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.

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.

Tag Heuer are the quintessential sports watch brand of the modern watch industry. From racers, to divers, to daily wearers, they’re the most in tune with what it means to be both stylish and ready for action (mostly racing). But when it comes to sporty style, Tag’s watches tend to lean in one of two directions. On one side you have the sleek, retro-slanted icons like the Carrera Glassbox and on the other side are the bold, almost industrial skeleton and openworked watches such as the Monaco GP edition. On a personal level I have always preferred the former over the latter. However, the new Tag Heuer Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon x Porsche Panamericana might just be the coolest openworked Tag Heuer watch to date.

We’ve talked many times about Tag Heuer and Porsche’s shared connection to the Carrera Panamericana, the legendary rally that takes racers through the extreme heat of Mexico. Both brands were independently inspired by the race, which is why we have both the Porsche Carrera and the Tag Heuer Carrera. This coincidence then led to the brands collaborating many times on watches like the Carrera Chronograph x Porsche 963. However, the Panamericana is actually more relevant than usual for their latest collab. That’s because the Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon x Porsche Panamericana has been released in celebration of the 70^th anniversary of Porsche winning their competitive category in the 1954 edition of the race.

Specifically, Porsche came first and second in the under 1,500cc sports car classification with the Porsche 550 Spyder, which also netted them third and fourth in the overall race. It’s these heritage cars that inform the design of the modern watch. The 550 Spyder’s Carrera Panamericana race livery was silver with yellow decals and so the watch has a silver display with yellow lacquered chronograph hands. Even more telling than the colours though is the fact that the openworked portions of the dial (Tag Heuer call it a skeleton dial but there is a subtle difference between the terms skeletonised and openworked and on balance I think openworked is a better definition here) are shaped like the 550 Spyder’s wheels.

The racing design elements don’t stop there. The two subdials at 3 and 9 o’clock, which display a 30-minute and 12-hour timer respectively, are black with silver flecks emulating the texture of asphalt. The 6 o’clock position that completes the tricompax display is occupied by the titular tourbillon – the visually impressive, rotating heart of the watch, which doubles as a running seconds indicator.

Zooming out from the dial, the Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon x Porsche Panamericana has a fairly typical chronograph case. It measures 42mm in diameter in steel with a combination of brushed and polished surfaces. The crown at 3 o’clock is flanked by two pushers for controlling the chronograph function. The only slight oddity is that it has no tachymeter and the internal, fixed bezel (or flange if you want to use specific terminology) has a 60-minute scale instead.

Powering the watch is the TH20-09 automatic tourbillon chronograph movement, which you can catch glimpses of through the open portions of the dial. It has a 65-hour power reserve supplied by a rotor shaped like a Porsche steering wheel – a design common to all their collabs. The movement also has a high degree of finishing with the Côtes de Genève being particularly prominent.

As for pricing and availability, the Tag Heuer Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon x Porsche Panamericana is limited to 255 pieces at £31,300. The number 255 comes from both the name of the 550 Spyder and the fact that the heritage car that took place in the Carrera Panamericana was number 55. In the introduction I made the bold claim that this is the coolest and best looking openworked Tag Heuer to date and I still agree with that at the end. I really like the combination of colours, the wheel-like shape of the openworking and the tourbillion, all of which come together to make the watch feel special. As a commemorative limited edition should be.

More details at Tag Heuer.

Bucherer are one of the largest and most prestigious watch retailers in the world so it’s little surprise that they’ve done their fair share of exclusive collaborations over the years. In fact, they’re so well known for it that they’ve got entire multi-brand subcollections known as Bucherer BLUE editions. However, for their latest exclusive collaboration, blue is out. In its place we have the H. Moser & Cie. Bucherer Exclusive Amber-Sand series.

Bucherer Exclusives H. Moser & Cie.-Pioneer Centre Seconds, limited to 88 pieces, €15,900 (approx. £13,350)

There are three watches in the series, a Pioneer Tourbillon, a Pioneer Centre Seconds and an Endeavour Minute Repeater. While each of them feature individual differences such as the complications they’re equipped with as well as the size and styles of the cases, they are all unified by the colours of their dials. A pale brown tone being called amber-sand.

Bucherer Exclusives H. Moser & Cie.-Pioneer Tourbillon, limited to 18 pieces, €63,200 (approx. £53,000)

All three dials feature Moser’s signature frosted texture with a fumé gradient, which really accentuates the smoky appearance of the dial. The H. Moser & Cie Bucherer Exclusive Endeavour Minute Repeater takes that a step further by having its dial produced in Grand Feu enamel, an extremely difficult material to work with especially with such a detailed and textured surface. The inspiration for the colour comes from faded sepia photographs in H. Moser’s HQ – although to me the result is more like a peach, but that might be because I have passion fruit on the mind.

Bucherer Exclusives H. Moser & Cie.-Endeavour Concept Minute Repeater Tourbillon

In terms of availability, all three watches are exclusively available from Bucherer in limited editions. The H. Moser & Cie. Bucherer Exclusive Pioneer Tourbillon is limited to 18 pieces at €63,200 (approx. £53,000), the Pioneer Centre Seconds is limited to 88 pieces at €15,900 (approx. £13,350) and the Endeavour Minute Repeater is a unique piece at €395,000 (approx. £331,500). If you’re a fan of H. Moser’s watches and want a cool, exclusive colourway, the amber-sand series should be your grail.

More details at Bucherer.

The RM 17-02 is one of Richard Mille’s core models, a cool manual winding tourbillon available in a range of style and materials including quartz TPT versions and the diamond coated RM 17-01. Now though, with the launch of the RM 17-02 this model has shed its TPT exterior to become a sleek sportster in titanium while retaining its manual winding tourbillon movement.

Let’s start with the updated case of the Richard Mille RM 17-02 Tourbillon Titanium. For the first time it’s presented in exposed titanium, a very lightweight material that supports the sporty vibe Richard Mille is known for. The titanium surface of the 40.10mm x 48.15mm x 13.08mm tonneau case is beautifully brushed and has a seamless, flowing arc from end to end. Plus the visible screws that help to create a quasi-industrial aesthetic that only enhances the sportiness of the piece.

Moving to the dial of the Richard Mille RM 17-02 Tourbillon Titanium, it has a skeletonised display that’s bright and cheerful. A large selection of components are presented in rose gold while a couple of the bridges are coated with blue PVD for a nice amount of contrast. Further to that, the Arabic numerals with their distinctive typeface are bright yellow, which in combination with the blue reminds me of 1980s style comics. Considering that Richard Milles tend to look like devices tech billionaire superheroes would create/wear, that feels appropriate.

The movement that’s on display via the skeletonised dial and exhibition caseback is the calibre RM17-02. It’s equipped with central hours and minutes, a tourbillon at 6 o’clock, a function selector at 4 o’clock and a power reserve indicator between 1 and 2 o’clock. It has a 70-hour power reserve, which is stored in a fast-rotating barrel – meaning the barrel completes a rotation once every 6 hours as opposed to 7.5, which improves the ratio between power reserve and performance as it provides power to the system at a more consistent rate.

While this is essentially an aesthetic overhaul of an existing Richard Mille model, it feels so vastly different to the previous version it may as well be a brand new watch. It feels sleeker than its TPT counterparts thanks to the smooth surface of the titanium and clean lines of its design.

More details at Richard Mille.

2024 has marked a huge focus on haute horology from Jaeger-LeCoultre with launches like the Master Ultra Thin Tourbillon, the Duometre Heliotourbillon, the Master Grande Tradition and now the new Master Hybris Artistica Calibre 184. The Hybris Artistica is dedicated to the hybrid arts, or to put that differently, the fusion between haute horology and metiers d’art combining watchmaking and decoration on equal levels.

Starting with the watchmaking side of things, the Calibre 184 is truly insane in its scope (with 1,052 components). First released in 2019, it’s a grand complication movement that features a bi-axial gyrotourbillon, a perpetual calendar, a minute repeater with Westminster chime, a one-minute constant force mechanism, a dead-beat minute hand and a leaping date display. You could write an entire essay about each of these functions but as I respect your time, let’s do a whistlestop tour.

The gyrotourbillon, visible at 6 o’clock, is an advanced take on the classic tourbillon that makes use of an additional axis of rotation in order to offset the effects of gravity on the regulating organ even further. The Calibre 185 is JLC’s fifth take on this style of tourbillon and the smallest to date, with the gyrotourbillon’s 94 components weighing just 0.4g and taking up less room. This allows for the addition of extra functions without greatly increasing the size of the watch, which at 43mm x 14.1mm is already large.

In order to ensure a high level of precision, the tourbillon is equipped with a constant force mechanism, which ensures a consistent flow of power to the regulator regardless of how much power is in the system as the power reserve depletes. Interestingly, a side-effect of the one-minute constant force mechanism is the minute hand only moves once every 60-seconds, which is what is known as a dead-beat minute hand. Instead of being an issue, this is actually beneficial to the movement.

Normally with a minute repeater when you activate it and it begins to chime the minutes, the minute hand won’t be pointing directly at a minute marker. This means the audio time and visual time will be off set as the chimes will be a few seconds fast or slow depending on if they denote the minute just past or the one approaching. Due to the Master Hybris Artistica Calibre 184’s dead-beat minutes, the chimes and minute hand will always be perfectly aligned.

The minute repeater itself has what is called a Westminster chime, which is prestigious even among minute repeaters. It means that the tune, or carillon, that it plays is the iconic and very complex tune of the Elizabeth clock tower in Westminster, aka Big Ben. The complexity of the tune means the minute repeater has to be equipped with four hammers as opposed to the normal two.

We haven’t even touched on the perpetual calendar yet. You can see it on the main dial, which is off-centre towards 12 o’clock. The dial is made from translucent black sapphire revealing the mechanisms beneath and is held within a black grand feu enamel display with gold geometric patterns. Around the edge is a pointer date function, at 9 o’clock is the days of the week, at 3 o’clock is the month and below 12 is the year. At the centre are the hour and minute hands.

The Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Hybris Artistica Calibre 184 is presented in a pink gold case in a limited edition of 5 pieces available in September. JLC has also announced a white gold version is in the pipeline in the near future. As you might guess, it’s price on request and incredibly exclusive.

More details at Jaeger-LeCoultre.

Tourbillon Chronographs seem to be a theme this week because Audemars Piguet have released the Code 11.59 Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Chronograph just as Tag Heuer revamp the Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon Extreme Sport. Further connecting the two watches, they even have similar design language, stripping back any extraneous material to create an openworked dial and a case that feels almost industrial and utilitarian. Let’s get into it.

Starting with the case, the Audemars Piguet Code 11.59 Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Chronograph measures 41mm x 13.8mm and is made from a combination of black ceramic and white gold. The ceramic forms the central core of the body, visible along the central case band, which is framed by an exo-skeleton in gold. The openworked lugs in particular are very stylised and help to create that quasi-industrial feel, like a gantry overseeing a research laboratory where crazy science is taking place.

In this context, that crazy science is the haute horological movement that forms the watch’s openworked display. The calibre is the 2592 with automatic winding and a 65-hour power reserve. It’s equipped with central hours, minutes and chronograph seconds with a tourbillon at 6 o’clock, a 30-minute timer at 9 and a 12-hour timer at 3 o’clock. The openworking allows you to view the internal mechanisms of the flying tourbillon as well as the barrel at 12 and the various gears controlling the chronograph functions below the relevant subdials.

One of my favourite aspects of the display is the style with which it has been openworked. The various bridges and plates haven’t been fully skeletonised (as that would mean all extra material has been removed, which isn’t the case here) but what remains is deliberate and stylish. For example, there is a satisfying symmetry to the grey framework that runs around the exterior of the subdials and tourbillon, sweeping around the contours of the functions and the perimeter of the dial.

The combination of the precious and high-tech materials used in the case in addition to the haute horology movement means that the Audemars Piguet Code 11.59 Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Chronograph with openwork display is firmly price on request. Personally, I like the style of the Code 11.59 more when it isn’t openworked, but I think the structured look of this piece works really well and is one of the nicer openworked displays AP has created in the past few years.

More details at Audemars Piguet.

Following last week’s Geneva Watch Days that saw dozens and dozens of new watches being debuted, the releases are continuing to come thick and fast. Now it’s the turn of the sport-meisters to launch their latest collection. I’m talking about the Tag Heuer Carrera Chronograph Extreme Sport and the Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon Extreme Sport.

Tag Heuer Carrera Chronograph Extreme Sport

The Carrera Chronograph Extreme Sport collection was first introduced in 2016 as a cutting-edge edition of the Carrera with a bolder aesthetic and closer ties to the world of motorsport. However, just like in motorsport, innovation and upgrades happen all the time and so the 2024 collection reinvents the Carrera Chronograph Extreme Sport with a new design and improved quality of life.

Starting with the case, it has had its diameter reduced, it’s lug-to-lug shortened and is thinner, measuring 44mm x 15.1mm with a lug-to-lug of 49.7mm. Considering those are the reduced size dimensions, you can only imagine just how extreme the original was. I also think these dimensions don’t truly reflect the watch because its new design has recessed flanks with sandblasted finishing, meaning there’s a lot less material than the size suggests.

At the same time the watch has a new integrated rubber strap, which is designed to look like the air intake of a car. Combined with the hollowed areas, the whole body of the case and strap looks like it might be found in the engine block of a high-performance racer. Enhancing that look further is the skeletonised dial, which has also been redesigned to enhance legibility with thicker, black scales for the chronograph subdials and standard time display.

There are four versions of the Tag Heuer Carrera Chronograph Extreme Sport in the 2024 collection, each with dramatically different appearances. The first two are titanium editions with black ceramic tachymeter bezels and red or blue accents respectively. Third is a stealthy black edition also made from titanium but with a DLC coating. Last up is a more luxurious option with a case made from a combination of titanium, ceramic and rose gold.

Powering all four versions is the TH20-00 automatic movement. It’s a great chronograph movement with an 80-hour power reserve operating at 4 Hz and equipped with hours, minutes, small seconds, chronograph seconds, a 12-hour timer, a 30-minute timer and an openworked date function. As for pricing, the red and blue are both £7,150, the black edition is £7,350 and the rose gold is £10,750.

Tag Heuer Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon Extreme Sport

As the name suggests, the Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon Extreme Sport builds on the standard chronograph edition with an haute horology twist. Instead of a small seconds subdial with openworked date at 6 o’clock, the watch has a tourbillon. Although the overall design updates are the same as those seen on the standard model. 44mm diameter cases and improved legibility on the skeletonised dials.

However, the materials used are slightly different. The first of the two tourbillon models is made from titanium but rather than the ceramic bezel of the editions we’ve already looked at, it has a forged carbon tachymeter bezel. It features the characteristic layers of carbon in a random, chaotic pattern unique to each watch – one of the signature elements that differentiates forged carbon from carbon fibre.

Second is a rose gold version, similar to its rose gold chronograph counterpart but with an even more luxurious edge thanks to its golden bezel. Elements of the tourbillon are also presented in gold, drawing the eye to its spinning beauty. As the tourbillon rotates at a rate of once per minute, it functions as the watch’s running seconds indicator.

The movement is the TH20-09, a relatively new calibre introduced in 2023. Adding a power intensive tourbillon means the power reserve is reduced to 65-hours compared to the TH20-00, which seems like a reasonable trade for its haute horological leaning. The more complex movement combined with the upgraded materials means the carbon bezel edition is priced at £22,800 and the gold is £28,600.

More details at Tag Heuer.

Girard-Perregaux are one of the hardest brands to ascribe a generalised design philosophy to. Their horological stable contains the sporty Laureato, the retro Casquette, the cutting edge Neo series and the technical and highly skeletonised Three Bridges, all of which are vastly different in style. On top of that there’s the ultra-luxe La Esmerelda, which is relevant today because GP have released a new edition of the La Esmerlda called the ‘A Secret’ Eternity alongside a new Tourbillon with Three Flying Bridges for 2024.

Tourbillon with Three Flying Bridges 2024

This watch is a 2024 update to the 2021 original Tourbillon with Three Flying Bridges in rose gold. The updates to be found are very subtle, to the extent that they’re almost imperceptible unless someone points them out to you, which is why at first glance the two watches look virtually identical. They’re also focussed mainly on quality of life and wearer comfort.

Getting into it, the hour markers have been redesigned and the baton marker at 12 o’clock has been doubled up. The sapphire crystal glass and exhibition caseback have both been refined to give the box-style shape a touch more curve and offer a closer symmetry between the two. The crown is also larger and rounder, making it easier to use. The idea of being rounder is also seen in the smoother contours of the case as well as the shorter lugs and curvier case middle.

There are also a few updates that are mostly aesthetic and visual rather than altering the physicality of the piece. For one, the central hands now have a satin brushed finish and they feature more Super-LumiNova for low-light legibility. They’re small changes but ones that you’ll come to appreciate if you own the watch.

Beyond these updates, it’s the same Tourbillon with Three Flying Bridges as we have known it over the last few years. It has a 44mm gold case housing the GP09400-1273 automatic movement with white gold rotor. It has a 60-hour power reserve and is equipped with hours, minutes, seconds by way of a tourbillon, all mounted on the titular three bridges that span the void of the watch’s display.

It has a price tag of £146,000, which is a bit higher than the 2021 edition’s original price of £121,000. But frankly (and I will admit to not doing the maths) that seems like it’s not too far off the rate of inflation, especially as gold has been hit particularly hard in the last few years.

La Esmerelda ‘A Secret’ Eternity Edition

Proving that Girard-Perregaux really are fascinated with the year 2021, their second release at Geneva Watch Days is another update to a 2021 original. It’s the La Esmerelda Eternity redressed as the new La Esmerelda ‘A Secret’ Eternity in honey gold. Essentially the blue decorations of the original are now presented in a rich honey gold tone.

That includes the rose engine turned guilloché dial coated with grand feu enamel. The same is true of the champlevé enamel flanks on the side of the 43mm diameter case. The intricate engraving and horse motifs are inspired by a heritage pocket watch from 1889, which also means 2024 is the 135^th anniversary of that original timepiece. According to Girard-Perregaux, it’s the meaning of the horse motif that constitutes the watch’s hidden secret.

It’s the pocket watch heritage that inspires the La Esmerelda ‘A Secret’ to have a hunter style caseback, which is a style of back that has a cover that can be opened to reveal an exhibition window. Traditionally this was so that a watch could have a solid, protective caseback for vigorous activity while allowing you to admire the movement when in more polite surroundings. Here though, the delicate decoration and enamelling of the three-horse cover means neither is particularly suited to harsh treatment.

The movement inside is the GP09600-2083, which is essentially a non-skeletonised version of the Tourbillon with Three Bridges. Although the specs are notably different with only a 50-hour power reserve compared to the 60-hours of the standard edition above. But that can be excused considering the insane level of finishing on display here.

As you might expect, the price is a fair bit more extreme too with a ticket of £381,000. It’s available in a limited edition of 18 pieces, making it exceptionally exclusive to boot, if the price wasn’t already enough to make that the case.

More details at Girard-Perregaux.

After re-launching last year to the fanfare of independent watch fans everywhere, Daniel Roth has taken the opportunity of Geneva Watch Days to continue to launch the next stage in the brand’s revival. But before we get onto the Daniel Roth Tourbillon Rose Gold itself, a bit of background.

Daniel Roth’s an interesting name in watchmaking. The man himself was instrumental in the revival of Breguet, building the watchmaker’s first modern tourbillon, before turning independent. At the time – the mid-80s – that was less common than it is today, and Roth’s first release landed in 1989, housed in the first ever double ellipse case. It was a 25-piece, double-faced, hand-wound tourbillon sold at Asprey. Needless to say, it was very much playing in the upper echelons of watchmaking.

Eventually Roth himself sold his brand to a Singaporean retailer. They then sold it to Bulgari and Bulgari itself was subsequently sold to LVMH. In that time nobody really knew what to do with the name; at the same time prices for preowned watches were very much on the up. So, it perhaps wasn’t too much of a surprise when Jean Arnaut, director of watches at Louis Vuitton, decided to relaunch the brand under its own steam.

Well, I say under its own steam; Daniel Roth watches are made at La Fabrique du Temps, the de facto Louis Vuitton manufacture. That might come as a surprise, ostensibly a fashion brand having their own manufacture to that degree, but this is Louis Vuitton; they don’t do things in halves. And so last year we saw the first re-release of a true Daniel Roth timepiece, the Souscription, a modern twist on Roth’s initial double ellipse tourbillon. It sold out in weeks (impressive for a watch punching well over £100,000) and was delivered earlier this year. So, what’s next?

The answer is pretty simple: rose gold. For Geneva Watch Days 2024, Daniel Roth is releasing the Tourbillon Rose Gold, essentially a re-colouring of last year’s Souscription. It has all the same Daniel Roth distinctiveness, with that triple seconds scale above the tourbillon (in case you were wondering, there are three different length second hands attached to the tourbillon cage itself) and the signature case. But the change in metal across both case and dial gives the entire thing a warmer feel, perhaps slightly less vintage, too.

The more exciting change for collectors however is that this is not a limited edition. Souscription models by their very nature (they’re normally used by independent watchmakers to raise money from collectors putting their faith in them) are limited and the 2023 model was restricted to just 20. The Tourbillon Rose Gold will be numbered, but with numbers starting from 21 onwards. Theoretically that could cause problems if you were going to try and fit ever more numerals on the back but given only about 50 of these can be produced a year, that’s a long, long way off.

Inside is the DR001 calibre, a movement built from the ground-up for the revival of Daniel Roth, developed in-house at La Fabrique du Temps. It of course has a 1-minute tourbillon – the whole layout of the watch depends on that – but the manual-wind movement also has an 80-hour power reserve.

While I am looking forward to seeing where the Daniel Roth brand takes the watchmaker’s classic design in the future, the Tourbillon Rose Gold will have serious collectors breathing a sigh of relief. Now it’s a piece you can aim towards without the pressure of it selling out. Given that it’ll set you back a fair penny, you might be saving up for a while. Just don’t expect vintage pieces to be any cheaper these days, either.

More details at Daniel Roth.

Let me preface this article by saying I don’t know how it will be possible to succinctly convey the scale and magnitude of Bulgari’s latest haute horological project in a single, coherent article. They have produced three minute repeater watches, each with their distinct attributes and features that simultaneously make them impressive individual watches while also coming together to create a stunning series when viewed as a whole.

To steal some terms from the music industry, there is a dissonance between them all that somehow melds with the overall harmony of the collection. The watches that form the collection are the Octo Roma Grande Sonnerie Tourbillon, Octo Roma Carillon Tourbillon and Finissimo Minute Repeater Carbon.

Before we delve into the individual watches, let’s take a look at an overview of the collection. A minute repeater, a carillon and a grande sonnerie are all variations of chiming complications with the grande sonnerie being the most prestigious of the three. The easiest way to express that is with the number of hammers and gongs (the hammer strikes the gong to produce the chiming sound) present in each type of watch – the more hammers and gongs a chiming watch has, the more complex and varied a tune the chimes can emit. The Bulgari minute repeater has two hammers, the carillon has three and the grande sonnerie has four. There are more differences than that but it’s enough to get us started.

What’s special about this 2024 series of chiming watches is that Bulgari have teamed up with Swiss conductor Lorenzo Viotti to produce a bespoke tune for these watches’ chimes. A focal point of this collaboration was the use of tritones in the chimes. As I’m no music expert, I’ll let Viotti explain: “The tritone, often referred to as the ‘Devil’s Interval,’ spans six semitones or three whole tones. It divides the octave in half and brings dissonance and tension.”

“It strongly contrasts with the modern preference for consonant harmonic intervals. In medieval symbolism, certain chords were linked to spiritual concepts. The tritone was considered disturbing, and due to its asymmetry, contrary to the religious canon of reflecting divine harmony – hence the nickname associating it with the devil’s workings.”

Bulgari Octo Roma Grande Sonnerie Tourbillon

Starting with the most prestigious of the three we have the Octo Roma Grande Sonnerie Tourbillon 103962. It’s equipped with a 45mm diameter titanium case in the signature round shape of the Octo Roma. The dial is partially skeletonised with a perforated pattern made from brass with a dark grey PVD coating. It makes for a very modern, technological appearance that reminds me of a high-end speaker in a hi-fi system.

The movement visible is the BVV800, a manual-winding calibre with a 72-hour power reserve. A grande sonnerie automatically chimes the hours and quarters as they pass and can also repeat the hours, quarters, and minutes on demand, which is the base function of a standard minute repeater. Due to the power intensive nature of these chiming complications, there is a separate power reserve indicator for the chiming mechanisms and time keeping functions.

On top of that it also has a tourbillon located at 10 o’clock. The combination of these many and varied complications has led Bulgari to describe this watch as the most complicated they have ever produced. That’s quite an accolade from one of the most cutting-edge brands who consistently push the boundaries of what is possible.

Bulgari Octo Roma Carillon Tourbillon

Sitting in the middle of the series is the Octo Roma Carillon Tourbillon. It’s aesthetically similar to the Grande Sonnerie except that its case is made from rose gold and is slightly slimmer at 44mm. Beyond that, the aesthetic is virtually identical with the same perforated skeleton dial with exposed hammers and tourbillon. On this model the position of the tourbillon and hammers is inverted compared the Grande Sonnerie with the rotating cage of the tourbillon at 6 o’clock.

Powering it is the modified BVL428 manual-winding movement with a 75-hour power reserve. The name Carillon comes from the fact that its minute repeater has three hammers and gongs, giving it a more diversity of chime compared to a standard two gong minute repeater. In the music world, a carillon is a set of bells played using a keyboard, albeit one with at least 20 more chimes than Bulgari’s.

As the middle child of the series, the Carillon is arguably the least interesting of the three – which is mad to say because in isolation this is an incredibly technical and stunning watch, but it’s overshadowed by the Grande Sonnerie which is yet more complex and the Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater for reasons we’re about to discuss.

Bulgari Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater Carbon

The Octo Finissimo range is where Bulgari typically flex their horological muscles, especially in their endeavour to create the thinnest examples of all the common watch complications, a quest that has led them to several world records. In 2016 they added the record for producing the thinnest minute repeater with the calibre with the BVL362, a movement that has been reissued in the Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater Carbon with a new carbon case.

That case measures 40mm in diameter with a thickness of 6.85mm in CTP (Carbon Thin Ply). It looks very striking with the layered pattern across the case, bezel and dial. The dial in particular is very unusual with a pockmarked like appearance that reminds me of an eroded and crumbling concrete wall – especially in combination with the openworked hour markers and subdial. It gives it a cool urban decay sort of vibe that I’m a fan of, a post-apocalyptic minute repeater discovered by the survivors in the same way that the Antikythera mechanism was discovered.

Between the cool case and world record movement, this is quite a special and unusual minute repeater. The same could be said for all three of these watches, which brings me back to my opening statement that while each of these watches is unique and separate from the others, they work in harmony as a trio. Three watches with a dissonance that works to create a broader harmony in the complete work, or in music terminology, a tritone.

More details at Bulgari.

Street art is one of the most diverse and vibrant of the artistic disciplines, if you can even describe it as such. Using urban landscapes to tell stories, promote ideas and express creativity in a way that is deeply human. As a part of that, having a recognisable style helps to spread your message and create connection and one of the most instantly recognisable styles is that of Argentinian-Spanish artist Felipe Pantone, who had his start in graffiti and who has just collaborated with Zenith on the new Defy Skyline Tourbillon Felipe Pantone (based on the Skyline Tourbillon launched in February).

Pantone’s work is inspired by the clash between physical and digital media in the age of television and the internet. A time where a large amount of the light that our eyes receive comes from the pixels of screens rather than the natural world. As such, his art is often centred around the idea of glitches and pixels as well as the digital light spectrum that you can see reflected in the back of CDs or DVDs, or when you press on a retro computer screen too hard. All these ideas are reflected in the Defy.

Starting with the case, it’s more or less a standard edition of the Defy Skyline. It features the signature octagonal bezel that sits atop the broad, flat surfaces of the 41mm diameter steel case. The hint that this is a special edition is the engraving of FPT1 (Felipe Pantone Tourbillon #1) across the four corners of the case where the facets of the top and sides meet leading into the interchangeable steel bracelet. It’s strongly influenced by luxury sports watch design from the 1970s.

However, while the case is 70s in style, the dial is anything but. The main disk of the dial is made from sapphire that’s been micro-engraved with concentric circles. Then, the underside has been given a mirrored, metallic finish that reflects light back up through the sapphire dial, creating a prism-like quality that diffuses light in unexpected ways. You can immediately catch the connection to Pantone’s work such as the influence of CDs. It’s extraordinarily unusual and visually stunning.

Elsewhere on the dial you have the titular tourbillon located at 6 o’clock. This has been decorated with the blue-red gradient often seen in Pantone’s works and the main bridge has been shaped like a lightning bolt, also a common Pantone motif. The same is true for the central hands and hour markers around the edge of the dial, which are regular batons at the cardinal points but glitchy bolts everywhere else. It’s almost as if you’re looking at the watch on a shattered monitor.

The movement inside is the El Primero 3630, an automatic tourbillon calibre with a power reserve of 60-hours. You can view it through the exhibition caseback where the star-shaped rotor is once again dressed in the signature colour gradient. This effect is achieved through a PVD technique that Zenith and Pantone developed together in 2021 for one of their earlier collaborations.

In terms of price and availability, the Defy Skyline Tourbillon Felipe Pantone is limited to 100 pieces at a price of £56,100. It’s also presented in a custom watch box with an iridescent pattern inspired by Pantone’s style. Personally, I’m not a passionate follower of Pantone’s work so the collaboration side of this release isn’t that exciting to me. What I do like though is the way that by working with a creative, Zenith have managed to produce a dial that feel conceptually and visually unlike anything I’ve seen before. It’s modern and contemporary, which feels like a very daring thing to do when the watch market is obsessed with retro nostalgia.

More details at Zenith.

Horage are one of the unsung heroes of the watch world. Plenty of watchmakers will make a lot of noise about developing new movements, perhaps adding a couple more hours of power reserve or throw another certification on top. Or at the top end you have independent maestros making crazy stuff that’s so rarefied so as not to matter to anyone that’s not a Phillips auction regular. Horage on the other hand aren’t just building new movements and obsessively detailed watches to go with them, but have made big strides in making haute horology accessible.

Back in 2020, they made what should have been one of the biggest splashes in the watch industry with the Tourbillon 1, a stunning skeletonised Swiss tourbillon for under £8,000. Even today, where value is ever more important, that’s insane. The next nearest would be Frederique Constant, which is roughly 50% more expensive. The only downside to the Tourbillon 1 was its dial, a skeletonised number that, sure, showed off the groundbreaking K-TOU movement underneath, but wasn’t exactly to everyone’s taste.

That’s why, last year, Horage followed up with the Tourbillon 2 in two much more classical dials, with either a funky blue guilloche or pristine white grand feu enamel. For me, the blue was interesting but neither of them really nailed it. The grand feu especially was just too… unexciting. Horage genuinely try to move the needle of Swiss watchmaking and plain white just doesn’t suit them. Still, at least using precious metal cases did match the kind of chronometric prestige they were aiming for.

Now the Tourbillon 2 is back with a shiny new dial and you don’t need to be an expert in reading the intricacies of the Widmanstätten pattern to know that it’s meteorite. I’m not about to go into the whole spiel about a unique rock millennia old, a real piece of the stars and all that aspirational jazz. I’m just going to say that, as meteorite dialled watches go – of which there have been a few recently – this is the most handsome I’ve come across.

It’s not just a straight dial swap from the previous models either. Horage have removed the power reserve, something I wasn’t a huge fan of anyway, to give that glorious, Thompson structured dial more room to breathe. Uniqueness aside, it’s a cool pattern and you want to see as much of it as possible. That kind of attention to detail’s also pretty par for the course for Horage. The only thing other than the hand-painted numerals interrupting the dial is that six o’clock titanium tourbillon cage. Normally open hearts ruin watches more than make them, but that overtly mechanical look suits the rigid formations of the meteorite perfectly.

Size wise, the Tourbillon 2 measures 41mm across. It’s nearing that goldilocks 40mm sizing, though with the lugs curving into the integrated bracelet, it feels smaller on the wrist. At the same time, the slim bezel allows more dial space, upping the wrist presence beyond what most similarly sized watches can manage. It’s solid, impeccably machined and, while it lacks some of the insanely engineered detailing of Horage’s Autark sports model, is still impressive. Not that many people will pause to check the case when there’s a tourbillon surrounded by meteorite on the front.

That case is available in a trio of metals, the prestige white and yellow gold that come from the previous precious dial versions and stainless steel. For me, it’s all about the steel – which just so happens to be the model we have here. Horage are all about making the exceptional accessible and steel does just that. And while I’d never call a tourbillon practical, not needing to worry about scratches constantly means that I’ll also opt for steel if it’s an option. Plus, I’m a sucker for monochrome. What can I say?

The movement is Horage’s opus, the K-TOU. It’s a hand-wound number with all the bells and whistles: a titanium cage, a silicon escapement and balance spring, and a five-day power reserve. That reserve is achieved with a single barrel, thanks to not just more efficient parts, but a lower frequency of 3.5hz (as opposed to the more common 4hz). Thankfully that lower beat rate hasn’t had an impact on accuracy, as the whole thing runs to -4/+6 seconds a day. In short, Horage have packed a lot into their signature movement which, as it’s what’s come to define them, makes a lot of sense.

That’s also why the K-TOU is one of the coolest-finished movements around. Say what you want about Poincon de Geneve-level engraving and classical guilloche on every surface, a bit of black PVD and a slick grid pattern are all you need to really stand out. That and, of course, an eye-catching price.

The steel version will set you back CHF 13,980, with the white gold and yellow gold raising that to CHF 20,930 and CHF 22,325 respectively. In good old British money, that’s around £12,000, £18,200 and £19,500. That’s exactly the same price as the Grand Feu model from last year, which makes sense. It might not have the same level of hand-made artisanry as fine enamel, but it is still meteorite, innately precious and exceedingly rare. With only 25 meteorite dials being produced, you can be damn sure this won’t be sticking around for long. Very few Horage pieces ever do.

More details at Horage.

In one of the most confusing instances of naming in the entire industry, Bugatti’s latest hyper car is called the Tourbillon, named after the iconic horological regulator. On top of that Jacob & Co., Bugatti’s luxury watch partner, have released a tourbillon wristwatch in celebration of the launch of this new car also called the Bugatti Tourbillon. Meaning we have a bizarre situation where the Bugatti Tourbillon is named after the Bugatti Tourbillon which is named after the tourbillon in the Bugatti Tourbillon. I hope you could follow that because even I lost track and I’m the one who wrote it…

I’m of course hamming it up a little bit for the humour and to cut to the chase, what we have here is a luxury watch and a hyper car that have the same name. As we’re primarily a watch publication, we’re naturally going to talk about the car first. The Tourbillon is the latest generation of hyper car that can draw its lineage back to the legendary Veyron from 2005, the fastest production car in the world at its launch. Compared the Veyron or Chiron, the Tourbillon is sharper and more angular with a central fin running from the grill all the way to the rear lights.

It’s a menacing monster with a new, naturally-aspirated V16 engine that delivers 1,000 HP. Additionally, 3 electric motors provide a further 800 HP making it the most powerful Bugatti in history alongside hybrid driving capabilities. All of which can launch the car to 445 km/h (approx. 277 mph). Of more importance to watch enthusiasts is the fact that the instrument panel is analogue, constructed by Swiss horologists with over 600 components. It looks fantastic in motion – unless you blink and miss it.

Speaking of things that look fantastic in motion, let’s shift focus from the Bugatti Tourbillon to the Bugatti Tourbillon. The Jacob & Co. version, that is. It’s a very different beast in comparison to previous collaborations like the Chiron. It has a kite-like shape measuring 52mm x 44mm x 15mm in black PVD titanium. Across the top of the watch are three subdials. On the left is the titular tourbillon, in the centre is a retrograde hour and minute display and on the right is a retrograde movement power reserve and automaton power reserve display.

The automaton power reserve is in reference to the mechanism that occupies the majority of the watch’s area, a working V16 engine block automaton made from transparent sapphire crystal. When activated the delicate crank shaft spins and the 16 cylinders fire in a mimicry of the actual car’s engine. No attention to detail has been spared and it even includes the exhaust manifolds.

As for movement specs, it’s the JCAM55 with manual winding and a 48-hour power reserve. It’s visible through the exhibition caseback, which is skeletonised in a manner reminiscent of the car’s rear window. The automaton power reserve lasts for 20 activations, with each activation lasting 20 seconds – meaning the car can go from roughly 0-200 mph before the action ends as it has a 0-248 mph time of 25 seconds.

All that remains is price and availability and the Jacob & Co. Bugatti Tourbillon is limited to 150 pieces at $340,000 (approx. £269,000). Interestingly J&C. have stated that total production for the model will never exceed 250 as that’s the number of cars Bugatti aim to produce, meaning there are 100 unaccounted for watches. So, expect this in other colours and materials in the future. If you are wondering, the car itself is a cool £3.2 million.

More details at Jacob & Co.

Richard Mille and Rafael Nadal have had a long-standing partnership since 2010 and over the years they’ve produced many timepieces together. They range from the bright, colourful and sporty RM 035-03 to their latest collaboration, which is the incredibly serious and haute horology focussed RM 27-05 Flying Tourbillon Rafael Nadal.

Having lost their crown in the battle for the thinnest watch to Bulgari, RM have taken a different tack. This is a watch with a single-minded pursuit of one thing, being the most lightweight manual tourbillon watch ever produced.

In that endeavour, Richard Mille have succeeded. The RM 27-05 Flying Tourbillon Rafael Nadal weighs just 11.5g excluding the strap, earning it the world record for being the lightest manual tourbillon watch. At the same time, it breaks a second record as it can also withstand a g-force of up to 14,000, which is important for surviving the acceleration of Nadal’s wrist during his tennis swing.

In order to achieve this, every possible weight-saving measure has been taken. They’ve even removed the screws that secure the movement to the case, instead sandwiching it in place between the monobloc caseback/caseband and the flange/bezel.

At the same time, they’ve used the most high tech materials possible to shave off as much weight as possible. The titanium movement is skeletonised as efficiently as possible, including areas that can’t be seen and the case itself is made from a brand new composite material.

That material is Carbon TPT B.4, the newest iteration of Richard Mille’s signature Carbon TPT. It took five years to develop this new composite and it is 4% denser with fibre that is 15% stiffer and resin that is 30% stronger. To learn more about TPT read our guide to important watchmaking materials, although note that while in the guide we discuss quartz TPT, the same techniques apply to carbon TPT. What the improvements listed above mean is that the strength to weight ratio has been improved. In turn that means you require less of the material to achieve the same results.

Aesthetically, it gives the Richard Mille RM 27-05 Flying Tourbillon Rafael Nadal a dark, serious appearance. The bare Carbon TPT B.4 retains the customary striations of the material with its intricate layers. It’s also comparatively svelte with dimensions of 37.25mm x 47.25mm x 7.2mm in a tonneau shape. Compact and strong, like Nadal himself who has always won through his athleticism rather than being a giant and blasting people off the court with his serves like the 6’10” Isner or 6’11” Karlović.

Looking to the dial, that too features the bare minimum embellishment in order to save weight. The central hour and minute hands are partially skeletonised as is the barrel located at 11 o’clock and the flying tourbillon at 5. The only concession to style is the addition of lines on two prominent bridges that match the V shape of the tourbillon.

Interestingly, the watch has a solid caseback because the TPT is lighter than the glass that would typically feature in an exhibition caseback. In fact, the glass above the dial is a lightweight PMMA polymer glass with scratch-resistant coating rather than the more traditional and heavier sapphire crystal for the same reason.

The Richard Mille RM 27-05 Flying Tourbillon Rafael Nadal is priced at CHF 980,000 (approx. £842,700, excl. taxes) and limited to 80 pieces, and is the last word in lightweight manual tourbillons, adding another accolade to Richard Mille’s already extensive trophy cabinet. Although they did recently lose the world record for thinnest watch to Bulgari. So perhaps another brand will take up the lightweight tourbillon challenge while RM themselves seek to take back the Iron Throne of Horology.

More details at Richard Mille.

For the better part of a decade now, Roger Dubuis has been the Excalibur, and the Excalibur has been Roger Dubuis. Sure, the occasional scattering of Arthurian knights has cropped up, but not in any form outside of an instantly sold-out novelty run. It’s not hard to see why the Excalibur has dominated their particular breed of watchmaking – everything from its distinctive star-shaped bridge and its skeleton nature to its size and propensity for tourbillons screams haute horology. The downside is that Roger Dubuis haven’t really been able to do much else – which is just one of the reasons that the new Orbis Machina is exciting.

I say one of the reasons because, context aside, there’s a lot about the Orbis to set it apart not just from Roger Dubuis, but from other tourbillons – which is impressive in an increasingly crowded market of supposedly gravity defying complications. Enough that I’m probably not going to review it like I would a more traditional watch. There’s little enough to compare it to that comparisons will be a bit meaningless. But, it is quite possibly my favourite Roger Dubuis watch in recent memory.

First up, central tourbillons are a rarity. The balance, the part of the watch that goes in a tourbillon cage, isn’t normally at the centre. The architecture of a classical movement moves it generally to six o’clock, hence that also being where you can find most tourbillon cages. Moving that dead centre requires a complete rethink of how the calibre’s laid out.

Indeed, there aren’t many watchmakers that would attempt it. Bulgari, Hysek, Franck Muller (of course) and a couple of others are the only ones that have bothered – not just because of complexity, but also because Omega had the patent for their De Ville until 2015.

Still, Roger Dubuis are no strangers to the not-so-humble tourbillon and while they’ve never particularly dabbled in multi-axis numbers a la Jaeger-LeCoultre, they have thrown multiple tourbillons into their watches. As long as they stick to one plane, they have some serious anti-gravity chops – and so, a central tourbillon makes a reasonable amount of sense for them.

The Orbis however makes more use of that central tourbillon than most. Instead of hands, the time is told on concentric discs around the central complication mounted with skeletonised hands. If you’re wondering which is which, Roger Dubuis have conveniently labelled them, ‘Hours’ and ‘Minutes’. Still, it doesn’t make for the easiest reading, but it is an OCD satisfying echo in shape – something that a star-shaped bridge would utterly ruin. Instead, Roger Dubuis’ architectural sensibilities are expressed in space. It’s not just its size across the board – and we’ll get onto precisely how big this behemoth of a timepiece is – but the space inside the watch, with veritable voids surrounding the timekeeping discs.

In fact, Roger Dubuis have taken that sense of space to the extreme, even going so far as to completely redesign how the crown interacts with the movement. Where you would expect to see a stem to set the watch, there’s nothing. Their watchmakers instead found a painfully complicated workaround, simply to avoid ruining the aesthetics. Now that’s dedication.

The Orbis is also going to take some dedication to pull off on the wrist. Not only does it measure in at 45mm across, but it’s a big chunk of heavy precious metal, even if the rose gold comes paired with a rubber strap rather than a bracelet. Said strap is integrated via three distinctive lugs rather than the usual two, amping up its wrist presence to grand proportions. The same goes for the notched bezel and equally notched but much chunkier crown, both of which aesthetically tie it back to the Excalibur. It also rises 14.41mm off the wrist. There’s not going to be any missing it.

And yet despite all of this obvious contemporary watchmaking, there’s actually something classical in the Orbis. It’s not classical as a whole, this isn’t re-treading what the Omega De Ville already laid down. But between actually having some approximation of a dial, and leaning on traditional watchmaking in both the complicated nature of the movement and the finishing across the back, it’s a welcome change of high-adrenaline pace.

Indeed, flip it over and the movement could come from any fine watchmaking pedigree. Not only is the manual-wind RD115 a solid performance piece with a 72-hour power reserve despite its novel display, but seals the deal quite literally with the Poinçon de Genève. It’s worth noting that the Poinçon de Genève is one of the few certifications that not only takes into account finishing, but measures performance once the watch has been completely cased up and finished. In short, it’s one of the best sureties of exceptionality there is.

Exceptional is indeed the word. We’ve come to expect exceptional watchmaking from Roger Dubuis in the past, but in a grandiose, very specific and often divisive way. I’ve personally never been a huge fan of the Excalibur’s skeletonised star or Roger Dubuis’ reliance on the model. So seeing them do something that’s exceptional in both the wider watchmaking world and their own canon is reassuring that they’ve not pigeonholed themselves. And on its own list of merits, the Orbis Machina is one hell of a watch. Which for nearly €201,000 (approx. £172,000), it should be.

More details at Roger Dubuis.

Every now and then you see a watch and it’s love at first sight. That was my first reaction looking at the new Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Grande Tradition Calibre 948 World-Timer in its fresh green enamel variant. A verdant and vibrant interpretation of a haute horological world timer.

It’s difficult to know where to start with this watch so let’s cut right to the calibre at its heart. The calibre 948 first emerged in 2017 as part of the Geophysic line before being reimagined in 2022 as part of the Master Grande Tradition Calibre 948 World-Timer. It’s what JLC call a Universal Time calibre, meaning that even as the tourbillon rotates on its own axis every 60-seconds, the tourbillon itself is rotating around the centre of the dial once every 24-hours. You’ll see that there is no GMT hand because the tourbillon and all the list of cities attached to the rotating disc serve as the world time indicators.

For the 2024 edition of the watch, the rotating disc that depicts the globe seen from the north pole features an updated aesthetic in rich green enamel. It’s specifically a type of enamel called champlevé, where the artisan carves out a depression in the metal base which is then filled with consecutive layers of enamel to build up a seamless, smooth texture and bold colour.

Each layer of the dial requires firing at extreme temperatures, resulting in high failure rates. The green continents, tourbillon and cities scale are suspended on a pink gold frame that rotates above a blue guilloché backdrop that represents the oceans.

Pink gold is the precious metal of choice here as the 43mm x 14.13mm case is also made from it. Those dimensions make this quite a wide and thick timepiece, but that’s to be expected when combining an haute horological movement with a stunning Metiers d’Art display. Speaking of Metiers, the Master Grande Tradition Calibre 948 World-Timer is produced by Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Metiers Rares Atelier, who specialise in delicate artistic techniques like enamel, lacquer and guilloché.

As you may expect, the Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Grande Tradition Calibre 948 World-Timer is a limited edition of 20 pieces and is price on request. If there’s ever a watch to print out in a poster and put above your bed, it’s this one. A real beauty and a technical stunner.

More details at Jaeger-LeCoultre.

Daniel Roth is one of the legendary independent watchmakers, right up there with George Daniels, François-Paul Journe and Philippe Dufour. He earned his stripes at Audemars Piguet where he learned to fine-tune ultra-thin movements before becoming an integral part in the revival of Breguet. In 1988 he set out to create his own, eponymous brand where he could explore his own concepts and ideas, it was the closest thing to an overnight sensation that you get in horology. Now, almost four decades after its founding, the Daniel Roth name is back on everyone’s lips, as the brand have been revived by Bulgari as part of LVMH.

We’ll talk about how the new iteration of the brand is honouring Daniel Roth shortly. But first, let’s take a look back at the origins of the brand in 1988, and qualify what I mean when I say it was an overnight sensation. In short, what I’m talking about is the fact that Daniel Roth’s very first project as an independent brand was the 25-piece Souscription Tourbillon, and Souscription is the important word here.

Souscription (which very simply means subscription) is actually a sales method that is not uncommon in high end and independent watchmaking. The simplest way to describe it is that it’s a form of pre-order where buyers make a substantial down payment on the watch before production even begins in order to fund the actual production period. And production can be a very long time. The fact Daniel Roth’s first watch was a 25-piece Souscription is a massive vote of confidence for a new brand. Even more impressive is the fact that all 25 watches were commissioned by the same person, William Asprey from Asprey of London. With such a significant backer, the success of Daniel Roth was all but assured in an instant.

Original artwork by Daniel Roth

On a horological level, one of Roth’s biggest contributions to watchmaking is the unusual case shape, described as a double ellipse. It’s designed to allow his watches to have two focal points, one at the top and one at the bottom. On the Souscription Tourbillon, those focuses are the hour and minute display at the top and the tourbillon with retrograde seconds below. Retrograde displays are another Roth signature, inspired by the designs George Daniels used on some of his pocket watches.

Eventually, after a much celebrated series of watches and developments, Daniel Roth moved onto new projects and in 2000 the brand bearing his name was bought by Bulgari. Production was then halted entirely in 2015. However, in 2023 Bulgari revived the Daniel Roth name as a sister brand to Gerald Genta (another legacy brand of a famous watch designer). Just like Daniel Roth in 1988, their first watch is the Tourbillon Souscription, but this time a remake of the original.

In order to do this legendary watch justice, Bulgari have employed the full might of their LVMH connections and global horological friends. The DR001 manual movement was developed and assembled entirely by La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton, a manufacture that is heavily stepping up its haute horological prowess. The gold dial with Clous de Paris guilloche was then produced in the workshop of Kari Voutilainen, one of the leading independent watchmakers working at the moment. The new watch is a limited edition of 20-pieces, and all have already sold out.

While Daniel Roth the man has no connection to the modern version of the brand on a practical level, it does have his vocal support and backing. He said, “it brings me so much joy to see the Tourbillon being reborn. Oh yes! Modern watchmakers are remaking the watch, with just as much taste, just as much passion in reconstructing it, no deviations, staying loyal to the style I created. They’ve even improved it more, down to the finest details. Everything I’ve done is great to revisit.” What is certain is that if the modern Daniel Roth continues to do justice to the original, it’s an exciting time to be a Roth fan.

More details at Daniel Roth.