A Masterpiece, a celebration, a triumph – for their 180th Anniversary, the Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon 3 Jubilee completes the brand’s  “Tribute to Antoine LeCoultre” with a piece which may take styling inspiration from pocket watches of the 19th Century, but which also has some ingenious features – and it is quite simply stunning.

So, which to admire first – the new trick features, the panorama of gently overlapping indications or the fine hand-finished minutiae?  All are admirable, all are meritorious.

First, the compelling spectacle of the gyrotourbillon, seen before – but not like this.  This timepiece features a flying tourbillon + blued gold balance + spherical-shaped balance-spring.  It is innovational, it is inventive – two carriages, one hundred parts and a total weight of less than a gram, and its creation is possible not just  because of the skills of those involved but also through the use of some thoroughly modern machining hardware.

Naturally such a micro-mechanical wonder deserves and gets a generous opening through which it can be ogled at.  But – above it there is more – a day/night indicator, a perfectly proportioned hours and minutes dial and something new, an instant-jump digital chronograph, appearing for the first time in a Grande Complication watch – and it is operated via a very tradtional single push-piece – brilliant.

The Gyrotourbillon 3 has outstanding finishing, the opaline silvered hours and minutes dial has been furnished with new Dauphine hands, the day/night indicator is part hand-punched and part applied with resplendant blue to represent the night sky, the chronograph dial has a sunray rhodium-plated finish and the mainplate has been manually hammered, thus  perfect synchronicity of  traditional aesthetics with the cutting-edge is achieved.

The Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon 3 Jubilee will be a limited edition of 75 pieces presented in a 43.5mm extra-white platinum case.

More information at Jaeger-LeCoultre.

More Jaeger-LeCoultre in our extensive archives.

Popularity: 2% [?]

This is superb, the newly unveiled Audemars Piguet Tradition Tourbillon Minute Repeater Chronograph – contained within its thoroughly vintage-inspired case is a triple complication movement.

Face-on the exquisite one minute tourbillon opening immediately draws the eye, but the hand-wound AP Calibre 2874 contained within the curvaceous case also features a column wheel chronograph and a minute repeater complication.  Such a trio of complex mechanisms is naturally impressive  but -  this piece is also entirely hand-crafted and assembled and its creation is measured not simply in hours, but hundreds of hours, such is the superior level of skills involved – perhaps most evident in the miniscule hammers of the minute repeater which have been enhanced with both mirror finishing and hand bevelling.

On the silvered opaline dial everything except the tourbillon is diminutive – the petite gold applied numerals, the delightful open-worked hour and minute hands, the eyelash-slender central chronograph hand – even the 30 minute counter is muted.  A barely there hairline railtrack follows the cushion-shape of the case, its addition a subtle and delicate feature.   The case measures 47mm across and is crafted from titanium with a white gold bezel, caseback, crown and pushers – materials especially chosen for their acousics.

The Audemars Piguet Tradition Tourbillon Minute Repeater Chronograph will be available in a limited edition of just 10 pieces.

Press release images do not do this piece justice – view a live wrist shot here.

Or peruse our Audemars Piguet archives.

Popularity: 1% [?]

IWC’s new partnership with the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team not only provides a superfast global billboard for the brand, it also inspires an array of new Ingenieur models including this one, the IWC Ingenieur Constant-Force Tourbillon.

Fans of IWC who value complexity and technical achievement will place this one uppermost on their wish list, because it features not only the superb unfussyness synonymous with the Ingenieur,  but also a very fine horological feather in IWC’s cap – the constant-force mechanism integrated in a tourbillon, which promises to ensure a regular supply of energy whether the mainspring is fully wound or running down – now available in an Ingenieur model for the first time.

Naturally such a technical triumph demands dial domination appearing at 9 o’clock, but there is more to admire.  An exceptionally realistic double moon phase at one o’clock shows both hemispheres with surface detailing visible even without a loupe and a new retrograde power reserve is located at 4 o’clock.

Inside, the IWC handwound 94800 calibre has two barrels producing a power reserve of 96 hours, its fine finishing and motorsport-inspired forms viewable through the sapphire caseback.

The new IWC Ingenieur Constant-Force Tourbillon comes presented in a 46mm platinum and ceramic case, more details at the official IWC website.

Or perhaps 3 other new fine and dapper Ingenieur timepieces featured here.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Newly presented, five years in the making – this is the Roger Dubuis Excalibur Quatuor.  Looks different, is different.  It is slightly industrial, thoroughly mechanical, and totally magnificent in every way,  and although the SIHH 2013 presentations to the press have only just started, it could well be the star of the show.

It is confounding, is it not that the tricky, complex Tourbillon is in fact not a “complication” at all, merely a resolution to the problem of timekeeping accuracy, originally devised for the upright stance of the waistcoat-confined pocketwatch.  It has, however, come to represent the skills of the watchmaker, such is the degree of difficulty of its construction and assembly.  A Tourbillon will compensate for gravity, making its fine adjustments over 60 seconds.  At Roger Dubuis, Gregory Bruttin and his team have a new solution, a movement which makes its adjustments instantaneously.

The Excalibur Quatuor features four visible balance wheels each at an angle of 45 degrees, working in pairs to achieve immediate rate adjustments regardless of the position of the timepiece.  Five differentials link the balances to the gear train.  Each balance operates at 4Hz, resulting in an astonishing rate of 16Hz,  a rate so fast that the hours and minutes almost become subordinate to the animation occuring in the wings.  Even the power reserve indication is new technology, taking the form of a dual crescent shape.  Five years of research and development were invested in the creation of the Roger Dubuis Manufacture Calibre RD0101 which comprises of 590 components.

Through the caseback is a panorama which is definitive of Haute Horlogerie anatomy.  A chance to view the depth, the micro-mechanics, the science of watchmaking, the wizardry and the exquisite.  A movement more than worthy of its Geneva Seal stamp of approval, and the exemplary finishing which it demands.

Such a timepiece is technical in the extreme, but there is also beauty to behold in the arrangement of such an extraordinary compendium of forms.  Face-on the clover-leaf outline is expressive and quite delicate, anthracite contrasts with a white minute track and pink gold adds both luxury and warmth and of course, the notched Excalibur bezel provides a chunky, manly frame.

I wrote last week about the re-kindling of the Roger Dubuis brand in the hands of Richemont.  For those who were disapproving and unsure if the extravagance and spirit of such a previously independent watchmaking company could be maintained under such a large corporate umbrella, perhaps the Roger Dubuis Excalibur Quatuor should provide an answer.  Fear not, the drama is back.

More information and specs at the Roger Dubuis website here.

More Roger Dubuis?  Allow me to educate you with my SIHH 2013  preview  here.

Popularity: 1% [?]

In the lead-up to SIHH 2013, Cartier have already released details of the new chunky and manly Calibre de Cartier Chronograph, the full-bodied and handsome Rotunde de Cartier Perpetual Calendar and this piece, the Cartier Ballon Bleu Tourbillon Dual Time Jump Hour.

There is much to admire in this unusual dial which features a trio of focal-points, each with its own island-like reserve of space, each resting atop a background of superb perlage.  This is a traditionally styled, yet modern piece, and is one  which is entirely representative of Cartier’s self-imposed raising of the bar to Haute Horlogerie standards which, with Carole Forestier-Kasapi in charge of development has seen the continued production of in-house calibres, worthy of the Geneva Seal.

The two hour dials oppose eachother – one large, the other diminutive; one stencil-cut to its bare bones, the other snailed; one with highly recognisable bold Roman numerals, the other with Arabic numbers appearing in their most plain, basic form, and at 6 o’clock, a superb tourbillon with its elevated “C” bridge also demands attention.

The whole design is so satisfyingly rounded that nothing disrupts its form, not even the slightly quirky railtrack which curves to accommodate the circular cradle which surrounds the splendid cabochon crown.  The case is large, at 46mm but promises to wear slender at just under 14mm high.

Two editions of the Cartier Ballon Bleu Tourbillon Dual Time Jump Hour will be available, white gold or rose gold, each strictly limited to 50 pieces.

More details at Cartier’s official website.

Or perhaps a glimpse at the (… thoroughly gorgeous) Rotunde de Cartier Perpetual Calendar Chronograph here.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Roger Dubuis “The only Manufacture to be 100% Poinçon de Genève certified”  This is the mantra which you will see again and again with each navigation through the company’s new website.  Quite an achievement, one which perhaps you would associate with a watch brand whose history is measured in decades if not hundreds of years – not so, the first Roger Dubuis watches only appeared in 1996, and a glance at their collection reveals not the classical styling you may envisage from such an accolade, but a selection of unconventional, technical and slightly theatrical timepieces which simply demand closer attention and inspection.

Often, in the business of watch production the chance meeting of two individuals leads to the shared realisation of ambitions, where dreams become reality and the impossible becomes possible.  Such is the case with Roger Dubuis Horloger Genevois.

Carlos Dias, businessman, innovator, designer was a watch enthusiast from an early age.  A childhood spent in and around his father’s motorbike factory had taught him that self-sufficient production was the only sure way to avoid the pitfalls of an inadequate supply chain.

As a schoolboy Roger Dubuis was already involved in horology, spending most of his time in the shadow of the village watchmaker, fascinated by the rituals of disassembly, cleaning and assembly of movements.  His studies at the Geneva Watchmaking School were followed by positions at Longines and Patek Philippe, but it was at Galerie d’Horlogerie Ancienne (later known as Antiquorum) where the two men would meet.  Sr. Dias had found his Master Watchmaker.

The two men co-founded SOGEM – Société Genevoise de Montres – with the first pieces presented to the industry in 1996.  Carlos Dias may have brought the energy, design flair and strong production principles to the new business, but it was in admiration for his colleague’s ingenious watchmaking skills that when established, the company was re-named Roger Dubuis.

The spectacular rise of Roger Dubuis is well documented.  The company became a fully fledged Manufacture by 1999, Carlos Dias had realised his vision for independent production methods and Roger Dubuis had brought to the company his experience and expertise, creating a range of astoundingly complicated movements. The  portfolio featured models which were as extravagant as they were audacious, bringing previously unseen outsize cases to the genre of Haute Horlogerie.  Slightly peacocky but also supremely technical some of the pieces were also given dramatic titles – “MuchMore”, “FollowMe” and ” TooMuch”.  The development of such extravagance was perfectly timed for the years of consumerism of luxury high-end timepieces which began in 2003 and which would continue for half a decade.

The number of references was expansive, but strictly limited to 88 or 28 models, each deliberately featuring the fortuitous number 8.  But beneath the theatre was the persuit of perfection – fastidious craftsmanship, Haute Horlogerie finishing and standards of in-house production which would lead to that most prestigious of quality assurance, the Geneva Seal.

A state-of-the-art facility, the Meyrin Manufacture opened in 2001.  By 2003 the company had a workforce of 180 individuals, but in September of the same year Roger Dubuis retired, leaving behind the watchmakers he had trained personally to continue his legacy and Carlos Dias to maintain his role of Chairman and Managing Director.

The development continued in his absence.  By 2007 the Manufacture had 28 calibres with which to equip its porfolio, but perhaps the demise of the Roger Dubuis watchmaking company as we knew it had already began.  This was a brand built on exhuberant aesthetics and one which had neither the classical styling nor the heritage of some of the older and more traditional watch brands on which to fall back on.  Production costs of such small series models was surely extreme with the manufacture of components which would meet the required standards of the Geneva Seal reputably taking 40% more time to create than those of standard quality – and the marketplace was in freefall.

In September 2007 it was announced that Richemont had purchased the component production facility of Roger Dubuis.  Six months later they had also acquired a controlling interest in Manufacture Roger Dubuis SA.

Richemont had much to gain – the facilities to produce everything, balance springs included and the expertise to do so to the exacting standards of the Geneva Seal would naturally be advantageous to its other watchmaking companies, but for Roger Dubuis, Richemont could provide what it had been lacking – a clear marketing and distribution strategy and also the patience that security and financial strength bring in order to allow the brand to re-establish a niche for itself thus gaining a new and wider customer base.

George Kern, a dynamic and decisive individual became the new CEO of Roger Dubuis, albeit temporarily, and although his tenure was set to be a relatively short one, it would remain to be seen how a brand like Roger Dubuis would emerge having been restrained for the first time and how bringing order to such a portfolio could be achieved while maintaining the essence and character of the brand.

Last year a new collection, La Monégasque was unveiled.  It offered models in stainless steel or gold and variations of time only with small seconds, chronograph or the limited edition “Big Number” shown above, but more importantly it re-captured the spirit of a Roger Dubuis original – the 1996 Sympathie, evidence that despite its new ownership the true DNA of the brand was not to be ignored – to the contrary, it was to be celebrated….. and in an almost unheard of scenario, while the new collection was being created in double-quick time, M. Roger Dubuis returned to his once “orphaned” watchmaking business in the role of both ambassador and consultant.

These are exciting new times for Roger Dubuis, this year is set to be the “Year of the Excalibur” with new editions including the truly amazing and reassuringly extravagant Excalibur Table Ronde which we will feature in the coming days and  more will be unveiled at the upcoming SIHH 2013, but, for now enough – I fear I am already unashamedly smitten.

View the Roger Dubuis Official Website here.

Popularity: 1% [?]

The new simplified structure of the Girard-Perregaux portfolio, which I wrote about recently will concentrate on some of the brand’s best known collections as well as some new and exciting projects to be unveiled later in the year.

For now, we  feature the new Girard-Perregaux 1966 Minute Repeater Annual Calendar and Equation of Time, a model which personifies GP’s commitment to the collection which was originally created to celebrate a time when the company achieved recognition for its research and development with regard to high frequency movements.

The addition of the highly complex Minute Repeater mechanism and the challenge of re-designing a watchcase required to resonate its acoustics ensures that the 1966 collection, a favourite of many Girard-Perregaux enthusiasts, now has another model placed firmly in the upper echelon of haute horlogerie.

Despite the quirky compendium of shapes, forms and sizes of the indications Girard-Perregaux’s designers have achieved a harmonious dial balance.  The pointer date, the largest dial indication located between one and two o’clock should dominate, but strangely it does not.  Its opposite, the more diminutive month aperture also demands immediate attention, perhaps thanks to its downward pointing applied marker which draws the eye toward it.  Further equipoise is to be discovered in the arc of the Equation of Time indication and the activity of the seconds dial at 9 o’clock.  Such symmetry requires design dexterity and much consideration.

Finishing will be to fastidious standards, from the silver sunburst dial with its individually applied diamond powder-coated hands and markers to the Girard-Perrgaux in-house calibre E09-0003 with its rhodium-plated and circular grained plates and hand bevelled and decorated bridges.

The Girard-Perregaux 1966 Minute Repeater Annual Calendar and Equation of Time is presented with a re-designed and slightly upsized 42mm pink gold case and will be a limited edition of 15 pieces.

More information and specs at the brand’s official website

My previous article regarding the new simplified structure of the Girard-Perregaux portfolio here.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Linde Werdelin ended last year with a superb hat-trick of SpidoLite II editions and now they follow those up with something equally special, the Oktopus II Moon.

So – having developed a new innovative approach of how a Diver’s watch should display information, with the acclaimed LW Reef and having perfected the abrupt angles, slants and slopes of its complex case, Linde Werdelin turn their attention to realising their ambitions for in-house mechanics – the Oktopus II Moon features the “first in-house complication entirely conceived, developed and produced” by the company.  Naturally they are rather chuffed with this achievement, and since they haven’t made a dud yet in their decade of watchmaking, naturally it’s a stunner.

The Oktopus II series features a 3D dial with stencil-work, skeleton-work and ripple effects, making for a most interesting of dive watch faces.  For this piece the moon disc rests at the bottom of a trio of layers and its photorealistic replication of the current moon cycle which rotates clockwise will provide a compelling panorama by day and with its luminescent qualities, will offer a stunning after dark perspective well worth turning back your cuff for.

The complex 44mm case with its five-part construction represents what I feel makes Linde Werdelin watches so exceptional – the amalgamation of cutting edge machinery with the fastidious hand-finishing that only the human touch can achieve and each Oktopus II Moon will be blasted with microbillé followed by hand satin and polish finishing.

Initially two versions of the Oktopus II Moon will be released, a 12 piece  Rose Gold Titanium case edition,  and a 47 piece Titanium Black DLC edition, and as with all previous Linde Werdelin models, demand will outstrip supply – naturally.

More from LW at their official site.  More marvelous LW stuff reviewed by us here.

Popularity: 1% [?]

New for 2013 is the  Piaget Emperador Coussin XL Ultra-Thin Minute Repeater watch.

Piaget make the art of creating ultra-thin mechanical watch movements seem almost effortless.  When I write about their extraordinary timepieces, naturally I am inclined to measure their achievements in millimetres.  This Emperador model however, also measures its creation in the hours taken to craft its slender form such are the horological challenges involved.  Three years in the making with six highly skilled individuals assigned to it only scratches the surface of its many press released statistics – because not content with just reducing a calibre’s thickness to its most minimised minimum, Piaget have managed to slip in a Minute Repeater complication, and in order to make this piece the world’s thinnest self-winding movement of its kind in production, have also squeezed in the kinetic structure required to power it.

The 1290P calibre inside this watch is just 4.8mm thick and consists of 407 parts assembled and arranged in a case measuring under 10mm.  But this skinnying of components is not the only astounding feat – a minute repeater, by its very nature also needs resonance, which generally means space – so that slender case is, as you might imagine complex in the extreme and has been hollowed out where possible in order to obtain the purity of sound that a chiming watch deserves.

Some modifications were needed, the hammers have been relocated to the bridge side and the on-demand repeater slide pushes downwards rather than upwards.  There are additional trick features – an inertia flywheel ensures regulation for the start and finish of the chimes and an instant hour jump at the end of the 59th minute aids precision.  That the piece also has water resistance to 30m, despite the need for a case-side slider, is a subtle achievement but an astonishing additional feature nonetheless.

Finishing is exemplary, inside and out.  I particularly like the dialside handworked sunburst finish which is mirrored by the eye-lash slim elongated markers.  Added wrist presence comes thanks to the handsome cushion-shaped 48mm Emperador case created for this edition in pink gold.

The Piaget Emperador Coussin XL Ultra-Thin Minute Repeater will be a limited edition of 10 pieces, more information from Piaget.

Think less is more? How about last year’s  Piaget Altiplano Skeleton Ultra-Thin the world’s thinnest self-winding skeletonised watch?

Popularity: 1% [?]

If you value uniqueness, artisan skills and originative use of materials, the Nordic Seasons limited edition series from GoS Watches was one of the collections of last year.

Master Bladesmith Johan Gustafsson and Master Watchmaker Patrik Sjögren are the talents behind GoS Watches, and both individuals and both of their talents combine with such empathy that the marriage of their skills is not simply wholly compatible, it is one which produces timepieces of unmitigated beauty.

Naturally the Nordic Seasons collection engendered four models, each a veritable feast for the eyes, each exquisite and each extremely limited in numbers thanks to the handcrafted nature of the pieces.  Each model is made from “tempered pattern-welded steel also known as Damascus steel” but the collection is enlivened by Johan’s hand-forged designs which have a nullifying effect on the starkness you would normally expect from such a material, making each an outstanding artform in miniature.

The dial of the Winter edition, the final piece in the collection is, of course thematic of the raw, piercing icyness that the season brings to the Swedish landscape, yet it manages to be no less scintillating than its predecessors.  At the dial edge, the handworked Gothic-esque index ring provides a worthy frame for the intensity of the explosive pattern and the shorthened, playfully chubby sword-shaped hands complement it further still.

More information on this superb collection is available at the GoS website and you can read the full introduction to GoS watches in my previous article here, with additional images.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Girard-Perregaux have recently released two new models, a new Sea Hawk which I will feature in the coming weeks and this – the totally handsome Chrono Hawk – perhaps the most important new watch released by Girard-Perregaux in recent times.

Changes are a-foot at Girard-Perregaux.  In July 2011 PPR (you will perhaps know them as the “Gucci Group”) took a majority holding in Sowind (GP and JeanRichard).  For PPR this naturally means a foothold into the world of in-house Haute Horlogerie and for Sowind the personnel changes made are now filtering down into what the public see -  their portfolios.

A few years ago Zenith appointed a new boss, Jean-Frédéric Dufour.  He inherited the mammoth task of slimming down the collection of models which the brand had amassed in previous years.  His trimming down of Zenith’s portfolio helped the company re-discover the classical styling and traditional values which had made the brand so special in the first place.  Recent models, in particular the trio of superb Pilot’s watches of 2012 bear witness to his successful new vision for Zenith.

Similarly Michele Sofisti, the new director of operations of Sowind has made a number of key changes,  notably the rejuvenation of JeanRichard.  But what of Girard-Perregaux?  Such a company, with its heritage of historic watchmaking would surely require careful handling.  Last year’s appointment of Dominique Loiseau should bear some very technical horological fruit in the near future, but already the portfolio is being tweaked with some slimming down of its collections.  In the pipeline will be a new collection for women (bravo!) and it will be Baselworld this year, not SIHH which will provide the showcase for new models.  But for now an identified shortfall in that most lucrative and crowd-pleasing of genres gets his team’s attention – that of men’s sports watches, and in double-quick time a new and very important addition has been created, the Chrono Hawk – a piece representative of the new administration and its new vision for Girard-Perregaux.

The Chrono Hawk conforms to all the requirements of a modern sports timer – slightly sculpted case, spot-on sizing at 44mm, interesting but readable dial, superbly integrating strap.  Steel construction ensures mid-pricing with the option to add techy and pricey materials later.

There are many subtleties to enjoy on this cleverly designed piece – the dial recesses deeply, falling away from the brushed bezel, there is more recessing on the counters which are snailed in the centre and on the sculpted caseside the pushers incline gently.  There is symmetry too – in the bi-compax dial layout and in its repeating honeycomb  background which replicates the company’s arrow-head bridge.

Inside is the in-house GP 3300 calibre with chronograph module, viewable through caseback sapphire.  The Chrono Hawk will be available with a choice of black or white dial – same watch, completely dissimilar in appearance but both with comparative degrees of desirability especially if you are partial to a chronograph dial of such equipoise.  Which I am.

More information and specs at the Girard-Perregaux website.

My other Girard-Perregaux Articles here.

Popularity: 1% [?]

The Rudis Sylva RS12 Grand Art Horloger is a unique timepiece made by an equally unique watchmaking company.  Rudis Sylva seeks not only to promote its own collection of fine watches and those responsible for their creation, but also takes a holistic approach and seeks to focus on, and highlight the collaborative skills of artisan watchmaking throughout the industry.

Even by its very name, Rudis Sylva pays hommage to the creation of watchmaking in the Jura region, for which Jean Ruedin sought and gained tax relief for individuals who were willing to clear the heavily forested hauts plateaux of the area and to live and work there.  That such tax benefits would populate the area would be in no doubt, but life in such a region would bring its own hardships – isolation and harsh winters during which resourcefulness would be required in order to supplement a farmer’s sporadic income.  Just as here in Ireland, where historical cottage industries such as lace-making, weaving and bogwood sculpting became vital to a rural community’s survival, the new population displayed similar inventiveness which began with the production of tools and which evolved into the manufacture of watch and clock components from the 17th Century, with La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle providing a marketplace where the goods could be sold.

The Rudis Sylva RS12 Grand Art Horloger is a timepiece on which the indication of the hours and minutes is secondary to its mechanisms, its craftsmanship and its panorama of handfinishing.  This is a watch which has been passed from workbench to workbench in order that  many artisan disciplines can achieve  its finished form.   But – this watch not only showcases the superb artisan techniques of the past, but also the cutting edge, the progressive and the seemingly impossible….

In watchmaking, a balance, so the theory goes should not be “stressed”- so, how about twin toothed balances linked together and driven by a single escapement,  whose symmetry and energy are in constant opposition?  Such a mechanism should be infeasible, but the Harmonious Oscillator which Rudis Sylva unveiled in 2009  constantly and instantly corrects and compensates for the effects of gravity regardless of its position, making its setting abilities even more accurate  than that of a traditional tourbillon, and as the cage completes each 60 second circumvolution, it is a  mesmeric spectacle.

The RS12 Grand Horloger, the third timepiece from Rudis Sylva with the Harmonious Oscillator is available in a 44mm rose gold or white gold case which features meticulous vertical satin finishing on the case-side, with constrasting polishing on the bezel.  The movement’s main plate has been guilloche-worked with an eye-pleasing pyramid detail, the seconds indicator bridge made from titanium has been hand-bevelled, more bevelling is showcased on the seconds indicator ring and the hour and minutes dial provides a further constrast with its sundial decoration.  On the caseback the “Ultima Forsan” sundial is reproduced in true artisan style – in fact, extrinsically and  intrinsically, the Rudis Sylva RS12 Grand Art Horloger is a timepiece which defines the essence of Haute Horlogerie.

More at the Rudis Sylva Official website.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Cartier add a new chronograph to their already acclaimed Rotunde de Cartier collection – not only that – they have  paired it with a perpetual calendar complication and, as you’d expect it is simply superb.

The Cartier Rotunde de Cartier Perpetual Calendar Chronograph is available in two editions, white gold with silver dial – or this, a satisfyingly addictive, full-bodied and handsome rose gold case version with a delicious chocolate brown dial. Images suggest georgeous …..  I suspect it will look even more agreeable on the wrist.

There is a certain mellow-ness in the combination of rose gold with chocolate brown, especially in men’s wristwatches – the Maurice Lacroix  Masterpiece Roue Carrée Seconde Or Rose was sublime, Chopard produced the similarly expressive L.U.C. XPS Poinçon de Genève for the 125th Anniversary of the Geneva Seal, and for this piece, Cartier manage to make even a busy dial seem almost surreal, such is it’s intensity.

The dial features a compendium of  contrasting shapes, forms and finishes.  There are hammer-tipped hands, pencil-shaped hands, sword-edge hands and eye-lash slender extended hands.  There are Arabic numerals and elongated Roman numerals which are nibbled up by the counters.  There is Guilloché, there is snailing and there is satin-finishing.  And there is balance in the layout of the counters, which quietens down the industrious selections of indications so everything remains readable, usable and calm.

On the 42mm case-side  the signature cabochon-set  crown is an eye-pleasing feature and the sleek, protruding pushers beg to be fiddled with.  Inside is a meticulously finished manufacture Cartier Calibre MC9423 with column-wheel chronograph and perpetual calendar functions.

More information on this Cartier Rotunde de Cartier Perpetual Calendar Chronograph at the brand’s official website

And perhaps a look-back at the Maurice Lacroix  Masterpiece Roue Carrée Seconde Or Rose and the Chopard L.U.C. XPS Poinçon de Genève (…two other lucious, deep beauties)

Popularity: 1% [?]

Blancpain have a tradition, each year the Le Brassus manufacture present a limited edition ladies watch in honour of the most romantic day of the year.  Despite the amorous theme, this collection features some serious mechanical timepieces – last year’s watch had a nifty flyback chronograph, the year before that Blancpain added a complete calendar moonphase.  But not this year – on the Saint Valentin 2013 piece just three hands rotate with only a date function for company, for this one, Blancpain shun the complex and concentrate on the cosmetic, but – with a dial which showcases the contrast of pristine mother-of-pearl with the vivacity of some rather exquisite hearts it’s quite a beauty none-the-less.

There is a degree of difficulty in the application of those lucious graduating red hearts, each is applied as liquid before being fired until perfectly solid.  More hearts reside on the case side, even more round the back where a sapphire crystal caseback reveals a rotor embellished with them.  A bezel full of diamonds completes this piece which unlike it’s predecessors will not be limited to 14 pieces, but will be produced in a more attainable edition of 99.

More information at the Blancpain official website.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Linde Werdelin save the best ’til last, their third new edition SpidoLite II is classy, sexy and totally seasonal …. did I just write that about a wristwatch?  … And here it is, the new Linde Werdelin SpidoLite II Black Gold.

Unlike many DLC treated watchcases, this one is illuminated by the use of rose gold – within the layers of its labyrinthine dial, as a frame for its small seconds counter and to construct its rather noble, well-behaved crown.

The whole case in all its sculpted magnificance has been DLC treated and yes, it’s a shadowy and handsome devil, but there are also minutiae to be admired – satin and microbillé finishing enhance the unexpected angles, squared-off edges, the slants and slopes and the deviations from the normal which make the SpidoLite such a covetable watch now, and a classic of the future.

Like the other pieces in this SpidoLite trilogy, the Black Gold edition is  meritorious in the degree of difficulty of its construction, and there is much to be admired -  the automobile-inspired shapes, the perlage, the beauty and depth, the perfectly placed counter, the look-see through to the date disc and of course, the loupe-worthy, fastidious craftsmanship, and like the others demand will outstrip availability – the Linde Werdelin SpidoLite II Black Gold will be limited to 75 pieces.

More information at the Linde Werdelin website

More drool-worthy images in our Linde Werdelin archives

Popularity: 1% [?]