All Wound Up: New Automatic Movements Generate Excitement

Cartier Rotonde de Cartier Astroregulateur

This is an English translation of a story that ran in Cronos magazine in Mexico in summer 2011

Though he invented the rotating oscillating weight for pocket watches around 1770, Abraham Louis Perrelet’s concept for an automatic watch that harnesses energy from the wearer was much better suited for wristwatches, which followed more than a century later. John Harwood, a watch repairer from the Isle of Man, filed a patent for a bumper winding system in 1923, but it was Rolex that set the benchmark with 1930’s Oyster Perpetual wound by a semi-circular weight that rotated 360 degrees. “Rolex was the first to introduce 360-degree rotation, and that was probably the biggest 20th-century invention,” says John Reardon Senior Vice President and Head of Sotheby’s Watch & Clock department in New York City. “After that, there wasn’t a big bump until Patek Philippe’s 12-600 caliber and the Ref. 2526 in 1954. That was a game changer because it was the first time a very high-end company offered an automatic system. The mythology is that Patek had to wait for Rolex’s patent to expire.” While the basic premise of the automatic winding system remains the same—to generate energy from the wearer’s arm motions—watchmakers recently have been working to advance these systems with heightened efficiency, adjustable speed settings, bi-directional systems, and even peripheral oscillators that allow a full view of the movement through the case back.

Sleek & Chic: Ultra-Thin Watches For A New Age

Piaget Emperador Coussin Tourbillon Automatic

Even before the economic crisis, old-guard watch houses were referencing their archives for inspiration, perhaps looking for an antidote to the design excess of the mid-aughts. Amid a sea of behemoth Darth Vader watches, retro styles were aesthetic palate cleansers that oozed elegance and good taste. The financial crisis only reinforced this trend as brands espoused the lasting value of classic design. Another boost came from the burgeoning Chinese market, where classic, round watches from status marques continue to be in high demand. The retro resurgence has swept in a new generation of ultra-thin watches modeled on the svelte timepieces of the 1950s and 1960s. This year, brand after brand offers its own take on thin—most still referencing the past. But Richard Mille and Piaget have been proving that thin doesn’t have to mean traditional anymore.

Time Machines: Radical Watch Designs for the 21st Century

MB&F HM4 Thunderbolt

As I recently held MB&F’s latest twin-engine HM4, aptly dubbed Thunderbolt, I recalled the first time I saw the prototype for MB&F’s HM1 (Horological Machine Number 1) in a Geneva café before the nascent brand’s debut piece launched in 2006. Max Büsser took a huge risk by investing in a boutique brand that embodied his radical vision of watchmaking, and it has paid off with a devoted fan base enamored with the concept of wearing futuristic machines rather than watches. Though the Thunderbolt’s functions are straightforward—hours and minutes with power reserve—the design is anything but simple. Inspired by the model airplanes he assembled as a kid, Büsser’s titanium and sapphire crystal instrument was three years in the making, given the complexity of its specially designed 300-plus components.