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.

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.

Next year Panerai are celebrating the 90^th anniversary of their Radiomir collection, arguably one of the most influential designs ever produced in watchmaking (certainly when it comes to military divers). The story behind the earliest Radiomir prototypes is an interesting tale that involves a failed Rolex release being adapted and evolving into what we now recognise as the Radiomir – read the full story here. In celebration of those earliest prototypes Panerai have launched the Radiomir Perpetual Calendar GMT Goldtech™ PAM01453, the first ever Radiomir Perpetual Calendar.

With 90 years under its belt Panerai has surely built a Radiomir Perpetual Calendar at some point, right? However, the complication has mostly found a home in the Luminor collection while the most luxurious Radiomirs such as the platinum PAM01432 have featured only annual calendars. The launch of the new PAM01453 is therefore quite a significant milestone.

It measures 45mm in diameter with the classic cushion shape of the collection produced in Panerai’s proprietary rose gold, called Goldtech. It makes for a very nice, neo-vintage aesthetic that retains all the key features of the original Radiomir prototypes with a luxury twist – although the Radiomir Perpetual Calendar also retains some of that classic Panerai robustness thanks to a 100m water resistance rating.

Looking at the face, it leans in a classy, elegant direction with a white, sunburst finished sandwich dial. Compared to some perpetual calendars such as the IWC Portugieser Perpetual Calendar where the information is crowded onto numerous subdials, Panerai have opted for a far more restrained, legible layout. The central handstack features hours, minutes and 24-hour GMT hand, at 3 o’clock is a classic day-date display and at 9 o’clock is a multi-function subdial. Specifically it shows small seconds and a 24-hour hand with day/night indicator.

However, that’s not all of the complications that the Radiomir Perpetual Calendar GMT Goldtech PAM01453 is equipped with. You can see a whole raft of additional functions through the exhibition caseback: the year, leap year, months, and power reserve indicator. The Panerai calibre P.4100 that powers it all is a bit of a beast.

The calibre has a micro-rotor and double barrel system supplying a 72-hour power reserve, which is great for a power intensive perpetual calendar that has so many functions that require constant and precise power supply. On top of that, Panerai spent 5-years developing this movement in order to make it as easy to use as possible, which they achieved by enabling the crown to adjust the day, date, months and leap year without the need for additional tools or correctors. Plus, it can also be set towards the end of the month and towards midnight when many perpetual calendars advise you not to change them.

In my opinion the combination of a perpetual calendar and the Radiomir is a match made in heaven. While it’s the original Panerai, it’s also the dressiest compared to the Luminor and Submersible, which suits a refined complication like the calendar. Between the gold case and haute horology movement it’s got a price tag of £35,100, which feels appropriate.  If you’re looking for a combination of bold wrist presence, luxurious dress watch vibes and a perpetual calendar, there’s really not many other places to look.

More details at Panerai.

I am an unapologetic fan of Glashütte Original’s more daring watches. Yes the Senator and SeaQ are nice, but they sit safely within their archetypes. Give me the bright colours and interesting textures of the 1960s and 1970s collection or the haute horological vivacity of the asymmetrical Pano range. Today we get to focus in on the Pano range further as Glashütte Original have combined the PanoInverse and PanoMaticLunar for the first time to create the new PanoLunarInverse.

Before we get too deep into the discussing the new watch, it’s probably worth understanding the two watches to which it owes its heritage. The PanoInverse is one of the more visually impressive in the collection as it features a partially openworked display that reveals a floating balance at roughly 3 – 6 o’clock. It’s also often the basis for some immaculate finishing or engraving as in the case of the PanoInverse Limited Edition. Then, the PanoMaticLunar is a closed dial watch with a moonphase function off-set towards 2 – 3 o’clock.

Combine both of these models together and there’s an apparent issue. The signature elements of the floating balance wheel and the moonphase complications overlap the same positional area of the display. Well, not precisely but near enough. As such, in order to produce the PanoLunarInverse, Glashütte Original had to completely reimagine the layout of the watch’s display. And thank goodness they did because the result is stunning.

The moonphase that was once banished to a small wedge on the periphery of the watch now finds itself in pride of place in the centre of the hours and minutes dial. What once was small, and frankly almost illegible, is now large and beautiful. The twin moons are engraved with as much detail as the PanoInverse Limited Edition I mentioned earlier, with each crater on the surface depicted with astonishing detail. The moons are presented against a backdrop of aventurine glass that emulates a starry background.

By moving the moonphase they also allow the exposed balance wheel to remain in its key position in the 3 – 6 o’clock quadrant of the dial. It’s part of the Calibre 91-04, an automatic movement with a 45-hour power reserve and guilloché finishing. It had to be specially adapted to accommodate the addition of the moonphase function to the Inverse construction with its dial-side balance.

Outside of the balance and the time display, the rest of the dial is stunningly finished with a diamond-like guilloché motif. It’s akin to Clous de Paris with its tessellating, geometric pattern. I particularly like the way the lines weave through the display creating a shifting, spiralling, scale-like appearance. And then it pulls your eyes inward towards the moonphase and you find yourself again shocked at the brilliance of the moons.

Housing this dial is a 42mm x 12.46mm case made from platinum. Considering that it’s made from such a high end, luxury material it’s perhaps not surprising to learn that it’s a limited edition. Although for a watch of this scale it’s surprisingly not as exclusive as you may imagine with 200 pieces available. It’s priced at $42,600 (approx. £36,600), which makes a lot of sense too. I could stare at this watch all day.

More details at Glashütte Original.

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.

Pairing your wristwatch to your car has been a long tradition for collectors as the two interests often go hand in hand. However, at the very top end of both industries you find wristwatch and cars that have been designed as a pair. The most extreme example of which is probably the Rolls-Royce Boat Tail with custom Bovet but more recently are also collaborations such as the Jacob & Co. Bugatti Tourbillon and the Bugatti Tourbillon hyper car. Now, there’s this: the McLaren W1 hyper car and matching Richard Mille RM 65-01 McLaren W1.

Starting with an overview of the car, it’s a mighty beast. It’s powered by a twin-turbo V8 with hybrid drivetrain that outputs 1,258 bhp. The brakes, suspension and 8-speed transmission are all race quality, which combined with the carbon fibre chassis helps to make the W1 the fastest accelerating road-legal car McLaren have ever produced. Its styling is sleek and modern with the familiar orange and black bodywork of McLaren giving it a brooding, serious countenance.

Moving to the Richard Mille RM 65-01 McLaren W1, the aesthetic influence of the car is immediately evident. It measures 43.84mm x 49.94mm x 16.19mm in the classic Richard Mille tonneau shape, produced in high tech Carbon TPT with titanium accents. The use of carbon clearly reflects the materials used in the W1 car, on top of which the indented shape of the watch’s bezel is influenced by the compact, muscular shape of the car’s gullwing doors.

McLaren’s signature colours are represented across the watch’s skeletonised dial. The edge of the peripheral tachymeter, minute markers, split-seconds hand and chronograph 12-hour and 30-minute counters are a matching shade of orange. Meanwhile the chronograph’s second split-seconds hand, seconds scale and function selector are light blue. Contrasting with both of those colours, the hours, minutes and running seconds are bright yellow.

You may have noticed from the above complications that the RM 65-01 McLaren W1 is a split-seconds chronograph. What this means is that there are two central chronograph hands that are superimposed on top of each other. When you press the start pusher, both hands will begin moving simultaneously at the same speed. You can then stop the two hands independently allowing you to time two separate events that are occurring together. For example you could time individual laps within a longer race or you could time two competitors in a single race – useful for F1 when each team has two cars.

The movement controlling all this is the RMAC4, a hi-beat movement with a 5 Hz frequency and 60-hour power reserve. Having such a high frequency allows for a greater degree of accuracy for the split-seconds chronograph which is accurate down to 1/10^th of a second. The power reserve can also be topped up at a moment’s notice courtesy of a ‘rapid winding’ mode which is enabled with an orange quartz TPT pusher. You can view the movement through the skeletonised portions of the display and the sapphire exhibition caseback.

I have previously expressed that I prefer Richard Mille’s more understated designs, especially those in titanium, but if I was hard pressed to choose a carbon model, it would probably be this. I like how it builds on the standard RM 65-01 Split-Seconds by changing the shape of the dial and introducing McLaren’s signature colours. It feels like a fitting tribute to the brand and the W1. I can also imagine it strapped to Lando Norris’ wrist over a GP weekend. It’s priced at CHF 320,000 in a limited edition of 500 pieces.

More details at Richard Mille.

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.

Across the past 25 years the Gumball 3000 rally has become a mainstay in the motorsport calendar, celebrating everything from the sublime to the ridiculous in supercars. Vintage Porsches stand shoulder to shoulder with the latest Koenigsegg hyper cars, driven by a combination of rally drivers, celebrities, royalty and influencers. It’s as much a rolling car show as it is a race, taking place over 3,000km, which in 2024 will lead from Saigon to Singapore. In celebration of the 25^th anniversary of this event Ulysse Nardin have released the limited edition Freak X Gumball 3000.

Gumball 3000, Singapore

The Freak X has had some interesting variants in its time, such as the very memorable Razzle Dazzle, but to my mind this is one of the coolest. It has a stealthy black case measuring 43mm made from a combination of DLC coated titanium and Carbonium, a carbon composite material. The sort of dark, sporty look you’d expect to see on a high performance supercar like those found at the Gumball 3000. That’s matched by the black void of the dial area.

Freaks, if you are unfamiliar, use carrousel movements. And a carrousel movement, if you are unfamiliar, is one in which the entire movement rotates in the case. Essentially the calibre itself functions as the minute hand with a large dark orange indicator denoting the time as the entire thing spins. A second, squatter, orange indictor marks the hours. It’s presented on a matching orange rubber strap from Delugs.

It makes for a truly unique display and the combination of orange, black and grey seen across the movement here once again works well with the supercar inspiration. The movement on display in the Freak X Gumball 3000 is the calibre UN-230. It’s an automatic movement with a 72-hour power reserve, which is pretty impressive considering the power needed to spin the entire movement around its own axis.

The Freak X Gumball 3000 is a limited edition of 150 pieces, all of which are initially reserved for participants in the event. Which makes sense because the exhibition caseback bears the event’s logo in the signature orange colour seen across the piece. I think what I like about the watch is that it has a balance of cool supercar seriousness with the slightly goofball energy of the orange accents and Gumball name. It knows that it is itself a somewhat ridiculous object and it embraces that, carrying itself with the self confidence of a hyper car.

More details at Ulysse Nardin.

Recently we, somewhat briefly, went over some of the big milestones in the development of the chronograph. We talked about the connection between chronographs and motorsport but the chronograph obviously has more far reaching influence in the watch industry. After all, the development of the ability to stop and start timekeeping was one of the biggest steps in chronometric history and there aren’t not many areas it doesn’t have some impact on. So let’s look at one of those other areas, the history of Breitling’s connection to chronographs.

The initial genes of the chronograph were built by the esteemed Louis Moinet (and made famous by Nicolas Rieussec), but Breitling has perhaps had the biggest impact on the modern chronograph. By that I mean the chronograph you think of when you read the word ‘chronograph’: a pillars of time wristwatch with two pushers flanking a crown at nine o’clock and three subdials.

Breitling advertisements from 1910 and 1934

Now, there will be a lot of hedging bets and caveats here; early watchmaking wasn’t exactly well-documented and even now, things are still being discovered. Moinet’s invention of the first chronograph was a mystery until 2021. But let’s give it our best. Or simplest, depending on how it goes.

The history of Breitling’s chronographs starts in 1884 with Leon Breitling, specifically with an obsessive need to time things on a pocket watch. You know that feeling you get where you just want to time random stuff with your wristwatch? Leon turned that into a business. He had competition of course; Longines especially were working in the same field.

Breitling Transocean Chronograph Monopusher (1915)

The reason I mention Longines is that, in 1913, they built the 13.33Z, considered to be the first chronograph wristwatch ever built. It was monumental and its importance can’t be understated. It was different from what we have today however in that it used a pusher integrated into the crown, slightly limiting its usability. That was something that Gaston Breitling (son of Leon) capitalised on.

In 1915, he unveiled the Transocean Chronograph. Not only was this an incredibly handsome bit of 1910s watchmaking, it had a separate chronograph pusher at two o’clock. It made the chronograph function that much easier to use over Longines’ monopusher and other chronographs available at the time. It was still the exact same function, however.

Breitling Premier Chronograph ref. 777 with two pushers (1940s), image credit: Analog:Shift

The bigger advancement for history of Breitling’s chronographs came almost two decades later when the third Breitling in line, Willy, was in charge. In 1934, he patented a watch that had both the pusher at two o’clock and a second pusher at four o’clock, so that the watch could be started, stopped and reset separately. This meant that you could stop and start the same timing run as many times as you wanted, opening up new ways of actually using your chronograph.

Now, notice I said ‘patented’. That’s because it seems Breitling weren’t the first to build a two-pusher chronograph; that would, most likely, have been Longines who, at the time, were one of the few chronograph builders that made their own movements in-house. Nevertheless, it was Breitling that actually popularised what is now considered the modern chronograph and like Amy Winehouse and Valerie, we have Breitling to thank for popularising this horological singalong rather than the Zutons of watchmaking.

Chronomatic Group Calibre 11

Not that Breitling ever avoided developing things themselves. In 1969, there was an intense race to combine all those lovely chronograph timekeeping elements with the autonomy of an automatic movement. It was a race of three cars, with the Japanese represented by horological giant Seiko and Switzerland vying between soloist Zenith and a consortium of Heuer-Leonidas, Breitling, Buren-Hamilton and Dubois Dépraz – the Chronomatic Group. We all know that Zenith’s offering, the El Primero, became a legend and given its name (the first) you’d assume they held the title. But not necessarily. They were first to announce it, sure, but the working version only arrived to market in October 1969. The Chronomatic Group’s Calibre 11 however, arrived months before then and even Zenith (and partner Movado) admitted as much, changing their claim to the first high-frequency chronograph instead.

This intense race however didn’t lean entirely on Breitling’s expertise and the Calibre 11 was a group effort, not an in-house number per se. Indeed, it actually took until 2009 for Breitling to build their own in-house chronograph, the Manufacture Calibre 01. It finally showed that while Breitling had a history of staying well ahead of the chronometric curve, they could strike out on their own if they were so inclined. It’s an expertise that’s held them in good stead in the years since – particularly in the last few.

Breitling Calibre B01

When Georges Kern took over as CEO of Breitling in 2017, after a staggering 15 years at IWC, there was originally a lot of discourse about whether Kern was the right fit for Breitling, as you’d expect. Collectors can be very protective of their favourite brands and Kern was considered a force of change. And change he did, largely by bringing as much as possible in-house, relying considerably on that still impressive Breitling Calibre 01. A dramatic shift in the history of Breitling’s chronographs.

Indeed, the B01 has formed the basis of the watchmaker’s broader collection, the apotheosis of what is now 140 years of precision stopwatch timekeeping. So, what to do with it to celebrate such a milestone? A perpetual calendar, apparently.

Breitling Navitimer B19 Chronograph 43 Perpetual Calendar 140th Anniversary and Breitling Super Chronomat B19 44 Perpetual Calendar 140th Anniversary

Now, I tend not to think of Breitling as a watchmaker that does high complications. They have a tourbillon that I keep forgetting exists, but their bread-and-butter is chronographs, particularly in the Chronomat and Navitimer formats. A perpetual calendar just seems a bit of a stretch, even celebrating 140 years. Which is why Breitling have opted for consistency in a different way.

There’s not one 140th anniversary model; there are three – the three historical pillars of Breitling watch design, in fact. They are the Premier, the Navitimer and the Chronomat. That might not sound consistent until you see them together. Sure, they’re all very different models, but here all three have been given a celebratory makeover in a combination of black and rose gold.

Breitling Premier B19 Datora 42 140th Anniversary

The Premier B19 Datora 42 140th Anniversary, for example, offers a glossy black dial and with rose gold hands, bezel and case. It’s the most classical and straight-forward of the three by far. The Navitimer on the other hand inverts things, with a rose gold dial and case but a black slide rule bezel, ensuring that it’s still a readily readable instrument despite it’s more lavish look. Finally, there’s the chunky Super Chronomat model, the most modern and sporty of the three (if a perpetual calendar could ever be called sporty). It uses a rose gold case, intense black diving bezel and a semi-skeletonised dial to show off the mechanical elements between those perpetual calendar and chronograph subdials. It also comes with a cool, rubberised take on the Chronomat’s signature bracelet.

Breitling calibre B19

Basically, no matter which face of Breitling is your preferred entry point, there’s a limited edition here to match. It’s not just the colours that are the same though; the calendar layout is homogenous between them, too. That means the date and chronograph minutes at three o’clock, months and leap years at six o’clock, day and chronograph hours at nine o’clock and the moon phase at 12. Running hours and minutes as well as chronograph seconds are, as per usual, central. It’s a standard layout for a reason: it works.

I’ve said limited edition plenty of times now, but if you’re asking just how many of each piece, you must be new to these kinds of things. There are, of course, 140 of each model. That’s a grand total of 420 shiny new perpetual calendar movements from Breitling, which is certainly not nothing. It’s a number only possible by using a perpetual calendar module, rather than a fully integrated version, which makes sense in a movement as versatile as the B01.

More than anything however, it’s a celebration of 140 years of Breitling and the history of Breitling’s chronographs that not only works as a capstone on their story of chronograph development, but celebrates the key pillars of today’s Breitling collections. I mean, we were never going to get an Emergency II with a perpetual calendar. Is it the most fitting tribute? Honestly, I’d have done a gorgeous remake of Gaston’s first, one-pusher chronograph. But hey, there’s still time. Right?

More details at Breitling.

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.

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.

Readers, it’s another long nomenclature indicative of open-worked splendour at the Geneva Watch Days. Armin Strom has spoiled us with ever-more complex takes on duality, where the watch case is mainly a slim-bezel amphitheatre for the dial. Armin Strom is more about the movement’s moving feast than mere markings and hands. And nothing explores that concept more than the new Armin Strom Dual Time GMT Resonance First Edition.

True to form, the brand doesn’t disappoint, and for once, I’ll start with a focus on the case itself. With our love of more manageable diameters, we’ve seen the brand go from 43.4mm down to 41mm via the One Week, offering a strong new release with an integrated bracelet. This time, Armin Strom performs the magic trick of increasingly alluring complications within a smaller case again, with 39mm of 18K white gold. Bravo, chaps!

The lengthy name of Armin Strom’s new Dual Time GMT Resonance First Edition indicates its many charms. And though white gold might give off an air of stealth wealth, this 25-piece limited edition is anything but demure. We know a travel-practical GMT function can be easily displayed using a colourful extra pointer and a 24-hour bezel. But the visual drama of twin movements with Armin Strom’s Resonance expertise is something else. If your life is split between living and working in two separate time zones, consider this a crisply legible celebration of the equal importance of work and leisure.

Armin Strom’s founder, Serge Michel, says, “Having two completely independent watch movements in a single timepiece creates the logical demand for an iteration that displays two time zones. The success of our first Dual Time inspired us to build a smaller and more elegant Dual Time Resonance watch. We further developed our concept and arranged the two movements vertically to do this. And we couldn’t be happier with the result.”

Twin sky blue, grenage-finished dials are centred but vertically offset slightly below the mid-case point. With corresponding twin crowns, they show the time with polished baton hands and a raised black outer chapter ring for crisp legibility. Each also has its own rhodium plate day/night disc. The details are intricate enough to make each dial the main focal point of a haute horology watch on its own, but not here. They are almost subservient to the drama at 12 o‘clock and under the caseback.

Don’t get me wrong, you will notice the finishing on even the smallest dial markers but the movement is something else. It makes for top-grade loupe-ogling with the kinetic spectacle of Resonance being intriguing on a different level. Twin balance wheels are opposed and affixed with curved bridges for a start. Meanwhile, the hypnotic pulsation of Armin Strom’s clutch spring offers the pièce de résistance. It almost appears to be a living object, ‘breathing’ as it transmits vibrations between them to synchronize the running of the twin movements.

The case, with its new ergonomic size, is designed to maximise the dial space, with an insignificantly slim bezel. The requisite Armin Strom tab at 6 is present, while the alligator strap has a light blue lining and stitch pattern to match the twin dial art within. In the box, you will also find an extra light grey strap with pearl-grey stitching to switch up too.

I could easily write a separate long-read story only on the principles behind Resonance. It is a complex design of which Armin Strom is a worthy flag bearer. But I will leave you to go to the Armin Strom homepage to learn more. An open-worked flamboyance carries through to the rear underneath a sapphire case back, to no surprise. Here, the ARF22 movement boasts 231 components and a decent 42-hours of power reserve. That might seem on the low side today. But with two independent regulating systems connected by a resonance clutch spring, the power consumption is significant. All are shown symmetrically with twin tones of anthracite gray and clean Côtes de Gèneve striping.

Nicely bookending the story on the Armin Strom Dual Time GMT is the price of £114,000, a welcome surprise compared to what could easily be triple that price from another brand. What’s more, Armin Strom has pulled off the magic trick of offering this menagerie of magic within a mere 9.05mm thick case, which combined with the diameter makes this all the more astounding for its size. Is this one of the strongest releases of the Geneva Watch Days?

More details at Armin Strom.

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.