Oracle Time - Issue 110 March 25' ( The British Issue)

270 Years of

The Artisan Issue

Handmade Watches & Metiers d’Art

WELCOME

Editor’s letter

There are a lot of things that fascinate us about watches, be that design, history, or the glorious anachronistic nature of mechanical timekeeping. But the one that always gets me – and likely a good number of collectors reading this – is just what watchmakers and by extension hand-finishers are capable of.

I’m not just talking about run-ofthe-mill breathtaking guilloche here. Everything from black polishing and bevelling all the way up to the rarefied arts of marquetry and micro-painting takes years to be proficient in and a lifetime to master. While it’s by no means exhaustive, Thor Svaboe runs down some of these techniques on page 53, with some of the finest modern examples of each. And yes, some of them are even relatively accessible.

Of course, while it certainly takes a lifetime to perfect finishing, Vacheron Constantin have had multiple to refine their craft. As the grand old maison – one third of the holy trinity of haute horology – hits 270 years old, Laura McCreddieDoak dives into their rich history on page 42. It’s good timing too as, to celebrate, Vacheron Constantin have finally released our much-coveted cover star, the 222 in steel. Yes, it’s a beauty.

That all said, while a good part of each Vacheron watch is handmade (you don’t get the Poincon de Geneve lightly), there are those borderline insane watchmakers that take things even further. We’re talking about the craftspeople that try to build as much of each watch by hand as humanly possible. Jorg Weppelink spills the intricately hand-crafted beans on page 97, including, of course, a very special Greubel Forsey.

COVER CREDITS

Photography: Teddy Clark

& Calista Edwards

Watch: Vacheron Constantin

Historique 222

KEEP IN TOUCH:

@oracle_time

@oracle_time facebook.com/oracleoftime oracleoftime.com

One person that has a lot to say about artisan crafts – and that Greubel Forsey in particular – is Chris Hall and the debut of his new column on page 106. After all, haven’t we all wondered, while admiring the exquisite anglage of a movement you’ll rarely see, what’s the point? No? Well, maybe you should.

We’re not all talk and opinions in this issue though. Rather than our shoot this issue, we’ve turned to our friend Ben Li, better known as Inkdial. A year ago we published his sketches of famous watches and we thought it was overdue a follow-up. If you call yourself a watch lover, you should know this particular set of watches, even without the name on the dial. Test yourself on page 80.

It’s not just Inkdial delving into horological history however as our resident vintage nerd Tim Vaux dives headlong into the technique of cloisonné enamelling and some unexpected brands that, today, would never think of using the metier d’art. Check out a very special Ulysse Nardin among others on page 125.

If this all feels watch heavy, what do you expect? We’re a watch magazine. But we’ve not forgotten the petrolheads out there. This issue, Michael Taylor invites you to test your knowledge, not of the usual vintage classics, but the coach builders that made them some of the most beautiful cars ever built. True automotive poster material on page 115.

Finally, and looking to the future, it’s worth your time to turn to page 37 as, on 14th June, we will be hosting our first big consumer event, Hands On Horology. It’s set to be spectacular and while at the time of writing there’s not too much I can share, you’ll want to pay attention to our upcoming announcements.

While you wait however, stay safe, stay sane and enjoy this issue...

Sam Kessler, Editor

CONTRIBUTORS

Thor Svaboe

As the sole Norwegian who doesn’t like snow or climbing mountains, Thor has honed his florid writing skills at Time + Tide, and is now an editor at Fratello Watches . This Viking would fearlessly go into battle under the banner of independent watchmaking, and his endgame watch would be the unique Greubel Forsey Hand Made 1.

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.

Michael Taylor

Michael Taylor is a journalist and analyst who has reported on the automotive world for more than 30 years. A former magazine editor and factory rally driver, he is a World Car of the Year judge and writes mainly for Forbes. He is renowned for breaking global automotive stories, from Daimler’s takeover of Chrysler to Volkswagen’s Dieselgate, as well as road testing new models and, quietly, adoring historic cars.

Jorg Weppelink

Jorg is a Dutch watch journalist who has spent two decades obsessing over watches and a decade writing about them for Fratello and Chrono24. A journalist by trade with a knack for branding and strategy, he loves a good story — especially when told through design.

Laura McCreddieDoak

Laura has been writing about watches for around 12 years (she doesn’t like to be specific as that might reveal her age). Her love of timepieces began when she was despatched to the fair formerly known as SIHH without knowing a chronometer from a chronograph, let alone what a tourbillon was, and only one Cartier quartz to her name. Since then her knowledge has improved, as has her watch collection.

Chris Hall

Chris Hall has been writing about watches for 14 years, and publishes The Fourth Wheel, a weekly newsletter for watch enthusiasts as well as contributing to The New York Times, Financial Times, Wired, QP, The Telegraph, Vanity Fair, Vogue Business, and many other titles.

EDITOR

Sam Kessler sam.kessler@opulentmedia.co.uk

ART DIRECTOR Hicham Kasbi design@opulentmedia.co.uk

SUB EDITOR Dan Mobbs danmobbs@hotmail.com

DIGITAL EDITOR Michael Sonsino michael.sonsino@opulentmedia.co.uk

LEAD DEVELOPER Michael Pepper michael@opulentmedia.co.uk

DIGITAL CONTENT CREATOR Kelly Coombes kelly.coombes@opulentmedia.co.uk

CONTENT CREATOR Calista Edwards calista.edwards@opulentmedia.co.uk

JUNIOR SOCIAL MEDIA EXECUTIVE Teddy Clark teddy.clark@opulentmedia.co.uk

PUBLISHER / CO-FOUNDER Mark Edwards mark@opulentmedia.co.uk

MANAGING EDITOR / CO-FOUNDER Tom Pettit tom@opulentmedia.co.uk

MARKETING AND EVENTS MANAGER Violet Li Violet.li@opulentmedia.co.uk

SUBSCRIPTIONS MANAGER AND ADMINISTRATOR Jaden Mulcare jaden.mulcare@opulentmedia.co.uk

ADVERTISING

SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER Oliver Morgan oliver.morgan@opulentmedia.co.uk 020 8571 4615

ACCOUNT MANAGER Freddie Bridge freddie.bridge@opulentmedia.co.uk 0208 057 1140

JUNIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER Nancy Miller nancy.miller@opulentmedia.co.uk 0203 985 1414

OT MAGAZINE is published monthly by Opulent Media 020 8571 4615

19 — AFICIONADO

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

25 — NEWS

What’s happening in the world of fine watchmaking and the luxury industry at large

38 — INTRODUCING

Your guide to all the latest and greatest watch releases from around the world

“Each

piece we make is crafted with

a level of precision and artistry that requires extensive time and skilled craftsmanship, and we’re extremely proud of our dedication to quality over quantity”

270, Not Out - p42

42 — 270, NOT OUT

As Vacheron Constantin celebrates its anniversary, we look at how the grand old maison’s history still informs its present

CONTENTS2

“What is gained by handmaking every screw? An eyewateringly frustrating job, I have no doubt”

53 — ARTISANAL TECHNIQUES

Exploring the rarefied arts of fine watchmaking that take a lifetime to master

75 — INTERVIEW

Takashi Murakami on Japanese art, hip-hop and an idyllically terrible getaway

80 — DEFINING CHARACTERISTICS

Inkdial returns with eight illustrations to test your knowledge of horological history

91 — TICK TOCK O’CLOCK

Why settle for a mechanical timekeeper on your wrist when these five clocks exist?

97 — THE TRUE ARTISANS

A handful of watchmakers remain committed to creating handmade timepieces

106 — WATCH TICKS

Chris Hall doesn’t care if every element of a watch is handmade. Should you?

109 — MEN OF INFLUENCE

The founder of Watch Crunch, on Tudor, Eastern philosophy, and reflex hammers

115 THE FORGOTTEN AUTOMOTIVE CRAFT

The five iconic coachbuilders you need to know (and why they still matter today)

125 — UNSUNG VINTAGE

The craft of cloisonné has an allure rooted in antiquated and traditional techniques

131 — WATCH REVIEWS

We get hands-on with watches from Omega, Duckworth Prestex, and Biver

142 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 things in artisan luxury right now

SHUFFLE UP

The humble shuffleboard, beer-stained pub game that it often is, generally isn’t given the credit it deserves, let alone credit of a Good Design award-winning nature. Enter Italian design house Impatia and their Scivolo shuffleboard table. Replacing polished wood with glass, the Scivolo (fittingly, slide in English) is a dramatic modern facelift, a strikingly minimal mix of transparency and tactile angles. It of course comes with its own set of Alcantara-finished pucks because if you’re making a shuffleboard to suit a sleek modernist flat, you need to go the whole way. And hey, if you do spill beer, glass is easier to clean than wood. impatia.com

EVICE CORNICHE

There’s plenty of handmade skill that goes into everything but the most mass-produced and machined cars, but classics were built in a completely different era, where engineers and not robots put them together. Unfortunately, a lot of them are a pain to drive these days. Enter Evice, whose latest project amps up the gliding, stately driving of the Rolls-Royce Corniche and updates it with an electric powertrain. The bodywork and interior has been painstakingly restored – each car takes 1,000 hours to build – so it looks and feels like the original, but with new braking, suspension, and quality-of-life upgrades aplenty. The best of both worlds. evicecars.com

PIAGET METIERS D’ART

Metiers d’Art as a term can cover an array of techniques – as we delve into later in this issue – but Piaget’s latest ode to the handmade is a true tour de force. Created in collaboration with enamel artist Anita Porchet, this gorgeous amalgamation of gem-setting, enamelling, horology and colour might just be one of the most beautiful objects Piaget has ever produced – including their red-carpet jewellery. An array of peacock colours with a bezel set with diamonds and sapphires, the lower half of the dial is an eye-catching counterpoint to the skeletonised upper half, which is also set with sapphires because at this point, why not? piaget.com

LALIQUE TERRAMINERAL

French crystal maestros Lalique have always drawn inspiration from the natural world, but in their latest collection they’re getting a little more… elemental. Dubbed Terramineral, the collection is an ode to the earth, the rocks and ores that make up Lalique crystal. Think cracked earth and mesas to deep, underground caverns; harsh, rugged, inhospitable landscapes instead rendered in bright, delicate crystal. It’s a world away from the perfume bottles of old and all the more beautiful for it –while, of course, keeping that handmade artisan excellence Lalique has been built on. uk.lalique.com

SPEED WRITING

The latest in Montblanc’s ongoing series of limited editions devoted to great, historical figures takes on none other than Enzo Ferrari. While the colour – Giallo Modena yellow – and the prancing horse on the cap are a little on-the-nose, it’s the finer details that hammer the edition home. Engraved quotes from Enzo and Italian Aviator Francesco Baracca (the man who suggested the prancing horse in the first place), a nib embossed with a Ferrari 250 GTO steering wheel and a vintage car grille around the Montblanc logo illustrate that this isn’t a quick tie-in like that Ferrari-branded jacket you can’t bring yourself to wear. This is one for the aficionados. montblanc.com

N EWS

VALLEY IS THE NEW GLOBAL WATCH COLLECTING HOT SPOT

Within the space of a month, two of the world’s most prestigious watch brands have opened new boutiques in the San Francisco Bay Area’s Silicon Valley. MB&F

opened one of their MB&F Lab locations at Menlo Park, which is also the site of H. Moser & Cie’s fourth standalone boutique. Between them MB&F and H. Moser are responsible for some of the most outrageous and intriguing haute horology timepieces out there. So, in that respect Silicon Valley is the perfect home for them as the historic heart of modern tech innovation.

Just don’t get too attached to the now outdated idea that tech billionaires don’t like to flash their cash, as Mark Zuckerberg was recently spotted wearing a Patek Philippe 5236P. Wristwatches, more than ever, are the status symbol of choice. And now it’s easier than ever for Golden State residents to get their hands on golden pieces of horology.

SILICON

The latest from the world of watches and luxury lifestyle

BRITISH WATCHMAKERS’ DAY

—— On 8th March, the British watch industry will decend on London to attend British Watchmakers’ Day, hosted by the Alliance of British Watch and Clock Makers. To mark the occasion, 26 of the attending brands have created special edition watches available exclusively at the event. Here are our top five:

FEARS

BRUNSWICK 40.5 JUMP HOUR ‘EDWARDIAN EDITION’

The Brunswick 40.5 Jump Hour is becoming something of a signature model when it comes to Fears and British watchmaking, first catching headlines in its Alliance collaboration with Christopher Ward a few years ago. For 2025 they’ve dressed it up in full British luxury with a sterling silver case and white lacquer dial inspired by the Edwardian era.

FARER AURORA 36MM

Ask any Farer fan what the brand is best known for and they’ll probably say colourful tool watches. Which is why Farer have subverted expectations with their most classical dress watch in years. It’s a 36mm time only piece with a copper, salmon dial. The layout is almost a hybrid between a sector dial dress watch and a practical Flieger pilot’s watch, I suppose Farer couldn’t leave their tool watch bias behind entirely.

Red, white, and blue are at the forefront of this patriotic edition

FEARS X STUDIO UNDERD0G THE GIMLET

The Fears x Studio Underd0g

The Gimlet is another wristwatch we’ve already been hands-on with, inspired by the cocktail of the same name. It’s perhaps the watch most in the spirit of the event, fusing the design codes of two powerhouses of the British industry. The dial is taken from the 02Series while the case is pure Brunswick.

PINION NEUTRON VIOLET

Look at the dial of the Pinion Neutron Violet as it’s a beautiful piece of design with electroplated violet guilloché. Turn the watch over and it’s an arachnophobe’s worst nightmare with one of the gnarliest depictions of a spider I’ve ever seen on a watch. Plus, it has a human eye in its abdomen. Gothic as all hell. Which is very British in its own Mary Shelley kind of way.

DUCKWORTH PRESTEX NO.2

Based on the recent success of the Prestex Bolton Original, Duckworth Prestex are releasing the Prestex No.2 as their event exclusive watch. Unlike the Bolton models it’s only branded as Prestex, a nod to the original name of the company when it was founded 100 years ago. Again red, white, and blue are at the forefront of this patriotic edition.

CARL F. BUCHERER SET TO BE DISCONTINUED

Rumours abound that after acquiring the watch retailer Bucherer in 2023 Rolex is set to make their presence felt by closing the retailer’s unprofitable watch brand, Carl F. Bucherer. This news was first reported by Swiss news outlet, Bilanz in February, who were informed by CFB employees of company emails announcing the closure of the brand. At the time of writing Bucherer and Rolex have yet to confirm the news.

The Carl F. Bucherer brand traces its heritage back to 1888, though in recent years it has been more of a passion project of Jörg Bucherer, who sadly passed away three months after Rolex acquired the brand. Without Jörg’s influence and passion, as well as financial sheets that have reportedly not moved out of the red in years, the end of the brand was something of an inevitability.

It’s a mighty shame because some of their recent watches like the Heritage Worldtimer and Manero Flyback are gorgeous. Plus, it’s always sad to see a venerable brand disappear from the scene. However, from a financial standpoint it makes sense. Rolex already have themselves and Tudor to look after and now with CFB off the shelves, there will be more space in Bucherer boutiques to promote the Crown and Shield.

It’s not surprising that Rolex have claimed top spot

CHRONO24 WATCHES REPORT

Chrono24 has published its list of the best-selling watches of 2024, showing the individual watches that captured the attention of collectors last year.

In top spot as the bestselling watch of 2024 is the Rolex GMT-Master II. It’s not surprising that Rolex have claimed top spot and it’s even less surprising that of all their models it’s the GMTMaster II at the top of the pile. Between the Pepsi, Batman, Root Beer, vintage Coke, and all the other non-drinks related colourways this model is a collector’s dream. Of those variants Chrono 24 cite the Rolex GMT-Master II 126710BLNR as the top dog, which is the Batman.

Second on the list is the Omega Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch 310.30.42.50.01.002, the 2021 update to the core

Speedmaster model. It offers collectors a good amount of choice too with a modern sapphire glass edition and a retro hesalite version.

Completing the trio of most sought-after watches is the Nautilus 5711/1A-010. The 5711 is the perfect example of hype killing a watch, as Patek Philippe became so overwhelmed with the watch’s excessive waitlist that they decided to simply discontinue it. Now that it’s been off the boutique shelves for a few years that hype has dissipated a little, while at the same time steel sports watches have suffered the most from a declining market. All of which means that the 5711 price reduced to a point where people have started buying it again.

Alongside these best sellers, Chrono24 announced the three watches with the biggest growth for sound investments. They are the Cartier Santos, JaegerLeCoultre Reverso, and Grand Seiko Elegance GMT.

LONGINES SEND IN THE CAVILL-RY

There are few people who attract attention quite so much as Henry Cavill. Whether he’s providing grit to The Witcher, reloading his fists in Mission: Impossible or donning the cape as Superman, he’s the ultimate action man. However, while he’s a beast on screen, offscreen he’s a gentle giant carrying himself with quiet elegance.

It’s that quiet elegance that has led him to become the newest ambassador for Longines. In the announcement he’s seen wearing the Flagship Heritage Moonphase and Master Chrono Moonphase. He might not be the next 007 but with watches like these, he’s undoubtedly the peak of British elegance on a global stage.

FEARS SET OUT FOR WORLD RECORD

Bristol-based brand Fears has announced they are the official timekeeping partner for the A Great British Odyssey world record attempt. Friend of the brand and extreme endurance athlete Angus Collins is attempting to become the first person in history to solo row around the entirety of the Great British mainland. It’s set to be a gruelling undertaking lasting around 60 days, requiring Angus to row for up to 18-hours a day in a custom boat.

Fears’ role in the project will see them develop five experimental watches for Angus to use during the adventure. Sadly, none of the pieces will be available for sale, but considering they’re being described as experimental, maybe production versions will emerge down the line. The idea of a Fears adventure watch does scratch an unexpected itch.

The event is being run in support of the James’ Place charity with the goal of raising £250,000 in support of men experiencing suicidal crises. You can support the mission at justgiving.com/page/gbodyssey and learn more about the challenge at gbodyssey.com

TAG HEUER BECOME TITLE SPONSOR FOR MONACO GRAND PRIX

Tag Heuer has long been associated with motor racing and while films would have us focus on Le Mans, Formula 1 is Tag Heuer’s chosen battlefield. As of 2025 Tag Heuer will be the team sponsor for Red Bull, the timing partner for the entire season, and has recently been announced as the title sponsor for the Grand Prix de Monaco. Meaning official communications now have to call it the Formula 1 TAG Heuer Grand Prix de Monaco. It’s the first time in the race’s near 100 year history that they’ve had a title sponsor.

I never like sponsors to be in event or venue titles but if it’s going to be any brand, better Tag Heuer than crypto. com. Plus, the shared heritage of the Monaco name does give some legitimacy to the connection. On top of which, it will be fun to spot all the Heuer Monaco shaped clocks in the paddock.

5th March

CALENDAR

Phillips The Geneva Sessions Spring 2025, Geneva

21st – 28th March

Sotheby’s Fine Watches, New York

25th April – 7th May

Bonhams Weekly: Watches, online only

12th – 19th March

Sotheby’s Important Watches II, Hong Kong

19th March

Phillips

The Hong Kong Sessions Spring 2025, Hong Kong

19th March

Chiswick Auctions Watches, London

21st March –2nd April

Bonhams Weekly: Watches, London

22nd March

Antiquorum Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces, Monaco

24th April

Sotheby’s Important Watches I, Hong Kong

29th April

Lyon and Turnbull Cartier Curated, London

10th – 11th May

Antiquorum

Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces, Geneva 11th May

Sotheby’s Important Watches I, Geneva

12th May

Christie’s Rare Watches, Geneva

13th – 21st May

Christie’s Watches Online: The Geneva Edit, Geneva

22nd May

Bonhams London Watches, London

31st May

Antiquorum Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces, Hong Kong

7th June

Watches of Knightsbridge Watches, London

10th June

Sotheby’s Important Watches, New York

Phillips The Geneva Watch Auction: XXI, Geneva

24th May

Phillips

The Hong Kong Watch Auction: XX, Hong Kong

7th June

Phillips

The New York Watch Auction: XII, New York

3rd – 17th June

Sotheby’s Fine Watches, New York 10th May

Bonhams London Fine Watches, London “

Stay up to date with all the important luxury watch auction dates at oracleoftime.com

18th June

It’s been nearly a year since Rolex stunned the watch industry by introducing their first guilloché dial. However, while it’s cool to see the brand with the Crown take on a new style of finishing, how does it stack up in comparison to a brand that has been mastering the craft for decades? It’s time to put the Rolex 1908 Guilloché head to head with the Breguet Classique, for which we’ve chosen the Ref. 7147 due to its similar dial arrangement and small seconds subdial. They also happen to share precious metal cases, though different materials, as well as similar dress watch refinement.

ROLEX 1908 GUILLOCHÉ

The Rolex 1908 is the spiritual successor to the discontinued Cellini collection and so far it has lived up to expectation with its elegant dress watch charm. That was elevated further by the introduction of a guilloché dial, showing a geometric, scalelike pattern.

While guilloché is a heritage technique that’s been used throughout the watch industry for centuries, the fact that Rolex has adopted it is a significant innovation.

As a dress watch, the 1908 isn’t designed for rough and rugged treatment thanks to its mere 50m water resistance rating and a polished finish. However, those same features make it perfect for an evening soiree in polite company.

The 1908 Guilloché features a 39mm case made from platinum, a high lustre precious material with a sizeable price tag of £26,800.

The Breguet name is intrinsically linked to elegant style and wristwatch prestige thanks to the work of legendary watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet. The Classique is one of their most refined collections featuring a variety of finishes, including guilloché.

BREGUET CLASSIQUE 7147

The innovation rating for the Breguet Classique is an interesting metric because on one hand it’s based on a lot of heritage and in isolation, we’ve seen it before so it’s not innovative today. But also, Breguet have helped to define this style for decades and surely that is the definition of impactful innovation.

Powering the Classique 7147 is the Calibre 502.3 SD with a 45-hour power reserve. It’s finished with perlage, as stylish as the dial.

There are numerous styles of finishing on display here. The main dial features a Clous de Paris hobnail guilloché while the small seconds subdial has a basket weave pattern instead, adding a point of contrast.

The Breguet Classique 7147 is an impressive mixture of style and finishing with its sleek Roman numeral hour markers and white gold case. It’s bold and dynamic while retaining just enough subtlety thanks to its largely monochrome display. The Rolex 1908 Guilloché by contrast is brighter and more colourful with a sky blue dial. It mixes its elegance with an element of playfulness that Rolex have been leaning into far more in recent years with the Emoji and Celebration dial. Which wins out? Well, Rolex doing anything new will always turn heads while Breguet continue to build on their rich reputation. It’s a tight contest as reflected in their near-inseparable ratings, but the Rolex edges it.

ORACLE TI M E O UT

Rob Webster, @rw_m100

With its luminescent green gradient dial, dual layer of sapphire and elegant 1930s cushion case, the Gimlet from British collaborators Studio Underd0g and Fears made a heady cover star. But what exactly can you pair with such a heady concoction? What would be the proverbial bowl of olives to this particular cocktail? If you’re collector Rob Webster – better known on Instagram as @rw_m100 – the answer is obvious: the Vertex M100.

Sure, on paper a throwback military watch might not gel with an idiosyncratic dress watch, but the synergy is there in the tasting. Not only is Vertex as firmly British as a rainstorm in a teacup, the

eerie green glow of those chunky lume indexes matches our cover with near frustrating perfection.

“I enjoy experimenting with depth and creativity in my shots,” explains Rob, “always looking for ways to bring out the character of each watch. My #oracletimeout shot, featuring Issue 109, was a perfect opportunity to play with a monochrome aesthetic, highlighting the vibrant lume to complement both the magazine title and the stunning Studio Underdog x Fears collaboration.”

Sure, there are plenty of watches out there with copious amounts of green lume, but this particular Vertex is the pride of Rob’s collection, if only because he knows first-hand what it takes to build a military watch.

“When I joined the military, a reliable

timepiece was an essential part of my kit. After leaving and becoming a firefighter, durability remained very important – I needed a watch that could withstand the demands of my daily life. Vertex was an easy choice; its military heritage and solid build quality gave me complete confidence, and it hasn’t disappointed.”

Neither has this shot.

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.

SUBSCRIBE TO PRINT MAGAZINE

As you likely realise while reading these pages, there’s nothing like a glossy mag devoted to fine timepieces. So if you’re reading this without an annual subscription, you can sign-up to 10 issues of incredible watch-flavoured content - for £89.50, with plenty more perks besides the magazine to come.

Looking for even more? You can also find us on Instagram to share your thoughts and wrist shots, or YouTube, where you can see our latest video reviews and roundups. However you engage with the world of watches, we have you covered.

This June, ORACLE TIME brings something fresh to the watch scene with Hands On Horology, a watch show that puts the focus squarely on what matters: getting up close with some great timepieces.

WHEN?

Saturday 14th June 2025

WHERE?

Protein Studios, Shoreditch, London

WHY?

At Hands On Horology you will be able to:

• Try on the latest covetable releases under natural light

• Chat directly with brand representatives and watchmakers

• Purchase watches and accessories right at the event

• Meet other enthusiasts to talk about what truly matters - watches

• Have a drink and mingle with your favourite watch people

Due to demand we will be hosting two sessions, followed by a VIP reception

Session 1: 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM

Session 2: 2:30 PM - 6:00 PM

VIP Reception: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

NEWS I N T R O

Anatom Bracelet

The re-launch of the 1983 Anatom proved that Rado has more strings to their bow than the Captain Cook, but the sleek, ergonomic watch was missing something: a bracelet. Now that hole has been filled and with a gorgeous bi-colour number at that. The three new Anatom models all have ceramic links separated by flashes of metal, the highlight by far being the grey plasma ceramic with rose gold links. Based on a vintage model that I adore, for me this is Rado’s best release of the year – and that’s a high bar, given they have some cool stuff coming.

THE DETAIL:

• 32.5mm plasma high-tech ceramic case with 50m water resistance

• R766 calibre automatic movement with 72-hour power reserve

• £4,200, rado.com

RADO

MB&F X BULGARI

Serpenti

Normally I wouldn’t count an iconic Italian jeweller as a ‘friend’, but then I’m not Max Busser, the puppet master behind ever iconoclastic, collaborative watchmaker MB&F. Their latest is as avant garde as usual but this time with a motif you might recognise: the Bulgari Serpenti. The haute joaillerie snake’s head makes up the main body of the new horological machine, with a timekeeping reptile hindbrain. Honestly, the result feels pretty natural for MB&F and all three editions will find some proper purchase on a well-heeled wrist near you.

THE DETAIL:

• 53mm x 39mm rose gold, titanium or stainless steel case with 30m water resistance

• MB&F in-house manual-wind movement with 45-hour power reserve

• From CHF 132,000 (approx. £116,900), limited to 33 pieces each, mbandf.com

MOSER & CIE

Streamliner Boutique Edition

With their ‘disruptive’ attitude, it’s no surprise that Moser & Cie is a darling of Silicon Valley watch collectors – those not obsessed with their Apple watches, anyway – enough that they’ve opened a shiny new boutique. While that fact isn’t super interesting, the new Streamliner Tourbillon Skeleton is. The gorgeous lines of the collection look killer in yellow gold and the skeletonised movement is perfect for a horological flex on the wrist of a tech bro. With a frustratingly lovely bracelet, it might be worth a trip to visit your newest app investment just to pick up this bad boy.

THE DETAIL:

• 40mm yellow gold case with 120m water resistance

• HMC 814 automatic movement with 72-hour power reserve

• £125,000, boutique exclusive, h-moser.com

THE DETAIL:

• 42mm sapphire case with 30m water resistance

• Jaquet Droz calibre 2625SQ automatic movement with 8-day power reserve

• CHF 427,000 (approx. £404,375), unique piece, jaquet-droz.com

JAQUET DROZ

Tourbillon Skelet Sapphire - Bushidô

Lacquer may be the artisan technique most synonymous with Japan, but leave it to Jacquet Droz to take things well beyond the norm –specifically if that involves some intense metiers d’art. Sapphire case in point, the maison’s newest transparent tourbillon centres around a Bushidô Oni mask. It’s an incredible looking turquoise warrior’s visage designed to strike terror into your opponent and, given that this is also a tourbillon, your accountant. I don’t like to make blanket statements, but this is the coolest thing Jaquet Droz has ever built.

OMEGA

Seamaster 37mm Milano Cortina 2026

To call this one a Seamaster feels a little odd given that it’s aesthetically riffing off a watch I’ve had my eye on for a while: the Constellation Pie Pan. It shares the shape and details (bar the famous faceted dial) and its retro good looks, clean white dial and funky faceted indexes make for a deliciously vintage throwback to 60s Omega. This is proof positive that Omega’s Olympic editions are more than a tie-in; they’re some of the coolest releases they do. You know, when they’re not just newly coloured Seamaster Professional 300M.

THE DETAIL:

• 37mm Moonshine gold case with 100m water resistance

• Omega Calibre 8807 automatic movement with 55-hour power reserve

• £18,200, omegawatches.com

KNOT

As the name suggests, the traditional Japanese art of urushi is at the heart of Knot Design’s latest collection. As one of the world’s oldest crafts, this particular type of lacquer has a rich history, almost as rich as the gold-sprinkled end result. With its deep, glittering colour you don’t need much else on your dial and Knot Designs have embraced that with a quartet of models with very minimal displays, even on the chronograph version. The jet black has a beautiful finish, but the vermillion red is absolutely stunning and, just as importantly, far, far more accessible than you’re likely already thinking. Launching on Kickstarter soon, you can check them out there or on their website. Either way, it’s a deeply appealing new launch.

THE DETAIL:

• 38mm stainless steel case with 50m water resistance

• Miyota 9015 automatic movement with 42-hour power reserve

• From ¥92,000 (approx. £480), en.knot-designs.com

Urushi Automatic

WORDS: Laura McCreddie-Doak

270, NOT OUT

AS VACHERON CONSTANTIN CELEBRATES ITS ANNIVERSARY, WE LOOK AT HOW ITS LONG HISTORY STILL INFORMS ITS PRESENT

With a history as rich, and long, as that of Vacheron Constantin, it’s hard to choose that opening-paragraph story that goes to the heart of the brand; a set-up to explore its unique narrative. Do you opt for GeorgesAuguste Leschot’s 1839 invention of the pantograph? This machine-made watch parts with such precision they could be interchanged with minimal adjustment. It also contributed to the development of the US watch industry, however Vacheron Constantin didn’t use it to make cheap mass-produced designs but to maintain a technical lead over its competition.

Or there’s the story of the motto to which the maison adheres today, “do better if possible, and it is always possible”. This phrase was first written in a letter, from 5 July 1819, from François Constantin, who joined the business as a salesman, the same year as JacquesBarthélémy Vacheron, grandson of founder Jean-Marc. Do you maybe list its watchmaking firsts to show its mechanical prowess? There’s the 1932 pocket-watch collaboration with Louis Cottier that enabled the simultaneous display of 24 time zones and became the standard on which all world time displays are based. The first retrograde display in 1940, or the first Hebraic perpetual calendar. Possibly mention that, as recently as 2024, it broke its own record and, with the Les Cabinotier Berkley Grand Complication, created the most complicated pocket watch in the world, featuring another first – a Chinese perpetual calendar.

"Vacheron Constantin, since its early years, has been associating decorative crafts – the métiers d’art – with its watchmaking art"

Given all that, maybe it's best to start at the beginning. To Geneva in 1755, when a 24-year-old Jean-Marc began work on his first watch. This Geneva was rich both economically and philosophically. JeanMarc was a man of this Enlightenment, classically educated with an interest in literature, history, politics, and, rather helpfully, micromechanics. It was home to philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, son of a watchmaker, whose central idea was that all human beings are, by their nature, good but are rendered corrupt by society. Voltaire, who believed above all in the efficacy of reason, through which all social, religious or political change could be implemented, had taken a house in the canton also in 1755. Vacheron was alive to all this; something which explains the continued intersection of art, culture, and watchmaking that exists in the timepieces the maison produces to this day.

“From the historical perspective, there were differences between Geneva watchmaking compared with other areas, such as the Jura and Neuchatel,” says Vacheron Constantin’s heritage director Christian Selmoni. “Geneva, since the beginning of the 18th century, has been a very active area gathering watchmakers, jewellers, goldsmiths and artisans in a community known as ‘La Fabrique’. Consequently, and naturally, Vacheron Constantin, since its early years, has been associating decorative crafts – the métiers d’art – with its watchmaking art. In addition, our Maison started to export its creations very early beginning of the 19th century to other countries, and continents, and in return our style has been influenced by foreign cultures and arts.”

This spirit of exploration and inquisitiveness did not stop with Jean-Marc but was something he instilled in his son Abraham and later his grandson. Without, in particular, Jean-Barthélémy’s innovation – he diversified into textiles and cherry brandy to survive the several crises caused by the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, and France’s annexation of Geneva from 1798 to 1813 – and his extensive travel to bring the watches to new markets, it is unlikely that a Vacheron Constantin would have been the centre piece of Faberge’s Third Imperial Egg in 1837. It’s that creative way of thinking that led Vacheron Constantin to create the first-ever driving watch. Originally produced for the American market, it was revived as the Historiques American 1921 in 2008. Even now it is a beautifully unusual design with its crown proud of the case, perched on a corner between what is traditionally the one and two o’clock position but here, thanks to the angling of the dial is now its 12 o’clock, so it can be read without moving the hand from steering wheel.

Vacheron Constantine icons: the Cabinotier Berkley Grand Complication is the most complicated pocket watch in the world, while the re-launched 222 (left) celebrates the original, unveiled in 1977, with a new stainless steel version of the legendary timepiece

Over 270 years, Vacheron Constantin has proved that, when it comes to watchmaking, its imaginative possibilities really are endless

A legacy of creativity from the maison has led to ingenious timepieces, including the re-issued Historiques American 1921 (far left), which can be read without moving the hand from steering wheel, as well as the Historiques 222 4200H/222J-B935 (left), and James Ward Packard’s Patek Philippe Grand Complication (below)

Released to little fervour, the original was controversial for Vacheron Constantin, whose customers expected the maison to stick to dress styles, but the re-issued 222 returns at a time when there’s considerably more interest in sporty-elegant watches

Other aesthetic innovations include the nowsignature 'cornes de vache' lugs, which first appeared in 1955, during a period of exceptional creativity at the maison spearheaded by Georges Ketterer, who took over after a brief period of ownership by JaegerLeCoultre. It was under Ketterer’s son, Jacques, that Vacheron Constantin produced its most underrated, now appreciated design – the 222. Its genus and subsequent lack of splash feels very typically Vacheron, a maison that, throughout its history has favoured quiet confidence over sensationalism, as Selmoni attests, “each piece we make is crafted with a level of precision and artistry that requires extensive time and skilled craftsmanship, and we’re extremely proud of our dedication to quality over quantity.”

Looking for an unusual watch for an equally unusual anniversary, Jacques Ketterer sought the talents of Jörg Hysek. Something of a wunderkind, Hysek was just 23. He had come to Geneva from East Berlin in 1960, just before the construction of the Wall. In a strange parallel with Jean-Marc Vacheron, he was both a creative and an engineer. He studied micromechanics at the Biel Technical School for two years, then enrolled in the Vocational School for Watchmakers Pforzheim, before going to London for two years in 1973 to study sculpture at the London Academy of Art. He returned to Switzerland to spend four years at Rolex where he worked as a designer, before starting his own business, Hysek Styling. One of his first clients was Vacheron Constantin.

Coming five years after Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak and a year after Patek Philippe’s Nautilus, the 222, until its recent reissue, hadn’t held the horological imagination in quite the same way as its sporty elegant bedfellows. This could partly be due to the fact that the design was controversial for Vacheron Constantin, whose customers expected the maison to stick to dress styles; something it discovered with the 222’s predecessor, the Ref. 2215, its first failed foray into integrated sport style.

“I think that it is important to remember that sportyelegant watches – coming from prestigious maisons – were at the time only a fraction of their offer, which consisted mostly of dress, elegant and classic timepieces,” says Selmoni. “Today, [by contrast], there is a huge interest from clients for sporty-elegant watches, and in this context, the 222 model – especially the so-called jumbo one – is driving a lot of interest, due to its pure and elegant design.”

To paraphrase Richard Attenborough in Jurassic Park no expense was spared in the making of the original 222. The dials were made by Geneva’s Stern Creations and the integrated bracelet was by Genevan native Gay Freres – the metalwork specialist who started out making pocket-watch chains in the 19th century and went on to become the most respected bracelet maker in the world; so prestigious that Rolex bought it in

“Each piece we make is crafted with a level of precision and artistry that requires extensive time and skilled craftsmanship, and we’re extremely proud of our dedication to quality over quantity”

1998. The 222 remained part of the collection until 1985, before its resurrection in 2022, however even in that time, only an estimated 3,000 were made across the various metal options and dial sizes.

The late 1970s were the closest Vacheron Constantin came to being on the rocks. The price of oil dropped, and the dollar was weakened. Vacheron Constantin lost virtually all of its important Middle Eastern markets and production subsequently dropped to just 3,000 watches. Following the death of Jacques in 1987, the Maison was bought by Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamani through Investcorp – the controversial private equity firm to whom Maurizio Gucci desperately sold 47.8% of his fashion and luxury goods empire, and that bought Chaumet in 1987 after it filed for fraudulent bankruptcy.

A total re-organisation followed and Vacheron Constantin started the 1990s rediscovering its history of alternative time displays, unveiling, in 1992, what is considered one of the most important watches to come out of the maison – the Patrimony Minute Repeater Perpetual Calendar ref. 30020. It was created as direct competition to Patek Philippe’s Ref.3974, the first automatic wristwatch to combine a perpetual calendar with a minute repeater, and, with its simple elongated indices and teardrop lugs has design codes that remain distinctly Vacheron to this day.

The acquisition in 1996 by Richemont, then the Vendôme Group, gave the maison the stability to return to its creative roots. There was a return to complex metier d’art dials and horological creations in Les Cabinotiers. The Overseas brought a sporty insouciance to the maison, the Patrimony showcased its talent for stylistic purist with its minimalist lines and slender dimensions, while the vintage vibes of the Fiftysix proved it could impress the millennial crowd.

It is not just within its watchmaking that Vacheron Constantin channels the curiosity and creativity of its founder. Partnerships with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Louvre and the Educational Institute of the Palace Museum in Beijing’s Forbidden City alongside collaborations with Abbey Road Studios, show a Maison looking outside itself for inspiration and new ways to explore the concept of time in metaphysical as well as physical ways. Rousseau once said that “the real world has limits; the imaginary world is infinite”. Over 270 years, Vacheron Constantin has proved that, when it comes to watchmaking, its imaginative possibilities really are endless.

WATCHMAKING is about chronometry, complications, and technical craftsmanship, resulting in a wristworn device that tells the time of day. Or is it more about centuries-old craftsmanship and time-honoured skills? We are not disputing the pure function of a wristwatch, but enjoying wristwear is about so much more than time itself. In high-end watches, supporting micro-engineered accuracy is a flourishing hand-crafted art covered by the simplistic term, finishing. This encompasses everything from metal engraving to the rich lustre of a deep enamel finish and elevates a watch. Sure, you can tell the time on the dial of a hand-enamelled Jaquet Droz wristwatch, distracted by the lifelike automaton bird flapping its wings. However, it is increasingly about the knowledge-based art involved, techniques passed down from 18th and 19th-century craftsmen who possessed infinite patience and hand control, unknown to today’s tech-dependant workers.

WORDS

Thor Svaboe

EDIT

Sam Kessler

ARTISANAL FINISHING

T ECHNIQUES

in WATCHMAKING

ENAMELLING AND CLOISONNÉ

The ancient art of enamelling started as a century-old technique for embellishing jewellery, containers and even tableware. Vitreous or Grand Feu (big fire, natch) enamel has a delicate, deep lustre that comes from its glass-like appearance, which is literally a kind of soft glass. The raw material is often heated in a melting pot until it forms a colourless liquid and is fired in a high-temperature kiln. Various intense hues can be obtained by adding cobalt for blue, chromium for green and other variants, which will set like a glass-like plate after cooling. An alluring and more complex variant of enamelling is Cloisonné. This technique comes from the French term cloisons, meaning compartments, and is another technique from the world of colourful jewellery. A watch dial or even pocket watch case back is prepared by affixing silver or gold wires or thin strips to mark a motif or pattern and will remain visible in the finished piece. Enamel or inlays are placed within the marked areas, often with several colours, and then fired in a kiln. When combined with gemstones, these are applied after being cut or ground into the shape of each cloison, creating a beautiful glass-like tapestry of colour.

MOSER & CIE

Streamliner Small Seconds

Blue Enamel

Winner of the 2024 GPHG prize for Time Only watches – one of the most competitive categories in the Oscars of watchmaking

– Moser & Cie’s Streamliner ticks every box with its aqua blue fumé enamel. Three different coloured pigments are melded together over a textured pattern for one of the few dials I’ll ever unironically call captivating. The fact that it’s on one of my favourite modern watches helps, of course.

THE DETAIL:

• 39mm stainless steel case with 120m water resistance

• HMC 500 automatic movement with 74-hour power reserve

• CHF 29 900 (approx. £26,500), h-moser.com

EMATELIER

Sprezzatura Double Sunken

Sunken enamelling is hard, given you need to potentially ruin the outer dial to inset another. Double sunken is therefore twice as hard, which makes this bold red and white number almost miraculous for its price point. But then, this is what Ematelier do, accessible enamel dials that put some of the larger watch houses to shame. Cool, colourful and distinctly modern, it’s a world away from the plain white grand feu you see on most classical watches –and all the better for it.

THE DETAIL:

• 38.8mm stainless steel case with 50m water resistance

• Soprod automatic movement with 42-hour power reserve

• $2,500 (approx. £1,950), ematelier.watch

CELADON HAUTE HORLOGERIE Cloisonné Starry Night

Proving that Chinese watches don’t need to be cheaply made, Celadon have taken an artistic approach to artisan crafts, doubly so with their Cloisonné interpretation of Van Gough’s famous Starry Night. Every swirl and brush stroke of enamel is framed in gold in maddeningly painstaking fashion. The movements are actually very pretty too and the semi-cushion case with an inset crown is cool, but everything is going to play second fiddle to a dial like that.

THE DETAIL:

• 42mm stainless steel case with 50m water resistance

• Calibre CH1 manual-wind movement with 45-hour power reserve

• From $14,900 (approx. £12,000), celadonhh.com

MARQUETRY

This art form originated many centuries ago in furniture design and the alluring world of wooden jewellery – and cigar boxes. Marquetry is the craft of inlaying small, thin, and often frail pieces of wood that are then sanded down together with the main surface and lacquered for protection. We rarely see marquetry in watchmaking except on the design of the actual box carrying the timepiece. One could argue that inlays of mother-of-pearl and meteorites within part of a dial are a kind of marquetry, but prime examples usually include thinner-than-paper slivers of wood or straw. We have seen it to good effect this year, and the natural beauty of the materials lends a refined air of exclusivity to what, in essence, is an instrument of time. There is something particularly fascinating about seeing organic materials from the world around us applied to artwork, especially on such a minute scale. Marquetry also encompasses thin, fragile slices of stone like malachite. Lately, there has been a resurgence of stone dials, and the combination of natural patterns in the stone and cut shapes make artful magic.

ISOTOPE

Mercury Marquetry

British brand Isotope apparently has a self-imposed mandate to make metiers d’art accessible, and along with enamelling of all stripes, that includes marquetry. Hidden in the surprisingly versatile cushion case of the mercury, Isotope’s marquetry dials are things of beauty. The showpiece is the malachitecoloured series of circles, but given each dial is made to order, the possibilities are limitless. Rarely has straw looked this good.

ULYSSE NARDIN

Blast Free Wheel Marquetry

THE DETAIL:

• 38mm stainless steel case with 100m water resistance

• Isotope I-7 automatic movement with 42-hour power reserve

• £2,400, isotopewatches.com

THE DETAIL:

• 44mm white gold case with 30m water resistance

• UN-176 automatic movement with 170-hour power reserve

• £121,140, ulysse-nardin.com

At first something as traditional as marquetry might seem at odds with Ulysse Nardin’s particular breed of avant garde watchmaking. But it’s all in how you use it. The Blast Freewheel, with its scattered movement elements, leaves plenty of space for the striking vari-blue lines of geometric marquetry and the result is anything but traditional. In fact, that pattern isn’t even made from wood or straw, but silicon, for what might be the coolest twist on the technique in all watchmaking.

THE DETAIL:

• 42mm stainless steel case with 50m water resistance

• Sellita SW26-1 automatic movement with 38-hour power reserve

• CHF 3,900 (approx. £3,500), louiserard.com

LOUIS ERARD Excellence Marqueterie

One of the most visually stunning marquetry dials at any level, let alone at Louis Erard’s signature level of accessibility, the Excellence Marqueterie is made up of a series of shaded cubes made from different gradients of wood. The result is a tessellating stunner that’s part metiers d’art, part magic eye picture. Signed by artist Bastien Chevalier, it’s something that he should be very, very proud of.

MICRO PAINTING

Often combined with engraving, the painstaking time it takes to learn and master this remarkable skill is part of why we see some haute horology on offer with prices equalling an average UK mortgage or two. And like many other artisanal techniques we know of, it cannot be done by a computer-programmed machine. Micro painting has been perfected for centuries, enriching pocket watches from as early as the 18th century and jewellery even earlier. The skillset required to perform at the level required means having a rock steady hand to guide the smallest of paint brushes, often under a microscope, and for many hours. But the resulting motifs, whether figurative or abstract, bring a deeper sense of art to any watch dial or case back that makes the elevated price point entirely justified. And when combined with Cloisonné techniques and even the mechanical movements of an automaton, the result is as breathtaking as it can be lifelike in appearance.

IFL

Free Willie Concept

Not all painted dials need to cost the Earth, especially when this one’s determined to leave it. IFL are an odd proposition; they don’t build watches, but they do paint dials. So, their collection consists of the quintessential accessible cool staples like the Citizen Tsuyosa and Tissot PRX, with shiny new hand-painted dials. This particular version takes the Tsuyosa and adds Steamboat Willie (not Mickey Mouse) claiming the moon for freedom. But honestly, there are almost too many different designs to choose from, all oozing charm and walletpleasing accessibility.

THE DETAIL:

• 40mm stainless steel case with 50m water resistance

• 8210 calibre automatic movement with 45-hour power reserve

• £790, iflwatches.com

THE DETAIL:

• 42mm silver case with 50m water resistance

• Seiko NH05 automatic movement with 41-hour power reserve

• £2,957, halcyonwatch.com

JAQUET DROZ

Rolling Stones – Some Girls

It’s genuinely hard to upstage an automaton, especially when said stage is hosting a miniaturised set from the Rolling Stones. But the backdrop to Jaquet Droz’s tribute act does it with aplomb. A painstakingly hand-painted recreation of the Some Girls cover art, it turns a pop art icon of rock into one of the most eye-catching dials ever put onto a watch. It’s a unique piece for a very, very good reason.

HALCYON

Origin Sea & Cliff

Take a sea view with you wherever you go courtesy of Chinese brand Halcyon. You shouldn’t be surprised to hear that last part when it comes to hand-painting, given that Halycon is based in Jingdezhen, home to China’s tradition of porcelain painting. The dial – which is of course also porcelain – is a masterclass in the craft, with a subtle palette of blue and white depicting a misty day at the cliffs, spray in the air. It’s beautiful, a motif inspired by traditional Chinese fabrics, and should make the Swiss maisons a touch worried, especially when attached to a rather nice, slim bezelled dress watch.

THE DETAIL:

• 43mm rose gold case with 30m water resistance

• 2653 calibre automatic movement with 68-hour power reserve

• POA, unique piece, jaquet-droz.com

ENGRAVING

Nothing brings a stronger sense of craftsmanship to a watch movement or even the case itself than the time-honoured detail of engraving. It can be deep-cut or whisper shallow in its execution, and sometimes lacquer-filled like the personalised body of Purdey shotgun, and most often unique. Brands offering engraved details as part of their movement decoration can often trace a single engraved piece back to its craftsman. More often than not, the strokes and cuts are intensely personal and usually recognisable, like an artist’s signature, and the smallest of imperfections will only make it more evocative, easily setting it apart from machine-made or stamped equivalents. Engraving can sometimes be seen on watch cases, with flamboyant results bringing life to miniature creatures or even cityscapes. Within watch movements, larger flat areas like three-quarter plates or bridges sometimes compete with the sharpest bevelling for attention. For traditional brands, the curved balance cock is a favourite playground for the cutting tools of the best engravers in the trade, a tradition we can trace back to British watchmaking in the 19th century.

SARTORY BILLARD

SB04-E Tantalum Hand-Engraved

Not all engraving needs to be overly ornate; the heavy metal tantalum dial on Sartory Billard’s latest has an incredibly delicate, feather-like engraving too it, far too soft and organic for machine turning a la guilloché. Paired with an otherwise sharply faceted dial – especially those indexes – it adds texture more than it does some kind of artistic image, a general use case for the technique. We’ll get onto the other end of the scale later. The result is a seriously cool yet accessible metiers d’art timepiece.

THE DETAIL:

• 39.5mm stainless steel case with 100m water resistance

• La Joux-Perret G101 automatic movement with 68-hour power reserve

• €3,500, (approx. £2,960), sartory-billard.com

GRAND SEIKO

There’s a good reason Grand Seiko’s white Birch is close to unseating their Snowflake as their flagship dial; the hand-engraved nuances of the bark-like texture embody their naturalistic approach to watchmaking. It’s evocative, detailed and downright gorgeous. Paired here with the precision of a Grand Seiko sports watch, it’s the Rolex of Japanese watchmaking doing what they do best.

THE DETAIL:

• 40mm stainless steel case with 100m water resistance

• 9SA5 calibre automatic movement with 80-hour power reserve

• £8,950, grand-seiko.com

SLGH005 White Birch

THE DETAIL:

• 45mm rose gold case with 30m water resistance

• Calibre 1990 manual-wind movement with 60-hour power reserve

• POA, vacheron-constantin.com

VACHERON CONSTANTIN

Les Cabinotiers Armillary Tourbillon Ode to Chronos

With a mouthful like that for a name – and given it’s coming from Vacheron – you probably know what to expect here, a metiers d’art ode to the Greek gods. Here the art in question is engraving of the level you more expect to see on ancient Athenian friezes around the caseband, specifically Chronos, god of time and father to the Horae, from which we derive the word ‘hours’. The fact that it’s also a bi-axial tourbillon almost gets lost. Almost.

GUILLOCHÉ

Guilloché is one of the oldest ways of decorating a dial, and in some cases, bridgework, dating back to the 1770s. It’s believed to be named after the French engineer Guillot, who invented a tool for a mechanical lathe. Today it is seen as evocative metal-cutting artistry, while one of its more prosaic uses was to increase grip on smooth pocket watch cases, similar to knurling on a crown or control knob. Guilloché can be formed through stamping metal dial blanks, but nothing beats the skills involved in hand-cutting guilloché on a lathe. The decoration produced by a rose engine lathe creates flower patterns and symmetrical, multi-lobed geometrical patterns. Its poetic name comes from tools used to create the patterns, rosettes, which are interchangeable discs with milled edges. They produce wave-shaped patterns we know from traditional watchmaking, such as barleycorns, basket weaves, moires, drapes, and many others. A straight-line guilloché is also made on a different lathe configuration, which offers a more formal design through straight cuts. Typical examples are miniature pyramid shapes, light-catching hobnail and piquè patterns, and even straight, cut lines on the metal dial surface.

ATELIER WEN

Perception Millesime 2024

Chinese maker Atelier Wen took the watch world by storm with their beautiful Perception back in 2022 and made good on that promise with this stunning purple version last year. The mix of purple and titanium is rich, regal and with that écaille de poisson (fish scale) pattern makes for a serious statement watch. While this edition is understandably sold out, the standard Perception is still a looker, and there will likely be more to come. You’ll just need to keep your wallet handy.

THE DETAIL:

• 40mm titanium case with 100m water resistance

• SL1588A calibre automatic movement with 41-hour power reserve

• $3,588 (approx. £2,850), atelierwen.com

CHRISTOPHER WARD

C1 Bel Canto Classic

The colourful chiming of the Bel Canto already disrupted the watch industry with its unique twist on the jump hour, but last year Christopher Ward hammered home its classical credentials with this aptly-named guilloché version. The quartet of colours make ample use of the technique, albeit using laser etching rather than traditional engine-turning machines. The result is a regular, precise and immediately arresting fish scale-like pattern. It’s not going to push down the intense demand for the Bel Canto any time soon.

THE DETAIL:

• 41mm titanium case with 30m water resistance

• Sellita SW200-1 automatic movement with 38-hour power reserve

• £3,495, christopherward.com

ROLEX Perpetual 1908

THE DETAIL:

• 39mm platinum case with 50m water resistance

• Rolex 7140 automatic movement with 66-hour power reserve

• £26,600, rolex.com

We can’t talk about guilloché without touching on the fact that last year, Rolex launched their first ever engine-turned dial. It’s a stunner, even if it doesn’t feel very ‘Rolex’, so I’m hoping for another addition or two this year.

As it stands, the ice blue rice grain motif of the platinum-cased Perpetual 1908 is a stunner and a potential new, albeit much more classical flavour of Rolex watchmaking.

FINISHING

Not all artisan techniques are as intense as engraving or marquetry, but still well worth knowing about. So, let’s round things up with a brief(er) rundown of some finishing techniques you can bring out next time you’re admiring a watch and want to show off your vast, big-brained watch knowledge. These aren’t as show-stopping as the previous techniques and watches aren’t largely built around them, but at price points stretching into decent sized mortgages, these are the finer details that matter.

ANGLAGE

Also known by the French term bevelling or chamfering, this finishing technique sets the standard for haute horology movements. If you look at the flank of a movement bridge, if there is a 45-degree angled, polished bevel that catches the light, this is the perfect example. This bevelled detail is one of the most complex and time-consuming techniques, and from a technical standpoint, believed to prevent material stress concentrations along the edges of bridgework. A decorator will carefully smooth down edges with files and sometimes a micro-rotor tool with an ebony tip to form a uniform width and two sharp parallel lines. The surface of the sloping angle is then hand-finished with files and wood pegs with abrasive paste, giving a polish that is incomparable to machine-made attempts. It is a time-consuming technique that requires years of experience and a patient hand and is seen as the recognisable feature of a top tier watch movement. The pièce de resistance is curved outer bevelling, as rounded angles can only be done by hand without the possibility of going straight from point to point. Here, the surface of the chamfer is also convex, and only a few extremely trained hands can achieve this after many years of training.

BIVER Automatique

We talk about this magnificent beast of a watch later in this issue (the rose gold version specifically), so for the full rundown head to our review section. But in brief, every part of the watch is finished to perfection and that includes bevelling on every single edge of the movement. It’s magnificent and shows off a lot of the techniques listed here, but it’s the way the light hits the anglage that really sets it off.

THE DETAIL:

• 39mm platinum case with 80m water resistance

• JCB-003 automatic movement with 65-hour power reserve

• CHF 78,000 (approx. £69,800), jcbiver.com

DANIEL ROTH

Extra Plat

Sure, there are a lot of different finishes you could use the latest from Daniel Roth to illustrate. But along with everything happening on the dial, it has some of the cleanest, most beautiful striping on the movement of any watch. With its large plates uninterrupted by a rotor – it’s manual-wind, of course – the striping has room to show off and it makes the most of it. This is exactly what you’d expect from the revival of an iconoclastic independent watchmaker.

THE DETAIL:

• 38.6mm x 35.5mm rose gold case with 30m water resistance

• DR001 manual-wind movement with 80-hour power reserve

• CHF 155,000 (approx. £138,600), danielroth.com

CÔTES DE GENÈVE/GENEVA STRIPES

Also known as Geneva Stripes, this is the wave-like linear pattern on movement bridges, ¾ plates and often rotors. It is an instantly recognisable mechanical movement feature and perhaps the most recognisable metal finishing method together with perlage. As with many forms of metal finishing, it had a functional purpose that, with today’s precision and sealing technology, is almost rendered obsolete. The interesting and undulating surface was originally intended to keep dust and particles away from the gears and other smaller components of the movement, and it still works to do so. With today’s strict quality control within an atelier and improved seals for watch cases, it has become a decorative part of a movement. The stripes are machine-applied in a symmetric, straight or circular pattern and must be perfectly aligned on adjoining pieces of bridgework.

PIAGET

Polo Flying Tourbillon

Perlage is a relatively common sight through an open caseback, especially at a certain echelon of watchmaking, but through the dial is another matter. Piaget’s first ever Polomounted flying tourbillon opens up the front of the dial just enough to show some of those precise circles underneath the handset. With finishing like this, who even needs a dial?

THE DETAIL:

• 44mm titanium case with 100m water resistance

• 642P calibre automatic movement with 40-hour power reserve

• POA, piaget.com

PERLAGE

Perlage and perlée are French words used for a pearl-like pattern often used inside watch cases or the mainplate. Since its infancy, the automotive industry has used large-scale perlée patterns on surfaces such as car dashboards. These days, that parallel is confined to luxury vehicles like Paganis and the Bugatti Veyron 16.4, echoing the perlage of vintage Bugatti single seaters. This light-catching and decorative pattern offers intricate overlapping circles that can be machined – or hand-made. It is mostly used to finish larger surfaces that are not in your line of sight. The size of the small circles and their concentric accuracy is a tell-tale sign of top-tier watchmaking. When done by hand, perlage needs the rock-steady hand of a trained decorator who uses a rotating abrasive tip or peg pressed onto the metal in overlapping patterns of circles. The difficulty lies in achieving a consistent pattern across a larger piece of metal. Still, as with all finishings, a few tell-tale microscopic flaws only underline the charm of the craft.

BLACK POLISH

Any metal polishing technique aims to achieve a smooth gloss surface that will reflect light, elevating the appearance of a part while ensuring fit and quality. The enigmatic technique of black polish, also known as miroir or poli noir in French, is a term that conjures up images of horological alchemy and is the food of legends. The resulting finish is a mirror-like polish that appears pure black at an acute angle, hence the name. After preparing the component’s metal and ensuring no surface irregularities are present, it will be polished face down on a zinc plate, onto which an abrasive diamond paste is added. Using a careful circular motion, it is a detailed and minute process that takes a steady hand, gradually using finer pastes in stages to achieve a mirrorflattened surface.

KIKUCHI NAKAGAWA Ichimonji

The watchmaking equivalent of a high-concept Japanese fashion brand, Kikuchi Nakagawa make tool watches with finishing to rival your prized dress piece. Black polished case in point, the Ichimonji. Built by precision machinery experts Matsuura Works, the case is a thing of beauty, with black polishing across the deceptively simple shape. It’s simplicity defined – and elevated.

THE DETAIL:

• 36.7mm stainless steel case with 30m water resistance

• Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier automatic movement with 48hour power reserve

• $22,000 (approx. £17,600), kikuchi-nakagawa.com

TREMBLAGE

As with many types of artisanal metal finishings, tremblage can be found machine-made, but its uniform hammered texture is wildly alluring in its handmade state, bearing the emotional traces of its maker. This engraving technique is incredibly timeconsuming and based on the craftsman wielding a sharp tool called a burin over the metal surface, making tiny indentations that will eventually cover and decorate a large metal part, even a complete dial. As with all forms of hand-crafted finishes, it creates an organic pattern that captures the light on a dial, and the unevenness captured in a loupe of what from a distance appears to be a uniform-grained texture is all part of the allure of collecting.

A LANGE & SÖHNE

Datograph Handwerkskunst

Easier to explain that say, Lange’s Handwerkskunst line is all about the hand crafts and metiers d’art. Each one is different and each is intensely exceptional. Their 25th anniversary piece takes their beloved Datograph and covers the entire dial and subdials in tremblage. It’s more subtle than their fully engraved number from last year, but in my mind more appealing for it. It’s pure German refinement – otherwise known as pure Lange.

THE DETAIL:

• 41mm gold case with 50m water resistance

• L951.8 manual-wind movement with 60-hour power reserve

• POA, limited to 25 pieces, alange-soehne.com

THE INTERVIEW:

TAKASHI MURAKAMI

THE FLOWER-OBSESSED CONTEMPORARY ARTIST ON JAPANESE ART, HIP-HOP AND AN IDYLLICALLY TERRIBLE GETAWAY

There are plenty of artists that work across various media, be that fine art, sculpture, even music. But few have managed to encompass the entirety of creative pursuit quite like Takashi Murakami. The 63-year-old Tokyo native has held installations aplenty, sold his contemporary works at auctions around the world, designed a number of instantly recognisable album covers, and even created a number of watches for Hublot. In short, you’ve come across his work whether you know it or not.

If there’s one motif however that Murakami is best known for however, it’s his sunflower. Colourful, grinning and almost delirious, it’s in many ways his muse, a caricature spanning his work from paintings to watches. It has become a symbol of contemporary Japanese art as a whole – although to hear it from the man himself, its roots are a lot more traditional.

“

I love fluorescent pink, fluorescent blue, the colours that pop. These colours balance each other so that when I’m painting, they work together perfectly ”

“When I was in college I majored in Japanese painting, Japanese styles,” says Murakami. “One of the main motifs in all that is nature – flowers, birds, wind and snow, repeated across the spectrum of classical Japanese art. Of those four, it was the flower that I became fascinated by. So, I decided to give it some personal character and quickly became attached to it.”

Not that all of his works were as happy as his Sunflower. Infamous pieces like, My Lonesome Cowboy, a sculpture of an anime character that we won’t be describing in too much detail. Go look it up for yourself. It was part of a wave of Murakami’s socially satirical works and became his most expensive piece at auction, selling for $15,100,000 in New York under Sotheby’s hammer. It’s probably a good thing this one wasn’t translated into a watch.

Other recurring characters like the self-portrait Mr DOB show up time and again, but if there’s one thing that links all of Murakami’s work – other than a certain irreverence of artistic traditions – it’s colour.

“I love fluorescent pink, fluorescent blue, the colours that pop. These colours balance each other so that when I’m painting, they work together perfectly.”

Those bright, cartoonish colours aren’t an accident and, perhaps more importantly, aren’t drawn entirely from the pop art conventions of Warhol and the like. Instead, they come from something distinctly Japanese: Manga.

Early on, Murakami wanted to be a Manga artist. But as he became dissatisfied with the modern state of Japanese art, he pivoted to his more satirical works. In doing so however, he showed that the line between fine art and mass-produced is blurred – or perhaps not there at all.

“I don’t actually think there is a line. For me, this lack of a line feels very natural. We have no fine art in Japan, it’s a melting pot of styles. The most respected type of artist, for example, is

From his

takashi murakami

self-portrait sculpture Mr DOB (left) to collaborations with Hublot (below), Takashi Murakami is a multi-talented artist whose work you might be unexpectedly familiar with

Murakami’s recent show at the Gagosian gallery (above) in London was inspired by acclaimed Disney+ epic, Shogun (right) and its depiction of old Japan, which he reinterpreted in his painting of Kyoto (left)

“

There’s a small confectionary shop in Kyoto by the name of Nemuana run by a man named Katsumoto-san. It’s tiny but absolutely perfect, I go there whenever I can ”

the Mangaka, Manga artist. Design, Manga, traditional art, it’s all blended together here, so there is no line. I’ve been working with Western brands for, like, 20 years now, when I collaborated with Louis Vuitton. My art is actually considered the lowest level. It’s too Westernised.”

It’s an odd dichotomy of Murakami’s catalogue that, at the same time his work satirises the Westernisation of Japanese art, he’s considered part of that Westernisation in his home country. Perhaps the message doesn’t translate or perhaps he’s just too good at embracing those Western, contemporary tropes. But while Japan may not have embraced him wholeheartedly, hip-hop did.

“Honestly, I’m not sure why hip hop has embraced my art so much. The first person to contact me about a cover was Kanye West, who at least until recently had a huge influence. Then came Pharell Williams. Both of them gave me a huge platform and from there I became a go-to artist for hip-hop. As for why they chose me in the first place, these American artists, I really don’t know. But my most recent album jacket is for Juice WRLD, and there will be another one soon, I’m sure.”

Personally, I can see some elements of Murakami’s work that hip-hop artists outside of the guns and grills lot can appreciate. That irreverence, that railing against conformity and blending of cultures and conventions is what a lot of hip-hop is about. Who didn’t gawp at the cover for Kanye’s Graduation when it first came out in 2007?

Of course, this multi-media approach means that Murakami isn’t just appreciative of traditional artists or even musicians. In fact, one of his most recent shows, held at the Gagosian gallery in

London was inspired by acclaimed Disney+ epic, Shogun.

“I intensely admire the production team behind Shogun,” says Murakami. “The producer, script writer and particularly the costume designer are all fantastic, as is the cast, Hiroyuki Sanada in particular. They did an amazing job at recreating old Japan for the modern era. They also offered a new concept, a new recognition of Harakiri and the whole show is something I really respect.”

If you’ve not watched the show, do it. It’s a few riveting hours of your time and worth the bit of reading required of the subtitles. It’s visually gorgeous and visceral. And if you’ve already watched it, rewatch it.

Honestly though, I’m not sure how Murakami has had time. Exhibitions across the world, an art factory to attend to, collaborations with some of the biggest names in luxury and music, he’s a busy man. Not too busy though, to appreciate the smaller things in life.

“There’s a small confectionary shop in Kyoto by the name of Nemuana run by a man named Katsumoto-san. It’s tiny but absolutely perfect, I go there whenever I can.

“My favourite place though is among the southern islands of Japan. It’s a very small island with nothing there. In fact, there’s only one hotel and the service is very poor. It’s ok though because the food is horrible and the beds are impossible to sleep in. I try to go back every summer. If I could I’d go there right now, sit in the hotel, eat their terrible food and talk to the owner and his wife for hours at a time.”

If that joy in the mundane and, let’s be honest, joyfully terrible doesn’t sum up Murakami’s idiosyncratic attitude to life and art, nothing does.

by INKDIAL

Defining characteristics

Do you think you can identify an iconic watch from a single key design element? A bezel here? A silhouette there? Well, watch illustrator, Ben Li, better known on Instagram as @inkdial, is here to test your horological knowledge with eight fantastic illustrations.

A. Lange & Sohne Lange 1

Illustration

Blancpain Fifty Fathoms

Dirty Dozen Field Watch

Ulysse Nardin Freak

Vacheron Constantin 222

Cartier Santos

Panerai Radiomir

Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch

TICK TOCK O’CLOCK

Why settle for a mechanical timekeeper on your wrist when these five clocks exist?

We’re obsessed by watches here at Oracle Time, enough to assume that they’re the only real form of chronometry anyone cares about. While that’s largely true – they’re certainly the most popular form of mechanical timekeeping – where would watches be without clocks? While proper clocks have become more niche over time, the ones that remain go above and beyond the average, uninspired wall clock. From sleek bedside companions to monolithic room defining creations via playful fun, there’s copious variety and artisanry in the fascinating world of clocks. Just don’t try rocking one on your wrist.

BÅGE & SÖNER X MONOCLE CRISPY PILLOW

Let’s start with something relatively lightweight in the world of clocks but something that all of us kind of need in our lives: a rather handsome alarm clock. A collaboration between Swedish clockmaker Båge & Söner and lifestyle brand Monocle,

the Crispy Pillow belies its slightly disturbing name with a clean, contemporary twist on a classic California dial. That means Roman numerals across the top, Arabic numerals across the bottom and the overall look of a vintage watch. At 75mm x 75mm, it’s a travel-sized bedside companion and, yes, there is a snooze button.

€690 (approx. £575), bagesoner.com

L’EPEE 1839 GRENADE

Who said clocks need to be classical?

After years of collaborating with MB&F some of that madness must have rubbed off on L’Epee 1839. This timekeeping explosive displays hours and minutes on black, engraved aluminium discs, with the gears powering them making up the body of the grenade. Available in a variety of colours, it’s definitely a statement for your desk. It’s also protected by an Incabloc shock protection system; just don’t be tempted to throw it. Who knows what might happen? Missing a few seconds an hour may be the least of your problems.

CHF 10,900 (approx. £9,600), lepee1839.ch

MAISON ALCEE PERSÉE NUIT

Sure, clocks are a testament to the craftspeople that made them, but what about if you were that craftsperson? That’s the concept behind self-assembly clockmaker Maison Alcée, whose 233-piece kits come with all the tools and instructions you need to build a beautiful desk clock of your own. It’s all very beginner friendly, but the end result is a modern, minimalist clock that, in the case of the Nuit edition, is sleek, dark and cool. It might sound trite and Hallmark-y to say, but this isn’t just a clock, it’s an experience.

€8,300 (approx. £7,000), maison-alcee.com

“ It might sound trite and Hallmark-y to say, but this isn’t just a clock, it’s an experience ”

UTINAM

KB2 STANDING CLOCK

Scaling up in both size and colour, if this particular standing clock from French maker Utinam looks familiar, you’ve likely been paying attention to Louis Erard or Yema recently. Those triangles, arrows and circles? The combination of cartoonish blue, yellow and red? That’s the signature of Alain Silberstein and indeed, the KB2 was built in collaboration with the famed Bauhaus designer. As close to a watchmaking sculpture as you’ll find outside of MB&F’s MAD Gallery, and just as big on personality.

€29,700 (approx. £25,000), utinam-boutique.fr

“ There’s no putting this thing on a desk; at over 2m tall, it’s as monolithic as it is majestic ”

ERWIN SATTLER TROJA 20

Now we’re talking. Erwin Sattler’s Troja 20 – a revamp of their previous Troja 16 model – goes well beyond just a pendulum clock, though it’s a stately one at that. The longcase clock section is flanked either side by walls of watch winders, enough to keep 20 pieces in perfect time. There’s no putting this thing on a desk; at over 2m tall, it’s as monolithic as it is majestic. Why bother with a separate watch winder, safe and clock when you can pull them all together into one stunning, roomdefining feature like this?

€125,800 (Approx. £105,000), erwinsattler.com

Watchmaking

The True Artisans: The Brands That Define Hand-Made

PRESERVING HOROLOGICAL HERITAGE, A HANDFUL OF WATCHMAKERS REMAIN COMMITTED TO CREATING HIGH-END, HANDMADE TIMEPIECES

Few things command more respect in highend watchmaking than true craftsmanship. While most luxury brands incorporate some level of industrialisation, a small number remain deeply committed to the traditional, labour-intensive methods that define artisanal watchmaking. This article explores a small number of watchmakers creating some of the most handmade timepieces in the industry. These brands don’t just make watches — they preserve watchmaking heritage for those who truly appreciate its finer details.

—ROGER W. SMITH

Let’s start this list off close to home with Roger W. Smith. Smith is an elite master of the craft who only produces five timepieces per year. There are 34 individual skills needed to hand-build a watch from the ground up. Smith masters 32 out of the 34. You will probably understand that if you individually use all those skills to create some of the most exceptional artisan timepieces, the deciding factor dictating production numbers is time.

In the case of Smith, it’s impossible not to bring up the name of the legendary George Daniels. Smith started out as an apprentice for Dr Daniels and later on became his partner in the workshop on the Isle of Man. After three years of working with Daniels, Smith started his own studio and introduced the retrograde calendar Series 1. It wasn’t until the Series 2 came out in 2006 that Roger W. Smith became a prominent name in high horology. Not only was it an artisanal tour de force, with almost all of the 225 parts being made inhouse, but it also assured the brand’s future through recognition of a wider audience.

Currently, the Roger W. Smith collection consists of five series defined by their refined beauty and incredible levels of finishing. As you move up from Series 1 to Series 4, the watches gradually become more complicated but maintain that refined classical style. With the Series 5, Smith created an open-dial version of the Model 2 that perfectly displays Smith's handmade watchmaking brilliance. While the Series 5 might be the most extravagant of the five series, they all perfectly display the artisanal craftsmanship that defines Roger W. Smith.

J.N. SHAPIRO

—The workshop of the American brand J.N. Shapiro is located in Torrance, California. The brand’s founder, Josh Shapiro, and his team focus on creating Americanmade high-end mechanical watches in the great Swiss and British traditions. The brand's mission is

to become an integrated manufacturer that can produce every part of the watch in the United States. Shapiro’s fascination with machining parts comes from spending a lot of time as a young boy around metals and machines in his father and grandfather’s machine shop. Despite pursuing a career in teaching, Shapiro was fascinated by watchmaking. He enrolled in the British Horological Institute’s Distance Learning Courses and quickly found a deep love for dial-making. Not long after, his talent for creating beautiful engine-turned dials was recognised by legendary master watch and clockmaker David Walter. Shapiro created various dials for Walter, working together on many watches.

That sparked the idea for his own brand, and in 2018, the J.N. Shapiro Infinity series became the first testament to Shapiro’s extraordinary watchmaking skills. From then on, J.N. Shapiro has been focusing on increasing the number of handmade components in-house, with significant results. In 2023, Shapiro introduced the Resurgence series, which is the only series currently available from the brand. For the Resurgence, 148 out of 180 watch components are created in the Shapiro workshop, and the remaining parts are sourced from within the United States.

In this quest for American handmade excellence, the Shapiro does not forget to create classically styled stunning timepieces that are defined by multi-level, engine-turned dials featuring different guilloché motifs, stunningly detailed cases and beautifully finished movements that make the Resurgence series one of the most exciting series of handmade watches currently available.

HODINKY BERKUS

—We travel to Ostrava in the Czech Republic for our next brand, where independent watchmaker Ondřej Berkus has his atelier. Berkus is a refreshing character in the traditional world of high horology, with a love and fascination for horses and cars, and a knack for solving horological puzzles through his bespoke timepieces. Berkus is a self-taught watchmaker who mastered the trade by studying the book Watchmaking by George Daniels. While that initially makes him one of the many students of Daniels’ work, the unique approach to materials, techniques, and finishing defines Berkus above anything else. His pragmatic approach to the craft is probably best exemplified by Berkus’ unorthodox entry into watchmaking. The young Berkus worked as a knife maker and searched for a specific watch he wanted to buy. When he finally found the object of his horological desires, the price tag made clear that it was unfortunately out of reach. That’s when his father told him to make a watch himself because… how hard could it be?

Berkus will jovially explain that it turned out to be very hard, especially because he felt the need to make complicated watches to prove he was a capable watchmaker. That drive has resulted in watches featuring tourbillons, grand sonneries, and perpetual calendars. Additionally, Berkus will use materials like Damascus steel, tantalum and meteorite for his various styles of cases and dials. This adventurous approach to watchmaking has worked wonders for Berkus. With a long list of admirers who want to add one of his unique creations to their collections, the future looks bright for Hodinky Berkus.

“

That drive has resulted in watches featuring tourbillons, grand sonneries, and perpetual calendars. Berkus will use materials like Damascus steel, tantalum and meteorite for his various cases and dials

Finding his way into fine watchmaking via a circuitous route, Ondřej Berkus was a knife maker before being urged by his father

RAÚL PAGÈS

—For our fourth brand, we finally land in Switzerland, the traditional home of mechanical watchmaking. In the small village of Les Brenets, we find the atelier of independent watchmaker Raúl Pagès. After successfully obtaining diplomas as a watchmakerrestorer in antique watchmaking and designer in watch complications, he started his professional career at Parmigiani Fleurier’s renowned restoration workshop. After learning the tricks of the trade there, Pagès created the Tortue Automaton – an animated desk animal powered by a mechanical movement – under his own name in 2012. The next dream was to create his own watch. It took Pagès four years of intense development before he released the Raúl Pagès Soberly Onyx. The beautiful three-hander with a deep black onyx dial was a wonderful display of Pagès’ watchmaking talents. What seems like a straightforward timepiece at first glance becomes a refined and beautifully handmade creation upon a closer look. The one element that was missing was a selfdeveloped movement. As a certified designer of watch complications, it was the next step for the young Swiss watchmaker.

Pagès achieved this with the Régulateur à Détente RP1, introduced in 2022. This brilliant regulatorstyle watch is powered by a manual winding movement featuring a detent escapement. This unique style of escapement was developed to increase chronometric precision and is considered a technical grail among watchmakers. It is

traditionally used for marine chronometers. Pagès successfully introduced the escapement as part of his first self-developed movement to power a watch that was met with universal praise.

The technical mastery combined with the refined brilliance of the handmade piece earned Pagès the 2024 Louis Vuitton Watch Prize for Independent Creatives and introduced his name to a wider audience. Two collaborative efforts with Massena LAB, where Pagès oversaw the technical development of the movement, further cemented Pagès’s name as one of the most talented watchmakers to watch. The future is full of promise for Pagès, who combines an almost understated style with his outstanding technical craftsmanship to create some of the most exciting handmade timepieces currently out there.

Exhibiting real technical mastery, the Régulateur à Détente RP1 (above) is powered by a manual winding movement featuring a detent escapement, which is considered a technical grail among watchmakers that won the Louis Vuitton Watch Prize for Independent Creatives in 2024

“ The realisation that every single component except for the sapphire crystal, jewels, gaskets, spring bars, and mainspring is created, finished, and assembled by hand is mindboggling ”

GREUBEL FORSEY

—Greubel Forsey might not be a name you would expect on a list of small watchmakers who celebrate their independence by creating outstanding timepieces by hand. However, you cannot create an article about handmade watches without including the Greubel Forsey Hand Made series. These two extraordinary timepieces represent the best in handmade watchmaking and celebrate the craft in style.

The Hand Made 1 was introduced in 2019 and baffled watch fans worldwide because 95% of it was created using hand tools. Each of the Hand Made 1 watches takes a whopping 6,000 hours to create, and that is why Greubel Forsey only creates two to three pieces annually. From the beautifully finished 43.5mm white gold case to the partly open dial with its hand-enamelled décor that's contrasted by the flame-blued hour and minute hands, all the parts are a joy to behold. At seven o’clock, you will find the beautifully executed tourbillon as the grand gesture of the specially developed movement that powers the Hand Made 1 and is party visible thanks to the open-worked dial. It is the beating heart of a beautifully created work of art that is nothing short of astonishing.

In early 2025, Greubel Forsey unveiled its followup model, appropriately named the Hand Made 2. This new addition to the brand’s Hand Made series ups the level of handmade mastery, as one watchmaker creates 96% of the 270 components entirely by hand. As a result, it takes one watchmaker a total of 5,000 hours to create one single watch. The Hand Made 2 is slightly smaller at 40.9mm but follows the overall aesthetic of the first model. The watch is less technically challenging to create because it loses the tourbillon of the Hand Made 1 and instead introduces a hand-shaped conical jewel power reserve on the dial, which is made of frosted German silver. It is a far more practical complication that is accompanied by the balance spring and the small seconds display. The Grand Feu enamel scale for the hours, minutes, and seconds, the power reserve indicator and centrally mounted flame-blued hands for the hours and minutes are further displays of traditional watchmaking brilliance that make this a technical masterpiece.

Greubel Forsey stated that the Hand Made series is not about technical brilliance but rather about the artistry of handmade watches. The realisation that every single component except for the sapphire crystal, jewels, gaskets, spring bars, and mainspring is created, finished, and assembled by hand is mindboggling. It makes the Hand Made series the perfect example of the magic and mastery of handmade watches. It perfectly closes out a list of five brands that create timepieces that celebrate artisanal watchmaking in all its glory.

DIALLED IN

Obsessively handmade watches are a tour de force of artisan skill; but is that actually a good thing?

— Words by — CHRIS HALL

If you are lucky enough to ever visit the workbench of a true watchmaker, it’s not uncommon to hear that before he or she could even think about creating a watch, they first had to build, by hand, their own tools. It’s a discipline also practised by some watchmaking schools: it instils patience and familiarises the apprentice with their craft by starting them on something a little less fiddly than a balance bridge. For the sentimentally minded, it also burnishes the image of the master craftsperson, deepening the bond between the watch and its maker.

But what is it we are worshipping here? We are impressed that a watchmaker first made his own tools, but what tools did he use to make them? Who made those tools? Does it get exponentially more impressive if he first learned to smelt iron, then progressed to brass and stainless steel before mastering the skills needed to assemble simple implements and eventually complex machines like a lathe? Of course I’m being ridiculous – but there has to be a line, a point at which you agree to start your own work on the foundations laid by others.

It’s easy to say the Hand Made 2 is the ultimate expression of artisan watchmaking. But superlatives might not be the answer, given the above. Watchmakers don’t learn to make rubber gaskets by hand because it would be prohibitively time-consuming, practically impossible and because it adds next to nothing to our appreciation of the watch – to say nothing of sitting far outside the watchmaking tradition. And yet if there are things you won’t do in the name of perfection, it leads me to ask: what is gained by handmaking every screw? An eye-wateringly frustrating job, I have no doubt. The valuable commodity for the customer – the reason a Hand Made 2 has a price tag well into six figures – is knowing that someone could be bothered; anyone buying this watch is literally paying for time; the time taken to do that which others would circumnavigate.

It can be hard to see the point. Would this column be more worthy of your time if you knew I hand-wrote it and delivered it to the editor on foot? Not at all. But the difference is that in doing so, I would not be perfecting an almost-extinct skill – I’d just be annoyingly eccentric. True artisanship in watchmaking is the absolute definition of diminishing returns. You could spend a tenth of the money and get a beautifully finished watch. But however incomprehensible the details, we need there to be people who are always willing to find the limit of what’s possible. We’re just going to have to take their word for it about the screws. ~

It is a trope that returned to my mind upon hearing about Greubel Forsey’s latest paean to hand-craft, the (deliberately) prosaically named Hand Made 2. This, as you can read elsewhere in this issue, is a phenomenal work of horology. Some 96% of the components –everything save the crystal, most jewels, spring bars, mainspring and case gaskets are made by Greubel Forsey’s artisan watchmakers, using hand-operated tools. It takes thousands of hours to make one watch, and a maximum of three will be made in a year.

All Greubel Forsey watches are impressive. The company operates at the very highest level and its solemn commitment to preserving knowledge is something that sets it aside even from other indie brands, pursuing generational projects rather than the low-hanging fruit of another new dial colour or case metal.

Yet if there are things you won’t do in the name of perfection, it leads me to ask: what is gained by handmaking every screw? An eyewateringly frustrating job, I have no doubt

MEN of INFLUENCE:

MAXWELL MA

THE FOUNDER OF COLLECTOR-CENTRIC SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM WATCH CRUNCH ON TUDOR, EASTERN PHILOSOPHY AND REFLEX HAMMERS

Watch collectors love to talk about watches. It’s one of our defining features and honestly, a pain for anyone around us that doesn’t collect watches. That’s what has made Watch Crunch, a social media platform specifically aimed at the horologically obsessed, a huge success story. It’s a place for us nerds to just be nerds and to post our watches, whether they’re cool, weird, cheap, pricey or anything in-between.

So, we sat down with the man behind the platform, Max Ma, to find out what makes him tick, what made him decide to launch such a specific idea and, more importantly, get to know the man behind the profile.

What was the last watch you bought?

The Tudor Pelagos FXD. I feel like Tudor always get close to making the watch that everyone wants but conspire to not quite give you exactly it and I go through Tudors faster than I do cereal brands. But they do a good job with each new release, so I think to myself, ‘is this the one? Maybe this is the one…’ If history is any judge, then this is my ‘current’ Tudor. I’ve already got my feelers out for the new FXD GMT.

For me the FXD stands most with the spirit of Tudor. I gravitate towards the historical element with the Marine

Nationale and the Snowflake and I’ve always just wanted a modern Snowflake. This comes closest to it. There’s something enthusiast about it; I wouldn’t recommend a fixed lug watch like this to my friends that wear Apple Watches. But if you see someone wearing a Black Bay 58, you might give them a thumbs up; if you see someone wearing a Pelagos FXD, you probably want to have a beer with them.

Do you collect anything outside of watches?

I’m a neurologist by day – a lot of people are surprised when they here that, but watches are an intense hobby for me. Watches occupy my right brain, the aesthetics and ephemeral; being a neurologist is all left brain 90-degree corners. But it does mean I have a rather large collection of reflex hammers. It’s the tool we have to interrogate the innards of the body without opening you up. Throughout my training I’ve upgraded my hammers and I’m now at the point where I have more reflex hammers than I’ve had Tudors. I could talk for hours about the history of the reflex hammer, how the earliest were made from whale ribs, all of that. I’m actually looking for one of those, as well as one called the Queen’s Square. My current hammer is titanium with my name engraved on it, but I’m still looking for that grail…

What, other than a watch, is at the top of your wish list?

Honestly, a dedicated space for our content. Every video we make it a love letter to watches and as we grew, so too did our stash of equipment to the point where we – myself and Josh, the guy I work with on our videos – needed a dedicated space. We bit the bullet and got into a studio space that we’re still in the middle of getting ready and furnishing; top of my wish list is for us to finally get it done!

A recent find/discovery?

I love discovering new lines of vintage or neo-vintage watches that hit that sweet spot between value and style. I stumbled recently into vintage Grand and King Seikos and bought a 44-999. These

Depending on whether you’re talking to Max the watch collector or Max the neurologist, he’ll likely be discussing his hunt for a faultless Tudor, or his extensive collection of reflex hammers

“If you see someone wearing a Black Bay 58, you might give them a thumbs up; if you see someone wearing a Pelagos FXD, you probably want to have a beer with them”

“I’m not trying to revolutionise the watch industry, but it’s satisfying to leave my own stamp on it”

Influenced by the author Jonah Lehrer (above) and the British philosopher Alan Watts (above, left), Ma has created his own brand of NATO straps with The Strap Tailor and donates money from collaborations to the Arbor Day Foundation

watches share the same design language as modern Grand Seikos, they did an amazing job taking that older silhouette and refining it for modern collectors. You can find these older ones though for under $1,000, some have hi-beat movements, they have the same sharp, faceted hands, similar case design language with large, polished surfaces. On the wrist you might have a 36 or 37mm watch but it feels really modern. If you’re looking for a wedding watch with a bit of character, something that’s 60 years old but still looks modern and won’t break the bank, for me vintage Grand Seiko is it.

What inspires you?

The chance to create something. That was the case with Watch Crunch, seeing all these old forums that weren’t exactly a pleasure to use and wanting to build something better. But it’s probably more directly funnelled into straps. I love military inspired watches and therefore NATO straps, but I’ve never been satisfied with it on the wrist. Manufacturers spend millions of dollars trying to make their watches as thin as possible, then we go and add two, two-and-a-half millimetres of material underneath. On something like a Speedmaster, it looks brilliant but for me at least makes it almost unwearable, propped up so high and wobbly. So, I designed something I called the Zero Pass strap – it looks like a NATO but it wears like a dream. It’s one of these things that seems so straightforward you wonder why it’s not been done before. So, I reached out to a few strap makers and now David at The Strap Tailor is helping me make them. Funny thing, he used to live in Seattle where I live and was a tech guy before he was a strap maker, so it takes a tech bro and an OCD neurologist to make something like this come alive. It’s opportunities like that which really inspired me. I’m not trying to revolutionise the watch industry, but it’s satisfying to leave my own stamp on it.

A book, podcast, or album that changed the way you think?

Back to the neurology thing, I’m fascinated by how we perceive the world. We’re locked into our own perceptions and need to remind ourselves that everything – everything – is subjective. We have to interpret everything with our brains first and that interpretation isn’t reality. So, there’s a book called Proust was a Neuroscientist by Jonah Lehrer. There’s a chapter where he talks about distinguishing what your eyeballs see and what your brain sees.

We assume that we just make this perfect rendering of the world on the inside, but what’s cast onto your retina is nothing like you perceive. There’s a tremendous amount of post-processing that happens in the brain to make that image sharper, more contrasting, more defined. It’s like a camera where we don’t see what hits the sensor, just what the computer spits out. But with the brain it’s an even stronger difference. If you could see the image on your retina, it would look like an impressionist painting. And what you call green might not be what I call green. So, when I call a watch dial green and everyone else says it’s blue, that’s why.

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

I’m tempted to say Brad Pitt given his taste in watches. But in this modern time there’s a lot of distractions and it all makes me feel a bit ADHD. When that happens, I put on YouTube videos of Alan Watts. He’s sort of this British philosopher that spends a lot of time in Asia learning about Buddhism and Daoism. He translates Eastern philosophy for Westerners. He has this great British orator voice and has a really elegant way of putting the universe into perspective.

One thing that recently struck a nerve with me is that we often get into this mindset that everything has to go right and if it doesn’t, that’s unfair, we’re a victim. But his point is that if you look at the universe, everything is in balance, that you can’t have light without dark, yin and yang and all that stuff. So, it’s kind of silly to think that only good

things should happen. So, when I buy a vintage watch and the movement wasn’t serviced like they told me, I can shrug my shoulders and think ‘I was happy with my last watch, so I was due for a dud.’

What’s your ideal long weekend?

Honestly, a weekend where I can just make content. My friend Josh and I running around with cameras, going to a nice, aesthetic coffee shop, talk about how AI is going to kill us all and shoot some cool watches. That’s the highlight of my weekends these days, the joy of ‘getting the shot’. If I lose that, we’ll probably stop making videos.

What would we always find in your fridge? Mango juice. I really like mango juice you can do a lot with it. That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

What’s a rule or mantra that you live by?

In short, leave the places you’ve been better than you found them. We’ve done a few different collaborations with brands and I’ve always donated the money to the Arbor Day Foundation. They rehabilitate forests that have been destroyed in fires or logging – especially relevant in recent days. I get to leverage these bigger projects to help, to transform these little trinkets we ogle into something good.

What does the year ahead look like for you?

This is a huge year for Watch Crunch, the app. We started out as a grassroots community of nerds during the pandemic that wanted a modern forum interface. Reddit was toxic, Instagram wasn’t conducive to discussions and WatchUSeek was just clunky. Luckily Watch Crunch has been embraced by over 100,000 members and now it’s time to take things to the next level. So, we’ll be introducing a few more professional features but more importantly, we’ll be bringing in a marketplace. I keep hearing that it’s easy to buy a watch but hard to sell, so we’re looking to make the process as integrated as possible. It just feels better to buy a watch from someone you’ve been chatting to on a website than some random, anonymous buyer. Hopefully it all goes off without a hitch!

WORDS: Michael Taylor

THE FORGOTTEN CRAFT OF COACHBUILDERS

THE FIVE ICONIC COACHBUILDERS YOU NEED TO KNOW (AND WHY THEY STILL MATTER TODAY)

There was a time when car companies only delivered most of a car, and customers seemed content with the arrangement.

They would deliver drivable platforms, complete with wheels, suspension, and all the oily bits. Anything else – seats, instruments, the roof and the bodywork – was between you and your coachbuilder.

Customers, not car companies, decided what their cars should look like or even how many seats or doors they would have, then they chose coachbuilders to create them.

They were named coachbuilders (forerunners of the great post-war design houses) because they produced horse-drawn coaches one day and cars the next. The transition wasn’t as difficult as it sounds, because horse- and engine-powered vehicles both used basic, ladder frames to bolt ‘coaches’ (or ‘bodywork’) to.

Coachbuilding became far more complicated with Lancia’s Lambda monocoque (with the body engineered as an integral part of the chassis) in the 1920s. Industrialisation and World War II ate away at the coachbuilding artisans, and the widespread 1950s adoption of the monocoque wiped most of them out completely.

While there were coach-building standouts all over the world, the 1950s saw the bestorganised of them transition into design houses, and most of those were concentrated in Italy’s Po Valley. They included icons like Pininfarina, Bertone, Italdesign, Touring, Scaglietti, Frua, Ghia, Michelotti, Drogo, Vignale, Zagato, and even more.

But only one name built the foundations of this Italian automotive design fortress: Stabilimenti Farina.

1.

STABILIMENTI FARINA

• To Formula 1 fans, Giovanni Farina was the father of the first World Drivers Champion, Giuseppe Farina.

To everyone else, he was the founder of Stabilimenti Farina, which opened in 1906 and was absorbed by Pininfarina in 1953, five years after his retirement.

From horse-drawn vehicles until World War II, Stabilimenti Farina created beautiful cars and survived to craft Ferrari’s post-war 166 Mille Miglia.

But Stabilimenti Farina’s most profound legacy was not cars. Its historic role was to teach a nascent generation of Italians

(including Giovanni’s own little brother, Battista ‘Pinin’ Farina) the combination of business acumen and metal-shaping artistry.

Farina helped develop a long list of geniuses, now spoken of in hushed tones, like Giovanni Michelotti, Pietro Frua, Franco Martinengo, Alfredo Vignale, Felice Boano, and more.

Michelotti designed more than 100 cars, ranging from the 02 Series (which saw the seemingly doomed BMW rise from the ashes) to one-off masterpieces.

He penned 22 Ferraris, 10 Triumphs, nine Lancias, six Maseratis, and five Alfa Romeos, the cuddle-me-cute Alpine A110, the Leyland P76, and even did lorry cabins for Scammel.

Frua went out on his own to create the

Maserati A6GS, the original Quattroporte and the successful Renault Floride.

Vignale founded his design house in 1948, extracting some of Michelotti’s best work for Cisitalia, Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Fiat, Maserati, Lancia, and even America’s Briggs Cunningham.

Boano rescued Carrozzeria Ghia after its founder’s death, then produced the Karmann Ghia and the Lancia Aurelia.

Martinengo’s design credits are legendary (see Pininfarina), both before and after he joined Battista’s outfit.

That may have all happened without Stabilimenti Farina, but that it did, and that so much talent blossomed beneath one Turin rooftop, is extraordinary.

2. PININFARINA

• The Carrozzeria Pinin Farina, later shortened to Pininfarina, is the most famous of all the post-war coachbuilders. And it should be.

Battista Farina earned the ‘Pinin’ name (Piedmont dialect for smallest or youngest brother) by being the tenth of 11 children. Oddly, he was never skilled at drawing.

His path to automotive immortality began after leaving his brother’s coachbuilding house (which he joined when he was 12) and started his own.

Carrozzeria Pinin Farina quickly outgrew Stabilimenti Farina, absorbing it in the early 1950s, and it fought a decades-long battle with Carrozzeria Touring for design supremacy.

Pininfarina embraced the same monocoque technology that other coachbuilders saw as the end of the shrinking industry, working with Lancia to refine it again and again.

With Martinengo (a cousin of the current Pope Francis) on the pens and Farina in charge of business, Pininfarina crafted every Ferrari road car but one – the angular, Bertonedesigned 308 GTB – between 1951 and 2012.

That remarkable, symbiotic era produced iconic models such as the 250 SWB, the 250 GT California Spyder SWB, the 275 GTB, the Dino 206 GT, the 288 GTO, the 250 GT TDF, and the F40.

Its design bandwidth stretched from high-volume masterpieces like the Peugeot 205, 405 and 306 and the Alfa Romeo Duetto to one-off concept cars like the Ferrari 512 S Modulo, the 365 P Berlinetta Speziale Tre Posti and the Peugeot 405 Coupe that won the Pikes Peak Hill Climb and Paris Dakar Rally.

Embracing technical change elevated Pininfarina in the 1930s but proved to be its downfall in the 2000s. The company’s heavy expansion into boutique production plants became critical just as the 2008 financial crisis struck. It was acquired by India’s Mahindra and Mahindra in 2015.

• During the 1940s and ‘50s, Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera engaged in a fierce rivalry with Pininfarina, raising the standard of automotive design to heights that will never be surpassed.

Their extended arm wrestle compelled other Italian coachbuilders to ratchet up their own efforts just to stay with them, ultimately depriving foreign coachbuilders of both talent and customers.

Where Pininfarina stayed around the automotive hub of Turin (home to Fiat and Lancia), Touring made its base in 1920s Milan, where Alfa Romeo held sway.

Its pre-war highlights included the Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 Mille Miglia and the 6C 2300 B, plus the BMW 228 Touring Coupe racer.

Touring raged against the dying of the coachbuilding light by creating the Superleggera (super light) system – a frame of thin-diameter tubes with stressed aluminium bodywork – and using it to create masterpieces.

The first Lamborghinis (the 350 GT and 400 GT coupes) were Touring’s work, as were the Lancia Flaminia GT and the Maserati 3500 GT. Aston Martin was so pleased with Touring’s DB2 that it allowed it to just get on with the DB3, DB4 and DB5, paying a design fee and a £9-per-body licencing fee for the Superleggera technology.

But Touring couldn’t hold off the monocoque revolution forever, and it collapsed in 1966.

3. CARROZZERIA TOURING

• Eight of the top 10 most expensive cars ever sold at auction were touched by the hands of Sergio Scaglietti.

Scaglietti was not a trained designer, engineer or stylist when he opened a crash repair shop across the road from Ferrari’s Maranello headquarters in 1951, but he soon grew to embody all three roles.

Impressed with his repairs to damaged racing cars, Enzo Ferrari asked him to build racing car designs from Pininfarina. That evolved into creating bodies for Pininfarina road-car designs and, eventually, designing and constructing 22 of his own Ferraris.

Scaglietti’s interpreted classics include the Ferrari 250 GTO, the 250 LM, the 250

Berlinetta Lusso, the 365 GTB/4 Daytona and the 206 and 246 Dino.

He personally designed the 1958 250 Testa Rossa, the 500 Mondial, and both the 250 and 750 Monzas.

Ferrari honoured him in 2004 with the 612 Scaglietti coupe which was, with a touching nod to history, also designed by Pininfarina.

4. CARROZZERIA SCAGLIETTI

FALASCHI

5. FIGONI ET

• In the interregnum era of delicate but glorious extravagance, no French coachbuilder (even with the efforts of Jean Bugatti, Marcel Pourtout and Henri Chapron) did it better than Figoni et Falaschi.

Giuseppe Figoni had established design credibility with Delahaye, Bugatti, Delage, and Alfa Romeo bodies. However, his creativity flourished when Ovidio Falaschi joined in 1935, alleviating the business pressures of coachbuilding.

Figoni et Falaschi was a proud (and expensive) extension of Parisien couturier culture, and its obsession with design balance echoed the city’s luxury fashion trends.

Figoni was an enthusiastic adopter of technology, and his obsession with aerodynamics was endorsed by Alfa Romeo’s 1932, 1933 and 1934 wins in the Le Mans 24

Hour race with an 8C 2300 LM carrying his bodywork.

He had a rare command of colour, with his cars known for delivering perfectly judged swoops of two or three newly-created paint colours to echo the teardrop wings he loved so much.

But it was with luxury road cars that he dropped jaws, and the Delahaye 135M Cabriolet, 1939 Delahaye Type 165, and the 1937 Talbot Lago T150 C Teardrop remain the artistic standard that all pre-war cars are measured against.

France’s post-war taxation virtually banned luxury car production, and Figoni closed his doors and retired in the late 1950s. He was awarded the National Order of Merit in 1975 and his creations still triumph in classic car shows to this day.

“ Figoni et Falaschi was a proud extension of Parisien couturier culture, and its obsession with design balance echoed the city’s luxury fashion trends ”

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

• There are, obviously, more than five great coach builders in automotive history, so the cull was cruel (to the writer, mostly).

That’s why this list prioritises coach building over the contemporary notion of design houses, so it does not contain Bertone (responsible for the Lamborghini Miura), nor Italdesign. Their strongest influences were as design houses, rather than traditional coachbuilders.

The lack of international variety was also odd, but somehow inevitable. Britain had classical coachbuilders, such as Mulliner and Corsica, yet history suggests their vehicles were bulkier and lacked the finesse of their continental counterparts.

The US, too, had more than its share of coachbuilders, probably peaking with Rollston, but the Great Depression hit the US first and so did industrialisation, limiting lasting legacies. That’s all to say that while this list isn’t exhaustive, I stick by it.

Words: Tim Vaux

UNSUNG VINTAGE: CAPTIVATING CLOISONNÉ FROM THE UNEXPECTED

Portraying vivid and evocative scenes, the craft of cloisonné has an allure rooted in antiquated and traditional techniques

Whether we like it or not, we’ve all heard watchmaking referred to as art. The human hand works on components and elements which, when combined, can track time. Then, those same hands apply decoration with finishings achieved through painstaking effort and, ironically, time. This can be taken to the next level by experimenting with expressive concepts in case designs and complications. The artistic claim holds merit. In essence, this is luxury, the practice of bundling art with the core function of an item, and for watches, the elements that can be defined as art are widespread. The most obvious and apparent example is the pictorial dial. While techniques including hand painting exist, it is enamelling that, to my eye, has always been one of the most enchanting and beautiful corners of watchmaking. This fusion of art, craft, and science takes immense patience and skill even to execute, let alone master, and during the 20th century, appreciation for enamel hit lofty heights.

Enamelling as a practice far outdates watchmaking as early uses of the craft date back thousands of years, with its use in watches first being seen around the 17th century. However, during the mid-20th century, as the commercial potential of watches began to develop, a poetically dichotomous presence of the enamel dial emerged among certain manufacturers. There are many forms of enamelling, such as grand feu as seen on the Patek 2526, or flinqué which marries a guilloché pattern and enamel as mastered by Kari Voutilainen, but its cloisonné that is typically the most revered among collectors. Defined by its use of wire sitting on top of a dial base that is then manipulated to form the desired design before a careful mix of glass and additional elements are combined and fired, cloisonné allows for incredible evocative creations. Rolex, Patek Philippe, and Vacheron Constantin have all produced enamel dials using this technique, but so did many other, less expected manufacturers. Tissot, Eska, IWC, Universal Geneve, Omega, Longines, Jaeger LeCoultre, the list goes on. But here’s the thing: these dials don’t just have their

cloisonné technique in common with the most desirable examples from major manufacturers, but also where and who created them.

Artists such as Marguerite Koch, Nelly Richard, and Carlo Poluzzi were masters of enamel and rose to the top for their true mastery of this great skill, working for the most prominent producer behind the most celebrated cloisonné creations, Stern Frères SA. If that name sounds familiar to you, it’s for a good reason, as it’s the same Stern family who later would acquire and operate Patek Philippe, successfully navigating them through the Great Depression, thus saving the watchmaker in the 1930s.

The role of the enameller requires an immense amount of talent from colour theory and creativity to understanding enamel powders, metal preparation, and kiln temperature control. Mastering the technical savoir-faire required demands a unique skill set, so specialised in fact that a Zurich newspaper from 1945 featured a fascinating article apologising for the lack of acknowledgement for the enamellers at the time.

“Whether from the heat, or simple distraction, the cause of our mistake doesn’t matter. What is certain is that we have made one, and we apologise to the enamellers of Geneva and to our readers. In our account of the Geneva Fair, we did not mention enamellers, but not because we didn’t admire their work. We admired the objects exhibited by l’Association des horlogers et bijoutiers, without taking note of the only sign (too modest!) that indicated the participation of women. It

The role of the enameller requires an immense amount of talent from colour theory and creativity to understanding enamel powders, metal preparation, and kiln temperature control

The craft of cloisonné is highly revered among collectors and connoisseurs as it allows for the creation of incredible and evocative watches like the Rolex Ref. 8323 (right) that featured a cloisonné enamel dial depicting Neptune

Clockwise from top left: A rare yellow gold Tissot made by Marguerite Koch in 1951; the Ulysse Nardin San Marco Cloisonne Algiers, 2003; Ulysse Nardin San Marco 131-77-9 Chillon Castle, 1990s. And on the previous page is the IWC Ref 347 from 1950

Models like the San Marco feature cloisonné and were limited edition runs in the low tens, with each dial illustrating scenes from European cities to historical naval moments

The levels of allure these dials exhibit are difficult to compare to other dial expressions, as while they are so clearly crafted by antiquated and traditional techniques, the scope of what could be portrayed seemingly knew no bounds. Even a surface-level dive will reveal cloisonné depicting continents like Africa and Europe, animals such as peacocks, roosters, horses, birds, ships conquering rough seas, planes soaring high, dragons, and mythical gods such as Neptune.

listed the names of the exhibitors: Miss Elisabeth Mottu, professor of enamelling and enamel painting at École des arts industriels et des mines; Miss Nelly Fournier, Ms. SchmidtAllard, Mrs. Nelly Richard, and Hélène May Mercier. These artists form a group that exhibits regularly and successfully at the Basel Fair. Once again, we deeply regret that we didn’t paint them in a good light, but at least this failure provides us an opportunity to highlight the valuable work accomplished by those who are now an integral part of the watch and jewellery industry, and who have recognised the importance of female artistic contribution in the revival of the art of enamelling. Applying enamel to precious pieces is perhaps the most meticulous art”

Not everyone has ever seen or even heard of these enamel dials signed by your favourite watch brands, yet the enthusiasm and collecting scene for these artworks is extremely established. Nevertheless, some underappreciated and overlooked ways exist to get into enamel watch ownership, with neo-vintage Ulysse Nardin being a prime example. Models like the San Marco feature cloisonné and were limited edition runs in the low tens, with each dial illustrating scenes from European cities to historical naval moments. However, perhaps one of the best value enamel dials in today’s market is also from Ulysse Nardin’s San Macro collection. Available for as little as £4,000, examples of flinqué dials were produced in-house by the brand within a company owned by UN called Donzé Cadrans. Initially founded in 1972 but purchased by Ulysse Nardin in 2011, Donzé are enamel experts, making dials for Czapek, Girard Perregaux, Louis Erard, and Meistersinger.

All things considered, the San Macro is one mighty sleeper from the ever-enduring world of enamel. It’s a world that will always maintain a level of appreciation that runs deeper than the sum of its parts.

hands-on reviews

THE SPECS

• 42mm 9K bronze gold case with 300m water resistance

• Omega 8806 automatic movement with 55-hour power reserve

• £26,400x, omegawatches.com

OMEGA SEAMASTER DIVER 300M BRONZE GOLD

In patina-free bronze gold and burgundy, is the latest twist on the Seamaster Diver 300M the ultimate desk diver?

As I’ve realised from the raft of bronze-cased watches over the past few years, I love the colour – or at least, I love the colour when it’s fresh. Depending on the alloy, it can take a few weeks, months or years, but eventually it will get a patina which I, controversially, am not a fan of.

I understand enjoying a patina in a proper vintage watch. It’s deserved, a sign of a tick well tocked. Recently aged bronze on the other hand just comes across as dirty and makes you rethink just how oily your wrists are. It’s not particularly pleasant. Omega’s Bronze Gold on the other hand has a similar colour but is incredibly resistant to corrosion, like gold, keeping it looking fresher for longer. So, thank God it’s been used in the shiny new Omega Seamaster Diver 300M in Bronze Gold and Burgundy. First off, let’s get the inevitable downside of bronze gold out of the way: it’s a lot softer than your usual stainless-steel diver. That makes it a bit of an odd choice in something like the Seamaster Professional 300M, especially one riffing off 007’s more militaristic piece from No Time to Die. The recent monochromatic steel and titanium number is much more in line, practically speaking.

It’s also caused no end of headaches for Omega. While they’re no stranger to a gold diving watch case, a full mesh bracelet on the other hand is another matter entirely. Every link in the mesh is under strain and yet it needs to stay solid for years – ideally decades – on the wrist. In fact, I have it on good authority (i.e. from Omega themselves) that the bracelet was by far the trickiest part of the watch. Then again, it’s the highlight of a watch that I’m grudgingly in love with. So, worth it.

Yes, gold divers with gold bracelets are a world away from the most practical instruments for actual diving, but I’m not a diver. Deep water scares the living hell out of me. And if you take away the need to bounce off submerged rocks then the new Omega Seamaster Diver 300M is a winner.

First off, that bright, bronze coloured gold works incredibly well on the Seamaster Diver 300M’s ultra-faceted case. The mix of brushed and polished surfaces is so many rungs above your usual Submariner imitation that it can look down with the kind of elitist sneer reserved for, well, an all-gold diving watch. Granted the facets on the caseback are a little sharper than my delicate wrists would like (especially as they’re not generally visible) but that’s the nittiest of picks here.

That said, along with the under facets, the watch is as weighty as you’d expect from precious metal and the 42mm case wears slightly wider than you’d expect on the mesh. There’s very little give in this kind of bracelet so it juts out a little either side of my wrist. Anyone bigger though, which is most people, should be fine. And hey, you could probably bend the mesh to fit if you actually did own it.

The gorgeous bronze gold continues onto the bezel, paired with an equally gorgeous burgundy, filled with vintage beige lume. If there’s one word to describe the 120-click diving bezel, it’s rich. This is a watch that definitely would have made it off the Titanic.

That combination of beige lume and bronze gold makes the most of the dial too, with lumed circular indexes and

the blocks at the cardinal points (two, of course, to help 12 o’clock stand out underwater) are all bordered in precious metal, sharp and matte. Omega could probably have opted for a bezel-matched burgundy dial too but instead they went for a more toned-down black, sans the collection’s signature waves, for the higher contrast and therefore readability. And probably because all that bronze gold and burgundy would have taken the richness of the bezel to extremes that risk gout.

Despite all my naysaying about a gold diving watch, the Omega Seamaster Diver 300M Bronze Gold still lives up to its professional standards, with 300m water resistance and the collection’s signature helium escape valve at 10 o’clock. I still wouldn’t risk it – for a multitude of reasons – but you can.

Inside is the Master Co-Axial calibre 8806, the most modern take on George Daniel’s contribution to modern watchmaking, one that’s been put through its paces by METAS, the Swiss Federal Institute of Metrology. Fun fact, when they’re not testing watch movements, METAS is the government body responsible for making sure a litre at the pumps is indeed a litre and that all of Switzerland’s highway cameras are calibrated correctly. They’re busy people. The result is a movement that performs at beyond COSC standard, with a variance of no more than 0+5 seconds a day, magnetic resistance to at least 15,000 gauss and in this instance has a 55-hour power reserve.

To say that the Omega Seamaster Diver 300M is in the same ballpark as the recent monochrome silver or indeed the No Time to Die Bond watch feels like a stretch. At the same time, it shares a lot of the same looks and features. So, perhaps its fairer to say that if the monochrome version is the production diver take, this is the desk diver version. And if you’re after something with the look of fresh bronze without the patina, look no further. Unless of course, you’re on a budget; this will set you back £26,400. £26,400, omegawatches.com

•

•

Fun, colourful watch brands have defined our homegrown take on horological design as to be somewhat of an eclectic uniform. Classical shapes updated with bright colours and idiosyncratic aesthetic tweaks, it’s something we can be proud of, especially at the uber-accessible end of the spectrum.

While they’ve yet to hit the heights of Studio Underd0g, Farer, or Fears, Duckworth Prestex are firmly in that new aesthetic tradition of British watches. In fact, like Fears, they’re a heritage name (at least, the Prestex part is) revived by a member of the original family and best known for their cushion cases.

Lovely as the Verimatic is however – and it is lovely, I happen to own the fume orange version – one case shape does not a watch brand make. Duckworth Prestex began to break out of that cushion-shaped cage with the Art Deco rectangle of the Centenary and now are entering the rarefied realms of, erm, circles, with the Broadgate GMT.

Named after Broadgate in London and shaped like its wellheeled shopping area, Broadgate Circle, the new watch is essentially a different format of the Rivington GMT. It shares the same accessible workhorse movement in the Miyota 9075, the same 200m water resistance, and in one variation has the same fume orange dial. But the orange isn’t the one we have here and while the two watches may share a specs sheet, they’re visually worlds apart.

First off, the dial. The colour here is a gorgeous mint green. It’s a relatively flat, matte colour and with its white Arabic numerals is a lovely, calming twist on that spring-ready look. It’s elevated slightly with a bit of sunshine from the bright yellow GMT hand and together the mix of colours offers something inoffensively charming. Basically, it’s nice and as soon as you unpack your summer linens, you’ll want something like this on your wrist.

That yellow second time zone can be read off the fixed 24-hour bezel, which is the part of the Broadgate I like the most. It’s always tempting to add a rotating version so that you can, technically, keep track of three timezones. But there’s something retro about the Explorer II-style fixed number, particularly when like that legendary watch, it’s in simple engraved steel. It just feels more solid, and I always love a case-matched bezel. It would be a bit easier to read if the numerals were black instead of white, but it’s a lot easier in the metal than it appears in images. This is yet another instance where you really need to try the watch on to see what I mean.

It’s not just the bezel though; solid is a good word for the Broadgate GMT as a whole. At 40mm across and 13mm high, it’s a little taller than it feels like it should be, but no issue to slip under most sleeves. That size however does help it sit with just the right amount of heft, especially on the rubber strap, a level of heft in fact that belies just how accessible this watch is, which we’ll get on to. The fact that it has that 200m water resistance, making it a typical GADA (go anywhere, do anything) watch, is the pastel icing on the cake.

The other colours in the collection are equally seasonal, with a pale blue and white rounding out the summer shades and that aforementioned orange gradient, a Duckworth Prestex signature. The one I really want to see in the metal – likely at British Watchmakers’ Day – is the black and red, which swaps calming pastels for an eye-catching, highcontrast palette. They’re all lookers though.

That said, they tread the line between classical and modern a little too lightly for my taste. The Verimatic nailed it, taking a dress watch case and making it fun and modern. I don’t feel like the Broadgate goes quite far enough in that modernising aspect. The mix of railway minute track and classical numerals feel a touch too old fashioned for me. It’s a shame because in the world of uber-accessible British watches – which has grown into a respectable sub-genre of the watch industry – there’s a lot of competition.

The thing is, some of that competition is coming from Duckworth Prestex; their limited-edition California absolutely nails the entire aesthetic, with a similar palette of colourways. The difference is that it’s not a GMT, but that just makes me realise that a California GMT is something I never knew I needed in my life before now. With a California 24-hour bezel, perhaps?

If the negatives here sound nitpicky, that’s because they are. When it comes down to brass tacks, the Broadgate GMT is a great looking, solidly built watch that feels like it’s worth more than its price tag. To put that in numbers, this is a handsome automatic GMT for £795. If you find yourself approaching spring in need of a wristwear refresh, you could do a damn sight worse than this.

£795, duckworthprestex.com

• 39mm rose gold case with 80m water resistance

• JCB-003 automatic movement with 65-hour power reserve

• CHF 75,000 (approx. £66,200), jcbiver.com

Obsessive finishing turns an otherwise classical dress watch into one of the finest time-only timepieces around THE SPECS

The old adage goes that ‘quality is in the details’. Honestly, it’s a phrase we hear enough that it’s hard to take seriously, like ‘limited edition’ or ‘made in Switzerland’. But every now and then comes a watch that not only embodies the concept, but rams it so far down your throat you’ll be passing bevelling tools for weeks. That watch is the Biver Automatique.

If you’ve never heard the name Jean-Claude Biver you’re either new to the watch industry or never really branched out past Rolex. He’s the man many credit for revitalising the watch industry in its post-Quartz Crisis slump in the 1990s. You have him to thank for Blancpain, Hublot, and a large part of modern Omega (including their obsession with ambassadors). He has historically been a tour de force and, when he retired a few years back, savvy gamblers didn’t bet on him staying away for long.

Last year, the triumphant return of Jean-Claude happened with the advent of Biver and, honestly, it was more of a surprise than you might think. Not that JCB was back of course, but just what he was back with: beautiful, classically built watches drenched in all the trappings of haute horology. He also had his son in tow, who is ostensibly the driving force behind the new brand.

They certainly hit the ground running, with Carillon minute repeaters with tourbillons and jewels aplenty. They were gorgeous and demonstrated a certain mission statement: that every part of the watch, inside and out was finished to perfection. The problem is that nice an idea as that is, it was too easy to get distracted by everything else. When you have a tourbillon, repeater and a gem-set bezel, knowing the barrels inside have been flawlessly finished just doesn’t have the pull it should. And so we have the Automatique, a watch that pulls back on the over-the-top stuff to show off that mission statement all the more clearly.

Let’s not beat around the bush, the Biver Automatique is a beauty. It might just be the finest dress watch I’ve tried on in years. The 39mm rose gold case has some pretty prominent lugs, but at 10mm thick it wears phenomenally well and the slim bezel leaves plenty of room for the dial to breathe. That dial, in matching rose gold has an air of Laurent Ferrier in its streamlined minimalism, albeit with much more ornate, faceted black indexes.

The detail here comes, of course, from the finishing, with alternating circles of radial and circular brushing. On paper it doesn’t sound like it would be a dramatic difference but, well, look at the thing. Finished with a stunningly sharp handset and a solid rose gold chapter ring, it’s the most nuanced bit of monochrome I’ve ever worn. The thing is, that’s not even the main event.

We’re used to seeing a well-finished movement these days, especially at this level. You flip a Vacheron or Patek over, you know it’s going to be something special. The Biver Automatique though laughs at your Poincon de Geneve.

Thanks to the microrotor construction, the full movement is on display and what a display it puts on. The rose gold rotor has a fan-like guilloche pattern, while the main bridges opt for a more classical clous de Paris style motif, all painfully precise and light-catching. But it doesn’t stop there. The

remaining metalwork is all brushed, every edge is bevelled. The metal underneath offers plenty of brushing and perlage, even when you’re barely ever going to see it. The JCB logo is hidden 90% of the time, nestled as it is in the microrotor track. It’s the level of obsessive detail that makes me wonder if, at the same time we appreciate its details, we shouldn’t stage an intervention. Engrave a message on the balance cock if you’re being held against your will.

The movement is a Dubois Depraz-made number dubbed the JCB-003, with a not insubstantial 65-hour power reserve. I can’t attest to how quickly it winds with the micro-rotor, but it has manual-wind anyway so that’s not really a problem. Interestingly, it’s a movement that’s been designed from the ground up to be versatile, ready and willing to take on a host of complications. What those complications will be only time will tell. So far JCB have built minute repeaters and automatics; to say it’ll be something between those includes 99% of complications in the world.

It’s worth noting that none of the finishing actually adds to the chronometric performance of course. Hell, the chance of damaging parts during finishing makes it more likely there could be a timekeeping problem and the movement needs to be re-done. So why, why do this?

Well, we’re talking about it, that’s one reason. It’s also incredibly beautiful, so there’s another. Perhaps the biggest reason though takes me back full circle to the beginning. We’ve seen plenty of minute repeaters over the past few years and more tourbillons than I can count. We’ve seen metiers d’art engravings, marquetry and enamelling of every stripe and colour. But in the Biver Automatique is a watch that can quietly take its place with the best of them. It’s not flashy (at least, no more so than any other solid gold dress watch), it’s not loud and most of its qualities are hidden on its handsome backside. If there’s a watch that defines the saying that ‘quality is in the details’, it’s this.

Which for the price, feels about right.

CHF 75,000 (approx. £66,200), jcbiver.com

Zelos

Skyraider 40 Tantalum

In case you’ve not come across the rare metal before, tantalum is most often used in things like medical equipment, capacitors and areas where its insane heat and corrosion resistant properties make it worth the cost. Zelos however have decided to turn it into a full watch case, something that has been done in the past but with an insane price tag attached. Their Skyraider 40 on the other hand offers that incredibly hardwearing metal for just $2,499 (approx. £1,999). Given the watch is a skeletonised slice of sleek, modern watchmaking, that’s a seriously tempting price for something this low-key high-tech. zeloswatches.com

THE SPECS:

• 40mm tantalum case with 50m water resistance

• Marvin 700 manual-wind movement with 46-hour power reserve

• $2,499 (approx. £1,999), zeloswatches.com

Technik 4X

TwinTimer Grille Edition

Hybrid engines are pretty uncommon in the watch world, with quartz and mechanical movements sitting at very different spots in the lunch hall. Not so in cars though, where the two are becoming increasingly intertwined in performance vehicles, something Technik 4X are hoping to emulate in their TwinTimer. So called because of its two movements, the TwinTimer houses, a Sellita automatic on the right and an ETA quartz on the left. It’s not just the movement that’s inspired by hypercars though; in the new Grille edition, the dial has been given a car-inspired makeover that amps up the finishing beyond the already impressive cote de Geneve, black-plated movement holder. technik4x.com

THE SPECS:

• 44.5mm stainless steel case with 50m water resistance

• Sellita SW100 automatic movement with 42-hour power reserve / ETA 901.001 quartz movement

• From CHF 2,750 (approx. £2,450), limited to 200 pieces, technik4x.com

Satori

Companion Automatic

An everyday wearer, go anywhere, go anything watch should be a constant companion, something Satori has taken to heart with their aptly named Companion collection. Landing somewhere between the faceted bezel sports watches of the 1970s and sleek retrofuturism, the Companion isn’t the safe, simple design you’d expect from an everyday watch – and in the Cosmos Purple, not a colour you’d expect either. But with the growing trend for purple dials and silhouettes oozing personality, Satori have hit the nail on the head – and with an everyday price, at that.

satoriwatches.com

THE SPECS:

• 41mm stainless steel case with 100m water resistance

• Miyota 9015 automatic movement with 42-hour power reserve

• £375, satoriwatches.com

Baltic

Hermetique Dual Time x Enduropale Edition

We’ve been waiting for a GMT version of Baltic’s vintage-style field watch and now we have it. Sort of. Rather than a pure GMT, we have a dual timer, with a rotating inner bezel operable via a second crown at nine o’clock. It’s an elegant solution to the timezone hopper’s dilemma, one that keeps the clean, classical lines of the Hermetique in check. As you might have noticed from the name though, this isn’t just a dual time version of the Hermetique; it’s also an ode to the motorbike racing of the Enduropale, an insane, Mad Max-style rush of over 2,800 racers. I wouldn’t recommend wearing a watch during that chaos, but if you did, Baltic’s would at least look the part in a handsome green. baltic-watches.com

THE SPECS:

• 37mm stainless steel case with 150m water resistance

• Miyota 9039 automatic movement with 42-hour power reserve

• From €600 (approx. £500), limited to 200 pieces, baltic-watches.com

Vostra

Vector

Having made a name in the realms of uber accessible field watches, RZE is branching out with fully-fledged sister brand Vostra and their debut watch, the Vector. Leaving the hard-coated titanium that RZE’s best known for behind, Vostra instead opts for steel. But that’s honestly the smallest departure. Where RZE’s flagship Endeavour was stripped back and minimal, the Vector is firmly a 1970s-style sports watch with a 12-sided bezel and faceted case complete, of course, with an integrated bracelet. The chronograph is available in a trio of colours – the yellow a particular highlight – all of which are bold, eye-catching and the perfect fit for a gloriously unsubtle sports watch. You know what makes them an even better fit? It’s price tag of US$279. The Vostra Vector is almost easier to buy than to say.

vostradesigns.com

THE SPECS:

• 40mm stainless steel case with 100m water resistance

• Seiko VK63 Mechaquartz movement

• US$279 (approx. £225), vostradesigns.com

Héron

Marinor Rainbow

If you’re expecting a funky rainbow-set bezel, think much, much more practically – the latest version of Canadian watch brand Héron’s flagship Marinor tackles the decompression timer. The 1960s-flavoured diver combines an elegant, Fifty Fathoms-esque bezel with a dial dominated by concentric rings of colour denoting the various decompression stops needed to avoid the bends. You’ll have probably seen it on a recent Mido, just for a lot more money. Even if you’re not a diver –which I’m sure applies to most of you reading this – it makes for a fun, eye-catching diver with serious tool watch credentials. heronwatches.com

THE SPECS:

• 39mm stainless steel case with 300m water resistance

• Miyota 9039 automatic movement with 42-hour power reserve

• From $570 (approx. £450), heronwatches.com

Anoma

A1 Slate

After making a splash last year with the original A1, British microbrand Anoma are back with another take on their curvaceous, triangular art piece – and it’s better than ever. The main difference here is the dial, which has engraved concentric triangles mirroring the sleek shape of the Charlotte Perriandinspired case. The entire dial is black lacquer, but the triangles themselves stand out in their finishing for a beautifully subtle, tactile watch. If the A1 case is like a rounded river stone, the new dial is made from the ripples as it hits the water. And this time, as it’s not limited, you might actually be able to get hold of one. anomawatches.com

THE SPECS:

• 39mm x 38mm stainless steel case with 50m water resistance

• Sellita SW100 automatic movement with 42-hour power reserve

• £1,800, anomawatches.com

RE-EVALUATING HOW WE TIME RACES WITH A TRACK-SPECIFIC TACHYMETER BEZEL, THE SERENDIPITOUS STORY OF MODERN BRITISH TOOL WATCH BRAND, AND A DUTCH WATCHMAKER USING OLD MACHINES TO BUILD DISTINCTLY NEW WATCHES

EDITED BY Sam Kessler

BROOKLANDS

Re-evaluating how we time races with an inspired, track-specific tachymeter bezel

What defines a racing chronograph? Don’t worry, it’s not a trick question. You could say, well, the chronograph as it’s in the name. But a pulsometer, other than a pulse racing now and then, doesn’t fit the bill. Nor does a military-style monopusher or even a rather large cross-section of bi- and tricompax stopwatches. No, what actually defines a racing chronograph is the bezel – specifically, the tachymeter bezel.

You’re almost guaranteed to be familiar with tachymeter bezels if you’re reading these pages, but just to take things back to horology 101, a tachymeter is a scale that allows you to gauge how fast something is going. You do that by timing something – let’s say for argument’s sake, a classic racing car – as it travels a set distance. Start the chronograph when the car starts, stop it when it hits your set distance, let’s say a mile. The tachymeter scale then converts the stopped time into miles per hour. Nice and simple.

The problem however is that set distance. It generally needs to be a mile or kilometre, otherwise you need to do a bit more mental maths (65 times 1.2 miles, for example), but no real-life racetrack is exactly a mile long. The solution then is to have a marker on the track at precisely the mile mark, which gets you the average speed for that single stretch of track. If you pick a straight or hairpin, that’s not really going to be representative of what really matters: the average speed of a whole lap.

So, what’s the solution? Until now there hasn’t really been one, you either take a random sampling of speed or you need to do enough mental maths that you’d be better off with a computer doing the work. I say until now, because Brooklands have just come up with a solution.

The classic racing aficionados among you will already have heard of Brooklands. The historic racetrack was the world’s first banked circuit and, while it hosted its last race back in 1939, it hosted the first British Grand Prix in 1926. It was home to numerous racing records (the Bentley boys were particular fans) and was timing some of the most influential early races until World War II shut it down. It’s not just a history of racing; it’s a history of timekeeping.

In the modern era, Brooklands is best known as a museum to racing and aviation. But it’s also a watch brand, who back in 2023 launched the gorgeous, Sir Terence Conran designed Triple-Four chronograph, a heritage bi-compax number. Now though, they’ve designed something that’s definitely not a heritage throwback: the P1 racing bezel.

The idea behind the new bezel is simple: cut out the guesswork. Rather than timing the nebulous concept of a single known measurement, each version of the P1 is designed for a specific racetrack. This means that you can sit trackside at Silverstone, start your chronograph when your driver passes you and stop it when they buzz past again. You’ll then have their actual average lap speed, no approximating markers needed.

It’s an elegant solution that mirrors how most people will actually use their racing chronograph, one that can be applied to hundreds of different tracks and series. As you may have suspected therefore, the P1 bezel is built to be interchangeable, allowing you to swap between Silverstone, Nürburgring or Monaco. It’s not just tracks either; the tachymeter scale can display km or mph and can be tailored for F1, endurance racing, anything where a lap’s going to take under 60 seconds.

At present, the P1 bezel is available on Brookland’s own P1 Veloce chronograph, a more modern, blackdialled take on their vintage-styled Triple-Four. It comes fit with a standard 60-second, non-tachymeter bezel, but it’s a watch that suits a bit of colour around the edge. Just turn the bezel 30 degrees anticlockwise and it’ll unlock, allowing you to slot one of the colourful, track-specific numbers on in its place. It’s satisfying enough that you might find yourself choosing a track of the day to go with your outfit.

You may have noticed that I said ‘at present’ in the paragraph above. That’s because Brooklands have big plans for their shiny new racing bezel concept. The idea isn’t to keep it to themselves, but offer it to anyone that wants to, I don’t know, build a F1 specific limited edition. Or commemorate a particular racing series. Or to pay homage to a specific track. Straightforward a concept as the P1 Racing Bezel is, the opportunities are vast. The only limits are the size of your chronograph and storage space. After all, you’ll want more than one, right? Find out more at brooklandswatches.com

Designed with a bespoke bezel for a range of different racetracks, the Brooklands P1 is a chronograph that doesn’t rely on approximations and can measure the average lap speed of a car on track

Clockwise from top left: the C-1 Cloud, M-1 Blackbird, C-1 Shadow, and M-1 Field

AERA

The serendipitous story of modern British tool watch brand, Aera

Every day seems to bring about a new watch brand or other, bringing something new, be that fresh or otherwise, to the watch industry. Or at least, whatever they think is new. Most of these, let’s be honest, are jumping on the bandwagon of microbrands, turning around cheap watches with a few interesting ideas.

Despite ostensibly falling into that catchment however, seeing as they were founded as late in the day as 2022, Aera have managed to separate themselves from the crowd for two reasons: some incredibly cool designs and a story decades in the making.

Co-Founder Jas Minhas didn’t come to watchmaking on a whim or for a quick buck. His grandfather was a watchmaker in Punjab and his father Surjit, continued the tradition here in the UK, repairing watches at the kitchen table. Needless to say, he knew his way around a movement. It was enough to inspire a then very young Jas to decide he would one day own a watch brand. It’s unlikely he realised just how far away that ‘one day’ would be.

Years later, well into his job as a distributor of watch components, Jas met Olof Larsson, of Swedish retail royalty. The two hit it off immediately over a mutual appreciation of art and design, and before long decided that one day they would own a watch brand together. Another link to watches, another ‘one day’. And like many conversations, it could well have ended there, a pipedream that was never going to become reality.

Flash forward 35 years. Most of us would have forgotten that conversation by now, let alone be ready to act on it. But just as Jas was between jobs and wondering what to do with himself, the idea came back to him. He met Olof, not really expecting much to happen. Instead, in all of about 30 seconds, they’d decided to jump headfirst into a new watch brand. Easy, right?

After a few serious conversations, it became apparent that both men had the same vision for what their watches should look like. They should be around the £1,000 to £3,000 mark, the price point normally dominated by your Swatch Group workhorses like Hamilton and Longines. They should be tool watches and, most importantly, should be just as appealing to someone buying their first watch as to someone with a collection of minute repeaters. It was a pretty tall order.

Before they even got to the watches though, they needed a name. They’d toyed with the name Era, to denote the kind of timelessness they were after, but something about it just didn’t sit right. Until one day a fellow shareholder mentioned that he liked the specific A at the beginning of Aesop. After a quick bit of research, the pair realised that Aera is simply the Greek version of Era and, perhaps more pertinently, Jas’ father used to own a watch shop in Birmingham called Aero. Some things are just meant to be, and Aera was born. So then, that tricky task of actually designing a watch.

Plenty of brands, especially British brands, opt for tool watches. If you want to keep things accessible, it’s the logical

Where most watchmakers throw tachymeters and luminous highlights on them, the C-1 Cloud is an island of calm in a storm of faux-racing watches

place to start. The difference is that, rather than taking a template and riffing on it – like, for example, something as iconic as the Ministry of Defence commissioned Dirty Dozen –Aera look at what those designs are trying to accomplish. Essentially, same destination, different routes. And, of course, no shortcuts. That’s when you get watches like the M-1 Field and Blackbird.

On a very surface level, both watches fall into that mil-spec, MoD look with high contrast dials, white on black. They’re easily read and simple enough to take a few knocks and not impact their usefulness. But Aera’s versions don’t quite feel the same as, say, Timor’s version. I’d describe them as utilitarian without being severe. What I mean by that is everything from the tactile case to the solid lume indexes to the curved dial adds up to a watch that has equal levels of charm and practicality.

It’s a difficult balance, but this is just the latest illustration in Aera’s catalogue of a similar concept. The one that really got me, for example, was the C-1 chronograph. It took the barest elements needed to read the bi-compax layout and left the entire rest of the dial blank. That’s especially striking in the Cloud, with it’s white on white look interrupted only by a sky blue second hand. Pair that with a beautifully curved 60-second bezel and you have a pretty zen chronograph. Where most watchmakers are tempted throw tachymeters and luminous highlights on them, the C-1 Cloud is an island of calm in a storm of faux-racing watches.

While it might seem that Aera’s story has only just started, it’s one that actually began at a kitchen table nearly half a century ago. It was an idea gestating over the course of decades, one that just needed the right timing, the right environment and the right people to become a reality. And now that it’s here, it looks like it’s here to stay – at least, if watches like the M-1 and C-1 are anything to go by. Find out more at aera.co

DINGEMANS

The Dutch watchmaker using old machines and old movements to build distinctly new watches

Watchmaking is an intensely technical craft, requiring years of learning, decades of practice and certification after certification before you can open the back of a watch. Unless of course, you decide to get your hands on some watchmaking machines and start playing around. That second method is precisely how Dutch watchmaker Fred Dingemans of Dingemans Mechanische Horloges, got into the game.

It wasn’t quite as much of a whim as I make it sound. The machines in question were actually used by Fred’s father and Fred was already pretty well acquainted with them growing up. And like any piece of old mechanical ingenuity, all it took was a bit of elbow grease to get them back into working order. They were set up at Fred’s workshop in Ouderkerk aan den IJssel, out behind his house, and he got practicing. Fast forward to today and Fred’s a dab hand at making almost every part of a watch. I’m not about to say he’s up there with certain practitioners of the Daniels Method, but when it comes to cases, dials, lugs, he makes the lot. That includes everything from machining a dial blank from a chunk of brass to sandblasting hands and case, covering more in his one man show than most brands can handle in their entire manufacture.

Granted, there are some limits. As I alluded to, there are certain things that Fred doesn’t make, most notably the movements. These have instead been built by Tenor Dorly. Don’t worry if you don’t know what name; most non-watchmakers won’t. Dorly was a watchmaker in the 1970s who was the go-to name for jump hour movements, movements where the hour changes instantaneously when the minute hand hits 60. Any Dorly movements around are 50 or so years old now and these are the only calibres used by DMH. Fred’s watchmaking tools aren’t the only ancient machines he uses.

These New Old Stock (NOS) movements have been disassembled, serviced and reassembled by master watchmaker Frans de Groot so that they’re in perfect working order. It has to be said that they won’t be as chronometrically sound as a modern jump hour movement – Christopher Ward’s JJ01, for example – but the idea of using a vintage movement is one

There are more handmade watches in the world, watches with more artisan finishing or better movements, but try finding a watch that’s this hand-made, by a single person

that’s hard not to love. Plus, their 48-hour power reserve still stands up today.

With all that as background, it’s probably time to take a look at the actual watches. And if you were expecting something classical in gold with plenty of guilloche, think again. DMH loves the mechanical more than the ornate, more classic car restorer than fine engraver.

The ‘standard’ three-hander therefore combines a bright, lacquered dial with cut-out indexes. The case has a distinctive two-level shape with visible screws and a tall, slim bezel. The off-centre crown is knurled and spiralled for tactile grip and that automotive-adjacent finish, a silhouette reminiscent of a vintage racing stopwatch. Paired with the wired lugs, the three-hander feels like a handsomely repurposed piece of machinery.

That crown actually deserves a bit more scrutiny. Apparently, it was inspired by a garden hose of all things and works in much the same way. Not that it shoots water or anything, but in how it’s operated. You push down the pump crown, unscrew the larger, lower crown and then wind or set the time as you see fit. It’s tactile, novel and a lot of fun.

From there, the mechanical nature of the watch gets only more intense with the jump hour. Given the movements, this is DMH’s signature. The lacquer dial has been opened up to show off the minute and jumping hour wheels in black, with the white date wheel underneath and the whole thing’s tied together with a florescent central seconds hand.

In the middle of these two watches is the Fusion Hour, which uses the cut-out look of the Jumping Hours but swaps out the minute disc for a central minute hand. It makes it a touch easier to read and aims at a halfway house between straightforward and fun.

If the look of the cut-out just doesn’t do it for you, that’s not a problem. As each DMH watch is built to order by hand, you can just order it with a different cut-out. Or dial colour. Or hand colour. Or one of a hundred other options. Even the case materials can be mixed up. The three-hander comes in bronze and the jump hour in steel as standard, but you can order either with your preference of stainless or patinaladen metals.

So, what’s this cool, artisan-made ode to old-school mechanics going to set you back? A lot less than you think. Bear in mind that this is firmly a starting price as DMR watches are meant to be customised, but €2,795 – just over £2,300 – is a worryingly appealing price. Sure, there are more handmade watches in the world, watches with more artisan finishing or better movements, but try finding a watch that’s this handmade, by a single person no less, for this price. You’ll be looking for a very long time.

Find out more at dingemansmechanischehorloges.nl

Oracle DISCOVERS

JUSTIN RICHARDSON – TANK 432/428

There’s a level of detail and intricacy to handcrafted watches that other forms of production simply cannot match. Take for example the Justin Richardson Tank, inspired by iconic Art Deco watches like the Cartier Tank and Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso. The facets of its angular case are immaculate and the dial is so incredibly precise. Plus, by virtue of each piece being made by hand in their Canterbury studio, they’re totally bespoke and customisable, giving you the chance to consult on case materials, dial design, finishing and more.

Prices from £17,400, available at justinrichardson.co.uk

EMBER WATCH COMPANY – ROCKET

With a name like Rocket, the debut watch from Ember Watch Company feels like a stylish ode to all things sci-fi. The 40mm diameter stainless steel case is deeply facetted with sharp angles and lines featuring a bead-blasted matte finish that contrasts with the smooth, polished bezel. Combine that with the bright, colourful dials, such as white with mint green, and it almost wouldn’t look out of place in a sci-fi film. A fusion of concepts that are simultaneously retro and modern. Powering the piece is the Seiko NH38A with 41-hour power reserve. £359, available from emberwatchcompany.com

PRIMITIVE HAUS –TIMEKEEPER TYPE-A

Finding what inspires you is always the foundation of a good microbrand and Primitive Haus are clear on where their inspirations lie. Influenced by the German minimalist movement spearheaded by Bauhaus, they aim to bring colourful watches to life that blend style and function seamlessly.

Recently with the TimeKeeper Type-A they’ve been exploring fresh colours and designs such as fumé blue, vibrant purple and a gorgeous dimple dial variant that looks like freshly fallen snow. They house the Miyota 82S5 with 42-hour power reserve.

$369 (approx. £280), available from primitivehaus.com

Zanuti – GMT

If you’re going to invest in an homage watch, you may as well look for something with quality and class. Zanuti produce an extensive range of homage watches that capture the styles and vibes of some of the world’s most famous watches at a fraction of the price. The GMT for example features a colourful two-tone GMT bezel available in numerous iconic colourways such as brown and black or red and blue. It’s also available housing either a quartz or automatic movement, giving you plenty of choice as a collector.

£342, available from zanuti.com

WAYFORTH – VOYAGER

Wayforth’s Voyager is designed to keep up with you on your travels wherever they may take you. In that endeavour, it’s equipped with a chronograph function and a dual time zone display. A chronograph can be used to measure your speed or even distance travelled with a quick calculation, while the dual time display, consisting of an inner rotating bezel with 12-hour scale, lets you track local time and home time while globetrotting. There are eight colours to choose from, each housing the Seiko VK64 meca-quartz movement. £314, available from wayforthwatches.com

JOHNSON’S OF LICHFIELD – BESPOKE WINDER SAFE

Johnson’s of Lichfield are a luxury safe retailer specialising in designing robust custom watch and jewellery safes for your home. This elegant, modern safe from their Luxe range includes custom chrome bolt pockets and hardware, as well as reliable Rapport Watch Winders. These beautiful pieces of furniture are all made to order letting the client choose their exact specification. A practical and great addition to any watch collector’s home. Additionally, they are insurance approved. £12,000, available from johnsonsoflichfield.co.uk

NixieFab – La NBnixie N° 1 tubes ZIN 70

More of a horological accessory for your home, NixieFab produce a wide range of Nixie tube clocks. Nixie tubes use light to display numerals making for a soft glowing time display with a cool retro vibe harking back to the 1970s. This edition features a stand made of ebonised oak and raw lime wood, creating a dynamic contrast between the light and dark wood. It also features wi-fi connectivity to automatically correct itself to local time.

Quotes available at nixiefab-france.fr

Brown Safe – Chronos Series Safe

Brown Safe Manufacturing has been producing high quality jewellery safes for almost half a century. From fortresses built to withstand severe attack to luxury safes finished in style with exotic metal and wood interiors, their safes are diverse and practical. Their premier Chronos Series collection can have its interiors completely customised and features multiple watch winder options to keep your collection ticking even when stored for multiple days. It’s available at multiple sizes as well to fit your home perfectly.  Chronos 6218, prices from $106,945 (approx. £86,750), available at brownsafe.com

VEBLENIST – LEATHER STRAPS

Bringing some Chicago style to your wrist, Veblenist are a strap manufacturer based in the Windy City. They believe in combining traditional techniques with modern machinery to create stylish and individual straps. Between classic shell cordovan, NATO style suede and perforated racing Rallye style numbers, there’s plenty of choice suitable for an equally diverse range of watches. The handmade designs particularly suit vintage timepieces with a retro flair. They also produce a range of canvas and rubber pieces. $105 - $255 (approx. £85-£200), available from veblenist.com

DAILY WATCH –SUIT CASE FOR 15 WATCHES

While a watch roll can keep a couple of watches safe on your travels, protecting a larger collection takes something more substantial. The Daily Watch Suit Case for 15 Watches uses secure fastenings to keep your watches safe. It also works perfectly for home storage and display with its refined finishing and luxury leather exterior. The removable velvet cushions mean it can store watches of all size in safety and security. £339, available from dailywatch.co

Chester Mox – Slim Wallet

CAMBRIDGE SATCHEL COMPANY – BATCHEL MINI

When you live life on the go, you don’t want to be held down by heavy, cumbersome bags, which is why the Batchel Mini from Cambridge Satchel Company is perfect. Made in England from 100% leather in a variety of colours, it makes for a practical day bag that you can quickly grab on the fly. This edition is the Oxblood variant in a rich brown colour but it’s also available in black, green, navy, grey, pink, blue, and even some multi-colour editions.

£195, available from cambridgesatchel.com

Chester Mox hand craft their slim wallets from French chèvre leather in a rainbow of colours from striking green to vibrant red, and more classical browns and blacks. It uses traditional saddle stitching, which is hand sewn for a luxurious finish with nylon thread, which can be upgraded to linen for an additional £10. On top of the wallets, Chester Mox also produce bags, passport covers, key rings, belts, and a wide assortment of additional accessories. £319, available from chestermox.com

JEAN ROUSSEAU –“HIPSTER” WALLET

Handmade in France by Jean Rousseau’s master artisans, the “Hipster” wallet offers slim practicality with three card slots and a slot for notes and receipts. Jean Rousseau are known for their bold use of colour when it comes to their leather watch straps and this wallet is no different, available in light teal green, taupe, royal blue, crimson red, and brown. In addition to their off the shelf range, Jean Rousseau also offer bespoke products including belts, wallets, watch straps and more. £350, available from jean-rousseau.com

Baker Co. LeatherworksDerby Wallet w/Money Clip

Baker Co. Leatherworks’ best-selling Derby Wallet w/Money Clip is a minimalist wallet with two outside card pockets and a centre pocket for cards, licenses or folded cash. It also includes a stainless-steel money clip for when you need access to more cash at quick notice. The Derby Wallet w/Money Clip is completely hand stitched and is made from elegant Italian Pueblo leather, which patinas beautifully and gets better with use. Baker Co. Leatherworks is based in West Virginia and has grown from the founder’s leatherworking hobby into a premium brand. $54 (approx. £40), available from bakercoleatherworks.com

SECRID – SLIMWALLET EMBOSS LINES COGNAC

The Secrid Slimwallet Emboss Lines Cognac combines a compact size with a surprising amount of storage with room for four embossed cards, six standard cards, banknotes, business cards, and receipts. The sheepskin leather exterior is inspired by the interior of luxury cars with a tailored look. The cognac colour also leans into that classic elegance, though it’s also available in black for a sleeker, modern feel. While the leather may be Italian, the wallet is made in Holland, where Secrid has been producing their wares since 1995.

£149.95, available from secrid.com