Doxa honors American adventure novelist Clive Cussler with a specially finished version of its SUB 300T dive watch. Cussler’s novels were highly influential in spotlighting Doxa watches, especially as depicted on the wrist of fictional adventure hero Dirk Pitt, who wore an orange-dialed Doxa while exploring or on a mission.
The new Doxa SUB 300T Clive Cussler (above) retains all the technical specifications you expect from this pioneering Swiss maker of professional-grade dive watches (see specifications below), but adds a series of distinctive finishes and design choices aimed at creating a weathered look to its 42mm case, dial and even the strap.
To create the aged appearance, Doxa has opted to replace the SUB 300T’s traditional, late-1960s dial with a dial that looks like a vintage compass, much like Dirk Pitt might use.
In addition, the watch’s case, bracelet, clasp, and pin buckle are made using steel that Doxa has purposefully finished to appear aged, as if Pitt himself once wore the watch.
Doxa also honors Cussler with a series of unique dial design features, notably by finishing the dates 7, 15, and 31 in red to commemorate the author’s birthday of July 15th, 1931.
Doxa also engraves each watch with its own exclusive number on the side of the bezel to indicating authenticity.
“I extend my heartfelt appreciation to DOXA for honoring my father’s legacy with a watch that exemplifies his courage, originality, and love of exploration,” says Dirk Cussler, author and the son of Clive Cussler.
On the back of the watch Doxa has engraved the names of shipwrecks and other historical artifacts that have been discovered or surveyed by NUMA.
Doxa has earmarked a percentage of sales from this special edition Clive Cussler watch for donation to NUMA, the National Underwater and Marine Agency Cussler founded in 1979. On the back of the watch Doxa has engraved the names of shipwrecks and other historical artifacts that have been discovered or surveyed by NUMA.
“Cussler’s internationally famed novels were a natural platform for Doxa watches, highlighting them as essential tools for his heroic characters,” says Jan Edocs, Doxa CEO.
Doxa supplies each SUB 300T Clive Cussler with an aged stainless steel coated “Beads of Rice” bracelet with a folding clasp and ratcheting wetsuit extension, as well as a beige NATO strap.
An additional black FKM rubber strap with an aged stainless steel coating folding clasp is available for purchase.
Price: $2,690.
Specifications: Doxa SUB 300T Clive Cussler
(Ref. 840.80.031.15)
Case: 42.50 mm x 44.50 mm x 14 mm steel with aged stainless steel coating, screw-down crown, water resistance to 1,200 meters (4,000 feet), screw-down engraved case back, flat sapphire crystal, unidirectional rotating bezel for calculating and monitoring no-decompression dive times, helium release valve.
Movement: Automatic (ETA-based) with a 38-hour power reserve.
Dial: Vintage compass design, hours, minutes, seconds and date display.
Bracelet: Aged stainless steel coating “Beads of Rice” bracelet, folding clasp with ratcheting wetsuit extension, additional beige NATO strap. Black rubber strap with aged stainless steel coating folding clasp and wetsuit extension also available for $490 extra.
The annual California Mille classic car rally ran in late April with Chopard again (for the fifth time) as the rally’s Official Timer. In addition to its timing duties, the Swiss watchmaker has launched a commemorative watch to mark the 2023 event: The Mille Miglia GTS Automatic Chrono California Mille 32nd Edition, a 44mm Lucent Steel certified chronometer dressed in grey with Hagerty Motorsports black and blue racing stripes.
The Chopard Mille Miglia GTS Automatic Chrono California Mille 32nd Edition.
As is typical of Chopard’s always notable racing-themed chronographs, the dial on this latest example is meant to recall the dashboard of a classic car. Thus, you’ll see the bright red accents on the California Mille logo and the tip of central sweep-seconds hand contrasting nicely with the grey dial and the racing stripes.
Additional racing themed designs are seen around the dial, with the watch’s thin black bezel displaying a tachymeter scale with contrasting white graduations that can be used to measure average speed ranging from 60 to 400 km/h by means of the chronograph seconds hand.
Inside, Chopard provides an COSC-certified ETA Valjoux-based automatic caliber with a 48-hour power reserve. Sturdy mushroom-type pushers are knurled on top to assist with a grip while in use. Likewise, Chopard adds a large crown with a ratcheted edge to ensure a good grip.
Finally, the Mille Miglia GTS Automatic Chrono California Mille 32nd Edition timepiece is fitted with a black calfskin strap lined with rubber. In keeping with the codes established at the birth of the Mille Miglia collection, the lining is patterned like the tread of 1960s Dunlop Racing tires.
Chopard offers its Mille Miglia GTS Automatic Chrono California Mille 32nd Edition as a limited edition of thirty pieces.
Hublot teams with Nespresso to create a green-hued, environmentally friendly Big Bang watch made using recycled Nespresso capsules and coffee grounds.
The new Hublot Big Bang Unico Nespresso Origin.
The new Hublot Big Bang Unico Nespresso Origin is a 42mm limited edition watch with a case, crown, bezel, and pushers made from recycled aluminum. The watch’s caseback and movement container are both made from recycled titanium.
The watch unites two Swiss consumer brands in the latest project in Nespresso’s Second Life campaign, in which the company teams with Swiss brands to create new products from used aluminum coffee capsules.
In addition to using recycled metals, the project also includes a wholly new application for used coffee grounds. In a world first, Hublot and Nespresso have transformed used coffee grounds into watch straps.
The Hublot-Nespresso collaboration is signaled by Nespresso’s “N” engraved on the crown.
For the fabric strap, one of the two straps included with the watch, Hublot collaborated with SingTex, aNespresso partner. The fabric strap, called Scafé, is 100% recycled fabric made using 5% coffee grounds and 95% recycled polyester. Hublot colors the fabric strap green to match the case andthen adds a recycled aluminum cap to the strap’s titanium buckle.
The watch, pictured with fabric strap.
Coffee grounds are even added to the rubber strap, which is composed of 4.1% coffee grounds and 8.2% recycled white rubber.
The watch’s particular green color is a nod to the color of the Nespresso Master Origins Peru capsule. Inside, Hublot fits its HUB1280 Unico Manufacture automatic chronograph.
“This is a symbolic watch: in creating the Big Bang Unico Nespresso Origin, Hublot and Nespresso have demonstrated that it is possible to add value to recycled raw materials – and that circularity has no limits,” Hublot explains in its promotional material for the new watch.
Hublot places the new Big Bang Unico Nespresso Origin (a 200-piece limited edition) in an eco-friendly, reusable oak box specially decorated with the two brands’ logos, affixed using coffee grounds.
William Henry’s new Legacy timepiece collection, its first foray into wristwatches, features dials created from meteorite, fossilized mammoth tooth and other exotic materials.
Matt (William) Conable and his business partner Michael (Henry) Honack founded William Henry in 1997 with the belief that there was a potential consumer base for fine knives situated between the work of individual bladesmiths and mass production. They were right.
First, the Knives
Having practiced his knife-making art under his own name for almost a decade prior to launching the Oregon-based William Henry,Matt Conable developed an appreciation of exotic and unusual materials for his craft.
Today, William Henry incorporates exotic woods, fossilized dinosaur bone, mammoth tooth, semi-precious stones, corals and other unusual materials into handles. Frames, blades, bolsters and other metal elements are crafted in a variety of functional, semi-precious, and elegantly forged metals.
Unlike the results of mass production, William Henry’s knives combine the talents of expert individuals around the world to bring each designto life. Bladesmiths work Damascus and other exotic steels, metalsmiths create Mokume Gane while a host of specialist engravers work their craft to embellish handles and bolsters in their individual style.
I’ll admit that I often lament the overuse of “unique” when describing unusual designs, but each William Henry knife is in-fact unique. No two are exactly the same. The Damascus pattern, the grain of exotic woods, the striations of color in a fossilized mammoth tooth, or even the Widmanstatten patterns of meteorite all lend themselves to this distinctive individuality.
Next, the Accessories
Following the success of their blade-bearing beauties, Conable and company expanded the stable of offerings from knives to a host of other high-end men’s (and a few women’s) accessories including bracelets, necklaces, cufflinks, money clips, writinginstruments, and more.
In each product line, the ethos and feel of the William Henry design was clearly evident.
Seeing this evolution into new product lines I had always wondered – and had actually asked the leadership at William Henry “why not watches?” Vague answers intimated they were clearly considering the idea, but I never got a confirmation – until now.
Three William Henry Legacy watches. From left, Mammoth, Meteorite and Dinosaur.
Finally, the Watches
In reality, the connection between knives and watches is notthat great a leap. Both have ostensible functionality that justifies their existence, and both can be elevated beyond functionality and become works of art crafted in metal and other exotic materials.
For William Henry’s new Legacy timepiece collection, its first foray into wristwatches, five variations (see below) perfectly exemplify the spirit of William Henry.
The William Henry Legacy Dinosaur, with a fossilized Dinosaur bone dial.
From the brand: “William Henry is a studio that tells stories through timeless pieces, and our first watch designis a testament to that intention. The Legacy watch collection is a perfect blend of form and function, built around the extraordinary materials that have defined us.”
A sampling of raw materials used by William Henry to make Legacy collection dials.
Entering the luxury watch market can be a risky thing. Unlike jewelry – or even knives – mechanical watches house a complex engine perfected and refined over hundreds of years by trial and error.
Inside Legacy
For their own launch watches, William Henry chose to go with the Sellita SW 400, a Swiss automatic time & date (only) movement without extraneous functions or complications, allowing the full impact of the rare materials to take center-stage. All else being equal, the SW 400 is a slightly larger version of the SW 200 and fits very nicely into the 42mm case without looking lost in the see-through back.
Each watch is powered by a Sellita automatic movement.
These high-grade movements are housed in grade 5 titanium, Damascus steel, and even Moku-Ti (Damascus titanium) – clearly putting the metallurgical roots and experience of the William Henry brand on full display. These watches are also built to high standards and are water resistant to 100 meters, regardless of the case material.
Under the sapphire crystals, each dial represents more than just color, pattern, and texture. They actually embody time in several different ways:
The William Henry Legacy Superconductor.
The Superconductor dial is a wafer of a modern material originally created as a particle accelerator moving protons and electrons to 99.997% the speed of light. It just so happens that the cross-section of this space-age material presents an intriguing pattern born from technology, and never used for its aesthetic value – until now.
The Legacy Moku-Ti.
The Moku-Ti dial combines ancient metalworking techniques in a mélange of modern materials and historical metalsmithing where the Damascus style layering of metals dating back to 1,500 BC are applied to the more modern titanium, a metal not really in widespread use until the 1900s.
The William Henry Legacy Mammoth.
Traveling a bit further back on the William Henry materials time-line, we find the one model sporting a Mammoth Tooth dial. Crafted from the fossilized teeth of these extinct giants, the amazing dials on these watches show color and grain that belie the source of the material and are at least 10,000 years old – when the last large herds of Wooly Mammoth roamed the planet.
Legacy Dinosaur dials.
The next series jumps back several orders of magnitude to fossilized dinosaur bone dating back 100-200 million years. When initially exhumed from the ground, the fossilized bone looks fairly mundane; much like a rusted rock. When shaped, sanded, polished, and finished, striations of dark grey create patterns over a varicolored Martian-red background in an ethereal expression of natural artistry brought to life through modern craftsmanship.
The Legacy Meteorite.
Traveling even further back to the very beginnings of our universe in our William Henry “Wayback” machine we find the meteorite dials. Not without precedent in the watchmaking pantheon, meteorite dials embody the ancient travelers of the cosmos that have seen billions and billions (thanks Carl) of years go by.
William Henry’s own dials display the iconic Widmanstätten patterns within a contrasting and colorful Moku-Ti case. This creates a vibrant counterpoint to the monochromatic Thomson structures of the dial.
Each William Henry timepiece represents a merger of materials, design, and engineering that integrates a totemic representation of time into timekeeping itself.
This limited-edition Legacy Meteorite model features a dial crafted from pure meteorite, a remarkable interstellar remnant dating back billions of years and discovered here on Earth. The fine crystalline pattern, in metal, is unlike anything else we’ve ever seen, and offers a window back to an earlier era in the story of our universe.
The dial is housed in a forged Moku-Ti case, built with ninety layers of four alloys of aerospace grade titanium. This tapestry in metal is crafted by a master smith in Ukraine specifically for this William Henry watch case, which requires heat to reveal the final pattern.
The watch is finished with a sapphire crystal and exhibition back revealing the Swiss automatic movement with a 38-hour power reserve. Water resistance is rated to 100 meters, and the hand-crafted leather strap features a custom stainless deployant clasp for easy wear and adjustment.
The Fossil Dinosaur Bone Dial
This limited-edition Legacy Dinosaur model features a dial crafted from dinosaur bone; an extraordinary fossil material that ranges from 100 to 200 million years old.
Raw dinosaur bone.
The ‘high red’ dinosaur bone is considered the finest in the world and is found in the American southwest. Initially it has a similar appearance to rock, but after the painstaking process of crafting a precision dial, the beautiful hues and patterns are revealed. Surrounding the ancient dial is a forged Damascus case built with 300 layers of stainless-steel alloys and etched to reveal the individual patterns.
The Wooly Mammoth Tooth Dial
Color and grain are the earmarks of the dial crafted from fossil mammoth tooth. This relic of the giant that last roamed the Earth 10,000 years ago is occasionally discovered on the sea floor or riverbeds. When used for decoration, each tooth or remnant must dry for about 2 years before William Henry can begin to work with it.
Raw mammoth tooth.
Vacuum stabilized with resin, the finished dial reveals unique patterns and colors that have been waiting (at least) 10,000 years to become a timeless story on your wrist. The dial is housed in a forged Damascus case, built with 300 layers of stainless-steel alloys and acid-etched to reveal the flowing patterns of the contrasting metals.
The Legacy Mammoth.
The case on the Legacy Mammoth is finished with a sapphire crystal and exhibition back revealing the Swiss automatic movement with a 38-hour power reserve. Water resistance is rated to 10 ATM/100 meters, and the hand-crafted crocodile leather strap features a custom stainless deployant clasp for easy wear and adjustment.
The Moku-Ti Dial
This Legacy Moku-Ti watch (also limited) features a dial crafted from Moku-Ti, a complex tapestry in titanium. The metal is created by forging eighty-four separate layers of four different alloys of aerospace grade titanium into a finely patterned billet.
The Legacy Moku-Ti features a dial created by forging 84 separate layers of 4 different alloys of aerospace-grade titanium.
This exquisitely detailed material is forged specifically for this project by one master artist located in Ukraine. After a detailed diamond polish, William Henry uses carefully applied heat to reveal the different alloys and final pattern in the dial ensconced within its titanium case.
The Superconductor Dial
This limited-edition Legacy Superconductor model features a dial crafted from Superconductor; a copper-niobium composite originally intended to become wire in a massive particle accelerator. The project was never completed, and this exotic patterned material was never drawn down to its final dimension.
Very little of it exists, and we have enough to make a limited number of watch dials. The dial is housed in a titanium case with black DLC coating, with a sapphire crystal and exhibition back revealing the Swiss automatic movement with a 38-hour power reserve.
This feature appears in the Spring 2023 issue of iW Magazine, where it includes an interview with William Henry co-founder Matt William Conable.
Bulgari adds three new models to its sporty Aluminum series.
The popular Bulgari Aluminum collection was an instant hit when it debuted in 1998. Made of rubber and aluminum, a combination not seen among higher-end Swiss watches previously, the watch was casually sporty and worn by men and women. Bulgari relaunched the collection in 2020, adding automatic movements and updated materials.
The newest additions to the collection include a newly darkened chronograph (with a new caliber), a blue-dialed time and date model and a sporty tennis-themed edition with a left-side crown.
The new Bulgari Aluminum Chronograph, with black dial.
Aluminum Chronograph
Now measuring a slightly larger 41mm in diameter, Bulgari’s Aluminum Chronograph (which won the GPHG Iconic Watch Prize in 2020) is now available in a version sporting an all-black dial, a black rubber bezel and a black rubber and aluminum bracelet.
Powered by a new automatic Caliber B381 (built from an automatic Sellita base with a Dubois-Depraz module), the new watch continues to utilize the aerospace-grade 6028 aluminum alloy and FKM rubber Bulgari incorporated into the impressive redesigned version of 2020, but now also includes a crown, caseback and both chronograph pushers made using black DLC-coated titanium.
Bulgari’s Aluminum Chronograph, off-white dial Panda edition, launches in September
Bulgari also adds the new automatic chronograph movement to the familiar off-white dial Aluminum Chronograph.
While the black-dialed model will be available in June, the newest off-white-dialed ‘Panda’ edition will arrive in September.
Price: $4,640.
Capri Edition
Bulgari adds a limited series to the Aluminum collection meant to celebrate the Italian island of Capri. Two models offer a dial colored in gradient Tyrrhenian blue, a shade reminiscent of Capri’s beachside sea and sky.
This new limited series (of 1,000 watches each) includes a Solotempo model displaying time and date and a chronograph version.
Each watch frames its dial with a blue rubber bezel that matches the rubber strap with aluminum links and aluminum pin buckle.
Bulgari fits the new Aluminum Capri Chronograph with its ETA-based automatic chronograph Caliber B130. The Capri Solotempo model is powered an ETA-based caliber B77 mechanical automatic movement, which also features a date display.
To add novelty, Bulgari has engraved the caseback with the Faraglioni, the three rock formations well known to travelers to the Italian island.
Prices: $3,350 (time and date) and $4,800 (chronograph).
The new Bulgari Aluminum Match Point Edition.
Match Point Edition
This surprising and sporty aluminum model is meant to not only look a bit like a tennis ball, but also to be worn on the court.
Its unusual left-side crown keeps the winder away from the wearer’s flexing wrist during play, and with a smaller (40mm) lightweight aluminum case and an (included) extra Velcro strap (above), more than a few Bulgari Aluminum Match Point Edition watches just might see some net action.
Bulgari accents the watch’s white dial with green luminescent hands and indexes and adds tennis-ball-yellow luminescent seconds hand, markers and dots. Even the packaging of this 800-piece limited edition evokes the look of a tennis ball.
On the caseback Bulgari has engraved — you guessed it — a tennis ball. Inside Bulgari fits its ETA-based automatic B77 caliber with a comfortable 42-hour power reserve.
Very little of it exists, and we have enough to make a limited number of watch dials. The dial is housed in a titanium case with black DLC coating, with a sapphire crystal and exhibition back revealing the Swiss automatic movement with a 38-hour power reserve.
While the black-dialed model will be available in June, the newest off-white-dialed ‘Panda’ edition will arrive in September.
This new limited series (of 1,000 watches each) includes a Solotempo model displaying time and date and a chronograph version.
On the caseback Bulgari has engraved — you guessed it — a tennis ball. Inside Bulgari fits its ETA-based automatic B77 caliber with a comfortable 42-hour power reserve.