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Bulgari Enhances Aluminum Collection 

Bulgari adds three new models to its sporty Aluminum series. 

The popular Bulgari Aluminum collection was an instant hit when it debuted in 1998. Made of rubber and aluminum, a combination not seen among higher-end Swiss watches previously, the watch was casually sporty and worn by men and women. Bulgari relaunched the collection in 2020, adding automatic movements and updated materials.

The newest additions to the collection include a newly darkened chronograph (with a new caliber), a blue-dialed time and date model and a sporty tennis-themed edition with a left-side crown.

The new Bulgari Aluminum Chronograph, with black dial.

Aluminum Chronograph

Now measuring a slightly larger 41mm in diameter, Bulgari’s Aluminum Chronograph (which won the GPHG Iconic Watch Prize in 2020) is now available in a version sporting an all-black dial, a black rubber bezel and a black rubber and aluminum bracelet.

Powered by a new automatic Caliber B381 (built from an automatic Sellita base with a Dubois-Depraz module), the new watch continues to utilize the aerospace-grade 6028 aluminum alloy and FKM rubber Bulgari incorporated into the impressive redesigned version of 2020, but now also includes a crown, caseback and both chronograph pushers made using black DLC-coated titanium.

Bulgari’s Aluminum Chronograph, off-white dial Panda edition, launches in September

Bulgari also adds the new automatic chronograph movement to the familiar off-white dial Aluminum Chronograph.

While the black-dialed model will be available in June, the newest off-white-dialed ‘Panda’ edition will arrive in September. 

Price: $4,640.

Capri Edition 

Bulgari adds a limited series to the Aluminum collection meant to celebrate the Italian island of Capri. Two models offer a dial colored in gradient Tyrrhenian blue, a shade reminiscent of Capri’s beachside sea and sky.

This new limited series (of 1,000 watches each) includes a Solotempo model displaying time and date and a chronograph version.

Each watch frames its dial with a blue rubber bezel that matches the rubber strap with aluminum links and aluminum pin buckle.

Bulgari fits the new Aluminum Capri Chronograph with its ETA-based automatic chronograph Caliber B130. The Capri Solotempo model is powered an ETA-based caliber B77 mechanical automatic movement, which also features a date display.

To add novelty, Bulgari has engraved the caseback with the Faraglioni, the three rock formations well known to travelers to the Italian island. 

Prices: $3,350 (time and date) and $4,800 (chronograph). 

The new Bulgari Aluminum Match Point Edition.

Match Point Edition 

This surprising and sporty aluminum model is meant to not only look a bit like a tennis ball, but also to be worn on the court.

Its unusual left-side crown keeps the winder away from the wearer’s flexing wrist during play, and with a smaller (40mm) lightweight aluminum case and an (included) extra Velcro strap (above), more than a few Bulgari Aluminum Match Point Edition watches just might see some net action.

Bulgari accents the watch’s white dial with green luminescent hands and indexes and adds tennis-ball-yellow luminescent seconds hand, markers and dots. Even the packaging of this 800-piece limited edition evokes the look of a tennis ball.

On the caseback Bulgari has engraved — you guessed it — a tennis ball. Inside Bulgari fits its ETA-based automatic B77 caliber with a comfortable 42-hour power reserve. 

Price: $3,350, available in July.

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Porsche Design Celebrates the Rennsport Reunion 

To celebrate the upcoming Porsche Rennsport Reunion, slated to begin later this year (on September 28) at Leguna Seca in California, Porsche Design launches a U.S. limited edition watch: the Chronograph 1 – Rennsport Reunion 7 Edition.

The new Porsche Design the Chronograph 1 – Rennsport Reunion 7 Edition.

As an enhanced edition of the famed Porsche Design Chronograph 1 from 1972, the watch retains the original’s pioneering black livery. But instead of the original’s PVD steel case, the new models are forged using a more scratch-resistant titanium carbide case. But the revived watch still enthralls with same matte black dial, red chronograph seconds hand and 41mm case size as the original.

For this special edition, Porsche Design engraves a ‘7’ on the strap to celebrate the seventh Porsche Rennsport Reunion. 

Turn the watch over to see more commemorative markings, including a platinum-colored winding rotor in the form of the RS Spyder wheel rim with a colorful Porsche Crest (used exclusively for this edition). The rotor winds the superb COSC-certified Porsche Design caliber WERK 01.140.

Porsche Design offers customers two bracelets with this commemorative watch. Buyers receive a classic black titanium bracelet and the sporty black leather strap with stitching and Race-Tex in blue (and the embossed “7”). Porsche Design makes its strap materials from originals used in the interiors of Porsche sports cars.

The Porsche Design Chronograph 1 – Rennsport Reunion 7 Edition is priced at $12,500 and is limited to seventy-five pieces in celebration of 75th anniversary of Porsche. 

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Hublot’s Spirit of Big Bang Sang Bleu Enhances Artistic Series

Hublot’s new Spirit of Big Bang Sang Bleu watches, with highly faceted crystals and multi-level, sectional cases, underscore the watchmaker’s ongoing creative collaboration with tattoo artist Maxime Plescia-Buchi and his Sang Bleu design house.

One of five new Hublot Spirit of Big Bang Sang Bleu models. Watches are offered in King Gold (above), titanium or black ceramic.

The existing series, first introduced in 2016, is now available in the barrel-shaped Spirit of Big Bang case and with newly elongated and bevelled features.

Geometric tattoos alternate and overlap from the case to the bezel. The series revels in new triangles and a multiplicity of case finishes that, while unorthodox within Swiss watchmaking, again demonstrates Hublot’s ability to nurture and sustain a serious artistic partnership.

While elongated, the cases here still fit the wrist nicely thanks to carefully arched caseback and back crystal.

Hublot exposes portions of its HUB4700 automatic skeleton chronograph movement through angular disc hands that echo the shape of all Hublot’s Sang Bleu designs. Through the clear caseback you’ll see an impressively skeletonized Sang Bleu rotor.

The new Spirit of Big Bang Sang Bleu watches, each 42mm in diameter across a barrel-shaped case, offer their angularity in three different case materials, with two of the options also enhanced with a choice of diamond-set cases.

Hublot will offer 200 watches in either titanium or all black ceramic and 100 examples in King Gold. In addition, two titanium and King Gold models are each set with 180 diamonds.

Prices: $28,300 (titanium) to $70,400 (King Gold with diamonds).  

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MeisterSinger Polishes White-Dial Basics

MeisterSinger launches three of its bedrock one-hand designs with new, highly polished white dials, golden numerals and blue hour markers. The watches, MeisterSinger No. 01, MeisterSinger No. 03 and the Perigraph (with date indication) remain in their traditional 43mm stainless steel cases under domed sapphire crystals.

MeisterSinger No.01.

MeisterSinger’s watches focus on one-hand time displays. The relatively young German-based watchmaker offers a leisurely option for displaying time, producing a wide range of watches featuring one hand that rotates over combined hour and minute markings around the dial – essentially echoing dials on many pre-eighteenth-century clocks.

MeisterSinger No. 03.

MeisterSinger’s top-selling models, the manual-wind No. 01 and its sister model, the automatic No. 03, are among the most basic within the watchmaker’s collection, with easy-to-read hour markers separated by clearly defined five-minute markers.

The MeisterSinger Perigraph.

And while Meistersinger has added various displays and colors to its Perigraph model over the years, this edition simply shows the date via an exposed, rotating date ring.

The No. 01 model features a decorated solid caseback.

MeisterSinger powers each model with a modified Sellita movement. On the No. 3 and the Perigraph, the automatic movement is visible through the watch’s sapphire caseback. The No. 01 model features a decorated, solid back.  

Back view of MeisterSinger No. 03.

 

MeisterSinger has added a wide range of calendar displays and several handsome moonphase models to its collections, but all retain the single-handed design found in the No 01 model.

“Luckily, I soon realized that the basic design elements of the № 01 need to be maintained in every model of the collection – no matter what complication it may have,” explains MeisterSinger founder Manfred Brassler.

   

Prices: 1,690 euros (No. 01, manual-wind), 1,990 euros (No. 03, automatic) and 2,190 euros (Perigraph, automatic). 

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Maurice Lacroix Brightens its Aikon Grand Date 

Maurice Lacroix shakes up one of its all-black models with new, bright colors, transforming the formerly dark Aikon Master Grand Date Black into the new Aikon Master Grand Date Technicolor. The watch, formerly available only in more traditional black (or dark blue) garb, takes on a new, playful guise with the new offering.

Maurice Lacroix is offering the Aikon Master Grand Date Technicolor in four colors, each a limited edition of fifty.

The debuts retain the watch’s primary technical features, namely its large date display, visible balance wheel and the open-worked small seconds display. You might recall that Maurice Lacroix placed a specialized orange version of its Master Grand Date into the 2021 Only Watch charity auction.

But Maurice Lacroix shifts the design’s mood, adding fun to the Aikon Master Grand Date’s technical, in-house design. 

To do this, the watchmaker offers the Aikon Grand Date Technicolor as limited edition series of fifty pieces in each of four bright, metallic colors: yellow, orange, blue and green.

Furthermore, the date display itself is colorful, with the numerals presented the same bright colors as the dials.   

Maurice Lacroix says it was inspired by the success of its 1990s-era Calypso collection, a series of watches bathed in bright colors.

The new 45mm steel watches display time on an off-center dial finished in a criss-cross  ‘Clous de Paris’ pattern, just above the small seconds display. Black facetted hands are coated with a healthy dollop of SuperLuminova and a touch of red enlivens the tip of the small seconds hand. Inside is manufacture caliber ML331.

As with all its Aikon models, the new series features an integrated strap. Maurice Lacroix provides a black rubber strap and a colorful strap to match the dial.

Maurice Lacroix now packages it all its watches with the same material it uses for its eco-friendly Aikon #tide collection. This means the new series is boxed with packaging made of recycled ocean-bound waste bottles. The watchmaker says it takes thirty-four bottles to make each watch box, which means thirty-four fewer bottles polluting the sea.

As noted, Maurice Lacroix is making the Aikon Master Grand Date Technicolor available as a limited edition of fifty pieces in each of four colors. 

Price: $9,650.

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