Watch Dandy

The Triple Bridges holds a special place in the history of Girard-Perregaux, as does the tourbillon. In 1867, a watch with three bridges and one tourbillon won a prize for chronometry at Neuchâtel Observatory, and the distinctive design became a de facto logo for the brand. The striking design of the triple arrow-headed bridges is undeniably pleasing, but its origins weren’t aesthetic. Constant Girard conceived this design as a method of ensuring the tourbillon was as accurate as possible. From its initial appearance in 1867, the design evolved, and was patented (with the US Patent Office) in 1884. In 1889, the watchmaker unveiled Esmeralda, a tour de force pocket watch with three golden bridges, a tourbillon and a pivoted detent escapement. This was at the Paris Universal Exhibition, where it won the gold medal and became forever enshrined in the canon of Girard-Perregaux’s watchmaking. In the subsequent 100-odd years, GP has made many more tourbillons with triple bridges, holding true to a design that is undeniably classic but still remarkably relevant, as you can see from this well-sized 40mm version in pink gold. Girard-Perregaux has smartly pared back everything else, aside from the titular bridges and tourbillon. Nothing detracts the…

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You’d be forgiven if you missed the Jaquet Droz Petite Heure Minute Relief Dog when it was released at Baselworld as a novelty piece as part of the brand’s Ateliers d’Art collection. However, once you’ve seen it, it truly is hard to forget. The JD PHM Relief Dog was created specifically to celebrate The Year of the Dog, which is the eleventh of the 12-year cycle of animals that appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. Now, aside from the caseback, which we will get to, the dial on the PHM Relief Dog really is something special, thanks to an extraordinary amount of detail and craftsmanship. With just hour and minute hands, Jaquet Droz have kept functionality simple on this time-only watch, creating a piece that is about the more delicate details. The dial really is a showpiece, featuring an 18k yellow gold hand-engraved Pekingese dog playing with butterflies under plum trees, which are made from 23k yellow gold. A black onyx subdial pops against the passionate red cuprite dial, which itself is an unusual dial material (cuprite is an oxide mineral composite). Movement-wise, the in-house Jaquet Droz 2653.Si, with a 68-hour power reserve, will keep the…

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If, like me, indecisiveness is your middle name, choosing your next watch can be hard. That may seem like nothing more than a #firstworldproblem to the uninitiated, but to me, I prefer to think of it as a rewarding methodical process, a “journey to better beginnings” if you will. Let’s face it, though, sometimes it’s just too damn hard. It’s a journey that friend of Time+Tide, Anthony Do, knows all too well. An avid photographer and self-confessed watchnerd, the struggle is real for Anthony as he goes to and fro over the pros and cons of which of TAG Heuer’s astounding Autavia re-releases is for him. Well, we’re here for you, Anthony – even if it’s just to tempt you and make it that little bit harder for you to decide. I’ve compiled a list of every reimagination of the awesome Heuer-02 Autavia I could find. First up, where did it all begin? My watch journey started with a TAG Heuer Carrera Chrono, gifted to me by my now wife for our engagement about a decade ago. Since then, many watches have come and left my collection. In fact, my friends think of me as a ‘serial watch flipper’, but I like…

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In a battle that’s been brewing since the dawn of Time (and Tide, in 2014), Andrew and Felix finally pick up the tools and take on the challenge of taking apart and then rebuilding a manually wound movement. We lay our scene at the Omega Service Centre in Melbourne, and the occasion is somewhat of a celebration around the announcement that Omega has upgraded its Manufacturer’s Warranty on all watches to a whopping five years — three years longer than the industry’s standard warranty of two years, which is demanded by European law. Unlike most other manufacturers that offer five years warranty on certain models, Omega is offering it on all of them. To prove the importance of servicing, we thought it was an opportune time to reveal the delicate innards of your watch and the expertise you are employing when you have a trained watchmaker see to its servicing. To make it interesting, we thought it would be fun to play watchmakers for a day, while engaging in a deadly serious (lol) rebuild battle across three criteria: speed, efficiency and accuracy. We asked you in a poll who you thought would win. The results were in favour of Felix to the…

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