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At a baseline level MB&F produce some pretty extraordinary watches – that’s why they had to launch what is effectively a second brand in M.A.D to create more accessible watches for regular collectors to actually buy. Imagine what it takes then for MB&F to sit back, look at a watch they are designing and think, ‘now this is a special project’. With the launch of the Special Project collection, known as SP, they have a third family of watches alongside the established LM and HM lines. The first watch being launched in this line is naturally the SP One.

In essence, the SP collection is going to be reserved for watch designs that MB&F think are really cool but that don’t have a natural place as either an LM or HM. Previously whenever a design like that would come up, they had no choice but to put it in a drawer and forget about it. That’s actually how the SP One started life, as a project known as Three Circles that was eventually shelved because there was no outlet for it. With the new SP collection though, it finally has a home in which it can be brought to full realisation.

It’s a super slim (by MB&F standards) watch with a 38mm diameter and 12mm thickness. That’s a huge difference compared to the Avante Garde watches of the HM line and even the LM range with an average size of above 40mm. There are two versions available, one in platinum and the other in rose gold, both offering a high level of luxury but with suitably individual styles. It’s a very smooth, round design that MB&F are calling a pebble case.

While the case is nice, the focal point is the display, which is fully skeletonised to create a mystery style design. Mystery watches are those that look like they should be impossible to make – the most famous examples being those from Cartier such as the Masse Mystérieuse. The SP One is not quite as extreme as that, as you can still see where the three bridges attach to the case. However, from the front it does look as though the three core elements are floating, those being the power barrel, oversize balance wheel and timekeeping dial. Those are also the three circles of the Three Circles.

The movement, which in classic MB&F fashion is just called the SP One movement, has a 72-hour power reserve with manual winding. The key feature though is the exposed architecture, which looks great with its delicate hand finishing, which includes polished bevels and hand engraving. If you rotated the display 180 degrees it would look like a kind of time pyramid, although Arnold & Son beat MB&F to that concept.

For pricing, the rose gold edition is CHF 58,000 (approx. £52,100) and the platinum is CHF 65,000 (approx. £58,400), excluding tax. While it’s the inaugural watch in the Special Projects, it actually feels like a fusion of the HM and LM philosophies. The crazy watchmaking of the Horological Machines in a restrained case like the Legacy Machines just at a more svelte size.

More details at MB&F.

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The standard G-Shock DW-5600 and DW-6900 models are usually around the same price, but the DW6900-1V is currently selling for just $40.46, which is its lowest price since Amazon started selling the DW-6900U-1 (with LED backlight and 5-year battery) under the existing DW6900-1V product page in 2024. (A recent customer review from April 5, 2025, […]

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Casio America announced a special collaboration set with American footwear brand Crocs that includes a pair of glow-in-the-dark Crocs Echo Wave Clog shoes and the limited edition G-Shock GA2100CROCS25-7 watch featuring Crocs branding and a phosphorescent dial. The watch also has a multicolor marble pattern on the band that matches the ankle straps of the […]

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Casio announced a new collaborative and limited G-Shock release with environmental NGO Surfrider Foundation Japan. The yellow G-5600SFJ-9 follows 2024’s black G-5600SRF-1, and like that model, it is a Tough Solar-powered G-5600 watch. Although they share a similar style and similar logos on the face and case back, one difference is that last year’s model […]

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Japanese blog Great G-Shock World reported that a “G-Shock GW-BX5600” is coming soon, according to a Bluetooth device certification filing. The series name is similar to the existing GW-B5600 which is equipped with Tough Solar and Multi-Band 6 radio time adjustment (signified by “GW”) and Bluetooth smartphone link (signified by “B”), so we can be […]

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U.S. authorized dealer Reeds Jewelers is currently offering the G-Shock DWH5600-1 for $188.37, which is 37% off the list price of $299. Amazon.com is also selling it for the same price at the moment. The Reeds discount ends on May 28, 2025, and it’s not known how long the Amazon discount will last. (See below […]

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Zales.com is currently offering a red G-Shock-branded toolbox for $40 (with shipping available to the U.S., U.S. territories, and U.S. military addresses in the Americas, Europe, and Pacific). We previously covered the toolbox back in December 2024 when it was part of a promotion at various retailers and found that it is a Toyo Steel […]

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Venezianico has rapidly become one of my favourite watch brands of 2025. Largely because they are constantly doing interesting things with a ceaseless energy to create and improve. In December of last year they tackled titanium for the first time, in February they explored bronze, in March it was Damascus steel and then in April the Corallo – in short their exploration of new and interesting materials has been relentless. However, with the launch of the new Venezianico Redentore Utopia they have turned the focus inwards with the brand’s first ever Italian-made movement developed specifically for them, the V5000.

Considering how committed and dedicated Venezianico are to their Italian heritage it felt like something of an inevitability that one day they would seek to create an Italian-Made movement. However, the options when it comes to Made-in-Italy movements are quite slim. While Panerai are the poster boys of Italian horology, their manufacture is in Switzerland and it’s the same story with Bulgari. Unimatic, an Italian brand who could be considered of a similar scale to Venezianico, use Japanese movements.

However, it turns out there is one high end Italian calibre manufacture called OISA 1937. So Venezianico met with OISA’s technical director Fausto Berizzi (formerly of Frédéric Piguet, Lemania, and Vaucher Manufacture) and together set out to make this dream a reality. The resulting movement, the V5000, is pretty spectacular.

It’s a manual winding movement with a 60-hour power reserve (meeting that all important weekend-proof standard) and an accuracy of +/- 3 seconds per days. For Venezianico’s debut bespoke movement, that’s more than a little impressive. On a mechanical front it uses a high-end inertia-variable balance spring, which means it uses four small weights to regulate it rather than the traditional regulator pins in order to allow for greater precision in regulating. Other key features include a split gear train, with one half controlling the seconds and the other controlling the hours and minutes, which reduces the overall stress on the gear train when trying to manage fast and slow movements simultaneously.

In terms of finishing, it looks amazing as well. The bridges feature a radial Côtes de Genève while the arms of the balance bridge are satin brushed to make that key component stand out. There’s also micro-perlage below the balance wheel, which is applied by hand. On top of which are your usual fine finishing techniques such as anglage creating defined edges to each component.

With such a fine movement on their hands, Venezianico then needed to choose a watch to put it in. The natural answer being the Redentore, their most refined dress watch. Although rather than taking an old design and swapping out the movement, they decided to create a new version, the Redentore Utopia. It’s been completely redesigned from the ground up with new case proportions of 38mm x 8.9mm, sitting between the 36mm and 40mm editions of the current collection. Though aesthetically it remains more or less unchanged with a smooth bezel and gently curving lugs.

Op top of the redesigned case, this special version needs a special dial to match. So Venezianico turned to master artisan Riccardo Renzetti to create a custom guilloché design by hand using a traditional rose lathe. It has a dynamic wave pattern inspired (as Venezianico always are) by the waters of Venice. The dial is then finished with a teal ion plating to complete the aquatic theme.

There really is Italian craftsmanship at every level of this watch so as you’d expect, the same is true of the strap. It’s made of handcrafted embossed leather strap by Gian Pietro Failli in his Tuscan atelier. It’s a matching shade of blue to the dial, completing the harmonious appearance of the watch beautifully.

The Venezianico Redentore Utopia with V5000 movement is a limited edition of 100 pieces priced at €4,500 (approx. £3,800). That’s obviously a significant step up from the brand’s normal sub-£1,000 price point. However, those sub-£1,000 do not feature a high end, custom, Italian-made movement, nor a handcrafted guilloché dial, so it’s not even comparable. If anything, the Utopia feels like pretty solid value compared to some mid-range luxury watches. If you want to get up close with Venezianico’s latest releases, make sure to secure your ticket to Hands On Horology, a new watch exhibition and showcase coming to London on June 14^th.

More details at Venezianico.

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Opening the box containing Yema’s new Granvelle CMM.20, the first thing I want to say is you need to forget everything you already know about the French Maison. You cannot compare this watch to the Superman or Wristmaster because it is a brand-new design in every conceivable way. One of the most daring changes in aesthetic direction I can think of since, well… I can’t even think of a change as dramatic as this.

To qualify that statement, Yema traditionally sits in the sports watch genre of design ranging from 1960s skin diver tool watches to 1980s integrated bracelet designs. With the Granvelle CMM.20 they’re jumping to a 1930s-ish cushion case watch with Art Deco influences based on architecture in Besançon. Moving from one to the other is liable to give you more whiplash than J.K. Simmons in 2014. Hence, put the divers and tool watches out of your mind and let’s dig into the new watch.

The case measures 39mm in diameter with a thickness of 8.6mm in a rounded cushion shape. Like all cushion or square cases it wears a bit larger than circular watches of the same size because of the wider profile across its length. In pictures the lugs exaggerate that length as well, though on the wrist they feel a lot less prominent. One of the coolest details of the case is actually the caseband around the edge, which has vertical engraved lines that add a fun texture to run your finger across.

As for the dial, it’s really distinctive with an asymmetrical guilloché, cushion-shaped disc in the centre inspired by the arches of the Palais Granvelle in Besançon, which is where the city’s Museum of Horology is based. Completing the display is an off-centre small seconds subdial at 9 o’clock and a three-dimensional hour track around the periphery. And I do mean three-dimensional because it’s raised like the banked seating of a stadium and the hour markers are actually cut into it to reveal a metallic shine. Super unique. A slightly weird, modern interpretation of a sector dial display. Sector dials are an Art Deco classic, as is the railway minute track that runs along the inner edge of that raised portion.

For colour, the Yema Granvelle CMM.20 has three options: black, blue and green. The version I have here is the black, but with the high shine of the sunray brushing across the ridges of the guilloché, it almost appears to be more of an anthracite, dark grey. I can imagine that the light playing across the blue or green would make those colours pop vividly.

In the interest of balance, I do have to talk about the strap. I’ve seen a lot of straps and clasp designs and most of them are perfectly serviceable, if a little fiddly on occasion. This is one of the few I’ve come across that I would replace immediately. It’s a friction popper deployant clasp on a leather strap where you simply have to pull at it until it releases, which feels abusive to the leather. There’s also no good way to grip it in order to undo it in a smooth motion. I keep accidentally undoing the buckle, at which point you may as well treat it as an ordinary pin buckle. It is at least comfortable once you have it on.

As the Micro-Rotor inscription on the dial indicates, the movement inside is indeed a micro-rotor automatic. Specifically, Yema’s in-house CMM.20 flagship movement from their Morteau workshop. It is finished beautifully with a radial Côte de Genève emanating from the micro-rotor like an artist’s depiction of a halo. It has great specs to boot with a 70-hour power reserve and -3/+7 seconds per day accuracy.

Once you get over that initial whiplash, I actually think this is really fun watch. It’s a bit quirky, a bit unusual, but really well built and it houses a powerhouse movement. Plus, it delivers on that Art Deco style while not being a parody or homage, bringing a new energy to that design space. It also doesn’t cost the Earth at $1,990 (approx. £1,500).

More details at Yema.

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We all in our heads have that perfect image of a lone watchmaker, sitting at a bench day in, day out building immaculate timepieces. If that image comes complete with a snowy Alpine chalet, more power to you, but either way it’s a timeless image and most of the time complete fiction. The vast majority of respected brands work with what are basically assembly lines with a few more steps, and even niche independents named for individual watchmakers have stables of horologists waiting in the wings. That ideal of a single, skilled artisan is not how 99.9% of watchmaking happens. Laine just so happens to be part of that .1%.

Presiding over a scenic townhouse workshop in Le Locle, Torsti Laine may at first seem like a bit of a recluse. The Finnish watchmaker has very little presence outside of a website and the kind of breathless word-of-mouth that drives other collectors into a quiet frenzy. That’s the point. They’re the kind of watches that you hope your friends don’t find out about so that you can be the only one in the know.

Still, word always gets out and if there’s one thing Laine is known for, it’s guilloche – and with his latest P37 model, he’s giving Kari Voutilainen a run for his money on that front.

GG3

Guilloche has always been at the heart of Laine’s particular breed of watchmaking. Both the manual-wind GG3 and automatic V38 models showcase three different engine-turned finishes on each dial, ranging from clous de Paris to barleycorn to more abstract waves of delicate engraving. They’re painfully beautiful, with each finish separated and distinct from the others. But I know what you’re thinking: they’re quite a lot. Sometimes – just sometimes – you want something a little more pared-back, which in the case of the GG and V38 series, is most things.

That brings us back to the P37. Rather than a triumvirate of finishes that define Laine’s historical watches, the P37 takes a more minimal approach, stripping back to just one guilloche in set pattern/colour variations. And the range is spectacular.

P37 Salmon Spider

To quickly run through the options (simple words can’t do them justice after all), first is the salmon spider. The pattern’s usually called ‘lightning’, but ‘spider’ is what most of Laine’s buyers have called it and the name’s stuck, here with straight bar indexes. Then we have the medium-hued ocean blue with a more geometric diamond pattern with a mix of numerals and dot indexes. If you want a watch to pair with a sharp suit, this is the one for you.

Sky blue’s next with a lovely twill pattern to suit a bespoke shirt, with the same mix of numerals and dots as the ocean blue. Then we have a triple grain of rice pattern in a silver bordering white in its brightness, with full blued steel numerals. This is ostensibly the simplest of the quintet but the one that I imagine anyone reading this would be happy to have on their wrist.

P37 Sky Blue Twill

That just leaves one variation and the one that I’d argue is the most ‘Laine’: the Murasaki Flame. Murasaki is a traditional purple dye in Japan and the colour here is downright magnificent. Even at a time when purple is becoming more mainstream (even if it’s not quite there yet) this stands out as one of the finest around. Part of that is the specific royal colour, but more of it is in the unusual flame guilloche. This is the one that sums up why Laine is a watchmaker you should know, a blend of eye-catching colour and breathtaking finishing. And, of course, the movement.

P37 Murasaki Flame

Laine as a watchmaker doesn’t build movements from the ground-up. Instead, he takes the geartrain of classic movements and turns them into works of art. In the case of the P37, that base movement is the Peseux 7001, but unless you happen to recognise the overall structure, it’s unrecognisable, with a rose gold, guilloche two-thirds bridge and a black polished balance among other things. Sure, the specs aren’t as good as some modern movements – a 3hz frequency and 42-hour, manually-wound power reserve – but that’s not the point. The P37 is a work of watchmaking art and the movement is Laine’s final flourish.

P37 Movement

The reason for this particular movement however is obvious when you have the watch on your wrist. Where previously Laine has used larger pocket watch movements, the P37 measures in at 37mm across (hence the name) and just 8mm high. It slips perfectly under a sleeve and still gives its single, singular guilloche room to breathe.

Best of all, the P37 will set you back CHF 9,900 – just over £9,100 – which isn’t just a fantastic entry level to Laine, but also to this echelon of fine watchmaking. And keeping that dream of the solo artisan watchmaker alive? Priceless.

More details at Laine Watches.

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