This year, our small Northern Californian group had a bumper crop of meetings with independent watchmakers; we started during our time in Geneva with Akrivia, and then ventured out to the Bernese Oberland for a visit with Beat Haldimann before circling back to the De Bethune manufacture and finally a visit to that shrine of watchmaking: the atelier of Philippe Dufour.
This visually stunning video is a treat whether you like watches or not. And there’s also a bonus video of the recently released Tropical Bird Repeater.
If you’re looking for a watch that goes out of the way to be unusual or even a watch made with the love and attention of a single gifted watchmaker, you’d be hard pressed to find a better place to look than among the independent watchmakers. Here are five recently released timepieces by independent watchmakers that might just tickle your fancy.
I read my colleague Martin Green’s article on the Nomos Orion de Stijl in Ace Jewelers x Nomos: Celebrating 100 Years Of ‘De Stijl,’ first with interest then with incredulity. And while I’ve used the term “taking the Mickey” in the title here, I really meant something else. Find out what about this limited edition should have been noticed by everyone!
Blancpain regularly peers outside the box of tradition, seeking challenge, inventiveness and even provocativeness in the design of its watches. So it isn’t surprising that the watch brand decided to team up with another provocateur, pen maker Grayson Tighe, to produce a collection of limited edition pens. This is the origin of the Tighe Blancpain pens, starting with Series 1.
The initial key concepts for the AgenGraphe chronograph included having the elapsed time indicators displaying around the center hole so that the indications were large and highly legible, and that the minute and hour displays jumped instantaneously so that there could be no confusion when reading elapsed time. But the new chronograph ended up offering much more than that. Much more!
‘Watchmakers: The Masters of Art Horology’ is an international traveling exhibition of watches by 13 of the world’s best independent watchmakers and horologists. This special exhibition of horological art was created by the Maxima Gallery in Rome at the behest of gallery director Claudio Proietti.
When I say unbelievable, I mean what were Rolex, Omega, IWC, and Cartier thinking? Get the real inside story on servicing watches here.
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.
Watch straps have come a long way since the era of Caroline Murat (née Bonaparte), who is said to have commissioned the world’s first wristwatch from the talented and accomplished Abraham-Louis Breguet when uniting a bracelet with a timepiece was an unprecedented pairing. But most probably don’t break as many fashion boundaries as these three examples by Bulgari, Hublot, and Breguet.