Oracle Time - Issue 123 - The Innovation Issue

CUR ATED FOR COLLECTORS

CUR ATED FOR COLLECTORS

ISSUE .123

A Month on the Wrist

PANERAI The Innovation Issue Robots, Reviews & Watchm aking Tech

ISSUE 123

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ORACLE TIME #123

Welcome Editor’s letter Innovation, as a word, is used far, far too often in the watch world, to the point where it’s lost all meaning. Most of the time what we’re really talking about is iteration, a new material or colourway that doesn’t really add anything to the wider horological discourse. For us, that’s just not good enough. And so for our Innovation issue, we’re looking at the stories that actually move the needle – the watchmaking advancements that actually matter.

Take Horage, for example. Yes, they’re already well known for their accessible complications, but they’ve shifted up a gear with the introduction of the MicroReg. Regulation might not be the sexiest subject, but in their new system Horage might well have found a way of genuinely disrupting how we as collectors interact with our watches. Find out how on page 90.

Panerai, on the other hand, are in the numbers game from a different, much more headline-grabbing angle with their new Luminor 31 Giorni, our cover star for the issue. Large power reserves are nothing new, even if there aren’t many playing in quite the same month-long arena. But, as we delve into on page 40, it’s not just the sheer power in the new timepiece’s quad-mainspring architecture that matters; it’s how Panerai have approached the question of power consistency.

This pair of innovators are joined by many more this year, ranging from pump winding systems to glow-in-the-dark ceramic. You can probably already guess which watches I’m talking about there, but you can find them and more in our round-up of the best horological innovations of 2026 on page 97.

COVER CREDITS Photography: Teddy Clark Watch: Panerai Luminor 31 Giorni

They weren’t the only brands we got hands-on with at Watches & Wonders, of course, and among my personal favourites were the new Grand Seiko divers.

Finally, 300m and some gorgeous dials with Grand Seiko finishing. But more than just trying on some killer tool watches, I also got the chance to talk to CEO Akio Naito. You can find that discussion on page 83, and why vintage Spring Drive owners should be very relieved.

Lastly on the blue-sky thinking side of innovation, we talk to Nathan Clapp, better known as the man behind Wraven Labs. If you’ve come across an insane, tonguein-cheek mocked-up complication that you intensely wish was real… it probably came from him. We discuss Moser, eggs, and combat archery on page 111.

Of course, it’s not just the watch industry that loves innovation. As Mark Smyth investigates on page 103, car companies are considering automation more and more – and with it, the experience that comes with sitting in the back seat. After all, if your car’s driving itself, why not be chauffeured in style?

Automation is also the name of the game in home robotics. Yes, I know we all have robotic hoovers these days and no, that’s not what I mean. The age of bipedal robots is here and as Verity Burns explores on page 129, we could be closer than you might think to having your own at-home robotic assistant. Let’s hope someone was reading Isaac Asimov.

Stepping away from all these technological advancements for a second, we’re also coming into summer and that means plenty of pool time. But for that, you’ll need both the right watch and the right outfit. For the former, we round up the best skindivers (300m and under) fit for lounging around – or even in – the water. For the latter, our own Laura Powell has curated a selection of holiday-ready ensembles complete with paired poolside drink. You can find both starting from page 49.

So, when you find yourself lounging next to a pristine pool, being served drinks by your robotic butler and wondering what’s next in the watch world, we have you covered. Until that day inevitably comes however, stay safe, stay sane and enjoy this issue.

KEEP IN TOUCH: @oracle_time @oracle_time

Sam Kessler, Editor

facebook.com/oracleoftime oracleoftime.com

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ORACLE TIME #123

WATCHES | STYLE | CULTURE

Contributors

PUBLISHER / CO-FOUNDER

Mark Edwards

mark@opulentmedia.co.uk EDITORIAL DIRECTOR / CO-FOUNDER

Tom Pettit

tom@opulentmedia.co.uk EDITOR

Sam Kessler

sam.kessler@opulentmedia.co.uk ART DIRECTOR

Hicham Kasbi

design@opulentmedia.co.uk SUB EDITOR

Dan Mobbs

danmobbs@hotmail.com JUNIOR EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Laura Powell

laura.powell@opulentmedia.co.uk DIGITAL EDITOR

Michael Sonsino

michael.sonsino@opulentmedia.co.uk

Mark Smyth

A passion for cars eventually guided Mark into a career as a motoring writer. His main loves are car design and the industry, but he also finds time to write about his other passion, yachting and the occasional bit of horology too. Mark has contributed to Autocar, Octane, The Telegraph and Car Design News.

Laura Powell

Laura Powell is an enthusiastic newcomer to the watch industry.

With a background in fashion, her passion comes from the way watches bring style and heritage together in one piece. She’s drawn to the small details that make a watch stand out, whether it’s a perfectly balanced dial, a standout bracelet, or a design that feels effortlessly wearable. Her collection is still in its early days, but her watch wishlist is already getting dangerously ambitious.

Verity Burns

Verity is a technology journalist covering the latest in tech hardware, innovation and design.

She started her career in 2008, covering the rise of the early smartphones and the launch of the first iPad, and was most recently an editor at WIRED, writing about the companies, products and trends shaping the industry. As a TV and audio reviewer, she has also spent a considerable amount of time watching movies and listening to music and calling it “work”.

LEAD DEVELOPER

Michael Pepper

michael@opulentmedia.co.uk DIGITAL CONTENT CREATOR

Kelly Coombes

kelly.coombes@opulentmedia.co.uk CONTENT CREATOR

Harry Hughes

harry.hughes@opulentmedia.co.uk SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER

Teddy Clark

teddy.clark@opulentmedia.co.uk APPRENTICE SUBSCRIPTIONS MANAGER

Megan Thompson

megan.thompson@opulentmedia.co.uk APPRENTICE MARKETING MANAGER

Jaden Mulcare

jaden.mulcare@opulentmedia.co.uk ADVERTISING SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER

Oliver Morgan

oliver.morgan@opulentmedia.co.uk 020 8571 4616 ACCOUNT MANAGER

Freddie Bridge

freddie.bridge@opulentmedia.co.uk 0208 057 1190 JUNIOR SALES ADMIN

Oliver Arnold

oliver.arnold@opulentmedia.co.uk

Tim Vaux

Tim lives and breathes this world as a watch writer and photographer, working with the top media outlets, retailers, watch brands, and many of the top curators of high-end vintage watches. He also gets a kick from shooting watches in natural, real environments to capture how they truly look on the wrist.

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Marcus Henry

A rising voice in watch writing with a passion for bringing to light overlooked watches and mechanisms that are worthy of deep dives. When he’s not writing, you can find him drooling over neo-vintage Parmigiani Fleurier or working on his Substack blog, Remontoir.

Michael Sonsino

As Digital Editor for Oracle Time, Michael needs an eye for detail, which makes it a good thing that his twin joys in life are miniatures and watches. He’s a lifelong fan of fine timepieces, especially those of a more historic nature - if it has a twist of Art Deco, all the better.

OT MAGAZINE is published monthly

by Opulent Media 020 8571 4616

Printed by Stephens & George Ltd using vegetable-based inks onto materials which have been sourced from wellmanaged sustainable sources

ORACLE TIME #123

Contents

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O T M a g a z i n e / i ss u e 123

40 — ON A POWER TRIP

The longest innovation of the year stretches Panerai’s historically impressive power reserves to a month – and then some

“Most brands have upped the power of their in-house movements this 25 — INTRODUCING Your guide to all the latest and year… With the 31 greatest watch releases from Giorni, Panerai around the world have put themselves at the centre of the 29 — NEWS What’s happening in the world conversation” of fine watchmaking and the 19 — AFICIONADO

Discover some of the coolest items in the world and what should be in your basket

luxury industry at large

On A Power Trip - p40

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ORACLE TIME #123

Contents 2

67 — THE ORACLE SPEAKS

How blockchain, NFTs, and digital passports are reshaping watch authentication

73 — A MOMENT OF CLARITY

The watches that stayed with us from Geneva Watch Week this year

83 — THE INTERVIEW: AKIO NAITO The Seiko president on Grand Seiko’s rise from niche favourite to global luxury player

90 — MICROREG

How Horage’s latest creation fixes a problem most collectors rarely think about

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97 — THE BIGGEST INNOVATIONS OF 2026

From new movements to advanced production, these are the year’s biggest innovations

103 — DRIVEN TO LUXURY

Exploring the new wave of back seat riders who are dictating the future of luxury cars

111 — MEN OF INFLUENCE 83

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Wraven Labs’ Nathan Clapp on Lange, vinyl, and archery dodgeball

“Any new way of 117 — WATCH approaching how we REVIEWS interact with a watch opens We get hands on with watches from Raymond Weil, Rado, and the door to innovation” Certina The Biggest Innovations of 2026 - p97

129 — THE ROBOTS 49 — THE BEST ARE COMING SKINDIVERS OF 2026 With domestic robots on the Ice-cold cocktails by a sundrenched pool need an appropriate watch

61 — SUN, SEA AND SECONDS

Three poolside looks to help you look the part this summer 129

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horizon, Verity Burns explores questions of safety and privacy

137 — MICROBRAND CORNER All the latest and greatest brands from the world of independent watchmakers

A FI C I O N A D O

The coolest innovative things right now

ETERNITY UNDER GLASS JAEGER-LECOULTRE ATMOS HYBRIS ARTISTICA TELLURIUM BY MARC NEWSON Marc Newson is, by most measures, one of the most influential designers alive. So, when Jaeger-LeCoultre asked him to reimagine the Atmos, people were always going to pay attention.

The result is a glass globe engraved with 64 constellations that Jaeger claim are visible from the Northern Hemisphere, set with 539 cabochon sapphires, tracking Earth's rotation, the Moon's orbit, and Moon phases in three dimensions. Powered by nothing but changes in room temperature. And if that wasn't enough, Newson went inside the mechanism and redesigned the sun itself.

A single gram out of place and the whole thing stops.

POA, jaeger-lecoultre.com

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BACK IN THE GAME CASIO SXC-1 PORTABLE STANDALONE SAMPLER If you grew up in the 1980s, you’ll know the Casio SK-1. A $99 ‘toy’ keyboard that ended up in more studios than anyone expected. Forty years later, Casio is back, and this time it fits in your pocket. Aesthetically, the SXC-1 could easily be mistaken for a Game Boy with its creamy grey case, D-pad, old-school numbering on the 16 pads; the retro energy is very much intentional. On the inside, you've got 16-bit/48kHz sampling, 64GB of storage, a sequencer, live effects, and a companion app for your phone.

Japan only for now, which means some of you are already looking up flights. ¥39,930 (approx. £185), casio.com

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aficionado

THE HEAT IS ON DYSON HUSHJET MINI COOL FAN Summer is here, the office is warm, and the nearest air conditioning unit is someone else's problem. Fortunately, Dyson has been thinking ahead and has launched its first-ever portable handheld fan. It’s 212g, 38mm across (watch people, you'll know exactly how small that is), and designed to wear around your neck, sit on your desk, or slip into its travel pouch. Brushless motor, five speeds, Boost mode, six hours of battery, and a nozzle that actually keeps it quiet.

Available in three finishes, it might be the best hundred pounds you spend this summer. £99.99, dyson.co.uk

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aficionado

ABANGCENTURY OF SOUND & OLUFSEN ATELIER’ SERIES, THE BEOLAB 90, ZENITH EDITION Bang & Olufsen turned 100 last year, and to celebrate they have finished off their five-part ‘Atelier’ series with two final designs; the Monarch and the Zenith. You might assume art installation before you’d guess speakers, and yet inside both sits the flagship Beolab 90 with 18 drivers; B&O’s best. The Monarch is rosewood from top to base, one continuous pattern of lamellas. Quietly stunning. The standout though, is the Zenith. With 1,734 anodised aluminium spheres across six panels, each one pearl-finished, it produces the sort of finish that belongs in a watch collector's display cabinet, except it weighs 302 pounds. $450,000 (approx. £333,300), bang-olufsen.com

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SMALL BUT MIGHTY GOPRO MISSION 1 PRO ILS GoPro has spent 20 years as the camera you strap to a helmet. The Mission 1 Pro ILS is something else entirely. It's the world's smallest mirrorless cinema camera, and it has a Micro Four Thirds lens mount, the same interchangeable lens system that professional filmmakers have been using for years, now on something that fits in a jacket pocket. 50MP, 8K, 4K at 240 frames per second. Good things come in small packages; cinemaquality, pocket-sized, GoPro-built small packages. £520, coming soon

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NEWS

I N T RO DU C I N G

KING SEIKO

Blue 145th Anniversary Watch - HKF004J1

THE DETAIL: 41mm stainless steel case with 100m water resistance • Calibre 8L45 automatic movement with 72-hour power reserve • £2,900, available July 2026, seikowatches.com •

For their 145th anniversary, Seiko have gone back to the archive with a fresh King Seiko offering. The VANAC, a design from the 1970s, is dressed in Seiko Blue, one of the limited colourways made specifically for the anniversary. The white dial keeps the VANAC’s signature horizontal stripe pattern intact, with a blue minute track, blued hands and indices, and a date aperture at three.

Limited to 800 pieces, the edition number is etched on the exhibition caseback and inside sits the calibre 8L45, Seiko’s most accurate production automatic at +10/−5 seconds per day with a 72-hour power reserve.

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introducing

ATELIER WEN Perception V3

Four years since its launch, the Atelier Wen Perception V3 arrives with the collection’s first new reference, bamboo green 筠 (Yún), joining returning favourites ice-blue and salmon. But the bigger story is what’s inside the case. Working closely with Pequignet, one of the last independent calibre manufacturers in France, they have brought Chinese cultural design language into the movement itself: bridges shaped to evoke the traditional Chinese representation of wind, filled with mirror-polished blue aventurine lacquer. The effect is a deep, luminous night sky sitting inside the watch. A new exhibition caseback means none of it is hidden.

THE DETAIL: 40mm 904L stainless steel case with 100m water resistance • Pequignet calibre EPM03 automatic movement with 65-hour power reserve • $4,850 (approx. £3,600), deliveries from late July 2026, atelierwen.com •

CHRISTOPHER WARD C63 Sealander GMT

Christopher Ward know better than to fix what isn’t broken, and their highest-volume model worldwide, the Sealander GMT, is definitely not broken. So rather than changing things for the sake of it, they’ve focused on the details. Five years on, the GMT finally gets its own distinct case architecture separate from the Automatic, with a sportier mid-case, crown guards, and a circular-brushed 24-hour bezel that’s less angled than before, making it genuinely easier to read. The seconds hand loses the trident counterweight too, controversial for some, but it cleans the dial up nicely. It now comes in 42mm alongside the existing 36mm and 39mm.

And if you’ve ever fumbled with bracelet links and a pin tool, the new iLink system lets you remove them with a push of a button.

THE DETAIL: 36mm, 39mm, or 42mm stainless steel case with 150m water resistance • Sellita SW330-2 automatic GMT movement with 56-hour power reserve • From £1,190, christopherward.com •

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introducing

TUDOR BLACK

Bay Chrono “Carbon 26”

The Black Bay Chrono Carbon 26 is Tudor’s nod to their Visa Cash App Racing Bulls partnership, and they’ve committed fully. The case, bezel, subdials and date disk are all carbon fibre composite, keeping the watch light on the wrist and coherent for it. The VCARB 03 livery translates well to a dial with a white base, yellow accents, and a red-tipped chronograph seconds hand. The carbon subdials against the white dial give it a panda quality, which stops it tipping into merchandise territory. The watch is completed with a chequered flag caseback, individually numbered.

THE DETAIL: 42mm black carbon composite case with 200m water resistance • Tudor calibre MT5813 automatic movement with 70-hour power reserve • £6,750, limited to 2,026 pieces, tudorwatch.com •

SERICA

Ref. 7505 – Minute Critical Dial

It may be smaller than the Ref. 6190, but don’t mistake this for a straight size reduction as the Ref. 7505 is a ground-up redesign. The new case has curved inner lugs, no chamfers, polished sides, and half-spheres on the bezel that pick up the dial’s cardinal markers. The Minute Critical Dial runs the full 60-minute scale in black.

We got hands-on, and the new Safe-Lock clasp on the redesigned Bonklip bracelet takes a bit of fiddling, but honestly, that’s the whole idea. Wear it loose, and it’s not going anywhere.

THE DETAIL: 35mm stainless steel case with 200m water resistance • Calibre SoProd M100 COSC automatic movement with 42-hour power reserve • $1,090 (approx. £950), serica-watches.com •

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EDITED BY Michael Sonsino

NEWS The latest from the world of watches and luxury lifestyle

THE HIGHEST GROSSING WATCH AUCTION IN HISTORY To most of us, the economy isn’t doing too well. Budgets are tight and belts are tighter. That hasn’t stopped Phillips from setting the highest-grossing watch auction in history in 2026, beating out their previous 2021 and 2025 records. The

grand total of the Geneva Watch Auction: XXIII came to CHF 74,846,995 – nearly £71 million.

That total came across 224 lots, with only one watch going unsold. 14 different pieces sold for over a million. The highest value lot won’t come as much of a surprise: the Patek Philippe Ref. 2523 “South America” world-timer went for CHF 7,961,000, while the F.P. Journe Chronomètre à Résonance “Souscription No. 18” went for a hammer price of CHF 4,875,500.

That said, one of the biggest lots of the auction was also on the more

unusual end. For one, it was a pocket watch; for another, it was from a brand we don’t hear much about: the unique Louis Richard Triple Detent Constant Force One Minute Tourbillon Chronometer, which went for CHF 3,968,000. It is a genuinely important timepiece, so the price makes sense, it’s just not one we’re used to seeing.

So, what do you think, proof positive that the watch industry is still on the up? Or an indication that top end collectors are detached from reality? Sometimes I’m glad we don’t have a comments section here.

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world news

TUDOR ENTERS THE SUMO RING

“Tudor are hoping to tap some of that audience by partnering with Grand Sumo”

If the Grand Sumo Tournament at the beginning of the year taught us something, it’s that Japan’s national sport is getting more and more popular outside of home turf. And while the event turned London into a city of Japanophiles, Tudor are hoping to tap some of that audience by partnering with Grand Sumo.

Organised by the Japan Sumo Association across six official, 15 day tournaments, Grand Sumo is the chance for the world’s elite rikishi to win the Emperor’s Cup. That might sound like an odd place for a forwardthinking Swiss watch brand and honestly, Tudor’s talk of ‘preserving tradition’ isn’t quite as obsessive as sumo wrestling. Still, one of the bigger watch brands was going to jump on board - and if it’s not a Japanese watchmaker, at least it’s a collector favourite.

EBAY AND ENQUIRUS Now that eBay’s authentication service has been running for a while, there’s more confidence than ever that the watch you’re buying is genuine. But how can you be sure it’s not stolen? After all, a stolen watch is still genuine, it’s just illegal. Which is why eBay have upped their security by integrating Enquirus into their authentication process across the UK, US, and Germany.

Enquirus is the world’s largest registry for lost and stolen watches.

If your timepiece is stolen, make sure you enter it in the free to use database. The service connects law enforcement agencies, insurers, manufacturers, retailers, and owners and is one of the strongest lines of defence against watch-based crime.

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“ Enquirus is the world’s largest registry for lost and stolen watches ”

Given eBay has authenticated 15 million items (across a host of areas, not just watches) since 2020, this is great news for the average collector. eBay’s authentication programme is already automatic for any watch over £1,500, but factoring this in makes buying and selling on the platform safer than ever.

world news

AUDEMARS PIGUET X SWATCH ROYAL POP The worst kept secret of the month, Swatch’s new follow-up to the MoonSwatch and Blancpain Scuba is their biggest yet. Rather than a wristwatch, this collection of eight convertible pocket watches can pop in and out of their frame, whether you want to wear it like an oldfashion pocket watch or around your neck a la Flava Flave.

The new drop is available in eight different colourways ranging from dark blue or green to poolside pastels and white with rainbow indexes and screws. There are also two layouts - Lépine, with a 12 o’clock crown or Savonnette with a three o’clock crown and a small seconds. With octagonal bezels and tapisserie dials, they’re replete with Royal Oak DNA – just not like we’ve ever seen before.

Priced between £335 and £350, they’re a touch more expensive than the entry-level MoonSwatch, but this is Audemars Piguet we’re talking about. This could be the closest thing to a Royal Oak a lot of us can get.

ON THE CHRONOPULSE FOR APRIL The ChronoPulse watch index has become an invaluable tool for analysing the watch market, mainly because it relies on actual transaction data from across the monolithic Chrono24 platform. This means that it’s as close to ‘real’ data as you can get using a single platform.

Until recently, the sector as a whole has been nicely on the rise, improving +4.80% over the past six months. In April however, the story has been a little more nuanced with a 0.4%

“There are two brands bucking the trend and continuing to press forwards”

decrease. That might seem like a downturn, but it’s closer to market correction. Cartier, Vacheron Constantin, and Panerai saw solid gains previously (even if the latter is still in negative territory) and it’s them that have seen a more recent downturn.

There are however two brands bucking the trend and continuing to press forwards. TAG Heuer are up 3.2% and Omega 2.8%. Rolex are holding even on the whole, but now that the GMT-Master II Pepsi Cola has been discontinued and Watches & Wonders didn’t bring a replacement, demand has spiked by 500% in the last month.

All of that has meant positivity across the last six months – for all but one brand. Audemars Piguet are down -1.4% over six months and -0.1% across the last year. It’s looking like they need a serious injection of positivity. Which is fortunate because the Audemars Piguet x Swatch Royal Pop is here.

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Now that Hands On Horology is finally here, here’s what to expect from London’s premier watch show Date: 13th June Session 1: 9:30 – 1:30 - TICKETS NOW SOLD OUT Session 2: 14:00 – 18:00

LIVE DIAL CUSTOMISATION WITH THE DIAL ARTIST

WRIST SHOT COMPETITION

Last year our artist in residence, the inimitable Inkdial, produced live drawings of your watches. This time we’re focusing on the watch face with the equally talented The Dial Artist, Chris Alexander. The frustratingly talented artist will be holding 20-minute sessions across the day where he will create you a bespoke dial. You’ll get your choice of dial from a variety of brands to make completely your own.

Only 24 slots are available and will be open exclusively to priority pass holders, so if you’re wondering where to go first, Studio 4 is a good option.

The concept is simple: take a wrist shot at the show, share it on social media and enter yourself in a prize draw to win a watch. We won’t spoil the specific timepiece here; make sure you check in on the day to see what you could win.

COMPLIMENTARY WELCOME DRINKS On arrival, general admission ticket holders will get a drinks token – priority pass holders will receive two – to spend on champagne, a Nikka Days Japanese Whisky cocktail or a Seasn mocktail at the Hands On GMT Bar. If a single glass isn’t enough, there’s also a chance to take a bottle of fizz home, courtesy of Champagne Chalamet, who will be testing your timekeeping as much as your palate.

Try your hand at precision winemaking by turning 60 bottles of champagne on a riddling rack in exactly 60 seconds and it could be yours.

If you prefer something a little stronger, world-renowned American and Indian whisky brands Michter’s and Amrut will be offering informal tastings throughout the day – whether you have a morning or an afternoon ticket.

SILENT AUCTION If a dial just isn’t enough, we will also be auctioning off two unique pieces created by The Dial Artist in collaboration with two exhibiting brands to raise money for charity.

Those watches are: • The RZE Resolute, raising money for London-based food distribution charity, The Felix Project, represented by a quirky food motif in white across the jet-black enamel dial • The Selten M1 Moonphase, raising money for mental health charity Mind with a riff on Michaelangelo’s masterpiece, The Creation of Adam The auction is open to all attendees.

To take part, just submit your bid at the ballot box in Studio 4.

MB&F M.A.D.2 LIVE Watches from the accessible arm of MB&F are notoriously difficult to get hold of and the Eric Girouddesigned M.A.D.2 is no different.

There is one however that’s even rarer than most: the LIVE edition.

That’s because the watch is only available at 13 in-person events across the year – including, of course, Hands On Horology.

As numbers are limited, M.A.D Editions will be holding a lottery at their stand to decide who gets to buy the M.A.D.2 LIVE Edition. Head over, put your name down and cross your fingers that it gets drawn.

LIMITED EDITION INKDIAL ARTWORK And so that you go in fully informed, the La Joux-Perret-equipped jump hour watch will set you back CHF 2,900 – around £2,540.

ORACLE TIME X NODUS Our latest collaboration watch is here – and it’s an unexpectedly British twist on the ever-popular Nodus Sector Sport. We won’t spoil the surprise here, but if you like eye-catchingly bright dials, this is one for you.

Our own limited edition will be joined by show-specific special editions and first-look launches from Awake, Sartory Billard, Oris, Habring², Benzinger, Kudoke, Formex Watch, Louis Erard, Maghnam, Beda’a, Heinrich, Kuoe Kyoto, Studio Underd0g, Straum, and Ball Watch.

To commemorate the second edition of Hands On Horology, Inkdial will once again be producing a limited-edition artwork, available to all attendees. This hand-drawn, two-sided art print takes in every exhibitor on the day, so pick which side has your favourite and hang it on your wall.

VIP GOODY BAGS Lovers of branded swag fortunate enough to have a priority pass will be able to pick up one of our VIP Hands On goody bags. The branded totes will contain a host of different gifts from exhibiting brands so that, even if you don’t head home with a watch, you’ll have something to remember the show by.

Watchmaking innovation can take designers in lots of different directions. There’s material innovation like Panerai’s new hafnium case, aesthetic innovation in the strange shapes of MB&F’s Horological Machines, and mechanical innovation – perhaps the purest form of horological innovation that seeks to improve time keeping reliability and accuracy. Two of the most impactful watches in that category of innovation from the past 18 months are the Rolex LandDweller and Grand Seiko Evolution 9 Spring Drive U.F.A.

While headlines surrounding the Land-Dweller when it was launched in 2025 focused on the fact it was an aesthetic revival of the Oysterquartz with an integrated bracelet, another of its significant features is the new calibre it houses inside: the 7135. It uses a brand-new Dynapulse escapement, which is essentially a double wheel escapement.

Previously this was an exceedingly rare configuration, but Rolex cracked a method of producing it en masse as part of a core collection for the first time.

ROLEX

Land-Dweller

S C O R E S: Innovation: ———————————————————————————————————————— 92 Style: ————————————————————————————————————————————— 84 Durability: ————————————————————————————————————————— 74 Value: ————————————————————————————————————————————— 72 Desirability: ——————————————————————————————————————— 83 Head to Head Rating: —————————————————————————————————81

What is innovative here is the fact that Rolex are able to produce the Dynapulse in large numbers, although the escapement uses ideas that already existed in the watchmaking space. That’s why it only has an innovation of 92 and not higher. This is one of the things Rolex are really good at: find an important innovation and work out how to make it the new standard. It has a 60-hour power reserve at 5 Hz frequency.

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For style we have the return of the Rolex integrated bracelet, which was much anticipated.

However, that’s offset somewhat by the bulky honeycomb pattern across the dial that is yet to become desirable. The watch measures 40mm in diameter with 100m water resistance in steel and white gold Rolesor.

© Header Illustration Prints Harry

head to head

head to head

The Grand Seiko U.F.A or Ultra Fine Accuracy series is dedicated to the pursuit of timekeeping accuracy above all else while powering the watch with a mechanical mainspring rather than a battery.

It does however use an electric quartz oscillator and circuit board to achieve this as a hybrid movement rather than purely mechanical or electrical.

GRAND SEIKO

Paired with the innovation of the movement is a cool dial with an unusual geometric texture, like a chaotic mosaic of tiles woven into each other. The SLGB003 edition combines that with a 37mm titanium case, giving it a good strength to density ratio that makes it very lightweight too. It has 100m water resistance rating.

Overall providing good levels of style and durability.

Evolution 9 Spring Drive U.F.A At the heart of the innovation here is the enhanced quartz oscillator, which operates in conjunction with an integrated circuit to allow microadjustments based on atmospheric conditions like temperature to optimise accuracy. It enables the watch to operate with an accuracy of +/- 20 seconds per year. Yes, per year, not day.

That’s battery levels of reliability from a mainspring movement.

S C O R E S: Innovation: ———————————————————————————————————————— 98 Style: ————————————————————————————————————————————— 73 Durability: ————————————————————————————————————————— 90 Value: ————————————————————————————————————————————— 70 Desirability: ——————————————————————————————————————— 82 Head to Head Rating: ———————————————————————————————— 82

These watches are interesting because they represent innovation within very specific niches. The Land-Dweller shows the proliferation and production development of a double wheel escapement, while the U.F.A is an extreme version of a hybrid spring-drive movement. Both are significant developments within their niches, but neither are going to affect the majority of watch collectors.

Though of the two, the Dynapulse is more likely to find its way into a watch as popular as the Submariner and become mainstream that way. So ultimately, I would give this contest to Rolex.

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WORDS: Sam Kessler

ON A

POWER TRIP

THE LONGEST INNOVATION OF THE YEAR STRETCHES PANERAI’S HISTORICALLY IMPRESSIVE POWER RESERVES TO A FULL MONTH – AND THEN SOME 40

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power trip

— There were a lot of watches that were worthy of their own headlines this year. TAG Heuer refined the chronograph, Parmigiani hid the chronograph, and Breitling took their chronograph to space. Believe it or not, there were advancements outside of stopwatches and one of the most significant came from a brand that, on the surface, might seem like an outlier: Panerai.

Panerai’s aesthetics have remained relatively true to their Italian frogman roots in the eight decades since they were used in World War II. Think oversized cushion cases, chunky straps and sandwich dials aplenty. It’s a strong enough throughline that you often know what to expect.

Even this year’s Watches & Wonders line was full of manual-wind Luminor models drawn from the archives. There’s a certain level of safety there.

It’s generally a line-up that’s more about refinement than revolution, quality-of-life improvements over dramatic changes.

But while that makes up their core, there are genuine mechanical advancements happening in the wings. On one hand there’s the watchmaker’s emphasis on cutting-edge materials; on the other, there’s the movement development wing, an arm of the company that’s had its fair share of headliners, like the light-up Submersible Elux LABID. While the new Luminor 31 Giorni isn’t quite as sci-fi, it is much, much more important.

Capable of running for an entire month on a single wind, the Luminor 31 Giorni PAM01631 has the longest power reserve of any Panerai model in history thanks to the new P.2031/S calibre

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If you speak a modicum of Italian, the reason this watch matters is obvious. Giorni means day and a 31-day power reserve means that the Luminor 31 Giorni has the longest power reserve of any Panerai model in history thanks to the new P.2031/S calibre.

While the P.2031/S calibre is the most impressive power reserve Panerai have ever produced, it’s not the first time they’ve dabbled in long-term autonomy. In the 1950s, their military watches housed the Angelus SF240 movement, with 200 hours of power reserve. The first movement produced after their move to Neuchatel in 2005, the P.2002 also included eight days of power with its three barrels, followed in 2007 by the automatic P.2003 with a 10-day reserve.

It may be quite a leap from 10 to 31 days, but for Panerai the Luminor 31 Giorni falls neatly in line with historical precedent.

In the new P.2031/S calibre, the power is provided by a quadruple set of mainspring barrels that take up the larger part of the 276-part movement. To put that in perspective, when unwound those four series-linked mainsprings stretch 3.3 metres; when wound they can hold 36 days of power. Which brings up an interesting question: where did the other five days go?

At full wind or near depletion, a movement’s chronometric performance is all over the place.

This is because the amount of energy being pushed through the movement isn’t consistent. Instead, the torque is higher the more energy wants to push through the movement and lower when it’s nearly out of energy. This bell curve of accuracy makes the middle days the most optimal to use.

And so Panerai installed a torque limit into the winding system. It’s a complicated mechanism, but its results are straightforward. It won’t let the mainsprings wind beyond the 31-day mark and it stops the watch before it’s fully out of energy. It’s not a new idea – my 1955 Jaeger-LeCoultre Futurematic also stops before empty – but the mechanism itself is patent-pending. That’s not patent-approved of course, but it shows Panerai’s faith that this is indeed something new.

This not only gives you a month of autonomy, but one that maintains greater accuracy across its power reserve. This is a manual-wind movement of course, so if winding that level of power already had your fingers aching, it’s worth noting that the entire 31 days can be wound from empty to full with 128 rotations of the crown. It’s not as flashy as, say, the bezel winding system of the Haut-Rive Honoris or Moser & Cie’s new Streamliner Pump.

Instead, it’s a familiar solution adapted to the new mainspring paradigm that is easily adaptable to other Panerai models.

power trip

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power trip

Developed over seven years by Panerai’s Laboratorio di Idee, the 31-day power reserve is delivered through four barrels in series containing 3.3 metres of mainsprings - and requires only 128 turns of the crown to power an entire month

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power trip

Panerai have a long history of military watches and have been supplying the Italian Navy for close to a century, providing long-term autonomy back in the 1950s with the Angelus SF240 movement and its 200 hours of power reserve

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power trip

PANERAI’S MATERIAL INNOVATIONS ————

Panerai’s — While 2026 flagship is

their new, immense power reserve, the brand has historically been one of the leaders in new case materials.

Here’s a quick rundown of the ones that matter.

What’s perhaps less historical is how it’s presented. The dial has been skeletonised with a grid pattern to properly show off everything that’s going on underneath. It’s not as open as some skeletons and is all the more readable for it, helped by gold hands, big, lumed indexes and a power reserve scale rightly dominating the scene at 4 o’clock. It’s an aesthetic used previously in the Radiomir 1940 Minute Repeater Carillon Tourbillon GMT, though I have to say more tastefully done here. Where the Radiomir’s grille was ornamentation around the edges, here it’s the main event.

The grille isn’t the only element borrowed from a previous rarity. The date indicator at three o’clock uses the same polarised date disc as the Submersible S BRABUS eTitanio PAM01403. This disc is completely transparent except when it crosses into the date window where the date shows.

It’s less readable than a solid, high-contrast date wheel would be, but it allows an unobstructed view of the movement, which when the movement is the P.2031/S, makes sense.

The entire ensemble is housed in a surprisingly svelte (for Panerai) 44mm Goldtech case, the watchmaker’s proprietary, harder wearing rose gold alloy. While I absolutely love the brand’s fauxworn Brunito finish and would love to see it on many more watches, it makes sense to present a piece like the 31 Giorni in one of Panerai’s most exclusive materials.

Power reserve as a concept is being talked about more and more. Most brands have upped the power of their in-house movements this year and even Sellita have launched their new-generation SW2002 Power+ with an extended 65-hour power reserve.

And with the 31 Giorni, Panerai have put themselves at the centre of the conversation.

• C a r b o t e c h – based on carbon fibre, Carbotech includes layers of highperformance polymer at high temperatures for a light, strong material with a matt-textured structure.

• B M G -Te c h – standing for bulk metallic glass, this material involves injecting a mix of zirconium, copper, aluminium, titanium and nickel at high temperature and pressure and rapid cooling. The end result is an ultra-hard material highly resistant to shocks and corrosion.

• Fibratech – unidirectional fibres derived from basalt rock are bonded with polymers into thin

layers that are then built up into a case shape similar to carbon fibre. The resultant matte grey material is 60% lighter than steel, corrosion resistant and hardwearing.

• Ti-Ceramitech – by using high-voltage plasma discharges, Electrolytic Plasma Oxidation physically changes the surface of titanium into a ceramic structure. Taking the best of both worlds, the newly ceramicised material is 44% lighter than steel and 10 times less likely to fracture than ceramic.

• A f i o n t e c h – a new alloy comprised of 95% Hafnium, a material more usually found in nuclear reactors than watches that is incredibly dense, strong and corrosion resistant.

• G o l d t e c h – an in-house rose gold alloy whose make-up makes it more durable than standard rose or yellow golds.

• Platinumtech – despite retaining the same lustre as the standard precious metal, this alloy is 80% harder than standard platinum.

“ With the 31 Giorni, Panerai have put themselves at the centre of the conversation ” Theirs isn’t the longest power reserve in the world nor the most novel, but it is one of the few that is both large and user-friendly. It doesn’t require special tools, it’s intuitive to use and won’t wear your wrist out before the indicator hits full, all the while maintaining greater reliability than most other movements. That’s innovation.

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best skindivers

the best

SKINDIVERS of 2026

WORDS:

Sam Kessler

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Most of us will be getting away at some point this summer. That could mean hiking through woodlands or trekking up mountains… or it could mean ice-cold cocktails by a sun-drenched pool. If the latter sounds more appealing, then you’ll need a watch to match.

You need something that wears comfortably but also has enough water resistance to stand up to a few brisk lengths or a spot of snorkelling. That means a skindiver.

Skindiver as a term was coined in the formative age of dive watches, between the 1950s and ‘70s, to simply mean a watch designed for unassisted water activities. In short, if you don’t need an oxygen tank, you can wear a skindiver. Without the need for a scuba-ready depth rating, it also means smaller, slimmer cases and watches that are just easier to wear when you’re not in the water.

That’s practical at any point but even more so when ‘a quick dip’ is a 10-times-a-day occurrence. And so, to make sure you have more than a pair of swim shorts packed, here are the best watches for a poolside holiday.

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best skindivers

WOLBROOK

Pan4timer Automatic If you find yourself organising a poolside conference call, this is the watch for you.

Based on a vintage 1960s design, the standard diving bezel has been swapped for a multicoloured worldtime bezel split into 12 cities.

Where this version goes one step further is by having a four-hour disc to track consecutive timezones. Despite being a worldtimer, it still has all the hallmarks of its less colourful skindiver siblings: bold, lumed indexes, a unidirectional bezel with a minute scale and 150m water resistance.

THE DETAIL: •

GOLBY

Seashell Skipping Stone Golby’s Aquareef 40 really impressed us when we reviewed it last year, but the Seashell Skipping Stone is even more exciting. Firstly, it’s a compressor-style, dual-crown construction with a rotating inner bezel, so off to a good start. But then there’s the dial, which plays up to the name with a rippled texture in an array of bright colours. Eye-catching is an understatement, and this seashell pink is as summer-ready as factor 50. Backed by a workhorse Miyota movement and a price tag low enough to make it a tempting impulse buy; this is Golby at their best.

THE DETAIL: 39mm stainless steel case with 100m water resistance • Miyota 9015 automatic movement with 42-hour power reserve • £450, golbywatches.co.uk •

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40mm stainless steel case with 150m water resistance • Miyota 8315 automatic movement with 60-hour power reserve • £378 , wolbrook.com

best skindivers

OUT OF ORDER

Casanova Rialto Ember Named for the sunset over Venice’s famous Ponte de Rialto, there’s no better description for the deep, vibrant orange of the mother-ofpearl dial on Out of Order’s newest skindiver.

As is typical with the Italian brand, the watches come pre-weathered which might put off anyone that loves a pristine finish, but for those of us looking for a knockabout daily wearer is a blessing. No more worrying about that first scratch. Wrapped in ‘60s-inspired good looks and drenched in sunset colours, it’s a proper holiday watch.

THE DETAIL: 38mm stainless steel case with 100m water resistance • Seiko NH35 automatic movement with 41-hour power reserve • €600 (approx. £518), outoforderwatches.com •

BALTIC

Aquascaphe Mk2 Baltic found a winner when they launched the original Aquascaphe seven years back and now that the accessible diver’s into its second generation, it’s better than ever. The definition of neo-retro, the mix of glossy green dial and matching bezel with a sapphire insert certainly has that ‘60s vintage vibe, especially on the tactile beads of rice bracelet – though the green textured rubber might be a better holiday strap.

Available in 37mm (our pick) or a larger, 39.5mm case, it’s a simple design executed impeccably and is still temptingly affordable.

THE DETAIL: •

37mm stainless steel case with 200m water resistance • Miyota 9039 automatic movement with 42-hour power reserve • £545.58, baltic-watches.com

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SEA-GULL

1984 Antarctic Expedition Dive Watch A proper diver that happens to have one of the coolest (or should that be coldest) backstories in the pool. With 200m water resistance, unidirectional bezel, and large baton indexes, it does the job in the water without argument. But flip your wrist and you’re looking at a relief-engraved map of Antarctica, a nod to China’s first expedition to the continent in 1984, a mission Sea-Gull was part of. The watches on those scientists’ wrists kept ticking through some of the harshest conditions on Earth, and this is the tribute they deserve.

Genuinely one of the more distinctive dials at this price point, and proof that a good story makes a good watch better. Glacier White or Polar Blue.

THE DETAIL: 41mm stainless steel case with 200m water resistance • ST2130 automatic with 42-hour power reserve.

• £548.86, seagullwatchcompany.com

•

HTD

Aquatic SpaceBoy What HTD’s funky tool watch lacks in colour it makes up for in retro style. The big, bold, trapezoid indexes at three, six and nine o’clock are paired with angular typography for something that’s both eye-catching and practical.

The rotating bezel is more streamlined than most classic diving bezels, with small dot minute markers and 15, 30 and 45 picked out in silver.

But the main reason this is a perfect poolside watch is the fit. 39mm across and 11.5mm thick, it’s the perfect size for an everyday wearer – with an everyday price to match.

THE DETAIL: 39mm stainless steel case with 200m water resistance • Miyota 90S5 automatic movement with 42-hour power reserve • £590, htdwatches.com •

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best skindivers

HEINRICH

Taucher Sport No colour says pool-ready quite like turquoise, and the Taucher Sport from German watch brand Heinrich uses it well. A turquoise outer dial, black inner dial and elongated white indexes make for a refreshingly dramatic dial and a nice counterpoint to the sharp, angular case. Amp up the brightness with a turquoise tropical rubber strap – worth the extra €49 – or keep it on the fine-linked bracelet; either way it’s cool, comfortable and a world apart from the average Submariner clone.

THE DETAIL: 41mm stainless steel case with 200m water resistance • Sellita SW200-1 automatic movement with 41-hour power reserve • £709, heinrich.watch •

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BRISTON

Clubmaster Legend Ocean Diver How do you make a cushion-cased diver that isn’t compared aesthetically to Panerai? Ask Briston. The French watch brand’s Clubmaster Legend Ocean Diver skews more like a rounded square than a true cushion, with straight lugs and round diving bezel. Pair that with a wavy blue dial and matching rubber strap and you have a watch with a lot going on, but all of it good.

And if you fancy a night-time swim, that entire light blue scale as well as the cardinal numerals and dot hour markers are lumed.

THE DETAIL: •

40mm x 40mm stainless steel case with 200m water resistance • Miyota 8315 automatic movement with 60-hour power reserve • $950 (approx. £710), briston-watches.com

FARER

AquaMatic Nazaré No watch brand does colour quite like Farer; they find a way of making combinations that sound outlandish on paper just work. And the AquaMatic Nazaré is working hard. A spearmint dial, blue-outlined indexes and hands, and a pinkish red bezel and strap combination make for a heady cocktail of bright hues. It’s just begging for a holiday, right down to the wavy texture on the dial. This might just be the coolest colourway Farer have ever done.

THE DETAIL: 38.5mm stainless steel case with 200m water resistance • Sellita SW220-1 automatic movement with 41-hour power reserve • £875, farer.com •

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best skindivers

CHRISTOPHER WARD C60 Trident Reef Coral reefs are as filled with colour as they are with fish, so if you were looking for a summer-ready palette, where better to look? Christopher Ward’s Reef collection is filled with colour and yet for us, the most appealing is actually the least saturated. There’s just something about the clean, crisp white paired with teal green highlights that gets us. Put it on the matching green strap to really pick out the colourful details and you have a solid skindiver that just so happens to do some good: Christopher Ward have partnered with the Blue Marine Foundation to donate 2% of proceeds to oceanic conservation.

THE DETAIL: 41mm stainless steel case with 200m water resistance • Sellita SW300-1 automatic movement with 56-hour power reserve • £890, christopherward.com •

YEMA

Navygraf Heritage While Yema’s Navygraf Heritage is, as the name suggests, a reinterpretation of vintage military diver aesthetics, that hasn’t stopped them completely revamping the design – and the newest iteration is all the better for it. Available with either a black or a blue dial, this is one of the few times we’d opt for the more low-key black. The way the collection’s signature yellow hands pop against the darker colour is too good to pass up. Elegantly proportioned with a slim diving bezel and 10.85mm thickness, it’s just the right level of smart to wear to dinner and has the water resistance for a late-night plunge afterwards.

THE DETAIL: 39mm stainless steel case with 200m water resistance • Sellita SW200 automatic movement with 38-hour power reserve • £894, yema.com •

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best skindivers

CERTINA DS PH200M While we do review their latest professional-standard, titanium diver further in – it’s what I’ve been waiting for them to do for years – the DS PH200M remains one of the best-looking watches in Certina’s entire dive catalogue. Everything from the sapphire bezel insert to the crosshair dial evokes the golden age of dive watches, albeit updated with 21st century watchmaking. That includes the Powermatic 80 movement, one of the best stock calibres around. Put this on a NATO strap and you’re good to go.

THE DETAIL: •

42.80 mm stainless steel case with 200m water resistance • Powermatic 80 automatic movement with 80-hour power reserve • £920, certina.com

HERBELIN

Cap Camarat Diver Still the best version of Herbelin’s 1970s sporty Cap Camarat collection, the Cap Camarat Diver maintains the watch’s industrial vibes by bringing the requisite diving scale to a rotating inner bezel similar to compressors.

In a combination of steel, black and lashings of bright orange, it’s sporty, eye-catching and a lot of fun. It also comes on a particularly good holiday-ready FKM rubber strap, quick to dry after a dip in the pool and impervious to saltwater at the beach.

THE DETAIL: 42mm stainless steel case with 200m water resistance • Sellita SW220-1 automatic movement with 41-hour power reserve • £1,170, herbelin.co.uk •

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VENEZIANICO Nereide Verdigris Taking inspiration from the oxidised copper domes and statues of Venice, Venezianico’s signature 200m diver uses a Verdigris dial for one of the most spectacular colours outside of enamel. The shades across the dial shift between green, turquoise and blue, emphasised by a matching green-blue rubber strap. It has colour, it has style, what more could you want from a poolside diver? If you said a heavyweight tungsten bezel then you have very specific tastes – but the Nereide Verdigris has you covered.

THE DETAIL: 42mm stainless steel case with 200m water resistance • Sellita SW200-1 automatic movement with 41-hour power reserve • €1,295 (approx. £1,130), venezianico.com •

JACK MASON

Strat-o-timer Diver GMT Even if you’re not letting any international work calls spoilt your sun-drenched getaway, it’s still useful to know the time back home. Hence the quintessential traveller’s complication, the GMT, being a natural fit for a poolside dive watch. Jack Mason’s second time zone hand is picked out in orange against a cobalt blue backdrop so there’s no missing it but maintains all the essentials of a proper dive watch, including the matching blue diving bezel. The best of both worlds.

THE DETAIL: • 40mm titanium case with 200m water resistance • Miyota 9075 automatic movement with 42-hour power reserve • £1,063, jackmasonbrand.com

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WREN

Diver 38 Aqua Billed as a watch by enthusiasts for enthusiasts, Wren’s skindiver certainly ticks all the boxes of what we like to see in a casual diving watch. A lumed ceramic bezel, chunky diving indexes and an ETA movement, and an optional date (something I wish more brands did), means it earns its $1,595 price tag and then some. Then there’s that dial in a beautiful fume aqua shade, bright in the middle and fading to shadow around the edges into the black bezel. It’s a dramatic gradient and turns a by-the-numbers quality diver into a poolside must-have.

THE DETAIL: 38mm stainless steel case with 200m water resistance • ETA 2892 automatic movement with 42-hour power reserve • $1,595 (approx. £1,200), wrenwatches.com •

ORIS

x Redbar Limited Edition II While it’s always good to be able to shout out our friends at collector group Redbar, you don’t need to be a member to appreciate their latest limited edition with Oris. The dark, cherry red fume dial works perfectly with the more vintage feel of the Divers Sixty-Five. As this uses the Sellita-based 733-1 rather than Oris’ high-end Calibre 400 movement, it’s also at the more accessible end for the Holstein-based brand. Finished on either a steel bracelet or perforated, textured rubber strap, it’s like the refined skindiver brother to the ever popular (and professional standard) Aquis.

THE DETAIL: 39mm stainless steel case with 200m water resistance • 733-1 calibre automatic movement with 41-hour power reserve • £2,300, limited to 250 pieces, oris.ch •

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& SECONDS SUN, SEA THREE POOLSIDE LOOKS WORDS: Laura Powell

— Our pick of the season’s finest pool watches deserve the outfits to match. Because let’s be honest, on holiday, the pool is the main event.

From the first iced coffee of the morning to the last margarita at sunset, it’s where the whole holiday happens, so you may as well look the part. Here are three looks to make sure you do.

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— THE AMARETTO SOUR — Trunks — Frescobol Carioca Rio Sport Copacabana Swim · £175 Overshirt — OAS Terra Cuba Shirt · £150 Sliders — Brunello Cucinelli Suede Slides · £570 Sunglasses — COS Oval-Frame Sunglasses · £65 Towel — Vilebrequin Beach Towel Solid · £125 Bag — Orlebar Brown Canvas Stripe Beach Bag in Shore Blue/ Chai · £125 Watch — Vacheron Constantin Self-Winding Ultra-Thin · £103,000

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— THE GIMLET — Overshirt — Orlebar Brown Relaxed Fit Linen Mirabello Border Shirt in White/Night Iris · £345 Trunks — Sunspel Drawstring Swim Shorts · £145 Shoes — Massimo Dutti Nappa Sandals with Toe Divider Limited Edition · £119 Bracelet — Le Gramme 5G Sterling Silver Woven Bracelet in Red · £260 Sunglasses — Le Specs Subzero Wide Fit Tort Aviator Sunglasses · £70 Watch — Tudor Black Bay Pro White Opaline £3,980

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poolside looks

— THE DIRTY MARTINI — Overshirt — The Resort Co Terry Polo Shirt Navy · £114 Trunks — Loewe x Paula’s Ibiza Straight-Leg Mid-Length Striped Swim Shorts · £450 Sunglasses — Persol PO3393S Guido Sunglasses · £326 Watch — Tag Heuer Formula 1 Solargraph · £1,650

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oracle speaks

VERIFIED AUTHORITY HOW BLOCKCHAIN, NFTS, AND DIGITAL PASSPORTS ARE RESHAPING WATCH AUTHENTICATION

Almost every watch collector has been burned by an inauthentic purchase at some point. The overpolished lugs. The piece that looked better in the eBay photos.

The dreaded Frankenwatch. It’s almost a rite of passage. Verifying authenticity online is difficult.

When an Omega Speedmaster bought by the Omega Museum for CHF 3.12 million at Phillips Geneva was later confirmed to be a Frankenwatch, it proved that even the biggest players can get caught out (or are perhaps in on the act).

It’s why box and papers are considered a must when spending hard-earned money, though even these are more easily faked than most realise. For all the tricks an experienced eye picks up, knowing whether a watch is genuine remains stubbornly difficult.

That’s beginning to change. Brands and dealers are increasingly turning to new tools, including stolen-watch registers, private digital databases that back up certified pre-owned schemes, physical chips in watches, and – perhaps the most technologically innovative – blockchain.

Briefly: a blockchain is a sequence of data blocks, each cryptographically linked to the one before, so that altering a single record requires altering every record after it. Once written, an entry is effectively immutable. This is what made it a credible foundation for cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, and, increasingly, for authenticating goods. In its best form it’s trustless and decentralised; at its worst, it’s nothing more than a private spreadsheet.

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PAPER TRAILS Before blockchain, the closest thing the industry had to a verifiable provenance system was the manufacturer archive extract. Patek Philippe’s Extract from the Archives remains the gold standard, with Omega, Vacheron Constantin, Jaeger-LeCoultre, A. Lange & Söhne, and Longines Heritage all running equivalents. For a fee, the brand confirms what left the factory, when, and in what configuration. Rolex notably does not offer one, which is part of why its later move into certified pre-owned carried so much weight.

Archive extracts aren’t infallible either: the Phillips Omega Speedmaster mentioned above had been authenticated through conventional channels before the Frankenwatch verdict landed.

The systems work until they don’t.

DIGITAL AUTHENTICATION AND WRISTWATCHES Breitling was among the first to apply blockchain logic to watches. Every recent Breitling ships with a QR code on its warranty card; scanning it links the watch to a personal NFT, a unique blockchain identifier that records ownership and authenticity. Tied to a Breitling account, the NFT also unlocks service history, an online valuation tool, priority access to events, and notifications about limited editions and servicing.

Hublot got there even earlier in spirit, with its e-Warranty digital authentication system arriving well ahead of the wider industry’s interest, while Panerai ran one of the first true blockchain pilots with the Submersible Mike Horn Edition in 2019.

Two ecosystems have since done most of the consolidating. The Aura Blockchain Consortium, backed by LVMH, Richemont, and the Prada Group, issues a Digital Product Passport accessible via a QR code, with watchmaking members including Bulgari, Cartier, Chopard, Czapek, Hublot, and H. Moser. Arianee, a Parisbased protocol provider, sits behind much of the rest: Breitling’s system, IWC’s Digital Papers programme (launched 2023, storing each watch’s NFT in the owner’s wallet), and Vacheron Constantin’s blockchain-backed passports, which integrate with The Hour Club and have been rolling out since late 2021. The Arianee Association, a non-profit governed by member brands, sets the standards while Arianee SAS supplies the infrastructure; the combination has, by the company’s own count, minted more than four million NFTs to date, freeing watchmakers from having to build their own back end.

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CERTIFIED PRE-OWNED Alongside blockchain, the past few years have seen a wave of brand-led certification programmes. The pace-setter has been Rolex Certified Pre-Owned, launched in late 2022, which sells inspected and authenticated watches through authorised retailers with a two-year international guarantee. Tudor, Audemars Piguet, TAG Heuer, Cartier, and Zenith (whose Icons scheme focuses specifically on vintage) have since followed with similar brand-led programmes, while retailers including Bucherer and Watchfinder & Co run their own certifications with multi-year warranties.

Together, these schemes give the secondary market something it has historically lacked: a chain of accountability backed by the brand or retailer rather than a private seller. They command a price premium, but the brand-backed warranty and verified provenance are, for many buyers, worth it.

oracle speaks

Replacing the traditional paper certificate and wax stamp, Breitling watches now ship with a unique blockchain identifier that records ownership and authenticity

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oracle speaks

Do you accept analogue watch? The Swiss firm STISS remain confident that in time mechanical watches could handle contactless payments or bitcoin transfers

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INDEPENDENT INFRASTRUCTURE Traceability is not the preserve of the major houses. Smaller specialists have built businesses around the gaps the big players don’t fill.

The largest of those gaps is the secondary market itself. Chrono24’s Trusted Checkout, with its in-house authentication service, handles a volume of transactions no brand programme comes close to, while dedicated dealers including The 1916 Company (formerly WatchBox), Bob’s Watches, and Hodinkee’s pre-owned arm have built their own authentication processes around specific niches.

Stolen-watch tracking is the other obvious gap.

Databases including Alpha Hands, Enquirus, MyStolenWatch.com, and Watch Certification Services of America let owners log missing watches with serial numbers and police reports.

The Watch Register, which sits within the wider Art Loss Register, goes further and offers active recovery, though at a price: roughly £15 to register a missing watch, £12 to check a prospective purchase, and a 5% commission on any value recovered. The Met’s dedicated watchcrime efforts, formed in response to a sharp rise in London street robberies, increasingly lean on these registers as a first port of call.

A handful of independents are doing genuinely different things. Favre-Leuba was an early adopter, working with the WISeAuthentic platform rather than Arianee, while MB&F has since joined the Arianee Association. SevenFriday has been embedding NFC chips in its watches since 2014, predating much of the wider industry’s interest in the technology. The Swiss firm STISS goes further still, developing watch crystals with embedded NFC chips: tap a phone to the crystal and the watch’s service history, ownership record, and certificate of origin appear instantly. The same chip, STISS argues, could in time enable mechanical watches to handle contactless payments or bitcoin transfers. “NFC offers an immense playing field,” CEO Joé Courtine tells Oracle Time.

CERTIFICATION CHALLENGES Cumulatively, these developments give traditional paperwork a serious rival. For pre-owned watches of recent vintage, an NFT linked to a brand’s authentication system is harder to forge, easier to verify, and more useful, carrying service history alongside provenance,

“ In theory, once you have the digital certification you could swap out the physical product, as there’s no tie ” than the certificate slipped into the watch box.

There is an issue, though: tying the physical product to the NFT. In theory, once you have the digital certification you could swap out the physical product, as there’s no tie. This is where products like STISS’s NFC chips could make this much more feasible. If you can tie the chip to the blockchain in a way it can’t be removed or tampered with, it would solve a big problem.

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Chopard L.U.C Quattro Spirit 25 Straw Marquetry Edition • Reference – 161977-0003 • Price - POA • Case – 40mm 18K ethical yellow gold, sapphire crystal • Movement – automatic, calibre L.U.C 98.06-L, up to 192h power reserve • Water Resistance – 50m • Strap – brown alligator

Photography by TEDDY CLARK

A moment of clarity >————————>

Geneva Watch Week still seems like a blur, but now that the dust has settled, we’ve had a chance to look back at everything we got hands-on with. And with that retrospective comes a clearer picture of the releases that truly deserved attention. Between rushing to appointments, being late for appointments, and getting a glimpse of the celebs in the Palexpo, we managed to get hands on with some ridiculous watches. From Patek Philippe honouring half a century of the Nautilus to a wonderfully French collab from Baltic and Space One, these are the watches that have stayed with us.

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50th anniversary Patek Philippe Nautilus Platinum and White gold versions • Reference - 5610/1P • Price - £90,830 • Case - 38mm Platinum, sapphire crystal • Movement – automatic, calibre 240, up to 48h power reserve • Water Resistance – 30m • Strap – Platinum

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Frederique Constant Manufacture Classic Worldtimer • Reference – FC-719NN3H6B • Price - POA • Case - 40mm stainless steel, sapphire crystal • Movement – automatic, calibre FC-719, up to 72h power reserve • Water Resistance – 50m • Strap – stainless steel

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Vanguart Orb • Price - POA • Case - 41mm blue ceramic and rose gold • Movement – 3Hz flying tourbillon movement with 60h power reserve • Water Resistance – 30m • Strap – rubber

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Roger Dubuis Excalibur Biretrograde Perpetual Calendar • Reference – DBEX1178 • Price - POA • Case - 40mm pink gold 18K, sapphire crystal • Movement – automatic, calibre RD850, up to 60h power reserve • Water Resistance – 100m • Strap – Calf

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Nomos Tangente Neomatik 38 Update • Reference –147 • Price - £3,680 • Case - 38.5mm stainless steel, sapphire crystal • Movement – automatic, calibre DUW 6101, up to 50h power reserve • Water Resistance – 50m • Strap – Horween Genuine Shell Cordovan

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Hermès Slim d’Hermès Squelette Lune • Reference – W408309WW00 • Price - £20,130 • Case – 39.5mm grade 5 titanium, sapphire crystal • Movement – automatic, calibre H1953, up to 48h power reserve • Water Resistance – 30m • Strap – grey alligator strap

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Space One x Baltic • Reference – FC-719NN3H6B • Price - €2,500 (approx. £2,160) Brushed €3,500 (approx. £3,020) Charbonné • Case – 38.5mm stainless steel, sapphire crystal • Movement – automatic, calibre Soprod P024, up to 42h power reserve • Water Resistance – 50m • Strap – Alcantara strap by Delugs

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akio naito

The Interview:

AKIO NAITO WORDS: Sam Kessler

THE SEIKO PRESIDENT DISCUSSES GRAND SEIKO’S RISE FROM NICHE COLLECTOR FAVOURITE TO GLOBAL LUXURY PLAYER — AND WHY CREDOR COULD BE NEXT

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— Grand Seiko is among the more quietly self-contained watchmakers in the world, despite being consistently loved by serious collectors. You just don’t hear from them in the same way you do the Swiss old guard. Instead, they’ve traditionally been content to sit back, make great watches and not get too involved – which is why when we were offered a chance to talk to the man in charge at this year’s Watches & Wonders in Geneva, we leapt at the opportunity.

Unless you’re as deep in the weeds as us in the media, there’s a good chance you’ve not heard of Naito-san, but his path to the top is worth a look. He didn’t start as a watchmaker; instead, he began in Seiko’s legal department in 1984. He evidently wanted a shift, as in 2002 he became Managing Director of Seiko Australia.

Later, he moved on to Grand Seiko Corporation of America in 2017.

Finally, in 2021 he became president of the entire Seiko Watch

Corporation, overseeing the Japanese watchmaking triumvirate of Seiko, Grand Seiko, and Credor.

That last is the most interesting right now. When we were talking to Naito-san on the Grand Seiko booth – while admiring their new dive watches – the big news from Seiko Watch Corporation was actually Credor, who were showing at Watches & Wonders for the first time.

For a brand with very little presence outside of Japan, that’s a big deal.

What does this actually mean for the brand?

“Well, Credor was born in Japan in 1974, so we have a history of over half a century,” says Naito-san. “And actually, internally we’ve been discussing when to launch Credor internationally since the 2000s. The question then was whether to go with Credor or Grand Seiko. We thought the latter would have a more universal appeal compared to the aesthetics and elegance of Credor, so we went with Grand Seiko.”

Born in Japan in 1974, Seiko’s Credor brand was scheduled to launch since the 2000s, but the deciosn was made to launch the more universal Grand Seiko instead

“ Credor was born in Japan in 1974, so we have a history of over half a century. ” 84

That was a defining moment for the group. Grand Seiko as a name has been around since 1960, and the decision to split it out, to focus on their craftsmanship and advanced movements was the starting point of what’s become a quintessential collectors’ brand. And yet, while it’s been a success, it wasn’t quite as easy at the beginning.

“The name Seiko was, of course, very well-known throughout the world,” says Naito-san, “but the image was not that of luxury. In Japan, customers were aware of Grand Seiko as our top-end, but outside of Japan – including the UK of course – Seiko’s image was of good quality but affordable, accessible, value pieces.

When we launched Grand Seiko, we had a very difficult time getting the high-end message across.”

To put that in numbers, there was growth across the first five years of Grand Seiko was available outside of Japan, but 10% to 12%. Not nothing, but not meteoric by any stretch – and a far cry from the last decade, which saw Grand Seiko sales outside of Japan grow, according to Naito-san, by 15 times. So, what happened?

“After a slow start, the real expansion of Grand Seiko happened in 2017 when we made the decision to separate the brand, to make Grand Seiko independent from Seiko. We changed the logo at 12 o’clock, we separated the distribution and we went right into high-end luxury watchmaking.”

This separation helped the rest of the world more easily distinguish Grand Seiko from its mothership and helped highlight what they did best. Seiko for reliable tools; Grand Seiko for considered, highspecification horology.

“I’m sure Grand Seiko was not on most people’s radar 10 years ago, but now it’s more like a mainstream luxury brand. We’re confident now that the brand’s fame has reached a certain level… so now it’s time for us to launch Credor.”

On paper, Credor might sound like a similar proposition to Grand Seiko.

akio naito

Naito-san (below) was appointed president of the entire Seiko corporation in 2021, arriving in the top job via a circuitous route that started in the company’s legal department over 40 years ago (Below left): Credor is defined by the artisan approach

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Over the past five years, investment in recreating key components of some classic models means that Seiko can now “meet the demands of those people who are collecting vintage,” according to Naito-san

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It’s high-end, traditionally made, serious watchmaking. But Credor is a distinct luxury brand with an artisan watchmaking philosophy that differs fundamentally from Grand Seiko.

“Credor is basically a handcrafted watch,” explains Naito-san, “even more so than Grand Seiko, making it very difficult to expand production.

That’s the hardest challenge we’re facing – we just can’t make enough watches. We only have 10 shopfronts outside Japan, including our own boutiques. We’re working very hard to expand production, and we will have a more substantive global launch in the near future – but it’ll all happen very gradually.”

So no, you won’t easily be able to walk into a shop and buy a Credor watch outside of Japan any time soon.

That’s not to say they’re completely unavailable, just that you might want to anticipate a bit of a wait.

That’s the higher end of the three brands and the biggest news of Watches & Wonders. But back in the UK, there’s been an ongoing conversation about the workhorse that is Seiko. Traditionally, as Naito-san mentioned, Seiko has been seen as an accessible sports watch brand, £500 and under for a wellmade, reliably tool piece. In recent years however there’s been an obvious shift upwards, enough that many of the people who championed them as a value-driven brand have become a bit disillusioned.

“First of all, of course, everything is getting more and more expensive,” says Naito-san of the shift. “In comparison with what the other, say, six luxury brands are doing, I don’t think we’ve increased that much.

As the successful Grand Seiko line was established, we saw a gap between Seiko and Grand Seiko and consumers that wanted a good quality, trustworthy mechanical movements more accessibly than major luxury brand watches. This is where King Seiko fits perfectly. And underneath that we have the Prospex, Presage and other ranges,

“ Credor is basically a handcrafted watch, even more so than Grand Seiko, making it very difficult to expand production ”

alongside Seiko’s historically accessible entry-level. The average price has gone up, as we are trying to broaden the range of options.”

The mention of King Seiko is particularly interesting as that’s not a brand which has been around in its current form for long. There was a successful limited edition in 2021, followed by a new permanent collection in 2022 and since then the mid-60s aesthetic has gone from strength to strength. It’s a look that’s very distinct from the rest of the brand’s collections – which begs the question: will King Seiko be going independent, too?

Unfortunately, Naito-san immediately burst that bubble.

“Right now, we don’t have any plans to make King Seiko independent. As you know, King Seiko was born one year after Grand Seiko and at that time we had two manufacturing arms within the group, one in Suwa, Nagano Prefecture and one in Tokyo. The two had a friendly rivalry so it’s an interesting question. King Seiko has such a distinctive identity. But no, no plans as of now.”

That’s perhaps not a surprise. As we mentioned, Grand Seiko may be considered a top-tier luxury

watchmaker now, but it’s still a relatively young brand on its own merits and one that’s still growing very quickly. That’s not just the case for new sales either. Prices for preowned 45GS models have increased by 150% over the last 10 years, with the 44GS just behind it at 120%. That shows some genuine traction but also raises a potential problem.

Grand Seiko movements are incredibly accurate, with the Spring Drive often cited as one of the best in the world in terms of raw accuracy. But it’s also a movement that’s constantly being refined and pushed further, right up to the current U.F.A. (Ultra Fine Accuracy) calibres. At the same time, it’s a specialised enough system – marrying quartz precision with mechanical power – that only Grand Seiko can really repair them. And if the specific movement is now out of production, you might well be stuck.

Or you would have been.

“In the last five years,” says Naito-san, “we’ve invested into recreating some of the key components so that even though production has ceased on some vintage models, we can still repair them. That means we have significantly increased our service coverage compared to the past, allowing us to meet the demands of those people who are collecting vintage.”

And with so many brands keeping control of their own vintage market through authorised preowned programmes, is that something Grand Seiko are looking at too?

“We’ve been studying the possibility very carefully. But we think the brand is really still in its infancy. Grand Seiko is still growing as a brand and we’re not at the maturity and brand awareness that means we can go into the certified pre-owned or secondary market ourselves. For now, we’re supporting those that do buy vintage.”

Browsing old Grand Seiko models on Chrono24 just got a lot more dangerous.

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MicroReg

HOW HORAGE’S LATEST CREATION FIXES A PROBLEM MOST COLLECTORS RARELY THINK ABOUT – AND WHY IT MIGHT BE THE INDUSTRY’S BIGGEST INNOVATION FOR DECADES

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WORDS

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— While the inimitable Jean-Claude Biver might like to argue that absolute precision is unnecessary for high-end watches, at any end of the scale it’s good to know that your timekeeper is, well, keeping time. It’s why COSC-certified still carries weight and, more recently, brands like Jaeger-LeCoultre and Omega have been wheeling out their own chronometric certifications. But behind all those +/seconds a day, there’s a fallacy.

Testing accuracy at the moment a movement is constructed is important. But from the moment that movement is cased up to the seconds it starts to lose on your wrist, your watch’s performance won’t line up with what’s on its paperwork. Instead, it’s worth thinking about timekeeping certification as a guarantee of quality rather than accuracy.

For independent brand Horage, the headline-grabbing solution to the problem has been their MicroReg system, a way for owners being able to regulate the movement themselves. When we last talked about the idea back in July 2024, however, it was a long way off being useable. Now that it’s on the horizon and might genuinely be the biggest innovation in watches for decades, it’s worth drilling deeper.

Regulation is, to put it simply, adjusting the balance of a watch to ensure it’s keeping good time. Traditionally this has been done one of two ways. In a freesprung balance this means adjusting the tiny weights that line the balance wheel; with a classic pin regulator it means changing the length of the balance spring.

Either way, this means opening up the watch and manually manipulating the delicate balance assembly, which takes both time and skill.

This was an issue for Horage co-founder Andreas Felsl. “The first problem,” he explains, “is the initial regulation when they leave our manufacture. When it comes to regulation, you have a watchmaker that has to listen to what a movement is telling you, stick their finger in it to change things and listen again. It’s trial-and-error and in manufacturing, trial-and-error is not a good thing. At the same time, we couldn’t afford to automate the regulation process like Omega or Rolex can.”

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For some watchmakers, this final regulation stage can take as long as an hour, meaning that you can quickly end up with a bottleneck and buildup of finished but unregulated movements. It needs to be done, but without Rolex-scale automation budgets, there’s no shortcut. The second, compounding issue Andreas had however, was that it all felt a bit pointless: “We meticulously hand-regulate these watches. Then they sit on a plane to London, next to a big turbine that’s vibrating for a couple of hours so that when you put it on your wrist, it won’t run as it was originally regulated. We’re spending all this money on regulation, and the end user quite often just isn’t happy when they need to send their watch back for adjustment.”

Making regulation of the movement easier would help both sides of that particular equation. It would make the final production step quicker and mean quicker turnaround for adjustments. And the biggest barrier in the way of simplifying regulation is that the watch needs to be opened up. So, what if it didn’t? What if, rather than a watchmaker having to open the caseback and manually adjust the balance, they could do so from outside the watch?

“It was just a wish,” he says of the idea, “lingering around for about seven years.”

That was until Andreas was lecturing at the University of Lausanne and in his class was the CEO of a small tech company called Miniswys. Their work was largely based on that of Elmar Mock, the man who in the 1980s developed an ultrasonic welding technique that enabled the creation of the Swatch watch. His technique allowed the movement to be sealed in a single-piece plastic case and, using similar ideas, Miniswys were, as Andreas puts it, “figuring out how to use vibrations to move stuff.”

“Once I understood what their technology was,” says Andreas of the lightning bolt moment, “my first question was, ‘can you turn a screw?’” Thus, Horage’s MicroReg system was born.

The idea behind MicroReg is simple.

When ultrasonic waves pass through the Miniswys actuator, it can be activated to either push or pull a small object – like a screw head. The Schwanenhals-Grossmann regulator allows lengthening or shortening

“ We meticulously hand-regulate these watches.

Then they sit on a plane to London, next to a big turbine that’s vibrating for a couple of hours ”

microreg

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microreg

This technological innovation has been applied to the Horage Revolution 3 MicroReg (below), which not only makes regulation of the movement easier, but could also lead to exciting licensing opportunities

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Designed to simplify and enhance the regulation of mechanical watches, the MicroReg system provides a smart solution for fine-tuning watch movements

“ The system means slightly quicker production and far easier regulation at only a slight increase in cost ”

of the balance spring using a screw. Put the two together and you have a way of adjusting the balance without ever actually touching it.

In one go, this solves Horage’s two big problems with regulation. It means that the initial regulation is quicker and that any watchmaker with the right tool can readjust as and when necessary. In an industry where iteration is seen as innovation, this is something genuinely new and potentially important. And yet Horage were keen to take it one step further. What if you didn’t need to even send the watch back to have it regulated?

That’s why the new MicroReg system is more than a behind-the-scenes mechanism, but will come with both a user-friendly ultrasonic adjustment system and an app for Horage owners to regulate their own watches. This app is still in its prototype phase – the screenshots we have here are still in development – but the idea will be the same in the production version. If you’re the kind of person who tracks seconds lost per day, MicroReg is designed for you.

At first, like all new things, this will be a slow roll-out in Horage’s line-up and we don’t yet have definitive answers as to what that will look like. What we do know is that the first, finished MicroReg watches, complete with an app and regulation tool, will be available before the end of the year.

More importantly though, it won’t come as some showpiece limited edition but as a production watch with all the reliability and practicality that entails – including proper water resistance.

More significantly, MicroReg has licensing potential beyond one brand.

Horage already develop and build movements for other brands and according to Andreas, licensing out MicroReg is definitely an option. It’s easy to see the appeal to brands in a similar boat to Horage. The system means slightly quicker production and far easier regulation at only a slight increase in cost. If collectors start realising that a COSC certificate only lasts as long as the watch is in the testing facility, the demand will definitely be there.

At the same time, any new innovation has its imitators and it might not be long before other watchmakers start pursuing similar solutions. After all, while the Miniswys technology might be impressive (not to

mention patented), the concept of regulating a watch from the outside is simple enough to be tempting to big players like Rolex.

Andreas however isn’t worried; quite the opposite. As his previous experience with new technology has proven, he could well be in the perfect position. “I think it could be the best thing that could happen. It’s something I had before, I invented a travel adjustment system in mountain bikes and built a company off it. But it was only when Rockshox issued a similar technology that we were taken seriously. Then, however we were too early, we were more than 10 years ahead. With MicroReg however, I think we’re hitting the industry at the perfect time.”

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Innovation is a word used far too often. A new case material? Innovation. A new dial colour? Innovation. A slight tweak to the power reserve? Yep. Innovation.

There’s so much white noise around what’s new that it can be hard to glean what’s more than novelty for novelty’s sake. That’s where we come in.

This is our Innovation issue and rather than fawn over new proprietary alloys that shift their percentage of nickel content by a decimal point, we’re here to look into the advancements in watchmaking this year that genuinely matter.

From revolutionary new movements to advanced ways to create cases, here are the five biggest innovations of 2026… so far.

THE

BIGGEST WATCHMAKING INNOVATIONS OF 2026

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biggest innovations

TAG HEUER’S EVERGRAPH EVOLVES THE CHRONOGRAPH Where last year we had Rolex’s Dynapulse escapement, this year we have TAG Heuer’s Evergraph – that’s how significant this new launch is.

That’s not because it’s a particularly cool looking watch (it’s another skeletonised Monaco) but because it’s a fundamentally different approach to the stopwatch complication.

The idea behind the new TH80-80 movement begins with a compliant mechanism with bistable components. That sounds incredibly technical, but it boils down to a mechanism that bends into one of two stable shapes. Watchmaker Rob Nudds described it to me as the chronograph equivalent of a retro snap bracelet, which is bistable in that it switches between coiled and straight.

This single-part bistable hammer is made of nickelphosphorus (NiP) and flexes between start/stop and reset functions, combined with a second nickelphosphorous part to directly interact with the rest of the movement. By removing the number of parts needed, TAG Heuer have streamlined the mechanism in a way that makes it more reliable, reduces wear and potentially makes it easier to produce.

It’s worth noting that how you use the new chronograph is the same. It feels different (and much more satisfying) but otherwise is functionally the same. This is less about reinventing the chronograph as a function and more about perfecting it.

“ Any new way of approaching how we interact with a watch opens the door to innovation ” 98

MOSER & CIE’S STREAMLINER PUMP MAKES WINDING FUN The collaboration nobody saw coming, Moser & Cie collaborated with Reebok to ape their famous Pump sneakers in a black-cased Streamliner. Core to that idea is the new winding pusher at eight o’clock taken directly from the shoe. Rather than fiddling with a winding crown or waiting for the rotor to kick in, all the system takes is a few pushes. One press, one hour of power – meaning 74 to fill it from empty.

On one level, this is a fun bit of novelty tied into the story of a streetwear icon. It’s very Moser. But on another level, it changes how you interact with the movement itself. Winding the crown is a ritual to some, an annoyance to others. But it also means consistent operation of one of a watch’s most delicate parts – the crown stem. It’s worryingly easy to damage a crown and here you don’t need to worry about that.

It also enhances useability. If you don’t have the dexterity to operate a fiddly crown, the pump button offers a much easier, much more straightforward method of keeping your power reserve topped up.

Physical accessibility isn’t something often discussed in the watch industry, so even if it’s a byproduct of another idea, it’s worth celebrating.

This being Moser and therefore very low volume, it’s not necessarily going to change the game. But like the Harwood Perpetual’s winding bezel way back in 1924, any new way of approaching how we interact with a watch opens the door to innovation.

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IWC’S CERALUME BRINGS A PREMIUM FEEL TO A FULL LUME CASE Luminescent materials aren’t new. Even full lume cases aren’t particularly new, given how hard Bell & Ross has been pushing the idea over the past couple of years. But the problem with most luminescent materials, even if they’re practical, is that they don’t feel great. There is carbon fibre with lume mixed in, lightweight and racy, but more commonly we’re talking some kind of composite. Light, yes, but not exactly premium feeling.

Ceramic on the other hand is ultra-hard, tactile and resistant to pretty much everything. Importantly, the colour also never fades. And now, IWC have combined the two for their new Ceralume, a full ceramic watch that glows in the dark.

This isn’t too much of a surprise, given IWC’s historical use of ceramic. They produced the first ceramic watch in the Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar way back in 1986, and now that they’ve done plenty of their coloured ceramic Pilot's Watches, this feels like the next step. In bright light it’s a crisp white akin to the winter landscape around Lake Tahoe; in the dark it glows ghostly blue.

It’s worth noting that at present, this is only available in the Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar and at a huge mark-up compared to the standard white ceramic – almost double, in fact, £61,300 compared to £31,800 for the Le Petit Prince edition. Limited to only 250 pieces, this is going to be a rarity. But you can be sure that IWC haven’t created Ceralume for a single limited edition and as they scale up production, the hope is that the cost will come down accordingly.

HUBLOT BIG BANG IMPACT SETS DIAMOND INTO SAPPHIRE Machining a sapphire case is hard enough, but the idea of then going back and setting diamonds directly into the brittle material is a step further than most watchmakers would even contemplate. And yet, Hublot’s new Big Bang Impact does just that.

The idea here is that rather than using a drill to create the settings, which would destroy the sapphire, Hublot instead use lasers. These are used to create micron-precise channels in the transparent material just big enough to set diamonds into.

However, the diamonds need something to grip onto and so these channels are lined with gold before the precious stones are finally set into them. It’s no surprise then that this technique takes hundreds of hours to accomplish and there’s no real way of speeding that up.

In the Spirit of Big Bang Impact, Hublot set diamonds into the sapphire case, but on a smaller scale, what about diamond markers in the crystal of a non-sapphire cased watch? When used in moderation this new laser-grooved gem-setting technique could open up some fascinating new aesthetic avenues like gemstone indexes set directly into the crystal rather than on the dial.

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PANERAI USE DMLS TO APPROACH CASE-MAKING DIFFERENTLY Direct Metal Laser Sintering. While it sounds like a sci-fi concept, what Panerai’s latest case-making technique comes down to is 3D printing with metal.

It’s something that’s been used across other industries aplenty and even in watchmaking Panerai aren’t the first. The UK’s own Apiar has built a brand around the idea, though they use the term ‘additive manufacturing’. Whatever you call it, the idea is the same.

“ It’s the difference between working from the outside in and starting from the inside out ” Rather than having a case made of solid metal and then milling it, the case is built up layer by layer using metal powder – in the Panerai Submersible GMT PAM01495 that means titanium – and a highpowered laser. This allows you to create shapes that you wouldn’t normally be able to, including hollow parts and complex internal structures. It’s the difference between working from the outside in and starting from the inside out.

The end result for Panerai is a case that’s 25% lighter than other, similar titanium cases, but that’s just the start. Apiar have combined the technology with AI to create otherworldly shapes, and having a brand of Panerai’s notoriety on side puts a spotlight on the possibilities.

There are cons of course. Additive manufacturing takes much longer than subtractive manufacturing (i.e. milling) and generally leaves a rough finish that requires some cleanup. But it’s much better for prototyping and small runs of pieces. More importantly, it only uses the necessary material and doesn’t need a constant stream of oil pointed at it, two of the biggest waste factors in modern watchmaking.

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WORDS:

DRIVEN TO LUXURY

Mark Smyth

FROM CHAUFFEUR LIMOS TO AUTONOMOUS LOUNGES, THE FUTURE OF LUXURY CARS IS ALL ABOUT WHAT’S IN THE BACK SEAT 103

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THE LUXURY ROAD LEADS TO CHINA

— Whether it’s a London black cab, a chauffeur-driven limousine, or even a self-driving car like a Tesla or a Waymo, being driven, in the right back seat, is its own kind of indulgence. In the early days of motoring it was the preserve of the very wealthy, in cars like the Bugatti Type 41 Royale and the Rolls-Royce Phantom.

While luxury continued to evolve, by modern standards even the rear seats of a 1950s Cadillac or a ‘90s BMW 7 Series feel restrained. A long-wheelbase BMW 750iL once represented the height of executive excess with its integrated telephone, television and fridge, but that too feels dated. The distinction between mainstream and luxury has blurred, helped along the way by curious collaborations such as the Mini ‘Inspired by Goodwood’, trimmed with Wilton carpets and Rolls-Royce

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detailing, or the improbable Aston Martin Cygnet, which transformed the humble Toyota iQ into a designer accessory on wheels.

Today, rear-seat luxury has entered a new era, no longer confined to limousines but found in saloons, SUVs and the return of the near-extinct MPV. Much of this transformation is being driven by China, where affluent buyers have long placed greater importance on comfort and prestige than outright driving dynamics. Long-wheelbase versions of European executive cars such as the Audi A6L and BMW 5 Series Li have become staples of the market. Even these now appear conservative beside a new generation of vehicles offering comfort closer to that of a private jet and technology that enables the car to drive itself.

A recent visit to a Chinese motor show revealed just how fiercely competitive the demand for perceived luxury has become. Almost every manufacturer displayed an SUV, saloon or MPV designed around the rear-seat experience: reclining Nappa leather chairs, polished wood veneers, thick carpets and immersive digital interfaces. The materials appear to be more than a match for many European counterparts in craftsmanship and quality.

Many of these brands remain unfamiliar outside China. That will not last. One already becoming familiar is BYD, which alongside its mainstream vehicles has a luxury division, Denza, with the Denza D9 expected to arrive in Europe this year. It combines captain’s chairs, expansive cabin space and an extensive technology package aimed at executive transport and high-end family buyers.

Another likely to become a familiar sight at airport drop-offs is the Xpeng X9, a VIP-focused people carrier. NIO has recently unveiled its ET9 flagship executive saloon, pitched at the same kind of buyer.

The most ambitious of the lot is the Maextro S800. A joint venture between Huawei and Chinese carmaker JAC, the S800 is a limousine for a new generation of wealthy buyers: those who want their doors to open electronically as they approach and their headlights to feature faceted crystals. Its starting price undercuts a comparable Mercedes-Benz S-Class by tens of thousands of pounds.

“ Many of these brands remain unfamiliar outside China. That will not last ”

drive to luxury

If the rear-seat experience doesn’t include captain’s chairs, expansive cabin space, and an extensive technology package like those created by Denza and NIO (left and below) then you’re not getting the full experience

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LOYALTY TO LEGACY Fortunately for those legacy brands, heritage and brand loyalty still carry weight. It’s why there continues to be enormous reverence for Bentley and Rolls-Royce, respect for the Range Rover and gravitas in arriving by chauffeured BMW 7 Series. Even so, traditional brands face a wave of new competitors: the Mercedes-Benz V-Class, long a VIP-transport staple, now looks basic against them.

Established premium brands are adapting, though. Lexus has pushed deeper into chauffeur-driven luxury with the LM. In four-seat configuration, the rear cabin is more like a private suite, with reclining airline-style seats, massage programmes, a champagne fridge and a cinematic 48-inch display.

Meanwhile, Volvo has embraced a similarly forward-looking philosophy with the Volvo EM90.

Fully electric, the EM90 combines Scandinavian restraint with the lounge-like comfort increasingly demanded by luxury buyers, although for now it remains exclusive to the Chinese market.

THE AUTONOMY OF LUXURY China is also accelerating another shift in automotive luxury in the form of autonomous driving tech.

Semi-autonomous vehicles have become a common sight in major Chinese cities, many identified by illuminated exterior light signatures signalling that the car is operating in assisted-driving mode. The technology is being rolled out around the world too, including Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving options, and the Level 3 tech featured in Mercedes-Benz’s latest Drive Pilot system. While the regulations still require a driver

“ As the driver’s role diminishes, the interior is going to become even more of a focus ”

Adapting the wave of technologically advanced Chinese back seats, previous standard bearers of luxury like Lexus and Volvo have adapted their approach to focus on lounge-like comfort in the back

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behind the wheel, the long-term ambition is clearly a future in which there is no need for a driver, or even a steering wheel. Most manufacturers have shown their ideas for the future of autonomous cars, some like Verne, the creation of Mate Rimac, looking at robotaxis, others reinterpreting their own style for a driverless era.

Luxury manufacturers have spent years imagining what this future might look like and few seem more suited to it than Rolls-Royce. Its Vision Next 100 concept aims to be a sanctuary of ultimate luxury for the future, one where handcrafted materials blend seamlessly with discreet technology, while the exterior delivers what Rolls-Royce calls a “Grand Arrival”.

Volvo has also explored this idea, although perhaps in a less grandiose way. Its 360c concept is envisioned as a mobile space capable of transforming between lounge, office, bedroom and entertainment suite. Although still far from production, such ideas reveal how radically the definition of automotive luxury is changing.

Fully autonomous driving has slowed, hampered by the scale of edge-case analysis and the legal complications of global deployment.

However, almost every premium and luxury car has some form of selfdriving or driving-assistance technology, signalling an era when the drive itself no longer demands attention. As the driver’s role diminishes, the interior is going to become even more of a focus, a place not merely for transportation but for work, relaxation, entertainment and time to escape. When that happens, materials, craftsmanship and digital experiences are likely to matter more than ever.

Until then, we can still enjoy the guilty pleasure of being driven as much as we do the joy of the drive.

So, I’ll just climb into my Saab, select first gear and disappear towards the horizon the old-fashioned way.

Maybe I’ll even listen to a CD.

men of influence

MEN of INFLUENCE:

WRAVEN LABS’ NATHAN CLAPP THE ENTREPRENEUR AND SOCIAL MEDIA STAR ON LANGE, VINYL, AND ARCHERY DODGEBALL

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If you’ve ever been struck by a sudden bolt of inspiration about some cool, novel complication, I’m sorry to say that Nathan Clapp’s likely beaten you there. The short-form video maestro has been blowing up Instagram and YouTube Shorts with his inventive, blue-sky-thinking approach to watchmaking.

While those designs have been restricted to the digital space (for now) their sheer inventiveness has seen Nathan – under brand name Wraven Labs – gain a die-hard following and an April Fools collaboration with Christopher Ward.

I’m a bit of a fake gamer even with all these Switches; I have a gaming PC here that I just really play Rocket League and Expedition 33 on.

What was the last watch you bought?

Since I’ve been doing the social media thing and being a bit more entrepreneurial, I’ve had to hold back a bit on my spending because I’m trying to make the runway last.

So, the last really exciting buy for me was the Yacht-Master 40, with the rhodium grey dial and the teal second hand.

I love the bezel on Yacht-Masters in general, with the mix of polish and matte contrast. I just love that. The case is slimmer too and a little bit more refined, so fits my smaller wrists better than other models. It helped that other people weren’t buying it. It made me feel like, okay, I can get a Rolex but it’s a little different.

What is a recent find or discovery?

Through a friend I recently found a local archery dodgeball league. I’m in my upper 30s now but it’s been keeping me somewhat young. It’s literally dodgeball with a bow and arrows. You wear a mask and the

Do you collect anything outside of watches?

I’ve always had a little collector in me. I got into vinyl maybe three years ago, so I’ve really enjoyed collecting old records. But if I’m not listening to it, I’m not buying it. I tend to buy records that were pressed when I was in high school, like an old hardcore band or something from the early 2000s. I love the idea that this is the exact sound I heard back then.

I also have a stack of sealed video games and consoles (I have a tonne of Switches) and some sealed Pokémon cards. It’s just kind of fun. I do wonder if one day they’ll actually be worth something. Though I do think

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What’s at the top of your wishlist?

I’ve always loved A. Lange & Söhne and the latest annual calendar they released in 36 millimetres is perfect. I have to be able to wear things, right?

And 36 is a good size for me. The Lange 1 was always at the top of my wishlist but now I’m eyeing that new Saxonia. The proportions look perfect and nothing says Lange quite like rose gold and anthracite.

arrows have soft tips, but they can still hurt. They go fast. it’s a lot of fun. I go to the gym, but it doesn’t really get me going the same way a game does, so I’ve really been enjoying having something more competitive to do.

What inspires you?

Something simple but strong. When you see my videos, they’re kind of wacky and stuff. But when you ask me what kind of watch I like, it’s all about restraint. I love things that look simple on the surface but have a lot of hidden complexity. Whether it’s the music I listen to, art I see, if it’s minimal at first but there’s an underlying cleverness or complexity, that gets me excited.

In watch terms that means brands like Moser, who I like a lot as a company. Their simple dials and their perpetual calendar look incredibly

men of influence

The Yacht-Master 40, with the rhodium grey dial and the teal second hand was Nathan’s most recent watch purchase

“ Whether it’s the music I listen to, art I see, if it’s minimal at first but there’s an underlying cleverness or complexity, that gets me excited ”

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From the streamlined complexity of a Moser to the writing of William Bernbach and the versatility of eggs, Nathan finds joy from a variety of sources

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streamlined, but on the other side they’re complex and as a brand they have some seriously clever concepts that always inspired me.

What is a book, podcast or album that changed the way you think?

There’s a book I’ve referenced before that I think about a lot. I read it like 15 years ago when I started in advertising. The book’s called A Technique for Producing Ideas and it’s really short, but the basic premise is about where new ideas come from.

You have your general knowledge about how things work and then very hyper-specific knowledge on an area you’re focusing on. The idea is that you always have this background knowledge and when you start a new, very specific project, it’s all about finding connections between the general and the specific. New ideas come from those connections.

I come back to that basic principle all the time in life. The book still holds up – I actually reread it a year ago – and it really changed how I understood where ideas come from.

Who is a celebrity of person of note that you admire?

I would say Christopher Nolan right now. I think of all the movies he makes, and they always touch an area of my brain that I relate to. I guess that’s a pretty basic answer in a sense because he’s massive, but everything he puts out I want to watch.

What’s something interesting about you that not many people know?

I did magic a lot growing up. I was a semi-professional magician. I mean, I did it enough that people kept trying to hire me for gigs and I would even do some of them, but I didn’t really enjoy doing it for money, so I never took it professional. But magic, specifically street magic with everyday objects interested me. I didn’t like doing things that were too over the top, just working with cards or things you find lying around. To me that felt more magical.

A lot of the storylines or the way I weave my videos come from that performing. The patterns are there, when you think you’re going one direction and then you surprise in another, or bring in an unexpected twist. Magic is about taking physical things and adding gimmicks or hidden elements to them to do something new – there’s definitely some inspiration there.

What is your ideal long weekend?

I like to make; I like to create. So, some weekends, when I know what a video is going to be and I just need to finish making it, I love that. I put headphones on and just get into it. In a broader sense, I love having a project that I know the next steps to, whether it’s something I’m physically building or a digital creation. It feels like expression. If I had a whole weekend to just focus on that expression without interruption, that would be great.

What would we always find in your fridge?

Eggs. I just love eggs. I eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner and make them different ways for different times of the day. My fridge is always full of them. But my pantry is always full of goldfish crackers. They might not belong in the fridge but they’re always somewhere.

What is a rule or mantra that you live by?

That I don’t want to add fluff to the world. By that I mean that I don’t want anything I put out to be surface level, I want it to have substance, to be worth people watching. I’ve said this multiple times to myself when I’m creating. There’s so much out there, you know, so much fluff. I want to put out less – I only put out maybe one or two videos a week – but I want to add genuinely novel ideas to the conversation. If I create a brand or actual watches at some point – which is hopefully the goal – they need to feel distinct, to offer a unique perspective. I want to be precise and a net creative positive.

“ If I had a whole weekend to just focus on that expression without interruption, that would be great ” What does the year ahead look like for you?

The year ahead is going to be very busy. I have my first baby girl due in August, but I also have another baby coming out – a laptop pad that stops you scratching your watch on MacBook Pros. It’s actually where I get my channel name from – a contraction of wrist and haven. I’ve been working on that for a while and hopefully will be launching end of the summer.

Other than that, I just have a bunch I’m trying to do in the watch space now around potentially creating a physical watch. It wasn’t something that was on my radar even six months ago but given all the videos and ideas I’ve been introducing and the positive feedback I’m starting to explore that more seriously.

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THE SPECS • 38mm stainless steel case with 100m water resistance • Self-winding mechanical movement • From £1,895, raymond-weil.com

WORDS

Laura Powell

RAYMOND WEIL A.R.T REF. 1000 Integrating the bracelet sports watch formula into a polished, versatile and surprisingly affordable package

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Over the last few years, Raymond Weil have hit upon a winning formula: vintage. The Millesime, Toccata, even the Freelancer Annual Calendar, they all play up that 1950s and ‘60s flavour.

The new A.R.T ref. 1000 however goes a very different route: Raymond Weil’s first integrated bracelet sports watch.

If you look at it and immediately think of the great integrated sports watches of the 1970s, that’s essentially the point. Raymond Weil aren’t revolutionising the paradigm; they’re working within a very familiar canon.

That means the integrated lugs immediately create that signature silhouette, framing the bezel and dial beautifully, then flowing straight into the bracelet without a step or a gap. It’s not a huge aesthetic departure from your Royal Oaks, Nautili, or especially the IWC Ingenieur.

The difference is that those Gerald Genta-designed references will set you back anywhere from £15,000; the A.R.T. brings that same seamless case-to-bracelet flow for under £2,000.

At 38mm and just under 10mm thick, it wears closer to a dress piece than a rugged tool watch. If there’s one word that sums it up, it’s versatile. This is a watch that you can wear hiking or having a beer. It’s not quite gala dinner levels of formal and you wouldn’t dive with it, but at 100m water resistance and a solid stainless steel case, you can wear it anywhere else.

As with the best integrated bracelet sports watches, the case shape is emphasised by alternating brushed and polished surfaces. It’s nothing particularly new but it’s immaculately done and not the kind of thing you often see at this price point – at least to this degree of confidence. Get it under the light and the finishing really comes into its own.

The integrated H-link bracelet carries that same contrast of textures all the way down to the clasp and paired with the goldilocks sizing wears very comfortably on the wrist. The lugs and bracelet follow the curve of the wrist and it’s not big enough to be cumbersome.

The dial runs a dual finish, a sunray-brushed centre paired with an azure minute track that adds a ring of texture. It must have been tempting to opt for something simpler and sportier, but this really leans into that cross-category versatility – and makes it a lot more interesting to look at. The sage grey is a genuinely interesting colour, muted enough for everyday wear but with more depth than a standard grey dial thanks to its gentle hint of green.

The indices and hands are filled with green SuperLumiNova so legibility is never an issue, and the chamfered date window at three o’clock adds just enough detail without cluttering things up. The dial also comes in metallic blue and graphite if you’re finding the safe a little too pale, each available on either a steel or bi-colour bracelet. I’d be curious to see both in person, the blue in particular could be very interesting, though the sage will take some beating.

“The integrated bracelet, the finishing, the dial, it all just works”

Inside sits a self-winding mechanical automatic movement with a 41-hour power reserve. Hours, minutes, seconds and date, nothing more. At time of writing, we don’t have the exact specs, but I expect it’s the same RW4420 as in the Freelancer Date. That means a 41-hour power reserve and some rather nice finishing hidden behind the solid caseback.

It’s worth noting that there’s also a quartz version of the A.R.T that measures 30mm across. You don’t need the mother-of-pearl or diamond-set bezels to realise this is a women’s collection. At £1,495 to start it’s nicer to have the option, but when £400 more gets you a bigger watch with an automatic movement, it’s not a tough choice.

As you might be able to work out, that makes the automatic version £1,895. That’s exactly where it should be compared to Raymond Weil’s other watches. The Millesime sits just below at £1,750 for the central seconds and £100 less than the larger Freelancer date. It’s a really competitive price for what you’re getting.

The A.R.T ref.1000 is a genuinely compelling watch.

The integrated bracelet, the finishing, the dial, it all just works. It’s not going to set the world on fire and hews close to the aesthetic conventions of the big Genta designs, but it does so very well. Between this and the Toccata drawing heavily from the Patek Philippe Golden Ellipse though, I just hope Raymond Weil don’t get stuck in a cycle of imitation.

From £1,895, raymond-weil.com

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THE SPECS • 32.5mm plasma high-tech ceramic case with 50m water resistance • R808 automatic movement with 80-hour power reserve • £3,800, rado.com

RADO ANATOM SKELETON Rado updates their ergonomic 1980s classic with a stripped-back skeletonised dial

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It wasn’t too long ago that Rado were focusing on the Captain Cook to the exclusion of anything but the occasional funky True Thinline model. Now though, they’ve been delving into their back catalogue and the 1980s-inflected Anatom is one of their coolest models to date. Now, to celebrate 40 years of High-Tech Ceramic, it’s back in skeleton form.

The modern Anatom is already an anniversary watch.

The original model was launched in 1983 in New York with the pomp of an Andy Warhol collaborative artwork.

That original watch mixed ultra-hard tungsten carbide with a quartz movement. However, in 1986 it was updated in high-tech ceramic, hence it’s place here.

What set the Anatom apart however wasn’t its case material, but how that case was built. It was designed as the most ergonomic watch ever built – hence the eponymous contraction of Anatomical – and the large part of that was down to the crystal. Rather than the usual flat sapphire crystals or even the faceted version on the Diastar, this cylindrical, convex glass flowed from one edge of the case to the other. It was cool to look at and beautiful on the wrist – and the new Skeletonised version does little to change that.

First, the case. At 33.5mm across, the squared case is 11.5mm high and 46.3mm long of grey, plasma-finished ceramic. This isn’t just coloured ceramic, but ceramic that once fired goes into a superheated stream of plasma that alters its fundamental chemical composition. It’s incredibly cool and still has that inimitable tactile yet ultra-hard feel of ceramic.

From the front, its construction looks relatively simply, a rectangle that flows into a bracelet via retro PVD gold end-links. From the side however it looks completely different. Not only do you see the real drama of the curve, but you can see where the metallicized edges of the crystal meet the case and where they don’t. It’s an OCD satisfying level of engineering all bent to the end of a comfortable watch.

And comfortable it is. I previously fell in love with the full ceramic bracelet, but honestly the case-matched rubber strap here is likely a better shout for warm weather heading into summer. It’s the same strap the 2023 models came on and has been moulded to have ‘links’ like the proper ceramic bracelet. It looks great in contrast to pops of gold and is supremely comfortable.

In fact, I’m not sure I’ve come across a more comfortable ceramic watch than the Rado Anatom. The shape, the feel of the ceramic, the way it curves over the wrist, the soft rubber strap, it all adds up to the kind of watch you barely feel. Could it be more so in lightweight titanium?

Perhaps, but then you lose the solidity that comes from ceramic. It’s strange to think that in the 40 years since the Anatom’s debut, there aren’t many watches that equal it in terms of comfort and none at this price point.

I’m not normally a fan of skeleton dials but this is one of the few instances that really nails it. It is a true skeleton

“I’m well aware not everybody appreciates the collection in the same way I do”

in that you can see clear through it, but there’s enough in the way that it’s an emphasis on transparency more than a window onto a hairy wrist. The brushed bridges are also in a similar hue to the plasma ceramic for a monochrome look that suits its flowing construction, and the mix of straight lines and curves actually makes use the material that’s not been machined away. The gold hands match the end-links and the movement’s gold wheels for a subtle bi-colour look, but it’s hard to call this a retro throwback anymore.

A lot of that look gets lost on the caseback where it’s mostly obscured by a rotor and honestly, the standard round exhibition caseback is a disappointment compared to the view from the front. But the movement itself – the ETA-based R808 is still a solid movement with a weekendproof 80-hour power reserve. It’s a good thing this is the kind of watch you won’t want to take off.

Having discussed the new Anatom Skeleton with a few of my colleagues here at Oracle Time I’m well aware not everybody appreciates the collection in the same way I do. And it is a very specific, very 1980s look that tool watch purists or 1950s classicists just won’t get. But between the comfort on the wrist, the flowing crystal and the sleek, modern, monochrome look with a few pops of retro yellow gold, it’s a pitch-perfect update of an ‘80s classic that deserves more love.

Priced at £3,800, it’s also well-priced for a ceramic watch with a solid movement and should do Rado well.

I would like to see a full ceramic bracelet as an option though honestly, having worn this for a few days, I’m genuinely not sure if I’d take it over the rubber. If I hadn’t just nabbed myself a vintage Rado Golden Horse, this might well be high on my wishlist. £3,800, rado.com

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THE SPECS • 38mm stainless steel case with 300m water resistance • POWERMATIC 80.611 Automatic movement with 80-hour power reserve • CHF 925 (approx. £875), certina.com

CERTINA DS ACTION 38MM TITANIUM Certina’s best release in years adds a summer-ready splash of colour to their usual rugged tool-watch

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It’s summer and that means it’s time to bring out the colourful divers. But while you might feel a pressing need to rock your go-to lime-coloured Zodiac or Caribbean blue Doxa, Certina might have a low-key alternative. More importantly, the new DS Action Diver 38mm trio is exactly what I’ve been waiting for from Certina.

Certina’s reputation has quite rightly been built on solid, accessible divers. Their Double Security (DS) system has given them market-leading shock-proofing and the new version in the DS Concept amps that ruggedness up even further. On a practical, specs-led level, there’s a lot to love. I own a retro Certina and it’s a great watch.

The problem is that if you already have a dive watch, there’s nothing about Certina that really stands out. Their designs are safe, practical, tool watch standards, allergic to trends. The new DS Action 38mm pieces however are a different beast – mainly because they embrace colour.

Ok so ‘embrace’ might be a bit hyperbolic. The three new models come in black with pink indexes; grey with light blue indexes and blue with orange. The formula is a relatively unobtrusive dial with big pops of colour.

Given my regular go-to daily wearer is my Christopher Ward x OT Dune Shoreline, it’s an idea I’m obviously a fan of and Certina really make it work.

In fact, of the three I thought I’d gravitate towards the grey and light blue version. But the grey is a bit darker than I’d like. Instead, I absolutely love the black and pink. It’s a proper hot pink, the kind of Miami Vice, synth-wave pop that is fantastic in moderation. And, given the intense contrast here, it’s also very practical for a 300m capable dive watch.

The outlier colour-wise is the blue and orange. I want to like it, and I think given some more time with it, I might even come to love it. But with my limited time on the wrist, I couldn’t get over the fact that I expected it to be yellow every time I looked. There’s also the slight issue that because of the way the light hits the curved, polished ceramic bezels, they don’t quite match the dials from the front, something that’s more noticeable in the blue version than the black and grey.

On the wrist, all three wear perfectly. Some 38mm divers can feel a bit too crowded, but these still feel like streamlined tool watches. That’s largely due to the small, round indexes with much larger trapezoid cardinal markers. Their 13.2mm height isn’t ultra-slim by any stretch but is in line with a proper dive watch. With the slim, engraved diving bezel, Certina have nailed the smaller diving proportions.

Then there’s the titanium case. This is what clinches this as Certina’s best release in years. Titanium is arguably the perfect metal for a tool watch. Not only is it strong and lightweight, but its darker colour gives it a more serious edge. This isn’t the first time Certina has used titanium, but it’s the element (No. 22 to be specific) that completes the package with these new watches.

It is worth noting that these are Grade 2 titanium rather than the more durable, high-performance Grade 5. On a field watch that would be disappointing, but on a diver, the higher corrosion resistance of marine-centric Grade 2 makes sense – though it’s more likely down to price than slightly better saltwater resistance.

Inside all three is the Powermatic 80 movement, which remains one of the best stock movements around. Its frequency has been intentionally kept down to 3Hz rather than the ever-more-common 4Hz, but in return offers an impressive 80-hour power reserve that makes it more than weekend proof. If the average ETA movement is a workhorse, the Powermatic 80 is a Shire. It’s also protected by Certina’s aforementioned DS Concept, meaning shock protection up to 10,000g, far more than anything but the most intense, tank-proof timepieces.

The new watches come on a full titanium bracelet in a standard three-link configuration. It feels good on the wrist but isn’t anything to write home about. It sits well, is super light and can be adjusted at home. What more could you ask for? Well, a better clasp. It’s potentially an aftereffect of the lightweight titanium, but the fastener that secures the clasp doesn’t feel as solid as I’d like.

Honestly though, at this price point I can forgive a lot worse than a flappy fastener.

That price point is £925. The sub-£1,000 dive category is packed full of competitively priced, ISO-standard pieces but honestly, few are quite as convincing a value proposition as Certina. They just needed a way to go beyond the bare specs – and colour is it. Granted, these are a first hint at where Certina could take this versatile collection – and I would definitely like to see them take things further – but if you’re after your next summer dive watch, these are serious contenders. With a few refinements they could be even more.

CHF 925 (approx. £875), certina.com

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THE ROBOTS ARE COMING WORDS:

Verity Burns

ADVANCES IN AI ARE BRINGING DOMESTIC ROBOTS CLOSER TO REALITY THAN EVER BEFORE — BUT BEHIND THE POLISHED DEMOS LIE MAJOR QUESTIONS AROUND SAFETY, PRIVACY AND HOW READY THEY REALLY ARE FOR HOME LIFE 129

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Is this the face of the future?

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Perhaps unsurprisingly, Tesla are among the names championing the arrival of humanoid robots, with CEO Elon Musk optimistically claiming that his Optimus robot prototype could “eliminate poverty” and maybe even provide him with a friend

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— Having a domestic robot that can clean up after you and take on household chores has, alongside flying cars, been one of the enduring promises of the future sold to us by movies and TV shows.

Yet while the idea of motorways in the sky still feels very much rooted in science fiction, humanoid home helpers are starting to feel far closer to reality. Fuelled by advances in artificial intelligence – and legitimised by significant investment from some of the world’s largest technology companies – this new generation of robots is beginning to move beyond research labs and into something at least approaching commercial viability.

This new generation looks quite different to the articulated arms we’ve seen automating factory production lines for years. In fact, they look a lot like us. They move like us and can do a lot of the mundane tasks we don’t want to, like tidying up, loading the dishwasher, and folding laundry.

While that would be convenient for anyone, for the elderly and families with daily assistance needs, an extra helping hand around the house could be life changing.

The industry has seen the potential, and according to 2025 research from McKinsey & Company, around 50 companies worldwide are currently exploring commercially viable humanoid robots. It’s not a cheap endeavour, nor a quick one, but the benefits of this more complex form factor lie in its ability to move around human-designed spaces more naturally – a key consideration if you want to make domestic robots work.

“You are not going to redesign your home with robotics in mind,” says Phil Solis, Research Director, Semiconductors and Enabling Technologies at marketing intelligence firm IDC. “Everything in a home is designed for human heights, human hands, and human legs, so – on paper – that makes a humanoid robot a good fit.”

Among the most prominent names in this field is Tesla, which unveiled

its first “general-purpose” Optimus robot prototype back in 2022. Since then, CEO Elon Musk has spoken frequently about the potential of the project, even as the path to production has been plagued by delays and shifting timelines.

“My prediction is there will be more robots than humans,” he told an audience at the World Investment Forum in Davos at the beginning of

“

the year. “And if you have billions of humanoid robots… I think everyone on Earth is going to have one, and want one.”

While Musk would have us believe that Optimus robots could “eliminate poverty,” prevent crime, and make working “optional” for all, right now the focus is a little smaller – on actually making a commercially ready prototype. And at this rate, Tesla may

If you have billions of humanoid robots… I think everyone on Earth is going to have one, and want one

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well be playing catch-up. The companies closest to getting their robots into homes are currently the smaller, more specialist start-ups – with some claiming limited domestic deployments as soon as this year.

1X is one of those companies, a Norwegian-American robotics company based in Silicon Valley and backed by OpenAI. It opened preorders for its $20,000 home robot called Neo in December 2025, with the very first of them expected in homes in 2026.

Other companies like Figure, Tangible AI and Humanoid claim to be not too far behind on production of their own robots, but industry experts are a little more sceptical.

“It is practically impossible that there will be a humanoid robot performing a real task in a domestic scenario this year,” says Angelo Cangelosi, Professor of Machine Learning and Robotics at The University of Manchester. “We could have a laboratory-like demo, in a controlled scenario, but not a real autonomous humanoid robot working in somebody’s house and performing a complex task. It could be five to 10 years before that really happens.”

And that’s the catch. At least initially, these early units will likely rely on a remote human operator to control the robots for at least some tasks. Exactly how autonomous they will become – and how quickly – remains unclear. With limited real-world data currently available to train these AI systems on, early adopters are going to need to be happy with a level of observation inside their home, to let teleoperators intervene and guide these robots when they inevitably encounter difficulties.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal late last year, 1X’s founder and CEO Bernt Børnich spoke openly on this trade-off: “In 2026, if you buy this product, that’s because you’re ok with that social contract. If we don’t have your data, we can’t make the product better.”

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1X is not alone in this. So far, some of the most impressive demonstrations of the technology’s potential have relied, at least in part, on human assistance behind the scenes. And while the machines themselves are becoming increasingly capable, experts say accessing the domestic environment remains one of the most difficult challenges in robotics.

“In environments like factories, warehouses and retail spaces, robots have accumulated significant experience in navigation, object handling, task execution, and multi-robot coordination,” explains Lily Li, Research Manager, Robotics and Embodied Intelligence at IDC. “However, the home is far more complex. Every household differs in layout, object placement, and human behaviour patterns.

“The biggest challenges still lie in long-tail task execution, safety, human-robot interaction, and maintaining reliable performance in highly dynamic home environments.”

For all the excitement surrounding humanoid robotics, that gap between a carefully controlled demo and the day-to-day reality of a family home is huge. Even simple tasks can become incredibly complicated once removed from controlled environments.

“

The biggest challenges still lie in long-tail task execution, safety, human-robot interaction, and maintaining reliable performance ”

Just consider the different brands of home appliances a robot would need to be trained in operating, the number of varied materials it would need to know how to handle, the difference in folding a pair of jeans compared with a jumper – and in different sizes. The challenge is not getting a robot to complete a task once, but having it repeat that task safely and reliably in thousands of subtly different scenarios.

Of course, in order to do that, there will need to be an enormous amount of data collected – most of which can only be helpful if gathered from inside real homes. For the companies developing these robots, that means requesting a potentially uncomfortable level of access, and for buyers, the confidence to provide it. That means, at least initially, questions around building trust will be as key as a robot’s technical capabilities.

“Trust is very important in getting people to feel comfortable with a robot in their home,” says Cangelosi.

“Even if I decide I want a robot, the robot must be trustworthy – that means making few or no mistakes, and being transparent so that the user knows how and why the robot behaves in certain ways.

“This is the field of ethics for robotics, which requires the users and stakeholders to be involved in the design, planning and testing stages of the robot development process.”

For most people, exchanging privacy for the greater robotic good will seem like a big price to pay – and it’s unclear how long it will be needed for. Considering how distrustful people have become of Big Tech and the data it holds on us, this may prove to be the biggest hurdle to getting these robots into homes – even with all of the promised guardrails in place.

“Yes, the industry is entering an important inflection point, but mass adoption of humanoid robots in the home is still several years away,” says Li. “There is still significant room for improvement in autonomy,

robots are coming

While some companies maintain that a home robot is still a vision of the near future, others like the Norwegian-American robotics company, 1X are already rolling out models (above), with the first of their home robots scheduled for delivery this year

reliability, cost efficiency, privacy, and safety. Over the next three to five years, the market is more likely to see early adopters and limited household deployments rather than broad mainstream adoption. That is still very far off.”

That caution is echoed by many researchers working in the field, who argue the narrative around “home ready” humanoid robots is running well ahead of reality. While improvements in AI and robotic hardware have removed a good number of the technical barriers, there are still plenty of pieces to the puzzle that need to be solved first

– not least the cost, and the danger posed by hackers. There’s also the urgent need to set universal safety standards, ensuring people aren’t in danger of injury if a robot falls over, or its battery malfunctions.

But even among the sceptics, there is still a consensus that domestic robots are coming, even if it’s 10 or more years before they’re fully autonomous for some tasks.

Of course, the reality, when it arrives, is unlikely to be as fun and effortless as the robots in the movies – or even in the polished company demonstrations that we are only going to see more of. Instead, it will

be something slower, simpler, and more practical – at least initially – offering support for elderly relatives, giving greater independence to those with disabilities, or simply lifting some of the repetitive domestic load from busy daily life.

What they’re capable of will grow and improve, of course, but the likelihood is that those abilities will arrive far more gradually and imperfectly than we might like. The robots are coming, that much feels inevitable, but they still have a lot to learn, and a whole lot more to prove, before they get invited in.

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microbrand corner

Futurist

Channelling Rado DiaStar energy, the quirky faceted crystal of the Vario Futurist turns the brand’s previous vintage vibes on their head. With a fluted top case, a 12 o’clock crown, and a range of eye-catching colours, this is a spacethemed watch with a healthy dose of 1970s optimism and retro looks worthy of a World’s Fair. The soft, fume sunburst green here is gorgeous, though there’s a lot to be said for the grey monochrome version, too.

CORNER

edited by: sam kessler

Vario

M I C RO BR A ND

A bigger, bolder selection of watches for the microbrand obsessives out there

£489, vario.sg

THE SPECS:

• 39mm stainless steel case with 100m water resistance • Miyota 9039 automatic movement with 42-hour power reserve • £489, vario.sg

THE SPECS:

• 37.5mm stainless steel case with 100m water resistance • Sellita SW-210-1b manual-wind movement with 42-hour power reserve • £1,056, serowatchcompany.com

Sero Signature

What makes a classic dress watch? JaegerLeCoultre fans may say a rectangular case; Breguet collectors plenty of guilloche. But for Sergino Röntgen and Robert van de Stadt, it’s all about mid-century jumbo Calatravas – an aesthetic they’ve translated into the Sero Signature. That means a 37.5mm case, a vertically brushed, engraved dial, and a manual-wind movement. It’s a solid, easy-to-wear template available in blue, red, gold and – our clean, restrained favourite – silver. £1,056, serowatchcompany.com

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microbrand corner

CIGA

Hunter Tourbillon Given the price points of most tourbillons, it’s not often we get to include one in our accessibility-focused microbrand round-up. And yet CIGA’s incredible Hunter Tourbillon doesn’t just fit the price bracket, it does so while looking and feeling orders of magnitude more prestigious. An exoskeleton-like case, skeletonised dial with blued bridges, and a maximalist, more-is-more attitude add up to a beast of a watch that demands notice. A restrained dress watch this is not. Instead, this is Chinese watchmaking at its most extreme. $1,999 (approx. £1,475), cigadesign.com

THE SPECS:

• 47.45mm x 41.50mm grade 5 titanium case with 50m water resistance • CD-011 manual-wind movement with 72-hour power reserve • $1,999 (approx. £1,475), cigadesign.com

Tangens

Komposition Automatic All sharp angles and deep-rooted 1970s flavour, the first automatic watch from Dutch retro obsessives Tangens is industrial cool at its finest. The utilitarian brushed dial and small indexes pair perfectly with the broad, flat-linked bracelet straight out of a vintage catalogue. The entire watch looks like a funky auction find but priced like the modern, accessible Japanese automatic it is. Win-win. £303.20, tangens-watches.com

THE SPECS:

• 38mm stainless steel case with 100m water resistance • Miyota 9039 automatic movement with 42-hour power reserve • £303.20, tangens-watches.com

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microbrand corner

Marin Quartz GMT

Just as every journey should be effortless, so too should your travel companion. Enter the Quartz GMT from the tool watch aficionados at Marin Instruments. Not only does the Ronda movement keep ticking no matter how rough the landing, the streamlined dial and versatile case ensure it travels as well as you do. There’s no unnecessary complexity here, no aesthetic business, just a handsome watch that does what you need: tracks the time in two different time zones. Just relax and have another in-flight G&T. $699 (approx. £520), marininstruments.com

THE SPECS:

• 38mm stainless steel case with 50m water resistance • Ronda quartz movement • $699 (approx. £520), marininstruments.com

O&HoraPictor

SMOKED OCEAN Volcano Grey Proving that anOrdain aren’t the only small brand working with some truly exceptional enamelled dials, O&HoraPictor’s latest strips away the excess for a simple, daily wearer around beautiful grand feu enamel. Layers of translucent grey enamel fired over a silverleaf base give the entire thing the visual texture of igneous rock; wearable but undeniably dramatic. With a simple, elegant chapter ring and a versatile 38mm case, it makes this fiery metiers d’art more wearable than ever. £1,916, horapictor.com

THE SPECS:

• 38mm stainless steel case with 50m water resistance • Sellita SW200 automatic movement with 41-hour power reserve • £1,916, horapictor.com

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EDITED BY: Sam Kessler

A ONCE DERIDED SWISS WATCHMAKER ENJOYS A SECOND RENAISSANCE, AN INDUSTRIAL-INSPIRED ODDITY’S RISE TO COVETED MICROBRAND, AND THE FIRST SURPRISE OF THE FIFA WORLD CUP

Rotary was founded in 1895 by Moise Dreyfuss (below), who not only possessed a great moustache but also a desire to make Swiss watchmaking accessible

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IN FOCUS — rotary

ROTARY

Once a household name, the relatively young Swiss maison is undergoing a second renaissance Rotary is on the up. Yes, over the past decade, the brand has established a less-than-stellar reputation for cheap, unremarkable watches that have only really been notable for their price. But at one point in history, Rotary was among the most important Swiss watchmakers here in the UK. So, as the brand undergoes the first tentative rumblings of a renaissance, it’s worth looking at what that history entails.

Rotary was founded in 1895 by one Moise Dreyfuss. That’s young compared to the grand old maisons like Blancpain and Vacheron, but puts them on the same solid foundation as Hamilton (1892) and Breitling (1884). More importantly though, Rotary was founded in La Chaux-de-Fonds.

Where some of their Swiss contemporaries focused on innovation for innovation’s sake, Rotary instead focused on precision and reliability above everything else. The fact that these early watches still come up for sale – and at temptingly accessible prices in the £200 to £500 bracket – shows just how reliable they were.

In 1905, very early in Rotary’s lifetime, the Swiss company made the leap to the UK. This would prove to be the formative moment in the brand’s history, almost a second founding. What started as an office importing Rotary watches became a second HQ, and as timepieces came flowing in, so too did British tastes and sensibilities flow back to Switzerland. In 1925, they introduced their Winged Wheel models, which had a distinctly British look, capitalising on their adopted second home.

In 1934, Rotary built their first shockproof watches. For a watchmaker all about reliability, this was the next logical step – though

they were less aimed at the military and extreme environments and more at manual labourers. They were affordable, robust and some of the first watches that could be worn everywhere and anywhere in daily life. They were, in essence, the first GADA watches.

So, when World War II broke out and the Ministry of Defence needed to equip British troops with service watches, there was nobody else they would consider going to.

While the famous Dirty Dozen steal the spotlight from that era, they weren’t the watches on the average British soldier’s wrist.

They were delivered near the end of the war and earmarked for specific personnel.

Instead, while British soldiers were fighting in Europe, they were wearing the Army Trade Pattern (ATP) Rotary.

Wartime production didn’t slow down development either. In 1942, Rotary introduced their first automatic movements.

While Rolex introduced their seminal automatic Oyster Perpetual 11 years prior, Rotary was much more accessible and included all the antimagnetic, shockproof elements they had developed previously. The end result was one of the earliest, widely accessible automatic watches.

Post-war, Rotary became a household name in the UK. The 1950s was the golden age of tool watches, the origin point of the Rolex Explorer, Submariner and GMT-Master, the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, and more. Rotary didn’t have any similar tentpole release.

Instead, they took their wartime-established reputation for reliability and started building slim, elegant, distinctively British watches.

Their early Gold Tank models and 17-jewel manual-wind dress watches became a staple of jeweller’s windows across the country.

That shift however had a downside. Where other watchmakers of their era had big, heritage stories to hang onto, Rotary’s reason for being – specifically to make Swiss watchmaking accessible – meant they were always low-key, on plenty of wrists but not the kind of watches wearers really showed off.

Their last big release before the modern era was in 1977, when Rotary partnered with the British Racing Motors Formula 1 team. It’s a name that will get many a racing fan excited, with a historical line-up of drivers including Graham Hill, Sir Jackie Stewart, Juan Manuel Fangio, Sir Stirling Moss, and Niki Lauda. The watches released under the partnership were a hit and remain highly collectable today.

However, the team itself shuttered that same year, making the partnership too short-lived to have an impact.

The next few decades for Rotary were quiet, enough that you might assume they were one of many casualties of the quartz crisis. They were not, instead content to quietly continue producing well-made, accessible Swiss watches, balancing accessible prices with great quality. That was all the way up until 2014, when they were acquired by the Chinese holding company Citychamp.

This was not a good era for Rotary. Three years previously Citychamp had acquired the legendary Eterna; a year earlier, they added Corum. What happened to both those brands hints at where Rotary were heading: mass-produced watches and squandered prestige. This is the Rotary most of us know.

However, just as Corum was recently relaunched, so too has Rotary gained a new lease of life, albeit with less fanfare. At the beginning of 2025, they were bought from Citychamp by Peers Hardy Group who, over the past 18 months, have been giving the brand a much-needed refresh.

On the one hand, the new Rotary line-up leans on heritage pieces like the Tank-inspired Astoria and the entire archival 1895 collection.

On the other, the Seamatic underscores their historical reputation for accessible reliability with a series of clean, utilitarian skindivers with specs that far outweigh their sub-£300 price tags: automatic movements, 100m to 300m water resistances and optional GMT complications.

There’s a long way to go before Rotary recaptures their golden age in the eyes of collectors, but they’re heading in the right direction. One solid re-issue – the ATP perhaps – could be all they need.

Find out more at rotarywatches.com

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IN FOCUS — otsuka lotec

After buying his first lathe in the early 2000s at an online auction, Jiro Katayama (above) distilled his unique eye for industrial design into watchmaking

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IN FOCUS — otsuka lotec

OTSUKA LOTEC

From industrial-inspired oddity to one of the most coveted names in modern microbrand watchmaking When a microbrand is as indemand and yet harder to get than the latest Royal Oak drop, they’re evidently doing something right – and that’s just the position Otsuka Lotec have found themselves in.

The Japanese microbrand is the quintessential insiders’ brand, the kind that swaps knowing nods from other collectors for out-loud exclamations of ‘what is that?!’

And yet the secret to Otsuka Lotec’s success isn’t their build quality or tempting price tag – though both of those are true – but the man behind them. That’s because when Jiro Katayama bought his first lathe in the early 2000s via an online auction, he didn’t have a plan. What he did have was a unique eye for industrial design.

There are plenty of watch brands that come from an industrial design perspective. We interviewed Unimatic co-founder Giovanni Morro about just that subject. But where most start with the watch and work out, Katayama started in the industrial before distilling his ideas into a watch. And taking a glance at Otsuka Lotec’s collection, you’ve probably already guessed where the majority of that experience came from: cars.

Straight out of design school, Katayama began working in the automotive industry before striking out as a freelance designer, working on household devices, helmets and of course, cars. So, when he impulse bought that aforementioned lathe, it was to see whether he could build something in the automotive field. He quickly discovered that a small lathe wasn’t great for car parts and so he pivoted. What about a watch case?

This realisation struck back in 2008 and it wasn’t until 2012 that Katayama was ready to sell his creations under the name Otsuka

Lotec – Otsuka is the Tokyo neighbourhood in which the brand is based, Lotec is a stand-in for Low-Tech. The debut watch, the No. 5, summed up Katayama’s unique approach to watchmaking and what Otsuka Lotec could be.

The No. 5 used a quirky twist on the regulator display using two discs for hours and minutes and a central seconds hand, with a date window at three o’clock and a two o’clock crown. The watch is all bare, brushed metal, visible screws and the kind of industrial, machined look that suggests it was built by a single person in their kitchen.

Which of course, it was.

Early Otsuka Lotec pieces are next to impossible to find these days. That’s partly because Katayama’s eye for cool, caradjacent designs were instantly popular, partly because at this point, he was building just 15 watches a year. It was more a fun side project than it was a proper brand. That was until 2022 when one of the most important figures in Japanese watchmaking got involved: Hajime Asaoka.

Asaoka isn’t just a celebrated independent watchmaker; he’s the founder of the intensely popular Kurono Tokyo, which distil his specific horological style into much more accessible, Art Deco-influenced dress watches under the umbrella of Precision Watch Tokyo. When one of his staff bought themselves an Otsuka Lotec, Asaoka immediately saw the potential – and quickly offered to support the microbrand with the resources of PWT. This has allowed Otsuka Lotec to scale up like never before. Katayama still prototypes designs at his home workshop, but the

“Small in scale, big in design, and industrial in a way that sits in dramatic counterpoint to traditional watchmaking”

production takes place at Bunkyoku, a 15-minute cycle away. It’s still next-to-impossible to get hold of one (the brand produces fewer than 200 watches a year), but with that shift, the brand’s designs have become more ambitious and more accomplished than ever before.

And yes, more accessible too – though the new No. 8 still is not a watch you can get easily. Because even 14 years on, Otsuka Lotec watches are like nothing else.

The 31mm x 48mm case rises from the lugs to 10.8mm thick at the crystal, which itself is asymmetrical, curving around the right-hand edge of the watch. It’s a straight-grained, overtly machined watch that would be at home in a dashboard, which is where the dial takes a lot of its design cues.

Retrograde minutes are read off a rev counter-style scale at three o’clock, while the hours use a hand that imitates an electrical switch.

Seconds are almost hidden on a wheel at 12 o’clock. Those indexes are on a control panel of a dial made from aluminium, with the rest of the dial left open to the mechanism underneath.

That underneath is the Miyota 90S5 automatic movement with an in-house developed module controlling the functions. With the extra power needs of a retrograde indicator, the power reserve stays at a less-than-stellar 32-hours. But then, chronometric performance is not what you go to Otsuka Lotec for.

Priced at JPY 990,000 – approximately £4,700 – the Otsuka Lotec No. 8 represents the pinnacle of microbrand watchmaking: small in scale, big in design, and industrial in a way that sits in dramatic counterpoint to traditional watchmaking. Katayama-san has come a long way from an impulsebought lathe in his kitchen – but the idiosyncratic, automotiveobsessed style of Otsuka Lotec has not. Just good luck getting one.

Find out more at otsuka-lotec.com

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IN FOCUS — axia time

AXIA TIME

The surprise supplier of the FIFA World Cup 2026 watch has produced 15 designs for the tournament The FIFA World Cup kicks off next month and for the first time, you can wear some of that occasion on your wrist, not as some cheaply made Alibaba special but as an official FIFA-endorsed timepiece.

Neither are we talking about shelling out Hublot prices; the Swiss footballer favourite might be on the wrists of refs and players, but they’re not exactly built for the average fan. Now, the job of official FIFA World Cup watch supplier has gone to AXIA Time.

If you’ve not come across AXIA Time before, their newly crowned position as the de facto international football watch might come as something of a surprise.

Surely established Swiss watchmakers are clamouring for the opportunity? But the more you look into precisely how AXIA Time approach watchmaking, the more it makes sense. That’s because AXIA have made a name for themselves building custom watches for sports teams.

Back in 1988, AXIA founder John Kanaras was part of the University of Pennsylvania lacrosse team.

They didn’t win that season, but they did get far enough that they were given a commemorative watch. A painfully generic commemorative watch. And so, when Kanaras founded AXIA years later, he wanted to do better – and the result has been a slate of colourful watches built around team motifs and liveries at a price point that won’t bankrupt a college football fan.

It’s a big leap in scale from there to the FIFA World Cup, but the idea is much the same: giving football fans a way of

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commemorating the occasion that goes beyond shirts and scarves. Something more enduring. And it’s a substantial undertaking.

The AXIA Time FIFA World Cup 2026 collection includes the team colours for 14 countries. That’s a far cry from the total 48 that are taking part, and some fans will be disappointed. Kanaras does have his own reasoning for the chosen countries: the three host nations – USA, Canada and Mexico – along with previous champions taking part in 2026 (so no Italy) and the more nebulous idea of nations where football is on the rise – meaning a passionate – and likely to spend fan base.

In the end, that means: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, England, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, USA and Uruguay. There’s also a final set in FIFA’s own livery for anyone whose team isn’t represented, bringing the total number of colourways to 15 – and across those 15 there are three different watches.

The flagship model is the Argos, a sleek diver with a professional-level 300m water resistance, sapphire bezel insert and the crown guards to prove that it’s designed as a tool watch more than a showpiece.

Regardless of the colours, key elements of the design remain the same across the FIFA collection: the World Cup 2026 logo at 12 o’clock and repeated across the deeply engraved dial, the World Cup manifesto engraved into the rehaut and a custom crown.

Even stripped of its commemorative livery, the Argos is a solid watch for its £1,122 price tag. Along with the FIFAspecific finishing and diving specs, it’s equipped with an ETA 2824 automatic movement with 38-hour power reserve.

That’s less autonomy than we’re used to these days, but ETA movements are celebrated workhorse calibres. They’re reliable, accurate and well-finished – and here come with a custom FIFA World Cup rotor. It comes on a charmingly retro five-link bracelet with three smaller, inner links that rounds off the whole 1960s diving watch flavour. Each colourway is limited to 80 watches total.

Next up is the middle child of AXIA’s team-specific trio, the Enosi. This is designed more as a straightforward, versatile, everyday wearer. There’s no diving bezel, no oversized indexes designed to be read underwater and an everyday-

appropriate 100m water resistance. The retro steel bracelet has been swapped for an Italian leather band and the ETA movement for a more accessible Sellita number with the same 38-hour power reserve.

It does however have all the same commemorative finishing and just as much team colour across the board. More importantly, it’s also priced at £597, making it almost half the price of the Argos – and much less of an investment. And there’s a lot to be said for the more streamlined look of the Enosi. Not only is it more accessible, the 38mm watch is also more wearable on smaller wrists compared to the 42mm Argos. It too is limited to 80 pieces per livery.

Finally, we come to the most accessible of the three, the Kosmos. This 36mm, quartzequipped watch comes in at £169.

And while the sizing might make the average collector think of it as a women’s watch, the straight lugs, dramatic dial engraving and hidden, push-in crown make it a very distinctive-looking piece on its own merits. It also makes great use of the team colours across its multi-level dial and textured rubber strap. If anything, it’s a watch for younger fans and those who just want to show support rather than spend on a solid mechanical timepiece, reflected by both its lower price tag and higher production run of 400 pieces per colour.

Across the 15 different designs, the AXIA Time FIFA World Cup 2026 collection represents a lot of watches. Though that’s still not many in the context of football fans – especially in the countries that are slightly less apologetic of their teams than England. So, you might not have long before you need to settle for a team scarf over a watch.

Find out more at axiatime.com

IN FOCUS — axia time

Fans of 14 countries will be able to support their country with an AXIA Time World Cup watch decorated in their team’s colours, although Scotland fans face their first disappointment of the tournament as they aren’t featured

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watch cases

WORDS:

Laura Powell — If you were shopping for any other piece of furniture, the criteria would be simple: does it look good, does it work, and does it fit the space? A watch case is no different. They live out in the open, on the dressing table, the shelf, the desk. They’re part of the room, and whoever you live with also needs to not hate it. We’ve picked out some of the finest-looking cases we could find and, spoiler alert, one of them we designed ourselves. We might be a touch biased.

THE BEST

LUXURY WATCH CASES FOR THE HOME – INCLUDING OUR OWN WHERE WATCH STORAGE MEETS INTERIOR DESIGN

← BRAVO X ORACLE TIME

British Racing Green Watch Case

*

( ) We collaborated with Bravo to create the type of watch case that we’d want to buy. Rendered in the most British colour possible – British Racing Green – and built around a motorsport colour story that runs from the outside in.

Crafted from Saffiano leather on the exterior, and inside, eight suede, M-shaped compressible cushions in racing green, fuel red, tarmac black, and ivory that adapt to any bracelet size. Suede spacers between each watch mean nothing moves and nothing scratches. 24.5 x 17.0 x 7.5cm. First deliveries June 2026. £199, bravowatchware.com

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watch cases

← DESIGNHÜTTE

Ta mpa 10 Watch Box Carbon

*

( ) The Tampa 10 is the one for people who’d rather their storage looked like it belonged trackside than on a dressing table. The carbon-look exterior has that high-performance quality to it, so naturally, a couple of F1 collaboration watches would sit perfectly in here. Consider it the watch box equivalent of a colour drench: open it up and the cushions carry the same carbonlook aesthetic all the way through.

Ten of them, sized to fit bracelets between 17cm and 19cm, soft against all that hard exterior. €119.90 (approx. £100), designhuette.com

→ TAWBURY

Bayswater 8 Slot Watch Box with Storage – Driftwood Taupe

*

( ) A well-built collection often comes with more than just homes for your watches – there is a drawer below the eight slots in the upper level for things such as straps and jewellery, which if you’re like me, you have too many of. The hinged glass lid keeps the watches on show rather than hidden away, making it a natural fit for a bedside or dressing table. Three leather colours are available, each with their own charm, but I’m set on the taupe. $169 (approx. £125), tawbury.com

“ The hinged glass lid keeps the watches on show rather than hidden away ” 150

watch cases

→ INITIAL PRODUCTS Watch Organizer / Nomad

*

( ) Perhaps my favourite on this list, apart from our Bravo entry of course. The Nomad takes a cleaner, more contemporary route than most – a 6mm anodised shell with a ribbed effect produced by bespoke extrusion tooling. Pull out the sliding walnut tray and you’ve got three slots, wide enough for larger watches but kind to slimmer wrists too.

Thanks to its compact size it sits neatly on a desk or nightstand – there are four other colour variants, but they’re all sold out.

Best join the waitlist. £175, initialproducts.co

A

→ WATCHMATIC

Krown 12 Watch Box

*

( ) The glass lid makes this one as much a display piece as it is a watch box; with 12 velvet-lined compartments underneath, your collection is always on show. Pull it out and there’s a drawer underneath for straps, buckles, sunglasses, all the peripheral stuff that never has a home, and at this time of year the sunglasses situation alone justifies it.

The hardwood finish means it could sit anywhere in the house without looking out of place, available in brown or black depending on the room. I’m on the black. $359.90 (approx. £274), mywatchmatic.com

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watch cases

← MORICI

Tellux SC2 10pc Watch Box – Vulcano

*

( ) Few watch boxes make a statement like this one. The Tellux Vulcano SC2 from Morici, an Italianbased company, combines briar, ebony, rosewood, ash, and bolivar in a handmade geometric inlay, with the borders finished in hand-poured gold while still hot. It has bags of Art Deco charm. And beneath all of that, it holds 10 watches in beige Alcantara, which provides a soft contrast that the exterior’s drama deserves. £925, moricicollection.com

→ LINLEY

Henley Velveteen Box

*

( ) For something crafted in Britain and rather natural looking, the Henley is handmade in sycamore with a sterling silver plaque on the lid, which you can have custom engraved. Inside, the powder grey faux suede lining reflects the understated palette, and inserts are sold separately at £100 each – both watch and jewellery – so you configure it around your collection rather than the other way around.

Holding up to four watches, it’s not the most practical, but boy does it look great. £1,195, davidlinley.com

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watch cases

← BUBEN & ZORWEG Neo Case 12

*

( ) If your interiors lean modernist rather than traditional, this is the one. Handmade in Austria, the Neo’s black semi-gloss lacquer housing is available in carbon fibre, Macassar wood, or carbon matte, with a contrasting polished chrome lock. The contrast is part of the appeal: all that hard, architectural exterior, then you open it and find suspended cushions in black velour. The removable pillows are sized to hold larger modern pieces without compression. Available in six, 12, or 18-watch formats, all with a key lock. It’s less a watch box, more design object. £1,630, from Harrods & buben-zorweg.com

“ All that hard, architectural exterior, then you open it and find suspended cushions in black velour ”

→ LOUIS VUITTON

Coffret 8 Montres Watch Case (M29545)

*

( ) If you’re into the Louis Vuitton Maison but perhaps the classic monogrammed pattern doesn’t do it for you, look no further than the Pharrell Williams-designed Damouflage pattern. The pattern is exactly what it sounds like, the Damier checkerboard given a camouflage treatment, and it looks fresh as hell. Rendered here across seven different tones of a single blue pigment, with eight cushions inside to match. It’s crafted from cowhide leather trim with matching silver detailing and an S-lock to close, but honestly, you’re going to want to keep this open. £6,750, louisvuitton.com

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THE MAGAZINE Whether subscribing to our digital or physical membership you will receive 10 issues of Oracle Time annually to your door or inbox.

Reporting on the latest in watches, new releases, reviews, guides, watch culture, industry news and lifestyle news, every article is curated by our expert journalists to help you learn more about the latest and greatest in the world of watches.

COMPETITIONS & GIVEAWAYS Quarterly chances for our members to receive a free watch from brands like Baltic, Formex and, currently, the specs heavy, depth conquering beast that is the Oceaneva 6,000m Deep Marine Explorer GMT.

COLLABORATION WATCHES Priority access to our extremely limited-run Oracle Time watches, created in partnership with some fantastic brands, including Christopher Ward, Ball, Isotope and many more to come.

DISCOUNTS & OFFERS Get money off a wide range of brands, including: Beaucroft, Garstin 1871, Horage, Jean Rosseau, Mr Jones, RZE, Pride & Pinion, WatchGecko, and many more.

BECOME AN ORACLE TIME MEMBER While we are best known for bringing you our high-quality, insightful, watch-obsessive magazine, we want to offer more: more ways to read Oracle Time, more reasons to become a member of our community and above all, more ways to enjoy watches.

And so, we have created the Oracle Time Membership, a subscription that goes well beyond ‘just’ the UK’s finest watch magazine.

You will receive all this, 10 issues of the print magazine and more for just £95 per year. To become a member, visit oracleoftime.com/ membership or use the QR code below.

EXCLUSIVE EVENTS Invitations to brand showcases and boutique experiences with the likes of IWC, Christopher Ward, Grand Seiko and Panerai along with free tickets to our annual 45-brand exhibition, Hands On Horology.

PLEASE NOTE: While there are other ways you may receive the print magazine – your favourite watch retailer, collecting clubs and the like. However, you need to be a direct paying subscriber to access these benefits.

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time out

ORACLE

TIME OUT

@shotwatch — There’s something quietly satisfying about a Friday night in with a good read and a great watch.

Staying in is the new going out, after all, and @shotwatch is making a strong case for it. He’s settled in with the Momentum Issue and a GMT-Master II 16710 on the wrist, a watch with deep ties to aviation and innovation. The brief couldn’t be more fitting.

The ‘Coke’ bezel and Oyster bracelet are instantly recognisable, but this

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particular example comes with a backstory. It’s actually James’s second 16710. The first, picked up in the summer of 2023 as his entry into neo-vintage collecting, didn’t quite tick every box. So a trade was arranged, 16710 for 16710, and upon taking delivery he found out the watch had just been passed on by another friend in the community. “A fun little twist,” as he puts it. In watch collecting, it’s rarely just a transaction.

The Coke sits naturally against our cover too. Aviation gave us the GMTMaster, and that same spirit of pushing

further took us quite literally to the Moon and back with the Breitling Artemis II. For the Innovation Issue, the pairing couldn’t feel more right.

Want to showcase your own eye for a perfectly composed watch shot? Well, get your hands on this issue, get snapping and don’t forget to use #oracletimeout for your chance to nab a page to yourself next month.

For now though, Oracle Time, Out.

watches

O r a c le

DISCOVERS WHAT’S ON OUR SHOPPING LIST AND WHY

SEA-GULL 1984 ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION DIVE WATCH One of the more distinctive dials you’ll find at this price point, this relief-engraved map of Antarctica commemorates China’s first expedition to the continent in 1984, a mission Sea-Gull was part of – their watches ticking through some of the harshest conditions on Earth. Proper diver spec throughout: 200m water resistance, unidirectional bezel, large baton indexes. A good story makes a good watch better. Glacier White or Polar Blue. £548.86, available at en.seagullwatch.com

JACK MASON STRAT-O-TIMER GMT 42 The Strat-o-Timer gets bigger for 2026. The new 42mm GMT keeps everything that made the original a favourite: Miyota 9075, independent hour adjustment, ±5 seconds per day accuracy. Now it adds a ceramic 24-hour bezel capable of tracking three time zones, Grade A BGW9 lume, and tool-free microadjustment on the seven-link bracelet. Three colourways to choose from: Americana, Dark Night, and Verdant. $1,149 (approx. £860), available from 3 June at jackmasonbrand.com

GOLBY - AQUAREEF 40 Golby’s Aquareef 40 adds dual time tracking to the brand’s coastinspired lineup via an internal rotating chapter ring, controlled by a screw-down crown at two o’clock.

The oil-pressed wave-pattern dial, 120-click sapphire countdown bezel, and 200m water resistance give it solid tool watch credentials. Available in six colourways, each shipped with a steel bracelet, FKM rubber strap and hard-shell travel case. £400, golbywatches.co.uk

MARIN INSTRUMENTS – STANDARD SKINDIVER The Standard Skin-Diver is exactly what a dive watch should be. A matte black dial with white printed lume plots for instant legibility, a fully lumed 60-click unidirectional bezel in PVD-coated stainless steel, and a Sellita SW200-1 movement that’s earned its reputation as one of the most reliable in the business.

Its own design, its own identity, built for the water and looks the part out of it too. $1,050 (approx. £780), available at marininstruments.com

Horizon Watches – Spectrum Horizon present a hyper colourful timepiece in the Spectrum, which features a 38mm diameter case in steel housing the Mityota 9015 automatic calibre with 42-hour power reserve. However, its key feature is that signature dial, split into four quarters with alternating horizontal and vertical motifs in green, blue, red and yellow. To tie it all together, a quote from Stephen Hawking on the natures of spectrums and possibilities is present on the caseback. $1,150 (approx. £850), available at horizon-watches.com

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watch accessories

BARRINGTON 2 WATCH WINDER Two individually programmable rotors make Barrington’s Double the natural choice for a growing collection. Each rotor runs independently with five TPD presets and full directional control, housed in a carbon fibre-effect case with a fingerprint lock, LED downlighters, and a storage drawer. Ultra-quiet Japanese motors and a 12-hour on/off cycle mean it lives happily on a bedside table too. £599, available at barringtonwatchwinders.com

Bravo x Oracle Time - Watch-Palette British Racing Green

DESIGNHÜTTE – MANHATTAN WATCH WINDER IN CORK/BLACK A refreshing alternative to the usual gloss and leather. The Manhattan Watch Winder in Cork/ Black winds one watch, with four TPD settings, full directional control, and runs on mains or battery. And if the collection grows, up to 12 units link together off a single power supply. €309 (approx. £258), available at designhuette.com

We don’t often make things, but when we do, this is the standard we hold ourselves to. Built with Bravo around a full motorsport colour story, the Watch-Palette is rendered in British Racing Green Saffiano leather outside, with eight suede M-shaped compressible cushions inside in racing green, fuel red, tarmac black, and ivory.

Suede spacers between each slot mean nothing shifts and nothing scratches, and the cushions adapt to any bracelet size. First deliveries June 2026. £199, bravowatchware.com

Tawbury - Fraser 3 Watch Travel Case with Storage in Truffle Taupe Three watches, carry-on friendly, fits a hotel safe. The Fraser does exactly what a travel watch case should without any fuss. Top-grain leather exterior, microsuede lining to keep things scratch-free in transit, and a curved engineered wood shell that’s sturdier than it looks. The snap-close storage compartment handles spare straps, tools and whatever else makes it into your bag. $139 (approx. £103), available at tawbury.com

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WATCHMATIC – VENTO LUXURY DOUBLE WATCH WINDER If you like a pop of colour in your home, this one’s for you. The Vento’s premium leather finish in orange is a statement piece that happens to wind two watches at once, quietly, via ultra-quiet Japanese motors, at 225 x 205 x 185mm. Compact enough to sit neatly on a bedside table or dressing table without taking over. Plug in and leave it to work. £797, available at mywatchmatic.com

style

FPM MILANO X GLOBE-TROTTER BANK CENTENARY 55 SPINNER Just in time for the first summer getaways, two houses with serious luggage credentials have produced one very good collaboration. GlobeTrotter’s signature vulcanised fibreboard meets Italian aluminium craftsmanship from FPM Milano in the Bank Centenary Spinner, a cabin-ready carry-on that travels as well as it looks. A five-year warranty means it’ll be making that trip for a long time to come. £1,795 available at globe-trotter.com

Flower Mountain – Yamabushi Man

TOMS - SUEDE NICO SANDAL (TAUPE) TOMS have kept it simple with their suede Nico sandal. Two clean suede straps in a dusty taupe grey, an adjustable hook and loop closure that actually stays put, and a moulded EVA foam footbed to keep things comfortable. It slips on, it looks good, it goes anywhere. As a certified B Corp, TOMS also put a portion of every sale toward children’s education and wellbeing worldwide, which makes the sixty quid feel even easier to part with. £60, available at uk.toms.com

Flower Mountain is a Japanese sneaker brand producing outdoor footwear for the city, fusing nature inspired design with urban styles.

Their SS26 collection is all about colour and texture, with designs that feel like a collage of materials.

These Yamabushi Man sneakers combine suede fabric in shades of brown with geometric cutouts, technical cord and cork insoles with a lightweight rubber sole. £215, available at flowermountain.com

Secrid - Envelope Wallet in Vintage Cognac Secrid’s latest takes their iconic envelope silhouette and makes it properly practical. The first model in their range to feature an integrated coin compartment, it unfolds to reveal more space than its compact form suggests, cards, coins, a key, a photo, all accounted for. The patented aluminium card protector fans your cards out on demand and keeps them safe from bending and skimming. Made in Europe, assembled in Dutch workshops. Cognac Vintage leather. Treat yourself. £74.95, available at secrid.com

ACE & TATE - NIA IN AMERICANO Everyone needs a staple pair of sunglasses, and Amsterdam-founded Ace & Tate have made a habit of delivering exactly that. The Nia, from their recent collection, are a medium round acetate frame in Americano. They’re warm, versatile, and work with everything.

Anti-scratch lenses and a case included, at this price, there’s no reason not to. £125, available at aceandtate.com

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tech

Ruark – R2 Mk4 Smart Music System Ruark’s most enduring music system gets a slimmer silhouette for the Mk4, tidy enough for a windowsill, bookshelf or anywhere else in the house it fancies living.

Spotify Connect, DAB+, internet radio and Bluetooth 5 mean it’ll play whatever you throw at it, and it’ll sound better doing it than anything else at the size.

Some things just keep getting better. £479, available at shop.ruarkaudio.com

MARIANNA – HANDHELD ARCADE CABINET LUMINA Not your average handheld. Maison Roshi’s Marianna Lumina is a folding arcade cabinet in solid lacquered wood, with detachable joysticks that slide into a custom side drawer when not in use, as happy on a shelf as it is in your hands. Inside, over 9,000 hand-selected retro titles across every era, paired with a highresolution monitor and dedicated speaker system. The kind of thing that starts as a conversation piece and ends with you disappearing for the rest of the evening. £1,999 (ex VAT), available at maisonroshi.com

BANG & OLUFSEN – BEOSOUND A1 3RD GEN IN LAVENDER PURPLE

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B&O’s Beosound A1 has always punched well above its size, and the third generation raises the bar further. The largest woofer in its class delivers serious bass from a speaker small enough to disappear into a bag, with 360-degree sound and clarity that justifies the premium over the countless alternatives. Precision-milled aluminium housing, IP67 waterproofing and a battery that outlasts most weekends away. The Lavender Purple colourway makes it the summer’s most stylish poolside companion. £299, available at bang-olufsen.com

Sony - Alpha 7R VI Sony’s flagship mirrorless just got its biggest upgrade yet. 66.8 megapixels, AI-powered autofocus, and 7.5 stops of in-body stabilisation. On paper the Alpha 7R VI is a lot to take in, but in practice it’s Sony’s most capable all-rounder yet. A 3.68 million dot OLED viewfinder and an improved grip make it as comfortable to shoot with as it is capable, and the full Sony E-mount lens ecosystem means there’s no limit to what you can put in front of it. Blackout-free at 30fps, 4K 60p video, dual USB-C, dust and moisture resistant. A lot of camera in one body. £4,399, available at electronics.sony.com

DJI - OSMO MOBILE 8P Smartphone filmmaking has come a long way, and the Osmo Mobile 8P is the proof. The detachable FrameTap remote is the headline here, a small screen that mirrors your phone’s view and lets you tap to track subjects from a distance. ActiveTrack 8.0 handles crowded, fast-moving environments with ease, the Multifunctional Module 2 tracks general objects as well as people, and NFC pairing means you’re shooting in seconds. Serious smartphone filmmaking kit. £135, available at dji.com