RECOMMENDED READING: Patek Philippe production is down 30% due to COVID-19
If you have been holding your breath for the 5711 you put your name down for seven years ago, it’s time to listen to Queen Elsa and let it go – alternatively, you’ll suffocate. Like all watch manufacturers in these unprecedented times, Patek Philippe has taken a hit to its productivity for the year, enduring lockdowns and, later, staggered workforces and interrupted production. The brand has also had to adapt the way they engage with and present to consumers – allowing authorised dealers to list their watches online and recently launching their first watch via a digital announcement. By no means is the esteemed brand in financial trouble, as their years of success have built a nice fiscal cushion, or “a lot of reserves of cash”, as Thierry Stern puts it, for moments such as this. But for a brand that does not produce Swatch Group-level quantities, many cannot help but wonder what this means for watch availability and production quantity for this year. In a recent interview with Forbes magazine, Thierry Stern has provided us the answer: Patek Philippe production is down 30 per cent, due to COVID-19. Thierry Stern explains, “For Patek, we have a lot of reserve…
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Earlier this year, in April, the IWC Portugieser 2020 Collection was announced at Watches & Wonders. The Portugieser was created in 1939 due to a demand for a marine-deck chronometer experience that could be translated into a wristwatch. Legibility and accuracy are the two pillars that hold up the Portugieser line, and IWC has changed very little to the winning formula over the years. As IWC puts it, this year was the evolution of a classic. In order to maintain the Portugieser aesthetic we have all come to know and love, the majority of the evolution throughout the lineup is actually internal – with new in-house calibers raising the bar more than ever. IWC Portugieser Automatic 40 The Automatic 40 is the most compact watch within the collection, and also the most faithful to the original Portugieser profile found in the original reference 325 from 1939. Water resistant to 30 metres, the cases are 40.4mm in diameter with a thickness of 12.3mm – providing a sporting yet elegant profile on the wrist. The dial has the same traditional layout with large Arabic numerals surrounding the dial, and sub-seconds complication found at the 6 position. The dial crystal is made with…
Watching on from the sidelines, consumers on social media constantly beg the watch industry to put the novel in novelties, asking for original, fresh, and forward-thinking designs in a conventional and traditional industry. Instead, we get 1mm variations in size, a new dial colour, and the crowd goes wild to the extent that boggles the mind. In other words, people don’t know what they want. If you’re a watch lover that genuinely seeks a different view of things, the Ulysse Nardin Freak X Magma is for you, and it’s coming in hot. The case The 43mm case is made of both carbon fibre and titanium. The carbon fibre is composed of a red polymer, while the titanium is DLC treated to a shade of black. The bezel is rendered in DLC-treated titanium, with both brushed and sandblasted finishes. This pairing of carbon fibre and titanium not only provides the watch with a magma-like aesthetic to live up to its name, but also a robust case that will protect the carousel tourbillon within. The watch is water resistant to a depth of 50 metres, so you do not have to worry about the fire going out if the watch gets wet.…
Pilot’s watches have always been a strong category for watch consumers around the world, drawing an emotional and heritage-driven connection to the symbiosis between aviation and horology. Inspired by a Harrier XV741 flown in a 1969 Transatlantic Air Race from London to New York, AVI-8 offers a value-driven pilot’s watch designed with a clear and detailed love for all things aviation. The brand has worked very hard to appropriately pay homage to Tom Lecky-Thompson and his team through subtle nods to the pilot and plane that won more than 50 years ago. Code-named “Blue Nylon” by Lecky-Thompson and his team, AVI-8 decided to make their second limited edition celebrating the victory a watch that tastefully pairs with blue leather and nylon-velcro straps – the AVI-8 Hawker Harrier Blue Nylon Limited Edition. The AVI-8 Hawker Harrier Blue Nylon Limited Edition features a 44mm stainless steel case that is 13.5mm thick and approximately 52mm across the wrist lug to lug. Water resistant to 50 metres, the watch will make a nice companion for daily wear. In tribute to Lecky-Thompson and his Harrier XV741, the watch has a custom self-winding rotor designed to resemble the famed Rolls-Royce Pegasus engine that powered the plane’s flight. With…