FRIDAY WIND DOWN: The GPHG winners were what?! 007 is confirmed to be a woman, and we look at some pretty Hublot pastels

Nick Kenyon

It’s certainly time for a Friday afternoon beer, and for no more reason than the eyebrow-raising results that came out of the GPHG overnight. The GPHG is, of course, the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève or, as is endlessly repeated, “the Oscars of watchmaking”. The ceremony was held yesterday, with a couple of awards that caused Zach to almost ruin his laptop by spitting his drink out when certain watches were announced as the winners. Not that they weren’t excellent watches in their own right, but were they the best in their category in 2020? We’ll leave that one up to you to decide.

There were a couple of watches that were certainly deserving winners, including the Greubel Forsey Hand Made 1, the Vacheron Constantin Overseas Perpetual Calendar ultra-thin skeleton, the H. Moser & Cie. Streamliner Flyback Chronograph Automatic and several others. My favourite of the lot, after having the privilege of holding the watch on two occasions, would have to be the Hand Made 1 by Greubel Forsey. It is 95 per cent made by hand, and took more than 6000 hours to complete, a feat that is hard to wrap your head around in the age of ubiquitous CNC machining. I also particularly like that it won the Men’s Complication prize, despite being a time-only watch. It just goes to show there is still appreciation for the more traditional aspects of watchmaking, and acknowledge that such a level of execution is a complication in and of itself.

Have a great weekend,

Nick

Pretty pastels with the Hublot Big Bang Millennial Pink

This week we took a closer look at one of Hublot’s most head-turning watches of 2020, the aluminium Hublot Big Bang Millennial Pink. While many of Hublot’s watches could be considered quite masculine, it just goes to show that the brand — which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year — is always innovating into new spaces.

Lashana Lynch has confirmed she is the new 007

Lashana Lynch has confirmed in Harper’s Bazaar that she would inherit the 007 callsign in the next Bond film, which is one of the most anticipated films from the franchise in recent memory, and is due to hit cinemas in April 2021. While the whole T+T team is excited to see what she brings to the big screen, we’re also extremely interested in what she’ll be sporting on her wrist. Will it be another Omega Seamaster 300? April can’t come soon enough!

The ultimate pilot’s watch? Check out the IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Top Gun Edition “SFTI”

When you hear the name IWC, you almost can’t help but think of the bold Arabic numerals and open dials of their pilot’s watches. It’s well known that IWC were one of the Dirty Dozen brands who produced armed forces watches during WWII, but it’s less well known that they continue to do so today. One of their watches we took a closer look at was the IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Top Gun Edition “SFTI”, a civilian version of a watch that’s available only to graduates of the United States Navy Fighter Weapons School. Very, very cool.