Beat Haldimann Goes Back To The Essential With The New Steel H11 and H12

Purity, an absence of the unnecessary and a focus on the essential… Beat Haldimann unveils his first steel watches with new versions of the no-frill H11 & H12: two superb blue dialed timepieces radiating authentic, uncompromising craftsmanship. We take a hands-on look at these rare objects.

9 years ago

OPINION: The 6 most overused words in the watch industry

A large part of my job is sifting through press releases. After a while they all start reading the same, thanks to the seemingly limited vocabulary of most marketing departments. And you know what the greatest irony is? While these communications have been designed to make the watch they’re talking about stand out and sound unique, the constant, jargonistic repetition of these rote phrases has precisely the opposite effect. Now, it’s only fair to point out that I’m far from guilt-free in this situation. I’m pretty sure I’ve abused all the below words at some point. But you know what they say – admitting you have a problem is the first step on the road to recovery. Icon A quick Google suggests that, outside of specific religious meanings, an icon is something regarded as a representative symbol, or worthy of veneration. Now, if we’re all really honest with ourselves, I suspect that we can count the number of genuinely iconic watches on one hand. Easily. Things get a little trickier if we take a step back from the macro, looking at designs that – while they might not be iconic to the average Jane on the street – are nonetheless a…

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9 years ago

FRIDAY WIND DOWN – 28th April, 2017

We’re calling it. Winter is here. We’ve broken out the light knits and switched the office AC from ‘cool’ to ‘heat’. One thing that’s not cooling down (see what I did there) is the always-exciting world of watch news. SIHH and Basel collections are starting to trickle into local markets, and now that the big fairs are out of the way, everyone seems to be getting stuck into the year in earnest. The other important news is that we’ve made the shift from beer to darker spirits for our (now fortnightly) winding down. Chin Chin! What happened Earlier this year Aldo Magada resigned as CEO of Zenith after almost three years in the role. Well, now we know who Magada’s replacement is – Julien Tornare, a man who’s spent the last 17 years working at Vacheron Constantin. We’re hoping that Tornare will bring some stability to Zenith, which has struggled to regain its feet after the infamous (and nearly fatal) reign of Thierry Nataf. This week we’ve had a (quite unintentional) focus on moon watches, though we’ve been talking about astronomical complications rather than astronauts. Omega has had its mind firmly on the latter category as it kicked off its…

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9 years ago

VIDEO: Explaining a legend – the history of the IWC Portugieser

There’s a good reason the Portugieser collection is one of IWC’s most popular (in Australia at least). It’s a big, commanding watch that nevertheless possesses a grace and charm that belies its large size. This combination makes it one of the go-to statement watches. But did you know that it’s also got the weight of history behind it? A little while ago we chatted with IWC museum curator and general know-it-all David Seyffer for a quick history lesson on the mighty Portugieser.

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9 years ago