Koen Simon is a 28-year-old watch collector from The Netherlands. A regular reader of Quill & Pad, he is a fan of high-end watchmaking. He recently sent us this story about how and why he acquired his rare two-tone Orion timepiece by Christiaan van der Klaauw, which we are pleased to share here.
Vladimir Négault, founder of Ataelier Haute Complication, a relatively new independent watchmaker based in Geneva who is making some of the most interesting and inventive watches Ian Skellern has ever seen.
Konstantin Chaykin has designed, developed, and manufactured his own automatic movement, caliber K.33.3, which features a tungsten micro-rotor. The movement makes its debut in the unique piece Zebra Wristmon.
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.
Congratulations to Raúl Pagès for winning the 2024 Louis Vuitton Prize for Independent Creatives with his RP1 Régulateur à Détente. The prize comes with a substantial grant of 150,000 euros and a 12-month mentorship with La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton. Here’s why he won.
Swedish blue mussels are not the typical material used to make a dial, but that’s what gives the Arcanaut Arc II Havender its unique color. And there’s more that makes this watch special.
In 2021, John McGonigle 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.
An informal group of Northern California watch collectors, all owners of at least one Kari Voutilainen watch, met for lunch. 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. GaryG’s response two seconds later: “I’m in!”
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.
The Urwerk UR-112 Aggregat is a fantastic new mechanical smorgasbord introducing an evolution of the boutique brand’s developments combined together, hence the German name Aggregat (“aggregate”). Since seeing the movement in the summer of 2021 Joshua Munchow had been very much looking forward to its launch. He wasn’t disappointed.