Meet the sublime Soberly Onyx, a beautiful compilation of taste, design, rarity, and supreme talent by Raúl Pagès, an extremely skilled independent watchmaker and restorer. Upon successfully completing a modern automaton, he set his sights on a more universal object and a functional design: his first watch.
A George Daniels Co-Axial Anniversary Edition by Roger Smith arrives at auction for the first time in the September 19, 2016 watch sale of Robert White’s collection of cars, motorbikes, watches, airplane memorabilia, and other items at Bonhams in London.
I love independent watchmaking and independent watchmakers; one of my great joys as a collector is having the feeling that, in a small way, I am supporting their efforts.
So I put some thought into why independent watchmakers struggle in a business sense and how they can remain relevant in changing market situations.
We are big fans of Bouchet’s work in general and the ingeniously complicated Complication One in particular. What we were shown at Baselworld 2016, though, was truly imaginative: funky new, definitely out-of-the-ordinary colors for such a serious and technical timepiece.
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.
Founded in 1865 by Auguste Lebeau in Liège, Belgium, Lebeau-Courally was then first and foremost a high-end hunting rifle manufacturer. So how did it get to the watch sector? Read on to find out.
“A mechanical Swiss watch was the first thing on the drawing board for Fonderie 47,” says co-founder Peter Thum. “Work on this project had begun even before I filed the papers to set up the company; I knew that it would take us a long time to do this and it would be pivotal for us to make this watch.”
Time Shadow, the latest timepiece by Andreas Strehler, uses the concept of shadow in a fun and unique way. When a numeral on the hour ring passes in front of the bright orange circle, it appears as if a shadow is moving across a brightly sunlit field. But don’t be fooled into thinking that this piece is only fun; it is also serious horology as befits a watchmaker of Strehler’s stature and creativity.
A piece that for me is a long-term keeper, is the wonderful Antiqua by Vianney Halter. The truth is that I fell for the Antiqua when I first saw one more than a dozen years ago; while many of my friends will freely confess that at the time they were at first put off by its looks, I was smitten from the start. But that’s not all that I love about this watch.
Date: late February 2010. Place: a small San Francisco restaurant. Players: an informal group of Northern California watch collectors, all owners of at least one Kari Voutilainen watch. One of the members of the group nonchalantly mentioned, “I’ve been talking with Kari about something . . ..” It was a set of bespoke Kari Voutilainen Masterpiece Chronograph II models. Time: two seconds later. Response: “I’m in!”