Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2022 i REVOLUTION WATCH

Thin, it appears, is very much in, with Richard Mille now entering the arena of the gossamer fine and, in the words of the immortal Monty Python, “wafer-thin” horological super machine. Just a few years ago, it seemed more of a high concept curiosity rather than the ne plus ultra in technical achievement. One thing about Richard Mille is that when the brand enters a category of watchmaking, it instantly makes that horological realm the most au courant and urgently cool in the world. Because, as we can see from the brand’s incendiary success, Richard Mille is not so much tapped into the zeitgeist of contemporary culture as it has become the zeitgeist itself. Proof positive of this is the fact that while the Bvlgari Octo Finissimo Ultra was made…

The race for ultra thin watches has been running pretty hot over the last few years, with near-constant jockeying from fan favorites Bvlgari and Piaget. These two brands seemed very much like the incumbent favorites until today when, out of nowhere, Richard Mille, backed by the power of Ferrari, smashed through the competition with its debut entry, the RM UP-01. With this wafer of a watch, a slice of over-engineered titanium, Richard Mille has become not just a contender in this contest, but the one to beat. First of all, there’s a lot going on here. Let’s break it down into some raw data before we talk about what it means. The RM UP-01 has a total thickness of 1.75mm, and a caliber thickness of 1.18mm. Compare this to the…

In partnership with The Ocean Race, Ulysse Nardin introduces the Diver: The Ocean Race, a new watch primarily composed of recycled fishing nets. The timepiece follows the brand’s efforts regarding sustainable creation. Yet, it goes a step further because of its extensive and innovative material utilization. The focus is no longer confined to reused fishing nets, like their 2020 concept, but extends to various sustainable materials, such as Nylo, Carbonium and 85 percent recycled steel. The new Diver: The Ocean Race found its origins in 2020 when Ulysse Nardin presented the Diver Net. This concept watch represented the brand’s first attempt to be the most sustainable watch in production. Ulysse Nardin created that timepiece to experiment with different types of innovative, sustainable materials. Its case was made out of Nylo…

By virtue of its history, tough engineering and design finesse, IWC is deservedly among the first names that come to mind when considering a pilot’s watch. Short of strapping on an actual cockpit instrument, the aesthetics of an IWC pilot’s watch comes closest to evoking the romance of aviation, refined for the wrist. And for the aviation enthusiast or consumer simply looking for a watch forged in the very demanding life-and-death realm of military aviation, IWC has served up an amazing array of pilot’s watches sporting a most comprehensive range of materials, complications, sizes, etc. For purists, IWC has produced Big Pilot watches descended from the saucer-sized knee clocks of aviation lore. Concessions have been made to present-day practicalities and sensibilities in the smaller case sizes filtering into its collections,…

If you think Montblanc is primarily a luxury pen brand, please allow me to change your mind. Montblanc has been doubling down and unveiling show-stopping watches for over a decade. Some of Montblanc’s most memorable outings include the Nicolas Rieussec Chronograph in 2008, the Metamorphosis II in 2014, the Tourbillon Cylindrique Geosphères in 2015 and the Montblanc Star Legacy Metamorphosis Limited Edition 8 in 2019. I especially enjoyed the TimeWriter Metamorphosis of 2010, a quarter-million-dollar timepiece by inventors Johnny Girardin and Franck Orny that grabbed headlines with its sliding apertures. The warmly received TimeWriter Metamorphosis started a new collection of Montblanc watches, whose apertures open to reveal different dials, plates, finishes and movement components. If you’re wondering how invested this “pen brand” is in avant-garde watchmaking, have a stroll down…

When it comes to reviving a historical icon, you’re often faced with a creative dilemma. Do you enact an unwaveringly faithful homage, as was the case with Omega’s 60th Anniversary Speedmaster based on the original 1957 CK 2915-1? Think also of Audemars Piguet’s [Re]master01 based on the reference 1533, one of only 307 chronographs made in the brand’s history before 1980. Certainly, in a watch world in the throes of a torrid love affair with all things vintage, this has become the norm. Or do you deviate and, in the words of American poet Robert Frost, tread “the road not taken”? The latter involves channeling the spirit of the original timepiece but creating something altogether new. Says Bertrand Savary, a man who wears dual hats as CEO of Arnold &…

Don’t you hate seeing that all-caps “DELAYED” decal blinking beside your flight? Twiddling my thumbs at my departure gate, I observed fellow wayfarers amble in and out of the watch boutique across from me. The intricately finished and painstakingly complicated timepieces of Blancpain’s Villeret collection and those of sister brand Breguet would grab the attention of these window shoppers. To my dismay, most of them would walk right past the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe on display, probably thinking to themselves, “ah, just another dive watch.” How many of these passers-by realize that Blancpain was and is an indispensable pioneer in dive watch technology? Before Blancpain watchmaker Jean-Jacques Fiechter’s fortuitous near-death experience, divers just snapped on tough watches, crossed their fingers and took the plunge. His chance meeting with Captain Robert…

This is the thing about Frédéric Arnault. He makes some pretty damn great watches. But the fact that he doesn’t shout about himself, is actually relatively self-effacing and understated, and prefers to let his actions and products speak for him rather than engage in table-banging histrionics, means it takes a little while for this to sink in. It came to me over the course of my week in Paris earlier this year. Like all watch lovers with a modicum of self-preservation and vague grasp of one’s mortality, I was simultaneously delighted to be decamping to the City of Lights, yet highly apprehensive of being robbed for my watches. The problem in every European capital today is the violent tsunami of watch crimes sweeping across them. Part of this is that…

With the debut of the caliber 9SA5 in 2020, Grand Seiko introduced the most sophisticated mechanical movement it has ever produced and, on paper, one of the best mass-produced automatic movements in the market. Impressively engineered, the caliber 9SA5 accomplished the rare feat of both a high frequency and a long power reserve — conflicting traits that typically vary inversely to one another and don’t normally exist in spades in the same movement. This was achieved with the use of a brand new escapement, simply called the Dual Impulse. While it was initially available in two limited edition models, the caliber 9SA5 eventually made its way into a regular production model — the 2021 Heritage Collection’s SLGH005 — making the Grand Seiko Dual Impulse Escapement only the second non-Swiss-lever escapement…

Karl-Friedrich Scheufele attended the Mille Miglia in 1987 for the first time as a spectator. He left, mind blown at what is — to this day — the most exquisite and legendary race in the world, and he decided that Chopard would take part in the race somehow. At the time, he persuaded his father to invest in a car: a raspberry 300SL Mercedes. “A horrible color… to the point that nobody wanted to get in the car,” his dear friend and co-pilot, racing legend Jacky Ickx still mocks today. The friendship between the two men started in August 1989. Scheufele was attending a race in Germany on the famous tracks of Nürburgring and sat on a bench next to Ickx, whom he didn’t know at the time. The latter…

As a trained mechanical engineer, I love witnessing people invent better, smarter ways of doing things. That is the primary objective of society’s constructs anyway, right? To inch humanity closer toward perfection and gradually solve all of the world’s problems — it’s an aim that stems from the indomitable human spirit. So many aspects of our exhilarating cover watch, the Bvlgari Octo Finissimo Ultra, were rethought and redone. Shortly after we slated this record-breaking world’s thinnest watch for our cover, Richard Mille threw down the gauntlet in the form of a watch that is 0.05mm thinner than the Ultra. I bet Bvlgari is already working on something even more ambitious. Oh, what a time it is to be alive and working in this industry! In this scintillating edition of Revolution,…

OK, this is what you need to understand about Greubel Forsey. In the realm of ultra high-end watchmaking, it is largely unrivaled for three reasons. The first is that technically the watches express an incredible horological authenticity. What do I mean by this? It’s simple. Everything that the geniuses who are Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey have pursued — from inclined escapements and balance wheels to fast rotating tourbillon cages and multiple axis tourbillon cages with inclined balance wheels, to two inclined balance wheels with rates averaged by a differential mechanism, to constant force devices — are for one reason. That is to further the fundamental horological pursuit of accuracy in a wristwatch. This is exactly the same goal as all the greatest watchmakers of the 18th century who plied…

As a follow up to their maiden 2021 Submersible S (which stands for Skeletonised) release that kicked off the partnership between Panerai and high-end automotive and boating aftermarket tuners, Brabus, we are getting the second release of this fantastic collaboration this year. The 2021 model featured a full Carbotech case inspired by the Shadow Black Ops series of boats produced by Brabus. It was also the first time that we were treated to the skeletonized version of the caliber P.4001, the P.4001/S, which is a serious piece of kit. The 2022 Submersible S Brabus Blue Shadow Edition is an evolution of the Black Ops Edition and inspired by a different watercraft from the Shadow series, a luxury day boat with a dark navy hull and blue carbon accents called the…

Every year, there will be “new” watches that are just the same movements in a new case, on a new strap or bracelet, or brandishing a new dial or bezel color. Then there will be new watches that employ existing calibers that have been incorporated with an additional complication. Each year, there will be novelties driven by newly engineered movements too — many of these brand-new calibers are based on the reliable, accurate, tried-and-tested blueprints of predecessors. And then there’s Bvlgari. What if Hercules was commanded to accomplish his 12 labors with one arm tied behind his back? “We want to execute all these difficult tasks, but we’ll set constraints that don’t let us execute them the conventional way, so we’ll have to find a new way of executing each…

I’m just going to come right out and say it. I love Nivada Grenchen. It represents everything the world needs right now. Great designed watches rooted in a truly cool history and with incredibly ethical and accessible pricing. Nivada Grenchen is one of those brands that has flown decidedly under the radar yet has an incredibly rich, authentic and compelling story. It was created by one Jacob Schneider back in 1926 and soon developed a reputation for handsome, accessibly priced, hard-use, extremely reliable, purpose-built, badass timepieces. In 1930, Nivada found its stride when it decided to focus on the creation of automatic watches. This led to the release of its first waterproof automatic watch, the Antarctic, which was used by the U.S. Navy’s Team Deep Freeze I in their expedition…

Just what the hell is going on at Vacheron Constantin?” This is the question I’ve asked myself for the past few successive years every time I attend a COVID-friendly, digitally optimized Watches and Wonders, or witness the launch of their latest timepieces. Because the only way to describe the watches emerging from the world’s oldest continuously operating manufacture is that they are so damnably good. What’s that? You want irrefutable evidence? OK, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I give you the Overseas Perpetual Calendar, an ultra thin masterpiece of design, horological authenticity and a profound demonstration that whoever it is at Vacheron commissioning, designing and producing this absolutely stellar timepiece, understands exactly the type of watch the modern consumer wants to wear. The size of the watch is perfect,…

Today in the attic of his home on the placid shores of the Lac de Joux, Daniel Roth quietly toils away on the crowning cap of a career spanning over five decades long. It is a two-minute rotating tourbillon, a subset of the complication with an unhurried pace, beauty and intricacy that seem felicitous in exemplifying his ethos as an independent watchmaker. Hunched over a workbench with his head buried in the work of his hands, the image is a stock portrayal, something of a cliché but one that took a long trek through trials and triumphs to reach. Now 76 years old, Roth, like many of his peers, started out as an employee of a luxury watch brand before finding his feet as an independent watchmaker. The difference, however,…

Ross Povey The founder of TudorCollector.com, Ross Povey is regarded as the world’s leading expert on vintage Tudor watches. He is currently Editor-in-Chief of Revolution magazine in the UK. He has contributed to influential horological publications including The Telegraph, The Rake, Watchonista and Hodinkee, and is the co-author of the book Daytona Perpetual, a celebration of the automatic Rolex Daytona released through Pucci Papaleo Editore. Ross is also an international speaker and regularly hosts watch events in the UK and Europe. Cheryl Chia Cheryl Chia is a watch writer with a deep interestin independent watchmaking, movement engineering and decoration. Contrary to popular sentiment, she believes that watches can be assessed objectively in terms of complexity, quality and finishing. Felix Scholz Felix Scholz has spent the last decade writing professionally about watches,…

The dawn of the Zenith El Primero in 1969 with its frequency of 5Hz was the first big leap in the quest to measure and mark tinier fractions of a second beyond the standard eighth- or sixth-of-a-second measurement. Over the last two decades, a spectrum of brands from Breguet to TAG Heuer have turned their hand to increasing beat frequencies in chronographs while it remained the stomping ground for Zenith. The most well-known representatives are the El Primero Defy 21, which uses a clutch-less, dual-train construction to reliably achieve a frequency of 50Hz, as well as the more recent El Primero A386 which realizes the full potential of a 5Hz movement by tacking on an additional gear train on the escape wheel to drive a lightning seconds hand that flies…

For many, the year 1969 marks the watershed for electric watches, with the invention of the quartz wristwatch in Japan. In reality, the era of the electric watch dates back a little earlier. The first Bulova Accutron Spaceview debuted in 1960 and it introduced an entirely new form of timekeeping. Rather than rely on a quartz crystal as the regulatory device, the original Accutron used a tuning fork driven by an electromagnetic coil, with every single element of the ingenious mechanism on display. Fast forward to the year 2020 and Accutron has released a brand new Spaceview, now powered by a proprietary caliber, the first-ever electrostatic drive. Energy is generated via two turbines that rapidly turn, thanks to the wearer's kinetic energy. This energy is stored in an accumulator that…

Created in 1992, the Master Control collection takes its aesthetic cues and creation principle from the heyday of recent modern mechanical watchmaking — the 1950s, according to Jaeger-LeCoultre. Accordingly, the Master Control is characterized by practical round-cased timepieces which are elegant in a restrained, unfussy fashion. For the 30th anniversary of the Master Control collection, Jaeger-LeCoultre is marking the occasion with two limited edition stainless steel models, distinguished by their deep blue dials with a sunray finish. In keeping with the design principles underpinning the rest of the collection, the Master Control Date is a study in dial clarity and precise reading of the time. Arabic numerals, date window and dart markers afford a handsome symmetry in displaying date and hours, while the distinct minute divisions supplemented by lumed dots…

The world is clearly in the throes of a tumultuous love affair with all things ’90s, like the Porsche 993 Turbo S and the Ferrari 550 Maranello. It seems like everyone wants to cruise around in one of these wonderfully nostalgic machines, blasting Stone Temple Pilots’ “Interstate Love Song” on their CD player while letting our chin-length hairstyles blow back in the wind. The ’90s has also been recognized as a halcyon era for watches. Sports models such as the Dino Modolo designed Vacheron Constantin Overseas and IWC Porsche Design Titanium Ocean 2000 dive watches were trending in a big way. In the realm of dress watches, some of the most avidly collected timepieces are early Roger Dubuis and Franck Muller Lemania-based chronographs. While the Roger Dubuis Lemania 2310 driven…

In 1949, an avuncular professor with a penchant for batik shirts at Sarah Lawrence College published one of the most seminal and influential books of all time, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. In it, Joseph Campbell explained the existence of a single heroic archetype, a monomyth that stretched across all cultures and transcended the boundaries of time. His book demonstrated that every single hero in human history, literature, mythology and religion all followed the same heroic arc. They are plucked from obscurity, initially resist their calling, are compelled into their journey by a twist of fate, find mentors, struggle, persevere, suffer before ultimately achieving their heroic status and returning reborn to the world to contribute to its benefit. Campbell showed that every one of these heroes from Odysseus to…

In the world of Rolex, it is the outliers that tend to dominate much of the conversation. Books have been written and gallons of digital ink spilled over the minutiae of exotic dials, short production runs and specialized, technical watches built to overcome a particular set of obstacles. While this depth and breadth of knowledge is incredible and does an admirable job of explaining why people love the Crown the way they do, in a very real way, it’s missing the point. For while the professional models and esoteric variations are exciting, the watch that is at the heart of the catalog is the humble Datejust. For decades, this uncomplicated watch has defined the values of Rolex and become an enduring symbol of the Crown — values that are as…