Hands-On - Moritz Grossmann Atum Hamatic with Pendulum Winding System (Specs & Price)
The vast majority of mechanical watches available nowadays rely on a central oscillating weight to provide power to their movements. Of course, we see lots of variations on this theme - for instance the winching system of the Jacob & Co. Twin Turbo Furious, off-centred micro-rotors, peripheral rotors or even linear rotors. However, the principle is the same and originates?from early pendulum clocks.? To celebrate and bring the pendulum-style movement of clocks into the 21st?century, Moritz Grossmann presents the Atum Hamatic.BackgroundThe often overlooked manufacture of Moritz Grossmann, mentioned in our Germans do it better? article, produces some stellar watches with surprising complications and features that stand out from the crowd. And crowd is a relative term here, considering the fact the brand produces very low numbers of watches per year. The trademark Saxon style is present in almost every watch, with clean and legible dials and superbly finished movements. Moritz Grossma

24 Hours of Le Mans with Chopard Superfast Chrono Porsche 919 Edition - Monochrome Watches
Looking for a good weekend movie? We recommend Steve McQueen in the racing classic, Le Mans. Why? Not only for the stupendous lack of dialogue supplemented by engine roar, but also for the on-screen rivalry between McQueen's Porsche team and Ferrari. The real actors are a Porsche 917 and Ferrari 512. Porsche prototypes left the race in 1998, leaving a legacy of domination, and until this year, could only be seen at Le Mans in this movie.For the 2014, 24 hours of Le Mans race, the Porsche team reasserted themselves with the Porsche prototype 919 hybrid. Chopard commemorates Porsche's return to the race with its Superfast Chrono Porsche 919 Limited Edition. We previously introduced the entire Superfast collection, and the Porsche 919 Limited Edition with its incorporation of Porsche design elements celebrates motorsport in the spirit of Le Mans. Porsche is back, and Chopard's prescient Superfast Porsche 919 may be an omen of things to come. The watch is a statement of competitive enginee

Skeletonized to the MAX: Kees Engelbarts Bronze Organic Skeleton Tourbillon - Monochrome Watches
A few years ago Kees Engelbarts showed me photos of his latest creation that we covered here. I was baffled to see by what degree one could skeletonize a mechanical movement. In all honesty, I wasn’t sure whether I really liked it or was “just” very impressed by the incredible craftsmanship this takes. Last month I visited?Kees Engelbarts in Geneva, his home town, and got to see his latest creations. Now I knew I do like what I saw, and today we’re going to show you his highly skeletonized tourbillon watch, which also happens to be his first watch in bronze.?Skeleton vs. Open-WorkedI’m guessing that you have seen a few skeleton watches before. However the moniker “skeleton watches” is often used for so-called open-worked watches, as well as for true skeleton watches.?Before we go any further, let me briefly explain the difference. In short,?open-worked watches feature an entire movement, or at least some movement parts, that are partially open.

First Look: The Baltic MR Roulette Collection
Founded in 2017 by Etienne Malec and friends, Baltic continues its rapid expansion to the point of not being able to use the term micro-brand anymore… Now an established watch brand with a comprehensive collection, ranging from racing chronographs to dive watches and adventure-themed models, Baltic also ventured into the world of dress watches with success, releasing its Calatrava-inspired MR01 collection in 2021. It is now time for the first evolution of this watch as we’re discovering the new Baltic MR Roulette Collection, in a style that was teased a couple of years ago in a collaboration model.The new Baltic MR Roulette is basically a dial evolution of the classic MR01 model (with minor adjustments on the case too). As such, all the great ingredients of the original compact dress watch are kept intact. What it does is add the striking vintage roulette-styled, Patek-inspired dial of the collaboration with A Collected Man to the permanent collection. This art-deco, highly

Petrolhead Corner - Brawn GP, the Unlikeliest of Formula 1 Champions
Formula 1 eats up cash like there's no tomorrow, even to compete, let alone have a shot at winning the title. Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One team have dominated the sport for years now, yet this year's title race seems closer than ever. Close rivals Red Bull Racing have the German team in their crosshairs and are pushing hard with Dutchman Max Verstappen currently in the championship lead. It seems ages ago that shock race wins (and champions) were possible, but one season in modern history proves it is still very much possible. It just needs all the pieces of the puzzle to fall into the right place, as it did for the Brawn GP racing team in the 2009 Formula 1 season.Straight out the gates: Brawn GP is the ONLY Formula 1 constructor that has been around for one season only and crowned champion at the end of 17 races. No team before it, and no team since have been able to do that. And I must say that I expect no team ever to be able to repeat that. While the team's origins can be tra