Calendar watches pre-selected for the 2015 GPHG. Clockwise from top left: Hermès Slim d'Hermès QP, Blancpain Villeret, Quantième Complet, Claude Meylan Full Calendar, Ulysse Nardin FreakLab, Tiffany & Co CT60 Annual Calendar, and Hublot Classic Fusion Aeromoon

Quill & Pad’s Predictions For The Calendar Category Of The 2015 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève

Welcome to the 2015 edition of Quill & Pad’s early Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) predictions in which we pick our favorites and explain why. The six pre-selected finalists in the Calendar category are: Blancpain’s Villeret Quantième Complet, the Claude Meylan Full Calendar, Hermès’ soon-to-be-iconic Slim d’Hermès QP, Hublot’s Classic Fusion Aeromoon, the Tiffany & Co CT60 Annual Calendar, and Ulysse Nardin’s FreakLab.

Tourbillon watches pre-selected for the 2015 GPHG. Clockwise from top left: Antoine Preziuso Tourbillon of Tourbillons, Blancpain L-evolution C, Tourbillon Carrousel, Bovet 1822 Braveheart, MB&F Horological Machine N°6, Ulysse Nardin Ulysse Anchor Tourbillon and Greubel Forsey Tourbillon 24 Secondes Vision

Quill & Pad’s Predictions For The Tourbillon Category Of The 2015 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève

The six pre-selected finalists in the Tourbillon category of the 2015 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève are: the Ulysse Nardin Ulysse Anchor Tourbillon, Greubel Forsey Tourbillon 24 Secondes Vision, MB&F HM6 Space Pirate, Antoine Preziuso Tourbillon of Tourbillons, and the Bovet 1822 Braveheart. Here are our picks and why.

Aurora borealis in Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Time-Lapse Of Aurora Borealis In Jackson Hole, Wyoming

While on holiday in Jackson Hole, Wyoming I thought that I would take advantage of the moonless, clear sky and try my hand at shooting a time-lapse series of photos of the stars rotating. I set up my Canon 5D Mk III on a tripod pointing roughly north with the following settings: Lens: 35 -70 mm set to 35 mm; F: 4.0; ISO: 1600 and shutter: 30 seconds. This is the big surprise that I got!

Men's watches pre-selected for the 2015 GPHG shown clockwise from top left: Bulgari Octo Finissimo Small Seconds, Laurent Ferrier Galet Square, Louis Vuitton Escale Time Zone, Voutilainen GMR, MB&F HMX, and Piaget Altiplano 900P

Quill & Pad’s Predictions For The Men’s Category Of The 2015 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève

Welcome to the 2015 edition of Quill & Pad’s early Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) predictions in which we pick our favorites and explain why. The six pre-selected finalists in the Men’s category are: MB&F’s anniversary HMX, the Laurent Ferrier Galet Square, Kari Voutilainen’s beautifully finished Voutilainen GMR, the Louis Vuitton Escale Time Zone, and Piaget’s Altiplano 900P, currently the thinnest mechanical watch in the world.

The 2015 Rolls Royce Dawn

Rolls-Royce Dawn: The Digital Age Arrives For The World’s Most Traditional Automobile

The original Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn saw the light of day in 1952. This ultra-famous name in the Rolls-Royce repertoire has been used only 28 times since then. Fast forward to September 8, 2015, when Rolls-Royce did something unprecedented: it streamed the press conference of its latest creation on the worldwide web. The brand-new Rolls-Royce Dawn is officially a product of the digital age!

Grieb & Benzinger Blue Tulip in red gold

New Blue Chips In Grieb & Benzinger’s Blue-Tone Polaris And Tulip Collections

At Grieb & Benzinger, blue is something of a corporate color when it comes to decorating the unique and exceedingly rare watches that the boutique brand based in a historic castle near Stuttgart produces. Hermann Grieb once told me how he and Jochen Benzinger came upon the idea for it. “The idea for this color came to us after an exhausting day of work in a local vineyard while enjoying a cool drink,” Grieb explained in his mischievous deadpan heavily inflected with local dialect. “The setting sun and the colors it created in the northern Black Forest sky simply inspired us.” The new Blue Chip collection prominently features this luxurious blue color.

Roger Dubuis Hommage Minute Repeater Tourbillon Automatic

Homage To Hommage: The Roger Dubuis Hommage Minute Repeater

The Roger Dubuis Hommage collection has produced exceptional pieces, but one has stood out to me as a masterpiece worthy of a deeper look because of its sheer awesomazingness. That piece is the Hommage Minute Repeater Tourbillon Automatic. Because with the Hommage Minute Repeater you can see virtually everything!

Döttling Morosini safe

Southern Germany’s Best-Kept Secret: Döttling’s Morosini Safe Once Owned By Victor Emmanuel II

Döttling is a safe manufacturer. But these are not your run-of-the-mill safes, as the workshop specialized in the bespoke was founded in 1919 as a small locksmith shop by Markus Döttling’s great-grandfather, Ernst Döttling.

The products in Döttling’s Legend line start life as vintage safes discovered by the Döttling team. Beautiful refurbishing of the piece in old-world manner allows every aspect of it to be fitted out for its future owner.

The latest Legend is a safe with a fascinating history starting in nineteenth-century Italy with Victor Emmanuel II and his great love, Rosa Vercellana . . .

Roman Gauthier Logical One Secret Kakau Höfke

Christ The Redeemer On A Watch: Logical One Secret Kakau Höfke By Romain Gauthier

There is not much art that that packs as much into such an aesthetically pleasing parcel as Romain Gauthier’s Logical One Secret Kakau Höfke. This watch uses one of the world’s finest timepieces as a “canvas” for the artwork of two renowned artists: Kakau Höfke and Olivier Vaucher. These two work in very different fields and even on different continents: Höfke is a painter located in Rio de Janeiro and Vaucher is a stone artist at work in Switzerland. What all three have created is nothing short of a masterpiece.

Fountain pen from the Montblanc M collection

The Montblanc M With Marc Newson Heralds a New Generation Of Pens

There’s no doubt that the M is a Montblanc pen, due in part to its glossy black body and crowning snowcap. But the similarity ends where the transcendence begins, thanks to Australian designer Marc Newson’s signature biomorphic style. For the first time in Montblanc’s history, a fountain pen’s gold nib is plated in two tones using rhodium and ruthenium. But that’s not all.