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Best Super NEWS Watches
Introducing: The Baume & Mercier Clifton Perpetual Calendar
Baume & Mercier's main stock-in-trade is design-forward timepieces that play solidly in the quality-mechanical, bang-for-your-buck domain. However, the company historically has also, albeit somewhat periodically, offered high complications as well, and in the Richemont era this tradition has continued, with timepieces (usually in the Clifton collection) as varied as tourbillons, eight-day watches, and, most recently, a very interesting five-minute repeater pocket watch being offered as well.? The latest timepiece in this tradition is the Clifton Perpetual Calendar C a true perpetual in a gold case, which runs somewhat counter to the recent trend to off...
Hands-On: The IWC Pilots Watch Timezoner Chronograph 3950
Im not sure the timing of the new Pilots collection was coincidental or not, but if so, IWC is quite fortunate that its strongest family of watches was ready to be launched during one of the most challenging years in recent memory for the industry. The IWC Pilot's watches are true icons (we don't use that word lightly), and the latest crop is especially strong. In addition to the usual time-only Mark models, the bold chronographs, and the Big Pilots, the manufacture spent the two years working hard to make sure the Timezoner Chronograph 3950 would be part of the 2016 lineup. Its a big part of the new collection, both figuratively and literally. The Ti...
The Road Through Britain: Episode 5: The Royal Observatory Of Greenwich
Sadly, every journey must come to an end, and ours was no exception. After spending 12 days on the road, covering more than 1,000 miles across Great Britain, including quite a few parked in a ferry as we drifted across the Irish Sea, the finish line was in our sights. And, lucky for us, it was conveniently marked right there on the ground. The Greenwich Meridian would signal the end of our epic road trip. The entrance of the Royal Observatory of Greenwich, founded in 1675. Of all the stops we had made, this was the only one I had made before. Many years ago, when I was about nine years old, my parents had dragged my sister and...
Photo Report: The HODINKEE x Seiko Get-Together In New York City
It's no secret that team HODINKEE are big fans of Seiko. From Grand Seiko to Credor to Prospex, the Japanese watchmaker is doing some of the most under-appreciated work in the entire industry and we're always up for changing that. Last week we gathered a group of enthusiasts at Stanton Social in New York City's Lower East Side to get a hands-on look at the latest collections. On hand were this year's novelties, the main collections, as well as a very special piece, the Grand Seiko Spring Drive 8 Day Power Reserve. This isn't an easy watch to track down and getting to see one in the metal is a rare occurrence.? We were even lucky enough to be joined by Seiko...
In-Depth: A Look At The Doxa SUB 200 T-Graph Searambler
I am an unabashed lover of purely utilitarian watches. To a fault, in fact. The more purpose-built, the better. This has led to a collection of timepieces that leans heavily (literally and figuratively) towards bulky oddballs like a Seiko MarineMaster "Tuna Can," a first generation Citizen Aqualand, an Oris ProPilot Altimeter, and an old Breitling Emergency, watches each with some historical significance, but that, more importantly, can still be used as intended. But this summer, Neptune smiled on me and I was able to pick up a vintage dive watch that, while it will never see water, is perhaps the pride of my collection C a Doxa SUB 200 T-Graph Searambler. ...
In-Depth: The Hublot Big Bang Sang Bleu
Hublot makes a lot of Big Bang limited editions. Like, a ton of them. This year alone, I've spotted at least eight Big Bang announcements in my inbox, each touting some watch that will be produced in limited numbers C and Im sure there are plenty more that Ive missed. All of this is to say that despite the seemingly endless parade of limited editions, when I first saw the Big Bang Sang Bleu, I felt the company could be turning the corner. This was a genuinely fresh take on the Big Bang, created in collaboration with someone interesting. I had to get a closer look.The main criticism Hublot has faced isnt actually focused on the volume of editions its released, but rather the lack of origi...
Introducing: The Astrograph Pen From MB&F And Caran d'Ache (Live Pics, Pricing, And Availability)
MB&F is primarily known, of course, for its Horological Machine wristwatches. However, anyone who's followed MB&F over the years, or visited MB&F's M.A.D. Galleries, which showcase unusual design objects ranging from electric guitars to motorcycles, knows that founder Max Bsser's interests go far beyond just watches. We've seen some very unusual clock designs from MB&F, produced in collaboration with L'Epe 1839, including the robot-like Balthazar and the Arachnophobia. MB&F has also done music boxes in collaboration with Reuge, inspired by various science fiction universes. MB&F's most recent collaboration is with another Swiss company: Caran d'Ache, which makes e...
As many watch aficionados know, IWC is in the unique position of being the only Swiss watchmaking firm to have been founded by an American, Florentine Ariosto Jones, who left the United States after the end of the Civil War. Jones went to Switzerland hoping to introduce American production line manufacturing techniques and to take advantage of both Switzerland's home-grown watchmaking knowledge and lower labor costs, in order to produce high quality watches that could be sold into the U.S. market. From the beginning, Jones insisted on making very high-grade, accurate timepieces, and some of the earliest, and best quality, "Jones caliber" pocket watch movements were marked "D. H. Craig," C ...
Introducing: The Misfit Phase Hybrid Smartwatch
We've told you (and told you, and told you) that the smartwatch wars are just getting started. Not only don't we know whether or not smartwatches will win long term adoption, but also we don't even know what a device called a "smartwatch" will actually be in six months or a year's time. Today, Misfit has announced the Phase Hybrid Smartwatch, the wearable technology company's first product actually labeled a smartwatch and probably something different from what you'd expect. There are two hands, normal hour markers, and a tiny window at six o'clock to show you notifications. Could this be the future of smartwatches? The Phase Hybrid Smartwatch is, at its most bas...
Just Because: The Manufacture Royale Opera Tourbillon Minute Repeater And Its Crazy Expanding Case
Manufacture Royale co-owner David Gouten stopped by our office recently, bringing with him a slew of the brand's extremely unusual watches. The most out there of these was none other than the Opera, a minute repeater and tourbillon with C well, you want to call it an unusual case, but "unique" might be closer to the mark, as I can't off the top of my head think of a single example of another tourbillon and minute repeater wristwatch with a case in the form of a metal bellows. You undo the bellows by operating a latch on the case flank, and pulling it open manually; the idea is that the open case will amplify the sound of the repeater. ? The details, li...
Introducing: The Chopard L.U.C GMT One, Now In Rose Gold (With Live Pics And Pricing)
It was just last week that we showed you the latest collection from Chopard, a series of worldtimers and a new GMT to go with them. All of these watches are part of the in-house L.U.C line, but while there were a few choices of metal and dial colors for the worldtimer, the?new GMT was only shown in stainless steel. I was told that a rose gold version would quickly follow and, well, here it is. Meet the L.U.C GMT One in all its rosy glory. The watch was unveiled yesterday in London, during the first day of SalonQP (which you can follow along with here in HODINKEE Live), where the company is showcasing some of its latest novelties, including that batch of wat...
Talking Watches: With Jeff Stein
There aren't too many people in the watch world like Jeff Stein. Sure, there are true lovers of a single category C but few dedicate so much passion, so much energy, and so much time?to any one single type of watch, and have done so for as many years and with as much vigor as Jeff Stein. Stein is the founder and owner of OnTheDash, the undisputed champion of vintage Heuer online. The resource hosts an active forum, original stories (most authored by Stein), and an unparalleled level of information about all things vintage Heuer. It won't come as a surprise that Mr. Stein is, in fact, a Heuer collector of some note. This is your official Talking Watches with OnTheDash founder Jeff Stein. ...
Innovation is a fine thing, but one of the nice things about mechanical watchmaking is that there are some watches and some movements that have changed very little over a surprisingly long period of time. Conservatism doesn't necessarily mean timidity, and many smart companies understand very well that giving your clients a direct, tangible relationship with the past is a great way to build a sense of emotional connection to the present (as a matter of fact, Rolex has built an entire business model on the idea of, if not a deliberately glacial product development cycle, at least a keen sense of when something is not broken, and, therefore, not in need of fixing). Watches like the Speedmaste...
Resonance watches are an extremely small sub-set of horology, and with good reason: they are notoriously difficult to manufacture and, just as importantly, to regulate. The idea was perhaps most famously experimented with by the French watch and clockmaker Antide Janvier (1751-1835) and by Breguet, whose resonance watches provided the impetus for those made in the modern era by F. P. Journe. The basic idea is to take advantage of the fact that two oscillators (such as two balance wheels or two pendulums) which have the same natural frequency, and which are somehow mechanically coupled, will start to beat in time with one another. The two oscillators will be more resistant to disruption of...
On day one of SalonQP, the United Kingdom's largest watch fair, Montblanc has unveiled a new version of the Orbis Terrarum thats extremely limited in production and quite patriotic (if youre British, of course). The company has decided to make just five pieces based on the 4810 Orbis Terrarum (not to be confused with the earlier Spirit Orbis Terrarum), with a small twist: a Union Jack flag signaling the daytime hours on the day/night disc indicator. My first thoughts? Well, despite living in London now, I'm not British, and it's difficult to comment fully on the appeal of owning a watch with another country's flag right there on the dial. Personally, I'm ...
This week, the hunt for vintage watches unveiled some highly unusual finds, the type you almost never see. In that vein, the 1980s Heuer Verona reference 371.213G might not be the hottest Heuer chronograph currently, but it's nonetheless a real rarity and an exceptional find for Heuer collectors. Here we also have a Zenith Extra that was made for the Canadian railroad in the middle of the 20th century. And, of course, classic chronographs are not forgotten here either C we've got a great Mathey-Tissot as well as an appealing Omega De Ville. Zenith Extra RR 120T, Made For The Canadian Railroad The 120T...
Hands-On: The H. Moser Endeavour Dual Time Concept, And Concept Cosmic Green
Moser has been making waves lately, starting with the release of the Swiss Alp Watch last January at SIHH C and following up, more recently, with the Swiss Alp Watch S, which was intended to point out that the Swiss Alp Watch wasn't just a throwaway gag, but also a serious statement about Moser's identity, and about the identity (and identity crisis) of Swiss watchmaking overall. Some of the boldest designs in Moser's lineup, interestingly enough, are also the simplest: the Concept watches (which, by the way, are not "concept" watches, these are actual production models) and which include time-only models, as well as a perpetual calendar, and dual-time watches.We took a hands-on look at the...
Here's something I didn't think I'd see during SalonQP: six Andersen Genve worldtimer references (all five standard editions plus a worldtime chronograph) together in one room. According to Svend Andersen's team C who are exhibiting the so-called "fifth edition" worldtimer at the Salon and who helped source the other four you see here C this is the first time so many of the company's world-timers have found themselves next to one another.Naturally, we had to take a family photo. Would you expect anything else? We arranged the worldtimers you see here in order from the oldest to the newest, from left to right. I haven't spent much time with Andersen's worldtimers before, but they're pretty a...
Often asked about his favorite Heuer watch, Jack Heuer has several times responded publicly the Heuer Carrera reference 1158. The weighty 18k yellow gold case could justify such a choice on its own, but the true reason for Heuer's pick is much more interesting. This specific Carrera might actually represent the apex of Heuer: not only does it offer its first automatic and in-house chronograph caliber, but this watch is also deeply linked with Heuer's involvement with the iconic Ferrari Formula 1 team and the very best drivers of the 1970s. The fascinating story of those watches can often be read in caseback engravings, which display the name of each watch's adventurous owner, and this Carrer...
Yesterday Richemont's board of directors met and did some serious planning for the company's future. The results of the meeting are nothing to scoff at, with a few important executives retiring and a few well-known names likely to climb the ranks in turn. Here's a breakdown of what was announced and some thoughts on why it might matter to you. To kick things off, both CEO Richard Lepeu and CFO Gary Saage will be retiring over the course of 2017 (the former in March, the latter in July). In response, Richemont will "restructure the responsibilities of senior management," which is code for "eliminating the position of Group CEO," as the group instead opts for a mor...