The most modern machine at Haldimann is an optical microscope from the ’60s, certainly not a CNC. Haldimann’s workshop and entire operation is his home, a villa overlooking the river Aare in Thun that has a deliberately meditative vibe. His eponymous independent manufacture makes 20-30 watches per year, entirely in...

First generation Datographs have been on a tear, and perhaps none is more under represented in the zeitgeist than the 403.032. This is not the Dufourgraph, that one has a black dial. This is the argente silver, pink gold early Datograph that has no counterpart in the contemporary catalogue (there...

There are probably far fewer than 10 of these: an Audemars Piguet ref. 25661 in platinum with a mother of pearl dial. Within the long march of the QP which brought back complicated watchmaking to Switzerland (famously developed in secret), the 25661 was first to feature a display caseback—which here...

In 1983, Vacheron Constantin announced to the world their intentions to return to traditional, complicated mechanical watchmaking in the wake of the quartz crisis with the ref. 43031 Perpetual Calendar. Switzerland had been decimated, with watch industry employment falling from 90,000 to 28,000 and the number of dedicated watchmakers employed...

Audemars Piguet remained independently owned through the tumultuous 1990s and 2000s (still are), led by Georges-Henri Meylan and later Philippe Merk, where many of their peers were gobbled up in acquisitions. The former spearheaded the highly contemporary Royal Oak QP Skeleton. First came the ref. 25636, followed by this 25829....

The ref. 2396 represents a very special time in Cartier and watchmaking, before the rise of independents yet after some of the masters were born. The recent Prive Monopoussoir is equally beautiful, but the daring, somewhat whimsical Roman 12 seen form the CPCP years has not been revisited since this...