Master Watchmaker John McGonigle of Oileán Watches, in the first of two presentations, gives a brief history of the development of watches and how they were initially made, their progression to precision instruments, the industrialisation of watchmaking, how modern techniques and materials have been adapted and how current hand-crafted watches fit into all of this.
GaryG was delighted to take possession of a Greubel Forsey Invention Piece 1 with its inclined double tourbillon, while a good friend of his replied in kind with a purchase of the quadruple-tourbillon Invention Piece 2. Ever since, he has been dying to get these two gorgeous monsters side by side in the light tent. And the time has finally come!
When the Omega Specialties CK 859 launched in the spring of 2022, it flew a bit under the radar as other releases were still garnering a lot of the press (fairly typical for spring in Switzerland). But it quickly picked up steam as people realized what a little gem this watch was, and it became a star in the eyes of fans of sector-dialed watches.
GaryG had so much fun shooting the Oileán HB-1 by John McGonigle that he has more images to show than words to say!
When GaryG recently took a good look at the current state of his watch collection, he was surprised by the large proportion of dark-dialed pieces in the mix. He has enjoyed – and photographed – each of three of these watches a great deal, but it isn’t until recently that he pulled them together in one place for side-by-side shooting and direct comparison. The results (and the watches) are simply stunning.
In the annals of A. Lange & Söhne history, the Double Split was one of the most widely celebrated releases. It introduced the idea of a split-second and split-minute chronograph allowing the wearer to time at least two events lasting up to an hour. The Triple Split is the inevitable progression of it, adding a split-hour function to allow timing two multi-hour events up to 12 hours.
One of the most important things for the watchmaking industry is to ensure that today’s watchmakers have successors that can repair old watches, make new watches, and develop the next generation of watches. Fortunately, the next generation is coming on and is coming in hot, as Victor Monnin and Alexander Hazemann, two young watchmaking students, highlight as they take things to the next level with their school watches.
The Piaget Polo Perpetual Calendar is a welcome addition to the collection. It is one of those very wearable perpetual calendars, ready to put a smile on the face of its owner every time he or she looks at it, and in martin Green’s opinion, that’s a quality every Piaget should possess.
Finnish independent watchmaker Torsti Laine’s timepieces feature strong individualization, bespoke designs, “dream color” dials, movements, colors, guilloché, lovely hands, and applied numerals – especially Breguet style – in any shape or language. Avid Quill & Pad reader Thomas Brechtel visited Laine in his workshop in Le Locle, Switzerland, and shares what he learned there with us right here.
Quentin R. Bufogle could go on and on about the Zenith Chronomaster Tribute to Charles Vermot’s stunningly beautiful, metallic blue dial, silicon escapement (visible via the open heart feature), COSC chronometer certification and that it’s one of the last truly great Chronomasters, but that would be missing the point, i.e. how Charles Vermot saved Zenith.