Blancpain adds new models to its Fifty Fathoms Automatique collection, which the manufacture first launched in its new 42.3mm by 14.2mm size last year as a limited edition in steel.
The newest models of this famed dive watch, which debuted in 1953 to usher in the modern dive watch era, now include Automatique series examples in red gold and titanium in addition to the steel-cased version now included within the ongoing Fifty Fathoms Automatique collection.
Caliber 1315
You might recall that in 2007 Blancpain launched the first 45mm Fifty Fathoms Automatique, which was equipped with specially developed Caliber 1315 with a five-day power reserve.
The newest Fifty Fathoms series adds the smaller diameter option to the full collection and makes itavailable in three case metals.
In red gold, the watches are a bit more luxurious than a standard dive model, but equally functional and still highly legible.
In Grade 23 titanium, the watches are sportier looking, with the added bonus of offering a lightweight and highly scratch-resistant case, as well as superior anti-corrosion and anti-allergenic attributes.
All retain the collection’s characteristic sapphire-topped bezel and serious dive-ready specifications (including 300-meters of water resistance.)
Available with a blue or black dial, the new red gold and titanium models are offered with an alluring choice of color-matched straps, including sail-canvas, NATO straps and textured rubber iteration inspired by the first model from 1953. For the titanium debut, Blancpain also offers a sharp-looking titanium bracelet.
Prices start at $15,700 in steel and $17,000 in titanium. Red gold model starts at $34,100.
Louis Vuitton presents three highly artisanal Louis Vuitton Escale watches, each combining engraving, enameling, sculpture and even marquetry in timepieces that explore themes inspired by nature and by fantasy.
One of three debuts announcing the Louis Vuitton Escale series of artisans watches. The watch is called Louis Vuitton Escale Cabinet of Wonders Koi’s Garden.
The new Escale series follows Louis Vuitton’s equally ambitious update to its Tambour collection and represents a new, high-end approach to the watchmaker’s artisanal watches.Escale watches will all feature a round case and hand-polished case horns meant to recall the metal brackets of Louis Vuitton trunks.
Called the Cabinet of Wonders, the trio of limited-edition watches that introduce Escale are inspired by the personal collections of Gaston-Louis Vuitton, third-generation member of the company’s founding family who led the company from 1907 to 1970.
Gaston-Louis Vuitton was collector of fine decorative objects, including antique and highly decorated Japanese katana sword guards, which directly influenced the design and symbolism of these new watches.
By combining a full range of artisanal case-making and dial-making techniques to these watches, Louis Vuitton continues its enhance its reputation as one of the few makers of high-end watches that has mastered a full range of traditional decorative techniques.
Louis Vuitton’s fine watchmaking department in Geneva, La Fabrique du Temps, creates this series through a well-considered blend of internal expertise and external talent, including Eddy Jaquet (engraving), Fanny Queloz (damascening), Rose Saneuil (marquetry) and Vanessa Lecci (enameling). The internal and external team followed the aesthetic vision of famed métiers d’art timepiece designer Marie Boutteçon.
Garden of tranquillity
This watch, called Louis Vuitton Escale Cabinet of Wonders Koi’s Garden, is a 40mm white gold stunner that depicts two carp swimming in a stream, surrounded by colorful pebbles.
Louis Vuitton notes that its artisans needed fully 150 hours to carefully hand-sculpt the koi. Kiln-firing added a fine layer of dark oxide to the carp, while polishing and painting finish the overall effect. The koi are coated with a translucent blue lacquer in order to make them glisten in the light.
Artisans hand-engraved the water lines onto the white-gold dial plate, where Gaston-Louis Vuitton’s personal monogram is seen at the 6 o’clock position, also sculpted from gold and set with onyx.
Into the forest
On the Louis Vuitton Escale Cabinet of Wonders Snake’s Jungle, a jeweled blue and green snake rears its head at an orb of gold and nephrite jade that forms the monogram of Gaston-Louis Vuitton.
The dial’s bamboo forest is made using marquetry techniques. These required the artisan to cut and hand-assemble wood, parchment and straw in a way that depicts fourteen shades of green.
The artists required 367 individual pieces to complete the dial puzzle, which utilizes four varieties of wood, three colors of straw and two types of parchment.
For the serpent, artisans combined three techniques: micro-sculpture, engraving and champlevé enameling. Sculpted, engraved and enameled bamboo leaves
frame the upper right corner of the dial.
Dragons
For this watch, called the Louis Vuitton Escale Cabinet of Wonders Dragon’s Cloud, artisans have created a rose gold triptyque depicting that is clutching a carnelian-set GLV monogram.
Here the artisans used technique called damascening, which is a form of decorative inlay using metals of contrasting colors. The resulting layered pattern mimics many natural textures.
The watch’s dial plate is hammered to a matte finish, after which yellow-gold or rose-gold wires are cold-worked into the plate. The dragon and the clouds are engraved and the scales are enameled.
Notably, the lower half of its body is created using paillonné enamel, a rare form of enamel that contains tiny pieces of gold leaf (known as paillons) suspended between layers of translucent enamel.
Finally, the dragon’s eye appears to glow because it is composed of a cabochon-cut ruby.
New cases & hands
All the new Escale watches feature a new, lightly curved case that frames a domed crystal. Louis Vuitton has reworked its hour and minute hands, which now are lance-shaped and polished and faceted to reflect the light.
All three watches also feature a crown set with the same stone that adorns the corresponding GLV monogram on its dial. Inside Louis Vuitton fits its chronometer-rated manufacture caliber LFT023, which is decorated with Seigaiha waves, a stylized representation of the ocean found in traditional Japanese iconography.
Each new Louis Vuitton Escale watch is paired with a calf-leather strap, hand-braided to resemble the braided leather hilts of Japanese katana swords.
Each of the three models of the Louis Vuitton Escale Cabinet of Wonders collection is limited to twenty pieces. The Koi’s Garden comes in a white-gold case (40mm) with blue strap; the Snake’s Jungle comes in a white-gold case (40mm) with green strap; and the Dragon’s Cloud comes in a rose-gold case (40mm) with brown strap.
MB&F combines onyx with yellow gold to create the latest model in its GPHG-award-winning Legacy Machine FlyingT collection, the independent watchmaker’s series of three-dimensional watches inspired by women.
The new MB&F Legacy Machine FlyingT Onyx.
The new Legacy Machine FlyingT Onyx follows previous models in the collection that have featured colorful stone dials such as malachite, tiger eye and lapis lazuli.
Tilted to a 50-degree angle, the dial, here in polished onyx, is positioned to be primarily visible to the wearer. The dial sits adjacent to a dramatic flying tourbillon that beats at a leisurely 18,000 vph. Atop the tourbillon MB&F affixes a single large diamond that operates just shy of the top of the sapphire crystal dome.
On the back MB&F creates a rotor that looks like a three-dimensional red gold sun with sculpted rays.
The movement provides four days of power reserve. (See below for additional technical specifications).
You may recall that MB&F debuted the LM FlyingT in 2019 in three editions, all in white gold and set with diamonds. Two limited editions in red gold and platinum came next, both without diamonds but with guilloché dial plates. New gemstone dials have been added to the collection each year. The debut won the GPHG prize in 2019 in the Ladies Complication category.
“I wanted LM FlyingT to reflect the personality and qualities of the women of my family, particularly my mother,” MB&F founder Maximilian Büsser explains “It had to combine supreme elegance with tremendous vitality.”
Price: $133,000.
Specifications: MB&F Legacy Machine FlyingT Onyx
Movement: Three-dimensional vertical architecture, automatic winding, conceived and developed in-house by MB&F, central flying 60-second tourbillon.
Power reserve: 100 hours
Balance frequency: 2.5Hz / 18,000 vph
Three-dimensional sun winding rotor in 18k 5N+ red gold, titanium and platinum
Number of components: 280
Functions/indications:
Hours and minutes displayed on a 50° vertically titled dial with two serpentine hands.
Two crowns: winding on left and time-setting on right.
Case: 38.5mm x 20mm yellow gold, high domed sapphire crystal on top with anti-reflective coating on both sides, sapphire crystal on back.
Water resistance to 30 meters.
Strap & buckle:
Calf or alligator leather straps available with gold pin buckle matching the case.
Citizen adds two models to its hot Series 8 collection of sporty automatic watches, and also launches a limited edition Series 8 model in the same new collection with an unusual ‘pink copper’ dial inspired by cherry blossoms.
The Citizen Series 8 890 Mechanical, one of two new Citizen Series 8 debuts. A third limited-edition new model also available.
The new watches are being launched within an impressive slate of 2024 debuts that also includes new Promaster watches, a new Citizen L Arcly series and a limited-edition, manually wound pocket watch.
A new Citizen Series 8 debut, the Series 8 890 Mechanical, features a gold-hued steel case and bracelet.
Since its entry into the U.S. market three years go, Citizen’s Series 8 has expanded to include a wide-ranging set of mechanical three-hand (with date) and GMT models. The series expanded the watchmaker’s U.S. offerings beyond Citizen’s Eco-Drive-focused collections, exposing U.S. consumers to a broader range of the many mechanical watches made by the Japanese-based watchmaker.
The new watches, called Series 8 890 Mechanical, each feature a 42.6mm steel by 11.7mm case with a sporty octagonal bezel, three-piece case construction and a 200-meter water resistance rating.
Two of the debuts offer a lively, patterned dial that echo those seen in earlier (880 Series) watches, though the dial has been updated with a bolder interpretation of the pattern. The design is inspired by the skyscraper-lit night sky of Tokyo.
Similarly, Citizen has updated the case of these new watches as compared to the earlier 880 Series, adding a thicker bi-directional inner bezel, enhancing the watch’s sporty appeal. Citizen continues to mirror-finish and brush-finish each case, in keeping with earlier Series 8 designs.
From the back of each watch Citizen allows a view of the automaticCaliber 9051, which is accurate to anaverage of -10 seconds to +20 sec/day and offers a full 42 hours of water resistance. Citizen also equips the watches with extra strong antimagnetic protection.
Prices: $1,595 (steel with blue dial) and $1,695 (gold-hued steel with brown dial).
Limited edition
In addition to the two models noted above, Citizen is launching a limited edition model within the same new Series 8 890. This debut offers a special dial made to echo the look of “clouds of cherry blossoms,” a phenomenon created by groups of blooming cherry blossom trees.
Called copper pink, the dial’s unusual pattern is a bit more complex than the ongoing new 890 Series models, but equally eye-catching.
Price: $1,595, a limited edition of 1,700.
We’ll have more details about the other 2024 Citizen debuts in upcoming posts.
Girard-Perregaux adds titanium to its Laureato collection with the new Laureato Chronograph Ti49, a 42mm model that echoes the original 1975 Laureato design, complete with its octagonal bezel, round frame and tonneau-shaped case.
The new Girard-Perregaux the new Laureato Chronograph Ti49.
As the first new-generation Laureato Chronograph with a titanium-case, the new watch exhibits its light reflection and refraction with a material that differs in both weight and appearance from the steel models.
The Grade 5 titanium used here is composed of almost 90% titanium, 6% aluminum, 4% vanadium and small traces of iron and oxygen, which means it is lighter than steel while remaining strong, corrosion resistant, non-magnetic and hypoallergenic.
Girard-Perregaux nicely accentuates the grey monochrome of the titanium alloy with contrasting finishes of brushed and polished angles, all of which re-define the chronograph’s look on the wrist when compared with the steel models. Here, Girard-Perregaux polishes the circular plinth beneath the bezel, the case edges, the chronograph pushers and the central bracelet links.
On the dial the watchmaker also perfectly complements the grey platinum tone with a grey dial finished using the deep Clous de Paris pattern well known to fans of the brand. Grey PVD-treated hour and minute hands and matching baton-type indexes (with white luminescent material) top the dial.
In addition to the chronograph counters, the dial also features the GP logo and name, a minute track and white markers that circle the counters.
Inside the watch Girard-Perregaux fits its superb Manufacture Caliber GP03300 (above), an automatic movement nicely decorated with the high-end finishing expected from this high-end watchmaker.
These finishes include Côtes de Genève in circular and straight form, circular graining, satin finish, chamfering, mirror polishing, snailing, engravings, sunray finishing and blued steel screws.
In Grade 23 titanium, the watches are sportier looking, with the added bonus of offering a lightweight and highly scratch-resistant case, as well as superior anti-corrosion and anti-allergenic attributes.
All retain the collection’s characteristic sapphire-topped bezel and serious dive-ready specifications (including 300-meters of water resistance.) 
The artists required 367 individual pieces to complete the dial puzzle, which utilizes four varieties of wood, three colors of straw and two types of parchment.
Here the artisans used technique called damascening, which is a form of decorative inlay using metals of contrasting colors. The resulting layered pattern mimics many natural textures.
Finally, the dragon’s eye appears to glow because it is composed of a cabochon-cut ruby.
Called copper pink, the dial’s unusual pattern is a bit more complex than the ongoing new 890 Series models, but equally eye-catching.
These finishes include Côtes de Genève in circular and straight form, circular graining, satin finish, chamfering, mirror polishing, snailing, engravings, sunray finishing and blued steel screws.