Jon – Freesprung

Casting Aluminum From a 3D Print

FullControl GCode
A math-oriented design tool for creating 3D-printed objects that leverage the strength of filament.

Low-budget Fly-through Rig
A clever camera rig for fly-through & fly-over shots, developed by Luke Edwin, using a telescoping rod, some string, a drill, wing nut, and a hex key.

Diamond Plate Progression
Some counterintuitive findings from The Science of Sharp, analyzing the cutting surface of straight-edge razors honed on varying grits of DMT diamond plates. "Often, results that contradict our intuitive expectations are a key to identifying and improving our deficient understanding."

I use DMT diamond plates to hone the gravers I use with my watchmaking lathe. Anecdotally, I find that finishing to a mirror polish using the extra-extra-fine diamond plate yields an appreciably better finish when turning down a pivot or an arbor. I'd love to see a similar set of SEM images run on a watchmaker's graver, which would be less prone to the plastic deformation conjectured through these results.

Orbital O2
Currently, the most powerful tidal turbine in the world. Based just off the coast of Orkney, Scotland.

ArtyA Purity Tourbillon
The movement architecture of ArtyA's latest tourbillon is aesthetically well-balanced. With respect to the balance itself, I applaud the use of a free-sprung balance wheel—any tourbillon without a free-sprung balance, isn't taking itself seriously. I do have some concern about the one-to-one ratio of the gear train delivering power to the tourbillon itself, though.

Rolex USA Provides Official Comment on Yahoo! News Story Regarding Supply
It's worth noting that this comment is from Rolex Watch USA Inc. & not from Rolex SA. While a good degree of care clearly went into this response & the reasons provided are both sound & in line with the brand's values, the official comment itself lands a stride short of the excellence that Rolex SA is renowned for.

BECS Sàrl
Creators of tooling & case components for the horological industry. Their lapping equipment, previously operated under CNJ Duret, is particularly exceptional.

PX Group
Creators of high-precision tools & supplies for the watch industry, including extrusions for mass production of watch cases.

"An Encyclopaedia of Exemplary Finishing"
An in-depth look at Derek Pratt's Oval Pocket Watch, written by Dr. Helmut Crott & beautifully photographed by Jess Hoffman. Pratt's work here is masterful, in every degree. The layout & execution of the movement is simply sublime.

The Pen-Y-Gwryd
The British mountaineering hotel, nestled in the Welsh countryside, where Sir Edmund Hillary stayed while training in Snowdonia for the first-ever successful summit of Everest.

Letters to Rolex
Every timepiece has a story to tell.

Kudos to the Type Designer Behind the Apple Watch Series 7 Edge-hugging Indices

The Lionel Messi of Fine Watchmaking
"It's difficult to explain, but since that day I have never felt like I’ve been working." – Kari Voutilainen reflecting on his first encounter with the craft of watchmaking.

Inside the Workshops of Kari Voutilainen
With thoughts from Voutilainen on the transmission of skill & the future of mechanical watchmaking. A two minute video from SwissInfo.

Voutilainen & Cattin SA
The case-making manufacture, that crafts watch cases for Kari Voutilainen et al. Fun fact, its co-founder, Philippe Cattin, is the son of Henri Cattin, who runs the renowned Watch Case Museum in Le Noirmont.

Progenitor of the Decimal Repeater
GaryG takes an in-depth look at Kari Voutilainen's Masterpiece 8. Being a musician, Gary’s preference for the tonal interval in a minute repeater being a full third is interesting to note.

Hour Striking Module
The implementation of the hour-striking mechanism on the Meistersinger Bell Hora is clever.

Phillips to Auction a Full Set of Philippe Dufour Timepieces

Cartier Clash [Un]limited Glove Watch
While not impressive horologically, as it's running a small, quartz watch movement under the hood, the amount of craftsmanship that went into imbuing solid, rose gold with fabric-like properties in this pièce unique, cuff-style watch is remarkable.

Inside the Workshop of the Young & Talented Watchmaker, Remy Cools

Rolex Trialing a White-glove Delivery Service in Scotland

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

Swivelling Pocket Watch Pendant
Designed & crafted by Dr. Rebecca Struthers.

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

A Clinic on Your Wrist
Apple supplier, Rockley Photonics, announces clinic-on-chip technology that includes non-invasive blood glucose monitoring.

The inclusion of the Marc Newson strap design in the press release—a hallmark of the Apple Watch since its unveiling—is a clear nod at whose "scalable, high-volume product delivery" pipeline their infrared spectrophotometer tech is headed for.

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.

Breguet Tourbillon Model
On display at the brand's pop-up, hosted at the K11 Musea in Hong Kong.

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.

The House That Time Forgot
Inside an abandoned clockmaker's house in New Jersey.

“I’ve Discovered That You Work Metal Like Wood, Metal Is Fibres.” – Denis Flageollet

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.

Montblanc Hamburg Boutique
Inside Montblanc's flagship boutique in Hamburg, designed by Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance.

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.

Under the Dial of a Christiaan Van Der Klaauw Planetarium

“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.

Tudor Black Bay Ceramic
With its black movement & METAS certification, Tudor has its sights set squarely on Omega.

Ming Honey
Unquestionably Ming, with a distinctly William Massena vibe.

Little Island
A charming new park, rising up out of New York’s Hudson River.

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.

Tissot Ceramic
Leveraging tech from big brother, Omega, & sister brand, Rado, it's nice to see Tissot rolling out more & more ceramic bezels throughout its line-up.

Coupled with their new free-sprung balance & silicon hairspring, Tissot is serving up incredible value in the sub-$1000 mechanical watch category.

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.

Time Traveller
An '80s-era digital LCD wristwatch pops up on the wrist of an extra in Edward Zwinck's 1989 film, Glory, set during the U.S. Civil War, starring Denzel Washington & Matthew Broderick.

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.

JLC Offering Hands-on Workshops at Their Atelier D’Antoine in Switzerland
Jaeger-LeCoultre's movement holder (designed to accommodate a chiming movements) in the press shots for the Sound Maker class looks solid.

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.

GRID Watch 1
The original Apple Watch. Deconstructed & shadow-boxed.

“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.

This Clock Is Bananas
Rich Loen has indisputably succeeded in making 11:11 even more a-peeling than 10:10.

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

A Modernized Palace of Horological Appreciation
Bovet through the eyes of Bovet. A visit to the brand's state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in the recently restored Château de Môtiers.

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

Time for the Future
An antique clock, ticking away fastidiously in a lab at IBM's Advanced Functional Materials Group in Zurich, Switzerland ca. 1997. Captured & detailed by Doug Menuez, in his book Fearless Genius.

Naoya Hida Caliber 3019SS
One would be hard-pressed to discern quickly that this caliber is built off of the rock-steady, tried-and-true ETA caliber 7750.

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.

Making the 3D, Marble Moon Phase Display for Arnold & Son's Luna Magna

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 Nivarox Branded Observatory Competition Peseux 260 From the 1950s
Today Nivarox operates largely behind the scenes, supplying the beating heart inside the vast majority of spring-powered Swiss timepieces, from Swatch to Patek Philippe. The low escape wheel in this caliber allowed for a larger balance wheel & thus better rate stability. Kari Voutilainen later employed the Peseux 260 in his series of Observatoire timepieces, which were awarded certificates of chronometry from Besançon Observatory.

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.

Citizen Calibre 0200
Free-sprung balance wheel, LIGA escapement, locking stud, & a high level of finish. Crafted in partnership with Citizen-owned, Swiss-based subsidiary, La Joux-Perret, Citizen has done an applaudable job developing their first in-house, high-end caliber.

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.

A Movie Prop Crafted by Breguet
This period-correct pocket watch made by Breguet specifically for the film Master & Commander, starring Russell Crowe, took months to fabricate & was visible for only a handful of frames. The hourglass on the ship's deck captured more screen time.

"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.

Going Back in Time