In the world of passing fads and trends, many enter but few succeed. One trend that has been moving across the watch industry for a while is skull-related timepieces. And for me, the most on point and understandable skull watch can be none other than the HYT Skull. It stands out as a perfect synthesis of what the brand is about, what the brand’s customer will enjoy, and what is cool about skulls on watches in the first place.
The latest instance of Maurice Lacroix’s independent idea of movement architecture comes with Caliber ML 230, which is highly visible inside the high domed crystal of the Masterpiece Gravity, a watch introduced at Baselworld 2014. I was fortunate in having the opportunity to wear this timepiece for a while. Please read on to see what I thought.
First presented in 2009, HM3 went on to become not only MB&F’s most successful model in terms of pieces delivered, it is also the most successful in terms of the number of variations it has spawned, including the appropriately named Frog. However, all good things must come to an end, and the curtain comes down on HM3 collection with HM3 Megawind Final Edition, a watch bringing (lume) light into the darkness.
Rolex is decidedly famous for its sports watches. Despite that, there are watch fans – and Rolex fans – who prefer a dressier style of timepiece on their wrists. And for them, Rolex has the Cellini line, the first of which was released in 1928.
I like digits. I really do. Especially on a watch because digits condense information into smaller and more meaningful packages that you might describe as “information dense.” This is why when I saw the new IWC Portugieser Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month 75th anniversary edition I was very happy.
“It’s not a pocket watch,” Felix Baumgartner, Urwerk’s co-founder and chief watchmaker, emphasized to me, “It’s a ‘Zeit Device’.” This ultra-complicated calendar-cum-pocket watch is one of the most unique timepieces in the horological world today. Enjoy its starring role in this new ‘Easy Rider’-style video.
February 18 was an eventful day, both in 1815 when Ferdinand Adolph Lange first saw the light of day in Dresden, Germany, and in 2015 when A. Lange & Söhne celebrated the landmark date with a limited edition platinum 1815 model with black dial.
Here we present four quite different styles commemorating the 2015 Chinese Year of the Goat with beautifully decorated dials by Jaquet Droz, Ulysse Nardin, Vacheron Constantin, and Arnold & Son. Shhhh…if you listen carefully you might even hear them bleat!
For the past five years, I’ve had the delightful experience of traveling to Switzerland with several friends to experience SIHH week, before finishing up with a Friday night dinner at which we review our impressions of the week by answering what watch we thought was best of show at SIHH; what was the worst watch; what current-production watch that we saw at any event during the week would we buy if money were no object; and what current-production watch did we see that we would buy with our own money?
At SIHH 2015 Panerai released the Radiomir Firenze, with the same case dimensions as the first watch created back in 1936, with a lovely little addition: complete case engraving in the bulino style, a traditional engraving technique combined with motifs that simply sing old-world charm.