Tourbillon

Haute Utilité: Spotlighting Richard Mille’s Most “Practical” High Complications

The difference between Richard Mille and every other watch manufacturer that works with brand “ambassadors” can perhaps best be summed up in a visual from the sporting world of tennis. Picture a Grand Slam final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Federer’s left wrist is bare; his signature Rolex is hastily strapped on only in...

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Jan 20, 2022 by Mark Bernardo

Inspired by Ancestry: Exploring the Blancpain Villeret Collection

Blancpain’s Villeret collection channels the haute horlogerie roots of the world’s oldest watchmaking brand and continues to innovate with an array of grand and practical complications. We explore the collection’s origins, as well as its historical and modern highlights, in this feature from the WatchTime archives. The author Thomas Wolfe is often credited with coining...

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Jan 13, 2022 by Mark Bernardo

Bovet Partners with Automobili Pininfarina to Roll Out the Supercar-Inspired Battista Tourbillon

Bovet is not a watchmaker that is known for a flurry of new releases. It’s the nature of the haute horologerie end of the market, which Bovet inhabits, to focus on making timepieces that are ultra-luxurious in their details, design, and finishing as well as more limited in their production. That said, all brands need...

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Jan 12, 2022 by Caleb Anderson

A Horological Tribute to the Master of Light: Vacheron Constantin Les Cabinotiers Westminster Sonnerie – Tribute to Johannes Vermeer

Vermeer’s most famous painting is now part of a bespoke single-piece edition. The Les Cabinotiers Westminster Sonnerie from Vacheron Constantin is powered by a new 806-part manual winding movement, regulated by a tourbillon and comprising grande and petite sonnerie Westminster chimes, coupled with a minute repeater. Johannes Vermeer (October 1632 – December 1675) painted the...

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Jan 10, 2022 by Roger Ruegger

Clockwork Orange: Five Watches With Orange Dials, Details, and Straps

As watches continue to embrace a wider range of color options for their dial, straps, and other details, orange remains relatively scarce in the expanding spectrum, though undeniably appealing to a core of loyal fans. Here are five timepieces where orange tones dominate. HUBLOT BIG BANG TOURBILLON AUTOMATIC ORANGE SAPPHIRE Hublot takes pride in...

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Jan 4, 2022 by Mark Bernardo

2021, The Watch Year in Review: Seven Tantalizing Tourbillons

By almost any standard, the luxury watch world enjoyed a successful year in 2021 despite the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and its worldwide economic consequences — with high-profile retailers reopening and expanding, new auction records set, some large-scale industry events (like our own WatchTime New York) returning, and of course, a host of...

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Dec 31, 2021 by Mark Bernardo

Ready for a Week and More: Blancpain Launches the Updated Fifty Fathoms Tourbillon 8 Jours

Blancpain’s famed Fifty Fathoms collection is known today as one of the brand’s most utilitarian design families. However, in addition to the collection’s practical, dive-focused wearability, it’s also become a series known for its sense of refined luxury. At this past fall’s WatchTime New York event, for example, the brand showcased one of its more...

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Dec 22, 2021 by Caleb Anderson

Defiant Transparency: Zenith’s Defy Zero-G and Defy 21 Double Tourbillon Sapphire Editions

On the heels of copping the Chronograph Watch Prize at the 2021 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie Genève for its boldly dynamic Chronomaster Sport, Zenith returned to its avant-garde Defy collection, namely two of its most highly complicated denizens, to introduce its first sapphire-cased watches since 2014’s wildly experimental Pilot Type 20 Grand Feu. Here is what...

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Dec 8, 2021 by Mark Bernardo

Whirlwind Romance: The 220-Year History of the Tourbillon

From its utilitarian roots in the 19th century, the tourbillon has evolved in the modern era to become the ultimate expression of watchmakers’ technical prowess and avant-garde creativity. We trace its fascinating two-century-plus evolution in this feature from the WatchTime archives. Throughout the centuries-long history of timekeeping, mechanisms originally developed for entirely practical purposes have...

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Nov 28, 2021 by Mark Bernardo

Overseas Mission: The History and Evolution of the Vacheron Constantin Overseas

Vacheron Constantin’s sport-luxury Overseas collection, tracing its roots to an anniversary model in the 1970s, has become a versatile and resolutely modern cornerstone of the historical maison’s portfolio. The mid-1970s are widely regarded as a regrettable era for fashion, but one fashion accessory, the wristwatch, was having what is now acknowledged as a renaissance. More...

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Nov 23, 2021 by Mark Bernardo

School Project: Spotlighting the Glashütte Original Alfred Helwig Tourbillon 1920

Glashütte Original’s Alfred Helwig Tourbillon 1920 pays tribute to the legendary Saxon schoolmaster who invented the flying tourbillon, on the occasion of the device’s 100th anniversary in 2020. It was the Swiss who invented the tourbillon, but it was a German who taught it to fly. One of the most significant horological inventions of the...

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Nov 18, 2021 by Mark Bernardo

Breguet Classique Tourbillon Extra-Plat Anniversaire 5365 Celebrates 220 Years of the Tourbillon

The year was 1801 when French-Swiss watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet secured the patent for his invention, the tourbillon, which took its name from the French word for “whirlwind” and was described by its creator as the “watch compensating for all of the inequalities that may be found in the balance wheel and mainspring.” Since then, the...

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Nov 12, 2021 by WatchTime

PORTFOLIO

Transitional Solutions: Six Watches with Gradient Dials

All of a sudden, they’re everywhere — watches with colorful gradient dials that transition from a pale hue in the center to a dark one at the periphery. In this excerpt from our upcoming WatchTime Design Issue 2020, on sale October 29, we offer you some highlights.

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Nov 8, 2021 by Alexander Krupp

Showing at WatchTime New York 2021: Bovet 1822 Virtuoso VIII Chapter Two DLC-SLN

Bovet this year has made major headlines in 2021 with the announcement of its collaboration with Rolls-Royce and the subsequent release of a bespoke, dashboard mounted timepieces. Then, not two months after that captivating announcement, the maison returned to its stock-in-trade of producing luxurious, horologically complex mechanisms for the wrist with the release of the Virtuoso VIII Chapter Two...

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Oct 15, 2021 by WatchTime

Showing at WatchTime New York 2021: Greubel Forsey GMT Sport

Positioned to be the most significant North American luxury watch event of the year, WatchTime New York 2021 is only weeks away, and anticipation is growing. Among more than 25 participating brands showcasing rare and new-to-market timepieces is Greubel Forsey, returning to Midtown Manhattan’s Gotham Hall on October 22-24 and set to showcase the updated...

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Oct 10, 2021 by Caleb Anderson

Grand Seiko: A Constant Force in Watchmaking

During the past six decades, Grand Seiko has constantly been pursuing the creation of the world’s most accurate wristwatch, pushing the development of quartz, mechanical and Spring Drive movements. Now, the Japanesegiant is ready to finally enter the haute horlogerie segment. In September 2020, Seiko Watch Corporation revealed the T-zero Constant-force Tourbillon (abbreviated as “T0”)...

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Oct 8, 2021 by Roger Ruegger

Showing at WatchTime New York 2021: Carl F. Bucherer Manero Minute Repeater Symphony

Since launching its first proprietary caliber, with its innovative peripherally mounted winding rotor, in the Manero Peripheral timepiece back in 2008, Carl F. Bucherer has adopted “peripheral” design as its technical stock-in-trade. In 2018, the Lucerne-based watchmaker launched a timepiece with a world’s-first “floating” peripheral tourbillon, and this year it took the concept to its...

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Oct 4, 2021 by WatchTime

Girard-Perregaux Celebrates its 230th Anniversary with a Revival of its Tourbillon with Three Gold Bridges

In 1867, Girard-Perregaux launched the first Tourbillon with Three Gold Bridges, a timepiece that has attained iconic status in the modern day and a longtime symbol of the venerable Swiss watch maison. What its inventor, brand founder Constant Girard, accomplished with that historic timepiece was to bring to the forefront three functional parts of the...

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Sep 4, 2021 by WatchTime

Celebrating 175 Years, Ulysse Nardin Expands Marine Torpilleur Collection with Seven New Models

Swiss watchmaker Ulysse Nardin turns 175 years old this year, and the brand has used the milestone to great effect, launching numerous new timepieces in commemoration, including the Diver X Skeleton, Lemon Shark, and Blast Hourstriker, among many others. This week, at Geneva Watch Days, Ulysse Nardin marks its founding year with its largest set...

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Aug 30, 2021 by Caleb Anderson

Bovet Marches Toward Multicolor Modernity with Virtuoso VIII Chapter Two DLC-SLN Collection

Earlier this year, Fleurier-based Bovet made major headlines with the announcement of its collaboration with Rolls-Royce and the subsequent release of a bespoke, dashboard mounted timepieces. Following up that creation, the maison returns to its stock-in-trade of producing luxurious, horologically complex mechanisms for the wrist with the release of the new Virtuoso VIII Chapter Two...

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Aug 11, 2021 by Caleb Anderson

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