When the Breguet announcement that the Classique Tourbillon Extra-Plat Automatique 5367 is now also available with a high-fire enamel dial (previously, it was available with a guilloche dial) popped into my email box, I had to smile: as an avid enthusiast of ultra-thin watches, Breguet’s classic ultra-thin tourbillon ranks among my favorites. But what makes this one so special?
Can something that is highly functional also be art? If there is one brand that has proven — at least in watches — that functional objects can be art it is Nomos. The German company’s designs can are minimalistic, which leads to enormous focus on every minuscule detail. The ‘De Stijl’ version offered by Ace Jewelers in Amsterdam takes all of this even further in a limited edition that costs no more than the regular collection edition.
There is nothing quite like the experience that wearing an ultra-thin mechanical watch can provide. Despite a svelte, often understated case hugging your wrist in a barely perceptible embrace, you know that a there is a fully mechanical movement functioning at the edge of what is mechanically possible beating inside. And the Bulgari Octo Finissimo Automatic is an especially fine example according to Martin Green.
Only the most expensive, and often also the most complicated, watches are fitted with platinum cases. But should this be the case? And, most importantly, is this true? Martin Green takes a closer look at the myths and truths of platinum.
The Lamborghini Urus going into production is very similar to that of the prototypes that Lamborghini has been showing us for the past couple of years. And that’s a good thing because it is a beautiful car, containing a lot of Lamborghini DNA. And there are a few elements here worth going into closer detail over.
It was dandy aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont who talked his friend, Louis Cartier, into making a wrist-borne watch for him so it would be easier to see the time while flying. After a moving century-long history, in 2018 Cartier has reinvented its Santos.
There’s no replacement for displacement: that’s the general mantra of American muscle car aficionados. However, the Genovation GXE is really a C6 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport with its 6.2-liter V8 replaced by two electric engines, providing the car with about 800 horsepower!
What is the most precious element of any watch brand? Its manufacture? Its skilled employees? Its brand ambassadors? Its boutiques? Martin Green thinks that it’s none of those, because the most important asset of a brand is its so-called DNA. Here he explains how brands better used their DNA at the 2018 SIHH.
There is a certain sense of irony in it: while trying on a new Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore I realized during the 2018 SIHH that current trends seem to favor smaller watches. It seems that the watch world has finally returned to its senses with smaller sizes. And that is a good thing!
Christiaan van der Klaauw presented the world’s smallest mechanical planetarium in 1999 and the first three-dimensional moon phase in a wristwatch six years later. Today, designers Daniël and Maria Reintjes run the astronomical brand, so Martin Green and Boris Pjanic visited the workshop to see how things are going.