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The Watches

Omega Celebrates Paris Olympics

As the official timer to the Olympic Games in Paris 2024 this summer, Omega launches a celebratory watch, the Speedmaster Chronoscope Paris 2024, with a vintage 1940s ‘snail’ dial design that displays a tachymeter scale, a pulsometer scale and a telemeter scale.

The new Omega Speedmaster Chronoscope Paris 2024

With its white opaline dial and black, grey and gold accents, the watch oozes retro appeal while also hosting a full slate of modern technical updates within its contemporary 43mm case.

The watch is also available with a Moonshine Gold case and bracelet and a ceramic bezel.

The updated size fits a technically astute Omega Co-Axial Master Chronometer Calibre 9908 / 9909, certified by METAS, which marks it as meeting high Swiss standards of precision, performance, and magnetic resistance.

Omega is offering the new watch in four models. These include a version in full stainless steel with an anodized aluminum bezel and one cased in Omega’s own gold 18-karat yellow gold alloy known as Moonshine Gold with a ceramic bezel.

The steel model is also sold on a leather strap while the gold model is available on gold bracelet or a leather strap.

Each dial offers blackened sub-dials, Arabic numerals in Moonshine Gold and leaf-shaped, gold-coated hands and subdial hands.

On the back, Omega adds a commemorative design featuring a stamped medallion on a frosted base that displays a mirror-polished Paris 2024 logo and the words, “Paris 2024” and the Olympic rings.

Prices: $9,500 (steel with aluminum bezel on leather) to $51,400 (Moonshine gold case, ceramic bezel and gold bracelet).

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Featured Events

Watches and Wonders 2024: The Many Colors of NOMOS

With thirty-one multi-hued watches on one large table, Nomos showed its colors in spectacular fashion at its first Watches and Wonders a few weeks ago.

On a table within its Geneva exhibition booth, the German-based independent watchmaker displayed a special edition Tangente 38 Date – 175 Years Watchmaking Glashütte model, a collection of thirty-one watches, each with its own dial color combination.

For the limited edition, numerous elements of the dial were individually matched to the character of the watch. Shown here are the Tangente 38 Date Delfin and Poporange.

The steel-cased 38mm watches are each limited to 175 pieces, an ode to its hometown, which is celebrating 175 years of watchmaking.

As the best-selling collection at Nomos in the thirty years since the brand was born, Tangente is the appropriate choice for such a tribute.

The Tangente Date 38 Bubblegum model.

Each watch bears its own name and has its own story. While most of the watch names are in German (Ariel, Zirkus, Haifischgrau, and Schlossgrün) many are not.

The Tangente 38 Date Stop. Yes, there’s also a Go model with a green seconds subdial.

Watches dubbed Stop, Go, Chili, Flamingopink and Bubblegum hint at the color combinations and allude to the playfulness Nomos has embedded into the collection.

The cheerful shade of the Tangente Date 38 Flamingopink attracts attention.

While typically a commemorative model at any watchmaker is priced at a premium, Nomos is dedicated to making all its watches accessibly priced, even the limited editions.

The special edition Tangente 38 Date Lemonbisquit.

That is why the price of these colorful limited-edition watches ($2,310) is lower than the price of the standard Tangente 38 Date model ($2,780).

The patented date mechanism allows the date ring (here in light red) to be placed around the outside of the movement.

Inside Nomos places its superb hand-wound caliber DUW 4101, which Nomos makes in Glashütte and regulates according to chronometer values.

The name of the watch and the limited-edition number are engraved on the back, and the NOMOS caliber DUW 4101 can be seen at work through the sapphire crystal case back.

The movement, visible via a sapphire back, is built with the date ring around the main movement (a patented technique), which allows Nomos to create a large date window.

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The Watches

Breitling Celebrates Orbiter 3

 

Breitling launches the new Aerospace B70 Orbiter to celebrate of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Breitling Orbiter 3, which made the first nonstop balloon flight around the world on March 21, 1999.

The new Breitling Aerospace B70 Orbiter.

The 43mm by 12.95mm titanium-cased watch, which retains the thermo-compensated SuperQuartz analog and digital movement of Breitling’s ongoing Aerospace series, commemorates the Orbiter flight in several ways.

 

The watch’s dial color echoes the bright orange hue of the Orbiter’s capsule, and Breitling has affixed a segment of the original balloon into the watch, making it fully visible through the transparent caseback.

On the back you’ll also see the Breitling Orbiter 3 mission logo around the perimeter with the inscription “First non-stop flight around the world 25th anniversary.”

Breitling has updated the COSC-certified Breitling Manufacture Caliber B70 that powers the new watch. The caliber, which effectively displays time measurement with ten times the accuracy of a standard quartz watch, powers numerous functions. These include a 1/100th of a second chronograph (with split-time and flyback functions), countdown timer, second timezone, two alarms, lap function, and perpetual calendar.

On the dial of the new  Aerospace B70 Orbiter you’ll see the Breitling Orbiter 3 mission logo on the dial, which indicates the time with luminescent numerals, indexes, and hands.

Breitling offers the new watch on either a titanium bracelet or a black rubber strap with a folding clasp.

 

Prices: $4,700 (rubber strap) and $4,900 (titanium bracelet).

 

Specifications: Breitling Aerospace B70 Orbiter  

Reference: EB70101A1O1E1 or EB70101A1O1S1

Movement: 

Caliber: Breitling Manufacture Caliber B70

Diameter: 34.8 millimeters

Depth: 5.85 millimeters

Movement: SuperQuartz, thermo-compensated quartz, electronic,

analog and 12/24 hr LCD digital display; EOL indicator, power reserve is approx. 2 years battery life.

Chronograph: 1/100th second, max. 99 hrs 59 min. 59 sec., flyback function, electronic tachymeter, chronograph (lap timer, flight times).

Other functions: countdown timer, 2nd timezone, alarm

Calendar: digital, day and date programmed for 4 years

Certification: COSC-certified

Case:

Material: Titanium

Diameter: 43 millimeters

Thickness: 12.95 millimeters

Height (upper lug tip to lower lug tip): 52.25 millimeters

Water resistance: up to 100 meters

Glass: sapphire crystal, glare-proofed on both sides

Caseback: titanium with screws

Pushers: three integrated push pieces

Bezel: bidirectional, ratcheted

Dial: Orange with Super-LumiNova luminescent numerals, indexes, and hands.

Strap: Titanium bracelet or black rubber strap with folding clasp.

Prices: $4,700 (rubber strap) and $4,900 (titanium bracelet) 

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The Watches

Louis Vuitton Teams with Rexhep Rexhepi

In the first of series of watches built in collaboration with independent watchmakers, Louis Vuitton in late 2023 launched the LVRR-01 Chronographe à Sonnerie, developed by Louis Vuitton and the independent Geneva brand Atelier Akrivia (founded by watchmaker Rexhep Rexhepi) in a redesigned Louis Vuitton Tambour case.

The Louis Vuitton/Atelier Akriva LVRR-01 Chronographe à Sonnerie.

The new watch, a luxurious double-faced chronograph with a chiming complication, is powered by an all-new tourbillon movement. The chiming function can be activated by the pusher at two o’clock, which will initiate a chime heard once per minute while engaged.

When compared with conventional movements, the new LVRR-01 caliber is inverted, with the chronograph and chiming mechanisms visible on the front with the more traditional displays on the back.

The cubic motif is a nod to the Spin Time jumping-hours display, one of Louis Vuitton’s patented complications.

Louis Vuitton and Akrivia have devised a contemporary look for the front side of the watch, opting for a modern tinted sapphire crystal that echoes the innovative dual functions placed there.

On the back, the watch offers a more traditional face, with a white grand feu enamel dial. This dial was designed by Rexhep Rexhepi and crafted by Nicolas Doublel, the in-house enameler at La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton. Note that enamel dial echoes the look of the premiere wristwatch made by Louis Vuitton in 1988.

While the white-gold disc for the dial base is produced by Atelier Akrivia, the enamelling is completed by the in-house Louis Vuitton enamel atelier led by Nicolas Doublel.

The two watchmakers not only combined their watchmaking talents, but enshrined their dual efforts on the dial with a new logo. 

While at arms length the logo seems conventional, a closer look reveals a union of the two brand names. The ‘LV’ is incorporated into ‘AKRIVIA,’ which represents the first time in history that Louis Vuitton has combined its logo with of the logo of another brand. 

Historic tourbillon 

Beneath the LVRR-01’s tinted sapphire front, the tourbillon at the six o’clock position completes one revolution every five minutes, far slower than conventional tourbillons, but not unusual among older chronometers.

The innovative chiming chronograph that indicates elapsing minutes marks a first for a wristwatch, according to the watchmaker. However, the combination of elapsed time measurement with a striking mechanism has been used in pocket watches and more recently on Omega’s Speedmaster Chrono Chime, though the Omega chime operates in a different sequence.

Inside the LVRR-01’s tourbillon cage you’ll find a balance wheel with twin broad arms and eight inertial regulating weights, inspired by those found in marine chronometers.

For the chime, Atelier Akrivia has developed a black-polished steel hammer that strikes a tempered steel gong.

In order to power both the chronograph and the chiming mechanism, Louis Vuitton and Rexhep Rexhepi have outfitted the movement with twin barrels, one power source for the timekeeping portion of the movement and the chronograph and another for the chime. Unusually however, the second barrel only supplies power when the chronograph/sonnerie is activated.

The case is somewhat thinner than the traditional Tambour shape, with its more streamlined form.

Louis Vuitton and Atelier Akrivia applied all this innovation within a 39.9mm platinum Tambour case with touches of Rexhep Rexhepi style. This means the case is somewhat thinner than the traditional Tambour shape, with its more streamlined form, sloping bezel and sculpted lugs.

Similarly the crown and pusher are seven-sided, as on Louis Vuitton watches, but they are hand-hammered in the Atelier Akrivia style with added chamfering on their edges.

The LVRR-01 is delivered in a unique Louis Vuitton traditional trunk.

Price: CHF 450,000, limited edition of ten.

Specifications: Louis Vuitton/Atelier Akriva LVRR-01 Chronographe à Sonnerie 

Movement: 

  • LVRR-01 caliber: Manual winding movement developed by Atelier Akrivia
  • Functions: Central hours and minutes, 5-minute tourbillon at 6 o’clock; Chronograph à sonnerie (minutes & seconds)
  • 391 components, including 55 for the tourbillon only
  • 72-hour power reserve
  • 21,600 vibrations per hour
  • 41 jewels
  • Case:
    • Reinterpreted Tambour case
    • Diameter: 39.9 mm
    • Thickness: 12.2 mm
    • Water-resistant to 30 meters.
  • Front dial:
    • Smoked translucent sapphire dial
    • Six gold cubes filled with translucent Plique-à-jour
    fired enamel
    • 3N Gold railway and logo
  • Chronograph dial:
    • Traditional Grand Feu enamel on a palladium-gold base • Enamel dial features twin scales for hours and minutes
    Strap:
    • Natural calfskin leather
    Buckle:
    • Platinum ardillon buckle
    Trunk:
    • High watchmaking special trunk with hand-painted Monogram canvas.
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The Watches

Zenith Polishes its Defy Extreme 

Zenith adds a highly reflective mirror finish to a new model in its Defy Extreme collection.

The new Zenith Defy Extreme Mirror.

The very contemporary Defy Extreme Mirror reflects all colors with its fully mirror-polished metal exterior, familiar Defy angular case and polished integrated bracelet. The stark combination offers a dramatic, monochromatic option within the watchmaker’s rugged Defy chronograph collection.

Without colors, the new watch seems to blend with its environment. Zenith pairs the mirror-finish with an equally dramatic multi-layered open dial that features a sapphire center, finished to be both translucent and reflective.

The watch’s 1/100th-of-a-second chronograph scale features satin-brushed metallic elements, which retains the Defy’s easy-to-read dial, despite the watch’s metal-head theme.

Inside the watch the wearer will see an El Primero 9004 high-frequency chronograph movement, found in all the Defy Extreme models. The movement offers 1/100th-of-a -second time measurements with two independent escapements. One beats at 5Hz (36,000 VpH) for timekeeping while the second vibrates at 50Hz (360,000 VpH) to activate the chronograph function.

Zenith customizes each model in the Defy Extreme collection with a specially decorated rotor. On the Defy Extreme Mirror, the star-shaped winding rotor is finished in a silvery-grey metallic tone to match the case and dial elements.

Zenith attaches the new watch to the wrist with a black Velcro strap and a rubber strap, which can be easily swapped with the steel bracelet using the quick strap-change mechanism on the back of the case.

Price: $26,100.

Specifications: Zenith Defy Extreme Mirror 

Movement: Zenith El Primero 9004 with a frequency of 36,000 VpH (watch) and 360,000 VpH (Chronograph). 

Power reserves: 50 hours (watch) and approx. 50 min (chronograph).

Functions: Hours and minutes in the center,  small seconds at 9 o’clock. 1/100th of a second chronograph with a central chronograph hand that makes one turn each second, 30-minute counter at 3 o’clock, 60-second counter at 6 o’clock, Chronograph power-reserve indication at 12 o’clock. Special oscillating weight with satined finishings.

Case: 45mm polished steel, water resistant to 200 meters, flat sapphire crystal with anti-reflective treatment on both sides, caseback with transparent sapphire crystal.

Dial: Mirror tinted sapphire with three silver-colored counters, hands and markers are rhodium-plated, faceted and coated with SuperLuminova SLN C1.

Bracelet: Full interchangeable strap system. Full polished metal bracelet with folding clasp. Two straps included: 1 Rubber with folding buckle and 1 Velcro.

Price: $26,100. 

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