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The Watches

Chopard Unveils Lacquered Ode to the Year of the Tiger

Each year Chopard dedicates an elaborately decorated L.U.C XP ultra-thin watch to the sign of the Chinese zodiac year. For 2022, the Year of the Water Tiger, Chopard unveils the L.U.C XP Urushi Year of the Tiger timepiece, an 88-piece limited series dedicated to the beast of honor. The Year of the Water Tiger will begin on February 1, 2022.

The new Chopard L.U.C XP Urushi Year of the Tiger.

With its ultra-thin case, and powered by Chopard’s excellent L.U.C 96.17-L movement, the watch glows thanks to its dial adorned using the Urushi Maki-e technique combining lacquering and gold dust.

Chopard teamed with the workshops of the century-old company Yamada Heiando and Master lacquer artist Minori Koizumi to create the new series. Koizumi, who requires no less than 160 hours to decorate the dials, followed the traditions of the Maki-e technique. Koizumi places gold flakes between layers of lacquer made from tree sap to create the background. Then, the artisan adds the tiger into the image above a bay surrounded by cliffs.

The gold mined to create the 39.5mm rose gold case is sourced from an ethical supply chain pioneered by Chopard. The thin case takes full advantage of the caliber inside, which measures a wispy 3.30mm thick. This is why Chopard can size the entire watch at a mere 6.8mm thick.

Chopard’s thin L.U.C movement 96.17 boasts a gold micro-rotor and two barrels.

And despite its small size, the L.U.C 96.17-L with its strong micro-rotor and two stacked barrels, offers the wearer an impressive 65-hour power reserve.

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The Watches

Franck Muller’s USA Limited Edition Bill Auberlen Vanguard Races to Stores

The seconds indicator on the new Franck Muller USA limited edition Vanguard Racing Skeleton Bill Auberlen starts with double zero at the bottom of the dial, not at the top. This layout, while rare on a watch dial, allows seconds to be read from both ends of the seconds hand and echoes the dashboard Auberlen would see while piloting his racecar.

Vanguard Racing Skeleton USA Limited Edition, here cased in the Technologie Bleu composite.

The dial layout is just one of many racer-friendly details that Franck Muller built into the sporty automatic watch, which was announced earlier this year and is reaching Franck Muller boutiques and its U.S. retailers now.

Another example can be found in Franck Muller’s choice of case materials for the tonneau-shaped 44mm by 53.7mm Vanguard watch.

The watch is the latest Franck Muller model built with Auberlen’s direct input. One of America’s most successful racecar drivers, the BMW racing driver Auberlen has won sixty-three races.

Three versions

One version of the watch is built with carbon, the same ultra-light, high-performance material racecar makers utilize. Another version features an unusual blue-tinged high-tech composite called Technologie Bleu, which the watchmaker says is created by mixing ‘high purity metals and other exotic elements.’

This non-conductive, non-metallic material is made using a process called the Micelle Phenomenon. Once the case is formed, Franck Muller cuts, carves, grinds and sands the material to a durable, gem-quality finish.

Additional sporty touches on the Vanguard Racing Skeleton Bill Auberlen include a generous use of racing red dial details across the skeletonized dial. The watchmakers at Franck Muller also attach a strap composed of Alcantara-like suede, reminiscent of a sports car interior, and lined with rubber. Instead of attaching the strap to the case using the usual spring bar technique, Franck Muller subtly integrates the strap into the case with two invisible screws.

In another unusual detail, Franck Muller has skeletonized the numerals visible on the date wheel to match the open-worked dial.

Franck Muller offers its Vanguard Racing Skeleton Bill Auberlen in three case materials: rose gold ($34,000), carbon ($27,400) and macro molecular Technologie Bleu ($26,200).

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Aerowatch

Enticed by an Aerowatch Spider

By Steve Huyton

Most people who purchase a Swiss-made watch imagine it was meticulously crafted in a small workshop. For clients of Aerowatch, this actually is the case because the company’s headquarters are located in Saignelégier, within the heart of the Jura mountain region.

The company has operated continuously since 1910 and is still family-owned and managed by the Bolzi siblings: Jean-Sébastien (director of sales & marketing) Fred-Eric (master watch constructor) and Adeline (administrative manager). Aerowatch offers a range of quartz and mechanical offerings, including the distinctive Skeleton Spider.

The Aerowatch Skeleton Spider.

The Spider

I’ve always been enticed by mechanical skeletonized watches, and the Skeleton Spider is a great example. With a stainless-steel case measuring 43mm it should appeal to a broad demographic of buyers, including the unisex market. With its classical proportions, it felt very comfortable on the wrist and would be suitable for daily use.

Ultimately this stylish watch would look equally good with casual or formal attire. Personally, I could imagine sporting this timepiece with a finely tailored dinner suit to a gala ball or private function. However, because it’s only water-resistant to a depth of fifty meters, it wouldn’t be suitable for swimming or diving.

Visually the Skeleton Spider has a strong identity that is designed to make a bold statement. What makes this watch so special is the anthracite spider web skeletonized dial with red spider small seconds indication.

Other features include a refined satin red chapter ring, luminous indexes and domed sapphire crystal. Powering the watch is a customized manual-winding Calibre 6497-1 movement from Unitas (ETA), which oscillates at a frequency of 18,000 vibrations per hour. This mechanism is visibly showcased via the sapphire crystal exhibition caseback. Functionally the Skeleton Spider features hours, minutes, and small seconds and has a power reserve of fifty-two hours.

Aerowatch also offers the watch with yellow and black coloring .

As a perfect final touch, Aerowatch presents the Skeleton Spider on a black leather strap with a complimentary folding steel clasp. For a watch of this quality, I feel it is competitively priced at $3,150.

Steve Huyton is an industrial designer, illustrator and author who publishes Total Design Reviews

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The Watches

Meistersinger Darkens Stratoscope

One of our favorite moon phase watches, the Meistersinger Stratoscope, is set to release its darkest model yet.

Announced a few weeks ago, and now ready for delivery, this younger and slightly larger cousin of the excellent Meistersinger Astroscope hits the ether (and stores) with a limited edition model bathed in a rugged diamond-like carbon (DLC) coating. The Meistersinger Stratoscope debuted earlier this year in a steel case with a more traditional sunburst blue and black dial.

The one-handed 43mm watch displays a large, luminescent moon phase using a photorealistic image of our sole natural satellite. Around the lunar image we see Meistersinger’s characteristic double-digit numerals 01 to 12, divided into fifteen-minute increments.

 

The Meisteringer Stratoscope is now available (in a limited edition) with an all-black dial and case.

For this new Black Line Edition, limited to twenty pieces, the moon rotates across a very dark night sky, which is framed by an equally dark black diamond-like carbon (DLC) case. The moon and time display glow in the dark.

Inside Meistersinger utilizes its Sellita-based automatic MS Luna movement to calculate the time and the moonphases. In theory, this moon phase indicator only requires a slight adjustment after 122 years.

Price: 3,990 euros, or about $4,600.

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The Watches

Abingdon Expands Tactical and Dive Watches

As Abingdon celebrates fourteen years since it started offering adventure watches specifically targeted to women, the Las Vegas watch company this week adds three models to its Jane tactical watch collection and adds a new model to Nadia, its dive watch collection.

The new Jane Outlaw.

Both collections are the brand’s first watches fit with a bi-directional compass just inside the bezel and a ruler built into the back of the watch. The new models are 35mm steel-cased watches with 200 meters of water resistance, an impressive specification rarely seen watches this size.

Jane

The new Jane watch, built with an Ameriquartz quartz caliber by Arizona-based movement maker FTS, is the result of three years of testing, according to Abingdon, which explains that it wanted to create the “best tactical watch offered for women.”

Two models within the Jane tactical watch collection. Jane is powered by an Arizona-made FTS quartz caliber.

Jane combines a brushed 316L stainless steel case and screw-down crowns with a hardened sapphire crystal, with military time conversion, standard and metric rulers, a bi-directional compass, glow-in-the-dark dial markings, day and date display, a diver’s bezel, and its Ameriquartz Caliber 7122 quartz movement.

Abingdon builds a ruler into the back of the Jane and Nadia watches.

Look for new Jane models called Covert (black dial), Mission (red dial) and Outlaw (black dial with bronze-colored case).

Covert, one of the new Jane tactical watches.

Nadia

Abingdon originally launched its Nadia dive watch in 2019 and this year adds the Nadia Black Abyss, a black and pink version, which joins the original white and blue Whitewater model. Abingdon tests all its dive watches on the wrists of inductees of the Women Diver’s Hall of Fame.

The new Nadia Black Abyss.

The 35mm steel watch is powered by a Seiko TMI NH06 automatic movement, which delivers more than forty hours of power reserve. Two screw-down crowns, which control the time function and a bi-directional compass, ensure that the Black Abyss maintains its water resistance. Abingdon has added an elongated 16mm silicone strap built to fit over wet suits and certain thicker dry suits.

The original Nadia dive watch from Abingdon, attached with a white silicone strap. Inside is a Seiko automatic movement.

Prices: $629 (Jane) and $829 (Nadia).

All Abingdon Jane and Nadia watches are water resistant to 200 meters. All dive watches are tested by inductees of the Women Diver’s Hall of Fame.

 

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