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
Artisans of the Chronomètre Artisans
Unlike at his prior place of employment, MB&F, Simon Brette has not listed the artisans responsible for the realization of his debut timepiece, the Chronomètre Artisans, on his website.
Courtesy of Joshua Munchow, here is a list of the companies and craftspeople bringing Brette's vision to life:
Matthieu Allègre - watch design
Yasmina Anti - hand engraving
Marc Bolis and Alyna Rouelle - micromechanical machining
Barbara Coyon - component decoration and finishing
Pierre-Alain Dornier & Cie - precision machining
Julien Ducommun & Cie - manufacturing, micromechanics and machining
Alexis Greco & Cie - component decoration and finishing
Luc Monnet - watchmaker prototypist
Anton Pettersson - watchmaker prototypist
Image credit Simon Brette
Dovetail
The debut timepiece from Simon Brette features a dovetail, in rose gold, as an homage to his father's craft of carpentry. Although the dovetail itself isn't functional in this particular case, it does have me wondering how viable something like a clevis pin would be to aid in sealing a watch case in a manner similar to the way that boosters for rocket engines are hermetically sealed.
While the Chronomètre Artisans is not physically made by Brette himself, he has clearly made no shortage of use of the machining talent and the craftsmanship of the artisans he's worked with over the years through his efforts behind the scenes at MB&F and Chronode.
By all accounts, the initial run of 12 prototypes of the Chronomètre Artisans will be better made than most mechanical timepieces on the market today.
Image credit Simon Brette
The Joy in Little-known Watch Brands
The sentiments expressed by the Japanese collectors in this article resonate.
Homer Narvaez:
When these watches went way beyond their intrinsic value, that’s when I told myself, things are going crazy, I don’t want to be part of this.
I'm intrigued to learn what Narvaez's own take on an intrinsically worthwhile timepiece will look like, the Narvaez 817 alluded to at the end of the article that he is currently working on in partnership with Kari Voutilainen and Jean-François Mojon.
Danièla Dufour's Simplicity
Started when Philippe Dufour's daughter, Danièla Dufour, began her watchmaking journey as an apprentice, at the age of 15, and completed entirely by her over the ensuing 5 years, Mark Kauzlarich provides a rare look at the first Dufour Simplicity not crafted by the grandmaster himself.
While the finished work is, in and of itself, a laudable and impressive achievement, Danièla remains humble and even-keeled:
I think there's still so much to experience and so much to learn. I will have to continue to be curious because, for me, curiosity is such an important quality in watchmaking. Some day I want to have a watch under my own name, a brand under my own name. But until then, I'll keep working to learn and grow.
Image credit Mark Kauzlarich for Hodinkee
Ctrl Alt Create
At first glance, I didn't think the prototype of the Flux Keyboard was real or that it could actually work. Taking a slightly deeper look, it turns out that the tech stack behind it is disarmingly basic (which is a big plus as far as I'm concerned).
This initial Flux Keyboard is such a brilliant remix of existing, off-the-shelf technologies. Akin to the first iPhone, I imagine that in a few years' time this sort of interface will become more affordable and far more ubiquitous now that someone has shown it can be done.
Image credit Flux Keyboard
Playless Gear Form
A peek at the new playless gear in the Rolex caliber 7140.
Doing away with the inner support structure between the sprung flanges found in the playless gears of the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona and Rolex Yacht-Master II, the gear that drives the subsidiary-second hand in the Rolex 1908 appears to employ a pattern of hollowed-out, sprung teeth with the occasional, interstitial solid tooth in a ratio of 3:1.
Image credit Rolex SA