One of the great pleasures of being a contributor here at Quill & Pad is that it gives me an excuse to set aside other priorities on a regular basis and immerse myself in the world of macro watch photography. Along the way, I’ve been asked by a number of folks to reveal techniques that I use to create the images you see in my articles, so here are some of my tips.
‘A Man and His Watch’ by Matt Hranek is full of interesting horological stories of personal histories and backgrounds to well-known figures in the watch world, semi-famous New Yorkers, and famous vintage watches. Here you can meet Paul Newman’s own Rolex Daytona, Sylvester Stallone’s favorite watch, and RedBar co-founder Adam Craniotes’ very first timepiece.
Exotic materials: love them or hate them? And where are you in regard to plastics, which are ever-increasingly appearing in wristwatch cases and movements?
Nothing can stir up the watch world these days quite as much the launch of a new Apple watch. For some it’s a must-have gadget, for others it just isn’t a real watch. But perhaps quartz watches face more competition from smartwatches than mechanical watches. Does quartz even have a real future?
In 1985 I walked into Hackney Technical College; the course on horology had already started two weeks earlier, but I was welcomed on board. And so began my education in horology. But how did I come to found The Naked Watchmaker?
With the recent launch of the Ferrari Portofino at the Frankfurt Auto Show, the California T will be officially retired. The Portofino is expected to set the Ferrari record straight where its entry price model is concerned: there is a lot to love here.
The car industry has a vastly different approach to new cars and how to introduce them to the public. It uses a wide variety of tactics with a single goal: to ensure that when the car is ready for ordering, it will be well received by both press and consumers alike. So why don’t watch brands use the same tactic?
The click spring is one of the smaller components of a mechanical watch, but it is of enormous importance. Ever wondered why the crown doesn’t retaliate furiously and unwind every time you crank it? Without the click spring, a wound mainspring would immediately – and explosively – uncoil like a raging viper in a hat box.
While Louis Charles Breguet (1880-1955), great-great-grandson of Abraham-Louis Breguet, was best known as an aviation pioneer, he also developed and manufactured the Breguet A2 electric car.
Ian and Nola spent three days with Jaeger-LeCoultre in St. Moritz at the Passione Engadina, a classic car rally filled with mountain passes and treacherous weather en route from St. Moritz across the Alps to Bormio, Italy and back. Find out how they fared in a 1971 Fiat 124 Sport Spider convertible with Jaeger-LeCoultre watches on their wrists.