Saxony has been a fertile ground for some of the most remarkable horological innovations. The Lange 1 Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar with its impressive technique and perfect craftsmanship is in perfect keeping with the A. Lange & Söhne great tradition. Introduced in 2013, this masterpiece is now presented in discreet white gold with an exquisite grey dial.
When Audemars Piguet first showed the Royal Oak Concept Supersonnerie in SIHH this year, the halls were abuzz with collectors and journalists asking each other if they have already heard the sound of the minute repeater. Most reports then was that the sound is very loud, very clear, but perhaps needed a bit more tuning to sound beautiful. Fast…
With SIHH 2017 looming, Vacheron Constantin delivers an incredible statement of high horology in the form of an extraordinary striking watch, the Vacheron Constantin Traditionnelle minute repeater tourbillon. This delicately crafted model is adds one of watchmaking’s most lauded complications to the Traditionnelle line, an art…
The Parisian brand Bell & Ross is most known for creating aviation inspired watches in a bold, squared style. Of course the collection consists of much more, including round cased watches, like the Vintage collection or the Aeronavale collection. Although most of these are still highly derived from avionics, Bell & Ross is also embarking into the world of automotive and racing-inspired watches. They have teamed-up with Renault F1 as an official timing partner for this year (more on that later in a dedicated chapter of our Watches and Formula 1 series) and now offer the BR-X1 RS16 and BR-X1 RS16 Tourbillon. We’ve had the chance to go hands-on, inside the Renault F1 facility in Enstone, the birthplace of Formula 1.
The watch we’ll test today is worth of a chronometric contest. It has been created with a unique goal in mind: being as accurate as possible, in all positions and during the whole range of its power reserve. Usually, we would have written a review exposing the case, the dial, the finishing or the wearability of the piece. However, with the Arnold & Son Constant Force Tourbillon, this would have been short. We had to test it, and when I mean “test”, I mean looking at it on a watchmaker’s bench, with professional measuring tools. So here we are, with the test (and not the review) of this demonstration piece, and answers about the utility of such complex devices in a watch.
When in 2015 Vacheron Constant presented the Harmony, it was already an entire collection, comprising a simple Dual Time, a small size chronograph (women-oriented), a Monopusher Chronograph (the superb 3300), a Tourbillon Chronograph and a stunning ref. 3500 ultra-thin, automatic, split-seconds chronograph. Even if there was no new editions at the 2016 Edition of the SIHH, which was entirely focussed on the Overseas, it’s time now for the Harmony Collection to see evolutions. As a sort of early Pre-SIHH, here are several new Vacheron Constantin Harmony models, including a brand new and elegant Complete Calendar Moonphase and new iterations of existing versions.
The Ingenieur collection has traditionally been IWC’s answer to the tool watch. It shot to fame and became an icon during the Gerald Genta era. Together with the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, the Vacheron Constantin Overseas and Patek Philippe’s Nautilus, the IWC Ingenieur was as its name suggests, a robust, non-cosmetic tool watch. It was well…
This year, at the SIHH 2016, Montblanc continued to impressed us with a new watch, the ExoTourbillon Slim, an elegant, luxurious and technically complex watch, which includes the brand’s latest innovation, the ExoTourbillon. This watch not only have a tourbillon regulator that clearly stands out of the crowd, with unique technical solutions, but it is also an extremely good “value for money” offer, in the actual accessible luxury motto of Montblanc. We, at Monochrome-Watches, decided that this watch and its regulator needed to be explained in details, and for that we’ve been visiting the Montblanc Manufacture in Villeret and asked Davide Cerrato, Managing Director of Montblanc Watch Division, to tell us everything about the ExoTourbillon.
Peter Speake-Marin is going back to his roots with a tourbillon, after an incursion in the world of sports watches. This complication is of very special significance for him. This is a good reason to take a closer look at his Magister Tourbillon, bringing together a host of details characteristics of his watch design we have been enjoying for some 15 years.
What do we know about Roger Dubuis? Well, to make it short, Roger Dubuis is a proper manufacture of Haute Horlogerie, creating extremely refined skeleton movements, and being the only brand to have its entire production stamped with the Hallmark of Geneva (and that alone must already give an indication of the beauty of the production…). Roger Dubuis is also a combination of complex mechanisms with a unique design, bold, sporty and clearly recognizable. Well, all of that can be seen in the latest addition to the catalogue, the Roger Dubuis Excalibur Spider Skeleton Flying Tourbillon, which now receive colored stones incrusted in its rubber bezel.