Mechanical doesn’t mean medieval: the most advanced traditional watches April 7, 2016 You don’t have to make too many circuits of the Silicon Roundabout and its environs to notice that, even at the heart of the tech community, there’s more to wristwatches than those prefixed with the word “smart”. In fact, the traditional wristwatch is one of the most technologically advanced gadgets to have ever appeared, and [...]
Watch review: Four classic wristwatches that will stand the test of time and match any style March 2, 2016 Ties are just so very 2014, aren’t they? Right now, dressing down is the new suited up to the nines, which you’d think would make life easier. Inevitably, though, the opposite is the case: looking effortlessly relaxed requires considerable effort, and details are everything. That’s where a classic wristwatch comes to the rescue – designs [...]
Women’s watches that are just mini-versions of their masculine counterparts are making a return March 2, 2016 It is a truth universally acknowledged that a man’s watch shrunken in size and covered with diamonds does not a woman’s watch make. However, that is precisely what Vacheron Constantin has done with its Overseas Small Model, which it unveiled last month at SIHH, the invite-only watch event in Geneva. And you know what? It [...]
It’s okay to forget the rings on your wedding day – just grab one of these extra special watches to celebrate instead July 2, 2015 Among the seemingly limitless array of judgment calls that wedding planning involves (I’ve been learning this first hand over the past few months), the choice of rings seems relatively straightforward. Life slips into a mysterious parallel reality where canapé volumes, seating arrangements and – God help us – the merits of different shades of the [...]
Summer watches: Don’t be fooled by these brightly coloured stunners; there’s some serious horological clout here July 2, 2015 Summer: that time when every magazine lightens its pages with vibrant yellows, azure blues and that indefinable shade of pink that only surfaces between June and August (somewhere between “old lady” coral and Legally Blonde fuchsia). I thought I’d join the club. My esteemed peers and I sometimes have a tendency to get bogged down [...]
Lounge lizard: Party like it’s 1979 with these classic disco-era watches April 2, 2015 In the late 70s and early 80s, had you found yourself living it up in St Tropez, partying with the in-crowd at New York’s Studio 54, or following the jet-set around the hotspots of London, Paris and Milan, the watch you’d have repeatedly found on the wrists of the rich and glamorous would have been [...]
Baselworld 2015: Tag Heuer, Google and Intel just announced a major partnership to create smartwatches to rival Apple March 19, 2015 Luxury watchmaker Tag Heuer is partnering with Google and Intel to go head-to-head in the emerging smartwatch battleground. The trio announced their plans to team up today at the Swiss trade fair Baselworld, and between them they could produce something that knocks Apple's efforts out of the park. The announcement described it as “a [...]
The Datables: Watches with calendar displays can be things of beauty March 5, 2015 There are few things that niggle at me more than the presence of an unnecessary date display on a watch (yes, yes, first world problems). Brands are, in the large part, hopelessly addicted to them, allowing tiny, pointless displays to disrupt the unity and balance of their designs. I especially can’t abide the now-canonical magnifying [...]
Watch talk: A new generation of women’s watches is blazing a trail of originality March 5, 2015 Every January specially invited watch journalists decamp to Geneva’s Palexpo – a great, industrial box next to a motorway – to be shown watches that cost more than many of their flats in an unrelentingly beige luxury bubble. This is SIHH, where Richemont’s brands (and a few select “friends”) assemble to set out their stall [...]
The pursuit of strappiness: Women’s watches are getting a couture makeover February 5, 2015 When it comes to women’s watches, straps aren’t usually top of a designer’s list of priorities. But despite all the attention the dial tends to get, it’s the strap that covers the larger proportion of your wrist. Thankfully, there are brands out there that do spend time on these means of attachment. Hermès is famously [...]