The Ulysse Nardin El Toro/Black Toro GMT Perpetual ref. 326-03-3 is fitted with a very robust solid 18K rose gold case measuring 43mm in diameter and topped off with a fixed black ceramic 24-hour bezel and a black rubber strap with deployant buckle. El Toro, is perhaps the most robust and most user friendly Perpetual Calendar out there that also happens to also come with a sophisticated dual time zone complication. This watch is fitted with a stunning black dial with Côtes de Genève that could be perceived as slightly busy but somehow its striking design and beauty makes all elements flow nice and evenly. The dial features the traditional oversized skeletonized hands with luminescent material on the tips, day and month apertures next to the center pinion, seconds register at 9, year aperture at 6 and big date aperture at 1 o'clock. The black dial is nicely accentuated and balanced by the blued screws and the gold accents.
Posts filed under Other Brands
Insider: Jaquet Droz Petite Heure Minute American Eagle. Pure Art and Perfection in Only Eight Pieces.
As we've mentioned before, Jaquet Droz is a watch manufacture well known for their impressive 'Grand Feu' a.k.a. fired enamel dials with some of the most beautiful designs in the horological world. These dials embody the essence and fine watchmaking values of this manufacture. The Jaquet Droz Petite Heure Minute American Eagle is a limited edition timepiece with a striking 'Grand Feu' enamel dial featuring the iconic American bald eagle flying over a city skyline. This is as American as a Swiss made 'haute horlogerie' piece gets. One great thing about the fired enamel dials on the Petite Heure Minute timepieces is that the lack of a seconds register provides the perfect layout to decorate the bottom part of the dial with any motif or design. For those that don't know the difference between enamel dials and 'Grand Feu' —fired enamel dials— we'll explain it now. A regular enamel dial, sometimes referred to as an 'enamel lacquered dial', is a dial that has been painted with a shiny paint that hardens as it dries out.
Insider: Linde Werdelin SpidoSpeed Black Orange. A Perfect Match to an Exceptionally Rare McLaren MP4-12C Project Alpha.
The Linde Werdelin, just like this McLaren, comes with an exceptional design and fantastic craftsmanship. The SpidoSpeed Black Orange features a tripartite stainless steel case measuring 44mm in diameter. This watch is fitted with a two-part black galvanic dial with a perlage surface base center that almost appears like carbon fiber. The dial features orange glossy registers with perforations —the exact same hue of the orange of the Hermès boxes— that are located as follows: hour chrono register at six, running seconds at 9 and chrono minute register at 3 o'clock. The hands are diamond cut and fitted with gray luminescent material that is very bright when exposed to darkness and quite long lasting.
Insider: Ulysse Nardin Freak Phantom. A Superb Horological Complication with No Winding Crown.
Ulysse Nardin was born in Le Locle, Switzerland on 22 January 1823, a region that was already home to a wealth of watchmaking activities. Ulysse started as an apprentice to his father Léonard-Frédéric a watchmaker and then went to work with William Du Bois, one of the greatest experts of his age in precision timepieces, notable marine chronometers and astronomical watches. Ulysse began specializing in complicated watches, and quickly spotted the potential of a niche market as maritime transport grew. In 1846, at the tender age of 23, Ulysse Nardin founded the company that still bears his name today.
After Ulysse Nardin's death in 1876, two generations of his descendents took over the company to later sell in 1983 on the brink of collapse and with just a handful of watchmakers remaining on the team. That year, 1983, marked a turning point in the history of Ulysse Nardin. During a visit to Switzerland, Rolf W. Schnyder, a visionary entrepreneur and watch fanatic soon got together a small group of investors with himself at their head to purchase the company.
Insider: H. Moser & Cie. Endeavour Perpetual Calendar 'Funky Blue'. Breaking the Paradigm of What a Perpetual Calendar Should Look Like.
Just as if the launch of its non-conventional looking perpetual calendar in 2006 —winner of the Grand Prix at the GPHG— wasn't enough, H. Moser & Cie. continues to tear down preconceptions with the Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Funky Blue, a bold reinterpretation of this haute horlogerie model featuring a sky-blue dial and a kudu leather strap. As the discussion around smartwatches builds, the independent watchmaker H. Moser & Cie. takes a clear but distinctive position today. H. Moser & Cie. has produced smart watches for over 100 years by combining a clean interface, state-of-the-art ergonomics, ingenious functions and long power autonomy – without compromise. Today, they continue to nurture the next generation of watch lovers launching the Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Funky Blue, a watch that both looks smart and is in fact very clever. This is the original smart watch and as H. Moser & Cie. likes to say it, "very rare".
Insider: Introducing the Bremont ALT1-ZT Zulu Time. One of the Most Iconic Timepieces from Bremont Gets a Facelift.
This year at Baselworld 2015, we had the opportunity to review the new Bremont ALT1-ZT Zulu Time. The ALT1-Z Zulu has been been part of the launch collection since 2007 and since then it has been an iconic Bremont timepiece over the years. Well this time, this iconic Bremont watch gets a facelift. The ALT1-Z Zulu is a model which was designed with aviators and world travelers in mind and features direct aviation inspired design cues such as the artificial horizon indicator. ‘Z’ stands for Zulu Time and allows the wearer to display local time together with the official world time standard. Championed by one of TV’s most adventurous travelers, Charley Boorman, who certainly tested his ALT1-Z beyond endurance for the TV documentary series Long Way Round with Ewan McGregor, Bremont was thrilled to hear him remark, “That first watch I had was a grey ALT1-Z and it did its job perfectly”.
Baselworld 2015: Introducing the New MCT Manufacture Contemporaine du Temps Frequential One F110. Live Pictures and Pricing.
Up until the very end of 2013, MCT was an independent manufacture very well known and highly regarded for its signature prisms hours display mechanism and for its cushion shaped cases in watches like the Sequential One S100 and the S110 reviewed here , then, last year at Baselworld 2014, MCT decided to continue its evolution and present the Sequential Two S200 with a round-shaped case —reviewed here by us— and a top sapphire crystal that was not simply placed on the bezel, but stepped down and invisibly screwed to the case, therefore, allowing light to illuminate the prism displays from nearly every angle. Well, this time and just in time for Baselworld 2015, Manufacture Contemporaine du Temps continues to evolve and this time with a new watch named Frequential One F110 designed by Fabrice Gonet.
Baselworld 2015: Introducing the Jaquet Droz Petite Heure Minute Butterfly Journey. Live Pictures and Pricing.
For Baselworld 2015, Jaquet Droz presents The Butterfly Journey, an homage to beauty and nature in two series of eight timepieces. The fruit of the Atelier d'Art's unique expertise, twin sets of Petite Heure Minute models are dedicated to the elegance of the butterfly, that fragile, romantic creature embodying the beauty of time. An angel passes, drawn along by a butterfly, and time seems to hold its breath in a moment of pure poetry. This motif, discovered in an old book devoted to Jaquet Droz, has been depicted just once before, in the Age of Enlightenment, by one of the legendary automata created by Pierre Jaquet-Droz. In 2013, it was given pride of place on "The Loving Butterfly" a watch paying tribute to putti —sculptures of children used to decorate some of Italian architecture's most beautiful buildings as well as the cultural treasures of Renaissance and Baroque Europe.
Baselworld 2015: Introducing the Christophe Claret Allegro. Live Pictures and Pricing.
Following Adagio and Soprano, Christophe Claret presents his latest musical masterpiece, Allegro. A master watchmaker with 25 years of experience, Christophe Claret has combined the finest horological complications in Allegro: a minute repeater with cathedral gongs, GMT, big date, small seconds and a day/night indicator. These features are all found in a completely redesigned movement featuring a unique regulator that was designed and manufactured in-house. The 45 mm round case harmoniously blends either 5N red gold or 5N white gold with grade 5 titanium treated with anthracite PVD. An opening in the sapphire dial reveals the striking mechanism. The transparent dial allows the wearer to marvel at the movement’s architecture, featuring Charles X style skeletonized, stepped bridges. With this new timepiece, the conductor of this musical horological orchestra from Le Locle proves he is at the zenith of his art.
Video: Baselworld 2015 Jaquet Droz Lady 8 Flower.
This year at Baselworld 2015, just like every other year, the brand wowed everyone with several watches featuring automatons. As you all know, Jaquet Droz's history was marked by his creation of automatons in the 18th century. In 1774, he successfully completed three humanoid automatons —The Writer, The Draughtsman and The Musician— that were presented in La Chaux-de-Fonds and a year later in France to Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette.
Baselworld 2015: Introducing the MB&F Melchior L'Epée 1839 Table Clock. Live Pictures and Pricing.
Last year at Baselworld 2014, MB&F surprised everyone with its Starfleet Machine table clock in partnership with legendary clock maker L'Epée 1839 as we featured it here. This year at Baselworld 2015, in order to commemorate their 10th anniversary, Max Büsser and friends —MB&F— presented a new super cool table clock that looks like a robot out of a sci-fi scene named Melchior. Additionally, the Geneva-based Horological lab will present a number of Anniversary Pieces during the year, under the theme: ”A creative adult is a child who survived”.
Melchior, created with L’Epée 1839 is an impressive kinetic robot which may remind you of your childhood dreams, but also happens to be an impeccably finished, 480-component mechanical table clock with five barrels and a steel and brass armour. Fitted with articulated arms —the right one packing a rocket launcher and the left a Gatling gun that serves as the clock key winder—, jumping hours, sweeping minutes, double retrograde seconds and a 40-day power reserve this clock is a true tribute to refined, classic clock and watchmaking.
Baselworld 2015: Introducing the Jaquet Droz Lady 8 Flower. Live Pictures, Video and Pricing.
This year at Baselworld 2015, just like every other year, the brand wowed everyone with several watches featuring automatons. As you all know, Jaquet Droz's history was marked by his creation of automatons in the 18th century. In 1774, he successfully completed three humanoid automatons —The Writer, The Draughtsman and The Musician— that were presented in La Chaux-de-Fonds and a year later in France to Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. This year, we were surprised with three amazing timepieces —fitted with automatons— from Jaquet Droz and here's one of them, we are talking about the new Jaquet Droz Lady 8 Flower.
This remarkable timepiece featuring Jaquet Droz's iconic figure-eight shaped case, is available in 18K white gold —8 pieces— or 18K red gold —28 pieces. The 18K white gold reference we have here, comes with a snow-set diamond dial totaling 0.65 carats, an 18K white gold butterfly applique with 54 blue sapphires totaling 0.87 carats and a surprising automaton underneath the domed glass on the top part of the figure-eight with a flower that opens and closes on demand.
Baselworld 2015: Introducing the Linde Werdelin SpidoLite Gold and SpidoLite Titanium. Live Pictures and Pricing.
This year at Baselworld 2015, Linde Werdelin didn't go as far as it did last year when it released the Oktopus MoonLite with a very special alloy called ALW, instead, this year Linde Werdelin decided to continue to capitalize on skeletonization of their movements and dials to enhance the look of their SpidoLite collection. This year, two new watches were unveiled, the SpidoLite Gold and the SpidoLite Titanium. Both watches in a limited edition of 75 pieces each, show remarkable skeletonization and ultra cool design. While the look of these two new watches is remarkable, one thing that we do need to point out —and we've said this before—, is that the sapphire crystals still don't come to with anti-reflective coating to improve readability and eliminate that unwanted glare that doesn't allow one to fully appreciate the skeletonized dials. Linde Werdelin, one more time, please add the AR coating to the crystals and either you soften the sharp edges of the crown guards or increase the crown size a bit so it's easier to pull out and operate.
Baselworld 2015: Introducing the Jaquet Droz Grande Seconde Deadbeat. Live Pictures and Pricing.
A masterpiece of watchmaking precision, a Deadbeat Seconds timepiece is a very rare complication that takes some of the most skilled horologists to make. Long forgotten and mostly used by brands like Arnold & Son, the Deadbeat —Dead Seconds a.k.a. Seconde Morte— has now been rediscovered by Jaquet Droz and released at Baselworld 2015 in the new Grande Seconde Deadbeat. For those of you wondering what a Deadbeat seconds mechanical timepiece is, it is very simple. A Deadbeat timepiece is one in which the seconds hand advances by jumping second by second —ticking as in a quartz powered watch—, rather than by sweeping around the dial. The new Jaquet Droz Grande Seconde Deadbeat ref. J008033200 is fitted with an elegant 18K red gold case measuring 43 mm in diameter and a rolled edge alligator black strap with matching pin buckle.
Baselworld 2015: Bremont Jaguar E-Type MKI and MKII. Live Pictures and Pricing.
Continuing with their partnership, Jaguar and Bremont are solidifying their long-term partnership by releasing two new E-Type Bremont Jaguar watches, we are talking about the MKI and the MKII. While the MKI is a non-chrono, the MKII is a beautifully executed 30-minute chronograph. While we have never been the biggest fans of the brand, we can tell you that we absolutely love these two new watches and these pieces could easily turn us in the opposite direction. In working to capture the E-Type’s essence in a wrist watch, Jaguar’s Director of Design Ian Callum and the creative team at Bremont homed-in on another of Jaguar's signature features —the dashboard. While E-Types were typically fitted with Smiths instruments on their dashboard, Bremont captured the look of the speedometer and tachometer on these iconic vehicles, just remarkably. These watches are both dedicated to the road-going Jaguar E-Type which at its 1961 launch was not only the fastest production car in the world but, according to Enzo Ferrari, the most beautiful.
Baselworld 2015: Introducing the New Angelus U10 Tourbillon Lumière. Live Pictures and Pricing.
Two weeks ago we brought you the news regarding the rebirth of the Angelus manufacture, which has now been revived by Manufacture La Joux-Perret. The latter, spent four years developing the next generation of visionary timepieces and here's the first one of them. May we now present you this hands-on review with some of the first live pictures on any other watch website of the new Angelus U10 Tourbillon Lumière. Boasting a radically deconstructed movement, the U10 Tourbillon Lumière features hours, minutes, dead beat seconds and a one-minute flying tourbillon, plus a 90-hour linear power reserve indicator on the case profile. The clean, modernist displays pay tribute to Angelus’ acclaimed travel clocks as well as taking cues from iconic industrial designs and designers of the 1960s and ‘70s. Powering the U10 Tourbillon Lumière is an innovative, finely finished, in-house calibre complete with oversized one-minute flying tourbillon, which is offset from the movement. Visible from five sides in its own sapphire crystal showcase, the circular ballet of the tourbillon is on full display. The generously-proportioned —62.75 mm x 38 mm x 15 mm— case, which took over two years to develop, features no fewer than seven sapphire crystals. All the crystals are bevelled, polished and subtly protrude from the case, creating expressive tridimensionality.
News: Legendary Angelus S.A. Manufacture is Back. Dormant for 30 Years and Rising High Like a Phoenix.
After lying dormant for more than 30 years, Angelus has now been revived by Manufacture La Joux-Perret, which has spent four years developing the next generation of visionary timepieces. The Angelus’ manufacture in La Chaux-de-Fonds is just a stone’s throw from where the Stolz brothers established their original manufacture. Dating back nearly 125 years, Angelus has been one of the most influential horological manufactures of the last century. Connoisseurs of high-end watchmaking have universally hailed Angelus' pioneering, in-house developed movements and timepieces, which continue to be coveted by collectors all over the world. Angelus was founded in 1891 by the brothers Albert and Gustav Stolz with the establishment of the Angelus watchmaking manufacture in Le Locle, Switzerland. Over the past century, Angelus forged a fine reputation for creating exceptional chronograph and multi-complication wristwatches, multi-display travel clocks with long power reserves, and alarm watches.
Pre-Baselworld 2015: Introducing the Frederique Constant and Alpina Swiss Horological Smartwatches. Finally Someone Had to Do It Right.
Finally, what everyone was expecting in the watch industry. The new Frederique Constant and Alpina Horological Smartwatches are 'wearable' smartwatches that you won't be ashamed of wearing and you will want to wear. There's no need to forfeit Swiss craftsmanship and a good decent looking timepiece, no more. Frederique Constant and Alpina are really setting the tune for what the future of Smartwatches should be like by launching two new timepieces that you really would care about wearing, instead of strapping the ridiculously looking Apple Watch. The two companies lead by Peter Stas are building the bridge between Silicon Valley and the Swiss Watch Industry by launching two Swiss Made timepieces powered by MotionX. These new watches are capable of bi-directional communication with iPhone and Android apps and are referred to as Horological Smartwatches.
Insider: Breva Genève Génie 03 Speedmeter. A Timepiece with an Anemometer and a Micro-Rotor.
Breva Genève is now very well known for creating timepieces that include some sort of mechanical function that revolves around the earth's elements. While their first watch included an actual mechanical barometer with a weather forecasting station on the wrist, their second timepiece included a mechanical altimeter. This time, Breva Genève presents a watch that includes an anemometer that pops up right on top of the watch dial. Named the Génie 03 Speedmeter —Speedometer as it is also referred to on their website—, this new mechanical timepiece is far from conventional, but not necessarily the most functional or even applicable to every day life events. While prior to the appearance of this timepiece, watches could only calculate speed by using a tachymetric scale, Breva Gèneve tries to make a statement with a timepiece that claims to provide an accurate speed reading in what they refer to as 'real-time'. Now, not sure how real time works when driving or flying in an enclosed vehicle or when the measurement is influenced by wind speed around you but we'll talk about that as we continue with our hands-on review.
Insider: Linde Werdelin Oktopus Double Date Carbon Green. One of the Most Unique Carbon Cases.
Today, we bring you these live pictures under natural light of the Linde Werdelin Oktopus Double Date Carbon Green, a sporty and refreshing take on the Oktopus dive watch. Featuring champagne gold detailing, it revitalizes the Linde Werdelin collection of revolutionary diving timepieces for an active lifestyle. A numbered limited series of just 88 pieces has been individually crafted using 3DTP —Three-Dimensional Thin Ply—, the first ever carbon technology conceived for Swiss watchmaking, engineered to sculpt the iconic and angular Oktopus case by layering thin layers of carbon into a mold to give the finished product it's ultra-unique appearance with those horizontal lines, just like the rings inside a tree trunk. While the finish is somewhat similar to that of the new Panerai Luminor Submersible 1950 CarboTech reviewed here, the layering on this particular case is just very unique and quite different.
