in-house movement, the result of…
John Harrison developed marine chronometers for the British Navy in the early 1700s. These were chronometers mounted on gimbals in wooden boxes, designed to be as accurate as possible for more precise navigation. Later they were made by other clockmakers for other navies, and the classical dial pattern, with a small seconds subdial at 6…
GSOH. I’m sure that signor Mazzuoli has precisely that, a great sense of humour. His Manometro watches have a sort of tongue-in-cheek irony about them, massive chunks of steel with chunky Florentine leather straps, an enormous bezel and a giant crown. They are no-nonsense watches for people who like something original and something large, a…
The 1919 Datetimer Eternity by Porsche Design is based on the clean-honed lines of the Porsche 356 car, dating back to the 1950s. It has a case in special heat-treated titanium, 42 mm in diameter and 11,92 mm thick. It is distinctive for the green-grey colour of the dial, and the dull bronze of the…
Longines have once again looked into their archives, and have created a new version of a classic early 20th-century military watch. The result, Longines Heritage Military, is a distinctive watch with attractive looks created above all by the characteristic Arabic numerals. It’s close to the early pilot’s watch style. In the new piece (on the…
Women prefer watches with quartz movements because they don’t have to worry about setting the time and winding the watch? This is what many watch brands use as a convenient excuse when they make their women’s watches. Montblanc on the other hand is focusing on mechanical watches for women, introducing their ExoTourbillon complication that has…
Emile Chouriet have chosen the theme of the Alps for this men’s automatic, with a dial featuring dark jagged spikes that separate the hour markers, and four Roman numerals. SuperLuminova on the hour markers and hour and minute hands improves night-time visibility. The stainless steel case is 40 mm in diameter, 10 mm thick, with a…
At Baselworld 2016, Corum’s COO Davide Traxler was notably upbeat about the company’s situation, with 10,700 watches made in 2015, 8,000 sold, and three new in-house movements. His objective for 2016 is 30% growth. The new movements are made by Eterna, another brand which, like Corum itself, belongs to the Chinese holding company Citychamp Watch…
Something of Bulgari’s Italian origins can be seen in the new Octo Ultranero pieces. They are black, but not all black. They are still intended as practical, legible timepieces, and so hands and hour markers are always in pink gold, contrasting with the deep black dial. The watch is powered by the self-winding “Solotempo BVL…
The 50s Presidents’ Watch Classic Automatic is Vulcain’s entry-level watch, a three-hand timepiece with date. Its 1950s look is determined above all by the graduated dial, in two colours, blue or brown, with matching calf leather straps. It has a slim case, 8.6 mm thick, in stainless steel, 42 mm in diameter, and a sapphire…
At 56 grams the Rado HyperChrome Ultra Light is about half the weight of most watches. Made of lightweight materials such as hardened titanium and silicon nitride for the case and anodized aluminium for the movement bridges, the watch is also reduced to the essentials in terms of visual appearance, one of the brand’s principal…
Longines continues to look back into its past and revive vintage models. Why? Because that’s what their market wants. The Heritage Railroad was a great success at Baselworld, meaning that they received an encouraging volume of advance orders from distributors. This piece has the same sort of vintage feel, in this case running back to…
This is what happens when a watchmaking company has the capability to design and build its own movements, and also possesses a healthy sense of creativity. You get something that – at last – looks completely different. It’s a different approach to the trade: instead of buying a ready-built movement from ETA, Sellita or Miyota…
Girard-Perregaux‘s numerous connections with Italy are exemplified by Laureato, a watch whose name was suggested by the company’s Italian distributor in 1975. It is the Italian name of the film The Graduate starring Dustin Hoffman. Those years were the time in which octagonal bezels and integrated bracelets were arriving from Gerald Genta (Audemars Piguet Royal…
This year marks Girard-Perregaux’s 225th anniversary, and the brand have presented Place Girardet, a watch named after the location in La Chaux-de-Fonds where the company was founded and still operates. Girard-Perregaux have taken the idea of a limited edition to a new level: not a numbered series from 1 to 225, but from 1791 to…
At a time at which many watchmaking companies are suffering to a degree – Swatch Group will be announcing a 12% drop in sales for the first half of 2016 for the group, with a 50-60% drop in profits – entry-level watches in 1960s style seem to represent an ever-popular option (other examples include the…
The Voltige Plume Noir (or Black Feather) by Manufacture Royale is a delight to watch. The balance, large at 14 mm diameter, oscillates at 21,600 vibrations per hour, and it is accompanied by the escapement just below. The assembly’s hypnotic movement is the epitomy of mechanical watchmaking. At the bottom of the dial, a subdial…
The Rodina Automatic is not a watch that I would buy. Neither is it a watch that I admire. Its Bauhaus looks are directly copied from Nomos Glashütte, and that’s something that in my opinion is not cool. But it’s there, it’s a mechanical watch with a self-winding movement, it has classical looks, a display…
The return of British watchmaking? Contemporary British watchmakers are ever tormented by the fact that their country was once a horological powerhouse. People like George Graham, Edward John Dent, John Arnold, Thomas Tompion, John Harrison and Thomas Mudge were amongst the finest clock and watchmakers of their day, working on the problem of increasing the…
The Seamaster Aqua Terra 150M Good Planet 38.5mm by Omega, presented at Baselworld 2016, is a nice three-hand watch with a nautical feel provided by the blue-accented hands and hour indices, and the blue nylon fabric strap. It’s also a very practical everyday watch, at a size wearable by all, men and women, and a…