Golay Spierer Mysterious Reverse Watch

Watchmakers Golay Spierer may not have the brand recognition of many of their Swiss peers but they are an old name and true artisans and craftspeople, not unlike Philippe Dufour and Kari Voutilainen.

In November 2008, Golay Spierer introduced the world to the work of Swiss architect Angelo Lo Giudice in the form of a watch that stands timekeeping on its head.

The watch emerged from a challenge Golay Spierer laid out: to create a watch where the automatic movement was reversed, the winding mechanism crosses over the entire calibre and a clutch reset system. Such a watch has been created by Giudice.

Instead of marking the precise time of the day, this watch displays the amount of time that has passed – and it does so anticlockwise.

Unofficially the world’s only watch to actually display time anticlockwise, this view of time was very important to Giudice. To accomplish his goal, Giudice used a Soprod A10 automatic movement, suspended by glass (you can see the three pins that hold it in place in the image), that effectively turns the mechanism upside down.

Thus, winding is accomplished by the rather large ratchet visible at 12 o’clock. One sets the time via the rest mechanism on the caseback, which simply brings it all back to zero. With such an interesting working watch, we shall surely give it our full attention in due course.

Manufacture Contemporaine du Temps Sequential One

Late in 2008, Swiss watch brand Manufacture Contemporaine du Temps burst onto the watchmaking scene with the Sequential One. Dedicated to unconventional ways of telling time, the brand is the brainchild of Denis Giguet, formerly in charge of development at Harry Winston for the Opus series.
The Opus connection extends to master watchmaker Jerome Marcu and watch designer Eric Giroud, who is also responsible for the Horological Machine No. 1 from MB&F. With the Sequential One, the trio simultaneously confirms their own legacies and vision for the future.

The Sequential One is a square 45mm time-only watch, with seconds display via the caseback. There are major innovations here in the display of hours and minutes. No, it is not an outsized hour disc and retrograde minute hand.
In this visual, the time is 9:22. The hours are displayed at the 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock positions, with the markers at these positions showing a fixed set of numerals. On the hour, the minute disc rotates anti-clockwise, revealing the next hour and positioning the minute hand at zero once more. In the case of this visual, 10 o’clock will be displayed at the 6 o’clock position.

Montblanc Grand Tourbillon Heures Mysterieuses

Luxury brand Montblanc celebrates its partnership with Institut Minerva de Reherche en Haute Horlogerie (Minerva) with a very special watch to mark Minerva’s 150th anniversary: the Grand Tourbillon Heures Mysterieuses, under the Villeret 1858 Collection.

The product of years of development – CAD drawings of this watch began going public in 2005 – this watch features the best of both traditional technique and contemporary methods. Featuring an extremely large balance wheel (14.5mm in diameter), this is the first tourbillon born out of the Minerva-Montblanc partnership.

The watch itself is some 47mm in diameter and 14.4mm thick. It is available in platinum (one piece), red gold (eight pieces) and white gold (eight pieces).

Richard Lange “Pour le Mérite”

Watchmakers A. Lange & Söhne advance the pursuit of mechanical chronometry at the SIHH 2009 with the release of a time-only watch with a fusée-and-chain transmission system.

The new Richard Lange “Pour le Mérite” is the third watch from the Glashutte watchmaking brand to sport this system, the last one being the Turbograph.

On the surface, the watch is deceptively simple, although the three-part enamel dial is difficult to execute. Below this, the fusée-and-chain system improves the rate of the watch by keeping the flow of power to the escapement consistent.

The Richard Lange “Pour le Mérite” shows how this transmission system can address the issue of loss of torque in the winding train. In fact, it presents a startlingly simple solution to improving the rate of the balance, arguably doing a better job than the majority of conventional tourbillons.

This system is also much rarer than the tourbillon in the wristwatch. The watch is a limited edition, available in red gold (200 pieces) and platinum (50 pieces).

Rolex Everose Cosmograph Daytona

Montres Rolex S.A. recently announced an 18ct Everose gold version of their iconic Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona. Usually, the release of a model in a new color or metal would not make waves but then again, this is Rolex and this is the Daytona, possibly the single most desirable chronograph in the world.

Everose is what Rolex calls its rose gold alloy and it is the most stable version of this alloy currently available. Chlorinated water reacts with the copper in the alloy of traditional rose gold and breaks it down, stripping the metal of its luster. Not so with the Everose, making this watch truly pool-friendly.

As with all other current production Daytona watches, this one is powered by the automatic 4130 Rolex proprietary movement, is equipped with the exclusive Parachrom hairspring, has 72 hours of power reserve, features column-wheel chronograph with vertical clutch and is water resistant to 100 meters.

Look out for the trademark tachometer scale on the fixed bezel and the Oysterlock clasp on the bracelet. Additionally, the 40mm watch also features the usual triplock crown and screwed-down chronograph pushers.

Shu Qi for Frédérique Constant in China
Taiwanese star Shu Qi is Frédérique Constant’s Chinese Ambassador for the Ladies Collection. Frédérique Constant CEO Peter Stas announced this at the Frédérique Constant Passion Event 2008 at the Meilanfang Theatre in Beijing, China.

Jaeger-LeCoultre unveils new Aston Martin watches

Renowned Swiss watchmaker Jaeger-LeCoultre has now come up with three new watch models that will surely interest James Bond fans. The company partnered with Aston Martin back in 2004 and the first offering from the duo was the AMVOX1 watch. The first watch in the line launched now is the AMVOX2 DBS Transponder watch, which integrates the transponder circuit into its body, serving to lock and unlock the luxury sports car, while maintaining the functions of its famous vertical-trigger mechanism. The DBS car owner simply needs to press the Open and Close position on the watch glass to open or lock the vehicle. It features no push buttons. Instead, the vertical trigger system of mechanical levers patented by Jaeger-LeCoultre allows the chronograph to be started, stopped and reset by pressing the sapphire crystal.

<<BACK   NEXT>>