Blue Merit by Grieb & Benzinger

An Enthusiast Collector’s View Of The Grieb & Benzinger Blue Merit

De gustibus non disputandum est, as they say: there is no arguing about taste! In particular, I’m not one to tell people what they can do with their belongings. If you, for instance, want to take your Ferrari, paint it pink, and put a giant Hello Kitty decal on it, that’s your privilege. That doesn’t mean that I have to like the item in question. In this instance, I am referring to the Grieb & Benzinger re-interpretation of the classic A. Lange & Söhne Pour le Mérite Tourbillon christened Blue Merit.

Intricately skeletonized and engraved dial of the Grieb & Benzinger Blue Merit

The Blue Merit: Grieb & Benzinger Makes An Ultra-Rare A. Lange & Söhne Tourbillon Pour Le Mérite Rarer Still

Quill & Pad has the extreme honor to introduce you to the Grieb & Benzinger Blue Merit, a unique collector’s item created from one of the rarest serial movements in watch history: A. Lange & Söhne’s Tourbillon Pour le Mérite.

Close up of the Girard-Perregaux Tri-Axial Tourbillon

The Mechanism That Sparked A Passion: Thank Heavens For The Girard-Perregaux Tri-Axial Tourbillon

Today I don’t want to talk about one specific watch (though the Girard-Perregaux Tri-Axial Tourbillon gets special attention). Instead I want to discuss a whole class of mechanisms that made me cross the line from watch fan to so-called “watch idiot savant” (affectionately abbreviated as WIS): the multi-axis tourbillon.

Close up of the dial of the Ulysse Nardin Freak Blue Cruiser

Give Me Five! Tourbillons From Baselworld 2014 Part 2

Continuing our series on tourbillons from Baselworld 2014, here are a few from Breguet, Chopard, Ulysse Nardin, Grönefeld and Kari Voutilainen.

Girard-Perregaux Sea Hawk

Weekly Roundup April 15: Urwerk, Vacheron Constantin, IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Girard-Perregaux And More

This week we present a video-rich roundup of the recent news so pour yourself a large glass, get yourself comfortable, scroll down and enjoy.

The week’s review includes: Urwerk’s new UR-105M, both Vacheron Constantin and IWC supporting film and the arts at the Tribeca Film Festival, Girard-Perregaux’s new blue Sea Hawk, Jaeger-LeCoultre honoring Charlie Chaplin, a quick look at the best on the net, plus a few well-known horological figures giving their Baselworld Top-5 for The Watches TV.

Tourbillon Astronomique by Antoine Martin

Why The Tourbillon Astronomique By Antoine Martin Is A 50-Year Celebration

This month, Martin Braun will celebrate half a century on this planet. Though he did not expressly say he created the Tourbillon Astronomique for any particular reason, I almost suspect he was giving himself a huge birthday gift to celebrate this life milestone.

The UR-105M Dark Knight with AlTiN treated steel bezel

Back To The Future: The Urwerk UR-105M

Wild watches get ever wilder and ever more numerous and like any addict, we need more and more just to reach the same horological high. One of the first avant garde brands that started us all on this exhilarating ride isn’t really playing the same game at all: Urwerk. In an era when new models appear to be designed as much, if not more, for shock-and-awe as they are for time keeping, the UR-105M paradoxically looks both cutting-edge-modern and reassuringly familiar.

Romain Gauthier Logical one Secret "Diamonds" in red gold

Logical One Secret By Romain Gauthier: But Is It Art?

“Art”, what is it? If we allow that horology at its finest can indeed be art, then I have no problem accepting Romain Gauthier’s Logical one as art. While beauty may be in the eye of the beholder (and mine sees beauty in Logical one), there is no denying Romain Gauthier’s fertile imagination in reinventing the chain and fusee, eliminating the ubiquitous winding crown, improving the mainspring barrel and adding a few diamonds!

Gronefeld Parallax Tourbillon RG (red gold)

Copernicus, Alignment Shift, And The Grönefeld Parallax Tourbillon: A Nerd Story

Parallax is a fascinating phenomenon that has real-world applications, including the amazing ability of humans to use their two eyes and parallax shift to judge depth of field. You can reach out and grab that doorknob because of science. For this reason and more I absolutely love the latest creation to come out of the Grönefelds’ workshop, their aptly named Parallax Tourbillon.

Louis Moinet Dragon Tourbillon

Give Me Five! Tourbillons From Baselworld 2014 Part 1

While Baselworld 2014 was not a particularly big year for tourbillons, they were still an important element in the collections of most brands and a few of them were truly exceptional. Here are just a few of the tourbillons that passed in front of my lens at Baselworld 2014.