Inside Hogwarts for Horologists
Brian Ng, reporting for The Financial Times, pays a visit to the acclaimed Lycée Edgar Faure school of watchmaking in France and follows up with the graduates who have avoided "being absorbed into the machinery of the Swiss giants."
None expresses the desire to reach the size of FP Journe, let alone Patek Philippe or Rolex: their grand ambition is to make the best watches and clocks they can, from start to finish, under their own name. In so doing, they are preserving the traditional methods of horology in the modern world.
Image credit Beat Schweizer for The Financial Times
Spider-man Royal Oak Concept
The Audemars Piguet x Marvel collaborations continue with the second instalment of Royal Oak Concept piece featuring one of the Marvel Universe's vaunted heroes.
The pseudo-three-dimensional rendition of Spider-man is a level up from the Black Panther, which preceded it, even going so far as to include the underside of Spider-man's foot visible through the rear of the watch. The overall shape of Spider-man is cut from solid white gold on a high-precision CNC machines, followed by laser machining to achieve the characteristic textural dimensionality of the suit, followed up by some hand-engraved flourishes before finally being painted by hand.
Rest assured, the price tag on this piece is nigh on as out of this world as getting bit by a radioactive spider.
Image credit Audemars Piguet
Chameleon Patek
This unusual Patek Philippe novelty, reference 1252, sold for well over 3x its high estimate earlier this week, closing at CHF310,000 (CHF387,500 with premiums). Produced circa 1949, it contains a humble, manually wound caliber and features a bracelet in the shape of a chameleon that sits proud on the wrist. As the auction house, Antiquorum, that sold it put it:
"probably one of the most decorative and unusual lady's Patek Philippe ever created"
Why settle for blending in when you can stand out?
Image credit Antiquorum Genève SA
The Innate Quality of F.P. Journe
25 watchmakers and seven artisans produce around 1,000 mechanical watches each year inside the well-equipped ateliers of F.P. Journe, where each component is designed, hand finished, and adroitly assembled into a ticking work of art.
Ming Liu reporting for the Financial Times:
In an age of slick marketing campaigns and commercial agendas, Journe’s genuine and singular commitment to his craft resonates with collectors, especially the watch purists who have been crucial to the brand’s continued independence.
The World’s Smallest Liquid “Clock”
Made using programmable liquid circuits and 70 microscopic valves.
Photographed using IBM Research’s open-source, LEGO microscope.
NOS Hamilton Khaki
Worn & Wound have unearthed 40 new-old-stock examples of the Hamilton Khaki Field.
Setting the large Khaki logotype emblazoned on the dial aside, I find the form of the hands and overall proportions of the watch to be simultaneously more harmonious and more utilitarian when compared side by side with its modern derivative.
Image credit Worn & Wound
Behind the Scenes at Sellita
Founded in 1950 by Pierre Grandjean and acquired by Miguel García in 2003, Sellita has grown to become the primary alternative to ETA's stable of workhorse movements following Nicholas G. Hayek's proclomation in 2002 that the Swatch Group would begin curtailing the supply of movements from ETA, which powered well over half of timepieces produced by the Swiss watch industry at the time.
In 2022, Sellita produced somewhere in the neighbourhood of 1,500,000 movements, with a staff of just 850 employees.
Image via Monochrome Watches
