Many passionate fans of high watchmaking have likely heard of WOSTEP, however few know what this cryptic acronym really means. The answer is “Watchmakers of Switzerland Training and Education Program.” WOSTEP was born in 1966 and therefore turns 50 this year. Happy birthday to this great institution!
The Graf von Faber-Castell collection – or “Graf” as it’s known to pen buffs – is Faber-Castell’s top-of-the-line series of pens; it includes premium writing instruments, like the recently released Pen of the Year, among others. The Pen of the Year for 2016 was inspired by Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, a 1,441-room residence that became the cultural and political center of the Hapsburg Empire.
Whimsy, frivolity, playfulness: these are not adjectives one often hears used to describe haute horlogerie. And yet these words accurately describe many watches or clocks built over the centuries. Take a journey with me now to discover my favorite modern whimsical masterpieces.
I love independent watchmaking and independent watchmakers; one of my great joys as a collector is having the feeling that, in a small way, I am supporting their efforts.
So I put some thought into why independent watchmakers struggle in a business sense and how they can remain relevant in changing market situations.
The quasi-humanoid team at De Bethune tries to convince us that this comet-born device is an instrument for telling the time. What do you think this intergalactic artifact is really for? Please leave your comments, captions, stories, and suggestions in the comments.
We are big fans of Bouchet’s work in general and the ingeniously complicated Complication One in particular. What we were shown at Baselworld 2016, though, was truly imaginative: funky new, definitely out-of-the-ordinary colors for such a serious and technical timepiece.
Waxing poetically about moon phases has gotten me excited enough to take a trip through certain “phases” of engineering excellence . Here we bring you the eight most accurate moon phases currently fitted into a wristwatch. Join us on this odyssey through space and time.
My biggest concern with the Jaguar F-Pace was actually with the styling: Jaguars have always been elegant creatures – and an SUV must be one of the least elegant automobiles there is. But in the capable hands of Ian Callum, Jaguar’s design director, who hates SUVs as much as I do, the result is a car that fits beautifully in Jaguar’s current lineup while maintaining a certain feline elegance.
American swimmer Michael Phelps is the most decorated Olympian in history, now having won 23 gold medals. In addition, he is an Omega ambassador and has been since 2004, a longstanding partnership. What watches did he wear during the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro? You can find out here.
The A. Lange & Söhne Zeitwerk was already an icon of modern haute horlogerie thanks to its debut in 2008 of the first instantaneously jumping digital minutes and hours display. Little could anyone have predicted the release of the sensational Zeitwerk Handwerkskunst edition four years later.