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.

What’s the next big step in the watchmaking world? Maybe it shouldn’t be tourbillons, or jewels, or more exotic materials. Maybe it should be service. Upkeep, repair and bringing the customer to and through that process, a process that most won’t understand and may not even expect. But several market forces are coming together to turn the after-market service portion of watch ownership a battleground, whether between brands, between brand and distribution, or even between buyer and brand.First, you have the ever-increasing base of consumers that are paying more and more attention to what they want seen on their wrist. More customers are spending more money and want something more special than ever before. So more customers are going upscale, and buying complications with no real idea yet what goes into what they may be purchasing just for bragging rights.

Even the company name might sound unfamiliar to many who think themselves abreast of the modern watchmaking world. Urwerk. A Geneva company which speaks not in gears, trains, and hands--but in carousels, satellites, and transporters. One look at their wristwatches and--if you don’t already know them--you will definitely not forget them. Their pieces look like nothing else you’ve seen on a wrist. But that is exactly their point. The company Urwerk SA was launched just ten years ago by two brothers and a friend with one principal idea, “to push the boundaries of haute Horlogerie ever further.” Looking at their offerings, one may be inclined to say they pushed one bridge too far.Yet they are thriving, without any hint so far of going mainstream in their designs or their processes. They stay true to their aim and, indeed, to their name.

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.

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.

Ballon Bleu de Cartier One of the elements we have found in the watch industry that continues to surprise and delight us is the level of inventiveness, creativity and whimsy that pops up where you least expect it. Sometimes this is found in the pieces themselves, sometimes in the events surrounding them, sometimes just in the amount of fun people are trying to bring into their lives. The Ballon Bleu de Cartier books were designed by Jean-Luc Fromental and Michel Baverey Cartier decided to launch their new wristwatch line with, of all things, comic books. More accurately, avante-garde comic book imagery brought forth with the premium feel that only they could provide. According to the illustrious luxury house, no Cartier object ever comes into existence without an accompanying legend. Their new watch, the Ballon Bleu de Cartier, brings forth its legend as viewed and conceptualized by seven of the brightest gems in contemporary comic book work.

TAG Heuer introduces the Grand Carrera Caliper Concept Chronograph with a sleek 50 second quicktime movie. Hit PLAY to view the movie directly from your browser.

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.

The functioning of a fountain pen is relatively simple ... the pen holds ink in a reservoir and delivers it to the nib via gravity and capillary action. The earliest successful fountain pens are often called eyedroppers. Simply because you unscrewed the part that held the writing point, or nib, and used an eyedropper to fill the barrel with ink. Without a sac or a filling mechanism to take up space in the barrel, they held a lot of ink and wrote for a long time. The barrel itself was made of hard rubber. And therein lay the problem.

When TAG Heuer started constructing their booth for this year’s Baselworld expo, it was obvious that it was going to be the epitome of the Swiss watchmaker’s commitment to the fusion of design and technology, both hallmarks of timepieces bearing the famous green and red logo. The man tasked to create the new booth, which embodies the brand’s commitment to avantgarde design and aesthetics was Italian architect Ottavio di Blasi. Having been the mastermind behind the daring exhibition booth during the 1994 Baselworld, he was no longer surprised when it came to the demands of this particular client.STRUCTURALLY SOUND - The booth embodies the watch and viceversa. BOLD and ICONIC - We can’t wait to see what TAG Heuer will think of next.POETIC GEOMETRY - Lasers ensured that each triangle is identical to one another.For the 1994 expo, Ottavio di Blasi engineered an archshaped stand, erected with a carbon fiber structure, a world first back then.