The magical mystery of a tourbillon wristwatch November 1, 2012 If such a thing existed, a game of watch Top Trumps would have a number of horological functions vying for best-card-in-the-pack status. But because of its spellbinding romance, you’d struggle to trump the tourbillon. For collectors of prestige watches, it’s a complication that’s in a league of its own. A tourbillon is a device that [...]
Whirlwind wonders November 1, 2012 Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Tourbillon The sort of watch to wear as you pen an eight-figure deal. Aside from being filthy handsome, it’s also jolly clever – its titanium tourbillon carriage weighs a feather-like 0.33 grams and sits in an automatic movement that comes in at just 6.4mm thick. £46,300 www.jaegerlecoultre.com Frederique Constant Slim Line [...]
Laurent Ferrier swells the ranks of collector brands in Mount Street’s niche luxury enclave November 1, 2012 At last month’s European Watch of the Year awards, hosted in London by 0024 WatchWorld magazine, the prize for the best watch between £8,000 and £25,000 was awarded to a brand most people will never have heard of. Francois-Paul Journe, whose Chronometre Souverain took the gong, makes fewer than 800 watches a year, each of [...]
Parmigiani to open its debut London shop November 1, 2012 A little further up Mount Street from William & Son, across the road from Scott’s restaurant, Parmigiani Fleurier is shortly to open it’s debut London boutique. As such, it’s the first high-end Swiss brand to jump ship from the Bond Street party and choose Mount St as its natural London residence. Parmigiani, for those unfamiliar [...]
Exclusive IWC at Watch Gallery November 1, 2012 IWC’s Ingenieur range of watches are high-spec, highly engineered (as you’d expect from the name) pieces that are perhaps the ultimate tool watch: rugged, tough, adventurous, modern. Here’s one, though, that’s invested with a more old-fashioned sensibility. It’s called the IWC Vintage Ingenieur 2012, and there are just 36 available in the UK, of a limited [...]
The finishing touches November 1, 2012 The fashion for putting a transparent opening in the back of a watch is a relatively recent trend, but a pleasing one. While in the old days mechanisms were hidden from sight – in any case, the sapphire crystal didn’t exist that can now provide as strong a casing as steel – watch houses have [...]
Look after your watch November 1, 2012 Mechanical watches need to be serviced. Over time the oil inside the movement degenerates – if it thickens it can slow down the timekeeping, and if it thins it can speed it up. To ensure the watch continues to run reliably, you need to maintain it at regular intervals to prevent any damage. It varies [...]
History Today November 1, 2012 WHEN you think about it, a mechanical wristwatch is an inherently retro item – as one CEO of a Swiss brand put it to me, “we’re really still producing steam locomotives in the age of the bullet train.” Despite the mixture of modern and traditional techniques that go into making them – parts cut by [...]
Designed for life… November 1, 2012 The finest timepieces mix form, function and technical excellence to sparkling effect, as these masterful new models prove. HERMES DRESSAGE This year marks the centenary of the French luxury house producing watches. Appropriately, its new flagship piece is the first to contain a dedicated, in-house movement thanks to part-Hermes-owned prestige manufactory Vaucher. A simple, clean [...]
The world’s finest watches come to London November 1, 2012 FOR the fan of fine watches, it’s not necessarily the easiest thing to saunter into your nearest high-end boutique and ask to be shown the most spectacular timepieces on earth, thank you very much. Haute horlogerie is a world of rare objects that can take weeks, even months, to produce in extremely low volumes via [...]