Ian Skellern had both a pleasure and an honor to be interviewed by Ariel Adams on the aBlogtoWatch Superlative podcast. Their wide-ranging conversation covers how Ian started writing about watches, what he thinks the horological world is doing right and wrong, and co-executive producing (with Hind Sediqi) the film Making Time.
Clockmakers rarely get the credit they deserve, and Elizabeth Doerr believes that Rick Hale is deserving of at least a few minutes of your attention because this young autodidact clockmaker is doing something unique: handmaking self-designed clocks out of wood according to some of John Harrison’s principles.
There is something fascinating about jump hour watches, especially when combined with a retrograde minute hand. Reservoir, an expert in this complication, teamed up with LabelNoir and chose Popeye the Sailor Man as its latest theme.
Origine by Sylvain Pinaud is an essentially simple watch telling only the time with three hands. The commitment to execution puts him on a level with some of the greats and is a good indicator that we will see a lot more from this burgeoning young brand.
Chris Malburg highlights some of the finest examples of perpetual calendar watches today and dives into their history.
GaryG seized a welcome opportunity to handle and photograph a unique version of The White by David Walter, which is equipped with Walter’s second prototype movement and a bespoke Chinese-character dial. The watch is owned by a friend who also happens to be a local-to-California expert watchmaker.
Sometimes perpetual calendars are too complicated but a simple calendar just doesn’t cut it anymore because nearly half the months have less than 31 days, making it five adjustments a year too many for some. But don’t fret, there is a middle ground between the most basic calendar watches and complex perpetual calendars: the annual calendar automatically adjusts for each month with 30 or 31 days, meaning just one adjustment per year for the owner in February. Here’s a brief history of the complication.
Out of all the “traditional” styles of hairsprings, the helical hairspring is Joshua Munchow’s favorite because it adds three-dimensionality to the watch. These oscillators are so rarely seen that if you are only aware of five watches with helical hairsprings you already know a significant portion of the modern watches using them. Here are Joshua’s favorite five.
After years of consideration, Bhanu Chopra took the plunge and bought both a Rolex Oyster Perpetual 39 mm and a Submariner Reference 114060. And less than 24 hours after finally taking ownership of them, Rolex discontinued both watches! Here he shares the story of how it all went down. Spoiler alert: he couldn’t be happier!
Master Watchmaker John McGonigle of Oileán Watches, in the first of two presentations, gives a brief history of the development of watches and how they were initially made, their progression to precision instruments, the industrialisation of watchmaking, how modern techniques and materials have been adapted and how current hand-crafted watches fit into all of this.