Kobold Launches Program to Train Sherpas as Watchmakers
Kobold has announced a program in which its U.S.-based watchmakers will train a group of Sherpas in the art of watchmaking. The former high-altitude mountain guides from Nepal's Himalaya region will begin learning how to assemble mechanical wristwatches in March. The one-year-long program also includes a basic course on managing a luxury business. After successfully completing the program at Kobold's Pittsburgh facilities, the Nepalese citizens will return to their native Mount Everest region to assemble Kobold watches destined for the company's Kathmandu retail store, which is expected to open in August of this year.Kobold expects to train two to three Nepalese citizens every year. By training relatively unskilled Nepalese workers how to make high-end watches, we provide them with a vastly increased level of competitiveness not only in their native country but around the world, explains Michael Kobold, the company's 31-year-old founder. Nepal is one of the world's poorest countries,

A Week On The Wrist: The Ball Trainmaster Kelvin
A temperature gauge isn’t usually the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of high-end mechanical watches. It’s a complication relegated to digital fare and the screens of our phones. With the Trainmaster Kelvin, Ball brings the temperature readout back into mechanical territory, incorporating it into a heritage design complete with Swiss movement. The watch, so named for Irish Physicist and engineer Lord Kelvin, is meant to honor his work in absolute temperatures, but how well does it hold up as formal wear? We spent a week with the Trainmaster Kelvin in 18k gold to find out. 1 OF 31 Introduction Ball Watch may be unfamiliar to some readers, but their dramatic origins will shed some useful light on the “Official Standard” and “RR” signage as used throughout their current model range. Ball Watch gets its name from Webster Clay Ball (Webb C. Ball), a jeweler to Cleveland, Ohio, known for adopting Standard Time upon its int

Hands-On: With the MB&F HMX Tenth Anniversary Watch, And A Second Look At HM6 (Live Pics, Thoughts, Pricing)
This year is the tenth anniversary of one of the most interesting ongoing stories in watchmaking: the horological think-tank and design refinery known as MB&F. The company got its start when Max Büsser, formerly the head of the watch division of Harry Winston (where he helmed, among other things, the genesis of the legendary Opus series of watches) decided to leave the relative security of corporate life in the watch world (I use the world “relative” advisedly) and pursue his own very idiosyncratic vision of horological design. The basic inspiration behind the general design language of MB&F is pretty well known to serious enthusiasts – much of it is derived from Büsser’s own childhood fascination with the seemingly endlessly inventive worlds of fantasy, and science fiction, and he’s mined those worlds very effectively for both specific design cues, and for something more intangible: a marriage of nostalgia and design innovation, with an

INDUSTRY NEWS: Platinum Speedmaster 40th
The quintessential function-first, tool watch has finally gotten a healthy dose of gaudiness. It was only a matter of time before Omega decided that it needed to price a version of the Omega Speedmaster Professional Moon Watch out of its core consumer's spending threshold. Available starting at Omega's new flagship 5th Avenue store in New York City - 69 pieces of the new 40th Anniversary Limited Edition Apollo 11 Moon Watch, in platinum, will tempt collectors. The watch case, bracelet, and hands are done in platinum. An 18k gold engraved plate on the caseback, and as the seconds subsidiary dial, are emblematic of the successful 1969 moon landing mission. The gold plate on the dial pictures an eagle landing on the moon, to celebrate the historical statement made famous by event stating, the eagle has landed.Even after 40 years, the watch remains very true to the original. Size of the case is 42mm wide, while the crystal is made out of an acrylic compound called Hesalite. Why not sapphir

Does anybody knows how long was the PAM233 Dot produced before the AM/PM dial?
Does anybody knows how long was the PAM233 Dot produced before the AM/PM dial came out? And why did Panerai changed the design?