INTRODUCING: The Bremont H-4 Hercules
The history of aviation is full of famous planes. For better or worse, planes like the Spirit of St. Louis, the Enola Gay and the Southern Cross are landmark machines in the evolution of the flying machine. But few vehicles loom larger in popular culture (or indeed reality) than the epic H-4 Hercules, popularly known as the Spruce Goose. With a wingspan measuring an incredible 97.5 metres across, the H-4 Hercules is the largest flying boat ever built, and a result of the passion (some would say obsession) of aviator, engineer, film director and billionaire Howard Hughes. Originally conceived as a World War II heavy-lift transport, delays meant that the plane wasn’t completed until after the war ended. But the scale of the H-4 Hercules cannot be understated. In addition to its massive wingspan, the tail was as tall as an eight-storey building, and powered by eight radial Pratt & Whitney engines generating 24,000 horsepower required to lift the 400,000 pound, fully loaded plane. What’s even more remarkable is that, to keep the weight down, the entire plane was built around a birch (not spruce) frame. Numerous other innovations were developed to deal with the scale of the Spruce Goose, including…
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Cartier is a brand that doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but instead gradually evolves their designs over decades, refining and purifying their core look with each year that goes by. For their latest collection, released at SIHH 2019, the focus was the Cartier Santos-Dumont, a dress watch that is both classically sized and slim, offering one of the most refined pieces of Cartier design we have seen in recent years. The new Cartier Santos-Dumont is available in two sizes (38mm x 27.5mm for the small model, and 43.5mm x 31.4mm for the large model) and both have managed to stay rakishly slender at 7.3mm. This is made possible by the high-autonomy quartz movement (with a strong battery life of six years), which not only keeps the watch well under the cuff, but also makes it available at a price point that is pretty uncommon for Cartier. Inevitably, there will be some who won’t have their pulse quickened by mention of the word quartz, but for others looking for access to an icon not just in the Cartier archives but the history of watch design, it is now easier than ever. In terms of design, the Santos-Dumont is distinctly Cartier with a…
On the face of it, Blancpain’s elegant Villeret Quantième Complet 8 Jours — or, if you don’t parlez vous, Complete Calendar 8 Days — is exactly the sort of thing you’d expect from the dressier family of one of Switzerland’s old marques. But once you get past the numerous traditional points — the day/month apertures, the smiling moon, that idiosyncratic waving pointer date and double-stepped case — you’ll find a watch that’s much more modern than it first appears. The great thing about this Blancpain is that the innovations are very under-the-radar, and made with the wearer in mind. The calendar complications are all adjusted via ingenious under-lug correctors, which can be manipulated with your fingernail. This means you don’t need to worry about unsightly micro-adjusters on the otherwise smooth profile, or indeed losing the special tool needed to adjust them. Additionally, the calendar complications are secured, which is quite a big deal, as with many more complex calendar watches, if you manually adjust the functions when they are in the process of changing (typically around midnight), you risk doing serious damage. That Blancpain has circumvented this issue is smart, and just the sort of not-so-flashy watchmaking that shows they have…
Editor’s note: OK, I’m not sure how many sides of the moon actually exist but, according to Omega and their collection of “… Side Of The Moon” special edition Speedmasters, it’s several. And while all the iterations of these Speedmasters are very fetching-looking timepieces, this example, the Omega Co‑Axial Master Chronometer Moonphase Chronograph — Blue Side Of The Moon, has got to be in the discussion as one of the best models so far. For a start, and unlike other models in the range, it’s equipped with Omega’s staggering Calibre 9904, which offers a great deal of features including METAS-approved Master Chronometer Certification, magnetic resistance rated up to 15,000 gauss, chronograph complication, date complication, moonphase complication and 60 hours of power reserve. What’s more, the 44.25mm case is hewn from blue ceramic and also utilises Omega’s Liquidmetal bezel, which benefits from a traditional tachymeter display. And the Blue Side Of The Moon sports sapphire crystal on both the front and back of the case, which is then treated to an anti-reflective coating. It’s a truly impressive timepiece that offers a hell of a lot for its $18,000 price tag, and our man Felix Scholz was lucky enough to go hands-on with…
The Fifty Fathoms is a stalwart of the dive watch, dating back to 1953. And, as you might expect, the watch has seen a few revisions over the years, including ones like this, that stretch the boundaries of a rough-and-ready tool watch. Because a 45mm fully gold dive watch is a heck of a flex. On its own the red gold case would be attention-grabbing enough, but add the gorgeous blue ceramic dial and the Fifty Fathoms’ typical glossy sapphire bezel insert and you’ve got a watch that makes a very splashy statement. It’s also serious watchmaking, with an exceptional automatic ticking away inside that hefty case. And while purists can stick to the steel, I think there’s something fun — and undeniably luxurious — about turning the paradigm of utilitarian objects on their head, with the help of some precious metal. Blancpain Fifty Fathoms in red gold and blue ceramic dial price Blancpain Fifty Fathoms in red gold and blue ceramic, $47,050 AUD Made in partnership with Blancpain. However, the opinions expressed in this article are our own in accordance with our Editorial Policy.
The story in a second: The anOrdain Model 2 is an unbelievable dial at an unbelievable price. From where I’m sitting, 2019 has been a fairly quiet year on the watch front, thanks to a more fragmented release schedule than usual and a general sense of reticence on behalf of many big brands to push the boat out in what is euphemistically called a soft luxury market. Which is why the headline-grabbing hits have been few and far between. Don’t get me wrong, I think this is actually a pretty good state of affairs. The generally conservative slate of releases has been pretty good for the wearer: smart, incremental design upgrades benefit more people than brand new tourbillons (or whatever). It also means that people like me — professional watch reviewers — have to work a bit harder for their stories. I mean, there are only so many words we can write on a minor dial upgrade of an existing model. All this is a particularly long-winded way of saying that the anOrdain Model 2 is a watch I’ve been SUPER excited to get on my wrist since I first caught wind of it. Before I go into why I was…
The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms looks like a lot of other watches out there, and there’s a reason for that. The Fifty Fathoms was first. It was one of the first watches ever designed for diving and, as a result, has become almost the Universal Man of dive watches, where all watches that follow are derivative. Within the Fifty Fathoms family, there are many variations, but one of the most eye-catching of them all has inspired the reissue of the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Barakuda Limited Edition. Originally, the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms was designed for French navy divers known as Nageurs de combat, but the first Blancpain Barakuda was designed for an armed force over the border in Germany. Known at the time as the Bundesmarine, the German Navy needed a watch that was both easy to read and robust, and looked to Blancpain to produce them a watch that did both. The Barakuda was developed and issued to their own combat swimmers, and is characterised by its unique two-tone hour markers that feature a red strip at their base. In this reissue, the attention to detail is historically faithful, right down to the Automatique lettering, and proportions of the oversized hour…
For most of us today, snakes evoke a mixture of fascination and fear – but since Ancient times they have been a mythological symbol for countless cultures and civilisations. Although, in the Christian tradition, a serpent represented the devil in the Garden of Eden, snakes mostly had positive associations. For Native Americans, Mayans and Aztecs, Persians, Chinese, Hindus, Africans and Australian First Nation tribes, they represented, variously, power, wisdom, eternity, fertility, sexual desire, protection, and a direct link to ancestral spirits. Unsurprisingly, then, since humans first adorned their bodies with jewellery, snakes have been a constant motif – the shape of their sinuous bodies being perfectly suited to wrapping around wrists or necks. The Egyptian Pharaohs and Queens (we’ll come back to Cleopatra later) wore serpentine bracelets and adorned their headdresses with a rearing cobra to signify their quasi-divine status. From there, the powerful symbolism of snakes spread to Greece, becoming associated with Asclepius, the God of medicine (a serpent coiled around a rod remains the emblem of physicians to this day), and thence to Rome, where they represented wisdom and everlasting love. In the 19th century, Queen Victoria’s engagement ring – which took the form of an emerald and…
Editor’s note: I’m a big fan of the Heuer 01 from TAG Heuer. It’s a cool, modern watch that looks great in a whole bunch of executions. And, to my mind, one of the best is this fully black ceramic number. Sporty, stealthy and — dare we say it — sexy. In two short years, TAG Heuer’s Carrera Heuer 01 has gone from a single statement model to a fully fledged sub-collection, with something for everyone. Having said that, this stealthy, slightly smaller 43mm in matt black ceramic might just be the most versatile model yet. The case There are two noteworthy features of the case of the CAR2090: its size and material. First of all, the size. As I’ve said before, the 43mm Heuer 01 models are much friendlier to more wrists than the (frankly, pretty massive) 45mm versions. 43mm is still a large, modern sports case size that doesn’t — especially when coupled with the height required by the integrated chrono movement — lack anything in the wrist appeal department. Secondly, the material. The matt black ceramic case construction (with a stainless steel core and caseback for water resistance) doesn’t just look mean, it also means your watch…
Editor’s note: Watch people love nothing more than popping watches into genres or tropes. And while a lot of the time these categorisations can be a little, how shall we put it — arbitrary — in the case of Breguet’s Classique 7147 we’re pretty comfortable declaring this as a dress watch, and a dress watch in the truest and most classical sense. The Classique 7147 is the definition of a quiet achiever. It’s a simple, sturdy watch that does everything asked of it with style, and it does so with a sense of reserved assurance that only a watch with ‘Breguet’ on the dial can adequately muster. The purpose of this Breguet is to be a dress watch without equal. If you need a black-tie timepiece that speaks to tradition and classical style, without being yet another ho-hum exercise in derivative design, we suggest you make a beeline for the Classique 7147. The case The first thing you need to know about the 7147 is that it’s not a completely new design. Rather, it’s an update of the Classique 5140. From a distance these two timepieces look indistinguishable, but up close the 7147’s new body-work stands out. At 40mm it’s…