Oris introduces a version of its ProPilot X Calibre 400 with an unusual, colorful laser-cut dial produced using a technique new to watchmaking.
The new Oris ProPilot X Calibre 400 Laser.
The titanium dial, created with the assistance of ETH Zürich university, shimmers with color changes, appearing to change from blue to green to violet to echo the colors seen on iridescent beetles.
Based on the principles of biomimicry, the phenomenon is a natural one called ‘optical interference.’ This means that red light waves are destroyed, while blue and green waves are reflected.
There is no color pigment on the dial.
While the eye sees colors, there is not one drop of color pigment on watch’s dial. The surface instead splits the light into its components to create the visible rainbow effect.
The entire dial is laser cut. Oris and engineering students at ETH Zurich created the logo, indexes, minutes track and dial text using another laser process that creates a three-dimensional effect.
In addition to the spectacular dial, the watch retains the familiar components and specifications found on the ProPilot X Calibre 400, which Oris debuted in 2022. These include a 39mm titanium case, titanium bezel and crown and a three-link titanium bracelet.
Oris fits its superb Calibre 400 inside the watch, offering chronometric accuracy, high levels of anti-magnetism and a ten-year warranty with ten-year recommended service intervals.
MB&F builds a 1960s house for your wrist with its latest debut, the Horological Machine Nº11 Architect.
The new MB&F Horological Machine Nº11 Architect.
With four titanium ‘rooms’ radiating from a sapphire-domed central flying tourbillon, the new watch recalls the designs of mid-twentieth century biomorphic-style houses, with four symmetrical parabolic ‘rooms’ emanating from a central atrium.
Each room houses a display, with one showing the time, the next showing the watch’s power reserve, a third indicating temperature and the fourth housing the winding crown. The wearer can choose which display is in direct eyesight when wearing the watch by rotating the entire housing, which will click into place as desired.
The rotation is more than a choice of display: each 45° clockwise turn delivers 72 minutes of power directly to the barrel. After ten complete rotations, the HM11 will reach its maximum 96-hour power reserve.
Also unusual, the massive 10mm crown (used to set the time), protected with eight gaskets, is made of clear sapphire and allows another view of the HM11’s flying tourbillon. In total, nineteen gaskets protect the movement.
At the center of the HM No. 11 Architect is the watch’s flying tourbillon, on display under a dual clear sapphire dome. MB&F has designed an unusual quatrefoil-shaped upper bridge, meant to recall the shape of clerestory windows.
Among the four displays, the thermometer stands out as the most unusual for a high-end watch. This thermometer uses a bimetallic strip to indicate temperature, a method akin toan analog display amid the many instant electronic thermometers seen on electronic devices and even digital watches. This display is available in Celsius or Fahrenheit variations.
Each of the peripheral ‘rooms’ on the HM11 feature exterior walls of polished grade-5 titanium. Within the sapphire domes, the new movement beats at a stately 2.5Hz (18,000 vph) amid a choice of metallic blue or rose gold PVD plates.
MB&F will make twenty-five Horological Machine Nº11 Architect watches in each color, each priced at $230,000.
Specifications: MB&F HM No.11 Architect
Movement:
Three-dimensional horological engine featuring bevel gears, composed of a flying tourbillon, hours and minutes, a power reserve indicator and temperature measurement, developed in-house by MB&F.
Mechanical movement, manual winding (by turning the entire case clockwise).
Power reserve: 96 hours
Balance frequency: 18,000 bph/2.5Hz
Plates: Blue and 5N PVD treatment
Number of movement components: 364 components
Number of jewels: 29 jewels
Functions/indications:
Hour and minutes
Power reserve
Temperature (-20 to 60° Celsius, or 0 to 140° Fahrenheit)
Case:
42mm diameter x 23mm grade 5 titanium, display markers: conical rods in stainless steel (0.50mm to 0.60mm), darker beads in polished titanium and lighter beads in polished aluminum (1.30mm to 2.40mm). Water resistance: 20 meters.
Sapphire crystals:
Sapphire crystals on top, back, and on each chamber-display treated with anti-reflective coating on both faces, sapphire crown
Strap & Buckle:
Rubber strap – white for the blue model and khaki green for the red gold model
Hublot deepens its partnership with artist Takashi Murakami as its creates the MP 15 Takashi Murakami Tourbillon Sapphire, a dramatic new limited edition central flying tourbillon watch with a clear sapphire case, dial and crown.
The new Hublot MP 15 Takashi Murakami Tourbillon Sapphire.
The watch maintains Murakami’s well-known flower and smile-face motif, which Hublot and the artist have developed for previous special models, but enhances the focus here to clear sapphire.
Also central to the design is Hublot’s central flying tourbillon, a first for the watchmaker set within a series-produced model. The fully skeletonized movement, exposed without an upper bridge, appears to float in space.
In place of a traditional dial, Murakami places twelve clear sapphire flower petals that frame the tourbillon, onto which Hublot adds two titanium eyes and a broad titanium smile. Two small hands rotate, unusually, under the tourbillon cage, with their tips indicating hours and minutes.
In order to create this rare configuration, Hublot watchmakers pivoted the cannon pinion and the hour wheel around the tourbillon support, creating a co-axial construction.
Hublot tops the black-plated hands with SuperLuminova for thrilling night-time visibility.
The central flying tourbillon is also quite unusual— and technically interesting. With an impressive power reserve of 150 hours, the tourbillon can be fully wound via a supplied stylus. Rechargeable using a USB socket, the stylus is placed on the crown and winds it through 100 revolutions. The wearer can also wind the watch using the crown.
The Hublot MP 15 Takashi Murakami Tourbillon Sapphire is surprisingly modest in size (42mm by 13.4mm) and arrives on an integrated rubber strap. The watch will be made as limited edition model of fifty pieces.
For the first time, Nomos dresses its automatic Tangente in rose gold, launching the Tangente Rose Gold Neomatik as a limited-edition model in honor of the 175th anniversary of watchmaking in Glashütte.
The new Nomos Tangente Rose Gold Neomatik 175 Years of Watchmaking.
As the latest addition in the Nomos 175 Years Watchmaking Glashütte series, the new watch is a luxurious ode to both the German city’s long watchmaking history and to the Tangente itself, which has been a bestseller (in its usual 35mm steel case) for the watchmaker for thirty years.
The Tangente Rose Gold Neomatik has a white silver-plated dial with an outer ring, sub-seconds dial, and minute markers in gold.
Limited to 175 pieces worldwide, the new watch adds a sub-seconds dial and minute markers in rose gold to the original’s galvanically white silver-plated dial.
At 6.9mm high, the Tangente rose gold neomatik from Nomos Glashütte is just a bit taller than Tangente with manual winding.
And while the first Tangente series reveled in its manual-wind minimalism, the new model is poweredby the Nomos DUW 3001, a thin automatic movement adjusted to chronometer standards.
The in-house neomatik movement DUW 3001 with the Nomos Swing System is thin and regulated to chronometer standards for the special edition.
Nomos attaches the celebratory model to an equally luxurious precious strap and clasp. The Berlin-designed clasp, crafted from 18-karat gold and hand-polished, holds a strap from Horween made of thick shell Cordovan.
The Audemars Piguet Code 11.59 Ultra-Complication Universelle RD#4 won the Grand Prize at the 2023 Grand Prix D’Horlogerie de Geneva (GPHG). Click here to see details and imagesof all the winning watches.
Here’s the full 2023 Prize List “Aiguille d’Or” Grand Prix: Audemars Piguet, Code 11.59 by Audemars Piguet Ultra-Complication Universelle RD#4
Innovation Prize: Hautlence, Sphere Series 1 Audacity Prize: Maison Alcée, Persée Azur Chronometry Prize: Ferdinand Berthoud, Chronomètre FB 3SPC “Horological Revelation” Prize: Simon Brette, Chronomètre Artisans Ladies’ Watch Prize: Piaget, Hidden Treasures Ladies’ Complication Watch Prize: Dior Montres, Grand Soir Automate Etoile de Monsieur Dior Men’s Complication Watch Prize: Voutilainen, World Timer Iconic Watch Prize: Ulysse Nardin, Freak One Tourbillon Watch Prize: Laurent Ferrier, Grand Sport Tourbillon Pursuit Calendar and Astronomy Watch Prize: Bovet 1822, Récital 20 Astérium Chronograph Watch Prize: Petermann Bédat, Chronographe rattrapante Sports Watch Prize: Tudor, Pelagos 39 Jewellery Watch Prize: Bulgari, Serpenti Cleopatra Artistic Crafts Watch Prize: Piaget, Altiplano Métiers d’Art – Undulata “Petite Aiguille” Prize: Christopher Ward London, C1 Bel Canto Challenge Watch Prize: Raymond Weil, Millésime automatic small seconds Mechanical Clock Prize: L’Epée 1839, Time Fast II Chrome Special Jury Prize: Svend Andersen and Vincent Calabrese
