This looks like an exercise in “odd design” but I suppose there are a few interesting innovations here. This was made by the same bloke, Jean-François Ruchonnet, who created the TAG Heuer Monaco V4 Concept Watch. I’m not quite understanding this whole thing, but here’s a quick discussion:
Winding the watch and setting the hour and minutes are effected using a winding stem in the form of a movable “winch” that links directly to one of the small “capstans” that are found at the four exterior angles of the case: at the upper left, it acts directly on the fusee and, by the intermediary of the chain, allows the barrel to be wound; at the upper right, it acts on the minute cylinder which is connected to that of the hours. The two other small “capstans” are only there for decoration and to complete the aesthetics of the case. Once the small winch is used, it is easily stored in the buckle of the watch’s bracelet.
Complication for complication’s sake? You decide.
Operation Cabestan: When two independents come together to shake up the world of watches [EuropaStar]
Help us help you this year. Fill out our 1st Annual WWR reader’s survey and register to win a black Nooka ZOT watch courtesy of Nooka.com. Deadline for entries is Midnight, January 31, 2006.
All email addresses will be destroyed after the contest is over. Please tell us what you think about WWR and tell us a bit about yourself so we can expand and improve our coverage next year.
Survey Site
In an effort to find an inexpensive, vintage chronograph, I’ve been hunting on Ebay for Sorna watches. The Sorna brand, which was once a relatively powerful figure in the mechanical industry – laid to waste, obviously, by the flood of cheap quartz pieces in the 1980s – is now being used to flog those selfsame cheap quartz pieces that I had no interest in. The only other Sorna piece I could find, then, was a nasty world time watch that looked like Captain America had just gotten over some constipation. Therefore, I was stuck with considering Jacky Ickx bullhead chronos. Instead of a Jacky Ickx, however, I just picked up just an “Icky” Sorna chronograph that has a certain, if dubious, charm.
Read more…
WristFashion.com pointed out this interesting entry in the MotoFrwd competition sponsored by Motorola. The contest encourages entrants to envision next generation communications gadgets.
As you tighten the band on your wrist watch, the mass solid state storage and main computer on the
watch interfaces with your glasses via next generation Bluetooth data connection. Your watch and
your glasses comprise your Personal Information and Computing System (PICS). It is your PDA,
your personal GPS navigation platform, cell phone, MP3 player, credit card, and more!
Motorola PICS-0001 [Motorola]
WuS has one man’s quest for the PERFECT watch. The story he tells is an incredible tribute to watchmaking and patience.
Long story with loads of pics about my ‘little’ watch project 
[WatchuSeek
]
Great thread at WuS about mechanicals – are they so ubiquitous that they are disposable? And are they even worth fixing anymore, thanks to outrageous service prices?
Are our affordable mechanical watches becoming “disposable”? [WatchuSeek]
The WuS folks must be drinking this morning because they’re posting wrist shots of their whole – albeit impressive – collections.
Got a wrist shot collection? [WatchuSeek]
OmegaBlogger, who has been on hiatus for about 50 years now, just posted a great story about a fella who bought a new old stock Speedmaster that had been lying in state in a safe deposit box for 36 years.
It was her father’s watch, he passed away in the early 70’s his wife just passed away this year(2005) . The watch sat in a safe deposit box since her husband passed away in the early 70’s. When she died her daughter became executer of her estate when the deposit box was opened there sat this watch,neither she or her siblings wanted to keep it ,so it was put up for sale ,I saw the ad,wanted it and bought it.
A Happy Speedmaster New Year! [OmegaBlogger]
Omega just launched SIX more chronos for the Olympics Timeless Collection. I’m going to go through them all very quickly, but they’re all generally styled like the 1932 pocket watch we just posted and all of them have the little Olympic logo dongle hanging off of the seconds hand. They’re a bit too Rah-Rah Go Olympics for my taste, but to each their own.
First up:
The Speedmaster Date in the OMEGA Olympic Timeless Collection has red chronograph hands and blued-steel hour, minute and small seconds hands set against a white dial. Available exclusively with a matching stainless-steel bracelet, it retains the typical Speedmaster feature of a tachometer scale engraved on the stainless-steel bezel and has a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal. This chronograph is powered by the OMEGA calibre 1152 self-winding chronograph movement, which has an exclusive rhodium-plated finish and a power reserve of 44 hours. The Speedmaster Date of the OMEGA Olympic Timeless Collection is water resistant to 30 metres / 100 feet.
Read more…
Omega is has created a 1932 pocket watch in honor of the Olympic games. Omega, as wel all know has, been the official timekeeper of the Olympics 22 times, including 2006 in Toronto. This watch is a single-button chronometer with blued hands and a sexy retro look that makes me squeal.
Entire release after the jump.
Read more…
Blancier just created a new in-house manufacture, the Regulator. It’s essentially a big minutes hand movement with seconds and hours at 9 and 3 o’clock, respectively, and it’s all done in-house. Blancier – Lottermann & Söhne
Help us help you this year. Fill out our 1st Annual WWR reader’s survey and register to win a black Nooka ZOT watch courtesy of Nooka.com. Deadline for entries is Midnight, January 31, 2006.
All email addresses will be destroyed after the contest is over. Please tell us what you think about WWR and tell us a bit about yourself so we can expand and improve our coverage next year.
Survey Site
Clever “no hands” watch. Nice history by WristFashion.
A decade before Issey Miyake came out with the TO or years before Ron Arad did “Look Ma, No Hands” for Alessi, there was the Time Dimension. Designed by Hans Donner in collaboration with watchmaker, Bernhard Lederer, the watch took nine years to make and was probably the first watch to contain three discs instead of hands to tell time.
No Hands [wristfashion.com]
Jayhawk collected just about every Seiko and Citizen model there is, leading to a 15,000 image collection of EVERYTHING. Very nice.
The following database contains over 15,000 watch photographs that have been contributed by numerous members of watch forums and from a wide variety of other Internet sources.
Jayhawk’s Watch Photograph Database [Jayhawk]
Jack restored this 6138-0011 Sportsmatic. Basically it’s New Old Stock at this point – NOS for you watch n00bs.
My recent restored watchie…. 6138-0011 contents… [Seiko&Citizen Forum]
