HANDS-ON: Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Master Grande Tradition Tourbillon Zodiaque
When you look at Jaeger-LeCoultre’s core offerings from their Reverso and Master Collection lines it’s easy to see why the brand has something of a reputation for straight, sober watchmaking. But don’t forget that Jaeger-LeCoultre is also capable of absolute top-shelf high-complication, high-jewellery pieces like this (frankly astonishing) Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Grande Tradition Tourbillon Zodiaque. So what are we looking at here? Well, first of all, you’re looking at a 42mm white gold case, not that you can see too much of it under all those baguette-cut diamonds gracing the bezel, lugs and even the crown. Under normal circumstances these diamonds would be enough to steal the show, but on this JLC they merely serve to frame the truly exceptional dial. The first thing you’ll notice is the tourbillon, which in addition to whirling in its cage, will make a slow march around the dial. And then, in addition to all this drama, there’s the astronomic calendar display, complementing the regular date, highlighted by means of a bright golden sun at the outer section of the dial. The aventurine dial base provides the perfect setting for this celestial action. The view from the rear is quite fine, too; the big bridges of…
The post HANDS-ON: Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Master Grande Tradition Tourbillon Zodiaque appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.
The first watch I saw at Baselworld 2019 was the Bulgari Octo Finissimo Chronograph GMT Automatic. I saw it at a preview dinner before the fair proper, and honestly, it kind of ruined me for other watches at the fair. The Bulgari Octo Finissimo Chronograph GMT Automatic is just so impressive. Not only is it the world’s thinnest automatic chronograph (ever, no fancy caveats needed), measuring 6.9mm for the full watch, and 3.3mm for the BVL 318 movement alone. But (and more importantly for me) it looks and feels good on the wrist and is exceptionally user-friendly. For me there are two big points in favour of this watch. One, the form is flawless, unmarred by obvious, ugly pushers. One of the genius moves of the Octo’s angular design is that it allows for the near seamless integration of geometric pushers that extends the existing look, rather than adding some clunky lumps to one side. The other real user-friendly feature is the addition of a GMT feature. Bulgari deserve massive props for this, simply because they didn’t need to do it. But they did (because they can), and it’s great. The second time is displayed in the little subdial at…
Bulgari’s Octo Finissimo family has been shattering records left, right and centre since its introduction in 2014. But the watch that really captured the hearts and minds of fans and critics alike was the Octo Finissimo Automatic — initially offered in sandblasted titanium, and shortly after in distinctive steel and gold versions. Well, this year it’s back, but in a brand new form. Meet the Bulgari Octo Finissimo Ceramic. And when we say Ceramic, we mean ALL ceramic. The case, the bracelet, even the buckle. All of it is gorgeous, matt black ceramic. In some ways it’s an unexpected twist on the Octo Finissimo, but it’s also the most logical extension of the line — a line that’s rapidly taking pride of place in Bulgari’s watch line-up. Ceramic makes perfect sense on this watch. It’s lightweight, ultra-hard, thermoconductive and surprisingly unassuming on the wrist. Which makes the Octo Finissimo Ceramic a dream to wear. It’s also a watch that’s a stylistic heavy-hitter, with its bold angles somehow made even sharper in monochrome black. All in all it’s like Bulgari made one of the coolest and most impressive watches of recent years even cooler. Bulgari Octo Finissimo Ceramic price Bulgari Octo Finissimo…
Casio’s G-Shock has a reputation — and a well-deserved one, I might add — for being one of the toughest watches ever made. Way back in 1983, Kikuo Ibe, the man behind the watch, decreed that the watch needed to meet some pretty tough criteria: a 10-year battery life, water resistance of 10 bar, and the ability to survive a 10-metre fall onto a hard surface. In the decades since, the combination of extreme functionality and even more extreme durability has made the G-Shock the go-to choice for people who need a watch that can *really* take a beating. And, of course, this function-before-form aesthetic has led to the watch becoming a style icon in its own right. Fast forward to 2019 and there’s countless versions on offer, from fashion brand collaborations to high-end artisanal offerings and versions with fitness trackers inbuilt. Today, though, we’re looking at a watch that offers a compelling update of the classic. The look is classic G-Shock 5000 (the most classic, and one of the most popular G-Shock configurations), but the case is pure metal. Full metal cases are something pretty new for the traditionally plastic-based G-Shocks, with steel and gold tone models joining the tribe…
Editor’s note: When it was first released back in 2015 (was it four years ago already?!), the IWC Portugieser Annual Calendar was hot. And while there’s been a lot of watches (including many more Portugiesers), the years have not diminished the appeal of this big business watch. The story in a second The headline act in IWC’s 2015 line-up is the Portugieser Annual Calendar, an assured new take on an old favourite. The big question Will people want a watch that’s more than a complete calendar, but not quite a perpetual? IWC have declared 2015 to be the year of the Portugieser, and the star model in the fully revamped (and re-branded) line is the Annual Calendar. The Annual Calendar is a big, beautiful watch featuring the brand’s first ever annual calendar complication, and a brand new in-house movement. This is an impressive watch on many levels, and paradoxically, the greatest thing about it is perhaps the hardest to articulate. The best description I can come up with after wearing it for a week is that the Annual Calendar has a strong personality. Some watches can have all the right stuff, yet still come off cold and calculated. Not so…
Franck Muller’s tagline is “the master of complications”, and this watch delivers on that promise in dazzling style. This fully set Franck Muller Double Mystery from their Round collection (which goes to show that there’s more to the brand than Curvex cases) is a great example of working smart. The movement on show is the Double Mystery — the mystery being that there are no traditional hands at play here, rather two triangles nestled amongst the brilliance of the fully set dial. Of course it doesn’t take long to work out that these markers sit in two rotating discs, creating an illusion of floating time. It’s one of my favourite romantic complications, and Franck Muller has deployed it here to good effect. It’s a smart complication because while it uses up a fair bit of energy to move a full disc (or two) rather than more lightweight hands, it’s a complication that can be added to a base automatic movement, allowing the brand to spend their time focusing on other things — like that exceptional case. Speaking of the case, let’s break it down into numbers. It’s white gold, 42mm across (which means that, even though it’s billed as a women’s watch,…
The 2019 Cricket World Cup is underway in the UK, and official timekeepers Hublot are there, busily timing every single match. The brand has been busy in other ways, too – coming up with a tremendously on point limited edition to celebrate. It’s their second World Cup watch (you might remember the first from 2015), and we’ve got to say they really nailed it with the Aerofusion Chronograph Cricket World Cup 2019. This watch strikes just the right level of balance for a sporting tie-in piece. There’s lots of cricket details at play, but you’re never beaten over the head with them. Plus, the colour scheme is just plain hot. Perhaps the most obvious nod to the game is the strap: rubber-backed grey calf with a distinctive six rows of bright red stitching that will feel instantly familiar to anyone who’s bowled a ball down a pitch. In some ways, this strap is more of an attention-seeker than the 45mm watch itself. The open dial picks up the red highlights, in the dial text, chronograph registers and the minute track. There’s a couple of nice nods to cricket here, too — notably the three batons at 12 that bear more than a…
“In terms of haute horlogerie complications we could do anything we like at Louis Vuitton – and we certainly have the means to do so. But that’s not our approach. What we do is deeply rooted in classical horology, but every piece needs to have an original twist that has real meaning for the Maison.” So says Michel Navas who, together with Enrico Barbasini, is the technical brains behind Louis Vuitton watchmaking. The Escale Time Zone perfectly illustrates this. Introduced in 2015 (with a version in tones of blue and grey last year), it looks unlike any travel time watch that preceded it. Or, more precisely, that preceded Louis Vuitton’s Escale Worldtime, released a year earlier. Time Zone is, by the way, almost a misnomer: the term usually means a second (or in rare cases third) time zone display – a GMT in other words. But this is a true world time watch. Clearly, though, it needed a different name to distinguish it from its big brother. The technical underpinnings are entirely classical – it’s essentially the same as the complication invented in 1931 by Louis Cottier (and improved by him in 1953), which made it possible to view the…
Seiko’s distinctive shrouded diver (commonly called the ‘Tuna Can’) is a real cult model, due in equal parts to its indestructibility and its distinctive design. It’s a watch that stands out from across the street, or in five metres of murky water — depending on how you like to use your dive watches. Having said that, this solar-powered iteration — one part of a trio — is aimed more at a topside clientele, as the ‘Street Series’ sobriquet suggests. The series is offered in three colours — navy blue (which we’ve got here), an olive-y green and grey. The colour is due to the silicon strap, the shroud, the bezel and the dial. And for all that this is a lot of colour, the lack of contrast or superlative (dare I say flashy) design elements give the Street Series watches a serious, purposeful sensibility. They will also go quite well with a variety of outfits, which is a boon. But don’t be mistaken for thinking that these watches are style over substance. They’re still every millimetre the legendary Seiko diver — all 47 of them. They’re rated to 200 metres, and generally considered to be bombproof (don’t test the theory). Adding…
It’s quite possible that when Steve Jobs said, ‘Here’s to the crazy ones’, that master watchmaker Franck Muller was listening. And that he was inspired. Because when Franck Muller does watches well, the brand does them in a certain crazy, poetic and preposterous way. Take my absolute favourite (perhaps until a new contender, the 2019 ‘Remember’ watch, to be discussed shortly) – which is unquestionably Crazy Hours. What is Franck Muller’s Crazy Hours? It’s a random scattering of numbers on the dial. It is a complication that has the hour hand snap with the speed of a switchblade from one number to the next, wherever it is on the dial. It is awesome. To everyone else, your watch looks like it’s possessed. It looks to the bystander like your watch is telling the wrong time. Meanwhile, to you, it’s doing exactly what you want it to do, and it all makes perfect sense to you. The unpredictability. The refusal to conform to a linear notion of time striking some deep chord. I digress. 2019 brings a range of notable new Franck Muller watches. And they’re ‘notable’ because they’re a mix of crazy in the Steve Jobs dreamer sense, and they’re…