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Detroit Watch Honors 1966 Daytona Winner

Detroit Watch Company expands its hot-selling M1-Woodward Sport Chrono Exhibition collection with racing livery with two new models emblazoned with number 98 on the dial.

M1-Woodward 24hr 1966 Daytona Winner Legends Chronograph Exhibition. A black DLC version is also available.

The number references the winning GT40 at 1966 Daytona driven by Ken Miles and Lloyd Ruby (red dial accents) as well as the Cobra Daytona coupe (blue/white dial) designed by the legendary American designer Peter Brock.

The new line retains the M1 Sport Chrono Exhibition collection’s steel-cased design, but now features the new 98 dial with either red accents on the Daytona Winner model or blue accents on the Daytona Coupe model. Inside the brushed and polished 42mm case you’ll find an ETA Valjoux 7750 chronograph with a customized Detroit Watch decoration visible through a sapphire back.

Detroit Watch offers the duo with a choice of steel bracelet or a leather strap. The new series is also available in blackened DLC finish with a stitched Kevlar strap (see below).

As a bonus, each watch includes a framed timepiece sketch and a special framed sketch of the matching race car. The drawings are by Detroit Watch Company’s Patrick Ayoub, who founded the company with his wife Amy nine years ago.

Prices: $2,200, $2,350 (black DLC edition)

 

Specifications: Detroit Watch Company M1-Woodward 24hr 1966 Daytona Winner Legends/Coupe Chronograph Exhibition

Movement: Custom Valjoux ETA 7750 automatic chronograph, Incabloc shock-absorber,  anachron hairspring, glucydur balance, 28,800 vph, 48-hour power reserve, custom DWC decoration.

Dial: Day-date display in window, minutes and hour subdial counters, small seconds subdial, hour markings, blue or red accents, number 98 on seconds subdial.

Case: 42mm by 14.5mm polished/brushed stainless steel, exhibition caseback, water resistant to 50 meters.

Strap: Calf leather with buckle and quick release spring bars. Ballistic (Kevlar) strap with deployant clasp on DLC edition.

Prices: $2,200, $2,350 (black DLC edition).

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The Watches

Ulysse Nardin Sets a Rainbow of Gems into Two Watches

Ulysse Nardin adorns its 39mm Lady Diver and 45mm black DLC titanium Blast Tourbillon X with purple, green, blue or pink gemstones to create a rainbow effect that echoes the iridescent rainbow colors of silicon.

The new Ulysse Nardin Blast Rainbow Tourbillon X.

The newly sparkling bezels and dials, which debuted during Geneva Watch Days, are meant to celebrate Ulysse Nardin’s pioneering use of silicon components. 

You may recall that in 2001 the Le Locle-based watchmaker was the first to debut a watch (the Freak) with silicon escapement components, jump-starting a technical revolution in the use of the material throughout the high-end Swiss watchmaking industry.

Ulysse Nardin sets the newest Blast Rainbow Tourbillon X with fifty rubies and sapphire baguette gemstones on its bezel and indexes.

The Blast Tourbillon X itself features a skeletonized X bridge and a black rectangular frame that geometrically opens views into the automatic flying tourbillon caliber UN-172. The impressive movement (pictured below), with its platinum micro-rotor and silicon escapement wheel, anchor & balance spring, is cased in black DLC titanium and sealed with a black ceramic polished and sandblasted upper case.

Ulysse Nardin’s Caliber-UN-172 with flying tourbillon.

Ulysse Nardin offers this new, glittery Blast Rainbow Tourbillion X as a limited edition of fifty. It arrives with a waterproof velvet rubber strap or a black alligator strap, together with a black DLC titanium and black ceramic self-deploying buckle. Price: $89,700.

The new Ulysse Nardin Lady Diver Rainbow is offered with a steel case or a blackened 39mm steel case.

The new 39mm Ulysse Nardin Lady Diver Rainbow, offered in either a steel case or a blackened steel case, is adorned with forty stones (ruby, aquamarine, topaz, tsavorite and sapphire) that the watchmaker has set on a concave unidirectional bezel. Eleven diamonds serve as indexes on the white-dialed or black-dialed watch.

Water resistant to 300 meters, the Lady Diver Rainbow is powered by Ulysse Nardin’s UN-816 automatic movement with silicon escapement components.

The watches, each limited to 300 units, will arrive attached to a white or black rubber strap. Price: $13,600. 

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The Watches

Maurice Lacroix Updates Pontos Chronograph

Maurice Lacroix unveils the latest version of its popular Pontos Chronograph with the new  Pontos S Chronograph, a sporty-elegant duo with dominant chronograph sub-dials along the vertical axis and a slim, almost retro ceramic tachymeter bezel.

The new Maurice Lacroix Pontos S Chronograph.

With two new sandblasted white or dark blue dials, the new look is somewhat sportier than earlier editions but retains the collection’s touch of class.

You’ll now find a day-date indicator at 3 o’clock rather than the date at 6 o’clock on this new Pontos chronograph, while the small seconds sub-dial is still at 9 o’clock.

However, note the almost panda-like contrast with the newly styled chronograph indicators and the very sharp dial finishing here. Maurice Lacroix has purposefully endowed both with sandblasted sub-dial centers framed by snailed measuring tracks. A choice of faceted hour markers adds a retro feel to the dial as well.

Maurice Lacroix retains the Pontos collection’s existing design elements, namely its elongated pushers, double-stepped lugs, and a satin-brushed and polished 43mm steel case. 

On the back the wearer can spy the back of the ETA-based automatic ML112 chronograph caliber, decorated with a combination of Côtes de Genève, perlage and sun-brush finishes.

The watchmaker is supplying the new Pontos S Chronograph with a color-coordinated M-branded nylon strap lined with nubuck leather. The watch is also available with a three-row steel bracelet. Owners can also swap between the strap or bracelet without the need for tools.

Prices: $3,250 (silver-white or dark blue sandblasted dial with stainless steel bracelet.

$3,100 (nylon strap) or $3,380 (special package with steel bracelet & nylon strap).

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The Watches

MB&F Launches Sporty LM Split Escapement

MB&F is now widening the reach of its LM Split Escapement EVO, which debuted originally last year as a limited edition for the UAE’s 50th anniversary.

MB&F’s new Legacy Machine Split Escapement EVO.

Launched during Geneva Watch Days, the new Legacy Machine Split Escapement EVO version offers two modifications from existing models. One is the dial color, now a cool, icy light blue with grey subdials. The second change is that MB&F has rotated the entire mechanism clockwise by 30 degrees, creating a new sense of asymmetry to the LM Split Escapement dial.

The watch’s new EVO designation means MB&F has dedicated its sporty, bezel-free 44mm EVO case to house the spectacular movement, which, as it name implies, separates or ‘splits’ its escapement into two halves. Earlier LM Split Escapement models were housed in the MB&F’s dressier 44mm gold or titanium case.

Designed by Northern Irish master watchmaker Stephen McDonnell, the movement features the world’s longest balance staff. Traveling through the entire movement, the 12mm-long staff connects the large balance wheel (hovering over the dial) to the remaining parts of the escapement – anchor and escape wheel – on the opposite side of the movement.

The new model will be joined by a second, limited edition of the watch, available only at a new MB&F LAB store to be opened in Beverly Hills with long-time MB&F retail partner Westime.

The MB&F Legacy Machine Split Escapement EVO, Beverly Hills Edition.

That model, limited to twenty-five units, comes with a black base plate, metallic blue dial and open counters. It will be the only MB&F LAB edition released this year.

MB&F is offering the Legacy Machine Split Escapement EVO in two versions:

Titanium version: Grade 5 titanium case with pastel blue baseplate and dark grey dials.

Beverly Hills edition: Limited edition of 25 pieces in grade 5 titanium case with black baseplate and blue dials. Price for either model: $80,000.

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Alpina

Alpina Re-Sizes its Regulator

Alpina relaunches its Extreme Regulator, first seen in 2005, with a new dial and a smaller cushion-shaped case.

Alpina’s new Alpiner Extreme Regulator.

The new model, which debuts this week at Geneva Watch Days, is called the Alpiner Extreme Regulator and is now set in a more widely appealing 41mm steel case, considerably smaller than the 48mm case of the initial model and the 45mm size of more recent examples.

The Regulator was considered a flagship model when Alpina launched it as the Avalanche Extreme Regulator seventeen years ago. But even with a new size, the latest model evokes a similar assertive, modern appeal. 

Behinds its regulator display of separate hours, minutes and seconds hands, the new Alpiner Extreme Regulator maintains its adventure-focused mission with a thick screw-in crown and caseback, and a strong 200-meter water resistance rating.

Strong Dial

Likewise, the dial projects strength. Alpina’s triangle logo is employed as a grid across the dial, symbolizing Alpine peaks. The grey pattern captures light, creating a more visually compelling dial than the initial models, on which the logo decorated only the center of the dial. Alpina adds even more visual texture with the case finish, which is nicely brushed, with polished corners.

Atop the grey ‘peaks,’ Alpina places highly luminescent hands in an almost typical regulator layout, with a large central minutes hand and separate hour and seconds subdial.

The hour subdial on regulator clock dials is classically positioned along the central axis at the top or bottom. Alpina however positions the hour subdial between the 9 o’clock and 11 o’clock positions, focusing the eye more clearly toward the minutes hand.   

Inside the Alpiner Extreme Regulator Automatic Alpina retains its time-tested automatic ETA-based AL-650 caliber, the movement that powered the 2005 Regulator.

Alpina’s choice to host a regulator dial within its bedrock collection has long set the Geneva brand apart from many watchmakers offering affordably priced Swiss sports watches.

The choice to revive the regulator is equally courageous, especially given the regulator’s niche appeal among collectors, especially at this price range. But at first glance, Alpina’s update, with its appealing new case size and terrific dial design, offers more than enough well-considered change to meet that challenge. 

Alpina is limiting the Alpiner Extreme Regulator Automatic to 888 pieces. Price: $2,195.  

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