JLC calls in Batman, MB&F’s Nostromo lands, and the GPHG shortlist arrives
Tom AustinThe watch world has shown very little interest in easing us gently into September. A bumper Geneva Watch Days has supplied the expected torrent of launches, while elsewhere the week has delivered a Hollywood signing, a cult sci-fi reference rendered in gears and the opening salvo in the industry’s most closely watched awards contest. It’s been the sort of week where releases may have supplied the volume, but people, ideas and the occasional extraterrestrial-looking machine have given us plenty else to enjoy elsewhere.
Jaeger-LeCoultre begins proceedings with Robert Pattinson, an actor who has spent much of his early career escaping the role that made him famous, and now finds himself stepping into legendary, iconic-actor territory. MB&F and Maison Alcée then take us somewhere rather less familiar with the Nostromo, a collaboration that asks its owner to do considerably more than wind it and admire it from across the room. Finally, the GPHG shortlist is in, which means the serious business of deciding what counts as the year’s best watch can give way to the far more entertaining business of arguing about it. There are familiar names, intriguing choices and enough fuel for the comments section to run comfortably until November. Welcome to this week’s Wind Down.
The Watchmaker of Watchmakers meets the Batman of Batmans
Robert Pattinson has added another role to a CV that already includes a teenage vampire, Gotham’s moodiest billionaire, and most recently, Ithaca’s least eligible bachelor in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. Jaeger-LeCoultre has named the British actor its newest global ambassador, bringing his particular brand of understated, slightly unconventional elegance to the Grande Maison. Pattinson describes great watches as objects with “character, craftsmanship, and the story behind how they’re made”, praising JLC’s balance of technical innovation and artistic expression. The partnership will make its proper public debut in a new campaign scheduled for mid-September, although the manufacture has yet to reveal exactly what form that campaign will take.
Pattinson escaped the gravitational pull of Twilight by choosing strange, risky and often deeply unglamorous roles, working with directors including David Cronenberg, Claire Denis, Robert Eggers, the Safdie brothers and Bong Joon Ho before returning to blockbuster territory with Tenet and The Batman. That habit of moving between the experimental and the established mirrors the story JLC likes to tell about itself: a manufacture rooted in almost two centuries of watchmaking, but never especially interested in standing still. He also brings considerable reach as both an actor and a producer, with Dune: Part Three, Primetime, and Here Comes the Flood ahead. Whether he eventually becomes a genuine watch-world figure remains to be seen, but as far as ambassador casting goes, Pattinson joining the maison feels more considered for the brand than just a red carpet photo opportunity.
The Maison Alcée x MB&F Nostromo: In space, no one can hear you lose a screw
MB&F has never needed much encouragement to make machinery look as though it has crawled out of a spacecraft. For the M.A.D.Gallery’s 15th anniversary, it has handed the reins to Maison Alcée, the French company founded by husband-and-wife team Alcée and Benoît Montfort. Designed by MB&F creative designer Maximilian Maertens, the Nostromo takes its name from the spaceship in Ridley Scott’s Alien. Its movement lies on its side, supported by three organic-looking legs that give the finished clock the posture of something likely to scuttle across your desk once the lights go out. The peacock-blue dial is split into sections, revealing the gears, wheels, and pinions inside.
The Nostromo arrives as 222 components, which means that despite the £10,000 price tag, the first job of ownership is building the thing. Expect to spend around ten hours installing the gears, wheels, and pinions before the clock earns a place on your desk. Maison Alcée supplies the specialist tools, a 250-page illustrated manual, and QR-linked video guidance; only the regulating organ is pre-assembled, sparing novice watchmakers the chance of beginning their adventure with a component that could end it before it begins. Once the final screw is in place, the reward is a 14-day power reserve, an hour chime and a body that can be rotated on its three curious feet to adjust the viewing angle. The completed clock weighs 760 grams and combines stainless steel, brass, and German silver. Only 50 kits will be produced, creating a rare opportunity to point at a piece of high-end horology and announce with complete justification, “I built that myself.”
The GPHG shortlist is here. Please remain calm
This week, the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) has published its 2026 nominations, firing the starting pistol on two months of friendly, entirely measured disagreement. The GPHG is Geneva’s annual competition for contemporary watchmaking, with six nominees selected in each of 14 categories and the Aiguille d’Or waiting at the end of the evening for one overall winner. The 26th awards ceremony takes place on Saturday, November 7, at the Bâtiment des Forces Motrices in Geneva, giving the Academy and 24-person jury plenty of time to inspect the watches, tally the votes and prepare their inboxes for complaints. Expect the comment sections to be brimming with challenging opinions, as usual.
There are too many to mention here, but the Challenge category offers several nominations that are likely to keep group chats busy. Beaubleu’s La Pièce No.2 brings its Monnaie de Paris-struck monobloc dial; the SpaceOne × Baltic Seconde Majeure arrives with a Théo Auffret-developed jumping hour; and Seiko fields the titanium King Seiko VANAC. All three give the accessible end of the ballot some personality. Christopher Ward’s six-day C1 Loco Classic enters Petite Aiguille, continuing the British brand’s habit of turning up at prestigious Swiss events and making itself difficult to ignore. Grand Seiko has two tickets in the draw: the ±20-seconds-per-year Spring Drive U.F.A. Ushio 300 Diver in Sports, and the hand-engraved SBGZ011 in Essential. The Complication category also contains the gloriously strange Ulysse Nardin × Urwerk UR-FREAK. Rexhep Rexhepi’s Chronograph Flyback lands in a chronograph field containing Audemars Piguet, H. Moser and Parmigiani Fleurier. November’s trophies remain undecided; the arguments can begin immediately.
FounderFest tickets are running out
We’ve been slowly giving you closer looks at the watches launching at FounderFest in a couple of weeks’ time, such as the Dennison ALD Dual Time “Carnaby Blue” and the Serica “Sunburst”, and while we still have a couple of hands-on features to go, we do have some important FounderFest news to report. The event takes place over the weekend of September 19-20, with each of Time+Tide’s Watch Discovery Studios in London, New York and Melbourne hosting its own event featuring music, watches and conversations with the founders. Importantly, tickets for the event are on sale now, but they’re running out quickly. If you want to join us at any of the studios, please head to thefounderfest.com to secure yours as soon as possible.
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Tom & the Time+Tide Team
Tom’s Time+Tide take of the week: Great watches deserve a week of their own
We’ve all had that moment during a major watch fair week. A new smash-hit watch appears; everyone agrees it deserves a proper look, and 20 minutes later, another dozen launches arrive to elbow it off the screen. By dinner time, that genuinely interesting watch has already become yesterday’s news. That is the strange side effect of releasing everything at once. Watches and Wonders and even more so now, Geneva Watch Days can create a brilliant sense of occasion, with the industry gathering around the same table for a few gloriously chaotic days. The trouble is that every watch at that table starts telling its story at the same time, and in a world where attention is precious, great things can just get lost in the endless scrolling.
Complicated ideas, young brands, and pieces with unfamiliar names often need more time to make their case, and I think weeks like this past one can actually make things more difficult for those brands. Some of the launches I remember best appeared during perfectly ordinary weeks, with brands such as Tudor now leaning well into the element of surprise with some of their more important pieces. It gives collectors time to actually read or watch a whole video, ask questions and decide how they actually feel. Major fairs do and will remain to play a huge part in what makes this industry fun, and a few carefully timed solo releases across the year could make that fun last longer. A great watch deserves its moment, and occasionally, it deserves the whole week all to itself.
Wrist shot of the week: Complete and utter M.A.D.ness
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Some of you might know Britt Pearce, aka Watch.Gringa for her fabulously opinionated rise to Watch YouTube stardom over the last few years, with her incredible dedication to delivering not just hot watch news, but some hot takes, too. Others, however, may know her from Instagram, where she can show off a pretty damn good wrist shot. This week, she shared this gorgeous shot of the M.A.D.Editions M.A.D.3 Vincent Calabrese, a watch that we’ll show you even more of in a moment.
Time+Tide Shop pick of the week: Maen Manhattan 37 Ultra-Thin Stone Dial Collection
Maen’s Manhattan 37 Ultra-Thin makes a convincing case for keeping integrated sports watches compact. Its 37mm case measures only 7.1mm thick, pairing a vertically stretched octagonal bezel with crisp brushing, polished chamfers and 100 metres of water resistance. Maen has given that architecture natural-stone dials, and all three versions have arrived at the Time+Tide Watch Discovery Studios in London and New York.
The new dials are clean and clutter-free, to allow the natural stone to do all the talking. Black Onyx delivers a glossy, uninterrupted surface with an unexpectedly formal twist. Golden Swan uses amber and ochre tones to create miniature organic landscapes, while Snowflake Obsidian scatters pale crystalline formations across a volcanic-black base. Each slice of stone carries its own pattern, ensuring each watch is a unique one-of-one.
Inside, the hand-wound La Joux-Perret D101 runs at 21,600 vph and supplies approximately 50 hours of power reserve. A sapphire caseback reveals blued screws and Côtes de Genève finishing, while the integrated bracelet tapers from 24mm to 16mm at its concealed butterfly clasp. The Manhattan already had the dimensions and architecture sorted. These dials let nature handle the decoration, and all three are waiting in London and New York.
The Maen Manhattan 37 Ultra-Thin Stone Dial Collection is now available from the Time+Tide Shop and the Time+Tide Watch Discovery Studios in London and New York City. Price: £1,525/US$1,750
Our Favourite Time+Tide coverage of the week
Novak Djokovic on Hublot, Grand Slams & Why Wearing a Watch on Court is Harder Than You Think
Just before the beginning of the 2026 US Open, Zach got to spend time with tennis megastar Novak Djokovic to talk watches, tennis and the peculiar problem of wearing one on court. The decorated Hublot ambassador explains his preference for lightweight, sporty pieces, shares his love of tourbillons, and reveals how a two-handed backhand makes wristwear particularly tricky. Novak and Zach also take time to discuss his Hublot collaborations, chasing that number one spot, and the three serves he least enjoyed returning.
New M.A.D.Editions M.A.D.3 Vincent Calabrese from MB&F | Hands On Review
Zach gets hands-on with the M.A.D.Editions M.A.D.3 Vincent Calabrese, a jumping-hour collaboration inspired by the independent watchmaker’s wonderfully unconventional Baladin. He explores its rotating blue dial, floating-lug case, and unusually wearable proportions, while explaining how MB&F adapted Calabrese’s idea for larger-scale production. There is also the small matter of actually being able to buy one, with the public allocation decided through M.A.D.Editions’ familiar raffle system, which closes on September 7.
Gallet Is Back: The Full 2026 Relaunch Reviewed – Flying Officer, Multichron & Classics
Russell takes a deep dive into Gallet’s long-awaited return, 200 years after the historic chronograph maker was founded. With Breitling now behind the revival, he explores the new Flying Officer, Multichron, and Classics collections, from modern travel watches to faithful 38mm chronographs powered by Breitling’s hand-wound B09 movement. He also considers where the revived Gallet sits within the wider House of Brands and whether its comeback strikes the right balance.