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Watch Of The Day

Omega Updates Speedmaster Moonwatch

Omega kicks off the New Year with a gift to legions of Speedmaster fans. The watchmaker this week releases a Speedmaster Moonwatch with a new caliber, new bracelet and clasp, a newly detailed minute track and a choice of Hesalite glass or sapphire crystal material (for new steel-cased models). 

The new Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch, now powered by co-axial Master Chronometer Caliber 3861.

Still very much the Speedmaster Moonwatch fans have come to revere since its qualification by NASA for manned space missions in 1965 and its trip to the moon in 1969, the new generation Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch is now equipped with co-axial, manual-wind caliber 3861. Omega has used the caliber previously only in a few limited edition Speedmasters.

First seen in 2019, the co-axial caliber 3861, with its silicon balance spring, will now protect the Moonwatch from extreme magnetic fields reaching 15,000 gauss. This is a much higher level of protection than that offered by the caliber 1861 Omega utilized for decades to power its Speedmaster Moonwatches.

In addition, Omega now ensures that the entire watch is certified as a Master Chronometer, the brand’s own high-level specification that promises accuracy to five seconds per day.

Dial details

On this update, Speedmaster fans will recognize the historical Speedmaster’s asymmetrical case, stepped dial and double bevel caseback. Closer inspection reveals the dot over 90 and a dot diagonal to 70 on the anodized aluminum bezel ring, both details expected by Speedmaster purists. Fans will however note a difference within the minute track around the dial, which is now split by three divisions, as opposed to the five divisions used on previous models.

Around the wrist, Omega has added a new five-link brushed steel bracelet and a new Omega clasp (with new oval pusher) set with a polished brand logo on a satin-finished cover. You might have seen this bracelet previously on the recent Speedmaster Apollo 11 50th Anniversary Limited Edition watch.

The 42mm watch is also available with a Sedna gold case and a Canopus white gold case with silver dial. Each is also sold with a leather strap.

In a 42mm steel case, Omega offers the new watch with either a Hesalite crystal ($5,950 for a strap and $6,300 on a bracelet) or with a sapphire crystal and clear caseback ($7,150 on a bracelet and $6,800 on a strap). A 42mm Sedna gold model ($34,800 on a gold bracelet and $24,600 on a strap) and a Canopus white gold model with silver dial ($45,300 on a bracelet and $30,400 on a strap) are also available.

 

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Parmigiani Fleurier Celebrates its Founder

As we noted last week, Parmigiani Fleurier celebrated the 70th birthday of its founder, watchmaker Michel Parmigiani, with a seventy-piece limited edition steel Toric Heritage watch in honor of the first watch he designed.

The new Parmigiani Fleurier Toric Heritage, a limited edition of 70.

The new watch’s blue dial is decorated with eye-catching, radiating Grain d’Orge guilloché, a pattern also found on the gold rotor. Inside, the in-house COSC-certified Caliber PF441 features two barrels and seven hand-beveled bridges.

As is standard with Parmigiani Fleurier, the movement within the 42.8mm steel-cased watch is finished to haute horlogerie standards, with Côtes de Genève stripes, spiral-wound and circular-graining on the plates alone. The watch’s solid 22-karat rose gold rotor, visible through the clear sapphire caseback, features the same Grain d’Orge guilloché engraving seen on the dial.

The watch’s solid 22-karat rose gold rotor, visible through the clear sapphire caseback, features the same Grain d’Orge guilloché engraving seen on the dial.

The Founder

The company chose to echo its founder’s first watch in large part because the Toric design (which was updated in 2017) reflects Michel Parmigiani’s own history and interests.

Michel Parmigiani was born in the Swiss canton of Neuchatel and grew up with a devotion to both watchmaking and architecture. He has described the Toric case as a design inspire by the famed Fibonacci mathematical sequence and by the Golden Ratio that has inspired thousands of years of art and architecture.

Toric collection sketch by Michel Parmigiani.

According to Parmigiani, every aspect of the Toric’s design starts with the Golden Ratio, including the relationship between the hands, the fluted angles in the crown, the length-to-width ratios, the rate of curvature of the lugs as they taper away from the case, even the caseback design and placement of the sapphire crystal.

While he opted to formally study watchmaking (at the Val-de-Travers watchmaking school in the La Chaux-de-Fonds Technicum) Parmigiani started his career restoring historical clocks, pocket watches and related objects. Among the clients who came to Michel for restoration and maintenance was Switzerland’s Sandoz Family Foundation, which owned a significant collection of historical automata and clocks.

Michel Parmigiani was in the 4th year of his watchmaking studies in 1967, when this picture was taken.

Parmigiani eventually established his own restoration workshop, attracting a list of haute horlogerie clients that also included the Patek Philippe museum.

“I remember feeling a bit like a pariah, starting this adventure against all advice,” Parmigiani says in a press release. “Restoring antique timepieces saved me from nihilism. Working, as I was during this period, on so many wonders from times gone by, made the idea that traditional watchmaking might disappear absolutely unthinkable to me. Restoration gave me the confidence I needed to pursue my watchmaking dreams, despite the naysayers.”

Parmigiani Fleurier headquarters in Fleurier.

The Sandoz foundation encouraged Parmigiani to create his own watch brand­– with their full support. This was the beginning of Parmigiani Fleurier, which launched in 1996.

Today, Parmigiani Fleurier encompasses five specialized Swiss firms. Each of the factories also produces parts for other haute horlogerie clients, including La Montre Hermès, the watchmaking division of the celebrated French leather goods house, which is a co-owner of the Vaucher movement manufacturer.

Parmigiani Fleurier will make seventy examples of the new Toric Heritage watch. Price: $17,700.

The movement within the 42.8mm steel-cased watch is finished to haute horlogerie standards.

Specifications: Parmigiani Fleurier Toric Heritage

(Ref. PFC909-0000300-HA3282, a limited edition of 70).

Case: 42.8mm by 10mm polished steel, sapphire crystal and back, individually numbered, 30-meters of water resistance.

Dial: Blue Grain d’Orge guilloché, indexes are rhodium-plated 18-karat gold, javelin-shaped hands with luminescent coating.

Movement: In-house PF441 automatic, two barrels, 28,800 vph, 55-hour power reserve, 22-karat solid gold rotor with guilloche finish.

Strap:  Hermès Abyss Blue alligator strap with steel folding clasp.

Price: $17,700.

 

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The Watches

Corum Celebrates Four Decades of Golden Bridge

Corum pays tribute to its Golden Bridge with two new limited edition models, each celebrating the watch’s 40th anniversary. Corum has frequently revisited the Golden Bridge in the forty years since the watchmaker debuted its first watch with the linear-gear movement.

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The first Golden Bridge,designed by Vincent Calebrese and launched by Corum in 1980.

The architecturally sublime caliber, initially designed by Vincent Calabrese, was re-engineered by Corum in 2011 and has been variously offered since then with manual winding or automatic winding.  While Corum usually places the in-line movement in a rectangular or tonneau case, Corum began offering the movement within round cases for the first time in 2016 with precious metal and gem-settings.

With these two anniversary Golden Bridge models, Corum returns to the original manual-wind caliber designs. In the Caliber CO113, the viewer’s eyes are drawn along the path following the movement’s energy transfer, starting at the spring barrel at 6 o’clock up to the escapement at 12 o’clock.

The new Corum Golden Bridge Rectangle 40th Anniversary in 18-karat white gold.

White gold or rose gold

With this commemorative offering, Corum emphasizes the Golden Bridge’s original rectangular case. Two 29.5mm by 42.2mm models, one in white gold and one with a rose gold case, celebrate not only the Golden Bridge’s anniversary, but also an aspect of Corum’s own history as a new watchmaking company, founded in 1955.

On the white gold Golden Bridge Rectangle 40th anniversary model, Corum hand-engraves flowers onto the case in reference to its ongoing collection of Haute Horlogerie models. The depictions of the acanthus and fern plants are a nod to a style created in Corum’s home of La Chaux-de-Fonds. These are the same engravings Corum has placed on all Golden Bridge baguette movements since the timepiece was launched in 1980.

The white gold Corum Golden Bridge Rectangle 40th Anniversary is limited to three pieces honoring Corum’s three co-founders.

The new Corum Golden Bridge Rectangle 40th Anniversary in 18-karat rose gold.

With the rose gold edition of the Golden Bridge Rectangle 40th Anniversary watch, Corum is also celebrating its own sixty-fifth birthday. This 18-karat rose gold version will be made as a limited edition of forty pieces, each engraved “Limited Edition 1 0f 40” inside the case at 3 o’clock. In addition, you’ll find the Corum key logo metallized in an eye-catching, light-diffusing pattern on a sapphire crystal caseback.

Prices: $39,800 (rose gold, limited edition of forty pieces), $42,800 (white gold, limited edition of three pieces).

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Watch Of The Day

Looking Back: A Rear View of the Krayon Anywhere

With Anywhere, the second debut from independent Swiss watchmaker Krayon

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, the wearer can see sunset and sunrise times for any single location indicated on the dial.

The watch, with its all-new C030 manual-wind caliber, streamlines the functions of the earlier Krayon Everywhere, on which (you guessed it) the wearer can see sunset and sunrise times across the globe. That watch was awarded the Innovation Prize at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) in 2018.

The back of the Krayon Anywhere, showing Manual-winding Cal. C030. The bridge edges echo the shape of one of the rivers that empties into Lake Neuchâtel.

Like the dial, the back of the newer celestial complication is also less encumbered, with large, expertly polished plates that hide the gears below. Watch engineer Rémi Maillat, who worked on so many of Cartier’s superb, complicated calibers prior to founding Krayon in 2017, places the hours, minutes and seconds beneath this larger plate.

A portion of the sunset and sunrise complication dominates the lower section of the movement. Framing a threaded and adjustable transverse screw is a dramatic two-level cam that rotates, pushing two racks to continuously transmit the information required to activate the dial’s sunset and sunrise displays.

Krayon will adjust two screws (visible within a set of rubies at each side of the visible cam) to account for longitudinal differences in sunset and sunrise.

The cam, which the watchmaker can customize according to the owner’s chosen latitude, rotates fully once each year. Krayon will adjust two screws (visible within a set of rubies at each side of the cam) to account for longitudinal differences in sunset (left side) and sunrise (right side).

PERSONAL DÉCOR

A close-up of the back of the Krayon Anywhere, showing the movement’s expert hand-polished beveling.

Maillat’s wavy bridge décor is not simply eye-catching. It’s also personal. The manually beveled edges of the larger bridge echo the shape of one of the rivers that empties into Lake Neuchâtel, near Maillat’s home in Switzerland. The bridge’s waves trace the position of the watch’s cam during a Neuchâtel sunset, according to Krayon. All the bridges, and even the cam, feature perfectly mirror-polished anglage.

Thanks to a thin (5mm) movement, Krayon has managed to maintain a 9mm thick case for the Anywhere despite all this complexity. And at only 39mm in diameter the Krayon Anywhere may be among the smaller high-end designs offering a sunrise/sunset display. And with the obvious attention paid to its back view, it is certainly among the most beautiful.

The dial side of the Krayon Anywhere in rose gold.

 

 

 

The Essentials

Movement: Manual-winding Cal. C030 showing (on dial) hours and minutes, sunrise and sunset times, 24-hour display, simple calendar, month. Wave-décor on bridges with hand-polished beveling throughout. and Power reserve is 86 hours, 3 Hz frequency,  55 jewels,432 components.

Case: 39mm by 9.5mm white gold or rose gold with alligator strap and matching gold buckle. Price: 116,000 Swiss Francs (about $127,000)

This article first appears in the Fall 2020 edition of International Watch.

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Watch Of The Day

TAG Heuer Presents Gold Ode to Jack Heuer

During the 1970s Jack Heuer presented 18-karat gold Heuer Carreras to Ferrari Formula 1 drivers during the watchmaker’s partnership with Ferrari. TAG Heuer this week revives the decades-old ‘good luck’ gesture by introducing a new gold Carrera, offering 188 of them as a limited edition to the non-racing general public.

The new TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph Jack Heuer Birthday Gold Limited Edition.

The gold-cased debut, known as the TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph Jack Heuer Birthday Gold Limited Edition, echoes the racing theme of the original gold series (model 1158CHN) with two black, sunray brushed chronograph subdials at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock.

The new watch, at right, echoes the style of the 1970s chronograph, reference 1158CHN, offered to Ferrari racecar drivers.

But TAG Heuer has also applied a few new accents to the retro-inspired chronograph. Most notable are the stylized infinity loops to the center of the dial symbolizing Jack Heuer’s 88th birthday and the subtle seconds counter at 6 o’clock. TAG Heuer also updated the date display and the hands, which have been resized to match the hour markers. TAG Heuer has also attached a black alligator strap bearing Jack Heuer’s signature in gold lettering.

Why stop?

TAG Heuer has equipped the new watch with the estimable Caliber Heuer 02 manufacture movement with a column wheel, vertical clutch and an impressive power reserve of eighty hours.

The watch’s oscillating mass is engraved with Jack Heuer’s motto “Time never stops, why should we?”

From the back of the watch, the one-hundred eighty-eight owners of the TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph Jack Heuer Birthday Gold Limited Edition will see the caliber’s oscillating mass engraved with Jack Heuer’s motto “Time never stops, why should we?”

Jack Heuer, former Heuer CEO and current TAG Heuer Honorary Chairman.

“I’m very touched that TAG Heuer reimagined my favorite watch for my birthday,” says Jack Heuer, TAG Heuer’s Honorary Chairman. “It reminds me of many dear friends and thrilling years on the race track. I will wear it with pride and look forward to seeing it on the wrist of new generations of daring characters as well.”

Look for the watch in TAG Heuer boutiques and online in February 2021. Can’t wait? TAG Heuer is taking pre-orders now.

Price: $18,450.

 

Specifications: TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph Jack Heuer Birthday Gold Limited Edition

(Reference: CBN2041.FC8306)

Movement: Caliber Heuer 02 Automatic chronograph with column-wheel, vertical clutch and 80-hours of power reserve. 

Case: 42 mm polished and fine-brushed rose gold, beveled, domed sapphire crystal with double anti-reflective treatment, rose gold screw-down sapphire caseback with special numbered limited-edition engraving, water resistance to 100 meters.

Dial: Opaline with silver flange and 3 counters:
– 3 o’clock: black “azurage” minute chronograph counter, rose-gold-colored polished hand
– 6 o’clock: permanent second, rose-gold-colored polished hand
– 9 o’clock: black “azurage” hour chronograph counter, rose-gold-colored polished hand
Rose-gold-colored polished applied indexes with white Super-LumiNova, rose-gold-colored polished TAG Heuer applied logo, date display, CARRERA Heuer 02 80 Hours printed on the dial

 Strap: Black alligator leather with black lining, rose gold pin buckle, TAG Heuer logo.

Price: $18,450. The watch is a limited edition of 188 pieces.

 

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