The Grönefeld 1941 Remontoire, introduced at Baselworld 2016, is the next step in the ongoing evolution of the Grönefeld brothers’ burgeoning dynasty. The watch’s concept revolves around a key feature, the remontoire, which also references the church clock. Read on to find out why.
Have you ever realized that some people just don’t get jokes? When during Baselworld 2016 Hautlence released something unusual called Labyrinth, I knew things were about to get fun. And fun they got!
Jaquet Droz is pretty well known for creating ultra-clean, minimal watch designs utilizing things like single-hand 24-hour displays, onyx and enamel dials, and small offset subdials, which are all highlighted in the Grande Seconde collection. And within that collection a new frontrunner has emerged to compete for the title of my favorite Jaquet Droz timepiece: the Grand Seconde Off-Centered.
Like every other Akrivia timepiece the Tourbillon Chiming Jump Hour includes a beautifully delicate tourbillon whirling away at 6 o’clock. Akrivia tourbillons are already becoming known for their fine cages and slender profiles, and the balance wheels inside share these characteristics. I love complicated mechanisms that require multiple views to fully grasp all of the detail, but sometimes it’s just so delightful to gaze upon something simply aesthetically pleasing.
If you can have two of something, and the result is clearly better, why would you want it any other way? That is a thought pondered again by Audemars Piguet with the release of its new Royal Oak Double Balance Openworked, a twin-balance wristwatch that strays off to do its own beautiful thing yet again.
What you are about to read is a work of fantasy directly inspired by the incredible horological work and details of Miki Eleta’s BY 21Dez12ME clock. “The chief navigator paused and checked the coordinates against the holographic star chart surrounding the cabin, suddenly realizing that the starship called ‘BY 21Dez12ME’ was, to put it delicately, astonishingly lost.”
Introducing Czapek & Cie., a nascent watch brand that is looking to the village to help it grow. The first interesting thing to learn about Czapek is that it is a brand not atypically reviving a historical name with some pretty serious horological street cred for the purists out there. But first let’s take a good look at the Czapek Quai des Bergues collection.
Kim Djapri, a watchmaker with Lang & Heyne and boutique manager at Tempus Arte in Dresden, exhibited at the A.H.C.I.’s Baselworld 2016 booth a micro-brand and a timepiece all his own. His new brand Bélier is the banner under which his new watch, christened Reverse, has been built. This watch is perfect allegory for reflection in a timepiece.
I am always excited when I see a new example of whimsy in the world. And Van Cleef & Arpels is always a good source of whimsy; the brand’s latest Poetic Complications creation, the Lady Arpels Ronde des Papillons, exemplifies this. It takes a very serious and complicated new movement and uses it for a fanciful display of beauty and cheer that includes exquisitely hand-painted butterflies and a swallow as hour and minute indicators.
To mark the 20th anniversary of the L.U.C. collection, Chopard has developed its first entirely in-house perpetual calendar chronograph movement. And this is where a very interesting design choice comes into focus: offset overlapping dials that created a very interesting effect for me.