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Three for January

U-BOAT Flightdeck Chronograph
Back in 1942 the "Officine Fontana" was poised to produce a professional watch for the distinguished officers of its navy’s U-Boats. Though the project was ultimately scrapped, the distinctive original drawings, color samples and innovative materials were lovingly preserved for more than 60 years. In 2000, Italo Fontana, a cousin of the watchmaker’s late founder, made a long held company dream come true with the launch of the U-Boat watches, just like their original namesake, are bold, aggressive and over-sized.

TAG Heuer Carrera Automatic Chronograph Day / Date
The TAG Heuer Carrera Automatic Chronograph Day-Date gets its name from its TAG Heuer Calibre 1 automatic chronograph movement and it’s scratch resistant sapphire crystal Day-Date glace. This TAG Heuer watch comes with a polished steel case with a tachymeter scale on its black aluminum bezel and black dial design. Other options include a brown aluminum bezel and brown dial or a polished steel bezel and silver dial. However, no matter what material or color combination chosen, anti-reflective sapphire crystal graces both sides of this luxury watch. Measuring at 43 mm, the case of the TAG Heuer Carrera Automatic Chronograph Day-Date watch is also scratch resistant. The dial, black, silver or brown, has three unique timing features moving at once. At 6 o’clock an hour chronograph ticks away while the seconds chronograph moves at the 9 o’clock marker and the minute chronograph sits at the 12 o’clock marker. Each of the hour numerals are hand applied luminescent Arabic matching the hour and minute hands for improved legibility in the dark. A large date window also sits at 3 o’clock marker.

Breguet Marine Tourbillon Chronograph

The chronograph is made to celebrate the Breguet contribution in the navy watches elaboration. Such a watch immediately fascinates watch connoisseurs. And it's not surprising. The manually-wound Breguet watch mechanism caliber 554.2T has power reserve of 50 hours. It is individually numbered and signed Breguet. The numerals are Roman and there are also luminous dots there. As for the case, it measures 42 mm, is made of 18K rose gold and has a double sapphire crystal that makes it water resistant to 100 meters. The case back is hand-engraved. Its strap is made of caoutchouc and has a folding clasp also made of rose gold. And of course it is just impossible to imagine such a great watch without a tourbillion; all the more it is a watch from legendary Breguet who invented such a great mechanism.

Three Tourbillons

CONCORD C1 Tourbillon Gravity
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Concord’s C1 Tourbillon Gravity watch is one of the most stunning high-mech tourbillon executions to come out in some time. Notable for the fact it DOESN’T place the tourbillon at front and center—this virtuoso Concord watch unites many interesting horological elements which in combination exude a sense of futuristic fascination and high-tech wonder. The amazing multi-tiered dial, with its dizzyingly complex textures and materials invites the viewer on a unique technical adventure; there is a sense of dynamic tension here that creates excitement and makes the watch so much more than the sum of its parts. The trust index and power reserve indicators are fascinating, as is the chronograph, which unites chrono hours and minutes on a single dial.

Blancpain Carrousel Volant Une Minute
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The Blancpain Carrousel Volant Une Minute watch is an entirely new complicated watch from Blancpain, which confirms the spirit for inventive haute horlogerie that has made the brand a revered reference among collectors. This watch's remarkable movement is inspired by the nearly forgotten carrousel, an invention of Danish watchmaker Bahne Bonniksen. Created in its original form in 1892, the carrousel--like Abraham-Louis Breguet's tourbillon--sought to counter the effects of gravity upon the escapement of a timepiece. Considerably more complex than Bonniksen's original device, and greatly miniaturized as well, the self-winding movement of this Blancpain watch comprises 262 individual pieces. The carrousel has been meticulously engineered to complete a single revolution each minute, another factor that makes it remarkable; traditional carrousels completed a single rotation at an unspecified rate that could vary between 27 and 42 minutes. The inventive mechanism was developed by Blancpain in collaboration with highly creative associates, including the remarkable watchmaker Vincent Calabrese. In all, over four years were invested in the watch's realization and creation.


Frédérique Constant Tourbillon Manufacture
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Frédérique Constant is proud to introduce a World Premiere: a Tourbillon watch with a Silicium Escapement Wheel. Based on its award-winning Heart Beat Manufacture Calibre, Frédérique Constant developed its Tourbillon fully in-house with a number of unique features. According to the brand’s technical notes, they have achieved significant amplitude gains in virtually every position (compared with other unnamed high-end tourbillons). Cased in 18K rose gold, this watch is limited to 188 pieces – a number that reflects the number of components used in the movement. It is also available in an 18K white gold case.

Three Divers

Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean Chronograph
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Beyond the requisites of a professional diver’s watch (300 metres/1000 feet) this model is water resistant to 600 metres/2000 feet. Other features that distinguish this as a professional diver’s instrument are the screw-in crown and screw-down case back, the helium escape valve, the fluted uni-directional rotating bezel featuring a luminous dot and the highly visible hands on the dial.
The matte black dial offers excellent contrast thanks to applied luminous hour markers and the use of Arabic numerals in either white or orange at 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock. The date window is positioned between 4 and 5 o’clock. The facetted rhodium-plated arrowhead hour and minute hands have SuperLuminova inserts and a highly visible orange tip further enhances the luminous arrowhead seconds hand. Along with the luminous dot on the bezel, the high visibility of the markers and hands are invaluable for measuring precise dive times, even when descending to the darkest depths of the ocean.

BALL Engineer Master II Diver Chronograph
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BALL Engineer Master II Diver Chronograph watch powered by Valjoux/ETA 7750 automatic chronograph movement with day and date calendar. 330 feet water resistant. Stainless steel satin finished case, black rubber watch strap, sapphire crystal, inner turning 60 minutes bezel with orange color sector, micro gas tubes for night reading capability. Very cool looking watch....

IWC Aquatimer "Cousteau" Divers Chronograph
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The Aquatimer Chronograph “Cousteau Divers” has the useful, supplementary function of a rotating inner bezel that is indispensable for diving, but which can only be rotated in a single direction for safety reasons. The chronograph reset button at 4.00 is designed with a dual function – as a crown for adjusting the unidirectional rotating bezel and, at the same time, as a reset button for the chronograph. When this combined operating element is depressed, the small internal transmission wheel for the rotating bezel is disengaged automatically. This facilitates operation of all the functions of the watch.

Three Chronographs

Orient Chronograph
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The Orient Watch Company manufactures and distributes over two million designer watches a year, over one million of which are mechanical wrist watches featuring in-house movements. In total, the Orient Watch Company has produced over 80 million wrist watches, including a large selection of chronograph watches.

Bremont ALT1-Z Chronograph
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The Bremont ALT1-Z was designed with aviators and world travellers in mind. Z stands for 'Zulu Time' and allows the wearer to display local time together with the official world time standard - Universal Time Coordinated (UTC), Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), or even Zulu time (Z). UTC (replacing GMT in 1972) is therefore used as the standard clock of choice for international reference time in communications, military, aviation, maritime and other activities that cross time zones. This is one of the primary reasons why the Bremont ALT1-Z incorporating a modified Valjoux 7754 undertaken with peerless execution, has become the watch of choice for the professionals involved in these activities. The watch case integrates an internally rotating bezel operated by a crown on the left-hand side of the watch

Breitling Navitimer Chronograph
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Navitimer Series has symbolized the Breitling brand since 1952 and gave pilots a genuine wrist instrument. It became the official watch of the AOPA, the worlds largest group of pilots. The Navitimer is the worlds oldest continuously produced Chronograph.

Three new images this week

Porsche Design Flat Six P'6340 Automatic Chronograph
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Avante-garde design and technology merge to produce stunning timepieces as efficient as the carmaker's line of high performance vehicles. With novel materials, exciting dial colors and innovative movement decorations, Porsche Design continues to produce gorgeous watches that the car lover and watch aficionado may both appreciate. Case in point is the Porsche PTC 911 with mag-wheel inspired rotor design that may have you spending more time looking through the sapphire crystal caseback, than at the actual time.

LUM-TEC M4 Chronograph
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Low volume US based watchmaker LUM-TEC offers this M4 chronograpgh in a series limited to 55 pieces worldwide.

Romain Jerome Titanic DNA
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This sweet looking limited edition Titanic DNA wristwatch from Romain Jerome actually utitlizes real steel from the Titanic. This version in particular uses rusted steel, which I think looks the best. It is also available in platinum/rusted steel, pink gold, and white gold versions.

Yet more...

ZENITH Chronomaster El Primero GMT OPEN
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TAG Heuer's latest SLR McLaren for Mercedes Benz
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A fantasy SWATCH chronograph
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Vulcain Cricket GMT Alarm
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Carl F. Bucherer Patravi TravelTec Four X
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ORIS commemorates it's partnership with the Willimas Formula 1 team with this sleek
black and silver chronograph.
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Gerard Perregeaux offers this stunning GP9973 Caliber Tourbillon Chronograph
Limited to 33 pieces with an asking price upwards of $250,000 USD
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