Sandra Lane, Author at Time and Tide Watches

Sandra Lane

Posts by Sandra:

26.02.2021

Women do not need permission to buy men’s watches, so who cares about the category?

The watch industry’s persistent categorising of watches by gender is back on the agenda. And well and truly in frame is the pointlessness of the “women’s watch” category. But, speaking personally here, I’m not one to let a category push me around. I really don’t count labelling for men and women as being told what to do. For me, those labels are simply a shortcut to getting some idea of what the size, look and feel of the watch might be. Conversely, if I already know what the watch is like, the labels – because they are so predictable and…

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27.05.2020

OPINION: Hublot haters are living in the past, the brand have been killing it for years. Time to find another target

Editor’s note: We’re running this story again for three reasons. One, because Sandra Lane stories can’t be read too many times in general. Two, because we still feel the same. And three, because it actually feels a little dated. The negative sentiment that might have existed around Hublot is abating year on year. Partly because it’s getting nigh on impossible to argue the toss when it comes to the quality and the care evident in their timepieces. A macro lens can be unforgiving. But it has a habit of loving modern Hublot watches. We captured the phenomenon here. So, perhaps more…

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10.05.2020

The thin and the bling: The Piaget Altiplano Ultimate Concept and Piaget Limelight

This year, Piaget has focused on the two strengths that most clearly define the Maison: on one hand, ultra-thin men’s watches (taken to their most technically demanding extreme) and on the other, boldly designed and extravagantly gem-set women’s watches. Altiplano Ultimate Concept Nobody could reasonably dispute that this insanely thin new watch is quite mind-blowing. But to properly understand it, a bit of context is needed. Its genesis dates back to 2014, when Piaget introduced the Altiplano 900P. At an unfeasibly skinny 3.65mm, it was the thinnest hand-wound watch ever made and it redefined our assumptions about the limits of…

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Jaeger-LeCoultre 2020 collection

29.04.2020

Jaeger-LeCoultre’s astonishing return to top form with the masterful and controlled 2020 collection

Looking at the new watches Jaeger-LeCoultre released for W&W 2020, my overriding impression was that the brand is calmly focusing on what it does really well: refined, technically rigorous and beautifully executed watchmaking that won’t stop the traffic from 100 paces (no look-at-me gimmicks here) but will invite us to pause, look more closely and appreciate the lasting value. In these strange times, it may be just what we need. So, this year La Grande Maison has brought us new versions of two of its great classics – one a complete redesign and the other a colour variation – and one…

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Grand Seiko Movements

22.03.2020

IN-DEPTH: Grand Seiko Movements – Part II, the Spring Drives

If you haven’t yet read Part I, find the full article right here. This year, to mark its 60th anniversary, Grand Seiko has introduced two new movements, representing each of the brand’s two pillars: Calibre 9RA5 is a Spring Drive movement while Calibre 9SA5 is a traditional mechanical movement. These are entirely new movements, with every element developed and produced in-house and designed to last for decades as the foundation for a whole new generation of watches. To understand their place in the Grand Seiko story, let’s look at the genesis of each in turn. In Part I we traced the…

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Grand Seiko SLGH002

21.03.2020

IN-DEPTH: Grand Seiko Movements – Part I, the Mechanicals

It’s a pretty big deal for any watch company to launch an entirely new movement – let alone two new movements at once. But this is what Grand Seiko has done to mark its 60th anniversary. The choice of year is significant: in Western culture, a 60th is not considered particularly special (half and quarter centuries are more celebrated), but in Japan, where the zodiac calendar is based on a 60-year cycle, it is hugely significant. A 60th anniversary signals renewal, revitalisation and rebirth. So, beyond encapsulating the expertise accumulated by Grand Seiko over the past 60 years, these two…

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Franck Muller Crazy Hours ladies

11.03.2020

You make me crazy – the Franck Muller Crazy Hours ladies

When we see something repeatedly, over time, our brains quickly form habits that enable us to infer what we are seeing, bypassing the need to analyse every bit of information. That’s why we can make perfect sense of a paragraph made up of words that are missing their vowels, and why we can read the time on an analogue watch display that has no hour or minute markers. It’s also what makes Franck Muller’s Crazy Hours watch one of the most delightful pieces in contemporary watchmaking. In the first instant the dial appears perfectly normal, with a series of numerals…

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Perpetual Calendar watch

29.02.2020

Why you need a Perpetual Calendar watch on your wrist, today of all days

The perpetual calendar watch is among the most useful complicated watches, as well as one of the most mechanically sophisticated – and it truly comes into its own today, a leap year day. Its complexity is what sets it apart from other calendar watches. The simplest calendar watch has just a date function, driven by gears that are toothed to measure cycles of 31 days. Consequently, it needs to be manually advanced at the end of any month that has fewer days – from September 30 to October 1, for example. Thanks to extra sets of gears, an annual calendar can…

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Vacheron Constantin Égérie

17.02.2020

HANDS-ON: Vacheron Constantin Égérie Self-winding with Date, and Égérie Moon Phase

Launching a completely new watch collection (starting-from-a-blank-page new, not variations on an existing line) is a high-risk game that involves huge costs: the cost of design and development – and if it’s not a resounding success (heaven forbid), the cost to both brand equity and bottom line. No wonder it’s a rare event. Even rarer is the launch of an entirely new collection for women. Partly for the above reasons and also because women, to this day, remain a bit of an afterthought in much of the watch industry. The old “give her something with diamonds and a quartz movement”…

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Valentine's Day watch

12.02.2020

How to factor romance into your choice of Valentine’s Day watch

Valentine’s Day is a tricky one, because there can sometimes be tremendous pressure to pick the love of your life the perfect gift. You know, the one that says I understand you and will love you regardless until the end of days. But if you aren’t sure you can measure up against that specific level of Romeo and Juliet, then you must at least be romantic with your gift, especially when you’re buying your significant other a watch. The Hearts-and-Flowers thing: Some women genuinely love this (all year round). If that’s your woman, go for it! Perhaps the Frédérique Constant…

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Valentine's Day watch gift

08.02.2020

How to avoid messing up the Valentine’s Day watch gift

There’s a cliché that men are often clueless when it comes to choosing the right gift for a woman – especially (weirdly) when she’s the Significant Other in their lives. That, combined with the eye-rolling that all of us at Time+Tide do when an email with “Valentines” in the subject line lands in our inboxes (which has been happening quite a bit over the past month), prompted me to ask Nick and James which watch they would offer their SO as a Valentine’s Day gift. Then, from a woman’s point of view (a woman who, every 14th February, cringes at…

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27.10.2019

OPINION: Custom watches – cool or cliché?

We watch enthusiasts love an excuse to come over all opinionated, don’t we? A little “controversy break” from our worship of calibres and references. So how about this: after-market customising. Would you or wouldn’t you? Is it cool to ice-up a Patek and black-out a Rolex – or is it a crime against horology? One thing is sure: it makes some very prominent watch producers quite hot under the collar. But why the controversy? When you buy a watch it becomes your own property – so shouldn’t that mean you can do whatever you want with it? Change the colour,…

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25.10.2019

Steel. Sports. Lange. Meet the A. Lange & Söhne Odysseus

What are the most talked-about watches of 2019? Depends who you ask, obviously, but in a sizeable part of Planet Watch-Nut the answer is “luxury steel sports watch on integrated bracelet” – although not necessarily for good reasons (unless you count over-hype and over-pricing as good). During the past couple of weeks, in another part of watch-planet (which probably, inevitably, has some small degree of crossover with the first one), the most talked about is “the new Lange”. And now we can reveal that it is – drum roll – a luxury steel sports watch on an integrated bracelet. But,…

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06.10.2019

The long and winding history of the Bulgari Serpenti

For most of us today, snakes evoke a mixture of fascination and fear – but since Ancient times they have been a mythological symbol for countless cultures and civilisations. Although, in the Christian tradition, a serpent represented the devil in the Garden of Eden, snakes mostly had positive associations. For Native Americans, Mayans and Aztecs, Persians, Chinese, Hindus, Africans and Australian First Nation tribes, they represented, variously, power, wisdom, eternity, fertility, sexual desire, protection, and a direct link to ancestral spirits. Unsurprisingly, then, since humans first adorned their bodies with jewellery, snakes have been a constant motif – the shape…

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02.10.2019

Temptation strikes with Bulgari’s Serpenti Seduttori

Have you ever had a real snake wrap itself around your wrist? If not, I urge you to do so. Really. It’s a wonderful sensation. If you have, you will know exactly what I mean. It feels amazingly sensuous. Gentle, warm, almost fluid. And those were pretty much my first impressions when I tried on the pink gold Bulgari Serpenti Seduttori at Baselworld earlier in the year. Visually, the design is a much more abstracted representation of a serpent than some of its predecessors (notably, the stunning enamel and gem-set versions of the 1960s – some of which I have…

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23.07.2019

6 of the best Grand Feu Enamel Dials

An enamel dial elevates a watch to a different level, whether it comes in the form of a brightly coloured world map, a hyper-realistic image of a flower, a jewel-toned expanse of colour that seems to float above a textured base, or an ethereal grey-scale image of a lion – accurate to the last tuft of fur. Its beauty speaks volumes for the skill of its creator. Because enamel is really darned hard to do – let alone do well – no matter which enamel technique it is. (The examples I just listed are, respectively, cloisonné, miniature-painting, flinqué – or,…

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13.07.2019

Sparkling in all the right places – Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Dazzling Rendez-Vous

A decade ago, overtly feminine watches that combined beauty and proper horology were a rare thing indeed. (There are more of them today – although still far from enough.) And when Jaeger-LeCoultre launched the Rendez-Vous collection in 2012 it really struck a chord. Here was a watchmaker taking women seriously, with good mechanical movements, elegant, grown-up designs and a load of refined detail. A little wink in the form of a tiny star on the dial perimeter that can be set to mark an appointment (rendez-vous in French), which gave the collection its name. And a confident, 36mm case diameter.…

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09.07.2019

Have a heart – the Franck Muller Cintrée Curvex ladies tourbillon

In a world overflowing with safe-and-similar watch designs, Franck Muller is a breath of fresh air. As in this ladies tourbillon (a recent addition to the Cintrée Curvex Collection), the confident use of colour, the beautiful balance of traditional and avant-garde, the refined details on the dial, and the voluptuous curves of the case have been signatures of the brand since it was founded by the eponymous Mr Muller 28 years ago. For anyone whose interest in watches didn’t begin until after the millennium, it’s hard to understand how much impact Muller has had on the modern watch industry, both…

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30.06.2019

Doubling down on two-tone – the Tudor Black Bay Chrono S&G

Two years can be a long time in the life of a product – long enough for it to go from controversial to comfortably accepted, or even loved, as its challenging elements become softened by familiarity. That’s certainly true for two of the watches introduced by Tudor in 2017, which attracted attention and controversy in equal measure. For the Black Bay Heritage S&G, it was a matter of aesthetics: the (then) courageous reintroduction of two-tone – a stylistic blast from the past that was either cool or cringe-making, depending on where you were during its previous heyday, the 1980s. The…

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Our top 5 dive watches of 2019

22.06.2019

Is a two-tone watch just full gold’s poor cousin? Not anymore

What goes around comes around – especially when we’re talking style. So here we are, three decades after the first steel-and-gold rush, having another two-tone moment. But there could be something a tad anxiety-inducing about those bi-colour watches. If you buy two-tone, does it mean that you’re only half committed to full yellow metal? Or, perhaps worse, is two-tone really just the poor man’s gold watch? The answer is different today from what it was back then. In the 1980s heyday of the two-tone watch, wearing one came with the risk of being sneered at by steel-watch wearers as a…

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06.06.2019

The Pepsi Generation – 4 of the best Pepsi-bezelled watches

When it comes to fizzy drinks, the Cola Wars rumble on – The Pepsi Challenge Vs The Real Thing. But for watches, no contest: the red-and-blue has been the clear winner since Rolex’s ref.6542 first saw the light of day in 1954. Although Rolex totally ‘owns’ the distinctive bi-colour bezel, its GMT-Master (now Master II) is not the only Pepsi game in town. And with that watch being so hard to get – current and vintage models all command massive premiums – it’s a good moment to consider other ways to get that Pepsi fix. Tudor Black Bay GMT Here…

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04.06.2019

A fashionable watch with a watchmaking heart – the Louis Vuitton Escale Time Zone

“In terms of haute horlogerie complications we could do anything we like at Louis Vuitton – and we certainly have the means to do so. But that’s not our approach. What we do is deeply rooted in classical horology, but every piece needs to have an original twist that has real meaning for the Maison.” So says Michel Navas who, together with Enrico Barbasini, is the technical brains behind Louis Vuitton watchmaking. The Escale Time Zone perfectly illustrates this. Introduced in 2015 (with a version in tones of blue and grey last year), it looks unlike any travel time watch…

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01.06.2019

OPINION: Hype and high prices are killing it for watch collectors

I no longer have any desire to own or wear a Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711. Not because I like the watch any less than I ever did (it’s a great design, produced by one of the best makers in the business) but because I don’t want to be associated with what it has come to represent. Not “represent” in the sense of its significance (along that of Royal Oak) in the history of modern watchmaking but because it’s the apotheosis of the money-chasing mania (and its flip-side, the status-symbol-chasing mania) that has gripped certain parts of the watch world in…

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5 most unattainable watches

29.05.2019

The stealthy excellence of the Rolex Yacht-Master 42 in white gold (ref. 226659)

If you weren’t paying close attention you could easily miss the new Rolex Yacht-Master 42 in white gold. And I mean that in the best way. It’s a handsome timepiece, with a quiet presence that (despite its newness) feels reassuringly familiar in some hard-to-define way. Despite being 2mm bigger than its Everose Gold brother (and a 42mm Oyster case wears quite big), it’s the opposite of in your face. In fact, thanks to the monochrome colour scheme of the dial, bezel and case, and the matt black Oysterflex strap, it may be the most discreet model in Rolex’s entire line-up.…

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01.05.2019

HANDS-ON: Blacked-out – the Bulgari Octo Finissimo Automatic ceramic

In 2014, with the launch of its first Octo Finissimo (hand-wound) models, Bulgari rewrote the rules of skinny. Until then, an ultra-thin watch was defined by discreet styling, a round case, precious metal – in short, the ultimate dress watch. Then along came Octo Finissimo, with its shape-shifting trick of looking both supermodel-skinny and swaggeringly muscular. Shamelessly modern! A sports-deluxe ultra-thin watch! Made of titanium! Jump to the 2017 version – the world’s thinnest automatic watch (until Piaget snatched the record back a year later). This time the entire thing was done in sandblasted titanium – case, dial, bracelet and…

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29.04.2019

HANDS-ON: The Vacheron Constantin Traditionnelle Twin Beat Perpetual Calendar explained

To understand the Vacheron Constantin Twin Beat, we need to begin with a universal truth: in most areas of life, the most meaningful innovations are those that address real-life needs, solving practical problems in a sensible way. And those solutions come through questioning orthodox assumptions. In the case of mechanical watches, the received wisdom is that the running time of a watch before it needs rewinding (its power reserve) is fixed by the amount of energy the mainspring can store. In other words, the mainspring barrel has a fixed capacity and thus can release energy only for a fixed timespan.…

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23.04.2019

HANDS-ON: The Vacheron Constantin Overseas Tourbillon – all the makings of a modern classic

A tourbillon inside a steel sports watch? On a rubber strap? It’s enough to bring a watch-purist out in a cold sweat. And when such a watch is launched by one of the most venerable companies in the business? Ohhh … But that’s exactly what makes the Vacheron Constantin Overseas Tourbillon so cool. Yes, cool. Here’s Vacheron Constantin, showing off its haute horlogerie chops in casual, sports-luxe mode. The tourbillon follows a chronograph, a perpetual calendar and a world timer into the Overseas line but its presence in the collection is both strange and wonderful in a way those other…

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06.04.2019

OPINION: Was Baselworld Boring?

It’s now 10 days since Baselworld 2019 ended – but it feels like yesterday. Or half a lifetime ago. That’s what a week of viewing hundreds of new watches through a haze of severe jet lag, industrial quantities of caffeine and minimal sleep does to you. But with time comes recovery, and with that comes perspective. So now seems like a good moment to look back on what was always going to be one of the most keenly anticipated Baselworlds in the fair’s century-plus existence. Keenly anticipated but not necessarily in a good way. I hardly need to repeat that…

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05.04.2019

OPINION: Forget men and women, watches don’t need genders

Do we ever see adverts calling an Audi A3 a “ladies’ car”, a Porsche 911 or Toyota LandCruiser a “men’s car”? Nope. So, when even the notoriously non-PC motor industry refrains from classifying cars in mutually exclusive gender terms, why does the watch industry persist in doing so? Now, men and women are clearly different. But in terms of style, taste and habits, the traits of masculinity and femininity exist on a spectrum; there’s no fixed divide. So, in an age when nobody bats an eyelid at men wearing pink or women wearing trousers – well, apart from a handful…

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hublot ferrari GT

24.03.2019

HANDS-ON: The Hublot Classic Fusion Ferrari GT

A Hublot with soft, flowing lines. Now there’s a phrase I never thought I’d write. The Ferrari–Hublot collaboration has produced a stream of watches since 2011, each time with a different look and feel: from Big Bang variations to the outstanding MP-05 LaFerrari and, two years ago, the Techframe. But where the Techframe is all straight lines and strong angles, this new Classic Fusion piece is smooth and curvy – Gran Turismo with beautiful coach-building, rather than high-octane motorsport. In designing this watch, Ferrari’s Centro Stile has taken the automotive metaphor further, suspending the round case within the bezel. The…

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03.03.2019

HANDS-ON: The Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Moon Enamel

With the new Master Ultra Thin Moon Enamel, Jaeger-LeCoultre has pulled off quite a feat: it has transformed a quietly beautiful and discreetly elegant design into a take-your-breath-away showstopper. And it has done so without losing even a milligram of the class and refinement that has defined the model since it was first introduced in 2012. While JLC has added a variety of dial colours and finishes to the collection over the years, this new dial takes it to another level, showcasing the Maison’s mastery of guillochage, enamelling and engraving. It’s unlike any guilloché-enamel dial I’ve seen before. (The technique…

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28.02.2019

OPINION: In-house movements, do they even matter?

If you’re considering buying a new watch, one of the least important questions you should ask is: “Does it have an in-house movement?” To be blunt: the mere existence of an in-house movement does not necessarily equate to a better watch. So why do we see the in-house claim being made by so many watch brands? Why do they use it like a badge of honour, a mark of prestige and exclusivity, a (strongly implied) guarantee of superior quality – and a reason for charging a higher price? Let’s start with what the term actually means. Like many words that…

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23.02.2019

LIST: 7 things Sandra hopes and dreams to see at Baselworld 2019

Following on from Felix’s crystal ball gazing, Sandra looks into the (not-too-distant) future and ponders just what surprises (or not) Baselworld 2019 might hold … Expect to see: A regular production Defy Lab from Zenith I’m expecting to see Zenith’s oscillator technology of Defy Lab in a series-production collection. It’s a great technical breakthrough that more people should have access to. And, as with any innovation, the proof of its validity lies in successfully scaled-up production, rather than just a handful of special editions. Expect to see: Independent women Only a few indies have so far offered really creative mechanical…

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30.01.2019

HANDS-ON: Salmon stunner, the Montblanc Heritage Pulsograph

When Montblanc gave us a privileged preview of its new Heritage collection in Miami back in October, our gut told us that they had a winner in the salmon-dialled Heritage Pulsograph. Forward three months to SIHH: 36 exhibiting brands and I-don’t-know-how-many-hundreds of new watches later, our opinion is, if anything, stronger than ever. With the Heritage Pulsograph’s immaculately judged balance of good looks, technical content, quality of execution and price, Montblanc has hit the nail on the head. First, let’s talk aesthetics: vintage-inspired watches have been a thing for some years now – and thanks to its head of watches, Davide…

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25.01.2019

HANDS-ON: The IWC Pilot’s Watch Double Chronograph Top Gun in Ceratanium

Materials innovation is looking like quite a thing in 2019 and for you, the watch buyers, that has to be good news: more aesthetic choices and (hopefully) better performance. Which brings us to IWC’s new Top Gun Double Chronograph Ceratanium. Ceratanium? It’s a naturally matt-black finish, but differs from PVD/DLC in one crucial respect: rather than a coating, it’s integral to the base material (its name being a contraction of ceramised and titanium). It’s the product of five years R&D within IWC, and is made by first milling the parts (case, pushers and crown) from a titanium alloy, then subjecting…

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21.01.2019

INTRODUCING: The Jaquet Droz Lady 8 Flower and the Lady 8 Petite

Back in the 18th century, Pierre Jaquet-Droz wowed the courts of Europe with his Automates – three humanoid dolls, about one-third life-sized, that could variously write, draw and play music with uncannily lifelike gestures. Intended to promote his clocks and watches, and powered by scaled-up versions of mechanical watch movements, they were a stroke of marketing genius – as well as a remarkable demonstration of his skills. Eighteen years ago, when Swatch Group revived Jaquet Droz, it harnessed that legacy – developing automata on the minuscule scale needed to fit inside contemporary watches. This meant men’s watches, as Jaquet Droz…

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04.01.2019

HANDS-ON: Around the world with the Breguet Classique Hora Mundi ref. 5717

The remarkable Hora Mundi ref. 5717 made its first appearance in 2011, to an enthusiastic reception. Then, in 2016, when Breguet launched an updated version (ref. 5727) they spoke of it as a replacement for the original. But some things are simply too special to discontinue. Thank goodness – for we rarely encounter a watch that combines technical genius, great beauty and immense charm in the way that this version of Hora Mundi does. For those of us who are constantly on the move, a multiple-time-zone complication is one of the most useful things to have in a watch –…

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19.12.2018

LIST: Six of the best, my pick of Cartier’s women’s watches

In order to think about the best women’s watches, we must first ask ourselves: “What is a women’s watch?” At Cartier, the answer is particularly interesting: as the Maison’s 100+ years of watches has been taken a particularly fluid approach to their collections, with models like the Tank or the Tortue being equally well-suited to male or female wrists, a notion that seems particularly modern and in line with a singularly French (even Parisian) notion of elegance. And so, the question of “the best” of Cartier’s women’s watches is, above all, a question of which sizes will fit a smaller,…

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28.11.2018

INTRODUCING: The Montblanc Star Legacy Nicolas Rieussec Chronograph

At SIHH 2019 in January, Montblanc will launch two new versions of the Nicolas Rieussec chronograph that it introduced last January: one in tone-on-tone of dark grey, the other in a bold mix of anthracite and richly copper-toned red gold. Having spent some time with the new pieces, I’ve fallen rather hard for the latter. It’s one of those “love at second sight” things. (Didn’t take long, though: the initial “Huh?” about the highly unusual colour scheme became “You’re the one” after – oh – a whole 15 or 20 minutes.) Since 2008 and Montblanc’s first tribute to the “time…

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25.11.2018

LIST: 7 cool things I discovered at the Seiko Museum

If you’re ever in Tokyo, I strongly recommend making time for a detour to Sumida. Where? A residential area north of Tokyo Skytree – a bit of a backwater, to be honest. Why? For the Seiko Museum. Even if you’re not particularly a Seiko fan, it’s full of horological discoveries. And if you weren’t a Seiko fan before, you probably will be afterwards. Here are just a few of the many reasons why: The name Seiko’s founder, Kintaro Hattori, started his business in 1881; about a decade later, he opened his own factory – naming it Seikosha. The museum guide told…

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08.11.2018

HANDS-ON: Chanel’s Code Coco – a fashion watch that’s so much more than a fashion watch

As someone whose love of watches is focused entirely on mechanisms powered by springs, the word quartz normally evokes the immediate cry of “Next!” So when I stop and spend time with a quartz watch, it must be a bit special. And so to Code Coco. It had me at first glance: that crisp, chic and utterly modern design. Strong, straight lines, no colour. Just a broad band of glossy black with a touch of polished steel and a taut line of diamonds – the bracelet and dial flowing seamlessly into one another. Watch or jewellery? It didn’t really matter.…

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24.08.2018

INSIGHT: Flipping perceptions – why Bulgari’s Octo Finissimo is so significant and such great value

Every now and then, among the hundreds of new watches I get to see and handle each year, one will stop me in my tracks. That happened with Bulgari’s Octo Finissimo Automatic when I first encountered it in early 2017 – and it’s what happens again and again every time I see it, handle it, put it on my wrist. To know it better is to love it more. This goes beyond its record-breaking thinness (truly impressive intellectually, but not emotionally) and beyond the design – although I can feast my eyes for hours on those pure, strong lines. I’d…

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09.08.2018

OPINION: Watches – just an insecure guy thing?

When I talk with other women about watch collecting, the most common reaction runs along the lines of, “Oh, that’s just a sad guy thing” or “I totally don’t get why my husband bought such an expensive one/has to own so many/is so geeky about them …” Or even, “Ha! Boys’ toys – you know what they’re a substitute for …” So yeah, a luxury watch is really just a much more portable version of a muscle car or a mid-life Harley-Davidson. Compensation. For something. Sure, it’s also “a reward for all those years of hard work”. But, in truth,…

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02.08.2018

HANDS-ON: The Chanel J12 Untitled

So deeply has Chanel’s J12 become embedded in the canon of 21st-century design, it’s easy to forget that it was introduced only 18 years ago. From the original model – a chic, sporty and androgynous piece in black ceramic that Chanel’s then artistic director, Jacques Helleu, had designed to wear himself – it has evolved over the years to embrace new colours, more elaborate decoration and various complications, without allowing anything to dilute the design. Every so often, Chanel has released a ‘talking piece’ version with a special dial – something that speaks not only of the Maison’s craftsmanship but…

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25.07.2018

LIST: Why these 3 Seiko Cocktail Times are perfect for a woman’s wrist – and what to wear them with

It’s little wonder that when Seiko released its Presage Cocktail Time watch to the international market last year (until then it was available only to the Japanese domestic market) it was an immediate hit. The gorgeous, sunray-patterned dial, the chic colours, the tremendous value for money … Although pitched as a men’s watch, it gained legions of female fans – although for many it provoked a severe case of FOMO or, more accurately, KIMO (know I’m missing out). That’s because although the watch is perfectly proportioned, its 40.5mm diameter is just too big for women with tiny wrists. Seiko must…

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16.06.2018

INSIGHT: Exploring Chanel’s watchmaking – the movements

It’s seven years since Chanel Horlogerie decided to start developing its own movements in-house and in the last three of those years it has launched three new calibres – or four, when counting Calibre 2.1 separately. Each is strikingly different from anything offered by other haute horlogerie brands – and all are noticeably different from each other. That’s due to Chanel’s singular approach to watchmaking, which does not follow the usual path of “making engines to then put into various cases”, says Nicolas Beau, the global head of watchmaking and fine jewellery. “We think of a collection or model at…

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13.06.2018

INSIGHT: A brief history of time – as seen by Chanel

It’s a paradox that a luxury house as conspicuously feminine as Chanel should always have had a gender-bending streak. So here comes a quick bit of fashion history – and before you watch geeks roll your eyes and change the channel, let me say that this will help explain everything about Chanel’s watches. Including why they are not to be dismissed as mere “fashion watches”. I’ll be brief. By the simple fact of launching herself into business (as a milliner) in 1910, Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel flew in the face of expected gender roles. As she added clothes to her repertoire,…

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Chanel boy friend skeleton Swiss Watch Luxury

11.06.2018

HANDS-ON: Chanel’s exceptional Boy.Friend Skeleton

Gender-fluid. If you were born yesterday or became acquainted with pop culture only last year, you could be forgiven for thinking – based on the excitable talk among style-and-social commentators – that it’s a newly minted concept. Not so. The 1970s: boys wearing their hair longer than girls; 1966: Yves Saint Laurent’s Le Smoking … and so on, back through time. And watches: Cartier’s Tank, Rolex’s Datejust and Day-Date – those designs were always androgynous. And so to a watch that easily makes my Top 10 for the year: Chanel’s Boy.Friend Squelette or Skeleton if you prefer. Intentionally gender-neutral, it’s pitched…

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19.04.2018

HANDS-ON: The Bulgari Octo Finissimo Automatic Sandblasted – same Octo, completely new look

Bulgari blew us away last year with their Octo Finissimo Automatic – that mind-boggling thinness; the incredible lightness of being at one with its titanium case and bracelet, feeling it drape around the wrist. For Baselworld 2018, it’s back – this time in full gold. And if you think “solid gold bracelet watch” means 1980s-style bling, think again. Vital statistics In all respects, except the case and bracelet material, the new model is the same watch as before – equipped with that super-skinny (briefly record-breaking) manufacture self-winding calibre BVL 138. At only 2.23mm thick with a single barrel, it packs…

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13.04.2018

HANDS-ON: The Patek Philippe Nautilus Ref. 5740 – the Nautilus we had to have

One of the big surprises of Baselworld 2018 was Patek Philippe’s decision to add a grand complication model – specifically a perpetual calendar – to the Nautilus line. Or was it? Nautilus-with-complication is an old story (travel time, chronograph, annual calendar have all featured over the years) and the pre-Basel rumour mill was promoting the ‘perpetual’ idea pretty heavily. So when Patek unveiled the ref. 5740 there was a definite sense of “Surprise – what surprise?” Vital statistics The movement is one of Patek’s all-time greats: the ultra-thin self-winding calibre 240 Q – also found in the current collection in the…

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09.04.2018

HANDS-ON: Titanium case and a new style dial – the Breguet Marine 5517

Last year, Breguet gave us a first taste of their new design for the Marine collection. However, the new look didn’t get the massive attention you might expect for an update of a pillar collection. Not because it wasn’t noteworthy but because the new look was revealed in the form of the Marine Équation Marchante 5887 – and when you get a complication as mouth-watering as that, the aesthetics tend to play second fiddle. In contrast, the new Marine 5517, released at Baselworld 2018, places the emphasis firmly on the design. Vital Statistics Set in a 40mm case, the movement…

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02.04.2018

HANDS-ON: The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Day Date 70s

We’ve come to associate Fifty Fathoms with minimalistic dials, so this Day Date model – one of three new pieces released at Baselworld 2018 to mark the 65th anniversary of the original diving watch – is a real shift in style. This doesn’t mean that Blancpain are suddenly getting all decorative, though; rather, they have looked to their 1970s archive for the design cues. Vital Statistics While the aesthetic is retro, everything else is bang-up to the minute, with all of the technical advances that Blancpain have brought to their dive watches in recent years. The movement is based on…

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25.03.2018

HANDS-ON: The Omega Seamaster Professional 300M – An all-time classic gets fresh

We all love a birthday. And watch brands love them as much as anyone – an excuse to celebrate, a hook for a new collection. At Baselworld 2018 Omega have marked the 25th anniversary of the Seamaster Professional Diver 300M (aka the James Bond watch) with a revamp. It was the SMP that kicked off Omega’s relationship with the Bond franchise, becoming something of a late-1990s icon as Pierce Brosnan wore a series of tricked-out, weaponised versions of the watch over the course of four movies. Vital statistics With 14 new variations – six in stainless steel and eight in…

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15.02.2018

INSIGHT: The craft of Van Cleef & Arpels

Van Cleef & Arpels have long been recognised as one of the world’s most creative high jewellery houses. Taking inspiration from nature, magic and fairy tales, the Parisian Maison creates complex jewels of unusually high technical and design content – so that even the most extravagant pieces have a lightness, charm and wit. In recent years, Van Cleef & Arpels have also become recognised for their artistic and highly creative watches. But it is no mere arriviste in the world of horology. In the 1920s the famously elegant Louis Arpels designed the Ruban (‘ribbon’) watch, with a rectangular case that…

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09.02.2018

HANDS-ON: Cartier’s incredible Révélation d’une Panthère

Over the past decade, while earning its chops as a serious technical watchmaker, Cartier has demonstrated time and again its mastery of the artistic crafts – métiers d’art in the Francophone world of watchmaking. It has taken traditional techniques and gone further – for example, using straw and flower petals for marquetry. It has also remastered 3000-year-old techniques that were virtually extinct, including granulation – a manner of creating surface texture using tiny gold beads. As a result, we have seen a series of achingly beautiful dials – exquisitely detailed, a celebration of human skill. Beautiful they are, but quite…

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07.02.2018

INSIGHT: Designing A. Lange & Söhne – part 4, colour, material and finish

Think of Lange’s colour palette and the word ‘sober’ probably springs to mind. Or restrained. Limited. Calm. Muted. Subdued. Discreet. Anything but vivid and daring. Now, let’s for a moment think not of A. Lange & Söhne but only of the colours: white, black, grey (dials); black again, brown, (straps); pink gold, white gold (platinum looking more or less the same), a rare dash of yellow gold. Yes, there are some exceptions (we’ll come to those later), but put Lange’s entire catalogue of the past 20-plus years into a flip-book and that’s pretty much what you get. Based on those…

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01.02.2018

INSIGHT: Designing A. Lange & Söhne – part 1, design approach & method

“Money likes silence.” Several years ago, a Russian collector by the name of Nikolai (he prefers not to publish his surname) was telling me why he’s so keen on A. Lange & Söhne, and I was struck by that part of his reply. While he meant it to sum up the ‘stealth’ appeal of Lange’s designs (discreet elegance; the antithesis of vulgarity), it also begged the question: what does make Lange so distinctive? A. Lange & Söhne is not what we think of as a “design brand” (the term suggests something altogether more conspicuous or self-consciously groovy) and yet its…

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28.01.2018

HANDS-ON: The Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Planétarium

While we all know that Van Cleef & Arpels love a bit of poetry, I get the feeling that they also have a major thing for swans. Huh, what? You know, the way swans glide across the water, all elegance and beauty, no visible effort – while paddling furiously beneath the surface. Well, that’s how Van Cleef & Arpels make their complication watches, whether for men or women. Refined, beautiful, often rather dreamlike on the outside; brain-bendingly complex on the inside. In 2014, you may remember, Van Cleef & Arpels launched an astonishing planetarium watch developed in collaboration with the…

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24.01.2018

HANDS-ON: The A. Lange & Söhne Saxonia Outsize Date

While the rules about how a man should dress for formal occasions are more relaxed than in the past, they are still governed by the principles of timelessness: elegance, discretion, refinement and restraint. Self-expression and individuality are all very well, but wearing a chunky, sporty watch with a dinner suit (or even a formal business suit) will forever remain a stylistic faux pas. And that’s as much a question of aesthetics as social convention. It follows that a dress watch should be slim, relatively small (by today’s standards), made of precious metal, and with a white, cream or black dial…

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17.01.2018

HANDS-ON: The Panerai Luminor Base Logo 3 Days Luminor Acciaio (PAM00775)

Not a Radiomir to be seen this year at SIHH; lots of new Luminor Due variations (including a very good 38mm). However, with Angelo Bonati retiring in April from the brand he built from almost-zero to quite the hero, the halo piece has to be that most “Panerai” of all Panerais – the Luminor. Full-fat version, not the slimmed-down Due. A lot of the new PAM00775 is quintessential Luminor and quite a lot is not. There’s the chunky 44mm brushed steel case – as hefty on the wrist as a tool watch should be; a design so strong and confident…

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15.01.2018

HANDS-ON: The green-dialled Montblanc 1858 Monopusher Chronograph LE … in steel

As SIHH kicks off, I’m prepared to bet – yes, even on the opening day – that this chronograph will emerge as one of the top watches of the week. Because it’s just so darned gorgeous and it has a great backstory. As you may know, in 2007 Montblanc took over the historic Minerva manufacture and began producing some seriously beautiful high-complication watches – notably the ExoTourbillon and Geospheres series. But a question remained: since Minerva was perhaps the greatest chronograph maker of the 20th century, where were the chronographs? We got the first answer after Jérôme Lambert became CEO…

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23.11.2017

WATCHSPOTTING: The exceptional watches of Dubai Watch Week

While the sun kept shining (of course, it’s Dubai), it rained – rained watches – for the five days of Dubai Watch Week. Organised by Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons, the leading retailer of high-end watches in the UAE, with a strongly educational purpose, it offered a whole range of panel discussions; hands-on workshops led by some of today’s most talented watchmakers, engravers and enamellers; riveting talks on collecting by Christie’s experts; exhibitions (including the 17 GPHG winners, a perspective on time from the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie, and stands where you could meet-and-greet and play with amazing watches –…

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08.11.2017

LIST: Pretty Big Bang – 6 Hublot watches perfect for women

“Girls just want watches that look pretty.” So we are told. Of course, most of us want things that look good (and, ah, don’t men want good-looking stuff too?). But “just” pretty? Please. The watch industry has patronised us with that old cliché for too long. For many of us girls, a fashion watch is anathema – and a diamond bezel is not the be-all and end-all either. Bung a bit of glitter on a boring watch and it’s still a boring watch. Assuming that an interest in mechanical timepieces means that we’ll settle for tool watches with zero femininity…

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24.10.2017

INSIGHT: 3 questions about Paul Newman’s Rolex Daytona, answered

When I had the opportunity, in Geneva this past summer, to get my hands on the 20th century’s most famous wristwatch and talk about it with the man who will be holding the hammer when the watch is auctioned by Phillips in New York in a few days, my immediate thought was I-love-my-job-I’m-so-lucky. Followed by a few key questions: Would the watch feel more special on the wrist than your typical Cosmo Daytona? Does Aurel Bacs, auctioneer supreme, regard this as anything more than another (likely) record-breaking piece? And, on that note, just why was the pre-sale estimate — “In…

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19.10.2017

LIST: Ultimate transparency — Hublot’s sapphire evolution, in 13 watches

First things first, what is sapphire crystal? Essentially, it’s the same stuff used to make a watch ‘glass’ and display casebacks, formed by crystallising aluminium oxide at very high temperatures to create an extremely hard material. Roughly speaking, it mimics what Earth has taken 400 million or so years to do, to form natural sapphire gemstones. For sapphire-cased watches, the middle, bezel and back are milled from solid blocks of the material. Because it’s almost as hard and scratch-resistant as diamond (9 on the Mohs scale, as opposed to 10 for diamond), the task of milling it into the complex…

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07.09.2017

INSIGHT: The 100 year history of the Cartier Tank, and the people who made it famous

For any designer, regardless of product type, the holy grail is to create an object that so perfectly balances form and function and so elegantly expresses an aesthetic that it will not only last for many generations but will forever look as modern as it did when it left the drawing board. Among those rare products are Le Corbusier’s Chaise LC4, Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona chair and Cartier’s Tank wristwatch. Louis Cartier’s practical, no-frills design has not only become one of the most successful and enduring watches of all time, it has accepted tweaks, updates and experiments without ever…

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23.08.2017

INSIGHT: Why the Hublot Haters have it wrong

So, in some parts of the watchosphere, it’s fashionable to be a Hublot Hater. While I’m not a HH (professional detachment, there are other, better uses for my energy), I will admit to being in the “not loving it” camp for quite some time. It was the bigness, the brashness, the it-watchness of it all. Given the choice, I’ll take off-trend. It was the flashy image – the rappers, footballers and boxers. Which is ironic, really, since Hublot began with Carlo Crocco as the anti-bling of the 1980s. At the time, the watch world was elbow-deep in gold, with wall-to-wall Cartier…

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26.07.2017

HOW TO: Build a potentially profitable vintage watch collection with a budget of $3000-$12000 per piece

A few years ago I attended a talk called, ‘How to Start a Collection’. The focus was on vintage rather than modern and the speaker was a prominent collector, so I looked forward to picking up some great tips. His advice was to anchor a collection with some key pieces, and he gave some examples. Impeccable reasoning, but there was a catch: the name of every piece began with Patek, Rolex or Panerai – and none could be had for less than $80,000. Most were some way north of $100k. So, what if you’re a watch addict of far more…

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Patek Philippe Aquanaut 20th anniversary reference 5168G, white gold blue dial

11.06.2017

OPINION: Buying a new watch? Don’t even think about investment value

Being in the watch writing line of work it’s no great surprise that friends and acquaintances often ask me for watch-buying advice. Call it an occupational hazard, call it a compliment that they should consider my advice worth seeking but (unlike a doctor friend, who gets irritated by being asked for free clinical advice at dinner parties) I never tire of talking about watches. But something has changed: as watch auction prices have gone relentlessly up over the past few years (not to mention the retail prices of many brands), the two questions I’m most often asked are: “I’m tossing…

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