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Greubel Forsey’s Convex Twist

Greubel Forsey debuts a new twist to its convex case series with the new Tourbillon 24 Secondes Architecture.

The new Greubel Forsey Tourbillon 24 Secondes Architecture.

Unlike existing watches in the ‘Convexe’ series, this new model features a case that, in addition to its convex curve, also widens as it reaches the wrist. Thus, with a diameter around the caseback (47.05mm) that is wider than the bezel (45mm), it fully exhibits the impressive movement inside while also appearing smaller than it actually is.

Known as a ‘conical frustrum’ in geometry, the unusual case shape, especially with its side-case clear sapphire windows, creates a broad showcase for Greubel Forsey’s exceptional Tourbillon 24 Secondes movement.

On the wrist the titanium watch is comfortable and endlessly fascinating, especially given the ability to admire the movement’s highly polished moving parts directly through the case sides.

Polished titanium bridges immediately stand out from the frosted finish of the mainplate.

From the top the wearer sees the relief-engraved Greubel Forsey text “Architecture, Harmonie, Innovation, Technique, Bienfacture, Passion, Science, Exclusivité, Créativité” just inside the convex bezel. The new, contemporary font seems to announce a new era in case making for the newly independent watchmaker, which spent years perfecting this new design.

Light enters the case from all sides and creates shadows and reflections that only enhance the appearance of depth.

Superb chronometry

But within that bezel, when peering in from all sides, the viewer sees all the Tourbillon 24 Secondes Architecture components seemingly suspended within what may be the watchmaker’s deepest case, which measures 16.8mm from top to bottom. (The recent convex-cased Balancier S measures 13.75mm deep, in comparison.)

With the new case, light enters the case from all sides and creates shadows and reflections that only enhance the appearance of depth within.

The back view displays a contemporary finish and layout.

The watch’s showpiece Tourbillon 24 Secondes takes center stage at the 6 o’clock location. With its inclined escapement and fast rotational speed, it demonstrates superb chronometric performance.

Visible from multiple sides of the case, the inclined escapement and the other primary components (the power reserve indicator and the decorated coaxial-series barrel) are each attached to highly polished titanium bridges.

The watch’s side-case clear sapphire windows create a broad showcase for the movement.

Greubel Forsey has equipped one of those barrels with a slipping spring to avoid excess tension. The barrel provides ninety hours of power reserve, which is indicated by a moving red triangle over a conical disk at 3 o’clock.

Greubel Forsey will make only eleven Tourbillon 24 Secondes Architecture watches in 2022, followed by eighteen pieces a year between 2023 and 2025 for a total of sixty-five timepieces overall.

Price: $500,000.

Specifications: Greubel Forsey Tourbillon 24 Secondes Architecture

Movement: Time-only manual-wind with small seconds, 24-seconds tourbillon inclined at a 25° angle, light alloy cage pillars
, titanium cage bridges, gold counterweight, domed jewels in gold chatons, 21,600 vph. Ninety hours of power reserve.

Case: 47.05mm (case band) and 45.00mm (bezel) by 16.80mm titanium and synthetic sapphire crystal, three-dimensional, variable geometry bezel with raised engraved text, raised engraving “Architecture 1” and “Greubel Forsey”, water resistant to fifty meters.

Dial: Three-dimensional, variable geometry hour-ring, indexes with Super-LumiNova, power-reserve indicator, circular-grained, engraved and lacquered, gold small second indicator, circular-grained, polished flank, 24-seconds tourbillon rotation indicator.

Strap: Non-animal material, rubber with text in relief, titanium folding clasp, engraved GF logo.

Price: $500,000.

 

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The Watches

A Red, White and Blue Worldtimer

Frederique Constant helps celebrate this July 4th with a red, white and blue U.S.-exclusive limited edition worldtimer. The Geneva-based watchmaker issues its 42mm steel-cased Classics Worldtimer Manufacture: Summer of 76 as a limited edition of seventy-six pieces to commemorate U.S. Independence Day.

The new Frederique Constant Classic Worldtimer Manufacture: Summer of 76.

With a red seconds hand and date accent, blue hands, blue dial and an appropriately hued trio of straps, the new watch clearly favors the colors of the American flag. And to underscore its American tribute, each watch will be sold with a red alligator leather strap with off-white stitching, a white alligator leather strap and a blue rubber strap.

Not enough July 4 references? Check out the red star that replaces the 4 in the date display and the American flag amid the U.S. cities listed on the 24-hour time flange.

 

 

 

 

 

Ten-year anniversary

First seen ten years ago, the Classics Worldtimer Manufacture has been one of the watchmaker’s best sellers, combining classical world time functionality with a contemporary display ­– and a surprisingly affordable price tag. Collectors have also been drawn to its in-house traditional world time movement (the FC-718 automatic caliber), a rare feature in a watch priced less than $5,000.

Like its pricier counterparts, this worldtimer allows its wearer to read the time in the twenty-four cities that represent the global time zones of reference, all with immediate indication of daytime or nighttime. And all Classics Worldtimer indications are set with the crown. This means that a traveler need not worry about changing the time as he or she enters another time zone. The local time (by central hands) and the domestic time (by the moving disk) are automatically synchronized with each other.

This latest worldtimer is the third made by Frederique Constant to celebrate the watch’s tenth anniversary. The watchmaker says that this U.S. exclusive edition shows “the importance of the U.S. market for the brand.”

Frederique Constant will offer the Classics Worldtimer Manufacture: Summer of 76 as a limited edition of seventy-six, with pre-ordering now for delivery in November.

Price: $4,795.

 

Specifications: Frederique Constant Classics Worldtimer Manufacture: Summer of 76

(FC-718USWM4H6, limited edition of 76)

Movement: Automatic FC-718 in-house caliber with all functions adjustable by the crown. 
Perlage & circular Côtes de Genève decorations
, 38-hour power reserve, 28,800 alt/h.

Case: Polished 42mm by 12.1mm stainless steel three-part. Scratch-resistant and anti-reflective convex sapphire crystal, see-through caseback, water-resistant to 30 meters.

Dial: Light blue and silver with globe decoration, black pearl color applied indexes filled with white luminous treatment, 
24H disc with day (white) & night (blue) indication,
 white city disc with 24 cities and U.S. flag. 
Hand-polished blue color hour and minute hands Hand-polished red color second hand. Light blue date counter at 6 o’clock with sunray guilloché decoration in the center, hand-polished silver color hand and a red star replacing the number 4.

Strap: Red alligator leather with off-white stitching. 
Includes an additional white alligator leather strap and a blue rubber strap.

Price: $4,795. Limited to 76 pieces.

 

 

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Oris

Oris ‘Oyster’ Diver Raises Funds to Clean New York Harbor

Oris continues its industry leading efforts to clean up our oceans with a new watch created to benefit the Billion Oyster Project, a non-profit working to restore New York Harbor’s oyster population. Sometime called the ocean’s trees, oyster colonies create ecosystems for other marine life, and form natural storm barriers.

The new Oris New York Harbor Limited Edition.

The new Oris New York Harbor Limited Edition is a 2,000-piece limited edition based on its 41.5mm steel-cased Aquis diver’s watch collection (see full list of specifications below). Oris devised a green mother-of-pearl dial inspired by the color of the harbor’s water and by the shimmering nacre of the oyster shell.

Note that Oris has long been a proponent of cleaning the oceans and has partnered with numerous environmental organizations over the years as part of its Change for Better program. Just last year Climate Partner independently certified Oris as a climate neutral company. As detailed in its Sustainability Report, Oris plans to reduce its climate footprint by ten per cent a year for the next three years.

Billion Oyster Project began in 2014. Founded by educators Murray Fisher and Pete Malinowski, it has brought together 11,000 volunteers, 8,000 students, 100 
New York City schools and more than fifty restaurant partners together to place oysters and build reefs.

Thus far, the Project has introduced 75 million juvenile oysters to eighteen restoration sites in New York Harbor, and the oyster population is now self-sustaining.

 

Oris will release the New York Harbor Limited Edition with a special presentation box that also includes a rubber strap, metal bracelet and strap-changing tool. Price: $2,700.

 

Specifications: Oris New York Harbor Limited Edition

(Limited edition of 2,000 numbered pieces)

Case: 41.5mm stainless steel case, unidirectional rotating bezel, stainless steel bezel with minutes scale in relief
, 
 sapphire crystal domed on both sides, anti-reflective coating inside
, screwed caseback in stainless steel with special engravings, steel screw-in security crown
, water resistance to 300 meters.

Dial: Green, mother-of-pearl, luminous hands and indices.

Strap: Green rubber, supplied with additional multi-piece stainless steel metal bracelet with folding clasp with extension and strap changing tool.

Movement: Automatic Oris 733 (Sellita-based) showing hours, minutes and central sweep seconds hands, date with quick setting, stop second device, date window at 6 o’clock. 
Power reserve of 38 hours.

Price: $2,700.

 

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The Watches

Ulysse Nardin Expands Diver X Skeleton

Building on its hot blue-hued Diver X Skeleton collection, Ulysse Nardin adds a new version, the Diver X Skeleton Black, which blackens the titanium watch’s openwork design and swaps in bright yellow accents to replace the orange color of the earlier model.

The new Ulysse Nardin Diver X Skeleton Black.

With the new 44mm dive watch, Ulysse Nardin extends its X-themed design within its well-stocked dive watch collection. As the third X-series model thus far in the dive series, the watch underscores its avant-garde design with a sharp-looking concave black carbon bezel and barrel cover, a clear view into its movement and a series of yellow dial and case accents.

Ulysse Nardin protects the automatic UN-371 movement (visible through the front and back of the case) with a domed sapphire front crystal, a sapphire back crystal and a case water resistant to 200 meters. The movement, which Ulysse Nardin originally created for its Blast Skeleton collection, has been improved with the addition of an oscillating X-shaped weight. Ulysse Nardin also coats the hands and indexes with white or yellow tinted SuperLuminova.

Ulysse Nardin calls the X-Skeleton design “one of the most technical and complex developments ever undertaken by Ulysse Nardin.” To make the hour indexes appear as if they are floating over the movement, technicians covertly connected them to what passes for a dial on this skeletonized watch. In addition, Ulysse Nardin built the dominant X atop the dial using multiple layers, each finished differently to better reflect the light that naturally streams into an open-worked dial.

Ulysse Nardin will make the Diver X Skeleton Black as a limited edition of 175. It will come with both a yellow rubber strap and a black fabric R-strap made of up-cycled polyamide derived from fishing nets. Price: $28,500.

 

Specifications: Ulysse Nardin Diver X Skeleton Black

(Limited edition of 175 timepieces)  

Movement: Automatic UN-372 Manufacture Caliber, skeletonized and with extra-large silicon oscillator, silicon escape wheel, anchor and balance spring. 21,600 Vph with 72-hour power reserve.

Dial: Skeleton dial, X-shaped black PVD, black indexes and hands with SuperLuminova.

Case: 44mm titanium black DLC sandblasted and satin finished, concave black Carbonium unidirectional rotating bezel with a domed sapphire glass. Case back is black DLC titanium with sapphire crystal. Water resistance to 200 meters.

Strap: Black R-Strap with scratch closing, 100% recycled fishing nets, yellow rubber strap with Ulysse Nardin black ceramic element at 6 o’clock and black ceramic and titanium deployant buckle.

Price: $25,800

 

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The Watches

Bulgari Launches Aluminum GMT Tribute to Italian Ship

With its new Aluminum GMT Amerigo Vespucci, Bulgari pays tribute to the Vespucci, a three-mast Italian navy training ship. The new watch, a limited edition of 1,000, is Bulgari’s second recent Aluminum Collection debut, arriving just weeks after the Aluminum Chronograph Ducati Special Edition.

The new Bulgari Aluminum GMT Amerigo Vespucci Special Edition.

As Bulgari’s sportiest design, the Bvlgari Aluminum series has long been one of the Italian-Swiss watchmaker and jeweler’s most successful collections, with its lightweight case and bold Bvlgari Bvlgari-branded black or blue rubber bezel.

Bulgari originally fit its Aluminum series with a mechatronic-quartz movement but updated the collection in 2020 with mechanical calibers. Here, Bulgari fits the new watch with its Caliber BVL 192, a GMT movement powering a dual-time display indicated by a yellow-tipped luminescent arrow hand.

The new watch’s dial displays both the Italian colors and the yellow hue found on the namesake ship. As the GMT hand rotates once in twenty-four hours, it indicates the hour within a chosen second time zone. Bulgari simplifies the timekeeping by marking the two twelve-hour zones in contrasting black and yellow to distinguish between day and night.

The Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian Navy training ship.

This 40mm aluminum watch is water-resistant to 100 meters and features a titanium caseback that is engraved with “Nave Scuola Amerigo Vespucci” and the motto: “Non chi cominicia ma quel che persevere” (Not he who begins, but he who perseveres).

As with all Bulgari aluminum watches, this latest model is fit with an articulated rubber strap. Price: $3,950, limited to 1000 pieces.

Specifications: Bulgari Aluminum GMT Amerigo Vespucci Special Edition

Movement: Automatic BVL Caliber 192 with GMT function (second time-zone indication) and 50-hour power reserve, 28,800 vph (4 Hz) frequency.

Case: 40mm aluminum, black DLC-coated titanium back, black rubber bezel, DLC-coated titanium crown,

Dial: Black bearing inscription, rhodium-plated hour-markers and hours and minutes hands filled with SuperLuminova, yellow rhodium-plated seconds hand, black and yellow 24- hour outer dial with an arrow-shaped GMT hand filled with SuperLuminova, date window at 3 o’clock. Water-resistant to 100 meters.

Strap: Rubber with aluminum links, aluminum pin buckle.

Price: $3,950 (1,000-piece limited edition)

 

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