Quill & Pad

It must have been a horror for Mercedes to see its position as the ultimate German luxury automobile brand challenged by BMW, Audi, and Volkswagen.

So its reaction was to bring Maybach back – which didn’t quite work out. And then it did because Mercedes finally understood how it should have been done it in the first place: not as a separate brand, but as the ultimate version of an already ultimate car, the Mercedes S600 powered by the same twin-turbo as the S600, a 6-liter V12 that provides 523 HP.

The first incarnation of Manufacture Royale was founded during the Age of Enlightenment, in 1770, by French writer, historian, and philosopher Voltaire (1694–1778)., who was an outspoken advocate for freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state.

When it was relaunched in 2010, Manufacture Royale inherited Voltaire’s independent spirit: the aim was to create a brand ahead of its time while expressing the same sort of offbeat humor that the great poet was famous for.

My first rule when it comes to collecting is to avoid setting too many exclusionary rules.

I am sure that there are many theme-centered watch collectors who put emphasis on things such as owning one of each Omega vintage chronograph from a certain year or Elgin railroad watches of a particular decade. These people might consider what I do far too haphazard to be labeled “collecting,” for instance.

If, however, I force myself to set criteria for what constitutes collecting to me, I keep coming back to two rules for myself: passion and enjoyment.

And this is perhaps best defined by asking yourself, “Are you emotionally engaged with the items you collect, be they watches, cars, or bottle caps, and do you take advantage of all of the enjoyable aspects of owning them?”

With watches, I believe, the former criterion – passion – is what separates collectors from investors and accumulators. Which brings me to the second criterion: deriving the full enjoyment from the things you own.

It’s that time of year again when the list of watches entered in the next edition of the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) is published. The GPHG is the “Oscars” of the watchmaking industry, and 2016 is the sixteenth edition of the red carpet event.

During a recent trip to Paris, I stopped by Hermès’ Faubourg Saint-Honoré boutique to look at the Crafting Time exhibition on display in the flagship store at the time.

Designed by artist Guillaume Airiaud, the displays presented five special crafts Hermès applies to some of its exceptional timepieces.

I also managed to spy a unique piece at the exhibition that I would most likely never have gotten the chance to see otherwise: the intriguing Hermès Arceau Pocket Ailes et Ecailles, whose dial is uniquely embellished with scarab beetle elytra fragments in a beautiful shimmering mosaic.

Sandwiched between the introduction of the Perpetual Ludwig in 1996 – a perpetual calendar conceived by Ludwig Oechslin able to set and adjust the many displays by the crown both forward and backward – and the Freak, that game-changing wristwatch launched at Baselworld 2001 – Ulysse Nardin found time to create the Marine line for watch lovers looking for a sturdy, accurate “everyday” timepiece.

The first of the Marine line arrived in 1996 in tribute to the 150th anniversary of the brand founded in 1846, and it was very simply christened with the words “Marine Chronometer 1846.”

It marked the beginning of what has become one of the brand’s most recognized collections.

I’ve been trying, but have not managed, to come up with a more diplomatic way of saying this, so I’ll just come out with it: up to now, I have not generally been a fan of Bovet 1822.

While I’ve watched over the last decade as Pascal Raffy has deftly transformed the modern Bovet into a serious mid-sized brand with a comprehensive collection of largely in-house developed and manufactured timepieces, some with quite sophisticated complications, few of the brand’s models have caught my attention.

When Piaget introduced the manual wind Caliber 9P at the 1957 Basel Fair, it took many other brands by surprise. Some claimed behind the scenes that it was a ruse, that this movement couldn’t possibly be real.

Only 2 mm in height, it couldn’t be done; it was an impossibility.

Three years later, in 1960, Piaget stunned the watch world once again with Caliber 12P, an automatic movement that broke world records for its svelteness. Seen from today’s viewpoint, these exceptional dress watches remain intriguing, including the specimen from 1969 displayed here.

The incredible UR-105 T-Rex is an extinct-reptile-inspired bronze creation using forced oxidation to create a dramatic patina on the surface, while the insides and the rear of the case remains crisp, black, and new, as one would expect from Urwerk.

My initial response was ‘whoa,’ and this was the overwhelming response I saw when this watch made its debut at SIHH 2016 – though many saying ‘whoa’ fell on the opposite side of the fence from me, strongly disliking what they were seeing.

There was no middle ground: the Urwerk UR-105 T-Rex is polarizing and beautiful in its deliberate patina.

The date: late February 2010.

The place: a small San Francisco restaurant.

The players: an informal group of Northern California watch collectors, all owners of one or more Kari Voutilainen watches.

After the usual pleasantries, wristshots, etc., one of the members of the group nonchalantly mentioned, “I’ve been talking with Kari about something . . .” As it turned out, the “something” was a set of bespoke Kari Voutilainen Masterpiece Chronograph II models.

The time: two seconds later.

My response: “I’m in!”

The way Michel Parmigiani has developed his brand is quite similar to the values Bugatti pursues.

And if you want to talk about pushing the limits, well, just consider that even on the German autobahn, the new Bugatti Chiron’s top speed is too absurd to be reached.

Bucherer  proved once again at Baselworld 2016 that it certainly knows how to pack a punch.

Seriously, let’s face it, criminals are flippin’ stupid!

Hopefully I didn’t offend you personally by saying that, but chances are I didn’t because somehow I don’t imagine Quill & Pad’s readers as thieves and murderers.

Here are 6 reasons why stealing watches is a really bad idea (aside from the obvious) and those who try probably won’t get away with it anyway.

Too little is usually said about the few great watchmakers located in the United States. And admittedly, they are very few and far between.

Which is why I’d like to take a moment to offer a glimpse into the work of Roland Murphy of RGM by way of some interesting photos of my own watch, the RGM Reference 151BE, which I shot with some of the grandest backdrop ever: the Grand Canyon and Yosemite National Park.

In 1913 a clock was added to the basilica of Saint Plechelmus in Oldenzaal, Netherlands. This grand clock would later come under the care of a man named Gerhard Louis Grönefeld, a local watchmaker known by everyone as Johan. In 1974, Johan passed responsibility to his son Johannes Grönefeld.

The Grönefeld 1941 Remontoire, introduced at Baselworld 2016, is the next step in the ongoing evolution of the Grönefeld brothers’ burgeoning dynasty, and it references their personal and local history leading up to this moment. The watch’s concept revolves around a key feature, the remontoire, which also references the church clock.

Contemporary watchmaking has been making waves in the generally calm waters of traditional watching for nearly two decades now.

I’d put the start in 1998, when Vianney Halter launched the deconstructed Halter-Barnes Antiqua perpetual calendar and radically changed perceptions as to what haute horlogerie might be.

But as I gradually make my way savoring every flavor through the second season of the superb Netflix series ‘Chef’s Table,’ I can’t help but wonder if the pioneers and leaders of contemporary watchmaking are doing enough.

It’s summertime at long last in the northern hemisphere, and plant life is growing strong. They say that money doesn’t grow on trees, but during a visit to Christophe Claret I discovered what appears to be the secret to the company’s manufacturing process: regular pruning.