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Breitling Adds Tourbillon to Top Time 

Breitling adds a tourbillon to three models in its Top Time Classic Cars Collection, the series of luxurious sporty chronographs that celebrate classic automobiles. The new models honor the legacies of the Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Corvette and Shelby Cobra, three famed cars Breitling has linked to existing watches in the collection.

The new Breitling B21 Top Time Ford Mustang.

The watchmaker combines the new tourbillon addition with a variety of case metals and dial treatments (including one with a walnut burl dial) meant to add some contemporary technology to the essentially retro-themed Top Time collection.

The new Breitling Top Time B21 Shelby Cobra

Breitling fits each watch with Caliber B21, the same movement Breitling developed with the movement maker Manufacture La Joux-Perret and the same caliber seen first inside last year’s Breitling Premier Tourbillon.

The new Breitling Top Time B21 Chevrolet Corvette.

The Caliber B21 has a column-wheel-controlled design with a horizontal clutch and is a COSC-certified chronometer with a skeletonized oscillating weight. The wearer can enjoy a view of the column wheel on each watch through the caseback.

Breitling first introduced the Top Time Collection in the 1960s and revived it in 2021 as a ‘modern retro’ series built with mushroom-style chronograph pushers and an up/down dial design. 

For the new models, Breitling places the tourbillon carriage at 12 o’clock with the chronograph minute counter at the 6 o’clock position, in part to recall the look of vintage automotive dashboard gauges. You’ll also find tachometer scale just inside the bezel of all three new models.

The Watches

One debut model, the Top Time B21 Ford Mustang, boasts a 43-mm bronze case with a titanium back and a green dial, colored to match the first-generation Ford Mustang (1964 to 1974.)

Breitling Top Time B21 Shelby Cobra

A second debut, the Top Time B21 Shelby Cobra, has a 44-mm black ceramic case with a titanium back, crown, pushers, and buckle. Its blue dial matches the color theme of 1962 model, famously developed by Le Mans winner Carroll Shelby.

Breitling Top Time B21 Chevrolet Corvette.

The third debut, the Top Time B21 Chevrolet Corvette, pairs its 44-mm black ceramic case with a titanium back, crown, pushers, and buckle. Its unusual walnut burl dial and perforated leather racing strap are an homage to the steering wheel and dashboard inlays of the legendary 1960s “Sting Ray” Chevy Corvette.

Price: $47,000.

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G-Shock Celebrates 40 Years with Carbon-Cased Debuts 

Casio celebrates G-Shock’s 40th anniversary with two full-carbon-cased versions of its first-ever G-Shock watch, the DW5000.

The new models, GCWB5000UN-1 and GCWB5000UN-6, each place the watch’s already high-tech solar-powered timekeeping (paired with Bluetooth and radio controlled accuracy) into a choice of two new lightweight, three-layer carbon cases, each with the G-Shock 40th anniversary logo engraved on the back and the year of G-Shock’s birth noted on the dial .

These are premium models within the extensive 5000 series, which has presented the rectangular G-Shock dial and case for four decades to ardent collectors. 

Available now for the first time in Carbon cases, each of the anniversary editions is built from three types of carbon materials – forged carbon, carbon fiber reinforced resin, and multi-layered carbon. Carbon layers also appear within the dial and the extra thick bracelet.

One model, the GCWB5000UN-1, boasts a monochromatic midnight black hue while the other, GCWB5000UN-6, features a spacey, textured purple design.

Not only are these debuts newly cased in carbon, each case is also somewhat thinner than earlier offerings within its Full Metal sister line. The thinner case and the carbon, case, bracelet and clasp means these new model weight in at 64 grams while the full metal series tips the scales at 167 grams.

Of course both watches feature all the technical features you’d expect from the newest 5000 series models, including the aforementioned solar-powered timekeeping with Bluetooth and radio control, as well as a Super Illuminator (high-brightness full auto LED backlight), shock resistance, 200 meters of water resistance, strong magnetic resistance, four daily alarms, a snooze alarm, world time, countdown timer (24 Hr.), a stopwatch and 12/24-hour time formats.

Look for each model to arrive in 40th-anniversary special packaging.

The G-SHOCK GCWB5000UN-1 and GCWB5000UN-6 are each priced at $2,000 and are available at select retailers, gshock.casio.com/us, and the G-SHOCK Soho store. For more information about the G-SHOCK brand, visit gshock.casio.com/us.

The Father of G-SHOCK, Kikuo Ibe, speaks during the G-Shock 40th Anniversary celebration in NYC on Nov. 9.
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Oris Adds Laser-Cut Dial to ProPilot X Calibre 400

Oris introduces a version of its ProPilot X Calibre 400 with an unusual, colorful laser-cut dial produced using a technique new to watchmaking.

The new Oris ProPilot X Calibre 400 Laser.

The titanium dial, created with the assistance of ETH Zürich university, shimmers with color changes, appearing to change from blue to green to violet to echo the colors seen on iridescent beetles.

 

Based on the principles of biomimicry, the phenomenon is a natural one called ‘optical interference.’ This means that red light waves are destroyed, while blue and green waves are reflected.

There is no color pigment on the dial.  

While the eye sees colors, there is not one drop of color pigment on watch’s dial. The surface instead splits the light into its components to create the visible rainbow effect.

The entire dial is laser cut. Oris and engineering students at ETH Zurich created the logo, indexes, minutes track and dial text using another laser process that creates a three-dimensional effect.

 

In addition to the spectacular dial, the watch retains the familiar components and specifications found on the ProPilot X Calibre 400, which Oris debuted in 2022. These include a 39mm titanium case, titanium bezel and crown and a three-link titanium bracelet.

 

Oris fits its superb Calibre 400 inside the watch, offering chronometric accuracy, high levels of anti-magnetism and a ten-year warranty with ten-year recommended service intervals.

Price: $5,200. 

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Nomos Launches Gold Tangente

For the first time, Nomos dresses its automatic Tangente in rose gold, launching the Tangente Rose Gold Neomatik as a limited-edition model in honor of the 175th anniversary of watchmaking in Glashütte.

The new Nomos Tangente Rose Gold Neomatik 175 Years of Watchmaking.

As the latest addition in the Nomos 175 Years Watchmaking Glashütte series, the new watch is a luxurious ode to both the German city’s long watchmaking history and to the Tangente itself, which has been a bestseller (in its usual 35mm steel case) for the watchmaker for thirty years.

The Tangente Rose Gold Neomatik has a white silver-plated dial with an outer ring, sub-seconds dial, and minute markers in gold.

Limited to 175 pieces worldwide, the new watch adds a sub-seconds dial and minute markers in rose gold to the original’s galvanically white silver-plated dial.

At 6.9mm high, the Tangente rose gold neomatik from Nomos Glashütte is just a bit taller than Tangente with manual winding.

And while the first Tangente series reveled in its manual-wind minimalism, the new model is powered  by the Nomos DUW 3001, a thin automatic movement adjusted to chronometer standards.

The in-house neomatik movement DUW 3001 with the Nomos Swing System is thin and regulated to chronometer standards for the special edition.

Nomos attaches the celebratory model to an equally luxurious precious strap and clasp. The Berlin-designed clasp, crafted from 18-karat gold and hand-polished, holds a strap from Horween made of thick shell Cordovan.

Price: $11,100.

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The Watches

Greubel Forsey Debuts 8th Fundamental Invention 

 

Greubel Forsey redesigns its tourbillon to create the new titanium-cased Tourbillon Cardan, the watchmaker’s 8th Fundamental Invention and the latest in the series of patented, technically advanced timepieces. And while the oscillator here echoes the airy appearance of a traditional flying tourbillon, Greubel Forsey’s version is anything but classical.

The new Greubel Forsey Tourbillon Cardan.

Rather than the usual sixty-second rotation, the tourbillon here rotates once every sixteen seconds. In addition, the balance wheel is larger than usual (12.6mm), which tends to optimize its oscillations.

Greubel Forsey explains that not only do these two factors enhance chronometric precision, the tourbillon’s high inertia also makes it less sensitive to shocks and variations in speed.

Greubel Forsey combines this larger, faster tourbillon with a revolving 30 degree angle and two constantly tilting rings that guide the tourbillon, tilting backward and forward in forty-eight seconds. Though this movement may recall the use of gimbals in some marine chronometers, the new design is just a bit more complicated.

Greubel Forsey explains that in this new watch, the tilt of the rings is controlled with a range of +30° to -30°, which, when combined with the inclined tourbillon, offers a “better ratio of angular velocity to chronometric performance.”

With four stacked barrels, the Tourbillon Cardan offers an impressive eighty hours of highly chronometric power reserve.

Greubel Forsey showcases its new tourbillon within a 45.5mm titanium case with a domed sapphire crystal, which allows for a full view of the large balance wheel and swaying dual rings.

And of course Greubel Forsey hand-finishes each component of the Tourbillon Cardan.  Many of the finishing procedures here are unique to the watch, including the frosted titanium finish on the tourbillon cage and the large polished flank finishes above the titanium mainplate. (See the Greubel Forsey website for a full list of specifications.) 

Greubel Forsey plans to build about eleven Tourbillon Cardan watches annually, with a total output of fifty-five watches during the next five years. 

Price: $534,000.

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