Combine watch shopping with a drink at these boutique bars November 4, 2016 Why jostle with the hoi polloi when you could be enjoying a quiet drink while contemplating your latest purchase? Come Christmas shopping season, make sure you wind up at these London watch boutique bars, says Laura McCreddie-Doak. I dream of having a club; a place where I can go not just where everybody knows my [...]
Patek Philippe’s Nautilus is four decades young, and proving as resilient as Captain Nemo’s own pioneering vessel November 4, 2016 Like Apple or Ferrari, the watch industry’s own gnomic leader, Patek Philippe, doesn’t “do” teasers. With such fanatical followers and peerless product, it doesn’t need to. However, this is the 40th-anniversary year of its sporty 70s icon the Nautilus, the brand has played its cards so close to its chest that it looked as though [...]
Sapphires, rubies and Paraiba tourmalines have made their way on to watch dials – but there are times only a diamond will do October 3, 2016 I’m not going to quote Carol Channing or Marilyn Monroe (or Nicole Kidman, depending on your age) because we are all well aware of a woman’s relationship with her diamonds. There really isn’t a stone out there that has allegedly captured the female imagination so much as this metastable allotrope of carbon. However, as desirous [...]
Hardcore horology for women: Montblanc’s latest puts its mechanical guts on display September 22, 2016 Montblanc is known for mechanical fireworks when it comes to men’s watches but its women’s range has tended to be more sedate. But following in the footsteps of its first women’s perpetual calendar – also part of the hugely successful Boheme collection – comes its first women’s exotourbillon. You may be familiar with a common-or-garden [...]
From carbon fibre to ceramics, women’s watches are getting the high-tech treatment September 22, 2016 Mother of pearl dial, dainty case diameter and diamonds somewhere about its person – those used to be the three must-have elements when it came to designing a woman’s watch. However, the latest launches from quite a few notable brands seem to be challenging that status quo. From cases in interesting material – sapphire crystal, [...]
Back to school doesn’t have to mean dull. As you switch to a winter wardrobe, these fun but practical timepieces should be on your mind September 22, 2016 While it may have been a while since you bought a new pencil case, donned a scratchy jumper and polished your non-descript pair of black shoes, there’s still something about September that has a “back to school” feel. The weather starts to cool and you relinquish the summer florals in favour of autumn’s more sombre [...]
Vintage-inspired ladies’ watches that have stood the test of time December 3, 2014 Watching Interstellar the other night was a thought provoking experience. Yes, the film posited theories about the nature of time travel, relativity, the true nature of time as a dimension and various other themes taking in the full gamut of life, death and the human experience. However, it was a watch, or rather the watch [...]
Women’s watches with complications have hit the market October 28, 2014 A grande complication on a watch, generally speaking, used to be the preserve of those timepieces on the male side of the display cabinet. They allowed men to show off how much they knew about watches while indulging in a little horological one upmanship (this despite the fact I have never met a man who [...]
From Cartier to Longines, women’s watches are being downsized September 23, 2014 How women’s watch dials are shrinking and why it gives us reasons to be cheerful about the future of the female side of the industry The papping of Jemima Khan wearing a Panerai given to her by her then-boyfriend Hugh Grant in 2005 kick-started women’s love of men’s watches. Grant and Khan’s relationship has long [...]
How the watch industry is finally recognising girl power July 29, 2014 Even the most unobservant of you cannot have failed to notice Watches of Switzerland’s advertising billboards for its new three-story watch emporium at 155 Regent Street. In the underground and on the sides of buses have appeared Hitchcock-esque, black and white images of a beautiful young blonde woman being attacked by magpies anxious to relieve [...]