Hands-on – MeisterSinger Metris collection – Young, Fresh and Affordable
Meistersinger, the brand that offers (mostly) single-handed watches and that we’ve come to love, is stepping up its game in recent years. New movements, new complications, new concepts to display time with as few hands as possible and really staying true to their less-is-more approach to timekeeping. Last year saw the introduction of the unusual but cool Meistersinger Salthora Meta X dive watch and this year Meistersinger brings a new kid to their family of watches; the young, fresh and accessible Metris.
Last year, Breguet gave us a first taste of their new design for the Marine collection. However, the new look didn’t get the massive attention you might expect for an update of a pillar collection. Not because it wasn’t noteworthy but because the new look was revealed in the form of the Marine Équation Marchante 5887 – and when you get a complication as mouth-watering as that, the aesthetics tend to play second fiddle. In contrast, the new Marine 5517, released at Baselworld 2018, places the emphasis firmly on the design. Vital Statistics Set in a 40mm case, the movement is Breguet’s self-winding in-house calibre 777A with a power reserve of 55 hours, a silicon balance spring and skeletonised winding rotor. As well as this white gold-blue dial version, the Breguet Marine 5517 comes in red gold with a silvery white dial, and in titanium – the latter with a sun-brushed dial, rather than the guilloché wave pattern of the gold models. The dial of each watch is individually numbered, below the Breguet logo. The hour chapter is marked out by applied Roman numerals, with luminescent dots for the minutes and a date window at 3 o’clock. There’s also lume…
Chopard have had a really solid last couple of years when it comes to their new releases, and all told they did not disappoint at Baselworld 2018. Some funky new colours were added to the Mille Miglia line, but one of the real stars of the show was this new take on the L.U.C Quattro. Past iterations of the piece, while technically brilliant, have always come off as quite conservative. For 2018, the Quattro takes on much more casual airs, and though limited to only 50 pieces worldwide, we can’t help but hope that a similar variant will make it to series production further on down the road. Here’s what you need to know about this rose gold gem while they’re still on the market. Vital statistics At its core, this is pure Chopard L.U.C fine watchmaking at its best. The hand-winding caliber of the Quattro is an impressive one, delivering a 9-day power reserve from four stacked mainspring barrels (two stacked pairs), all crammed into a very modestly sized caliber. Believe it or not, the caliber itself is only 3.7mm thick — thinner than the conventional 3-hand caliber 2824 from ETA, for that matter. This isn’t a new caliber…