Jaquet Droz’s New Bird Repeater Geneva
The Jaquet Droz brand has made a name for itself by combining fine watchmaking and elaborate mechanical inventions. Now Jaquet Droz has turned its attentions to the capital city of watchmaking. With the new Bird Repeater Geneva, the brand has adapted its automaton-bearing minute repeater to include some of Geneva’s landmarks. On the Bird Repeater Geneva’s dial, timekeeping takes a backseat to grand effects. Most prominent on the dial are the bird automata, which are hand-painted and hand-crafted in gold. There are two fully grown goldfinches: the one on the left leans forward to feed its young, while the one on the right moves its head and extends and retracts its wings. In the gold nest between the birds, two hatchlings sit on either side of an egg. The egg cracks open, revealing another baby bird inside.?Meanwhile, the painted gold dial behind the birds displays recognizable symbols of Geneva. The nest sits on ?le Rousseau, an island in Lake Geneva. On the right of the di

Eterna Royal KonTiki Two Time Zones Watch
The Royal KonTiki Two Time Zones by Eterna is a handsome watch, but watch industry pundits will no doubt consider the bigger story being the first appearance of the new Calibre 39 in a production watch.It couldn't have happened soon enough.When the Calibre 39 was announced this year, its appearance seemed to embody that well known saying ascribed to Plato that "Necessity is the mother of invention." Since ETA owner, the Swatch Group, announced their intention to limit the supply of ETA movements to competing companies, the scramble had begun to find an alternative supplier.After-all, with the drying up of the supply of these workhorse engines, many watch companies would be left with pretty watch cases with nothing to put inside, thus threatening their survival. Those?companies who could (ie: with deep pockets) were given?impetus?to develop in-house movements, partly to remove dependence?on external suppliers, and partly to move up the chain as it were, towards credibility as a watchmak

HourTime Show Watch Podcast Episode 123 - Gant Get No Satisfaction
John "Gant" get a break and we talk about my hands-on time with the Devon Tread 2 Steampunk watch. We also discuss Roger Dubuis' new strange adverting campaign and giveaway, as well as the winners from the 2012 annual Grand Prix D'Horlogerie de Geneve watch awards.Listen to the HourTime Show Watch Podcast Episode 123 here. Download the MP3 here.

Urwerk UR-1001 Zeit Device Pocket Watch
Someone recently asked me whether they thought pocket watches might come back in fashion. John and I spent time discussing this during an episode of the HourTime Show watch podcast and after giving it much thought the answer was a resounding "not likely." So why am I mentioning this before I discuss what is arguably one of the coolest pocket watches around? Because this pocket watch you see before you won't find a place in jacket pockets and be used to tell the time on a regular basis. It will be stored sweetly and safely and played with from time to time. The privileged few owners of these watches will still use a wrist watch as their primary (or at least secondary) means of telling the time. This and other pocket watches will merely be a collector's item. Possibly really cool collector's items, but still just that.Pocket watches are increasingly attractive for high-end brands to make as limited edition models because of collective nostalgia and size. In 1989 Patek Philippe released i

Singapore - Some Nautilus Loving
Hmmm....