independent watchmaking

MB&F revisits its Legacy Machine Perpetual this week with a new model featuring a salmon-colored dial plate. The combination of a steel case and salmon hue is a first for MB&F, which will release the new model in limited production, not as a limited edition.
The MB&F Legacy Machine Perpetual with its new salmon-colored plate.
MB&F’s latest Legacy Machine Perpetual, which won the Best Calendar Watch prize at the GPHG (Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève) in 2016, offers the same groundbreaking, manual-wind LM Perpetual movement conceived by MB&F Friend Stephen McDonnell for the 2015 original.
That groundbreaking design means the Legacy Machine Perpetual will operate with no skipped dates or jammed gears. Owners often inadvertently create problems within their perpetual calendars by attempting to reset them while the gears are mid-function, resulting in some damage to the highly complex date mechanism.
McDonnell’s design is proactive in a sense because when the user attempts to adjust the calendar, the movement’s pushers automatically deactivate so they don’t cause any damage to other components.
At the heart of the difference is how the Legacy Machine Perpetual determines dates. Traditional perpetual calendars use a 31-day month as the default, changing, for example, from February 28 to March 1 quickly to arrive at the 1st. Interrupting the movement during this critical changeover can damage it. 
With this perpetual calendar movement, Busser and friends essentially replaced that traditional system with a mechanical processor that instead utilizes that default 28-day month and adds extra days only as required.
Three years go MB&F added a sporty version of the perpetual calendar when it launched the Legacy Machine Perpetual EVO, a zirconium-cased update to the original model.
This new model, with its premiere 44mm by 17.5mm steel case/salmon dial plate-color combination, is a handsome – and welcome – addition to the full collection of a true ground-breaking original.
Price: $180,000. 

Since its 2015 debut, the MB&F Legacy Machine Perpetual has been offered:
– in platinum 950 with blue face (limited to 25 pieces);
– in 18k red gold with grey face (limited to 25 pieces);
– in 18k white gold with purple face (limited to 25 pieces);
– in 18k white gold with dark grey face;
– in grade 5 titanium with green face (limited to 50 pieces);
– in 18k yellow gold with blue face (limited to 25 pieces);
– in palladium 950 with aquamarine face (limited to 25 pieces);
– in stainless steel with salmon face.

Delma updates its Shell Star dive watch series with the Shell Star Titanium, a lighter, more compact version of the watch, which the independent watchmaker debuted in 1975 as its first professional-level dive model.
The new Delma Shell Star Titanium.
Now measuring 41mm in diameter and 13.6mm thick, the watch’s new titanium case retains all the water resistance (500 meters) of existing steel Shell Star models while also offering a lightweight option for divers.
Weighing 136 grams on its full titanium bracelet (compared to the 225-gram all-steel models) the new watch offers more than comfort.
Titanium is naturally corrosion resistant as a case material, but Delma also enhances the watch with a ceramic bezel, which offers a new level of scratch resistance to the watch.
That black ceramic bezel also creates a new, dramatic visual effect when framing the three dial colors (sand-textured black, blue or orange) Delma offers with this debut.
Delma retains the Shell Star’s hyper-visible dial, adding two types of luminous, bright blue glowing Super-LumiNova BGW9 on the bezel and neon green glowing Super-LumiNova C3 for the indexes and hands. Delma also keeps the collection’s signature Shell Star’s spade-shaped seconds hand and large luminous tip.
Delma seals the titanium caseback with a clear mineral crystal exposing a customized Delma rotor on the Sellita automatic movement.
The watchmaker is limiting production of the new Shell Star Titanium to 499 pieces, available online and in select stores. 
Price: $1,890.

Specifications: Delma Shell Star Titanium
(Limited edition of 499 pieces)
Movement: SW200-1 automatic movement with ball bearing, frequency 28,800 vph, power reserve of 38 hours.
Case: 41mm by 13.6 mm titanium case with screw-down crown, clear caseback, water resistant to 500 meters.
Dial: Black, blue or orange sand-textured with matching railway track. Hands and indexes with Super-LumiNova C3 with green glow. Unidirectional bezel in black ceramic with markers inSuper-LumiNova BGW9 with blue glow.
Bracelet: Titanium with deployant clasp with pushers.
Price: $1,890. 

Gerald Charles adds a titanium-cased Maestro Chronograph to its collection of elegant curved-case watches. With the new watch, the independent watchmaker (founded in 2000 by famed watch designer Gerald Charles Genta) creates the first titanium case within its characteristic Maestro Chronograph line, echoing the earlier production of a titanium case within the Gerald Charles GC Sport collection.
The new Gerald Charles Maestro GC3.0-TN Chronograph is a titanium-cased addition to the collection.
The new chronograph’s Sunburst royal blue dial, seen earlier on a gold Maestro Chronograph model, beautifully reflects ambient light and quite effectively complements the polished titanium frame. 
As with the case on the GC Sport model, the titanium case for the chronograph required extensive development, according to Gerald Charles.
The watch’s unusual curved shape is a challenge to the case maker as Grade 5 titanium is much harder than stainless steel or even gold to manipulate into curved forms.
Another challenge arises when attempting to set and polish the Maestro’s pushers, which are set directly at two curves adjacent to the crown.
Gerald Charles notes that the new titanium Maestro GC3.0-TN Chronograph weighs less than half its sister model in stainless steel. 
Inside the watch Gerald Charles fits the GCA3022/12 Manufacture automatic chronograph caliber developed in partnership between Gerald Charles and Swiss movement specialists Vaucher Fleurier Manufacture. (See below for detailed specifications.)
The chronometer-standard caliber is beautifully hand finished and visible through a sapphire crystal case back. On the dial, Gerald Charles applies and polishes counters at 3, 6 and 9, to display the running seconds, chronograph hours and chronograph minutes.
Price: $25,400.
Specifications: Gerald Charles Maestro GC3.0-TN Chronograph
(Reference GC3.0-TN-01)Movement: Automatic GCA3022/12 manufacture chronograph caliber, with counters at 3, 6 and 9, 50-hour power reserve, 28,800 vph, stop-second system, 351 components, 46 rubies, 6.07mm thickness
Case: 39mm x 41.7mm by 11.5mm grade 5 titanium, polished with screw-down crown also in grade 5 titanium with Clous de Paris finish and embossed logo, sapphire crystal and back. Water resistance to 100 meters.
Dial: Sunburst royal blue, hands and applied indexes filled with SuperLumiNova.
Strap: Royal blue vulcanized rubber strap with titanium pin buckle.
Price: $25,400 

Reservoir enhances its vintage-auto-themed Kanister collection with the new Kanister 316, now supplied with a new retro five-link bracelet and newly powered by Reservoir’s recently updated proprietary Caliber RSV-240.
The new Reservoir Kanister 316. A silver dial model is also available.
With its dial inspired by the dashboard instruments of the legendary Porsche 356 Speedster, Kanister is the Paris-based independent watchmaker’s translation of that car’s RPM display onto a watch dial.
Offered with either a black or silver dial, the new Kanister 316 displays the time as indicated via Reservoir’s distinctive jump-hour function. This indicates minutes via a large hand sweeping 240-degrees across the dial and jumping back to restart each hour. Hours are shown digitally in the aperture at the 6 o’clock position, just above a power reserve display.
The dashboard of a 1956 Porsche 365 Speedster, the inspiration for the Kanister dial.
Reservoir recreates a 1950s feel with colorful dial treatment on the otherwise black dial model. Pastel green minute indexes and a swirl of the same green hue dominate, with red accents.
The silver dial edition is more classical, with a silver minute hand and only a hint of color reserved for the power reserve display. The watchmaker brush-finishes the watch’s 41.5mm steel case.
Reservoir fits the Kanister 316 with Caliber RSV-240, the watchmaker’s latest update of its signature jump-hour movement. Introduced last year, the caliber is made in association with the Swiss engine manufacture TELOS.
The automatic caliber makes use of a La Joux-Perret LJP-G100 base with a proprietary 113-piece module. With the new Caliber RSV-240, power reserve jumps to an impressive fifty-six hours. 
Reservoir plans to deploy the new caliber to all its jump-hour collections in the next few months.
Price: $4,600. 

Specifications: Reservoir Kanister 316  
Case: 41.5 mm, 316L stainless steel with brushed finish, screw-down crown, water-resistant to 50 meters. clear sapphire caseback.
Dial: Black or silver color. Retrograde minute, jumping hour and power reserve displays. 
Movement: Calibre RSV-240, manufacture automatic with patented proprietary 113-pieces module (LJP G100 base), 56-hour power reserve.
Bracelet: Stainless steel with butterfly folding clasp, additional black leather or Ostrich taupe leather strap. 
Price: $4,600.