De Bethune last week launched the DB Kind of Two Tourbillon, a two-sided watch with a contemporary tourbillon dial that the wearer can flip to show a classical time-only dial.
Like other two-sided watches, the new De Bethune watch means the wearer can choose to expose one of two different dials on his or her wrist.
The contemporary side of the De Bethune DB Kind of Two Tourbillon.
One side of the 42.8mm titanium watch displays the contemporary design with multi-level elements and delta-shaped bridge for which De Bethune is identified. This dial features the brand’s distinctive central hours and minutes hands and its high-speed tourbillon and a thirty-second indication. Here however, De Bethune altered its deltoid-shaped bridge just a bit to make it perfectly symmetrical, a design meant to create a stark sense of harmony.
The classic side of the De Bethune DB Kind of Two Tourbillon.
Classic side
On the other side of the DB Kind of Two De Bethune offers a more classical three-hand, time-only hand-guilloché dial, complete with Arabic numerals collectors might recognize from the brand’s DB8 and DB10. Note that the seconds indication on this side is centrally based, unlike the tourbillon-based seconds indication at the 6 o’clock position on the other side.
De Bethune notes that two-dial watches and clocks have a long history, starting with multi-face tower clocks and extending to similarly equipped table clocks. More recently, we’re familiar with the famed dual-dial Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso. Serious collectors also wear certain two-faced watches from Bovet, Cartier and others.
To devise the new dual-dial watch, De Bethune had to re-design its famed floating lug case to allow the flip-over case to pivot easily, rotate on its central axis and then to click into place securely. This operation is a simple one because the brand equipped each side of the case with a clever rotating mechanism made up of twenty-eight steel and titanium components.
Equally important is the case’s middle section, which swivels naturally and frames the case and the crown. That crown lands gracefully at either 6 o’clock or 12 o’clock, depending on which side of the DB Kind of Two Tourbillon the wearer chooses to view.
Inside the watch De Bethune’s Caliber DB2579 features patented technical flourishes well known to De Bethune devotees. These include a titanium balance with white gold inserts (optimized for temperature differences and air penetration) and a self-regulating twin barrel. For the tourbillon, De Bethune utilizes the ultra-light, 30-second titanium design it first debuted in 2008.
Price: $250,000.
Specifications: De Bethune DB Kind of Two Tourbillon
Movement: Manual-wind Caliber DB2579 with five-day power reserve, self-regulating twin barrel (De Bethune Innovation, 2004), titanium balance wheel with white gold inserts, optimized for temperature differences and air penetration (De Bethune Patent, 2016), balance-spring with flat terminal curve (De Bethune Patent, 2006), silicon escape wheel, and ultra-light tourbillon in titanium. 36,000 vibrations per hour. Finishing includes polished and chamfered barrel bridge with shot-blasted stages, polished and chamfered titanium minute bridge with microlight decoration and hand-snailed barrels.
Contemporary single-sided display: hand-polished and blued titanium for hours and minutes with polished inserts, ultra-light De Bethune 30’’ tourbillon in titanium. Hour ring and 30” polished titanium dial with shot-blasted stages, blued polished titanium hour-markers, silvered and relief minute dial.
Classic reverse side display: Hand-polished and blued titanium for hours, minutes and seconds. Dial silvered and relief, with convex levels and guilloché central part.
Case: 42.8mm by 9.5mm titanium with crown at noon on the front, at 6 o’clock on the back, and integrated into the case. Polished grade 5 titanium floating lugs (De Bethune Patent, 2006). Case turning mechanism that can be clearly positioned on the front or back. Water resistance to 30 meters.
Citizen’s new Satellite Wave GPS F950 Titanium 50th Anniversary Limited Model, a 550-piece limited edition we first told you about in June, is now available on the Citizen website.
Citizen’s new Satellite Wave GPS F950 Titanium 50th Anniversary Limited Model, now available.
The watch was launched by Citizen to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Citizen X-8 Chronometer, the world’s first titanium watch.
Building on Citizen’s Satellite Wave technology, which assures highly accurate GPS-based timekeeping anywhere on earth, the newest model combines Citizen’s newest version of that GPS satellite technology inside with a decidedly luxurious multi-layered case nicely integrated with an angular-link bracelet.
Citizen outfits the new watch with its own Duratect 2 DLC surface hardening that protects the 47.5mm case. The luxury accent here is an inner bezel that Citizen creates using its rose-gold-like Duratect Sakura Pink titanium, the same eye-catching metal that coats the caseback.
Citizen is now selling its Satellite Wave GPS F950 Titanium 50th Anniversary Limited Model exclusively on its website. Price: $5,000
Panerai underscores its deep connection with divers of all types this week as it introduces the Luminor Marina 44mm − Guillaume Néry Edition (PAM01122).
Inspired by free diver and brand ambassador Guillaume Néry, Panerai has outfitted the new dive watch with a 44mm titanium case produced using Direct Metal Laser Sintering technology, which shapes titanium using a 3D printing process.
The new Panerai Luminor Marina 44mm − Guillaume Néry Edition (PAM01122),
Referencing Néry’s deep-dives, Panerai is also adding sporty touches such as a rubberized coating on the bezel, crown and bridge lever, a convex crystal and a dial with an eye-catching dégradé effect that Panerai says emulates “the shades produced as sunlight filters through the depths of the sea.”
Water resistant to 300 meters, the Luminor Marina 44mm − Guillaume Néry Edition is powered by Panerai’s own Caliber P.9010, a fairly thin automatic movement equipped with two barrels for a three-day power reserve. Panerai built a quick-change feature into this movement that allows the wearer to easily adjust the time and date with in one-hour increments, with the hour hand connected to the date indicator.
In addition, Panerai has equipped the watch with an especially sporty strap made from black recycled PET material with white stitching and a trapezoidal pin buckle.
Panerai is also enhancing the package of the boutique-only watch with its first white rubber strap emblazoned with ‘Officine Panerai.’ In each gift box buyers will find a screwdriver that will assist the owner when removing the buckle to swap straps.
The caseback includes an engraving depicting the silhouette of the freediver and Panerai Ambassador Guillaume Néry.
Panerai will make the new watch available in its own boutiques as a limited edition of seventy, each of which will be covered by a new seventy-year warranty. Price: $18,900.
Movement: Automatic Caliber P.9010, 6mm thick, 28,800 vph, two barrels, three-day power reserve.
Panerai’s own caliber P.9010, with two barrels and supplying a three-day power reserve.
Case: 44mm by 16.2mm sandblasted DMLS titanium, safety lock crown protection device (protected by trademark) in sandblasted titanium, titanium bezel, crown and bridge lever with rubberized coating, sapphire crystal, twelve-sided screwed caseback, sandblasted titanium with DLC coating, engraved with the “70 Years Warranty” logo, water resistant to 300 meters.
Dial: Black with dégradé effect, sandwich structure with Arabic numerals and indexes in white SuperLuminova with green luminescence. Seconds at 9 o’clock, date at 3 o’clock.
Strap: Recycled PET, black with white stitching and trapezoidal pin buckle in titanium with DLC coating. Additional white rubber strap with luminescent “Officine Panerai” personalization.
Porsche Design applies the principles behind the Porsche car configurator to its wristwatches.
Few topics rev up collectors as much as watches and automobiles. Porsche Design has known this ever since Ferdinand Alexander Porsche designed the first Porsche Chronograph 1 in 1972. It was the first-ever all-matte-black watch, and it set the stage for five decades of cutting-edge wristwatch creativity from his then-new studio, Porsche Design.
This year, Porsche Design has launched a program meant to inspire budding F. A. Porsches who, like Professor Porsche, want to design and wear a wristwatch inspired by –and infused with – Porsche’s automotive legacy.
Watch collectors and Porsche owners can now create a customized Porsche Design chronograph that perfectly matches the Porsche 992 or Porsche 911 of their dreams – or the one in their garage.
Porsche Design offers twenty-one different dial ring colors deriving from Porsche 911 lacquering.
With the new Porsche Design Custom Built Timepieces program, fans can combine an almost endless array of colors, materials, fonts and displays using the new Porsche Design online watch configurator. The configurator, found directly on the Porsche Design website, offers options and operations far exceeding any other online watch customization program, effectively placing the Porsche enthusiast directly behind the leather-covered wheel, with a clear roadmap toward designing a truly individualized watch.
The Process
Porsche Design released the streamlined online configurator this September after six years of development. The process itself echoes the customization process that Porsche has offered buyers of its famed 911 for years, but expands the type and breadth of options from which a buyer can choose when creating a dream chronograph.
For more than thirty years, Porsche customers have been able to enhance their personal dream car with many individual details through Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur, even to the point of designing a one-off vehicle.
This experience has now been expanded with the ability to design a Porsche Design chronograph based on an individual’s personal taste or Porsche 992 vehicle configurations. It’s an experience that ultimately ends with the customer taking ownership of a Porsche they designed themselves.
A total of six rotors are available, including the Porsche Design Icon rotor in black or five sporty alloy wheel designs of the current 911. Choose from up to 21 different colors for the rim.
“As with the online car-design process, the watch is digitally visualized down to the smallest details and customizations are shown to the customer in real time. The customer begins by selecting the case of the watch and then continues choosing from more than 1.5 million configuration possibilities,” explains Gerhard J. Novak, General Manager Timepieces, Porsche Design Group.
“Once the customer has finished designing the chronograph, an individualized configuration code is created, and from there it is sent, or brought in, to any authorized U.S. Porsche dealer where the order is placed. Delivery takes between eight to twelve weeks.”
The rendering of the watch is based on CAD data from the designers at Studio F. A. Porsche in Zell am See, Austria, and the Porsche Design engineers in Solothurn, Switzerland.
“It quickly became clear that these custom components had to be interchangeable without the need to develop a new watch each time,” explains Rolf Bergmann, Managing Director, Porsche Design Timepieces AG. “Offering a wide range of options while manufacturing small quantities of custom-built timepieces is possible thanks to the sequential production process transferred from Porsche sports car production. The principle of zero-defect tolerance was a necessary prerequisite for the implementation of a watch concept like this.”
Inside Porsche Design places an all-new Porsche Design WERK 01.100 – a COSC-certified chronograph caliber.
A New Engine
Key among the components of the customer-designed watch is an entirely new engine.
Porsche Design developed a new movement to serve as the engine for the online-designed timepiece. The new Caliber WERK 01.100 is a COSC- certified chronograph movement that now enters serial production for the program.
But the WERK 01.100 offers Porsche Design customers more than simply its novelty.
“For the first time customers can individualize a part of a Porsche Design COSC-certified movement by choosing the winding rotor that features the various wheel designs of the latest-generation Porsche 911,” Bergmann says. “The color on the rotor edge can also be customized to match the color on the outer edge of the wheels of the 992,” he adds.
Porsche Design tests its new COSC-certified movement in accordance with the Chronofiable standards.
Customers select their choice of rotor design after choosing which case to place it into. Porsche Design offers a 42mm case based on the one it used in Chronotimer Series 1. The user can opt for a glass-bead blasted natural titanium or a black titanium case coated in titanium carbide via a PVD-process.
Porsche Design offers fourteen different color options for the strap. It can also be accentuated with decorative stitching made with genuine Porsche car yarn available in nineteen colors.
The Straps
Next, the customer chooses his or her strap.
Bands can be titanium or leather and are offered in three sizes with up to 300 different configurations. All leather straps (with butterfly clasp) are crafted from the same hides Porsche uses for its car interiors and come in the fourteen official interior colors of the current Porsche 911 series. Leather wristband stitching is offered in the nineteen different colors of genuine Porsche yarn.
Porsche Design has created dial options for the program that start with the matte black look of the current Chronotimer Series 1, with its minutes counter at the top of the dial, hour counter at the 6 o’clock position and running seconds at 9 o’clock.
But the user can add color using one of many colorful inlaid ring options, with colors based on those used on the current Porsche 911, to frame the black dial to either complement or contrast the choice of strap.
More dramatically, the watch collector then opts for either a brushed bezel or a black tachymeter bezel set with minute markers in the style of the design-defining classic speedometer developed by F. A. Porsche.
The rotor design echoes the Porsche 911 wheel. The wearer can add a personal note with laser engraving.
Each custom-built timepiece can be further individualized with a laser engraving on the back of the case as well as on the exclusive watch box, according to Bergmann.
“If desired, the corresponding car visuals, a graphic logo or the fonts and lettering featured on the rear of the customer’s car can also be applied to the watch box,” he adds.
Porsche and Porsche Design
While watch collectors have long heard about buying “a racecar for the wrist,” from makers of auto-influenced watches, Porsche Design is confident that its new online configurator comes closest to the truth of that metaphor.
“Customers who order their own custom-built Porsche Design chronograph will take a piece of the Porsche sports car lifestyle with them when not behind the wheel,” notes Novak.
The direct relationship between the watch and the car is undeniable, he adds.
“The experience of designing a Porsche Design masterpiece based on the current 992 generation is one-of-a-kind – from the rotor and bezel to the genuine Porsche leather straps,” he adds. The program will be expanded to include additional Porsche models in the near future.
The six-year project required a deep restructuring of Porsche Design watchmaking and development, he explains.
“The greatest challenges certainly were in regards to the order and production processes; after all, this had never been done before. The idea of a “sports car on the wrist” was different for every customer, and it required us to rethink our entire process. Everything from engineering, sourcing and production had to be adjusted. To do so we tapped into the brand’s heritage and pulled key learnings from Porsche’s unique automotive production expertise.”
North American Launch
Thus far, with only a few months of processing orders, Porsche Design says reactions to the program have been very positive.
“The very first order we received after the program launched in the United States was actually from a Canadian customer,” Novak reports. “He had heard about the custom-built timepieces program and reached out to see if he could design a watch to match his 992 and place an order in the U.S. He will actually be picking up his “sports car for the wrist” at an East Coast dealership in the coming days.”
“We are looking forward to continuing to introduce the program to new Porsche Design and Porsche customers alike,” says Novak.
Indeed, customization has been a buzzword among high-end watchmaking for the past few years, and several watchmakers have embraced the possibilities of made-to-order watches, mostly with very limited color or material options.
Novak points out that as Porsche itself has enjoyed a positive customer experience with personalized automobiles, Porsche Design’s careful development of the process with timepieces makes perfect sense. “Introducing this unprecedented level of personalization in the luxury watch segment was a natural next step for us,” he says.
“The timepieces business unit is extremely important for Porsche Design globally and in the United States, and we believe we are keeping pace with the general desire for more individualization in watches.”
Porsche Design manufactures its watches in its Swiss factory.
For Porsche, that customization perfectly unites its automotive realm with the burgeoning watch division of Porsche Design, as supported by its German engineering and Swiss manufacturing facilities.
“Not only does the program highlight the connection between Porsche sports cars and Porsche Design timepieces,” says Novak, “it embodies the premium aesthetic, attention to detail and optimal performance expected of all things associated with the name Porsche.”
Porsche Design Custom-built timepieces are priced starting at $5,150 and, depending on the selections made, can range up to $11,600.
Franck Muller’s new Vanguard Line Cut emphasizes lightness and curves with a micro-blasted matte gray titanium case, dial and bracelet.
The new Franck Muller Vanguard Line Cut.
As the latest model within Franck Muller’s winning Vanguard collection, the Line Cut offers collectors a matte-finished contemporary option within Vanguard, known for its wrist-hugging tonneau-shape and trademark elongated numerals.
The new collection broadens the appeal of Vanguard, which Franck Muller has expanded considerably in recent years with racing designs, skeleton models, gem-set editions and several seriously complicated calibers.
Time-only
Franck Muller equips the new Vanguard Line Cut with a simple two-hand time-telling function, which serves to emphasize the sleek, curved matte gray case and its curved black ‘line cut” along the sides.
Furthermore, Franck Muller then matches the cut to the black outline of each of the dial’s long, hand-applied numerals.Ironically, while the dial projects depth, the case remains relatively thin, here measuring only 9.8mm from front to back. By Franck Muller standards, that’s ultra-thin.
Franck Muller watchmakers have fit the new watch (which is still in limited release) with an extra-flat automatic movement.
Specifications: Franck Muller Vanguard Line Cut
Reference: V 41 S AT REL LINE CUT FM 708
Movement: Franck Muller Automatic, 21,600 vibrations hour, 42 hours power reserve, Côtes de Genève, circular graining, rhodium plating.
Case: 41mm by 50mm by 9.10mm micro-blasted grade 5 titanium, water resistant to 30 meters.
Dial: Gray titanium PVD, matte gray hand-applied numerals with black contours.
Bracelet and buckle: Micro-blasted grade 5 titanium.
