With its crown uniquely located at either the ten o’clock or two o’clock position, and packaged in a handcrafted watch box wrapped in boar-skin leather, one can already tell that a Manometro timepiece would be different. Its creator, Giuliano Mazzouli would precisely want it that way as his dream of designing a watch unlike anything produced has been his most ambitious project.Before entering the ranks of making fine watches, the Mazzouli family business revolved around the Italian paper making industry, producing high quality paper products. With Italian craftsmanship and quality known worldwide as first rate, the company started producing advertising catalogues for the furniture and interior design industry, another well known bastion for Italian artistry and craftsmanship. Soon after he took over the reins of the family business in 1993, Giuliano Mazzouli began to flex his creativity by taking other everyday objects and transforming them into functional works of art.

Where did it all begin?Early Cross writing instruments. The modern fountain pen can trace its roots to the lowly quill made from a goose’s tail feather (at least in Western history). But for the sake of saving a few pages, let’s leap forward to the fountain pen as we know it today with a nib, a feed and an ink reservoir. Starting in the 1850s there was a steadily accelerating stream of fountain pen patents and pens in production. In the 1870s Duncan MacKinnon, a Canadian living in New York City, and Alonzo T.

For Hermes, holding things on is more complicated than it seems.The Bienne workshops of the Hermes watch company have recently seen the opening of a new workshop. True to their leatherwork legacy, the brand has opened a watch-strap workshop with attention to detail and process that might make pale by comparison the assembly of even some simpler wristwatches. Hermes entered the horological world in the 1920s through its production of high end and quality leather watch straps. Growing demand to fit their premium straps onto special timepieces, as well as growing demand for their own wristwatches, has brought together the two components of saddlery know-how and watchmaking creativity in the new facility in Switzerland. The attention given every single leather watch strap Hermes produces is quite surprising. We were given front row seats to what they call a “twelve act ballet” that starts with specially chosen leathers and ends with one exquisite hand made leather strap.

The assault of technology obviously failed to completely subvert the traditional mechanical watch. PLAYGROUND OF THE MIND FUTURE SHOCK Sometime in the seventies, Alvin Toffler wrote a book by that title to describe the situation where people would feel that technological progress was so swift that people couldn’t handle it. No one would have the time to get used to the present benefits of technological progress before it becameobsolete.“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.

The Big Pilot's Watch: Supplied to the German Luftwaffe in 1940 in an edition of 1,000 watches. With a case diameter of 55mm, a height of 16.5mm and a weight of 183g, it was the most imposing IWC wristwatch ever built.  Let’s face it, most of us dream about becoming pilots or astronauts at some point in our lives. For the determined few, they fulfill their dream and become pilots, while for the uninitiated like me, I just like to wear the watches and leave the dream where it’s supposed to be. So when I came across pilot’s watches a few years ago, I started to learn more about their origins and histories. Many questions came up like “why is the design used by so many brands with no end in sight”? I will start with its early origins, its association with pilots and if you’re really interested, some B-uhr’s that are worth owning.The earliest known origin of the Navigator’s watch came in the form of the Longines Weems second-setting watch.

Panerai was started in 1860 by Giovanni Panerai as a watchmaker’s workshop, selling Swiss manufactured timepieces in Florence on the Ponte Alle Grazie. In addition to selling prestigious Swiss timepieces, it also offered repairs and maintenance of watches. As their technical skills grew, tooling precision was enhanced and improved. Soon they started Guido Panerai Optics which eventually supplied equipment for the Ministry of Defense in Italy. These instruments included radiomir ronconi sights, depth gauges, aiming and signaling devices to name a few. After numerous successful tests by the Royal Italian Navy, deliveries started in the 1900’s with the patented “radiomir” tubes containing zincsulphide, radium bromide and mesothorium.

This story begins decades ago in a bungalow with squeaky wooden flooring and military surplus desks; my grandfather’s office. It was by no means grand. It looked out into a veritable junkyard he called a machine shop, but to us, his grandchildren, it was a playground and adventure land. Step into his office and on his desk in a special desktop holder sat two glossy black pens with gold tipped ends. They were slim; modern yet reminiscent of those styluses used by scribes in the Middle Ages. A 2006 Conway-Stewart Maki-e Collection Karyoubinga Celestial Maiden Neither the style nor the elegance was what drew me to these pens of his. Rather it was the way they painted the letters onto the page.

Why care about about D&B’s “flying case”? You will--when you discover it is a truly revolutionary case design and contains one of the rarest movements in the watch market these days. Quite passé and trite to declare, but once in a while, a real gem in the cluttered and confusing world of wristwatches comes along and inspires a genuine flight of fancy.

Jaeger-LeCoultre uses a brand new model line to remind us of their history.Jaeger-LeCoultre has been making some very strong statements lately, bringing forth wristwatches that grab attention and generate discussion at a glance. Their new pieces have been strong, masculine and daring, all in the direction of the next generation of wristwatches. But Jaeger-LeCoultre has been around for rather a long time, and has earned itself the reverential nickname of the Grande Maison. Since 1833, it has brought to the world over one thousand different movements and been granted more than two hundred patents. So while many newly-minted enthusiasts look at the name and think of pieces like the Master Compressor Extreme W-Alarm or the Extreme Lab, Jaeger-LeCoultre has been responsible in many ways for the creation of the classics we look to for purity, design and elegance as well.

Patek Philippe brings us something this year that tells of both complication and creation of beauty, of heart, mind and hand, of body and soul. Of something old, but not of something new. The “new” World Time watch Ref. 5131 has been seen before, and is familiar to enthusiasts, collectors and the industry. Maybe though we should be clearer. It is well known mainly to extremely well-funded enthusiasts and collectors, and a very jealous industry. These watches began appearing over half a century ago, and when they have changed hands in auction since, prices generally start with seven figures. The most immediately eye-catching detail you will notice on the Ref. 5131 is the artwork on the dial. It is a beautiful vision of the map of the world, in cloisonné enamel miniature. Cloisonné is a classic technique of decoration for important, historic and expensive pieces of artwork and craftsmanship.