Looking back at the history of watchmaking, there are some inevitable names to be mentioned: Abraham-Louis Breguet, John Harrison, Thomas Mudge, John Arnold, Antide Janvier, Jean-Marc Vacheron and Christiaan Huygens, just to name a few. Moving up North, in the city of Copenhagen, to be precise, we have to talk about one of the most […]
Is there anything new to say about the origins of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak? As the watch marked its 50th Anniversary in 2022, countless stories, insights, and personal accounts surfaced worldwide, deepening our understanding and enriching watchmaking culture. Yet to kick off today’s look into the ultra-thin 39mm “Jumbo” editions of this legendary series, […]
Rolex is no stranger to niche models, specifically ones that specialise in less-than-mainstream purposes. The Milgauss, for example, was designed for scientists at CERN in the 1950s to withstand magnetic fields up to 1,000 gauss. Outside of this rather limited environment, it didn’t have much consumer appeal until its much later years and final models […]
Swiss watchmaking captures all the attention. The most prestigious brands, trusted by the market, are “Swiss Made”, which acts as an absolute guarantee. The only one to dominate the watch landscape, historically, outside of Switzerland, is the great Japanese classic: Seiko. On closer inspection, however, watch-related know-how has developed outside of Switzerland, particularly in Eastern […]
The story of the origins of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore has been told many times, typically casting Stephen Urquhart, then co-CEO of Audemars Piguet, as the visionary mind behind the watch. According to the commonly accepted version, Urquhart’s sharp commercial instincts led him to assign a young designer, Emmanuel Gueit, the task of […]
The Milgauss is an unusual model in Rolex’s lineup and certainly a niche offering, generally classified as a watch for scientists. It didn’t have the cool factor of racecars, jets, and James Bond, and, like many models in their early years, tended to sit on shelves, attracting scant interest. The Daytona was also a rather […]
Today, there is only one Reverso, with Jaeger-LeCoultre printed on its dial, but this was not always the case. During the 1930s, Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin and Cartier made watches that used the Reverso case for their timepieces. Moreover, the 1931 Reverso was not the first reversible case design. A few years earlier, Universal Geneve […]
Perpetual calendar chronograph watches are remarkable in their ability to measure the fleeting seconds of the present moment and given the right conditions, the passing of days, months, and years far into the future – perhaps even into eternity. Thus, a good title for this review could be From Here to Eternity, the same as […]
An article by Rob Memel, antiquarian horologist, professional certified watchmaker since 1984, and author of the book The Development Towards Huygens’ Spiral Spring (1660-1676), from which this article is a summary. About two years ago, I embarked on an in-depth investigation into another watch-related invention by Christiaan Huygens: the spiral spring on a balance wheel. […]
The IWC Ingenieur collection has long been one of the pillars of the Schaffhausen-based brand’s reputation, even if the spotlight often seems to shine brighter on the emblematic Pilot series. In recent years, IWC collections like the Pilot, Portugieser, Portofino, and, to a lesser extent, the Aquatimer have steadily introduced new references, leaving the Ingenieur line seemingly in the shadows. For a […]