Oris teams with Canadian aerial firefighters Coulson Aviation to create the Coulson Limited Edition, a Big Crown ProPilot watch with an unusual 3D-printed carbon fiber case and a fiery gradient orange dial.
The Oris Coulson Limited Edition, a Big Crown ProPilot watch with an unusual 3D-printed carbon fiber case.
Oris created the 41mm case with the assistance of Switzerland’s ETH Zurich university (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology). Researchers there utilized a high-grade polymer PEKK developed for the aerospace industry. Technicians weave the material with carbon fiber to create a rigid, ultra-lightweight material.
According the Oris, the process is so precise that you can create a pattern on the case. Most carbon fiber watch cases develop random patterns.
Oris then finishes the watch with a grey-PVD-plated titanium fixed bezel, screw-down crown and case back and a black textile strap. The watch and the movement together weigh a wispy 65 grams.
The fiery dial is meant to recall the work of Coulson’s firefighting pilots, who rush toward blazes while others turn away. Inside Oris fit its excellent and equally innovative COSC-rated Caliber 400, an anti-magnetic movement with a five-day power reserve.
In conduction with the release of the Coulson Limited Edition, Oris is promoting a documentary called “Birds of the Fireline.” Oris produced the fourteen-minute short-form documentary in-house.
Coulson Aviation in action.
Coulson Aviation is a Canadian-based family-run independent company that sends pilots, planes and equipment to areas of the world affected by wildfires.
Ulysse Nardin adds three new models to its Marine Torpilleur collection, a series of nautically themed watches designed to echo nineteenth-century marine chronometers.
Ulysse Nardin has a long history of making Marine Chronometers for ships.
The new models retain the collection’s fluted bezel, long hands and Roman numeral hour markers, but each also highlights one particular aspect of Ulysse Nardin’s artistic or technical expertise.
The new Ulysse Nardin Marine Torpilleur Dual Time.
The Marine Torpilleur Dual Time
The first model of the new trio adds Ulysse Nardin’s innovative dual-time display to the Marine Torpilleur collection. Fit with in-house caliber UN-334 with a silicon escapement wheel, anchor and balance-spring, the new watch adds an instant-change, dual-pusher GMT function to the series in a 44mm steel-cased model with a sun-ray satin-finished blue dial.
Developed initially by Ludwig Oechslin in 1994, the dual-time function was among the first to allow an instant-change, plus-or-minus GMT hour hand, activated using one of the two push-pieces.While the home time display on the new Marine Torpilleur Dual Time operates continually in an aperture at 9 o’clock, the wearer can quickly move the hour hand forward or backward to show local time using the “+” and “-” push-pieces at 8 o’clock and 10 o’clock. All calendar functions remain in syncs regardless of the adjustment. Price: $11,500.
The new Ulysse Nardin Marine Torpilleur Tourbillon Grand Feu.
Marine Torpilleur Tourbillon Grand Feu
Initially launched last year as a limited edition with a black Grand Feu enamel dial, the Marine Torpilleur Tourbillon is now offered in unlimited production with a white Grand Feu enamel dial.
The watch highlights the work of artisans at Donzé Cadrans, Ulysse Nardin’s own watch dial facility. The term Grand Feu means ‘big fire’ and refers to the melting the enamel powder in a furnace when creating the dial finish.
Ulysse Nardin makes all its own dials at its dial-making facility Donzé Cadrans.
On this enamel dial Ulysse Nardin fits the watch’s power reserve indicator at 12 o’clock and the namesake tourbillon aperture directly across the milky white expanse at 6 o’clock.
Ulysse Nardin’s own UN-128 automatic caliber powers the flying tourbillon with constant escapement, which is fitted with a flying silicon anchor. You might recall that in 2015 Ulysse Nardinwon the Tourbillon Watch Prize at the GPHG (Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève) ceremony with this patented system.
Ulysse Nardin debuted its first Marine Torpilleur Moonphase models in 2021 with a stainless-steel case and a blue or white dial as a limited edition of 300 pieces per model. This year, the watchmaker adds the watch to its permanent collection, but now sporting a more luxurious 42 mm rose gold case.
Inside Ulysse Nardin fits its automatic UN-119 caliber with silicon balance-spring and a DiamonSil escapement wheel and anchor. DiamonSil refers to the artificial diamond layer Ulysse Nardin places on the escapement wheel and silicon anchor. This coating results in improved resistance to magnetism, friction and shock.
Again, we see the power reserve display at 12 o’clock balanced on the dial layout with the small seconds and moon phase indicators at 6 o’clock. Note the silvery moon image on the disc elegantly contrasting with the blue PVD sky around it. Ulysse Nardin supplies the watch with a dark blue alligator-skin strap with rose gold folding clasp. Price: $22,600.
Oris continues to expand its industry leading Change for the Better campaign for humanitarian and environmental causes as it launches two limited-edition pilot watches powered by its much-heralded Calibre 401.
The 40mm Oris Wings of Hope Limited Edition (of 1,000) in stainless steel.
The new Oris Wings of Hope Limited Edition watches are based on the independent Swiss watchmaker’s Big Crown pilot’s watch. Sales of the watches will benefit Wings of Hope, a U.S.-based aeronautical humanitarian organization founded sixty years ago.
Wings of Hope president and CEO Bret Heinrich.
Twice nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, Wings of Hope flies medical support to remote and vulnerable communities around the globe. Wings of Hope also provides education to the next generation of pilots, engineers and humanitarians.
The new Oris Wings of Hope Gold Limited Edition (of 100).
One of the new models is a 40mm steel edition limited to 1,000 pieces while the other is a 38mm yellow gold-cased edition limited to 100 pieces. Luminous hands and markers (light green on the steel model and golden on the gold-cased edition) and a red-handed seconds subdial mark the handsome off-white retro-style pilot watch dial.
As noted, Oris is placing its Calibre 401 in both watches. As with its full Caliber 400 series, Caliber 401 has elevated levels of anti-magnetism, a five-day power reserve and a ten-year warranty. It’s also accurate to -3/+5 seconds a day – which would pass chronometer testing – and has ten-year recommended service intervals.
Both watches arrive on Cervo Volante sustainable deer leather straps and arrive in a special presentation box with numbered certificate.
A. Lange & Söhne releases its 1815 Rattrapante with a platinum case, adding a new look to the highly complex chronograph with split-seconds mechanism. The German watchmaker had previously offered the watch, its first pure split-seconds model, only cased in its own Honey Gold alloy.
The A. Lange & Söhne 1815 Rattrapante, now in platinum.
The new look also provides a bright silver dial and dark blued hands that add a regal air to the watch. The watch’s classical railway-track minute scale and the large Arabic numerals retain watchmaker’s own historic style, especially apt for a collection named for the birth year of its founder Ferdinand A. Lange.
While the dial appears traditional, its layout is somewhat unusual for an A. Lange & Söhne chronograph. Watchmakers opted to place the 30-minute counter and the subsidiary seconds dial at 12 o’clock and 6 o’clock, respectively, on the vertical center axis, veering from the more traditional positions at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock.
The watchmaker’s beautifully decorated caliber L101.2, fully visible through the sapphire-crystal caseback, treats the wearer to a micro-engineered show as gears and levers slide and click through elapsed and lap-time measurements, a display centered on the movement’s two column wheels. (See specifications below for details).
A. Lange & Söhne equips the movement with bridges and cocks made of untreated German silver, a screw balance, screwed gold chatons that secure the jewels and a hand-engraved balance cock. And of course all the levers, springs and jumpers are decorated with straight graining while all peripheral chamfers are polished.
A. Lange & Söhne will make the 1815 Rattrapante with a platinum case as a limited edition of 200 pieces. Price: Initially listed at $154,200, the price is now upon request.
Specifications: A. Lange & Söhne 1815 Rattrapante
(Ref. 425.025, 200-piece limited edition)
Movement: Lange manufacture caliber L101.2, manually wound, decorated and assembled by hand; precision-adjusted in five positions; plates made of untreated German silver; balance cock and chronograph bridge engraved by hand. Shock-resistant screw balance; balance spring crafted in-house, frequency 21,600 vph, precision-beat adjustment system with lateral setscrew and whiplash spring. Power reserve is 58 hours when fully wound.
Case: 41.2 mm by 12.6mm platinum. Crown for winding the watch and setting the time, two chronograph pushers, one pusher to operate the rattrapante (split-second) mechanism.
Dial: Solid silver.
Strap: Hand-stitched black alligator leather with platinum buckle.
Price: Initially listed at $154,200, the price is now upon request.
Greubel Forsey debuts a new twist to its convex case series with the new Tourbillon 24 Secondes Architecture.
The new Greubel Forsey Tourbillon 24 Secondes Architecture.
Unlike existing watches in the ‘Convexe’ series, this new model features a case that, in addition to its convex curve, also widens as it reaches the wrist. Thus, with a diameter around the caseback (47.05mm) that is wider than the bezel (45mm), it fully exhibits the impressive movement inside while also appearing smaller than it actually is.
Known as a ‘conical frustrum’ in geometry, the unusual case shape, especially with its side-case clear sapphire windows, creates a broad showcase for Greubel Forsey’s exceptional Tourbillon 24 Secondes movement.
On the wrist the titanium watch is comfortable and endlessly fascinating, especially given the ability to admire the movement’s highly polished moving parts directly through the case sides.
Polished titanium bridges immediately stand out from the frosted finish of the mainplate.
From the top the wearer sees the relief-engraved Greubel Forsey text “Architecture, Harmonie, Innovation, Technique, Bienfacture, Passion, Science, Exclusivité, Créativité” just inside the convex bezel. The new, contemporary font seems to announce a new era in case making for the newly independent watchmaker, which spent years perfecting this new design.
Light enters the case from all sides and creates shadows and reflections that only enhance the appearance of depth.
Superb chronometry
But within that bezel, when peering in from all sides, the viewer sees all the Tourbillon 24 Secondes Architecture components seemingly suspended within what may be the watchmaker’s deepest case, which measures 16.8mm from top to bottom. (The recent convex-cased Balancier S measures 13.75mm deep, in comparison.)
With the new case, light enters the case from all sides and creates shadows and reflections that only enhance the appearance of depth within.
The back view displays a contemporary finish and layout.
The watch’s showpiece Tourbillon 24 Secondes takes center stage at the 6 o’clock location. With its inclined escapement and fast rotational speed, it demonstrates superb chronometric performance.
Visible from multiple sides of the case, the inclined escapement and the other primary components (the power reserve indicator and the decorated coaxial-series barrel) are each attached to highly polished titanium bridges.
The watch’s side-case clear sapphire windows create a broad showcase for the movement.
Greubel Forsey has equipped one of those barrels with a slipping spring to avoid excess tension. The barrel provides ninety hours of power reserve, which is indicated by a moving red triangle over a conical disk at 3 o’clock.
Greubel Forsey will make only eleven Tourbillon 24 Secondes Architecture watches in 2022, followed by eighteen pieces a year between 2023 and 2025 for a total of sixty-five timepieces overall.
Movement: Time-only manual-wind with small seconds, 24-seconds tourbillon inclined at a 25° angle, light alloy cage pillars , titanium cage bridges, gold counterweight, domed jewels in gold chatons, 21,600 vph. Ninety hours of power reserve.
Case: 47.05mm (case band) and 45.00mm (bezel) by 16.80mm titanium and synthetic sapphire crystal, three-dimensional, variable geometry bezel with raised engraved text, raised engraving “Architecture 1” and “Greubel Forsey”, water resistant to fifty meters.
Dial: Three-dimensional, variable geometry hour-ring, indexes with Super-LumiNova, power-reserve indicator, circular-grained, engraved and lacquered, gold small second indicator, circular-grained, polished flank, 24-seconds tourbillon rotation indicator.
Strap: Non-animal material, rubber with text in relief, titanium folding clasp, engraved GF logo.
