On this sunny day in the La Chaux-de-Fonds factory, which is half charming eighteenth-century farmhouse and half state-of-the-art technical facility, I was entirely surprised by having learned something new about one of Greubel Forsey’s production elements: screws. The subject came up in passing at lunch, sparking great passion in Forsey despite what might seem to be a miniscule topic to the uninitiated.
Here’s what our panel thinks of the Men’s watches pre-selelected for the 2014 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève: Breguet Classique Chronométrie, Urban Jürgensen & Sønner Central Second, MB&F LM 101, Tudor Heritage Black Bay, Omega Seamaster 300, and the Bulgari Octo Finissimo. This category only allows men’s watches that do not have extra complications.
I had the privilege of reporting on the wonderful project launched by photographer Howard Parr and supported by Jaeger-LeCoultre to advance the fight against the “silent killer” of women, ovarian cancer. Howard is also an avid Jaeger-LeCoultre collector. Jaeger-LeCoultre sponsored two Southern California receptions centered on Howard’s stirring photos of ovarian cancer survivors and benefitting the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance (OCNA).
Felix is more than just a name. Felix is Latin for “happy” or “fortunate” and I feel that Maria and Richard Habring have found just the right moniker for their latest creation. At the same time, Felix proves that it’s entirely possible for a talented, small team to make a fully in-house manufacture movement at a fully affordable price.
It all started in 2004 when TAG Heuer first released the Monaco V4, the first watch to be driven by belts instead of the conventional wheel and pinion. After ten years of experimentation and redesigns, the Monaco V4 Tourbillon was released in 2014 to much fanfare. The V4 has always held a special place in my heart, and with the release of the newly designed movement specifically for the V4 Tourbillon I wanted to break down why it is incredible.
The Ladies High-Mech category is for “women’s watches that are remarkable in terms of their mechanical creativity and complexity.” The key words here being “mechanical creativity and complexity.” Our panel believes there is going to be a landslide and for good reason: nothing holds a candle to a certain highly complicated timepiece created for ladies.
The watches in the Ladies category of the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève can only feature two of the following functions at most: date, power reserve, classic moon phase, and a second time zone. The watches may be adorned with a maximum of 5 carats of gemstones.
According to a recent interview with CEO Jérôme Lambert at the company’s Hamburg headquarters, Montblanc’s watch business is humming along swimmingly. And an interesting statistic is that women constitute about 35 percent of the clients of this brand. Thus, it stands to perfect reason that the luxury brand boasting two Swiss factories producing elegant wristwatches would not forget women in its campaign to “share its passion for fine watchmaking.”
Let’s get one thing straight: Urwerk’s EMC Black is not a pretty watch and it’s not meant to be, it’s a proof-of-concept instrument. And a very good instrument at that, one that is not only extremely precise, but is the world’s first watch capable of measuring its own precision without external tools or meters.
Around 1995, the founder of the modern Urban Jürgensen & Sønner brand, Peter Baumberger (1940-2010), went into partnership with the then-independent movement manufacture Lémania to develop a minute repeater tourbillon movement. This project was finished in 2000; however, very few of these movements were ever made by Lémania, but Baumberger received three, each with different indications and finishes. One was a regulator.