Andre Checa Designs Most Hideous Watch Case This Year
This is the ugliest watch case I think I have personally ever seen. What is so ironic is that the watch movement and dial itself are just fine, and totally mismatched with the watch case. This timepiece gets a "Fraggle Rock's Finest Award" for most cartoon rock formation style watch ever. What was Andre Checa thinking when he designed this watch? He was likely watching episodes of old Jim Henson Muppet television shows or movies. I get the watch, I just don't like it. This is another "home run" design from the radical French artist.You might remember the first quizzical creation of his that I discussed here (that he made as a piece unique for Romain Jerome).The watch movement is made by the very well-respected Christophe Claret - a maker of highly complex and beautiful watch movement. This timepiece (that I am not sure if it has a name) has a beautifully skeletonized movement, that has a tourbillon, and just the time as functions (Claret rarely makes movements this "simple"). In additi

Alpina Introduces the Alpiner 4 Flyback Chronograph
Last week, Alpina looked to turn a few heads and break some technological ground at Baselworld with their interesting �C even exciting �C new release, the new Alpiner 4 Flyback Chronograph.The new chrono features Alpina's brand new in-house flyback chronograph movement. Dubbed the Calibre AL-760, it's a new take on the classic column wheel chronograph mechanism. The column wheel is there, controlling the start-stop-reset functions. But instead of actual discrete columns, the wheel has a single central star shaped column. The star's recesses interact with the control lever the same way columns would in a conventional column wheel design.The result is a butter-smooth actuating mechanism for start-stop and start-stop-start-stop (and on and on, if the operator wishes to do so) functionality.The flyback function operates conventionally, with the push piece at 4 o'clock. Actuate this pusher with the chronograph running and you instantaneously restart the chrono timing from zero.All this functi

Buying AP without warranty?
What are your thoughts on buying a 15400 from a gray market without an AP warranty? Is the warranty worth it if the watch is guaranteed genuine and such?ThanksChad

Omega position/timing
I've had my Omega 3573.50 for a couple of weeks now and it seems to be running fast, about +7 to +10 a day. That's not so bad that I can't live with it, but I stopped by the AD and they told me it is +0 in one position and +13 in another, and points in between in other positions. I can't recall which position was the fastest or slowest.My questions is:Is that much position variation normal for that movement?Or is it a symptom of some problem? Should the movement be more consistent or is that the way they are?My Rolex's are about the same variance in any position. Guess I'm just not sure what expectation I should have for the Omega. I know it's not a quartz watch and I don't expect it to be but I don't know if I am getting the most consistent rate possible.The AD has it for examination, but I wanted to ask the forum folks what they thought.....

Patek Philippe PVD/DLC
Spotted Ed Sheeran wearing what looks to be a PVD/DLC coated PP in a latest music video, I personally have never come across such a thing! Apologies for the poor screen shots, would love to know what you guys think and if you've ever come across one before?