Ian Skellern usually starts explaining a wristwatch with a tour of the watch’s dial and main features, but the LM Sequential EVO is a monument to its mirror-image dual chronograph with Twinverter function movement so here he starts with the best part: its movement.
There are some watches you fall for the moment you see them. Sometimes that initial infatuation passes and you move on to the next temporary obsession, but then there are those instances in which the more you see, talk about, and learn about a piece and its origins the more you resolve to save up to buy one. For GaryG, the Grönefeld 1941 Remontoire was one of the latter.
The classic design of the Akrivia RRCC II’s dial has roots in founder Rexhep Rexhepi’s vision of high-quality nineteenth-century pocket watch dials adorned with high-fire enamel and combined with a modern twist based on “sector” dials of the 1930s and ’40s. But there’s much more to this brand-new watch than that as Elizabeth Doerr explains.
Love them or hate them, one thing that most collectors know is that tourbillons are very expensive. That’s all changed with Patria’s Brigadier Tourbillon Subscription Edition costing ‘just’ CHF 18,000 for a beautifully hand finished Swiss Made tourbillon.
The framed aventurine central dial of this bespoke Sartory Billard SB05 has a depth that allows us to easily imagine we are looking through a maze of galaxies toward the far edges of the universe. And framing that is a ring of meteorite, a true space material. What else makes this watch so unique?
A brand’s progress is often seen in how their watches evolve. Armin Strom, which had the delicate task of reinventing the ‘One Week,’ the watch with their very first full manufacture movement.
One of the best things about dealing with independent watchmakers is the ability to request unique touches on your watch. That’s just what happened after GaryG’s new friend first saw Kari Voutilainen’s Sport28, a titanium-encased watch that itself is quite rare with only eight examples made in total.
Having worked with both Bovet and Philippe Dufour, Hervé Schlüchter was able to become a master at the more traditional horology aesthetic since neither could be confused with a brand focusing on modern design. The caliber HS-01 is a smorgasbord of classical elements all finished to perfection to highlight the skills of the watchmaker.
There are no photos (either real or CAD) nor sketches of the McGonigle Ogma, and there’s been no public announcement; however (surprise, surpise!), most of the watches have already been reserved. How times have changed. In the words of Dorothy to her dog in The Wizard of Oz after being sucked up by a tornado, “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”
Oskar Pascal is the brainchild of a pair of Swedish brothers who were neither previously involved in the watch industry nor are they watchmakers. The engineer and designer have created a cleanly designed chronograph housed within the world’s first watch case in ZR01, an amorphous alloy based on zirconium, one of the hardest metals in the world and even used by NASA. And then there are the Pods!