Toys

Toys

All Around the World

Why Nomos Glashütte’s Club Sport Neomatik Worldtimer wowed the Watches & Wonders crowds

In just six years’ time, it’ll be a century since Swiss watchmaker Louis Cottier – in response to increasing use of transcontinental trains, ocean liners and passenger-based aviation –created a timepiece whose rotating and fixed rings reflected the world time-zones which had been established in 1883.

Since then, international transit has not only been democratised, but become a necessarily evil to many – and yet, the sheer romance of having how the earth’s rotation affects the time in major cities around the world hasn’t diminished one iota. Just ask those among the 55,000 visitors to this year’s Watches & Wonders trade fair in Geneva who visited Nomos Glashütte, and pored over the German manufacture’s latest upgrade to the Club Sport Neomatik: a Worldtimer function.

Most would-be owners will choose between a silver or dark blue dial, framed by a 40.5mm diameter (9.9mm thick) stainless steel case. There are also six limited-edition (175 pieces each) versions whose dials are in “Canyon”, “Dune”, “Glacier”, “Jungle”, “Magma” and “Volcano”: a chromatic mini-sequel to the 31-colour Tangente 38 Date collection the brand launched at Watches & Wonders…

Toys

The Old Razzle-Dazzle

Watches & Wonders 2025 was all about the spectacle. And why not?

If Watches & Wonders 2024 was all about America’s Cup boats, 2025 was the year of the F1 car. On the IWC stand it appeared smashed and smoking – an actual crashed car from Brad Pitt’s summer blockbuster, F1. TAG Heuer went for a more traditional approach, giving it some stand space, while Tudor opted […]

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Go ahead and jump!

The fall and rise of the “wandering hours” complication

We tend to think of digital watches as a purely 70s phenomenon, the logical next step after the introduction of quartz at the beginning of the decade, the last stop before the future arrived – or at least that’s how I felt when I first strapped on my Texas Instruments LED (finished in leather-effect plastic […]

Toys

McLaren 750S Spider

Lighter, quicker, sexier

In a way, this is all you really need to know about the new McLaren 750S: that it is available as a coupe or a convertible. Top of the class among this summer’s new supercars, the 750S is the result of tons of research, during which McLaren designers and engineers came up with advances in […]

Toys

Watches & Wonders 2023

Confessions of an English watch-writer

“So, what have you seen?” was the stock-in-trade small talk, working the hallowed, beige-wash halls of Watches & Wonders (W&W). However, this year, it took less than a morning for, “I’ve only seen the massive queue” to become the stock-in-trade punchline. Unpractised, post-pandemic hiccups in people-processing aside – and with full awareness of how ‘first-world […]

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Black and Blue

The pitfalls of modern-day formal men’s wristwear

Things used to be simple when it came to dress attire – a dinner suit, traditionally in black and accessorised with a slim, precious metal three-hander just peeping from under a perfectly starched cuff. Not anymore. A cursory glance around the awards’ season red carpets quickly reveals that an old-school penguin suit just won’t cut […]

Toys

Time Is a Jewel

The gems that stole the show

As one would expect, all kinds of creations, innovations and variations were revealed at Watches & Wonders 2023. New materials, new technologies, new designs… one could not stop taking notes and writing down article ideas while queuing to access Palexpo. At the risk of sounding superficial, I chose this year to focus on jewelled timepieces. […]

Toys

Standing ovation

Watches that take the plaudits at W&W 2023

Watches & Wonders 2023 has been a great show for the main maisons. Patek Philippe had new versions of the ref. 6300 Grandmaster Chime, Vacheron Constantin produced another wonder in their Cabinotiers series, and Roger Dubuis introduced a new idea into its hyper horology universe with some justification, re-thinking the tourbillon and micro-rotor winding system […]

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Bovet 1822 Virtuoso XI

Naked beauty

There is an art to producing a skeleton watch, and the new Bovet 1822 Virtuoso XI is a pure expression of that art. The trick is to remove sufficient material to enhance the aesthetics and completely show the inner workings, while still keeping the movement robust enough to function. Take away too much metal from […]

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IWC Ingenieur 40

Form und Technik

Launched in 1957, the IWC Ingenieur was always intended as a technical watch, named after engineers for engineers. But it was not until Gérald Genta designed the reference 1832 – released in 1976 – that it took on a modern form. The 1970s were a decade of change in many ways and in terms of […]

Lifestyle, Toys

Her Time

Omega Celebrates Women

Although ladies wristwatches date back to the mid 19th century (coincidently, Omega’s founder Louis Brandt started making watches in 1848), it wasn’t really until the early 1900s that women who were not from the upper-classes began to wear watches, which kick-started mass-production and the development of a complete new sector in the industry. By this […]

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Mercedes-AMG SL 55 4MATIC+ Roadster

Some like it hot, very hot

I feel very privileged that my job allows me to drive dozens of wonderful cars every year, but by the same token, it takes a lot to impress me, let alone make want to chain myself to the car when it’s time to return it after my testing period; but that is exactly what happened […]