Poland’s Watch of the Year 2017 saw a record total of 60 timepieces competing across six categories. The winners, which included watches by Greubel Forsey, Hermès, and Jaeger-LeCoultre, were celebrated on October 19, 2017 with more than 120 guests attending a gala evening at Warsaw’s Sobanski Palace.
The click spring is one of the smaller components of a mechanical watch, but it is of enormous importance. Ever wondered why the crown doesn’t retaliate furiously and unwind every time you crank it? Without the click spring, a wound mainspring would immediately – and explosively – uncoil like a raging viper in a hat box.
While my friends’ paths into serious collecting have been fairly diverse, I started with Jaeger-LeCoultre, which opened my eyes to the world of fine watchmaking and served as the foundation for my ongoing fascination with horology. Take a look at hishistory collecting fascinating timepieces by this Swiss brand.
Ian and Nola spent three days with Jaeger-LeCoultre in St. Moritz at the Passione Engadina, a classic car rally filled with mountain passes and treacherous weather en route from St. Moritz across the Alps to Bormio, Italy and back. Find out how they fared in a 1971 Fiat 124 Sport Spider convertible with Jaeger-LeCoultre watches on their wrists.
Post-war United States boasted unique market conditions that allowed for diamond-set men’s watches from a variety of brands to thrive. Martin Green takes us on a journey to discover how and why diamond-set watches became part of the American Dream.
My thoughts have turned to one major system that is always there, but generally hidden from sight: the movement. Here are a few of my favorites and why. And in the philosophy of putting my money where my mouth is, these movements have appeared in one or more watches that I’ve owned personally.
Read on to explore the newest addition to the Jaeger-LeCoultre Geophysic collection, the Tourbillon Universal Time, and its orbiting flying tourbillon with Gyrolab balance. This latest take on the Universal Time is the first time a flying tourbillon has been mated with a world timer.
Rare and unusual watches continue to pop up at auction this spring, and here I’d like to highlight a few that caught my eye coming up in the June 21, 2017 “Fine Watches and Wristwatches” London sale at Bonham’s.
Sotheby’s June 2017 Important Watches sale in New York City took in $7.4 million. That’s not a sum to be sneezing at for 310 lots sold, with a sell-through rate of 84.2 percent. I was pleased to see that the top ten list of performers at this auction included Richard Mille and Greubel Forsey in addition to Patek Philippe.
This is a family affair: a story of my wife Brigitte, her horse Gucci, my father Neil, and an engraved Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Classique. And this is a good example of how and why you might want to commission a work of art on the back of a Reverso. Or not.