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Watch Of The Day

Bell & Ross Adds a Chronograph to BR 05

Bell & Ross last week debuted the first chronograph within its retro-classic BR 05 collection.

The new Bell & Ross BR 05 Chronograph, which debuts with a choice of blue or black dial and steel bracelet or rubber strap.

You might recall that the BR 05 collection, which debuted in 2019, signaled the brand’s entry into the expanding field of Swiss-made 1970s-style steel watches with integrated bracelets.  

Directly referencing the groundbreaking integrated steel watches of the 1970s, Bell & Ross’s BR 05 design essentially is an evolution of its cockpit-inspired BR 03. With the first time-only BR 05 collection, Bell & Ross placed its very identifiable 12-6-9 numerals and four bezel screws exactly where you’d expect them on a Bell & Ross aviation watch, and framed them with curved, polished bezel and case edges that nicely meld into a new steel bracelet.

Now with a chronograph option, the BR 05 retains the solidly integrated case and bracelet but adds a familiar chronograph dial layout. The watch’s retro-shaped snailed counters (chronograph minute counter at 9 o’clock and small seconds at 3 o’clock) between the 12 and 6 on the dial echo the BR 05’s case, which now measures 42mm in diameter, up from the 40mm of the debut collection. 

Designing the chronograph challenged Bell & Ross to add pushers to a case it built to present fluid lines and curves. By flattening the pushers, smoothing their edges and essentially incorporating them within the case, Bell & Ross handily met that challenge.

Bell & Ross finishes the new BR 05 chronograph with flat satin-polished surfaces and polished bevels. The effect is more dressy than sporty, though the optional blue or black rubber strap might tilt that view just a bit. The watch’s 100-meter water resistance and robust ETA-based automatic chronograph movement (Bell & Ross Cal. 301) allow for wear most anywhere but deep dives. Luminous markers and hands keep the time visible in dim light.

Bell & Ross offers the new, quite nicely executed BR 05 chronograph with either a blue or black sunray dial and with a choice of integrated steel bracelet ($6,400) or blue or black rubber strap.  ($5,900).

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The Watches

Zenith’s Latest Revival is a Special Edition for North America

Zenith again taps into its past as it today debuts a special Chronomaster Revival watch, which the Le Locle manufacturer is releasing as a special North American edition.

The new Zenith Chronomaster Revival Liberty.

The new Zenith Chronomaster Revival Liberty, a red, white and blue limited edition of 150 pieces, echoes earlier Zenith Revival pieces with a design firmly rooted in the brand’s 1969 El Primero A384 automatic chronograph tonneau-cased debuts. As a reminder, it was in 1969 that Zenith debuted its El Primero caliber, the world’s first high-frequency automatic chronograph movement.

Domed sapphire

The latest edition, like recent Zenith Chronomaster Revival models, retains the 37mm case size of the original models and features Zenith’s modern El Primero 400 automatic movement with a 50-hour power reserve. Also echoing the vintage look are the tachymeter scale and the original chronograph hand design called “Barley Sugar Cane.”

Zenith says it consulted original blueprints and production plans from five decades ago to recreate the case. In this new version Zenith caps the dial with a newly domed sapphire crystal and adds a modern clear sapphire caseback. Also new is the model’s blue rubberized cordura strap, complete with a single red stitch on each side.

Zenith creates the model’s Liberty theme with a matte blue gradient dial paired with white chronograph counters. In greater detail, Zenith has painted red and white stripes on the central chronograph second hand. Furthermore, Zenith colors the numerals on the white date wheel in red.

Zenith if offering the new Chronomaster Revival Liberty as a limited edition of 150 pieces exclusively in the United States and Canada and on Zenith’s American online boutique. Price: $8,700

Specifications: Zenith Chronomaster Revival “Liberty”

(Reference: 03.US384.400/57.C823, Limited Edition for North America.)

Movement: Automatic El Primero 400 column-wheel chronograph, frequency of 36,000 VpH (5 Hz), 50-hour power reserve. Functions: Hours and minutes in the center. Small seconds at nine o’clock. 
Chronograph (central chronograph hand, 12-hour counter at six o’clock, 
30-minute counter at three o’clock), tachymetric scale, date indication.

Case: 37mm stainless steel, water resistant to 50 meters.

Dial: Blue gradient with white counters and tachymeter scale
, markers and hands are rhodium-plated, faceted and coated with Super
Luminova.

Bracelet: Blue cordura-style strap and red stitching, stainless steel pin buckle.

Price: $8,700

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The Watches

Bulova Celebrates Precisionist With Special Editions

Bulova is marking the tenth anniversary of its Precisionist collection of high-tech, 1/1,000-of-a-second quartz watches with the new Precisionist X Collection. 

The new collection offers more luxurious examples of the large-cased, multi-level Precisionist. The collection features, for example, one model with karat gold accents and another utilizing the interesting patterns created by Damascus steel.

Karat gold

One model, the Precisionist X Limited Edition, is cased in stainless steel with an 18-karat yellow gold top ring insert. And befitting an anniversary celebration, the watch is limited to 100 pieces and is being offered by Bulova in a special gift box with a numbered serial card and a plaque ($3,950)

Wavy pattern

Alongside the limited edition, Bulova unveils two new Precisionist X Special Edition models that boast top ring inserts made of Damascus steel, which you can easily identify thanks to its wave pattern.

One of two new Bulova Precisionist X Special Edition timepieces featuring top ring inserts made of Damascus steel.

Those who also collect knives or swords are familiar with the process, which will actually harden the steel. Examples of the process date to the 4th century A.D. when the city of Damascus was then well known for its weapon-makers and metallurgical prowess.

Bulova will make the Precisionist X Special Edition ($1,295) with either a black IP case paired with a handsome new green leather strap or a rose gold IP case paired with a brown leather strap. Like the limited edition model, this unlimited anniversary watch will be sold with a special gift box.

Both watches retain the Precisionist’s distinctive octagonal 45mm x 47mm case shape with partially open dial design, primarily exposing the watch’s date ring and central quartz movement plate.

With its 1/1,000-of-a-second chronograph timing ability, you’ll find dial displays on the Precisionist that show tenths, hundredths and thousandths-of-a-second readings. Bulova caps the displays with a curved sapphire crystal.

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The Watches

Parmigiani Fleurier Debuts New Integrated Chronograph

Parmigiani Fleurier earlier this year underscored its technical mettle by adding the Tondagraph GT to its Tonda GT collection. That limited-edition chronograph features a large date display and, unusually, an annual calendar, all placed into a case inspired by the highly acclaimed Tonda Chronor Anniversaire watch, for which the Manufacture received the Chronograph Watch Prize from the GPHG in 2017.

For Fall 2020 Parmigiani Fleurier revisits that same fluted-bezel case, but makes it in rose gold and fits it with an impressive integrated chronograph built on the foundation of that award-winning Chronor Anniversaire.

The new Parmigiani Fleurier Tondagraph GT Rose Gold Blue.

The brand’s new Tondagraph GT Rose Gold Blue, houses Parmigiani Fleurier’s new PF071 movement, a COSC-certified, automatic chronograph with large date, that boasts all the specifications you’d expect from a high-end in-house integrated chronograph – the brand’s third – with such pedigree.

Thus, the new high-frequency (36,000 bph) caliber is built with a column wheel instead of a cam, utilizes a vertical clutch instead of the more common horizontal clutch, and secures its balance using a double-attached cross-through bridge rather than a single-point bridge.

Parmigiani Fleurier explains that this type of bridge attachment “minimizes the effect of impacts to the balance with gold inertia blocks and has been designed so that its height can be adjusted and adapted precisely to the rest of the movement.”

With its high frequency chronograph caliber, which is accurate to the nearest 10th of a second, Parmigiani Fleurier has added two additional markers and hands within the subdial at 6 o’clock for the tenths-of-a-second timing display.

Parmigiani Fleurier has also integrated the big date aperture directly into the movement rather than adding it as a module, which the brand says enhances its reliability.

Parmigiani Fleurier has integrated the big date aperture directly into the movement.
The clear sapphire on the back exposes a sunray satin pattern, a 22-karat gold oscillating weight.

On the dial the watchmaker blues its traditional hobnail-style “clou triangulaire” guilloche, while the back reveals the high-end finish it applies throughout the new caliber PF071. The clear sapphire on the back exposes the movement’s sunray satin pattern finish and the 22-karat gold oscillating weight with eye-catching “angel wing” bridges.

Parmigiani Fleurier is making the Tondagraph GT Rose Gold Blue as a limited edition of twenty-five pieces each on a blue rubber strap ($41,000) and also on a gold bracelet ($65,500).

 

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Watch Of The Day

TAG Heuer Adds Black Dial, New Bracelet to Monaco

TAG Heuer answered collector requests for a new black-dialed Monaco last week when it debuted the Monaco Chronograph 39 Caliber Heuer 02 Automatic, the first new black-dialed Monaco in a decade. And to enhance the offering, which also includes a new blue-dialed model, the watchmaker builds the newest Monaco with its in-house Caliber Heuer 02 automatic movement and pairs both with an all-new steel bracelet.

The newest Monaco, the TAG HeuerMonaco Chronograph 39 Caliber Heuer 02 Automatic.

These two new Monacos, with the same black-dialed model also matched to a new black alligator leather strap, are meant to continue the brand’s 50th anniversary celebration of the Monaco, which began in 2019.

The new blue and black watches feature dials that have been sunray brushed and configured with a familiar three-register layout with square, silvered hour and minute chronograph subdials. On both models, the running seconds indicator is marked by a simple crosshair pattern.

New bracelet

For many, the new bracelet will likely be as welcomed as the new black dial. Monaco hasn’t seen a fully new steel bracelet update in two decades. The new bracelet, which echoes the design of the H-shaped bracelet Heuer used on the Monaco in the early 1970s, features wider lugs than the earlier models and tapers a bit more around the wrist. It’s held with a new butterfly clasp.

“The bracelet is particularly important for any wristwatch – without a good bracelet, the timepiece lacks desirability,” says TAG Heuer’s Heritage Director, Catherine Eberlé-Devaux. “For the new Monaco timepieces, we have alluded to its brilliant past with a familiar design and color while reinforcing that the collection is moving forward with innovative new technology.”

TAG Heuer fits all three new editions with the excellent in-house manufacture Caliber Heuer 02, an automatic movement with a vertical clutch, column wheel and an impressive eighty-hour power reserve.

With a few exceptions, regular collection Monaco chronographs in recent years had been set with ETA-based Caliber 12 or Sellita-based Caliber 11.   

Prices: $6,750 (on steel bracelet) and $6,350 (on leather strap).

Specifications:
TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph 39mm Caliber Heuer 02 Automatic (bracelet model)

(Reference CBL2113.BA0644 and reference CBL2111.BA0644, blue dial available January 2021)

Movement: Caliber Heuer 02 Automatic with vertical clutch, column wheel, 80-hour power reserve.

Case: 39 mm polished and fine-brushed stainless-steel, bevelled, domed sapphire crystal
Sapphire caseback, water-resistant to 100 meters.

Dial: Blue or Black sunray brushed, rhodium-plated indexes, rhodium-plated hour and minute hands with white SuperLuminova, red lacquered central hand, white TAG HEUER printed logo, angled date display at 6 o’clock

–3 counters:
– 3 o’clock: silver minute chronograph counter
– 6 o’clock: black or blue permanent second indicator
– 9 o’clock: silver hour chronograph counter.
Bracelet: Alternating, three-row stainless steel with stainless-steel butterfly folding clasp with double safety push button.

Price: $6,750.00

 

TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph 39 mm Caliber Heuer 02 Automatic (alligator leather strap)(Reference CBL2113.FC6177)

Movement: Caliber Heuer 02 Automatic with vertical clutch, column wheel, 80-hour power reserve.

Case: 39 mm polished and fine-brushed stainless-steel, bevelled, domed sapphire crystal
Sapphire caseback, water-resistant to 100 meters.

Dial: Black Sunray-brushed, rhodium-plated indexes, rhodium-plated hour and minute hands with white SuperLuminova, red lacquered central hand, white TAG HEUER printed logo, angled date display at 6 o’clock

Three counters:
– 3 o’clock: silver minute chronograph counter
– 6 o’clock: black permanent second indicator
– 9 o’clock: silver hour chronograph counter
Strap: Black alligator leather, stainless-steel folding clasp with double safety push buttons

Price: $6,350

 

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