Posts Tagged ‘Independent Watchmaking’
Sylvain Pinaud Origine ‘Ste Croix’
Sylvain Pinaud is one of the more recent guard of independent watchmaking, one can be easily forgiven if the name is unfamiliar. His work is of a very high bar, both in being design led but with masterful quality. Pinaud’s story differs from many of the more recent independents in a long career, working first…
Read MorePhilippe Dufour Duality
One of the ten Dufour Dualities ever made has surfaced and you can’t expect us not to point this out. What’s interesting here is that it’s on the market at all, but more on that later. While renown primarily for his superhuman finishing ability, Philippe Dufour first built his name in complication (much like Rexhep)…
Read MoreDe Bethune DB25 Perpetual Calendar
You wouldn’t guess it at a glance, but this is a perpetual calendar. It’s just a perpetual calendar in titanium with a spherical palladium/zirconium moonphase and day/month apertures in a place you might not expect. There’s an inherent paradox here. Denis Flageollet has had some pretty audacious cases and designs over the years. This isn’t…
Read MoreMeteorite Dial Laurent Ferrier Galet Traveller
Meteorites are perpetually traveling, searching around through spacetime before eventually striking a larger body like Earth. Now, there are surprisingly few elegant-refined leaning GMT offerings. There are endless GMT/travel watches which scream, ‘I’m a professional doing serious things, manly tool watch things.’ But really only a handful that offer old-style Pan-Am easy smile and sophistication…
Read MoreDB8 De Bethune Monopusher Chronograph, Pink Gold
In 1989, when independent watchmaker was more a slur rather than ambitious height, there was a company called THA. THA (short for Applied Watchmaking Techniques in French) was founded by a young FP Journe, Vianney Halter, and Denis Flageollet of De Bethune, eventually including Nicolas Court of Janvier SA. The trio were an ambitious set,…
Read MoreHaldimann H1 Flying Central Tourbillon
There’s no CNC machine at Haldimann, an independent whose philosophy is about as far from Rolex as watchmaking gets. The most modern machine they have is an optical microscope from the ’60s. I suspect if you showed an iPhone to Beat Haldimann he’d shout witchcraft and report you to the church immediately. Haldimann’s workshop and…
Read MoreKikuchi Nakagawa Murakumo
Japanese independent watchmaking has blossomed in the last 5 years like few areas of watchmaking. From Norifumi Seki’s independent display watch to Asaoka’s gorgeous Tourbillon Noir, there’s a wealth of personality being expressed in metal. One, though, has recently enjoyed the brightest spotlight of all thanks to Ed Sheeran and John Mayer saying this is,…
Read MoreCharles Frodsham Double Impulse Chronometer
It’s not often discussed in these terms, but in the very early days of watchmaking, before even pocket watches were commonplace, the Swiss looked toward the English as the more established regional watchmaking industry. It was only after John Calvin banned things like dancing and the wearing of jewelry that the Swiss turned their focus…
Read MoreVoutilainen Vingt-8, Titanium
This is one of the most unusual Voutilainens I’ve ever seen surface and it’s not like there are many I get to talk about to begin with. The Vingt-8 is Kari’s aesthetic sense, distilled. What the Chronomètre Bleu is to FP, the Vingt-8 is to Kari. Only this Vingt-8 is in titanium with a space…
Read MoreH37 Roger Dubuis Hommage Perpetual Calendar
Early Roger Dubuis is often compared to Patek Philippe, which is a telling thing in itself. But RD’s detractors will often ask, ‘Why not just buy the original?’ It’s a sentiment I entirely sympathize with, the imitation of anything is rarely on par with its inspiration (particularly off-brand Doritos). But some early RD is distinct…
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