Thirty years ago, Chopard’s co-president, Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, opened the Manufacture in Fleurier. The first in-house calibre, L.U.C 1.96, a slim automatic micro-rotor movement, made its debut inside the L.U.C XPS 1860 the following year. Rapidly ascending the complications ladder, in 2006, Chopard celebrated the tenth anniversary of its Manufacture with the release of the L.U.C […]
As they say, necessity is the mother of invention. In 1904, Brazilian aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont approached Louis Cartier, complaining that pocket watches were impractical in flight – he needed both hands on the controls. Louis Cartier’s solution not only marked the birth of an icon but is also widely considered the first purpose-built men’s wristwatch. […]
A year after Piaget broke the record for the thinnest tourbillon with its 2mm Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon, Bulgari, following its decade-long pursuit of ultra-thin watchmaking, unveiled the Octo Finissimo Ultra Tourbillon in titanium, now the world’s thinnest flying tourbillon at just 1.85mm. The new Octo Finissimo Ultra Tourbillon Platinum edition does not aim to break […]
Chopard entered the luxury integrated sports watch sector in 2019 with its Alpine Eagle. While this might seem like a relatively late contestant, the roots of the Alpine Eagle can be traced to a sporty-chic 1980s model known as the St. Moritz. Marking the Chopard Manufacture’s 30th anniversary, the latest Alpine Eagle 41 XPS is […]
The Grand Seiko Elegance Collection is home to some of the brand’s most restrained and poetic creations. Models such as the Omiwatari, Karasawa, and other hand-wound Spring Drive references demonstrate how minimalism, texture, and mechanical refinement can coexist. The new SBGY043 Iwao Blue keeps the successful, elegant formula that made earlier editions so attractive and […]
Last year, Roger Dubuis unveiled the Excalibur Biretrograde Calendar, a revival of a signature biretrograde complication co-patented by founder Roger Dubuis and Jean-Marc Wiederrecht (Agenhor) in 1989. Although this calendar version is simpler than the double retrograde QP the two men developed, it features the signature retrograde aesthetic intimately associated with Roger Dubuis. Following the […]
Since the third generation of the Vacheron Constantin Overseas arrived in 2016, the Maison has expanded the collection with everything from simple three-hand models to perpetual calendars and tourbillons. Yet for a watch originally designed with travel in mind, a basic second-time-zone display was missing. This was addressed in 2018 with the Overseas Dual Time, […]
If there was just one watch in the slew of new Rolex releases at Watches and Wonders this year that cried out for an in-person experience, it was the new Rolex Day-Date 40 in Jubilee Gold. This was, after all, the first new gold alloy unveiled by the Crown in more than two decades. Not since the debut of Everose Gold way back in 2005 have we had a new gold Rolex alloy.Jubilee Gold is definitely different, unexpected, and unique. In the (precious) metal, the effect is surprisingly restrained, e
Master watchmaker and restorer Michel Parmigiani’s original Toric QP Rétrograde was Parmigiani Fleurier’s foundational watch marking the brand’s launch in 1996. Following the appointment of Guido Terreni in 2021, many of Michel Parmigiani’s models were put on standby to allow Terreni to chart the brand’s new design direction, with a primary focus on the Tonda […]
When IWC revived the Ingenieur in 2023, it did so by returning to Gérald Genta’s integrated-bracelet design, with functional screws, a structured dial and an emphasis on all things technical. Last year’s full-black ceramic Ingenieur Automatic 42 was quite exemplary. For 2026, IWC takes a more nuanced step with the Ingenieur Automatic 42 in dark […]
H. Moser & Cie.’s Streamliner, launched in 2020, is the brand’s take on a luxury integrated bracelet sports watch with fluid, sculptural lines. Built around the collection’s streamlined case architecture and ergonomic steel bracelet, the collection welcomes a compact 34mm reference and a petite 28mm model, both of these Streamliner Two Hands being powered by […]
When Alpina showcased the Startimer back in 2011, it revisited its early 20th-century pilot’s watches, and it has remained part of the catalogue ever since. The appeal was simple. Clear cockpit styling, solid specifications, and a price that did not push things too far. At the centre of this collection sits the Startimer Pilot Automatic, […]
Vacheron Constantin’s Métiers d’Art Tribute to Great Civilisations series turns the Louvre’s ancient masterpieces into wearable miniature artworks, blending high watchmaking with some of the Maison’s most demanding decorative crafts. Limited to 15 pieces each, the four watches use the calibre 2460 G4/2, a hand-finished automatic movement with peripheral displays that frees the dial for […]
Collaborations in watchmaking are nothing new, and the 1902 Synergy by Peter Speake builds on that idea by taking Schwarz Etienne’s 1902 collection and bringing in an independent watchmaker to work on it. In this case, the base is the 1902 Réserve de Marche, a watch built around traditional hand-wound mechanics and following on from […]
What We KnowOne of Vacheron Constantin's most iconic timepieces is also probably their longest-lived: the Historiques American 1921. Originally made in 1919 as a watch cased on an offset 45 degree angle, with crown in the corner of the cushion-shaped case, and adopted by everyone from drivers to American writer and clergyman Samuel Parkes-Cadman (a story rarely told with this watch), the watch now known as the American 1921 relaunched in 2008 in 40mm, then in 36.5mm in 2017, and finally revise
Following CEO Davide Cerrato’s arrival in 2023, many Bremont fans feared that the strong aviation, tool-watch spirit of its founders, the English brothers, would be diluted. Released in 2025, the redesigned Altitude Collection, an evolution of the hyper-resilient Martin-Baker (MB) pilot watches with Trip-Tick cases, proved otherwise. In a move bound to win over collectors, Bremont […]
What We KnowAnother brand not exhibiting at Watches and Wonders but stepping into the fray of releases (in the quiet, subtle way they do) is Richard Mille, which just launched three versions of the newly christened RM 55-01. Technically a new reference, but not completely new, the RM 55-01 is a manual-winding three-hand watch focused on stripped-down architecture and specs, but in an ultralight format.The watch may look familiar. As far as I can tell, the Caliber RMUL4 has the same geartrain a
When it comes to Tudor's releases from Watches and Wonders, most of the talk, no doubt, will be around the new, quirky Monarch model. But during my appointment, one watch caught my eye the whole time, and it's technically not even new.It's the Black Bay Ceramic, now finally paired with a full black ceramic bracelet. I think it gets the award for most improved here, because paired with the bracelet, the watch is something that feels dramatically different from its previous editions. Since its l
Bulgari returns to Watches & Wonders this year with several re-editions of its Octo Finissimo Automatic, in more compact 37mm case sizes and powered by the new BVF micro-rotor automatic movement. Somewhat surreptitiously, though, Bulgari has also slipped in an Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater in a 37mm case. The more compact sibling of the 2016 […]
From its early adoption of titanium in the 1980s to its extensive work with coloured ceramics in the Top Gun collection, Schaffhausen-based brand IWC has consistently treated materials as a field of innovation. With the introduction of Ceralume as a concept in 2024, IWC explored the idea of a fully luminous ceramic case. Now this […]