Tag

automatic watch

Browsing
The Watches

Ulysse Nardin Celebrates World Oceans Day 

Ulysse Nardin refreshes two of its dive models with eye-catching azure blue dial markers and matching blue rubber straps to mark World Oceans Day (June 8).

The new Ulysse Nardin Diver Net Azure.

One model, the Diver Net Azure, adds the sparkling blue color to the watchmaker’s existing environmentally friendly Diver series. This latest model in the collection (which also includes the Ocean Race diver) utilizes recycled materials within its case, which is made from Carbonium (with a 40% lower environmental impact than other carbon composites), Nylo (recycled polyamide from fishing nets) and 95% recycled steel.

The watchmaker reports that the new model represents a greater use of recycled steel than the first Diver Net concept model in 2020, which contained 80% recycled steel. 

The watch remains water-resistant to 300 meters and exhibits its blue hue on the dial’s X accent, the dial markers, the bezel markers and its rubber strap.

Ulysse Nardin fits the watch with its automatic UN-118 movement (above), fitted with a silicon balance spring and a DiamonSil escapement wheel and anchor. Price: $12,600.

The new Ulysse Nardin Diver X Skeleton Azure.

The Diver X Skeleton Azure is a more complex dive watch. As the latest model within the watchmaker’s Diver X Skeleton collection, the skeletonized watch exposes its UN-372 Manufacture caliber, a top-tier in-house automatic movement Ulysse Nardin outfits with an extra-large oscillator and a silicon escapement wheel, anchor and balance-spring.

The movement is exposed within a 44mm titanium DLC case, which is water-resistant to 200 meters. Its components are visible underneath a dramatic black and azure blue X-shaped bridge. Lightweight Carbonium tops the barrel cover at the 12 o’clock position and covers the unidirectional rotating bezel. Price: $26,400.

Ulysse Nardin Caliber UN-372.

 (See below for full technical specifications for both new watches). 

Specifications: Ulysse Nardin Diver Net Azure

(Ref. 1183-170-2B/3A)

Movement: UN-118 Manufacture caliber, automatic movement displaying
hours, minutes, small seconds, date, power reserve indicator.  Silicon balance-spring, DiamonSil escapement wheel and anchor. Frequency 4Hz (28,800 vph). 

Case: 44mm by 14.81 mm with central case, bezel, case back and movement mount in 95% recycled stainless steel. Side case and case back ring: 60% Nylo recycled fishing nets and 40% Carbonium up-cycled carbon fiber from the aeronautic industry. Open sapphire crystal case back. Concave unidirectional rotating bezel in 100% upcycled Carbonium with domed sapphire crystal.  Water resistance to 300 meters. 

Dial: Sandblasted black with an embossed and satin X Power-reserve indicator at 12 o’clock, date and small seconds at 6 o’clock, hour-markers and hands with Super-LumiNova. 

Strap: Azure-colored rubber with black “Ulysse Nardin” ceramic element at 6 o’clock
Black ceramic pin buckle.

Price: $12,600.

 

Specifications: Ulysse Nardin Diver X Skeleton Azure

(Ref. 3723-170-2B/3A) 

Movement: UN-372 Manufacture caliber, self-winding skeleton movement
Hours, minutes, seconds. Oversized silicon balance wheel, silicon escapement wheel, anchor and balance-spring. Frequency 3Hz (21,600 vph). 

Case: Polished and satin finished 44mm by 15.7mm black DLC titanium case,
concave unidirectional rotating bezel in Carbonium with domed sapphire crystal,
open sapphire crystal caseback in black DLC titanium. Water resistant to 200 meters.

Dial: X-shaped skeleton dial in polished and satin-finished black PVD Carbonium barrel cover, black hour-markers and hands with Super-LumiNova. 

Strap: Azure-colored rubber strap with black “Ulysse Nardin” ceramic element at 6 o’clock, compatible with R-STRAP, folding clasp in black ceramic and black PVD titanium. 

Price: $26,400 

by
Keep Reading
The Watches

Frederique Constant Upgrades Classics

Frederique Constant adds four handsome new dress watches to its accessibly priced Classics collection. Each model combines an elegant dark grey or silver-color dial with a new, customized G100 La Joux-Perret movement, all set in a wrist friendly 38.5mm steel or rose-gold-plated case.

One of the new Frederique Constant Classics Premiere models, each with a new automatic movement boasting an extended power reserve (68 hours).

Frederique Constant uses this Premiere addition to its Classics collection to feature the new automatic movements, which represent an upgrade from earlier Sellita or ETA-based calibers used in the Classics series.

Primarily, the new automatic movement offers a superior power reserve of sixty-eight hours, considerably higher than the thirty-eight-hour reserve typical of the standard Classics models.

Frederique Constant displays the new movement through a special open caseback set with a glassbox that magnifies the movement, showing off its Côtes de Genève finish.

On the dial, the watchmaker sets applied indexes around a mother-of-pearl, diamond-setting or a snailed dial decoration. The dials also feature Roman numerals, Breguet-style blue-tinted hands and a railroad-style minute circle.

Frederique Constant offers its Classics Premiere collection in four variations (plus one diamond-set gold model not sold in the United States). The plated rose gold version with sun-ray dial and embossed center (above) is a limited edition of 500 pieces ($2,095); the steel version with a silver dial or a dark grey dial is limited to 500 pieces each ($1,895) and the steel model with mother-of-pearl dial and diamonds is limited to 300 pieces ($2,295.)

by
Keep Reading
The Watches

Citizen Launches New Automatic Collection 

Citizen brings its colorful, automatic NJ015 ‘Tsuyosa’ collection to the United States this month, broadening the watchmaker’s domestic mechanical offerings beyond its pricier automatic Series 8  and automatic dive models.

And with each watch priced at $450, the collection (which Citizen introduced in Europe and elsewhere last year) creates Citizen’s first entry level range of steel-cased automatic watches for the U.S. market. 

Citizen brings its much-touted NJ015 Automatic ‘Tsuyosa’ collection to the United States.

The new NJ015 collection, called Tsuyosa, (Japanese for ‘strength’) is powered by Citizen’s Caliber 8210, an automatic movement with a 21,600 vph frequency and a forty-hour power reserve.

Citizen also opens up a view into the movement on each watch through a clear sapphire caseback.

Citizen is offering Tsuyosa in five sun-ray pattern dial options, including blue, yellow, green, turquoise and black, each displaying time with baton-
style indexes.

The watches even offer a magnifying date lens, which is a feature rarely seen on watches in this price range.

These are everyday-wear models. Each arrives with a moderately slim 40mm by 11.7mm brush-finished steel cases and integrated steel bracelet.

Citizen polishes the bracelet’s center links to add a bit of luxury to the contemporary styled Tsuyosa.

Price: $450.

 

by
Keep Reading
The Watches

Blancpain Expands Ladybird With New Colors and Functions 

Blancpain adds small seconds and moon phase functions to its Ladybird collection of jeweled watches. Dubbed Ladybird Colors, the collection offers new hues as well, with models sporting summer-ready midnight blue, peacock green, forest green, lilac or turquoise numerals on textured mother-of-pearl dials.

One of two new models in the new Blancpain Ladybird Colors collection. A second model features a small seconds display.

In addition to their new, colorful dials, each Ladybird Colors watch is set with seventy diamonds on the bezel and lugs.

Offered in either red gold or white gold 34.9mm cases, each watch in the series offers leather straps colored to match the new dial accents.

Note that the numerals on the Ladybird Colors dials are asymmetrical, a style also seen on the tapering diamond-setting around the small seconds and moon-phase indicators.

As these are Blancpain watches, all are powered by a mechanical movement, namely automatic Calibre 1163 for the small seconds version and automatic Calibre 1163L for the moon-phase model.

The caseback of the green Ladybird Colors Small Seconds in a red gold case, showing automatic Caliber 1163, with its open-work rotor.

Each movement offers a four-day power reserve and a silicon balance spring. 

Blancpain nicely finishes the movement, including an open-work gold oscillating weight in the gold color that matches case metal. 

Prices: $34,100 (moon phase) and $32,000 (small seconds). 

by
Keep Reading
The Watches

Louis Vuitton Launches Open-Worked Voyager 

Louis Vuitton introduces its first time-only skeleton movement, LV60, and places it into its proprietary, modified cushion-shaped Voyager case to create the Voyager Skeleton, a limited edition, platinum-cased work of eye-catching horological architecture.

The new Louis Vuitton Voyager Skeleton.

No stranger to open-worked movements (see, for example, its Tambour Curve Flying Tourbillon Poinçon de Genève or the Voyager Flying Tourbillon Poinçon de Genève), Louis Vuitton uses this new model to explore a horologically less complex Voyager.

This approach allows the watchmakers at  La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton (in collaboration with Neuchâtel-based workshop Le Cercle des Horlogers) to focus on the Voyager’s architectural case and dynamic bridgework.

In fact, Louis Vuitton explains that its designers were inspired by the architecture of the Frank Gehry-designed Foundation Louis Vuitton in Paris when creating the skeletal Voyager.  

Like the Foundation building, the Voyager’s movement offers a minimalist approach to its structure. The Voyager’s watchmakers have carefully trimmed excess bridges and plates, constructing only the minimum required for the movement’s internal integrity.

Fortunately, this approach was taken with a keen sense of design, so that, for example, the watch’s LV-shaped bridges are actually geometric lines. Even the rotor is designed with flair — its bridge features a Louis Vuitton monogram while the barrel ratchet wheel is open-worked to spell the brand name itself.

The watch’s almost monochrome hue is created by the rhodium-plated components, which Louis Vuitton frames with a blue minutes ring. Matching blue hands add legibility. An off-center micro-rotor, which winds the mainspring bidirectionally, offers a clear view of the movement from either side of the watch.  

In another ode to transparency, Louis Vuitton has opened the mainspring barrel so that it can serve as a power reserve indicator. A tightly-coiled mainspring indicates full wind while loosely-arranged coils remind the wearer to wind the watch.

The Louis Vuitton Voyager Skeleton is available as a limited edition of 150 pieces. 

Price: $55,000. 

 

Specifications: Louis Vuitton Voyager Skeleton

Case: 41mm by 43.7mm by 9mm platinum case with satin-finished sides and a polished top, sapphire glass, blue snailed minute ring. 50-meters of water resistance, ‘Limited edition’ engraved case-back, with sapphire glass.

Movement: Self-winding mechanical skeleton manufacture movement, Caliber LV60, designed & developed by La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton. Tungsten micro-rotor decorated with a white gold, rhodium-plated plate. Frequency 28,800 vph with 48-hour power reserve.

Bracelet: Two straps: navy blue, alligator leather strap and calf leather strap with platinum buckle. 

Price: $55,000.

by
Keep Reading