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Analog Shift Teams with Nivada for Retro-Style Chronograph   

Swiss watchmaker Nivada Grenchen has teamed with Analog Shift (the vintage watch division of the Watches of Switzerland Group) to launch the Chronomaster ‘Big Eye’ Yachting, a 38mm steel-cased yacht timer and chronograph.

The new Nivada Grenchen Chronomaster ‘Big Eye’ Yachting.

The 1970s-style Chronomaster ‘Big Eye’ Yachting offers a sharp-looking clean white dial with easy-to-see broad arrow hands and a minute counter (at three o’clock) modified with blue and orange sections made specifically for counting down the first ten minutes of a yacht race.

The watch’s chronograph display can track up to thirty minutes with a bright orange central seconds hand, the minute counter and a small seconds counter at the nine o’clock position.

In addition, the watch’s unidirectional aluminum bezel offers a third function: tachymeter. The engraved tachymeter scale includes markers for fifths of a second to track average speed.

Inside the case Nivada Grenchen fits a manually wound Sellita SW510 BH B movement with a 63-hour power reserve. The movement is set under a sapphire crystal that the watchmaker has domed to mimic the same shape of the original Chronomaster’s acrylic crystal.

As vintage experts, Analog Shift asked Nivada Grenchen to pair the limited edition watch with a genuine vintage ‘beads of rice’ steel bracelet.

The Chronomaster ‘Big Eye’ Yachting, a limited edition of 100, is available from all Watches of Switzerland Group platforms, including  WatchesofSwitzerland.com, Mayors.com, Betteridge.com, and AnalogShift.com. 

Price: $1,995.

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Jaeger-LeCoultre Applies Retro Style to Master Control Chronograph Calendar 

Jaeger-LeCoultre dresses one of its most impressive Master Control models in mid-twentieth-century style with a sharp-looking pink gold case with a black dial and red accents.

The new Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Control Chronograph Calendar.

Inspired by its own Memovox and Futurematic collections from the 1950s and 1960s, Jaeger-LeCoultre offers the new Master Control Chronograph Calendar with patterned sub-dials and a dark blue moon-phase indicator, both of which nicely contrast with the black brushed sunray dial.

You might recall that Jaeger-LeCoultre applies the Master Control name to watches that pass its in-house 1,000-Hour Control Certification. The rigorous testing protocol, now standard for all Jaeger-LeCoultre timepieces, involves testing not only the movement but the entire cased-up watch.

The vintage styling on the Master Control Chronograph Calendar is framed by a pulsometric scale marked around the flange. This red-colored display was traditionally used by physicians to measure patients’ heart rates, and, as the watchmaker notes, is still relevant today. The red is repeated on the sub-dials and in the day and month windows.

The full dial is beautifully balanced. The complete calendar and a bi-compax chronograph indications are easy to read while the day and month windows in the upper section of the dial are almost symmetric with the moon-phase and date indicator at 6 o’clock.

Jaeger-LeCoultre’s excellent automatic Caliber 759, an integrated chronograph with a column-wheel chronograph and vertical clutch, powers the watch’s timing indicators and the triple calendar with moon-phase display. The movement, finely decorated and visible through the sapphire crystal case-back, offers a strong sixty-five-hour power reserve. (See below for additional specifications). 

Price: $32,500. 

Specifications: Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Control Chronograph Calendar 

Case: 40mm by 12.05mm pink gold, 50 meters of water resistance. 

Movement: Automatic Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 759 with a 65-hour power reserve. 

Dial: Black sunray-brushed with indicators for hours, minutes, small seconds, day, date, month, moon phases, chronograph with 30- minute counter and pulsometer. 

Strap: Black alligator.

Price: $32,500.

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Hublot Celebrates Bucherer Partnership with New Duo 

Hublot and watch retailer Bucherer 1888 celebrate their partnership with the launch of two new limited edition Big Bang Unico watches. The duo is the third exclusive Bucherer model made by Hublot since the partnership commenced in 2008.

The New Hublot Big Bang Unico Bucherer Exclusive Titanium.

One model, the Big Bang Unico Bucherer Exclusive Titanium, shines with a polished 42mm titanium case that Hublot contrasts with a clear sapphire bezel, and the collection’s familiar skeletonized dial. A white rubber strap adds a sporty touch.

The second debut, the Big Bang Unico Bucherer Exclusive Ceramic, combines a 42mm micro-blasted black ceramic case with a polished black sapphire bezel and skeletonized dial. Here, a darker rubber strap matches the case.

The new Hublot Big Bang Unico Bucherer Exclusive Ceramic.

Hublot powers both watches with its excellent in-house, almost fully exposed Unico HUB1280 movement endowed with a seventy-two hour power reserve.

Each watch is a limited edition of thirty pieces to be offered in selected Bucherer boutiques and online in the United Kingdom, Germany, France and the United States. Prices: $43,900 (black ceramic) and $42,000 (titanium). 

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Mondaine Adds a Cushion-Cased Collection 

Mondaine fits its well-known Swiss railway dial design into a sharp-looking cushion-shaped steel case to debut a full Cushion Collection. The brand’s famed red dot seconds hand glides around the dials of two models, one a 41mm chronograph and the other a 31mm time-only model.

The new 41mm Mondaine Grand Cushion.

These designs are distinctive and very Swiss. Traveling through Switzerland by train means frequently sighting the source of Mondaine’s minimalist watch dial named for the Federal Swiss Railways (SBB).

The Mondaine Petite Cushion, a 31mm time-only model.

At every train station you’ll see an easy-to-read black-and-white-dial clock originally designed by Hans Hilfiker in 1944 when he was working for the SBB. The design was enhanced in 1947 with the addition of a paddle-shaped seconds hand based on the stationmaster’s hand-held train signal.

Mondaine offers the 41mm Grand Cushion model with a Ronda quartz chronograph movement and a choice of three dial color options: dark green, dark blue and white.

Each watch arrives with a quick-release black or green strap as well as a Milanese mesh stainless steel bracelet.

The watchmaker’s Petite Cushion model fits best on smaller wrists. Like the chronograph model, the Petite Cushion is powered by a Ronda quartz movement and topped with a double-domed sapphire crystal.

Mondaine sells the smaller model only with a white dial (for now) but adds the color with two distinctive, eco-friendly straps: black vegan grape leather, red vegan grape leather.

With your choice of strap, Mondaine includes a Milanese mesh stainless steel bracelet and makes it easy to swap between strap and bracelet. 

Prices: $375 (31mm) and $595 (41mm chronograph).

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TAG Heuer Revives the Carrera Skipper 

TAG Heuer revives its Carrera Skipper this week, four decades after the colorful regatta countdown timer disappeared from the watchmaker’s line-up.

The new TAG Heuer Carrera Skipper.

Returning as a 39mm steel watch, the new TAG Heuer Carrera Skipper retains its brightly colored dress, sporting a circular-brushed blue primary dial with sub-dials in contrasting teal, green and orange.

The new model also features the Carrera’s new bezel-free ‘glassbox’ design with a broader sapphire crystal and curved flange dial, a combination that extends the viewing angle for the dial.

The new Skipper also retains many of the design features that marked the original, including large triangle-shaped markers at five-minute intervals around the outer curved flange, a bright orange central seconds hand and the Skipper name emblazoned at the base of the 12-hour counter. The new model adds a date to the dial.

New Series

The launch is just the start of a maritime revival for the watchmaker. TAG Heuer says it plans to create a new series of nautical watches led by the revived Carrera Skipper. The series will “mark TAG Heuer’s return to the world of yachts and yachting,” according to the watchmaker.

The new TAG Heuer Carrera Skipper (right) with the original from 1968.

TAG Heuer’s involvement in yacht racing starts in the 1940s, but the Skipper’s history commenced after the 1967 America’s Cup. That’s when Jack Heuer provided with winning yacht, the Intrepid, with a set of hand-held yachting stop watches and equipped her crew with Aquastar wrist watches featuring a customized countdown timer made of a red and white disc that rotated behind a series of five holes.

To celebrate that win, Heuer created the Skipper chronograph in 1968 with a 30-minute subdial that was adapted to count-down the fifteen-minute regatta ‘pre-start’ in three, five-minute segments. Later versions of the Skipper used the Autavia case, according to TAG Heuer, though the very first examples were based on the Carrera chronograph.

TAG Heuer is powering the new Carrera Skipper with its TH20-06 movement that boasts bi-directional winding and an impressive 80-hour power reserve.

Price: $6,750.

 

Specifications: TAG Heuer Carrera Skipper 

(CBS2213.FN6002) 

Movement: Caliber TH20-06 automatic displaying hours, minutes, seconds, date, chronograph 

Dial: Blue circular brushed. Blue flange with 60 second / minute scale 3 counters: 

 – 3 o’clock: green, orange & teal color lacquered 15-minute count-down
indicator; rhodium plated polished hand
–  6 o’clock: blue permanent second indicator; rhodium plated polished hand
–  9 o’clock: teal color lacquered hour chronograph counter; SKIPPER printed;
rhodium plated polished hand.

Rhodium-plated facetted, polished applied indexes, rhodium-plated facetted, polished hour and minute hands with white SuperLumiNova and orange lacquered triangle-shaped tip. Orange lacquered central hand 6 o’clock angled date

Case: 39mm by 13.9mm fine brushed and polished steel, bezel free construction, ‘glassbox’ domed sapphire crystal with double anti-reflective treatment. Water resistance is 100 meters.

Bracelet: Blue fabric strap with polished steel folding clasp with double safety pushbuttons

Price: $6,750.

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