Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2019 i CROWN

You know what people say about history being written every day? Longines just did so, with the production of its 50 millionth watch. It certainly took a while to get there (the brand was founded in 1832), and historians and archivists were put to work tracking the mountains of workshop books, microfiches and digital databases, but it is finally here and totally legit – the milestone timepiece that put another marker on Longines’ long and illustrious journey. And of course, it has to be something special, Longines’ 50 millionth watch. The landmark model is suitably regal, emanating classiness appropriate for its stature. Hailing from the Master collection, the dress watch is encased in rose gold and rocks a silver-finished ‘barleycorn’ dial with blued steel hands and day/date annual calendar display.…

Here’s something to ponder: is it possible to love something without having experienced it? Could you, for instance, long for a bucolic existence in the Swiss countryside despite having lived in a tropical metropolis all your life? Or, for the benefit of staying on-theme with this story, learn to treasure the wonders of the ocean having never donned a wetsuit? Well, of course you can. That’s what watches are made for. The best kind of watches do not merely serve as accessories or hints to one’s wealth and status. The good ones – no, the really great ones – evoke something beyond one’s immediate existence to take him to another place and dimension. Or as the late-CEO of the Swatch Group, Nicolas Hayek Sr., famously said: “We are not selling…

From rappers flexing their Rollies to cab drivers dreaming of owning a Datejust, it’s fair to say that Rolex enjoys one of the strongest brand equities among luxury watchmakers. Remarkably, Rolex achieves this without having to frequently jump through horological hoops or perform stupendous feats of micro-engineering. Much of this may be credited to André J Heiniger, the company’s director from 1962 to 1992, who successfully made Rolex synonymous with affluence during his tenure and quipped that “Rolex is not in the watch business. We are a luxury business”. While its peers are clamouring over each other to woo watch lovers with mindboggling complications and new-fangled calibres year after year, Rolex stands out by standing relatively still. Case in point, its last all-new collection, also its most complicated model currently,…

Not such a long time ago in a galaxy not too far away, Montblanc was a name synonymous with the finest writing instruments and, later on, complementary leather accessories. Although the company has roots from 1906, it wasn’t till 1997 that it delved into the world of fine watchmaking. While it remains a leader in the field of writing instruments today, Montblanc’s evolution in watchmaking has certainly been on a upward trajectory, especially with its 2007 acquisition of the renowned Minerva manufacture in Villeret. In fact, managing director of Montblanc’s watch division, Davide Cerrato is keen to stress that both entities are now one and the same. “It’s Minblanc or Monerva,” he jokes. “The new Montblanc is just the new expression of the old Minerva, and vice versa.” Same Old…

Spend enough time with timepieces and it’s easy to forget that at its most basic, the objective of a watch is to have it adorn the wrist to tell the time, as comfortably as possible. A watch is therefore never just about the case, dial or movement powering it, as much as those features often take the spotlight. It’s also the curvature of the lugs, the way the bracelet or strap wears, and even the clasp that brings everything all together. Incidentally, the use of steel bracelets on timepieces has not always been widespread. Leather straps were the standard accompaniment after the era of pocket watches, and while gold bracelets were present on a number of pricier timepieces in the 1920s, it wasn’t until the sports luxe trend in the…

Ryusuke Moriai didn’t know it, but he has done far more to contribute to Singapore’s military forces than he could have ever imagined. The first watch Moriai designed for the Japanese company, the F-91W, a fuss-free, multifunction digital watch that costs less than S$20, was so widely used by Singapore men undergoing National Service, including yours truly, it really should have been a standard issue item alongside the uniform, boots and backpack. “Oh really?” he asks, genuinely surprised. “That’s really nice to know!” What is even more astounding is that the F-91W, which was introduced in the early 1990s, is still being sold today, a fact that Moriai is evidently proud of. Now, that’s saying something about enduring design. Today, Moriai is the chief designer for Casio G-Shock. Having joined…

As delectable as ironies go, the mystery of A. Lange & Söhne’s ‘Lumen’ watches lies in the tantalising unravelling of both the seen and unseen. Although lavish luminosity is the main draw, just as vital to the watches’ enigmatic aesthetic are their translucent sapphire crystal dials. The tinted dials not only lend an air of mystique, a special coating does the invisible work of blocking out all visible light, except for the UV spectrum needed to charge the luminescent pigments. To date, there are only four Lange ‘Lumen’ watches – the Datograph Up/Down ‘Lumen’ (pictured), Zeitwerk ‘Luminous’, Grand Lange 1 ‘Lumen’, and Grand Lange 1 Moonphase ‘Lumen’.…

The first question we were asked upon return from the annual Geneva watch fair was this: were there as many visitors this year? Perhaps spooked by the departure of main exhibitor Swatch Group at rival fair, Baselworld (which saw a ripple effect when a few other brands subsequently pulled out as well), industry players were understandably nervous. Adding to the melee was the declaration from both Audemars Piguet and Richard Mille that this would be their last outing at SIHH. But the worry seem unfounded. This year, SIHH racked up an attendance of over 23,000 visitors, up 15 per cent from 2018, despite the fair being shorter by a day. There were also new concepts like an auditorium with “live” talks that were streamed online, as well as an area…

How long do you reckon it takes for a business to be a nation-wide success? A decade? Maybe two? How about 46 long years, as with the case of Omega? Way before the raging popularity of the Speedmaster watches and the James Bond limited editions, and the record-breaking feats of the Master Chronometer movements, there was the 19-ligne pocket watch movement. Like what the iPhone is to Apple and the ‘Swoosh’ logo is to Nike, the 19-ligne movement represented Omega’s big bang movement, and remains today a cornerstone of its global success. For more than four decades, Omega didn’t even have its now-world-famous name. It was called La Generale Watch Co., a brickand-mortar setup run by the family patriarch, Louis Brandt, and his sons, Louis-Paul and César. As it was…

In an increasingly distressed world, where oceans are choked with plastic, greenhouse gases are having a rave in our atmosphere, and Mother Nature’s on the brink of giving up and letting us fend for ourselves in an impending pit of hell fire, it’s no wonder people are becoming increasingly drawn to environmentally conscious products. But Citizen has always realised that. Knowing that the advent of quartz watches would bring scores of battery-related issues that would harm the environment, the Japanese watch titan turned its R&D efforts to light-driven technology. This pioneering initiative bore its first fruit in 1976 with Crystron Solar Cell, the world’s first solar-powered analog quartz watch. But like many of the early solar-powered watches, it wasn’t something many would call elegant, thanks to four visibly distracting solar…

For years Breitling has built its identity on a foundation of ultra-brawny toughness, particularly with its aviation-inspired watches. That hasn’t necessarily changed even with Georges Kern as its new leader, but the CEO doesn’t intend to let the brand cruise by on the might of the Navitimer collection. So at the inaugural Breitling Summit held in London in October 2018, Kern revealed the new Premier line of watches which, according to him, is “the first modern Breitling collection dedicated to everyday elegance.” What this means is that the Premier watches, which will be the new face of the ‘Land’ segment of Breitling’s four pillars (with the ‘Air’, ‘Sea’ and ‘Professional’ categories represented by the Navitimer, Superocean and high-tech tool watches, respectively), have a more pared down, style-focused aesthetic that should…

One of the biggest misconceptions about magnetism and watches is that it doesn’t matter that much. Well, here’s news: it is everywhere. We are surrounded by magnets in our everyday life, from the laptops and mobile phones we use, to the entertainment systems in our homes. And guess what? Even the tiny motor in a watch winder – ironically, for those who are fussy about maintaining your timepieces – are driven by magnets that would affect the watches’ performance. If you recall the science experiment in school where we were taught to ‘transform’ nails into temporary magnets by putting them close to a permanent magnet – well, that’s the gist of how watch components can get magnetised. Watch parts made of ferrous materials, from the case to the hairspring in…

Introduced in 2016, the Glashütte Original Calibre 36 is billed as a launchpad for the brand’s modern-day mechanical endeavours. The Glashütte ribbing, blued screws, double-G logo on the rotor, and all manner of refined finishing provide a sheen to what is essentially a utilitarian powerhouse. The automatic movement features a re-engineered energy transmission system with re-designed barrel arbor that offers 100 hours of power reserve from a single barrel. Additionally, it is tested in six positions (as opposed to five for COSC-certification), and its precision ratings, which is available for owners to see, purportedly trumps that of COSC’s standards. The Calibre 36 started life as a ‘simple’ three-hand watch, and it has since accommodated additional features with iterations that include big date display, as well as perpetual calendars. It can…

So, you love watches enough to know that you can never, ever be truly satisfied with what’s available out there. In fact, your desire to imbue your own personality and horological philosophy in the watches you wear is so overwhelming that this obsession can only lead to one inevitable conclusion: you make your own. But is it possible? The short answer is ‘yes’. The assumption is that one could walk into a trade fair, pick from a buffet line of components and suppliers, have them transformed into the watches of your dreams, sell the products, and wait for the profits roll in. You could do that, of course. In theory. Reality, though, is a much more unforgiving place. Anyone with deep enough pockets and a wide enough network of watch…

What do watch lovers look at when they assess a timepiece? How do they know where to start? To be fair, there are just so many ways to appreciate a watch, it is impossible to be exhaustive in the span of a few pages. It is partly because wristwatches are, dare we say it, like potatoes: there are so many ways to eat them and they are all good. More importantly, it is because each person appreciating the watch is unique, with his own likes and peeves. But we’ll try to offer some thoughts, if only as a friendly shove towards a life-long relationship with one of mankind’s greatest inventions. The Small Picture The best place to begin, we suppose, is right from the beginning. Forget for a moment, the…

As a child, bedtime would often be marked by my dad singing me to sleep, not with traditional lullabies or nursery tunes, but with his favourite songs. That meant hits from the 1960s, with many Roy Orbison and Jim Reeves numbers. One of the most memorable songs dad liked to croon was the Tom Jones composition, Try To Remember. Originally sung by Broadway star, Jerry Orbach, Try To Remember reminisces sweet memories of a past where everything was beautiful and perfect. And that’s pretty much what Franck Muller’s Remember watch aims to do: cast our eyes to the past and remind us to, well, remember. In fact, the brand challenges the very notion of the term, ‘clockwise’, with the Remember dial numbers running counter to the culturally-accepted norm. Poetic Licence…

The past year has been all about the Santos de Cartier collection, and rightly so. After all, the Santos was Cartier’s bestselling men’s watch in 2018, following the line’s reintroduction since its abrupt discontinuation in 2016. At this year’s Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) in Geneva, Cartier further bumped up the collection with a new Santos-Dumont line, a luminous skeleton version and a chronograph. With its roots in aviation, it’s not hard to see why a chronograph would resonate so well within the Santos family. Its inspiration, Brazilian inventor and aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont, was known for his record-setting flights, and what better than a chronograph to measure such feats? Although it’s not the first time the Santos has been outfitted with a chronograph module, this year’s edition is…

My interest in timepieces started more than 10 years ago. It was an obsession that slowly crept up on me, and the more I learned about horology through research, participation in forums, and discussions with fellow collectors, the more I developed a personal preference for a particular category of timepieces – tool watches. More specifically, I found that I have a special weakness for dive watches. Besides serving really well as daily wear, dive watches are known for their practical and functional features. The unidirectional bezel is great for measuring countdown timings, and I can wear a dive watch for a swim without having to worry about it being damaged. Through the years, I have managed to build a small collection that includes the Seiko SKX007, Sinn U1 and Panerai…