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Maze Blue

There are a lot of fantastic British combinations out there. Bangers and mash, baked beans and cheese, Farer and GMT complications. Considering that the brand is literally named after the word for traveller, it should be no surprise that the archetypal travel watch function is the brand’s signature. Now they’re releasing a new GMT Bezel collection, reintroducing the series after a two-year hiatus with brand new designs. They’re the Maze III, Crooms III, Maze Blue and Charlton Green.

As is always the case with Farer watches, each of the four pieces in the collection have wildly different details but the same base design. But here they’re actually split further than that as there’s two 40mm versions and two 38mm versions, providing even more variety and choice than normal. The larger models are the third-generation models, so the Maze and Crooms, while the 38mm are the fresh-faced new designs in the Maze Blue and Charlton Green.

Charlton Green

Despite the difference in size, the designs of the Farer GMT Bezel case are broadly the same with classy round shapes, boxed sapphire crystals and sapphire insert bezels. The bezels have a bi-directional rotation allowing you to quickly adjust the time zone you are tracking. The primary update to the collection compared to previous iterations is the new lugs. They are now what are described as ‘ski-slope’ lugs, which means they have a concave curve to them that flicks up slightly at the bottom.

Right, now to break down the four different versions, starting with Maze III. This is one of the classic Farer designs at this point, hence it receiving a third generation. It has a white pearlescent dial with a grid pattern that makes the piece look like maths paper, charting a graph of your travels. The hour markers are dive watch style with applied circles, rectangles and Farer’s arrow at 12 o’clock. It works well because with 200m water resistance, taking your Farer GMT Bezel for a swim is not out of the question. The accent colour is light blue while the GMT Bezel has a day/night split between black and white, it also shows all 24 numbers in its scale.

Crooms III

Next is Crooms III, another returning classic with its burgundy, sunray brushed design. Here the hour markers are swapped out for bar indexes in the majority of positions and Arabic numerals at 9 and 3 o’clock. The bezel is completely black and only displays every other hour as a numeral in the 24-hour scale. I really like this model; it has a richness to its colour that feels dressier and more refined compared to the playful Maze.

Moving to the 38mm models and their brand-new designs, we have the Maze Blue. As you might expect this is a variation on the theme of the Maze III, where the square grid pattern has been swapped for a honeycomb one. The name Blue comes from the blue day/night portion of the GMT bezel as well as the blue GMT hand that points to it. The other accent colour here is bright orange, making it one of the most vibrant pieces in the collection.

Maze III

Last but by no means least is the Charlton Green. It has the same honeycomb pattern as Maze Blue but in warmer cream tone. It also has a unique GMT bezel with dot markers between the Arabic numerals. The facetted hour markers with blue strips down the centre are also unique to this model. The green in its name comes from the teal day/night indication on the bezel. Of the two 38mm models, this is my preferred model, which is shocking because I’m a lover of all things orange. The pale blues and greens mixed with the cream of the dial feels like a truly original colourway that I’ve not seen before.

All four variants of the Farer GMT Bezel collection house the Sellita SW330-2 Top Grade movement, visible through the exhibition sapphire caseback. It’s a really solid movement with 56-hour power reserve, which is great for travel. It’s also weekend proof, just about, so if you put it down on Friday evening it should still be ticking on Monday morning. All four GMT Bezel watches also share a price of £1,350 with an optional £190 steel bracelet based on the 3-link design introduced in the field collection.

More details at Farer.

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G-Shock U.K. unveiled the upcoming DW-6900TR series, which celebrates the 30th anniversary of the iconic DW-6900 line. Also known as the “Triple Graph,” the DW-6900 evolved from 1994’s DW-6600 and inherited its case and “Fox Fire” EL backlight. The series became a staple in streetwear culture and garnered many fans in the worlds of sports […]

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The idealised image of watchmaker is one of a slightly eccentric mad scientist who, loupe in hand, carefully pores over the inner workings of a watch with precision tool in hand. Who, with the utmost care and attention, uses antique machines to finish and refine each individual component. The reality of modern watchmaking is that a lot of these jobs have been supplanted by machines, but Greubel Forsey is determined not to let the old ways die. That’s why they’re proud to introduce the new Greubel Forsey Hand Made 2.

This is the second watch in their Hand Made series, the first of which was a tourbillon. The new piece does away with the spinning cage in favour of a more refined and, frankly, more practical complication instead: a power reserve indicator. Before we get to that though, when looking at this watch, whether the case, dial or visible portions of the movement, the first thing you have to understand is that 96% of it was crafted by hand by a single watchmaker. Only elements such as the sapphire crystal, jewels, gaskets, spring bars and mainspring were machined (and most of those because they’re physically impossible to achieve by hand).

Looking at the case, it’s beautifully crafted in white gold with brushed flanks and polished lugs. While Greubel Forsey have intentionally kept the specs of the case obscured so that we focus on the watch as a piece of artistry rather than a mechanical object, Hodinkee’s keen investigation reveals it measures 40.9mm in diameter by 12.8mm thickness. That feels about right for this watch, large enough to match the bold, almost industrial design of the dial without straying too far in the other direction to become cumbersome or chunky.

My description of the Hand Made 2’s dial as quasi-industrial comes from the fact that it’s partially openworked without being skeletonised. There are simply large windows in the frosted German silver plate that reveal elements of the inner workings. Plus, there’s the fact it features a dial-side balance spring at 7 o’clock, whose constant motion can’t fail to draw the eye. In the aperture above the power reserve indicator at 10 you can see a large conical jewel. The jewel itself rotates and depending on its positioning, that’s what translates the stored energy of the barrel into the indicator hand to give a numerical output.

Elsewhere on the dial we have thermally blued hands and Grand Feu enamel scale for the hours, minutes, seconds and reserve indicator. Because you know, all the hand-crafted mechanical elements weren’t enough, so they had to throw enamel into the mix as well. One benefit of the power reserve indicator is that we can be certain the watch has a 72-hour reserve, which is supplied via manual winding.

It feels like a lot of existing Greubel Forsey designs but the attention to detail and finishing has been taken to the next level again. Although you’d certainly hope that’s the case given each watch takes 5,000 hours to complete and Greubel Forsey are only capable of making two to three pieces each year. The Hand Made 2 really is the Rolls Royce Coachbuild of the watch world.

More details at Greubel Forsey.

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Since it was revived a couple of years ago by the LVMH group, the reinvented Daniel Roth brand has steadily been paying homage to the original watches of its namesake brand. If you’re unfamiliar, Daniel Roth is the 1980s-1990s eponymous brand of legendary independent watchmaker Daniel Roth, known for his use of the double ellipse case shape. He created several variations of the design and now the modern Daniel Roth is following in his footsteps one watch at a time. We now have the Extra Plat Souscription.

If you’re keeping track of the historical Daniel Roth models that have inspired the modern brand, the original Tourbillon Souscription was released in 1989 as the debut watch for the brand. The Extra Plat Souscription is then inspired by a watch that launched only a year later in 1990, the 2107/C107, the brand’s first time only ultra-thin watch. Of course, the modern watch and its inspiration aren’t a one-to-one match because the aim of Daniel Roth today is to modernise the designs with updated specifications thanks to the cutting edge horology of the La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton manufacture.

What that means is it has the same updated double ellipse case as the Tourbillon Souscription that proceeded it. Dimensions of 38.6 x 35.5mm make it very svelte on the wrist and due to the absence of a tourbillon they’ve reduced the thickness to a sleek 7.7mm. Roth was famously a fan of ultra-thin concepts and indeed he can be linked to the popularity of ultra-thin watches in the 1990s just as Gerald Genta can be linked to integrated bracelets in the 80s.

For the dial, they’ve gone for yellow gold to match the Daniel Roth Extra Plat Souscription’s case with a hand-engraved guilloché design. Specifically the central disk of the dial and the outer ring feature Clou de Paris, also known as hobnail, produced using an antique hand-operated straight-line engine. There’s then a second form of guilloché around the borders of the chapter ring with hour and minute scales, which is called filet sauté, a style of crimping.

The Roman numeral hour markers, logo and serial number are all printed in a rich blue colour, designed to match the tone of the thermally blued hands at the centre of the piece. The hands themselves are surprisingly minimalist with simple arrow tips, functional and smart. No extravagant Breguet hands here or shapely, carefully wrought feuille designs.

Inside the watch is a brand new movement, the DR002, the second bespoke movement created for the brand at La Fabrique du Temps Louis. It has a 65-hour power reserve, which is great, and operates at a 4Hz frequency. More than that it’s also beautifully finished with a combination of perlage, anglage bevels and Côtes de Genève. Although you unfortunately can’t admire the attention to detail without opening the solid caseback. Back in the day Roth did produce some of his watches with exhibition windows so perhaps the brand inspired by him will eventually do so too.

The Daniel Roth Extra Plat Souscription is limited to 20 pieces at CHF 45,000 (approx. £40,240). What’s perhaps even more exciting is that if it follows the same pattern as its tourbillon cousin, we may see a non-limited version released in the future, making Daniel Roth designs more accessible than ever. If you have a spare 40k lying around.

More details at Daniel Roth.

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Car / watch partnerships can be a tricky proposition. Sure, they can be really cool showcases of automotive mechanics translated to the wrist, your Hublots, Jacob & Cos with their eye-wateringly pricey complications. On the other hand, the worst of them are nothing more than a limited-edition colourway and a lazily placed badge. The latest in Tag Heuer’s five-year partnership with Porsche is nicely in the middle, the Tag Heuer Carrera Chronosprint x Porsche Rallye.

I said five-year partnership, but it’s worth nothing that Tag Heuer and Porsche have worked together historically, too – at least, Porsche and Heuer (key difference) have. In fact, when the Porsche 911 made its competitive debut during the 1965 Rallye Monte Carlo, drivers Herbert Linge and Peter Falk would have read their necessary info off a Heuer dash-timer. So, when starting number 147 finished second in its class and fifth overall in the brutal, icy rally, despite not being a dedicated racer, it was in no small part thanks to Heuer.

Obviously, the relationship continued tentatively across the years, such as in Le Mans (where Linge actually acted as a stunt double for Steve McQueen), but the last five years have made it a little more official.

The New Carrera Chronosprint x Porsche Rallye might not have downsized a 911 engine into a wristwatch, but between the two brands’ shared history there’s more than enough here to give the collaboration some weight. And the fact that it’s one of the loveliest versions of an already beautiful racing watch helps all the more.

This isn’t the first Chronosprint we’ve seen; the model was debuted in 2023 in a handsome pair of classical models in rose gold or steel with pared-back, silver and beige dials. The bones here are the same, but the colourway is new, drawing the darker, high-contrast look of black with gold numerals from that 1965 Heuer dashboard clock. The red highlights on the other hand are taken from the livery of car 147 and there’s a good reason for them.

You see, the Chronosprint isn’t just another Carrera chronograph. While it does indeed work perfectly well as a stopwatch, the difference here is in the first 15 seconds. Look close at the bezel and you’ll see that the 15 is just short of where 6 o’clock would be. This is because the chronograph seconds hand races through those first 15 seconds before slowing for the rest of the minute.

Philosophically, this apes the sprint of a Porsche 911, but there’s a practical purpose too. It means that you can time fractions of seconds for short times when everything after the decimal point actually matters, while allowing longer timekeeping for simpler stretches of road. It makes it a much more versatile chronograph. That said, I’m never going to use a chronograph for timing a race. I’d like to say I will and it’s nice to know I could, but I’m just not.

For me, that simply makes the Chronosprint one of the most satisfying complications to play around with – and I’m pretty sure a lot of you reading this can understand that. Seriously, watching the chronograph second hand sprint the highlighted red line (that incidentally follows the 9.1 second sprint of the original 911) is more fun that it has any right to be.

The 42mm case sits nicely on the wrist with a thickness of 14.9mm. It wouldn’t stand out much if it weren’t for the double glassbox sitting on top, that really emphasises the shape of the watch in smooth, tactile fashion. I love the Glassbox. The Rallye is the Glassbox with a unique complication. Is it any surprise I love it?

The movement powering the whole thing is the TH20-08, with an 80-hour power reserve. Not too shabby at all. It’s also a looker, with copious Geneva striping and a (slightly on-the-nose) steering wheel shaped rotor. As you’d expect from this calibre (haha) of movement, it also has a good heft when engaging the chronograph. Anything else would be a travesty.

So how does this stack up against last year’s debut Chronosprint? Well, there are two versions available, one in gold, limited to 11 pieces and the non-limited version in steel we have here. Honestly, the gold one seems a bit too flashy for a racing chronograph and the steel tones down those gold numerals and ‘Porsche’ lettering to make it more wearable. With 100m water resistance, the steel makes it a practical, everyday wearer, too. But even then, I still prefer the previous silver dials to the black.

The blacks arguably cooler, inarguably more modern and has a bit more going on than the more streamlined, vintage-feeling 2024 editions. And that’s precisely why, for me, it comes in second place – which given it’s Monte Carlo Rallye inspiration, is fitting. It is however the same price at £8,050 in steel and £21,150 in gold, so there’s not a lot in it. And while that’s a pretty hefty price even for a Tag Heuer chronograph, for a genuinely cool mechanical wrist on the stopwatch, paired with some genuine motorsport pedigree, it’s a price plenty of collectors will undoubtedly be willing to pay.

More details at Tag Heuer.

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In recent years Zenith have been the masters of the skeletonised dial. Many of the Defy models, including the Defy 21 and Defy Zero G, have received the skeleton treatment. In time for LVMH Watch Week Zenith are adding to their integrated sports watch line up by combining skeletonisation and a chronograph movement in the new Defy Skyline Chronograph Skeleton.

Starting with the basics, the new chronograph is available in two colours, black and blue. This very much mirrors the core of the current Defy Skyline Chronograph line up. Occasionally, Zenith have expanded the colour palette, for example with the slate grey boutique only edition from last year, but black and blue have always been the strong foundations of the collection.

Across the case, the Zenith Defy Skyline Chronograph Skeleton remains true to the existing line up. You have the same octagonal case silhouette and 12 facet bezel. All made from stainless steel with the case measuring 42mm in diameter. Where Zenith really excel with their integrated sports watches is with the alternating brushed and polished finishing which is applied to each case angle. In a watch peppered with geometric shapes the alternating finishing accentuates the angular lines of both the case and the bracelet.

The bracelet of the new chronograph adopts Zenith’s interchangeable strap system and as standard comes with a second star patterned rubber strap to match the dial colour. This strap system isn’t new. It can be found on many of the current Zenith sports models where the single push button release makes changing the aesthetic of the watch a breeze. It’s something we’d all love to see brands do more often. Kudos to Zenith for leading the way here.

Also carried over from the Defy Skyline Chrono is the 5Hz El Primero 3600. The movement was first introduced in 2019 and its party trick is its ability to display 1/10th second. Instead of the central chronograph hand completing a full rotation in 60 seconds, the El Primero 3600 does it in 10 seconds. Allowing you to impress friends and colleagues with precision timing.

The Defy Skyline Chronograph Skeleton has a couple of big changes from the existing collection. The first, obviously, is the skeletonisation. As Zenith describes it, “the art of skeletonisation consists of hollowing out the plate, bridges and other components”. In opening up the dial Zenith have finished the main plate and bridges in either or black and blue and each watch has a complimenting star shaped oscillating weight visible through the caseback. The only change from the primary colour is the grey subdials, which have also been skeletonised at the centre.

The other change from the existing Defy Skyline Chronograph is the absence of the date window. Usually shoehorned in at the 4:30 mark this skeleton version has thrown away the date and for good reason. Skeleton dials look busier anyway, add in chronograph subdials and you’ve already got plenty to capture your attention. I doubt the date window will be missed.

Priced at £13,900 the Chronograph Skeleton is one of the more expensive in the Defy Skyline range, tourbillons excluded. However, you’re packing in a lot of cool and a lot of conversation starter from your money. In the integrated sports watch category the Defy Skyline skeleton watches are the only ones that can hold a candle to Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak Openwork models. Plus you’re taking several rungs up the pricing ladder for one of those. And the AP isn’t exactly accessible to begin with. For a skeletonised integrated sports watch chronograph you’ll struggle to find better than the Defy Skyline at this price point.

More details at Zenith

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It was only recently that we were discussing the wealth of purple watches out there at the moment, impressing with their rich, royal dials. Evidently Tag Heuer were sad to be left out of the discussion because now they’ve launched not one but two purple Carrera Chronographs, a standard model and a tourbillon edition. Let’s take a hands-on look at the pair.

Tag Heuer Carrera Chronograph

Starting with the standard model, it’s the Carrera we know and love. It measures 39mm in diameter, which works perfectly for the size of my wrists. It’s arguably a touch on the small side for a chronograph where I find 40mm the perfect size for balancing wearability and legibility. However, the Carrera really works because it has a touch of that retro-vintage sizing to it that has been popular among collectors recently. I also like the sharp, angular style of the case and strong lugs, which helps give the piece a sporty appearance.

Looking at the dial, it is of course purple. That rich tone has been paired with a fumé gradient around the edges, giving it a smoky design that’s enhanced by the slightly grainy texture of the sunray brushed dial. It reminds me of the skin of a plum, nice and juicy (I can’t think of a way to phrase that without it sounding a little Hannibal Lector-ish). The exact tone is inspired by a purple Monaco from 2022, although when it comes to colourful Monacos it’s pink that’s the current focus.

Flipping the watch over reveals the exhibition caseback with a view of the TH20-00. It’s an impressive column wheel chronograph movement with an 80-hour power reserve operating at a 4Hz frequency. It’s also nicely decorated with a brushed rotor and Côtes de Genève plate. It contributes to the CHF 6,500 price tag (approx. £5,830).

Tag Heuer Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon

Adding another layer of complexity to the Carrera Chronograph formula is the Tag Heuer Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon Purple. Unsurprisingly, it adds a tourbillon into the mix, which takes pride of place at 6 o’clock. As with any tourbillon you’re instantly drawn into its delicate waltz, pulling the watch close your eye and staring at the internal mechanics of the small vortex of motion. I mean, there has to be some reason for them, right? Original design purpose be damned.

Here the tourbillon has been paired with another plum purple dial with fumé gradient. The case is necessarily larger than its non-tourbillon counterpart, measuring 42mm in diameter with a thickness of 14.33mm, giving it a bit more pronounced presence on the wrist. That said, the constant movement of the tourbillon is arguably more likely to draw the eye rather than the increased size.

The movement here is the TH 20-09. It has a slightly lower power reserve due to the power intensive tourbillon, resulting in a total of 65-hours. That’s still more than admirable for a chronograph tourbillon.

As for the price, it’s a touch more than the standard model. And by a touch, I mean a lot. It’s a lot more than the standard model at CHF 34,000 (approx. £30,500). It’s a price that feels high when compared to the non-tourbillon, but when you look at the competition, is actually decent value for a Swiss tourbillon, plum purple or not.

More details at Tag Heuer.

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If I’m being honest with myself, I often overlook the Tag Heuer Formula 1 collection. It’s predominantly a quartz collection with an uber sporty design philosophy that frankly doesn’t appeal to me. I much prefer the cleaner design of the Carrera or retro influence of the Monaco. However, now that Tag Heuer have become the official timing partner of Formula 1, they’ve expanded the limited number of mechanical automatic models in the collection with five new references in titanium called, quite simply, the Tag Heuer Formula 1 Chronograph Automatic.

First things first, the Formula 1 is a big, big watch. It measures 44mm in diameter with a thickness of 14.1mm, making it an imposing wrist monster. But don’t let that deter you immediately because now that the case is made from titanium for the first time, it’s much lighter than previous models, improving its ergonomic performance. Of course, if you’re worried about being dwarfed by your watch, no material is going to change that.

Alongside the change in metal, the design of the case has been tweaked as well. The lugs are much shorter, giving the watch a much squarer silhouette that pairs with the new cushion shape of the piece. Shorter lugs will also help it sit well on slimmer wrists. Another part of that square silhouette is the addition of broad, flat chronograph pushers as opposed to circular pushers. It makes for a chunkier, angular aesthetic, which are not necessarily adjectives that come to mind when you think of F1 cars. But look at the front wing or rear spoiler and you can see that they do in fact share some aesthetic similarities.

Looking at the five individual references there’s the standard titanium model with black DLC tachymeter bezel, three full DLC coated models and finally an Oracle Red Bull Racing special edition in exposed titanium with a forged carbon bezel. The standard model has a black dial with vertical tricompax chronograph display and red accents for the chrono hands and hour scale ring. The full DLC models have the exact same dials, but the accent colours are in a choice of red, blue or lime green.

The Oracle Red Bull Racing edition is markedly different from the other editions because it does away with the somewhat minimalist two-colour scheme in favour of something a bit bolder. The plain black dial has been replaced by a blue checkerboard design with alternating empty and crosshatched squares. The central chronograph hand is yellow but the 30-minute and 12-hour subdial hands are red. On top of that the small seconds hand has a red tip whereas it has no colour on the standard editions. There’s also the added visual texture of the carbon bezel.

It’s the busiest of the five watches by a wide margin but at the same time, I can imagine it looking good on the wrist of an Oracle Red Bull race engineer in a team shirt. Personally, I’d opt for one of the black dial options because I like the flashes of high contrast from the coloured accents. It makes the colours feel luminous even though the actual luminous areas of the watch are the hour and minute hands as well as the indexes.

Turning the watches over does not reveal the movement as the watches all have solid casebacks, each with the checkerboard pattern of the Oracle Red Bull Racing edition. If they had exhibition casebacks instead, you’d see the Tag Heuer Calibre 16, the same movement used in the previous automatic Formula 1 Chronographs. It’s based on the ETA 7750 with 42-hour power reserve.

As for price, the plain titanium case version is £4,100, the three DLC coated editions are £4,300 and the Oracle Red Bull Racing edition is £4,750. While the Red Bull watch is a special edition, it’s not limited. Though a big, 44mm case like this might limit who can actually wear one.

More details at Tag Heuer.

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Back in 2021 we covered the release of the Hublot Big Bang Tourbillon Automatic Orange Sapphire. A watch that stood out for its impressive use of coloured sapphire crystal, a material that’s notoriously difficult to produce. In the introduction to that article I quipped that Hublot had almost completed the sapphire rainbow and in the years since they’ve done their best to complete the colour spectrum. However, some colours are simply too difficult to make in sapphire, which brings us to the new Hublot Big Bang Tourbillon Automatic Green SAXEM.

SAXEM is a crystal material that shares many similarities to sapphire crystal such as its translucent appearance and high scratch resistance. However, there is a crucial difference. Where sapphire crystal has a triangular structure at a molecular level, SAXEM is cubic. This fundamentally changes how light passes through the material and completely changes what is possible to achieve in terms of colour and intensity.

The rich emerald tone of the Big Bang Tourbillon Automatic Green SAXEM is impossible to achieve in traditional sapphire crystal. The same is true of the neon yellow edition they released back in 2023. Evidently there is a quality about the green-yellow spectrum that is ill suited for sapphire but that works great in SAXEM.

As for the watch itself, it’s the same Big Bang Tourbillon Automatic as we’ve known for more than half a decade at this point, although the SAXEM versions sit at 44mm as opposed to their sapphire counterparts that are 43mm or 45mm, depending on the colour. It has a skeletonised display with central hours and minutes, and a tourbillon at 6 o’clock. Considering that it’s a skeleton, it’s actually a very dark dial with grey Arabic numerals and a smoky grey sapphire disk below the time indication.

The movement on display is the MHUB6035, which has a 72-hour power reserve supplied by the micro-rotor visible at 12 o’clock. Interestingly, the rotor is presented on the dial side of the piece, which means the exhibition caseback offers and uninterrupted view of the movement in the same manner as a manual timepiece.

In terms of price, the Hublot Big Bang Tourbillon Automatic Green SAXEM is a clean £200,000 in a limited edition of 18 pieces. This watch is unapologetically Hublot. It’s big, it’s brash, it’s colourful but it’s also impressive on a structural and mechanical level. Not to mention it feels like they’re only scratching the surface of what is possible with SAXEM.

More details at Hublot.

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