The time is now, according to GaryG, for large watch brands to seize the opportunity to make a real difference to the health of the mechanical watch industry and the prosperity of their brands. He thinks that 2020 is the year for CEOs to commit to entering their best new pieces in the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG).
Purnell’s latest model, Escape II, features two spherical tourbillons developed by Eric Coudray, the definitive expert in the field of three-dimensional multi-axis tourbillons. This is just one example of how the independent brand works with the best of the best in the watch industry to achieve such monumental timepieces. Martin Green reports after visiting the Swiss workshops.
Glashütte Original dial factory manager Michael Baumann guided Bhanu Chropa through the complex process of manufacturing dials. He explained that depending on the complications of a given watch model, it takes 70 to 80 steps to manufacture a perfect dial. See for yourself in this interesting personal tour behind the scenes in Pforzheim, Germany.
Elizabeth Doerr has attended the odd auction. She has even gone to auctions with the intent to bid on a watch. But that hadn’t yet worked out for her. Not until she saw that Parisian auction house Artcurial was auctioning off what was left of Alain Silberstein’s inventory and put in an absentee bid on a long shot. She had little hope, but then . . .
Tutima has one leg in the realm of fine watchmaking and the other firmly placed in its lower to mid-priced Grand Flieger collection, composed of German pilot-style watches. Bhanu Chopra visited the Tutima manufacture in Glashütte, Germany for a closer look at how this duality works and what role it plays in the company’s history.
As the Chanel J12 turns 20 years old, the brand more famous for its fashion than its high-quality watches releases a modern marvel: a very transparent version of the J12 called X-Ray that features a world premiere in the form of a full sapphire crystal bracelet.
Our friends at The Watches TV have published a beautiful three-part video series on manufacturing a watch fully by hand as demonstrated by Greubel Forsey’s recent Hand Made 1. In this series, Marc-André Deschoux and his team get deep into the manufacture and talk to all of the artisans involved, beginning with founders Stephen Forsey and Robert Greubel.
While H. Upmann usurped the famous British leader’s name for this cigar, Ken Gargett has no doubt Winston Churchill would have loved the tribute. After having smoked two, Ken thinks it a truly glorious cigar (99/100) and one that should be in every serious cigar lover’s rotation.
Watch bracelets are often as underrated as housekeeping in a good hotel: they are commonly taken for granted. Collectors usually focus on the shape of the case and look of the dial first, with the movement coming in a close second. Here Martin Green takes a closer look at four new watches of 2020 whose full-metal bracelets significantly change the look of them.
Why is this timepiece important from a holistic view of horological history? The reasons are manifold and include the unheard-of technology nestled within its movement, the audacity of a German newcomer in challenging Swiss status quo, and the symbolic value for A. Lange & Söhne’s rebirth as well as the golden age of mechanical timepieces.