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.
As Martin Green became ever more impressed by the performance of the Valjoux 7750 chronograph movement, he also found himself enamored by its little quirks and the variety of watches it has been tapped to power. Here Martin outlines the history of this classic automatic chronograph movement.
As Martin Green became ever more impressed by the performance of the Valjoux 7750 chronograph movement, he also found himself enamored by its little quirks and the variety of watches it has been tapped to power. Here Martin outlines the history of this classic automatic chronograph movement.
Waxing poetically about moon phases got Joshua excited enough to take a trip through certain “phases” of engineering excellence. So here he brings you the ten most accurate moon phase displays fitted into a wristwatch as of 2020. Join us on this odyssey through space and time.
Marketing material for the modern mechanical watch almost always includes a description of the the movement’s frequency. You may have even sensed that the higher the frequency, the more accurate a movement gets. But is this entirely true? Find out here.
Hairsprings are miniscule. Generally no more than one centimeter in overall diameter when coiled, they are roughly 50 microns thick and 150 microns wide. Tiny they may be, but insignificant they are not. In fact, they are so significant that Rolex refers to them as “the guardians of time.” But what do silicon hairsprings bring to the table? Watchmaker Ashton Tracy explains why he went from skeptic to fan.
Joshua Munchow became somewhat informed about gemstones and related techniques in studying for the jewelry-heavy Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève categories we discuss annually. This new information has sparked a significant amount of passion for the topic, leaving him wanting to share some of what he’s learned about one of the most beautiful sides of haute horology: gems and their settings.
Joshua Munchow talks about steel here, the metal that made the world! Watch cases and other movement components are commonly made from certain stainless steels, 304 and 316L being the most frequent. It also happens that some brands hold exclusive rights to use specific alloys in the production of its watches. Here’s what you should know about steel.
Big brands are now making beautiful, reliable, and relatively accurate “traditional” mechanical watches, but the handcrafted work many of us value is disappearing. Highly skilled watchmakers and artisans are rare and expensive: there just aren’t enough of them available to churn out the large quantity of nice watches now being sold. And why bother when nobody seems to have noticed?
Humans have long had a fascination with the depths of the ocean, striving to go ever deeper, ever further, and ever faster by pushing the limits of the human body, technology, and advancing modern science. But like all things, we are often faced with limits. And the helium escape valve was invented to push one of those limits as watchmaker Ashton Tracy explains.
