"
Je trouverais de la bonté dans le regard d'un huissier que je ne serais pas plus abasourdi."
Frédéric "San Antonio" Dard
Watches Reviews
: Recent Articles
VICENTERRA : Space Pirate
Publié le 30 June 2015
He worked for 3 years to achieve two functional prototypes. But as many great inventions, nobody wanted them (at the time Vincent presented his project, the Hysek Colosso at ½ million was the only one to feature a 3D world map). If one of his clients had opted for this concept, tens of thousands of GMT-3 (whatever the name and the final brand would have been), would have flooded the market, with a panel of journalists enthused by this stroke of creative genius.
If the big machine of watchmaking marketing ignored it, the stroke of genius was...
MB&F HMX : Watchmaking Darwinism
Publié le 22 June 2015
When the conditions are optimum, organisms grow to a titanic extent : several dozen tons dinosaurs used to tread upon the antediluvian swamps and savannas. When conditions deteriorate, the heaviest animals collapse in favour of the most mobile species. Life is natural selection, and most of the time the lightest species are more resistant in times of crisis. After hundreds of millions of years of evolution, a medium-sized species of primate has eventually supplanted the others thanks to its versatility and creativity.
The HMX (pronounce HMIX, not...
Special offers area : Patek Graves Supercomplication 24Millions – 1/6
Publié le 25 May 2015
KABOUM !!! Quake of magnitude 9 on the Flipper scale. Staggering situation to anyone who knows Geneva auctions universe : At Sotheby’s on 11/11/14, Aurel Bacs just won the biggest watchmaking auction of all time for a « confidential buyer » : CHF 24 million (similar in USD) for the Grave Supercomplication. I summarize for those who haven’t stayed […]
Zénith Pilot Type 20 Extra Special Bronze: There’s one following
Publié le 22 May 2015
Before the PAM382, Gerald Genta with the Gefica & Anonimo was the first to have regularly proposed bronze models, which were in fact brand's best sellers.
Moreover, the difficulties encountered by those brands could put in question the relevance of bronze in watchmaking : dirty, heavy, not flashy, stinky (yes, bronze emits a smell), looking like an antique ( which Bronzo has shown to be particularly enhancing in the context of mechanical entertainment watchmaking).
Despite this major success, one of the most emblematic watches of the 2010's, no...
De Bethune DB25 Quetzalcóatl : the mysterious city of gold
Publié le 2 May 2015
I get closer to the cargo bay door, which opens once the security checks have passed ; despite the space suit and the oxygen mask, the frigid air of altitude freezes me.
The ground is so far that it gets theorical, the usual apprehension felt during standard jumps becomes blurred.
I dive and open my parachute a dozen seconds later... as I finally cross the cloud layer, I notice that I approach the coast. The turquoise coloured ocean gives way to a thin golden strip and then to an intense green sea. The flora harmoniously stands in contrast to...
Omega Speedmaster Professional: the Legend 2/4
Publié le 1 April 2015
Its pratically infallible movement and its Plexiglas dome which would survive any fall on the hardest tiles, allow you to wear it while dancing the most acrobatic Rock'n'Roll, during the most violent mosh, the wildest bar fights or the most decadent late evenings, almost without fear of losing the sense of In case of a moon landing on your girlfriend, you're sure you've got the adequate watch....
Reading the inscriptions, stupid drunk girls would think your own watch has been on the moon, you can make anything happen from there... another moon...
Omega Speedmaster Professional: the Legend 1/4
Publié le 31 March 2015
It is hard to make another presentation of a watch as legendary as the Speedmaster. It's been impossible to keep track of all the articles that have been written on the subject. But that doesn't mean that we should stop talking about it...
They therefore needed to formalise a chronograph, after a series of tests quite similar to the practices of the Inquisition.
I have seen with my own eyes one of the capsules in which those madmen did their first space tours, and I can honestly say that engineers had calqued the cabin on the sardin can concept,...
Blue Tudor Pelagos, the ultimate industrial watch ?
Publié le 30 March 2015
Now, in March 2015, it turns out that my article was more than visionnary, it was prophetic (80€ for the clairvoyance session).
Indeed, not only Tudor presents a new declension of Pelagos, but also North Flag, which appears to be the spiritual, even illegitimate Gunter Blumlein's daughter, the former boss of Vendôme and IWC, a long time ago in a period of sobriety and precision.
I gravely ask the question : do the Tudor's staff have to find a Ouija board to communicate with Gunter, like «great Sir of watchmaking, are you there ? »
This new...
Panerai PAM368 Left-wing party
Publié le 28 March 2015
Even if Panerai is rather a right-handed brand, this 368 is indeed a holy grail for the left-handed enthousiasts. It is necessary to place oneself in the Paneristic continuity to understand the leftist's immoderate love for the 368. For a long time, before the SIHH2011, neo-vintage was as rare and precious as honesty in the eye of a senator …
There was just a few ideologically pure 47mm : 021,127, 203, 232, 249, and only one left-handed, the 217. Might as well say that its astronomical price, 15.000€, was considered by the Unitas' detractors to...
Franck Muller WPHH2015 : contercurrent 2/2.
Publié le 21 March 2015
To me, the range of solutions goes to the worst to the least bad. Let's start with the worst:
galvano with aluminium or titanium case, that we can notably see on the Penarai composites. As the time goes on, galvano skips and the case gets very ugly-looking.
Then comes ceramic: many brands use and abuse it, especially Rado and Hublo. It's lovely, it's maintenance free, and provides an either seventies or cyberpunk look. But ceramic is easy to break, that's paradoxically why it is used in composite tank armour: ceramic never breaks in the direction...