Alpina’s new Alpiner Extreme Automatic Freeride World Tour 2023 is the official tour watch of the Freeride World Tour (FWT), a five-stage skiing and snowboarding competition.
Alpina’s new Alpiner Extreme Automatic Freeride World Tour 2023.
Available this year within Alpina’s full collection, the 41mm by 42.5mm cushion-case watch (with a round bezel) proudly displays the Tour’s logo on the existing Alpiner Extreme patterned dial.
The pattern itself mimics Alpina’s own triangle logo, a natural tie-in to the Freeride World Tour and one that echoes the Alpine summits for which the brand is named. Alpina’s long-standing red triangle seconds-hand counterweight just underscores the Alpina-FWT partnership.
Alpina sun-brushes the steel case and attaches it to the wrist with a black rubber strap. The crown is located at 3 o’clock and has been fit with a rubber grip for ease of use even if the owner is wearing ski gloves. Inside, Alpina places its automatic caliber AL-525, a Sellita-based movementbeating at 4Hz (28,800 vph), which is visible through the sapphire caseback.
Price: $1,895
Specifications: Alpina Alpiner Extreme Automatic Freeride World Tour 2023
Case: 41mm by 42.5mm by 11.5mm brushed and polished stainless steel 3-part, anti-reflective sapphire crystal, water-resistant to 200m, engraved and see-through screwed case-back, screw-in crown.
Dial:Black with triangle pattern, Freeride World Tour logo, black outer ring with white markers, applied silver color indexes filled with white luminous treatment, date window, hand-polished silver color hour and minute hands filled with white luminous treatment, polished silver-color second hand with red triangle.
Bracelet:Black rubber strap, folding buckle with push button.
As Creative Director for La Montre Hermès, Philippe Delhotal has been the driving force behind some of the marquee brand’s most creative, time-bending watches.
As we prepare to see what the watchmaking division of this global fashion powerhouse will debut during Watches and Wonders 2023 in late March, in this interview we learn a few details about how Delhotal approaches his design duties at Hermès. Delhotal also discusses his views regarding the differences between traditional men’s and women’s watches.
Philippe Delhotal
iW: Hermès is often perceived as a quintessentially feminine brand, though you do make men’s watches. How did that come about?
Philippe Delhotal: Hermès is a feminine brand indeed. When you visit us, you’ll see watches, handbags, scarves, perfume for women. And we have watches for men, too. Until now, about 80% of our production has been in ladies’ watches.
We have been making watches since 1928 and back then already they were already a big part of our portfolio. We would buy great movements from the likes of Jaeger-LeCoultre, Vacheron Constantin, and many others. And at the time movements were very small, and roundand this allowed us to make watches for women.
The Arceau Petite Lune Jete with diamonds and sapphires.
What, for you and Hermès, are the important elements that make up a watch conceived for women?
The form watch (a watch other than round) has a stronger character than a round watch. The Cape Cod, for example has a real identity, a personality. But it is difficult to find the right shape. That is the strength of Hermès today. The round Arceau’s character, however, comes from its asymmetrical lugs. This gives it a lot more originality and presence.
Round watches account for eighty percent of the market, so you can see how difficult it is to give them an identity. But you have to remember is that there are not many types of ladies’ watches around. And a woman will dress in a manner that is very different from men. On the other hand, many men’s watches are quite simple, and they are good for the casual chic look.
The Galop d’Hermès in rose gold.
Finally, there’s a cultural aspect. In some cultures, wearing a man’s watch is much more common. European women tend to wear more masculine watches. In Italy for example, many women wear Panerai or Rolex. If you go to Asia, you’ll see far more feminine watches, with diamonds, and so forth.
You started focusing on men’s watches in 2011. What are the specificities from the standpoint of design and market?
A breakthrough with men’s watches is quite complicated if you haven’t seen there right from the start. It is hard to be considered legitimate and be accepted. And then there is the mechanical connotation: Men don’t choose Hermès for a mechanical watch off the bat, they go to Audemars Piguet, Cartier, or IWC.
The Hermès H08 Madison.
From the design standpoint, a man’s watch must be original, surprising and also of very high quality. The first project that made our reputation in the world of male watches is the Temps Suspendu.
The Arceau le Temps Suspendu
It won a prize at the Grand Prix D’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG), which gave us a lot of visibility. It was a surprising piece because no watchmaker had even thought of stopping time. They’d rather do the opposite.
What in your experience is the difference between male and female buyers?
A man we’ll simply go for a male watch, a woman will choose according to what she feels at that moment. Women will change clothes, will change handbags, will change shoes, so they will have many more accessories than men depending on their choice of clothing or costume. So they will choose a watch according to the momentary function. A woman will change her watches a lot more often than we will, barring collectors of course.
The Hermès Gene Kelly.
When Yves Saint-Laurent designed his first costumes for women, it was considered a revolution. Women have so many ways of using accessories in the good sense of the word, compared to men, who have a few suits, some neckties, and maybe cufflinks, that no one wears, and watch, which is the only jewel today, though we do see occasionally rings or those little bracelets. It’s developing.
A big subject of discussion, even controversy, these days is gender fluidity. Is that having an impact on the world of watches?
I am convinced that we are right at the start of jewelry for men. Seeing a woman with a very nice suit today doesn’t shock anyone. but if a man wears a dress, other than in Scotland, things will get complicated.
When Henry D’Origny designed the Cape Cod, he just wanted to make a watch. And it ended up becoming a part of the women’s world, perhaps because it looked like a link in a chain, it had rounded edges, a hint of jewelry. When we made the model for men, it was a little different. But I must add, women were also the buyers of the male Cape Cod.
The Cape Cod.
At any rate, the success of the house is definitely based on its products. We believe we are seducing our clients, female and male, with an object that is well made and our sincerity vis-à-vis the object. we really put our heart in our objects, we spend a lot of time pondering them, we rethink them, we try to do genuine things, we have doubts at times, a lot happens while the object is maturing, and I think people feel that. And at some point, people just appreciate this product. There is no magic formula.
Up-close on the Arceau Le Temps voyageur. Hermès worked with movement specialist Chronode to create the traveling time module, which is integrated into the Hermès’ H1837 movement.
I think there is a genuine transformation on the social landscape that is happening around us, so that today it’s very difficult to say this is a watch for women that is a watch for men. You just must look at catwalks nowadays, the male ones and the female ones are getting closer and closer. This mix is as much from the female towards the male as it is from the male to the female. I find this extremely interesting, and why not?
TAG Heuer earlier this month revived the cushion-cased Monza, one of the watchmaker’s historic auto-inspired designs, with a contemporary tribute that features a lightweight carbon case and an unusually colorful dial.
The new TAG Heuer Monza Flyback Chronometer.
The new TAG Heuer Monza Flyback Chronometer is a special edition with a 42-mm case and a two-register black dial with a translucent fumé blue sapphire crystal chronograph counter at 3 and the permanent second at 6 o’clock. Even more unusual is the luminescent blue date window, the blue lacquered indexes and the black and white lacquered, luminous hours and minutes hands.
TAG Heuer revived the Monza (which debuted in 1976 as one of the first black-cased watches) in the early 2000s, but offered infrequent updates since that initial reboot.
In addition to its almost startling colors and intense luminosity, the new watch retains the dark case but opens up its dial with a skeletonized layout that exposes an in-house Calibre Heuer 02 Flyback, a chronograph movement with COSC certification.
A new movement for Monza, the caliber is the watchmaker’s much-lauded chronograph movement with COSC certification. Previously TAG Heuer has only utilized the flyback chronograph in its contemporary collections inside the TAG Heuer Autavia.
TAG Heuer also includes the expected tachymeter scale here, but adds a pulsometer, which helps determine heart rate per minute. The rate might quicken as the wearer eyes his or her dial, especially with its luminescent blue and bright red chrono counter hands and date window frame.
Grand Seiko debuts Spring Drive SLGA021, a new model in its fairly new (2020) nature-inspired Evolution 9 collection.
The 40mm steel watch features a blue dial created to echo the ‘gently lapping waters’ of Lake Suwa near the Shinshu Watch Studio, where the watchmaker builds Spring Drive watches.
The new Grand Seiko Spring Drive SLGA021.
Not only does the dial appear to mimic waves, its color changes depending on the angle and amount of nearby lights, also echoing the experience of gazing into a lake.
As on its Evolution 9 brethren, the dial here is eminently readable. Grand Seiko cuts the hour hand at the tip and extends the minute hand right to the minute track so that the hands are more clearly differentiated than is typical on many other watches. For the same reason, Grand Seiko makes the 12 o’clock index especially wide for instant identification regardless on viewing angle.
Grand Seiko fits the watch with its excellent Caliber 9RA2 Spring Drive movement, which boasts a long power reserve of five days, or about 120 hours.
All Caliber 9RA2 Spring Drive movements are protected from magnetic fields up to an enhanced 4,800 A/m.
Price: $9,100.
Specifications: Grand Seiko Spring Drive SLGA021
Dial: Blue, cut with gentle-wave-shaped surface. Time and date displays.
Case: 40mm by 11.8mm steel, screw-down crown, box-shaped sapphire crystal, sapphire caseback. Water Resistance to 100 meters and magnetic resistance to 4,800 A/m.
Movement: Spring Drive Caliber 9RA2, 5-day power reserve, automatic winding.Accuracy is ±0.5 second per day / ±10 seconds per month (average). power reserve Indicator on movement side.
Porsche Design launches a new flyback chronograph for buyers of the new Porsche 911 Dakar, a specially designed 911 named after the famed Dakar auto rally.
The new Porsche Design Chronograph 1 – 911 Dakar.
For these owners, Porsche design offers its new Chronograph 1 – 911 Dakar and a variation, the Chronograph 1 – 911 Dakar Rallye Design Edition (with an additional dial graphic). Both watches are cased in a new titanium alloy called titanium carbide.
The Porsche Design Chronograph 1 – 911 Dakar Rallye Design Edition, with added Dakar graphic.
The new material represents a continuation of Porsche Design’s long history as an innovator of titanium watch cases, which were introduced into watchmaking forty years ago by Porsche Design in tandem with IWC.
The newest titanium alloy is highly scratch resistant, according to the watchmaker, which says that the “smallest scratches caused by fine sand, for example, are now a thing of the past.” In addition, titanium carbide is not subject to any visible aging process, is hypoallergenic, and is lighter than traditional case-grade titanium.
Porsche Design is understandably quite proud of its new metal and even calls it out in red at the top of the new watch’s dial with a new abbreviation “TiC” (titanium carbide).
While Porsche Design still makes the crown and pushers on the Chronograph 1 – 911 Dakar with standard titanium, the entire 42.7mm case for the watch is made using the new material, which the company spent years developing.
Porsche Design explains that the material is created by first compressing titanium carbide granules under several tons of pressure, and then sintering them at over 2,000 degrees Celsius. “This condenses the granules and irreversibly turns them into a homogeneous compound.”
The watchmaker explains that the case blank is then milled and honed into shape.
The dial
Porsche Design ensures a quick reading the dial of the new chronographs with a highly visible red 60 in the minute scale. This perfectly matches with the red color of the chronograph stop hands as well as the word ‘flyback.’ In addition, the watchmaker’s designers have widened the markings of the small hour display for whole hours as compared to the half-hour markings.
The Chronograph 1 – 911 Dakar Rallye Design differs from the Chronograph 1 – 911 Dakar only with the colorful graphic within the running seconds aperture at 9 o’clock. Its white, blue, gold, and red lines represent the colors on the modified Porsche 953 that won the Rallye in 1984.
Porsche Design designed the watch’s rotor to match the Porsche 911 Dakar rims, and makes them available for the watch in either black satin or solid white. For the Chronograph 1 – 911 Dakar, the winding rotor is also available in Vesuvius gray.
Porsche Design fits its COSC-certified Porsche Design WERK 01.240 movement into the watch. This excellent in-house caliber features a flyback function that combines starting, stopping, and resetting in a single operation. The movement is visible through a titanium caseback and clear sapphire crystal. Each watch will bear an engraved limitation number on the caseback to match the number on the owner’s automobile.
As on all Porsche Design watches, th new chronograph allows straps to be changed without the use of tools. Porsche Design makes the watch’s handsome strap of black leather with contrast stitching in Shadegreen, the same hue found on the seat middle of the Porsche 911 Dakar. For the Chronograph 1 – 911 Dakar Rallye Design Edition the stitching ismade of Race-Tex in Shark Blue.
The Porsche Design Chronograph 1 – 911 Dakar and Chronograph 1 – 911 Dakar Rallye Design Edition can be ordered only by buyers of the new Porsche 911 Dakar and 911 Dakar Rallye Design automobiles at authorized local Porsche dealers.The watches in both liveries are limited to a total of 2,500 pieces, each priced at $14,500.
Movement: Caliber Porsche Design Caliber WERK 01.240, chronograph with flyback function, day and date display in German and English, COSC certified Rotor 360° rotor in wheel design in White, Black or Vesuvius Grey with Porsche Crest. Decorative features include matte black color with chrome-plated bridges, plates and polished screws, engraved Porsche Design icon. Power reserve is 48 hours and its frequency is 28,800 semi-oscillations per hour [4Hz].
Case: 42.7mm by 15.5mm titanium carbide with glass bead blasted finish.Crown and pushers in titanium, Sapphire crystal with hard coating, scratch-resistant and with sevenfold anti-glare properties on both sides. Caseback in black titanium with sapphire crystal. Water resistant to 100 meters.
Dial: Black/white minute and hour hands with SuperLumiNova, seconds hand in white; chronograph hand in neon orange; day and date display in German and English at 3 o’clock; red TiC graphic between 1 and 2 o’clock; chronograph second; 30-minute display at 12 o’clock, 12-hour display at 6 o’clock; small seconds at 9 o’clock.
Strap: Perforated leather strap made of genuine Porsche vehicle leather in black with backing in Race-Tex in Shade Green and decorative stitching in genuine Porsche vehicle thread in Shade Green or Shark Blue. Black titanium folding clasp with pushers.
All Caliber 9RA2 Spring Drive movements are protected from magnetic fields up to an enhanced 4,800 A/m.
