Breguet Reine de Naples Cœur LE – $50k
I was schmoozing with a PR flack the other day; a hugely intelligent woman who confessed her love for complications. I resisted the urge to describe my complicated love life, countering instead with my love of minimalism. Wouldn’t you know it, Breguet drops a watch that combines both: a minimalistically complicated love watch. (It pays to stay new watch alert.) As you’ll see from the video below, the Reine de Naple Cœur’s minute hand bends to follow the rehaut. Breguet’s presser’s description of the patented technology needed to make the complication work is watch nerd catnip . . .
“The variable length minute hand is made of a LIGA manufactured process using nickel phosphorus. The two sweeping arms are independent of each other, capable of flexing to lengthen or shorten. Each end is attached to one of two independent, coaxially mounted driving wheels. Each of these wheels are driven by one of two wheels which trace the curve of an oval shaped cam whose shape mirrors the curves of the dial. Each wheel drives its arm faster or slower in accordance to which part of the curve it is tracing. Each wheel driving its own arm independent of the other, but coordinated by the cam to orchestrate the movement such that the arms in concert, create a heart that is extended at 12 o’clock and rounded at 6 o’clock.”
Zenith Chronomaster Sport – $10k
Fancy a panda-faced Rolex Daytona? At the moment – and for a long time hence – your money’s no good at an authorized dealer. New watch alert! Zenith is offering the next best thing: a white-faced, black-bezeled, steel bracelet-borne beauty. The 41mm newbie sports tri-color subdials and a main stopwatch second hand that goes NUTS, spinning like an amphetamine-crazed whirling dervish, accurate to 1/10th of a second (the watch). Just so you know, backyardbrains.com reports that “average reaction time for humans is 0.25 seconds to a visual stimulus, 0.17 for an audio stimulus, and 0.15 seconds for a touch stimulus.” Also, the Zenith Chronomaster Sport is sold out.
Your 10 G’s would have/may someday buy you the Speedy Gonzales second hand and Zenith’s latest and greatest El Primero movement – whose ancestor powered Rolex’s Daytona for 12 years (so there, nuh). The Chronomaster Sport puts Zenith calibre 3600 on show behind a sapphire caseback – a stunning sight that Zenith failed to share on their product page. So there it is, disembodied and photoshopped AF. In reality, the legendary engine boasts has an upgraded 60-hour power reserve. The Chronomaster Sport isn’t afraid of swimming (100m water resistance) but views diving as Sub optimal. Future icon or Daytona wannabe? Absolutely.
Christopher Ward Worldglow – $1995
Our review of the Christopher Ward C1 Moonglow highlighted the timepiece’s lumetastic lunar light show. I have every reason to believe that the Worldglow’s glow would get an equally glowing appraisal. If nothing else, the new watch doesn’t stack the words Christopher Ward at the three o’clock position as it does in all too many of their most excellent watches (i.e. any of them). As for the world time aspect, setting it is a bit more complicated than asking Siri.
To sync the Worldglow with world time, pull the crown to its second position and turn it clockwise until the number on the inner wheel lines up with the time in the city in which you’re fiddling with your watch. To keep track of a particular time zone via the red “city selector wedge” (a.k.a., radar), pull the crown to the second position and turn it anti-clockwise. One you’re done, push the crown in, hit the dial with a powerful flashlight, hide in a closet and accept the fact that you’re a closeted lumatic. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. And don’t ask me how I know.
I already liked that Breguet for the visual oddity of having a digit wheel display centrally on a ~elliptical dial. The neato scissoring of the minute hand is so good it distracts from that pearl lug and the 4 o’clock crown. Second hand? It’s the only hand!
My bad! It’s the minute hand and yes, the only hand. (I gotta hand it to you: nice save!)
I think the Breguet is hideous. Stick two offset eyes on the dial, and a nose off to the other side, and it’s a Picasso!
But, that minute hand action is very cool!
Asymmetrical crown positioning doesn’t belong on a dress watch in my mind; that’s a way to minimize clunk on big sport/tool watches.
I’m at a loss as to why they made the 60 so large, and don’t really get that pearl lug thing, but overall it’s fine as a woman’s dress watch. To me, the subtle brilliance of the hour display in the center is in avoiding a centerless void.
Oh wait, it just dawned on me that the indices are low-centered too, as the dropped 15 & 45 show. That won’t lend to intuitive reading, but I doubt that is the point. It’s a wonderful display of literal eccentricity FWIW.
I agree: the watch itself is dopey. Overwrought. But the complication (?) is wonderful.
I love the Breguet complication. That’s so much more interesting than almost every other watch on the market right now.
“the Zenith Chronomaster Sport is sold out.” And yet they advertise it still, lol. As an aside, I know that Rolex thinks it’s better off in the long run by limiting their pieces, but ultimately they end up actually helping their competitors that are just as good if not better for cheaper because they are able to purchase. This imaginary shortage will effect them.
Rolex lost 25 percent of production to Covid-19. But their decision to limit production of THE Daytona has more to do with the fact that increasing production would steal sales from other models. Patek’s decision to delete the steel and blue dialed Nautilus (see: post) may have been based on the same calculation. And other factors.
I don’t blame Patek for deleting the steel Nautilus (aside from the fact that a watch at 10% of the price keeps just as good of time), but when you walk into a Rolex dealer and they don’t have OP’s, Day Dates and Datejusts and a basic Submariner, it screams more than just 25% loss from COVID considering their market is the steel market. It will ultimately bite them, no matter what and I think we’ve seen that with the Zenith being sold out and slightly better looking with the sub-dials being different colors. You can tell rich people “No” for only so long until they go looking for alternatives.
That is a big problem. Sometimes scarcity – even at the luxury end of the market – is a bug not a feature.
FWIW I agree. Not being able to buy ANYTHING when you go into an AD is a short-term smart long-term stupid move. Eventually your customers go somewhere else.
Given the Breguet is a lady’s watch, shouldn’t that pearl lug thing be at the top of the case rather than ..?
(And don’t even get me started on the cut/uncut aspect of that crown…)
Right, I’ll show myself out then now…
I had to read both of those twice to get the joke. I applaud either your subtlety or my clean mind.