As has become apparent over the past few years, getting your watch serviced, especially with any group-owned brands, can be a major thing. It can take many months, and even up to a year. The reason, of course, is that there are only so many qualified watchmakers to service these watches, and brands are overrun with a gargantuan backlog of service requests.
But that’s only one of the reasons to consider becoming a backyard watchmaker.
I had never imagined I could be jealous of myself until after I stepped out of the Corsa yellow Lamborghini Huracan that I had just pushed beyond my experience of everyday physics during an exhilarating five laps at the historic Sebring Motor Speedway. The time behind the wheel of the Huracan changed me forever and I immediately burned to be the guy that had been in the car, not the guy now walking away from it.
Even though the Freak is a staple of avant-garde watchmaking, I am continuously impressed by the continual improvements and inventions added to it. That is why the most recent edition is the most appropriately named: it announces right there in the name – Ulysse Nardin FreakLab – that it’s the wrist-sized testing lab!
Rolex has never called out to Joshua Munchow as a watch that he must have or that would be the pinnacle of his collection. He thinks that this is because of the downsides to being the most widely known watch brand in the world: copying and overexposure. So what is it about the new Rolex Day-Date 40 that has turned him into a convert? Read on to find out.
When the iconic, 84-year-old Reverso case comes together with current horological technology, something incredible happens. And when that current technology happens to be a so-called gyrotourbillon with a cylindrical hairspring, that something is even more fantastimazing.
There has been a lot of talk and promises made by the watch industry about ceramics and their use in timepieces, so it would seem that a primer on the subject might make us much more informed consumers.
In my mind, the Bovet Dimier Récital 15 stands alone as the coolest of the Récital line for its functions and displays. Let’s take a look!
It begins with the jump hour, my favorite “because we can” complication. Of course I would write about another jump hour!
The jump hour, situated at 3 o’clock, is positioned so that it is the first thing you see when you begin to pull up your shirt cuff to check the time.
Now this may be a happy coincidence based on movement layout, but it is more than likely that is was conceptual. What else does it contain?
The MCT Frequential One F110 shares DNA and some familiar form with its neighboring population of the Sequential One and Sequential Two, but it is an end population that is truly itself. It’s something new.
New mechanics with familiar form
Mechanically speaking, the Frequential One F110 is a very new watch. Stylistically speaking, it is clearly a co-evolved result of what has come before. Gone are the rotating prisms, the large minute hand indicating the jump hour, and the three-quarter ring that jumps to uncover the current hour. But what replaces them?
It occurred to me one day, while explaining to a visitor to my “office” how the machine “knows” where the part is, that many people have very little exposure to the machinery that literally builds so many wristwatch components today. So for your reading pleasure, I break down the basics of milling machines and turning centers, the multi-axis machines that have become a cornerstone of modern fabrication in the watch industry.
The HYT H3 is an increditastic piece of horology, and my favorite HYT to date. Just in case you don’t know what makes it so fantastic I’ll go through some of the main points that make me drool inside. The movement architecture is entirely new for the H3, and this allows for a remarkably different layout and new options for showing hours and minutes – and for presenting the mechanism to the wearer.