Studio Underd0g has, in a relatively short time, come to be a definitive force in the British watch industry. Their fun concepts and extravagant use of colour has catapulted them right to the pinnacle of watch design, all the while championing this sceptred isle. If that sounds like hyperbole, it isn’t. How many other young British watch brands (Studio Underd0g was founded in 2020) have collaborated with Swiss titans like H. Moser & Cie.? For the tail end of 2024, Studio Underd0g is revisiting the watch that started it all with a new generation, the 01Series Gen 3.

01Series is comprised of the original 4 designs with which Studio Underd0g made their name. Most celebrated of the four is Watermel0n but it’s also joined by Mint Ch0c Chip, Desert Sky and Go0fy Panda. Each is named after the food stuff or concept that inspires the colourway and details. So Watermel0n has a green tachymeter, pink dial and seed shaped hour markers. Mint Ch0c Chip is then green with creamy, chocolaty accents and choc chip hour markers. Incredibly striking and playful designs.

Considering that the designs of 01Series have been kept the same for Gen 3, what has changed? Well, the watch case is now slightly slimmer with a thickness of 12.9mm down from 13.6mm. However, more significant than that is the movement. Back in April Seagull, the manufacturer of the ST-1901 used in the 01Series, changed their sales model for the movement. Importantly, the minimum order quantity for ST-19 movements became 10,000 pieces – which for a brand that produces watches in relatively low quantities is quite the predicament.

Fortunately, Studio Underd0g have announced that they are now working directly with Seagull on a partnership movement called the ST-1901B. It features a black main plate that offers a fresh aesthetic that frames the bridges and gears of the calibre. Additionally, it features a new swan neck regulator allowing it to be regulated with more precision to a rate of -10/+15 seconds per day, an improvement over the -15/+35 seconds per day of the previous model. It has a power reserve of 50-hours standard or 45-hours with the chronograph engaged.

It’s a solid upgrade to the watch’s quality of life, especially as the movement was often the area most criticised previously. Upgrading it shows that Studio Underd0g are genuinely paying attention to the feedback of their customers and are willing to iterate on their designs to improve them – even if in this case, they were forced into it. Another quality of life update for customers is that, to avoid excessive scalping, Studio Underd0g have changed their sales method.

Instead of a strict limited edition of say 500 pieces, the watch will be available for a pre-order period of 9 hours from 3pm-12am on 19^th November and everyone who orders a watch during that period will be guaranteed a watch. The first 600 orders are due to be delivered before Christmas with the rest due in early 2025. Orders will be treated on a first come, first served basis.

All four variants of the Studio Underd0g 01Series Gen 3 are priced at £550, which is £50 up on the previous generation. Given the improvements however, that’s a small price to pay.

More details at Studio Underd0g.

The Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) is regarded as the Oscars of the watch industry. A jury of top industry professionals gathers to determine the best watches of the year across a wide range of categories. From the grand prize called “Aiguille D’Or” right down to the Challenge category for watches priced at CHF 3,000 or less. The 2024 GPHG Awards Ceremony took place last night (13^th November) so let’s take a look at the GPHG results 2024.

“Aiguille D’Or” Grand Prix: IWC Eternal Calendar

Starting with the most prestigious award, the “Aiguille D’Or” Grand Prix was won by the IWC Eternal Calendar. This isn’t exactly a surprise considering the rarity of secular calendar complications in addition to featuring a world record breaking moon phase complication.

“Petite Aiguille” Prize: Kudoke 3 Salmon

It was only last week that we took a deep dive into the world of Kudoke and their accessible Saxon watchmaking. Evidently the GPHG jury agree, awarding the stylish and minimalist 3 Salmon the “Petite Aiguille” prize for watches between CHF 10,000 and CHF 3,000.

Tourbillon Watch Prize: Daniel Roth Tourbillon Souscription

The return of the Daniel Roth brand has definitely been one of the most memorable moments of 2024 in the watch industry this year so it’s nice to see that rewarded with an award from GPHG. The Tourbillon Souscription’s distinctive double ellipse shape and retrograde scales are the epitome of both classy style and watchmaking prowess.

Time Only Prize: H. Moser & Cie Streamliner Small Seconds Blue Enamel

H. Moser & Cie. prove that sometimes elegance and simplicity can be winning features. The Streamliner Small Seconds Blue Enamel features a sleek integrated bracelet design with a fumé blue dial in enamel that is stunning.

Sports Watch Prize: Ming 37.09 Bluefin

Another interesting part of the GPHG is seeing smaller and more niche brands receive kudos from the wider industry. Ming isn’t exactly a new name on the block but 2024 has felt like something of a renaissance with an increase in productivity, style and quality as exemplified by the 37.09 Bluefin that beat out competition from giants like Zenith, Tudor and IWC.

Full Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) Results 2024

Edouard Meylan, CEO of H. Moser & Cie. winner of the Time Only Watch Prize 2024

“Aiguille D’Or” Grand Prix: IWC Eternal Calendar

Ladies’ Watch Prize: Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Jour Nuit

Ladies’ Complication Watch Prize: Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Brise d’Été

Time Only Prize: H. Moser & Cie Streamliner Small Seconds Blue Enamel

Men’s Watch Prize: Voutilainen KV20i Reversed

Men’s Complication Watch Prize: De Bethune DB Kind of Grande Complication

Iconic Watch Prize: Piaget Polo 79

Tourbillon Watch Prize: Daniel Roth Tourbillon Souscription

Calendar and Astronomy Watch Prize: Laurent Ferrier Classic Moon Silver

Mechanical Exception Watch Prize: Bovet 1822 Récital 28 Prowess 1

Chronograph Watch Prize: Massena Lab Chronograph Monopoussoir Sylvain Pinaud x Massena Lab

Sports Watch Prize: Ming 37.09 Bluefin

Jewellery Watch Prize: Chopard Laguna High-Jewellery Secret Watch

Artistic Crafts Watch Prize: Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Jour Enchanté

“Petite Aiguille” Prize: Kudoke

Challenge Watch Prize: Otsuka Lotec No.6

Eco-Innovation Prize: Chopard L.U.C Qualité Fleurier

Audacity Prize: Berneron Mirage Sienna

“Horological Revelation” Prize: Rémy Cools Tourbillon Atelier

Chronometry Prize: Bernhard Lederer 3 Times Certified Observatory Chronometer

Special Jury Prize: Jean-Pierre Hagmann

More details at GPHG.

Considering how rich the history of the watch industry is, stretching back centuries, it’s little surprise that there is always more to learn about. Today’s focus is the revival brand Dennison who have released their debut A.L.D Collection inspired by their impressive heritage. The A.L.D Collection is split into two main sub-categories, the stone dial series and the sunray dial series, so naturally I have here one of each for a full review. Specifically, we have the A.L.D Collection Midnight Aventurine and Sunray Black.

The name A.L.D is an homage to Dennison’s original founder Aaron Lufkin Dennison, the man who, in 1850, also founded the Waltham Watch Company, one of the United States’ most significant watch brands. However, the Dennison name itself became recognised in its own right in the late 1800s when Aaron Lufkin Dennison began producing high quality watch cases for other brands and introduced what at the time were new techniques and materials to watch production such as gold plating.

Across the 20^th century the reputation of Dennison continued to grow. Shakleton’s expedition watches, WWI military watches, Edmund Hillary’s Smiths Everest ascent watches and a range of Rolexes, Omegas and Longines can all trace at least part of their production to Dennison. Then, in 1967 the brand disappeared – just before the quartz crisis meant many other watch brands would also follow suit. However, in 2024 the Dennison name is back.

Strapping on the A.L.D Sunray Black my attention naturally slides to the case, as that’s what the brand is historically famous for. Its shape is a kind of hybrid between a cushion case and a rectangle, measuring 33.65mm in width with a lug-to-lug of 37mm and thickness of 6.05mm. It’s pretty svelte, giving it a great unisex appeal. I understand the argument that the smooth lines and polished surfaces gives it quite a feminine aspect but, on the wrist, I think the size works really well, especially given the current popularity of retro dimensions.

The Sunray Black dial with steel hands (also polished meaning they sometimes look black depending how the light hits them) is suitably minimalist, letting the shape language of the case really shine. It’s a quiet and refined design. Which is interesting because swapping to the  A.L.D Collection Midnight Aventurine, the dial on this version is anything but quiet. As the name suggests, the dial is made from aventurine glass giving it a sparkling, shining appearance that dazzles in the sunlight. It reminds me of clear nights when you can see the Milky Way lighting up the sky.

In addition to the mineral dial, the Midnight Aventurine ups the luxe ante even further with a gold PVD finish on the case, hands, crown and strap pin buckle. Turning either watch over reveals a solid caseback decorated with the Dennison logo with a radial pattern emerging from it. Protected by said caseback is the Swiss Ronda Quartz 1032-1 movement. Admittedly this movement lacks the prestige of a mechanical movement but it’s an integral part of maintaining the watches’ slim profiles. Plus, we’ve seen many revival brands start with quartz before graduating to mechanical a few years down the line and that’s entirely possible with Dennison.

If you’re looking for a stylish, accessible timepiece with the reliability and ease of maintenance of quartz, both the A.L.D Collection Midnight Aventurine and Sunray Black are worth a consideration. Or one of their many alternatives such as the gorgeous green Malachite stone dial edition. The stone dial versions are priced at £549 while the sunray editions are £390.

More details at Dennison.

Few watches are as synonymous with artistic styles as the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso and Art Deco design. And that’s for good reason because the Reverso collection dates all the way back to the early 20^th century and the emergence of the Art Deco movement It’s a bold and luxurious style and JLC have doubled down on that with a new dial decoration on the Reverso Tribute Chronograph Full Pink Gold.

Jumping straight to that dial, it’s made from pink gold with laser engraved horizontal lines that span the width of the display. It reinforces the geometric precision often seen in Art Deco designs while also highlighting the rectangular shape of the watch as well as echoing the gadroons (horizontal lines) found on the case above and below the dial. It makes for a really striking display, especially when paired with the pink gold hour markers and dauphine hands. Adding a level of legibility is the black minute scale which offers a much needed point of contrast.

Reversing the watch by flipping the body over reveals the second, hidden dial with skeletonised chronograph display. The layout of this dial is identical to the 2023 edition with the exception that the visible plate and bridges of the movement are now produced in pink gold. Hence the appellation Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Chronograph Full Pink Gold. The chronograph function itself is operated through the use of the rectangular pushers on either side of the crown.

Beyond the increased luxury of the dials, this model is more or less identical to the 2023 predecessor with proportions of 49.4mm x 29.9 mm with 30m water resistance. It houses the calibre 860 with a 52-hour power reserve and manual winding. The chronograph function consists of chronograph seconds and a retrograde 30-minute timer.

The Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Chronograph Full Pink Gold is presented with a pair of straps, one a black alligator number and the second a brown calfskin piece. In terms of price and availability, it’s £60,500 in a limited edition of 250 pieces. While I’m a fan of the regular dial of the Reverso Tribute, I think this one is a worthy alternative suitable for a golden limited edition. If you want a hyper luxurious two watch collection, put this side by side with the Vacheron Constantin Patrimony Self-Winding x Ora Ïto.

More details at Jaeger-LeCoultre.

It’s time for the latest Oracle Time membership giveaway! We host these giveaways every 3 months providing Oracle Time members the chance to win some awesome watches. Previous prizes include the Spinnaker Bradner GMT and Baltic HMS 003. Next, up for grabs is the Formex Field Petrol Blue – details of the giveaway can be found at the bottom of this article. But first, let’s meet the watch with a hands-on review.

If you’re unfamiliar with Formex, they are a byword for practical, accessible tool watches and the Field collection is the ultimate example of that. The Field Blue’s titanium case measures 40mm in diameter, making it super lightweight and suitable for wrists of all sizes. Strapping it on, it’s the type of watch you can wear day after day without becoming wearied by the weight. I’m sure there are diehards out there who will complain that it doesn’t have the appropriate heft for a tool watch but as titanium becomes more common in the industry, people will gradually acclimatise to lighter timepieces.

In terms of colour, the case has a distinctive grey tone with a sand-blasted finish. It’s actually lighter in shade than many titanium watches and I find that helps the finish to stand out more. The same material is used for the crown, which is itself quite wide meaning there’s the slight issue of it digging into your hand at certain angles. However, the benefit of such a wide crown is that it’s easy to use with an excellent feel as you unscrew it and use it to change the date and time.

The fact that it’s a screw-down crown also helps to provide the watch a 150m water resistance rating. That’s what you’d expect from a field watch. The origin of field watches is closely related to the military as they were designed for use ‘in the field’, hence the name. So they’re generally designed to survive a quick splash through a river or puddle but isn’t designed for extended use in water. Although with its petrol blue dial, this specific Formex Field isn’t particularly militaristic.

The dial has a sandwich construction, which means it’s constructed of three layers: the base plate, a layer of retro, beige lume and then a top layer with stencil-like cut-outs for the Arabic numerals and hour markers. It makes for a very distinctive display that’s solidly legible in both light and dark conditions.

Unstrapping the watch and turning it over reveals the solid titanium caseback engraved with a cool honeycomb pattern. It protects the Sellita SW200-1 automatic movement held inside. The Sellita is the archetypal work horse movement, widely used across the industry due to its accessibility, ease of repair and decent reliability. Plus, it has the improved 41-hour power reserve that Sellita introduced a few years ago, making it almost weekend-proof.

I must say that when it comes to daily wear watches, I’m a sucker for a field watch. They’re the perfect balance of utility and style and the Formex Field Blue lives up to that expectation perfectly. It would fit in my personal collection seamlessly next to the Seiko Alpinist and Christopher Ward Shoreline. Sadly I won’t be adding this particular piece to my collection because instead it’s going to be given away to one of you instead. Thanks for that.

For a chance to win the Formex Field Petrol Blue simply sign up to become an Oracle Time member before January 3^rd 2024. What better way to start the new year than with a watch worth £890 on deployant leather strap? Plus, by signing up to the membership you’ll receive a host of additional benefits including receive 10 print editions of the magazine straight to your door, invitations to exclusive events and priority access to future collaboration watches.

More details at Formex.

Here’s a quick peek behind the curtain, as I’m starting to write this article I have just finished working on the Breguet Marine Tourbillon Equation Marchante 5887 article so my brain is already full of the high end scientific principles at play in that watch. Now we move to an equally technical and astonishing watch in the form of the Greubel Forsey Nano Foudroyante EWT, which they’ve released for their 20^th anniversary. If you think that name is confusing, worry not, let’s break it down and understand it together.

Let’s start with ‘Foudroyante’, which is a rare watchmaking term that actually has a relatively simple definition. It’s a seconds function capable of displaying fractions of a second. The most common (if such a thing can be said of a rare complication) way to achieve this is by having a seconds subdial with a seconds hand that rotates 360 degrees in one second. When moving so fast it’s virtually impossible to achieve a smooth rotation and so the second is split into fractions with the hand moving in beats. The Habring² Foudroyante for example has eight intervals while the Greubel Forsey Nano Foudroyante EWT has just six.

You can see the seconds display on the tiny subdial mounted on the flying tourbillon (Greubel Forsey’s first) at 5 o’clock. It has to be mounted there because the Foudroyante is basically converting the impulses of the balance directly into timekeeping information. What that means though is that as the tourbillon rotates, so does the subdial. Which would be problematic except that Greubel Forsey have implemented an oriented reading axis similar to the planetary gearing found on the Atowak Cosmofleet that keeps the display level for optimal readability.

As you might expect, creating a hand that rotates once per second on top of a flying tourbillon is incredibly energy intensive. That’s where the next part of Nano Foudroyante EWT’s name comes into play, ‘nano’. This watch is a proof of concept that nanomechanics is practical in watchmaking, pushing miniaturisation of components beyond the micro scale to the nanometric scale. What this means is that the watch is capable of managing energy on the nanojoule scale, greatly increasing the foudroyante function’s energy efficiency by a factor of 1,800 compared to previous examples.

In theory this extends the power reserve. However, somewhat frustratingly GF have only supplied the power reserve data with the chronograph (we’ll get to that shortly) engaged, which is only 24-hours. We simply don’t know if the power reserve is longer if the chrono isn’t engaged. Also 24 hours is exceptionally low for a power reserve but perhaps that can be forgiven due to the watch’s experimental/concept status.

A side effect of having such small components is that the movement is itself very svelte. In turn that means the case, which is made from a combination of white gold and tantalum, measures just 37.9mm in diameter. That’s the smallest watch Greubel Forsey have ever produced in their 20 years of operation. Oh yes, this watch is so complex that it’s only now that I have a moment to address the fact that this is GF’s 20^th anniversary celebratory timepiece.

But wait, there’s more. As hinted at earlier, on top of the incredible Nano Foudroyante display Greubel Forsey have pushed the boundaries even further by adding a monopusher flyback chronograph into the mix. Which is yet another milestone because this is the first time they’ve created a flyback chronograph on a manual-winding movement. The chronograph consists of a central 60-second chronograph hand and a 60-minute chronograph counter at 9 o’clock. Below that chronograph subdial is a small seconds subdial, which is useful for knowing which of the 60 seconds in a minute the Nano Foudroyante dial is currently showing.

Bringing us to the end of the article is the final part of the watch’s name, ‘EWT’, which is an acronym for ‘Experimental Watch Technology’. More or less telling us that this is a concept watch. However, unlike many concept watches it is actually for sale in a limited edition of 11 pieces at a substantial price of CHF 465,000 (approx. £410,000). Considering the degree of innovation and precision on display here, that makes sense.

More details at Greubel Forsey.

One of the things I love about wristwatches is that they teach you so much about the fundamental aspects of time, our planet and the strange oddities that occur in our timekeeping methodology when the real world doesn’t nicely coincide with a practical system. Perhaps the best known example of the latter is the leap year, where we cram all the extra time that’s supposed to be around the edges of our days and years into a single extra day every four years. The Breguet Marine Tourbillon Equation Marchante 5887 is dedicated to a different such phenomenon.

Specifically, the Breguet Marine Tourbillon Equation Marchante 5887 is a grand complication watch that combines a perpetual calendar and tourbillon with the much rarer equation marchante complication. This function allows the watch to display both ‘mean solar time’ and ‘real solar time’ simultaneously. The easiest way to understand the difference between mean and real solar time is that mean time is the standardised time we live our day to day life by – that’s partly the reason GMT stands for Greenwich Mean Time. Meanwhile, real solar time is the true local time based on the position of the sun in relation to the Earth.

For example, a wristwatch typically displays mean solar time but a sun dial displays real solar time. However, if you compare your wristwatch to a sun dial every day at the same time for a whole year, you’ll discover that the time according to the sun dial goes out of synch by up to as much as 16 minutes faster or slower than your watch. That’s because the Earth’s orbit is not perfectly circular and the planet is on a tilted axis, meaning real solar time can vary quite considerably depending on the time of year. Mean solar time is derived from the average of these discrepancies, hence mean.

Breguet’s equation marchante complication has two hands, a regular minute hand that displays mean solar time and a second minute hand equipped with a golden disc as its tip that displays real solar time. It’s a fascinating insight into the operation of our world and the systems humans have created in order to understand and control it. Similar in some regards to the IWC Eternal Calendar, which is an extreme version of a perpetual calendar accurate until the year 4000 and even then we can only say that it might not be accurate because humanity hasn’t yet decided if the year 4000 will be a leap year.

So far this has been a pretty intense article on scientific concepts so let’s zoom out and talk about the design of the watch for a moment. It has a 43.9mm diameter platinum case similar to the original Marine Tourbillon Equation Marchante that Breguet released in 2017. However, where the original had an ultramarine blue dial, this new edition has a black dial, giving is a much more sombre and sophisticated appearance. I’ve always been a fan of monochromatic design and the contrast between the dark wave motif guilloché and the bright silver tone of the hour scale and platinum case is very satisfying. Especially as it really emphasises the golden equation marchante hand.

The watch’s perpetual calendar complications are found via the days of the week window at 10:30, months at 01:30 and retrograde date scale nestled inside the hour scale with an anchor-tipped hand. At 5 o’clock is the characteristic tourbillon, a mechanism first developed by Breguet’s influential watchmaking founder, Abraham-Louis Breguet. Lastly, between 7 and 8 o’clock is a power reserve indicator.

The power reserve of the movement is 80-hours, provided by the calibre 581DPE. It’s an automatic movement with a peripheral rotor, visible through the exhibition caseback. Aesthetically it’s one of the most stunning movements around finished with immaculate engraving that depicts the Royal Louis warship from 1752 alongside a compass rose.

As for price, well, between the platinum case and the grand complication movement it’s not what you’d describe as accessible. In fact, this watch makes timepieces like the Panerai Perpetual Calendar GMT look accessible by comparison and that watch is 30k. Without beating around the bush any  further, the Breguet Marine Tourbillon Equation Marchante 5887 is a cool £253,300.

More details at Breguet.

For the past two years if you go to the website of popular Dutch watchmakers Grönefeld, you will be instantly met with a pop-up that reads “Sorry, for the moment we can’t take new orders until further notice. We are now processing the overwhelming amount of reservations we’ve received after the launch of our 1969 DeltaWorks and 1941 Grönograaf. Thank you for your patience and understanding.” In the words of DJ Khaled, they are suffering from success. It’s consequently a massive surprise that they’ve now announced the launch of an entirely new brand called Grøne and an all new wristwatch, the Grøne Manueel One ‘Sjef’s One’.

Grøne is designed to be a more widely available and more accessible take on the same design language and principles that have made Grönefeld a success. Essentially, while people wait many years for a high end Grönefeld they can sate their appetite with a Grøne. Or if like the vast majority of people you will never be able to afford one of their top end models, a Grøne is a dramatically more realistic prospect to buy. It’s essentially the same concept used by Japanese master horologer Hajime Asaoka with his extremely exclusive eponymous brand and his accessible Kurono brand.

What of the Grøne Manueel One ‘Sjef’s One’ itself? Well, the official name of the model is the Manueel One, which is a reference to the fact that it houses a manual movement. The nickname ‘Sjef’s One’ is then a dedication to the founding brothers’ father, Sjef Grönefeld. It has a 38.5mm diameter case in stainless steel with an equally svelte thickness of 9mm, putting it right in the pocket of the current zeitgeist for smaller, vintage proportioned timepieces.

The dial has a central tremblage engraved disc in copper, salmon colour surrounded by a brushed, steel coloured hour scale. The hour markers are then delicately facetted wedges that overlap the two sections. Combining all these features together you realise that this is technically a sector dial design. There are even hints of Art Deco influence though it’s nowhere near as strong as the majority of sector dials.

Inside, the Grøne Manueel One ‘Sjef’s One’ houses a modified Sellita SW210. As I briefly mentioned earlier it’s a manual winding movement, meaning it has to be wound using the crown in order to run. It’s actually the winding mechanism that’s been modified by Grøne as they have adjusted the torque for a more satisfying winding experience. It has a 42-hour power reserve, which is pretty standard in today’s market.

As for pricing and availability, the watch is priced at €2,150 excl. VAT (approx. £1,790) and is a limited edition of 388 pieces. Compared to something like a Tissot, that’s not exactly accessible and is still very exclusive. However, on the other hand, compare it to a six figure Grönefeld with less than 200 pieces available and they might as well be giving these Grønes away. Preorders start on the 19^th of November 2024 at 2pm GMT. They are also limited to one purchase per customer. If watching Kurono launches has taught me anything, these are going to sell out within hours, if not minutes.

More details at GRØNE.

Back in the spring of this year the British Alliance of Watch and Clock Makers held the inaugural British Watchmakers’ Day, which without a hint of hyperbole was a massive success. We should know, we were there. It was an incredibly day of meeting watch enthusiasts (and more than a few OT readers) and enjoying the company of Britain’s top watch brands. Now they’ve announced that the event will be run again on March 8th, 2025, at Lindley Hall in London (the natural light makes for a fantastic atmosphere compared to other stuffy exhibitions).

It’s due to be even bigger than before with the list of exhibitors expanding to an incredible 44 British brands. That list includes: Accurist, Adley, Alkin, Anoma, Arken, Apiar, Backes&Strauss, Bamford, Beaucroft, Bremont, Brooklands, Bōken, BVOR, Christopher Ward, Clemence, Duckworth Prestex, Elliot Brown, Edward Christopher, Farer, Fears, FWM, Geckota, Golby Watches, Great British Watch Company, Harold Pinchbeck, Helicon, Isotope, MHD, Mr Jones Watches, Marloe, Monro, Nomadic, Omologato, Olivier Meylan, Pinion, Pompeak, Roger W Smith, Schofield, Sidereus, Sinclair Harding, Studio Underdog, Vertex, William Wood and Zero West.

It has also been confirmed that once again brands in attendance will produce highly sought after and collectible special editions that will be exclusively available at the show. If you don’t want to miss out, make sure to secure a ticket as soon as possible. Tickets are currently available only to club members of the the British Alliance of Watch and Clock Makers with general public tickets being made available in January 2025.

British Watchmakers’ Day 2025 is a fantastic opportunity to meet the brains and faces behind some of your favourite watches as well as supporting the British watchmaking industry. We hope to see you there.

More details at British Watchmakers’ Day.

While I’m no Scrooge, I’m certainly not a believer in the commercial expansion of the festive season for months on end. To be honest, while it might be November I’m still loathe to admit that autumn is almost over and winter is right around the corner. However, if there’s one thing that can convince me that maybe winter is here it’s the start of the skiing season. And when the ski season starts that generally means one thing, ski themed watches. Kicking off the horological slopes first this year is the Longines Conquest Chrono Ski Edition.

The watch is being launched ahead of the International Ski Federation Alpine World Ski Championships, which takes place in February next year in Saalbach, Austria. You can find the event commemorated on the watch’s caseback as well as in the fact it’s a limited edition of 2,025 pieces. However, even if you’ve never strapped a pair of skis to your feet, this watch might be for you because from the dial side of the watch there’s very little to suggest that it’s skiing themed. Instead, it’s just an incredibly handsome and sporty chronograph.

Starting in the centre of the display you have incredibly clean and legible hands with a line of Super-LumiNova down the centre of the hour and minute indicators. There’s also a 60-second chronograph seconds hand. Moving to the dial itself, it has an anthracite colour with a vertical satin-brushed finish that reminds me of the crisp lines of snow on a freshly prepared slope. Set into that are a trio of black subdials in a tricompax layout that display small seconds, a 12-hour timer and a 30-minute timer.

Adding an extra layer of sportiness are the red hands on the two timer subdials, controlled by the chronograph pushers that flank the crown at 3 o’clock. The colour red is also used to accent the point of each hour marker as well as the tachymeter inscription found on the black bezel and the tip of the chronograph seconds hand. The use of red could be considered a hint at the skiing theme of the watch as it’s reminiscent of the red poles used to mark slalom and downhill routes.

Zooming out from the dial, the Longines Conquest Chrono Ski Edition has a very typical Conquest case, measuring 42mm in steel. I’m always struck by the curve of the lugs and the edge of the case leading into the strap which really screams sporty, active design in a way that lots of sports watches miss. It’s also suitably robust with a 100m water resistance rating.

Inside the case is housed the Longines calibre L898.5, an automatic chronograph movement with a 59-hour power reserve. It’s a really solid movement and has excellent anti-magnetic resistance thanks to a silicon balance spring, which also serves to reduce friction. It’s the same movement found in the standard 42mm Conquest although in the standard versions you can see it through the exhibition caseback as opposed to the Ski Edition’s solid commemorative back.

As mentioned, the Longines Conquest Chrono Ski Edition is limited to 2,025 pieces at a price of £3,900. That makes it a touch pricier than the £3,650 standard models but not by a huge margin. I also prefer the level of detail rendered on the limited edition’s dial as well as the restrained use of colour that really makes the red details pop.

More details at Longines.

Laurent Ferrier have collaborated with Art in Time (not to be confused with TimeForArt) on a Classic Traveller piece unique in support of the Monaco Red Cross. Art In Time is a watchmaking gallery in Monaco that features 1-of-1 watches produced by highly respected independent watchmakers. Additionally, the eventual sale of these watches supports charitable initiatives. With Monaco being such a focal point of the movement, it’s this country that inspires the Laurent Ferrier Art in Time Classic Traveller Piece Unique.

Specifically, the watch features a grand feu enamel dial in blue adorned with white gold countries that depicts northern Europe and the islands of Svalbard. This is an homage to a pair of expeditions undertaken by the Monaco royal family to Svalbard, first in 1906 by Albert I and then in 2006 by Albert II, a century apart. Albert I’s expedition was dedicated to the exploration of the islands while Albert II’s was aimed at raising awareness regarding climate change.

The white gold landmasses and blue enamel seas, which get darker further away from the coastlines, perfectly captures the icy landscapes of the Arctic circle. An additional detail is that Monaco, on the southern coast of Europe above the Mediterranean, has been marked by a red dot, highlighting the distances traversed during the expeditions.

With travel being such a core concept to the watch, it makes perfect sense for the piece to be a dual time zone model. Based on Laurent Ferrier’s Classic Traveller series, the central hands display local time while the window at 9 o’clock features a 24-hour disc showing home time. The central display can be adjusted in steps of an hour for ease of use, using the pushers on the left-hand side of the 41mm titanium case.

Housed inside is the LF 230.02 calibre, an automatic movement with a double impulse escapement and 72-hour power reserve. It’s equipped with hours, minutes, dual time zone and date. The date function is connected to local time, meaning that if you use the aforementioned local time adjustment and pass across the international date line, the date will automatically update.

I really like this watch, there’s refined class to the display that’s very pleasing. It’s often that case that watches with globe designs on them are overwhelming in their level of detail, but here the decision to keep it relatively minimalist with a two-tone colour palette works incredibly well. Plus, I’m just a fan of Laurent Ferrier in general. You can discover the Laurent Ferrier Art in Time Classic Traveller Piece Unique at the Art in Time gallery in Monaco along with the other independent creations that form the series.

More details at Laurent Ferrier.

The Wandering Hours display is without question one of the most distinctive in all of watchmaking, totally altering how we read the time from a watch. Traditionally they function by presenting the hours on rotating discs that pass along a 60-minute scale to display the current time. However, as the Hong Kong-based, independent brand Atowak has shown with their latest timepiece, that’s far from the only way to go about creating a wandering hours display. Their new creation is the Cosmofleet Vectorial-Orbit Wandering Hours.

As the name implies, the watch is heavily inspired by the sci-fi notion of fleets of space vessels traveling through the star-filled void of the cosmos. The case measures 39mm x 46.5mm in dark grey titanium with a highly facetted shape that creates an industrial aesthetic like a gigantic spaceship. That industrial vibe is further emphasised by exposed screws and the unique shape of the sapphire crystal glass.

Focussing in on the display itself, the wandering hours does function in the traditional manner with the hours rotating around a central point, but its presentation has been reimagined. Instead of two-dimensional discs, the hour markers are presented on three-dimensional columns that mounted along their length and which spin horizontally to display the different hour numerals.

At the same time, as the three modules rotate around the dial, they rotate around their own point at the same rate in the opposite direction thanks to the planetary gearing – meaning that they are held in the same orientation regardless of their relative position on the dial. The impact of this is that while the case is reminiscent of a spaceship, the display seen through the crystal glass is as if you are spectating a passing Cosmofleet traversing through space.

Building on this visual idea is the use of fish scale finishing on the plate below the rotating display, evocative of the flare and twinkle of distant stars. It helps create that sci-fi aesthetic that the Atowak Cosmofleet Vectorial-Orbit Wandering Hours leans towards. The same is arguably true of the Super-LumiNova, which creates a nice amount of luminescence.

Powering the display is a heavily adapted Miyota 9029 movement, now dubbed the AK-06CA. It has a 38-hour power reserve and is equipped with the Vectorial-Orbit Wandering Hour module. The combination of the advanced module with an accessible movement base helps keep the price of the watch relatively accessible, especially compared to the best known wandering hours watches out there like the AP Starwheel and Urwerk Ur-100V.

Specifically, the Atowak Cosmofleet Vectorial-Orbit Wandering Hours is priced at $2,999 (approx. £2,300). Due to limited production capacity, the watch is being released in a series of pre-order purchase slots leading up to its official launch on November 29th.

More details at Atowak.

Back in December of last year Seiko released a Prospex Solar ‘Speedometer’ Speedtimer European exclusive limited edition, a solar powered treat in sky blue. Now, for 2024 they’ve revisited this model in fresh colours and crucially, an updated case. Meet the Seiko Prospex Solar Speedtimer European Exclusive Factory Red.

Starting with the case, it’s identical to last year’s predecessor, with a 39mm diameter x 13.3mm thickness. Robust and nicely wearable. The new edition measures a wearable 39mm x 13.3mm, a significant reduction. It’s inspired by a heritage model from 1969, which was the world’s first automatic, vertical clutch, column wheel chronograph. That chronograph element is displayed via the tricompax layout of the dial, bare steel tachymeter and prominent pushers on either side of the crown.

I’m not a huge fan of when Seiko create modern quartz editions of heritage automatic watches, like they recently did with the Pogue and now this, as it doesn’t feel like a true homage. If a watch is famous for being automatic then its tribute should surely be automatic too.

Focussing in on the dial, it has a smooth, matte finish in dark, burgundy red – a tone Seiko are calling Factory Red. That’s been paired with dark grey chronograph subdials, which depict a 60-minute timer, 24-hour timer and small seconds. They also have markings that make them look like the dials of a speedometer, with the subdial at 6 o’clock even having a fuel tank indicator. Adding some brightness to the display is the orange hand at 6 o’clock and bright red chronograph seconds hand.

Beneath the Seiko Prospex Solar Speedtimer European Exclusive Limited Edition Factory Red’s surface (that’s quite the mouthful) is housed the Seiko V192 solar chronograph movement. A solar movement is a quartz calibre that charges its battery with light, meaning that unless you keep it locked away in a box, it theoretically will never run out of power. It also has great accuracy of +/- 15 seconds per month at the cost of not being quite so prestigious as a mechanical movement.

The watch is a limited edition of 2,400 pieces available exclusively in Europe and it is priced at £730. That’s more exclusive and also a touch pricier than last year’s edition, however I think that’s justified because of the huge improvement to wearability and quality of life that comes from the svelter design. The colours are solid too although I personally prefer the now departed sky blue.

More details at Seiko Boutique.

Louis Erard is, in my opinion, a highly underrated watch brand. They produce some of the most distinct and interesting watches in terms of style, design and execution and yet there’s never much buzz around them, at least that makes its way back to me. Just look at the insanity of the Excellence Guilloché Main, it’s utterly mesmerising. Their latest release, the Le Régulateur Gravé Noir, is captivating for a different reason: its purity and gravitas.

Structurally it’s a very classy dress watch with a 39mm diameter case produced in stainless steel. White gold would be a more traditional dress watch material but steel helps keep the watch in a lower price bracket and is also more durable. It has a sleek curve around the bezel and a lovely, polished surface along the top of the lugs.

However, what really stands out about this watch is the dial. It has a grained black base with rose-gilt indexes, numerals and scales arranged in the classic regulator format. There’s a subdial at 12 o’clock for the hours, a central hand for the minutes and a subdial at 6 o’clock for the seconds. Regulator clocks and watches were originally designed to make it easy to set other timepieces from them by isolating the individual timekeeping elements.

The Le Régulateur Gravé Noir emphasises that isolation further by presenting the display in a sector style, where the minute scale is split into sections by its indexes and the subdials have crosshair-like patterns on them. This is the first time Louis Erard have produced a sector display regulator and I really like the look of it. There’s a really strong Art Deco aesthetic to it that elevates the piece with a cool geometric precision.

Beneath the display is the Sellita calibre SW266-1, Sellita’s automatic movement with regulator display. It’s almost a surprise to find a Sellita inside because the style of the watch makes you expect something much more exclusive and expensive. Yet the watch itself is priced only at CHF 2,900 (approx. £2,580). I could easily see a watch like this having a price tag 10x that from a prestige brand.

More details at Louis Erard.

Historically Tag Heuer are connected to many parts of the motor sport industry but today they’re focussing on a legend from F1’s past, Ayrton Senna, whose death stunned the world 30 years ago. In honour of the anniversary of his passing and in celebration of his life, Tag Heuer have collaborated with the Senna brand to produce the Tag Heuer Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon x Senna.

The watch is being launched to coincide with a new Netflix series on Senna’s life, a semi-fictional biopic, which airs on November 29^th. The series will feature many vintage Tag Heuers because Senna was a Tag Heuer ambassador in his life, much as Verstappen is today, and wore a Tag Heuer S/el with a / 100th second Chronograph. It therefore makes sense that Tag Heuer continue to celebrate his legacy with commemorative timepieces.

This latest piece is a 44mm diameter sports watch in titanium with a forged carbon tachymeter bezel that measures speeds up to 400km/h – the fastest recorded F1 speed being 374.97km/h (233mph) on a long straight. The bezel also features an inscription of Senna’s name and logo in vibrant yellow, which paired with the green seconds scale and blue minute scale around the edge of the dial make up the colours of the Brazilian flag, Senna’s home country.

Zooming in on the Tag Heuer Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon x Senna dial shows an openworked display with a tricompax chronograph layout. At 9 o’clock is a 12-hour counter with the Senna S logo, at 3 o’clock is a 30-minute timer and at 6 is the titular tourbillon. Below the skeletal bridges is a black plate with alternating graining in a checked pattern reminiscent of the checkered flag of a race. It really hammers home the motorsport theme of the piece as well as celebrating Senna’s three world championships.

The commemoration continues on the caseback with an image of Senna in his classic helmet. Through the transparent portions of the image you can see the Tag Heuer TH20-09 movement inside, an automatic movement with a 65-hour power reserve and column wheel chronograph.

Only 500 pieces of the Tag Heuer Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon x Senna are being produced at a price of £33,050, so it’s definitely a collectors’ piece. But whether you’re a wristwatch lover or racing enthusiast, there’s plenty to admire here. I particularly like the grained finish, which makes the watch stand out from the rest of the extensive Carrera range.

More details at Tag Heuer.

One of the stand out watches of this decade so far is without question the Christopher Ward Bel Canto – and you don’t have to take my word for it, you the Oracle Time readers named it the best watch of the year 2023. The unexpected mega success of the original led to a quick turnaround of a second edition and then eventually some limited editions such as the 10-piece British Watchmaker’s Day edition. However, now Christopher Ward are ready to launch a new generation of the watch called the Christopher Ward C1 Bel Canto Classic.

Off the bat, the biggest improvement and change to the watch is the dial. The previous sunray brushed plate has been replaced with a glorious guilloché piece produced by AJS Production, the same team behind the British limited edition. Here the guilloché has been achieved using a modern laser engraving technique as opposed to traditional methods, which was deemed important in order to keep supply in line with demand. The dial is available in rich blue, golden yellow, verdant green and silver white.

An interesting side effect of the guilloché is that the dial is necessarily thicker to account for the three-dimensional nature of the design. As such, the various components of the Bel Canto’s signature chiming complication at 6 o’clock and the time display at 12 have been pushed forward, closer to the sapphire glass. In order to accommodate this, the sapphire glass has been totally redesigned as a box sapphire to provide more space inside the display.

Another update for the C1 Bel Canto Classic is the time display at 12 o’clock, which features a new hand set and Romen numerals. The hands are slimmer and the Roman numerals mean that you actually have actually have numerals to read instead of blank batons. Both of which emphasise the fact that this is a dressier style watch compared to the original, leaning more into the traditional elements of dress watch design – hence the name Classic.

The case and the movement held inside of it are the same as the original Bel Canto. It measures 41mm in titanium and is powered by the FS01. If you’re unfamiliar with the FS01 it’s a heavily adapted version of the Sellita SW200-1 that adds a chiming complication – a module that uses a hammer and gong to give an audio cue to chime the hours. Most chiming complications are incredibly expensive yet the Bel Canto makes it downright accessible in comparison.

Specifically, the Christopher Ward C1 Bel Canto Classic is £3,495 on Seta leather strap or  £3,745 on titanium Bader bracelet. I think the Classic helps to refine the idea of the Bel Canto to a more cohesive state. Previously there were mismatched elements that were either dressy or sporty but now the watch has a better-defined identity as a dress watch. Do you prefer this or the original?

More details at Christopher Ward.

Tudor have a long tradition of creating dive watches designed for professional use in and around the water. Just look back at some of their early Submariner models or the hugely popular Black Bay and military spec Pelagos. However, the newest addition to the Pelagos line has left the water behind in a collaboration with Aéronautique Navale (French Naval Aviation) to become a pilot’s watch for the first time with the addition of a GMT complication. It’s called the Tudor Pelagos FXD GMT “Zulu Time”.

Starting with the case it measures 42mm in diameter in grade 2 titanium, making it very light thanks to the metal’s innate strength to weight ratio. The dark grey colour also helps to create a cool military aesthetic. What solidifies this as a pilot’s watch rather than a diver is the bi-directional rotating bezel with 24-hour scale, with out a dive immersion timer it cannot pass ISO standards for dive watches.

The 24-hour scale though does mean that in conjunction with the central, orange GMT hand the watch is capable of displaying three time-zones simultaneously. You have local time, as displayed by the regular snowflake hands, Zulu Time (the military term for UTC Universal Time Coordinated) when the bezel is in the neutral position and a tertiary time zone when the bezel is rotated. Ideal for naval pilots who need to coordinate with their units across long distances and multiple time zones.

A nice touch for legibility is that the 24-hour scale and 24-hour GMT hand are both coated with green lume, showing they work in conjunction with each other. Meanwhile the regular hands and standard hour markers have blue lume, preventing any confusion in low light conditions. I know I said that this is not a dive watch but with indexes and hands this legible plus a 200m water resistance rating, it’s not exactly ill-suited to the water either.

Looking at the Tudor Pelagos FXD GMT “Zulu Time”’s caseback reveals an engraving commemorating the collaboration with the French Navy. There’s an inscription celebrating both the Marine Nationale and the aforementioned Aéronautique Navale. The same is true of the logo found on the single piece fabric strap in flight suit green.

Housed inside the titanium case is the calibre MT5652-U, a METAS certified master chronometer movement with automatic winding and a 65-hour power reserve. This means it has passed both COSC and METAS levels of accuracy ensuring an incredible level of precision and reliability. After Tudor first introduced their METAS movements it’s nice to see them adopt them more frequently and to expand them to include new complications like the GMT seen here.

In terms of price, the Tudor Pelagos FXD GMT “Zulu Time” is a clean £4,000. That seems like really solid value for a master chronometer movement in titanium. I also really love the novelty of a Pelagos pilot’s watch, it makes for a cool change to Tudor’s normal comfort zone. I have no doubt in my mind that this will prove incredibly popular. After all, we know from watches like the Longines Spirit Zulu Time that there is a huge appetite for neo-retro, military pilot’s watches.

More details at Tudor.

Are people still interested in the MoonSwatch? It’s been over two years since the original collection dropped and since then the collection has seen numerous additions to become quite a large collection, although many of them have been limited editions. In that time every single launch has proved controversial and divisive but one thing has always been true, just as much as some people hate it, others love it. Now Swatch has expanded the range yet again with the new Swatch x Omega MoonSwatch Mission to Earthphase.

The phrase Earthphase is not a common one in watchmaking or life in general because it’s a phenomenon that only a handful of people have ever witnessed. Those people being the astronauts who have stood on the moon and looked back at the Earth, which just like the moon has phases of being hidden in solar shadow. This is the first time that this phenomenon has been represented on a wristwatch alongside a moonphase.

Mechanically the Earthphase and Moonphase are virtually identical with some notable exceptions. Both take exactly the same period of 29.5 days to complete a cycle but importantly those cycles are inverse. While there’s a full moon the Earth is totally hidden (technically called a new Earth) and while there’s a new moon, there’s a full Earth. It really emphasises the interplay between the two celestial bodies in relation to their position together with respects to the sun.

Additionally, because of their inverse movements, the moonphase rotates clockwise and the earthphase rotates anti-clockwise. On top of that, the image of the Earth is fixed in position and it’s the shadow that rotates while on the moonphase, it’s the moon that moves into the shadow. It makes for a very unusual pair of subdial. But that makes sense because it’s never been done before. One thing to note is that because they replace the normal chronograph subdial, the watch is only equipped with a central 60-second chronograph hand so I hope you don’t plan to time anything longer than one minute.

In terms of aesthetics, the MoonSwatch Mission to Earthphase has a grey dial with a lunar dust, grainy texture that really comes into its own around the bottom of the Earthphase complication where it has been digitally painted to look like the surface of the moon. That’s been paired with black accents and a black tachymeter bezel, which reminds me of the original MoonSwatch Mission to Mercury. The most colourful aspect is the image of Earth, which has been lovingly created in striking shades of blue, green and yellow to show the world’s oceans, forests and deserts. It is also made from UV paint meaning it glows under UV light.

The MoonSwatch Earthphase is powered by a quartz movement housed inside a 42mm bioceramic case. It’s priced at a similar level to the other MoonSwatches at £288 and is available in the UK from Swatch stores in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and London’s Covent Garden and Oxford Street boutiques. As always with the MoonSwatch it’s strictly one watch per day, per boutique.

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More details at Swatch.