Jon

Portraits of Master Watchmakers
Independent watchmakers at the pinnacle of the craft. A multi-part report from Europa Star.

Creative Watchmaking Vs. Creative Watch Design
Jack Forster explores the difference.

Rolex Gray
Rob Nudds on the three brands Rolex “controls” & why no other brand can simply buy their way into what the crown has earned.

Bacs to Basics
A new series with the endlessly charming Aurel Bacs discussing his personal collection of timepieces. If there is one man on the planet that knows how to sell watches, it's Aurel.

Nature’s Recipe Book
Materiom. An open-source repository of sustainable materials that can be fabricated from biomass.

The Widening, Fragmented Gap in Branding
“Rarely is sufficient time spent in ensuring that employees know why the brand exists & how it operates.”

Rapid Patina
Two months in on the Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight 925.

Treble in Size
Laings of Scotland investing significantly to expand their physical footprint, skilled staff, & begin providing immersive experiences for clients to sit alongside their watchmakers.

Cartier Flagship in Osaka Japan
Klein Dytham Architecture creates intricate wooden shop front for Cartier, with individual illuminated cells, handcrafted from hinoki.

Bulgari Is Dipping Its Toe in the Waters of On-demand Customization
With the Bulgari Octo Roma Naturalia.

Daisugi
A Japanese technique used to harvest straight logs without having to cut down the tree that produced them.

The Birth of a Watch Case
An inside look at the manufacturing process behind Salin’s watch cases, made in Italy.

Inside Grönefeld's New Manufacturing Facilities in the Netherlands

The Story Behind the Domino’s-emblazoned Rolex Air-Kings
I vividly recall how odd it felt to handle one of these for the first time.

“The Job Is Well-paid, It's Interesting, You're Always Busy."
Simon Michlmayr on being a watchmaker.

George Daniels Showcase
Plans are in the works for Roger W. Smith to erect new facilities near Sulby Bridge on the Isle of Man, celebrating the life & work of watchmaker, George Daniels.

Visualizing the Motion of Fixed Points on a Hairspring
An enlightening animation of a Unitas 6498 balance spring in motion, by T. Wiuchi.

Do Not Interrupt a Guilloché Artist
Yannick Nardin relays her experience gaining a taste of the art & skill of engine turning at the Breguet boutique in Geneva.

Tantalum Swansong
The last URWERK UR-105.

A Symphony of Innovation
Thanks to its peripheral winding mechanism, the complexities of Carl F. Bucherer’s Manero Minute Repeater Symphony are able to shine.

Apple Watch Assistive Touch
The newly announced Assistive Touch features on the Apple Watch bring Thalmic's Myo armband style gesture control to WatchOS.

Phenomenal.

Buttercross Clock Brought Back to Life
Fourth generation clockmaker, Fred Fletcher, has restored life to the dormant hands of this UK monument.

Linear People Faced With Exponential Change
Thoughts on AI from Nobel Prize winner, Daniel Kahneman.

“I have learned never to make forecasts. Not only can I certainly not do it—I’m not sure it can be done.”

Wise words.

Canada’s AP
Albert Percival Brown & his century-spanning legacy as a watchmaker & jeweller in the Niagara Region.

A Rare Glimpse Inside Rolex's Restoration Atelier
Alongside an overview of their revamped World Service Network, from Qi Le Wah writing for Watches by SJX.

Oddballs
Ming Liu on the uptick in interest for weird & wonderful watches that don't conform to the norm.

We Only Get One Planet Earth
Thoughtful perspective on the Right to Repair from MKBHD.

Manitoba Driver Slapped With $1,900 in Fines for Early Morning ‘Rolex Delivery’

Museum Aspirations
While he has owned & accomplished much within the watch industry—including being the sole representative of the renowned Philippe Dufour—Claude Sfeir's ultimate dream of owning his own horological museum has yet to be fulfilled.

A Workaround to Remove the City Abbreviation From Apple’s GMT Watch Face
From David Smith.

“Moon” & “month” Share the Same Proto-Indo-European Root Word Meaning “to Measure”
Prior to the introduction of divisions on a sundial, the phases of the moon were our first means of quantifying the passage of time.

“A Distant but Reassuring Sign of Intelligence"
Jack Forster on the dependably inexpensive Casio EAW-MQ-24-7B2.

Modernizing Tradition
The Frodsham Double Impulse Chronometer. Traditional in concept & form. Modern in its use of materials & techniques best suited to the task.

Diet NATO
The same great NATO taste with none of the extra calories. A not-so-common, common sense tip from James Stacey.

Thoughtful Subtraction
Research uncovers why simplifying is hard & complicating is easy.

The Benefits of Bulk Metal Glass
A high-level overview of scratch-resistant, BMG production using lasers, from PhD graduate, Navid Sohrabi.

I’m Not Languishing, I’m Dormant

Oystersteel Synonyms
904L, SUS904L, SUS 904L, Uranus Steel, SS2562, UNS N08904, WNR 1.4539, KS STS 317J5L, BS 904S13, WERKSTOFF NR. 1.4539, EN X1NiCrMoCu25-20-5, DIN 1.4539, & DIN 17440.

Code as Therapy
Craig Mod on finding solace & salve in the rudiments of computing.

How Hairsprings Are Made

Naoya Hida Type 3A Moon Phase
Built atop a heavily reworked ETA 7751, with a solid gold moon phase display, cased in 904L stainless steel, Hida has done an admirable job executing on the details in this piece.

What Does It Take to Hear Big Ben Again?
Working from a covert location, Ian G. Westworth is among the 500 workers who have been busy restoring Elizabeth Tower, Big Ben, & its Great Clock, “It’s a real honor. There are very few people who can say they’ve taken the Great Clock of Westminster apart & put it back together again."

Time Limited Batch
To help assuage frustrations of previous iterations selling out in mere minutes, the latest reference from Ming, the 17.09, will be offered in "unlimited" quantity for a brief 10-minute window, with 50% paid down up front & final delivery TBD.

Lego & Rolex
The most trusted brands on the planet & the only two brands that performed strongly with all of the generations surveyed—Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, & the Boomers.

Reinventing the Watch Fair

“In a digital world, you don’t need a fair” – Georges Kern, CEO of Breitling.

While the move to digital has been a boon for some brands, other watch brands are still finding their way.

A Watch So Light It Floats on Water
The avant garde tech & astronomical price tags of Richard Mille timepieces. Ben Clymer writing for GQ.

“There’s No Single Artist, Because the Art Is Not Any One Creature, It Is the Collective Action & Interaction of the Creatures.”
GPT-3 writing in Pharmako-AI.

A Single Gram of Super-LumiNova Can Be Enough to Finish 100 to 500 Watch Dials
A behind-the-scenes look at how the phosphorescent, ceramic-based compound, Super-LumiNova, is made at TRITEC.

If Your Boss Could Do Your Job, You’re More Likely to Be Happy at Work
The research also shows that happier workers are measurably more productive.

Apple Loses Trademark Catchphrase to Swatch
On the heels of losing the iWatch trademark to Swatch & failing to win litigation against their "Tick Different" trademark, Apple has now lost Steve Jobs' classic line, "One more thing..." to the Swiss giant.

40Hz Silicon Oscillator
While I have a deep appreciation for bi-stable mechanisms & admire the pioneering work Flexous has achieved with this new oscillator & escapement for Frederique Constant, I think it's a mistake to show it off through an aperture in the dial.

There is something humane & almost soothing about watching a mechanical timepiece tick away at rate of five to eight times per second. Witnessing the oscillator vibrating a literal order of magnitude more than that every time you look at your wrist is going to feel downright unnerving.

“An Electric Battery Genius”
William Morrison, a Scottish-born watchmaker who pioneered the first electric car in the United States back in 1890.

10 Days
8 Tests
283 Steps
An overview of the METAS certification process that Omega puts its Master Chronometer timepieces through.

Don’t Underestimate the Power of Nostalgia
Vintage quartz watch collecting is, indeed, a thing.

"It’s More Like Forgery Than Creativity"
Graphic designer, Annie Atkins, on designing for the silver screen & the hours of work that may not even get a second of screen time.

No Longer Just a Fad
"[T]he cold, hard truth is that ceramic materials have become permanent fixtures in the horological world." – Nicholas Hegel McClelland writing for Men's Journal.

If the Death Star Were a Tourbillon
An outlandish timepiece, to be sure, & somewhat disconcerting that the bearer of this Dark Side tech will be bestowed with a kyber crystal.

"Had Quartz Watches Not Come About, People Wouldn't Have Appreciated Mechanical Watchmaking."
An interview with Michael Tay, the driving force behind The Persistence of Memory, a superb, online exhibition of artisanal watchmakers that was recently launched by the The Hour Glass.

The Wing
Livestream of the grand opening of Bremont's new facilities in the UK.

Project OM10
Plans for the first caliber from the Open Movement project have been released.

Blued Meteorite Lends a Distinctive Look to De Bethune’s DB28XP

The Persistence of Memory
A splendid, broad-sweeping overview of artisanal watchmaking, from The Hour Glass.

"I Was the Lonely Designer in a Sea of Watchmakers"
Iconic '80s watch designer, Alain Silberstein, in conversation with Jon Bues at HODINKEE.

Young Austen Chu Has Big Plans for the Pre-owned Watch Space
Doubling down on knowledge-based collecting for the streetwear generation.

“The Moment I Sat Down at That Workbench and Picked Up the Screwdriver and Tweezers, I Knew This Was What I Wanted to Do”
While the ranks of watch executives still have a ways to go to close the gender gap, it’s awesome to see the burgeoning enrolment of women in watchmaking schools.

The First to Put an Exhibition Back on a Mechanical Wristwatch
Jon Bues interviews Chronoswiss founder, Gerd-Rüdiger Lang, for HODINKEE.

An Insightful Profile of Watch Journalist, Elizabeth Doerr
From the New York Times.

MicroLean Lab
A factory that can fit in a flat.

HYT Files for Bankruptcy
The microfluidic watchmaker springs a leak. Founder & CEO, Gregory Dourde, to step down. Spin-off company, Preciflex, to subsume after-sales-service & focus business efforts on medical solutions.

"In My Opinion, the Pandemic Has Not Brought About Major Changes in the Way Independents Do Business."
Jared Silver, president of Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry, a major retailer for independent watch brands including HYT, Urwerk, MB&F, & Ressence, on the pandemic & future potential for independent artisans.

Konstantin Chaykin's “Diana” Moonphase Complication in Action

Curtis Australia
Glenn Curtis on the custom watches produced through his family-owned jewellery store in Melbourne.

Telling Time by Ear
An overview of repeating watches that chime the time, by Jordy Bellido for Worldtempus.