Koen Simon is a 26-year-old watch collector from The Netherlands. A regular reader of Quill & Pad, he is a fan of high-end watchmaking. He recently sent us this story about how and why he acquired his rare two-tone Orion timepiece by Christiaan van der Klaauw, which we are pleased to share here.
It’s no exaggeration to say that here at Quill & Pad we are big fans of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso. And in 2017 Urwerk introduced its own, very robust version of a reversible watch: the UR-T8 Transformer. It’s a T-Rex for the wrist that acts much like a Reverso!
John McGonigle has 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.
The mechanical watch industry has a long history of being cyclical. And with war, COVID-19, and inflation, is the bubble about to burst yet again? Ian Skellern shares his thoughts on what 2023 may bring.
After a couple of years of COVID chaos, 2022 was a fine vintage year for excellent wristwatches. Here Ian Skellern shares his Top 6 watches that caught his eye over the last 12 months.
Santa came early for Ian this year with this fun casual dinner that Watches TV founder Marc André Deschoux hosted for young independent watchmakers. It was one of the most pleasurable short clips he’s seen all year: you feel you are at the table with them and can smell the raclette.
As read by you, here are the top ten most viewed articles (plus a bonus one) on Quill & Pad this past year. There are a few favorites and a few surprises. Drum roll, please: in no particular order, our top ten most viewed articles of 2022 were . . .
Describing ‘Making Time’ as “the greatest watch film ever made” is a pretty bold claim, especially as it’s a film about people rather than watches. But you can judge if Ian Skellern’s headline is hyperbolic for yourself.
Stephen McGonigle, owner and co-founder of McGonigle watches, has been regularly asked by friends and watch aficionados over the years to make something that they could afford – or at least aspire to. Making a relatively affordable watch that he could be proud of was a challenge, but one McGonigle has met with the first watch from his new Magon brand: the Fórsa Titanium, an automatic column wheel chronograph in a distinctive tonneau-shaped case.
The last couple of GPHGs were hit by COVID, but the 2022 GPHG was finally again an event and a party as it should be! Tout le monde was in Geneva, celebrating watchmaking at its finest. Here are our thoughts on the winners and how well we did at predicting them.