If you’re looking to join the crazy-huge-sexy crowd and don’t mind quartz, head over to the Haffstreuner store for MONSTER WATCHES for about $250. These beasts are made by the same folks who brought us Tauchmeister and I’ll give them a 6 out of 10 for quality and a 10 out of 10 for wildness. Strangely enough I actually dig the style on these.
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.
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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What a pleasant find! An affordable ETA 2824-2 watch from a Swiss company. The Ollech and Wajs M-65 watch is available from Gnomon Watches or West Coast Time, but the NATO style dial is only available from West Coast Time. Service from WCR was prompt and friendly. The proprietor, Howard Marx answered emailed several questions very promptly before I placed the order, and created a feeling of personalized service. The packaging was unassuming, with a simple but sturdy box.
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After years of suffering, watch geeks are finally getting products dedicated to their quirky and specific tastes. Sure, any oldster can sport a gold Rolex, but what is an Emo kid with a gadget fetish to wear? A Swatch?
Companies like Tokyoflash and Nooka have filled that techno-void with watches that are both high-tech and cool looking. Now, add another member to that selfsame roster.
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.
Just got a chance to pay with the iControl. Don’t buy it if you’re looking for a sports watch. Buy it if you want to control your iPod from your wrist.
The Timex iControl is a watch/dongle combination that lets you control your iPod from your Timex Ironman. The watch itself is quite small and thin — very lightweight — and it has five iPod control buttons as well as a complete set of watch functions including a 50-lap memory, timer, and two alarms. Dongle itself is much larger than the Nike+iPod kit and takes up the iPod’s docking port, which is kind of upsetting since you can no longer use the pedometer if you have both.
Timex iControl Review [CrunchGear]
As of late yesterday a deal was struck for a JV between Swatch Group and Tiffany for the world’s largest watch company to manufacture, market and distribute the watches by one of the world’s premier luxury brands.
Oligarchs rejoice!
Just talked to Yizhi at WatchLuxus.com, our latest advertiser and a man with a mission. We did a quick Q&A over email and here’s what I got.
Me: Tell me about WatchLuxus.com
Yizhi: Watchluxus.com is designed to become the ultimate destination for people interested in anything connected with the quality watch market.
The website offers a complete on-line catalogue of every high-value wristwatch collection, world-wide, to support everyone – from people buying a gift, to an expert looking for a collector’s item. The site also features a watch-finder, market-place for secondhand watches, watch forum and news blog.
Me: Hey, we’re a news blog too! But that’s OK. Now you mentioned something about helping in the purchase process?
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I’m an Omega-lover to my core… not sure why, but over the few years I’ve been collecting, Omega has consistently excited and invited me without putting me off with odd designs and frou-frou styling. I wear my Seamaster Pro Chrono daily, rarely swapping it for other watches, and until it breaks or pulls me to the bottom of the ocean, that probably won’t change.
That said, I also like my Speedmaster Triple Calendar. I’ve had it for about a year now and didn’t write it up simply because I’m too lazy. However, it’s a real charmer.
WWR fave Blancier just launched an amazing new world timer. This is a fully manufacture movement and, as such, costs over $20,000. Gah!!!! Trying to figure out how it works.
Worldtimers? There are a great many worldtimers. Almost every respected watch brand has such a model in its collection. In reality, these watches could only show the various time zones of the world in approximate terms… until now.
The master craftsmen of Lottermann & Söhne from the Germany city of Mannheim present the Blancier Worldtimer 1. Their self-designed mechanical timepiece shows all 39 of the world’s time zones at a glance. Behind the beautiful harmony of the colourful yet subtle watch face is the mechanical movement which took two years to develop.
I wrote a review for my “day job” site, CrunchGear.com, of the Timex TX 730. Head on over and check it out.
Timex has long been the butt of countless jokes. A brand that used to take a licking and keep on ticking has been reduced to bargain bin quartz pieces with a few bright lights like the Ironman series to keep it afloat. Well, Timex has pulled a complete 180 and released a watch that I can honestly say is a step forward for the brand and, dare I say it, everyday horology.
Timex TX 730 Hands On [CrunchGear]
