A little bird sent us these images Swatch’s upcoming Tourbillon collection, the Turn to Her and Turn to Him. I don’t have much information but I do know that Swatch used to make automatic mechanical movements but stopped some time in this decade. This new movement appears to use a rotating cage to move the balance wheel in a full rotation around the central stalk, a design decision which differs from the standard stationary tourbillon cage.
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Obama wears a Jorg Gray 6500 Series Chrono and now you, too, can own the same watch. How much is this piece of presidential ephemera? $325, babies, and worth every penny. Here’s the story:
org Gray 6500 Chronograph worn by President Obama was given to him as a 46th birthday present by the members of his Secret Service detail. President Obama was the earliest Presidential candidate to be assigned a full Secret Service detail (in May 2007) and his relationship with the members of his security team has been reported to be very close.
It runs a Citizen Miyota quartz movement, which makes President Obama another proud member of the quartz majority. Pick it up now and own, quite literally, a piece of history. It’s a basic chrono movement with the following complications:
12-hour main watch with luminous seconds hand
24-hour indicator inset dial at three o-clock position
Continuous seconds indicator at six o-clock position
Chronograph minutes (stop-watch) at nine o-clock position
You know me and my watch fetish. Well, there’s one rarified section of the watch industry where mere mortals dare not tread. While you and I can’t “go there,” MB&F certainly went, producing the Horological Machine #3, a dual read-out crazy clock with a large date wheel and an odd inverted power transmission system using bearings and disks.
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Sure, we can talk about watches all we want, but can we say we know how to remove a watch cyclops? Tick Talk is a blog by a certified watchmaker and he tells the story of Cyclopsi in real life.
There are two kinds of people in the world, those who like a cyclops and those who don’t. I often see people on timezone wanting to know how to remove the cyclops from their watch. And then other people come into my shop and want me to put one on their watch. I have one customer who brings in every new watch he buys and has me install a cyclops.
Cyclops Removal [Tick Talk]
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.
Product Page
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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The little experiments and photos were taken in April 2007, and had forgotten all about it.
I’m a notebook-user, and I’ve sent 2 watches for abnormal daily rate getting faster without placing my watches near mobile, speakers or even bags with the magnetic clips!
There is only one thing I use daily and many hours with it….. my notebook (or laptop)!
Coincidentally, I was trying to find some answers and was reading Donald de Carle’s Practical Watch Repairing…and there was a chapter on magnetism ( I’ve enclose a page of it for your reference, and also for the respect of copyrights).
* Magnetism, Have We Missed Out The Obvious? Laptop-Users Be Aware! [WatchProSite]
One of my favorite homebrew watchmakers, Serket, just launched the Reef Diver 2.0, a beefy automatic with a beautiful huge bezel. I loved the original Reef Diver and this new model looks extra good. It costs $999.
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I’ve been clearly failing our dedicated watch readers with my coverage of odd and sexy designs. Take the Nooka Zirc for example. It has a 45mm face with a 22mm band and looks like a Dick Tracy watchphone — but isn’t. The dots show the hour and the long bar shows the minutes. It’s $350 but trust me, Matt Waldman makes a mean watch.
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