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