Category: independent watchmaking

My Summer with the Ressence Type 5 (and does it really have zero reflection under water)

If you remember, back in December 2015, when Benoît Mintiens (the founder of Ressence) showed me the Ressence Type 5 for the first time, I actually ended my article with a wish to have this watch as my summer watch. The team of Ressence heard my wish and granted it so here we are, with my review of this great, sort of unique watch, which I’ve been wearing for an entire summer. Usually I tend to be rather technical and factual in my reviews, but here I’m going to be slightly more focused on the wearability and on the feelings, trying to position myself as the owner of this watch. Here are my thoughts after my summer with the Ressence Type 5 on the wrist.

8 years ago

Introducing the Christian Klings Tourbillon Nr. 2, with Self-Starting Detent Escapement

Christian Klings is the quintessential independent watchmaker as imagined by most watch collectors: a artisan working on his own, building highly complex and beautiful timepieces – including some classically beautiful yet technically novel wristwatches – from scratch. Highly regarded by those in the know, yet not widely known, Klings is based in Wechselburg, a small town an hour […]

8 years ago

Introducing Balthazar, the new hyper-cool Robot Clock of MB&F x L’Epée

If you want me to be frank (and I’m usually rather direct), how useless are those MB&F Clocks… Who, in 2016, needs a table clock? By being purely factual, no one! Yes, and that’s why, together with their unique designs, MB&F Clocks are so cool. While the concept of the 19th century clock laid on a marble fireplace is, to a large audience, completely boring, the idea of those totally irrational, quite childish and purely mechanical clocks by MB&F and L’Epee makes a lot of sense, just to fight our way-too-rational daily context. Following Melchior, the Robot-Clock launched in 2015, here is its big brother Balthazar. But beware… If the front looks robotic, there is also a dark side to Balthazar, as there is in all of us.

8 years ago

Introducing the MB&F Balthazar Table Clock, a Giant, Two-Faced Robot

The creativity of MB&F has unleashed clocks shaped like spiders and space stations, and its latest continues on the same vein. It’s a boy’s toy that doubles up as power dressing for the desk: a table clock in the form of a robot that stands almost 40cm (or 16 inches) tall. A pivot in its […]

8 years ago

HYT Bespoke, bold customization of already bold watches

Customization in the luxury industry is nowadays an almost regular practice (a costly one, but one that is often done). For instance, Louis Vuitton does one-off bags and Bugatti can create everything you want for your coming Chiron. In terms of watches, customization also exist but remains something more “hidden”, at least discreet. Few knows that for instance Patek does unique pieces on request of some special clients. Of course, things gets easier with independent watchmakers but once again, nothing is really organized or publicized. As strong innovators, HYT will change that and now offer a real, institutionalized customization program for their clients: HYT Bespoke.

8 years ago

HYT Introduces “Bespoke” Programme For Custom-Made Wristwatches

HYT Bespoke is all about customised, or custom-made, HYT wristwatches that are limited only by the client’s imagination or wallet. A watchmaker that specialises timepieces that indicate the time via liquids in tiny glass vials, HYT is novel even amongst its peers in the world of avant-garde mechanical wristwatches. HYT Bespoke allows clients to indulge their horological […]

8 years ago

Hands-On with the De Bethune Dream Watch 5 Meteorite

A wristwatch that is out of this world – literally – the De Bethune Dream Watch 5 Meteorite both awesome and shocking. Awesome, because the wondrously blue watch case is remarkably fluid in form but milled from a meteorite, while containing a cutting edge movement with a tourbillon regulator. And it is shocking because the Dream Watch 5 costs almost half […]

8 years ago

Hands-on with the Hyper-Technical Angelus U30 Tourbillon Rattrapante (and how can it be, relatively speaking, so affordable)

Listen to that: double column-wheel, flyback, split-seconds, automatic chronograph skeletonized with tourbillon… Sounds like something we’re all dreaming off. It’s like the Lamborghini you had on your walls when teenager. Something too good to be true, or just way too expensive to be accessible, even for someone in a good professional position. Well, it seems that Angelus Watches does not agree with that, as they have such a watch in their catalogue. It is named the Angelus U30 Tourbillon Rattrapante and we’re going to look closely at it – and try to understand how it can be, relatively speaking, so affordable.

8 years ago

Introducing – Giuliano Mazzuoli Manometro with green and blue dials and still the same super-cool design

If you think about Giuliano Mazzuoli – in case you know it, and if not, now you know – you might have in mind a minimalistic but recognizable design as well as the use of fancy materials, rarely to never seen in watchmaking, like for instance marble or cement – yes, the case is made with these materials! Well if you think this is going a bot too far for, there might a solution in-between these and a traditional black or white dial, with the new Giuliano Mazzuoli Manometro with green and blue dials.

8 years ago

Hands-on – Andreas Strehler Papillon Sauterelle à Lune Exacte – The Most Precise MoonPhase Wristwatch Ever

Watchmakers are like all boys. When it comes to numbers, being first or having the greatest is always better – even if having the biggest (watch of course…) is not always desirable. Watchmakers always looked for the most complicated watch, for the watch with the most features, for the most precise movement or for the lightest case. And even when it comes to a specific complication, being the most accurate is a very good marketing argument – which of course always implies stupendous technical developments and immense watchmaking skills. In terms of MoonPhase, the title for the most precise was already in the hands of Andreas Strehler, but it’s now even better with his new Papillon Sauterelle à Lune Exacte.

8 years ago