A ref. 110.049—better known as the Dubail—is about to head to auction for the first time in awhile, and that’s a big deal for the Lange 1. It belongs to the Soirée family, introduced in 2001, which gave the Lange 1 a mother-of-pearl dial. Most say the reference was created...

This is a salmon dial 25661BC, a unicorn amongst 36mm QP collecting. Audemars Piguet built reference 25661 from 1985 to 1994, and the factory ledgers put total output at 342 pieces: 244 in yellow gold, 37 in platinum, 32 in white gold, and 29 in pink gold. That makes the...

The Asymétrique began in 1936, when Cartier unveiled a watch that deliberately broke its own rules. Known originally as the Tank Parallélogramme (also the Oblique), it was the last Tank released during Louis Cartier's lifetime. Its lozenge-shaped case tilted the dial 30 degrees clockwise, a trick born of the era's...

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...

The original Cornes de Vache (translates as cow horn) from 1955 combined two technical innovations: Vacheron’s first water-resistant and antimagnetic chronograph. Those technical steps have been largely forgetten by most, but what has stayed front of mind was the design—featuring some of the most sculptural lugs ever on a case....

In 1995, Audemars Piguet turned 120. To mark the occasion, AP looked into their catalogue for the most prestigious, representative piece it could build upon and landed, naturally, on the Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar. The result was the ref. 25810OR, produced that year in a run of just 120 examples—one...

Early Roger Dubuis, in design and finish, often feels closer to the Patek Philippe of old than much of Patek Philippe does today. It could not feel more separate from the brand's modern incarnation. This brief flash of brilliance came directly after Dubuis had spent nearly two decades at Patek,...

When most of the industry scrambled to fit quartz movements into their collections, Peter Baumberger correctly read the quartz crisis as a passing phase and an opportunity. He slowly purchased the rights to the Urban Jürgensen & Sønner name along with machinery the industry had written off as obsolete, partnering...

When Vacheron Constantin introduced reference 43031 in 1983, it was the first time the maison had ever put a perpetual calendar on the wrist. Conceived in the depths of the quartz crisis, it stood as a defiant statement—alongside Audemars Piguet's 5548 of 1978 and Patek Philippe's 3940 of 1985—that classical...

Patek Philippe’s first serially produced Tourbillon also happened to be a Minute Repeater. That’s not even the most astonishing thing about the ref. 3939, though, as when it was introduced in 1992 it came to market at just 33mm. The manual calibre RTO-27-PS took up the entire caseback, with little...

The reference 25668BA is Audemars Piguet's Openworked Quantième Perpétuel in yellow gold, and the most expressive of a bloodline that begins with the 5548 of 1978. Where the 5548 introduced the thinnest self-winding perpetual calendar the world had seen to revive mechanical watchmaking in Switzerland, the 25668 stripped the movement...

The 111.025 is a bit of an enigma: short-lived, widely collected, and in production for a flash. Most estimate total production well under 100 pieces. Most early Little Lange 1 references were produced before 2001–2002, and by the early 2000s the brand had halted production of most of them—these pieces...

The Vagabondage story began in casual conversation, not a sketch for once. A Parisian collector asked François-Paul Journe for something "like what A.-L. Breguet might make today," but with wandering hours—and the resulting watch, born for a charity auction, was such a hit that Journe spun a one-off into a...

Few watches encapsulate the 1970s luxury sports movement like the Vacheron Constantin 222, launched in 1977 to mark the maison's 222nd anniversary. While Gérald Genta drew the Royal Oak and Nautilus, the 222 came from a young Jorg Hysek. The range spanned the 37mm 'Jumbo' ref. 44018, this 34mm midsize...

When A. Lange & Söhne numbered its early Lange 1s, the reference told you how the watch was delivered: 101-series watches came on alligator, while 151-series watches wore an integrated precious-metal bracelet manufactured by Wellendorff. The ref. 151.021—yellow gold with champagne dial and a matching gold bracelet—is the bracelet counterpart...

Patek Philippe's 5004 is the apex of the Lemania-ébauche era—the first production Perpetual Calendar Split Seconds Chronograph, a watch Philippe Stern reportedly cast as the 'spiritual successor to the 2499.' But within that already-rarefied run, the black-dialed examples occupy their own tier, and in pink gold they are one of...

When Audemars Piguet finally gave the Royal Oak a travel complication in 1992, it arrived fashionably late. The complication debuted years earlier in the round, dressier ref. 25685, powered by the calibre 2229/2845, built on a Jaeger-LeCoultre 928 ébauche. Married to Jacqueline Dimier's 36mm mid-size case, it became the ref....

The 25829BA is the Royal Oak QP Skeleton in yellow gold, the second generation of skeletonized RO QP and the first with a leap year indication. Introduced in 1996 and produced in small batches through roughly 2009, it captures a very specific moment: Switzerland emerging from the quartz crisis with...