Guilloche: Patterns on a watch dial

Engraving on a watch dial can add real beauty to the overall appearance of the watch.  Guilloche is engraving technique done using a machine controlled by a skilled artisan .  Now you make think the machine is dong the work but you would be wrong.  The user is controlling it and the machine is helping to carve the material out of the dial.

Seeing it does give you a massive appreciation of how long it takes and the skill involved to achieve such a result.

I have found a couple of videos that provide the visual aid needed to fully appreciate this skill.

The first is from Vacheron Constantin

The 2nd video is from RGM, which is Roland Murphys company based in Lancaster Pennsylvania in the USA.  He gives a great explanation on how the machine works.

Awesome video from DeBethune on their Manufacture

My friend Massi posted this video on his Facebook account and what a video it is!  DeBethune is an independent maker of watches, who do things their way.  They have their own design of escapement using materials such as silicon and their watches are a thing of beauty.

This video is horological awesomeness for me.  For people new to watches and horology this gives an idea of how much work goes into producing a timepiece on a DeBethune level.

Clips from the Anitques Roadshow

The Antiques Roadshow is a program that runs both in the United States and The United Kingdom.  It a factual show where members of the public bring in items to learn more about them.  It is a entertaining program and is enjoyable to watch.

From time to time certain pieces are brought in which get my attention.  Thought I would post a few clips that were quite good.

The first clip is from the USA version.  A gentleman brought in a pocket watch by Patek Philippe that had been in his family for quite a long time.  This pocket watch was made in 1914.  This was before James Ward Packard and Henry Graves Jr had their superwatches made.

This watch eventually sold for $1.5 million at a Sothebys Auction. (Updated 16/05/14)

New Release from MB&F: The MB&F Legacy Machine 101

MB&F is a independent brand that I have always liked.  

 

Their Horological Machines are designs inspired from Max Busser himself from his childhood and other experiences in life.  

Not all the Horological Machines are to everyones taste, but some pieces like HM3, HM4 and HM4  I really do like.  

The Legacy Machine line, is at the other end of the spectrum.  The watches are designed with a take on the watchmaking of the 1800s and brought forward into todays realm.

The Legacy Machine 1 was a fantastic piece with 2 separate dials for independent time zones and the first vertical power reserve. An eye catching detail of the piece was the balance wheel hanging above the 2 dials, oscillating above them.   A very novel approach considering the balance wheel in nearly all watches is hidden from view.  In addition to all this movement was finished to the standards set by Mr Kari Voutilainen, a master and revered independent watch maker.  The movement was designed by Mr Busser, Mr Jean Francois Mojon and Mr Voutilainen.

For their latest release MB&F has released the Legacy Machine 101.  Their first completely in-house movement finished by Mr Kari Voutilainen.  The 101 features a smaller sized case at 40mm compared to the Legacy Machine 1 at 44mm. 

The large oscillating balance wheel is present on the dial side.  The dial showing  the time has been offset slightly to the right and the vertical power reserve has been replaced with a conventional dial indicator.

It comes in two versions.

Flashback to my first watch: The Flik Flak

My Flik Flak was my first wristwatch.  Flik Flaks are still made today by the Swatch group.  The case was made of aluminum.  Kind of cool for a kids watch, considering many years later FP Journe made the first aluminum sports watch.

As a youngster I thought this watch was incredibly cool with its green colour scheme and funny people shaped hands.

I thought it would be fun to do a comparison of the Flik Flak with the chunkiest watch I own.

My PAM at 44mm is pretty big and has a chunky case.  Viewing them side by side gives you a pretty good indication of the size difference :)

3 Titanium Patek Philippe pieces coming up for auction

In the watch world,  a watch made in small quantities usually gets major attention especially when it made by Patek Philippe and is made of a different material such as Stainless Steel.  Just look at the recent sale of Eric Claptons Patek Philippe 2499 in Platinum.  The reason why it sold for $3.65 million dollars was because one it was Eric Clapton's watch (He is an avid watch collector of Rolex and Patek Philippe) and secondly it was one of two pieces made in platinum.  The other piece resides in the Patek Philippe Museum.

At the upcoming Sothebys Watch Auction there are 3 Patek Philippes coming up for sale that are really rare.  Now we are not talking about stainless steel models.  We are talking about titanium pieces.  Patek Philippe have made titanium models for charitable organisations in the past, such as the Ref 5004T  Perpetual Calendar Splits Seconds for Only Watch. 

These new discovered pieces are completely bonkers!

Book Review: A Grand Complication

I copied this post from my old blog published last year.  As I am now starting fresh with Perpetual in Time this was something I wanted to copy over.

I have just finished reading A Grand Complication by Stacy Perman.

It documents the story of two of America's greatest watch collectors in the 20th Century,  Henry Graves Jr and & James Ward Packard.

Watches of Kevin O' Leary from the Shark Tank

Kevin O' Leary is a Canadian investor and venture capitalist who stars on the hit TV show Shark Tank and previously Dragons Den Canada.

I have noticed he has quite a nice collection from different brands.

The first watch featured is a Jaeger LeCoultre Reverso Dual Time GMT

An overview of some of the watches worn by members of the British Royal Family

With the recent visit of Prince William the Duke of Cambridge and his wife Duchess Catherine visiting Australia & New Zealand, the Duchess watch of choice was on show.

Prince William has always worn his Omega Seamaster, a gift from his mother Diana the late Princess of Wales. 

Omega Seamaster on the wrist of the Duke Of Cambridge

The benefits of a deployant clasp: Nicolas Sarkozy and his Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendar

Bit of a flashback to when Nicolas Sarkozy was still President Of France.  During one of his meetings with the public, he was in the process of shaking hands when his Patek Philippe become loose.  Luckily for him it was on a delpoyant clasp and he was able to place it in his pocket and carry on.

Patek Philippe Ref 3940

New CEO of Rolex: Jean-Frederic Dufour

This came out of the blue but I think it is a good move.  Rolex have appointed former CEO of Zenith Watches Mr Jean-Frederic Dufour.

Mr Dufour turned Zenith around after the departure of Thierry Nataf who previously lead Zenith down the wrong path.  Mr Dufour restructured the  watch categories and brought back design elements from the past with a modern twist. 

Rolex has previously brought back older watches and given them modern upgrades such as the Milgauss. At the same time they have released brand new watches with more innovations in the movement, the watch I am referring to is the Sky Dweller.


It will be interesting to see if Mr Dufour decides to bring back some old elements of Rolex models and give them a modern facelift.  Time will tell

Mr Jean-Frederic Dufour new CEO of Rolex

Watches made specifically for Sportsmen: Richard Mille

A watch is a mechanical object that is capable of gaining or losing time depending on the conditions it is exposed to in daily life.   Activities such as going to work and relaxing around the house will generally not cause the watch to gain or lose much accuracy as there are minimal disturbances on a timepiece.

Playing sport, will in all likelihood cause the watch to gain or lose quite a bit of accuracy due to the forces applied to it. Watches have been have previously been designed to accompany an explorer on a trip but this was usually done with an existing model.

Richard Mille was the first watchmaker to design a watch with from the ground up, to withstand the extremes faced by a sportsperson.

Felipe Massa the former Ferrari now Williams F1 driver was the first sportsman that Richard Mille chose.    Usually an F1 driver only wears his watch after a race.  Mille designed and produced a wristwatch that could withstand the g-forces that the driver faced while racing.  He used materials that were found on the car its itself.  He used carbon fibre as a baseplate which had never been done before. 

Felipe Massa wearing his Richard Mille Chronograph while with Ferrari

Watches in Film: Glengarry Glenross

In a great scene, Alec Baldwin's character gives a speech to some real estate employees.  To get the message across he takes off his Rolex to exercise the point.  It is a 18k yellow gold model. 

Red Carpet Watch GTG: Arnold Scharwzenegger and Joe Manganiello

A GTG (get togther) is a meeting between watch people.  In this case it was a quick GTG on the red carpet. 

Arnold Scharwzenegger and Joe Manganiello star in Sabotage.  During their premiere they took a moment to talk about their watches that they were wearing for the occasion.

 
Arnold was wearing an Audemars Piguet on a bracelet and Joe was wearing his Richard Mille on a rubber strap

Watches in Television: The Sopranos

One of the greatest TV Shows in my opinion was The Sopranos.  It had a great cast and storyline.

The main character Tony Soprano played by the talented James Gandolfini, wore probably the most famous Rolex Day Date  "President" on television.  It was a 18k yellow gold model and never left his wrist the entire series.

Rolex  "President" on Anthony Soprano

Watches in Fim & Television: The Family 2013

This is the start of what I will make into a regular series.

As a person interested in watches its always exciting to catch a glimpse of a watch in a film or on television.  If its a clear camera shot of the watch its quite easy to identify or if its design is very distinctive.  Otherwise it can be an enjoyable hunt to found out.

To the best of my knowledge the first instance of a watch mentioned in detail in a film was the Fugitive Kid starring Marlon Brandon in 1959.  He went into full detail about the Rolex triple date moonphase on his wrist.  See the video below

For my first post, this was an unexpected surprise.  I was a flight and had already seen all the movies that I was interested in seeing.  So I decided to watch The Family starring Robert De Niro.  There is a scene where De Niro checks the time on his watch for a device he has planted (Won't give the plot away!).  He lifts back his sleeve and low and behold there is a vintage Jaeger LeCoultre Memovox  on his wrist!  I had to rewind the part because I was so suprised!  A highlight in a rather stale film!

(c) Watches in Movies

Writers Thoughts: Is the need for a date on certain watches necessary?

What is the date today?  A question asked on a sporadic basis during the week, when needing to fill out a form or needing to submit an assignment etc.

For me I will look to either my watch or my phone for the answer.  I am a purist when it comes to reading the time off my watch than my phone.  A watch is a mechanical working wonder and is moving all the time.  My iPhone is convenient for reading the time sometimes but it lacks "soul" of a wristwatch.

The date window can either add a nice aesthetic touch to the dial or it can throw the balance of the dial out.

A date is necessary for an annual or perpetual calendar, 90% of the time these are tastefully done and look fantastic.  Any Patek Philippe perpetual calendar comes to mind.

As for just the date window alone, A Lange and Sohne is in my opinion gets it spot on with their "Big Date" window.  It fits into the dial nicely and provides a nice balance

The great Lange 1

Baselworld 2014: DeBethune DB29 Maxichrono Tourbillon

DeBethune was founded in 2002 and is an independent company.  Their creations right from the start were full of new technical innovations, and new takes on complications such as the first 3D moonphase.

They are one of my favourite independent brands and this year they have created very nice looking and special chronograph.

A typical chronograph will have a bi compax or tri compax layout.  This means the watch will have either 2 or 3 subdials: One for the elapsed minutes (either 30 or 60 mins), hours(usually 12) and the last subdial contains the running seconds hand.

DeBehune has released a mono pusher chronograph with all functions stemming from the centre of the watch.  This means the hands for telling the time plus the chronograph functions all are located in the one place.  DeBethune has utilised the inner and outer tracks of the dial for the elapsed hours and minutes respectively.

My 3 Favourite Releases from Rolex at BaselWorld 2014

Rolex took off the covers for their 2014 models at BaselWorld yesterday.

Their teaser video  as we found out was more aimed at the Cellini collection.

In the Oyster collection there were some pleasant surprises.

First up is the GMT Master II with Blue/Red Ceramic Bezel.

The old Bakelite and Metal insert  "Pepsi" modes are Rolex classics.  Its nice to see the Pepsi insert back in Ceramic form.  Although the watch was released in White Gold, which will put it out of reach for most, a Stainless Steel version should come next year.

Parallax Tourbillon from the Brothers Grönefeld

The newest release from the Grönefeld Brothers for BaselWorld is the Parallax Tourbillon.

The name "Parallax" is derived from the precision of the readability of the central seconds hand. Parallax is defined as the apparent change in position of an object when the observer changes his own position. To minimize the possibility of error due to parallax when viewing the seconds hand from an angle, the hand is exceptionally close to the outer chapter ring with the seconds indexes. In a neat addition, the one-armed balance wheel bridge always runs parallel to the central seconds hand.

In addition to the flying tourbillon and friction-spring-free central seconds, the Parallax Tourbillon has yet another innovative feature: rather than pulling the crown to set the time, which has the risk of damaging the fragile crown stem, it is pressed. An indicator on the dial displays the function selected: "W" for Winding or "S" for time setting. When the time setting function is selected, both tourbillon cage-bridge and the central seconds hand automatically return to their respective 12 o’clock positions and stop (or hack) while the time is set.

 Pictures shown are of the Stainless Steel model.

Rolex BaselWorld 2014

Rolex has a revealed a teaser for BaselWorld.

I would love it if the moonphase came back.

Fingers crossed

First teaser from Tudor

Tudor has a countdown timer on their website for BaselWorld 2014.  The background is falling snow.  Looks like a snowflake re-edition possibly.

BaselWorld 2014

Well today is the 18th of March.  9 days to the 2014 edition of BaselWorld.  SIHH 2014 in Geneva showed off some nice pieces from the Richemont group of brands, hoping the rest of the brands bring some nice pieces out!

A fresh start!

Starting another blog, this time for Uni but possibly I will keep it and build it into something further eventually