Since visiting the Bovet manufacture in Fleurier last year, I’ve developed a newfound love for the brand. And, yet, if you had asked me which one timepiece stood out and made me fall head over heels, I would have had a hard time giving you an immediate, concrete answer. That is, until I discovered the Récital 18 Shooting Star, an unusually elaborate and decorative world time watch.
Conditions of sale, Antiquorum Hong Kong, June 2015: “Antiquorum confirms no ability or obligation to perform due diligence on any lot.” Imagine one of the worst things that could happen to you as a watch collector: your home is invaded by robbers and your entire collection is spirited away. Amazingly, Antiquorum listed and sold just such a watch involved in a collector’s worst nightmare. What now?
I’ve been attending Baselworld for more than a quarter of a century now, so it is pretty hard to surprise me when I show up at a brand’s stand to see the new timepieces. But at Baselworld 2016 I was surprised by Seiko, de Grisogono, Chanel, and Romain Gauthier. Read on to find out what exactly these surprises were.
It remains an incredible skill to be able to fool a person’s senses. Cartier does an absurdly good job of creating horological magic tricks with its “mystery” movements like the one we find here in the Rotonde de Cartier Astromystérieux presented at the 2016 edition of SIHH. Almost the entire movement is seemingly not connected to the surrounding watch, floating delicately in the transparent dial opening. How does it work?
What happens when you take a complicated watch that is already rather sparse and minimal and then pare it down even more? H. Moser & Cie wanted to see how far it could take minimalism and so the Endeavor Perpetual Calendar transformed into the Endeavor Perpetual Calendar Concept. Now this is what I would call minimalist!
This week’s photo was taken during Baselworld 2016 and features a fairly blingy skull with (in my mind a least) a bit of attitude. What fun, funny, or sarcastic caption can you suggest for this image?
Romain Jerome and Warner Brothers’ DC Entertainment have joined forces once again to pay tribute to the comic world’s Dark Knight, just in time for the release of ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ hitting theaters this weekend. Like something out of Batman’s own arsenal, the black 46 mm PVD-coated stainless steel case includes an asymmetrically faceted bezel finished with alternating rough-brushed and polished surfaces. And don’t forget the lume! Cape not included, though.
The age old themes of mortality and time comprise the starting point of Fiona Krüger’s Skulls. However, these are not your run-of-the-mill memento mori. The Petit Skulls are quirky, interesting, and beautiful in their own special way. And they do something that is very near and dear to my own heart: they highlight the beauty of the mechanical movement.
With its latest skeleton watch Nebula, Arnold & Son looks to the stars and the earth in equal measure. Nebula features a brand new movement conceived from the ground up with a specific design and sense of purpose. The beautiful symmetry of the result clearly shows as much, and first thing that grabs you about this timepiece is its visual balance. The next thing that will grab you is its price.
One of my absolute favorite watch brands is Manufacture Contemporaine Du Temps, otherwise known as MCT. The new Sequential S210 is a combination of both previous and new design cues, and it represents the base concept for future development. While MCT has been around since the mid-naughties, the last two or three years have been the most transformative.