Ulysse Nardin this week previewed a new showroom adjacent to its manufacturing headquarters in Le Locle, Switzerland. The new private space, measuring 175 square meters, is designed to allow visitors a view of historic Ulysse Nardin timepieces set alongside the watchmaker’s current collections.
While the Museum is not open to the public, it is built to receive future visitors at the Watchmaking Heritage Days, organized every two years by the region.
Massimo Bonfigli, Ulysse Nardin’s head of brand heritage, provided a guided tour to the first visitors to the new space.
Massimo Bonfigli, Ulysse Nardin’s head of brand heritage.
Bonfigli has worked with Rolf Schnyder and Ludwig Oechslin and was present when the French luxury group Kering purchased Ulysse Nardin in 2014. “It’s a pleasure for me to have this dedicated space to tell our 175 years of history,” he explains.
In contrast with the exterior walls of the watchmaker’s historical building, the new display space is contemporary, with suede and wood, in a minimalist atmosphere.
“This luminous space is a platform of expression of the brand, which will showcase the achievements of yesterday, today and tomorrow, thus contributing to promoting the whole of Swiss watchmaking. It was important for us to have a setting which matches the message we wish to get across to brand aficionados, one that accurately reflects the brand identity”, explains Françoise Bezzola, Ulysse Nardin marketing director.
One of the newest pieces, Ulysse Nardin’s UFO table clock, is on display at the new space,just weeks after a special orange edition sold at the Only Watch 2021 charity auction for CHF 380,000. The UFO sold out in three weeks after its launch this past April. A new copper-colored UFO, not available for sale, will be permanently displayed in the showroom.
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.
Alpina’s Startimer pilot collection and its Seastrong diver series boast an impressive (and nicely priced) selection of contemporary and vintage-styled adventure watches. This week, the Geneva-based watchmaker adds one more watch to the vintage column of each collection, which Alpina dubs its Heritage series.
The new Alpina Seastrong Diver 300 Heritage Automatic.
First up, the new Seastrong Diver 300 Heritage Automatic is the fifth watch in this best-selling series combining 1960s-style dials with modern calibers and cases.
Appropriately water-resistant to 300 meters, the 42mm watch features a rotating inner flange (adjusted using the crown at 2 o’clock) to time dives and brightly luminescent hands to allow full visibility in the dark.
Unlike previous examples in this collection with two-color dials, this latest model offers a uniform black lacquered sunray-brushed dial. In addition, the new model offers no date display, which technically is not required for a successful dive.
Inside Alpina places a Sellita-based AL-520 movement, protected on top with a sapphire crystal. Both crowns are screwed-in to ensure water resistance, and the caseback is engraved with Alpina’s historical logo.
Already a strong value, the watch is even more interesting with Alpina’s package, which includes two attractive straps, one in brown calfskin leather and the other in beige topstitched rubber. Price: $1,695.
New Startimer Dial
Alpina’s second Heritage addition, the new Startimer Pilot Heritage Automatic, is inspired by Alpina designs from the 1920s and 1930s. This new variation adds a new dial color to the existing black model we showed you last year.
The Alpina Startimer Pilot Heritage Automatic, showing new blue dial.
The new watch maintains the Pilot Heritage Automatic specs: a 44 mm steel case framing a matte dial (now blue) that displays luminescent beige hour, minute and 24-hour markers that nicely replicate a typical shade used on early pilot watches.
As we noted on the 2020 model, Alpina adds to the watch’s vintage styling by placing the original triangular Alpina logo on the dial. This logo, which differs from the logo Alpina places on its contemporary pilot models, serves a practical purpose by separating the 11 o’clock and 1 o’clock markers.
And finally, Alpina underscores the watch’s vintage vibe by outfitting the Pilot Heritage Automatic with a hunter-style caseback that flips open with the flick of a finger. Through the clear caseback the wearer can view the watch’s Sellita-based AL-525 automatic movement.
Alpina is limiting the Startimer Pilot Heritage Automatic with blue calfskin leather strap to 288 pieces. The watchmaker will continue its support of the National Park Foundation by donating $100 for every watch purchased through its U.S. website.
Specifications: Alpina Startimer Pilot Heritage Automatic
(Limited edition of 288 pieces.)
Movement: Sellita-based automatic AL-525 with 38-hour power reserve.
Case: 44mm by 11.55mm brushed and polished 3-part case, sapphire crystal, hunter caseback (at left). Water-resistant to 30 meters.
Dial: Blue with beige minutes and seconds graduation outward, beige 24 hours graduation inward, applied silver color Arabic numbers with beige luminous treatment. Date window at 3 o’clock, silver color hour and minute hands with beige luminous treatment, silver color second hand with red triangle.
Movement: Sellita-based automatic AL-520 with 38-hour power reserve.
Case: 42mm by 12.3mm polished 2-part, sapphire crystal, engraved back, water-resistant to 300m, screw-in crown.
Dial: Black with sunray finishing, yellow gold color minutes and seconds graduation, applied yellow gold-plated indexes, black outer ring with yellow gold color, minutes and seconds graduation yellow gold-plated, hour, minute and second hands with white luminous treatment.
Bracelet: Brown calf leather, additional black rubber strap.
One of our favorite American-based dive watch specialists has released another water watch you’re sure to appreciate. Deep Blue’s Daynight Alpha Marine 500 Tritium T-100 Swiss Automatic may be a mouthful to pronounce, but you’ll like what you see at a glance.
The Deep Blue Daynight Alpha Marine 500 Tritium T-100 Swiss Automatic.
Deep Blue is known for its intense lume and superior water resistance, and this new model certainly fills the bill. The watch is cased in a 45mm 316L stainless steel case and is 15mm thick. Inside beats a Sellita SW-200-1 Automatic oscillating at 28,800 vph.
Visible through the 33mm dial aperture are the numerous flat and round self-illuminating tritium tubes, in this case complemented by a fully illuminated dial. Clearly its all about the glow on this watch. Even the 120-click ceramic bezel combines Superluminova numerals and markers with a tritium pip.
As expected, Deep Blues utilizes an extra thick sapphire crystal with AR coating underneath, and another crystal offers a view of the movement from the reverse side.
Water resistant to an impressive 500 meters, the watch head is held in place by a stainless steel bracelet with a multi-function safety and micro-adjustment deployant clasp. Price: $999.
TAG Heuer today expands its Aquaracer Professional 300 collection with three new watches. Two models with blue and black dials, first seen in April as steel bracelet models when TAG Heuer upgraded the deep-diving collection, are now offered with matching rubber strap options.
A third debut echoes a favorite bright-dialed TAG Heuer dive watch from the past.
TAG Heuer re-introduces an old favorite with Aquaracer Professional 300 Night Diver.
Return of the Night Diver
TAG Heuer’s highlight fall 2021 Aquaracer Professional 300 debut is the all-black, lume-dialed Aquaracer Professional 300 Night Diver. The watch recalls the TAG Heuer “Night Diver” first seen in the mid-1980s and re-introduced in numerous guises in the years since, most recently in 2018.
The Night Diver’s standout feature, then and today, is its fully luminescent dial, which TAG Heuer coats in green SuperLuminova. This is truly non-subtle lume, which may be too bright for some desk divers, but for others hits home.
TAG Heuer seemingly overfills the watch’s minute and central seconds with blue lume to clearly contrast with the green dial. That bright green color also appears on the hour hand and four primary hour markers. And critically, TAG Heuer fills the triangle at the top of the unidirectional rotating bezel with blue lume to match the blue of the minute and central seconds hands.
To emphasize the ‘night’ in the watch’s nickname, TAG Heuer coats the watch’s 43mm stainless steel case, bezel, crown, caseback and clasp with matte black diamond-like carbon. The bezel insert is black ceramic.
TAG Heuer’s ETA-based (or Sellita-based) Caliber 5 automatic movement powers all references in the new Aquaracer Professional 300 collection.
TAG Heuer fits the Night Diver with a black rubber strap with a black DLC steel folding clasp with double safety push buttons with fine adjustment system.
Full collection
You might recall that earlier this year TAG Heuer revamped its Aquaracer collection, displaying models with a more refined twelve-sided bezel, shorter lugs, slightly wider hour hands and more prominent horizontal engraved dial lines. The three new models debuting today expand the new Aquaracer collection to eleven references.
All three new Aquaracer models feature a unidirectional rotating bezel, a screw-down crown, are water resistance to 300 meters, feature a sapphire crystal and a double safety clasp. And they all have solid casebacks stamped with a diving suit sporting a twelve-sided faceplate.
Prices: $3,350 (Night Diver) and $2,700 (Aquaracer with blue or black dial with new rubber strap).
The new Aquaracer Professional 300 collection now includes blue or black-dialed models with matching straps. These models debuted in April with steel bracelets only.
