EDITOR’S PICK: The ultimate IWC Pilot’s Chronograph?
Editor’s note: As far as birthdays go, 150 years is a whopper. And amongst all the shimmer and shine of IWC’s celebratory jubilee collection sits this lusciously lacquered new dial variant of the perennially popular IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph. Silky smooth white dial, crisp blue hands, and an in-house made movement. Does it get any better? By now you’ve likely been beaten over the head with the endless coverage of IWC’s cool Tribute to Pallweber, with its jumping hours and minutes, and seen the additions to the growing Portofino collection. Hiding in the corner of IWC’s presentation, alongside a pair of Big Pilot models, rested a lone chronograph – the IWC Pilot’s Chronograph Edition “150 Years”. Limited to only 1000 pieces worldwide, this new version of IWC’s classic 3777 isn’t particularly groundbreaking, though it is one of the cooler interpretations we’ve seen in a while. Though at first glance this may seem like a simple white dial, a closer examination reveals something much more charming. All of the 27 watches in IWC’s new “capsule collection” unveiled for the brand’s 150th anniversary are fitted with either white or blue lacquer dials with printed indices, and either blued or rhodium-plated hands. A total of 12 layers…
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The idea of a ‘birth year’ watch is nothing new, though after a recent discussion I came to realise that it poses an interesting question. For the older ‘Gen X’ crowd in the room there’s no shortage of vintage hotness to pull from, through the ’60s and ’70s, but once you start creeping into the millennial years, finding a birth year watch that (for lack of a better term) doesn’t suck is an interesting proposition. The ’80s and ’90s weren’t exactly the best years for high design in watchmaking, and there’s a lot of stuff out there that already looks pretty dated and gaudy. This predicament begged for a deeper dive. Could we find suitable birth year watches for all of our fellow millennials and the new ‘Gen Z’? Only one way to find out. Obviously, these two generations take up a lot of years, so we’ve narrowed the field to six, focusing on milestone birthdays between the far cusp of millennial status — 1983 (35 years old), to 2005 (13 years old). The year: 1983 The milestone: 35th birthday The watch: Blancpain Complete Calendar In the early ’80s, Blancpain was in a tough place, leading to the brand’s acquisition…
Every now and then, among the hundreds of new watches I get to see and handle each year, one will stop me in my tracks. That happened with Bulgari’s Octo Finissimo Automatic when I first encountered it in early 2017 – and it’s what happens again and again every time I see it, handle it, put it on my wrist. To know it better is to love it more. This goes beyond its record-breaking thinness (truly impressive intellectually, but not emotionally) and beyond the design – although I can feast my eyes for hours on those pure, strong lines. I’d go as far as saying that it’s one of those rare items that fundamentally changes the “order of things” – that flips preconceptions on their head. How? Well, there’s the idea of what defines “luxury” in a watch: a beautiful, big chunk of precious metal, perfectly polished, heavy enough that you feel the luxury – right? The Finissimo is none of those things: matt-finished titanium, no shiny surfaces, so light that it’s almost surreal. Wrapped around the wrist, it feels more like a piece of grosgrain ribbon than a watch. It’s so absurdly (weirdly) second-skin comfortable that you could forget…
The release of Girard-Perregaux’s Laureato collection has been anything but a slow burn. Beginning in 2016 with a limited-edition tribute to the 1975 original, the La Chaux-de-Fonds based manufacturer wasted no time in expanding their offerings. And in 2017 they released a fully-fledged collection of three-handed sports watches. This year, we not only see sporty chronographs and a selection of wonderfully open-worked dials added to the mix but also a tourbillon in an all-titanium body. For students of watch history, the tourbillon forms an integral part of Girard-Perregaux’s identity. Ever since the centuries-old watchmaker won gold for the legendary La Esmeralda pocket watch – a tourbillon with three gold bridges – at the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1889. Playing a starring role in GP’s latest Laureato is a tourbillon comprised of 81 parts and weighing just 0.44 grams, held in place at 6 o’clock by a titanium arrow-shaped bridge – a motif that has straddled GP’s dials for more than 150 years, while its recognisable octagonal bezel and integrated 43mm case and bracelet are also crafted in lightweight titanium. And the proprietary GP 09510-0003 automatic movement inside brings the hands of the blue “Clous de Paris” dial to life, with…