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The Watches

Massena LAB Teams With Raúl Pagès

New York-based Massena LAB has teamed with independent Swiss watchmaker Raúl Pagès to develop its first proprietary movement, the M660, which will be placed into a new limited edition watch called the Magraph.

The Massena LAB Magraph.

The Bauhaus-inspired manual-wind watch features a geometric-patterned, off-white dial with bright blued hour, minute and seconds hands. Massena LAB frames the dial with a 38.5mm stainless steel case made to echo designs from the 1940s and 1950s.

The M660 movement is a manual-winding 4Hz movement with a power reserve of 48 hours. Pagès has finished the caliber with Côtes de Genève finishing and hand-chamfered plates and bridges, all of which are visible through its sapphire caseback. The watchmaker has hidden his signature flourish, a silhouette of a tortoise, under the balance wheel.

Massena LAB, founded by collector and watch expert William Massena, has attached a special strap to each Magraph. The deep indigo strap is made from sustainably-sourced sturgeon skin and features eye-catching iridescent turquoise accents, designed exclusively for Massena LAB by Jean Rousseau Paris.

Delivery of the Magraph will be on a first-come, first-served basis, starting in December 2022. Massena LAB will produce approximately fifteen to twenty watches produced per month. Each will include a two-year guarantee, box, deerskin travel pouch, papers, and a Massena LAB NFC card. Limited to only 99 examples, the Massena LAB and Raúl Pagès Magraph will be for sale exclusively on MassenaLAB.com.

Price: $8,675.

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The Watches

Franck Muller Rallies in Colorado

Franck Muller debuts four new colorful Vanguard watches to commemorate the 1,000-mile vintage car rally known as The Colorado Grand.

One of four new Franck Muller limited Edition Vanguard watches dedicated to the Colorado Grand vintage car rally.

As the event’s exclusive watch sponsor, Franck Muller designed each model to represent an emblematic automobile: pine green for the Bentley; fire red for the Ferrari; French blue for the Bugatti; and stunning silver for the Mercedes. Each is also created using different case material.

These are: polished steel (red dial), rose gold (blue dial), titanium (green dial) and micro-blasted steel (silver dial).

The Colorado Grand, which concluded in September, is an annual charity event during which drivers and crew meet in Vail, Colorado, to drive 1,000 miles during four days.

The New Watches

The watches each feature Franck Muller’s tonneau-shaped Vanguard case measuring 30.65mm by 51.9mm by 8.15mm thick, powered by Franck Muller’s own excellent FM 708 manual-wind movement.

Franck Muller says that its artisans were inspired by high-end automakers when designing the watches. Each dial includes a  “bochonné” decoration at its center while each watch’s seconds hand mimics a vintage car speedometer with its similar typography, hand design and “assuré circulaire” decoration.

The four models will be made in limited editions of thirty-three to honor the 33rd running of the Colorado Grand. Prices: $23,500 (rose gold case), $16,500 (micro-blasted steel case), $14,500 (titanium and polished steel case). 

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The Watches

Tutima Adds Rose Gold, Blue Dial to Patria

Tutima expands its high-end Patria collection with a 43mm rose-gold-cased Patria Small Second model topped with rich blue dial—a new combination for the series.

The new Tutima rose-gold-cased Patria Small Second.

The Glashütte-based watchmaker reserves Patria for its dress-watch designs fitted with its in-house Caliber 617, a stunning hand-finished manual-wind movement.

Visible through the sapphire caseback, Caliber 617 displays classic Glashütte-style assembly that includes a three-quarter plate, here set with three ruby bearings set in gold chatons.

Note too the very nice sunburst finish on the winding wheels set with a special ratchet with steel springs polished by hand. And Tutima tradition calls for polished rather than Swiss-style blued screw heads, all of which are also quite visible through the clear back. 

A beautifully polished and skeletonized balance cock adds symmetry and technical strength to the scene, holding a balance that oscillates at a frequency of 21,600 vph.

While we’ve seen a blue dial in the existing Patria collection, that model is framed in a steel case and appears to reflect a slightly lighter blue hue. With its more luxurious aspect, this newest blue-dialed model serves as a background for hand-polished golden hands and indexes—including those within the seconds subdial. 

The Patria series reminds collectors that Tutima’s style of Glashütte manufacturing reaches beyond the sporty and military models for which it is best known. This newest model again convinces us that alongside its tough timepieces Tutima also produces technically astute, richly finished dress watches.

Price: $21,000.   

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A. Lange & Söhne

A. Lange & Söhne Creates 1815 Chronograph for Charity Auction

A. Lange & Söhne has created a unique 1815 Chronograph Hampton Court Edition dedicated to raise funds for The Prince’s Trust, an educational and employment charity, when it is sold during a Phillips auction on November 6.

The A. Lange & Söhne 1815 Chronograph “Hampton Court Edition”, ref. 414.047.
The unique piece will be auctioned off for a good cause after the Concours of Elegance 2022.

The one-off watch will debut officially during this year’s Concours of Elegance, to be held September 2 to September 4 at Hampton Court near London. The new watch combines several unique features previously not seen within the 1815 collection. 

The 39.5mm by 11.8mm watch offers a first-ever black dial with sandstone-hue numerals and scales within a white gold case. Also new is the tachometer scale along the edge of the dial, created to underscore the link between motor sports and time measurement. Previous 1815 Chronographs feature a pulsometer scale around the dial.

The piece is held to the wrist with a black hand-stitched alligator leather strap secured with a white gold prong buckle.

 

The Glashütte-based watchmaker has fashioned a hinged back cover for the watch, which it has hand-engraved with the logo of the Concours of Elegance, a partner with A. Lange & Söhne since 2018.

Under the cover and dial you’ll find a Lange caliber L951.5 movement, initially launched in 2010, featuring a column-wheel control, a jumping minute counter and a flyback function. The manually wound caliber has a power reserve of sixty hours.

As is always the case with this watchmaker, the movement itself is as lavishly  decorated and finished as the dial and case. The caliber’s eye-catching, multi-level architecture is fully visible through the sapphire back and exhibits the chronograph’s switching processes. Notable, as ever, is the Lange hand-engraved balance cock. Click here for more details about the watch, the charity and the auction. 

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The Watches

Nomos Tangente Aids Emergency Doctors

Each year Nomos creates a watch to benefit the Nobel-Prize-winning-organization Doctors Without Borders. This year’s model, the Tangente 38 – 50 ans de Médecins Sans Frontières, is limited to 2,021 units worldwide and highlights the medical rescue organization’s mission with a large red twelve on the dial.

The Nomos Tangente 38 – 50 ans de Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders).

Red is the universal color of emergency and has been the color of Doctors Without Borders for fifty years.

At the top of the dial, the twelve in red celebrates the color of Doctors Without Borders for half a century.

According to Nomos, the red twelve is also intended to “raise aid awareness, encouraging even more people to provide support. Helping has quite possibly never been more important than now and with this watch.”

To specifically mark the emergency medical aid organization’s fiftieth year, Nomos has also attached a dark gray textile strap to the watch and adds an inscription at six o’clock that reads “50 ans de Médecins Sans Frontières”. The same inscription can be found engraved onto the solid steel caseback.

The Tangente 38 is a classic for the Glashütte-based Nomos. A best seller for twenty-five years, the watch is the clearest example of the brand’s minimalist tenets. The watch is fit with a Nomos Alpha in-house manual-wind movement, which Nomos adjusts to chronometer standards.

Nomos will donate 100 euros to per unit sold directly and without deduction to Doctors Without Borders. At $2,030, the special edition is priced exactly the same as the existing Tangente 38 model.

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