Heir to the Father of Danish Watchmaking
Rich Fordon, writing for Hodinkee, takes a look back at the father and son brands, Urban Jürgensen and Jules Jürgensen, and hints at the future with Kari Voutilainen as CEO of Urban Jürgensen.
Interesting to note that Voutilainen assisted in completing Derek Pratt's oval pocket watch for Urban Jürgensen in 2006. Pratt crafted 34 timepieces for the company, all of which were pocket watches, prior to his passing in 2009.
Image credit Phillips Auctioneers, LLC
The Triumph & Torment of Making for the Muse
Stephen McDonnell, the hands and mind behind MB&F's novel Legacy Machine Perpetual and Legacy Machine Sequential EVO chronograph, presented a heartfelt and detailed talk at Dubai Watch Week 2023 about the arduous work that went into bringing each mechanism from concept through to reality.
Image credit Stephen McDonnell
MB&F HM11 Architect
The latest from Max Büsser and his friends brings a hypermodern take on midcentury modern. Miniaturizing George Nelson's ball clock aesthetic, flanked by a thermometer and power reserve indications, along with a novel, transparent crown requiring 8 gaskets to maintain the timepiece's water resistance rating of 20m. To say that the crown is oversized would be an understatement.
Notably, unlike pretty much any other thermometer ever integrated into a watch, the elevated architecture of HM11's case frees the thermometer to read the ambient temperature relatively accurately, essentially uninfluenced by the wearer's body temperature.
While Nelson's name is the one emblazoned on the caseback of each authentic ball clock, no one knows for certain who actually catalyzed the design. In Nelson's own words, recorded by his biographer, Stanley Abercrombie, the design is presumed to have initially been conceived by Isamu Noguchi over drinks with Nelson and Buckminster Fuller one evening in 1947.
Image credit Fabien Nissels
A Deep Dive Into the Omega Seamaster 300
HODINKEE's James Stacey, Rich Fordon, and Danny Milton walk through the history of the Omega Seamaster 300, from inception through to a balance of both its most reverent and its most conspicuous incarnations in the modern era.
It's worth noting that, while Omega's characteristic lyre lugs are most associated with the Omega Speedmaster and the manufacturing date in a number of early lyre lug Speedmaster casebacks date to around the same time as the lyre lugs' debut in the Omega Seamaster 300, commercially speaking, the first Omega to make the complete switch from straight, tapered lugs to lyre lugs was the Seamaster 300.
Image credit HODINKEE
Philippe Delhotal on Durability & Sustainability
In an interview with Amandine, for Watch Passport, creative director of Hermès’ watch division, Philippe Delhotal:
This means that the object is made to last for years, decades, from generation to generation. In the end, the bag or watch you might inherit from your mother or grandmother will last for years. You’ll be able to have it repaired, and you’ll always have it with you. That’s the durability of the object.
The Opulent Optimizations of the Chronomètre Optimum
David Ichim, writing for Watches by SJX, takes a deep look at the remontoire system and novel escapement in F.P. Journe's Chronomètre Optimum.
Distilled from Mr Journe’s vision of a perfect chronometer, the watch certainly is meant to be a purist’s timepiece, albeit not a perfect one. The movement performance is perhaps hampered by its own over-engineering and reveals Mr Journe’s predilection for complexity, particularly in the EBHP [high-performance, bi-axial escapement].
Of note, the dual escape wheels and lever in the Chronomètre Optimum are crafted out of titanium, resulting in a lower moment of inertia and less energy draw from the remontoire system.
One aspect of the article I would push back against, unrelated to the Chronomètre Optimum apart from the fact it stands in contrast to the point, is Ichim's sweeping under the rug of Journe's lack of an overcoil in other timepieces in the brand's offerings.
Irrespective of the size of the balance wheel, a hairspring that does not breathe concentrically will have an adverse effect on isochronism. While it is possible to achieve concentricity in a flat hairspring by varying the spring's geometry, as with the Syloxi hairspring from Rolex or the Spiromax from Patek Philippe (both made from silicon), this is not the case when it comes to Journe's flat, wire hairsprings. Coincidentally, Journe has previously dabbled in the production of flat hairsprings that breathe concentrically in partnership with U.S.-based Firehouse Horology and validated the spring's efficacy in a prototype Chronometre Bleu. Unfortunately, in the wake of the global pandemic, Firehouse Horology has ceased operations.
Image via SJX Watches