The Watches

We continue to highlight a few of our favorite watches from among the more than sixty watchmakers that have created timepieces for the Only Watch charity auction, which commences Sunday, November 5, in Geneva. Christie’s will auction these incredible one-of-a-kind watches to raise funds that benefit research in the battle against Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
While you may have seen a few of the watches set for auction earlier this year when Only Watch announced them, we thought you’d enjoy seeing many of these impressive designs again just ahead of the event.
The watches are currently touring the globe. After concluding their U.S. visit at Christie’s in New York on September 17, the tour will visit Monaco next, followed by stops in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Dubai and back in Geneva. See the Only Watch website for tour dates and details.
In this post we highlight The MP-15 Takashi Murakami Tourbillon Only Watch (pictured above) by Hublot and the artist, another exceptional piece in the auction this year. Like many in this year’s auction, it glows with bright color and requires a high technical level of workmanship.
This sapphire-cased watch showcases a unique central tourbillon especially conceived for this watch. In addition to showing Hublot’s technical acumen, the idea here is to show that the tourbillon represents the heart of the person who buys it at the auction.
Murakami explicitly requested the inclusion of a central tourbillon, which is now Hublot’s very first central tourbillon.
In this design, the cannon pinion and the hour wheel had to be pivoted around the tourbillon support by creating a co-axial construction. This was made possible thanks to the central flying tourbillon that is seemingly suspended in mid-air with two hands passing under its cage to indicate the hours and minutes.
These hands gravitate towards twelve luminescent indices that echo the colors of the 2023 edition of the Only Watch. And with two barrels, the manual movement offers an incredible 150-hour power reserve. Mounted in series but on a single plane, these barrels can be admired through the sapphire case back.
Estimate: CHF 350,000 – CHF 400,000.

We continue to highlight a few of our favorite watches from among the more than sixty watchmakers that have created timepieces for the Only Watch charity auction, which commences Sunday, November 5, in Geneva. Christie’s will auction these incredible one-of-a-kind watches to raise funds that benefit research in the battle against Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
While you may have seen a few of the watches set for auction earlier this year when Only Watch announced them, we thought you’d enjoy seeing many of these impressive designs again just ahead of the event.
The watches are currently touring the globe. After concluding their U.S. visit at Christie’s in New York on September 17, the tour will visit Monaco next, followed by stops in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Dubai and back in Geneva. See the Only Watch website for tour dates and details.
In this post we highlight Bulgari’s Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Only Watch (above), a unique version of its groundbreaking ultra-thin tourbillon watch created using Italian green marble and given 110 facets.
The green marble, named Verde di Alpi, comes from the Aosta Valley, the natural passage linking Switzerland and Italy through the Alps. Green is offset with white veins, which Bulgari symbolizes as serpentines of alpine forests and snowy peaks.
The watch’s 40mm black DLC titanium polished case and bracelet is covered with the green marble in a layer of 0.4mm – 0.5mm.
The dial also features a thin marble wafer (0.6-mm). Similarly, Bulgari set the bracelet’s front and side links with a sliver of marble, leaving only the interior surface in black DLC titanium. Inside is Bulgari’s ultra-thin BVL 268 hand-wound manufacture ultra-thin mechanical movement with flying tourbillon. The full case measures only 1.95 mm thick.
Bulgari notes that the purchaser of the Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Only Watch will be offered one night in Bulgari’s newest hotel in Roma as well as lunch or dinner with one person from Bulgari Horlogerie Top management and the visit of the Villa Albani Torlonia to see a collection of marble sculptures.
Estimate: CHF 150,000 – CHF 250,000.

We continue to highlight a few of our favorite watches from among the more than sixty watchmakers that have created timepieces for the Only Watch charity auction, which commences Sunday, November 5, in Geneva. Christie’s will auction these incredible one-of-a-kind watches to raise funds that benefit research in the battle against Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
While you may have seen a few of the watches set for auction earlier this year when Only Watch announced them, we thought you’d enjoy seeing many of these impressive designs again just ahead of the event.
The watches are currently touring the globe. After concluding their U.S. visit at Christie’s in New York on September 17, the tour will visit Monaco next, followed by stops in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Dubai and back in Geneva. See the Only Watch website for tour dates and details.
In this post we highlight the entry from Chopard, The L.U.C 1860 Only Watch Edition featuring an ice green-toned solid white gold guilloché dial. The watch is essentially a reissue of the very first L.U.C timepiece from 1997, the L.U.C 1860.
The watch’s 36.5mm case is made of Chopard’s own Lucent Steel while the movement inside is Chopard’s superb chronometer-certified L.U.C Caliber 96.40-L. The movement is wound by a gold micro-rotor and equipped with the two barrels that contribute to its strong 65-hour power reserve.
Chopard explains that it chose the dial color here to “evoke the beauty of green icebergs, which are found exclusively in the Antarctic. Icebergs are the real celebrities of polar regions and are mostly white or blue in color. However, like an artist, Nature is capable of producing splendid green icebergs that scientists sometimes call “jade bergs”. This color simultaneously symbolizes the melting of glaciers, thus illustrating major environmental challenges and endowing this creation with distinctive symbolic value.”
The The L.U.C 1860 Only Watch Edition has also earned the Geneva Seal, a rare feat for a steel-cased watch. The Seal, or Poinçon de Genève, guarantees the quality and smooth functioning of watches assembled in Geneva.
Estimate: CHF  25,000 – CHF 35,000.

We continue to highlight a few of our favorite watches from among the more than sixty watchmakers that have created timepieces for the Only Watch charity auction, which commences Sunday, November 5, in Geneva. Christie’s will auction these incredible one-of-a-kind watches to raise funds that benefit research in the battle against Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
While you may have seen a few of the watches set for auction earlier this year when Only Watch announced them, we thought you’d enjoy seeing many of these impressive designs again just ahead of the event.
The watches are currently touring the globe. After concluding their U.S. visit at Christie’s in New York on September 17, the tour will visit Monaco next, followed by stops in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Dubai and back in Geneva. See the Only Watch website for tour dates and details.
In this post we highlight TAG Heuer, which is debuting a unique TAG Heuer Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph (above), debuting a brand-new movement. 
TAG Heuer uses a special variation of titanium referred to as Texturized Titanium to create a crystalized effect throughout the case. Constructed using four pieces of sapphire as well, the case allows provides a spectacular dynamic effect as the material catches the light.
TAG Heuer’s Movements Director Carole Kasapi and her team created the new movement inside. The caliber TH81-00 is a mechanical split-seconds chronograph movement, developed in collaboration with Vaucher, the movement is made of titanium and is the lightest automatic chronograph movement ever crafted by TAG Heuer.
The watchmaker worked with Artime artisans to apply a graté damier finish to key parts of the movement, complimented by black polishing, anglage, perlage, and brushed finishing.
The total finishing time exceeded twelve hours. The TAG Heuer shield is applied to the rotor and is adorned with the official colors of Only Watch for 2023, hand painted by André Martinez.
 
Estimate: CHF 150,000 – CHF 300,000.

We continue to highlight a few of our favorite watches from among the more than sixty watchmakers that have created timepieces for the Only Watch charity auction, which commences Sunday, November 5, in Geneva. Christie’s will auction these incredible one-of-a-kind watches to raise funds that benefit research in the battle against Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
While you may have seen a few of the watches set for auction earlier this year when Only Watch announced them, we thought you’d enjoy seeing many of these impressive designs again just ahead of the event.
The watches are currently touring the globe. After concluding their U.S. visit at Christie’s in New York on September 17, the tour will visit Monaco next, followed by stops in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Dubai and back in Geneva. See the Only Watch website for tour dates and details.
In this post we highlight the Tourbillon Planétarium Only Watch 2023 from Frederique Constant, which has teamed with independent watchmaker extraordinaire Christiaan van der Klaauw. His planetarium watch, the smallest in the world and the first ever produced for a wristwatch, is here melded with an in-house Frederique Constant tourbillon. Both appear within a glittering aventurine dial. 
The hand-finished piece is housed in a 42mm platinum case.
The watch boasts several premieres. It’s the first Frederique Constant Manufacture Tourbillon to share a watch with a planetarium and also the first Christiaan van der Klaauw piece of this type to feature a tourbillon. It’s also the first time that a Manufacture Frederique Constant timepiece has had an aventurine dial or a 42mm platinum case. It’s also the first time that a Frederique Constant watch has included a combined month and date display using hands on a single counter.
The watch’s heliocentric system brings together six moving discs in the same plane, each with its own planet completing its orbit around the sun in real time: Mercury (88 days), Venus (225 days), Earth (365 days), Mars (687 days), Jupiter (12 years) and Saturn (29 years). The wearer will have to wait almost thirty years to see Saturn, the outermost planet in this system, complete a full orbit. Around this, shooting stars and planets appear, with the colors of the planets pictured using the Only Watch 2023 palette.
Estimate: CHF 90,000 – 110,000.

This year more than sixty watchmakers have created timepieces for the Only Watch charity auction, which begins Sunday, November 5, in Geneva. Christie’s will auction these incredible one-of-a-kind watches to raise funds that benefit research in the battle against Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
While you may have seen a few of the watches set for auction earlier this year when Only Watch announced them, we thought you’d enjoy seeing many of these impressive designs again just ahead of the event.
The watches are currently touring the globe. After a visit to Los Angeles last week and New York until September 17, the tour will visit Monaco next, followed by stops in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Dubai and back in Geneva. See the Only Watch website for tour dates and details.
We continue our series by highlighting the F. P. Journe entry, called Chronometre Furtif Bleu, a time-only watch that features an unusual blue enamel dial within a complete tantalum case and bracelet. 
The Chronomètre Furtif is so-named in reference to the difficulty of reading the time if the watch is not facing you. Unusually, the blue enamel dial reveals the frosted numerals only in the reflection of light.
In addition, the moon phase and power reserve indications are integrated into the movement and visible only on the back. The idea here to make a watch with indications primarily enjoyed only by its owner.
At the heart of this watch is a new hand-wound mechanical movement, Calibre 1522 in 18-karat rose gold with direct central seconds, a first for F.P.Journe. 
Estimate: CHF 200,000 – 400,000.

This year more than sixty watchmakers have created timepieces for the Only Watch charity auction, which begins Sunday, November 5, in Geneva. Christie’s will auction these incredible one-of-a-kind watches to raise funds that benefit research in the battle against Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
While you may have seen a few of the watches set for auction earlier this year when Only Watch announced them, we thought you’d enjoy seeing many of these impressive designs again just ahead of the event.
The watches are currently touring the globe. After concluding their U.S. visit at Christie’s in New York on September 17, the tour will visit Monaco next, followed by stops in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Dubai and back in Geneva. See the Only Watch website for tour dates and details.
In this post we highlight the Louis Vuitton Tambour Einstein Automata, one of premier pieces in the auction this year. 
The watch displays time only on demand with a movement Manufactured by La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton, the calibre 525. Einstein’s famous mop of hair crafted in steel and extends beyond the 46.8mm steel case, with one particular lock being a disguised automata push-piece. When this push-piece is actuated, four animations spring to life on the dial.
Once the lock of hair is pushed, the forehead aperture display changes to show the hour. Then the atom model rotates, with one of its valence orbitals (a lacquered, pointed end) moves to the appropriate position on a 0–60 scale to provide the minutes.
Other automata includes the Monogram Flower eye that narrows its petals and the tongue that  extends fully. Even the power reserve is playful.
When the 100-hour power reserve dips low, the indicator transitions from LV to OW. E no longer equals LV². Instead, the letters are replaced with the initials of the Only Watch, a visual cue that prompts the wearer to wind the watch.
The Tambour Einstein Automata Only Watch 2023 marks the first time that grisaille enamel has been used in a Louis Vuitton timepiece. More than 50 hours of enameling went into Einstein’s face alone, with an additional 80 hours dedicated to the base dial in translucent black enamel with overlay of white enamel “chalk” scribbles.
Estimate: CHF 340,000 – 440,000.

TAG Heuer brightens up the dial of its legendary Monaco with the new Monaco Chronograph Night Driver, a 600-piece limited-edition titanium-cased Monaco with a fully luminescent dial.
The new TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph Night Driver.
The watchmaker takes full advantage of the Monaco’s two-piece dial construction to create an impressive light show. Designers have added dark gray SuperLuminova to the circle at the center of the dial in order to contrast with the bright hour dots and the blue SuperLuminova hour, minute, and chronograph seconds hand. The dial even incudes brightened minute/seconds hash-marks.
TAG Heuer notes that it was inspired by the midnight blue, charcoal grey and matte black dials of vintage Monacos when designing this new model.
The outside portion of the dial becomes vivid blue at night as the black-lacquered indexes mark the hours. That same blue appears within the chronograph registers, again contrasting with the black minute and hour marks and their hands.
TAG Heuer adds that the wearer can expect the Monaco Chronograph Night Driver dial to retain its luminescence for three hours after being fully charged. 
Also new here is the use of titanium for a Monaco chronograph case. TAG Heuer coats the titanium in black DLC (diamond-like carbon) and finishes its nicely with a fine-brushed and polished finish.
Inside you’ll find TAG Heuer’s in-house Heuer 02 movement with a visible blued column wheel and an impressive eighty hours of power reserve. The watch’s sapphire caseback opens up a view of the blue printing on the black rotor and exhibits the blue column wheel.
TAG Heuer offers the Monaco Chronograph Night Driver Limited Edition as a limited edition of 600, each priced at $9,550.
 

Ulysse Nardin gives its Freak X a layer of military garb with the Freak [X OPS], which boasts a new khaki green carbon fiber case covering and a matching fabric strap.
The new Ulysse Nardin Freak [X OPS], pictured with khaki fabric strap.The new hue and material are inspired by the irregular patterns of Damascus and nicely complement the Freak [X OPS]’s 43mm black titanium case, bezel and crown. A model with a black strap is also available.
As you might recall, the first series of Freak X models in 2019 were aimed at a new generation of Freak collectors with its somewhat simplified case and the addition of a crown to the formerly crown-free Freak. Ulysse Nardin refers to that original Freak X as “the easy-going Freak.”
Yet despite its pared down nature, the Freak X retained all the Freak’s primary characteristics, including movement bridges that double as hands.
With no dial, the watch’s one-hour orbital carousel tourbillon becomes the minute hand, and the hour hand is a pointer set on a rotating disc that sits under the movement.
Here, Ulysse Nardin coats the hour and minute indicators and hour markers in a matching khaki green SuperLuminova that glows green in low-light conditions. 
Ulysse Nardin has built the new Freak [X OPS] by combining that original Freak X design with the case covers, or flanks, that echo those found the 2020 Freak X Magma. But instead of the patterned red epoxy resin found on that model, this watch is created from carbon fiber and green epoxy resin. With the swirling resin mixture, each case will look marginally different.
Inside Ulysse Nardin fits its automatic UN-230 movement, itself a hybrid of the bedrock UN-118 and the high-tech UN-250 found in the Freak Vision. The watch is water-resistant to 50 meters. (See additional specifications below).
Price: $33,800.

Specifications: Ulysse Nardin Freak [X OPS]
(2303-270-2A-KAKI/0A (black strap) 2303-270-2A-KAKI/0B (green strap))
Movement and Functions: Caliber UN-230 Manufacture automatic, flying carousel movement rotating around its own axis, balance wheel and escapement in silicon, oversized oscillator in silicon, black movement with indexes and bridges in khaki green Super-LumiNova, oscillations at 21,600 vph. Power reserve is 72 hours. 
Case:  43mm by 13.38mm black DLC titanium case and bezel, black DLC titanium caseback with transparent sapphire opening, khaki green carbon flanks in ‘Magma’, an original composite, blending black carbon fibers and green epoxy resin.
Strap: Khaki green fabric or black fabric strap (recycled fishing net), hook and loop fastener. 
Price: $33,800.

Balmont, a new France-based maker of affordable adventure watches, hits the road with two impressive models built with solid 40mm steel cases and plenty of panache.
Balmont’s BDX debut models.
With four different dial options, the watchmaker’s BDX series offers somewhat dressy dials that nonetheless front an automatic watch designed to confront darkness, heavy rain and multiple shocks.

Balmont fits each watch with an automatic Soprod P024 caliber tested to -7/+7 seconds per day and offering a 38-hour power reserve.
Framed with a stainless steel case water resistant to a full 200 meters, and capped with a large screw-down crown, the BDX offers a generous application of luminous material on the dial’s hands and markers, all protected by a sapphire crystal and a clear sapphire caseback.

And to underscore its adventure-focused mission, Balmont provides a second strap (nylon) with each watch, which arrives on a leather strap.
Balmont offers its BDX with a choice of a ceramic-coated black, silver, slate or white dial, each priced at $715.
Limited Model

In addition to its ongoing BDX series, Balmont supercharges its debuts the LAX001, a special model offered as a limited edition of 100 pieces. As its name implies (LAX is the Los Angeles airport code) the Balmont LAX001 features a classic so-called California dial that mixes Arabic and Roman markers, all of which glow brightly with SuperLumiNova BGW9 and C3.
The LAX001 retains the same technical specifications as the BDX, but comes on a cognac-colored Italian suede strap to more closely align with its California dive-model references. The supplied second strap is black nylon.
The watch’s dial is also sportier than the dial of the BDX with railroad track markers just inside the bezel and a glowing marker triangle rather than the brand’s logo at 12 o’clock.
Interestingly, the limited edition LAX001 also retains the same $715 price tag as the ongoing BDX model. I suspect the watch will quickly sell out after its September release date.