I’m going to apologize in advance for this review. There are some who may be offended by its content in that I am discussing, in relative depth, an erotic watch of the type made popular by randy potentates in the 18th and 19th centuries along with one aspect that I find utterly vile and revolting. It is important to state that I do not condone this aspect of the watch and I find it highly offensive to boot.
The bile is rising even as I write this, friends, for this $34 watch from eBay advertises itself as a tourbillon yet is as far from a tourbillon as humanly possible. If tourbillon were the sun and this watch were a meteorite, the meteorite would be five million light years from the sun. And exploded already. And in little pieces in some distant star field. That’s how distant this is from a tourbillon.
Note: This is kind of NSFW.
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I like Poljot, but I went to an actual Poljot store and tried a few of their models and found many of them were quite poorly made. Hopefully, this Alarm Traveller is considerably better. This has a mechanical alarm. The extra crowns are for setting the time and winding the internal alarm. Much like a Seiko Bellmatic, the alarm sounds like a teeny-tiny clockwork alarm clock as hammers pound on the sides of the case. Cute.
Is Happy Day! The Traveller Post about a watch containing an alarm complication arrived Laughing out loud! and Poll Post contains Picture(s) [PMWF]
KrazyDad reviews a super cool wooden clock kit made of pressboard, dowels, and not much else. Very George Washington Carver.
Here are the components spread out. Most of the parts are laser cut plywood. There are also some dowels, screws, nylon washers and string. The kit comes with a detailed and helpful 43 page instruction manual, that is *much* better than the terse instructions that come with IKEA furniture. Jeff is very careful to navigate you through most of the potential “gotchas” that will occur during the construction process. I started working on the clock about 2 and a half weeks ago, working mostly on weekends. All in all, I’ve probably spent about 20 hours on it thus far.
The Ascent – A Wooden Clock Kit [KrazyDad]
I’m thinking this Omega ain’t that hot, but it’s a nice concept. It’s basically a retread of a 1915 piece using caliber 2200 inside a rose gold case.
This Omega Museum watch is an absolute stunner. A limited [1915 pieces] reedition of the 1915 Omega Petrograd watch, featuring the omega caliber 2200 and in Red gold on a leather strap with reference number of 5703.30.0 it is part of Omega’s museum line of classic re-issues.
Omega Museum Watch [OmegaBlogger]
Looks like the Chinese tourbillon juggernaut is slowly marching across the horizon and this one, by the Samson Watch Company – not affiliated with the Delilah Haircutting Shears Company – is no exception. Apparently this thing actually isn’t that bad and keeps good time. But when everyone owns a tourbillon, how can tourbillon makers jack up the price?
Do you really get what you pay for? A report. [TimeZone]
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]
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
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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
WUS has a nice thread about breaking in mechanical watches – why don’t you just wear them? Fun advice.
To maintain accuracy it is not necessary that you wind up your watch on a regular basis if you don´t wear it day by day. But if you`re wearing your handwounded watch day by day it seems reasonable to wind it up daily, so that the tension of the spring is kinda constant which ist the best way to provide accuracy.
No problem with automatic watches though when wearing on a daily basis because the automatic winding “automatically” provides the “right” tension of the spring.
Breaking-in a Mechanical Watch?? [WatchUSeek]
Patek screws up. Big time.
What? What’s the problem? Well, you simply cannot rapidly and accurately read the stopwatch time between 27 and 33 seconds as the calender cuts in to the stopwatch scale. 0/10 for function Patek. Sorry, but it’s just not acceptable to make GLARING FUNCTIONAL ERRORS on watches this expensive. However, it is becoming more and more common through the industry. I can quote other examples but why bother? Nobody seems interested. These type of watches remain sales successes with the general public and get worshipped even by the cognoscenti. Here’s the 5970 and question is, what’s the stopwatch time?
Patek Philippe 5970 – Pasta Timer or True Chronograph? [Velociphile's Journey into Watches]
Holy crap.
Pièce Unique for the “only watch 2005” charity auction. “Cabriolet” wristwatch in rose and white gold; manually wound caliber 215 PS movement with subsidiary seconds. The two-tone silvery dial features rose gold baton indexes and two applied Breguet-style numerals at 12 o’clock. The subsidiary seconds dial at 6 o’clock emulates the square shape of the case.
Check it out here.
OK. So this isn’t a GMT, but it has a 24 hour dial and, technically, shows two time zones, so it appears to fit the bill. Like many Vostoks, this piece feels like something that fell through the cracks in the 1980s – something post-Communist and pre-Mafiya that would be worn by mid-level bureaucrats and farmers alike, and perhaps the occasional cosmonaut during his long, post-outer space stint as a Moscow taxi driver.
That said, this is one of the nicest 24-hour pieces for less than $50 you can find.
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I wrote a profile of Blancier for InSync magazine, one of the best titles out there for U.S. watch coverage—I’m not just saying that, either. Go and get yourself a copy and read some of their great Basel coverage and to read my interviews with Willem Kamerman and Till Lottermann, two of the coolest watch ninjas out there.
Weve thus far been pleased with the small selection of Davosa pieces we received here at the Watch Cave. Unfortunately, and, in a way, fortunately, the Davosa 160.394.56 aka the Mecanique, was the weakest piece of the bunch, which says a lot about Davosa as a whole.
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When a man and a watchmaker love each other very much, they get together and make beautiful watches. That’s exactly what happened in the Netherlands. Willem Kamerman and Till Lottermann wanted to create a system for creating and selling excellent, high-end dress watches on-line. Thus, Blancier was born.
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