Tag

automatic watches

Browsing
The Watches

Bulova Expands Military Collection

Bulova expands its vintage-inspired collection of military watches with the new Avigation Hack A-11, an updated version of the WWII-era Bulova A-11 watch.

Bulova’s new Avigation A-11 Hack watch.

The original Bulova Avigation Hack A-11 watch was issued to U.S. soldiers during WWII and was one of the first watches of its kind. Its dial was highly legible with luminescent numerals, hands and markers while its large crown and solid one or two-piece straps were ideal for constant wear.

The watch and many others like it were known as ‘hacking’ watches because soldiers could pull out the crown and stop, or ‘hack’, the seconds hand at the 12 o’clock position to synchronize their watches. With a now-small 32mm case, the original A-11 was specially made for navigation.

The new model retains the original’s clean dial and distinctive coin edge case while expanding its color options and, literally, its case size (now at 37mm). Bulova is purposefully differentiating the new Avigation A-11 Hack watch from the many other military watches in its collection with a more contemporary color combination, namely a blue dial with red accents on a brown NATO strap.

Bulova stamps the back of the new watch with the same Military Spec information seen on the original A-11. Inside the new Avigation Hack A-11 you’ll find a reliable automatic movement (Miyota 82S0 3-hand movement with hack feature) boasting a 42-hour power reserve. Price: $450.

 

by
Keep Reading
The Watches

Frederique Constant’s Blue Moon

Frederique Constant refreshes its Classics Heart Beat Moonphase Date with a new model that boasts a rich blue dial emphasizing the watch’s mostly contemporary design.

The Frederique Constant Classics Heart Beat Moonphase Date, now with a rich blue dial.

In this handsome update, the light blue classic moonphase display nicely balances the very modern open Heart Beat aperture exposing a portion of the movement – a long-time Frederique Constant signature.

This pleasing symmetry is just one of many pleasures Frederique Constant reliably (and affordably) delivers with this refreshed design, which the Geneva-based manufacturer first debuted with lighter dials eight years ago.

The 40mm steel watch allows the wearer to read the current moonphase, the time and the date while also gazing at a portion of the balance wheel within the Heart Beat aperture beating at 28,800 vibrations per hour. On display is the watch’s Sellita-based automatic FC-335 movement, which is also visible through the sapphire back.

The watch’s Sellita-based automatic FC-335 movement is visible through the clear sapphire back.

To maintain its visual balance, the watch features no third aperture to display the date. Instead, a fourth hand with its own arrow tip points towards the date, shown in a circle on the flange.

The watch’s winding, hours, minutes, date and moon phases are all adjusted with the single crown. Its four positions allow for full control of the displays. The first position winds the movement, while the fourth adjusts the time. In an unsurprisingly display of technical fluency, the wearer can change the date in the second position and the moon phases in the third, as long as the hands are first positioned at 10:10. This protects the mechanism from being damaged.

As is often the case with Frederique Constant’s Classic models, the dial here is decorated with Clou de Paris guilloche.

Price: $2,095

  

Specifications: Frederique Constant Classics Heart Beat Moonphase Date

(Ref. FC-335MCNW4P26)

Movement: Automatic FC-335 caliber (Sellita-based), 38-hour power reserve, 28,800 vph.

Case: 40mm by 10mm polished stainless steel, two-part, scratch-resistant convex sapphire crystal, see-through case back. Water-resistant to 60 meters.

Dial: Navy blue with clous de Paris guilloché in the center. Printed white Roman numerals
, date graduation on outer ring, white hour, minute, second and date hands. Heart Beat opening at 12 o’clock, moonphase display.

Strap: Navy blue calf leather with off-white stitching, steel pin buckle.

Price: $2,095

by
Keep Reading
The Watches

Porsche Design Revisits All-Black Icon

Porsche Design revisits its Chronograph 1 – 1972 Limited Edition from earlier this year with the new Chronograph 1 All Black Numbered edition, an all-black titanium version of the historic design, to be issued as an individually numbered limited edition of 1,000.

Porsche Design’s new Chronograph 1—1972 All Black Numbered Edition

Like the previous model, which sold out quickly in early 2022, the new 40.8mm matte black titanium edition also echoes the original 1972 model’s size and design.

For both watches Porsche Design references its Chronograph 1, long considered the first all-black watch. The company’s use of black PVD on steel (as well as employing the then-new Valjoux 7750 automatic movement) set an example emulated for decades afterwards by sports watchmakers across the globe. Early examples of the pioneering Porsche Design automatic chronograph are highly collectible.

This newest version differs from the earlier model not only due to its individual number, but also because it features a clear sapphire caseback. That’s where you’ll see the watch’s number and a clear view of the Porsche Design WERK 01.140 caliber with COSC certification and the Porsche Design Icon winding rotor.

From the back you’ll see the watch’s number and a clear view of the Porsche Design WERK 01.140 caliber with COSC certification and the Porsche Design Icon winding rotor.

The remaining specifications echo the earlier edition, notably the highly legible dial inspired by the dashboard in the Porsche 911. Its tachymeter and the day/date display use the current Porsche font while the minute hand revisits F. A. Porsche’s own tapered design.

Porsche Design will make the watch’s 40.8mm case and bracelet with the same high performance titanium it uses in nearly all Porsche Design timepieces today. And new SuperLuminova will enhance the watch’s visibility in the dark. All Porsche Design Timepieces are produced in-house at Porsche Design Timepieces AG, the brand’s own timepiece-manufacturing facility in Solothurn, Switzerland.

Each watch arrives on a black titanium detachable bracelet with minutely adjustable folding clasp.

Porsche Design’s new Chronograph 1—1972 All Black Numbered Edition is set for release later in 2022 but can now be pre-ordered on the Porsche Design site as well as in Porsche Design Stores and from selected watch retailers. Price: $10,500.

The new Porsche Design Chronograph 911 Sport Classic, available to Porsche owners.

New 911 Sport

Porsche Design has also launched a new retro-inspired model, the Chronograph 911 Sport Classic, to owners of the recently released Porsche 911 Sport Classic.

The watch features a two-tone titanium and black case while the dial, white hands, green digits, and scale markings are inspired by the automaker’s Heritage Design tachometer. The design of the 360-degree winding rotor is based on the wheel options available for the 911 Sport Classic. And for the first time, Porsche Design is offering a range of different dials for the timepiece. Price: 12,500 euros.

 

 

 

by
Keep Reading
The Watches

Maurice Lacroix Downsizes a Skeleton

Maurice Lacroix has worked with movement specialist Sellita to create a new skeletonized version of the watchmaker’s best-selling Aikon. And unlike most of the watchmaker’s existing skeletonized watches, this new model, the Aikon Automatic Skeleton 39mm, with its namesake 39mm diameter case size, is the smallest –and first unisex – open-worked watch within the full Maurice Lacroix collection.

The new Maurice Lacroix Aikon Automatic Skeleton 39mm.

Collectors familiar with Maurice Lacroix know that it has a long history of making skeleton watches. Especially within its Masterpiece collection, this contemporary manufacture has long offered alluring open-worked dials alongside a host of interesting models with multi-hand retrograde functions.

Noting that it wanted to create an affordable skeleton watch with the brand’s existing high quality-price ratio, Maurice Lacroix aimed to work with Sellita to “apply its expertise to the creation of a new, contemporary model with smaller case dimensions.”

With this new Aikon Automatic Skeleton 39mm, the company adds to existing work with the movement specialist to create Automatic ML115 (base SW200). With considerable transparency, circular grained finishing and combined sun-brushed and sandblasted décor, the new watch successfully says ‘contemporary’ within an often very classic mechanical watch category.

Thus, instead of delicate filigree we see curved, matte-finished bridges that nicely expose the movement’s gearing and escapement while maintaining the torsional strength needed in a casually sporty watch.

Maurice Lacroix also fits the Aikon Automatic Skeleton 39mm with the brand’s Easy Strap Exchange system which allows the wearer to swap the bracelet for one of the leather or rubber strap options without using any tools.

Price: $3,450.

 

by
Keep Reading
The Watches

TAG Heuer Launches Automatic F1 Senna Special Edition

Only months after releasing a quartz-powered Formula 1 Senna Special Edition, TAG Heuer this week launches a new version of the most recent annual tribute to the late, famed Brazilian racecar champion Ayrton Senna.

Ayrton Senna was Formula 1 World Champion in 1988, 1989, and 1999.

TAG Heuer Formula 1 Senna Special Edition, with an automatic movement.

Now equipped with an automatic movement, the 44mm TAG Heuer Formula 1 Senna Special Edition boasts a heightened focus on the Senna Brand colors, specifically red, anthracite and black. The color red is particularly significant as it was prominent on Ayrton Senna’s original TAG Heuer watch.

Thus, TAG Heuer has finished the 2 o’clock pusher, the crown and the Senna double S at 12 o’clock with red lacquer. Similarly, the watch’s subdials feature red accents.

The watch’s sunray-brushed anthracite dial, with its patterned black minute, hour and permanent second chronograph counters, reflects light alongside a generous helping of white SuperLuminova on the rhodium-plated applied indexes and hands. A black ceramic tachymeter bezel frames the dial.

Note that TAG Heuer has engraved the number 400 on the bezel. The reference here is to symbolism of 400 km/h, a speed that has never been reached in Formula 1.

TAG Heuer also references Senna with the choice of bracelet, as is typical with this tribute collection. The first TAG Heuer chronographs worn by Ayrton Senna featured a similar S/EL style bracelet or strap with a folding clasp and a driver extension designed to fit over the sleeve of a racing suit.

Inside TAG Heuer fits its automatic Caliber 16, protected by a steel screw down case back engraved with a depiction of Senna’s helmet.

Price: $3,550.

Specifications: TAG Heuer Formula 1 Senna Special Edition

(CAZ201D.BA0633)

Movement: Caliber 16 Automatic (ETA Valjoux or Sellita-based).

Dial: Anthracite sunray brushed dial, black flange with 60-second/minute scale. Three counters with black “azurage” finish, rhodium-plated polished hand
9 o’clock, black “azurage” permanent second indicator; rhodium-plated polished hands, rhodium-plated polished applied indexes, facetted hour, minute and central hands with white SuperLuminova.

Case: 44mm steel fine-brushed, polished with ceramic black fine-brushed tachymeter fixed bezel and flat sapphire crystal. 
Water-resistant to 200 meters.

Bracelet: Fine-brushed steel S-shaped bracelet, fine-brushed steel folding clasp with double safety push buttons with pilot extension.

Price: $3,550.

 

by
Keep Reading