Benrus revives one of its best-selling dive watches with the new Benrus Ultra-Deep, a recreation of one of the watchmaker’s historic models from the 1960s.
The new Benrus Ultra-Deep.
Originally created in response to the rise of scuba diving for sport, the Benrus Ultra-Deep retains the 36.5mm case size of the original model’s ‘compressor’ case. Such cases, built for the U.S.-based Benrus by Swiss-based Ervin Piquerez, would become more water resistant as the diver went deeper because the caseback would pressurize. Modern screw-down cases fulfill the same role in new watches.
The revived Benrus Ultra-Deep also retains the dual-crown design found on the original model.
One crown rotates an inner timing bezel instead of an external bezel, which makes it less likely the bezel will be shifted by mistake, leading to timing errors under water.
Also note the same cathedral-style hour and minute hands and magnified date window as the original.
The new models of course benefit from numerous technical updates, including a screw-down winding crown, C3 SuperLumiNova hands and dial markers. Inside, Benrus fits a reliable Soprod P024 automatic movement. The watch arrives on a high-end Jubilee-style stainless steel bracelet and also includes a blue nylon NATO dive strap.
Chronoswiss adds two new models to its Grand Regulator series, a collection of primarily 44mm steel watches featuring the watchmaker’s trademark regulator dial arrangement with a large central minute hand and smaller off-center hour hand.
The new Chronoswiss Grand Regulator Cowboy.
One model, the Grand Regulator Cowboy, offers a black case with a skeletonized black dial nicely accented with gold markers and typeface. The Cowboy comes affixed to a brown hornback alligator strap.
The new Chronoswiss Grand Regulator Night Prowler.
The second debut, the Grand Regulator Night Prowler, features a deep blue skeletonized dial, blue accents and markers and a black case. This model is attached to a black alligator strap.
Both watches are powered by a handsome skeletonized manual-wind movement, C.677S, which Chronoswiss builds from an ETA Unitas base caliber.
The independent Lucerne-based brand has teamed regulator timekeeping with a wide variety of other functions and displays since 1987, when Chronoswiss debuted the first serially produced wristwatch with a regulator-type dial.
In recent years, the Chronoswiss regulator collection has focused on bold, 44mm partially or fully skeletonized manual-wind watches, as well as automatic models in smaller (37mm and 41mm) diameters, many displaying more classical, dressy dials with time-only indications.
Chronoswiss will make each watch as a limited edition of thirty pieces.
Price: $13,300.
Specifications:Flying Grand Regulator Skeleton
(Two Limited Editions of 30)
CH-6725S-BKBL “Night Prowler”
CH-6725S-BKGO “Cowboy”
Displays: Off-center hours at 12:00, central minutes, small seconds at 6:00.
Case: Solid 21-part 44mm by 12.48mm stainless steel with a DLC-coating, satin finish and polished bezel with side knurling and curved, non-reflecting sapphire crystal, screw-down case back with satin finish and flat sapphire crystal, onion crown, water resistance up to 3 bar, strap bars screwed in with patented Autobloc system.
Movement: Chronoswiss caliber C. 677S, manual winding from a Unitas base, modified on Regulator dial; skeletonized, 18,000 vph, 46-hour power reserve.
Dial: Multi-level on skeletonized base with funnel construction. Middle level with individual number of limitation. Top level screwed on foundation blocks, hands are gold-plated or lacquered.
H. Moser & Cie. creates its thinnest and smallest Streamliner yet with the new Streamliner Small Seconds Blue Enamel, a sleek 39mm cushion-cased steel watch that debuts automatic caliber HMC 500, the independent watchmaker’s first movement with a micro-rotor.
The new H. Moser Streamliner Small Seconds Blue Enamel.
Boasting a very slightly elongated cushion shape and a seriously stunning Grand Feu ‘Aqua Blue’ enamel dial, the new watch retains Streamliner collection’s organic curves and integrated bracelet design.
And with the new, thin movement the watch is among H. Moser’s thinnest at 10.9mm high.
H. Moser mounts its new platinum micro-rotor on a ball bearing and equips it with a bi-directional pawl winding system that offers a solid seventy-four-hour power reserve.
Despite a smaller escapement, the movement’s performance remains as strong as H. Moser’s existing, larger calibers. (See full specifications below).
Made from solid platinum, the micro-rotor is mounted on a ball bearing, equipped with a bi-directional pawl winding system.
Developed in tandem with H. Moser’s sister company, Precision Engineering AG, the movement will serve as a base for the watchmaker’s small-case designs going forward, and will “enable us to introduce new complications, by combining it with modules developed in-house or in collaboration with our partner Agenhor,” explains Edouard Meylan, CEO of H. Moser & Cie.
H. Moser artisans wash three different color pigments, which are then finely crushed and applied to the dial.
Moser creates the logo-free translucent enamel by painstakingly firing the substance twelve times to create the fumé effect. In a nice contrast to this primary dial, an offset small seconds display at 6 o’clock is lacquered with a circular pattern.
Price: $32,900.
Specifications: H. Moser Streamliner Small Seconds Blue Enamel
(Reference 6500-1200, steel model, Aqua Blue fumé dial, integrated steel bracelet.)
Case:
Steel topped by a slightly domed sapphire crystal
Diameter: 39.0 mm
Height without sapphire crystal: 9.3 mm; Height with sapphire crystal: 10.9 mm
See-through case-back
Screw-in crown adorned with an “M”
Water-resistant to 120 meters
Dial:
Aqua Blue fumé “Grand Feu” enamel with hammered texture
Applique indices
Hour and minute hands with Globolight inserts
Lacquered small seconds sub-dial with a circular pattern
Movement:
Automatic calibre HMC 500, partially skeletonized
Diameter: 30.0 mm or 13 1/4 lignes
Height: 4.5 mm
Frequency:21,600 Vb/h
Automatic bi-directional pawl winding system
Solid platinum micro-rotor engraved with the H. Moser hallmark
Power reserve: minimum of 74 hours
Original Straumann hairspring
Finish with Moser stripes
Strap/bracelet:
Integrated steel bracelet
Folding clasp with three steel blades, engraved with the Moser logo
Frederique Constant celebrates its thirty-fifth anniversary and the fifteenth anniversary of its Manufacture tourbillon with a limited-edition version of its Manufacture Highlife Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar.
The new Frederique Constant Manufacture Highlife Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar.
The Geneva-based watchmaker will release thirty-five examples of the new 41mm by 12.65mm pink gold watch.
With a contemporary design, the watch melds both of its namesake technical complications within a blue dial, carefully adapting the upper half the tourbillon aperture to fit alongside the calendar displays.
This shape differs from the classically round aperture found within the watchmaker’s existing tourbillon models.
On the dial you’ll find the day, date and month indications at the 12 o’clock, 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock positions. Each shows its indication with a hand, though the month/years display (at the 12 o’clock position) requires two hands. In addition to the month hand, another hand indicates leap years.
Frederique Constant’s characteristic Highlife globe pattern subtly underpins the watch’s dial, complete with map-like meridians and parallels. Each dial sector is finished slightly differently in either satin or sunburst patterns to enhance readability.
Frederique Constant’s own tourbillon regulator is fit with the watch’s seconds hand, which rotates just above the balance wheel, a series of blued screws and a gold-finished baseplate. Artisans engrave each plate with the watch’s individual serial number.
The movement here is Frederique Constant’s own FC-975 Manufacture caliber, which the watchmaker decorates with circular grained and Côtes de Genève finishes. The movement boasts a 38-hour power reserve and water resistance to 30 meters.
Frederique Constant supplies the watch with interchangeable leather and rubber straps, allowing its owner to easily switch between traditional and sportierlooks.
Movement: FC-975 in-house automatic caliber, perpetual calendar, tourbillon, 38-hour power reserve, 28,800 alt/h.
Case: 41mm by 12.65mm brushed and polished rose gold three-part with
scratch-resistant and anti-reflective convex sapphire crystal. See-through case back. Water-resistant to 30 meters.
Dial: Blue with matte finishing and globe pattern embossed in the center, rose gold plated applied indexes filled with white luminous treatment, rose-gold-plated hour and minute hands filled with white luminous treatment, date counter with rose-gold-plated hand. Heart Beat opening at 6 o’clock with 60-seconds tourbillon, rose-gold-plated seconds hand, day counter at 9 o’clock with rose-gold-plated hand. Month and (leap) year counter at 12 o’clock with rose gold plated hands.
Strap: Navy blue alligator leather with nubuck finishing. Also included: additional navy blue rubber strap.
Throughout history watches and clocks have been designed to show the passage of time in a variety of ways beyond the current time. Think of the various functions for elapsed time, moon phase, sunrise, sunset, dual time, world time, countdown timers and tides. These movements and mechanisms have evolved to frenetically slice time into thinner and thinner segments striving for split-second accuracy.
With his own perspective, Israel-based Itay Noy uses modern mechanical technology to slow us down. With a longer view of the time continuum, Noy’s latest watch, Seven-Day Cycle, encourages us to visualize where each day resides in the longer scope of the week and in your own daily progression through time. Two companion models in the collection, Rest Day and Shabbat, fill out the full Seven-Day Cycle series with equally intriguing approaches to traditional timekeeping.
Three watches in the Itay Noy Seven Day Cycle series. At top is Shabbat, with Seven-Day Cycle (left) and Rest Day (right).
I first met Itay Noy many years ago at the Basel Fair. His small and unassuming display at the back of Hall 5 was nothing impressive – merely a vitrine with his early models that looked nothing like watches I had seen before.
I stopped and met with Itay and was as impressed by his enthusiasm and belief in his own vision as I was of his unusual take on timekeeping. While I’m typically skeptical of success for most new brands, his firm belief in himself and his designs led me to consider that Itay Noy had a better-than-average chance of surviving in the challenging and crowded field of watch brands.
More than twenty years later Itay Noy has not only survived but continues to thrive by evoking his own timekeeping designs hand-built in Israel in very small volumes – with dials and functions inspired by both secular and religious dogma.
The Seven-Day Cycle watch (below) reveals the weekdays on the dial with the seventh day as Sunday.
The Rest Day model.
“Instead of a single window revealing the traditional names of weekdays, I skeletonized all weekdays on the dial as numeric values (first day, second day and so on) and the seventh day as a rest day,” Itay Noy says of Rest Day.
“Each day will be highlighted in turn. Each watch can be personalized to the owner’s faith or preferences simply by choosing any day of the week as his (or her) rest day.”
The Shabbat watch from the Seven-Day Cycle series.
On the Shabbat watch, find the Hebrew weekdays on the dial and the seventh day is Shabbat. Each day will be highlighted in turn. In addition, each day a new Hebrew letter will appear in the small window at 6 o’clock and together complete the sentence: “God finished the work he has done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had; (Genesis 2:2).
One crown rotates an inner timing bezel instead of an external bezel, which makes it less likely the bezel will be shifted by mistake, leading to timing errors under water.
This shape differs from the classically round aperture found within the watchmaker’s existing tourbillon models.
