14Juin 2019 by Jonathan Kopp 2 Comments
Venneman Watches – Pure Belgian Design

Venneman Watches – Pure Belgian Design

News
Pure Belgian design from high-quality Swiss components. Belgium is not only known for its chocolate, cycling and famous players in their national football team. There are also some very skilled and passionate independent watchmakers hidden in that small country. One of them is Thomas Venneman the founder of Venneman Watches. Thomas Venneman wants to create unique timepieces in limited editions. 300 copies, more will not be made. Unique and numbered! Thomas received a solid training as a watchmaker and learned the craft from the masters themselves in Switzerland. He completed a number of traineeships with the big brands and at smaller workshops The pursuit of perfection is the guiding principle of his brand. We met in the lobby of the Marriott Hotel in Ghent where he showed me his timepiece…
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31Mai 2019 by Jonathan Kopp 1 Comment
Astbury & Kent Stellaris – A tourbillon for all

Astbury & Kent Stellaris – A tourbillon for all

News
Those recent days I was lucky enough to try the new Astbury & Kent Stellaris AK735. This new piece that you can still find on kickstarter is quite a success. Finding a tourbillon for less than 2500$ is not usual and of course you can express some reserves about its quality. To be honest I was quite astonished… That’s so great to see this kind of complication into affordable range without being necessarily of low quality. Indeed, that was completely unthinkable some 10 or 15 years. Of course the movement has been produced in Far East but it’s not cheap and in the contratry it’s a fantatisc value for the price. Founded by Terrence Ray Flores and Tom McCulloch, two certified watch nuts, Astbury and Kent was born of a…
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15Avr 2019 by Jonathan Kopp 2 Comments
The lovely Terra Cielo Mare Milano San Babila

The lovely Terra Cielo Mare Milano San Babila

Magazine
Some weeks ago I had the chance to meet Eric Delicati who is distributor of the Italian brand Terra Cielo Mare. This brand is not really visible today because of a lack of communication but honestly it’s a brand on which you should have a look. For the record, Terra Cielo Mare is a family business that produces watches for enthusiast and collectors since 1999. The interesting thing is that behind everyone of their watches there’s a real story to tell. That means that they try to develop and narrate the history of aviation, naval, mechanical engineering and Italy through Haute Horlogerie. That’s not the most common thing in todays watch industry. Indeed, most of the time, a designer draws a watch and then the marketing director says : “Ok,…
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09Avr 2019 by Jonathan Kopp No Comments
Watchbox – Pre-Owned Seiko Astron GPS Solar Dual Time

Watchbox – Pre-Owned Seiko Astron GPS Solar Dual Time

News
Some of you may ask : “What is Watchbox ? “ Well, WatchBox is the global leader in pre-owned luxury watches. So you can now Buy, Sell, or Trade your luxury watch easily with a trusted partner. WatchBox™ is the global destination for luxury pre-owned timepieces, offering an expertly curated inventory of luxury pre-owned watches for sale, personalized client services, educational opportunities and astute editorial content. Founded in 2017, WatchBox is the result of a game-changing partnership between Danny Govberg, CEO of Govberg Jewelers, Tay Liam Wee, former owner of Sincere Watch, and investor-entrepreneur Justin Reis. This partnership brings together unprecedented watch industry experience, innovative technology, sophisticated data systems and marketing, as well as financial strength and business acumen to positively transform the multi-billion-dollar pre-owned luxury watch industry. In August…
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06Avr 2019 by Jonathan Kopp No Comments
Jubileon is back with the Superellipse Chrono

Jubileon is back with the Superellipse Chrono

News
In september 2017 Jubileon launched their first Kickstarter campaign with the really cool Superellipse. This piece was really classic but with a nice design. You can find it HERE . Now the independent brand from Singapore is back with an evolution of their first watch. This one, that they just launched on Kickstarter (5 April), is a pretty cool chrono. To be honest I’m quite astonished by the level of quality of this piece. Not just by the design, which is really strong, but also by the whole… Including the movement. Because Yes, powering the Superellipse Chrono is the well known ETA 7750 Valjoux movement. You can find this movement in almost every chrono in the market, but rarely at the price of 799$. Well thanks to Kickstarter you will…
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21Fév 2019 by Jonathan Kopp 1 Comment
TBT – Dive into a vintage world

TBT – Dive into a vintage world

Vintage
Once you go down the rabbit hole of vintage watch collecting, it can be a difficult task to find your way back out again. With countless brands, designs, and price points to work with, not to mention the thrill of tracking down that elusive ‘rare bird’; there are many ways a collector can structure his collection. Some choose to solely focus on one brand or reference, whereas others are happy to simply go after designs they like and develop some variety. Over the years I’ve been actively collecting vintage watches, I’ve ended up building ‘collections within collections’, with Swiss, German and French skin divers being regular additions! Skin divers are lesser diving watches, in that they generally lack a depth rating and screw-in crown. What they forgot in actual diving…
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19Fév 2019 by Jonathan Kopp No Comments
EDOX – Official Timing Partner of FIA World Rallycross Championship

EDOX – Official Timing Partner of FIA World Rallycross Championship

News
Edox, the Swiss watch brand, has entered in to a long-term agreement to become the Official Timing Partner of the FIA World Rallycross Championship, presented by Monster Energy. The partnership with the FIA World Rallycross Championship extends Edox's long history of involvement with motorsport. The 135-year old family-owned company combines traditional hand-assembly with innovative materials and functionality at the company headquarters in Les Genevez. The Chronorally collection has been developed to withstand the most extreme racing conditions and will be the assigned watch for World RX. As Official Timing Partner, Edox will have significant trackside branding and put their name to the fastest lap at each round of the championship. "We are delighted that Edox is joining our stable of commercial partners as Official Timing Partner. Edox have a rich…
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31Jan 2019 by Jonathan Kopp No Comments
Classicism and Émail Grand-Feu – Focus on Lundis Bleus

Classicism and Émail Grand-Feu – Focus on Lundis Bleus

Uncategorized
What’s great about independent watchmaking is that you’re not only talking about watches. You’re talking about esthetic choices, technical skills and passion. All mixed together in order for some brands to propose watches made with great creativity, great craftsmanship, recognizable among all thanks to their design. And all that sold for a reasonable price. Lundis Bleus is one of those brands. Initiated by friendship in 1994 when the two founders, Johan Storni and Bastien Vuilliomenet, meet in the watchmaking school of La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland; the brand started to produce watches in 2016. In between, 1998 was the year of their graduation. Then, they both continued their studies and got experiences and skills in several domains such as design, watch restoration or watch construction in manufactures like Renaud & Papi…
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25Jan 2019 by Jonathan Kopp No Comments
Armand Nicolet presents the M02 collection

Armand Nicolet presents the M02 collection

News
Swiss brand Armand Nicolet just launched a new collection under the name of M02. This collection is separate in 3 lines : Date, Chronograph & Date and GMT. The original concept that years ago inspired the first version of this family hasn’t changed, but the Maison this time has focused particularly on comfort and ergonomics. In order to make the watch as comfortable as possible on a man’s wrist the diameter of the case has been reduced a little and time-telling is now easier thanks to a revisited dial where Arabic numbers are displayed alternatively to indexes. The date model is something really classical. It uses the SW-200 movement from Sellita and is priced around 1400 CHF. The most interesting thing about it is the guilloche dial that I find…
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21Jan 2019 by Jonathan Kopp 3 Comments
Riskers is coming

Riskers is coming

News
Riskers is a new watch brand that will be launched quite soon. The name seems to be well found… Riskers for « Taking Risk ». Indeed, this new brand has been created by ten former Richemont Group executives, who have worked for prestigious firms such as Cartier, Piaget, Vacheron Constantin and Baume & Mercier. Now they have decided to join forces to create a new independent watch brand together. Well, you will ask yourself « why Watchisthis talks about them ? They come from luxury brands so they will launch a luxury brand »…And there you’re right ! They will launch a luxury brand but at an affordable price!! After a first talk with Pierre Guerrier (former Richemont marketing services, Piaget) and co-founder of the brand, I heard that they…
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