Indholdsfortegnelse for August 2023 i REVOLUTION WATCH

What do I think about the metaverse? On some level, I get it. We live in a world where, in general, each successive generation can expect a standard of living worse than what their parents or even their grandparents enjoyed, in particular when it comes to homeownership. Hong Kong is a great example of this. When offered the opportunity to create social housing that would ensure that the majority of its own population would be able to afford their own homes, the tycoons that ran shit there replied, “Hell no!” believing that Hong Kong should be some kind of utopian meritocracy. The result? In two decades, home prices in Hong Kong have increased 350 percent, making the idea of homeownership an impossibility for so many young people, with a significant…

You've probably heard about how Richard Mille created a new tier of über luxury at the turn of the century. Before Richard Mille, just about all expensive watches were fragile and made of metal — quite ironic, if you think about it. And then in 2001, an irreverent Frenchman debuted a watch in Switzerland called the RM 001. It had a minute tourbillon, a retrograde power reserve, a torque indicator and a skeletonized movement. The difference was that the titanium RM 001 was lightweight, resistant to scratches and corrosion, and extremely durable. His asking price for the watch — 135,000 Swiss francs. Titanium is tough, light, anti-allergenic and resistant to damage and oxidation. One of the earliest titanium watches ever made was the Citizen X-8 Chronometer of 1970, but it…

A manufacture that has been making horological history and building high-precision chronometers since 1832, Longines is also the owner of the oldest trademark in modern watchmaking. Today, the expansive heritage of Longines continues to attract new customers. Instead of unveiling its novelties all at once, Longines has decided this year to stagger its releases over the entire year, and steadily pay tribute to icons like the Conquest, DolceVita, Heritage, Master, Spirit Zulu and Ultra-Chron collections. The first of its Spring releases is the Longines Spirit Flyback, which is a hat-tip to the first serially-produced chronograph with a flyback function. For those who are unaware, the flyback chronograph was invented by Longines in 1925. A flyback chronograph is of course one with a chronograph hand that literally “flies back” at the…

The significance of Christie’s watch auction on May 12, titled The Art of F.P. Journe, might be lost on people who are new to watch collecting. But such is the historic importance of the event to me that I wanted to take the time to put my thoughts together leading up to it. Historic it is, because it is the first thematic auction focused on the work of a single living watchmaker. François-Paul Journe is today at the very height of his creative powers, as evinced by the extraordinary FFC (“Francis Ford Coppola”), a mind-blowing wristwatch featuring an anatomically accurate mechanical hand that tells the time powered by a constant force mechanism. Journe’s canon of work is, without a doubt, the single greatest contribution to the story of watchmaking by…

This year, Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak Offshore was launched in ceramic. And when I say ceramic, I mean everything is ceramic. The bezel is ceramic. The case is ceramic. Every single link of the bracelet is ceramic. And damn is it good. Every once in a while, a brand gets it so right that the watch it’s created surpasses even your wildest, most libidinous fantasies. That is precisely the case with Audemars Piguet’s all-new black ceramic Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Chronograph, reference 26238CE. That’s because the geniuses at Le Brassus have applied their game-changing capacity to execute ceramic at a level of finish that is totally unrivaled by any other brand in watchmaking to this now-30-year-old icon. The end result is a timepiece that is so ravishing, that so completely…

The watchmaking industry is on the cusp of a new era, characterized by a fresh generation of watchmakers, designers and entrepreneurs who have grown up in the age of modern technology and matured alongside the soaring popularity of mechanical watches. Despite their youth, these individuals possess a deep understanding of horological history, a sound business acumen, and most strikingly, a remarkable aesthetic sensibility. Collaboration is key among this group, as they freely exchange ideas and knowledge, and support each other’s growth. They see themselves as part of a movement that follows in the footsteps of the first generation of independent watchmakers, who have become the center of the horological universe today, and hold autonomy and independence as sacrosanct. Because of them, the future of watchmaking is certainly something to look…

Cartier is a powerhouse when it comes to watches. With more than a century of experience, the brand has the history, heritage, not to mention the breadth and depth of catalogue that many other brands would envy. But even taking all that into consideration, Cartier’s recent releases have been exceptionally strong, and this year’s Watches & Wonders was no different. Before we explore the wide sweep of Cartier’s 2023 releases, we spoke with Cartier’s Image, Style and Heritage Director Pierre Rainero to find out just how the brand balances this immense legacy while, at the same time, creating some of the most desirable and relevant watches on the market today. “We should underline one important point of view on creation that Cartier has had from the very start. Louis Cartier…

The Swiss watch brand Longines got its start in 1832 when Auguste Agassiz and his partners set up shop in Saint-Imier. A few years later, Agassiz brought his nephew, Ernest Francillon, on board and the young man proved to be an innovator with a firm understanding of finances due to his training as an economist. It was Francillon who embraced mass production with the factory he built in Les Longines, a place that would inspire the long-term brand name. Under his leadership, the company began to produce award-winning in-house movements with a number of complications and a reputation for reliability. The winged hourglass brand found its calling for pilot’s watches in the 1920s and ’30s with collaborations that included the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh and astronavigation expert Philip Van Horn…

The names of some Montblanc timepieces bear the words “Minerva” and “1858”, but not everyone is aware that these are important homages. Brothers Charles and Hyppolite Robert founded “H. & C. Robert” in 1858, which would eventually be renamed “Minerva”, a watch manufacture and revered horological institution that played a pivotal role in the advancement of Swiss watchmaking. By the early 1900s, this manufacture became a respected specialist of reliable wristwatches and chronographs, and would unveil the world’s first manually wound wristwatch with a monopusher chronograph. One of its most important inventions was the caliber 9-CH of 1908, which was the first pocket chronograph that would come to define Minerva’s distinctive identity – a reliable producer of high-precision sports timekeepers. The Minerva Manufacture was also one of the first to…

Patek Philippe’s expertise in watchmaking finds its strength in two cornerstones: the quality of its craft and the exceptional completeness in its execution of complications. Its history is rich with examples of watches that embody the pinnacle of both, such as the monumental Caliber 89, which boasts a transcendentally unique set of 33 complications including a secular calendar and the date of Easter, and in more recent years, the Grandmaster Chime — the most comprehensive chiming wristwatch in the market with 20 complications — available in two new stunning executions this year. Even against the test of time, Patek Philippe’s mastery of chiming, timing and calendar complications remains incontrovertible, but what is truly remarkable is that the same completist approach extends to even smaller complications, as exemplified by the new…

Bhanu is presently Editor-in-Chief of Revolution USA. He has worked as a freelance writer for several online watch publications for a decade and a half, including as senior editor for Watchuseek, and most recently, as a valued contributor to Quill & Pad journal. He turned his passion for vintage and modern pilot watches into a blog that has been well received by collectors all over the world. Cheryl Chia is a watch writer with a deep interest in 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 has spent the last decade writing professionally about watches, yet he still struggles with international time zones. He is a firm believer that less is…

The iconic Blancpain Fifty Fathoms is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, and to mark the occasion, the brand has prepared several special editions. Last month, Blancpain launched the 70th Anniversary Act 1, which is a smaller and more wrist-friendly version of the existing Fifty Fathoms. However, the brand had something even more exciting in store, and now it has arrived in Act 2: the Fifty Fathoms Tech Gombessa. This important all-new dive watch boasts a unique three-hour bezel with a coupled indicator for accurately calculating underwater time, as well as updated designs for the case, dial, and strap. The Tech Gombessa retains the core identity of a classic Fifty Fathoms, but it is entirely new in terms of design, construction, and functionality. A dive watch for the modern era.…

Crafted in a limited edition of just eight pieces — four with traditional indexes and four with Eastern Arabic markers — the grade 5 titanium-cased collaboration between watch design legend Alain Silberstein and Angelus had, in fact, been the subject of the former’s fixation for almost a decade. This year, together with Grail Watch, Silberstein’s dream watch is finally able to see the light of day. He explains, “This is one of the watches I’m most proud of. It represents the third in my partnership with Grail Watch — the first being a Ressence timepiece named Carpe Diem with a memento mori motif, and the second, a trilogy of black ceramic Bell & Ross BR 03 timepieces. The U11 Streamline Tourbillon is perhaps my most daring watch yet, as it…

There is an expression that comes over Laurent Ferrier’s august visage that I love. This happens when he picks up one of his own watches and gazes at it lovingly. It is akin to what I imagine Proust’s face looked like when he tasted the famous madeleine in À La Recherche du Temps Perdu, and a torrent of memories come flooding back into his mind. Similarly, I imagine when Ferrier holds one of his wonderful watch cases in his hands, he senses how the edges feel like a river stone, worn smooth by the passing of water over it; he looks at the perfect, restrained design language, punctuated with just a touch of exhilaration injected by his signature Assegai hands modeled after the spears of an African warrior tribe; and…

We live in an exhilarating time, a pivotal juncture in mechanical watchmaking history where we are witnessing the passing of torches. We owe it to a handful of gifted watchmakers and watch company leaders who democratized and expanded an industry that was once dominated by a few players, into a diverse and teeming global market. A few decades after the Quartz Crisis, Swiss watchmaking was struck by another possible coup de grâce — smartwatches. However, we can credit the unparalleled creativity, innovation and craftsmanship of the industry’s greatest stewards for not only modernizing, but also endowing traditional watchmaking with a breath of fresh relevancy and universal attractiveness. These luminaries made invaluable contributions at the prime of their careers, and inevitably inspired their scions to follow in their footsteps. Victoire Halter…

Chris Alexander, better known as The Dial Artist, has made a name for himself by creating colorful custom works of miniature art on — you guessed it — watch dials. From humble origins in a small Scottish home studio, Alexander has teamed up with Swedish-based IFL Watches to take his custom offerings to the next level. Now he’s found himself in a 500-square-meter complex in Sweden, with an ever-expanding team of staff, and a growing range of customized watches to match. Alexander’s big break came with the phenomenally popular model of G-Shock known colloquially as the ‘CasiOak’, which was a fun and relatively affordable entry point into the world of custom watches. Things, as Ron Burgundy might say, escalated quickly. When you first started, you had an unofficial and somewhat…