In Paris on the 21st of January 1910, a flash flood caused the Seine river to rise 8 meters/25 feet and devastated the city. While much of the damage was what you might expect, something unusual did occur: thousands of clocks stopped at 10:50 am. Here’s why.
Two-hundred fifty years ago, Longitude Prize-winning clockmaker John Harrison made clocks losing just one second per month. But that wasn’t enough for him: in his later life, Harrison claimed that he could make a wall clock with a then-unheard-of-precision of just one second over 100 days! And 250 years later, it turns out he was right.
The ever-changing colors of the silicon wafer dial on the Louis Moinet Astronef Techno are not caused by light reflections but by iridescence. This is the phenomenon of a surface changing color as the angle of view or the angle of illumination changes. But there is much more to this unique piece watch than a stunning dial.
Vladimir Négault, founder of Ataelier Haute Complication, a relatively new independent watchmaker based in Geneva who is making some of the most interesting and inventive watches Ian Skellern has ever seen.
Konstantin Chaykin has designed, developed, and manufactured his own automatic movement, caliber K.33.3, which features a tungsten micro-rotor. The movement makes its debut in the unique piece Zebra Wristmon.
The (or at least one) definition of Faith is a strongly held conviction or belief that is not based on proof. Faith in a conviction is a powerful force that can bond many people together for good or for evil. Ian Skellern debunks a few falsehoods, including Rolex deliberately limiting supply.
The Louis Moinet Memoris chronograph was the first watch to put the chronograph mechanism fully visible dial side. Now, Louis Moinet has added a flying tourbillon to their monopusher column wheel chronograph and called it Impulsion.
Ian Skellern’s suggestion for an International Chronometry Competition is a group of well-heeled collectors – brands/independents are also welcome to participate, but I suspect they will wait to see how it goes – set off from, say, Geneva, but could be New York, Dubai, or Singapore, wearing one or two watches, on a two-week world tour. Here he explains how it might work.
In 2021, John McGonigle launched the H-B1, the first watch under his solo brand Oileán. It’s a beautifully hand-finished triple-calendar column wheel chronograph powered by a highly modified new-old stock Valjoux 88 movement. While not cheap, Ian Skellern thinks it’s the best value-for-money, exquisitely hand-finished, complicated watch he has ever seen.
This Breguet souscription pocket watch number 1836 was created just after the French Revolution in 1796 and was sold in 1807 for £600. A testament to the quality of the movement’s design and the skill of its watchmaker, after more than 200 years it still runs impeccably today, which makes it the perfect role model for Breguet’s modern Tradition line.