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.
Waxing poetically about moon phases has gotten me excited enough to take a trip through certain “phases” of engineering excellence . Here we bring you the eight most accurate moon phases currently fitted into a wristwatch. Join us on this odyssey through space and time.
Timepiece repairs can be expensive and often take a long time, so you generally want to avoid damaging a watch. It’s obvious that throwing your watch against a wall, running over it with a Bentley, or smashing it with a hammer are things to to avoid. However, not everything that can damage a watch is so obvious, so here I list five common things you may not be aware of that can damage a watch and how to prevent them.
Imagine my surprise when, in one of my rare predictions about the future of 3D printing in watchmaking, I got one right: the Panerai Lo Scienziato Luminor 1950 Tourbillon GMT Titanium says it all. It is (as far as I know) the first production watch to utilize 3D direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) printing for the case construction. The case is made of titanium for extra lightness, but that’s not the only, or even the main, reason for using DMLS titanium.
In the Real Moon Tides, Christiaan van der Klaauw’s watchmakers incorporated an indication of the phenomenon that is the most real-world expression of the moon’s effects towards life on earth: tides. The most incredible aspect of tides is how variable they actually are when you really get into the nitty-gritty details. And this watch reflects them in a beautiful way.
Have you ever wondered how Titleist gets its logo on bumpy round golf balls? Well this is your lucky day as I’m about to discuss the secret of one very specialized printing process that goes on in the world and how it has its roots in watchmaking. In fact, you still see the results of this process every time you look at your watch dial.
U.K. retailer The Watch Gallery has released an interesting one-minute video that very nicely shows a watchmaker dismantling a Rolex 3135 movement. The video reminded me of what a great movement Caliber 3135 is. Its less fancy movement finish and less exclusive image is counterbalanced by the fact that the movement is never likely to be fickle or give any trouble. What else is special about it? Read on to find out.
I was invited by H. Moser & Cie to attend a most atypical press conference in Zürich. The occasion was the first parabolic flight in Switzerland, during which Moser, along with its escapement-making sister company Precision Engineering, tested movements and components in zero gravity. H. Moser & Cie also launched the new Pioneer collection, its most contemporary yet.
There has been a lot of talk and promises made by the watch industry about ceramics and their use in timepieces, so it would seem that a primer on the subject might make us much more informed consumers.
In this article I look at why high end watches cost so much by examining one of the most important factors. To answer this question, there are quite a few reasons, including low production numbers (mass manufacture brings prices down) and high complexity, but the one I will focus on here is hand-finishing, because unlike low production numbers and high complexity, ultra-high-level hand-finishing is not usually easy to appreciate.