INTRODUCING: The Panerai Luminor Marina PAM01117, a watch guaranteed to last for the full term of your natural life
We often hear that mechanical watches last forever when given the love and attention they require. That’s part of the reason why they can command such high price tags, and even more in the long run when you factor in a service every five years, give or take. But really, we all know that a watch is subject to just as much wear and tear as anything else — metal scratches, rubber perishes, things break. Warranties can give some small peace of mind within the typical two to five year window, but what if you knew for certain that your timepiece would last a lifetime? The new Panerai Luminor Marina PAM01117 comes with just that peace of mind — a 70-year warranty to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the original luminous material dubbed Luminor. While the Luminor of old is no longer in use, the Italian designers ensure that the modern Super-LumiNova is slathered not just beneath the sandwich dial but also integrated within the bezel, crown guard, crown itself, and the thread of the blue woven-nylon strap. Even though the power reserve lasts three days, you may find yourself wearing it 24-7. At first in the day to make sure…
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Editor’s note: This week on Micro Mondays we focus our gaze on a British brand that has made waves in the space over the last few years, delivering affordably priced watches with ample character to make them stand out from an increasingly crowded segment of the market. Farer are not immune to taking cues from the watches of the last century, but do so in a way that pays respect to the adventurous spirit of early tool watches, while at the same time bringing them into the 21st century with playful moments of colour and reliable contemporary movements. This year the brand is celebrating its fifth birthday, no mean feat in the age of crowdfunding campaigns that sometimes cannot even make the step from render on a screen to metal on a wrist. As a result, their success cannot be viewed through the lens of chance, but is, in fact, the result of consistently making watches that an ever-growing in-the-know community of enthusiasts are excited to strap on their wrists. In specific focus is the Farer Oxley GMT, a wristwatch that breathes new life into the increasingly unaffordable category of robust travel watches, something that is particularly poignant at a…
Certain expertise has always been found in specific parts of the world, creating hubs of creativity and technical innovation. So what would happen if you put the watchmaking nous of La Chaux-de-Fonds and the tech capability of Silicon Valley together into a watch? You get the TAG Heuer Connected watch, generation 3. The first generation of the Connected watch was released in 2015 (the same year as the first Apple Watch), followed quickly by the second in 2017. This year, we get more of a quantum leap than an incremental improvement. The generation 3 is two things: the most technically advanced and yet most mechanical watch-like yet. When the first generation was released, it offered features that had rarely been seen in a smartwatch at that time, with Spotify and Google Maps offering a degree of connectedness that was leading edge. In the most recent generation, those features that were once a novelty are now standard, and TAG Heuer has continued to lift the bar in terms of what’s on offer. For this generation, TAG Heuer have partnered with Google. The watch is powered by Google’s Wear OS software that offers the laundry list of features you might have seen…
Watch customisation is now a field you can get into at high and low price points, but it’s still fair to say that going bespoke with a quality watch fit for the Ministry of Defence for example, is generally reserved for the upper echelons of independent watchmaking. And up at a price point where you might be paying six figures for a watch before you can ask for a different dial colour — and only if you are seen as a very good client. Most watch brands flat-out refuse to do it, a practice that has given birth to the aftermarket customisation business (that is, a third-party jeweller or watchmaker will make your desired adjustments once you’ve bought it from the brand), which is polarising to say the least. In that context, it is a welcome surprise to learn about the new customisation service from Bremont, available on their MBII model. Using an online configurator (click here to have a go yourself), you are able to design your own Bremont MBII with different case finishing, case barrels (the flanks of the MBII), dials, casebacks and straps. All in all, there are more than 100 different designs you can create with just…
It takes an iron will to walk past an A. Lange & Söhne dealer without losing a few minutes of your day. The German masters ensure their collections soar above the competition, bewitching onlookers and dominating wish-lists around the world. If you’re lucky, dead in the centre of the captivating display will be a Zeitwerk Minute Repeater — the ‘digital’ watch that redefined the holy grail of complications. Now, to celebrate five years since its launch, A. Lange & Söhne have created a limited edition of 30 Zeitwerk Minute Repeaters with a striking blue dial and white gold case. If you’re unfamiliar with the idea behind the Zeitwerk family, don’t let the word ‘digital’ fool you. The timepieces are entirely mechanical, however they display the time with easily legible digits instead of hands. The premise is simple, having been perfected by Casio decades ago, but the execution for a machine with no LCD screens or batteries is astonishingly tough. Using a series of rings for the hours and minutes, a specialised constant-force escapement keeps the jumping lightning quick and accurate — even when the mainspring is running low on power. As if redefining mechanical watchmaking wasn’t enough, A. Lange &…
The story of the Portugieser begins with two businessmen from, you guessed it, Portugal. They went to IWC asking for a watch as accurate as a marine chronometer but could be worn on the wrist, something that hadn’t been done before by the brand. The only way the Schaffhausen-based manufacturer could meet the brief was to house a pocket watch movement in a wristwatch case, thus giving birth to the oversized Portugieser we know today. The original Portugieser watch was the ref. 325, a 41.5mm wristwatch with a subsidiary second dial, bold Arabic numerals to mark the hours, and powered by the most accurate pocket watch movements that IWC made. This satisfied the exacting demands of the first two Portugieser customers, and began the story of one of the strongest, and most durable, watch designs of all time. This year we are seeing an extension to this important collection, including the new IWC Portugieser Automatic 40, one of the closest renditions of the original watch that has been produced by the brand. It is a slight departure from the time-only Portugieser watches that have been made in recent years, with the case size dropped to 40.4mm. This is a decision…
This year, Cartier are shining the spotlight on the pioneering age of aviation as a source of inspiration. And that brings to the fore the wristwatch that started it all, the Santos-Dumont. The model returned to prominence in 2019 with the quartz Cartier Santos-Dumont. While the Cartier family and Brazilian inventor Alberto Santos-Dumont are inexorably linked through his role in their development of the first-ever men’s wristwatch, it is exciting to see his work used as a motif in a series of limited editions this year. One of the most striking of these limited editions is the Cartier Santos-Dumont “La Demoiselle”, a platinum wristwatch that references an aircraft developed by Mr Santos-Dumont in 1907. The Santos-Dumont Demoiselle aircraft was built to compete in the Grand Prix d’Aviation. In order to promote aircraft development, a 50,000 franc prize was offered to the first person able to fly an aircraft around a circular 1km circuit. It would also be the last aircraft that Santos-Dumont would build. For Cartier to name a watch after this important aircraft is a fitting tribute to the man who invented it, and an appropriate way to celebrate a pivotal moment in the history of what was then a French jewellery company.…
The best thing about perpetual calendar watches is they are truly set-and-forget timepieces. So if you’re reading this a few decades from now and you’ve picked up a 2020 Vacheron Constantin Overseas Perpetual Calendar as a birth-year watch, don’t worry, it won’t need to be adjusted till well into your retirement in 2100. Vacheron Constantin have released two new perpetual calendars in the Overseas collection this year, and while they have a lot of similarities, the impression they each leave you with couldn’t be more different. Vacheron Constantin Overseas Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin Skeleton First, let’s look at the Vacheron Constantin Overseas Perpetual Calendar in pink gold with skeleton dial. As far as complicated-looking luxury sports watches go, this one is exceptionally clean looking for all that is going on. While some skeletonised dials can fall into the trap of looking overly ornate or garishly exposed, or just plain busy, this watch is none of those things, giving a nod to the Vacheron Constantin history of skeleton dials while remaining contemporary in its execution. The prominent calendar sub-dials return some legibility and some symmetry to a dial that can look messy and confusing, while the floating gold hour markers and hands…
The translucent blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea often conjure images of beach towels draped over deckchairs, shade umbrellas and Aperol Spritz, offering sunbakers relief from a cloudless sky, and small fishing boats rocking back and forth not far from shore. It is this idyllic scene that Panerai has embraced with their latest collection of limited edition Radiomir Mediterraneo pieces (reminiscent of their 2018 collection). The PAM01144 Radiomir 42mm Mediterraneo Edition and the PAM01078 Radiomir 45mm Mediterraneo Edition are both replete with rich blue fumé dials that seek to offer a moment of tranquility when you aren’t on the Amalfi Coast enjoying an afternoon apéritif. Looking at the larger of the two watches, the PAM01078 Radiomir 45mm Mediterraneo Edition has its size considerably offset by the use of brushed titanium to case the watch. This makes it substantially lighter on the wrist than steel. In comparison, the PAM01144 Radiomir 42mm Mediterraneo Edition has 3mm shaved from its diameter and is cased in polished 316L steel, which has the effect of altering the proportions slightly from its larger sibling, and a case that will actually gleam in the sunlight. Both watches feature the sunburst brushed blue fumé dials, khaki-tone lume for…