Posts Tagged ‘Independent Watchmaking’
‘Hong Kong 10th Anniversary’ FP Journe Centigraphe Souverain
FP Journe knows how to celebrate a boutique opening. Remember the Byblos? This is Centigraphe equivalent, 1 of 20 made to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Hong Kong boutique. The Centigraphe is FP Journe’s approach to the chronograph complication, and while he’s most well-known for for constant force tourbillons or resonance, the Centigraphe speaks…
Read MorePrototype Number ‘000’ De Bethune DB8W S1
We need to talk about early De Bethune. Pre WatchBox majority stake purchase, pre spaceship case designs, pre tenuous Starry Varius puns. The very early DB series, call it roughly DB1 through DBS or 2002-2005, are quite unlike anything else in watchmaking. There are hints of what was to come, highly considered fonts and futurist…
Read MoreFP Journe Vagabondage III in Platinum
One of the things I most love about some of Journe’s work is that you get the feeling he was compulsively obsessed. There’s enjoying your work and then there’s being so captivated by your imagination that you can’t sleep. If you’ve ever been there, it’s actually kind of a lovely feeling. The Vagabondage series has…
Read MoreVoutilainen 28SC SB
There’s a reason every watchmaker under the sun is trying to get Kari to make dials for them. Names you wouldn’t expect like Gronefeld, Moritz Grossman, Petermann Bedat, Sylvain Pinaud, and many others have leveraged Voutilainen’s dial making arm, Comblémine, to great effect. Many have made the argument that this waters down Kari’s own work.…
Read MoreTime Æon Naissance d’Une Montre 2
As a general rule, Marvel movies bore the will to live out of me. I see a bunch of attractive people in tight clothing making jokes that all feel like they’ve been through several focus groups. Creative narrative does not tend to arise from these ingredients. However, it seems at various points in my life…
Read MoreFP Journe Chronomètre Optimum in Rose Gold
The French are efficient to the same extent that Germans are famed for riding down the street on a bicycle with a baguette under one arm, chainsmoking and being rude to foreigners; which is to say they’re generally not efficient at all. Nonetheless, our man from Marseille had the idea in 1980 to take some…
Read MoreMB&F x H. Moser LM101 Aqua Blue Fumé
‘A creative adult is a child who survived.’ The origins of this line are debated, thought to be first penned by Robin W. Winks, but in any case MB&F describe this tenet as central to their creative process. Their use was the first time I’d ever come across the quote, engraved on early cases. Last…
Read MoreSarpaneva Moomin Rose Gold Hands
Independents don’t necessarily have a monopoly on creativity, but it does increasingly seem like the small eponymous names are showing the Richemonts of the world how it’s done. This is particularly true of Stepan Sarpaneva, whose brilliance lies in just how much of his personality he’s able to suffuse throughout his watches. He is not…
Read MoreLyrique Étude N°1
Unless your idea of wild night out is casually browsing GPHG nominees with a negroni in hand (don’t worry, you’re in good company), you probably won’t have heard of Lyrique. They started last year and have made 70 watches in total, so don’t feel bad. Lyrique is really less a brand at this point and…
Read MoreMother of Pearl Dial 217QRS Voutilainen Retrograde Date
Only 30 217QRS, Karis’ Retrograde Date, have ever be made, in an even split of platinum, white gold and rose gold. But this? This is the very last one produced, 30. And the material combination here is something outrageous: teal mother of pearl dial, green guilloché hour track, and white gold case. It’s no surprise…
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