Buying Guide: Six Watches That Double Down On The Balance Wheel
Each and every we serve up a selection of watches based on a common feature in our Buying Guide, and this week is no different. But instead of looking at elements such as colour, size, material or even type of watch (dress, sports, pilot, diver, etc.), we take a more technical approach for this instalment. Harnessing the pioneering spirit and groundbreaking work of historic watchmakers such as Abraham Louis Breguet, Ferdinand Berthoud and Antide Janvier, or even the principle of resonance first discovered by Christiaan Huygens, each of these six watches double-down on the balance wheel. Instead of settling for just one regulating organ, they feature two of them which work together to improve accuracy and stability.?Czapek Place Vend?me CompliciteFor the Geneva Watch Days 2023, Czapek revealed its next watchmaking chapter, the brilliant Place Vend?me Complicite. Developed in collaboration with Bernhard Lederer, the Complicite uses two regulators coupled with a miniature differential. Th

The Sound of Time - An introduction to alarm, hour-strike, repeater, musical and other chiming watches - Monochrome Watches
You wish to see; listen. Hearing is a step towards vision Bernard de ClairvauxThe word clock comes from Middle Dutch clocke, itself deriving from late Latin clocca, meaning bell. The first mechanical clocks did not have faces but were solely striking timekeepers. The days were divided considering the chime of these bells, as mechanized timekeeping spread through Medieval Europe, during the 14th century. As timepieces became portable, the watch was born, at first carried in the pocket, then strapped to the wrist. The French word for watch montre also means to show. Our watches show the time on their dial. But beyond the regular tick-tock orchestrating their sophisticated mechanisms, some watches still make time audible. In this new?installment of A Technical Perspective, we’re going to look at?alarm, hour-strike, repeater, musical and other chiming watches, in other words, The Sound of Time.Alarm watches Modern versions of two of the most iconic alarm wristw

Industry News: Vacheron Constantin Launches its CPO Programme
Certified Pre-Owned, also known as CPO, has gained great traction over the past few years, with more and more brands exploring the concept. The second-hand market for watches is growing steadily, with a current value in the region of CHF 20 billion and consulting firm?Deloitte saying it could be worth CHF 35 billion by 2030. It is thus with great interest that brands such as or Longines, as well as large-scale retailers such as Bucherer, have started their own CPO programmes. It is now time for Vacheron Constantin to join the growing list of brands, with the idea to offer “pre-owned watches that meet the highest quality standards” and “carefully inspected and certified by Vacheron Constantin.”While it isn’t new for Vacheron Constantin to offer older watches for sale through its boutiques – VC already has a collection of restored vintage watches available for sale through “Les Collectionneurs” – this time the brand expands the conc

Hands-On - The New Series of Accessible Merci Instruments LMM-01
There is no denying the importance of the microbrand scene in the past couple of years. We’ve seen so many new projects coming on stage and some with a pretty impressive sense of design. Fresh, unique, disruptive or, on the contrary, highly classical, there’s room for many new actors. Well, today we’ll be talking about a trio of watches that such a microbrand could have made… Except that behind Merci Instruments is an entity that is miles away from the watchmaking scene. And yet, the three new Merci Instruments LMM-01 you see here are clearly timepieces?in a noble version of the word.?Here’s a slightly personal and rather funny story. Merci is what you could name a concept store, a retail experience that isn’t focused on a single typology of product but more on a selection of products that could fit together as an ensemble. The goal of Merci Paris was originally to gather emerging brands and designers and collect funds for non-profitable organisation

Introducing the Oris Carl Brashear Limited Edition - specs and price - Monochrome Watches
I bet you still remember the Oris Divers Sixty-Five, the?charming vintage-inspired diver’s watch that the brand introduced early last year. Today we’re introducing a watch that was inspired on the Divers Sixty-Five: the same shaped case, crown, domed sapphire crystal, however it’s 2 mm larger! And instead of a steel case with ceramic black bezel, now the case and bezel are completely made of bronze. The new timepiece?–?limited to only 2,000 pieces –?is dedicated to the first?African-American who became a US Navy Master Diver. Here’s the stunning Oris Carl Brashear Limited Edition.?The Oris Carl Brashear is actually the very first bronze watch that Oris has made since its inception in 1904! Bronze is a naturally aging material, and an interesting tidbit is that those huge diving helmets in the 1950’s were made of copper – hang in there for the relation with copper. As we already said, the design of this new watch has many parallels with?th