HANDS-ON: Chanel’s exceptional Boy.Friend Skeleton
Gender-fluid. If you were born yesterday or became acquainted with pop culture only last year, you could be forgiven for thinking – based on the excitable talk among style-and-social commentators – that it’s a newly minted concept. Not so. The 1970s: boys wearing their hair longer than girls; 1966: Yves Saint Laurent’s Le Smoking … and so on, back through time. And watches: Cartier’s Tank, Rolex’s Datejust and Day-Date – those designs were always androgynous. And so to a watch that easily makes my Top 10 for the year: Chanel’s Boy.Friend Squelette or Skeleton if you prefer. Intentionally gender-neutral, it’s pitched as a women’s watch but it’s a world away from girly. And it’s equally far from butch: its Y chromosome is expressed as a very Parisian and urbane type of masculine elegance. The lines of the octagonal case – more accurately, a rectangle with its corners clipped off – is derived from Chanel’s first watch, the Premiere, but in Boy.Friend mode (which first appeared in 2015) the lines look tauter and sleeker. That’s largely thanks to its stepped bezel and svelte dimensions – the Squelette comes in at a shade under eight-and-a-half millimetres thick. Held inside that frame is a…
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Nicholas Alexander Kalikow is a producer, director, screenwriter and photographer. He loves being on set and working with talented people to make films and take photos. Hi Nicholas, what’s your daily watch and why? Right now it’s a Patek 5167A Aquanaut. I like it because most people don’t know what it is and I can wear it with jeans and a T-shirt or a tux. And a Rolex 16710 GMT II Pepsi. I think the Pepsi GMT is the coolest watch around and incredibly useful if you travel a lot or have business in multiple time zones (like I do). What else is in your collection? Have you got a favourite? I have a few Tudors, Heuers and Rolex watches from the ’50s to the early ’80s. Highlights include a Tudor Snowflake Sub, an Omega Speedy 321, and a Rolex 5513 and 1016 (both of which I bought before the prices shot up). Right now my favourites are my 1969 Rolex 1675 GMT and a Heuer 2446C Autavia GMT. How did you find yourself collecting watches? Do you remember your first piece, and do you still have it? Like many kids with dyslexia, I had a hard time learning my left…
Editor’s note: The perennially popular IWC Pilot’s Chronograph is one of those iconic modern tool watches that can pull off almost any occasion, thanks to its handsomely utilitarian design. To prove just how versatile it is, Andy recently spent some time with the Spitfire at Goodwood. And while I could start waxing lyrical about the much loved classic or by quoting Top Gun, I’ll stop myself and hand it over to my wingman Felix to buzz the tower (sorry not sorry). If you’ve been paying even marginal attention to IWC over the past seven months, you’ll have noticed it’s on a bit of an aviation kick, refreshing the entire Pilot’s family and adding some tantalising novelties like the limited edition ‘Le Petit Prince’ edition of the Big Pilot and the ingenious Timezoner. Impressive as these are, they’re not the bread and butter of IWC’s Pilot’s line. That falls to fresh faces like the Mark XVIII, and updated stalwarts like this one, the Pilot’s Chronograph. If you were to look quickly at this new reference (IW377710, or IW377709 on Santoni leather) next to the outgoing IW377701 you could be forgiven for thinking they were the same watch. But take another look, and numerous small tweaks become…
In an unusually candid on-stage interview, Chris Hemsworth has revealed that he often buys watches for his support staff when a movie wraps and that his relationship with TAG Heuer started when he was gifted a watch after the 2013 movie Rush. “I think TAG Heuer probably realised I was into the brand when I started buying more of them for myself and my team to celebrate the end of a movie. I don’t mean hundreds of people, just my chef, my trainer, my stuntman.” Hemsworth, who became one of the brand’s global ambassadors in 2015, was the guest of honour at the ’55 Years of Carrera’ event at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art that also housed an exhibition of rare TAG Heuer and Heuer Carrera models, dating back to the first ever Carrera from 1963, which was named after the legendary Carrera Panamericana Mexico road race. Since the mid-’90s, the Carrera has emerged as the centrepiece of TAG Heuer’s range and has evolved into three distinct pillars – retro, contemporary and futuristic – that we will soon explore in a video. Called ‘Museum in Motion’, the exhibition also features modern Carreras, including the new TAG Heuer Carrera Tête de…
Editor’s note: Well, it’s been a year since this one was first published. And while a lot has changed over the last 12 months, a few things remain the same. I keep getting older, like a kid on Christmas morning I still look forward to even-numbered days, and I still love a strap change. Most importantly, though, the LHD is still on my wrist and it looks and feels as good today as it did when I first picked it up. Late last year I celebrated a milestone birthday, turning the big three-zero. After coming to terms with the death of my twenties and realising that the big moments in life should be celebrated not mourned, I decided the occasion needed to be marked with a new watch. Thankfully, my wife agreed, so a budget was set and the search was on: I began the task of shortlisting contenders. The top pick changed more times than I feel comfortable admitting, but finally, one watch prevailed — the practical and modern Tudor Pelagos. The only thing left to decide was the dial colour. The easily wearable black dial? Or the vibrant blue? Then, to throw a spanner in the works, the week I was ready to…
Skeletonised watches — where the solid dial, and in some cases the entire movement, has been pared down and stripped away to leave the bare bones of the architecture — can be something of an acquired taste. And, as with all watches, the look can vary greatly, from ultra traditional to modern, depending on the execution. But at their heart, skeleton watches allow you to see more of your watch, exposing the complicated beauty to the wider world. Here are six of the best skeleton watches we’ve seen this year. Panerai L’Astronomo Luminor 1950 Tourbillon Moon Phases Equation of Time Let’s kick things off with one of the big dogs of SIHH: the Panerai L’Astronomo Luminor 1950 Tourbillon Moon Phases Equation of Time. Epic name, epic watch. Believe it or not, this is the first time Panerai has ever made a moon phase watch. But, as you can see, this is so much more than that, with an intricate, exceptional tourbillon and detail for days. Raymond Weil Freelancer Calibre RW1212 A little simpler, but no less skeletonised than the Panerai, is Raymond Weil’s latest take on their RW1212, a movement they’re justifiably proud of, and clearly keen to show off to…