Franck Muller now offers metal bracelet options for the first time for its top-selling Vanguard collection.
The tonneau-shaped Vanguard collection, which includes a wide range of the Geneva watchmaker’s primarily sporty models on leather or textile straps, can now be attached to the wrist with a bracelet composed and finished with either brushed steel, polished steel, brushed titanium and black brushed titanium.
Franck Muller will make the polished and brushed link bracelets to fit into the two different Vanguard case sizes, 41 mm and 45mm.
The firm’s technicians have also developed a fine adjustment system that allow the bracelet to be sized to fit proportionally and ‘perfectly’ on the wrist, according to Franck Muller. Links can be quickly removed or added to lengthen or shorten the bracelet.
Greubel Forsey today unveils a new GMT Earth sporting a contemporary blackened titanium case, a black dial and black bridges.
The dark titanium Greubel Forsey GMT Earth.
A limited edition of eleven pieces, the newly darkened GMT Earth is Greubel Forsey’s third and final interpretation of the groundbreaking watch. When it first appeared in 2011 it featured a partial view of its dial-set titanium globe, which displays time around the world. Seven years later, in 2018, Greubel Forsey set the orb within a clear sapphire frame, which allowed unobstructed views of the laser-engraved globe.
The GMT collection has expanded in the years since that debut and now also includes the GMT Sport, the GMT Quadruple Tourbillon and the GMT.
This latest and final GMT Earth, with its titanium case, is the lightest of the trio (at 117 grams) when compared to the earlier white gold and platinum-cased editions. Titanium also brings with it full non-magnetic and hypoallergenic properties.
Darkest yet
The dial here is the darkest we’ve seen in the GMT collection. Underscoring its black theme, Greubel Forsey uses a black treatment to darken the globe, all the frosted bridges, the mainplate and the sectorial subdials. Even the natural rubber strap is black.
As a reminder, the GMT Earth features four primary displays on its dial side. These include the off-center hours, minutes and seconds display, the red-handed GMT indicator, the power reserve indicator (near the crown) and of course the globe.
Situated between 7 o’clock and 9 o’clock, the Earth, which rotates once every 24 hours, features an engraved sapphire ring around the equator that acts as a day/night indication. This means you can quickly determine which hemisphere is in the daytime and which is at night.
A peek through the side of the case reveals the globe’s equator. And of course a wearer can enjoy the whirling Tourbillon 24 Secondes, positioned just below the power reserve display, which contributes to the watch’s high level of precision. Price: CHF 590,000.
Specifications: Greubel Forsey GMT Earth
(Limited edition of 11 pieces)
Movement: Greubel Forsey GMT with Tourbillon inclined at a 25 angle 1 rotation in 24 seconds. 72-hour power reserve, 21,600-vph frequency
Case: 45.50mm by 16.18mm titanium with titanium plates, engraved, hand-finished with text, screwed to the caseband, three-dimensional, asymmetrical, synthetic sapphire crystal bezel, water resistant to 30 meters.
Dial: Multi-level hour-ring in synthetic sapphire, galvanic growth hour indexes, engraved and lacquered minutes and small seconds, power-reserve and GMT indicators in gold, engraved and lacquered, circular-grained with black treatment. Rotating globe with day-and-night UTC indicator in synthetic sapphire, engraved and lacquered. Indications: GMT, 2nd time zone, rotating globe with universal time and day-and-night, complete and global view from northern to southern hemisphere, universal time on 24 time zones, summer and winter time, cities observing summer time, hours and minutes, small seconds, power-reserve.
Strap: Rubber or hand-sewn alligator and titanium folding clasp, engraved with the GF logo.
Tutima recently added a green dial to its M2 Chronograph Commando collection. When it debuted late last year, this watch was available only with a black dial.
The relatively new addition to this serious aviation chronograph collection veers from conventional pilot colors with a stylish yet still subtle green dégradé dial.
Around the dial however Tutima retains its solid 46mm cushion-shaped titanium case, sapphire crystal and Caliber Tutima 521, a highly customized ETA Valjoux 7750.
Tutima has re-engineered the sturdy caliber to track minutes and seconds via a large center sweep hand, and hours with a subdial. The modified dial train, a proprietary Tutima development, offers a cleaner alternative to more traditional two-subdial or three-subdial chronographs.
Even less conventional are the two chronograph pushers, which lie fairly hidden in their otherwise usual locations astride the crown. The design emphasizes its overall sleek profile. From a distance one might not identify the M2 Commando as a chronograph, a characteristic not lost on Tutima as it so successfully pairs real function with its own somewhat minimalist style.
Prices: $4,900 on a Kevlar strap with titanium clasp; $5,300 on a solid titanium bracelet with folding clasp.
We’ve seen open-worked designs among Hermès watch collections in the past, most notably with the recent, very sexy smoked-dial Arceau Squelette. But until this month, this famed luxury house hadn’t offered a skeletonized version of either its superb in-house movements, namely Caliber H1837 or Caliber H1950, each made with its partner Vaucher.
The new Hermès Slim d’Hermès Squelette Lune.
That omission changes with the recent announcement of the Slim d’Hermès Squelette Lune, Hermès’ first skeleton timepiece with a manufacture movement. Hermès has created Caliber H1953 from its thin H1950, the movement underneath the highly successful Slim d’Hermès collection first debuted in 2015.
Hermès cleverly mixes its metals with this release, combining a bead-blasted 39.5mm titanium case with a platinum bezel and a white gold crown. The mixture allows light to dance across the airy dial and bezel, aided by alternating matte and glossy finishes.
Equally interesting is the double moonphase display at the 6 o’clock position. As the sunray-patterned linked orbs rotate, they expose two moon images, marking the satellite’s position in both hemispheres. Very cool, and superbly executed. Price: $20,550.
Case: 39.5 mm bead-blasted grade-5 titanium middle and back, bezel in platinum with white gold crown and pusher. Anti-glare sapphire crystal and caseback.
Dial: Skeletonized, black gold sunburst flange and grey-transferred minutes track, blue PVD-coated hands. Hours, minutes, double moon-phase at 6 o’clock
Bulova will make 5,000 50th Anniversary Lunar Pilot watches.
Bulova has a long history with NASA and has been involved in multiple space missions. The watchmaker specifically celebrates Apollo 15 because on August 2, 1971, Apollo 15’s mission commander David Scott made lunar history while wearing a Bulova chronograph. You may recall that the original watch sold for nearly $1.6 million at auction in 2015.
The Bulova Chronograph Worn by David Scott on the moon sold for nearly $1.6 million at auction in 2015.
Bulova notes that its partnership with the U.S. space mission ran from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. To learn more about Bulova’s links to U.S. space exploration, visit the digital Bulova Museum.
New case
Bulova’s celebratory release replicates the style and dial layout of Scott’s watch from Apollo 15, with technical updates. The new model is cased in a new and larger 45mm titanium case, and includes new gold-tone accents and pushers.
Inside, Bulova places proprietary high frequency, high precision quartz movement, which boasts a frequency of 262 kHz, eight times the frequency of traditional quartz watches. This is the movement, with its apparently ‘sweeping’ seconds hand, that Bulova inserts into its Precisionist collection, which Bulova debuted in 2010.
The watch’s retro-styled dial includes the original Bulova logo and dial layout with a sapphire crystal. A sharp-looking grey leather NATO strap holds it to the wearer’s wrist, and the watch is water resistant to fifty meters. On the screw-down case back you’ll find an engraved image depicting a moon walk and the watch’s limited edition number. Bulova will make 5,000 50th Anniversary Lunar Pilot watches and will package each with a storybook and commemorative NASA coin. Price: $995.
