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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…

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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 […]

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Piaget Polo 79

The new gold standard

It was a symbol of its time, the decade of excess, the 1980s, when financial markets were uncoupled from national dictates, the world was simply not enough, and Wall Street was symbolic of everything the new finance world could offer. Gordon Gecko’s war cry of “Greed is good” was seen as the justification for unshackled […]

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Enter the Dragon

The horological world celebrates Chinese New Year

The traditional Chinese calendar is a complex system, developed over millennia, according to astronomical phenomena and calculations of the correlation of the solar and lunar cycles. Typical features of early calendars included the use of the sexagenary cycles based on the rotation of 10 Heavenly Stems and 12 Earthly Branches (the animal zodiac signs). At […]

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Extra help on Santa’s wrist

Chronographs to time the annual sleigh ride

You probably know the fateful song, “Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, with which Gene Autry topped the US Billboard charts in 1949. It tells the story of how the oddball reindeer with the bright shiny red nose got to lead all the others. The weather was terrible, there was hardly any visibility and Santa realised the […]

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Bovet 1822 Récital 20 Astérium

Time in the heavens

Back in the 18th century, watchmakers were concerned with making timepieces that would not only measure average solar time – the one we apply in our everyday lives – but also sidereal time, which we use for the celestial map in the heavens, traditionally for navigation purposes. The Bovet Récital 20 Astérium (the sky seen […]

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Superyacht T52 by Baglietto

Bespoke luxury at sea

Almost 170 years ago, the oldest shipyard still in operation opened in La Spezia, Italy: Baglietto. The brand, which is synonymous with elegance and luxury, has had a renaissance. New from the brand’s T (for traditional) line is the T52, a hybrid electric-diesel propulsion superyacht, part of the company’s tailor-made production and the most historic […]

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BMW Z4 M40i

Serious Summer fun

A self-confessed convertible lover and not having driven one in quite a long time, I had felt the whole summer that something was amiss. My longing came to an end when I managed to get my hands on a 2023 BMW Z4 M40i. I’ve always liked the Z4. Its long bonnet, compact “derrière” and wide […]

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Geneva Watch Days

Imagination, innovation and the shape of things to come

If it’s the end of August and watches are your passion or profession, then chances are you will be in Geneva. Geneva Watch Days (GWD) started off four years ago as a small gathering of approximately ten independent watch brands and by now, it has grown into a full status industry fair, taking over most […]

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Rolls-Royce Amethyst Droptail

A desert gem

One could say that coachbuilding is to cars what haute couture is to fashion, the creation of exclusive, custom-made pieces developed from conception to completion working hand in hand with the patron. Today, coachbuilding reigns supreme in the world of automotive luxury. Rolls-Royce is leading the way this summer with the delivery of two stunning […]

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Rolls-Royce Spectre

The spellbinding future of electrification

When a decade ago, the CEO of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, Torsten Müller-Ötvös, announced they were working on a fully electric car, the cynics out there wondered if a Rolls-Royce could be a Rolls-Royce without one of their iconic V12 engines. Spectre proves not only that this was possible but that an electric Rolls-Royce is exactly […]