There are high-end watch brands titled with a person’s name that have no reference to a specific human being. But more often than not in horology, there are actual people behind watch brands with human-sounding names. And there is hardly a brand more human in Elizabeth Doerr’s estimation than Armin Strom, an independent Swiss manufacture making some of the highest quality timepieces on the market.
For this edition of Behind the Lens, GaryG shares a series of photographs of one of the great watches of our time, the Philippe Dufour Duality. The Duality, with its linked twin escapements, was originally planned for production in a series of 25 watches. In a turn of events that seems almost unbelievable today, a lack of initial demand eventually led Dufour to limit production to just nine pieces, one of which is owned by a good friend of Gary’s.
Like explaining Dada without images or relating a dream, profiling De Bethune’s signature watch is a challenge – where does one start with a subject so alien? Tim Mosso not only makes a great start, he takes us through every detail of the flagship timepiece of this ultra-creative independent boutique brand.
“Insight Micro-Rotor is a haute horlogerie creation, but also a daily timepiece that can be enjoyed for its simplicity of use,” says Romain Gauthier. “You can wear it every weekday and almost forget that you have it on. It’s very comfortable, and the micro rotor winds the barrels quickly, efficiently, and silently so you don’t have to worry about winding them by hand.” Elizabeth Doerr is a fan and explains here why you should be too.
For this special article, GaryG has the pleasure of covering the wonderful Grönefeld One Hertz. For a watch fanatic, and especially for lovers of independent watch brands, it’s a dream come true to meet the makers of the watches that we admire. With the Grönefeld brothers, it’s that pleasure multiplied by two.
It was with great interest (as a watch enthusiast) and some trepidation (as a humble photography student of polymath Ming Thein) that GaryG took on the task of photographing a pre-production example of Ming’s latest, Model 19.02 GMT.
The Two-Minute Tourbillon by Jean Daniel Nicolas is a watch that changed Ian Skellern’s life. Read how right here!
Kari Voutilainen listened to his fans and created a watch that fulfills the oft-repeated desire “I almost want to wear the watch backwards because that movement is so beautiful!” The inverted 28ti does just that.
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.
Finnish watchmaker Stepan Sarpaneva is one of the men who has dared to venture down the road of fiber optics, though this is part of something much bigger for the independent watchmaker: his first in-house movement, aka ‘moonment,’ which powers his new Lunations timepiece. And it has Joshua Munchow howling!