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Best Super NEWS Watches
It's no secret that it's been a tough year for the watch industry. After lots of hand-wringing about smartwatches (specifically the Apple Watch), it turns out the thing that's likely hurting sales is good old-fashioned economic problems. Fluctuating currencies, political shifts, and less-than-booming economies are all contributing. Yesterday, the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH) released its July report and there are quite a few interesting takeaways.Even though the most recent FH report is just a single page, there's a lot of background data to dig through, but we've pulled out three real conclusions of note and here they are, presented in plain, normal-person English. ...
The U.K.'s Most Beloved Speaking Clock Is Getting A New Voice For Its 80th Birthday
One thing you shouldnt have to pay for is the time. I mean, if you own a watch, a smartphone, a computer, or basically any object that either plugs in or takes a battery, you've likely got the time right there. And yet, in the U.K. a paid telephone service has been receiving millions of phones calls per year, every year since 1936, from people that just want to be told what time it is.? The service, which is provided by BT, answered around 12 million in 2015, according to their own figures. The telecommunications giant installed the countrys first speaking clock 80 years ago and has decided to celebrate the milestone by launching a competition to find it a new voice. The winner will become...
Size. It's something that always comes up when we discuss watches. Whether you are into a 36mm Oyster Perpetual?or?a 47mm Panerai, size is a hot topic that people feel very strongly about (especially when it comes to women and the watches they wear). In my time at HODINKEE, I have come to realize that there are two schools of thought on the ideal watch diameter for a woman: staunchly less than 36mm and a more laissez-faire "you do you" approach. If you have read any of my recent articles, you will know that I fall squarely into the latter category.? The Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso One Cordonnet is barely larger than a quarter. Pe...
Introducing: The New Rado Ceramica, By German Industrial Designer Konstantin Grcic
After releasing this HyperChrome Ultra Light at Baseworld back in March,?I think it is safe to say that Rado is quietly doing some seriously cool stuff right now. The latest example hit our inboxes this morning: the brand has partnered with prolific industrial designer Konstantin Grcic to re-launch its iconic Ceramica watch line, originally introduced in 1990. Since then, the Ceramica's profile has been the very definition of Rado and now it gets some new flavor from a highly-respected designer.If you're not familiar with the man or his work, Konstantine Grcic was born in Berlin in 1965 and is known for such designs as the Chair One series for Magis and, most recently, the?Minx Collection fo...
Photo Report: Watch And Car Spotting At Monterey Car Week 2016
If youre into vintage cars and its late August, Monterey Car Week is without a doubt the place to be. This year we once again ventured out to California's Central Coast to enjoy the sights and sounds at a few of the festivities C including the Quail Motorsports Gathering, the Vintage Rolex Meet-Up at Fourtan Jewelers, and, of course, the 2016 Pebble Beach Concours dElegance. Browse on for copious photos of the watches, and cars, that we saw along the way. The Quail Motorsports Gathering ...
For this Friday's Bring A Loupe, I specifically looked for vintage watches that we've never featured before. The result is an eclectic mix of under-the-radar vintage finds that deserve a closer look. We'll start with an unusual Omega alarm and an interesting variation on the Longines Railroad watch. You will find fewer chronographs than usual, but a great Gallet Yachting and a Wittnauer 242T both made the cut. And a very sharp Movado Curviplan reminds us of the great watches that the manufacture made in its past. This is your Bring A Loupe for August 26, 2016. Omega Seamaster Memomatic Reference 166.072, With Double Alarm Function ...
Hands-On: The Girard-Perregaux 1966 Full Calendar, Now In Steel (A Kinda-Sorta James Bond Watch)
It was a Girard-Perregaux model designed for people who like gadgets, and it had a sweep second-hand and two little windows in the face to tell the day of the month, and the month, and the phase of the moon.– Ian Fleming, 'From Russia With Love' A perennial favorite in Girard-Perregaux's 1966 collection, the Full Calendar was available only in precious metals prior to this year. For the first time, Girard-Perregaux is now offering the watch in steel, at about half the price of the pink and white gold models C part of an ongoing trend we've seen this year to present steel versions of watches that in the past were only offered in gold, as a way of broade...
One of horology's many foibles is that it is traditionally a male-dominated field. Luckily, things are getting a little more egalitarian (though slowly) and we're seeing more and more incredible women doing everything from designing movements to leading major watch brands. Quietly, a young woman in Pennsylvania has been keeping important antiquarian clocks ticking in America now for a number of years.?Lili von Baeyer?is a 31-year-old clock restoration expert who is currently in charge of keeping almost 200 clocks on time for the Pennsylvania state government. She's been in the business of antiquarian horology for eight years and was trained at the National Association of Watch and Clock Coll...
The HODINKEE iOS App Now Redesigned For iPad (With Tons Of New Features)
It was almost a year ago that we first launched the HODINKEE app for iOS. Since then our product team has been tirelessly adding features, adjusting layouts, and generally grinding away to make sure that every time you hit that black and white "H" on your homescreen (and we know it's on your homescreen) you get the very best experience possible. Well, today we take another big leap forward with a major update: the HODINKEE app has been specially redesigned for iPad to bring you what just might be the best way to read HODINKEE, period. First off, no, you do not need to go download a totally separate app. There is one single HO...
A Week On The Wrist: The Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Calendar
I've always thought of the Reverso as "the doctor's watch" because, growing up, my doctor always had one on his wrist. It was a classic, stainless steel Reverso. Nothing ornate. But I thought it was beautiful, and from then on I've always equated the Reverso with success and respectability. What I wasn't aware of is that it was, according to Jaeger-LeCoultre, a sports watch. This was in the 1990s, shortly before the maison decided to introduce complicated Reversos C watches I'm pretty certain you wouldn't find on the wrist of most physicians. This year marks the 85th anniversary of the Reverso, so Jaeger-LeCoultre continued to release more rectangular watches with high-end complications to c...
This fall, New York City's?Grolier Club?will be hosting?an exhibition, On Time: The Quest for Precision, that will feature a collection of rare horological books, with some dating to as far back as the 15th century. These fantastically illustrated books offer a glimpse into the historical development of timepieces, from sundials to marine chronometers. The exhibition is drawn from the collections of the Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering & Technology in Kansas City, Missouri, and will be on view September 14 through November 19, at the clubs Manhattan headquarters. Sunflower clock. From Athanasius Kircher. Magnes siue De arte magnetica opus...
The technical development of the chronograph is a fascinating story, and there may be no one more qualified to tell it than Dr. Sbastien Chaulmontet, Head of Movement Design for Arnold & Son,?Angelus Watches, and La Joux-Perret. At the September meeting of the?Horological Society of New York, Dr. Chaulmontet will lecture on the history of the chronograph, from its predecessors to the creation of the so-called modern (pocket) chronograph. A Dent chronograph pocket watch. The reverse of the Dent chronograph. Moving towards present day, Chaulmontet will walk listeners through the industri...
The Horological Society Of New York Takes Its Award-Winning Classes To Miami With F.P. Journe
In 2015, the Horological Society of New York (HSNY) announced its?revitalized horological education initiative with a series of public classes taught by watchmakers in New York City. The classes continue to be popular, selling out quickly every month. In March 2016, New York magazine featured HSNYs classes in its annual "Best of New York"?issue, highlighting the non-profits history. One often-repeated request was to bring the classes to other cities around the world. These requests were heard loud and clear. Starting in September, HSNY will take its award-winning classes on the road. First stop: Miami. A watchmaker teaching at an HSNY class in New Yor...
Hands-On: The Sealander Automatic, A Wallet-Friendly Mechanical Diver From Eza Watches
I know what youre thinking. Not another boutique brand. But when the Vice President of the Christies New York Watch Department, aka our good friend Eric Wind, emailed saying hed found a dive watch from the Netherlands worth checking out, we wondered what a newborn watch company had done to land on a vintage expert's radar. So we got in touch, had a few watches sent over to the office, and, surprise, what arrived was a very vintage-inspired watch built to modern standards. The Eza Sealander is a modern dive watch that is clearly vintage inspired. The story of Eza watches is a winding one, as it often is with boutique brands....
Introducing: Gerald Genta's Heir Apparent, Octavio Garcia, Presents The Gorilla Watch
For a number of years, Octavio Garcia and design at Audemars Piguet were synonymous in the minds of many. Garcia was AP's creative director from 2002 to 2015, when he left his position and was replaced by Claude Emmenegger, who had worked with AP many years ago on the very first Royal Oak Concept Watch. Garcia's departure naturally gave rise to quite a bit of speculation as to what we might see next from one of the most prominent watch designers of the 2000s, and the answer, surprisingly, isn't another high-profile job at an haute horlogerie brand: it's the creation of a design-first, automotive-inspired watch that is two to three orders of magnitude less expensive than some of his project...
Hands-On: The Greubel Forsey Double Tourbillon 30 Technique Sapphire
The Double Tourbillon 30 Technique is one of the most spectacular watches in Greubel Forsey's collection C basically, it's an openworked version of the first watch this relatively young company ever launched, back in 2005. The sapphire-cased version you see here takes the idea of opening up the mechanics of the Double Tourbillon 30 one step further to it's logical (or illogical, depending on how you look at it) conclusion. The sapphire enclosure makes the entire movement visible C and if there ever was a company for which the movement was the whole point of the watch, it's Greubel Forsey. The original Double Tourbillon 30 was, in technical terms, an attempt to address the question of whe...
Hands-On: The Uniform Wares C33 For Women, The New Affordable 'It' Watch?
Last week, I wrote about the new Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso One Cordonnet?and there was no shortage of comments on the $8,500 price tag that comes with it. For the size of the watch and the quartz movement used inside by JLC, some felt it was a little too spendy. Something that I have learned during my career in watches is that it is impossible very hard to find a simple, attractive, affordable women's watch. So this week, I've gone to the complete opposite end of the spectrum, and am bringing you the new Uniform Wares C33. It's a restrained quartz watch that (if you squint a little) looks almost identical to a Patek Philippe reference 96 Calatrava, all for a super reasonable $500.? ...
EXCLUSIVE: 2016 Grand Prix dHorlogerie de Genve (GPHG) Finalists Announced
Last week we showed you the full list of competitors in this year's Grand Prix dHorlogerie de Genve (GPHG), which included nearly 200 watches vying for a variety of awards, including the Aiguille dOr, essentially the best in show. Today we have an exclusive early look at the list of finalists. Only six watches remain in each of the 12 categories and the final jury selection will take place just ahead of the award ceremony on November 10. Here are the 72 watches competing to become the best watch of 2016. Artistic Crafts BulgariLvcea Tourbillon Il Giardino ParadisoCredorFugaku TourbillonH. Moser & Cie.Perpetual Calendar Heritage Lim...
Introducing: Balthazar, MB&F's Latest Robot-Themed Clock, Has A Split Personality
Meet Balthazar. He's a slightly terrifying robot-shaped clock that has a smiling face on one side and a grimacing skull on the other. Balthazar is the latest collaboration between MB&F and L'Epe 1839, a traditional Swiss clock maker. The two first worked together back in 2014 on the Starfleet Machine?and have since made quite a few unusual, sci-fi inflected timekeepers that won't quite fit on your wrist. Balthazar is the latest and it almost might be the most fun.Like the other robot clocks that came before it (more on those in a bit), Balthazar is a table clock designed by MB&F, and manufactured by L'Epe 1839. When facing one direction, you see a friendly looking robot with jump-h...
This week's Bring A Loupe features one of the rarest time-only vintage Patek Philippe watches out there. You no doubt familiar with the automatic reference 2526, but you probably haven't seen one with a Gobbi signature on a black dial. Then comes and outstanding Rolex Pre-Explorer with a tapestry dial, the same type of oversized model worn by Edmund Hillary when he conquered Mount Everest. And it does not stop with these great classics C some more unusual watches from Jaeger-LeCoultre, Movado, and L. Leroy & Cie also made the cut today. This is your Bring A Loupe for September 2, 2016. Patek Philippe Calatrava Reference 2526, With Super Rare Black Dial ...