Europe in the mid to late 18th century was not as backwards as some people may believe. In fact, much of the developed world was at a point of incredible intellectual advancement. In Switzerland, for example, a man named Jaquet Droz and his team were building real, honest-to-HAL robots. They didn’t call them that back then, but these automaton androids were incredibly advanced even by today’s… → Read More
Mio made some fairly cool heart-rate watches a few years ago but they required you to place a finger on two little pads while running in order to take the measurements. It was interesting, and when you consider that most other heart-rate watches require a chest strap, fairly unique. However, nobody wanted to touch a little thinger just to get their heart rate.
Enter the Mio Alpha. This new… → Read More
You know you want this thing: it’s a crazy watch from Tokyoflash called the Kisai Uzumaki and it’s designed to look like some sort of organic sea anemone blossoming on your wrist.
The watch has an electroluminescent backlight which lights up vinyl disks which spin to tell the time. It’s not as hard to read as some Tokyoflash watches and they want to give you one. → Read More
People keep asking, “Why would anyone of sane mind buy a $17,000 luxury watch with a Space Invader’s theme?” If you are familiar with the Swiss watch brand Romain Jerome – you don’t need an answer. They are the people that brought you pieces such as the Titanic DNA (with metal from the actual titanic), and the Moon Dust DNA (with yea… real dust the from moon and metal from spare parts of the… → Read More
California-based watch maker Devon made a name for themselves a few years ago when they released the Tread 1. The modern looking electro-mechanical timepiece dazzled people with its tread-based system to indicate the time. It was large, highly unorthodox for a high-end timepieces, and a little crazy. A full review of the Devon Tread 1 is here. → Read More
You no doubt are familiar with the Xetum brand, based out of California. If not, just have a look over at to the side of the page. In the past, we’ve reviewed their Tyndall model; today, we’ll be taking a look at the Stinson.
The Stinson presents as a very minimalistic three-hander, and it does it with style. I say that for two reasons – first, it’s an extremely clean dial. Second, the… → Read More
In the watch world the Meccanico dG watch is a bit of a legend. Originally debuted back in 2008, it helped bridge the gap between modern tech toys and high-end mechanical watches. The all-mechanical design features dual time displays. One, a standard analog dial. Second, a digital display that uses countless small parts to indicate a second time zone like the piece’s electronic cousins. Incredibly… → Read More
As a big watch nerd, I love sharing cool watches with you guys in hopes that my obsession, as unseemly as it is, will be passed from writer to reader like an STD. This time I was lucky enough to be able to handle the new Ernst Benz Officer ChronoLunar, a huge “officer-style” chronograph with day-date-lunar cycle registers and a 24-hour dial.
To be clear, this watch uses the Valjoux 7751… → Read More
No self-respecting gadget lover can deny that MB&F’s very high-end artistic wrist machines are overall cool. Most of us can’t afford them, but items like this certain stir our ambitious sides. Recently MB&F released a new limited version of their Horological Machine Number 3 (HM3) watch that was designed and produced in collaboration with a boutique Finnish watch maker named Stepan… → Read More
I rarely like to put my own little fetishistic watch reviews up here unless the watch is something amazingly unique or unless I think you, dear reader, will get a kick out of the quality or styling of a particular piece. That’s why I chose to write up this Benarus Megalodon Diving Watch, a huge monster of a timepiece that is water resistant to 2,500 meters or about 8,000 feet. Considering the… → Read More
For the third time in a row Tag Heuer has once again released the worlds most precise mechanical chronograph watch. The oddly named Mikrogirder 2000 watch measures time with 5/10,000th of a second precision (and flair).
The best German luxury brand A. Lange & Sohne releases a watch that sincere watch connoisseurs will go ga-ga over. It is the new Lange 1 Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar… → Read More
The famous and very iconic Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch get’s “Watch What-Iffed” using Photoshop to explore what variations on the core design would look like.
A new analog & digital combination watch for pilots was just announced by Hamilton called the Khaki Flight Timer. It has loads of features in a conservative Swiss package. → Read More
Casio Japan is planning [JP] to roll out the G-SHOCK GB-6900 on March 16 next year, a wristwatch that connects to certain smartphones via Bluetooth LE (LE=low-energy, a standard that’s baked into Bluetooth 4.0). The device will be compatible with the Medias LTE N-04D Android phone from NEC (to be released next year) and NEC’s Medias PP N-01D.
Casio says that the G-SHOCK not only synchronizes… → Read More
Zurich-based Maurice de Mauriac timepieces are now available with an optional upgraded movement purchased by high-end watch movement maker Concepto. The cool new chronograph movements are mostly black with compelling decor.
Girard-Perregaux’s very respectable Sea Hawk II diving watch model gets reviewed. The famous durable diver has some of the best luminant on the market in a very detailed… → Read More
Planning a trip around the world in 80 days? Spending some time with the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? You’re going to need this $149 Tokyoflash, touchscreen pocket watch that, is as far as I can tell, unreadable by mere mortals.
The watch comes in four colors and features a touch display to scroll through the dual-time, date, and alarm features. It’s cased in a nice steel case with… → Read More
In the strange, small world of watchmaking, there’s lots of money to be made on items that we would call, at best, totemic. To make those items, you still need small mechanical parts. That’s where Nivarox comes in.
Nivarox makes balance springs. The name stands for “ni variable, ni oxydable,” which translates to “neither variable nor oxidable.” These tiny springs swing the balance wheel in… → Read More
For the 2011 holiday season aBlogtoRead.com is giving away a total of ten watches. Winners will be chosen randomly and selected to win one of the available timepieces. Up for grabs are some desirable mechanical watches and cool gadget pieces.
While we tend to prefer “new” versus “old,” there is a certain charm in some vintage watches. A great brand to look at is Swiss Omega, and here is a very… → Read More
If you’re planning a marathon next year or just full of delicious stuffing and turkey, you may want to look into getting a sports watch. These wrist computers offer GPS, heart-rate, and pace measurements for runners, bikers, and, most recently, swimmers and they can help motivate you to get off your duff and, what’s more, help you shave some seconds off your time.
I’ve used all of these except… → Read More
We first talked about the Wimm One in August, noting that no wearable device has ever made sense to me, at least in watch format. I believe I may need to eat my words. The Wimm is a clever little module – the watch band is removable – that runs simple applets. It runs a stripped down version of Android and includes a fairly complete SDK for programming little widgets. In this incarnation, it… → Read More
A few of the most forward thinking European watch designers have come together to bring the quirky and highly forward-thinking brand called Ochs und Junior. The brand offers watches that combine ease of telling the time with minimalism – and they are available in literally any color combination you can dream of. → Read More
Phosphor has just announced a new world time/dual timezone model, the World Time Sport. The company is well-known for their e-ink watches (we reviewed a few here) and this one uses a unique touch interface to scroll through multiple timezones as well as various screens including a dual-time screen for travelers. → Read More
I got to sit down with Steve Hallock, the North American president of MB&F and driving force behind the Swiss watch brand’s western expansion. The watch he brought for us is the LM1 aka the Legacy Machine #1, a new piece we wrote about earlier last month and that is just now shipping to oligarchs and captains of industry around the world. → Read More
In the pantheon of mechanical wristwatches, the Speedmaster holds a high place. Originally built in 1957 as a reaction to the first wrist-worn chronographs coming out of competing houses, the iconic design – white on black with bold, eminently readable chapter rings and pips – the Speedmaster cemented its place in history when Buzz Aldrin wore his on the moon in 1969. Omega has been flogging that… → Read More
If there’s one thing missing from modern watches it’s color. The 70s and 80s brought us things like Doxa’s orange and Breitling’s baby blue but no one, lately, has strayed from the old leathers and grey chromes of modern fashion watcher. Thankfully, the ZIIRO Celeste adds a bit of the old mix-a-lot to some staid steel quartzes. → Read More
As a watch fan, setting your pieces back and forth a few times a year is trivial. But what if you’re dealing with a collection of 8,000 watches? This video shows how the folks at Tourneau Time Machine, New York’s largest watch shop, deal with all of the winding, setting, and checking of their entire stock.
The entire process takes three days, from Friday until Sunday. → Read More
The “Virgin” king Sir Richard Branson teams up with Bulova for a special limited edition watch. 46mm wide and done in titanium, the watch features a GMT hand and world time function.
May the high-end watch world’s fascination with digital mechanical watches never end. The newest drool-worthy mechanical creation is a watch with the simple name of 2LMX. It features a highly complex mechanical… → Read More
It is hard to pull of a good futuristic dive watch design as more traditional looks tend to be more timeless. Clerc however has done well with their Hydroscaph collection. Check out a review of the Clerc Hydroscaph Limited Edition Chronograph watch here. → Read More
Another day, another Tokyoflash watch. The Kisai 7 is a clever, fairly cool watch that looks like something Jeff Bridges picked out of his magisterial beard in the last Tron movie. Priced at $99 for the next 30 hours, you, too, can look like a Program just looking to get out of the CPU. → Read More
The reclusive horologist George Daniels, famous for his work on Breguet and his important co-axial escapement, died last Friday at his home in the Isle of Man. Daniels was 85.
The horologist was one of the first to catalog some of the best known watches in the world, traveling through Europe to examine rare and odd pieces from his favorite manufacturer, Abraham-Louis Breguet, and great watches… → Read More
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