If there’s one watch that perfectly defines Patek Philippe, it has to be the chronograph perpetual calendar – a combination that was first introduced by the brand with the reference 1518 and which is now represented by the 5270. This watch debuted in rather neutral, slightly conservative editions but has been updated recently with far bolder styles, such as the green lacquered edition of 2022. In addition, Patek also proposes a gem-set version in platinum, known as the 5271P. Previously available with diamonds and a black dial, this ultra-luxury reference makes a remarkable comeback this year with two new coloured editions, the new Patek Philippe Chronograph Perpetual Calendar 5271P with rubies or blue sapphires, and matching lacquered dials.
Regarding the proportions and movement, there’s not much news. The Patek Philippe Chronograph Perpetual Calendar 5271P is nothing more than a stone-packed version of the already desirable and high-end 5270. Yet, there are a few things to be said about these new versions of the 5271P, as they follow the evolutions found on the green 5270P presented earlier this year, representing the fourth generation of this model – the previous versions are covered in this in-depth article.
The previous black-and-diamond 5271P was part of the third generation, meaning no “chin” and a tachymeter bezel on the periphery of the dial. Now, in the same vein as the green model, the new Patek Philippe Chronograph Perpetual Calendar 5271P feature a much cleaner dial, with a complete railroad track on the periphery (a continuous track, without the cut at 6 o’clock) and no tachymeter scale. This results in a cleaner, more balanced and modern look. Similarly, the dials are lacquered with bold colours and a gradient effect. Finally, the printings and tracks are pure white and more contrasting than previous editions.
Now, the new versions of the Patek Philippe Chronograph Perpetual Calendar 5271P are set with coloured stones – blue sapphires and rubies – instead of classic diamonds. No surprise here, as Patek has all the necessary skills to make gem-set watches since it recently took a stake in Salanitro SA, the most prominent player in jewellery and gem-setting activities for Swiss Haute Horlogerie. The 41mm platinum case, which is identical to the 5270 models in size and shape, has been adorned with 58 baguette-cut rubies or blue sapphires on both the bezel and the lugs, for a total of 4.11 carats. The result, which is graphic and modern, is also far from being discreet. But this is a style that some clients were asking for.
To add to the audacity of these new editions – 5271/11P with blue sapphires and 5271/12P with rubies – the brand has given them some equally daring dials with matching colours and a glossy lacquer with a black gradient effect. No stones are to be found on the dials, which rely on classic white gold applied markers and hands. The watches are complemented with a glossy black alligator strap with colour-matched stitching and a fold-over clasp that is also set with stones (22 baguette-cut rubies or sapphires, in this instance). Inside the case, no surprises, as we find the advanced calibre CH 29-535 PS Q. This in-house, hand-wound chronograph relies on an appealing architecture with a column wheel and a horizontal clutch, on top of which is a perpetual calendar module. There are multiple innovations and technical solutions implemented at play here, which we covered in detail in this article. The movement indicates the time together with a chronograph with central seconds and 30-minute counter, and a perpetual calendar with date-by-hand, apertures for the day and month, a leap year indicator, a day-night indicator and moon phases… and all of that finds its place on the dial is a balanced and legible way.
Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime 6300
This, I have to admit, came as a shock. It came as a shock to me, and every other single person with whom I spoke that I’d consider knowledgeable about collecting Patek Philippe. The Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime 6300 – reference 5175 – the most complicated Patek wristwatch ever made, of which there were only seven pieces made – six for the best clients in the world, one for the museum – has returned. It has a new reference, in a new case material, and without all that incredibly ornate engraving, but it’s back. First, have a look below at what makes this watch so special.
The price for the Grandmaster Chime? Yup, $2.5 million, and we’re told there was a list a mile long to get it – the six collectors that received it had surely been hand selected by the Sterns for their appreciation of, and long-term commitment to, the brand. But now those six collectors may not feel quite as lucky, as the same incredible caliber – with over 1,500 individual components – is available to more people! Okay, this is still an insanely rare, special piece that will go to only the very best of the best watch buyers in the world, but it doesn’t change the fact that each 5175 was advertised as one of seven in the world, and now there will be more – and in white metal.
Again, the 5175 is the anniversary piece, and it combines mechanical craft with “rare hand craft” as Patek likes to refer to engraving and enamel work, so it is indeed a much more complicated watch to produce with all that case work, but still, to see the same caliber used in this new reference Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime 6300 so soon after the 175th anniversary is interesting to say the least.
The price of the Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime 6300 ? A still staggering $2,200,000, or about $300,000 less than the fully engraved 5175R. No word on many of these will be made or for how long, but I can imagine at least six people out there will be curious to know.
TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre Heuer 02 42 Stainless Steel
TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre Heuer 02 is a brand so steeped in tradition that we’d need more than a few articles to cover how we got from Heuer’s founding by Edouard Heuer in 1860 in St-Imier, Switzerland, to the present day. A brand so intrinsically linked to timekeeping perfection and the motorsports world that it has sponsored Formula 1 and other racing series for decades.
Since 2020 marks the 160th anniversary of TAG Heuer, the brand has been on a roll introducing various timepieces (read HERE, HERE) that pay tribute to the brand’s past, while uniquely positioning its design and technicity with a keen eye towards the future.
For much of the past decade, the aesthetic of TAG Heuer’s line up has been divided by the concept of modernity, paying favor to both the resolutely classic and the decidedly modern. As such, the “Heuer Heritage” family stands in stark contrast with watches like the Connected Modular, the colorful Formula 1, or the bold and complex Heuer Carrera Calibre Heuer 02. As a brand forced to balance the weight of its own legacy with its continued existence as a producer of products for an ever-changing market, TAG Heuer has to find new ways of communicating the message, even when speaking to buyers that know nothing of the brand’s history. With that in mind, let’s take a look at a very modern evolution of the Heuer form, the TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre Heuer 02.
Fans of the Monaco racing watch – introduced in 1969 as one of the world’s first automatic chronographs – love its blue sunburst dial and contrasting silver counters, red hands, and square shape with its expansive sapphire crystal and faceted edges. The newest version, the TAG Heuer Monaco Calibre Heuer 02, our test watch, offers these same visual features, all of which TAG Heuer has continued to refine based on the earlier Monaco Calibre 12 model. The once-flat registers are now slightly recessed, giving the design more depth and interest.
Here’s another update: the symmetrical arrangement now shows elapsed minutes and hours rather than minutes and seconds. The running seconds indication is now placed at 6 o’clock — a clever solution even though every minute the seconds hand sweeps across the date window for a period of several seconds. With its use of the new movement, TAG Heuer designed a clear layout of the displays, but this also involved a compromise. Including the small seconds display at 6 required moving the “Automatic” lettering upward and placing it between the two registers.
Changes to the dial layout are based on a fundamental innovation. With TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre Heuer 02, TAG Heuer is now using a fully developed, in-house chronograph movement in its Monaco line. Recall that the original Caliber 11 from 1969 was a collaborative project between Heuer, Breitling, and Hamilton-Büren in addition to the module specialist Dubois Dépraz, which contributed the chronograph mechanism. The long-awaited in-house base chronograph movement first appeared in 2017 as the Caliber Heuer 02, which was introduced in the retro model Autavia Calibre Heuer 02. Previously at TAG Heuer, “only” the complex Calibre Heuer 02-T was available (with an additional tourbillon) and before that, the Calibre Heuer 01, based on a Seiko movement.
Under the leadership of CEO Frédéric Arnault (read HERE), TAG Heuer has embraced the latest technology (HERE) while simultaneously evolving its watchmaking offerings. At the center of this ‘savoir-faire’ is the brand’s renowned in-house movements – notably, its latest innovation, the Heuer 02 chronograph movement.
Ok, so while that name is a bit of a mouthful, it does help to explain what this watch is. First, the “Carrera” name is synonymous with motorsport-derived sporty chronographs and, second, the “Calibre Heuer 02” is the movement used by the watch. Originally launched in 1963, the Carrera was created by Jack Heuer as a (then) modern interpretation of automotive and motorsport style into a race-ready chronograph. As for the TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre Heuer 02 movement, it is an entirely in-house follow up to 2015’s Heuer 01. Officially launched in 2018, the Heuer 02 is an automatic chronograph movement that offers an 80-hour power reserve, a compax layout (with subdials at 3, 6, and 9), a date at 4:30, and a maximum measure of 12 hours.
Urwerk UR-120 AKA Spock
URWERK has added a new open-satellite design to its collection of unorthodox timekeepers, the UR-120 AKA Spock.
URWERK’s existing ‘satellite’ time displays feature rotating carousels of three arms, each tipped with four rotating hour numerals. Only one arm is ‘active’ at any one time, tracking against a 60-minute scale to display hour and minute, before the next arm moves into position to take over.
The UR-120’s new ‘open satellite’ system instead sees each arm tipped with two rotating cubes that display a numeral when side-by-side. When not being used for timekeeping the inactive displays separate, rotate on their own axis and then reform to change the numeral displayed before again being called upon to display the time. The whole movement is said to resemble the Vulcan salute from Star Trek, hence the Spock moniker.
“When we realized we were going to have to open the satellite, I was over the moon,” says Felix Baumgartner, URWERK’s co-founder and master watchmaker. “Our biggest challenge has always been to manage forces. At the exact moment of the salute, a lyre-shaped spring opens and then closes the satellite. Managing energy then and there is complex and very subtle. We need to manage the opening and the stud rotation. We ended up manufacturing the spring ourselves, in-house, because we had to go through so many trials while defining its geometry and thickness.”
TheUR-120 follows the now discontinued UR-110 and “furthers the codes” of that watch.
“The idea was to go in a thinner, smoother, more elegant direction,” Martin Frei, co-founder and URWERK’s Artistic Director. “To do that, we redesigned the entire satellite system. Each satellite is now made of two sub-elements to make it thinner, easier to read and to give it unprecedented fluidity.”
The watch – presented here in sandblasted steel – measures 44mm by 47mm with a depth of 15.8mm, while the case is constructed of interlocking upper and lower components, something Frei stated was inspired by the work of Gerald Genta, and articulated, spring-loaded lugs.
Breitling Premier B21 Chronograph Tourbillon 42 Willy Breitling
Nearly 140 years ago, Leon Breitling founded his namesake brand in the Jura Mountains with a focus on chronographs. After two short decades, he passed away, leaving the business to his son Gaston who was responsible for establishing the brand’s reputation in the realm of pilot watches. By 1932, Gaston was ready to retire but wanted to ensure the brand remained in the family. Soon, his son, Willy, took his place at the head of the company and continued to build on his father and grandfather’s work creating high precision timepieces. The Breitling family legacy lives on in every timepiece that leaves the manufacture, and today, Breitling has launched a new trio of watches, each of which is inspired by one of the founders: the Breitling Premier B21 Chronograph Tourbillon 42 Leon Breitling, Gaston Breitling and Willy Breitling.
The Premier collection is the brainchild of Willy, who sought to elevate the wristwatch to a thing of elegance without compromising its technical prowess. The original Premier model launched in 1943 with a handsome design while maintaining the superb chronograph functionality the brand was known for. The new Breitling Premier B21 Chronograph Tourbillon 42 builds on this design philosophy with the use of precious metals and the addition of a tourbillon complication.
“The Breitling Premier B21 Chronograph Tourbillon 42 is the perfect expression of Breitling’s design and expertise,” says CEO Georges Kern. “In the tourbillon, you see the mechanism living at every second. It is the beating heart of the watch.”
For the Premier B21 Chronograph Tourbillon 42, Breitling worked closely with the specialty movement maker Manufacture La Joux-Perret to develop the B21 caliber, which takes the uncommon step of pairing a tourbillon with a chronograph. The combination makes this trio of watches distinctly Breitling.
The addition of precious metals elevates the complications in a way that aligns with Willy’s vision for the Premier line. In honor of each of the three founders, a different precious metal is used. The Leon Breitling features a solid 18-karat rose gold case with a silver dial and brown alligator strap. The Gaston Breitling pairs a solid 18-karat white gold case with an anthracite dial and black alligator strap. And the Willy Breitling completes the collection with a solid platinum case and blue dial with a black alligator strap.
TAG HeuerCarrera Calibre Heuer 02 44
Fans of the Monaco racing watch – introduced in 1969 as one of the world’s first automatic chronographs – love its blue sunburst dial and contrasting silver counters, red hands, and square shape with its expansive sapphire crystal and faceted edges. The newest version, the TAG Heuer Monaco Calibre Heuer 02, our test watch, offers these same visual features, all of which TAG Heuer has continued to refine based on the earlier Monaco Calibre 12 model. The once-flat registers are now slightly recessed, giving the design more depth and interest.
Here’s another update: the symmetrical arrangement now shows elapsed minutes and hours rather than minutes and seconds. The running seconds indication is now placed at 6 o’clock — a clever solution even though every minute the seconds hand sweeps across the date window for a period of several seconds. With its use of the new movement, TAG Heuer designed a clear layout of the displays, but this also involved a compromise. Including the small seconds display at 6 required moving the “Automatic” lettering upward and placing it between the two registers.
Changes to the dial layout are based on a fundamental innovation. With automatic TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre Heuer 02 44, TAG Heuer is now using a fully developed, in-house chronograph movement in its Monaco line. Recall that the original Caliber 11 from 1969 was a collaborative project between Heuer, Breitling, and Hamilton-Büren in addition to the module specialist Dubois Dépraz, which contributed the chronograph mechanism. The long-awaited in-house base chronograph movement first appeared in 2017 as the Caliber Heuer 02, which was introduced in the retro model Autavia Calibre Heuer 02. Previously at TAG Heuer, “only” the complex Calibre Heuer 02-T was available (with an additional tourbillon) and before that, the Calibre Heuer 01, based on a Seiko movement.
Now, for the first time, a Monaco chronograph is powered by a true manufacture movement. This innovation actually brings real advantages to the user. Mechanical watch fans can use it to measure intervals of up to 12 hours instead of just 30 minutes, and when fully wound, the TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre Heuer 02 44 runs for up to 80 hours — almost twice as long as its original 42-hour power reserve — so you can take off the watch on Friday and put it back on Monday morning without any problem or interruption. And the new movement complements the Monaco visually, with its modern, high-tech look, generous diameter of 31 mm and large sapphire crystal in the caseback. The new model is much more appealing from the back than the similarly designed Monaco Calibre 12 with the ETA 2894 movement, or the Monaco Calibre 11 with a modified Sellita SW300 movement and the crown on the left.
However, the new manufacture caliber does have one disadvantage compared to the previous movements: the unidirectional rotor is rather noisy on its return. In our test of the Autavia Calibre Heuer 02, the sounds made by the rotor were not quite as noticeable, which is probably due to the different case construction.
Patek Philippe World Time 5230
Patek Philippe has been producing some of the world’s most coveted world time watches for nearly 80 years. This year, the brand is retiring all existing references in its so-called Heure Universelle collection and launching a new, upgraded model in their place: the Patek Philippe World Time 5230P, available in white-gold (Ref. 5230G-001) or rose-gold (Ref. 5230R-001):
Patek Philippe’s decision to introduce a new world-timer was motivated by, primarily, political and cultural changes worldwide that have necessitated updates to the original timepiece’s 24-hour city ring. Dubai, for example, has replaced Riyadh as the internationally recognized representative city of its time zone, and Moscow, which for many years had been located in the “UTC+4” zone, recently shifted to “UTC+3,” nearer to Western Europe, as its chosen time zone. The new Ref. 5230, available in both 18k white gold and 5N rose gold cases, now has a “globally valid” world-time city ring that accurately reflects the modern state of time zones across the world.
Patek Philippe also took the opportunity to do some subtle but significant reworking on the World Time watch’s case, dial, and hands. Patek Philippe World Time 5230P retains the iconic Patek Philippe Calatrava case (measuring 38.5 mm in diameter and 10.23 mm thick), but with new winglet-style lugs and a more narrow, smoothly polished bezel. The hands will be more noticeably different to a Patek aficionado: instead of the ringed hour hand and Dauphine minute hand on previous references, the watch has a pierced hour hand in the shape of the Southern Cross constellation and a lozenge-shaped minute hand, both with sharp center ridges between lapped, beveled flanks. The hands, and the applied baton hour markers, are crafted from the same gold as the case.
At the center of the dial is another decorative element new to Patek Philippe’s World Time watches. Whereas previous models were renowned for their polychrome cloisonné enamel world map motifs, Ref. 5230 features a black, hand-guillochéd, filigreed basket-weave pattern inspired by a historical pocketwatch on display at the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva. The dial pattern was created on a nearly 100-year-old, meticulously maintained rose engine at the Patek Philippe manufacture.
The movement, visible through a clear sapphire caseback, is Patek Philippe’s in-house Caliber 240 HU. It is only 3.88 mm thick, thanks in large part to its patented micro-rotor design, which enables the watchmakers to greatly reduce the size of the winding rotor — made of 22k gold and engraved with Patek’s Calatrava Cross emblem — and integrate it at the level of the bridges. The movement includes the patented Spiromax balance spring and amasses a power reserve of at least 48 hours. With a tolerance of -3 to +2 seconds per day, its rate accuracy exceeds all customary chronometer standards. The movement’s haute horlogerie finishes all meet the stringent standards of the brand’s in-house certification, the Patek Philippe Seal. The bridges are chamfered and decorated with Geneva strips, a motif that also appears on the microrotor. The mainplate is hand-decorated with perlage, and the golden brass wheels are countersunk and have chamfered spokes. The rhodiumed bridges have gold-filled movement engravings and the movement’s total 239 parts include 35 ruby jewels, 10 of which are on display from the back.
Both versions of the Patek Philippe World Time 5230P come on hand-stitched alligator leather straps (black for the white-gold watch, chocolate brown for the rose-gold) with case-matching Calatrava fold-over clasps.
Richard Mille Debuts New RM 07-01 Intergalactic Watches
When it comes to the ultra-exclusive luxury watch brands within the industry, Richard Mille is definitely one of the most divisive. When describing Richard Mille to someone who isn’t a watch enthusiast, the analogy I often make is that the brand is the F1 car equivalent of a luxury watch. A well-constructed luxury sedan will give you a much greater sense of traditional refinement and will provide infinitely more creature comforts, but the state-of-the-art technology and advanced materials of the F1 car ultimately make it exponentially more expensive than something you pick up from your local luxury import dealer. With that in mind, the new Richard Mille RM 07-01 Intergalactic watches combine the brand’s signature approach of high-tech materials and futuristic designs with a unique style of gem setting that places an emphasis on the prongs of the settings themselves to emulate the glittering stars set among the vast darkness of the galaxy.
All four of the new Richard Mille RM 07-01 Intergalactic watches feature cases that follow the brand’s signature tonneau shape, and they are crafted from Carbon TPT with 5N red gold accents. The cases themselves measure 31.4mm in diameter by 11.85mm thick, with an overall lug-to-lug distance of 45.66mm, making them some of the most compact models that Richard Mille currently offers. Carbon TPT is a carbon fiber composite material that consists of multiple layers of parallel filaments that are created by dividing carbon fibers. From there, the fibers are impregnated with a composite matrix and woven at a 45 degree angle between layers, before being combined with heat and pressure to create a solid block of material, which can then get processed by a CNC machine and milled into the various case components. Sapphire crystals protect both the front and back side of the three-part case and the various components are all held together by grade 5 titanium screws that run through the trio of case components and secure them together using Nitrile O-ring seals to help provide users with 50 meters of water resistance.
Carbon TPT components can be found on a number of different Richard Mille models, but what sets the new RM 07-01 Intergalactic watches apart from their siblings is the unique style of gem-setting that adorns their external cases. Set into the Carbon TPT components are diamonds that are secured by 5N red gold prongs that are scattered throughout their surfaces. Setting diamonds into Carbon TPT comes with a number of unusual challenges due to the nature of the material itself. Unlike setting diamonds into gold, where the metal can be shaped into prongs to secure the diamonds, the hard rigid structure of Carbon TPT means that a space for the diamonds must first be machined using diamond-bit milling tools, and then the diamonds themselves must be secured into the case by gold prongs that are inserted by hand into the into the various settings that have been drilled into the surface of the case. It’s also worth noting that many of the 5N red gold prongs that are set into the case of the RM 07-01 Intergalactic don’t actually secure a diamond, but rather are there for aesthetic purposes to help create the models’ star-packed galaxy aesthetic.
The new Richard Mille RM 07-01 Intergalactic watches consists of a quartet of models with each one offering a slightly different take on the same core aesthetic concept. Named the Bright Night, Dark Night, Misty Night, and Starry Night, each of the different versions of the RM 07-01 offers a different ratio of diamonds to prongs set into their case, and while some models place an emphasis on the diamonds, others offer designs where the prongs themselves are largely the focus for a much less glitzy take on the same core aesthetic concept. Beyond the settings, other small differences exist throughout the four models. For example, the Bright Night version features its middle caseband in red gold rather than Carbon TPT like the rest of the range, while the Misty Night version features four red gold pillars on the sides of its case in the locations where the connecting screws pass through the various components. Additionally, while three of the RM 07-01 watches are completed by black rubber straps with red gold deployant buckles, the Starry Night model receives a full-link bracelet made from Carbon TPT.
Similar differences exist when it comes to the dials fitted to the four models. While all of them have a similar overall design and structure, the way that the diamonds and prongs are set into each one is different, as they are intended to correspond with the setting approach of the outer case. Each dial consists of a central section made from Carbon TPT that echoes the shape of the tonneau case and is adorned with diamonds and red gold prongs. Surrounding this central section is a skeletonized area that exposes the inner workings of the movement and separates the central part of the dial from the minute track flange that surrounds the periphery of the display. The outer flange is constructed from carbon fiber and it has hour markers filled with luminous material for added legibility. Sitting at the center of the dial are a pair of red gold hands that indicate the hours and minutes, and since the Richard Mille RM 07-01 does not have a seconds hand at all, the only indication that the watch is running will be the balance wheel moving back and forth, which is partially visible through the skeletonized section at the bottom of the dial.
Despite their differences, all four of the Richard Mille RM 07-01 Intergalactic watches are powered by the brand’s Caliber CRMA2 automatic movement. Running at a frequency of 28,800vph (4Hz) and offering users a power reserve of approximately 50 hours, the Caliber CRMA2 offers a highly skeletonized structure consisting of a mainplate and bridges that are crafted from grade 5 titanium and given an electroplasma treatment to give them a dark black finish. Along with featuring a free-sprung balance and a fast moving mainspring barrel for optimum performance, the Richard Mille Caliber CRMA2 also includes a bidirectional self-winding system with a variable-geometry rotor. Largely constructed from 5N red gold with a weight segment in heavy metal, the oscillating weight’s variable-geometry design allows the rotor to be set according to the owner’s activity level by adjusting the two weights that are fixed in place by spline screws. The black appearance of the skeletonized plates and bridges paired with the large red gold rotor offer an overall aesthetic that is very much in-line with the rest of the watch, creating an extremely cohesive overall appearance when looking at both the back and front slides of the RM 07-01 Intergalactic models.
Breitling Super Chronomat Automatic 38
Breitling is presenting two new Breitling Super Chronomat with a smaller 38 mm diameter and diamond-set bezel. The highlight, however, is the Breitling Super Chronomat Automatic 38 Origins – a “traceable” watch. The house uses gold and laboratory-grown diamonds whose entire supply chain is transparent.
Breitling is presenting two versions: one in a steel case with an ice-blue dial and one in a two-tone look with a mint-green dial. The case diameter for each is 38 mm with a height of 11.88 mm. Meanwhile, the full polish ensures an elegant appearance. On these models, the ‘onion’ crown is made of ceramic. This also applies to the rider tabs on the bezel, which is set with laboratory diamonds. The colours mirror the dial. On the side of the steel or gold bezel, there are also some screws that lend the watch a tool watch feel. Perhaps these improve the grip, given that the bezel can be rotated unidirectionally so that a time can be marked. In addition, a solid caseback offers space for engraving. The water resistance is 100 metres.
The dials in ice blue and mint green have a sunburst finish and are framed by a ring bearing a minute track. The watchmakers also apply indices in steel or gold. Like the three hands, they are luminescent. Last but not least, the horology house places its logo at 12 o’clock, which is made of either steel or gold. At 6 o’clock is the date window, which presents itself with black numerals on a white background.
As befits a Chronomat, these watches also come on the typical Rouleaux bracelet with a double-folding clasp. The mint-green version sports gold centre links. Alternatively, an alligator leather strap or a rubber strap in rouleaux look with a folding clasp is available. The colours match the dial.
The Breitling Super Chronomat Automatic 38 Origins is the result of Breitling’s efforts to create more sustainable products. It uses transparently sourced gold and laboratory-grown diamonds that are climate-neutral. The owner can check the proof of origin via an NFT and the public online source map.
The watch has a case made of 18-carat red gold, which is combined with a diamond-set bezel. The crown and the tabs here are made of white ceramic. The silver dial features applied indices and hands in gold. A matching polished “B” logo and a date window at 6 o’clock are also featured here. This watch comes with a choice of a white rouleaux-look rubber strap or an alligator leather strap.
The gold used comes from a single mine in Colombia that is certified by the Swiss Better Gold Association. This is to protect the environment and the living conditions of the local community. In addition, Breitling contributes to development projects in the region. The rest of the supply chain up to the watchmakers is also transparent, which enables optimal control of standards. By 2025, the house aims to only use gold traceable to certified mines.
The diamonds come from a lab and are of the highest quality. They are indistinguishable from natural diamonds, undergoing the same tests. Breitling uses crystals certified by the Scientific Certification Systems that meet ethical and ecological criteria. Again, Breitling is doing its part to support the communities involved in diamond production. Breitling aims to use only laboratory-grown diamonds by 2024.
Inside the watches is the Breitling Calibre 17, which is based on the ETA 2824-2. It measures 4.6 mm in height and operates at a frequency of 4 hertz. The movement offers automatic winding and has a maximum power autonomy of a meagre 38 hours. However, the mechanism boasts the COSC certificate, which also guarantees corresponding accuracy.
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar 41
The hottest luxury watch on the planet is the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak.
Ah, but which Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar? Which one is the most interesting and collectible of all the contemporary, current-production models? My nominee is the ceramic-cased Royal Oak QP.
It features everything that makes a “conventional” (if there is such a thing) Royal Oak so damn good – namely the grande tapisserie dial, the thin profile, the integrated bracelet that’s a work of art unto itself, and of course, the octagonal bezel – but the ceramic-cased RO QP pushes it all to the max. The use of state-of-the-art colored ceramic for the case and bracelet means the entire package is bolder, more recognizable, and more scratch-proof than ever before.
At the same time, inside, the ultra-thin caliber 5134 is able to balance the seemingly disparate realm of the highly technical and the supremely slim, in superlative fashion. Ben was absolutely right when, in 2017, he introduced the inaugural ceramic Royal Oak QP by saying, “I’m calling it right here and right now, this is the hottest watch of SIHH 2017.” Five years later, during the Royal Oak’s ongoing 50th anniversary, the watch is still causing temperatures to rise.
That’s because, earlier today, Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar quietly unveiled another scorcher. Following 2017’s original blacked-out ceramic RO QP and the white-ceramic sequel that came two years later, AP has released a new Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar (ref. 26579CS.OO.1225CS.01) via its official brand website – and this one comes in blue (!) ceramic for the very first time. Is anyone else sweating or is it just me?
The new, blue Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar is mostly identical to its predecessors, sharing an identical ultra-thin self-winding movement (caliber 5134) and case profile (41mm × 9.5mm), with the only major updates coming in the form of the high-tech blue ceramic case and the matching blue color of the grande tapisserie dial. But given how coveted the black and white ceramic Royal Oak Perpetual Calendars have become, this one still rates as a big deal.
Details on the new release are currently fairly scarce (in this case, what you see is what we see), but considering the high-profile nature of many of the known owners of previous ceramic RO QPS, it’s safe to say it’s a watch that will land on the wrists of many of AP’s best clients. We’ve previously spotted Draymond Green rocking his white-ceramic example, and everyone from UK rapper Stormzy, French actor Omar Sy, American comedian Kevin Hart, and Norwegian DJ Kygo have been seen with a touch of ceramic on their wrist.
