“It’s not a pocket watch,” Felix Baumgartner, Urwerk’s co-founder and chief watchmaker, emphasized, “It’s a ‘Zeit Device’.” This ultra-complicated calendar-cum-pocket watch is one of the most unique timepieces in the horological world today. Enjoy its starring role in this new ‘Easy Rider’-style video.
Stephen McGonigle, co-founder of McGonigle watches and founder of Magon watches, has developed (or perhaps more accurately “is developing”) an IOS app called Livingwatch, now available (for free) on the Apple Store.
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!
Watch straps and buckles (both pin and folding) are the nearly ideal way to fit your watch to your wrist, but they have an inherent drawback: the standard holes in the strap are 8 mm apart, so unless you are very lucky you have to select a hole that either makes the strap too tight or too loose. The perfect answer is either paying for a custom strap and hoping that your wrist size doesn’t change or a Roland Iten RWC09 adjustable buckle.
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.
Never let it be said that there was a bandwagon that Ian Skellern didn’t jump on. It looks like it’s the season for everyone to be sharing their favorite watches of 2021 so here are his top ten horological highlights of the last 12 months.
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. A challenge 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.
As read by you, here are the top ten most viewed articles on Quill & Pad this past year. There are definitely a few surprises. Drum roll, please: in no particular order, our top ten most viewed articles of 2021 were . . .
How much time could one survive in space without a suit? Are there truly 24 hours in a day? Why could dinosaurs not live in the present day (shock: ‘Jurassic Park’ is complete fiction)? Where are most of the volcanos on earth? Is there a river beneath the Amazon? How long has it been since it has rained on the driest place on earth? And what percentage of the world’s species we have discovered? Here are 50 things you should know about the planet we live on.
The Bovet Ottantasei Tourbillon is the brand’s sixth timepiece designed by Pininfarina, and the years of experience that the two brands now have working together shows. It truly is a sensational watch, but here Ian Skellern focuses on Pininfarina, a name evoking mystical status among anyone interested in world-class design and sensational cars.