New Release: Sarpaneva Midnight Sun
Finnish watchmaker Stepan Sarpaneva has just released a watch that helps you keep track of time no matter how light or dark it is outside: the Midnight Sun.
The New Strehler Sirna: It Shocked Me!
The Strehler Sirna is first off the block for Andreas Strehler’s new brand. It’s a time-only watch with an off-center seconds sub dial, clean chapter rings, and a hand finished dial.
Why I Upgraded My D. Dornblüth & Sohn 99.1 Watch With A Handmade Ceramic Dial – Reprise
During a visit to D.Dornblüth & Sohn in eastern Germany, Bhanu Chopra noticed a new matte black ceramic dial in the workshop and loved the look so much that he asked the independent watchmaker to replace the more standard silver dial on his Dornblüth 99.1 with the new black one. And he’s very pleased with the result.
The 20 Semi-Finalists and my 5 Predicted Finalists of the 2023 Louis Vuitton Watch Prize for Creative Independents
When Louis Vuitton announces the Watch Prize for Creative Independents late last year, I thought that’s fantastic, but I wish it was launched 20 years ago when independent watchmakers were much less appreciated.
Krayon Anywhere: A Long Overdue Love Letter to a Practical Sunrise-Sunset Masterpiece – Reprise
As both an aesthetic and a mechanical evolution of the Krayon Everywhere, the Anywhere is first and foremost a sunrise-and-sunset watch. It has been significantly streamlined for a much cleaner dial so that much less effort is required by the wearer. Joshua Munchow has the complete lowdown here.
Romain Gauthier Prestige HM: An Impressive Debut that Launched the Brand
The Romain Gauthier Prestige HM is a rare instance of a creator finding his voice on the first attempt. Even through the lens of 17 years of the brand’s evolution, the Prestige HM remains immediately recognizable as a product of the engineer-turned-entrepreneur whose name it bears.
Sarpaneva Nocturne: Night and Day are Different Worlds – Reprise
Stepan Sarpaneva’s Nocturne is a stunning example of Finnish creativity and collaboration between two very different types of art. And once the sun goes down and the dial starts to glow, this watch’s visuals create a different world altogether.
MB&F LM Sequential EVO Dual Chronograph: An Ingenious Application of a Simple Idea (That Nobody had Thought of Before) – Reprise
Ian Skellern usually starts explaining a wristwatch with a tour of the watch’s dial and main features, but the LM Sequential EVO is a monument to its mirror-image dual chronograph with Twinverter function movement so here he starts with the best part: its movement.
Why I Bought It: Grönefeld 1941 Remontoire – Reprise
There are some watches you fall for the moment you see them. Sometimes that initial infatuation passes and you move on to the next temporary obsession, but then there are those instances in which the more you see, talk about, and learn about a piece and its origins the more you resolve to save up to buy one. For GaryG, the Grönefeld 1941 Remontoire was one of the latter.
Akrivia Rexhep Rexhepi Chronomètre Contemporain II (RRCC II): Despite Looking Similar to its Predecessor, Everything is New – Reprise
The classic design of the Akrivia RRCC II’s dial has roots in founder Rexhep Rexhepi’s vision of high-quality nineteenth-century pocket watch dials adorned with high-fire enamel and combined with a modern twist based on “sector” dials of the 1930s and ’40s. But there’s much more to this brand-new watch than that as Elizabeth Doerr explains.