HANDS-ON: Keeping illustrious company with the Breguet Reine de Naples 8918
First shown at Baselworld 2017, the stunner that is the Breguet Reine de Naples 8918 in rose gold is my pick of Breguet’s women’s offerings (in Australia) at the moment. Breguet is all proportion, horological order and watchmaking museum elegance. But sprinkle that heritage with 1.46 carats worth of white diamonds and the ghosts of French royalty, and you are contemplating a pretty heady proposition. Let’s start with the diamonds before working back over the centuries to Parisian courtiers, and really, it’s hard not to. They include a pear-shaped diamond at 6pm (approx. 0.09ct); a briolette-cut diamond on the off-set crown situated at 4pm (approx. 0.26ct); the rose gold folding clasp that is set with 26 brilliant-cut diamonds (approx. 0.12ct); and the bezel and dial flange is encircled with 117 brilliant-cut diamonds (approx. 0.99ct). It might all be too blinding a vista to take in if the case was in white gold with a pale dial (and this model is one of 11 variants); but here, the dial makes calming use of champagne Tahitian natural mother-of-pearl with some white tones of the same material. Depending on the light, the dial’s main hue ranges from hazelnut or light chocolate brown to taupe, with…
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Last year, Bremont launched a brand-new range of classically styled pilot watches. Named after the Aircraft Manufacturing Company Limited – one of Britain’s first military aircraft manufacturers – the AIRCO collection saw them stepping out of their 43mm-sized wheelhouse and into something a little smaller, with not one but two new 40mm models – the Mach 1 and Mach 2. This year, they’re expanding the collection and adding a set of new dial colourways, as well as the AIRCO Mach 3. Vital statistics With 100m of water resistance and a DLC-treated case barrel, the AIRCO Mach 3 carries over the exact same smaller and slimmer case design of last year’s releases. Measuring 40mm wide by 12.5mm thick, and with a satin-brush finish like the Mach 1; only now, with this year marking 100 years of British military aviation, on the inside of the patented Trip-Tick case is a dial – similar in style to the Mach 2 – in designated British Royal Air Force blue, with baton-style hour indexes replacing the familiar Arabic numeral markers of its predecessor. A crisp white dial will also be available for both the Mach 1 and 2, with a contrasting red seconds hand on the Mach 1. All three models will sport…
A core model of the Bremont catalogue, the satin-brushed case ALT1-C, was in fact the very first watch designed by founding brothers, Nick and Giles English. It provided the base for a collection that now includes polished cases, as well as a mix of different dial colours. However, since its launch in 2007, the original design has remained mostly unchanged. At least that was until today, with the release of two new versions of the flight-inspired chronograph. Vital statistics Let’s start with something that hasn’t changed. Inside is the same BE-50AE chronometer certified movement that’s based on the venerable Valjoux 7750 and then modified and decorated by Bremont. Offering a power reserve of 42 hours, it’s also still encased within a 43mm satin-brushed Trip-Tick case. Only now it’s easier to catch a glimpse of, thanks to an enlarged exhibition case back. Moving on and things start to look a little different again when you peer through the other side to the dial. Elegant feuille hands – previously only seen on the polished versions – now point to newly applied baton-style indexes, which replace the Arabic numeral hour markers of the original. There are also two new dial variants to choose…
The Bremont Supermarine, first released in 2009, has long been a serious dive watch, and one that stood out from the rest of the submersible pack. Last year, Bremont released the S300, a smaller, more civilian-friendly take on the genre that was, unsurprisingly, wildly popular. So it was inevitable that the larger S500 received a makeover, a cosmetic upgrade to keep the look in line with the S300. Vital statistics Two watches, the S500/BL and S500/BK (in blue and black respectively), are evolutions of existing models: the dial has been redesigned, with the blue being altered to match the tone of its S300 sibling. The blue model now has Arabic numerals at the cardinal points. The sapphire bezel is now a solid colour. The black version has also been given a makeover, with a new ceramic bezel, and design cues, like the handset and red details, in keeping with the S300. Both models still have solid casebacks showing the Supermarine S6B Seaplane. The real talking point is the S501, a bulked up version of the vintage-inspired S301 we looked at last year. Not only does this version show off the BE-36AE movement through a clear caseback (a first for a…
When ‘smart’, or ‘connected’, watches were first released there was immediate speculation about the impact they would have on the mechanical watch industry. President of the LVMH watch division, and CEO of TAG Heuer, Jean-Claude Biver, continues to think the real pain will ultimately be felt by a different segment of the market altogether. As for mechanical watches, Mr Biver paints an evocative picture of just how eternal the attraction of mechanical watches will continue to be.
Editor’s note: Feeling a little bit of the old Monday-itis? Looking for a watch to put some pep in your step? Well, we’re here for you, and so is this very big, bright blue, crystal clear Hublot. For all its out-there charms, it’s impossible to look down at this watch, or strap it to your wrist, without smiling. So read on to chase away those start-of-the-week blues. Hublot’s sapphire journey began with their ultra high-end MP-05 LaFerrari, a horological engine in the truest sense of the word, with 50 days of power reserve thanks to 11 coupled barrels. It made perfect sense for Hublot to show this beast of a movement off to its fullest capacity with a full sapphire case. But it seems LaFerrari only whet Hublot’s appetite for transparency, making a splash last year with the Big Bang Unico Sapphire, a limited edition of 500 pieces that eclipsed any previous sapphire production runs. It’s easy to see why Hublot is drawn to sapphire as a case material. Aside from the fact that its extreme hardness means it’s virtually scratch-proof, the glossy, transparent material is a perfect fit for Hublot’s art of fusion design approach – the see-through case…
The new Ferrari Portofino — the replacement for Ferrari’s first ever front-engine V8 convertible, the California — has plans for you. It wants to be your first Ferrari. It’s eyeing you even more closely if your current whip is an Aston Martin, Porsche or McLaren. Meanwhile, at the ‘White Night’ themed launch at the Elements Resort in Byron Bay, hosted by Ferrari Australasia boss Herbert Appleroth (whose watch collection we explored in a video below), our eyes were divided between the shining flanks of Ferrari’s latest high-speed cruiser and the place they are usually trained on: Wrists. We spotted seven watches in particular, with stories about them ranging from husband and wife rivalry over a vintage GMT, a self-bought divorce watch, and a local brand whose stocks are on the rise. If you’d like to know more about the car, here’s about as much as we can impart without getting too far out of our wheelhouse: its construction is similar to the California T’s platform, and it keeps the same wheelbase and overall rough dimensions. It’s powered by a 3.9-litre twin-turbocharged F154 V8 (also shared with the 488 GTB) and has a 7-speed dual-clutch transmission. How fast is it? According to Ferrari, it goes from zero to 100km/h hero in 3.5 seconds…
Omega’s ceramic exploration of the Moonwatch has been underway for some time now, starting with the popular Dark Side of the Moon back in 2013. Since then, we’ve seen a bevy of monochromatic models, with numerous blacks on offer, as well as grey and white. Last year, Omega flipped the program a little, adding colour – and additional complication – to the equation with the Speedmaster Co-Axial Master Chronometer Moonphase Chronograph … AKA the ‘Blue Side of the Moon’. The first Moonphase version of the Speedmaster, powered by the calibre 9904, was released in 2016, and we remarked at the time that it was a logical and clever take on the famous Moonwatch, and, a few years on, I still stand by that statement. The blue ceramic, though, adds a whole new element to this watch. Previous monochrome ceramic iterations of the Speedmaster managed to somewhat slip under the radar (well, except for the white version). That is not an option for this 44.25mm blue number. While in certain light it does look quite dark, almost navy; when the light hits it, the watch becomes iridescent. It’s worth pointing out that all the details — pushers, crown and caseback — are ceramic.…
The most incredible clock in the world is being built, not in Switzerland or Germany but in the middle of a mountain in Texas. It’s called the 10,000 Year Clock, and the man making sure it gets built is none other than Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who has already spent US $42 million on the project. I’ve been mildly obsessed with the Clock since I first heard about it around 2010 (it was conceived in 1989, and work started on it 30-odd years ago, and a scale model was finished on New Year’s Eve in 1999). And while it might seem like slow going, consider the fact that this clock is designed to run — without the need for maintenance — for 10 millennia. To find out more about the clock, I’d recommend this excellent Wired story. The work is very much underway, as Jeff Bezos has just posted a video of the full-scale prototype being installed in the hollowed-out mountain. BTW, Bezos is also intending to use this hollow mountain as a spaceport for Blue Origin (as you do). This is all epic and impressive, but you may be asking yourself – Why? Well, the Clock is a project of the…
Before we talk about the watch, some backstory. Calibre 11 has been one of the leading TAG Heuer resources since 2009, and the driving force behind the site is David Chalmers. A quick search of my email archive tells me that I’ve known David since 2011, and I’ve always been impressed not only by his knowledge of all things Heuer but his willingness to share it. If you’re a particularly astute reader you might recognise his name from T+T, as he writes the occasional piece for us, which is only fair, given that he’s one of the main figures behind the scenes here, and has been from the very start. All of this is a very long-winded way of saying that I couldn’t be happier that Calibre 11 has partnered with TAG Heuer to release this particularly attractive limited edition — the Heuer Autavia Jo Siffert Collector’s Edition. Now, this watch takes as its base the popular Autavia released last year, with its 42mm polished steel case and solid Heuer-02 automatic chronograph movement. So far, so familiar. But it’s the details that really make this watch live up to its “by collectors, for collectors” tag line. Calibre 11 and TAG…