INTRODUCING: The Piaget Polo Skeleton watch is now 30% thinner at 6.5mm thick
The Piaget Polo was first introduced in 1979, inspired by the jet-setting lifestyle and where luxury met sport. Its release coincided with Piaget becoming a sponsor for Polo tournaments around the world. Yves Piaget personally loved to attend these events, their glamour, sport, and spontaneity inspiring the Polo watch design. The Piaget Polo watch has changed a great deal since its release over 4 decades ago, the 2016 Piaget Polo S bringing the watch into a more price approachable metal and modern format. It was a tad controversial at the time, with some drawing comparisons to the integrated designs of Audemars Piguet and Patek Philippe. Regardless of where you stand in that conversation, today the collection introduces a watch irrefutably tied to Piaget’s identity: the Piaget Polo Skeleton. When discussing the art of ultra-thin watchmaking, Piaget is invariably part of the conversation. Other manufacturers produce super thin watches, sure, but the pursuit for the ultimate in thin ultra-thin watchmaking is a core component of Piaget’s heritage. In 1957, Piaget introduced their renowned ultra thin caliber 9P which was only 2mm thick. Three years later, they introduced the 12P movement – the world’s thinnest self winding movement at the time with…
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Watch manufacturers usually get it right when it comes to their factory configurations. But people’s tastes vary a lot. Sometimes you might feel a design could use a touch more flair or may even need to be scaled back a bit. Buyers normally have to rely on their imaginations to play dress up with their strap monsters, often buying straps online and hoping when they arrive they live up to whatever they’d pictured in their mind. But Hublot is making this experience easier and a whole lot more fun. Through their Hublot Strap Customiser Tool, visitors to the Hublot site can now play watch designer and, if they like what they see, even purchase the configuration for themselves. I decided to try it out for myself, and here are three configurations I think really work (or at least make a great second option to the original configuration). Hublot Classic Fusion Titanium ref. 542.NX.1171.RX The Hublot Classic Fusion Titanium ref. 542.NX.1171.RX is 42mm in diameter, 50 metres water-resistant and runs on the HUB1110 self-winding movement with 42 hours of power reserve. The Classic Fusion is a nice daily wearer that works well for both casual and formal settings. It comes on…
It was way back in 1969 that the first-ever gold Omega Speedmaster rolled off the production line, made for one wrist in particular – that of Richard Nixon. The caseback was engraved to read: RICHARD M. NIXON – PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES – “to mark man’s conquest of space with time, through time, on time”, and was to be a marker of the success that NASA had enjoyed throughout the 1960s. Unsurprisingly, public officials can’t accept gold watches from private companies, and the watch has sat in the Omega Museum ever since, offering a pristine reference for all of the gold Omega Speedmasters that have followed, including the latest Sedna gold Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch Professional Co-Axial Master Chronometer Chronograph 42mm. There have only been a relative handful of gold Speedies produced over the years, including the yellow gold Apollo XI from 1980, the white gold Apollo XI 25th edition released in 1994 and more recently the Moonshine gold Apollo 11 50th Anniversary Limited Edition from 2019. This makes any gold Speedmaster a pretty exciting release, but what makes the 2021 precious metal release particularly enticing is that it is not a limited edition watch (for the first time since…
Melbourne isn’t known as a hotbed of horological activity. Indeed, Patek Philippe was founded more than a decade earlier than Melbourne was even recognised as a city. But that hasn’t stopped Melbourne watchmaker John Robert Wristwatches announcing their Archetype collection this week that’s inspired by the dress watches of the 1950s and 60s only with a few modern tricks up its sleeve. As the city is twice as close to Antarctica as it is to Geneva, you might think it’d lack the technical chops you’re used to seeing from well-made Swiss or Japanese watches. But the John Robert Wristwatches Archetype collection proves that the tyranny of distance is a challenge that can definitely be overcome. The case The John Robert Wristwatches Archetype collection offers six different references in total, with an automatic movement or a High Accuracy Quartz (HAQ) caliber all featuring the choice of blue, white or charcoal dials. True to their mid-century inspiration, the 316L stainless steel cases measure 38mm in diameter, with a practical 20mm lug width. While not examples of ultra-thin watchmaking, the cases are also kept slender with the automatic references measuring 12.4mm thick, while the HAQ sits just 11.4mm thick. All of the watches…
IWC make some incredible watches and are particularly known for their pilot creations with their crisp and highly legible dials. The IWC Timezoner is one such watch with a large case and dial, 24-hour time display and corresponding world timer rotating bezel. The watch, in its standard production configuration, is actually a chronograph – with a 24-hour hand instead of a window. The previous Timezoner without a chronograph complication was a 2019 limited edition, the IWC Pilot’s Watch Timezoner Edition “The Longest Flight”, which had a black dial with fauxtina coloured SuperLuminova® and a 24-hour time display window uniquely tied to and controlled by the ceramic bi-directional bezel. They have now introduced a second and limited entry into the Timezoner collection: the IWC Pilot’s Watch Timezoner Edition “Le Petit Prince”. This watch shares the same diameter and case profile of the “Longest Flight” edition at 46mm in diameter in stainless steel. It’s as large as their iconic Big Pilot watch, but is half a millimetre thinner at 15mm thick. This is kind of surprising when you think about it, as bezels normally result in a thicker timepiece. It has a depth rating of 60 metres and a screw-down crown –…
The expression “luxury sports watch” is often hideously misused and exaggerated. But here the Louis Vuitton Tambour Damier Graphite Race Chronograph leaves you in no doubt. Serious swagger and hyper-fresh pops of green are the order of the day to bring a bright spark of sharp contemporary design into a world of vintage homage. First Impressions Well, what can I say, this watch is neither small nor demure, and that’s exactly what we need – not everyone wants a quietly spoken 38mm skindiver, and this is nothing of the sort. The first time I lay my hands on it I’m mostly awestruck by the audacity of Louis Vuitton releasing a 46mm sports watch when every other reference out there seems to be shrinking and hiding quietly under the slimmest cuff. This wants to be strapped on maybe even on the outside of your shirt, Gianni Agnelli style (Google it). In short, it begs to be shown off. The Tambour case and rubber strap In this rather large case, LV manages to create a very comfortable wearing sports chronograph, as the recognisable Tambour case is a silky smooth pebble of comfort. PVD-treated steel creates comfort on the wrist and a perfectly…
It’s late January, which means it’s LVMH Watch Week, an event where the watch departments of Bulgari, Hublot and Zenith unleash their new novelties for the year. For Hublot in 2021, we enjoyed a number of updates to existing collections, including a totally new colour of sapphire crystal in the Big Bang Tourbillon Automatic, a ceramic expansion of the Big Bang Integral collection and the Big Bang MP-11 now in Magic Gold. But we were also treated to an exciting new reference that should quicken the pulse of fans of Takashi Murakami. The Hublot Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami All Black takes the famous “smiling flower” motif of the cult Japanese artist and lets it bloom into horological form. Using the Classic Fusion as a base template, the watch is constructed from 45mm of black ceramic and is paired with the black rubber strap that Hublot is so famous for. For those who follow Takashi Murakami’s high-impact work, you might be surprised to see the monochromatic tones of this collaboration watch, but the liveliness of the dial does more for the watch than colour ever could. Set with 563 black diamonds, the dial features one of Murakami’s most well-known motifs in…
The Swiss maisons are at it again, bringing their entire arsenal of craftsmanship to celebrate the Chinese New Year. As we all know, the Chinese market is huge and a great reason for watch brands to bring out the big guns. By big guns, however, we really mean the opposite here, as tiny instruments and loupes are dusted off to bring artisanal handmade details to the forefront and start off 2021 with an artful bang. Chopard L.U.C XP Urushi Spirit of Shi Chen Lustrous gold meets inky black framed in the classic L.U.C case from Chopard that offers a perfect balance of pebble-round comfort and swoopy lugs. The 40mm dial is a beautifully crafted surface of the Urushi lacquer we know from the best wristworn examples of Japanese craftsmanship, here delightfully integrated into Chopard’s design. The dial has a large crescent-shaped window in the upper half of the dial displaying the animals from the Chinese cycle of the Zodiac, with a balanced Chinese symbol in the centre. This large and engagingly symmetrical symbol of prosperity lends an almost architectural formality to the background. Arrowhead indices and the contemporary sword hands of the L.U.C series brings a sharp modernity that works,…
Back in November, we were treated to two new releases from Grand Seiko to honour the founding of the Seiko brand. As we covered, 2021 marks the 160th anniversary of the birth of founder Kintaro Hattori and the 140th anniversary of the birth of the Seiko Corporation. Hattori, at the age of 21, would create what would later become Seikosha and eventually the Seiko Corporation we have all become so fond of. Now that 2021 has arrived, Seiko is joining in on the celebration to help kick off the new year – and there is a lot to like about the new Seiko SSH083 and SPB205. The watches each capture picturesque elements of Japan with the SSH083 embodying cherry blossoms lit by the night sky and the SPB205 evoking Tokyo at dawn. Both watches really stand out within the catalogue through their “super-hard black coatings” that result in an appealing stealthy sharpness. Seiko Astron GPS Solar Dual-Time 5X53 SSH083 The Seiko Astron GPS Solar Dual-Time 5X53 SSH083 is 42.7mm in diameter and 13.3mm thick. The 100 metre water-resistant case is inspired by 1969 Quartz Astron cases, and features Grand Seiko-like geometries with contrasting polished and satin-brushed surfaces. The bracelet is…
One of my favourite traits of the Octo catalogue from Bulgari is its matte, smooth and very quiet elegance. While the endlessly creative Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, Bulgari’s chief watch designer, continually sets the bar ever higher, it’s mostly done without the flash and bang of complications. But this week we saw the debut of the Bulgari Octo Roma Carillon Tourbillon. While Bulgari has created some more demonstrative pieces – like the sinous dynamic of the Serpenti series – the brand’s emphasis is generally on the understated style and fascinating angular design of the unique Octo case. On the back of that, Bulgari is now renowned for its paper-thin wristwear. But this dark testament to Haute Horlogerie is one of a strong deck of ultra complex cards in the Roma range. This watch combines a tourbillon with a repeater striking a three-hammer chime all packaged up in a stealthy dark suit that hints at the wondrous complexity within. For connoisseurs of the Bulgari brand, the DNA of the minimalist Finissimo Minute Repeater Carbon is mixed with the dramatic opulence of the Grande Sonnerie Perpetual Calendar, two milestones from the maison’s top tier. The dark case is anything but small, yet it’s…