Breguet travel watches and the spirit of exploration – the Hora Mundi ref. 5717
Editor’s note: Breguet has a remarkable history of producing clocks and watches that were designed for travel. Whether it’s the marine chronometers made to set sail across the world’s oceans, or the more conventional GMT wristwatch, the brand has always understood the human urge to seek what is over the horizon. With the Hora Mundi ref. 5717, we have a GMT complication, but not as you’re used to seeing. Let’s take a closer look. The remarkable Hora Mundi ref. 5717 made its first appearance in 2011, to an enthusiastic reception. Then, in 2016, when Breguet launched an updated version (ref. 5727) they spoke of it as a replacement for the original. But some things are simply too special to discontinue. Thank goodness – for we rarely encounter a watch that combines technical genius, great beauty and immense charm in the way that this version of Hora Mundi does. For those of us who are constantly on the move, a multiple time-zone complication is one of the most useful things to have in a watch – and, unsurprisingly, it’s offered by almost all of the top makers. More surprising, though, is how little variety there is in the style of display:…
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Editor’s note: Today, love is in the air. Florists are being run off their feet, restaurants are booked out and Cupid has spent the week on the archery range. If you’re planning to get a gift for your significant other, you’d better hurry up, but don’t forget to make sure your gift is a romantic one. As the air is thick with passion this fine Friday, we can’t help but consider one of the most expressively passionate watches of the last few years, the Franck Muller Cintrée Curvex ladies tourbillon. Complete with a heart-shaped tourbillon cage, diamond-set flanks and an intimately curved case that wraps around the wrist, it’s a watch that shouts to the world that romance is far from dead. In a world overflowing with safe-and-similar watch designs, Franck Muller is a breath of fresh air. As in this ladies tourbillon (a recent addition to the Cintrée Curvex Collection), the confident use of colour, the beautiful balance of traditional and avant-garde, the refined details on the dial, and the voluptuous curves of the case have been signatures of the brand since it was founded by the eponymous Mr Muller 28 years ago. For anyone whose interest in watches…
Editor’s note: The Seiko SRP77X collection — watches known affectionately as the Seiko Turtle — are unendingly popular with watch collectors and enthusiasts alike for their clean dive watch aesthetic and almost unbeatable value for money. The large cushion case reminds of the shell of a turtle, but it also reminds of the heyday of the mechanical dive watch, in the 1970s before diving computers were all you needed to accompany you into the depths. If you’re just dipping your toe into the watch world and are looking for your first good watch that will look great and won’t let you down, you could do much worse than the SRP77X family. If you’ve been collecting watches for a decade and are after something you can wear every day and offers an exceptionally reasonable price point, this could be for you too. The story in a second: The Seiko Turtle offers a winning combination of heritage and quality at a supremely wallet-friendly price. Seiko dive watches have a massive — at times fanatical — following. It’s these guys and gals who are responsible for giving the brand’s cryptically coded watches their colourful nicknames – the Tuna, Monster, Sumo and, in this case, the Turtle. Officially, the Turtles we’re looking…
Editor’s note: At a quick glance, the world of high-end dress watches appears relatively same-same, with the important qualities of each piece only coming to light under much closer inspection. Most dress watches will be time-only, offer a simple dial, and arrive on a leather strap, but as you look closer, you will notice the shape of the hands, the application of hour markers and dial text and the dial material before you even inspect the movement. The Breguet Classique 5177 offers exactly this visual feast of minutiae, with its glossy Grand Feu enamel dial, Breguet-style hands and an intricacy in the hour markers rarely seen. Let’s take a closer look. If there was the platonic ideal of a dress watch, I’m willing to bet that it would look a lot like Breguet’s Classique: simple, elegant, restrained. But for all that, it’s a watch full of subtle nuance and fine details — details that separate it from the rest of the pack. The white gold case, fluted around the middle, is perfectly circular, something accentuated by that rounded, polished bezel, and the abrupt angularity of the welded, rounded lugs. Inside this 38mm case lies the Cal. 777Q, an automatic equipped…
Editor’s note: If it can be the daily wear of James Bond, it can be yours, too. But how does the Omega Seamaster Professional 300M actually wear on the wrist? If you haven’t had the pleasure of experiencing one in the metal, it’s a must, because while the brief of making a daily watch might seem simple, it is much harder to execute than you’d expect, and the watch colloquially known as the SMP gets it just right. Let’s take a closer look at why it is so successful. We all love a birthday. And watch brands love them as much as anyone – an excuse to celebrate, a hook for a new collection. At Baselworld 2018, Omega marked the 25th anniversary of the Seamaster Professional Diver 300M (aka the James Bond watch) with a revamp. It was the SMP that kicked off Omega’s relationship with the Bond franchise, becoming something of a late-1990s icon as Pierce Brosnan wore a series of tricked-out, weaponised versions of the watch over the course of four movies. Vital statistics With 14 new variations – six in stainless steel and eight in steel-gold combos, three dial colours and a choice of rubber strap or…
Editor’s note: It’s certainly refreshing to witness a timepiece that breaks the archetypal aesthetic tendencies of a fit-for-purpose dive watch. Thing is though, new and innovative divers don’t come around too often … most watchmakers tend to play it pretty safe when it comes to making an amphibious timekeeping device. However, Bell & Ross certainly did buck the trend when they unveiled the BR 03-92 Diver a few years back. We were fortunate enough at the time to go HANDS-ON with the square divers watch, and you can watch the video review below. Enjoy. Some people say that a leopard can’t change its spots, and you know what? Some people are wrong, as the Bell & Ross BR 03-92 Diver clearly proves. The French watch brand earned their stripes with an impressive array of aviation watches, centred on the square, cockpit-inspired BR 03 case. Well, it turns out that this large, striking design works just as well at depth as it does at altitude. The BR 03-92 Diver is a remarkably smart underwater repurposing of the brand’s famous form. But really, not too much had to be changed. A bezel was added, as was a screw-down crown. The trademark Arabic…
Since the Rolex lineup is peppered with all-stars, like the perennially popular Submariner, crowd favourite GMT-Master II and boy-racer Daytona, it would be easy to overlook the basic Oyster Perpetual as simply filler for the (nowadays usually empty) display case. After spending a week with the new-for-2018 white dial variant, I advise you not to write it off because what we have here is a time-only watch that punches well above its weight class. The formula Consumers are generally trained to think that quality increases proportionally with cost and this can be true with a lot of goods and services in our world. At its retail price, the Oyster Perpetual 39 is one of the least expensive mainstream Rolex models, yet there is no discernible difference in the way it has been constructed relative to, say, a Day-Date. Yes, the Day-Date is made of hefty gold, but aside from the materials and weight, the Oyster Perpetual 39 and Day-Date make it very clear they come from the same factory with the same manufacturing principles. As its name suggests, this watch is 39mm in size which many people now consider to be “just right” in terms of a comfortable fit and…