The Breguet Marine has an updated look for 2018. It’s still the water-resistant sport luxury watch that gives Breguet a chance to break out from the conservative rigidity of its more sober guilloché-dialed, pocket-watch-influenced beauties. But now the Marine is now also being offered in a titanium version that collectors will probably be more comfortable treating like a sports watch. This is the second year in a row that Breguet has a made the Marine a focus. You may remember that last year’s collection was headlined by a highly complicated model with an unusual equation-of-time display. This year, in keeping with a trend seen at both Baselworld and SIHH, the emphasis is on strong commercial pieces.
There are three versions of the Breguet Marine Reference 5517. White and red gold options are both represented, in addition to the third, sportier version in titanium. The gold versions come with beautiful blue dials featuring a hand-guilloché wave motif. The titanium execution instead comes with sunburst grey dial. Inside of each is the in-house 777A automatic movement, which can be viewed through the watches' see-through casebacks.
Initial Thoughts
Having a great history in maritime timekeeping – A.L. Breguet’s was the official watchmaker to the French Royal Navy during his lifetime – it makes sense that the company that bears his name should pursue a watch line referencing this heritage. But to my mind, the Marine has never quite commanded the same air of tradition and respect for heritage as, say, the great pocket-watch inspired dress pieces with hand-guilloche dials – or the Type XX, as great pilot's chronograph as there is. Having said that, I like where the design of the Marine has gone in the last two years. And the fact that titanium is an option in this year’s releases is a welcome olive branch to collectors. Even the highest echelon of luxury watch marques is actively seeking out new collectors by producing watches that more people can afford, and I think that’s a good thing for watches overall.
Diameter: 40mm Thickness: 11.50mm Case Material: White gold, rose gold, titanium Dial Color: Silver, grey, or blue Indexes: Applied Lume: Yes, on hands and hour marker dots Water Resistance: 100 meters Strap/Bracelet: Blue rubber or black alligator
Following last year's release of the 62MAS re-issue SLA017, Seiko has announced a new re-issue diver based on a model they produced in the late 1960s. Called, in full, the 1968 Automatic Diver’s Re-creation Limited Edition: SLA025, I think we can just call it the SLA025 for short. The main story here is Seiko's use of a monoblock steel case and their 8L55 hi-beat movement to reinterpret the orginal.
A crown at four, gilt bezel and dial markings, and a domed sapphire all come together on the SLA025's chunky monoblock case.
Initial Thoughts
This watch in a word? Chunky. With a steel one-piece case (no removable caseback), the SLA025 is 44.8mm wide and 15.7mm thick. The case back is profiled to minimize the footprint of the watch against your skin and the result places the majority of the case flank and bezel well above your wrist. While I normally rally for thinner and easier-to-wear sports watches, this isn't a garden variety SKX007 or a casual weekend beater, it's a rather faithful recreation of Seiko's first Hi-Beat diver, the 6159-7001. With a crown at four, a tall bezel, a deep dial, and a date display at three, all of the charming hallmarks of Seiko's dive watch design language are present. If you like the big wrist presence of a Marinemaster, the SLA025 will be right up your alley.
Rocking Seiko's Hi-Beat 8L55 movement, the SLA025 will be a very attractive piece that is almost exclusively designed for Seiko collectors. Limited to 1500 pieces and carrying a $5,400 price tag, this awesome "new" diver from Seiko is for neither the small-wristed nor the underfunded.
Diameter: 44.8mm Thickness: 15.7mm Case Material: Steel (monoblock construction) Dial Color: Black Indexes: Applied Lume: Seiko Lumi Brite Water Resistance: 300 meters Strap/Bracelet: Silicone strap
It's 1968 all over again.
Big, burley, and very fun on the included vintage-style silicone strap.
The Movement
Caliber: Seiko Caliber 8L55 Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds, date Power Reserve: 55 hours Winding: Automatic Frequency: 5 Hz (36,000 vph) Jewels: 37 Additional Details: Hi-beat movement similar to those used by Grand Seiko
No removable case back - it's one big piece of steel.
The Heritage Petite Seconde is Tissot's latest addition to its vintage-inspired collection. It is a tribute to a piece first released in 1943, though in a more contemporary 42mm stainless steel case. The silvery dial is domed and has a vertically brushed finish that adds a lot of depth and pairs nicely with the leaf shaped hands and clean Arabic numerals. Inside is the ETA 6498-1 movement (what most people think of as the standard Unitas), which is a pretty traditional hand-wound caliber. On the wrist, the watch wears comfortably and both feels and looks a little smaller than its dimensions would suggest.
The Heritage Petite Seconde is a 42mm version of a watch from 1943.
Initial Thoughts
The last few years, Tissot has been crushing it with the Heritage collection. Last year we got a nice chronograph, and a few years before that the brand reintroduced the Navigator to the line-up. The watches are all styled faithfully after the originals, but with enough updates to keep them feeling fresh. The typography and hands on this model, in particular, are spot on.
My one complaint across the board is that the watches are too large – people interested in vintage pieces like this tend to like smaller watches anyway, so go 38mm (or 40mm tops) for watches like this. Additionally, I've got one big sticking point with this watch: It says "Antimagnetique" on the dial but isn't actually antimagnetic. I would have thought that violated some Swiss law or industry regulation, but apparently it doesn't since the watch is a tribute to a watch that already had that text on the dial. This really bugs me, especially because Tissot already makes great antimagnetic watches.
Despite the size, this watch is extremely comfortable.
The Basics
Brand: Tissot Model: Heritage Petite Seconde Reference Number: T119.405.16.037
Diameter: 42mm Thickness: 11.35mm Case Material: Stainless steel Dial Color: Silvered with domed shape Indexes: Printed Arabic numerals and chapter ring Lume: None Water Resistance: 50 meters Strap/Bracelet: Brown or black leather strap with folding buckle
The ETA 6498-1 movement is a pretty standard hand-wound caliber.
The Movement
Caliber: ETA 6498-1 Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds Diameter: 36.6mm Thickness: 4.5mm Power Reserve: 46 hours Winding: Manual Frequency: 2.5 Hz (18,000 vph) Jewels: 17 Additional Details: Note that this movement is not antimagnetic
The watch might say it's antimagnetic, but it's not.
The typography and hand in the small seconds register show great attention to detail.
The Horological Society of New York's award-winning classes are on the road again! Classes will be held in St. Louis, Missouri, over the weekend of April 28-29, hosted by Monta Watch.
At HSNY's Horological Education classes, students discover what actually makes a watch tick. The hands-on classes are taught by HSNY's staff of professional watchmakers. Students work on a mechanical watch movement, studying the gear train, winding and setting mechanisms, and escapement. The weekend half-day classes cover everything taught during the individual evening classes held in New York.
Enrollment is now open for the St. Louis (and Chicago) classes, and we look forward to seeing you there!
HODINKEE is a sponsor of the Horological Society of New York.
Team HODINKEE is back home after an incredible week in Basel checking out all the latest releases from a diverse selection of brands, big and small. Among the hundreds of new watches we saw this week, a few stood out as the kind of everyday pieces that we see people coming back to day in and day out. Here's a round-up of our editors' selections for the best go-to timekeepers of Baselworld 2018.
Cara Barrett – Rolex GMT-Master II In Stainless Steel
Yes, I have a thing for Rolex. Why? Because they continue to make watches that both impress me (hello Rainbow Daytona) while maintaining their cult-everyday-watch status. This year’s winner for me is the GMT in steel with a "Pepsi" bezel and Jubilee bracelet. It’s durable, travels well, looks great on almost any wrist, and features a brand new caliber. The price is fair, but be warned that these could get as hard to buy as the Daytona from two years ago.
I don't think anyone was surprised to see Rolex come to Basel with a new GMT in stainless steel. But I don’t know anyone who expected Tudor to do it, and in the same year as Rolex’s own GMT refresh no less. There’s so much to love about the new Black Bay GMT, from its new in-house movement to its classic, old-school Pepsi-style bezel. With this new offering, which will set you back less than $4,000 on a stainless steel bracelet, Tudor and Rolex now have a commanding presence in the GMT category across a range of price points.
Benjamin Clymer – Omega Seamaster 1948 Small Seconds
2018 is looking like the year of the everyday watch – and I could never argue with the BB58 or the new GMT – but to me, the most charming was the Omega Seamaster 1948 Small Seconds. I think because it feels not necessarily like an everyday watch for today, but an everyday watch for yesterday. It looks like a proper old watch with no date and a 38mm case, but when you open up the hood, you have a thoroughly modern and super impressive caliber that is Master Chronometer certified with a co-axial escapement. This is really the best of the old Omega, and the new, and I haven’t even mentioned how cool the presentation box is or that it comes on easily the best strap of the show. This is a winner, no doubt.
This is the Presage that Seiko fans have been waiting for. With a flatter movement (the new caliber 6L35), the Presage SJE073 may be the most classically elegant Presage model in...well, ever, come to think of it. The Zaratsu-polished case, thin profile, and high-quality movement, as well as the beautiful, Snowflake-esque dial make this not only a terrific everyday-wear wristwatch, but a terrific bargain as well. It's a bit expensive for a Presage, but not at all expensive considering what you get. The only downside is that this is a limited edition (1,881 pieces) but there's every reason to hope the new movement will be deployed in other Presage models as well.
Available in both 36mm and 40mm with multiple dial colors, I am all about this beautiful grey-blue version of the 40mm Pointer Date. The Oris Pointer Date mixes a casual and sporty steel case and the more classic charm of a bubble-domed sapphire crystal and pointer date functionality. Resulting in a lovely and low-key presence that can be had on your choice of an environmentally-friendly, vegetable-tanned leather strap or a stainless steel bracelet. This Oris is just the sort of watch I might have overlooked in a press release but couldn't take off my wrist once I saw it in the metal. It's seriously good.
When I first heard rumors about this watch, my immediate reaction was "No freaking way." In what world would big brother Rolex allow Tudor to create a smaller, slimmer dive watch with loads of vintage details? In this world, apparently. The Black Bay Fifty-Eight is the closest thing to a vintage Sub you'll find being made today, and it's awesome. The 39mm case sits so well on the wrist, and despite originally being skeptical of the gold bezel markings and hands, they give the watch a bit of softness in person that really makes it sing. Even before you take the wallet-friendly price into account, this is one of the overall standout watches of the year for me, no question.
Are you tired of vintage-inspired dive watches yet? Me neither. In fact, I can’t get enough of them, and Baselworld is the best place to sate the hunger. This year was no exception, with retro-tastic divers from Rado, Longines, Bulova, Doxa and, of course, Tudor. But every year, there’s one piece that surprises me and catches my fancy. Last year it was the Rado Captain Cook, and this year, I became smitten with the Certina DS PH200M.
Vintage-inspired done right.
You likely haven’t read anything about Certina on HODINKEE, except in the old “Bring A Loupe” series. That’s because Certina, a Swatch Group brand, doesn’t sell watches in our home base, the United States. So we generally aren't too focused on what the brand is doing. But I bumped into Danish watch and style impresario Kristian Haagen on the show floor last week and he said, “You must go see the new Certina dive watch!” So I talked my way into an impromptu appointment, my last of the show, and it was well worth it.
Certina has a long history of building extremely competent and, yes, legendary, diving watches. Its watches were on the wrists of U.S. Navy divers during the SEALAB II project, selected by the joint NASA/Department of the Interior Tektite II program, and also issued to divers from the Royal Australian Navy. But somewhere along the way, during the Quartz Crisis and the subsequent Swatch Group shuffle, Certina didn’t make the cut for American shores.
Tektite II put a team of aquanauts in a habitat on the ocean floor in 1970, wearing Certina watches.
The DS PH200M is a reissue of a 1967 Certina, almost entirely faithful to the original, with the exception of a few modernizations. Still present are the lovely sword hands, cross-hair dial, and fully-hashed bezel with aluminum insert. Most surprisingly, Certina also fitted this watch with a “Hesalite” (acrylic) crystal, a rarity on modern watches besides Omega’s Speedmaster Professional. Most brands have opted for box-shaped sapphire crystals for their re-issue watches, mainly for their scratch resistance. And while these are, by and large, excellent, there’s a certain warmth to acrylic that sapphire can’t touch. Certina adds a coating of 3M Scotchgard to the outer surface to provide some measure of scratch resistance, but if you wore this watch for any length of time, I suspect you’d become pretty familiar with a tube of Polywatch in short order.
A cutaway model showing the components of the Double Security (DS) system.
To hold this crystal in place, Certina utilizes the “Double Security” system that puts the “DS” in the name. This is a combination of a threaded ring and gaskets to hold the crystal tight, a method that kept the original immune to the failures of helium overpressure that plagued other watches during the SEALAB saturation dives. This DS system also helps ensure the water resistance of 20 bar or 200 meters, which is the second half of the watch’s name — “Pression Hydrostatique 200 mètres” — PH200M.
One modern upgrade to the DS PH200M is the use of the Swatch Group’s workhorse Powermatic 80 self-winding movement, a caliber found also in some Swatch stablemate Hamiltons and Tissots. As its name suggests, this movement’s claim to fame is the 80 hours of power reserve it provides, impressive at movements in this price level of watch.
The screw-in crown won't be needed much with 80 hours of power reserve.
Certina's sea turtle logo is engraved on the solid steel caseback.
While the original DS PH200M was around 40mm in diameter, the modern re-issue was upsized to 42.8mm. The retro-grouch in me would have preferred that Certina stuck with the original dimensions, but the watch still wears well. It comes fitted on a vintage-style two-stitch leather strap with quick-release springbars and Certina also gives you a striped nylon NATO-style strap in the Pelican case packaging for wet work.
The upsized DS PH200M still wears well.
So, all the specs and design are well and good but what sealed the deal for me with the DS PH200M is the price: 695 Swiss francs, which, at the time of this writing, is equal to about $735. That’s a lot of watch for the money—a throwback Swiss-made diver from a reputable brand, with good pedigree, impressive specs, and desirable aesthetics for the price of a lot of micro-brand watches? To me, the only question that remains for me about the Certina DS PH200M is: Can we please get this in the USA?
After taking a break last week to let you focus in the new releases coming out of Baselworld, we're back at it with a curated collection of classic mid-century watches that span a number of styles and brands. There are bold chronographs, super early divers, and even a rare pilot's watch from Rolex – truly something for everyone.
1960s Zodiac Sea Wolf Orange Exotic With Full Set
In the early days of dive watches, there were only three names: Submariner, Fifty-Fathoms, and Sea Wolf. This example not only has an exotic dial with bright orange accents and an orange and grey bezel, but also comes as a full set, with every manual, hang tag, sticker, and box that you'd have received when the watch was new back in the 1960s. This was recently inspired a re-issue from Zodiac, but this is a great chance to get the original. Check it all out right here.
1940s Rolex King-Of-Wings Ref. 4125
If you dig far enough back in the catalog, it's possible to find some pretty obscure Rolex models that fall far outside the usual Datejusts-and-Daytonas formula. The King-Of-Wings is an aviation-themed watch from the 1940s that is hard to find in good condition today, but this example ups the ante with a dial co-signed by Swiss retailer Bucherer, making it exceedingly rare and special. See all the details on this watch here.
1960s Universal Genève Space Compax Ref. 885104/01
Few brands are as widely respected by collectors new and experienced alike as Universal Genève and the bold Space-Compax chronograph is one of UG's most idiosyncratic watches. It has a robust steel case, a rotating black bezel, and a reverse panda dial that bears bright red accents. This example is in very nice condition, with the rubber pushers still intact and the Gay Frères bracelet still mounted. Real more about this special watch here.
The Full Set
In addition to the watches highlighted above, we also have a 1940s Minerva Chronograph Ref. 1335, an Omega Speedmaster Mark III Reference 176.002, and a 1970s Omega Seamaster "Bullhead" Reference 146.011. You can shop the full collection in the HODINKEE Shop.
With this version of the Omega Seamaster 300M, Omega brings the advantages of a METAS (Swiss Institute Of Metrology) certified movement to the Seamaster 300M family. As James Stacey reported earlier this week, there have been a number of design and movement upgrades and updates and the result is a watch with a very strong visual identity, as well as a movement that arguably represents some of the most interesting horological engineering being done anywhere in Switzerland (or the world, for that matter).
The new Seamaster 300M now includes a new version of the ceramic bezel as well as a ceramic dial, which is laser-engraved with the well-known wave motif; on this particular model, which is the basic steel version with a rubber strap, the numerals on the bezel are filled with white enamel. From a technical perspective, there are of course significant advantages to ceramic as a material for the bezel of a diver's watch – the material won't fade and it's for all intents and purposes scratch-proof. Obviously none of us worry about scratching our watch dials (if you do happen to do that you probably have other, bigger problems from a case-integrity standpoint) but the colorfastness of ceramic is certainly a plus for that application as well.
The combination of a ceramic dial and a ceramic bezel also makes for a very visually striking wristwatch. In this model, the dial has a gloss finish that picks up the light beautifully, and both bezel and dial give an impression of very high quality and precision in manufacturing. Transitions between areas of differing color are razor sharp, and there's just enough gleam coming off the dial to make for a pleasant glow; there's a handsome subtle matte finish to the grooves forming the wave pattern. The execution of the bezel and dial is so strikingly good that it seems implausible for a sub-$5,000 watch, and it's really satisfying to see Omega paying so much attention to fineness of execution in entry level models. One of the things you always want from a watch company is to see that the entry level products are being treated with as much respect as the higher-end stuff, and with these new Seamaster 300M models, the company really seems to be going all out to do that.
The Seamaster 300M METAS features a new ceramic dial and bezel, and a refresh to the design of the iconic Seamaster skeleton hands.
The raised indexes and ample quantity of Super LumiNova make for excellent legibility.
As James mentioned in our introductory coverage, this version of the Seamaster 300M also features a re-designed helium escape valve. Omega's material on this feature says that the new valve design "...has been patented by OMEGA with an ingenious technology that allows it to be operated underwater." James wasn't quite sure what to make of this and I wasn't either initially – helium release valves are useful to saturation divers undergoing dry decompression in either a seafloor or a ship-board habitat and under neither circumstance are divers or their watches immersed. We've checked in with Omega, however, and they've clarified that the new valve has been designed so that if it's accidentally left open, the watch is still water resistant, which makes much more sense.
Case finishing is excellent, and the alternating brushed and polished surfaces on the flanks and bezel contribute quite a lot to the impression of attention to detail.
The Omega caliber 8800 represents the first use of a METAS certified movement in the Seamaster 300M family.
The caliber 8800 is a Master Chronometer/METAS-certified movement – an upgrade from the caliber 2500 found in the previous Seamaster 300M model. These have proven to be highly accurate and durable movements, and the fact that they are essentially impervious to magnetic fields of any strength you're apt to encounter in real live, is a considerable plus for consumers. As with the quality of the case, dial, and hands, it's another feature that gives you the feeling that Omega's putting a great deal of quality in their watches, even at the entry level, where it really counts. This extends even to the strap and buckle; the first keeper for the strap has a small metal insert to hold it rigid so you can more easily insert the tip of the strap, and the second keeper has a small projection on its inside surface that notches into a hole in the strap, to help keep it from slipping.
Hands On, the new Seamaster Diver 300M Co-Axial Master Chronometer gives the feeling of a very well made, very solid piece of well-engineered equipment. The use of cutting edge materials feels justified by practical considerations rather than driven by a desire for mere cosmetics, and fit and finish are everything you could reasonably want in a watch with a starting price of $4,400.
Walking the halls of the Baselworld, the sheer number of watches can be dizzying. However, some manage to rise above the chaos and stand you against the rest. Yesterday we brought you our picks for the best everyday watches of Baselworld 2018, and today we're back with a very different selection of new timepieces – these are the watches that stopped us in our tracks and inspired double-takes. Here are six true grail watches that we'll be talking about for years to come.
Cara Barrett – Rolex Rainbow Daytona
Well, if you follow me on Instagram, it is already no secret what my favorite watch of the show was: the Rainbow Daytona. Much like real, true love, I cannot explain why I'm obsessed with this watch, I just am. Period. First of all, it’s a Daytona, which is maybe the best watch in production by Rolex today. Second of all, it’s beautifully set with colored gemstones with the perfect rainbow gradient. And have you seen the matching indexes? Come on! If you don’t love this watch, then you must have a heart of stone.
Jon Bues – Patek Philippe Ref. 5270P With Salmon Dial
In the case of Patek Philippe’s 5270P, we have neither a new movement nor a new reference, but that did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm that many people attending Baselworld had for this watch. That’s because this Patek Philippe perpetual calendar chronograph now comes with a beautifully-paired platinum case and salmon dial. As Ben noted when he introduced this piece on the site, platinum is the ultimate metal for Patek Philippe. What can I really say beyond the fact that I would gladly trade my first-born child (if I had one) in order to own this watch?
Benjamin Clymer – Patek Philippe Ref. 5740 Nautilus Perpetual Calendar
The Nautilus has been around for 42 years, the caliber 240 in its various guises has been around for 41. And yet it took this long for them to get together?? A perpetual calendar Nautilus was essentially a forgone conclusion, but the fact that the family Stern gave us one in an ultra-thin case (thinnest use of the 240Q in the collection!) that happens to be full 18k white gold? Yup, it makes a cool, if expected, watch downright sick.
Jack Forster – Grand Seiko SBGH265 VFA Limited Edition
The Grand Seiko SBGH265 VFA Limited Edition represents Grand Seiko at the very high end in just about every respect imaginable. VFA stands for Very Fine Adjusted, and the VFA watches are just that – their movements have been fine-tuned, one at a time, to an accuracy significantly above the already-better-than-COSC Grand Seiko standard. Each one of the VFA movements is expected to show a maximum deviation of just +3/-1 seconds per day. In a platinum case and limited to 20 pieces, it is manifestly not your average Grand Seiko (and certainly the price tag isn't the average Grand Seiko price) but if you're a Grand Seiko fan with deep pockets and a serious interest in chronometry, this is a watch worth seeking out.
In the most lofty examples of my personal "a fella can dream" moments, I'm never far from thinking of Voutilainen. After seeing the simply amazing GMR back in 2015, I've come to really love their aesthetic, the insane finishing, and their traditional but slightly eccentric take on legit watchmaking. Though the new 217QRS was launched at SIHH, I got my first chance to see it at Baselworld this past week and it's a stunner. With a retrograde date that advances with a push of the crown, the date hand softly flies back to the first when each month is though. Beyond the fun and fanciful date display and the wonderful dial finishing, the QRS also boasts a revised 39mm case with slimmer and more direct lugs. All of this comes together in an entirely unforgettable and grail-worthy watch.
CHF 118,000 (rose or white gold), CHF 128,000 (platinum); voutilainen.ch
Stephen Pulvirent – Akrivia Chronomètre Contemporaine
This is a watch that, for me, came completely out of nowhere. I've heard of Akrivia and watchmaker Rexhep Rexhepi before, but I've never really identified with tourbillon-centric designs. The Chronomètre Contemporaine is a whole other thing though. This 38mm, time-only watch boasts a stop-second/zero-reset function, so when you pull the crown you can set the watch exactly to the second, and the somewhat modern dial conceals the best-finished movement I saw all week. The architecture is entirely symmetrical and each bevel and countersink is a work of art – that I saw Philippe Dufour himself admiring it should give you a pretty good sense of what I mean here. Stay tuned, I'll have a lot more for you on this beauty very, very soon.
Sinn, best known for its over-engineered tool watches, is the epitome of no-nonsense German design. Since the Frankfurt brand’s watches are most commonly rendered in black and white, a sunburst blue-dialed Sinn with creamy lume, like this new limited edition 103 Sa B E pilot’s chrono, attracts notice. It’s a handsome, whimsical (for Sinn) take on a familiar and proven watch.
The entire bezel is anodized blue aluminum, even the sides.
Initial Thoughts
The 103 is one of Sinn’s more nostalgic offerings, with a lineage that traces back to company founder, Helmut Sinn’s, work building watches for the German Air Force in the 1970s. It is a proven chronograph that eschews most of Sinn’s whiz-bang engineering, like moisture-absorbing capsules, hardened steel or an Argon-filled case. This is as throwback as Sinn gets – a decorated Valjoux 7750, syringe hands, familiar Arabic numeral dial and bi-directional friction bezel. Still, this watch is no slouch in the performance department – it’s both high and low pressure resistant, meaning it can survive high altitudes or deep water (to 200 meters), thanks in part to its screw-in crown and secured sapphire crystal.
As with most ETA 7750-based chronographs, this one sits tall.
The 103 Sa B E is a thick watch, as are most chronographs that run the 7750 movement, coming in at 16mm top to bottom. But with the 41mm diameter, it feels balanced. And, after all, this watch is directly descended from purpose-built Sinn pilot’s watches, which were never really meant for shirt cuff compatibility. The movement is modestly decorated and the rotor indicates the limited nature of this edition, auf Deutsch, all of which is visible through the sapphire case back.
Specs and dimensions aside, the reason I’m writing about this watch is because of how well it works in the new blue livery. The sunburst dial plays well with the ivory-colored lume on hands and markers. And anticipating the cries of, “fauxtina,” I’ll counter (as I often do) that it is simply another color in the palette and looks particularly good against the cerulean dial, adding a true warmth to this watch. The bezel is color matched to the dial, but in a matte anodized aluminum, and the color wraps around the entire bezel, which is set off well by the polished case.
The 103 Sa B E is available on leather strap or Sinn's H-link steel bracelet.
The watch is available on Sinn’s H-shaped steel bracelet or on a vintage-style two-stitch leather strap, which is the way to go, in my humble opinion. Often, at Baselworld, we focus on what’s all new: the revolutionary movements, the innovative case materials, and the groundbreaking designs. But more often than not, what draws us to watches is simply how it looks on your wrist, and the Sinn 103 Sa B E is one of those watches that looks really, really good.
The Basics
Brand: Sinn Model: 103 Sa BE Reference Number: 103.171
Diameter: 41.5 mm Case Material: Stainless steel with anodized blue aluminum rotating bezel Dial Color: Blue sunburst Lume: Ivory-colored Super-LumiNova on hands, numerals, indices and bezel triangle Water Resistance: 200 meters Strap/Bracelet: Stainless steel bracelet or leather strap
"One out of 500" auf Deutsch.
The Movement
Caliber: ETA (Valjoux) 7750 Functions: Hours, minutes, running seconds, chronograph, day, and date Diameter: 30mm Power Reserve: 42 hours Winding: Automatic Frequency: 4 Hz. (28,800 vph) Jewels: 25
With all the chaos of Baselworld and the year's newest releases, it's easy to forget that auction season is close on the horizon. Each spring, all the major auction houses will host sales – and with the way things have been going in recent years, we can almost certainly count on new records being set, never-before-seen watches being brought to market, and new trends developing. Kicking things off on Monday, April 2, is Sotheby's, which will be hosting its 423-lot watch auction in Hong Kong. The hefty catalog contains a lot of great pieces at all price points, but there are four watches from Patek Philippe that truly stood out. Each could be a cover lot and each has a story to tell. Let's take a look.
Reference 1579 Chronograph In Steel With A Pulsations Dial
If you're anything like me, you look at this watch and your heart starts beating faster. Just look at it.
Alright, fanboying aside, the reference 1579 we have here is something truly special. The watch wasn't actually made as you see it here until 1991, despite being a reference from the 1940s. In the late '80s, Patek Philippe invited a few good clients who owned 1579s to refit the original movements into new old stock steel cases paired with new old stock dials that were made around 1950 but never used. The result is a watch that's vintage in origin, but that has lived a very different life from most. Most notably, you get a vintage watch that is in much better condition than similar watches that have aged more traditionally – the lugs on this case, for example, are super sharp, since it's been less than three decades since it left the factory. This watch was sold by the original owner in 2007 and the new owner says the watch has remained completely unworn since.
There are seven total known examples of the 1579 in steel, but this one has a unique dial. In addition to the applied white gold Arabic numerals and square markers, there is a hard enamel pulsation scale, in French, around the perimeter of the dial. The result is an open, clean look with details you won't find anywhere else.
This watch is lot 2906 and it carries an estimate of approximately $795,000 - $1,534,000.
Possibly Unique Reference 5970G With Breguet Numerals The Belonged To Eric Clapton
Way back in 2012, Eric Clapton's platinum 2499 made some serious waves in the collecting community (and eventually sold for a whopping $3.65 million). Since then a few other Clapton watches have made their way to the auction block, but this one is definitely the most exciting. What you're looking at is a possibly unique white gold 5970 with a silvered dial featuring applied black Breguet numerals and a hefty white gold bracelet. This was a custom order delivered in 2006 and it still comes with the full kit, including a certificate of origin, the Extract from the Archives, the instruction manual, an extra solid caseback (it's fitted with a sapphire back), a setting pin, a few extra bracelet screws, and a presentation box.
Even without the provenance, this would be a watch to own. Despite the elegance of the Breguet numerals, this is one of the sportier 5970 configurations we've ever seen and it's tough to imagine it wearing like anything but a dream. Hopefully whoever buys this actually enjoys it and doesn't let it linger unworn in a safe for too long.
This watch is lot 2917 and it carries an estimate of approximately $300,000 - $510,000.
Time-Only Watch With Two-Tone Dial Made By André Zibach
This is the most unusual watch of the bunch. This watch has no reference number and never appeared in any catalog as you see it here. It was created by André Zibach, one of the greatest Patek Philippe watchmakers of all time, in the mid 1930s as a wedding gift for a friend. He purchased the movement from Patek in 1936, though it dated all the way back to 1929, and then put it together with a case from Emile Vichet and a dial from Stern Frères.
All three major components represent exceptional examples of what those companies were capable of at the time, from the beautiful lines of the yellow gold case to the traditional movement architecture and finishing to the two-tone dial with applied Arabic numerals. Additionally, both Stern and Vichet would play major roles in Patek's future, with the Stern family eventually purchasing the company outright and Vichet making cases for watches such as the ref. 130, ref. 1518, and ref. 2499.
Zibach might not be a household name, even for serious collectors, but he was responsible for regulating many of Patek's best watches in the early part of the 20th century, including the legendary J.B. Champion ref. 2458. It's also interesting to put this in some context and think about how completely out of the question creating a watch like this today would be. The watch industry really was a totally different world back then.
This watch is lot 2894 and it carries an estimate of approximately $31,000 - $51,000.
Possibly Unique Reference 5004R With Pulsation Dial
What you're looking at here is a special order reference 5004R. If you wanted the split-seconds perpetual calendar in rose gold, that typically meant getting it with a silver dial with applied Arabic numerals. It's known that for some special customers, Patek would swap the silver for black, but for even more special customers, something unique could be done.
This watch is the only known 5004R to feature a black dial with an applied Breguet numeral at 12 o'clock and a pulsation scale around the outer edge. It might sound like these are subtle changes, but they combine to give the watch a totally different look. Any 5004 is rare – only a dozen or so were made per year between 1996 and 2012 – but something like this takes it to another level. Additionally, this watch was delivered in 2011, just a year before the model was discontinued.
This watch is lot 2918 and it carries an estimate of approximately $703,000 - $1,534,000.
This sale will be taking place at Sotheby's Hong Kong on Monday, April 2 and will include two sessions (starting at 1:00 PM and 5:00 PM). You can see the full catalog here.
Despite being around watches basically 24/7, we here at HODINKEE have to go into Baselworld every year with an open mind. Sure, we know about a few new releases in advance and we obviously talk to people across the industry and collector community to get a sense of what might be coming, but there are always surprises. Whether it's a crazy new reference, strange corporate news, or something wild that happens on the ground while we're in Switzerland, there's never a shortage of the unexpected. Here are the things that surprised us most at Baselworld 2018.
Cara Barrett – Great Women's Options
The biggest surprise for me this year was a surge of cool ladies’ watches! Just like at SIHH, brands seem to be focusing more and more on women’s timepieces, giving us ladies more to choose from (hallelujah!). This year at Baselworld we saw the Longines Legend Diver in 36mm with an automatic movement, the Tudor Black Bay 32 (a 32mm version of the BB36), and the 37.5mm Patek Philippe Calatrava Pilot Travel Time in rose gold. All three watches are great examples of how to make great women’s tool watches without quartz movements and diamonds. Finally!
Jon Bues – Jean-Claude Biver's Thoughts On Smartwatches
One of the really illuminating, and I thought surprising, stories to come out of Baselworld was a video interview with Jean-Claude Biver by our own Joe Thompson. In the interview, Biver says that the luxury smartwatch market is a niche one, and such a market is not necessarily compatible with technology, which is based on mass. He remains committed to the project. “I think there is a is a market, because we found this market,” Biver says. Nonetheless, the watch industry veteran clearly wanted to set expectations where he thinks they ought to be. Great work, Joe!
Jack Forster – The Re-Designed Breguet Marine
The Marine collection has always seemed to me, in general, a slightly awkward fit in the larger Breguet lineup. As far as sports watches are concerned, Breguet has a great handful in the Type XX variants. And, of course, if you want a watch with deep stylistic and craft ties to one of the greatest watchmakers of all time, Breguet has you covered like nobody else. The Marine collection, however, has struck me as not being quite sure what it wants to be – the case proportions and degree of ornamentation in general have seemed, on the one hand, a bit too ostentatious for a sports watch model, but not graceful enough to invoke the effortless elegance of the classic Breguet models. The new Marine 5517 is the simplest of the new models and also one of the most attractive, and it exemplifies the virtues of the Marine re-design –it seems to find a natural place in the larger context of Breguet's modern watchmaking efforts. I'd more or less concluded that at Breguet, the Marine collection was always going to be the odd man out, but Breguet's kept at the task of refining the designs and the results are very pleasing indeed.
James Stacey – The Tudor Black Bay GMT
While I have long hoped to see a Pelagos GMT from Tudor, the idea of a Black Bay GMT never really crossed my mind. What I find most surprising about the Black Bay GMT is how close it is in format to the Rolex GMT-Master II. Not only is the functionality of the Black Bay GMT the same as the Rolex (jump-set local hour with an independent 24-hour hand and coordinating 24-hour bezel), Tudor fitted the Black Bay GMT with a blue/red "Pepsi" bezel, a calling card of the Rolex GMT-Master design. The sizing is ~1mm apart and while the overall execution varies greatly (as does the price), there is a shared aesthetic that is seemingly directly referential to the broader context of the GMT-Master. With so much of the Black Bay line being distinct from the standard Rolex visual language, I was surprised that the Black Bay GMT would share the same functionality and a major visual asset from the Rolex library. That said, I like being surprised, and upon trying the Black Bay GMT on my wrist, my surprise quickly turned to delight as it's nothing short of excellent.
Stephen Pulvirent – The Overall Good Mood
There was a lot of doom-and-gloom thinking heading into this year's fair. Whether it was declining sales numbers, brands pulling out, or just general malaise, a lot of people were talking about how the show would be a shadow of its former self this go-around. Guess what? It wasn't. Sure, there were fewer brands exhibiting, but all the big ones were there along with more high-end, exciting independents than I've ever seen showing in Basel before. There were lots of great, affordable watches targeted at getting new consumers excited, and there were plenty of drool-worthy grail watches to sate the appetites of more experienced collectors. What the future holds is obviously still a mystery, but for now, if you're a watch enthusiast, I'd say it certainly looks bright from where I'm standing.
It is no secret that I have a thing for the 2526. Like, a big one. There is something so special about the large, screw-back case and insanely high-end self-winding movement. Then of course you have the enamel dial! There is so much to love and we see 2526s come up for sale all the time, so it's easy to get a little blase about them. And then you see something like this. Holee. Shiz.
What you are looking at is a platinum cased Patek Philippe reference 2526 with a factory-born white enamel dial without diamonds. And it's Tiffany-signed! And it comes on a platinum, period correct Tiffany bracelet! And the condition is insane!
This 2526 is truly one-of-a-kind.
To find a platinum 2526 is next to impossible. Then try to find one with an enamel dial. Then try to find one with an extract that says it was actually born with an enamel dial. You go from thousands to hundreds to dozens to less than five watches very, very quickly. Then, find one that's Tiffany signed. There is one, and you're looking at it, and it's coming up for sale at Heritage Auctions in New York very soon. Add to that the incredible and fully-sized Tiffany & Co. platinum brick bracelet that comes along with it, and you have what could easily be the most expensive 2526 ever sold. And it's not from Phillips or Christie's, which makes it all the more charming.
For those interested in bidding, you have 32 days to come up with what is surely to be a big-time number for what I think is potentially one of the true fresh-to-market finds of the past few years. Have a look below at some photos and you can find out more about this watch here, where the bid currently sits at $150,000.
The automatic caliber (Patek's first) is part of why the 2526 is so special.
The watch appears to still have its original platinum crown.
The bracelet is signed by Tiffany too.
All the hallmarks and engravings appear to be sharp and intact.
In the early 20th century, it became mandatory for all pocket watches used for timekeeping on American and Canadian railroads to make use of “lever-set” movements. In order to change the time on these watches, you had to spin off the bezel and crystal, pull out a small lever from the edge of the dial, and then turn the crown to move the hands. The reason for this new requirement was simple: It made it impossible to accidentally adjust the time, an important consideration for timetables and track-switching safety. All the great American watch companies – including Waltham, Illinois, Elgin, Hamilton among them – responded with railroad pocket watches that had this feature. But lever-setting disappeared when watches moved to the wrist. That is, until now, with the introduction of Vortic’s Railroad Edition.
Vortic 3D prints the cases from titanium.
Vortic is a unique Colorado company that repurposes all those fantastic early 20th century American pocketwatches, converting them into (debatably) wearable wristwatches. The company was started in 2013 by R.T. Custer, who hails from that cradle of American watchmaking, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Custer was an engineering student who took his love of history and American watchmaking and applied thoroughly modern manufacturing to century-old watches. He devised a way to 3D-print titanium wristwatch cases that could accept the movements and dials of old pocketwatches. When I first met him in Basel two years ago, his products showed promise but were still, literally, rough around the edges. And he hadn’t yet solved the biggest problem: how to convert a lever-set movement into a wristwatch.
Since lever-setting required removing the crystal, it defies the common build of a wristwatch case, with its inherent emphasis on sealing. Custer, with an engineer’s persistence, made it his goal to overcome this issue. This year during Baselworld, camped out in the lobby of a nearby hotel, Custer finally unveiled the Railroad Edition. The new watch is a bespoke build, customizable by color, style and, of course, donor watch movement. The case is still 3D-printed from titanium and then milled and finished. The pièce de résistance though, is the removable fluted bezel, which gives access to the lever. The bezel fits with a bayonet mount, not unlike an SLR camera lens, and sealed with gaskets for some measure of humidity resistance (the watch is rated to 1 atmosphere).
The movements in these old pocketwatches, like this Illinois Railroad Edition, are a sight to behold.
One further issue to solve was the lever itself. In its original pocketwatch configuration, the lever is a tiny sliver that is pulled by a fingernail from a slot in the dial. But for the wristwatch conversion, Custer had to actually recreate the lever, slightly larger to stick out of the case mounting, while still working with the setting mechanism in the movement.
Vortic manufactures new, longer setting levers for the conversion to a wristwatch.
I got to handle a sample of the Railroad Edition, which utilized a beautiful Illinois railroad pocket watch, and it works as advertised, quite user friendly, and impressive to behold. The coin edge of the bezel is expertly done, the case finishing is simple but clean and the clear caseback means these watches are arguably more beautiful upside down. Make no mistake, this is not a watch that comes close to being wearable on a daily basis. It sits comically high on the wrist and the crown, located at 12:00, juts out. Forget about shirt cuffs. But wearability while gardening or to the grocery store isn’t the point of this watch. It is a time capsule, one that protects and celebrates these beautiful machines, while making them a little more portable (no waistcoat, chain, and fob required) and, yes, useful, as opposed to gathering dust in a shoebox with yellowing photos and war medals.
Vortic gets the donor pocketwatches for his builds from vintage dealers and those who specialize in sourcing old movements from the cases that often get melted down for their metal. So, in effect, it is saving the movements from the scrap heap. Alternatively, Vortic will convert a customer’s own pocketwatch, heirloom or otherwise. As part of the process, Custer disassembles, services and rebuilds the movement before putting the finished watch together. And before you cry foul, all original components are preserved in case the owner wishes to have the watch converted back to pocketwatch mode. Vortic delivers the watch in a custom box that will also hold the original pocketwatch case and swapped setting lever.
The coin-edge bezel closes, bayonet-style, onto the case. You can see the setting lever at 1:00.
Pricing for the Railroad Edition falls between $2,000 and $6,000, depending on the movement and customer choices. More information can be found on Vortic’s website, where pre-ordering is available.
If you're growing tired of the usual new vintage dive watches and chronographs born of designs from the 1960s, perhaps I can interest you in something rather different. As part of the celebration of their 100th anniversary, Mido has launched a pair of classic Commanders with a 70s-inspired dial design. Based on a Commander design from 1979, the new Mido Commander Shade is well outside my normal taste in watches but caught my eye with its effortless style, delightful wrist presence, and accessible pricing.
The dial is legible and distinctive with a faded, graduated finish.
When I first adjusted the old school sliding clasp and put the steel Commander Shade on my wrist, I felt instantly confronted with the relatively narrow aesthetic scope of watches that I choose to own. At 37mm wide and 10.45mm thick, it has the comfort of a 50s design that works well as a platform for the more punchy effect of the two-tone graduated smoked dial. Really to wear, the Mido Commander Shade is lightweight, legible, casual, and rather stylish.
In one of those cases where a comfort zone might be more of a rut, I really found the Commander Shade to be oddly refreshing and novel on-wrist. The case size is great, its shiny but not in a flashy way, and the darkening edge of the dial pads the effect of the applied hour markers and the true-to-vintage day/date display at three. There is a lot going on with the dial in terms of font and text, but it comes off as mostly classic in execution though arguably a bit off balance.
With a single-piece case and a fully integrated bracelet, the Commander Shade is powered by a reliable ETA 2836-2 automatic movement.
The comfy and lightweight steel mesh bracelet can be quickly sized to fit any wrist.
37mm of strange and delightful fun on wrist.
Powered by the well-known ETA 2836-2, the day/date functionality feels right at home with the general late-50s styling and I really like how the crown is nearly flush-fit with the case to preserve the effect of the one-piece case design. The bracelet is fully integrated into the case and is simple to adjust (via an infinitely adjustable sliding tension buckle), light on wrist, and quite comfortable.
Despite all of my general bias against gold watches, this definitely speaks to me.
For those of you questioning if I actually wrote this article, please allow me to double down – I kinda dig the gold version too. While I have yet to actually warm up to wearing a gold watch, the PVD gold Commander Shade is perhaps even more fun than the steel version. I think this is largely due to the integrated bracelet and the grey-taupe coloring of the smoked dial, but I'm not ruling out the effect of my pervasive post-Baselworld jetlag. I'm not sure I can pull it off, but I am sure that it is nevertheless a good look.
In steel or gold, I think I like the Commander Shade largely because it's a bit strange. While I didn't give the original press release a second glance, once on wrist, the Commander Shade made me smile and I found the appeal, especially in gold, entirely unexpected.
The Commander Shade is a strangely alluring and funky spin on a classic 50s design from Mido.
If your tastes generally align with mine, the pricing makes the Commander Shade an interesting play as a sort of palate cleanser from my normal steel sport watches. Starting at $870 in steel and $1,175 for the PVD gold, I could see the Commander Shade being a versatile outlier in a lot of collections. It's not perfect but the combination of the smaller sizing and the funky aesthetic makes it the sort of watch you wear on a whim simply because it makes you smile.
Every year, Baselworld seems to get more and more hectic. There are press conferences, and product releases, and events to attend, not to mention all the stories we want to write and all the photos we want to take. But, sometimes it's good to keep your head up and to look around a bit. Along with the watches, there are a lot of interesting people at Baselworld too.
This year we thought it would be fun to chat with some of the show's most well-dressed attendees to see what they had on their wrists. Each pairs fashion and watches in a slightly different way, and there's a ton to learn and admire from taking a look. You might recognize a few familiar faces, but we met plenty of new people too.
An interesting calendrical fact is that this year, the Easter holiday falls on April 1st, which is celebrated as April Fools' Day in many European and Western countries. The idea behind April Fools' Day is a simple one: it's a day on which you play presumably harmless pranks on unwitting friends and family. By tradition, you reveal that you've played such a prank by shouting "April Fool!' at the victim, and then share a hearty laugh (or you get a punch in the kisser depending on whether or not you've remembered that it's only a joke if both people laugh).
This year, this pleasant tradition (and there are many traditions worldwide of a day on which one plays pranks, though certainly not all of them fall on April l) happens to coincide with a much more solemn, though for celebrants also joyful, occasion: Easter Sunday. The Easter holiday is one of the so-called moveable feasts of the Christian calendar, thanks to the fact that, as the calculation of the correct date depends on certain astronomical factors, the date changes from one year to the next. This year, it happens to overlap with April Fools' Day – a fact which might under some circumstances, lend itself to pranks being played on those celebrating the feast, which would be inappropriate to the importance of the holiday to those who celebrate it.
The problem does not arise particularly often. The last time Easter Sunday and April 1st fell on the same day was in 1956, and a little research reveals that it has happened in total, only four other times since 1900. However, the overlap takes place in many countries where Easter is widely celebrated, and in order to avoid confusion, the International Organization for Standardization (the good folks who have given us such things as ISO 3159, the international standard setting minimum requirements for chronometers) and who also weigh in from time to time on calendrical matters, have issued ISO 7919: "Standard For Defining Celebration Of April Fools' Day When Easter Falls On April 1."
ISO 7919 is quite straightforward; it merely stipulates that on the rare occasion that Easter falls on April 1, "all such pranks, japes, and other presumably comical activities, including those produced by print, digital, radio, and television media, shall when April 1 and Easter coincide, be presented on April 2nd, which shall ad hoc be designated April Fools' Day in that year." Since the next time this happens is the year 2029 the standard won't have a very frequent effect, but this is the first year it's been in effect and it'll be interesting to see how widely the standard is observed.
However, you can help ISO keep track of violations of the standard if you're in a signatory country. A special online portal has been set up by them, which will take reports – again, from any signatory country – of organizations which are not in compliance. Google is expected to be widely reported, of course, but if your favorite watch website or favorite watch brand happens to not have gotten the memo you can report them (as well as Google and anybody else you happen to notice is out of compliance) right here, at ISO.org/pranknoncompliancepoll. And remember, no bananas on the sidewalk until Monday!
Every field has its famous, and famously daunting, challenges. In mathematics, one of the biggest is also one of the simplest: the so-called Collatz Conjecture, which is so easy to frame that a kid can understand it, but so difficult to prove that the great mathematician Paul Erdös once remarked, "Mathematics is not ready for such problems." Sometimes such thorny problems do fall, but generally it's only after many years and many failures (one such problem in math was a proof for Fermat's Last Theorem, which finally, after centuries, yielded in 1994, ending what may have been one of the longest trolls in the history of number theory).
In mechanical horology many if not most of the interesting problems have either been solved, or represent an opportunity for at best, incremental improvement. The Collatz Conjecture of horology, however, is the problem of producing a watch that can accurately calculate the date of the moveable feast of Easter every year. Like the Conjecture, it's an easy problem to describe but it turns out the actual calculation is extremely difficult – so much so that even the great mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss found it worthy of attention. The computus, as the calculation is called, has been encoded in a rare few clocks, such as the great astronomical clock at the cathedral in Strasbourg but even this doesn't encode the full cycle of Easter dates. For more on different, and thus far only partial, approaches to the problem, check out our story from last year on a watch that does display the date of Easter (up to a point) – the Patek Philippe Caliber 89.
I first heard of Krayon, and the Everywhere watch, just about a year ago, and at the time I didn't know what to make of it. The Everywhere watch does something quite remarkable: if you input your latitude and longitude, and the correct date, the watch will show the correct times of sunrise and sunset, as well as the duration of daylight and nighttime hours, anywhere in the world.
Given the complexity of the mechanism, the Everywhere watch is almost absurdly easy to operate. There's a pusher on the left-hand side of the case that lets you select either date, latitude, longitude, or UTC as the input (there is a function indicator on the dial). The crown can be used to wind the micro-rotor movement and set the time, and in a third position, set one of the parameters selected on the function dial. The watch is essentially a miniature astronomical computer; the inputs are made, and the output is the correct display of the times of sunrise and sunset.
It requires some 600 or so components in order to achieve this. Sunrise/sunset complications are relatively rare (the first in a wristwatch was the Jules Audemars Equation of Time, from Audemars Piguet, which is a masterpiece both AP and watch enthusiasts seem to have forgotten, and the EOS, by Martin Braun, about which ditto). Generally you implement a sunrise/sunset complication in the same way you do the Equation of Time. You have a cam for sunrise and another for sunset, both of which rotate once a year. This means, of course, that the watch can only show sunrise and sunset for the specific location for which the cams have been made. Krayon founder Rémi Maillat, an engineer and movement constructor whose career has been spend in the creation of high complications, found this frustrating and decided to make a watch with a programmable sunrise/sunset complication. The result was a company called Krayon, and its first watch, the Everywhere.
The Krayon Everywhere is made in very small numbers – about six or so per year, and of course as there are absolutely no economies of scale involved in such small numbers, it's very much a wealthy connoisseur's timepiece – the cost is around $600,000 more or less, although most customers at this level would be interested in customization, in the form of bespoke movement decoration, case engraving, gem-setting, and the like.
One of the most interesting characteristics of the Krayon Everywhere is its very wearable proportions. I don't think I'm wrong in thinking that if this watch had come from a major brand at Richemont or Swatch Group or another large luxury corporation, the marketing department would have insisted on it being a Big Statement Piece. Instead, we have a beautifully wearable and very elegantly proportioned 42mm x 11.70mm watch, which contains a groundbreaking and true world's-first complication. The dial is pleasingly legible and the whole thing is so low key and unfussy that its complexity is actually all the more impressive for being worn lightly.
There is real beauty in making something that does not seem to overtly seek to be beautiful. The Krayon Everywhere despite its complexity is unbelievably easy to operate – when you set it you keep waiting for the inevitable high complication speed bumps, but there simply aren't any – and the cleverness and clarity with which the dial has been designed ought to be a lesson to other, much more established complications makers. If this watch had come from any of the big names – and it could have – we would be reading about it in print and online in letters of fire a hundred feet high, so to speak.
However, it's entirely possible that it would never be possible from a bigger company, with sclerotic product development practices. In any case, it exists, it works (when I saw a prototype as a GPHG member things were a bit rushed and I still felt unsure) and its design is a stellar example of great design occurring almost as an afterthought to pursuing the more fundamental goals of clarity and legibility. We're hoping to have a chance to dig a bit deeper into how it does what it does, in the not-too-distant future. In the meantime, find out more at Krayon.ch.
The Horological Society of New York (HSNY) invites you to celebrate its 152nd anniversary at the 2018 Gala and Charity Auction on Wednesday April 18, 2018. The annual Gala and Charity Auction is an opportunity to look back at the Society's accomplishments, recognize talented watchmaking students, and bid on some cool watches and ephemera. HSNY of course invites you to come celebrate New York's horological tradition too.
Charity Auction, Hosted by Christie's
HSNY's 2018 Charity Auction, hosted by Christie's International Head of Watches, John Reardon, will take place at the Gala. A selection of extraordinary timepieces and horological miscellanea will be up for sale, with all proceeds benefitting HSNY's ongoing educational programs. There will be no buyer's premiums, and all bidding will take place live in the room. John Reardon commented “Christie’s is honored to be part of the HSNY family. On a personal level, I find the HSNY to be the horological heart of watchmaking in greater NYC area and increasingly the entire United States. For education and inspiration, this organization is best in class for those looking to learn more about our common passion.”
Lot 1: Horological Society of New York vintage lapel pin, circa 1930. Only a handful of these original pins still exist. Gold-filled, brand new, never worn. Estimate: $500-$1,000.
Lot 2: Steel Rolex, by Giorgia and Guido Mondani. Limited edition of 599, brand new in box, 31 x 41cm, donated by Winthrop Robinson. Estimate: $1,500-$2,000.
Lot 3: An Evening of Patek Philippe with Kelly Yoch, Senior Patek Philippe Consultant for North America at Tiffany & Co. Join Kelly Yoch for an exclusive private tour of the Patek Philippe Salon at Tiffany & Co. followed by a dinner at a Midtown restaurant. You and three friends will be able to ask Kelly everything you ever wanted to know about the world of Tiffany & Co. and Patek Philippe. Date and Time TBD (four people). Estimate $500-$1000.
Lot 4: An evening of vintage watches with Christie's New York. You and your guests will have a private viewing of Christie's June NYC auction and private sale watches in advance of public opening the next day. After the viewing, you and up to three friends will be treated to a dinner with John Reardon and Rebecca Ross at an exclusive Midtown restaurant. June 7, 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM viewing, Dinner 7:45 PM (four people). Estimate $500-$1,000.
Lot 5:Chronos and Quantième Perpétuel, artwork by Xavier Magaldi. Swiss made in 2013, two color silkscreen on 300 gram paper, 35 x 35 cm. Signed and donated by the artist. Estimate: $500 - $1,000.
Lot 7: George Daniels’ personal copy of The Practical Watch Escapement, with his correction notes, signed and donated by Roger W. Smith. Estimate: $1,000-$2,000.
Lot 8: Set of two watches: Limited Edition Bulova x Analog/Shift Devil Diver with canvas strap and bracelet & vintage Bulova Devil Diver, donated by Analog/Shift. The modern watch is brand new, never worn and completely sold-out. 1 year warranty included for both watches. Estimate: $4,000-$6,000.
Most watchmaking schools in the USA are free. Tuition is covered by a sponsoring brand, and usually the only school expense that the students cover are their tools. These schools are full-time two year programs, meaning paying for living expenses can be difficult. This is where the Henry B. Fried Scholarship comes in; the Horological Society of New York wants to help American watchmaking students succeed in every way. The two winners of the 2018 Henry B. Fried Scholarship (for $10,000 each) will be announced at the 2018 Gala.
Food, Drink & Music
Enjoy a large selection of food and drink, with an open bar from 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM, and live music throughout the evening. The suggested attire is business formal.
All proceeds from this event go towards the Horological Society of New York's ongoing educational programs. The Horological Society of New York is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, federal tax identification number 13-6139887.
HODINKEE is a sponsor of the Horological Society of New York.
