The MB&F Horological Machine 8 (HM8) is here. It’s become something of a ritual. With the highly-anticipated presentation of the brand’s latest creation, MB&F enthusiasts are getting their fix today. The Horological Machine 8 “Can-Am” is infused with the passion for supercars and 1970s design of Max Büsser: rev up your engines and meet the latest wristwatch from his creative Horological Lab.
Peter Speake-Marin is going back to his roots with a tourbillon, after an incursion in the world of sports watches. This complication is of very special significance for him. This is a good reason to take a closer look at his Magister Tourbillon, bringing together a host of details characteristics of his watch design we have been enjoying for some 15 years.
When the words “Pour le Mérite” are attached to the name “A. Lange & Söhne“, you know it’s going to be hard to resist and you know it’s going to be complicated. Why? This nomenclature in Lange’s collections means a watch equipped with a fusée and chain transmission (like this one or the outstanding Tourbograph) – and that is far from being an usual construction for a wristwatch. First introduced in 2009 in a limited edition of 200 pieces in pink gold and 50 pieces in platinum, the A. Lange & Söhne Richard Lange “Pour le Mérite” was supposed to be sold out… Well, thankfully it’s back, in a new limited run of 218 pieces, now in white gold with a stunning black dial.
It all began 20 years ago, when “in-house” and independent sourcing of movements were not yet in vogue across the watch industry. The presentation of a splendid micro-rotor movement manufactured in Fleurier, a watchmaking town of Val-de-Travers, gave birth to the Chopard L.U.C series, a highly respected collection among watch connoisseurs. This Chopard collection now celebrates its 20th anniversary, with the introduction of several models. Among these, the XPS 1860 houses the brand’s original micro-rotor movement in a steel case and is definitely worth a close look.
You see, here at Monochrome-Watches, we always praise the complexity of movements, we always emphasize on the amount of work done by watchmakers to assemble complications or to achieve a perfectly polished bevel, to finish an internal angle or to obtain black polishing – we even did a technical guide about it. We also look at “métiers d’art” – engraving, enameling, micro-painting. However, there’s one thing we tend to neglect and that is actually much more important than we think: the dial. Yes, a dial can be very simple – most of them are actually painted plates with numerals and track printed. However, some dials can be proper demonstrations of art, showing microscopic elements finished with extreme care. People say that the devil is in the details… In the case of the Patek Philippe 5496P-015, the devil is clearly in the dial.
What do we know about Roger Dubuis? Well, to make it short, Roger Dubuis is a proper manufacture of Haute Horlogerie, creating extremely refined skeleton movements, and being the only brand to have its entire production stamped with the Hallmark of Geneva (and that alone must already give an indication of the beauty of the production…). Roger Dubuis is also a combination of complex mechanisms with a unique design, bold, sporty and clearly recognizable. Well, all of that can be seen in the latest addition to the catalogue, the Roger Dubuis Excalibur Spider Skeleton Flying Tourbillon, which now receive colored stones incrusted in its rubber bezel.
When A. Lange & Söhne is mentioned, it is easy to dream. It is easy to dream because of names like Datograph, Zeitwerk or Double-Split. These watches can be found in so many watch collectors’ wish-list (and not only Lange aficionados), and for extremely good reasons, as clearly, they are all watchmaking pinnacles, grail watches, dream-machines… and they are all rather inaccessible. So the main question that I’ll have today, with the A. Lange & Söhne Saxonia Moon Phase, is simple: is there something special about A. Lange & Söhne in general and will this “reasonable offer” give me the same pleasure? No answer yet, you’ll have to wait a few lines of text…
Ulysse Nardin… quite a manufacture, with bold designs, inspired by the world of Marine. But that’s for the visual side. Technically, this brand has so much to offer. They are from the most innovative of them all. They introduced silicon in watchmaking, they created complex watches with extremely simple mechanisms (thanks to master watchmaker Ludwig Oechslin) but they also have traditional and complex timepieces. Today, not only they come with a new skeleton tourbillon, widely opened and lightweight-oriented, but they do it with a quite interesting piece tag (to say the least). Here is the Ulysse Nardin Executive Skeleton Tourbillon.
The Richard Mille RM 011 is a watch that perfectly sums up the Richard Mille spirit. We know this watch for almost 10 years and we’ve seen it in dozens of editions – some linked to certain events (Le Mans Classic), made for special friends of the brand (Felipe Masse, Roberto Mancini…) and manufactured in all possible colors or materials (red quartz, ceramic, carbon fiber, titanium, gold…). This watch could certainly be the most popular RM watch – and is probably the brand’s best seller too. After so many variations, it was time for this icon to get some fresh air, and after a strong facelift, this watch becomes the Richard Mille RM 11-03 Automatic Flyback Chronograph.
A few weeks ago we published the first part of my personal story with A. Lange & Söhne. To me, this brand has played an important role in the past one-and-a-half decade of watch collecting, learning about mechanical watches and making Monochrome into what it is today. After that memorable weekend back in 2007, there was another memorable weekend. Another weekend that was important for me, and for Monochrome, and again the Lange 1 Timezone had a prominent role.