There are plenty of watches tied to auto racing, with big brands acting as sponsors to big racing teams and making splashes with special editions. Chopard has taken a drastically different tack from some of its high-profile counterparts in the racing watch space. For some time now, the brand has focused its racing partnerships on two historic races: the Grand Prix de Monaco Historique and the Mille Miglia, the latter of which acts as the name for the brand’s line of sports watches. The Mille Miglia is a legendary 1,000-mile Italian road race (fine, it’s technically 1,005 miles), originally run from 1927 to 1957 as a true road race, and since 1977 as a celebration of classic cars taken at a slightly more leisurely pace. The race runs a round trip from Brescia to Rome and back, and is limited to models that actually entered one of the original races held from 1927 to 1957 — meaning it’s chock full of beautiful vintage automobiles. For 2022, in celebration of the 40th running of the modern Mille Miglia, the brand has released a pair of limited-edition Chopard Mille Miglia 2022 Race Edition watches, offered in stainless steel or two-tone stainless steel and ethical 18k rose gold.
Like prior years’ editions, the Chopard Mille Miglia 2022 Race Edition watches feature a 44mm case with a well-proportioned 13.79mm thickness. While it won’t wear small, it’s a thinner profile than most automatic chronographs, which means it might be a surprise on the wrist. The case’s design is straightforward, which allows the dial to do the talking. On both the stainless steel and the two-tone model, the case is brushed throughout, save for the crown, pushers, and bezel (which are all rendered in ethical 18k rose gold on the two-tone model). The screw-down crown, nestled neatly in the guards, features a steering wheel motif, while the piston pushers have a crisscross knurling. The crown looks designed to be easily gripped and helps to ensure 100m of water resistance. The bezel features a single groove around its side and a decidedly slim ceramic insert in blue with white demarcations inspired by midcentury Italian road signs. The slender bezel is sure to make known the 44mm diameter, though the short, wide lugs may offer some relief. On the reverse, the screw-down caseback features a polished Mille Miglia motif on a frosted background, surrounded by text including the course’s route, “Brescia > Roma > Brescia,” and limited-edition numbering.
Beneath the domed sapphire crystal, Chopard has updated the dial from last year’s Race Edition. The dial is driven by legibility, evidenced by the large hands and indices, along with the contrasting finishes. Surrounding the circular-brushed, silver-gray dial is a sloped chapter ring with five-minute numbering and hashes at each minute plus quarter-minute markings, sure to aid in to-the-second timing. The applied hour markers feature blue CVD-treated markers filled with Super-LumiNova; their design and color are mirrored by the large minute and hour hands. The dial features three subdials as dictated by the 7750 movement: a 30-minute counter at 12, a 12-hour counter at 6, and a running seconds at 9. The two chronograph counters feature partial radial grooving with a red-tipped hand matching the central chronograph hand in a nod to Mille Miglia Red (which, by the way, is a color used by General Motors on the Corvette). The running seconds contrasts those with a solid blued hand and a fully grooved surface. The dial is rounded out by a magnified 3 o’clock date (with the cyclops on the sapphire’s underside) and the Mille Miglia logo.
The Chopard Mille Miglia 2022 Race Edition is powered by a Swiss automatic chronograph movement. It’s not specified by the brand which automatic chronograph caliber this is but given the specs and dial layout, along with the brand’s use of ETA calibers in other models, the good money is on it being an ETA 7750. As specified by Chopard, the movement provides a power reserve of 48 hours and runs at 28,800 bph for a smooth sweep. Chopard has gone the extra step to have the movement chronometer-certified by COSC. While a chronograph is the obvious choice for any racing watch, the modern Mille Miglia is run as a regularity race, where the object is to complete each segment in a specific time at a specific average speed. Although the race officials use GPS, pressure pads, and timekeeping staff to track progress, it won’t hurt teams to have a chronometer-certified chronograph along for the ride to keep their own time. Completing the package, this year’s Race Edition is fitted with a racing strap with a brown leather topside and blue rubber backing with a tread pattern taken from 1960s Dunlop racing tires.
While Chopard may be receiving more acclaim these days for its beautiful Alpine Eagle collection, sleeping on the Mille Miglia is a rookie mistake. Chopard’s interest in motorsports is as deep as it is sincere: as in years past, Chopard Co-president Karl-Friedrich Scheufele will take part in the race in his family’s 1955 Mercedes Benz 300 SL, this year with his daughter Caroline-Marie at his side. The Chopard Mille Miglia 2022 Race Edition is a racing watch from a brand that loves racing, as well as a classic chronograph with an approachable design that commemorates an epic Italian tradition. While 1,000 pieces of the stainless steel Race Edition will be produced, just 250 of the two-tone steel and ethical 18K rose gold model will be made.
Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Air Command
The Blancpain Air Command was originally produced by Blancpain in the 1950s, and was supposedly intended for use by the US Air Force, the US Navy having already adopted the 50 Fathoms diver’s watch. The Air Command was a flyback chronograph, constructed somewhat along the lines of the Type 20 spec, and supposedly 12 watches were made and offered to USAF pilots through Blancpain’s US distributor, Allen Tornek. It’s now an extremely rare grail watch for vintage Blancpain collectors – they’ve appeared at auction very rarely. One is coming up at Phillips Hong Kong later this month, with an estimate of $50-100,000; and prior to that, another one (not the same watch) hammered in 2016, also at Phillips (in the 88 Epic Stainless Steel Chronograph auction) for CHF 100,000.
The lot notes for both watches are pretty much the same in the essentials. The catalogue essay for the 2016 auction reads, ” … scholars have asserted that it was never serially manufactured or commercialized,” and then continues, “Like many other Swiss manufacturers, Blancpain was hit by the quartz crisis and … had to sell many of its assets, including some unfinished watches. With only a handful of specimens of this mythical model known to have survived, it is hard to determine what the exact specifications of the Air Command are.”
It then goes on to say, “However, as some of the Air commands have Blancpain-signed movements, it is possible that examples like the one presented here have only been assembled and fitted with a Valjoux 222 after the sell-off of the cases, dials, bezels and pushers and hands.” While the origins of the original Air Command seem to be destined to remain a mystery (albeit if we had records from the era, many passionate collectors would doubtless be deprived of the pleasure of arguing with each other) it was a handsome flyback chronograph, with classic mid-century instrument-timepiece good looks, and Blancpain has in terms of cosmetics, stayed very close to the original. Indeed, from the dial side, at first glance it would be difficult to distinguish one from the other. The new-for-2019 model is very slightly larger than the original (42mm, vs. 42.50 for the new model). The Arabics are larger in the new model (as is the crown), the word “Flyback” is present in a very subdued fashion on the new guy, and of course, the difference in chronograph pusher positioning gives away the newer movement. The new model has no running seconds, with a 12 hour counter where there was a running seconds on the original; but taken as a whole, it’s a pretty faithful reproduction, right down to the elongated 3-minute markers in the 30 minute register. The new watch, however, has a very different movement from the flyback Valjoux caliber 222 in the vintage model. It uses the Blancpain caliber F388B – this is a column-wheel controlled, flyback automatic chronograph with vertical clutch, and which runs at 5 hertz, or 36,000 vph, giving the chronograph a 1/10 of a second resolution.
If you’re going to do an homage to a vintage model this is a great way to do it. What a lot of us love about vintage watches is, yes, the nostalgia they can evoke, but of course functionally vintage watches are generally inferior to their modern counterparts, especially with the advances in materials technology, lubricants, gaskets and seals, and movement design which the last ten or fifteen years have brought us. The overwhelming tendency from a design standpoint, from modern brands, seems to be to use ecru Super-LumiNova (somewhat ironically, it turns out that “ecru” actually means “raw” or “unbleached”) in an effort to reproduce the look of yellowed radium or tritium paint, but as Jason Heaton mentioned in one of his stories for us, you don’t necessarily have to see this as an attempt to drape oneself in borrowed glory – at this point, and despite the fact that “fauxtina” is a term that seems to be here to stay, you can as easily look at it as just another color choice if you want.
While the new Blancpain Air Command really succeeds in general of capturing the charm of the original vintage model, the one other niggle I can see folks having with it is the propeller-shaped rotor. This is the sort of thing that tends to come across as either an annoying bit of kitsch, or a harmless bit of fun, depending on who you are (and maybe on which side of the bed you got out of this morning). Propeller-shaped winding rotors on aviation-themed watches are, like ecru lume, present in large enough numbers that I personally don’t object to them as much as I did even a few years ago (perhaps this is just a sign of age-related resignation, but I can’t manage to rouse much outrage about it). The rotor in the Air Command is reasonably well done, anyhow, and the rather sober brushed finish the red gold has been given, is pleasantly harmonious with the style in which the rest of the movement has been finished. A propeller on a watch whose design originated in the 1950s is a bit of an anachronism, as by the early 1950s most air forces were falling over themselves trying to switch as fast as possible to jet aircraft, but it’s still a handsome looking rotor.
All praise, incidentally, to Blancpain for omitting a date window – normally I don’t mind them but a date guichet would have been jarringly out of place on this watch (ditto for sticking to a two-register design). Overall, this is a very respectful as well as faithful homage to one of the most interesting, to say nothing of mysterious, vintage Blancpain watches, and the use of modern materials and a modern movement adds significantly to the appeal. These will be produced in slightly larger numbers than the very few surviving vintage Blancpain Air Command watches – Blancpain is offering this watch as a 500 piece limited edition.
Blancpain Bathyscaphe Quantième Complet Phases de Lune
Expanding on a dive watch collection — especially one with such a rich history as the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms — is a challenge at the best of times. Do you stick to classic tool watch roots? Do you step outside the box with a complication or design with more commercial appeal? Do you start toying with unorthodox case materials? There are a lot of ways to go here, and as we’ve seen year after year, the results can be fantastic, just as easily as they can be questionable. We’ve seen Blancpain take some interesting approaches with the Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe collection recently, including the blue ceramic-cased flyback chronograph Ocean Commitment II, but for 2018 we were presented with a couple of very unexpected dive watches from the longstanding brand. The most curious is the complete calendar moonphase (Quantième Complet Phase de Lune, per the brand), taking the classic 43mm satin-brushed Bathyscaphe case, and fitting it with a very vintage-y dressy-feeling triple calendar moonphase complication. It’s weird, it’s confusing, it’s the first and only diver with this complication, but it also makes the mind roam to the much-loved phrase: “That’s so crazy, it just might work!” Will it? Let’s find out.
Of the many details about this latest release, its case design is the least altered when compared to prior Bathyscaphe watches. Entirely brushed in finish, as would be expected of a proper tool watch, the only noteworthy change to the 43mm steel case of the Complete Calendar Moonphase is the addition of a pair of corrector pushers located on the case barrel around the 2 and 4 o’clock position. On one hand, the idea of adding pushers to a 300m dive watch sounds a little sketchy, but in practice we don’t suspect they will cause any issues with water resistance. For one, these will not (we can say will not, and not just might not) engage in serious diving, and flyback chronograph variants of the Bathyscaphe already use non screw-down pushers, at this depth rating, so there’s really nothing to be concerned about here.
Here’s where we get to the good stuff, as there’s a lot going on on the Complete Calendar Moonphase dial. Compared to a conventional 3-hand Bathyscaphe diver, the slate grey sun-brushed dial is definitely a little busy, though it kind of works. Blancpain stuck with the traditional triple calendar moonphase configuration, with the day and week near 12, a pointer date indication, and a large moonphase indication at 6 o’clock. This is a configuration the brand has been using for some time now in the Villeret, though to make it work in the Bathyscaphe is a relocation of its pointer date track. Rather than having this indication at the outer perimeter of the dial, it has been moved inbound of its hour indices. This helps ensure that its minute track is free of clutter when its timing bezel is in use.
As we’ve mentioned, this is a complication the brand has been using for quite some time, and the caliber 6654.P is by no means a new addition to the brand’s repertoire. That said, it’s a well-executed caliber, good for a power reserve of 72 hours, and fitted with a blackened 18k gold decorated rotor. A minor tweak was required to relocate its corrector pushers to the side of its case (rather than between the lugs, as we see in the Villeret line), but otherwise this is a case of grab a caliber from the shelf and find it a new home.
The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe is one of those watches that quickly reminds its wearer that case diameter spec is not a good benchmark of how a watch will be on the wrist. At 43mm across, I wasn’t expecting it to be quite as chunky on the wrist; however (thankfully), it still wasn’t overpowering. The piece was launched on bracelet, NATO, and a sailcloth canvas, the latter of which has consistently proven very comfortable. Its bezel action is as expected from one of the most well-respected dive watch manufacturers out there, and the same can be said for its brightly glowing Super-LumiNova indices.
Spending some time with the Complete Calendar Moonphase, to be frank it took some time for me to warm up to it. Aesthetically, it’s a mighty sharp looking piece, and I’m a fan of how well executed the calendar complication was integrated into a dive watch. At its root, the hangup is entirely the melding of a dress watch complication and a tool watch case. That said, I soon realised how foolish the hangup was. Crossing design codes is something I’ve often encouraged in other categories, and once again acknowledging that this new Replica Blancpain is not meant as a pure tool watch per se … where’s the real harm, right? It’s a sharp-looking watch, it has practical complications, and it’s built to Blancpain’s exacting standards. This is certainly worth a second look if you’re in the market for an out-of-the-ordinary diver from a legacy brand.
Glashütte Original PanoMatic Calendar
Glashütte Original PanoMaticCalendar is welcoming a new complication to its high-end luxury collection, the PanoMaticCalendar with an annual calendar mechanism. This premiere is offered in red gold and a limited platinum execution, with 150 pieces manufactured. Both have an unmistakable style and are bond to make the hearts of aficionados beat faster. By definition, the annual calendar complication is a great companion throughout the year, reliably indicating the day, month and date with taking the different lengths into account. It’s only once a year, on March 1st, that the owner has to advance the date.
It goes without saying that the characteristic large date, aptly called “Panorama Date,” and a beautiful moon phase are also aboard. The innovative retrograde display of the month, beneath a sapphire crystal window between 3 and 6 o’clock, perfectly complements the signature asymmetric design.
With the Glashütte Original PanoMaticCalendar , Glashütte Original also presents a new genuine movement, which celebrates its premiere in two versions at once: as Calibre 92-09 in the unlimited red gold version, and as Calibre 92-10 in the partially skeletonized platinum model. Both movements are rhodium plated and finished to the high standards of this traditional luxury manufacture. The one powering the limited edition is particularly striking; galvanization coats it in an elegant shade of black rhodium. From a technical standpoint, Glashütte Original PanoMaticCalendar this top-notch movement running at 28,800 vph offers a silicon balance spring unaffected by changes in temperature or magnetic fields, a power reserve of 100 hours. The retrograde month display is particularly refined. It can be easily set, just like the date, via the crown.
Frédérique Constant Highlife Chronograph Automatic
Geneva-based manufacturer Frederique Constant presents DJ The Avener as its new brand ambassador. The French artist’s music is characterised by innovation, creativity and modernity. Frederique Constant is also committed to these qualities. These mutual values are the basis of the partnership that is now celebrated with the release of the Highlife Chronograph Automatic. With this watch, the house is adding a chronograph to the Highlife collection for the first time. Initially, there are three versions: Two in stainless steel and one two-tone with rose gold. All of them remain true to the design language of the line and proudly bear the engraving of the earth on the dial. One of the models is limited to 1888 pieces, the other two are available without limitation.
Der schweizer Uhrenhersteller Frédérique Constant Highlife Chronograph Automatic präsentiert den französischen Star-DJ “The Avener” als neuen Markenbotschafter und lanciert anlässlich der Zusammenarbeit die Highlife als Chronograph. Zum ersten Mal wird das Erfolgsmodell der Marke aus Genf mit den Funktionen Start, Stop und Reset ausgestattet und ist in drei Versionen erhältlich. Ob Sie in dem Trio Ihren Favoriten finden, wissen Sie spätestens nach dieser Lektüre, in der wir Ihnen alle wichtigen Informationen zusammengestellt haben.
Die Maison Frédérique Constant Highlife Chronograph Automatic wurde 1988 gegründet, ein Jahr nachdem der französische Künstler und DJ Tristan Casara, alias “The Avener” geboren wurde. Als sich Ihre Wege in diesem Jahr zum ersten Mal kreuzten, wurden die Berührungspunkte in der Ausübung ihrer Leidenschaft schnell offensichtlich. Hier geht es um das Zusammentreffen zweier Welten, die durch eine gemeinsame Mission verbunden sind: Uhrmacher und Musiker, die als Handwerker der Emotion agieren. Bei der Kreation eines Werkes bemühen sich beide darum, die perfekten Noten zu finden, die harmonisch zusammengestellt außergewöhnliche Momente schaffen.
Die 1999 erstmals lancierte Uhrenkollektion der Highlife trat 2020 in neuer Gestalt ins Rampenlicht, allerdings mit einem entschieden zeitgenössischeren Design. Auch hier spiegelt sich die Zusammenarbeit spielend wieder, da auch The Avener großen Spaß daran hat, Klassiker neu zu interpretieren und ihnen einen Hauch von Modernität in einem originellen Elektropop-Stil zu verleihen, der mit Anleihen aus dem Blues, Jazz, Folk oder Soul durchsetzt ist.
Das Zifferblatt jeder Version verfügt über eine klassische Anordnung mit kleiner Sekunde bei 9 Uhr, einem 30-Minuten-Zähler bei 3 Uhr und einem 12-Stunden-Zähler bei 6 Uhr. Drei zentrale, handpolierte Zeiger vervollständigen das Ensemble: zwei Leuchtzeiger für die Stunden und Minuten und ein zentraler Sekundenzeiger des Chronographen. Jedes Modell ist zudem mit einer zweiten, im Alltag nützlichen Komplikation ausgestattet: dem Datum, das diskret in einem eigenen Fenster zwischen 4 Uhr und 5 Uhruntergebracht ist.
Der Gehäuseboden ist mit einem Saphirglas versehen, um den Blick auf das Automatikwerk FC-391 und sein Chronographenmodul zu ermöglichen. Insbesondere das Säulenrad bei 3 Uhr werden Sie trotz Anschnitt auf dem Foto vermutlich sofort erkannt haben. Dieses Kaliber wurde in Zusammenarbeit mit der schweizer Manufaktur La Joux-Perret entwickelt und zeichnet sich nicht nur durch eine bemerkenswerte moderne Bauweise, sondern auch durch ein hohes Maß an Qualität und Verarbeitung aus. Darüber hinaus hat Frédérique Constant Highlife Chronograph Automatic für jedes dieser neuen Modelle eine roségoldene Schwungmasse mit Genfer Streifen entworfen. Die Frequenz liegt bei 28.800 Halbschwingungen pro Stunde (4 Hertz) und die Gangautonomie nach Vollaufzug bei 60 Stunden. Jedes Exemplar ist mit der Gravur „Highlife Chronograph“ versehen und liefert eine Wasserdichtigkeit von 10 bar, was dem Druck in 100 Meter Tauchtiefe entspricht.
Longines Evidenza Replica
Swiss watch company Longines likes to associate the likes of late actors Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn with its new line of watches, the Longines Evidenza, due to its Art Deco look and shape that call to mind the stylishness of many of their movies. But you have to wonder if notoriously hard-boiled Bogie would have approved of the Evidenza men’s stainless-steel chronograph with black dial that flashes a diamond-encrusted bezel. I think he would have wholeheartedly.
Longines says that the watch takes its inspiration from a barrel, or tonneau-shaped, watch that Bogart owned in the 1940s. That watch, first produced in 1925, was inspired by a 1911 model. After seeing the original during the World Watch and Jewelry Show in Basel, Switzerland, last spring, I confess a faint resemblance; however, the Evidenza is a much more extravagant yet elegant timepiece.
All the Longines Evidenza chrongraph, both men’s and women’s, use the same self-winding mechanical movement and a 42-hour power reserve that keeps them ticking when they’re set down. The men’s chronograph is fitted with an L650 movement and a center chronograph hand, 30-minute and 12-hour totalizers at 9 and 6 o’clock, respectively, plus a subdial for seconds at 3 o’clock. The watch has an extra four hours of reserve power.
The diamond-encrusted chrono Longines Evidenza chrongraph comes in the stainless-steel case with either a stainless-steel bracelet ($9,200) or crocodile strap ($9,100). The watch is available without diamonds in pink or yellow gold ($5,100) or stainless steel ($2,300). A pink gold watch has been developed with diamonds, but is as yet unavailable in the United States. The face is either a flat silver or black dial.
Maybe Bogart was talking about a Longines watch when he used this line in the 1953 film Beat the Devil: “Time. Time. What is time? Swiss manufacture it. French hoard it. Italians want it. Americans say it is money.”
The Longines Evidenza chrongraph set in diamonds certainly does look rich and opulent. Or as they say in Hollywood, it looks money.
Bell & Ross BR 03-92 Radio Compass
Sometimes we wonder if Bell & Ross is ever going to run out of flight instrument panel displays to transpose. Since its debut in 2010, Bell & Ross’ ‘Flight Instruments’ series has co-opted everything from radar screens to altimeters on the watches’ dials. In fact, if you had lined the watches up in an aircraft’s cockpit, we’d imagine that even trained pilots would have had second takes, as the timepieces really look like they belong among the legit aviation gauges.
But back to our initial thought. The answer to that, we suppose, is not yet. Now, we don’t claim to be experts on aeronautical equipment, but if the new BR 03-92 Radio Compass is anything to go by, we believe that Bell & Ross’ cache of in-flight design inspirations is far from exhausted.
Similar to earlier ‘Flight Instruments’ models like the BR 01 Climb that depicts the variometer (an instrument that shows the rate of an aircraft’s climb and descent) and the BR 01 Heading Indicator that recalls an aircraft’s gyrocompass that shows where the plane is, well, heading, the BR 03-92 Radio Compass depicts yet another essential flight instrument display that aviation-illiterate watch lovers like us are unaware of.
As the name suggests, the BR 03-92 Radio Compass portrays a plane’s onboard radio receiver on its dial. A vital navigation tool, the radio compass employs radio waves to pinpoint the position and direction of an aircraft via beacons on the ground, guiding pilots on their course. The radio compass is particularly useful in situations where there is low visibility, such as during night flights or flights in heavy fog and rain.
On the BR 03-92 Radio Compass, the instrument is portrayed with a stylised bright orange hour hand and a yellow minute hand (with the letters ‘H’ and ‘M’ included for good measure), accompanied by a green seconds hand. To complete the look, the neon-coloured hands are framed by Arabic numerals in tool watch-style ‘isonorm’ font and five-minute interval markers.
Clad in a 42mm by 42mm matte black ceramic case with black dial and black rubber strap, the watch’s raven-sheathed getup definitely appears like a full-fledged member of the popular ‘Flight Instruments’ family. Though it is essentially a time-and-date-only automatic watch, the BR 03-92 Radio Compass, like the rest of its ‘Flight Instruments’ brethren, injects a bit of fun and context into what would have been a regular ticker. Admittedly, the concept is rather kitschy, but there isn’t an aviation-inspired collection that is quite as novel, intentional and expansive as the ‘Flight Instruments’ collection.
Greubel Forsey Balancier S² Limited Edition
The rarity of the new Greubel Forsey Balancier S² is such that you’re far more likely to encounter a Siberian Tiger in the remotest regions of Eastern Russia than you are another Balancier S² wearer in a packed city boardroom. While there are perhaps 500 Siberian tigers left roaming the planet just 88 of the new Balancier S² models will be issued with as few as 16 per year being released over the next four years into the wild.
Refined, streamlined, powerful, (the watch, not the tiger,) the new Greubel Forsey Balancier S² comes sheathed in lightweight sporty Titanium, chosen for its ease of wear and robustness.
The Greubel Forsey Balancier S² isolates the strongest elements of the original Balancier S and accentuates and modernises them. This latest iteration is all about contrast and power. While it shares the same movement as the first Balancier S, the design codes, the finishing and the casing are all new.
Legibility is stronger with an intense black or grey backdrop that transects the balance bridge between 5 and 9 o’clock. The matt hand grained finish allows the indices to appear more prominent.
Despite its distinct haute horology pedigree, the Balancier S² is designed to be a high-end everyday beater, worn as a comfortable, functional watch day after day. The energy poured into the new model is all about simplification and purification. For this reason, for the first time the central double-arched titanium bridge which holds the gear train is open-worked. The titanium bracelet is sleek and refined, perfectly complementing the titanium case.
With a new slightly enlarged 46.5mm dial, the Greubel Forsey Balancier S² features a brushed titanium bezel with polished flanks. The unmissable hour and minute hands appear to hover above the dial in luminescent white, while the optical illusion of the 30 degree inclined Greubel Forsey balance wheel system adds extra fascination to the workings of the dial. It also has a purpose, in that it works to counteract the minute errors caused by the pull of gravity in a stable position.
The 42-jewels movement operates at a frequency of 3Hz (21600vph) and offers up to 72 hours of power reserve when fully hand wound. That’s right, with this watch, you need to get into the habit of good old fashioned daily hand winding.
But at its haute horology heart, the Balancier S², like its forerunner, is a highly capable three hander sports watch.
Perhaps the best thing about the new iteration of the Greubel Forsey Balancier S² is not what has been added but what has been taken away. The words which surrounded the bezel in the original such as “Perfection” “Architecture” and “Savoir-faire” were superfluous and pretentious. If you have to use descriptors along the bezel to make people understand how clever your watch is, you have rather lost the battle. However, the clean and sporty power-reserve indicator has been retained and it does help to balance the overall visual weight.
Franck Muller Crazy Hours 30th Anniversary
This year, the Swiss luxury watch brand Franck Muller celebrates its Franck Muller Crazy Hours 30th Anniversary. And to mark the special occasion, the company has released a new limited-edition collection of its iconic Crazy Hours watch line. Perhaps that’s why people are expressing a renewed interest in the topsy turvy timepieces that look like they could have come straight out of Alice in Wonderland. In fact, a video of one of the luxury watches in action was recently shared on Reddit, and the clip has received quite a bit of attention.
The short clip highlights the mind-boggling nature of the watch, showing how the numbers on its face are all mixed up; yet, somehow, the hour hand still manages to tell the time correctly. And since it was first posted, the video has garnered more than 1,300 comments discussing the unique watch. Its seeming magical time-telling abilities are all thanks to the watch’s complicated inner mechanics. The numbers are all out of order, but the hour hand compensates for the discrepancy by means of the complex way the watch tourbillon is designed to move.
The company has even released a limited-edition Snoopy-inspired version of the Crazy Hours watches before. Instead of traditional hands, the iconic Peanuts character’s arms tell the time. And he’s even joined by his faithful sidekick, Woodstock. With his arms moving around in the unique Crazy Hours fashion, Snoopy kind of looks as if he’s dancing just like a scene from the famous cartoon. But behind the playfulness of the watch’s design, there’s also a deeper meaning.
Franck Muller Crazy Hours 30th Anniversary describes the luxury Crazy Hours watches as “the realization of a totally innovative approach to the very concept of time…[that] establishes a new philosophy by demonstrating your independence from the order of time.” Or in other words, the watches are designed “to express the concept of time as an abstract construct—that time is ultimately what one makes of it.”
Such a philosophy is befitting a timepiece straight out of Wonderland. And if the White Rabbit was wearing anything like it, that may shed a little more light on why he was so late for his very important date. Scroll down to see the fascinating Franck Muller Luxury Crazy Hours Watches in action.
MB&F Legacy Machine Sequential EVO
MB&F Replica Watch has over the years created a mind-boggling array of mechanical fantasies that are, in essence, incidental objects for telling time. Assuming the most bewildering forms, they have institutionalized a new vocabulary of watchmaking in which mechanics put themselves at the service of hardline aesthetics that lasso in everything from pop culture to science fiction. While the Horological Machines were a no-holds-barred exercise in pushing past the limits, the Legacy Machines, with their round cases and classic complications, were an avenue for creativity to thrive under those limits.
Having addressed traditional complications such as the tourbillon and the perpetual calendar in imposingly innovative ways, the brand has now unveiled its first chronograph – the Legacy Machine Sequential EVO. Like the Replica Watch Legacy Machine Perpetual, the movement was conceived by the talented Northern Irish watchmaker Stephen McDonnell. It’s rarely ever that the following can be said about chronographs, but this is unlike anything we’ve seen before in chronographs in every way — construction, function and aesthetics. It houses two vertically coupled, column-wheel chronographs and features a groundbreaking ‘Twinverter’ binary switch, allowing multiple timing options including split-seconds and lap timer modes. Impressively, they all run on a single escapement and balance, rather than two independent trains, which speaks volumes of its complexity and holistic design. Moreover, the construction is consistent with the Legacy Machine range, where the mechanics are exposed on the dial and a balance wheel is suspended high above it by an elegantly arched balance bridge.
Available in either atomic orange or coal black, the dial features two symmetrical, openworked chronograph displays with a pair of chronograph seconds counters located at nine and three o’clock, and a pair of 30-minute totalizers positioned at 11 and one o’clock respectively. Each chronograph can be started, stopped and reset completely independently from each other via the usual two-pusher configuration on either side of the case — start/stop pusher at the top and reset at the bottom. But where it differs dramatically from any other chronograph in function is the presence of a fifth pusher, located at nine o’clock, that acts as a binary switch dubbed the ‘Twinverter’ that inverts the current start/stop status of each chronograph. If both chronographs displays have been stopped, pressing the switch causes both of them to resume or start simultaneously, while if both of them are running, pressing the switch starts both chronographs; and lastly, if one chronograph is running and the other has been stopped, the Twinverter stops the one that is running and starts the one that is stopped.
This single function opens up a magnitude of possibilities for measuring elapsed times. On top of being able to time two independent events with different start and end times, which is carried out individually via the first four pushers, it can be used to measure the two events that start simultaneously, but have different end points, essentially functioning like a split-seconds chronograph. It can also be used to measure the individual cumulative durations of two discontinuous events, which will come in handy as you switch between two different tasks and wish to track the time you have spent on each one. This can be done by starting one chronograph as you begin the first task, then pressing the Twinverter when you switch over to the second task, and pressing it again as you return to the first task.
Lastly, it can be used to time the sub-durations of a single continuous event, akin to a lap timer. Actuating one chronograph at the start of an event and using the Twinverter upon the completion of a lap stops the chronograph and instantly launches the second chronograph to time the next lap, allowing ample time for the first timing result to be recorded.
The Replica Watch movement is housed in an EVO case which is essentially a fortified and enhanced variation that first made its debut in the Legacy Machine Perpetual EVO in 2020. It is made of zirconium, a hypoallergenic metal that is lighter than steel and more durable than titanium. Measuring 44mm by 18.2mm, the case is notably complex with a recessed caseband and angular lugs that accommodate an integrated rubber strap.
Its bezel-free design sets the stage for the perfectly symmetrical movement. Instead of the usual domed crystal with a highly pronounced arch, which will only add height to the already thick movement, the crystal incorporates two subtle angles to form a smooth arch and keep its height at the minimum.
Most notably, the EVO Replica Watch case incorporates an annular shock-absorbing system, dubbed ‘FlexRing’, fitted between case and movement. Machined from a single block of stainless steel, it encircles the movement and fortifies it from the rigors of an active lifestyle. Lastly, the case also features a screw-down crown to provide a water resistance of 80 meters.
