It’s often said that painting was never the same after Picasso; the same could be said of the art of watchmaking, and the watch known as the Ulysse Nardin Freak.  The Freak was launched in its first version at the start of the new century, and it was one of the very few watches of […]

It’s being hailed as one of the most complicated watches ever made by the International Watch Company of Schaffhausen.  Best know for its high precision instrument watches and pilot’s watches, IWC has taken the connection with the world of the sky and stars hinted at by the navigation instrument inspired watches in its collection and […]

There’s no company better known than Piaget for making the kind of watch that was once the last word in elegance: thin, gold, and automatic.  Piaget originally made its name and reputation for both ultra luxurious jewelry watches for ladies, and for creating some of the thinnest movements –and thus, thinnest watches –ever made.  Now […]

Vacheron Constantin is famous among horological cognoscenti for being the oldest of the great Swiss watchmaking firms –in continuous operation since 1755, it’s been active in the United States since 1832, and over the years it’s counted among its fans the Wright Brothers (for whom the firm made the watch used to time the first […]

The name Zenith might conjure images of old television sets and radios to a lot of Americans but to watch lovers, it’s a magic word that summons images of one of Switzerland’s most respected manufacturers.  Zenith’s history goes all the way back to its founding in 1865 in the Swiss village of Le Locle, where […]

There’s nobody quite like Maximilian Büsser –or like his company, Maximilian Büsser & Friends, a cooperative of designers, watchmakers, and other assorted talents which he put together in 2005 after leaving his position as head of the fine watchmaking department at Harry Winston.  The goal of MB&F, as fans (and they are legion) like to […]

The watches of Urwerk are a very new twist on a very old idea.  In Urwerk watches, a “time satellite” carrying the hour indication crosses a sector of the dial marked with the minutes; as the satellite carrier reaches the 60 minute mark  a new hour marker appears at 0 and the whole process starts over.  […]

As regular Haute Time readers know, extra thin watches have a big place in our hearts, and in the small world of ultra slim timepieces there are few bigger names than the oldest in the business, Vacheron Constantin.  Extra flat watches have been a speciality of the firm’s for, quite literally, centuries.  At the time […]

Parmigiani Fleurier is on every watch lover’s radar in a big way right now, thanks to an unprecedented exhibition it’s brought to the United States for the first time in history.  The collection is the Maurice Sandoz Collection of clocks, watches, and mechanical automata, which was assembled by the son of the founder of Sandoz […]

Once upon a time, there was a mad scientist named Ludwig Oechslin who was discovered by a mad entrepreneur named Rolf Schnyder. Schnyder and Oeschlin worked together at Schyder’s company, Ulysse Nardin, on some of the world’s most unusual and amazingly different watches, including the Ulysse Nardin Freak (still the benchmark for out-of-the-box design thinking […]

To a watch connoisseur, the name Greubel Forsey (well, names, actually –Stephen Forsey and Robert Greubel, the two founders, met while both were working at Audemars Piguet’s high complications lab, Renaud & Papi) has thus far meant one thing: the fanatically single minded pursuit of one of the most quixotic goals in horology.  That goal […]

The extra flat watch is enjoying something of a comeback this year, driven both by the explosion of a market that prefers thin, classically styled watches –China, we’re looking at you –and by a growing appreciation for watches that embody some of the classical expertise in watchmaking connoisseurs have always craved and that a wider […]

The word “iconic” gets tossed around a lot these days (especially in the watch world) so it’s always great to find a watch that really merits the epithet.  The Royal Oak was, when it was introduced in 1972, a glove thrown down to the entire watch industry: a stainless steel watch, finished as lavishly as […]

It’s the most recognizable of all haute horlogerie complications –the tourbillon (French for “whirlwind,” first invented in 1801 by that most renowned of watchmakers, A. L. Breguet, is immediately identifiable thanks to the rotating cage which its proud creators generally allow the equally proud owner to view through an opening in the dial.  In recent […]

Ladoire’s first watch had the curious title of “Roller Guardian Time,” a unique name that matched the avant garde nature of the watch’s design. Slightly smaller, and with a diverse set of personalities, Ladoire has now released the Black Widow collection to follow up the “RGT.” Using the same type of movement that has undergone a series of […]

The luxury watch industry as we know it hasn’t been around for all that long. It really began when cheaper-to-make quartz watches removed a lot of the relevancy that mechanical watches had up until that point. This caused the mechanical watch industry to partially reinvent itself. Certain high-end timepieces of today hearken back to watches […]