Five independent watchmakers that got rid of the conventional crown
The humble little crown. At first glance, it doesn't look all that impressive. Each watch has one, right? And they all pretty much do the same: wind and set a watch. Sure, it can look a little different from brand to brand and watch to watch but today's crown system remains fairly unchanged for almost 180 years. There are watchmakers, however, who seek to get rid of this protruding little knob that digs into your wrist every now and then, possibly causing you discomfort. With that in mind, we take a look at five watches that offer a different solution to the age-old conventional crown.The history of the crown on today's watches can be traced back to John Arnold, who first developed a crown for winding and setting a watch. Over time this was perfected by illustrious watchmakers like Abraham-Louis Breguet and Louis Audemars. In 1844, Adrien Philippe (one half of Patek Philippe), invented and patented the keyless winding system as we pretty much know it today. This would replace most of a

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.

Video Review: The New Oris Aquis Date Compared to the Old Model
Evolution, not revolution. It’s a well-known strategy that has been applied by so many brands, and not just in the watch industry. The idea of gradually updating/upgrading your most emblematic product without drastically changing it is at the heart of the success of icons such as the Porsche 911, the iPhone, the Nike Air Max and, of course, watches such as the Submariner or the Speedmaster. With the idea of maintaining the emblematic status of a watch, but also improving what can be improved, Oris is applying this evolution-driven strategy to its best-seller dive watch, the contemporary Aquis Date collection. What’s new? What has changed? What has been kept? We have a closer look at this in our latest video review and in this article.?What has changed in a nutshellBecause the differences between the new Oris Aquis Date and the old model are visually hard to spot for a non-trained eye, here’s a quick summary of what to expect with the 2024 collection, before we move to

Introducing the Laurent Ferrier Galet Square with Sector Dial, a unique piece for Only Watch 2015 - Monochrome-Watches
Only Watch?is certainly one of the best examples of how charity and watches can come together and create stupendous things. Twice a year, this event is firstly an occasion to support?an important cause - funding the?Monaco Association against Muscular Dystrophy - and also to discover unique pieces from the most prestigious watch brands. Several announcements this year: one concerns the auction itself and the rest will concern the watches offered. First one to pull the trigger and release their one of a kind piece is: Laurent Ferrier, which comes with just the nicest edition ever seen of the Galet Square, with a sector dial –?a unique piece for Only Watch 2015.First of all, the main novelty about?Only Watch this year concerns the auction itself. The bi-annual auction?will be held in Geneva (instead of Monaco) this fall and will be hosted by Phillips Auction (instead of Antiquorum), meaning that behind the hammer, we’ll find no one else than Mister Aurel Bacs (from Bacs and R

Citizen to introduce their first Tourbillon Watch for 300th Anniversary of Daimaru Department Store - Monochrome Watches
Citizen, that other Japanese watch brand, is about the introduce its?very first tourbillon watch. Yes, you read it correctly, this is not a typo. The Citizen Tourbillon Y01 will be launched next month, and will be exclusively available (and made for) the 300th anniversary of department store chain Daimaru. An interesting detail is that the watch, and its tourbillon movement, shows a lot of resemblance to?a tourbillon made by Japanese independent watchmaker?Hajime Asaoka.?Of course we’ll report more when the official news arrives, however we had to share this news with you after we read it on a local watch forum, who got the news from our colleague SJX (see here). The news was originally published by WWD Japan and they state that the new tourbillon from Citizen will be available for approx. $ 90,000 USD. This certainly isn’t a bargain, not even considering the fact that it’s a tourbillon. Montblanc sets the price for their ExoTourbillon Slim at € 35.000 EUR, and earlie