Toys

Toys

MoonSwatch Mission To Earthphase

Celebrating our blue-green bauble home on Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, we feel it is appropriate to bring you the recently released MoonSwatch Mission to Earthphase, a first in terms of our planet’s appearance from space featuring as a complication in a wristwatch. It celebrates the first time that human eyes saw our planet rising on the horizon, a photograph taken by Bill Anders aboard the Apollo 8 on Christmas Eve 1968.

Without a doubt, the Swatch x Omega MoonSwatch collaboration has been one of the noted new watch series in the 2020s. It cleverly uses the design codes of Omega’s iconic Speedmaster, the first watch on the Moon, with an innovative bioceramic material in an array of colours that incorporate space mission themes. It started with a collection including our satellite, all planets – including Earth – and the Sun in March 2022. They were an immediate success.

Similar in design and colouring to the Speedmasters worn by astronauts, the Swatch x Omega MoonSwatch Mission to Earthphase on its Velcro strap.

New iterations were released in 2023 and 2024, but this year, when it came to our planet, the creatives at the Swatch…

Toys

The Magic of Sound

Luxury chiming watches full of seasonal charm

Christmas is synonymous with the chiming of bells. Chiming watches – also known as striking watches – combine exquisite craftsmanship with the elegance of sound. They use gongs – hammers – to produce exceptional examples of auditory beauty. However, creating a loud, clear sound is a real challenge for even the most experienced watchamakers. That’s why only […]

Toys

Lamborghini Temerario

Raging against the dying V10 light

The new Lamborghini Temerario – named after a Spanish bull that fought in the arena of Madrid in 1875 – is a crucial model for Lamborghini, designed to take over the super sports car baton from the Huracán. The Huracán is nearing the end of production with a full order book. Nearly 30,000 units of the […]

Toys

THE NEW MINI ELECTRIC

High voltage fun!

(Opening photo: Our Editor Julia at the wheel of the new Mini Electric Level 3.) Few cars are more iconic than the MINI, I’d even dare say that very few brands are as iconic as MINI. From the moment the first unit rolled off the production line in 1959 MINI has been the vehicle of […]

Toys

Beauty for the Beholder

by Dr Andrew Hildreth Except for the “B” in the handle, the neurocentre of BWD (Bamford Watch Department) hides behind an unassuming door at 80, South Audley street. Known as “The Hive”, it is where clients go to see their chosen watch creation come to life, thanks to George Bamford. Despite the “Englishness” of his […]

Toys

Christopher Ward’s C65 Anthropocene

The ethereality of ice

For a watch company that is not even two decades old, Christopher Ward is an undeniable success story in the horological world. Founded by Christopher Ward, Mike France and Peter Ellis on a boat on the river Thames in 2004, the first watch was only released fifteen years ago. The company has come a long […]

Toys

The Bentley Mulsanne 6.75 Edition by Mulliner

by Dr Andrew Hildreth

It’s always hard to say goodbye and to find an appropriate way to say it; but doing so allows the new to progress. After just over sixty years, Bentley is to bid farewell to its workhorse engine: the 6.75 litre V8. During its six decades in production, it’s fair to say that the much loved […]

Toys

The BMW M8 Competition

Power IS sexy

When I heard that BMW were launching a new M8 I almost squealed with pleasure. Sitting at the wheel of one felt like being in heaven. Both the Coupé and Convertible models boast a high revving 4.4-litre V8 engine with twin turbo and eight-speed M Steptronic transmission. This is the most powerful ever BMW M […]

Toys

No Frills

BR03-92 Full Lum by Bell & Ross At a time where the proliferation of highly complicated and busy dials is the norm, Bell & Ross have surprised us with the simplicity of their BR03-92, which completes the marque’s “Lum” collection. Well known for their professional aviation timepieces, Bell & Ross’s new addition to their family […]

Toys

Flying Through The Forest on a Honda CBR 1000SP Fireblade

The CBR 1000SP Fireblade has been an icon of sports bikes for decades. The latest model keeps the same DNA to give our reporter Jeremy Webb the ride of the season around the New Forest. Launched in 1992, the Fireblade was a hit right from the start. 27 years later, the bike remains as popular […]

Culture, Toys

Cars: Accelerating the Modern World

“Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz,” Janis Joplin

(Opening picture:Firebird I (XP-21) © General Motors Company.) Sainsbury Gallery Victoria & Albert Museum. London. Supported by Bosch Group Until 19 April 2020 The V&A have surprised us once again with this incredible retrospective on the automobile, looking at the car as the driving force that accelerated the pace of the 20th century. […]

Toys

The world’s First Modern Diving Watch

by Francesca Fearon

(Opening picture: Captain Robert ‘Bob’ Maloubier © Blancpain) 70 Years Of Fifty Fathoms Pioneers of civilian aviation in the 1950s and 60s envisaged future air passengers would be businessmen and never foresaw the rise of the package holiday tourists that fill the aeroplanes today. There are parallels in the watch industry with many timepieces originally […]