Watches NEWS
History of the Pilot Watch Part II - Zenith Montre dAeronef Type 20 - Monochrome Watches
The Wright Brothers and Alberto Santos ushered in the golden age of aviation as well as the Pilot Watch (as we told you in the History of Pilot Watches Part 1), and Louis Bleriot assumed their mantle.? Once it was possible to fly, newborn pilots raised the goals, and people attempted to do the impossible, like flying across the English Channel.? These newly minted pilots, these fledgling birds, having just left the nest, were now trying to write their names in the record books.? Bleriot succeeded, and Zenith was there, forever establishing the fusion of horology and flight. The prize to fly across the English Channel was 1,000 pounds - adjusted for inflation, a tidy sum in any age.? The French newspaper Le Matin disparaged the contest by declaring that there was no chance of a pilot winning the prize; the attempt was unreasonable.In 1909 with a Zenith strapped to his wrist, Bleriot crossed 31 miles of open water, stretching from horizon to horizon.? The flight from Calais to Dover last
Habring2 Doppel-Felix (by the man who created the IWC Doppelchronograph) - Monochrome Watches
In 2012 Habring2 introduced the Doppel 2.0, an affordable split-seconds chronograph based on a Valjoux 7750 chronograph. This was the same recipe that Richard Habring once developed for IWC Schaffhausen, which initially incorporated this movement in the Pilot Doppel Chronograph and later in other watches. When the patent expired, in 2012, Richard Habring was free to use this complication in watches with the Habring2 name on the dial, and that led to the Habring2 Doppel 2.0. In 2013 the Doppel 3.0 was introduced and last year?Habring2 presented the new Doppel-Felix that comes with an in-house split-seconds chronograph from Austria. Here’s the?Habring2 Doppel-Felix!?The Doppel 2.0 was an immediate success when it was launched. It sold out almost instantly and won the Sports Watch Prize at the 2012 GPHG.?A year later, Habring2 introduced the Doppel 3.0 (see here for the review) – again, a great success for Maria and Richard Habring. Now, with the Doppel-Felix, they have added
In-Depth: Diving With The New Aquastar Model 60
Aquastar made a name for itself in the early 1960s as one of the first purveyors of purpose-built dive watches. Starting as a company that made watches and other maritime instruments, it became one of the most well-known watch brands for serious SCUBA divers and underwater professionals. It found a certain type of fame on the wrists of everyone from Jacques Cousteau’s team of explorers to US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh, who wore an Aquastar while aboard the bathyscaphe Trieste for his pioneering journey to the bottom of Challenger Deep at a record-breaking depth of 10,911 metres (for the record, the Deep Sea Special was strapped outside, some Longines stopwatches were onboard, and Walsh was wearing an Aquastar). After a bit of a lull during the quartz crisis, Aquastar was revived in 2020 by none other than Rick Marei, the man famous for rejuvenating another esoteric dive watch brand, Doxa. Today, we take the brand’s latest creation underwater, the Aquastar Model 60, a tribu
Hands-On - Ulysse Nardin Rainbow Collection 2022 (Specs & Price)
Colour is the new protagonist at many watch brands, often making up for a lack of novelties but admittedly bringing a more lighthearted mood to the scene. As you will have noticed, classical black and silver dials are being replaced with bolder and bolder colours. Ulysse Nardin rides this trend during Geneva Watch Days with the launch of two 39mm Lady Diver models and a 45mm Blast Tourbillon, both with an unexpected twist. Instead of applying colour to the dial, UN decks the bezel with an array of multi-coloured gemstones designed to evoke the shimmering colours of its breakthrough silicium escapement. As the first brand to introduce an escapement with silicium components inside the 2001 Freak, UN takes inspiration from the iridescent rainbow of colours produced by the material.SiliciumUlysse Nardin will go down in history as a pioneer of silicium components in watchmaking. Since the early 2000s, silicium has become a promising material for watchmaking thanks to its non-magnetic qualit
Mido introduces the Ocean Star Tribute Gradient with striking red dial
Let’s say that you are looking for a robust dive watch with 200-metre water resistance from a brand with bona fide dive credentials but don’t fancy wearing a hockey puck on your wrist. Oh, and you wouldn’t mind a touch of retro flair, and why not, a trendy gradient dial, a day/date function, a practically indestructible movement, and a price that will still let you rent some scuba diving gear. Well, look no further because Mido’s latest Ocean Star Tribute Gradient answers all these prerequisites, an all-inclusive deal for all terrains.Founded in 1918, Mido was a precursor of the waterproof wristwatch. Thanks to its Aquadura crown sealing system of 1930, with a cork gasket on the crown to prevent water and dust from entering the movement, Mido was known as the “King of the Waterproof”. In 1934, the Multifort appeared, a robust, automatic, anti-magnetic watch with built-in water and shock resistance that would become a best seller through to the 1950s.
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