The Monaco Speed 12 combines Louis Vuitton’s Spin Time complication with the classic Monaco case. F1 season’s in full swing and while every race has its own character, winning at Monaco is, as Charles LeClerc once said, something special. The circuit, said Lewis Hamilton, presents its own unique challenges: “As long as you win Monaco,...

The latest perpetual calendar from IWC brings a major update to the classic Kurt Klaus perpetual calendar. Years ago, when the mechanical watch renaissance was really gathering steam, IWC’s Kurt Klaus, the legendary engineer who oversaw IWC’s rise to fame as a maker of complications, developed a perpetual calendar unlike anything seen before. Prior to...

The new Bumblebee chronograph is thinner, with a classic diameter, and a summer-yellow dial. Today Tudor’s announced the latest watch in its popular collection of Black Bay chronographs. The new model is the Chrono 39 Bumblebee, with an eye catching bright yellow dial, and with the manufacture chronograph caliber MT5813. Notably, the watch comes with...

A highly refined presentation of three complications. The latest chronograph from H. Moser & Cie is a complicated watch, but in keeping with Moser’s philosophy of combining complexity with a minimalist design language, it’s also a clean, uncluttered design, using a combination of a muted, close toned palette with an arrangement of the various indications,...

Can you handle the intensity of the density? The Submersible Navy SEALs Afniotech Experience PAM01089 is notable for several reasons. It is first of all, a limited edition of 35 pieces which is a quite small series for a 1000 meter water resistant diver’s watch. It’s also a very small number for a Panerai Navy...

The Monarch may have gotten the early buzz, but don’t sleep on the Royal. Think of Tudor, and you think of sports and performance watches, and with good reason – the wide range of Black Bay, Ranger and Pelagos models are some of the greatest values in the world in terms of technical features and...

Breitling’s signature collection gets a contemporary refresh. Breitling for good reason, is well known as one of the world’s most important makers of aviation watches, and one of its best known collections is the Chronomat. The Chronomat is highly recognizable – the bezel carries the collection’s signature “rider” tabs, marking 15 minute intervals, as well...

Original vision, smart inspiration, and great execution. It is an often repeated truism, and I know this because I have often repeated it, that to be genuinely creative with wristwatches at this particular point in the history of watchmaking, is next to impossible. New ideas are thin upon the ground at the best of times,...

One of the most ingenious modern watch designs is a study in restrained elegance – but that’s exactly what makes the Reverso uniquely adapted for complicated watchmaking. The Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso, odd as it may sound, started out as a sports watch. The origin story of the Reverso is well known. The original design for the...

Ceramics for most of history were fragile and delicate. Modern engineering ceramics changed all that, and watchmaking has never been the same. Making ceramic watches is a fairly new phenomenon, and with good reason. Nobody knows when the first ceramics were made, but the first evidence we have of pit fired clay vessels is from...

The Pulse60 balance seems to beat at an impossibly slow frequency, and at an impossibly high amplitude. Here’s how it works – and the surprisingly long history of the design. Dominique Renaud is one of the most respected names in complicated watchmaking, having been the cofounder of Renaud & Papi, the complications specialist where some...

The School Watch was the victor in what Jury President Carole-Forestier Kasapi described as a very closely contested race to the finish. The Louis Vuitton Watch Prize for Independent Creatives is held every two years, and the goal is relatively straightforward: identify a promising watchmaker with an original viewpoint and a proven capacity to realize...

A study in lugs, the most important part of a watch you’re probably ignoring. I am a sucker for weird lugs. Lugs are the handshake of a watch. They introduce you to the watch, and are a part of your first impression, whether you realize it or not. Lug design, in my humble opinion, is...

The persistence of Daylight Saving Time is one of timekeeping’s great mysteries; handling it in a watch is one of watchmaking’s greatest challenges. The idea behind Daylight Saving Time is a pretty simple one – setting the clocks ahead an hour, in the Spring (which is what we’re going to do this Sunday, March 8,...

How quartz rewired the Swiss watch industry, reshaped what mechanical watches mean, and quietly laid the groundwork for today’s hyper-consolidated, ultra-premium market. I used to ask my students a simple question. Does history change? Most would instinctively say no. History is the past. What happened happened. But the longer you live with history, the more...

There are seemingly more places to read about watches and watch collecting now than ever before in human history. Here’s one watch writer’s sample of go-to resources. Whenever I talk to anyone about watches and watchmaking, sooner or later I get around to talking about what it was like in the Good (or maybe not...