Halloween, a word contracted from "All Hallow's Eve," is a predominately American celebration whose traditions come from late nineteenth-century Celtic origins. And along comes a modern mechanical time-telling spider in celebration, the MB&F Arachnophobia – a realistic-looking arachnid made of metal and other materials traditionally used in watchmaking. Look upon it if you dare!

In the Waipara region, North Canterbury, in the southern part of New Zealand's South Island there is a cult winery called Pyramid Valley that Ken Gargett has visited a few times. Today he tastes several 2018 wines from the place with the picturesque vineyard names and shares his opinion with us.

The Mechanical Exception category features men’s or ladies’ watches with a special mechanism such as an innovative or sophisticated display, an automaton, a belt-driven movement, a striking or other acoustic function, or any other original and/or exceptional horological concept. And we surely have an intriguing set of finalists in the Mechanical Exception category this year: everything from a tumbling triple-axis tourbillon to an electronically controlled hybrid timepiece to a paper-thin mechanical watch and an automaton minutely replicating a 16-cylinder engine. And even more!

With concept cars, it is typical for most of the features on the prototype to be weeded out once the design is optimized for manufacturing. The electronical-mechanical Ressence Type 2 is the complete opposite, Joshua Munchow says, as it has retained pretty much every single thing the concept watch of 2018 offered and has only improved in function. Is the Ressence Type 2 the future of mechanical watches?

CB thought it was a great idea to add a legendary platinum bracelet to his A. Lange & Söhne Datograph Lumen. At first it looked like it would be easy, but then there were a few unforeseen "issues." GaryG tells the up-and-down story of one man's search (and willingness to fight) for his dream Grail.