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MB&F Launches Metallic Blue HM8 Mark 2

MB&F returns to the race track with a new automtive-themed hue for its HM8 Mark 2, the compact version of the MB&F HM8.

The newest MB&F HM8 Mark 2 features a metallic blue body.

You might recall that the HM8 Mark 2 combines the supercar styling of the watchmaker’s HM5 with the driving watch display and open ‘hood’ of the MB&F HM8 from 2016. Its horizontal time display, inspired by a 1976 design from Amida Digitrend, is optically magnified and projected 90 degrees to the wearer via a series of sapphire prisms.

Launched last year in white or green options, the HM8 Mark 2 collection now includes this model with a glossy sapphire blue case, available as limited edition of thirty-three pieces. MB&F explains that with similar metallic pigments and a translucid material, the blue body panels on the new model recall the sheen on luxurious car paints.

While the initial HM8 models were built with titanium and gold, the newer HM8 Mark 2 is built from titanium topped with CarbonMacrolon, a composite material composed of a polymer matrix injected with carbon nanotubes.

The material, developed for MB&F, is eight times lighter than steel and can be colored, polished, bead-blasted, lacquered or satin-finished. MB&F creates a  more unisex appeal with the watch, taking full advantage of the new material to create a lighter, smaller and more brightly colored driving watch.

When it debuted last year, the first HM8 Mark 2 models also debuted  a new type of crown for MB&F. The crown’s ‘double de-clutch’ system works by pushing the crown in and turning it three-quarters of a turn to release it. This saves space and creates a tighter seal for the crown itself.

Price: $78,000.

Specifications: MB&F HM8 Mark 2

The MB&F HM8 Mark 2 is available:

– in titanium and green CarbonMacrolon body panels limited to 33 pieces;

– in titanium and white CarbonMacrolon body panels;

– in titanium and blue CarbonMacrolon body panels limited to 33 pieces.

Movement:

Three-dimensional horological engine, composed of a jumping hour and trailing minutes module developed in-house by MB&F, powered by a Girard-Perregaux base movement.

Mechanical movement, automatic winding

22-karat gold automatic winding rotor

Power reserve: 42 hours

Balance frequency: 28,800bph/4Hz.

Number of components: 247 components

Number of jewels: 30 jewels

Functions/indications:

Bi-directional jumping hours and trailing minutes, displayed by dual reflective sapphire crystal prisms with integrated magnifying lens.

Case: Grade 5 titanium with green, white or blue CarbonMacrolon

Dimensions: 47mm x 41.5mm x 19 mm

Number of components: 42, Water resistance: 30 meters

Sapphire crystals: Sapphire crystals on top, front and display back treated with anti-reflective coating on both faces. Dual reflective sapphire crystal prisms with integrated magnifying lens.

Strap & Buckle: Calfskin strap – white for the British green and sapphire blue models and green for the white model with a titanium tang buckle.

Price: $78,000.

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Watches and Wonders 2024: Patek Philippe

Among the eleven new watches debuted by Patek Philippe during Watches and Wonders, one debut in particular stands out for its technical advancement while others enliven existing collections with new colors, new casual (denim) straps, new case metals or, for one highlight, a sleek new bracelet.

New Patek Philippe World Time Reference Ref. 5330G-001.

World Timer localizes

The newest Patek Philippe World Time model joins the full collection after initially debuting as a limited edition last year during the Patek Philippe Grand Exhibition Watch Art Tokyo 2023.

The watch, Ref. 5330G-001, now displays a date display synchronized with local time, which is a patented world-first and a notably useful travel function.

Patek Philippe watchmakers have added a specialized differential system to the watch’s automatic movement. The resulting change means the local date will appear along the edge of the dial, indicated with a transparent glass hand (a first for Patek Philippe) with a red tip.

In this illustration, note that the new Patek Philippe Caliber 240 HU C features a patented central differential system comprising two concentric star-type gear wheels to manage the local-time date.

The local time is the time zone selected at 12 o’clock and indicated by the center hands.

With its 40mm white gold case and handsome blue-grey opaline dial (with a block-pattern carbon center), the dressy model allows the wearer to simply press the pusher at 10 o’clock to move the move the local time zone indicated on the watch in one-hour increments.

With this simple gesture, the traveller can both see the local time while also noting the time differences globally, as seen on the multi-city dial indicator.

Patek Philippe displayed the new World Time Reference Ref. 5330G-001 with a new denim weave strap, a casual bracelet also seen on other debuts. Price: $76,594.

The newest Patek Philippe Golden Ellipse

Golden Ellipse bracelet

Another head-turner at the Patek Philippe exhibition in Geneva was the supple new gold chain bracelet attached to the always elegant Golden Ellipse, Reference 5738/1R.

While often attached to various precious metal bracelets since its debut in 1968, the Golden Ellipse has in recent years been primarily a leather strap model, in part due to the difficulty in sizing the bracelet at the point of sale.

Patek Philippe explains that the new bracelet is the result of fifteen years of work. It is made of 18-karat hand-polished rose gold with a new, patented construction made of 363 parts, including more than 300 links, assembled manually.

The new clasp (above), with its engraved cover, offers a choice of three adjustment notches.

The bracelet debuts attached to a new rose gold edition of the 34.5mm-by-39.5mm fashion icon. For the debut Patek Philippe created a new sunburst ebony black dial with applied baton-type hour-markers and thin rose-gold hands.

Inside, Patek Philippe fits its celebrated self-winding caliber 240, an ultra-thin movement with off-center 22-karat gold mini-rotor. The movement’s thin profile means the Golden Ellipse Reference 5738 is now the slimmest watch in the Patek Philippe regular collection. Price: $60,097.

Other 2024 Patek Philippe debuts include:

A new dial on the Twenty~4 Reference 4910/1201R-010 ($47,607, pictured above) now displays eye-catching concentric waves coated with dozens of layers of translucent lacquer.

The new Patek Philippe Nautilus Flyback Chronograph, Reference 5980/60G-001.

A new edition of the Patek Philippe Nautilus Flyback Chronograph. The newest, Reference 5980/60G-001 ($78,951), revisits the hot sports model in white gold with a blue-gray opaline dial. Patek Philippe will deliver two matching straps with each watch.

One is a blue-gray calfskin embossed with a denim motif edged with contrasting white hand-stitching  (above) and the other is a blue-grey composite in a fabric motif.

The new Aquanaut Luce Haute Joaillerie Reference 5268/461G-001 ($235,674, pictured above) gleams in white gold set with diamonds and blue sapphires within snow and baguette settings.

On the rounded octagonal bezel, baguette-cut sapphires gradate from light blue to dark blue. Inside is Caliber 26-330 S, a self-winding movement visible through the sapphire-crystal back.

See all the 2024 debuts from Patek Philippe here.

Five Year Warranty

Also at Watches and Wonders 2024, Patek Philippe announced that for all new Patek Philippe watches sold as of May 1, 2024, the duration of the Patek Philippe warranty increases from two years to five years, counting from the date of purchase.

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Watches and Wonders 2024: The Many Colors of NOMOS

With thirty-one multi-hued watches on one large table, Nomos showed its colors in spectacular fashion at its first Watches and Wonders a few weeks ago.

On a table within its Geneva exhibition booth, the German-based independent watchmaker displayed a special edition Tangente 38 Date – 175 Years Watchmaking Glashütte model, a collection of thirty-one watches, each with its own dial color combination.

For the limited edition, numerous elements of the dial were individually matched to the character of the watch. Shown here are the Tangente 38 Date Delfin and Poporange.

The steel-cased 38mm watches are each limited to 175 pieces, an ode to its hometown, which is celebrating 175 years of watchmaking.

As the best-selling collection at Nomos in the thirty years since the brand was born, Tangente is the appropriate choice for such a tribute.

The Tangente Date 38 Bubblegum model.

Each watch bears its own name and has its own story. While most of the watch names are in German (Ariel, Zirkus, Haifischgrau, and Schlossgrün) many are not.

The Tangente 38 Date Stop. Yes, there’s also a Go model with a green seconds subdial.

Watches dubbed Stop, Go, Chili, Flamingopink and Bubblegum hint at the color combinations and allude to the playfulness Nomos has embedded into the collection.

The cheerful shade of the Tangente Date 38 Flamingopink attracts attention.

While typically a commemorative model at any watchmaker is priced at a premium, Nomos is dedicated to making all its watches accessibly priced, even the limited editions.

The special edition Tangente 38 Date Lemonbisquit.

That is why the price of these colorful limited-edition watches ($2,310) is lower than the price of the standard Tangente 38 Date model ($2,780).

The patented date mechanism allows the date ring (here in light red) to be placed around the outside of the movement.

Inside Nomos places its superb hand-wound caliber DUW 4101, which Nomos makes in Glashütte and regulates according to chronometer values.

The name of the watch and the limited-edition number are engraved on the back, and the NOMOS caliber DUW 4101 can be seen at work through the sapphire crystal case back.

The movement, visible via a sapphire back, is built with the date ring around the main movement (a patented technique), which allows Nomos to create a large date window.

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Watches and Wonders 2024: Hermès Makes the Cut

Building from its hot 39mm-wide H08 series of modified round-shaped sports-casual watches, Hermès adds the Hermès Cut, a 36mm integrated steel watch ostensibly aimed at smaller (feminine) wrists.

The Hermès Cut

But much like the wildly successful H08, billed as a men’s watch but with unisex appeal, the Cut will likely also appeal to men who prefer a smaller case size.

Like the earlier design, the new Cut plays around with the classic round case shape. Two beveled and polished slices along the sides of the Cut case modify the round case shape, creating a subtle break in the expected circular arc.

With the crown at an unexpected position between 1 o’clock and 2 o’clock, the Cut presents a unique geometry. The shape is accentuated by careful mix of polish on the ‘cut’ on the right and left case side and on the outer bezel, which nicely contrasts with the primarily satin-brushed full case and bezel top.

The watch’s bevel-cut bezel frames a lovely curved silvered opaline dial marked with luminescent applied Arabic numerals. The numerals feature an all-new Hermès font.

Hermès fits its own automatic Hermès H1912 movement into the Cut, making its visible through the sapphire crystal caseback.

The Cut is a full collection, with a selection of options that include full steel models to two-tone options in steel and rose gold. Any version is also available with fifty-six bezel-set diamonds.

The watch arrives with a fully integrated metal bracelet that retains the alternating finishes of the case. Hermès will of course offer a wide range of colorful rubber straps that can be easily swapped onto the case as desired.

Price:  $6,725 to $21,900.

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Watches and Wonders 2024: Grand Seiko’s Red-Dialed Beauty 

Among the many impressive new watches Grand Seiko debuted during Watches & Wonders 2024, this red-dialed Spring Drive Chronograph GMT (SBGC275) is particularly notable.

The Grand Seiko Caliber 9R 20th Anniversary Limited Edition: SBGC275

Meant to recall the sun’s terrestrial light show as it rises and sets in the Hotaka mountain range in the Shinshu region of central Japan (where Grand Seiko makes its Spring Drive watches), the distinctive dial appears to change colors with each viewing, as the ambient light itself changes.

Grand Seiko launches the watch, which joins the watchmaker’s Sport Collection, as it celebrates the 20th anniversary of the first Grand Seiko watch powered by the 9R Spring Drive movement series. 

The watchmaker explains that this dial is made possible through the use of a new dial-processing technology that involves a patented dial-coating process known as “Optical Multilayer Coating.”

“Instead of traditional techniques to color the dial, the new technology uses a physical vapor deposition process,” explains Grand Seiko’s Jon Bues. “Several layers of nanoscale film create an effect in which the dial exhibits a different hue depending on the angle of view. Combined with the silent glide motion of the seconds hand, the transitioning dial colors bring a new dimension to the idea of the nature of time.”

Set within Grand Seiko’s angular case, inspired by the shape of a lion (a Grand Seiko symbol) this newest Spring Drive Chronograph GMT offers notable claw-like, hairline-finished lugs that contrast nicely with the watch’s many Zaratsu-polished surfaces.

With curved lugs and a low center of gravity, the new watch sits comfortably
on the wrist.

The high-intensity titanium 44.5mm by 16.8mm case weights about thirty percent less than stainless steel and has a brighter color. That brightness continues amid the eye-catching red-orange with Luminous hands and markers.

Here Grand Seiko careful considers the light once again, with two colors of Lumibrite: green for the markers and the hour and minute hands and blue for the GMT hand and the numbers on the bezel. This enhances the watch’s legibility in dark conditions.

To symbolize enhanced accuracy, an 18k gold Grand Seiko lion emblem can be seen on the movement’s oscillating weight.

Inside Grand Seiko fits its excellent Spring Drive Chronograph GMT Caliber 9R96, a specially adjusted version of Caliber 9R86. The movement delivers an accuracy of ±10 seconds per month, or ±0.5 seconds per day.

Grand Seiko’s Spring Drive Chronograph GMT Caliber 9R96, a specially adjusted version of Caliber 9R86.

Grand Seiko is offering the Caliber 9R 20th Anniversary Limited Edition (SBGC275) as a limited edition of 700, available at the Grand Seiko Boutiques and select retail partners worldwide in July. Price: $13,400. 

Specifications: Grand Seiko Caliber 9R 20th Anniversary Limited Edition: SBGC275

Spring Drive Chronograph GMT Caliber 9R96
Driving system: Automatic
Accuracy: ±10 seconds per month (±0.5 seconds per day) Power reserve: 72 hours
GMT hand
Chronograph up to 12 hours
Number of jewels: 50
High-intensity titanium case and bracelet
Three-fold clasp with push-button release, secure lock, and extender Dual-curved sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating See-through screw case back
Screw-down crown
Water resistance: 20 bar
Magnetic resistance: 4,800 A/m
Diameter: 44.5mm, Thickness: 16.8mm
Price: $13,400
Limited edition of 700

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