Category: News

In recent years it could be said that Corum have fallen from their previous heights as an haute horological powerhouse. Now though they’re having a bit of a return to form. Specifically, they’re exploring fresh concepts with the fittingly named the Corum Concept Watch that features a hyper-skeletonised display that appears to float in a void of stars.

Let’s start with the case as that’s the simplest part of the Concept Watch. It’s 39.5mm in diameter and made from recycled titanium, making it lightweight, durable and sustainable. Although as a one-off concept watch it’s more a commitment to sustainability in the future rather than an example of sustainability in practice. Style-wise it looks somewhat like a spaceship, which suits the astral theme of the piece, featuring pronounced, Nautilus-esque flanks and an oversize crown.

What makes this watch visually spectacular is without a doubt the dial, consisting of a series of clear sapphire plates that support the movement and an aventurine glass base that gives it the appearance of floating in stars. It’s impressively dynamic with an exposed gear train operating the central hour and minute hands and a flying tourbillon at 6 o’clock.

My favourite part of the watch is quite possibly the caseback, which has a small exhibition window revealing the movement from the back while around the edges are a complete set of annotations. The annotations point out useful information like the position of the tourbillon, the 90-hour power reserve and the functions of the crown. It reminds me of the H. Moser & Cie. Perpetual Calendar for Dummies that used a similar style of annotations. It falls on just about the right side of irreverent to be fun and charming.

I will say that the strap it’s presented on seems a little out of place: a textile number with Velcro fastening. It doesn’t have the luxury high end feel of the watch itself and I’m not a fan of the way the lugs attach to the fabric. However, putting my initial reaction to the strap aside, I do understand the concept behind its use and as this is a Concept Watch, that’s half the battle. Velcro was invented by a Swiss scientist and was famously used in the space suits of the Apollo missions, which means it connects with the space theme of the watch as well as the fact Corum are Swiss.

Of course, as a Concept Watch this is not really a production model so talking about value is irrelevant. What’s more interesting is speculating where these concepts will show up in future. I could imagine an aventurine glass Golden Bridge for example or an update to the case shape of the Lab or Bubble. Although if I had my way, they’d just put the Concept Watch into production because it is really cool.

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In a sign of the times, Casio is officially launching the Virtual G-Shock community to encourage users to connect and collaborate. This is not merely a forum or social media group but a creative project involving the issuance of NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) on the Polygon blockchain. The NFTs will be available in sixteen countries, and […]

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Alongside the new Jumbo Extra-Thin Audemars Piguet have launched a pair of Royal Oak Minute Repeater Supersonneries in Black Ceramic. Traditionally when we think of minute repeaters we think of them being made from precious metals like gold because the sonorous qualities of the metal enhance the sound. Ceramic presents a completely different sonic challenge and as such, the case is specially adapted and features AP’s first ever full ceramic caseback.

I will admit that it took me a hot second to notice what the difference between the two watches here is. After all, even their reference numbers are almost identical: 26591CE.OO.D002CA.01 and 26591CE.OO.D002CA.02. The answer is that the first version has white gold indexes and the second has diamond ones and that’s it. I’m sure it makes a big difference when they’re in front of you, but on these few pixels of the internet, it’s not the most apparent change.

Since we’ve started talking about the display, let’s wrap that up before moving onto some of the more interesting parts of the watch. It has central hour and minute hands with a small seconds subdial against a black Grand Tapisserie backdrop. It’s pretty standard Royal Oak fare.

What’s very non-standard is the case itself. That claim might sound odd considering that from the front it looks every bit a classic RO, right down to the arrangement of the screws in the octagonal bezel. However, turning the Royal Oak Minute Repeater Supersonnerie Black Ceramic over reveals the brand’s first ever full ceramic caseback, which is pretty special. It bears an engraving of the sonic waves produced by the chiming complication housed inside and there are slits around the edges that allow the sound to escape the dampening qualities of the ceramic unimpeded.

Not that the sound has much issue escaping considering that the minute repeater features AP’s supersonnerie concept. The supersonnerie debuted as part of the Royal Oak Concept line back in 2015 and is designed to increase the volume and resonance of the repeater to the levels expected of a pocket watch rather than a wristwatch. One of the key aspects of the supersonnerie is attaching the gongs (the chime that makes the sound when struck with a tiny hammer) to a titanium membrane rather than the mainplate as usual. This allows for good resonance regardless of the material characteristics of the rest of the watch.

The movement powering the Royal Oak Minute Repeater Supersonnerie Black Ceramic is the Calibre 2953, a manual calibre with a power reserve of 72-hours. It’s a cool combination of haute horology and high performance materials working together in harmony. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s price on request.

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The Carrera is a legend of a watch; the last clutch of pages are more than enough to hammer that home. But while there have certainly been a lot of watches to bear the name over the past few decades, Tag Heuer have been slowly modernising the Carrera blueprint into something straddling the line between practical racing watch and more modern, automotive flavoured chronograph. The Tag Heuer Carrera Glassbox is perfectly in between those two poles.

While there’s a lot here that collectors will recognise – it has basically the same Carrera outline we’ve come to know and love – the main difference is instantly recognisable, and not just because it’s in the name. The titular Glassbox is a highly domed sapphire crystal that stands well above the bezel. Aside from the new look – and it’s definitely a different look – the crystal has the added benefit of allowing the tachymeter to sit below the crystal rather than on the bezel while maintaining readability. It’s gorgeous, and the tachymeter echoes the shape of the crystal, making it immensely aesthetically satisfying.

However, while there are definitely shiny new touches, the sizing is a bit more vintage. 39mm of stainless steel is smaller than most other Carreras, and suits the look and feel on the wrist to a tee. Honestly, this might be my favourite TAG Heuer in years.

There are two colour options available. Here we have the reverse panda – black dial with white subdials – that will be pretty familiar to most collectors. There’s a reason this kind of high-contrast look is still incredibly popular. I do with they’d done away with the faux patina lume, but you can’t have everything, apparently.

The blue isn’t just a recolour; it’s a slightly different layout too. The entire dial is more restrained and actually uses a ghost running second subdial instead of the three-register layout of the black-and-white. The date window’s at six o’clock rather than 12 o’clock too, giving the entire thing a bit more of a retro, faux-bicompax look. Of the two, I prefer the black-and-white but honestly, there’s not much in it.

Either way, the watch comes equipped with the Calibre TH20-00 automatic movement, a more-than-solid in-house number complete with a downright impressive 80-hour power reserve. I don’t usually give rotors much of a look but here the sharp-edged logo rotor is really cool, opting for an industrial, steel look instead of anything more ornate.

The only downside to the movement is that it’s relatively thick. That would be fine in most watches, but here the extra height of the Glassbox means that the watch as a whole is actually a bit thicker than I’d like. It’s not a deal breaker as part of its funky silhouette comes from that height, but it doesn’t feel as comfortable on the wrist as it could be. Still, it’s a small issue and for one of the best Carrera variations so far, it’s something I can forgive.

Both versions are priced at £5,600, which is about £1,000 less than a Speedmaster and a good chunk of cash less than a Daytona. It’s still firmly priced as a luxury watch – and the Glassbox is slightly more than other Carreras – but it’s still a good amount of watch for the money.

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Audemars Piguet are bringing one of their most experimental concepts to their regular collection with the new Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Jumbo Extra-Thin Burgundy 16202XT.OO.1240XT.01 in titanium and bulk metallic glass (BMG). BMG is a rare material in general and even rarer in watchmaking, AP’s first and only use of the non-crystalline glass material came in 2021 with the 39mm Jumbo Extra-Thin piece unique. This is the first time ever that it’s been used in a standard range of watches.

The case is more or less identical to that original Only Watch piece, which means a 39mm diameter design in titanium with a BMG bezel and caseback as well as an integrated titanium bracelet featuring polished BMG studs. If you’re unfamiliar with BMG (and I wouldn’t blame you) think of it as a metallic alloy that is rapidly cooled in such a way that it has many of the properties of glass, namely hardness, reflectiveness and elasticity. These properties make it durable, shiny and possible to shape into the signature octagon of the RO.

Audemars Piguet actually co-developed their own version of the material using palladium to create an even more impressive brilliance. It makes for a striking contrast to the brushed titanium surfaces. Equally striking is the dial, which features a dramatic red fumé gradient similar in smokiness to 2021’s Jumbo Extra-Thin with green gradient dial.

Under the red surface of the dial and visible through the exhibition caseback is the Calibre 7121 with Côtes de Genève finishing, a calibre released in 2022. It’s a time-and-date model with a 55-hour power reserve and that measures 3.2mm in thickness, allowing for the extra-thin case which is itself only 8.1mm.

It’s tough to gauge how much of stir the new watch will cause. On the surface level it’s the latest generation of one of AP’s most popular watches in history, so it should have collectors excited. The Royal Oak Jumbo is an icon and the extra-thin is perhaps one of its most quintessential modern expressions. However, it also feels difficult to get majorly excited about something so technical as bulk metallic glass. It likely comes down to value – which is also tough to gauge, since it’s price on request.

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K-pop group Itzy became global ambassadors for G-Shock in early 2023 and has played large role in promoting the brand throughout Asia. In the latest print and video campaign for the Pink Metallic Collection, each member wears a different watch featuring a rose gold stainless steel bezel or a rose gold vapor deposited dial. Ryujin […]

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There have been a lot of Avante Garde chiming complication wristwatches lately. By which I mean non-traditional, hyper modern takes on what is a very traditional and classy piece of haute horology. The main watches I’m thinking of being the Bel Canto and the Streamliner Pandamonium. Don’t get me wrong, I love both of those watches, but it’s nice to see Breguet take us back to traditional elegance with the Classique 7637 Répétition Minutes, now available in a new edition with black dial and rose gold case.

Since I’ve been rambling about minute repeaters and chiming complications I should probably explain what that actually is. In short, a minute repeater is a type of haute horology complication that uses tiny hammers and gongs to give an audio representation of the time, much like the chiming of a clock but in miniature form. It is one of the most demanding types of complication requiring a mastery of the disciplines of both watchmaking and sound. Every watch is hand crafted and so the resonant note of each individual gong is different and coaxing out the best possible sound is a delicate task involving tiny adjustments to the gongs, gong holders, hammers or even the watch’s case.

Every small feature has to be in total harmony, although ‘small’ isn’t necessarily the right word in every instance since the mechanism inside is so intricate, the Classique 7637 as a whole is quite big. It has a 42mm diameter case in rose gold, which as a size is much more dive watch than dress watch which in general tend to be smaller with more vintage proportions. However, that size is offset somewhat by the fact that it’s impressively thin at just 12.25mm.

What really gives the piece its minimalist elegance is the dial, which is completely black with rose gold hands and Arabic numerals. The hands and numerals, to no one’s surprise, use the signature Breguet design. Meaning the hands have circles near their tips and the numerals are flowing and slightly cursive. The dial itself warrants a closer look as well because it’s made from Grand Feu enamel, which is what gives it its impressive smoothness and rich black colour.

The movement powering it all is the Breguet 567.2, a manual wind calibre with 40-hour power reserve. It’s the same movement as used in the previous blue and white gold edition. Although the new black and rose gold Classique 7637 Minute Repeater is actually a slightly lower price at £226,900 compared to £227,800… I did say it was a slight difference. But at this level of craftsmanship between the mechanism of the minute repeater and the enamel dial, that kind of price is not unexpected.

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The G-Shock Natural Color Series includes one digital model and three analog-digital models in monochromatic earth colors inspired by minerals. With their soft matte appearance, these models offer a fashionable match with certain shades of clothing fabric. The light brown digital DW-5600NC-5 is based on the original G-Shock watch and features the updated DW-5600 module […]

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Casio is releasing two G-Shock GMD-S5600 models in basic black (GMD-S5600BA-1) and white (GMD-S5600BA-7) unisex colorways. Prior to these models, the only smaller black square G-Shock was the GMD-S5600-1 which has a metallic bronze face. The only smaller white square G-Shock was the GMD-S5600-7 with a metallic silver face and a negative LCD display, so […]

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To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of G-Shock, Canadian streetwear boutique Livestock is releasing a G-Shock DW-6900 collaboration and hosting parties in Toronto and Vancouver. The gray watch has a racing theme inspired by the “Bayshore Route” that encircles Tokyo, which in the 1990s became an infamous and illegal high-stakes circuit for modified street cars at […]

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