One of my favorite complications is the moon phase, and an appropriately magnificent example is the Arnold & Son HM Double Hemisphere Perpetual Moon. This watch is among the biggest and boldest moon phase watches in existence, and it is one of my favorite pieces from Arnold & Son.
Recently, a good friend and avid collector gave me the mouth-watering opportunity to photograph two splendid Patek Philippe minute repeaters: the 5074P and 5078P. If you’re one of those people who believe in wearing a watch with your tuxedo, I don’t think you’d ever go wrong in pulling the 5078P out of the safe to wear. What else is interesting about it?
In 1974 Dutch watchmaker Christiaan van der Klaauw founded his own workshop making astronomical clocks, then soon similar complications for wristwatches. He retired in 2009, passing his baton along to Daniel Reintjes, who is now in charge of the world’s only watch brand completely dedicated to astronomical watches. Quill & Pad’s Martin Green sat down with Reintjes to get a feel for where the brand is now.
While there may be other categories in the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) with more complicated watches and more sparkling watches, the category that the still predominantly male mechanical watch buying public pays most attention to, is “Best Men’s Watch”. And in 2016 that prestigious award went to the Grönefeld 1941 Remontoire.
MB&F’s Legacy Machine Perpetual took the prize for Best Calendar Watch at the 2016 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève and I thought it deserved that accolade and more. LM Perpetual has rewritten the architecture of the perpetual calendar, transforming this oft troublesome complication into a virtual masterpiece.
The Quill & Pad panel reflects on watchmaking’s biggest night: the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, often described as the Oscars of watchmaking. In this segment, we chat about what we liked and what we didn’t like, which watches won and why we think they did.
We also express a bit of dismay at times.
No problem is exceptionally easy to solve. Even the simplest task can sometimes take weeks of redesigns, prototypes, and problem-solving for a seemingly simple solution. The task of creating the perfectly adjustable watch clasp system is the type of problem that was irresistible for Roland Iten. So how did that turn out?
The first timepiece to emerge from the new Ferdinand Berthoud brand is called FB 1. “It has to be something special,” said the man behind the reborn brand, Chopard’s Karl-Friedrich Scheufele. And special it was: so special that the FB 1 took the Aiguille d’Or, the top prize at the 2016 GPHG. Read on to discover why.
The Andreas Strehler Sauterelle à Lune Perpétuelle contains a moon phase mechanism that will only need adjustment by one full day every 14,189.538 years. And not only does the Lune Perpétuelle have an extremely accurate moon phase, but with the help of the constant force mechanism it is even more accurate for the little intervals as well.
Follow the 2016 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) live in either English or French with our live video stream starting at 18:30 CET / 17:30 GMT) Thursday November 10.