Watches

“Directly descended” from a prototype created for Italian naval frogmen in 1936, the Radiomir ‘California 3 Days’ is unusual in that it features both Arabic and Roman numerals on its dial.

The new, rose gold ‘Open Home Time Chronograph’ is a reinterpretation of the established chronograph principle. Rather than the more familiar two ‘pushers’ flanking a winding crown at two, three and four o’clock, Montblanc’s newest offering has a ‘monopusher’ on the left-hand side of the case which governs all the chronograph functions. A traditional winding crown can be seen at three o’clock.

It’s a piece that will be presented this March at the Baselworld watch fair and is based on the ancient principles of the water clock.

Instead of carrying an elaborate fountain arrangement on one’s wrist, the wearer of HYT’s H1 will have a 48.8mm-diameter, totally enclosed watch that displays the time in a vibrant shade on a circular tube set on the edge of the face.

The homage piece echoes the understated but super-suave panache of the show which centres on the men – and women – of the fictional 1960s New York advertising agency Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. There are no precious stones or exposed complications here; in fact, the watch is a derivation of the subtle Grande Reverso Ultra-Thin model (similar to the one protagonist Draper is seen wearing numerous times in the show), albeit with some tributary addenda.

For the uninitiated, a ‘minute repeater’ is a complication that allows time to be represented by soft chimes. The concept is believed to be an English one, often used in fine pocket watches from the late 17th Century. Releasing the movement at, let’s say, six thirty-five, would elicit six mellifluous peals for the hour, two slightly different notes for the quarters and five sharper strikes for the remaining minutes.

The first ‘Top Gun’ pilot's watch was launched by IWC in 2007, taking its name from the special U.S. Air Force training course for elite pilots (which became a household name thanks to the eponymous 1980s film, starring Tom Cruise). For 2012, IWC is launching no fewer than five new pilot’s watch models. Of these, two deserve special attention: the Top Gun Miramar watches ‘Flieger Chronograph’ and ‘Grosse Fliegeruhr’.

Titled simply the ‘Watch’ and the ‘Chronograph’, two new men’s timepieces are the result of a collaboration between iconic British brand Hackett London and the Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer.