I’m assuming the watch doesn’t really spin like a Looney Tune on drugs, but here’s Blancier’s latest creation, the Crazy Planet with a clever external gear system that adds a bit of cool to the beefy three-handed design. More news on pricing and availability as we get it, but Blancier has been pumping out the hits for years now. Great stuff.

Blancier Handmade Watches is proud to present the latest creation of its
Manufacture Lottermann & Söhne from the German city of Mannheim.

With “Crazy Planet” – developed and produced entirely in house – Blancier is once again introducing a watch of unparalleled world class.

The most important wheels of the Crazy Planet are laid out in a planet orbit
formation. In normal mechanical watches, all wheels are invisible, hidden under the watch face. Blancier has made wheels visible by displaying the workings on top of the watch face.

Sven van der Zande of Buscum Ducis is young entrepreneur in the best way. Taking risk, while putting forth a product and business built on idealism and the customer. Although he denies the idealism, his focus on the customer sends another message in a time when companies buy up old names for marketing purposes.

At 21, he’s been in business for a few years already, but chose to start his own watch company. He says, “I like designing and brainstorming in my spare time and I have always thought that there are only very few companies in the world that really concentrate on one concept, that is what I am going to do, I am going to design a watch with input from my customers to make this watch as perfect as it can be, with a lot of personal customer service. Which means that both buying the watch and the service afterwards is as personal as it gets. All for lower prices then your average watch with those specifications.”
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Bell & Ross makes monster watches and this is their latest. It’s has both a tourbillion — the odd spinning thing that rotates ones per hour and ostensibly offsets the effects of gravity — and a Miniteur. A Miniteur is like a chronometer but it measures tens of minutes and minutes and not hours, minutes, and seconds. Why you would need this is a mystery, but it sure looks like you could get into it and drive it. No, you can’t afford it. Neither can I. Neither can God. There’s actually another version, below, sans Tourbillion, that God could potentially afford.
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Reader and watch fan Sven just sent me some concept art for his new line of watches, Buscum Ducis. He’s building prototypes right now and we can expect final product in about two months. I always love it when folks decide to build their own watches. It shows that not just the big houses can add some magic to this tired market.

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Our buddy Watchismo is selling these wild pieces on his online store. LIP is a 150-year-old French watch company that launched a series of Mach 2000 watches back in the boogie nights of 1973. The odd styling and off-center face speak of a simpler time when men were men and watchmakers were on acid.

This retooled Mach 2000, called the Dark Master, uses a Swiss ETA quartz movement and includes a rubber strap. It is water resistant and features jolly candy buttons and sexy little yellow hands. Check out the shop for even more models including the Revival, a LED watch, and the crazy jump hour by Prisca Briquet. Yeah, I don’t know who that is either. The Mach 2000s are $520 and the rest are about $300.

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A reader on CrunchGear posted a comment discussing the Kindle cake beloved by Jeff Bezos. He pointed out that the ladies tend to like to make these cakes and that his wife made a freaking Stowa Airman cake for his birthday.

Go to Christopher Ward Watches, and see the work of a visionary. Chris Ward is an entrepreneur who returned to the watch industry, and has made a bit of a splash. His goal is to make “the cheapest most expensive watch in the world” at “the biggest ‘smallest’ watch company”.

He uses first rate Swiss movements, currently ETA 2824 automatic, ISA quartz, and Ronda quartz movements (but Valjoux may be on the horizon). Style and substance go together when these bits of quality mechanism are put inside tasteful cases with restrained dials and hands. The basic watches, in his Russell and Malvern lines are relativel small by modern standards at 38 mm, but some of the other chronographs and his dive watches are a little more typical at 42mm. The styling of the chronographs was also a pleasant surprise as it was not the customary Rolex, or Breitling homage, but a distinct designs that took a few risks without getting as gaudy as the fashion watches. The Russell line stands out as distinctive and classic, and one of the other lines was inspired by early IWC aviators’ watches, but still look good. The attention to detail comes through in the photos, and they certainly look like $500 to $1000 (U.S.) watches, but the collection averages about half that.
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Let me start by thanking John for the opportunity to contribute to WWR.

A few words about me; I’m a watch fan. I come at it as an amateur historian who appreciates the watch’s role in history (note that the affordable wristwatch made ’s list of “Top Ten Military Innovations of the XXth Century” on www.Strategypage.com), as well as being a guy with the not-uncommon fetish for small and intricate gadgets. Watches, especially mechanical watches, also appeal to me as bits of order, precision, and accuracy, in an otherwise chaotic and messy world. Finally, watches are tools, and valuable tools in every endeavor I have been involved with in my adult life. I don’t consider myself a collector as I lack the passion and intensity of a true collector, but I have a number of watches, and appreciate them.

Professionally, I’ve been in the military one way or another since 1983. Currently, I’m a reservist, and something of a professional student appart from that. In addition to watches, I’m interested in history, classical and sport fencing (saber and foil), coffee, beer, bourbon, and cooking.

Thanks again, John, for the opportunity to be part of the team!

I was going through my Marketplace, there on the side, and found this odd-looking Omega Seamaster. It’s got a light blue face. But why? Can someone give me some answers?
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