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.

White suits, blue water and plenty of neon pink, what’s not to love about Miami Vice? For once that rose-tinted obsession with nostalgia’s actually pretty damn fun. Who’d opt for an ode to the 1950s when you can have the cocaine-drenched ‘80s, intimidating moustaches and a white Ferrari Testarossa? HTD have taken that theme and gone with it, at least in the dial colour, with the HTD Hesagraph Miami Vice.

The focal point of the new watch is, of course, that dial. It’s pink. Very, very pink. There have been a fair few pink watches over the past couple of years and I’ve been here for them all. This though is next level. HTD have used what they call ‘triple colour laying technology’ to give it its depth and brightness. What precisely that technology is it’s hard to say, but one can assume it’s three layers of colour on top of one another. Either way, it’s one of the loveliest shades of disco pink I’ve worn, right on the border between femininely pastel and a punkier, electric colour.

While you might instantly expect a sleek tricompax chronograph to also include a tachymeter, that’s not for HTD. Like previous versions of the Hesagraph the bezel is instead plain steel. It works as well here as it does with the more stripped-back, utilitarian tool watches in their line- up, but for a different reason. Not only does it leave the pink to do its job, but the polished metal has a glitzy, reflective look that ties into the whole Miami Vice of it.

For a brand labelling themselves as the Horological Tools Department however, there are a couple of oversights that I’m surprised made it to production. The first is readability. The steel indexes are nice and clear, largely because they’re three-dimensional. The white numerals and minute tracks though are hard to read in direct light and downright unreadable in anything less. They just blend into the pink enough to strain your eyes. You can still tell where the hands are pointing, but it feels like an oversight.

It’s a shame as I’d have loved to see a version of this with some more neon brightness, perhaps green or blue to contrast with the pink and really hammer home that ‘80s disco feel. It’s not as if there’s no colour palette to draw from there. It might have made it a bit more divisive than solid pink, but with only 150 of these available, I’m sure it would have made at least 150 people very happy.

Then there are the lugs. The case is 39mm in diameter, but the Hesagraph Miami Vice is proof positive that you should always look at lug size, which here is 48mm. That’s a substantial increase on the wrist, but that’d be fine if they were curved. Instead, they’re straight, meaning that on my wrist there’s a distinct ‘box’ shape where other watches would follow my wrist. It’s not deal-breaking by any stretch, it’s still comfortable, it just doesn’t look as slick as it could.

That’s where the gripes end, however. Looks-wise it’s a beauty and not just for the pink. The combination of playful colour and tool watch shape – including the impeccably machined bracelet – add up to the kind of go-anywhere, do-anything watch that’s in vogue at the moment. Even the sapphire crystal is lovely, with its U-box curve, sitting right off the bezel. It’s practical and fun in equal measure.

It feels mechanically great too, with exceptionally satisfying pump chronograph pushers thanks to the SW510 M Elaborè inside. It’s a classic manual-wind chronograph perfect for smaller-sized cases. You’ll more normally see the SW510 in bi-compax numbers, but it works just as well here, especially with its 58-hour power reserve. As this is the Elaborè version, we can assume that the finishing is exceptional for a third-party movement, but as it’s a solid caseback and I don’t regularly pop them off if I can help it, I can’t say for sure.

So, what’s the bottom line with this disco-drenched chrono? I’ve liked previous versions of the Hesagraph and I like this one about as much. It’s less practical than variations such as the Pure Speed and Canoli which draw their vintage racing colourways from, well, vintage racing. As a flash of statement colour though, it’s hard to beat. At €2,500 (approx. £2,067), it’s exactly the same price as previous Hesagraphs too and it’s good to see HTD maintaining that price point – although right now you can get it for 10% off, which is always pleasant.

It’s not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but for a solid chronograph with this much personality, it’s about right. I’d like to see something between this and HTD’s uber-accessible Tennis series (which will set you back just €690), but if you’re looking to channel your inner Don Johnson, this is for you.

More details at HTD.

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.

At this point, I likely don’t need to tell you about Toledano & Chan. Your friend that’s really into architecture has already complained about how the brutalist watches got snapped up way too quickly. However, Phillip Toledano, better known on Instagram as @misterenthusiast, has been a tour de force of the collecting and creative worlds long before he committed his name to a dial. A conceptual artist, designer and multi-hyphenate renaissance man, we sat down to talk about his latest projects, watch collecting and his ongoing obsession with history.

What was the last watch you bought?

Well, I guess there’s one arriving tomorrow, but probably the one worth mentioning more is a Daniel Roth Extra Plat oh, early 1990s. I’m really into early Daniel Roth. I just think the designs are really beautiful. I know that people are kind of obsessed by Breguet, but for me this is kind of in that style, yet more interesting because of the genius of the dial. It also has this unique shape.

Whenever you create something, it’s an opportunity to say something new and with that case design, that’s exactly what Roth did. I can’t help but love that combination of traditional, amazing Breguet style surrounded by the unexpected. I also don’t believe Louis Vuitton will do anything quite this interesting with the brand, so now seemed like a good time to get one for myself.

Daniel Roth Extra Plat, image credit: Loupe This

Do you collect anything outside of watches?

Well, I collected cars for a long time, but these days I feel like I’d prefer to sell the cars I own and put all that money into totally stupid watches. The reason’s simple: I’m just lazy. It used to be tough to get up crazy early and go to where I kept my cars in New Jersey, which is like a 20 minute drive away from where I live. I’d have to get up at six to go over to the garage, then go drive to meet people. Now I’m just such a loafer, entering the geezer era, you know. I just can’t be bothered. At least I can keep my watches nice and close – and get them stolen.

Fortunately, most of the watches I collect aren’t on anyone’s list of shit to steal. It’s just weird stuff that, you know, is odd. It’s not Rolex or Patek. That’s a good reason to collect obscure stuff. Although I do find that most of the stuff collectors say is obscure or undervalued just equates to ‘nobody gives a shit about this watch that I happen to like!’ But that’s the glorious thing about watches; there are endless rabbit holes to fall down. With cars, there are far fewer – and they’re a lot more expensive!

Toledano & Chan B1 Lapis Lazuli

What other than a watch is at the top of your wishlist?

Regular bowel movements? Like I said, geezer era. The closest I have is a matcha latte in the morning; it really pulls the pin on that grenade.

What is a recent find or discovery?

Other than an unusual mole? Well, I just fell in love with jumpsuits. I recently got one off eBay, but now I’m always looking for jumpsuits. For me, a jumpsuit is the ultimate in min-max. I feel like guys are all about putting in the least effort for the maximum amount of style. All the watch sausage parties I go to, there’s always a guy with his wife where she’s dressed up to the nines and he’ll be in a polo shirt with beige trousers. A jumpsuit though is the ultimate style-to-effort ratio.

What inspires you?

That’s the world’s worst question because, as an artist everything inspires me! Which incidentally is the world’s worst answer. But more specifically, surprise inspires me, and envy inspires me. Especially creatively, I feel like there’s nothing better and worse simultaneously than seeing something that you wish you’d thought of, and then being upset you didn’t think of it. It motivates you to think of more things, to try and one-up the competition. And it is a competition.

What’s a book, podcast or album that’s changed the way you think?

Oh god, well I’ve been reading these books about Henry VIII and it changed the way I thought about him. I had this weird notion of Henry, that he was sort of this cool king, even though I know he killed two of his wives and sort of took on the Pope, you know. The more I read though the more I realised he was a psychopath, basically. He was off his rocker, mental, not a cool person at all.

The reason being he fell off his horse and was unconscious for like, six hours. That kind of concussion can change your personality entirely, make you crazier. It made me draw all these parallels to Donald Trump. I wonder if he had a jousting accident. Or more likely beaned in the head by ricocheting golf balls more than once.

Maurizio Catalan

Who is a celebrity or person of note that you admire?

Maurizio Cattelan. He’s an artist that got famous creating this amazingly lifelike replica of Pope John Paul II being hit by a meteorite. He’s like the most incredible prankster in the art world. He’s a genius. At an art fair a few years ago, he taped a banana to the wall and put it up for sale. He just likes to fuck with people.

It’s not just a silly prank though; he’s audacious in a very clever way. People think a middle finger is audacity, but it’s not. Audacity requires a level of understanding and genius to do right. To genuinely subvert expectations, you need to know what you’re doing and it’s a very tricky, very binary proposition because it’s either right on or just stupid.

Citroen DS Convertible, image credit: Iconic Auctioneers

What’s your ideal long weekend?

Well. Honestly, I feel like at this point I’ve been an artist for so long that there’s not much difference between week and weekend. But if I were to have a few days away, I know where I’d go. I’ve lived in America so long that I really miss Europe. In case you’ve not noticed, I’m a history nerd, so I’d love to just go hang around some medieval village in Europe, going to the café and just being there.

It’s super boring shit actually, but I’d just be pottering round this ancient place with like 100 inhabitants. Then I’d take a drive – because I’d obviously have a Citroen DS Convertible at my disposal – and go find a vintage Rolex at a flea market for 10 bucks. Then I’d celebrate with a brisk matcha latte and have an immediate… never mind.

What would we always find in your fridge?

You know what? A Granny Smith apple. I’m a massive Granny Smith fiend. I can’t get enough of them.

What is a rule or mantra you live by?

I guess it would be creative brutality. I’m a conceptual artist, but it applies to everything, even having a watch brand. The thing is, people think of ideas as precious but they’re not. I find that often people hold onto their ideas, but the thing about ideas is that you have to be comfortable slaughtering them, so that you can get to the next one, which is always better.

I was trained in ideas in advertising, and advertising is a very brutal environment for ideas because you have to have a lot of them and a lot of them get crushed and bludgeoned immediately. So, you get used to powering and churning through many, many, many ideas until you get to one that works. When you can learn that, teach yourself to not hold onto the things that are bad, you can recognise when things could be better. And things can always be better.

What does the year ahead look like for you?

Well, I’m going to be relaunching Viva Bastarda, which is a clothing line I started. More Toledano & Chan watches of course – we recently built an insane meteorite piece for Phillips’ charity auction. I also have a new book coming out on the art side. I’ve actually been working with AI recently, as I’ve become deeply interested in the way AI has kind of redefined our relationship to the image. Because of AI, everything is true and nothing is true. So, my new book is around the idea of invented history, historical surrealism. It’s called We Are a War and it’s a reimagined lost role of film from the D-Day landing parties, specifically Robert Crapper who’s a very famous photographer.

It’s really interesting because we’re at a point in history where we’re soon not going to know what’s real and what’s not. How do we know what’s true? And particularly with the American elections coming up, that’s going to be really significant. Photography as truth has existed for maybe 150 years, which is nothing in the context of human history. We’ve had this very, very, very brief experience of image as truth. And now we might not have it any more. I’m not really worried, but I am curious about how it’s going to work moving forwards.

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.

By the time they have over 30 horological patents under their belt, you would assume that a watchmaker would be spoken of in the same breath as the modern independent greats, like F. P. Journe or Philippe Dufour. And yet despite working for Patek Philippe, Ulysse Nardin, and Girard-Perregaux over the years, you may well not have heard of Stéphane von Gunten.

Last year, Stéphane launched Haute-Rive, a shiny new independent watchmaker and the first with the master horologist and inventor at the helm. As alluded to, the fifth-generation watchmaker had been working quietly behind the scenes for decades, but it took the impetus of Covid for him to make the big leap. But before we get into his modern watches, it’s worth looking at his horological past – and one watch, in particular.

Irénée Aubry’s Montre du Pape (Pope’s Watch)

It’s pretty common for the Pope to receive gifts. There’s a reason the last Pope had a Lamborghini and it’s not because he’s an adrenaline-fuelled hype beast. In 1888, to mark the jubilee of Pope Leo XIII, that gift came in the form of a gorgeous gold pocket watch. Nothing too unusual there – except that the power reserve was a staggering 40 days. That’s well over a month of power on a single wind. The maker of that watch was Stéphane’s ancestor, Irénée Aubry.

Irénée Aubry’s Hebdomas 8 day Pocket Watch

Power reserve is actually something that Stéphane has pushed throughout his career, no matter what brand he’s working for at the time. No multi-axis tourbillons, no complex chiming arrays, just that one, incredibly useful aspect of a timepiece’s spec sheet. And it’s that aspect that Haute-Rive is built around. The brand’s debut watch says it all, the phenomenal Honoris I.

On the surface, the Honoris I is an aesthetically elegant timepiece in the vein of other independent watchmakers. It comes with a grand feu enamel dial in a gold case, sized at a large-but-wearable 42.5mm. And yet there’s more going on than a glance can take in. For one, while the six o’clock tourbillon, the central gear bridge and the so-called ‘wheel of time’ at 12 o’clock are all visible, they’re not visibly connected. This means that while the elements are on top, the real work is happening underneath that enamel.

It’s a similar concept to something like MB&F’s Legacy Machines, just a bit more subtle. The thing is, while that over-and-under of components defines the look of the watch, it’s what you can’t see that defines what it actually is. You see, while his ancestor may have managed a watch with a 40-day power reserve,  Stéphane has achieved 41, around 1,000 hours. And in a single-barrelled wristwatch at that.

To get there, the mainspring is 3m long. That’s a single, 3-metre-long piece of metal that’s been curled into a spring that can fit in one small section of a none-too-large watch. While it sounds simple, there’s a reason it’s not been done before. So how do you fit that kind of thing in a wristwatch? By turning the mainplate into the barrel. Obviously.

As if upsetting the entire architecture of a watch wasn’t enough, anything with a power reserve this long likely needs a winding system more substantial than a standard crown. For one, that’s a lot of twisting a tiny component; for another, it would put a lot of force on the crown’s stem as you approach the upper power limit. So, Stéphane took a different approach and commandeered the bezel.

As you’ve likely noticed, the bezel is grooved with grips, allowing you to easily turn it counter clockwise to wind the mainspring. It’s still a fair amount of winding of course, you’re funnelling a lot of energy in, but it’s far superior to the crown, and you can keep an eye on how much you’ve wound it on the back of the watch. And hey, you only need to do it once a month – with a 10-day safety buffer.

For many watchmakers, power reserve is a nice thing to have; a selling point but not exactly a headline-grabbing one. A few hours here or there is more an afterthought than a core idea. Stéphane on the other had has used Haute-Rive to completely change the architecture of a traditional timepiece, specifically to put power reserve at the metaphorical and literal heart of the watch.

Haute-Rive is of course a brand that won’t have many collections in the future and won’t produce hundreds of watches. But if the Honoris I is anything to go by, he might just be one of the most low-key exciting independents around – and if you didn’t know about him before, you do now. You’re welcome.

More details at Haute-Rive.

Back in 2017, Louis Vuitton launched their Tambour Moon Flying Tourbillon, a skeletonised masterpiece of Poincon de Geneve finishing and lavish house details. A couple of years later, they introduced the Tambour Spin Time Air, a strange amalgamation of spinning cubic indexes and sapphire crystal. Even early last year, they released a pair of flying tourbillons in green and yellow sapphire cases, again skeletonised, again completely off the horological deep end.

Louis Vuitton LV1 Worldtimer (1988)

So, in that context, why was Louis Vuitton’s most restrained timepiece to date their most important? I’m leading with these insane bits of watch, but that wasn’t Louis Vuitton’s first foray into watchmaking. That came back in the 1980s with the LV1. In keeping with the brand’s jetsetter reputation – can you be a proper jet-setter without some Louis Vuitton luggage? – they opted for a slick worldtimer. It’s a bit of a rarity these days and they don’t go for a huge amount, but compared to the later pieces, it was a class act.

Louis Vuitton Tambour Twenty based on the original Tambour which was released in 2002 (2022)

The Tambours of old on the other hand were what I’d consider novelties. Not in the ‘new this year’ sort of way, but in the way that meant they weren’t what you’d consider a collection of watches in the traditional sense. Sure, they all shared the drum-shaped case from which they took their name, but they were disparate, eclectic and never really had an identity.

They were branded of course, with plenty of LV paraphernalia across the board, but if anything, that shot the watches in the proverbial foot more than helped. It made Louis Vuitton seem like a fashion house throwing the kitchen sink on your wrist in the hopes it would stick and, if they wanted to be regarded in the same breath as Hermes and Chanel are these days, something needed to change.

Louis Vuitton Tambour Sketch

That change came with Jean Arnault. If you know the name, it’ll most likely be for two reasons: he’s the son of LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault and brother of Frédéric Arnault, who until relatively recently was CEO of TAG Heuer. Needless to say, they’re a family that knows watches, and Jean himself is an avid aficionado of haute horology. And so it was his self- imposed mandate as director of watches at LVMH to make sure the LV in that formula could live up to the watchmaking task.

Of course, when it came to watchmaking as a craft, he had a lot to work with. Louis Vuitton acquired Fabrique du Temps way back in 2011 and over the last decade-and-change has turned it into a fully integrated development house. Pretty much anything a watchmaker should be able to do, they can do – and then some. So, all Arnault really needed to do was channel that talent into something approaching a serious collection – the 2023 Tambour.

Louis Vuitton Tambour Automatic 40mm Platinum, £18,100

Looking at the launch line-up of the revamped, 2023 Tambour, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Arnault is particularly taken by independent watchmaking. The less-is-more approach, the obsession with finishing, the classical nuances across the board make the new Tambour feel like a watch designed for collectors. Gone are the skeletonised dials and bright colours. Gone is the old LV logo splashed across everything. Instead, everything is clean, crisp and perfectly balanced in that drum-round case.

They are, of course, luxury sports watches, which even last year was a saturated market. But while it’s impossible to escape the spectre of Gerald Genta about these things, I’d argue that there was no other way to approach the Tambour. It’s not like the original design actually has lugs; an integrated bracelet is the only thing to do and by maintaining those more classical sensibilities instead of tired, flat planes and industrial finishing, it skirts the pitfall of Royal Oak and Nautilus association.

Louis Vuitton Tambour Automatic 40mm Caseback

All the same, it was a very safe collection. It’s priced high of course. It was never going to be cheap, with Louis Vuitton leveraging the downright stunning finishing of La Fabrique du Temps; seriously, look at that movement and tell me it’s not an absolute beauty. But after years of misfires, safety was what the brand needed. But something else was needed. After all, one good collection doesn’t make a watch brand.

Louis Vuitton Escale Platinum, £34,000

That next step came in the form of the Escale, which took a much more classical approach to a time-only watch. Gone was the drum-shaped Tambour case in favour of something much more traditional. Traditional as in, it actually had lugs. Those lugs are big and bolted to the side of the case, but they’re there and that means classical leather straps. It’s also a central seconds as opposed to the new Tambour’s small seconds, with bead minute markers that feel like they’d be at home on a Vacheron Constantin Patrimony. There are still some aesthetic swings, like the big hour markers at 12, three, six and nine o’clock, and the faceted, grippy crown, but otherwise it’s as straight-forward a dress watch as Louis Vuitton can make.

Between the Tambour and the Escale, Louis Vuitton’s offering a pair of handsome core collections and while I personally think the new Tambour nailed the aesthetic slightly more than the Escale, the latter is by no means a misfire. Far from it. The new colours are more than welcome and the meteorite edition is excellent. And if that were all Louis Vuitton were doing, it would warrant them being taken seriously. But it’s not.

Louis Vuitton Escale, £25,100

I mentioned previously Jean Arnault’s love of independent watchmaking. Well, that’s manifested in two ways outside of Louis Vuitton’s own watches, firstly in Daniel Roth. Roth is a name that makes serious collector’s fawn, a savant of independent watch design whose name has been passed from one watch group to another before landing at Louis Vuitton. Last year, they launched the first new Daniel Roth watch, using the brand’s signature case shape and three-scale timekeeping at six o’clock. It was incredibly faithful and the souscription limited edition pieces in yellow gold sold out fast.

It’s not hard to see why; the attention to detail was magnificent and Le Fabrique du Temps did an enviable job of imitating the master watchmaker to a tee. If you ever get a chance to see a Daniel Roth in the metal, do it – which has become a bit more likely this year with a non-limited (though still limited annual production) rose gold edition. It’s a grail watch in the truest sense and shows not only that the minds behind Louis Vuitton understand independent watchmaking, but that they have the horological chops to make it happen.

Daniel Roth Tourbilon Rose Gold

The Daniel Roth launch wasn’t quiet, but what was a lot more under the radar was Louis Vuitton’s Independent Watchmaking Prize. That’s right, alongside re-introducing a legendary name and completely revamping their own watch offering, Louis Vuitton has also been highlighting the good and great of indie watchmakers, the Mercury Music prize of horology.

It’s a bold move, to be honest. This isn’t like they’re trying to court these watchmakers; it’s acknowledging that they’re fantastic at what they do. Better than Louis Vuitton, in all honesty, and better than Daniel Roth in some cases. There’s no cynical marketing reason why one of the biggest luxury companies in the world would do something like this – except of course, for Arnault’s personal love of the craft.

Louis Vuitton Tambour Automatic 40mm Rose Gold, £51,500

That all brings me back to the Tambour and Escale. Sure, it’s hard to think of Louis Vuitton in the same thought as independent watchmaking. This isn’t F. P. Journe or Philippe Dufour. This is a luxury fashion company that loves trunks and travel. But the approach to both new collections has been that of an aficionado more than a brand, the kind of watches a collector of haute horology, not an LV monogram addict, would want from their watches. They could have just stamped said monogram on a third-party watch. That likely would have worked well enough in the vein of Armani watches. If you build it they will come. But ‘they’ aren’t Jean Arnault and while this may be one of the priciest passion projects in history, a project of passion it is.

More details at Louis Vuitton.

Belhamel Contra Aqua 39, £399 (Pre-Order £319)

Belhamel started life creating bespoke rubber straps for the Seiko SKX collection but a successful Kickstarter in 2023 brought their first wristwatch to market this summer. It’s called the Contra Aqua 39 and it’s inspired by the same accessible tool watch vibe and practical price point as Seiko with their own unique flair. It has a 39mm diameter steel case with a 120-click unidirectional rotating bezel and ultra legible dial. With its 300m water resistance it actually outperforms many of Seiko’s divers. Inside is the Miyota 9039 automatic.

Available at Belhamel.

Héron Marinor Seastorm Black, £495

Héron have recently restocked their core collection timepieces including the Marinor Seastorm Black, a gorgeous dive watch in a 39mm diameter hardened steel case with 300m water resistance. The style, with a domed sapphire bezel and large, lumed hour markers draws inspiration from legendary dive watches of the 20th century, but at a much more accessible price point. Powering the watch is the Miyota 9039, one of the Japanese manufacture’s premium movements with a 42-hour power reserve.

Available at Heron.

Primitive Haus Timekeeper Type-A, $369 (approx. £280)

Finding what inspires you is always the foundation of a good microbrand and Primitive Haus are clear on where their inspirations lie. Influenced by the German minimalist movement spearheaded by Bauhaus, they aim to bring colourful watches to live that blend style and function seamlessly. Recently with the TimeKeeper Type-A they’ve been exploring fresh colours and designs such as fumé blue, vibrant purple and this gorgeous dimple dial variant that looks like freshly fallen snow. They house the Miyota 82S5 with 42-hour power reserve.

Available at Primitve Haus.

Dejager Explorer, £225

DeJager is a British watch design studio with close ties to South Africa as that’s where the brand’s founder grew up, witnessing the atrocities of Apartheid and segregation first hand. As such, a portion of all sales go to SOS Africa, a charity helping disadvantaged children in South Africa. Their watches, such as the Explorer combine accessible automatic movements with practical designs, including a 40mm case in stainless steel. The display is very legible with Arabic numerals and a small seconds subdial at six o’clock with a vibrant red hand.

Available at Dejager.

Wrist Classics Omega Speedmaster Ref. 105.003 Ghost Bezel, €10,900 (approx. £9,050)

A huge part of the allure of vintage watches, beyond the cool styles of bygone eras of design, are the deeply personal stories they tell. These stories are at the core of what Wrist Classics focus on as a vintage watch dealer. They only stock watches with unique hallmarks and distinct features that make them stand out in the crowd. For example, this Omega Speedmaster from 1964 with a beautiful ghost bezel. Or a 1956 Rolex Oyster Perpetual Honeycomb Dial.

Available at Wrist Classics.

The fight for the title of thinnest mechanical watch in the world is always a competitive one. The current reigning champion is the Konstantin Chaykin ThinKing at a thickness of just 1.65mm. However, the watch that inspired Chaykin to create the ThinKing was the former world’s thinnest watch from 2022, the Richard Mille RM UP-01. A sensational watch measuring 1.75mm in a limited edition of 150 pieces that sold out instantly. Now though, the RM UP-01 is up for sale at auction for the first time at Antiquorum’s sale tomorrow, November 10^th, 2024.

Specifically, the piece being sold is number 35 out of the 150 that exist and considering it’s such a strict limited edition, that provides plenty of provenance. It measures 51mm x 39mm in titanium with a brushed finish across the surface and the Ferrari logo in the lower quadrant towards 5 o’clock. Richard Mille and Ferrari’s partnership is well documented, especially when it comes to pushing boundaries in both horology and motorsport.

In terms of auction estimate, Antiquorum have given the Richard Mille RM UP-01 a range of CHF 1,000,000 – 2,000,000. That’s quite broad considering the retail price of $1,880,000 (approx. CHF 1,600,000), leaving plenty of room for a potential loss. I think that’s actually one of the more reasonable auction predictions I’ve heard in a long time due to the insane amount of money already involved and also the uncertainty in the watch market recently. It is genuinely difficult to predict how much interest a watch like this will generate and this may well set the benchmark for all future sales of the watch.

Of course, the RM UP-01 isn’t the only watch being sold this weekend. Other notable timepieces at the auction include a Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendar Minute Repeater Ref. 5074R-001 (est. CHF 350,000 – 450,000) and an unusual Rolex Zerographe unworn since the 1930s (est. CHF 150,000 – 250,000). But it’s not just all ultra high-end watches. We also have our eye on the cool 1981 Tudor Submariner (est. CHF 5,000 – 8,000).

More details at Antiqourum.

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.

This week we hosted our second exclusive membership event and, even if I say so myself, it was a knock-out. Held at Grand Seiko’s phenomenal Bond Street boutique, it was a night of Japanese watches and Japanese whisky.

It was many readers’ first opportunity to try on the stunning European Exclusive editions, with their stunningly detailed dials inspired by Japanese ponds. Trust me, you cannot even begin to understand the intricacies and delicacies of these watches without seeing them in the metal and examining the way light plays across the facets of their dials. And thanks to the intimate setting of the Grand Seiko boutique everyone had a chance to admire them up close, along with a raft of other incredible timepieces.

In addition to the fabulous watches of Grand Seiko, the House of Suntory made an appearance to host a tasting of their three core expressions: Hibiki, Yamazaki and Hakushu. I’m sure some of you that didn’t make it are as envious of that as the watches. Being guided through the rich flavour profiles of exclusive bottles such as the 100th anniversary Yamazaki Mizunara 18 Years Old with its subtle spices and underlying woody tones was sublime.

It wasn’t all trying on and tasting however. We also chatted to ambassadors from both brands about the nuances of Japanese craftmanship, the difference with how we do things in Europe and the importance of nature to both brands. For example, with the European Exclusive watches, which were the highlight of the evening, the way the subtle engraving reflects the waves as wind ripples across the surface of the water.

Thank you to everyone that made it and for those of you that didn’t, we hope to see you at the next one! As a reminder, invitation to Oracle Time Membership events is only available to members.

Sign up to our membership and get access to event invites like this in the future aswell as a host of other benefits.

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.

When it was launched back at Watches & Wonders 2024, the Zenith Defy Extreme Diver not only hammered home Zenith’s long-overlooked diving heritage, but proved itself to be one of the most genuinely interesting dive watches of the year. Sure, the ‘Plongeur’ revival grabbed headlines, but its modernised version was the real success. So, it’s no surprise that less than a year later, Zenith is extending the Defy Extreme Diver with a handsome, silver-white dial.

The Defy Extreme Diver is extreme by name, extreme by nature. On the surface is has all those dramatic angles and multi-faceted design touches that have made the collection what it is, backed-up by serious diving specs. It’s big, at 42.5mm of lightweight titanium, and solid, able to keep time 600 metres underwater. Paired with a unidirectional rotating bezel in hardwearing ceramic and you have an eye-catching watch that ticks all those professional necessities.

Granted the design is, as the name suggests, a touch extreme in its many, many facets. But honestly, the more brands out there doing their own things, the better. If you prefer your divers a little more retrained, there are plenty of other options elsewhere. Too many, some might say. None of that is new of course, I’m just describing Zenith’s Defy Extreme Diver from earlier in the year. So what here is new? Nothing more than the dial. Given just how dramatic a personality shift the new dial gives it though, it’s a change worth talking about.

The dial in question is a bright, silvery white engraved with the same four-pointed star emblem that defines the perennially cool Defy Skyline. It’s sunburst engraving emanates from the Zenith logo and, in a touch that every watchmaker should follow suit on, the date at 3 o’clock is perfectly colour matched to the dial. It’s eye-catching in the best possible way.

That said, a diver needs to be seen underwater as well as above. To that end, there’s plenty of Super-LumiNova across the dial, in three different colours no less. While it’s all the same in the light, in the dark you get blue, green and yellow split across the hours, minutes and seconds to easily distinguish one from the other.

Like the rest of the collection, the Zenith Defy Extreme Diver is powered by the El Primero calibre 3620-SC, a hyper-accurate high-frequency number that, despite the energy output, still has a 60-hour power reserve. That’s performance it should stick too even in harsh environments thanks to its paramagnetic components – read silicon.

Rounding things off, the Defy Extreme Diver comes on three different straps: the matching titanium bracelet, a chunky KFM rubber number with a Cordura-effect texture and, for the true professionals, an extra-long number meant to strap over a wetsuit. That last is also made from recycled fishing nets, which is thematically satisfying.

After most of a year with no more news from the collection, it’s good to see Zenith really hammering home their flagship diver. While I’d still like to see more colours of that Plongeur – imagine it in yellow or light blue, vintage Longines Comet sort of colours – the Defy Extreme Diver is a diver like few others. In a world of Submariner and Fifty Fathoms homages, that alone is enough to make it stand out. It’s a good thing that it has far, far more going for it besides.

More details at Zenith.

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.

Independent watchmaking is still very much in its ascendency. I’m not about to say that the big marquee groups – LMVH, Richemont, and Swatch – aren’t still killing it with numbers and sheer visibility, but more and more individual horological maestros are making their presence felt. Kudoke is very aesthetic, in a very German way.

As with all independent brands, Kudoke has a face: that of Stefan Kudoke. And it’s a frustratingly youthful face at that. This is a man who has already achieved some impressive credentials in the watchmaking world, working for Breguet, Blancpain and Omega, and at just 22, earning a Master Craftsman Certificate. In Germany, that’s no small thing. He’s a stark counterpoint to that classic image of a little old man machining dials in the Alpine winter.

Kudoke 1

And yet, Kudoke is still very much along those lines, at least insofar as production goes. Stefan doesn’t have the fancy manufactures of Glashütte, nor does he simply buy in everything he needs ready to go. Instead, he does the watchmaking equivalent of working from home, working at the proverbial kitchen table in a pared-back workshop based in Weifa, a small town in east Germany. It’s a much humbler approach than he would have been used to at Omega.

Humble though might be the most apt word for Kudoke as a brand. Take one look at the Kudoke 1, their perennial flagship with its nine o’clock small seconds and beautifully machined… everything. There are distinct Saxon flavours going on and while the comparison to Lange might be a bit too obvious, it’s still apt. The Kudoke 1 embodies that distinctly German balance of elegance and understatement – albeit a bit more on the elegant side.

Kudoke 2

The main difference is that, while the quality is very much on par with the most prestigious German watchmaker, the prices are not. Just over £12,500 isn’t cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but when you get a solid gold case, a manufacture movement and painfully perfect finishing across the board, that number starts to feel like a serious value proposition.

Following the initial Kudoke 1, the brand only consolidated that bang for your buck with the day- night indicating Kudoke 2, the stunning triple retrograde Kudoke 3 and a wonderfully accessible Louis Erard Regulateur. They all share the same sensibilities, albeit with a bit more colour on that last, collaborative effort. But all of those models across the board actually comprise one half of what Kudoke can do, labelled Handwerk meaning, simply, handwork. The other side of the brand is very, very different: Kunstwerk.

Le Régulateur Louis Erard x Kudoke

Kunstwerk translates to work of art, so you might think you know what to expect here. Plenty of metier d’art techniques, perhaps some enamelling or even a cheeky bit of marquetry these days, all very low-key gorgeous and sehr Deutsche. What you probably weren’t expecting was a three-dimensional octopus breaking its way out of the dial like a Kraken rum advert.

Kudoke KudOktopus

The KudOktopus is just one design in a pantheon of gorgeous engravings, but its sculptural nature is very much the way Kudoke have embraced their artistic side. Showing hints of the manufacture movement underneath, it’s not just worryingly lifelike at the front, but those tentacles continue to grasp the movement on the caseback, too. While I never expected to utter the phrase ‘exceptionally rendered suckers’, I guess I have to, because they are weirdly stunning.

There’s normally a premium for this kind of attention to detail and beyond next-level finishing. And while the tourbillon-equipped editions are indeed pricey, the automatics come in at under £8,000. It’s not like these are mass-produced; they’re special rarities that have hours upon hours of labour lavished on them. Kudoke could ask for a chunk of change more and the KudOktopus would still feel undervalued.

Kudoke Real Skeleton

Like I said at the beginning, independent watchmaking is still very much on the rise. But it’s reassuring that, where the Journes and Dufours of the world still claim insane, headline-grabbing valuations, there are brands out there not just making great watches, but doing so at a fair price, not driven by hype. Between their classic Saxon looks on one side and their sculptural engravings on the other, Kudoke might just be Germany’s best kept watchmaking secret.

More details at Kudoke.

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.