There is a wide variety of criteria that Martin Green might apply to make a list of his top 5 watches of 2021, but he has chosen to follow the most important one: whether when he first saw the watch it brought a rush of excitement and continues to do so every time he sees it. Here he shares his five favorites of 2021, and some may surprise you.
John McGonigle has launched the H-B1, the first watch under his solo brand Oileán. It’s a beautifully hand-finished triple-calendar column wheel chronograph powered by a highly modified new-old stock Valjoux 88 movement. While not cheap, Ian Skellern thinks it’s the best value-for-money, exquisitely hand-finished, complicated watch he has ever seen.
Never let it be said that there was a bandwagon that Ian Skellern didn’t jump on. It looks like it’s the season for everyone to be sharing their favorite watches of 2021 so here are his top ten horological highlights of the last 12 months.
Elizabeth Doerr was particularly pleased to receive a copy of ‘Konstantin Chaykin: Haute Horlogerie With Russian Soul’ and to discover it was expertly written by Alexey Kutkovoy, both of whom she has known and respected for many years. Her verdict? “There is nothing left to say but ‘spectacular’.”
Bhanu Chopra picked up his unique piece Kudoke Flieger Concept from Stefan and Ev Kudoke over lunch at their favorite steakhouse in Dresden, Germany. Here he describes how and why he fell in love with this unique one-off timepiece and what makes Kudoke’s watches so special in general.
Stephen McGonigle, owner and co-founder of McGonigle watches, has been regularly asked by friends and watch aficionados over the years to make something that they could afford – or at least aspire to. Making a relatively affordable watch that he could be proud of was a challenge. A challenge McGonigle has met with the first watch from his new Magon brand: the Fórsa Titanium, an automatic column wheel chronograph in a distinctive tonneau-shaped case.
In this video, Philippe Dufour and Claude Sfeir discuss the results of the November 2021 Phillips auction featuring the Grande et Petite Sonnerie No. 1 pocket watch (1989), the Grande et Petite Sonnerie wristwatch (1992), the Duality (1996), and the Simplicity (2004). And they drop a hint that something new might well be in the works.
If you follow the world of independent watchmaking, by now you’ve almost certainly heard of watchmaker Rexhep Rexhepi and his Akrivia watches. Since arriving on the scene in 2012 with its first tourbillon-based watch, Akrivia has continued to delight. But is this independent bound for glory? GaryG predicts the future.
J.N. Shapiro is the eponymous brand of Josh Shapiro, an educator turned watchmaker who specializes in guilloche. His latest watch, the Infinity Tantalum, is a classic three-hander with a small seconds dial designed in the spirit of George Daniels, Breguet, and other greats. The palladium dial is completely hand-guilloche and sports tantalum chapter rings. And, oh, that gorgeous style!
Ineichen Zurich held two days’ worth of watch auctions in Zurich and online November 20-21, 2021 with 198 ticking specialties that included a bevy of independent timepieces and two new world records for the Vianney Halter Antiqua. Get the results here!