The caliber 3500 movement visible through the display back of the Vacheron Constantin Harmony Ultra-Thin Grande Complication Chronograph

Automatic Watches Are For Watch Enthusiasts: A Counterpoint Here’s Why

Connoisseurs, as I wrote previously, want to connect with their watches, desiring an object to behold and cherish for its beauty, rarity, or complexity. Enthusiasts, on the other hand, like to wear their watches, use their watches, and maybe even abuse their watches when they utilize them as the tools they are.

Panerai Lab-ID Luminor 1950 Carbotech 3 Days on the wrist

The Panerai Lab-ID Luminor 1950 Carbotech 3 Days With 50-Year Guarantee!

A brand wholeheartedly committed to carbon development is Officine Panerai with its new research-and-development-inspired timepiece, the Lab-ID Luminor 1950 Carbotech 3 Days. And Panerai is so confident in this watch that the brand offers an incredible 50-year warranty!

Beautiful, precise, and robust: multi-feather retrograde time indication, Fabergé Lady Compliquée

You Are There: Visiting Watchmakers With Heart At Jean-Marc Wiederrecht’s Agenhor

In January 2017, three of our “watch gang” had the particular pleasure of visiting Agenhor, the horological design and assembly shop led by Jean-Marc Wiederrecht, which has been behind some of the most innovative watches of recent years. Here are a few of the things that we saw and learned.

Uncut diamonds

Controversy Or Not? Synthetic Vs. Natural Diamonds In Watchmaking (Video)

In April 2017 a symposium with the title “Synthetic Diamonds: Are Watchmaking and Jewelry in Danger?” took place in Geneva whose aim was to explain the indubitable reality of the arrival of synthetic diamonds in the world of watchmaking and demonstrate how it is possible to differentiate natural from lab-grown stones. Discover here what sort of challenges and impact on the industry this topic could have.

Tudor Heritage Black Bay Chronograph

Tudor And Breitling: Two Sports Watch Manufacturers Unexpectedly − But Not For The First Time − Sharing Movements In 2017

Watch brands sharing movements wasn’t always such big news. In fact, until recently it was absolutely the norm. But today, to keep their movements exclusive, watch brands don’t share with each other as often as they used to. And that makes the new arrangement between Breitling and Tudor particularly interesting.

Into the void: There's black then there's the MCT Sequential One 110 Evo Vantablack

Design Discussion On Contrast & Texture: How Vantablack And Other Techs Are Disrupting Watch Norms

As material science progresses, the watch industry finds itself flush with ever more ways to disrupt the conventional norms of finishing and coating surfaces, many of which have persisted in traditional watchmaking for centuries. Follow me to take a look at some of this disruption and evolution, which recently culminated in the use of Vantablack.

Assembling a patented ruby link constant force chain of Romain Gauthier's Logical One

In Focus: Romain Gauthier’s Breathtaking Patented Ruby Link Chain From Logical One

Here at Quill & Pad we are quite smitten by Romain Gauthier’s award-winning Logical One. But one thing that often gets glossed over somewhat is the subject of one of this watch’s four patents: the incredible high-precision chain made of synthetic ruby links. Combined with the snail cam, it is this element that provides the ingenious movement with constant force.

The Geneva Seal is visible at 3 o'clock on the movement of this beautifully finished Chopard L.U.C. Perpetual Chrono

Point Of Reference: The Standards Of The Geneva Seal

The Geneva Seal is very old, having been proposed on November 6, 1886 by the Grand Council of the Republic and Canton of Geneva as a way to certify a level of quality for which the canton was becoming known. Every piece produced with the Geneva Seal is equally outstanding, so let’s have a look at what goes into attaining this coveted seal.

AgenGraphe automatic chronograph movement by Agenhor

The AgenGraphe By Agenhor: The Most Significant Chronograph Since . . . Since The Invention Of The Chronograph (With Videos)

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!

Döttling’s Morosini safe open

Are Watch Winders Good For Anything?

A client recently asked me if there are any benefits to using automatic watch winders. The short answer is that I have two viewpoints on watch winders. Click to learn the pros and cons as I see them.