From the public’s perspective, Rolex’s surge into its movement revolution began with the now anachronistic-sounding Basel 2000 World Watch, Clock, and Jewelry Show. But the evidence of a long-term engineering campaign was mounting at the patent office and in the dealers’ showrooms as this article by Tim Mosso highlights.
If you want to love Rolex, but you love mechanical movements more than you love watch brands themselves, rejoice: Tim Mosso thinks that we are living in the halcyon days of Rolex movement innovation and shares a few well-illustrated technical and movement highlights right here.
The 1995 IWC Portugieser Minute Repeater was a breakthrough watch in more ways than one. It proved that IWC’s 1993 revival of its icon wasn’t a stunt and that the historic model family was back for good.
From the moment Lange launched the first Datograph in 1999, it was a watershed for its maker and the industry at large. At the time, Lange was still a young brand, and it had only recently embraced display casebacks: the jump from seeing nothing with a solid caseback to the sensational caliber L951 was a quantum leap.
Launched in 2008, the De Bethune Dream Watch series is a standalone collection offering just a single model at any given time. The Dream Watch 5 featured here was customized by Swizz Beatz.
MB&F movement constructor for LM Perpetual,Stephen McDonnell’s focus was split between ease of use, durability, and packaging. Ease of use comes in the form of an independent corrector for each of the day, date, month, and leap year. Unlike most perpetual calendars, the MB&F LM Perpetual has a permanent freestanding button for advancing each display; no separate tool is required.
Watches like the De Bethune DB Kind of Two Jumping GMT aren’t exactly the backbone of the luxury watch hobby. Finding one is hard; buying one is harder. Tim Mosso takes a deep dive.
Technically, this F.P. Journe watch is called the “Chronomètre Optimum Black Label,” but it should be called the “Ultimate.” That’s how much Tim Mosso reveres and admires a timepiece Journe himself describes as the most accurate mechanical watch he knows how to construct.
Hey Marvel movie fans, Tim Mosso hast a watch for you. No, not those AP Royal Oaks dubiously decorated with spandex suits. He’s talking about the Vacheron Constantin Harmony Chronograph.
De Bethune watches rarely incorporate zero complications and only two hands, so on that basis alone the Midnight Blue is exceptional. Rarity also helps; only a few dozen have been built in the decade since the model’s launch.