It’s always a major travesty when brands like Van Cleef & Arpels, Harry Winston and Jaquet Droz don’t get enough discussion simply because we miss the interesting calibres for the pretty Plique-à-jour enamel trees. It’s not hyperbole either when I describe the travesty as a major one, Van Cleef &…
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It is a commonly held belief that Gerald Genta’s Royal Oak watch launched in 1972, saved Audemars Piguet from collapse during the quartz crisis. However, the truth was the Royal Oak was almost universally panned when unveiled at the Baselworld Fair and there was another which played a crucial role – the Audemars Piguet…
On the left bank of the Rhone, a scant 10km away from Geneva’s city center ,sits Patek Philippe’s Home at Plan-Les-Ouates. “Ouates” is pronounced “whu-at” phonetically, lends the municipality an easy nickname derived from a phonetic pun symbolic of what the region has come to represent – Plan-Les-Watch; for Patek…
While the geometrical and avant garde case design of the octogonal Royal Oak might have captured our imaginations since the 70s, the legacy of Audemars Piguet’s watchmaking primacy goes beyond Genta’s winning design. Indeed, vintage Audemars Piguet Calendar watches have have long been recognized by collectors for their…
Invented in the 1930s, long before the proliferation of commercially available jet travel, world time watches captured the imagination of its onlookers with its dial; displaying real time in key cities across the planet’s 24 time zones. From exotic locales like Rio de Janeiro and Tahiti, the genius of Geneva watchmaker Louis Cottier…
Not too long ago, we responded to Bloomberg’s hyperbolic article about Coveted Swiss Watches being 3D printed by next Christmas, today, we are honoured to receive a response from Michiel Holthinrichs, a founder of Holthinrichs Watches and pioneer of the 3D printed watch.…
Editor’s Note: The watch industry is undergoing throes of turmoil. Is this just turbulence, or a major storm threatening danger is in the cards. Our Special Correspondent, Dr. Frank Müller (The Bridge to Luxury, TBTL) gives his assessment of the State of the Industry in this article. Opinions expressed are solely of TBTL. …
Following the strenuous, uncharted territory I traversed in Day 1, I approached Lange Akademie Day 2 with some trepidation; after all, our host Liza Zhu had already hinted that Robert Hoffmann, Head of Zeitwerk assembly would be taking us through the paces of one of A. Lange & Söhne’s vaunted quality control processes…
It was once stated that the Lange Akademie was, in the words of Luca Dondi, Brand Director atA. Lange & Söhne, “An exclusive event for experts and collectors to discover the excellence of Saxon watchmaking,” and so for over two days, I donned the overcoat of a watchmaker and remained in rapt attention as master watchmaker and…