MICRO MONDAYS: Briston Watches & the Clubmaster Diver
Editor’s note: It’s somehow Monday again, and while that would normally mean feelings of malaise and discontent, since this pandemic shifted into top gear and lockdowns now rule the lay of the land, Mondayitis isn’t really a thing anymore. Which is good, because the start of the working week also means it’s Micro Monday, and that’s always worth a smiley-faced emoji. This week we’re taking a closer look at Briston Watches, a French outfit that are looking to shake things up in the sub-$1000 watch market. Headed up by Brice Jaunet, who cut his teeth at some some of the biggest marques in the game, the Gallic watchmaker focuses on high-quality design, functionality and bang for buck. Briston make a number of exciting timepieces, but today we’re going to be examining their fit-for-purpose dive watch – the Clubmaster Diver. It’s a good-looking device, and the French brand are certainly on the up and up. Vive la Briston! There are several areas where the watch world is taking advantage of economies of scale and available synergies. Since the pace of information and collaboration has picked up in the internet age, we have seen a resurgence and proliferation of smaller brands that…
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The obvious disclaimer in Celebrity Watch Death Match is that we usually choose a small slice of each celebrity’s collection to put in the ring for the matchups. The fights are as close to pound for pound as we can manage. The celebrity’s broader collection may win the war for them, but – as we have seen this week with Ellen DeGeneres vs Trevor Noah – they can lose the battle. Ellen DeGeneres, owner of one of Hollywood’s best decorated wrists, and a true collector in every sense of the word, has lost to Trevor Noah in a fairly fought, and evenly matched Celebrity Watch Death Match. The score was 3 Trevor, 0 Ellen. Number of votes counted, in excess of 6000, our biggest turnout yet. This was a fight unlike any other so far, with not just the calibre of each timepiece on a par, but a nice and straight Rolex vs Rolex, Audemars Piguet vs Audemars Piguet and Patek Philippe vs Patek Philippe card. This is how it played out. Daily Beater Ellen DeGeneres – Rolex GMT-Master II Ref. 116718LN vs Trevor Noah – Rolex GMT-Master II Ref. 126715CHNR Despite the obvious Aussie-themed green and gold peacockery of the…
As a journalist, you strive for a long-form commission. A piece to stretch your legs. That you can properly research. That your audience will be forced to create quality time to imbibe. I was reminded of this recently when Josh Shanks from our friends at Watchonista posted a shout-out to the greatest long-form piece of all time on his Facebook: Frank Sinatra Has a Cold by Gay Talese. I hit the link, started reading and then – lo and behold – I stopped multitasking. I sat down. Ten minutes in, I got up and fixed myself a drink. Fifteen minutes in, I actually took the time to set a fire (now that the bushfires have passed in Australia, we are being hit with sub 10-degree cold snaps, so, great). I lit it, arranged a comfortable chair nearby, set my drink next to chair. I was stalling, because this piece was so good, so utterly relishable for the reader that I didn’t want it to end. If you haven’t read this masterwork, you simply must. And after that, you can schedule in a second, or third Old Fashioned to accompany you through Wei Koh’s 8000-word dissertation on Patek Philippe chronographs. I suspect…
This year might be one of the most unusual ever when it comes to new watches being released. While brands were already seeking different ways to share their new releases with the watch-loving community, the global pandemic that we are still watching unfold has put a stop to almost any plans that brands might have had for the year. That means watches are being released in slow drops at the moment, not able to capitalise on the big moments such as Watches & Wonders or Baselworld where the industry is all in one place (though we did our best to make a moment with our coverage of Watches & Wonders Online). To make sure you aren’t missing any of the new watches that are being released at the moment, we wanted to take a look at a few pieces that have been released a little more quietly over the last few weeks, including great pieces from Omega, Bulgari and Casio. Omega Aqua Terra, now in green and blue The Omega Aqua Terra is a crowd favourite for its clean design, bulletproof movement and comfort on the wrist. They have been produced in a range of metals and dial colours —…
This year, Piaget has focused on the two strengths that most clearly define the Maison: on one hand, ultra-thin men’s watches (taken to their most technically demanding extreme) and on the other, boldly designed and extravagantly gem-set women’s watches. Altiplano Ultimate Concept Nobody could reasonably dispute that this insanely thin new watch is quite mind-blowing. But to properly understand it, a bit of context is needed. Its genesis dates back to 2014, when Piaget introduced the Altiplano 900P. At an unfeasibly skinny 3.65mm, it was the thinnest hand-wound watch ever made and it redefined our assumptions about the limits of ultra-thin watchmaking. The stroke of genius had been to reject the traditional binary notion of case plus movement, and instead to use the caseback as the baseplate. However, Piaget was already a serial record-breaker in ultra-thin watchmaking. In 1960, three years after launching the hand-wound Calibre 9P (at 2mm, it was one of the world’s slimmest movements), the 2.3mm thick Calibre 12P set a new record as the thinnest self-winding movement. Since the millennium, other records have followed: thinnest tourbillon, thinnest minute repeater, thinnest skeletonised movements – and more. Then, at SIHH 2018, Piaget introduced us to the Altiplano Ultimate…