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Vulcain Revisits Grand Prix 

Vulcain continues to tap its deep collection of winning historical designs with the Grand Prix, another terrific re-issue that revisits a 1960s design.

The Vulcain Grand Prix, also available with a Champagne and a light-grey dial option.

At 39mm in diameter and 12.7mm thick, the steel-cased Grand Prix delivers classic mid-20th century style with its time-only display, domed crystal, sunray dial finish and long, thin hour markers.

Slender hands enhance the dial’s retro-appeal.

Vulcain offers the Grand Prix with a refined dial of Champagne, light grey or black hues, all nicely matched with either a brown or black leather strap.

A case water resistant to fifty meters will easily protect the Swiss-made Landeron L24 automatic movement in most leisure settings. Expect a power reserve of forty hours.

Vulcain has released a series of retro-inspired designs during the past two years following Guillaume Laidet’s entry into the Le Locle-based company as its CRO (Chief Revival Officer). You might recall the sharp-looking Monopusher Heritage and Vulcain Nautical, both launched as revival collections this past fall.

Price: $1,340. 

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Zenith Launches Titanium Chronomaster Sport 

Zenith launches its lightest Chronometer Sport with the new Chronomaster Sport Titanium, the latest model in the much-heralded collection powered by the Zenith El Primero 3600 high-speed automatic chronograph movement.

The new Zenith Chronomaster Sport Titanium.

In addition to using lightweight titanium to construct the 41mm case and bracelet, Zenith also offers the watch paired with an all-new integrated rubber strap design, an option that further reduces the watch’s overall weight.

In order to emphasize the new case-metal, which reduces the overall weight of the watch by thirty percent, Zenith artisans have given the new watch a largely satin-brushed finish, notably on the crown and pushers. Also differing from existing steel models, the titanium bezel, with its 1/10th-of-a-second scale, is finished with a sunburst satin-brushed decor. Similarly, Zenith polishes the edges of both the case and bracelet, the rim of the bezel and the back.

And since the new titanium casts a largely grey tone to the case, Zenith has added shades of grey to the Chronometer’s well-known tricolor sub-dials. Thus, amid the galvanic nickel-grey hue dial Zenith colors the chronograph counters in three different tones of anthracite, grey and silver.

The new strap options, available in black, blue, green and white, are made using supple FKM rubber, which Zenith calls the “gold standard of rubber.” As usual, you’ll have an unobstructed view of the El Primero 3600, with its blue column wheel, open-work rotor and Zenith star logo.

Price: $11,800 on titanium bracelet or $11,300 on new FKM rubber strap in a choice of black, blue, green or white.  

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Franck Muller Celebrates Lunar New Year 

Franck Muller celebrates the Lunar New Year with a trio of Vanguard watches that display traditional symbolism with modern design. The watchmaker’s new Vanguard Dragon Slim Skeleton Limited Edition is a collection of three gem-set white gold watches that celebrate the year of the dragon in decidedly colorful form.

One of three Franck Muller Vanguard Dragon Slim Skeleton Limited Edition models.

You’ll find the namesake dragon beautifully engraved into the rotor made visible through the back of the watch, seemingly protecting the watch as it hugs the rotor of the skeletonized automatic movement.

The series offers a choice of three sapphire caseback crystal color options: red, green or clear.

On the dial of each watch Franck Muller places its well-known set of playful Color Dreams numerals.

The numerals are gem-set on two models atop a red or green partial dial plate and are rendered in bright colors atop a model with a polished steel dial plate. The back hue matches the front on each limited edition model.

Franck Muller’s artisans hand-decorate each in-house skeleton movement, highlighting the three-dimensional layout of the caliber.

The watchmaker will make ten pieces in white gold for each Vanguard Dragon Slim Skeleton Limited Edition reference, available only at Franck Muller boutiques across the Asia Pacific region. Price upon request. 

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Piaget Revisits a Classic Polo

Piaget revisits the golden age of Polo with the new Piaget Polo 79, a karat gold ode to the jet-setting original.

The new Piaget Polo 79

At 38mm in diameter, the new Polo is slightly larger than the 34mm original but retains the Polo’s very chic 1970s vibe. While many of that era’s high-profile luxury sport watches were cased in steel, the Piaget Polo remained an all-precious-metal model.

Like the reigning steel-cased watches of the 1970s, Piaget’s Polo also featured a bracelet that seamlessly linked to the case, with Polo’s brushed and polished gold bracelet links apparently extending across the dial, offering a pleasing uniform pattern around the wrist.

Piaget designed the Polo to mimic a ‘second skin’ that made its bracelet appear
to have been sculpted from a single piece of gold.

Piaget eventually offered its gold Polo in a variety of shapes, all with precious metal cases and bracelets.

Initially fit with Piaget’s record-breaking ultra-thin 7P quartz movement, the watchmaker in the early 1980s began to offer Polo with its ultra-thin mechanical caliber 9P, which was fit into a wide range of Polo models for years to come.

The new iteration sees Piaget returning to its most classic Polo design, now updated with Piaget’s latest ultra-thin mechanical caliber, the excellent 1200P1 automatic movement.

And in addition to the slightly larger 38mm case diameter, the new Polo 79 exposes its nicely finished caliber through a modern sapphire caseback. 

Price: $73,000. 

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LVMH Watch Week: Zenith’s Chronomaster Original Triple Calendar

Zenith revisits an esteemed calendar watch from 1969, launching the new Chronomaster Original Triple Calendar with the same case proportions as the original.

The new Zenith Chronomaster Original Triple Calendar.

Not only is the new model’s 38mm steel case the same size as the Zenith reference A386 from 1969, but so is its bezel-free  construction, domed sapphire crystal and its complete calendar with moonphase mechanism.

The Zenith compact triple calendar provides its time and date information with unusual clarity, displaying the days of the week and the months in symmetrically positioned windows above the chronograph  counters.

The date is visible at the 4:30 position, which is standard for watches that utilize Zenith’s high-frequency El Primero one-tenth-of–a–second chronograph caliber movement. Finally, Zenith places the moonphase display within the chronograph’s 60-minute counter at the 6 o’clock position.

 

The new watch echoes a particular crucial point in Zenith’s development of its groundbreaking automatic high-frequency El Primero chronograph. The 36,000 vph caliber, it seems, was initially designed to accommodate the triple calendar and moon phase functions right from the very beginning.

Zenith explains that “A series of 25 prototypes was produced in 1970 as a proof of concept, using the same round case as the A386. But given the success of the core chronograph version, it was decided to wait a few years before releasing the first version of the El Primero triple calendar in a watch, which  by the 1970s took on a much more space-age design.”

Zenith is offering two versions of the new Chronomaster Original Triple Calendar. One is a sporty silver-white “panda” opaline dial with black counters and a 1/00-of-a-second scale. The other debut features a familiar opaline slate-grey dial with silvery-white counters and scale, a pattern inspired a series of El Primero triple calendar prototypes from 1970.

A third dial variant (above) designed for Zenith boutiques (physical and online) features a more unusual sunburst olive-green tone with golden applied markers  and hands. Note that on each version, the calendar wheels match the dial colors.

Inside each model is Zenith’s latest generation El Primero automatic high-frequency El Primero 3610 that operates at a rate of 5 Hz (36,000 VpH), delivering one-tenth-of-a-second chronograph functionality. Zenith shows off its caliber through a clear sapphire back, exposing the movement’s blue column wheel and open rotor marked with the brand’s five- pointed star logo.

Prices: $13,900 (on a steel bracelet) and $13,400 (on a leather strap). 

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