Category: Watch for Sale

Hublot Classic Fusion Essential Gray has released Volume III of its Essential Grey collection by introducing two Classic Fusion models in a radiant grey, available exclusively online.
Introduced in 2022, Hublot Essential Grey is a most eagerly awaited recurring series thanks to its exclusivity: a single model, a single colour, once a year, sold through a single channel. Previous models from this collection are the Big Bang Unico Essential Grey and the Spirit of Big Bang Essential Grey. The two Hublot Classic Fusion Essential Gray pieces in the 2024 Essential Grey come with 100% titanium cases and bezels, the first measuring 42 mm, the second 45 mm. Both feature all the hallmarks of a genuine Classic Fusion: integrated bracelet, satin-finished bezel with 6 functional screws with H-shaped head, exclusive textured rubber strap, and sunray finished dial with three central hands complemented by a discreet date window. As the diameters of the two models differ by 3 mm (42 mm and 45 mm), Hublot has ensured that they are fitted with a calibre adapted to each volume (10.4 mm high for the first, 10.95 for the second). This refinement reflects the extreme attention to detail so dear to the hearts of watchmaking collectors. The 42 mm Classic Fusion Essential Grey houses the HUB1110 calibre, which is just 3.61 mm thick, while its 45 mm big brother is powered by the HUB1112 movement, Hublot Classic Fusion Essential Gray measuring 4.26 mm. Both movements offer a guaranteed power reserve of 42 hours.

Known for its countless (and often appealing) vintage re-editions, inspired by some glorious watches of the past, Longines last year relaunched an important historic pilot watch, the Czech Pilot watch known as “Majetek Vojenske Spravy” or more simply, the Pilot Majetek. A follow-up to a model of 2014, this re-introduction was done with style and boldness. It is now time for a limited edition made of titanium, with a more technical and monochromatic look, the Pilot Majetek Pioneer Edition.

The modern Longines Pilot Majetek, just like the 2014 Longines Heritage 1935, is a modern interpretation of the Longines Pilot Majetek Czech Pilot watch developed in the 1920s and supplied to the Czechoslovakian Air Force in the 1930s. The watches were marked as Majetek Vojenske Spravy, meaning “property of military administration”, earning the Longines Majetek nickname among collectors. As Denis said in his previous article, “I believe Longines Vojenske would be a better name, translating into Longines Military and not Longines Property, but it is too late for that.” History made it the Longines Majetek. So be it.

The 1935 model produced by Longines to fill the order for the Czech military had a 40mm cushion-shaped stainless steel case, a black porcelain dial with big white Arabic numerals, and a fluted rotating bezel with an internal marker. Turning the bezel with the triangular marker and the crystal in unison, you can execute several simple but helpful timing functions. A big case was necessary to fit the pocketwatch calibre 15-94 and to operate it while wearing gloves. The watch was anti-magnetic, reliable and well-built to survive in a dangerous environment.

Like many modern reinterpretations of past models, Longines Pilot Majetek did not go for an entirely faithful reproduction and brought last year the steel Pilot Majetek, which was bolder, more technical, larger and overall more modern. That being said, it did bring an important element that was missing from the 2014 edition: the rotating bezel. This year, the collection has been extended with a special series in Grade 5 titanium, an alloy that is both lighter and stronger than steel.

This new Longines Pilot Majetek Edition most certainly benefits from the use of titanium, as we’re looking at a fairly big watch measuring 43mm in diameter, 13.30mm in height and a substantial length of 51.40mm. No need to say much, it is a bit pilot/military watch on the wrist, with a presence that’s reinforced by the cushion shape of the case. That being said, titanium is about 30% lighter than steel and it does participate in making this new Majetek Pioneer easier to wear. If you’re into oversized pilot’s watches, then you’ll be pleased. The case is mostly brushed, adding a darker grey colour to this watch and a more technical/instrument feel.

Faithful to the vintage watch, the Longines Pilot Majetek is now back to its original construction with a fluted bidirectional bezel coupled to the internal luminescent mobile triangle marker, or Starting Time Indicator. The latter is positioned under the sapphire crystal, from which it is independent and above the dial. On the historic 1935 model, the bezel and the glass fitted with the marker rotated as a single unit. In this modern edition, the sapphire crystal is fixed and contributes to the water-resistance of the new case.

This Majetek Pioneer Edition retains elements from the steel version, such as the solid back secured by four screws, a screw-in crown with lateral guards and a very decent 100m water-resistance. The left side is home to an engraved “1935” commemorative plaque, housing the patented gear mechanism for the bezel coupled with the triangular marker.

To match the technical look of the titanium case, this new Pilot Majetek is fitted with a black grained dial, with raised hour markers and Arabic numerals coated in grey Super-LumiNova, with a bluish emission – compared to beige-toned SLN on the steel version. The hands, as well as the track for the small seconds, undergo the same treatment with a grey colour.

Inside the case is the calibre L893.6, an automatic movement developed specifically and exclusively to power the Longines Heritage collection watches by ETA. It is chronometer-certified by COSC. It operates at 25,200 vibrations/hour and has a power reserve of up to 72 hours, as well as antimagnetic properties with its silicon balance spring.

The final instrument-like touch comes from the strap. No more retro-styled brown or dark green distressed leather strap here, but instead a black technical fabric strap closed by a titanium buckle. It comes in a special Heritage box in the same colour.

Hublot has recruited contemporary visual artist Daniel Arsham into its collaborator fold. Last week it released the Arsham Droplet, the replica hublot watches for sale world’s first sapphire crystal pocket watch – and Arsham’s first timepiece as an official Hublot ambassador.

The Droplet can be worn/used in three different ways: as a pocket watch, a pendant, or a table clock. Crafted from titanium (the case), rubber (bumpers) and sapphire crystal (a Hublot specialty), it measures 73.2mm (length) x 52.6 mm (width) and is 22.5 mm thick. The shape of the pocket watch is an asymmetrical droplet, unusual in itself when you think about the fact that, outside of Cartier, 99% of timekeeping devices are perfectly symmetrical. Timekeeping is a symmetrical business!
Presented replica hublot watches for sale with two newly Arsham-designed titanium chains, each featuring Hublot’s double “one-click” system, the links on the chain mirror the bubble-like structure created inside of the sapphire case, which looks almost like a microscopic close-up of foam bubbles. The piece can be worn multiple ways from a necklace to a pocket watch, or displayed as a sculptural centerpiece on its decorative titanium and mineral glass table stand. There are of course Daniel Arsham-branded touches all over the timepiece: the chain, the color, the Arsham monogram stamped on the surface and the use of the Arsham studio green. We can see, loud and clear, that this is an Arsham collab piece.
The timepiece/pocket watch/sculpture (I really don’t know what to call it) comes equipped with manual winding caliber Meca-10, which boasts a 10-day power reserve. I’m not sure anybody needs 10 days of reserve for their sapphire crystal pocket watch, but hey, this is Hublot and more is more. Despite looking materially techy, the timepiece has an organic feeling to it. The droplet feels smooth in your hands – a tactile little ticking organism that you can caress and grip. It’s soothing.
The Droplet is a bold departure from traditional Swiss watchmaking; I mean surely that’s expected from this collaboration. The MO here is to disrupt. Arsham (much like Hublot) is divisive. He can often inspire an eye-roll amongst those who consider themselves discerning culture consumers. But, Arsham is also one of the most globally recognized living artists. What’s unique about him in this context is that his art does in fact bear a relationship with the concept of time in his exploration of decay, specifically the aesthetic of erosion on modern objects.

There is no empty ambassador spiel about his “relationship with time,” because replica hublot watches for sale his point of view on the subject feels worth listening to. “So much of my work is about thinking about the past and connecting it with the future – it’s like mixing times,” Arsham said during the launch last week. “This object looks like something from the past, it recalls this way of telling time that’s from another era, but it feels like a kind of technology of the future… the watch is more than just an object to tell time, it’s a sculptural proposition.”
Working with world famous contemporary artists has thus far been a successful formula for Hublot. There is always a very clever method to the brand’s madness. Undoubtedly Hublot wakes up every morning and thinks “what can I do differently today?” – a brazen stance for any Swiss watch brand. But the ripple effect of creating a watch with a globally recognized artist means exposure to corners of the consumer public that would simply never notice you otherwise. And selling a run of 100 LE watches doesn’t seem like a hard task, given the breadth of the artists’ existing fanbase. These sorts of collaborations, if done sparingly enough, can really only do good for Hublot.
Arsham, himself, is an eccentric creature. He often wears replica hublot watches for sale the same cream or beige colored uniform, the same baseball cap and the same orange tinted or black shades every day. He is a celebrity figure who maintains an enigmatic stage persona. As an observer, the Daniel Arsham effect feels like it’s all been very carefully constructed. His behavior, his speech delivery, his product, the partnerships he takes on – it’s all part of a very well thought out and lucrative Daniel Arsham Studio ecosystem.
No doubt Arsham has a singular point of view, a view which many respect. But perhaps his greatest achievement has been to capitalize so successfully during this era of collaboration, wielding dollar profit and celebrity from his personal branding and style more than his actual art. The same can be said of Murakami. Hublot is smart to recognize the power of collaborators like these. It’s all about finding artists with identifiable enough markers that can be translated into a conceptual watch. It’s Pop Art in product form.

Today, the role of the artist as a frontrunner for counterculture has given way to large commercial endeavors and very clever marketing. Arsham is an artist, but above all he’s an extremely marketable product. His brand is commercially viable enough to collaborate with giant LVMH brands like Hublot and Tiffany, “easy” enough to be consumable for the masses, and just “cool” enough to keep the intrigue running. Even if the Droplet isn’t your cup of tea, the pocket watch feels so entirely replica hublot watches for sale and also so entirely Arsham that you can’t knock either party. It’s a respectful 50/50 split of design ideals.

Hublot x Daniel Arsham is a deal that will likely yield millions of dollars for both the brand and for Arsham. Love it or hate it, I am certain you will have feelings about it. And surely that is a win for Hublot.

The Girard-Perregaux Laureato has gone through so many mutations and transformations since the design was first introduced in 1975, that it’s hard to think of a single model that really embodies its essence. The first Laureato, after all, was a thin quartz watch and it represents a period when not only GP, but the Swiss watch industry as a whole, was struggling to find a way through the Quartz Crisis.
That the first Girard-Perregaux Laureato was a quartz watch, not a mechanical one, is significant as well; GP was one of the first Swiss brands to offer a quartz watch. The first in-house GP quartz movement was the Elcron caliber, which came out in 1970 and ran at 8,192 Hz. In 1971, however, the GP-350 caliber debuted – this was the first quartz movement with a crystal vibrating at 32,768 Hz, which has become the frequency standard for almost all quartz movements made, right up to the present.

Some people find the Laureato’s design derivative of the Royal Oak, but I don’t see it that way – there are some, I think, fairly trivial similarities, including the use of an octagonal bezel, but if you put the two watches side-by-side they seem to me to clearly be going after different effects. The Royal Oak has a much more visually aggressive, overt angularity which the Laureato manifestly is not trying to ape; instead, it’s shooting for a slim, relatively unobtrusive vibe that, the steel case and eight-sided bezel notwithstanding, has much more to do with the mid-century ideal of a thin, elegant dress watch than it does with the flashy geometry of the Royal Oak. Whether this is or isn’t a good thing is a matter of taste, but the original Laureato is, I think, fundamentally a much more conservative design than the Royal Oak, at least in terms of its underlying aspirations.
The original Girard-Perregaux Laureato, therefore, wasn’t just an attempt to use a modern design idiom to achieve the feel of a traditional thin dress watch – it was an attempt by Girard-Perregaux, and by extension the Swiss watch industry, to assert itself as a leader in both aesthetic and technical modernity; not for nothing did it proudly say “chronometer” on the dial of the original Laureato. It’s on the same continuum with later, even more extreme examples of ultra-thin quartz horology, like the Omega Dinosaure or Concord Delirium, and it’s also an ancestor to later thin, integrated bracelet quartz watches such as the 1980 Piaget Polo (another now-classic design that started out as a quartz watch, with the caliber 7P in 1979 and 8P in 1980).
Girard-Perregaux Laureato was exclusively a quartz watch for quite a long time (it was used as a vehicle for quartz complications as well) and, interestingly enough, the first mechanical Laureato didn’t come along until fairly late in the game. In 1995, GP introduced a mechanical Laureato with its in-house automatic caliber 3100. The 3000 family of movements was first introduced, just the year before, in 1994, and like the original Laureato, they are rather conservative in certain respects – they’re relatively small by modern standards, at 11 1/2 lignes, or 25.60 mm x 3.36mm, for the caliber 3300 (the caliber 3000 is a 10 1/2 ligne movement). However, this is comparable to the ETA 2892, which is also an 11 1/2 ligne caliber (and 3.6mm thick). The 3300, which is used in the just-released 38mm Laureato watches, is a fairly high-beat caliber, at 28,8000 vph.

The 3000 family of GP movements, by the way, has found its way into some interesting watches from other brands. MB&F uses the 3300 caliber as the basis for a number of its Horological Machines, where its dimensions and general reliability give a lot of flexibility in overall design and mechanical implementation; in 1996, Vacheron Constantin used the GP 3100 as the Vacheron Constantin caliber 1311, in the first series of the Overseas watch – the first new model launched by VC after it was acquired by the Vendôme Group.

It’s possible I have a GMT problem. For years, the idea of somehow finding a way to get a new Rolex Pepsi GMT-Master II loomed large over my head. The Rolex ref. 1675 GMT-Master was a seminal experience in my appreciation of any watch more modern than a pocket watch from 1920. I remember where I was when I handled my first ref. 1675. It was at the RRL in SoHo and when they took the watch out of the case of other antiques, vintage jewelry, and other assorted watches, they handed it to me casually. Meanwhile I felt like I was handling the most valuable watch in the world. Since then, I’ve been hooked. Earlier this year, a friend introduced me to Federico Verga, who works his family’s long-running watch retailer in Milan. As we sat and chatted about the state of modern catalogs of the major brands, he asked me what, if anything, I’d buy right now. Despite getting my Pepsi last year, my gut response was the left-handed GMT-Master II from two years ago. To have two of my nicest watches be variations of the same thing seems silly. But it’s not the first I’ve thought about a superfluous GMT-Master. I’ve imagined having a whole suite of modern Rolex GMTs, with one of the coolest being the white gold GMT-Master II with a meteorite dial. I’m the last person inclined to tell you that another variation of a GMT-Master II is bad or boring. And I’ll tell you why I still feel like it’s anything but bad. You might be surprised to hear – if you haven’t realized already – that the new ref. 126710GRNR (Gris Noir for the grey and black bezel) is the only stainless steel Rolex release from Watches & Wonders 2024. While it’s not a full-on “Patek move” the way Thierry Stern ditched the stainless steel Nautilus, it’s certainly an unusual year for Rolex. It’s also unusual in a significantly different way than the surprises from Rolex last year. The brand told us that the shocking “Celebration” and “Puzzle” dials weren’t precedent-setting for future years, but rather a moment in time to have some fun. So while the grey/black isn’t earth shattering, it’s peak-Rolex in a comforting way. Everything about the new GRNR (for lack of a consensus nickname yet) is basically like every other 126710. The stainless steel case is 40mm by 12mm, and the watch comes with choice of Jubilee or Oyster bracelet. The watch is powered by a caliber 3285 with 70 hours of power reserve, and has the independent jumping hour hand to skip time zones when you travel from place to place. That means the main difference is that the Cerachrom bezel has a very subtle black and grey gradient, and the name of the watch on the dial – as well as the length of the 24-hour hand – is in a bold green hue. Sure, it’s just a few tweaks, and while I’m not saying it’s worth jumping up and down about, more options aren’t usually bad. I love the Pepsi as an iconic color combination, going all the way back to the amazing original Rolex ref. 6542. But as someone with a more reserved sense of style, I can find the red accents quite loud. Sure, I could have asked for a “Batman,” but then the blue is pretty bold, too. Not everyone wants a watch that calls attention to itself. But until now, the only modern watch that satisfied that kind of audience was the old, long-discontinued ref. 116710LN. I didn’t much care for the monotone bezel, but a lot of the places I worked as a photojournalist were not exactly places where I would have wanted to draw much attention to my watch. But it shouldn’t necessarily stop you from having a watch that can travel with you.

The nice carryover is the green “GMT-MASTER II” text and green hand, which gives a needed bit of color to an otherwise stark release, but the gradient bezel is the biggest improvement. I don’t know how often people actually lean on the day/night part of the bezel for quick reference – if you do, let me know – but at least it creates some contrast on the bezel that alludes the original GMTs. I mentioned in my intro that this isn’t the “Coke” (black and red) bezel that many people were expecting or hoping for. I wasn’t hoping for the Coke, personally. Despite being a full-octane “Coke heavy” beverage fan, I don’t love the color combo on the GMT. The launch of this new color also didn’t result in the discontinuation of the iconic Pepsi. That discontinuation was rumored for the last six to nine months when members of the watch community reported their ADs had seen less and less Pepsis delivered as the year went on. The rumors went from discontinuation to suggestions Rolex was struggling even to make bezels (which certainly was an issue that prevented the Cerachrom bezels from being Pepsi from day one). Maybe now the more obvious answer is that Rolex was slowing down for their new launch. Another surprise was the fact that not only does the new GRNR come on both Jubilee and Oyster bracelet, but if you have the watch on one bracelet, you can also buy the other. That was kind of a not-so-secret trick that I learned from a few friends the last few years: if you went to the right AD, they might be able to help you buy the other bracelet but in some instances you probably would have to have a creative story and jump through few hoops. While it’s not clear that the new policy extends to every Rolex GMT-Master II in steel (trust me, I asked and it’s still not clear), I’m hopeful. Whether you’re a bit nutty (like me) and look at a GMT-Master and think “gotta catch ’em all” or just have been waiting for a more reserved steel GMT, you can pick up the new 126710GRNR for $10,700 on Oyster bracelet, or $10,900 on Jubilee. Hopefully, the flow of steel GMTs starts picking up steam – Pepsi, Sprite, Batman, and whatever this ends up being called.