Category: News

The act of buying a watch is not one to take lightly, it’s a serious commitment of money and confidence that a brand can deliver on their promise of a high quality timepiece. That’s why many brands seek to make the process of buying a watch as special as the watch itself, whether that be through the boutique experience or something a little more extravagant such as a lounge with a bar. It’s the latter experience that Audemars Piguet provide with their AP House salesrooms and now a new AP House Manchester is opening in in partnership with Watches of Switzerland.

Audemars Piguet are very involved when it comes to the sales of their watches, believing that APs should only be sold from single-brand Audemars Piguet showrooms. That’s why they developed the AP House concept, creating an environment that they can curate entirely as they wish. They take the form of luxury lounges hidden away from the bustle of the street, often only recognisable by a small plaque in the door or a flag hung outside.

There are currently AP Houses in London (which for those in the know is a great, under-the-radar spot for a drink), Bangkok, Barcelona, Hong Kong, Madrid, Milan, Munich, Shanghai, St. Barths, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, New York and Zurich.

Normally AP take control of their houses personally, but for the first time ever they’re placing one in another’s capable hands. Specifically, Watches of Switzerland and AP have announced their intent to create the new AP House Manchester together. It will serve as a new flagship shopping location for the north of England, with a higher allocation of watches compared to other authorised retailers. The fact that it’s being operated by Watches of Switzerland means that there’s the potential for far more AP Houses to be created in future, rapidly expanding the concept across the world.

We originally covered this story in 2023 when the project was first announced and now it has finally reached fruition and is open at last, two years later. Manchester is rapidly becoming one of the premier places for watch shopping in the UK.

Address: 35 King Street, Manchester

More details at Audemars Piguet.

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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