Here our panel members discuss the watches they’ve seen launched in the first half of 2020 thus far and pick their favorites. So sit down, grab a glass of your favorite tipple, and settle in for a rich feast of new watches.
While Martin Green is not a particular fan of skeletonized watches, the Jaquet Droz Grande Seconde Skelet-One has seduced him. Here he explains why.
Joshua Munchow’s love for Chinchilla Red petrified wood in combination with red gold might make some believe that he puts it well above the other models in Jaquet Droz’s Loving Butterfly Automaton line, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. He adores the opal dials too because they look like interstellar explosions. What else makes them so unique?
Well, here we are in February 2020: a leap year. Which means that for the first time in four years we will have a February 29. This is one of those times that has watch enthusiasts with perpetual calendars anxiously checking their watches for the leap from February 28 to 29 and then on to March 1. Here are five perpetual calendars perfect for watching the date “leap” into action.
When Joshua Munchow first saw that Jaquet Droz had released a new Grande Seconde Chronograph, the first chronograph in his favorite collection from this brand, he took notice. Here he reveals why.
To celebrate the new Chinese Year of the Rat, some high-end watchmakers have created special editions depicting some form of the resourceful rodent. Elizabeth Doerr takes a look at eight of them.
Ian Skellern still remembers the sense of awe he felt when he had the opportunity to watch and listen to a recently restored centuries-old Jaquet Droz singing bird. The animation was compelling, and the quality of the birdsong sound was incredible. But as impressive a feat he thought that full-sized eighteenth-century Jaquet Droz singing bird clock was, shrinking that mechanical technology to wristwatch size is just mind-blowing. As The Naked Watchmaker, Peter Speake-Marin, highlights here.
Only Watch by Christie’s will be held in Geneva on November 9, 2019, and a surprisingly high number of skeleton watches are among the 50 unique pieces for sale. Skeletonizing is a technical and aesthetic art that allows for fascinating insights into the movements’ inner workings. Which pieces might you be interested in bidding on?
If you are into watches and in the New York area, you’ll want to check out WatchTime New York held in Manhattan’s stylish Gotham Hall on Saturday and Sunday, 25-26 October, 2019. Here Sabine Zwettler highlights a few of her favorite pieces on show there.
Jaquet Droz released a brand-new automaton masterpiece in the spring of 2019 called the Magic Lotus, which uses the theme of the “zen garden” as the basis of a brand-new complex animation. The mechanics are expertly hidden beneath a tapestry of artistic crafts, creating a soothing scene exquisitely capturing the tranquility of the Japanese garden.