Swiss Watch Exports Down Feb 2020, And Expected to Plunge Due to Coronavirus
The FHS, the Swiss Watch Federation, just released its export statistics for the month of February 2020, and, as you might expect, these are down. The value of exports contracted by 9.2% to CHF 1.6 billion. But, this does not even reflect the severe and jittery situation on the market provoked by the Coronavirus Pandemic. If exports were down 51% to China and down 42% to Hong Kong, shipments to the US were still up 17.8%, as the epidemic had not yet hit that country. The same situation is visible in Germany (+7.3%), France (+12.6%) and Italy (+5.0%). The Coronavirus Pandemic, as of March 2020, has now spread globally and this is just the beginning of the downturn for Swiss watch exportsNaturally, Coronavirus is first and foremost a health problem, but second an economic one. The luxury industry, including the Swiss watch industry, is expected to be amongst the hardest-hit sectors. Consumer consumption has collapsed as many countries are now under complete lockdown. Billions of luxury s

IWC Debuts The Portugieser Yacht Club Chronograph Summer Edition Along With a Collection of New Fabric Straps - Monochrome Watches
Summer is here and with it comes warm weather, trips to the beach and afternoons on the open water. IWC has just introduced a summer edition of their Portugieser Yacht Club Chronograph series with a nod to our warmest season. This is the latest edition of the Portugieser Yacht Club Chronographs, with previous models such as the Ocean Racer dedicated to the Volvo Ocean Race, an intense sailing race around the world. This year's models have a more casual demeanour and would fit in with a short sleeve shirt and board shorts, or a nice afternoon sailing down a swath of the Atlantic coast.A deep blue dial with white sub-dials and a red stopwatch hand (and a few red accents) have a maritime vibe, along with a water-friendly blue rubber strap. The sub-dial at 12 o'clock is the chrono minute and hour counter, while the one at 6 o'clock is the sweeping seconds with a stop mechanism (hacking). This unique chronograph counter positioning is due to the IWC in-house chronograph calibre?89361, but m

Longines Timepieces in Bathyscaphe Trieste And On The Wrist of Piccard
We, human beings, have a fascination for exploration. We are pioneers, adventurers and mostly, we’re curious to know everything about our planet and what’s around it. Man has travelled through space, has been on the Moon, flew in ultra-fast planes, and also explored the deepest point on planet Earth, Challenger Deep near the?Mariana Trench. On 23 January 1960, swiss oceanographer Jacques Piccard and US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh were the first crew to reach the bottom of the Challenger Deep, a story well known by watch enthusiasts, thanks to the involvement of in the project. But what is far less known is the presence of Longines timepieces, both onboard the Trieste, and on the wrist of Piccard himself (at least in the first record dive of 1953). And today, with a bit of help from the Longines Museum, we give you more details about this Longines x Piccard connection.?Piccard, father and sonBehind the story of the Trieste and all the subsequent record dives to finally reach

Tudor Baselworld 2019 - Tudor Predictions 2019 - Tudor Novelties 2019
Following the publication a few days ago of our 2019 Predictions, we keep the tradition alive and now take a closer look at sister company Tudor. We’ve done it already in the past, with our predictions in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and in 2018?– some were pretty accurate, some not so much. This year, however, we had (unintentional) help from Tudor itself, thanks?to a teaser on its Instagram feed – and, you know us, that gave us some ideas about what Tudor might be unveiling at Baselworld 2019… Did we hear an OysterDate Submariner?79090 revival?A recent post on Tudor’s Instagram feed, revealing a close-up of a triangular-shaped marker at 9 o’clock followed by the words What’s next? Just two months to go to Baselworld for more #TudorWatch #Baselworld2019,?really got us thinking. See the post in question below: Ad - Scroll to continue with article

Rado True Square Open Heart Silver Highlights
Rado is synonymous with trendy design-led watches and high-tech ceramic, a material the brand has been playing with since the 1990s. Last year Rado introduced the True Square Automatic, a slinky, smooth, high-tech ceramic model with openworked and regular dials. For 2021, Rado introduces a subtle colour variation on the openworked model, now with silvery grey accents. All the other specifications are identical to the 2020 version.Square ceramic watchesThe Rado Ceramica of 1990 was the brand's first square watch made from high-tech ceramic. Its sleek geometry and minimalism established the aesthetic we associated with Rado's ceramic watches. In 1988, the Ceramica was treated to another derivation of ceramic known as high-tech plasma ceramic, and in 2016 industrial designer Konstantin Grcic re-imagined the Ceramica in stark matte grey and black ceramic. ?As a sibling of the Ceramica, the True Square is obviously square but attenuates the rigid geometry of the square case with gently roun