Presented in 2016, the La Chaux-de-Fonds Tourbillon was named in tribute to the city where the brand was founded in 1902 by Paul Arthur Schwarz and Olga Etienne. After exploring some of their watches (such as the Tourbillon Seconde Retrograde) and the manufacture, we now go hands-on with this dial-side micro-rotor flying tourbillon watch.
When you visit the heart and home of Longines, at Saint Imier in the Switzerland’s Jura valley, the brand’s link with skiing is immediately demystified. This is a skiers paradise, and in the early days of the sport’s timekeeping in the 1920s, the Longines watchmakers would not have had to travel far to test their latest custom-built mechanical chronometre. What I also discovered at the Longines museum was that their involvement in sport has spanned more than just equestrian and Alpine skiing related events. The list of innovations in the pursuit of timekeeping precision is impressive and pretty cool to witness firsthand. Today’s focus though, is skiing – and how a simple (but monstrously large) chronograph to time downhill events has evolved into some cutting-edge tech, as explained by Longines President Walter von Känel.
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In our experience, if you’re into intricately constructed, high-performance machines, it doesn’t really matter if they’re intended for the road or your wrist. But, as our favourite young Old El Paso advocate asks, “Why don’t we have both?” So with that in mind, we’ve found three Hublots that are the perfect pairing for three of Ferrari’s finest. The LaFerrari Aperta At the very top of Maranello’s pecking order is the mighty LaFerrari, limited to 150 pieces. It’s as much a work of art as it is an engineering marvel, so it’s only fitting to pair it with the equally hardcore and equally limited MP-05 LaFerrari, with a movement inspired by the eponymous car’s V12 engine. A movement that, by the way, packs a whopping 50 days of power reserve. The 488 Spider The 488 Spider is the latest chapter in the brand’s long history of open-topped V8s, drawing from the legacy of their aggressive ‘80s Targa masterpieces while still being entirely contemporary, thanks in no small part to Flavio Manzoni’s aerodynamic design. To honour this fusion of past and future we opted for one of the most exciting Big Bangs of recent years: the Meca-10, with its powerful (and beautiful)…
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Bear with me this week as I go a little off script. This week’s Wind Down is less about watches and more about all the stuff around them. Fashion. Technology. Business. Fine watchmaking manages to neatly intersect all these areas, informing and being informed by them. On a day-to-day level though, it’s easy to miss the linkages, so this week I’m going to ask a few of the big questions. So settle in, pour yourself a drink, and get ready to ponder. Could the watch industry ever embrace the fake? The prevailing dogma of ‘The Industry’ is that fakes and counterfeiting are anathema to the legitimate watch industry, and should be wiped out like the noxious weeds they are. And rightly so. But still, some of the big luxury brands seem to have recently been taking a more flexible than usual approach to the sanctity of their labels and logos. Don’t believe me? Well, don’t take my word for it, take Mr Porter’s. Though on second thought, perhaps the winds are shifting already? After all, a few years ago who would have imagined Bamford going legit? What happens when fast fashion meets tradition? Fashion is, by definition, fleeting. But these days it seems fleeter…
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It’s one of the cooler features of one of the world’s most unusual public clocks, and no one seems to know it’s there.
Earlier this year we presented the Favre-Leuba Raider Harpoon (read our article here) with its quirky, yet handsome looks. We had to get our hands-on this attention grabbing watch, and the summer gave us the perfect opportunity to wear it on a dive. Soon we found out that we were not the only ones who wanted to get hands-on with it…
A new jewelry brand with high-end movements made in Fleurier.
A new jewelry brand with high-end movements made in Fleurier.
If you’re looking for a great looking and very well priced watch, our ‘Value Propositions‘ will give you a lot to choose from. Apart from the usual suspects (the well known brands) these young start-ups often create watches that they would love to see themselves. And since the major brands do not offer the desired watch (either in terms of style/design and/or price) they give it a go themselves. However without funding they won’t make it, so platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo are ideal for these young entrepreneurs, who are often watch lovers before business men. So is the Polish based brand Balticus who are now launching two bronze dive watches through Indiegogo. One limited edition named the Big Wave, and one non limited edition named the Grey Seal.
The story in a second Got a blacked-out 488 rolling in and looking for the perfect watch to match? Read on. Hublot are masters of both the high-level partnership and the limited edition. Both of these traits are very much to the fore in their freshest round of Ferrari-themed Big Bangs. I recently had the pleasure of spending some time with this not at all under-the-radar carbon version. The case When the Big Bang was first introduced way back in 2005, it was simultaneously outré and appealing. These days the large and (dare we say) iconic modern sports watch is very much an accepted part of the landscape. But familiarity hasn’t lessened the potency of the Big Bang as, like many great designs, it’s a surprisingly malleable canvas, where almost every single element can be changed, while still managing to be clearly recognisable from 10 paces. These days the large and (dare we say) iconic modern sports watch is very much an accepted part of the landscape. But familiarity hasn’t lessened the potency of the Big Bang. Key to this versatility is the case. The modular construction and Hublot’s own dedication to their Art of Fusion design approach means that the…
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