Cockpit to couch, the Sinn 104 St Sa I W
Editor’s note: Sinn is a brand that is about the best in the business when it comes to nailing affordable profession-specific watches, the most obvious of which are divers and pilots. The common denominator for both jobs is a requirement for tools that are unwaveringly reliable in their performance. This is something that Sinn are renowned for, in their ability to produce watches that are incredibly hard-wearing, made from materials that have lifespans beyond that of their owners. Let’s take a look back at one such pilot’s watch, the Sinn 104 St Sa I W. Famous for their formidable and over-engineered designs — which range from technically advanced mission timers to hardcore divers made of submarine steel — Sinn are arguably the most renowned tool watch manufacturer in the industry. However, the German company also hosts a suite of dressier pieces that are better suited to a boardroom than a war room. Meeting somewhere in the middle is the Sinn 104. A professionally capable pilot’s watch that is equally at home outside of the cockpit – be it in the office or on the street. And at the beginning of this year, Sinn added to the 104 collection with a revised…
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In its fifth iteration, the Patek Philippe Watch Art Grand Exhibition will be hosted in Singapore for the first time. Placed to emphasise the importance of Southeast Asian clients and collectors for Patek Philippe, the show will offer public insight to a number of the artefacts that typically remain in Geneva at the Patek Philippe Museum. The show will also launch a series of rare handcrafts and special-edition watches inspired by the artistic expression of the region. The show will be hosted free of charge in an 1800-square metre space at the Marina Bay Sands Theatre in Singapore, divided into 10 rooms that each display a part of the history of Patek Philippe, as well as the current collection. There will also be a number of Patek Philippe watchmakers and artisans who will show their skills in live demonstrations, offering a rare show of specialist talents to attendees. To further recognise the city in which the exhibition is taking place, there will be a collection of Patek Philippe timepieces on display that represent milestones in the history of Singapore, starting from the arrival of Sir Stamford Raffles. On loan from the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva will be two collections…
Watch collecting has never been more present in the public consciousness. Before the quartz revolution of the 1970s, the idea of collecting watches was probably akin to collecting modern vacuum cleaners. It just didn’t make much sense. An old watch wasn’t vintage; it was just old. And a watch that was still ticking, and keeping time to a reasonable degree? Well, that was just fine and dandy. Perhaps a very well-to-do man might have had one watch for work, and another for special occasions, but these faithful companions would have been expected to remain with him for years and years and years. The notion of forming a watch collection only really emerged when the technology of mechanical watches became functionally obsolete, and the true classics of what seemed for so long to be a permanently bygone era were appreciated for their artistry beyond their base function of telling the time. Now every man and his dog is hunting through garage sales, hoping to find a beautiful, tropical dial Rolex that some unwitting seller has failed to recognise. But this widespread awareness of a vintage watch’s potential value has done some funny things to the market for preloved and brand new…
Some of my favourite releases from SIHH 2019 were the watches from the IWC Spitfire collection, which offers a host of twists on their classic pilot’s collection, and a few special limited editions — like the Timezoner Spitfire Edition “The Longest Flight”. At SIHH we also learned more about the story of this watch, or rather the adventure it takes its name from, and which IWC is supporting. The Silver Spitfire was originally constructed in 1943, and took part in 51 sorties between 1944 and 1945. The old bird (known by the registration G-IRTY) has been given a fresh lease on life, and completely stripped of paint, leading to the name — The Silver Spitfire. And today it takes off in an epic attempt to circumnavigate the globe, in a trip that will see the plane (and two pilots) fly 27,000 miles and visit 30 countries over four months. Impressive, inspiring stuff. Read more about the plane, its importance and its journey (and the occasional IWC watch) over at QP Magazine. 
Editor’s note: Make no bones about it, skeleton watches are not to everyone’s taste. Legibility is sometimes less clear than a watch with a solid dial, but this is because time telling is almost ancillary to the stunning exposé that the watch offers. A skeleton dial offers a view typically reserved for a watchmaker in search of a problem, with any warmth offered by the layperson’s intrigue, evaporated under the cool white lights of a workbench. So let’s take another look at one of the best-looking skeleton dials out there. One of the finest open-worked watches on the market right now (and one that, paradoxically, didn’t make our list of skeletonised watches) is the Royal Oak Double Balance Wheel Openworked from Audemars Piguet. Visually, this pink gold case, with predominantly steel movement architecture, is everything you’d expect — that classic RO case and bracelet looking boss, with a deep, complex open-worked dial. And while legibility is the main concern here (there’s not a heap of contrast between the movement and those gold hands, compared to earlier versions with a grey movement finish), it quickly becomes apparent that the titular double balance, nestled at eight o’clock is the star of the…
When you think digital watch, the first thing that comes to mind might be a Casio, with a clear digital display, a couple of functions and a light. You don’t think mechanical watch, and you certainly don’t imagine a watch that has its place in the upper echelons of haute horology. But this is exactly what you get with the A. Lange & Söhne Zeitwerk Date, a watch with a clear digital display, and now with an additional function. First released in 2009, the Zeitwerk was a new way to communicate time with a mechanical wristwatch, employing a pair of windows that respectively showed the hours and minutes, read from left to right as you would with any digital display. In an expression of Teutonic symmetry, the running seconds and power reserve are displayed at 6 o’clock and 12 o’clock respectively, giving the unusual dial layout a wonderful symmetry and sense of precision (a broader precision discussed at length here). A decade later, the Zeitwerk gets more complex, now with a date function. While this may seem a relatively trivial addition, the layout of the dial meant adding a date window would disrupt the design, wherever it was placed. The…