Two weeks ago The Hour Glass held its annual Tour of Independence event to showcase the fine works of leading independent watchmakers. Roger Smith, Vianney Halter and Kari Voutilainen were present, along with their best works. This report details the Singapore leg of the tour, a dinner at the excellent Garibaldi restaurant along Purvis Street. Click here  to see the event report. - SJX ...

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I had the pleasure to meet Mr Daniel Zimmerman from Moser (Director sales & marketing) a couple of weeks ago in their London dealer's showroom. It was a fantastic opportunity to chat with him, hear a little about Moser and see some wonderful watches. The first thing I noticed was that Daniel was wearing a platinum Henry with a lovely greyish ruthenium dial which he happily took off for me to look at. This watch definately looks much better in the metal than it does in pictures. The display back glass is b...

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What can I say...??? bad sex is better than no sex or??? I wanted so much to LIKE to LOVE to HAVE the de Grisogono Meccanico and the Opus 8. Hey, and for those who know me, I do get enough sex. AND..return sex had now found me to like the Opus 8 a bit better!!! So..what greeted me with de Grisogono Meccanico..huh? It was like all sex...both the act and the finish...literally.. Pictures speak for themselves!!! Am I singling out some wacky watches??? When the world already marks me down as a lover of ...

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Maitre du Temps unveiled the Chapter One grand complication yesterday at Il Lido on Sentosa Island here in Singapore. Present was Roger Dubuis, who along with Peter Speake-Marin and Christophe Claret form the trio of watchmakers that established Maitre du Temps, or "masters of time". All photos courtesy of Rootz Marketing Communications and Maitre du Temps. Click here  to see more. - SJX ...

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Horological weekend at the BHI...   Leaving home     To reach here The headquarters of the British Horological Institute in Upton,  England.   The British Horological Institute was founded in 1858 as the result of the spirit of forward looking men in a time of crisis for the British horological trade.  While the British tradesman was convinced of the superiority of his traditionally handcrafted clocks and watches, foreign competition...

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Click here  to see more. - SJX ...

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A so-called mysterious tourbillon at the left turns and regulates this clock without apparent connection.             ...

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The AHCI has among its members many interesting clockmakers. I am starting here with Matthias & Sebastian Naeschke a father and son team. I am sorry about the quality of these photos, clocks with their large size are even harder to photograph than watches under poor lighting. I hope you will enjoy these clocks anyway.   Note the diamond studded escape wheel !       A Naeschke specialty, musical clocks and automaton.  This bird swaying in its cage s...

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Watches from Aniceto Jimenez Pita   Diving watch Oceana tested to 5000 meters.  The crystal is 8mm thick.Pita's special feature is his time setting mechanism that allows him to do away with the normal watch crown.                   ...

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As for many other independents 2007 has been a year of consolidation for Thomas Prescher.Doubling the size of his shop, expanding capacity to be able do a larger portion of the work in-house to deliver more quickly.Three axis tourbillon with a new dial. two axis and single axis tourbillons Several Sculptura Una     Tempusvivendi Dragons ...

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Stephen Forsey wearing 2 prototype watches Double Tourbillon 30°, RG with WG dial       The secret version for those that don't want to show off     24 Second inclined prototype worn by Mr. Forsey   24 Second inclined in RG         Invention piece 1   ...

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Urwerk is showing their watches outside the fairs in a suite at the Hotel Les Bergues. This is what I saw: The new 202 with automatic winding, Steel case coated with AlTiN. The AlTiN coating is used on machine tools to give them exceptional hardness and longivity.  Next to the watch you can see such a milling bit with AlTiN coating. The automatic winding mechanism being between the movement and the case back doesn't allow including a control panel in this model, but it does have an ...

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This year Vianney Halter celebrates his 10th year selling watches under his own name.  He has no new model on display this year, but is showing the prototype, or very early production watches of most of his models from the last 10 years.  As prototypes or worn watches these displayed watches don't have the finish of an factory new watch any more, but they are witnesses of 10 years of his work. It was in 1998 that Vianney first showed that enigmatic watch called the Antiqua, a perpe...

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Max is resolutely refusing to introduce new models in the middle of the noise of the Basel and Geneva events. But showing the evolution of his work at this time is part of the game. HM1 Titanium & Rose Gold Note the new dial allowing deeper looks at the movement on the titanium.  The new titanium model is also surprisingly light and with the new wider strap more comfortable and under control on the wrist.  You can see the difference in these pictures     HM1 Whi...

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Nestled in a lakeside village Peter Speake-Marins workshop is not far from Geneva. After seeing Peter this morning as part of the team at Maîtres du Temps I stopped by his shop on the way home and got a guided tour from his charming wife Daniela, who is the commercial director of their company. Interesting pieces in the workshop.  A tourbillon waiting for final finishing     Daniela got out many of their treasures to show me. "The Roaring Tiger" look...

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The new brand Maîtres du Temps has been initiated by Mr. Steven Holtzmann, its first watch is the Chapter One, a creation with the collaboration of Mr. Roger Dubuis, Mr. Peter Speake-Marin and Mr. Christophe Claret. The Chapter One is a manual wind one-minute tourbillon with mono-pusher chronograph with retrograde date, retrograde GMT, with day of week and moon phase indicated on rollers.   The idea of Maîtres du Temps is to bring together outstanding watchmakers to ...

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Rainer Nienaber has a passion for dials and alternative time indications.  His retrogrades go from a retrograde minute regulator to a retrograde hour with central minutes and small seconds to the Tri-Retrograde with retrograde hours, minutes and seconds.       New this year is his mechanical alarm watch offered with two different dials.     Rainer Nienaber welcomes ...

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This year Stepan Sarpaneva is showcasing his new Korona line. These watches are distinguished by their intricate and engrossing dials.  Here with a date and closed dial. Here with date and an open face to see the movement decoration behind. The case of this model is black diamond coated. Finally the moon phase version.   These are all automatic watches and the Korona theme contin...

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Nicholas Delaloye's mainstay is the "Garde-Temps" mens watch based on his own ND01 caliber, 3 hands small seconds.  The dials are mother-of-pearl and guilloché or in plated German silver.       Nicholas' first complication built on the ND01 caliber is the perpetual calendar.     Customization possibilities include the dial materials and also the movement decoration, here dragon engraving.   Nicholas also work...

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Marc Brogsitter's impressive watches use unique movements built using the design ideas of the observatory watches from the 50's and 60's of the last century.  Marc Brogsitter's movements have tremendous balance wheels of 17.08mm diameter.  Turning at the leisurely tempo of 18000 beats/hour they are a real joy to watch. Brogsitter has designed 2 movements, a tourbillon movement and a constant force escapement movement, both using this very large balance wheel. The extravagant cases ...

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This year Svend Andersen is placing in prominent place the customization of his watches made possible by his work together with a French miniature painter. Two examples can be seen here: The Montre à Tact with a painting of Poker Players. This watch with a painted miniature ring advances the ring one complete turn per year.  In this case the scenes on the ring depict the different work in vineyards as the seasons advance and recommence in the next year.  Of course the ...

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Kari's newest, the Chronometer 27 Regulator charmed everyone who saw it.  What a neat idea to raise the minute portion of the dial to have 3 really separate dial rings !           Somehow this blue dial Observatory seemed to be orphaned in the display.  But it is no less spectacular.   ...

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Marco Lang is holding up the long tradition of fine watchmaking in Dresden, a tradition that has been overshadowed by that of Glasshütte in the past.  It was watchmakers from Dresden that went to Glasshütte to bring new industry to the region.  Then it was the civil industry that grew there eclipsing the tradition of precision timekeepers made mostly for the aristocratic court in Dresden. Marco Lang's brand is Lang & Heyne, he founded the brand together with Mirko Heyne i...

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Aaron Becsei – Primus At Baselworld 2008 Aaron Becsei is presenting his first wristwatch and starting out right, with a simple 3-axis tourbillon.  Becsei is the third generation of a Budapest watchmaking family. The Primus 3-axis tourbillon is unique in that it uses no ball bearings, but shafts in jewels as in traditional watchmaking.  The inner cage makes a revolution in 30 seconds, the middle cage a revolution in 2.5 minutes and the outer cage in 12.5 minute...

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Andreas Strehler's Papillon is the closest to completely sacrificing timepiece functionality for the sake of mobile art I saw at this fair.  Even after I put my glasses on it still took me a while to read the time.On the other hand it is possible to use it to read the time, once you know were to look, and it is really beautiful, IMHO.  The pictures just don't do it justice. A hint, hours are read at the top and minutes at the bottom of the face.Note that the going train has no 3rd ...

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