Rolex Takes the Plunge With Titanium
Rolex releases its first-ever timepiece with a case and bracelet crafted from titanium.
While still sizeable by any measure, the use of a lighter metal significantly improves the potential wearability of this descendent of the trio of experimental Deepsea Challenge timepieces that accompanied James Cameron to the bottom of the Mariana Trench a decade ago, which each weighed 30% more and were over an inch thick.
Image credit Rolex SA
The Rise of Million Dollar Indie Watches
Anthony Traina writing for Hodinkee:
"Gimmicks rarely translate to millions of dollars, while real history can."
The level of excellence and craftsmanship evident in a number of watches crafted by independent watchmakers has cemented them as solid contenders amidst a select group of other seven-figure timepieces.
Massena × Pagès
A collaboration between independent watchmaker, Raúl Pagès, and watch-industry veteran, William Massena, the Magraph boasts a case and dial design from Massena coupled with a rearchitected movement design by Pagès.
The M660 caliber that powers the Magraph is based on a stripped-down Valjoux 7750, with custom bridgework that is crafted and finished by a network of 3rd parties in the Vallée de Joux.
In both name and aesthetics, the Magraph is derived from a timepiece created by Patek Philippe for the German retailer, Margraf, during the Great Depression.
As a whole, the Magraph serves up a pragmatic blend of boutique watchmaking and mass manufacturing. A number of corners were clearly cut to hit its price point, and it's worth noting that Pagès served more as consultant than hands-on watchmaker for this project, but Massena Lab has provided an ample number of macro photos on the product page so that anyone who has put a deposit down on one knows exactly what they're getting.
Image credit Massena Lab
Liquid Clock
An open-source, ferrofluid-based display created by students at the University of Oslo.
I applaud the students' persistence in striving to achieve a long-lasting ferrofluid display. Having had the opportunity to work with ferrofluid in glass on several occasions, I'm well aware of just how much of a challenge this poses.
Image credit Applied Procrastination
A Breguet Fit for a Duke
Owned by Charles Félix, the Duke of Choiseul-Praslin, in France, this double-sided pocket watch crafted by Breguet features a retrograde perpetual calendar, equation of time, and moonphase display.
A patron and benefactor of Abraham-Louis Breguet, Charles Félix financed the watchmaker's work on multiple occasions. He acquired this particular timepiece in 1805. It now resides in the collection of the Musée des Arts et Métiers, in Paris.
Image credit Sylvain Pelly for the Musée des Arts et Métiers
SuSoS AG
This tiny, privately held, Swiss company supplies Rolex with its proprietary, non-toxic, epilame surface treatment.
SuSoS's PAcrAm technology provides a convenient and highly tuneable, dip & rinse solution to finely control surface energy using monomolecular thin-films. For the purposes of mechanical timekeeping, that surface energy is tuned to keep lubricant precisely where it is supposed to be.
Based in Zurich, the firm was initially spun up as SurfaceSolutionS GmbH in 2004 (not to be confused with the Austrian firm Surface Solutions GmbH founded in 2020) and later shortened to SuSoS circa 2007. It is ostensibly associated with Rolex SA's tribological research and development division, as the company's directors, Samuele Tosatti and Stefan Zürcher, are the only names on the 2006 patent (EP1927648A1) assigned to Rolex for said surface treatment, which also happens to make extensive use of the term SuSoS to refer to the various epilame formulations that it details. This patent was later withdrawn and superseded by another, assigned to both SuSoS AG and Rolex SA, in 2011.
In their own words, SuSoS focuses on the 50 nanometers that make the difference.
Molecular diagram of SuSoS2 from US Patent 8951630B2
