When writing ‘Bridging Art and Mechanics: The Unabridged Story of the Corum Golden Bridge,’ I discovered much more about Corum’s artistic co-founder, René Bannwart, including the fact that he was the creator of Omega’s flagship Constellation and Seamaster lines.
Romain Gauthier’s Logical One is a masterpiece of complicated mechanics, boasting − as with all of the models in his collection − a level of finishing rivaled only by the likes of Philippe Dufour, Greubel Forsey, and Kari Voutlainen. That’s high praise, indeed. With its four patents, Logical One delivers what it promises: a re-imagined complication laid out very logically. And the most recent edition of the timepiece taking home the 2013 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève prize for best men’s complication is a surprising all-black version.
Having the chance to wear the H. Moser & Cie. Endeavour Perpetual Calendar for several weeks reminded me a great deal of the evening the brand launched in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. So in addition to reporting here on the watch itself, I’m going to also provide a few details of recent history regarding this lovely, classic perpetual calendar.
I have attended the odd auction. I have even gone to auctions with the intent to bid on a watch. But that hadn’t yet worked out for me. Not until I saw that Parisian auction house Artcurial was auctioning off what was left of Alain Silberstein’s inventory and put in an absentee bid on a long shot. I had little hope.
Two sets of Jaquet Droz Petite Heure Minute models comprising eight watches each depict a beautiful butterfly as it flutters from flower to flower, starting on the left side of the spacious enamel dial and ending on the right side. The roomy enamel dials seem like the blank pages of a book, ready to be imprinted by this story of nature dreamt up by painters and engravers hard at work within the artisans’ workshop at the Jaquet Droz factory.
In my wildest dreams, I never thought I’d be writing about two different cushion-shaped chronographs made especially for women. This is a particularly enjoyable exercise for me as the two chronographs I examine here are by two of the most traditional watch manufactures at work today: Vacheron Constantin and Patek Philippe. So, how do they differ?
When Audemars Piguet celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of the Royal Oak in 2002, it did so by presenting its first concept watch, which was one of the first “superwatches” of the modern era. For a traditional brand like Audemars Piguet to come out with a wild watch like this was far more than just novel. It was downright audacious!
In the relatively short amount of time since Ball Watch re-entered the watch world, the brand has managed to create a few interesting technical details to enhance its interesting, affordable watch range. The brand’s arsenal of technical improvements includes the patented SpringLock shock protection system, which was tested under real conditions on the wrist of Kiss drummer Eric Singer before being implemented into regular collection watches.
Talking to Eric Singer about watches is like cramming four months’ worth of casual shop talk into one hour: Singer is really, really into watches. One of rock’s hardest working drummers, he has played with acts like Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, Lita Ford, and Gary Moore as well as Kiss. In addition to a love of music, Singer inherited a love of timepieces from his father; his extensive collection illustrates his passion for the subject.
The moon is one element of horology that allows watchmakers to wax lyrical and get their romance on.
Thanks to its romantic properties and associations, depictions of the moon are particularly popular complications for women.
Konstantin Chaykin, that brilliant watchmaker/inventor from Russia, thus showed a bit of his softer side at Baselworld 2015 with the introduction of a new rendition of a ladies’ moon phase watch with its mechanical sophistication clearly on display.