Piaget launches the Polo Perpetual Calendar Ultra-thin, the watchmaker’s first perpetual calendar placed within its 42mm Polo case.
The new Piaget Polo Perpetual Calendar Ultra-thin.
While we’ve seen chronographs and skeletonized models within the watchmaker’s Polo collection, and watches with tourbillons and minute repeaters within the larger Polo Emperador cases, the new watch marks a first for the modern Polo case, and a premiere for what we’re hoping will be a series of perpetual calendar offerings within the pure Polo collection.
Powered by the new 1255P caliber, the thin watch (8.65mm) is the latest in an impressive collection of Piaget watches powered by variations within the 1200P caliber family, a series that itself stems from the famed micro-rotor caliber 12P, which in 1960 was the thinnest automatic caliber on the market.
In its new guise as a perpetual calendar, the caliber advances the day, date, and year (until the year 2100), months, moon phases and leap-year cycle.
Piaget launches the Polo Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin with an eye-catching dark emerald-green patterned dial with and three displays for the date, month (along with leap-year indication) and weekday at 9, 12 and 3 o’clock, along with the moonphase indication at 6 o’clock.
The dial’s horizontal line pattern continues a Polo dial tradition that also finds varying finishes within the four subdials. Note that the lines on the dial also appear as links on the steel bracelet.
New here is a Piaget interchangeable SingleTouch system for the bracelet that allows the wearer to easily change it and attach the included rubber strap.
Ulysse Nardin extends its X-themed skeleton dive watch collection with the new Diver X Skeleton White, a 44mm titanium-cased model with an openwork dial and concave, rubberized white bezel.
The new Ulysse Nardin Diver X Skeleton White.
As the latest X-series model thus far in the watchmaker’s dive watch collection, the watch underscores its white theme with white markers, a white crown protector and a white rubber strap. Under and around the large polished and satin-finished X-shaped dial bridge Ulysse Nardin sensibly offers clear view of the UN-372 automatic caliber.
As with the existing Diver X models, the movement is also quite visible from its clear sapphire back, which exposes the movement’s silicon escapement wheel, pallet and balance-spring. Also on display is the logo-marked rotor, gearing and barrel cover.
Ulysse Nardin insures that the polished and satin-finished titanium case is water-resistant to 200 meters. The watchmaker attaches the case to your wrist with a white rubber strap complete with ‘Ulysse Nardin’ element and titanium folding clasp, or with a white woven strap.
Ulysse Nardin’s Caliber UN-372.
Price: $26,400.
Specifications: Ulysse Nardin Diver X Skeleton White
Movement: Manufacture caliber UN-372 skeleton automatic.Oversized oscillator in silicon, escapement wheel, anchor & balance spring in silicon.Frequency 3 Hz (21,600 vph).
Case: 44mm titanium polished & satin-finished, concave rubberized unidirectional rotating bezel,titanium open sapphire case back,Water resistance to 200 meters.
Dial: Skeleton X shape polished and satin-finished grey, grey indexes and hands with Superluminova.
Strap: Whiterubber with UN titanium element with titanium deployant buckle and
white fabric strap with scratch closing.Compatible with R-STRAP.
Focusing on its contemporary Defy collection for early 2023, Zenith this week adds new 36mm and skeleton models to its hot new Defy Skyline series while also introducing a new Defy Extreme design.
Two of the new Zenith Defy Skyline Skeleton models pictured alongside an existing Defy Skyline.
Defy Skyline Skeleton
Introduced last year, the 41mm Defy Skyline has become a strong-selling steel bracelet design for Zenith. The watch, with its constantly running 1/10th of a second counter at 9 o’clock (completing one revolution every ten seconds) introduced El Primero 3620, a new iteration of its El Primero 3600, which headlined the debut of the Zenith Chronomaster Sport in 2021.
The new Zenith Defy Skyline Skeleton, in blue.
As Zenith explains, this automatic manufacture movement drives the 1/10th of a second hand directly from the escapement, which beats at 36,000 VpH, thus making it a “natural fraction-of-a-second indication.”
With the new Defy Skyline Skeleton Zenith adds two versions of the steel watch with a skeletonized symmetric dial that looks much like four-pointed stars. Zenith notes that the open-work here is a direct reference to a Zenith “double Z” logo of the 1960s.
You may recall that the Defy Skyline’s faceted bezel is also meant to recall early 1960s eight-sided Defy models that have been now reimagined with twelve sides, each positioned as extensions to the hour markers.
Blue or black
Defying the typical hard-to-read skeleton dial design, Zenith purposefully applied a generous amount of SuperLuminova to the Skyline Skeleton’s applied baton hour markers and its central hour and minute hands.
Zenith offers the new skeleton design in a black or blue hue. The same color can be found on the main plate as well as the bridges and open star-shaped oscillating weight, visible from the back.
As usual, Zenith mixes its finishes, applying matte, satin-brushed and polished surfaces to the steel case and bezel. Its efficient automatic bi-directional winding mechanism with a star-shaped rotor delivers a power reserve of approximately sixty hours. The Defy’s steel bracelet can be swapped with the supplied rubber strap and steel folding clasp the boasts a starry sky pattern, matching the dial.
Price: $11,000
Defy Skyline 36mm
Also new in 2023 is a slightly smaller Skyline model, which debuts in three new pastel colors, each offered with or without a diamond bezel.
Unlike the 41mm debut edition Skyline and the new Skeleton version, this unisex example is a traditional time-and-date model fitted with a Zenith Elite movement that doesn’t include the one-tenth-of-a-second subdial at 6 o’clock.
Price: $8,500 (no diamonds) and $12,000 (with diamonds).
One of the new Zenith Defy Skyline 36 models. The series is available with and without a diamond bezel.
Zenith also adds a Boutique Edition to the lineup of the original 41mm model offerings. This model features a contrasting color scheme with rose gold highlights. Zenith has engraved the watch’s anthracite dial with a rose gold motif and added rose gold hands and hour markers.
The new Zenith Defy Skyline Boutique Edition.
The intent, according to Zenith, is to mimic the night sky and its twinkling stars. To do this, artisans have engraved the Skyline’s characteristicfour-pointed star dial pattern and then plated it with rose gold.
Zenith will deliver the watch on a steel bracelet with a satin-brushed surface and chamfered and polished edges. An easy-change black rubber strap with a starry sky pattern is also provided.
Price: $8,400.
Defy Extreme Glacier
Zenith also adds the Defy Extreme Glacier in 2023 as an extension of its rugged 45mm titanium-cased Defy Extreme collection, a series that boasts a 1/100-of-a-second El Primero chronograph.
The new Zenith Defy Extreme Glacier boasts a chalcedony dodecagonal outer bezel and pusher protectors.
More specifically, the new watch is meant to complement the Defy Extreme Desert from 2021. While that watch was designed to echo hot and arid conditions, the new model is inspired by frozen landscapes and built with a chalcedony dodecagonal outer bezel and pusher protectors.
Chalcedony is a crystalline semi-translucent stone with a pale blue color meant to look like a frozen glacier. Zenith says each stone is cut and polished by hand, and because each exhibits slightly different colors and fibers, every bezel from the fifty-piece limited edition will appear slightly different on each of the fifty examples of the Defy Extreme Glacier.
Zenith continues the ice-cold theme by making the chronograph counters using transparent sapphire crystal that’s also given a terrific frosted finish to look icy and to allow light to pass through.
Through the frosted finish the wearer will see an El Primero 9004 high-frequency chronograph movement, found in all the Defy Extreme models. The movement offers 1/100th-of-a -second time measurements with two independent escapements. One beats at 5Hz (36,000 VpH) for timekeeping while the second vibrates at 50Hz (360,000 VpH) to activate the chronograph function. Zenith makes the nicely finished movement, a certified chronometer, visible through the sapphire display back.
Zenith finishes the watch with a black Velcro strap and white rubber strap, which can be easily swapped with the titanium bracelet using Zenith’s quick strap-change mechanism.
As noted, Zenith will offer the Defy Extreme Glacier as a limited edition of fifty pieces, available exclusively at Zenith stores and online boutiques.
Bell & Ross’s Carlos Rosillo and Bruno Belamich have teamed with watch design legend Alain Silberstein to create a trio of watches that combine Silberstein’s colorful shapes with a black ceramic version of Belamich’s aviation-inspired square Bell & Ross BR 03 design.
All three watches use the now more common, smaller version of the BR 03 case. While the original BR 01 measured 46mm × 46mm, most recent BR 03 collections measure 42mm × 42mm, the size of each model in the new Grail Watch collection.
Notably, none of the watches features a brand logo.
“We decided to simply use the ampersand that already features prominently in our brand name, because what better symbol for a collaboration between equals could you imagine?” says Belamich.
“With the chronograph, Carlos explained that the seconds hand was by far the largest one ever fitted to one of their watches, and we had to ensure the reset function worked perfectly each and every time so it would align exactly at zero,” Silberstein adds.
“With the diving watch, we had to make sure these huge oversized hands were as light as possible, so they wouldn’t affect the overall precision of the movement. And then to make a two-color ceramic bezel was a major challenge.”
The Bell & Ross x Alain Silberstein BR 03-92 Marine 22, showing large hands.
Time & Date
The first watch in the trio, the Bell & Ross x Alain Silberstein BR 03-92 Klub 22, is a time-only model on a matte black ceramic case and jet-black dial.
The Bell & Ross x Alain Silberstein BR 03-92 Klub 22.
Silberstein’s massive hand design creates a playful dial while as a large blue arrow indicates minutes and an S-shaped yellow form indicates the seconds.
The dial is interrupted only by the subtle date indicator. The watch features an automatic movement caliber BR.CAL-302 with date function. Priced at $4,400, it will be made in 200 examples.
The Dive Watch
The Bell & Ross x Alain Silberstein BR 03-92 Marine 22, the second model in the trio, is a re-imagined dive model.
The Bell & Ross x Alain Silberstein BR 03-92 Marine 22.
Here Silberstein applies his “Maxi’ hands, which include a blue circular hours hand and a large red arrow. While both hands are liberally coated with luminescent material, the minute hand is particularly visible due to its critical elapsed dive time function.
To that end, the designer created a specialized two-tone ceramic bezel with the final twenty minutes of the insert colored red and a full set of 20-minute markers with luminous indexes.
The Bell & Ross x Alain Silberstein BR 03-92 Marine 22 diver model is depth rated to 300 meters, features a screw-down crown and is powered by caliber BR.CAL-302, the same automatic movement with date function used in the time only model. It will be made in a series of 100 examples. Price: $5,600.
The Chronograph
The third model in the series is the Bell & Ross x Alain Silberstein BR 03 Krono 22, a chronograph with five of Silberstein’s famous Bauhaus-inspired hands.
The Bell & Ross x Alain Silberstein BR 03 Krono 22.
The hours are indicated by red circle with a blue arrow showing the minutes. Here, a yellow S-shaped hand serves as the chronograph seconds indicator while a blue triangle serves as the indicator for the chronograph 30-minute counter and a yellow arrow displays continuous seconds.
Unlike the other two debuts, this model offers a crown that features Silberstein’s signature red triangle.
The Bell & Ross x Alain Silberstein BR 03 Krono 22 is powered by the caliber BR.CAL-301 automatic chronograph movement with date. Made in 100 examples, the watch is priced at $6,700.
Grail Watch is offering watches numbered 1 to 50 as a box set of all three timepieces, which will arrive in a Silberstein-designed collector’s box. Price for the set: $16,700.
Piaget enhances its ultra-thin Altiplano collection with a set of four artisanal Métiers d’art Altiplano Moonphase watches, each displaying a translucent blue enamel sky created by master enameler Anita Porchet.
The four new Piaget Métiers d’art Altiplano Moonphase watches, each representing a different season.
The four Métiers d’art Altiplano Moonphase watches display Chinese constellations, each represented by small white dots and precious stones. At night, hidden SuperLuminova-coated artwork lights up to reveal the moon and the season’s ‘Guardian’ constellation.
Each of the four models is associated with a different Guardian of the season: The Azure Dragon stands for the East and is associated with Spring and wood; the red bird, representing the South, is close to Summer and fire; the white tiger, looking West, is a friend of Autumn and finally a black turtle (for the North) represents Winter.
One the lower half of each watch Piaget displays moon rays made of graduated diamonds, sapphires and garnets. The large moon phase display features a moon window framed with gold ring set and graduated diamonds. Each 36mm watch is cased in white gold or rose gold with a baguette diamond bezel.
Following two years of work, the new models are among the first in the Altiplano collection to feature a moon phase display. Two additional models, each with mother-of-pearl dials, also debut the moon phase display within Altiplano.
Piaget powers the new series with its 580P Altiplano Manufacture automatic mechanical movement. On the back you’ll find a deep blue-lacquered moon-shaped oscillating weight.
Zenith also adds a Boutique Edition to the lineup of the original 41mm model offerings. This model features a contrasting color scheme with rose gold highlights. Zenith has engraved the watch’s anthracite dial with a rose gold motif and added rose gold hands and hour markers.
The dial is interrupted only by the subtle date indicator. The watch features an automatic movement caliber BR.CAL-302 with date function. Priced at $4,400, it will be made in 200 examples.
To that end, the designer created a specialized two-tone ceramic bezel with the final twenty minutes of the insert colored red and a full set of 20-minute markers with luminous indexes.
Each season of the