Buying Guide - Highlights From The Geneva Watch Days 2020
With the cancellation of Baselworld and Watches & Wonders, the Geneva Watch Days event was one of the very few multi-brand watch events of the year. Seventeen brands? showcased their novelties between August 26 and August 29 in the “capital of luxury watchmaking”. The event was decentralised as each brand was presenting novelties in their individual showrooms. We masked up and ventured to Geneva to get a long-awaited horological fix! Here are some of our highlight watches.Ferdinand Berthoud Chronometre FB 2REFerdinand Berthoud's first-round model will be one of the watches of the year. Although the brand's focus remains the same – precision chronometry – the second Berthoud collection comes with a new case and a new calibre. The Chronometre FB 2RE picks up the shape of Berthoud marine clocks and their modular construction. It is based on a cylindrical container fitted with short, tapering lugs secured to the case by stylised bolts. Time is displayed on a tra

Chopard L.U.C Louis-Ulysse - The Tribute - Monochrome Watches
There has been a much publicized concern within the watch industry about over reliance on one or two key suppliers of components. Some companies have addressed this by purchasing their own case makers, developing their own movements and seeking greater independence.?Chopard, the family owned concern, has sought vertical integration, with virtually all components being made in- house.?I recently toured one of their production facilities in Meyrin on the outskirts of Geneva. The breadth of skills within the company is staggering. They even have their own foundry where ingots of precious metals for case making are formed! Ad - Scroll to continue with article My admiration for Chopard's L.U.C models is immense. The finishing of the watches surpasses many timepieces with greater brand awareness. Several of the watches bear the Poin?on de Geneve, the Hallmark of Genev

Interview - Josh Shapiro on Becoming an Integrated American Manufacture
Josh Shapiro seems like an unlikely person to help restore traditional watchmaking in the United States. He started as a pole vault coach and a school teacher before becoming the administrator of a private school. Growing up in a machine shop gave him an appreciation for metals and working with his hands, and a flashy Chronoswiss Opus poster in a local shop helped spark his interest in watchmaking. With some formal training, a lot of practice with ETA 6498 movements and a passion to work with his hands, Josh Shapiro began producing watch dials and found an industry legend as a mentor, David Walter. Now in a new atelier in Inglewood, California, Josh produces luxury, custom pieces and is putting the final touches on an in-house, hand-wound calibre with a tourbillon moon phase also in the works. His current collection is called the Infinity Series.?Josh Shapiro with an antique engine turning machineJ.N. Shapiro employs two additional watchmakers as Josh also continues his role as a schoo

Roger Dubuis adds colored stones to the Excalibur Spider Skeleton Flying Tourbillon - Monochrome Watches
What do we know about Roger Dubuis? Well, to make it short, Roger Dubuis is a proper?manufacture of Haute Horlogerie, creating extremely refined skeleton movements, and being the only brand to have its entire production stamped with the Hallmark of Geneva (and that alone must already give an indication of the beauty of the production…). Roger Dubuis is also a combination of complex mechanisms with a unique design, bold, sporty and clearly recognizable. Well, all of that can be seen in the latest addition to the catalogue, the?Roger Dubuis Excalibur Spider Skeleton Flying Tourbillon, which now receive colored stones incrusted in its rubber bezel.The Roger Dubuis Excalibur Spider Skeleton Flying Tourbillon is not?a new watch and its movement (by the way a properly magnificent movement, as we’ve seen here) has been seen already in several watches. That must not prevent us to take a look back at it. Roger Dubuis is first of all a great manufacture, producing superb movements, m

Introducing: The Tudor Black Bay Pro GMT Polar White dial
In 2022, we went as far as to consider the Tudor Black Bay Pro GMT the best tool watch we have seen that year, impressed by its cool design, ultra-robust construction and fair price. A perfect adventure watch, solid and legible, with a GMT complication for travellers - a do-it-all, wear-it-everywhere. This year, this Tudor model that does bear some resemblance to the Explorer II gets a polar dial, and that’s the news.The new version comes in the same 39mm case as the earlier reference, crafted from stainless steel with polished and satin-finished surfaces, waterproof to 200m, with a 24-hour fixed bezel, satin-brushed. The screw-down crown bears the Tudor rose logo, the domed sapphire crystal tops the case and the caseback is solid. Ad - Scroll to continue with article The domed opaline dial features applied ceramic hour indices with