Each year Chopard dedicates an elaborately decorated L.U.C XP ultra-thin watch to the sign of the Chinese zodiac year. For 2022, the Year of the Water Tiger, Chopard unveils the L.U.C XP Urushi Year of the Tiger timepiece, an 88-piece limited series dedicated to the beast of honor. The Year of the Water Tiger will begin on February 1, 2022.
The new Chopard L.U.C XP Urushi Year of the Tiger.
With its ultra-thin case, and powered by Chopard’s excellent L.U.C 96.17-L movement, the watch glows thanks to its dial adorned using the Urushi Maki-e technique combining lacquering and gold dust.
Chopard teamed with the workshops of the century-old company Yamada Heiando and Master lacquer artist Minori Koizumi to create the new series. Koizumi, who requires no less than 160 hours to decorate the dials, followed the traditions of the Maki-e technique. Koizumi places gold flakes between layers of lacquer made from tree sap to create the background. Then, the artisan adds the tiger into the image above a bay surrounded by cliffs.
The gold mined to create the 39.5mm rose gold case is sourced from an ethical supply chain pioneered by Chopard. The thin case takes full advantage of the caliber inside, which measures a wispy 3.30mm thick. This is why Chopard can size the entire watch at a mere 6.8mm thick.
Chopard’s thin L.U.C movement 96.17 boasts a gold micro-rotor and two barrels.
And despite its small size, the L.U.C 96.17-L with its strong micro-rotor and two stacked barrels, offers the wearer an impressive 65-hour power reserve.
The seconds indicator on the new Franck Muller USA limited edition Vanguard Racing Skeleton Bill Auberlen starts with double zero at the bottom of the dial, not at the top. This layout, while rare on a watch dial, allows seconds to be read from both ends of the seconds hand and echoes the dashboard Auberlen would see while piloting his racecar.
Vanguard Racing Skeleton USA Limited Edition, here cased in the Technologie Bleu composite.
The dial layout is just one of many racer-friendly details that Franck Muller built into the sporty automatic watch, which was announced earlier this year and is reaching Franck Muller boutiques and its U.S. retailers now.
Another example can be found in Franck Muller’s choice of case materials for the tonneau-shaped 44mm by 53.7mm Vanguard
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watch.
The watch is the latest Franck Muller model built with Auberlen’s direct input. One of America’s most successful racecar drivers, the BMW racing driver Auberlen has won sixty-three races.
Three versions
One version of the watch is built with carbon, the same ultra-light, high-performance material racecar makers utilize. Another version features an unusual blue-tinged high-tech composite called Technologie Bleu, which the watchmaker says is created by mixing ‘high purity metals and other exotic elements.’
This non-conductive, non-metallic material is made using a process called the Micelle Phenomenon. Once the case is formed, Franck Muller cuts, carves, grinds and sands the material to a durable, gem-quality finish.
Additional sporty touches on the Vanguard Racing Skeleton Bill Auberlen include a generous use of racing red dial details across the skeletonized dial. The watchmakers at Franck Muller also attach a strap composed of Alcantara-like suede, reminiscent of a sports car interior, and lined with rubber. Instead of attaching the strap to the case using the usual spring bar technique, Franck Muller subtly integrates the strap into the case with two invisible screws.
In another unusual detail, Franck Muller has skeletonized the numerals visible on the date wheel to match the open-worked dial.
Franck Muller offers its Vanguard Racing Skeleton Bill Auberlen in three case materials: rose gold ($34,000), carbon ($27,400) and macro molecular Technologie Bleu ($26,200).
Any visitor to Franck Muller’s vast headquarters in Genthod, adjacent to Geneva, will vouch for the technical depth this manufacture exhibits throughout the facility. Case after case of watches set with tourbillons and multiple complications testify to decades of watchmaking with a distinctive style, typically built into the brand’s trademark Cintrée Curvex-shaped case.
But there’s much more to Franck Muller than its range of Master Bankers, large tourbillons and jaw-dropping skeleton models. Few watchmakers can match the wide-ranging fluency the brand also demonstrates year after year with its gem-set collections.
Two examples of the new Franck Muller Double Mystery Peony.
Franck Muller has again paired its technical chops with its gem-setting expertise with the release of the new Double Mystery Peony, which combines gemstone setting and its enchanting Double Mystery time display system.
In the Double Mystery collection, Franck Muller replaces watch hands with two rotating discs, each with an arrow-shaped indicator. Patented in 1998, the technique allows Franck Muller to experiment by setting a colorful spectrum of gemstones across and atop of the two rotating discs.
In this latest Double Mystery Peony, Franck Muller sets 662 diamonds and colored gemstones (4.87 carats) on each dial, all shaped and patterned across the dial to recall the namesake bloom. The watches, powered by an automatic movement topped with the Double Mystery complication, are offered in white gold and yellow gold and in 42mm and 39mm cases. Price: $88,700
Now available in a karat gold case, the Junghans Meister Fein Automatic adds a luxurious aspect to this German brand’s dressy Meister collection.
The Junghans Meister Fein Automatic.
With its long markers and hands framed within a slim bezel, the Meister Fein Automatic differs from the more directly retro Meister Automatic, which features 1950s-style dauphine-shaped hands and somewhat shorter markers.
The newer Meister Fein Automatic model is also somewhat larger at 39.5mm in diameter when compared to the 38mm of the Meister Automatic line, but both wear snug to the wrist with their small, curved lugs, curved crystal and slim cases.
By removing the word ‘Automatic’ from the dial and affixing its traditional logo just below the twelve o’clock position, Junghans underscores its minimalist tendencies, which arise from early 20th century German design philosophies.
Junghans attaches the watch to the wrist with an elegant, seam-free black alligator leather strap. The strap, like the case, is gently curved.
And finally, Junghans rebuilds a base ETA movement to create its J800.1 caliber, which features a spherical, two-arm rotor with a gilded Junghans star. These additions are clearly visible through the sapphire crystal caseback.
Junghans will make 100 pieces of this limited edition.
Price: $8,000
Specifications: Junghans Meister Fein Automatic
Movement: Self-winding ETA-based J800.1 with two-arm rotor designed specifically for this model, and a power reserve of up to 38 hours. Rhodium-plated with blue screws, Junghans-designed rotor with sunray brush finish, gilded and polished plate as bearing cover over the rotor bearing.
Case: 39.5mm by 11.0mm gold, 4-screw back, convex and sapphire crystal with anti-reflection coating on both sides. Water resistant to 30 meters.
Patek Philippe this week introduces new versions of three existing chronographs, including one (Reference 5905) with an olive-green dial set into a steel case with an Aquanaut-inspired steel bracelet.
The other two debuts, new versions of Reference 5204 (a split-second chronograph with perpetual calendar) and Reference 5930 (a world time flyback chronograph) each feature new case metal and/or a new dial color.
The new Patek Philippe 5905/1A-001 is a flyback chronograph and annual calendar in a 42mm polished stainless steel case.
Reference 5905/1A-001 A
Patek Philippe first launched this self-winding flyback chronograph with annual calendar in platinum in 2015 and then in rose gold in 2019. Now, the watch enters the market as a sporty 42mm steel watch, complete with an integrated steel bracelet inspired by the brand’s all-sporty Aquanaut (Reference 5167/1A).
And combined with a trendy sunburst olive green dial, this debut will likely become the latest Patek Philippe watch with demand far exceeding production. Patek Philippe rarely cases its watches in steel, and the metal’s use here will only amplify the already strong demand for the brand’s pioneering and highly legible annual calendar, especially as combined with a flyback chronograph.
Specifically, the dial offers a central chronograph hand, a large 60-minute subdial at 6 o’clock and three day/date/month apertures helpfully arranged along the top of the dial. For setting purposes, Patek Philippe includes a day/night indicator at 6 o’clock.
As seen through the clear sapphire caseback, Caliber CH 28-520 QA 24H shows Patek Philippe’s technical and artisanal mettle, with a vertical disk clutch column wheel. This means the central chronograph seconds hand can also be used as a permanent (running) seconds display.
The new watch will join existing references in platinum with a blue dial and in rose gold with a brown dial. Price: $59,140.
Reference 5204R-011 A
Patek Philippe dresses up its classically styled split-seconds chronograph and perpetual calendar with a more contemporary sunburst slate grey dial and matching strap.
The new Patek Philippe 5204R-011 is a split-seconds chronograph and perpetual calendar in a 40mm rose gold case.
The 40mm watch’s highly desirable technical pairing, first offered in rose gold in 2016, is, like the annual calendar, notable for its legibility. It displays day and month in two apertures at 12 o’clock. Small seconds and the instantaneous 30-minute counter appear on two subdials at 9 and 3 o’clock, while two round apertures display the leap-year cycle between 4 and 5 o’clock. And helpfully, the date hand (at 6 o’clock) includes a moonphase display.
Through its clear sapphire caseback the Reference 5204R allows a view of the manual-wind Caliber CHR 29-535 PS Q, first introduced in 2012. This caliber, with two column wheels, a horizontal clutch and a split-seconds mechanism, is a recipient of seven patents.
The watch is available on a shiny slate gray calf leather strap with an embossed alligator pattern and a rose gold fold-over clasp. Available with interchangeable sapphire crystal and solid caseback, it is joining the two existing versions in rose gold. Price: $309,893.
Reference 5930P-001
This automatic World Time Flyback Chronograph is resplendent with its all-new 39.5mm platinum case, especially as it complements a sexy green dial and matching strap.
The new Patek Philippe 5930P-001 World Time Flyback Chronograph is set into a 39.5mm platinum case.
Not only are the green city names right on trend, they do so in a retro style particular to Patek Philippe: In 1940 the Geneva watchmaker actually placed a similar green dial on a one-off model of its famed world timer. Furthermore, the case features the wing-type lugs often seen on Patek Philippe world timers in the 1940s-1950s.
If the design here looks familiar from more a recent era, it’s because Patek Philippe debuted the 5930 in 2016 in a white gold version with a blue dial and matching strap. Here, the green dial center has been guillochéd by hand in a circular pattern while the hands and applied hour markers are coated with a generous application of luminescent coating.
Inside, Patek Philippe’s caliber CH 28-520 HU is equipped with a column wheel and a disk-type vertical clutch. This allows the central chronograph hand to be used as a permanent (running) seconds display without affecting accuracy or power reserve.
Patek Philippe offers the new Reference 5930P-001 on a shiny green alligator strap with a platinum fold-over clasp. It joins the collection alongside a white gold 5930G-010 version with blue dial and strap. Price: $100,538.
