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Best Super NEWS Watches
Introducing: The Access Hybrid Smartwatches, A New Generation Of Wearable Tech From Michael Kors
Well, it appears that everyone is jumping on the smartwatch bandwagon, including well-known fashion brand Michael Kors. This should come as no surprise after Fossil Group purchased Misfit, a wearable technology company, for $260 million in November 2015. And what else does Fossil Group own? The licensing rights to manufacture and sell Michael Kors watches, that's what. They sure aren't fine watchmaking, but these watches are damn popular and pretty impossible to ignore.In fact, 50% of Fossil Group's sales are those "gold" quartz "chronographs" you see on every other young lady's wrist, which is more than a little insane when you stop to think about it for a second. However, during the past y...
Not all high-complications come with equally high price tags. With the Slimline Manufacture Perpetual Calendar,?Frederique Constant is offering a stainless steel perpetual calendar for under $9,000. In some ways it's a classic QP and in other ways it breaks with tradition, but if you're someone who's always wanted to sport a perpetual calendar but balked at the BMW-level cost, you should definitely take a closer look at this watch.Frederique Constant is a watchmaker with something of a cult following. It's made affordable complicated watches in the past (this worldtimer is a perfect example), but really shines making contemporary dress watches that have familiar looks without too many frills...
One of the biggest and most important cultural events in Paris is the Biennale des Antiquaires. The Biennale's list of exhibitors includes not only antiques dealers, but also jewelry houses, as well as fine art exhibitors and dealers. This is an important year for the Biennale in many ways, not the least of which is that, moving forward, the Biennale will be held yearly rather than biannually C and it also marks the presentation of a non-selling exhibition, presented by the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH). "The Conquest of Time" is based on The Mastery of Time, by FHH curator and expert in antiquarian horology, Dominique Flchon, and presents a collection over over 100 rare timekeepi...
Weekend Reading: An Alarm Clock That Puts Your Mind At Ease
Everyone has his or her own system for waking up in the morning. There's the trusty-if-overused iPhone alarm method. There's the classic and stylish Dieter RamsCdesigned alarm clock from Braun. There's an alarm clock that will wake you up with the smell of fresh croissants (no joke). And if you're feeling particularly old-school you could reach for a vintage Memovox to do the job. Whatever gets you up, right? Well, in response to a worried reader, a tech columnist at the Wall Street Journal thinks it might have found the most convenient alarm clock yet.For those who can't stop checking to see if everything is ready for the morning, there's the Lexon InOut clock. The $45 timekeeper sits on yo...
No, Watches Of Knightsbridge is not hosting a themed auction C quite the opposite really. The London auctioneer has actually put together a rather eclectic catalog?for its September 17 sale, led by a classically elegant and very rare Longines 13ZN flyback chronograph. But, as I looked over the lots, I noticed a healthy dose of steel sport watches from the 1960s, in particular a few with sleek black dials. Here are four of my favorites, ranging from a classic Rolex Submariner to a funky Universal Genve diver to a Lemania chronograph used by the South African Air Force. Lot 86: Heuer Skipper Reference 7764 Heuer Skipper Referen...
In-Depth: Hammers And Gongs C Talking Traditional Minute Repeater Magic With Patek Philippe
Twice in my life I have been fortunate enough to hear multiple Patek Philippe minute repeaters doing their thing, and the most recent was under interesting circumstances. ?Patek Philippe is generally, well, you wouldn't say uncommunicative, but they do have the natural reticence that you'd expect from a family-owned haute horlogerie firm. ?Let's go with discreet. However, over the last few years, the company has also begun holding periodic educational seminars, which, though of course they focus on Patek Philippe wristwatches and history, also offer a great deal of very useful, generally-applicable information on watchmaking. ?The last such educational event I was part of was a full-day work...
Our Five Picks From 'Heuer 100,' Crown & Caliber's Online Auction Dedicated To Vintage Heuer
The name says it all. "Heuer 100." This upcoming auction from Crown & Caliber is focused entirely on vintage Heuer, no exceptions. This is the largest Heuer-dedicated sale since the Haslinger collection auction in 2010. It's entirely online and it goes live on September 19th C it was hard to pick favorites from the dozens of historic chronographs, but here you'll find here the five watches that caught my eye the most. It's a healthy mix of extremely rare pieces and the more well-known references. Enjoy this exclusive first look at Heuer 100. Heuer Monaco Reference 74033N, 'Dark Lord' The "...
Found: Two Watches C A Seiko And A Baume & Mercier C?From The Estate Of Steve Jobs, For Sale
In February of this year, we reported that the Seiko quartz wristwatch worn by none other than Apple founder Steve Jobs in his iconic Macintosh photo had sold for a whopping $42,500. This was a story I followed very closely, and in fact I was in touch directly with the caretaker for Jobs's Jackling House, from which that Seiko and several other items came. He told me that he was in possession of two other watches, a Baume & Mercier and another Seiko on metal bracelet, and that they would likely hit the auction block in the coming months C and now here they are. ...
Many years ago, a young man wanted to start a watch blog, and, noticing that the naming conventions for watch magazines and websites mostly consisted of leaden wordplay or groan-inducing puns, he decided to pick a word that was as far from the English for "wristwatch" as possible. That man was Ben Clymer, and the word was "hodinky" C Czech for wristwatch. It started as a joke and now we're stuck with the name, which was something I was reminded of when we got word from H. Moser & Cie that its Swiss Alp Watch C certainly one of the most attention-getting introductions of the 2016 SIHH and, among other things, both a parody of and a reproach to the Apple Watch C was going into regular pr...
Introducing: The Limited Edition Breitling Navitimer GMT Aurora Blue
Whatever your feelings are about the size of modern Navitimers (between 43mm and 48mm), Breitling's icon is without a doubt one of the definitive pilots watches. Developed with, and for, the Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association (AOPA) during the early 1950s, the original reference 806 Navitimer allowed pilots to calculate critical information, such as airspeed, flight time, distance, and fuel consumption, all at a glance. This new limited edition Navitimer continues in that spirit with some modern updates and a new blue dial.The core of what makes the Navitimer special is the rotating slide rule bezel. This feature was actually introduced in the Breitling Chronomat a full decade before ...
The Evolution Of The Parmigiani Fleurier Senfine Watch, Part 2: From Model To Movement
The Genequand escapement, housed inside the Senfine concept watch, was probably the single most technically interesting development in real hardcore watchmaking that we saw at either SIHH or Baselworld earlier this year. In June, we started digging a bit deeper into how Parmigiani Fleurier managed to take Pierre Genequand's original concept and turn it into a working escapement in a wristwatch with a 70-day (and no, that's not a typo) power reserve.As you might remember from our previous coverage of the Senfine from the SIHH?(and later in the first part of our series on the development of the Senfine watch), the heart of the watch is an original escapement designed by now-retired Swiss Cente...
The Vacheron Constantin Traditionelle Perpetual Calendar Chronograph is one of those quiet but excellent models that has long lived within the collection of Geneva's oldest manufacture. The watch, which features a manually wound two register chronograph with perpetual calendar, is undoubtedly one of the most attractive and beautiful combinations of complications in the world C or, at least it is to me. While this watch appears similar to the existing references, this new model Reference 5000T-00P, features a new dial color and the latest version of the fantastic caliber 1142 QP, which is a subtly tweaked version of the previous 1141QP that has powered this model since inception. What does th...
Historical Perspectives: Why The Heuer Diver Professional Deserves A Lot More Credit Than It Gets
When it comes to vintage Heuer, it's the historic chronographs that constantly grab the headlines. I mean, who hasn't recently read a story about some uber-rare, record-breaking Autavia, Carrera, or Monaco? Yet, there's one watch that played a critical role in Heuers history that remains almost entirely overlooked. Its stunning success was unexpected and came at the best possible time for the company. In Jack Heuers own words: We could not imagine that this model would be the very watch that was to help the company recover. Surprisingly, this glorious hero was not a chronograph C hell, most of the time it's powered by a quartz movement. So let's settle this injustice and look at a relati...
In a press conference in Geneva today, Frederique Constant CEO Peter Stas announced that subsidiary MMT Swiss Connect has been spun off into its own independent company that was not included as part of the Citizen acquisition earlier this year. Stas also introduced MMT's new CEO, its latest products, and its new business model. And we've got a lot to say about it all.Before I dig into today's announcement, a bit of background. Last year, Frederique Constant announced its own smartwatch, the clumsily-named Horological Smartwatch, and a subsidiary company MMT to house the development, manufacturing, and licensing of this new technology. Then, in May of this year, news broke that?Citizen would ...
Introducing: The Urwerk Time Hunter X-Ray, A New Take On The EMC
Urwerk is a company known for shaking things up. Funky colors, outlandish displays, and in-your-face finishes are hallmarks present in almost every watch. These are love-em-or-hate-em timekeepers and they don't try to be anything else. Urwerk's latest creation is no exception. This is the Time Hunter X-Ray, a skeletonized watch that tracks its own performance.We first saw the EMC as a concept movement in early 2013 and a few months later got the first actual watch to contain the new movement. The watch here is built on the same foundation as that very first EMC and you can go read our previous hands-on stories for the full explanation of how the combination electric and mechanical mechanism ...
Breaking News: Apple Releases Apple Watch Series 2, The Smartwatch's First Major Update
Apple just announced the Apple Watch Series 2 at its San Francisco event (where the latest iPhone is also being unveiled). This is the first major hardware update to the company's smartwatch since it went on sale in April 2015. At first glance, the watch looks mostly the same, but there are a number of significant updates.Before we get into the specs of the new watch, Apple announced some pretty shocking news to kick off the Apple Watch portion of today's keynote: Apple Watch is now the number two watch brand in the world, by revenue, after Rolex, beating out the likes of Fossil, Casio, Omega, and Cartier. That's major. We're digging into the numbers now to verify this and will update this s...
Hands-On: The Sistem51 Irony, A Steel Watch With An Entirely Machine-Made Movement
Today, Swatch's Sistem51 Irony collection goes on sale in the U.S. We first showed you the new stainless steel automatic Swatches just a few weeks ago and immediately knew that we'd have to reserve judgement until we got them in the metal (it does still feel weird to say that about a Sistem51). Well, the wait is over and I got to spend a day in our office sizing up the new collection.There's no way for me to get around this: I'm a big fan of the Sistem51. I nearly drooled on the early sample I saw at Baselworld 2013?and I had a friend bring one back to New York for me from Switzerland before they were available here. In the summer it's one of my go-to weekend watches and I love what it stand...
Ten years ago Wempe launched its very own chronometer watches under the Zeitmeister banner. It is a major milestone for the company, mostly associated with its luxury watch boutiques scattered throughout the world. To celebrate the anniversary, Wempe is adding five new timekeepers to its line-up, including a limited edition diver's chronograph and, wait for it, a pendulum clock. So how does Wempe produce its high-end chronometer-certified watches? Well, back in 1938 the company acquired Hamburger Chronometrewerke, a maker of nautical chronometers that you'll often find displayed around Wempe boutiques. With annual watch releases, this year Wempe's taking things a...
This week, Bring A Loupe is going for the Midas touch, offering mostly yellow gold watches. We'll start with a very slick Rolex Precision "UFO" and a solid gold Rolex GMT-Master ref. 1675 with a so-called "nipple dial." Following those is a more modern gold Cartier Tank Asymtrique and a (you guessed it) gold-plated Gallet chronograph with a colorful dial. Finishing things off is an Abercrombie & Fitch Seafarer on Ebay that could use some TLC. This is your Bring A Loupe for September 9, 2016. Rolex Precision Reference 9083, Yellow Gold 'UFO' The unique look of the Rolex reference 9083 expl...
Just Because: Four Patek Philippe 5970s, One In Each Metal, In The Same Place At The Same Time
It's no secret that here at HODINKEE HQ we're big, big fans of the Patek Philippe 5970. It's probably the closest thing we've got to a middle ground between the perpetual calendar chronographs of yesteryear and thoroughly modern watches. It's a little bigger than the 2499 and the 3970, but it still uses a Lemania base movement and has a very traditional dial. So when our friends at Christie's New York called and said they had four on-hand, one in each metal, I threw my camera in my bag and raced for the elevator. Here are the results.The perpetual calendar chronograph is, arguably, the most important watch in Patek Philippe's history. I would certainly argue that point and I wouldn't be the ...