The May-June issue of WatchTime is on newsstands now (and also in the WatchTime online shop), featuring a comparative test of the Breitling Chronomat GMT Blacksteel and the Omega Speedmaster Professional Dark Side of the Moon, a showcase of milestone Breitling watches, and 39 highlight watches from the SIHH watch fair. Click here for highlights from the issue…
• In our cover test feature, “Dark Side vs. Black Steel,” Jens Koch pits two chronographs robed in black and boasting in-house movements — Breitling’s Chronomat GMT Blacksteel and Omega’s Speedmaster Dark Side of the Moon — against each other in a comprehensive comparison test. Marcus Krüger provides the original photography. (You may also download this article from the WatchTime online store.)
• Our massive SIHH 2014 editorial package includes the analytical feature, “Rediscovering America,” in which WatchTime editor-in-chief Joe Thompson speaks to several Swiss watch executives at the Geneva fair and reveals that the industry may be once again turning its eyes to the U.S. as its number one market after several years of focusing on China; and our annual “New Watches” feature, where WatchTime’s editors showcase 39 new watches launched in Geneva.
• In “Breitling Milestones,” veteran watch author Gisbert L. Brunner takes the reader on a historical tour through Breitling’s 130-year history of watches, providing the stories behind such important and influential models such as the Chronomat, Navitimer, Superocean, Chrono-Matic, and Emergency, as well as the development of the first Breitling in-house movement, Caliber 01. (This feature is also available as an E-Special in the WatchTime online store.)
• Technical editor Mike Disher tackles the longstanding question of what makes a dive watch a “true” dive watch in “A Dive Watch Defined.”
• In “Arnold Arrives,” associate editor Jay Deshpande profiles the recently revamped Arnold & Son brand and the watch-world buzz it is generating with its rapidly growing range of innovative, in-house movements.
• Executive editor Norma Buchanan visits “The Jura Triangle” in this latest entry in WatchTime’s series of “Swiss Watchmaking Center” features, taking us through the history and horological significance of Saint-Imier, Tramelan, Villeret, and other tiny villages in the Swiss Jura.
• Two other watch tests fill out the issue: In “Match Pointers,” Disher and photographer Robert Atkinson review the Vacheron Constantin Patrimony Contemporaine Retrograde Day and Date (click here to watch WatchTime’s original video of the watch); and in “Going for Gold,” Koch and photographer Nik Schölzel examine the new Nomos Lux, a white-gold watch that represents the first move by the Glashütte-based brand to enter the higher end of the market.
