Undeniably, recent years have seen a transformation in mechanical watchmaking, surprisingly in both directions. While traditional brands have gone up in price quite drastically, we have seen quite a change on the other side of the spectrum. What once required thousands of euros can now be had for a fraction of that: finishing, materials, in-house […]
The pursuit of perfection is what drives many watchmakers to venture out on their own. But what perfection means can be different for each and every one of them. New to the independent watchmaking scene, and in a literal pursuit of perfection, is Mermont and its debut La Parfaite watch. Founded by Sebastian Bey-Haut and […]
What We KnowIt might be incredibly cold across much of the United States, but Citizen is imagining a warmer future ahead with some new nautical-inspired solar-powered chronographs. The new trio of Endeavor Chronos comes in a variety of different treatments, but one of the key things to note is the novel inclusion of a unidirectional ceramic bezel insert, a first for a core collection model. That's a great value addition to a brand that was largely about value in the first place.All three watch
If you think about any watch that Urwerk makes, you'd be hard-pressed to find one that you might be able to immediately call conventional, thanks to all kinds of time-telling systems and funky case shapes. Even the "roundest" watch in the lineup, the UR-102 Reloaded, throws normal time-telling out the window with its hands-free semi-circular time track.Last October, Urwerk launched a new watch with… regular hands. Was this the sign that Urwerk founders Martin Frei and Felix Baumgartner were fi
They seem to come in thick and fast, high-end Japanese indie watchmakers. In just a couple of short years, we’ve seen a whole range of them emerge from the Land of the Rising Sun. Through clever conception, unbridled devotion to craft and tradition and a unique perspective on watchmaking, they seem to capture the hearts […]
Richemont struck a deal to sell its Baume & Mercier watch brand to Italy's Damiani Group in a move expected to fire the starting gun on a fresh round of Swiss watch industry brand sales and asset reshuffling. With close to 200 years of history, Baume & Mercier has been a storied name in the watch portfolio of Richemont, producing approachably priced, Swiss-made timepieces under the Clifton and Riviera lines, among others. However, the brand, founded in 1830 and later owned by Piaget, t
India Watch Weekend returned to Mumbai, India’s financial capital, this year for its second edition. Co-founded by Karishma Karer and Punit Mehta, the event was conceived as a space where watches could be experienced and discussed in an Indian context. Their backgrounds across watch media, brand relations, and collector communities shape the weekend’s focus on […]
Swiss-based conglomerate Richemont, owner of multiple jewellery and watch brands such as Cartier, IWC, Piaget, A. Lange & Söhne or Vacheron Constantin, to name a few, has agreed to sell Swiss watch brand Baume & Mercier, which it acquired in 1988, to the Italian, family-run Damiani Group, concluding a strategic review of the long-time Richemont […]
British watchmaking company Bremont has made some key changes in the last couple of years, not least bringing on a new CEO in 2023, Davide Cerrato (well known for releasing the Tudor Black Bay in 2012 and for working at Montblanc and Panerai). A new direction was revealed at Watches & Wonders 2024 with an updated logo and a broader […]
Since its rebirth in 2015, Czapek & Cie has produced a focused but diverse family of collections: the elegant Quai des Bergues, the sporty-chic Antarctique, the recent Promenade, the exceptional Place Vendôme, and the refined Faubourg de Cracovie chronograph series. Introduced in 2018, the Faubourg de Cracovie was Czapek’s first chronograph, powered by the calibre […]
For over 180 years, L’Epée 1839 has been one of the greatest specialists in high-end mechanical clocks, from traditional carriage timepieces to captivating, bold creations like the 1520-component Albatross and other time-telling objects developed in cooperation with MB&F, cars and aeroplanes for Tiffany & Co., or an Imperial Hot Air Balloon for Louis Vuitton, to […]
Around Christmas, I was stuck inside at my parents' house in Wisconsin, with wind chills of -15ºF and snowstorms, and, of course, I reflexively opened Instagram. I landed on the recommended content and saw a wrist shot of an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Openworked in white ceramic, with bright blue bridges, worn out in the daylight sunshine. "Well, that's gotta be an old photo," I thought. "That was the piece AP made for OnlyWatch. It was never sold. So how is that p
Since 2002, the Voutilainen workshop's evolution and its founder's philosophy have been expressed through refined and robust in-house mechanisms, high-level finishing, distinctive cases, and hand-guilloché dials. This in-depth journey, presented by independent watchmaker Kari Voutilainen, highlights his workshop's most exclusive timepieces, shaped by a unique blend of Finnish and Swiss influences, and showcasing mastery across complications such as minute repeaters, tourbillons, and emblematic
The Oris Aquis Date collection made a splash in 2011 as a new generation of dive watches catering to professional divers and landlubbers looking for a resilient sports watch. Characterised by its competent diving credentials and robust architecture, the Aquis Date represents Oris’ more technical, contemporary side, compared to the vintage-inspired Divers Sixty-Five line. Redesigned over […]
Few brands embrace colour and material innovation quite like Hublot. Since the original Big Bang in 2005, it has explored every imaginable fusion, from sapphire, ceramic, and carbon to precious metals, often paired with interesting chromatic tones. Think vivid Big Bang Tourbillon Automatic Green SAXEM, ice-cold sapphire or titanium with chilly white ceramic of the […]
Prices for used and pre-owned watches rose during the fourth quarter, the first broad-based quarter-over-quarter increase in several years, as major groups, including Richemont, Swatch Group, and LVMH watch brands, enjoyed gains and the secondary watch market strengthened. Data compiled by WatchCharts and compiled in a report by investment bank Morgan Stanley shows that prices for used watches rose by 1.9% during the fourth quarter of 2025 compared to the previous quarter, with 21 out of 35 tr
Founded in 2019 by Lilian Thibault, Awake is a young French brand built on the idea that time can be experienced more consciously, through sustainability, creativity, and cultural preservation. In line with this approach, Awake seeks to revive and modernise ancestral crafts from around the world. In 2024, Awake introduced the Son Mai collection, its […]
<p>This auditory masterpiece from the Geneva-based watchmaker is not only an exquisite example of the sonic haute horological state-of-the-art, but is also the most complicated watch every created in the 30-year journey of Chopard's movement manufacture </p>
This week, alongside the monochromatic Chronograph in Black Ceramic and the Skeleton Black Ceramic & Gold, which added an interplay of black ceramic and gold-toned mechanics to the Skyline collection, Zenith revealed the Defy Skyline Tourbillon Skeleton. This powerful new reference pushed the collection’s architectural design language into the realm of high luxury and complication. […]
On this week's episode of The Business of Watches, we wrangled some time with someone born into the Swiss watch industry but who has taken an outsider's path to business success. Manuel Emch is the managing director of Louis Erard and also one-third of the radical upstart micro-brand Kollokium. We sat down last year, and Emch outlined his circuitous route and unique approach to building and selling watch brands. Kollokium Projekt 02 (left) and Projekt 01 (right). But first, Hodinkee Magaz