Baselworld 2015: Tag Heuer, Google and Intel just announced a major partnership to create smartwatches to rival Apple March 19, 2015 Luxury watchmaker Tag Heuer is partnering with Google and Intel to go head-to-head in the emerging smartwatch battleground. The trio announced their plans to team up today at the Swiss trade fair Baselworld, and between them they could produce something that knocks Apple's efforts out of the park. The announcement described it as “a [...]
The Datables: Watches with calendar displays can be things of beauty March 5, 2015 There are few things that niggle at me more than the presence of an unnecessary date display on a watch (yes, yes, first world problems). Brands are, in the large part, hopelessly addicted to them, allowing tiny, pointless displays to disrupt the unity and balance of their designs. I especially can’t abide the now-canonical magnifying [...]
Watch talk: A new generation of women’s watches is blazing a trail of originality March 5, 2015 Every January specially invited watch journalists decamp to Geneva’s Palexpo – a great, industrial box next to a motorway – to be shown watches that cost more than many of their flats in an unrelentingly beige luxury bubble. This is SIHH, where Richemont’s brands (and a few select “friends”) assemble to set out their stall [...]
The pursuit of strappiness: Women’s watches are getting a couture makeover February 5, 2015 When it comes to women’s watches, straps aren’t usually top of a designer’s list of priorities. But despite all the attention the dial tends to get, it’s the strap that covers the larger proportion of your wrist. Thankfully, there are brands out there that do spend time on these means of attachment. Hermès is famously [...]
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 [...]
Time is money: Why are watches so expensive? December 3, 2014 There’s a very good reason top quality watches can set you back six figures. Let us start with a description of two dramatically different approaches to highend mechanical watchmaking. Bear with me. Firstly: “At certain moments you might leave the drawing and let the metal guide you… I really value the fact that I can [...]
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 [...]
Tudor is back: Heritage-inspired watches are on the rise September 23, 2014 I’m excited: Tudor is back. Who? Well, you’d be forgiven for asking, since the brand hasn’t been in British shops since early in the last decade. But it’s a name that carries clout in the watch world, for Tudor is the sibling brand of Rolex. Hans Wilsdorf, Rolex’s founder, set up Tudor between the [...]
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 [...]
Best beach watches: Timepieces to withstand sand, salt and surf June 12, 2014 If you’re fond of sand dunes and salty air, you’ll be needing a knockabout, colourful addition to your suitcase Ralph Lauren RL67 Safari £2,150 Watches don’t feel more sunkissed and outdoorsy than this – geared towards the savannahs of Africa if you believe the marketing hype, but, more realistically, looking the part for a lazy [...]